Atonement Retreat

The two girls had driven nearly thirty minutes down the dusty, dirt-paved road, with the sleek Prius gliding behind their bumpy bus. Izzie’s trusty iPod was blaring Fall Out Boy, as it had been for nearly the entire drive. The blonde sung along to the catchy tune, banging her head to the rhythm in a way that made her driving erratic. Rian rolled her eyes, biting her tongue to refrain from scolding her.

“Long live the car crash-” Izzie screeched passionately, the palm of her hand smacking the wheel as if she were delivering to an audience. Rian let out a groan, rolling her eyes before she smacked her friend’s arm.

“Jesus, Izzie. The windows are going to break if you don’t shut up!” Rian groaned, banging her head off of the passenger window. “Isn’t your throat sore by now?”

Izzie shook her head. She’d sung almost all of the discography, which had been a great distraction from the boring lull of trees rolling by repetitively. It also saved her from nodding off behind the wheel, which she’d found her eyes drooping in earlier miles.

They finally rolled to a stop, the bus stuttering against the rocky terrain. Izzie climbed out from behind the driver’s seat, eager to stretch her cramped legs. Rian had limited their pit stops, and as a result it felt like her muscles were shrinking in her legs. She let out a groan, kicking her tingling limbs in an effort to regain feeling.

“That was a shaky drive, there.”

Izzie hadn’t noticed that the boys had pulled right up next to them, the short-haired one hanging out of the car with a lopsided grin. She rolled her eyes at his smart remark, used to the snide remarks about her unreliable driving skills. She gazed through the windows of the van to see Rian smirking at her.

“I got you guys here, didn’t I?” She replied slyly, her eyes drifting over to the other man. “Anyway, before we meet up with the other counselors, I wanted to thank you guys so much.”

The short-haired one mumbled something under his breath, and his friend rolled his eyes. “Ignore him. Thank you for the opportunity. Dylan and I are looking forward to working with the kids this summer.”

“Yeah, totally.” The one identified as Dylan spoke up, flashing Izzie a weak smile before focusing on Rian, who was fiddling with their luggage. She chuckled lightly, joining her friend’s side as they began pulling out their things. The first day back was always hectic, so a trip back to the vehicles would be an unnecessary annoyance.

Every summer began with a meeting before the counselors dispersed with their respective campers. Nicole Simmons, the director and founder of Atonement, always rallied the counselors and got everyone amped for the upcoming summer.

“Izzie! Our angel!” The tall, lanky woman crooned. She reached Izzie in three quick strides, her frizzy, jet black hair suffocating her as she embraced her tightly. “I can’t believe what you’ve done for us! And, Rian-”

Nicole turned to Rian, who’d effectively maneuvered herself out of the way of the grabby hands. This left Dylan and Tyler awkwardly standing there, their duffle bags slung over their shoulders.

“Hi, I’m Tyler.” Tyler waved awkwardly. He nudged Dylan beside him, who had been scoping out one of the younger, brunette counselors.

“I’m Dylan.”

“It’s so great to meet the both of you!” Nicole all-but squealed, shaking each of their hands in turn. The boys were the epitome of awkwardness as they shifted uneasily, their shoes scuffing the dirt as everyone turned to focus their attention on them. Even when Nicole turned back to Izzie, the eyes of the younger counselors still remained trained on the celebrities.

“Before we get started on the game plan for the first couple of days, I just wanted to say welcome... and to give a huge thank you to Izzie. As I’m sure most of you are aware, this year our funding was cut. We would’ve had no choice but to shut our doors for the summer, but Izzie came up with the idea of having Atonement become endorsed by celebrities!” Nicole beamed, the wrinkles by her dark eyes prominent. Izzie awkwardly waved, unsure of what to do with her hands as she stood there and accepted the praise. “We all owe her a massive thank you, as well as the two young gentlemen who have volunteered their time to helping us this summer!”

“Yeah, voluntary...” Dylan scoffed, his comment cut off with a harsh elbow dig to the ribs.

“It’s our pleasure, really. We’re both very excited to work with the kids this summer.” Tyler smiled, something that made Izzie’s body warm in the midday sun.

Rian poked her side, leaning forward to whisper in her ear. “He’s only excited because he’s an asshole himself. I bet him and Jessie will be best friends.”

“Rian!” Izzie whisper-shouted, her eyes bugging out of her head. Jessie was one of their regular campers, a robust twelve year old girl who had a liking for cutting sleeping people’s hair and destroying valuable possessions. She got nothing but a chuckle in response to her scolding as they both turned their attention back to Nicole, who was about to start handing out lists of campers and assigning cabins to the counselors.

Izzie bided her time by observing the two boys, chuckling at their uncomfortable antics as they whispered between the two of them. She still wasn’t sure if getting these celebrities was a wise idea. She hoped that they would take this summer job as seriously as the rest of the counselors did. If there was one thing that Izzie valued, it was the well-being of the youngsters that spent their time at Atonement for the summers. She didn’t want to see the two of them blow off these struggling children because of their own respective slutty and rude egos.

Nicole reiterated the same speech she gave every year, which lasted an even twenty minutes before she finally finished handing out the lists of the campers. After their meeting came to a conclusive end, everyone dispersed and began to divide themselves among the cabins in pairs. It seemed that Izzie was dubbed with the duty of taking Tyler under her wing, since she was the one that coordinated the entire idea. She smiled brightly at him as Nicole pushed him toward her, only to be met with a weak gesture in return. Izzie watched as Dylan attached himself to Rian’s side, and couldn’t help but giggle at her friend’s annoyed expression.

“So,” Izzie cleared her throat, marching up the steps of the cabin she resided in every summer. There were a total of ten cabins identified by number, which would later be renamed by the campers as a part of an icebreaker activity. As of right now, cabin eight was the title of the place she would be sleeping in for the next couple of months. “I don’t know if we formally met or not, but I’m Isabelle. But I just go by Izzie, really.”

Tyler glanced over at her wearily, as if he were calculating her closely before he gave her a stiff response. “I’m Tyler.”

“Er, yeah.” Izzie mumbled, feeling thrown off by the cold reception she’d received. She picked at a perfectly painted nail, feeling a little stupid for speaking to him. “Well, it’s great to meet you. Thanks again for coming. It means a lot to me, and the campers, really. They’re going to love you.”

“It’s no problem,” Tyler responded shortly, thus thwarting the conversation entirely.



Tyler was irritated at the amount of attention that he and Dylan had received from the moment they’d gotten to Atonement. That’s all his life seemed to be lately. Cameras, looks, whispers, wide-eyed stares. He just wanted some peace and quiet, despite the fact that he’d known beforehand that he wouldn’t find that type of soul searching here. He just wanted a minute to sit down with his thoughts, but the blonde he would be spending the majority of his time with just wouldn’t stop talking.

She was cute, for sure. Tyler supposed she had the type of cute looks that made her conventionally attractive to just about anybody, but he wasn’t here for the girls like Dylan was. He glanced across the way; Dylan had used the opportunity to attach himself to the blonde girl’s friend, who looked to be a feisty woman that would hang him from the flag pole out front if he so much as crossed the line.

“So, here’s where we’re staying,” Izzie rambled, stepping into the cabin and holding the door for Tyler. He accepted it gingerly, letting the screen door slam behind him as he stepped into the spacious room. It was woodsy and outdoorsy, everything that Tyler expected it to be. There were at least fifteen bunk beds lining the walls to his left and right, with kids in varied ages unloading their things and chatting animatedly.

As they walked by, he noted that Izzie was popular among the young campers. They all stopped to greet her enthusiastically, hugging her around the middle and babbling excitedly about whatever it was kids these days talked about. They regarded Tyler as an outcast, eyeing him warily as if he were a stray dog invading their territory.

“Sorry,” Izzie apologized bashfully, after she’d managed to tear herself away from the enthusiastic kids. “Don’t worry, they’ll warm up to you. A lot of them don’t just take to new people right away.”

“S’okay.” Tyler shrugged, inspecting the living quarters as they passed the beds. He hoped to all of the higher powers that he wouldn’t have to sleep in the same room as the kids. That would be crossing too many lines for his liking.

“Here,” Izzie slowed, jerking her thumb to the right. “Is the communal bathroom everyone shares. It gets kind of crowded, but you wanna snag one of the showers as early as possible to get the warmest water.”

Tyler would wrestle a little punk for some warm water, if he had to. He could ditch a sliver of his morals for that sort of thing.

“And then,” Izzie threw open a creaky door, that gave into a smaller room at the back of the cabin. The room held four beds, and Izzie instantly gravitated toward the one on the far right. She wheeled her polka-dotted suitcase to a stop, turning to Tyler. “This is where we’ll sleep. You can pick whatever bed, I guess. Just make yourself comfortable. I’m sure it’s not what you’re used to, but you get used to it.”

Tyler frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing at all.” Izzie answered slowly, obviously sensing his defensiveness. “I’m sure you also live in an air conditioned house, just like I do. We don’t have central air here, we just have fans. It gets pretty muggy back here sometimes.”

“Oh.” Tyler felt a little stupid for jumping to a rash conclusion. He didn’t want to make the entire summer awkward by biting at this girl the night that he first met her. He was stuck sharing a room with her, after all. “It’ll be fine. A little heat won’t hurt.”

“Yeah.” She was already unpacking her things, her back turned to him as she pulled her clothes out and began sorting them. He saw that the room contained only one closet, and dreaded having to share a clothing space with someone he hardly knew.

The silence that filled the room overwhelmed Tyler as he followed Izzie’s lead, taking out some of his things and attempting to make his bed feel a bit more like home. Only five minutes had passed before she cleared her throat to break the silence.

“So, how old are you?”

He snorted at how stupid the question was. “Twenty two. You?”

“I’m twenty two too.” She chuckled. “This is my last summer as a college student. I graduate next year, so yeah.”

Tyler wanted to yell, or throw something, or a combination of the two. He didn’t know how to cope with mindless small talk. He just wanted to be left alone.

“Cool.” He grabbed his things, making his way to the door. “I’m gonna go clean up.”

And with that, he walked out of the room without a pause to even catch her response.