Atonement Retreat

Izzie liked to believe that she was a well-liked person. Throughout high school and college, she was surrounded by a plethora of good friends. Her senior year, she was Homecoming Queen and then Prom Queen. The numbers and statistics did not lie; Isabelle Hayes was likable. However, it seemed that there had been a flaw in any calculations she had. Tyler Posey was the flaw.

She tried relentlessly to crack some sort of common ground with him. Her jokes flew over his head. Her questions went either unanswered, or given a pathetic response. Her comments went ignored. All that she knew about him, she had discovered from his simple Wikipedia page. Only three days had passed at Atonement retreat; while the children were breaking the ice with one another, Izzie was convinced that she would never get anything more than a basic greeting out of Tyler.

The first series of major camp activities were rotated among the cabins, and today Izzie’s cabin would be going on a hike. Usually, she managed to con one of the extra counselors into going in her place, but today she had to go because she needed to keep Tyler in line. As of currently, he wasn’t doing so well with the children and she wanted to be sure he didn’t lose any stragglers in the woods.

She prepared for battle, throwing her long hair into a high pony tail and dusting her cheekbones with a light powder. Puckering her lips at her reflection, she decided that she was ready to take on the day head on. Walking into the main sleeping area, she herded her bouncy campers outside and across the way to the cafeteria.

“Miss Izzie, how are you today?” Asked Izzie’s favorite camper, Marissa. She was fourteen years old, and she had been coming to Atonement for the last four years. The two had grown quite fond of each other, and she never failed to make Izzie smile.

“Don’t call me that, it makes me feel old.” Izzie grinned, nudging the girl playfully as the boys in front of them began to get rowdy. “Hey there, play nice kittens!”

The boys groaned at her, but obliged nonetheless. She smirked in her victory.

“Izzie, do we like the new guy?” Marissa whispered. Izzie glanced to see if the person of subject was around, but she didn’t see him anywhere. He was probably late to rise this early morning.

She shrugged noncommittally, giving the young girl a sly smile. “I still haven’t decided yet. I mean, he’s cute, but I don’t think he’s my biggest fan.”

“I don’t think he likes people.” Marissa whispered loudly. I snickered at her dramatic speech as we reached the cafeteria. “He’s like, zero fun. Last night when we were playing truth or dare, we dared him to lick a tree and he wouldn’t do it. Zero. Fun.”

“Don’t worry, Mar. You’ll come to find out most boys are no fun at all.” Izzie told her with a heavy sigh.

The cafeteria was extremely noisy for the early hour; the campers bustled around excitedly babbling about their activities today while they tackled the lunch line. While Izzie’s group would be hiking, some campers were going fishing, others were playing recreational sports, and some would be canoeing.

“Dear God, help me.” Rian popped up behind Izzie, nearly scaring her out of her skins. She clasped her hand over mouth to prevent herself from screaming. “Dylan will not stop trying to weasel his way into my pants. I’m scared to even leave my drink unattended around him.”

Izzie snickered, gazing over Rian’s shoulder. Dylan was sitting with some of the kids from Rian’s cabin, but his eyes were trained on his fellow counselor. She couldn’t help but laugh at the situation that Rian was in. “He won’t stop looking at you.”

“Ugh, don’t tell me that.” Rian groaned. “We’re canoeing today, and I just know he is going to try and get into a boat with me. Isabelle, quit laughing! I can’t drown him in front of a bunch of delinquents! They’ll get the wrong idea.”

“It’s just funny, Rian! I can’t help it.” She grinned, grabbing a bowl of fruit and a granola bar. “I wish I could switch with you, seriously. Tyler won’t even look at me. I have absolutely no one to talk to that’s my age.”

“I’d switch with you in a heartbeat. I’d show moody where he could shove it.” Rian snickered, grabbing a bottle of water. “Oh shit, I think Josh is trying to stab Eli with his spork again. Damn it!”

Rian darted to one of the further tables, instantly springing between the two boys of subject and tearing them apart. Izzie shook her head as she returned to her own table, where her campers were all shouting gleefully. She sighed, feeling the promises of a headache coming on as she picked at her fruit.

The breakfast hour lasted much longer than Izzie would’ve liked; it took way too much stamina out of her to get all of her kids situated and ready to roll on their hike. Tyler was still nowhere to be seen, until she stepped back outside and saw him walking toward the large building. When he approached her, he didn’t say anything. He merely smiled and waved to the campers, who had actually began to warm up to the idea of him being around. Izzie hoped it was his celebrity stardom, and not his sparkling personality, that had eventually attracted the kids to him.

“You missed breakfast,” Izzie stated, approaching him gingerly. She reached into her pocket, pulling out the granola bar. “You shouldn’t hike on an empty stomach. Here.”

He stared at her incredulously, before he took the item from her hands rougher than necessary. He turned it over in his hands a few times before he nodded, putting it into his pocket. “Thanks. I’ll probably need that later.”

“Yeah, probably.” Izzie grumbled, before she herded the kids toward the trail. She stopped in front of them, allowing Tyler to hang awkwardly in her shadow as she addressed them. “Alright, today we’re going hiking. I have some rules for you. No touching anything green and weird looking, it’s probably poison ivy. No wandering away from me, because there’s probably something dangerous in the woods waiting to eat you. If you need to stop and take a break, tell me and we can take a break. And I repeat, no wandering away from me. Are we clear?”

Izzie was met with a chorus of agreements. One of the boys raised their hands, “Miss Izzie, what if there’s a bear?”

“Well, you better hope you can run fast. If you’re being chased by a bear, you just have to be faster than the people around you. I used to run track, so keep that in mind.” She winked at him, before letting out a giggle. “Don’t worry, there aren’t any bears. We’ll be safe. Now c’mon, we need to get our day started!”

Tyler shot her an annoyed look, but Izzie skillfully ignored him and began to lead the parade through the trail.



Tyler honestly wanted to shoot himself. The level of brattiness within the kids seemed to elevate the higher up the trail they went, with every complaint being voiced in a way that made him want to never have children. To top it off, Izzie was leading the roost singing some annoying commercial jingle that he could’ve sworn he’d heard before.

He felt the granola bar move in his pocket, and he pulled it out and quickly unwrapped it. He didn’t plan on eating it, because he didn’t want her to get the wrong idea from the gesture, but it was hot and he was hungry. Once he finished it, he hastily dumped the wrapper on the ground when he thought no one was looking.

“Hey! Tyler just littered!” One of the kids shouted, pointing at him incriminatingly. He groaned, swooping down and picking up the wrapper hastily. Izzie spun around, glaring at him.

“Tyler! We don’t litter here. We try and take care of the Earth the best that we can!” Izzie scolded him lightly. The kids all smirked at him, smug to not be on the receiving end of a scolding for once. He felt two feet tall, but he also wanted to throw up. Who honestly spoke about saving the Earth like that? He felt like she set out to be this annoying.

Now, more than ever, he regretted coming here and he regretted eating that damn granola bar.

A new song was now on the Izzie playlist, and the kids were joining in on this one. “The ants go marching one by one, hoorah! Hoorah! The ants go marching one by-”

“Oh for fucks sake!” He groaned loudly, clamping his hands over his ears. It was a Barney song, for crying out loud! Enough was enough. This girl needed to be sedated.

He didn’t realize that everyone had heard him, because he bumped into the kids in front of him and noticed that Izzie was staring at him. She was distinctively frowning, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“We try not to use that kind of language. Is something wrong?” She asked him, her tone clipped. He huffed, rolling his eyes as he moved around the short obstacles in front of him.

“Nothing’s wrong.” He forced a smile. “Just a headache. Let’s keep hiking, yeah?”

She didn’t seem satisfied with his response, and something told Tyler that he would be hearing about this later. They continued to hike, the kids showing a tremendous amount of motivation to move through the trail despite the unwavering heat that was beginning to settle upon them. He wiped the sweat from his brow, letting out a sigh of relief when they took a small break an hour later. He collapsed against a tree, blessing it for the shade that it gave him as he allowed his aching legs to take a rest.

“Tyler,” The blonde moved in front of him, invading his personal privacy and his beloved shade. He blinked, his eyes traveling from her hot pink sneakers, up her legs to her set expression. She looked downright pissed.

“What?”

“Seriously, I understand this might not be your idea of a good time, but these kids have a blast here. For some of them, this is all that they have to look forward to. And I refuse to have some grouch raining on their parade. Can you try to, I don’t know, act like you’re alive? And have a good time? I may not be your cup of tea, but grow up and act your age for the sake of them.” Izzie whispered harshly, jerking her thumb over her shoulder. “Act civil.”

Tyler blinked several times, unsure of how to react to the angry blonde in front of him. He was sure that her words were meant to make him feel guilty, but instead, he felt angry in turn. How dare she demand that he act alive, or instruct him to have a good time like it was that easy! She had no clue what he was going through, and he was not about to let her belittle him this way.

“You’re not going to talk to me like I’m one of those kids. I don’t owe you anything. I’ve got a lot of other shit on my mind right now, so stop acting like we’re going to be friends and sit around a god damn campfire singing songs. Just leave me alone, okay?” He snapped moodily.

She stared at him, and he noticed her expression fall a little as they engaged in their stare down. After a few beats, Izzie spoke again. “Whatever.”

Tyler honestly wanted to scream. He hardly even knew this girl, but she infuriated him to no end. Everything about her was annoying; she was constantly talking, asking questions, singing, or laughing. She was always making noise. For once, Tyler just didn’t want to hear her voice. All he wanted was a moment of Izzie-free silence.

He spent the rest of the hike thinking of ways to lose not the kids, but her instead.