Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

Tee sat in the drivers’ seat of her blue Vauxhall Corsa, scared to put the car into gear. This was it, this was her last chance. This was her final choice of what to do with the rest of her life. Nineteen years had gone by and she still didn’t know what she wanted to do. Everyone else she knew was at university, or had a job or a plan, and she was about to embark on all that was left for her to try out.

In the last eighteen months, Tee had been to university and dropped out because she hadn’t liked the course, and hadn’t found another one she wanted to transfer to. She had worked in an Estate Agent over the early summer months and decided she missed being outside.Whilst she was at college she had worked in a shop and waitressed in a café and decided that she couldn’t deal with snobby customers for the rest of her life. All that was left for her to try was working with children, and no better place to start than Camp UK.

After a few minutes of worrying about what to do if Camp UK didn’t work out, Tee shifted her car into first and pulled out of the drive way. She was on her way to Camp UK Foxhill, for a 10-day training course, which will decipher if she really is cut out for working in the outdoors and with children; something she wasn’t 100% sure of just yet. The drive was two and a half hours from her home in Hastings. She stuck Radio 1 on and tried to ignore the stomach of nerves that grew larger and larger as she drove further west along the motorway.

It was a late August day and the sun was bright in the sky. Tee wished she had air-con in her car as the temperature was reaching 25 degrees and there seemed to be a traffic jam ahead on. She wound down all her windows and started blowing the cold air, which was coming out warmer than the hot air on a frosty January morning. She wasn’t far now according to the map on her phone. Her stomach flipped again. What if this didn’t work out? What would she do? There really was nothing else for her to try. She couldn’t imagine the stress of finding another job, there wasn’t anything else she wanted to try. Is there anything in the world that she wants to do? Probably not, she thought, nothing is good enough for Teegan Acres.

Then she started thinking about the people. Tee had never grown out of the nerves that overwhelmed her when she knew she had to meet new people. Despite all the new places she had been and worked in the last few years, and knowing deep down that she made friends easily, she always became nervous at the prospect of getting to know strangers, especially when she was somewhere she didn’t know. This afternoon was going to take a lot of socialising effort out of her. Tee rubbed her temples. She had a headache and her throat was starting to feel scratchy. It appeared she had a cold coming too, great.

“I’m here for the training course,” Tee snuffled to the receptionist, her cold appeared to have gotten worse in the last hour, her eyes felt like they were watering too, this was not good, “I think I’m in the right place.” She gave the receptionist an awkward smile.

“Yeah, you’re in the right place,” the girl said cheerfully, “everyone’s meeting over there.” She pointed over to rows of chairs set up in the large foyer, most of them were occupied, “you’re just in time, they’re about to do a welcome talk.”

“Thanks,” Tee smiled.

She walked over to the seats and sat in the last seat on the back row, next to a pretty blonde girl who looked about the same age as her. She didn’t say anything.

Two girls, in their early twenties and dressed in the iconic green and blue PE like uniform of Camp UK, stood in front of the rows of chairs. One of the girls was slightly overweight, which eased Tee’s nerves a little as she wasn’t the smallest of girls.

The hum of small talk around the room faded out quickly and heads all turned to the uniformed girls.

“Welcome to Camp UK, Foxhill,” the larger girl said in a loud voice, she had a slight Northern accent, “I’m Hayley and this is Kelly,” she gestured towards her smaller and admittedly prettier companion who gave an awkward half smile and wave.

Tee’s nerves lessened again at this, seeing that Kelly was as awkward as her with new people.

“We’ll be your tutors for the next ten days,” Hayley continued, “so you better get used to our lovely faces. Before we get onto room allocations and an itinerary for the course, I just want to make sure we’ve got everyone here who’s meant to be here, so I’m going to call out your names, please correct me if I get any wrong,” she picked up a clipboard and pen from the table next to her, “Harry Abel,” she called.

“Yep here,” a boy with glasses and short brown hair said.

Hayley ticked off Harry’s name, “Teegan Acres,” she said.

Tee coughed a little, “Yep, um, here. I prefer Tee,” she said quietly, she had forgotten how to project her voice momentarily.

“Okay, thanks Tee,” Hayley appeared to make a point of her name. Tee blushed.

Hayley read out about twenty names altogether. This was a good group size, Tee thought. This amount of people she could just about deal with.

The pretty blonde she was sat next to was called Imy, she had corrected Hayley too, which was a relief for Tee, being someone who didn’t like to stand out for any reason.

Hayley went through all the details for the next 10 days and then finally got onto room allocations. Everyone’s mood appeared to lift when Hayley mentioned this. Tee didn’t understand the appeal of sharing a room with a complete stranger, but she knew she had to get over this if she wanted to work for Camp UK. The communal living aspect of the job was part of the appeal to Tee. She’s a social person after she gets to know people, it’s getting to that stage she doesn’t think she’s good at.

Everyone was paired up and given a room number. However, Tee found out that the girl who was meant to be her roommate had dropped out of the course last minute so she was on her own. She was okay with this, she thought, at least then there wouldn’t be the awkwardness of getting changed in the bathroom or not knowing what to say in the morning at 7:30 before going to breakfast.

“If you all follow us, we’ll show you where to meet us for tea and then show you to your rooms,” Kelly said.

All at once everyone got up in anticipation; they found their roommates and walked off in pairs following Hayley and Kelly eagerly.

“Are you coming?” Imy asked Tee, “I can’t remember who Chloe is, my roommate, so I’ll walk with you,” she said.

Tee smiled, “Yeah of course, I’m Tee by the way, Imy right?” she asked not knowing what else to say.

“Nice to meet you,” she said and smiled back.

The pair walked and talked together at the back of the group. Tee learned that Imy was from Bristol and had also dropped out of University; in fact she had dropped out twice!

“I’ve never done anything like this,” Imy said, “I mean working with kids and stuff, I don’t even know any kids!”

“I’ve never worked with kids, either,” Tee replied, “I didn’t even like PE at school and look where I am, basically training to be a PE teacher for the next ten days”

“Crazy isn’t it? Like, at school you’re forced to aim for Uni but there’s no Plan B if you don’t get in or don’t like it, I’m so pleased it’s not just me that didn’t like it” Imy smiled.

Tee smiled back. She felt a lot more relaxed now; maybe this would work after all.

The group had been shown where the dining hall was and then shown to their rooms. It turned out that, although Tee was on her own, her room was next to Imy and Chloe’s, so she wasn’t as alone as she thought she would be.

The rooms weren’t really rooms, they were large wooden cabins split by thin walls into boring squares. Each room opened onto wooden decking, like an outside corridor. The cabins were arranged around some grass with a picnic table and a playground with a basketball hoop. It reminded Tee of the French school she had visited a few years ago on a school trip; especially with the low evening sun bouncing off the concrete.

They had an hour or so before dinner so Tee decided to make her room as homely as she could. She unpacked her clothes onto the other bunk bed and got changed out of her jeans and into her favourite trackies. She decided that she wasn’t bothered about what she looked like. She wasn’t there to impress the boys; she was there to hopefully discover something she was passionate about.

Tee looked at her watch. She had twenty minutes before tea time. She decided to call her mum. With all the excitement of arriving at Foxhill, Tee hadn’t looked at her phone since parking the car; she rummaged through her bag to find it. She already had two missed calls from her mum and one from her dad. She called her home number.

“Hello?” it was Tee’s mum.

“Hi Mum, sorry I missed your calls, I haven’t had a chance to stop since I got here”

“Hi sweetie, that’s okay, I’m pleased you got there okay, how is it?”

“It’s fine. I’ve met a few people and got an itinerary for the next few days. It looks like I’m going to be pretty busy”

“I just hope this works out for you darling, I don’t know what you’ll do if it doesn’t. Work hard, okay?”

“Of course I will mum,” there was a knock on the door, “I’ve got to go now, I’ll see you soon okay”

“Okay, lots of love; have fun!”

The line went dead.

Tee went to the door and clicked it open. It was Imy. She was wearing a plain black vest top with a blue checked shirt and a pair of bright orange harem pants. An outfit that sounds odd but Imy seemed to get away with it.

“Me and Chloe are going to explore for a bit before tea if you want to join us?” she said eagerly.

“Sure, come in I’ll be two minutes.”

Tee grabbed her phone and a jacket. It looked like it had started to get chilly outside.

The three girls walked up a steep bank on the most eastern edge of centre and sat on an old log perched at the top. They could see the whole expanse of Foxhill; from the climbing wall to the Archery Range.

The sun was setting. The sky was pink, orange and pale blue all at the same time. Clouds looked like candyfloss scattered across the sky.

“I could get used to this,” Chloe said, “It’s so pretty.”

“Same,” said Tee and she smiled to herself.