Camp Maid pt 1.

“Thank you for picking us up mister”

Said Nia to the driver of the car, an older guy wearing a camo-green hunting cap. Nia was sitting in the front of the black terrain wagon that belonged to her parent's hunting estate. The car’s stereo was playing some loud music you’d usually hear in discotheques. In the back of the car sat an energetic Ti, a reading Serena, and Mona who was holding a big black duffle back on her lap, something she insisted on. Mona was unusually tense, she had her arms wrapped around the big bag. Nia couldn’t quite make up why she was behaving in this way. Then the driver turned down the music.

“What is that noise I keep hearing? It must some animal”

Mona nervously laughed away the driver's comment and insisted on turning up the radio’s volume again, to the annoyance of the driver. Apparently, this was one of Mona’s many favorite songs. Ti was bopping her head and singing along with the catchy lyrics. As the driver took a turn left, Nia recognized the driveway that lead to her parent’s hunting property. Memories of playing here as a little kid in the snow popped into her head. That time her mom and dad helped her build a gigantic snowman. Well, everything looks bigger when you are a small kid. Anyway, that was a long time ago, before her dad got his big promotion. The car stopped in a remote part of the hunting estate, next to some old abandoned shed.

“Alright, this should be a suitable location for your girls to set up your tents. If any of you gets attacked by a bear, you can find me at the cabin we just drove past.”

“Bear?”

Ti suddenly jumped up, but she quickly realized the groundkeeper was just making a joke. Nia vaguely remembers getting scared of a similar joke when she was younger. Once the groundskeeper drove up, Mona unzipped the big bag she had put on the ground beside her and takes out a little black kitten. Mr. Cat is part of the gang right? Nia took a deep sigh and started unpacking her tent from the green bag that was holding it together. The girls all picked a location and started setting up their tents.

“Ough!”

Nia felt a big metal pole stomping against her back. She turned around a saw a really sorry-looking Mona. After the other girls got done setting up their tents, they all decided to help Mona who was still struggling to keep a single pole standing upright. When they’d finally sit down to take some rest, Ti got frightened again after she believed to have seen something moving behind the dirty windows of the shed. Nia assured her it was just an old shed that had been locked up for ages, so it was impossible for anyone to be in there.

Cooking

After the girls got done setting up their tents and had some time to explore the campsite, Ti took a pack of cards out of her bag and they proceeded to play a card game together. To Nia’s big annoyance, she wasn’t able to win a single round, so she kept pushing the other girls to play just one more round. Mona got bored of the game and left to do something else. A little later, the girls smelled a foul odor coming from the other side of the camp. Nia turned her head around and saw Mona walking toward them.

“Ehh... It looks like we have a little problem”

Mona pointed at the camping stove, which had a big pan standing on top of it with flames coming out of it. The other girls rushed to the stove to help put out the fire. Nia looked in the blackened pan and the only thing left was some charred pieces of food. Mona had used up all the ingredients for today’s dinner and ruined all of it! What were they supposed to eat now?

“I am so sorry, I wanted to surprise you all with a delicious meal”

“Please Mona, don’t you dare to touch the camping stove ever again!”

After being left with no food for tonight’s dinner, Nia came up with a plan to forage some ingredients in the forest they could use to make a meal. Nettles, wild onions, and some forest fruits. Mona volunteered to make the trip to the hunting cabin to ask the groundkeeper if he had anything left they could use. It wasn’t possible for her to mess this up too right? Luckily, the groundkeeper had some potatoes and freshly hunted rabbit meat left for them. With a lot of improvisation, Nia was able to cook up a tasty meal for her and her friends. Mona gave Nia a big hug for managing to save the situation. Mona can be such a kid sometimes…

Late night

After they were done eating and cleaning the dishes, the twilight already started to set in. Nia suggested to the other girls if they wanted to play one more game of cards. But the other girls didn’t seem that interested, they were all quite tired from setting up the tents and gathering the ingredients.

“I thought games like these were too nerdy for you Nia-chan”

Said Mona with a big grin on her face. They decided to play one more game to please Nia, but unfortunately for Nia, Serena won again. By now did had gotten pitch dark at the campsite. Just before heading off to her tent, Mona told the girls a ghost story the groundkeeper told her when she fetched the ingredients from the groundkeeper. A long time ago, there used to be another groundkeeper managing this property. One day, he went to fetch something from the shed but never returned. The following day, Nia’s grandpa went to check up on him and found his body laying on the ground. His head had been decapitated by an improperly stored axe that fell off a high shelve. It is rumored his ghost still wanders around the estate and can’t be seen from time to time.

“Thank you, Mona, how am I supposed to get to sleep now”

“Don’t worry Ti, I have never heard my grandpa say anything about this. It’s probably just another of these jokes from the groundkeeper or something”

After Mona already entered her tent, the other girls stayed a little longer to gaze at the stars. Then suddenly, the girls saw a faint dot of light appear behind the old shed’s window. Ti got really scared, but Nia assured her it was probably just Mona playing a prank on them. They decided to go to Mona’s tent, suspecting it to be empty, but it wasn’t. Mona seemed to be deeply engaged in the manga she was reading. She couldn’t have made it back to the tent so quickly. Nia assured Ti that they would ask the groundkeeper for the key tomorrow so they could make sure nothing nefarious was going on inside. With that settled, Nia was finally able to get some rest in her tent, to think through this first troubled night here at the campground. The girls had been through so much together, that it is hard to imagine they only met a few months ago. They had become such good acquaintances. No that was not the right word. Friends. With that thought, Nia fell asleep…