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I spent most of the day outside. That was normal in itself, but what I really mean, is that I never went back to my cabin after I woke up for piano. I couldn't tell if it was to get my mind off of last nights events or because I wanted to spend as little time with Katie as possible, but I kept myself preoccupied all day with activities.

Poppy and I played in a badminton tournament against Teddy and Zach, then we went swimming, then made our very own mini golf course with cups as holes and wooden pallets as makeshift obstacles. We even snuck away from the guys for a few hours just to sit and talk at the Water Hole about life.

However, my favorite part of every day is when we finally go to the dining hall and get food. Can you blame me? A girls gotta eat.

"We should go hiking tomorrow morning," Poppy says as she studies the poster hanging up in the dining hall, which advertised the hiking trip. "You didn't go last time."

I glance at the flier and see that we would leave at seven, before I have piano, and shake my head. "I can't. I have practice."

She scrunches up her nose in distaste and looks at me. "You can't just skip it? Once?"

When she says this, I imagine my parents faces when they hear that I skipped piano practice, and actually cringe. I shake my head again and mutter, "Do you think my parents would be okay with that?"

Poppy waves her arms in exasperation. "You're at camp, Mina, not at home! You should be having fun, not stressing about piano every damn day!"

I smile at her passion, but still have to tell her, "In case you forgot, I'm only allowed to be here for piano."

However, this doesn't faze Poppy, just like I knew it wouldn't. When she sets her mind on something, she finds a way to get what she wants. And I had a feeling that she had officially set her sights on this hiking trip.

"You can talk to your piano teacher, what's her name? Mrs. Bradley-" She rambles.

"Mrs. Brady," I correct.

"Yeah, sure whatever, Mrs. Brady, and tell her that you're going to have to miss a day. I'm sure she'll understand, and if she doesn't, then I can have a talk with her." Poppy says with a satisfied smile.

All of this for one stupid hike? I glance at the poster again and then back at Poppy, thinking it through. I've never asked to miss practice before, nor have I ever actually missed a practice, so what harm is there in trying? Poppy was right; we were here to have a fun summer. What's the fun in waking up at seven every morning to sit in front of a piano, without just one day off?

"Okay," I concede with a small smile. "I'll talk to her."

Poppy claps her hands together and grins brightly at me. "That's the spirit! Now come on, let's eat. I'm starving."

I drag myself over to the food line, my arms still sore from our six and a half mile kayak expedition today. Our whole cabin went in a flurry of excitement, and when we came back, everyone was sluggish in their movements, tired from the hours spent on the lake. I shuffled in line, filling my plate with as much food as it could hold, and then collapsed onto a bench by the corner table.

Poppy joined me at the table a few minutes later, where our cabin was gathered and discussing boys. I didn't listen to most of the conversation, but just nodded a few times to act like I was, and instead let my mind wander elsewhere. I was thinking about last night and how dumb I had acted out of impulse, and how grossed out I felt every time I looked at Brad.

My gaze traveled around the dining hall subconsciously and landed on Carter, standing at the food line. The twins were nowhere in sight for once, leaving him alone. Before I could even think about it, I stood up and excused myself from the table, intent on apologizing for last night. Slowly, I walked over to him, and stood behind him while he scooped mashed potatoes onto his plate.

"Carter," I say hesitantly, and he doesn't even turn around to glance at me.

"Amelia," He returns the acknowledgement, his voice flat.

I bit my lip. This might be harder than I thought. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"

He finishes up at the food line and turns around to face me, his expression giving nothing away. He simply rose his eyebrows and asked boredly, "Isn't that what you're doing now?"

I nod, almost tempted to say "nevermind" and then return to my seat, seeing as he looks completely uninterested by my presence, but I stop myself. I needed to apologize, and I couldn't leave without doing so. I lower my gaze away from his, instead letting it fall on his cheek, where I didn't have to look directly in his eyes.

"I'm sorry for being a bitch last night," I force myself to say. "I was mad at myself, and even though you were just trying to help, I took it out on you."

His lip twitches, and when I look back into his eyes, I can finally see emotion in them. And even though it's amusement at my flustered state, I still smile, because I can see that he wasn't as cold toward me as he was pretending to be. Finally, he lets a smile slip, and I feel relief wash over me. Why I cared so much about what Carter thought of me, I'll never know, but suddenly, I did.

"It's cute that you want to make sure I'm not mad at you," Carter taunts, but his voice is more teasing than arrogant.

I push his shoulder playfully, shaking my head. "Shut up, would you? I'm trying to be nice."

He chuckles. "It's okay, princess, I forgive you." But then his smile suddenly drops as if he remembered something important, and he says quietly, "Why were you mad at yourself, though?"

While I was enjoying our civil conversation, I would not tell Carter this. He was the King of meaningless hookups- if I were to tell him that mine was haunting me, then I'm sure that he would make me out to be some innocent little girl, even more of a princess than he already thought I was.

"I just made a stupid decision," I say ominously, and then flash him another smile. "I gotta go finish dinner, but I'll see you later."

Before he could say anything else, I turned on my heel and walked back to our table, returning in my seat beside Poppy. She was watching me with a small smirk on her lips and mischief in her eyes, like she knew something that I didn't. I narrowed my eyes at her when I caught her staring at me with that stupid smirk.

"What?" I ask snappily.

She manages to look even more smug. "You apologized, didn't you?"

"Maybe," I mumble.

"Good," Poppy praises, her smirk morphing into a bright smile. "One confrontation over, another one to go. Now all you have to do is convince Mrs. Brady to let you skip practice tomorrow."

And I did. It wasn't that difficult, either. After dinner, I hunted Mrs. Brady down- considering she was in the staff lounge, it wasn't much of a hunt- and had a talk with her about missing practice tomorrow morning for the hike. After my long, practiced spiel about why I deserve to miss practice just this once, she laughed and told me that it was fine, considering I've never asked such a thing before.

I ran back to the cabin to tell Poppy the good news, entirely too excited over something so minimal, but to us, it was monumental. I only got to celebrate with her for about fifteen minutes before I had to return to the dining hall for my cleaning shift. The sky was dark overhead as I walked over barefoot, holding flip flops in my hand that I had to wear in the kitchen.

When I got there, Ruth had already left, as had the rest of the staff. I pulled the old radio off of the bottom shelf again and set it on one of the tables, turning it on to the classic rock radio station. Tunes from The Steve Miller Band drifted through the speakers, filling the silence in the messy dining hall as I wiped down the tables.

"Do I have to do something special to see you dance again?" A voice surprises me by the doorway.

I whip around, rag in hand, to see Carter leaning against the doorframe with a half smirk, half smile on his lips. Even though I wanted to pretend to be annoyed by his comment, I couldn't stop the small smile from slipping onto my lips.

"Pay me five hundred dollars," I tell him easily, and then as an after thought, add, "And play your guitar, so I can prove it's not just a chick magnet."

His half smile turns into a full on grin. "Babe, you won't be able to resist me if I play my guitar."

I give him a look, raising my eyebrows. "Want to bet?"

"Now this sounds interesting," Carter pushes off of the door frame and takes a few steps forward. "What are we betting here? Money? Sexual favors?"

"You're insufferable," I tell him with a shake of my head.

He puts his hand over his heart in mock hurt. "You wound me, princess." I open my mouth to tell him not to call me that, like always, but he just rolls his eyes before I even start. "Sorry, Amelia," He corrects himself and stresses my name.

I try to hold back my smile and instead toss him the rag I was just using. "Finish wiping down the tables, would you? I'm going to grab the broom."

Carter catches the dirty white rag with ease, and I spin around to head back into the supply closet. As I'm retrieving the broom, I hear the song come to an abrupt stop, and then a very loud instrumental melody replaces the soft classic rock. I go back into the eating area of the dining hall with the broom in my hand to see Carter standing by the radio with a grin, adjusting the volume louder.

He looks up at me and grins, and I'm too struck by the sight to speak for a second. His guard was completely down: his eyes were bright with happiness, his white smile was so wide and stretched across his face, and his hair was falling in his eyes just a little bit from him not pushing it back. Carter looked like a different person when he was smiling. He was still attractive when he was scowling, but when he smiled, I had never been so drawn to a person.

I blink to regain some composure and mentally scold myself for the thought. This was Carter we were talking about. I cannot, under any circumstances, be drawn to someone like Carter Miller. He had walls up around himself, he was arrogant, and according to his track record with narrowly missing a summer in Juvie, he was dangerous. But the boy grinning in front of me didn't look like any of those things; he just looked like a boy.

"I love Boston," Carter divulges with a distant look in his eye. "My dad took me to see them when I was nine."

My eyes widen and I ask incredulously, "Nine?"

He nods, chuckling a little at the memory, which I could tell was a fond one. He still had the faraway look in his eyes, as if he were remembering the moment. "Yeah, he always did that. Took me to concerts when I was really young. At least he started early to give me good taste in music."

I smile softly at how fondly he looked back at the memory. "That's nice. Your dad seems awesome."

But just like that, the distant fondness was replaced with a darkness. His unusually happy mood had dissipated at my words, and a scowl threatened his expression. Carter's eyes darkened considerably and he turned down the volume on the dial, glancing at me with his cold stare.

"He was," He says through clenched teeth.

My heart drops, my mouth runs dry, and I struggle to find the words to speak. The cold glare Carter was shooting me wasn't helping, either, but I still opened my mouth to say quietly, "Carter, I'm so sorry, I didn't-"

"Stop looking at me like that," He snaps suddenly, his eyes narrowed. "I don't need your pity."

The thing is, I didn't pity Carter because his father passed away. I didn't look at him like he was such a poor little kid who lost his dad, and he needed my pity and charity. Not at all. I just knew what it was like to lose someone close to you, and I knew the hollow feeling in your chest when you thought about that person, or how it feels right after they die. And it wasn't pity I felt, but understanding.

"I dont pity you," I say simply, quietly. "I just know how it feels."

His harsh glare softened as he studied me, and it felt like we were having a staring war for hours on end before he abruptly turned around and walked out of the dining hall. The door slammed shut behind him, simply from the sheer force of how aggressively he had opened it, and the noise resounded within the empty room, More Than A Feeling by Boston playing quietly in the background.

I stare at the door in quiet shock, unsure what the hell was going through his mind, and curious to find out. As I spent the next hour and a half cleaning up the messy lunch room alone, I wondered about a few things: why Carter had his guard up miles high, why he got so defensive about his father, and most importantly, why I cared so much.

+ + +

It was going to be an easy hike.

Or, at least, that's what they told us on the bus ride to the mountain. The wilderness instructors, Dan and Elis, stood up in front of the bus and announced that the hiking difficulty would be for newcomers and intermediate hikers.

"Oh God, my legs are going to fall off," Poppy huffed as we climbed the third set of rocks leading to the top.

Out of breath and unable to speak, I make some kind of groan in response, feeling my thighs burn as I climb a large rock. The rest of the hikers were ways ahead of us, somehow unaffected by the climbing. We had been hiking for forty five minutes now and found the entire thing anything but easy.

At the top of the rocks, I see Elis' mop of curly brown hair pop out of nowhere as he calls down to us, "Keep coming, guys!"

I glare at his happy demeanor as he disappears behind the rocks again before forcing my legs to keep climbing. We were more than halfway up with only a few more yards separating us from freedom. I wasn't proud of how much I was sweating or how heavily I was breathing, but I was ready to do anything just to finish this hike and sit down somewhere.

"Mina," Poppy pants behind me. "Mina, I can't go on. Please tell my mom that I love her."

I turn around and huff, "Poppy, we're so close. Come on, just a few more rocks!" I turn to continue climbing, muttering to myself, "Who knew I was so out of shape?"

After five more minutes of pumping my legs and pushing my body to keep climbing, I had reached the top, where the land finally plateaued. I literally collapsed onto the ground, out of breath, watching Poppy struggle to climb the last few rocks. When she made it to the top, she collapsed in a heap beside me, trying to even her erratic breathing.

"Good job, guys! You made it to the top!" Elis shouted encouragingly somewhere behind the trees.

I looked up and saw that he was right, we had made it to the top. The view was the only thing, and I do mean only thing, that was able to get me onto my feet again. Poppy groaned beside me in disapproval, but I was too entranced in the view I was nearing. There were rocks jutting out of the side of the mountain to stand on for a better view, and I carefully made my way onto them so I could see everything.

And suddenly, the past hour of huffing and puffing and wanting to die was worth it. I could see a vast forest of trees out in the distance, with mountains peaking out behind them, the blue sky a perfect back drop for the sight. At the base of the trees, where we started, was a gorgeous clear blue river that ran for miles in each direction, winding around base of the forest.

"Wow," I breathed out, just staring at the beautiful sight before me.

"It's incredible, right?" Dan, the other wilderness instructor, appeared beside me and grinned. "Was it worth it?"

Was it worth begging Mrs. Brady to let me skip practice? Was it worth the inevitable lecture I would get from my parents when they found out I missed a day of piano this week? Was it worth the burn in my thighs and my sore feet from hiking?

"Definitely," I smiled.

I sat on the rock and stared out at the view alone, in awe of the beauty of the moment. Sweat was still glistening on my forehead and my body ached all over, but at least my breathing had returned to normal. I looked up at the few clouds in the sky and suddenly thought of something my Uncle told me once, after my grandmother had passed. He said that when someone dies, they're really just lying in the clouds, watching over you.

My thoughts drifted back to Carter, and what he said last night about his dad, and I frowned. Did he have anyone to console him when his father died, anyone to tell him that his dad was just watching over him in the clouds? The way he responded to my condolences last night made me think that there was no one there for him to help him through it. Of course, the pain of losing a loved one can sting forever, but there was something about the way Carter reacted that made me think more of it.

Was it the loss of his father that turned him into who he was now? Someone who put up a cold front, who got mixed up in enough trouble to be facing time in Juvie, who pretended he didn't have a care in the world? People said before that he was dangerous, sure, but I didn't believe it until Marcus threatened him with Juvie. But still, there was something more to Carter Miller than what the campers and the staff saw.

"What are you thinking about so hard?" Poppy asks, plopping down beside me. "You shouldn't look so upset when there's a view this gorgeous in front of you."

I drifted out of my thoughts and gazed back at the mountains, not meeting Poppy's gaze. "It is beautiful, isn't it?"

"Now now Mina, don't try to change the subject," Poppy caught on immediately.

I glance at her and smile a little. She always knew what I was up to. Poppy looks at me expectantly, and I sigh, unsure how much of Carter's past I was willing to even divulge. It wasn't my information to tell.

"If you knew someone who seemed..." I struggle for the right word, and then stress, "troubled, but they shut you out every time you got closer to figuring out what made them that way, what would you do?" I cast Poppy a desperate glance. "I mean, hypothetically speaking, of course."

But this is Poppy, and she knows exactly who I'm talking about, so she has a ghost of a smirk on her lips as she replies. "I would keep trying."

"Keep trying?" I echo, a frown still etched on my features. "But what if you're not sure why you even care, because this person is such an arrogant ass most of the time?"

To be fair, I'm not exactly being inconspicuous about the person in question.

She shrugs a little. "Sometimes you're just drawn to a person because you can tell there's more than what just meets the eye. But you have to remember that trust is a hard thing to gain sometimes, especially when someone has had a rough past." Poppy pauses for a moment, then gives me a pointed look. "Besides, you can't trust Carter if you don't trust him first."

I let her words sink in, thinking about them over and over. She was right. But how could I trust Carter if he was always assuming things about my personal life, and seemed incapable of a meaningful friendship?

It felt like I had more questions than what I started with, but because I didn't think I had the mental capacity to deal with them at the moment, I just shot Poppy a fake smile and said, "Thanks, Pop."