Location: Their Homes -> Ella’s Car -> Ace’s High Entrance -> Spades CabinsInteracting with: | Each other | Their Parents |[Collab with @smarty0114]
Snuggled deep within a ball on her rather puffy and soft bed, Ella Matthews dreamed blissfully as saliva started to slowly drip down her red face. Despite her alarm clock going off for the fourth time, Ella continued to stay in a slumberous state. It wasn’t until her rather frustrated mother began to shake Ella awake did her heavy eyelids finally crack open.
“Dear, Ella. You have ten minutes to get ready before we have to leave! Please, get up!” Anna Matthews hooted at her daughter. Blinking several times, Ella stared at her mother in a haze before giving out a loud yawn.
“Huh?” She mumbled and licked her rather dry lips.
Anna laughed at her daughter’s state. It was almost impossible to get the child out of bed before noon. Luckily, Ella’s things had all been packed and loaded in the car the night before per Anna’s request. All she had left to do was make herself presentable for the first day of camp. “Come on, dear, up, up! Today is your first day of camp, remember?”
Rubbing her eyes, Ella looked up at her mother again before snapping out of her sleepy state.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” Ella let out a chuckle before jumping out of bed. “Thanks, mom!” Cracking her knuckles, a habit that made her mother cringe every time, Ella playfully punched the air before yelling,
“Teen Titans, go!” Anna stood in awe as her daughter began to race around the room, quickly slipping on clothes, shoving a toothpaste down her mouth while brushing her hair at the same time. Somehow within just a few minutes, Ella was ready to go. No matter how many times Anna observed her daughter, she couldn’t get over how laid back she was. Even when Ella was a child, she rarely cried and would spend most of her time sleeping and giggling. It was both a blessing and a curse to her mother, as she would enjoy the rest but spend most of it worrying that Ella had died in her sleep. Still, Anna was proud of the young woman Ella had grown into.
“Are you excited?” Anna asked Ella honestly.
“Of course! I get to spend the whole summer with Noah, what else would I want to be doing?” Ella smiled before the doorbell went off. Letting her mother get the door, Ella skipped to the kitchen for some food. Sitting on the table waiting for her was her mother’s homemade egg sandwich, eggs, bacon, and cheese smashed between a buttered english muffin. On top of the sandwich were two glazed donuts and a glass of orange juice. A huge grin filled Ella’s face as she gratefully digged in. Despite her small size, Ella could eat everything and anything. She absolutely loved food. In fact, there were few things in the world that Ella loved more than food, one was her family and the other, a very incredible and revolutionary Noah Fairchild.
Noah Fairchild was many things. He was an artist, a good friend, and a great chess player. He also, was very certainly, a procrastinator. This is why Stefanie Fairchild, Noah’s mother, found him packing his bags the morning he was supposed to leave.
”Noah, you were supposed to have everything packed last night,” Stefanie chided, her lips pursed in the into a disapproving frown. Noah, looked up at his mom, his eyes jetting from one feature to another. Brown eyes, dark hair, she looked so much like him, like someone had taken a self portrait of himself and brought it to life, only like, as a mom. It was weird for Noah to see himself looking so angry.
Noah didn’t know what to say, he never really did. Not anymore at least. He and his mom, they used to be so in sync. They marched to their own beat, one only they seemed to be able to hear, much like him and Ella. She used to be the only person who got what his paintings meant, what they represented for him. Now days, he and his mom couldn’t seem to go a day without bickering, and his paintings seemed to have lost their meaning to her.
”Mom, I was mostly packed, I swe-” ”Noah. I’m done with the lies. Just get packed, Anna and Ella are waiting on you.” His mother left his room with a sigh, and he returned to packing his bag. His mom liked to bring up the lies a lot more now, seeing as how she’d caught him in so many. As if sending him off to some summer camp in the middle of nowhere wasn’t enough.
Once his oil paints were squared away and his notebooks tucked in, he zipped up his bag and walked downstairs to the entrance way of his spacious home. He took what felt like a last look at the paintings that lined the walls, and waited for his parents. His mom rushed in, sunglasses perched on her head, his dad following suit. He clapped his hand, a hand like a giant’s, onto Noah’s shoulder. When he was little, his dad seemed to move mountains for him. Now it seemed like his dad was the mountain. Noah looked into the stoney face of Everest, aka his father, and saw a look in his eyes he hadn’t seen before. Hurt. His dad didn’t want to do this, but it was like his mom had said. They were done with the lies.
What lies, you’re asking? Well really, one lie in particular. Noah had told his parents that he’d been over at Ella’s all day. In reality he’d been trekking halfway across the country, Greyhound to Greyhound. His parents had found him the next day, as angry as they’d ever been. They asked him why he left. He still didn’t have the answer.
After hugging his dad, Noah followed his mom next door to Ella’s where Stefanie rapped her boney fingers against the luxurious wooden door that separated the inside of Ella’s home from the outside. He’d painted that door so many times, on canvas, on paper, in oil and watercolor. He really loved that door, almost as much as he loved the people behind it.
Ella’s parents had always treated him like family, like another child. Their home had become a second home to him, hell, he even had an easel waiting here incase inspiration ever suddenly struck. And Ella, well Ella was some mix between his muse and his partner in crime. He’d do anything for her, anything. He was lucky to have a friend like her, he knew that much. Not many people would nix their summer plans just to follow their friend to summer camp, but she had, because, as Noah had seen time and time again, she was a good person. An honest to god, in the flesh, good person.
Licking the sweet and savoring glaze from the donuts off her fingers, Ella stood up from her chair and chugged the half full cup of orange juice before making her way toward the door. Standing there in wait was her mother, Stefanie Fairchild, and the one and only Noah.
“Good morning!” Ella chirped to the entourage before clearing her throat.
“As I was eating breakfast this morning, I thought of quite the funny joke. What do you call a pastry that is a priest?” Ella paused for a few moments, waiting for anyone to respond, before going on.
“A holy donut!” Letting out a cackle that would probably startle anyone other than the people near her, Ella didn’t even notice that no one else was laughing. While Ella knew her jokes were the absolute definition of cringe and were the reason a lot of people were freaked out by her, she didn’t really care. She couldn’t get enough of them, and they made her laugh, why wouldn’t she keep doing them? As long as she had her incredible family and Noah by her side, it didn’t matter if her jokes were horrible.
Ella was so grateful to have someone like Noah to call her best friend. He was everything to her. From the moment the Fairchilds had moved in next door when they were toddlers, the two had become inseparable. Ella admired the incredible way Noah saw the world, and despite Noah’s reputation of being weird and insane, she knew there was no one more intelligent or understanding than him. They were the best of friends and Ella was more than willing to go off to some camp for the summer with him. What would she even do without him around?
While Ella was ready for their summer to officially begin, one look at Noah was enough to know her best friend didn’t share these feelings. Taking a step closer to him, Ella elbowed Noah playfully. There would be no sadness while she was around! Noah would have fun at this summer camp, Ella would make sure of it.
“Are you all ready to go?” Anna asked Noah and Stefanie.
Noah couldn’t help but smirk at Ella’s joke, despite it’s innate strangeness. He sometimes wished he could live in Ella’s world, a place where she could be whoever she wanted at any given moment, consequences be damned. She wasn’t afraid of much, and Noah envied that.
”Finally,” Stefanie said with a light chuckle.
”This one took forever to get packed!” Stefanie continued, laughing. Noah shrugged and flashed Ella a covert eye roll at his mother’s behavior, smirking ever so slightly. This summer was going to be hell, he was confident of that, but at least he had Ella with him. That would make it a little less hellish.
Once Stefanie and Anna had finished their brief chat, they packed Noah’s bag away in the Matthews’ car and then got in, beginning the long drive up to Aces High. Why they couldn’t fly, Noah wasn’t sure, but he’d stopped arguing with his mom about this trip a long time ago. While Stefanie and Anna chattered away, Noah turned to Ella and smirked.
”You ready for a summer of mosquitoes and zero wifi?” he asked.
From Noah’s secretive eye roll toward his mom, Ella knew his summer was already off to a bad start. She hated seeing her best friend so distraught and upset about the world. It wasn’t like him at all. For the past few months, Noah had been going through this strange rebellious phase that only seemed to get him hurt or in trouble. No one could pinpoint the problem and Noah refused to talk to anyone, even Ella. While she tried her best to make him happy, he just wouldn’t escape his funk. Thus the reason they’re spending their whole summer away from society at a camp. While Ella had failed to be there for her friend recently, she absolutely refuse to let him spend his summer sulking in his cabin. Noah Fairchild would return to his old, excited and inspiring self, if it was the last thing she did. Luckily, they had the entire summer.
Letting out a soft sigh, Ella followed everyone to the car. Ella’s mom and Stefanie started babbling about their lives while Noah and Ella sat comfortably in the back seat. Ella let her eyes flutter tiredly as she held back a yawn. She should have gotten more sleep last night instead of staying up late to rewatch episodes of Doctor Who. Shrugging, she simply smiled as Noah started a conversation. [color=FFFF99]“Hey, I don’t want to see that smirk!” [color]She giggled before continuing.
“It’s going to be fun! Cheer up, we get to spend the entire summer together. It’ll be great!” She smiled, hoping he would see the brighter side of going.
It was a challenge to stay down around Ella, something Noah had born witness to time and time again. He couldn’t help the grin his mouth curled into in response to her cheeriness. As they began the rather long drive up to Northern California, Noah passed the time by sketching the light of the sun rise- they’d had to leave rather early to make it to camp in time- and playing a variety of road trip games with Ella.
By the time the lengthy drive was over, Noah’s legs were cramped, his pencils needed sharpening, and he had taken two naps. He was ready to be free of this moving prison. The car pulled up directly in front of the camp, where plenty of kids were waiting. Noah and Ella got out and grabbed their bags, hugged their parents goodbye and then turned to face their home for the summer.
”Well, it doesn’t look awful I guess,” Noah said, grinning ever so slightly.
After goofing off for a bit while they waited for to be welcomed into the camp, the bus pulled up and the director finally came to greet them. Noah made sure to point out Connor Hollingsworth to Ella. They’d met him in New York a few years back, while his and Ella’s parents had been doing business together. He was positively awful, so it figured he’d be present. Maggie Taylor, a girl who went to their school was there too. She wasn’t bad, though Noah wouldn’t really call her a friend.
After the director began calling kids up to grab their cards. Noah got his first, but he waited for Ella to open his. Once she’d gotten hers they tore open the envelopes.
”I’m Queen of Spades. You?” Giving her mother a tight squeeze and promising she’d write, Ella turned to face where she would spend the rest of her summer. Dozens of kids were scattered around the area, chatting to each other or sulking about, everyone waiting for the camp to officially start. Ella was glad to see Noah had finally loosened up a bit, she could even see a slight smile on his face. Claiming it as a victory, Ella took the moment to dance her absolute favorite move, what some might identify as the famous Pumpkin Dance. She only danced, if you could call it that, for a few seconds so she wouldn’t completely terrify the rest of her fellow campers before camp had even started. Ella gave out a sharp shriek of laughter before taking a deep breath and settling down.
Noah and Ella chatted for a few moments before they realized they already knew not one but two of the campers already. One was the spoiled rich kid from New York, Connor Hollingsworth, someone Noah absolutely detested. Ella didn’t particularly dislike him but she also wasn’t a fan of him either. There were few people Ella had met who possessed such an inherently impolite and rude nature. Perhaps he would surprise both of them and show some kindness at the camp, Ella was always one to give people chances. The second was Maggie Taylor, one of the sweetest people at their school. While they had never really been close as friends, Maggie had never failed to treat both Noah and Ella with compassion and generosity. Clapping her hands with a squeal of happiness, Ella looked forward to spending time with Maggie and hopefully growing closer to her.
As Ella lost track of time conversing with Noah, she was surprised when the director came out to address the group of campers. Names were called and individually, they each went to grab envelopes that contained the cabins they would be staying in. Ella begged the heavens she would be in the same one as Noah. Taking a deep breath, she walked up to Aisling Hawthorne, thanked her, and returned back to Noah with the sealed envelope in her hand. Tearing it at the same time as Noah, a wave of relief instantly fell over her.
“I’m King of Spades! Thank goodness!” Out of sheer excitement, Ella brought Noah in for a tight hug. While Noah wasn’t the biggest fan of hugs, Ella couldn’t help herself here and then. After a brief second, she pulled away and grinned at him.
“Shall we?” Noah couldn’t help the grin that crept across his face. He hooked his arm through Ella’s and looked over at her.
”We shall,” he said, before they jaunted on over to the Spades cabins, where they were forced to part ways.
”Meet back here in 30 for exploration?” Noah said, smiling for once.
Seeing Noah so full of energy and life minutes after the camp had started, Ella couldn’t have been happier. She couldn’t wait to see Noah return to his former glory, and Ella truly believed this camp would make it happen.
“You bet!” She grinned and gave him an energetic wave before walking into her cabin, a place she would call home for the next several weeks. Cracking her knuckles again, Ella was officially ready for camp to begin.
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