Not Just Another Cliché

"This is going to be so cool!" Holly cheers jumping up and down while we finish our trip to our next activity which was kayaking.

I used to kayak all the time when I was little with my dad, Casey and Caseys dad. It was awesome.

"Okay, everyone get a life jacket and a kayak each." The kayak instructor says.

We all walk into a shed where a bunch of kayaks and life jackets were stored.

Once we are all sorted, we are pushed into the lake and we play games like chasing which was very difficult because people had paddles and we just stuck them out and hit people's kayaks but it was funny and loads of people fell out of the kayaks Casey being one.

Another 45 minutes into it, Casey fell out of his kayak 5 times, Holly once, Seth and Jamie twice and Katie once.

"Wow Emily, you are the only person who hasn't fallen out of the kayak. Go you! 5 bucks if you stay in the kayak for the rest of the 15 minutes." Ms Elliott yells and everyone chuckles.

I look around for my friends and see Casey isn't there. I start looking around confused to where he might be when I suddenly feel my kayak being toppled over.

I let out a Yelp and all of a sudden, my kayak is on top of me while I'm under water. I push the heavy object off me with great struggle and when I finally do, I send daggers at Casey who is holding his stomach in laughter.

Everyone else is laughing including ms Elliott and the kayaking instructor who had to look away because he was laughing so hard.

"You are so dead Mr St Cloud!" I shout over the laughter as I climb out of the lake dragging the kayak behind me and then dumping it to the side while I run towards Casey who starts running towards the edge of the pier where we jumped the other day.

Once he reaches the pier, he looks at me with a smirk.

"Don't you do it Casey!" I warn pointing my finger at him.

"You're right." He says walking towards me.

"I wouldn't dare do it without you." He says as he starts to run and then grabs my legs and picks me up then runs back to his previous location.

"Casey, if you do this, I'm breaking up with you." I say but obviously I'm bluffing and he knows that but hey, it was worth a shot. Can't blame a girl for trying.

"Sure you would." Casey smirks as he takes a step back resulting in me sighing a sigh of relief and then suddenly, he springs forward and jumps in the air with me in his arms.

I scream and cover my eyes when suddenly I hear a big splash and then I'm underwater in the, yet again, surprisingly clean lake.

Once I resurface and brush the wet pieces of hair away from my face, I awkwardly run towards Casey and then slap him repeatedly on his bicep while he laughs and teases my 'girlie hits.'

"Emily, stop." Casey spits out through his fit of laughter.

He grabs my hands and smiles at me.

"I hate you." I bite out.

"You love me." A smirking Casey says.

"Unfortunately." I frown ripping my hands away from his hold and walking towards everyone else who are getting out of the lake since our time is up.

Once we clean up and get dressed again, it's 6pm and it's time for dinner.

"So senior camp is almost over, how has it been?" Ms Elliott asks as we sit down eating pork chops and tacos we all pitched in with to help make them.

"Incredible. One of the best high school experiences. " I breath out.

"At least you can say you left high school on a good note." Mr McGrath pipes up who is driving the bus back home tomorrow.

"High school isn't as half bad as I thought. I think I dreaded it more than really experienced it." I mutter.

"That's true Emily. And that's the case for a lot of people."

"Right, I know you are all cleaned up, but I realised we never actually went swimming in the past few days we've been here. It's not too late." Ms Elliott smirks.

"Who is first?" Mr McGrath questions.

I turn to Holly and we both smile and then kick our shoes off, grabbing each other's hands and then running towards the lake until it is up to our waists with us both shivering.

We were both just in running shorts and shirts. Nothing special.

We start splashing each other and soon enough most of everyone else join us and we are soaking each other.

Time flys and it's now 8:45 and we are all leaving the lake absolutely drenched.

"I'm gonna go shower." I inform everyone and grab my stuff and start walking off in the direction of the toilet blocks when suddenly I feel a hand grab my wrist and I turn back to see Casey smiling down at me making butterflies erupt in my stomach at that heart drenching smile.

"Hey." He smiles.

"Hey." I breath out as he lets go of my wrist.

"You aren't mad are you?"

"For?"

"Throwing you into the lake. You seemed really peed and I just felt bad and thought I should apologise."

"You're right. I was peeved off to the fullest, but looking back now, it was fun and I thought I should thank you instead." I smile.

Casey smiles back at me and then wraps his arm around my neck and pulls me in planting a soft and gentle kiss on my lips.

"I better go for a shower." I whisper against my boyfriends chest and then start walking backwards.

"I highly recommend you having one too." I shout as I turn around and suddenly I feel arms wrapping themselves under my legs carrying me and I look down to see Casey making me chuckle.

********

"Em." I hear someone whispering my name from outside our tent making me stand up and see the shadow of a figure standing outside.

I throw on Caseys jumper that he's never getting back and I climb out of the tent quietly as to not wake Holls and Katie.

"Casey!" I exclaim in a whisper.

"What are you doing here?" I question walking away from the tent.

"Wanna go for a walk?"

"What time is it?"

"4am."

I close my eyes and sigh.

"Let's go."

We walk towards the forest beside the lake.

"You know how much I love you right." Casey says intertwining our fingers and slowly walking through the woods with the light night breeze gently touching our skin.

"Of course I do."

"And you know that in the future I wanna marry you and have kids and a little dog that runs in and out of the little doggy doors." Casey smiles at the thought with me repeating his actions.

"I want that too. But in the future. Way, in the future. I mean after college. When we both have stable jobs."

"Oh yeah definitely. I'm not responsible enough to look after a dog right now never mind children and an entire family. Maybe we should get a goldfish or something." He says.

"So we agree, start with a goldfish and make our way up." I joke and me and Casey both laugh.

"Start with a goldfish and make our way up." Casey repeats.

There's a moment of silence while we continue our journey.

"Do you remember in the like second grade when you stayed in my house and we snuck out in the middle of the night to the forest behind our housing block and tried to climb one of the highest trees?" Casey questions.

"And you fell out and broke your leg resulting in us having to call your mom and both of us getting grounded. How could I forget?" I smile looking at a chuckling Casey with his head down.

"What about it?" I question.

"That was the day I knew you were meant to be in my life forever." He looks at me.

"I thought it was when you first met me." I smirk.

"No, that was when I knew I'd love you forever. Nothing's changed."

We both stop in our tracks and I place my hand on the side of Caseys neck and gently place my lips on his.

"I loved you then and I love you now and I'll love you tomorrow and I'll love you when we are 3,000 miles away and I'll love you even when I have to change your nappy." I joke making Casey laugh as I place my head on his chest.

"Oh god I am insanely in love with you." Case mutters and I close my eyes and smile.

"I don't want this to ever end." I sigh.

"We've been over this. It will never end. Our friendship and our relationship is way too strong for that. We fought Amber and we won. If that's not strength I couldn't tell you what is."

"We second that." A voice says.

I look up to see Holly and Seth standing there.

I step away from Casey and open my arms for Holly.

She comes running into them and I smile.

"I'm gonna miss you." I smile.

"No you won't. You'll be sick of me. FaceTime will become our best friend, your phone will be crashing so many times from me texting you won't be able to keep up and I'll be in your heart. That roommate of yours better not replace me." She warns and I chuckle and pull away from her.

"That goes for me too. I don't want any boys taking you away from me." Casey says wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me into him.

"That will never happen. First of all, I won't even be looking at other guys. And Holly, nobody could ever replace you. You are, one in a million." I say as I take Hollys hand in mine.

"What about me?" Seth pipes up wearing a smirk.

"Sethy. How could I forget about you? You are, one of the funniest people I've ever met. You are going to be fine. Especially with little miss sunshine with you." I tease and everyone laughs.

"How did you know we were here anyway?" Casey questions.

"Well when I noticed Em was gone, I went into your tent to see if Case was there and he wasn't so I woke Seth up and we just knew you'd be down here."

"Well we better go up before we get caught." I say.

"Hey guys, thanks for making this, the best senior year ever. I'll never forget it." I smile and they smile back and then we walk back up with our arms around each other's shoulders.

We say goodbye to each other and then me and Holly go back into our tent and the boys into theirs.

I lie in my sleeping bag with a smile on my face.

The friendships I've made got me through high school and Amber and I'll forever be grateful.

*****
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-Madison🤘🏻