"I'm here for you."

Janie was sitting on a downed tree and crying next to a smelly bog, even though she was arguably smellier from the toilet water dripping off of her head. She looked up to see a girl wearing khaki, knee-length shorts, and a white polo top, her unfashionable outfit further emphasized by the blunt bangs of her mousy brown bob.

However, Janie smiled as she recognized who it was, "I'm sorry that you have to see me like this again. Did you have to walk far?"

"Don't say you're sorry: I'm here for you no matter what. And no, I was already close by."

Janie smiled wryly, "If only you could always be with me, Ellie. I wish I could've been in your group— we're basically the same age! Ugh, I hate having a late birthday!"

"At least we can meet at this spot and be together."

"Yes, at least."

The spot where the two girls would convene was at the edge of the forest, right where the vegetation dipped away into a vast bog. While they frequently rendezvoused there, Janie felt a little guilty, as the camp director warned the campers to never wander into the woods, especially not into the bog.

Ellie continued speaking, "I'm glad that you aren't afraid like the other girls. You're the only one brave enough to come out here to the bog. Plus you come alone."

Janie rubbed the back of her neck, "Well, I wish I was as brave as you think I am. Really I'm just a coward and the other girls don't bother to come out here to bully me. And besides, I'm not alone. At least not anymore, since you're here."

Ellie's eyes crinkled up as she gave her usual smile, "Come, let's go to the showers. Everyone else should be by the lake right now, so those girls shouldn't be around to harass you."

After walking out of the bog and the woods, the two reached the restrooms. The concrete-walled, tin-roofed building was rather primitive, but it was better than the latrines that were supposedly at the boy's camp on the other side of the lake.

Ellie turned to Janie and said, "I'll wait out here and make sure those girls don't come back for you. You go ahead and get cleaned up."

"Sure! I'll be out in a bit," Janie called as she went inside, grabbing her shower things from her cubby along the wall. Luckily, the bullies never touched her shower cubicle, but that was because they were smart and knew that the counselours would catch on to what they were doing. They targetted her whenever the staff wasn't around, and if the other girls saw, well, no one likes a snitch. The other girls never paid attention to Janie anyways and went to great lengths to isolate her. That's what she got for looking different.

As the warm water sprinkled over her, Janie knew that it all didn't matter. Ellie was there for her. There were only a few more days left in this horrible camp before she could go home to her family, away from terrible girls that entertained themselves by throwing toilet water at her. The only good thing about this place was Ellie: what would she do without her?

The water started to run cold and Janie turned it off with a start. Had she used up all the hot water in the boiler? That was impossible— no one had used the showers since the morning.

She dried off and changed lightning-fast, rushing out of the shower stall before stopping abruptly. The girls that had been harassing her since day one were waiting for her. Two of the girls surrounded her, while the last one stood inside the normally locked maintenance room. Sure enough, that girl had her hand upon the hot water handle of the boiler.

"We knew you would come back," the girl in front of Janie said.

The girl behind Janie giggled, "Turns out the little piggy is a glutton for punishment."

Suddenly, the doors burst inward and Ellie was there holding the door wide open, "Run, I'll handle them!"

Janie bolted past the girl standing in front of her and sped out the door. She could hear the two chasing behind her, but she didn't turn around until there was a loud BANG!

She saw that the restroom door had burst off its hinges, sandwiching one of the girls between it and the floor while a second girl stood just outside the restroom screaming at Janie, "What the hell did you do to her?!"

"Wha—what? What just happened?"

Janie looked over at Ellie for an answer but stopped as she saw her expression. Ellie's face was downturned and she appeared to be laughing, but all Janie could here was deep, congested wheezing.

"Ellie, are you alright?"

Ignoring her, Ellie slowly lifted her arm and gesturing over to where the bully stood screaming. Where she pointed, a round object fell out of the sky and hit the girl squarely on the head, shattering into papery pieces. Immediately, she began to dance wildly as buzzing filled the air, before racing away from Janie and the bathrooms, tearing down the road loudly wailing as the swarm of wasps kept pace close behind her.

"Ellie, wh—what was that? How—" Janie asked while turning, but instead of Ellie, there was the girl that had turned off the boiler. She looked stunned as she asked,

"Who's Ellie?"

"The girl who was just here," Janie replied, confused by the girl's obvious question.

"There's no one named Ellie in our group."

"Uh, yeah, I know that. Ellie is from the older girl's group. Maybe you know her by her full name: Eleanor?"

The girl peered at her with a strange look on her face, "Look, I know that I haven't been the best person, so I don't think you expect you to listen to me right now. There was no one here just now."

"What are you talking about? She was standing next to me just now."

"Look, when I say no one, I mean no one. There was only you when we came to the restroom and only you when that just happened!"

Janie felt her face heating up, "I don't know what you're trying to say! Are you trying to say that I did that?!"

The other girl snapped back, "Well, who did!? What just happened right now wasn't normal! Casper the friendly ghost didn't do that! If it wasn't you, it was something evil! Can't you see!?"

Janie spun on her heel, "Ellie isn't evil! I'll bring her back and you'll see how wrong you were!"

As she took off, she could hear the other girl calling out to her not to go, but she didn't care. Tears blurred her vision as she ran. This couldn't be real. Her friend was a ghost? How could that be? Part of her refused to accept it, but a small portion of her mind whispered that it was true. She never saw Ellie with her group, and Janie always met with her alone. Yet whenever Janie asked, Ellie would have an explanation ready for her, or perhaps, they were only excuses. But now there was something that she couldn't explain away: what had happened at the restroom.

"Ellie!"

Reaching their usual meeting spot at the bog, she called out for her and started looking around. The sun was starting to set, causing the sunlight to cut through the trees and inhibiting Janie's eyesight.

"I know you're here!"

She stepped onto the downed tree, the same tree that they had met at so many times before. The trees branches arched above the bog but at a low enough angle that Janie could walk along. Thinking that if she made her way to the end, she would have a better vantage point of spotting Ellie.

Janie burst out, "You said that you'd always be there for me! Then where are you?!"

Janie stomped down hard as she spoke, but was unprepared as her foot slid against the tree's slippery surface. She toppled over into the bog, side-first. As she loudly sputtered and sloshed about the muck, her frantic movements sucked her further into the peat. She finally freed her hands, but she was already over waist-deep and still sinking into the decaying matter. She needed to call for help, but her voice choked up as she saw that someone was sitting on the downed tree facing her with the sunlight breaking over her back. It was Ellie, staring down at her. It was Ellie, but Janie could tell that she wasn't there to help. Ellie wasn't going to allow her to get any help. Ellie snickered that same guttural wheeze that Janie had heard earlier.

"I'm here for you."