MAKING THE small journey to the small area where the campfire would be held seemed off. Maddox skipping around the area with a big smile on her face.

This was one of her favorite nights and nothing could possibly ruin that for her.

"Hey, Shiloh? Do you think Ashlyn's mad at me?" Jenna asked.

Shiloh stood, leaving Victoria to finish pitching their tent.

"Why would she be mad at you?"

"Because I put her in the ensemble." She answered, "Ashlyn's super talented, but I think that you and Gina deserve that parts in the musical. I think that-"

Shiloh chuckled, holding Jenna's shoulders, "You're rambling, Jen. Just talk to Ashlyn. I'm sure once you two talk everything will be fine."

"For sure. For sure." Jenna muttered, "I'll talk to her. Thanks Shiloh."

Shiloh smiled, watching Jenna head back to her tent with Madison.

Shiloh turned, seeing Victoria stare off into the distance. She slowly approached her, trying to see what she could possibly be looking at.

Victoria held a small, almost faint, smile as she looked at Gina. Something about that girl made Victoria's head spin miles per minute. She sometimes wondered if this how Ricky felt about Shiloh or was it the other way around. She was scared to ask either of them though.

Victoria had her crushes on many people before. She realized that she was a lesbian when she was twelve. She'd been comfortable with her sexuality for years, but she didn't want to push Gina away because of this crush that she had.

"Do you see a poisonous snake?" Shiloh asked.

Victoria sighed, turning around, "Yeah. I'm sure I just saw it eat a bird whole."

She brushed past Shiloh and headed inside the tent.

Shiloh glanced over at Gina who was laughing with Kourtney about who knows what.

Shiloh sighed and headed into her tent. Of course she wouldn't push Victoria into telling something she wasn't ready for, but she wanted her sister to know that this wouldn't change how she looked at her.

IT HAD finally grown dark outside. The campers sitting around the campfire.

Ricky sat next to Shiloh as the campfire's light lit against their faces. He had his head resting on her shoulder as he ate Twizzlers out of his pocket.

"Where did you get those?" She asked.

"I found this cool shrine in the woods. We gotta look for it after this."

"Welcome, folks, to your very first Newbie Initiation Campout Night!" Maddox cheered, "Now, let's give it up for our very own Rocket Man!"

EJ sat next to Gina, a guitar strapped to his shoulder, "All right, everyone, pay attention, 'cause I don't have much time to waste tonight."

According to EJ, Corbin Bleu would be coming back tomorrow and he, along with the help of Jenna who seemed to be more chill than him, were marking the scripts for the read through.

"I'm gonna need a little help singing parts of this." EJ continued.

"Shake your money maker, Caswell!" Carlos cheered.

EJ went on to sing the Balled of Shallow Lake and according to him "every word was true".

After that, he left with Jenna to mark the scripts.

"Let's see." Maddox smiled, "Who here likes ghost stories?"

Ricky lifted his head from Shiloh's shoulder and raised both his hands in the air.

Maddox continued, "Then it's time for you all to hear the story of the Woman in the Woods. Camp Shallow Lake was founded a long, long time ago by a married couple, Mr. John Fine and Mrs. Susan Fine. Everybody loved Mrs. Fine. She was kind, had a voice like an angel, and she had a sweet tooth, unmatched. She always had a bag of Twizzlers in hand."

Shiloh glanced over at Ricky, he'd always been looking her way with a Twizzlers halfway in his mouth.

Maddox continued the story, explain how tragedy struck the camp. Mrs. Fine had gone into the woods alone after hearing a whistle noise.

"Wait. What did she find?" Ricky asked.

"Was it Corbin Bleu's helicopter?" Jet jokingly asked.

This caused most of the campers to laugh and leaving Maddox flustered. Maddox couldn't really tell the story in the way she wanted because Jet kept making jokes that basically ruined the scariness of the story.

"Sorry, this isn't how I... It's scary. It's supposed to be scary." Maddox paused, "Never mind. Sorry."

Maddox left. Leaving Jet almost upset.

"Maddie, wait." He called.

Madison and Evie stood from their spots and followed Maddox into the woods.

With the only other camp counselors being Shiloh and Ashley that has mutually decided that it was best to break away and head off to bed.

Victoria sat in her corner of the tent with a book in her hands while Shiloh worked on Love Club thing. The only sound that could be heard was the wilderness around them.

"Shiloh?" Victoria called, "Can I ask you something?"

"Anything."

She desperately wanted to ask her how she knew that Ricky was someone she wanted to be with for as long as she could. I mean, she already had, but she wanted to know if what Shiloh or Ricky felt was how she felt about Gina.

She felt silly. She'd only met Gina a couple of days ago, but something about her made Victoria beam inside.

"Um... how do you feel about being the lead?"

Shiloh furrowed her brows slightly, "I've never acted before, so it's still settling in." She answered, "Are you sure that's what you wanted to ask me?"

Victoria didn't bother to answer. Footsteps pulled her train of though to the side. Their tent began to unzip and Ricky poked his head inside.

"Gina and I are gonna look for the shrine. You guys wanna come?"

Shiloh looked at Victoria and nodded. The duo left their tent, grabbing a flashlight and followed Ricky into the woods. He said he knew where the shrine was, but for now, they seemed to be lost.

Gina and Victoria had been trailing behind, not very far from Ricky and Shiloh. The two of them would glance back every now and then to make sure they were following behind.

"It's quiet." Ricky spoke.

"Not too quite." Shiloh smiled, "They're laughing up a storm back there."

"Check this out." Ricky grabbed Shiloh's wrist, placing her hand over his chest, "Heart's racing."

"You're such a baby." Shiloh scoffed, pulling away from him.

"I know I'm yours."

"You're flirting gets worse and worse the longer we date."

"You know, saying that really hurts me, Shiloh." He joked, "What if the Woman in the Woods finally got me? How would you feel?"

"I'd beg, down on my knees, to Mrs. Fine, "Please let him go! He has some much to live for!""

"Look, I know you aren't scared, but when you see this shrine, everything will change. Which should be around here somewhere."

Victoria looked over at Ricky and Shiloh, he'd began to scream which caused her to follow with a shout. The two of them holding on to each other before Shiloh pushed him away with a scoff, saying that he wanted to scare her on purpose.

"So, how does it feel to be the queen?" Victoria asked, "Or should I address you properly, m'lady?"

Gina laughed, "I think Gina works best... for now anyways." She smiled, "Getting the lead is all I ever wanted and now that I have it... no one can take that away from me."

"I'm sure you'll have fun with it. I mean, the perfect Else I think. You have an amazing voice, Gina."

"Thank you." She smiled.

After awhile, the seemed to be even more lost (if possible) than before.

"That shrine thing was around here somewhere. I swear." Ricky muttered.

"Can we head back now?" Shiloh asked.

He chuckled, "Who's the chicken now, huh?"

As the group laughed, it quickly died down when they heard some sort of singing in the distance.

"Is that..."

"The Woman in the Woods?" Victoria asked.

"Maddox said she had a voice like an angel. Angel voice." Gina added, "Now what?"

"Follow the sound?" Ricky suggested.

"Are you crazy?" Shiloh asked, "That's how people die in horror movies."

Victoria pushed past the couple, "Come on chickens. I'm sure the Woman in the Woods would like to see some pretty faces for a change."

They didn't hesitate to follow behind Victoria. The singing growing louder and louder as they approached the barn.

The four of the busted into the barn and screams from every direction blasted through.

"Gina?" Ashlyn called.

"You're the Woman in the Woods?" Ricky asked panting.

After taking a second to breath, they joined Ashlyn on stage.

"Okay, I think I get it. Because of an optical illusion, right? It seems like Mercury's going backwards?" Ricky said.

"Right."

"And when this is happening, bad things happen."

"It's science." Ashlyn said.

"Right. And Mercury's in retrograde? Right now?"

"Honestly?" Ashlyn sighed, "Honestly, no. I just... I wanted to blame the whole Jenna ensemble casting thing on something out of my control."

"She wants to talk to you. She thinks you're really upset with her. And, it's Jenna's she's probably somewhere crying about it." Shiloh said, "She feels bad."

"Guess there's always something new to learn."

"Is that it, Ash?" Ricky asked.

"This, um, Corbin Bleu TV show thing, I thought it was gonna be like my big break."

"Hey, it still could be." Gina reassured.

"Nah. But I think it could be yours, Elsa. And you deserve it."

With that, Gina, Ashlyn, and Victoria left the barn, leaving Ricky and Shiloh alone.

"This could also be you're big break, you know."

"How so? What could be bigger than the East High Love Club?" She asked with a smile.

"I'm serious. You're Anna. That's, like, a big deal. You can show people how crazy talented you are." He smiled, pointing his flashlight toward her, "I'm proud of you."

Plenty of people have told Shiloh that they were proud of her. But this felt different. She'd done something that she'd never done before and no judged her for it. It wasn't like when she first tired making the Love Club and was completely bashed for it and she managed to bring her friends into that mess. Maybe, if she tried, this would be something she would like. It wasn't a hundred percent guaranteed, but it was worth the shot.

That's all Ricky wanted for Shiloh, to show people that she was more than that girl that people saw on the magazine cover.

She was a visionary.

- lucy has something to say !!

joshua bassett has once again done that

anyways i gotta remember that these people are at camp for 2 weeks 🧍

bye :))))