Chapter 5 Preparations

The light flooded into the room. Jameela turned to the other side, desperate for some darkness, but it was of no use. Soon, the whole room would be bright. As much as she hated waking up early, she knew she had to. She simply dragged her feet to the bathroom and took a shower. The warm water did nothing to wake her up fully. A hot coffee would do the job. After taking a shower, she put on a long pink gown with flowery patterns all over the front. I chose a black veil to wrap around my hair. As she ran downstairs, she found her siblings already eating.

She joined them, starting with a hot cup of coffee which cleared her eye instantly. She quickly ate, then took Amina's car to the mall. They decided to go to the biggest mall around, so they could buy everything at once.

"What should we buy first?" Fatee asked as soon as they stepped in the shop. It was located on a very busy street, where most of the neighbourhood's supermarkets were. Being a large state, Kaduna was home to many mall outlets and many more opening. She opened my bag and brought out the list she had jotted on the last day of school. Their teacher, Mr. Cameron, who also happened to be the camp director wrote a list of Items that they would use at the camp. "Let's begin with the top ones."

"Muhammed, get the torch and insect repellent." They began piling items on their trolley. In the middle of buying the camp items, they saw a really cute shoe and then changed directions, buying other items. They spent quite some time there, before heading back home.

It was quite a busy Friday, hectic for them coupled with the hot scorching sun outside. They bought an iced tea on their way back which they drank on their way back. On arrival, mom had prepared her favourite dish. "Oh Mom. You shouldn't have." Jameela kissed her mom on the cheek, glad for the surprise.

"Nonsense. You know that I must do this. It's my job. Especially since I know that you love it."

"Thanks Mom. But it's not your job. You sound like those chauvinist on the T.V. Your job is to rest, and go out and enjoy yourself." She hugged her, and went upstairs to freshen up before going out with some of her friends.

*****

"Hey, guys!" Jameela greeted.

"Hey Jams."

They were sited around a table in a corner at a new restaurant that opened recently two streets away from her house. The food there was delicious. A lot of people trooped in to patronize them. Drew, the twins and Jameela were the first to arrive. On the class group chat, everyone was busy sending pictures of themselves either buying new items or getting their boxes ready for the trip. The restaurant was filled, so they raised our voices to speak amidst all the noise.

"So, what's new?" Alex asked.

"Ugh. My siblings just annoyed me. Can you imagine? I asked them to choose between a black and brown coat. Guess what? They couldn't. Instead, Ken ran out to play with his Xbox and Jennifer left! Those kids are unbelievable." Nina said in one breath.

Jameela rolled my eyes. Not again. Nina had three siblings - Jennifer, Johnny and Ken the youngest. They were very smart especially Ken, so they gave Nina a hard time. Although, they were very cool to be around. "Nina, stop overreacting over some coats. It's so cliché," Jameela told her.

"Did you buy the items you wanted, Jams?" Alexa asked. She was always colouring her hair with different dyes just like her favourite K- Pop artists did. In addition, her small face, tiny eyes, lips and stature as a whole made her look very much like a K-Pop star.

"Yeah. I bought a plastic plate bowl, socks, bedsheets, torch and insect repellent. I think that's all. The other items in the list, I already have them."

"What of blankets?" Alex asked.

"Oh shoot. I totally forgot of that." Annoyed with herself, she wondered why she didn't write it. Now, she remembered that it was definitely among the items written on the board at school. She hoped it was the only one she forgot about.

"Don't worry. I bought a few, so you could use one." Alexa waved her hand, as if to brush it off.

"Aww. Thanks, lovely."

"You're welcome." She replied in a high pitched voice, smiling. Alexa was one part of the McCauley twins. She and her twin brother, Alex went and did everything together. Apart from their constant fights and picking at each other, they were very good friends to Jameela. She cherished their advices and loved how hey sticked around no matter what. She always told them how cute they were. Alexa was a medium height slim girl, just like her brother. They both had small brown eyes, with a round face. Only difference was their hair colour. While Alexa had a brown hair with pink stripes, Alex chose to keep their original colour - black.

Jameela turned her attention to Drew, her rather calm and reserved friend. The twins had begun bickering about only God knows what. "Have any idea who isn't joining us on the trip?"

During the last day of class on Wednesday, three of the classmates spoke to Ms. Anne that they might not make it. Maria was travelling with her family to Hawaii, Tommy claimed he was sick which Jameela highly doubted. He never liked travelling. While Jimmy had enrolled in a summer class. Classic Jimmy, she thought. Learning always came first to him before anything.

"Bolor ain't going. She texted me last night. Doesn't feel too great going to Florida with all its weather and insects," Alexa stated.

"Jane too. They just don't wanna go. Maybe even Juliet, because she said her aunt was getting married. I didn't know of Bolor, however," Drew replied. Bolor was our Mongolian classmate, the daughter of the Ambassador to Mongolia. She was soft-spoken and quiet with very long hair which Jameela always made sure to tease about. My Rapunzel, she would playfully call her, making her to playfully glare at her and smoothen it.

"And Katie as well." Alex put in.

Alexa glared at him, "you and Katie. When did you even text her?" Alex simply shrugged.

Jameela shook her head, amazed by how childish they were acting and said, "That's a shame. They would miss out on the fun."

Drew steered the conversation towards his Dad, and how he warned him of listening to any of us. She had known Mr. Hawk to be a very strict man, and it seemed his strictness just kept increasing. She felt bad for Drew. His father's attitude made him scared of others and at times, even refused to talk to people. His father was the definition of helicopter parent. Being in the foreign country just made it worse. He was most normal when with them - his friends. He would normally put on rap music, even though he knew most of them didn't listen to that kind of music, but they would still listen because of him while they sat rolling their eyes.

"Oh and he said, do not and I repeat follow them anywhere. Especially those female classmates of yours." Drew finished his long speech of imitating his dad.

"I guess Mr. Hawk is still as tough as he has ever been," Jameela sighed.

"Yes. And trust me, it's not nice." Drew replied.

They sipped their drinks and made small talk about how the weather would be at camp.

"I think it's late. We didn't meet up early today. Better be getting home." Drew yawned, picking up his backpack.

On the way, Jameela stopped by the closest coffee shop and ordered a cappuccino to take home. The shop was booming with dozens of people. Being a hot day, people were lining up for drinks that would cool their system. Jameela looked around and found a small seat at the corner of the shop, overlooking the window was she waited for her drink. She set her purse down, just as it began buzzing. Without looking at the caller ID, she picked it up.

"Ugh, who is this?" She asked lazily.

"Who? Me, chica. I'm fuming over here. I haven't seen my tablet," Nina said over the phone. Jameela rolled her eyes, thinking of how Nina had always been careless with things.

"Ugh. You are so careless. Look for it in the closet. I just left the café with the twins and Drew." She suggested. She always lost things and boom, they would be either in the closet or under the bed.

"The closet? Ok. I will. I think maybe... Oh it's here." She laughed. "You're right Jams. Thanks. I was busy trying to sort my items for tomorrow. That's why I didn't make it. How'd it go?"

"Normal. We discussed about the trip actually."

"Ha! That's what has been on our minds for weeks. By the way, um.. I don't know how to explain this but... I've been having nightmares since day before yesterday."

"SubhanAllah. What kind of nightmares?" Jameela I was astounded. Nina never had nightmares, at least not that she knew of. This was new.

"Well, it starts like this. I'm in a forest. Everywhere is clear but kind of dark, and I'm scared. Then I hear a howl from nowhere. I turn and I see a person getting closer to me. I can't run. It's like my legs have been planted in the ground. Then I hear someone calling me and telling me to run. The person gets closer and the place gets darker. And then the person puts out their arm towards me. I wake up immediately."

"Wow. That was intense. It legit gave me the heepy-jeebies. Don't worry, sis. It's just a dream. Keep praying ok?" Jameela assured her.

"I know. But I have been having that exact dream for over two days. I'm even scared to sleep, you know? I checked for this kind of dream online. Most of the pages didn't give me a nice result. Except for one. It said that this could be a sign that something bad is going to happen. And coincidentally, we are going on this camping trip. How super weird is that?" Nina explained.

"Please. It's just a dream. And besides those sites are nuts. Ok? If you are going to believe the internet, trust me, you would go crazy. Like legit crazy. Just try to forget about it. Do stuff that makes you feel better. I think it's you're anxious and excited for the trip, so you have this sense of, what if it goes wrong? Cheer up. It's nothing. Just a dream." Jameela reassured.

"Yeah. I guess that's why. Hooph. I've been super scared. But anyway, I'm gonna follow your advice and do what makes me happy. Later, we're going to Carries'. It might make me feel better, actually. You wanna come?"

"Nah. I got work to do at home. Talk to you later."

"Ciao, bellisima. See ya."