Direction Fics

Prologue 

For 18 year old Liam Payne it was his senior year that made him feel like there was something more to him, and that his friends were holding him back. Over the last few months of school he had become increasingly distant from his family and friends, spending more time sulking around the house and drinking alone on school nights, generally doing things that his parents said were “just not you Liam.” He hated that saying, why couldn’t it be? Why did he have to be something in particular, couldn’t he just be Liam and do as he pleased and be happy with that? Just because he had acted one way for as long he could remember, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be someone else, or did it? By the time June came around and everyone was planning trips for graduation and gathering things for University in the fall, Liam could not have been more undecided. He had been accepted to a local college and had paid tuition, his parents bought him his books and he was going to be living at home, but it all felt wrong. All year his friends had been planning a trip to Ibiza in Spain that Liam had originally been looking forward to, except when it came to book his plane tickets two weeks in advance, Liam found himself looking at other travel opportunities for himself.

Liam wanted to go somewhere, get a truly new life experience away from his friends and family where he felt he had to be the same person he had always been. He wanted a chance to figure out what he really liked, without everyone hovering around him. That was how, instead of typing in the website to purchase his plane tickets to Spain, Liam ended up on the Google search page for ‘summer get away for teens find yourself’ it was a stupid search and Liam felt stupid for even thinking he could pull something like that off, but half an hour later he found something promising.

“Camp Summit, a place for teenagers aged 13-19 where adventure meets nature. Located in beautiful British Columbia, Canada, your teen will get the experience of a life time. With many activities, councillors who love what they do, gorgeous scenery secluded from the hustle and bustle of city life your child will have the perfect environment to learn about themself and make friends that will last a lifetime. Camp Summit is an international camp accepting campers from all around the world, please register by fax or e-mail before June 30th 2012 for the best summer of your life.”

“Well this sounds promising, I could go to Canada…” Liam trailed off to himself. “I bet there won’t even be anyone else from England.”

Then he looked at the calendar on his phone, it read “June 29th 9:00pm.” Liam mumbled a couple swear words before rushing to send his application in along with a down-payment for the 10 weeks he would be at camp. He knew he had to talk to his parents about it but as he was 18 there wasn’t much they could do to stop him.

Two days later Liam was packed and at the airport saying goodbye to his parents and sisters, it was a little emotional but Liam knew he was making a good decision, at least that’s what he thought. It seemed like the best thing, he had to get away and this was a good opportunity.

Upon getting off the plane at the airport in B.C  Liam spotted a sign reading “Camp Summit Bus,” he greeted the woman who was probably in her late 20’s, he pulled out his passport so she could crosscheck it with the list she had, among all the typed names Liam’s was hastily written at the bottom in pen.

“Last minute decision?” The woman questioned.

“Yeah, I uh, had other plans but I changed my mind.” Liam mumbled, feeling stupid for traveling across the world just because he felt like something was missing from his life.

“Understandable, there’s a bus outside waiting, it’s the last one leaving today so you should hurry on.” She smiled.

Liam nodded his head, picking up his luggage from the ground , taking a deep breath, this is what I wanted and it’s for the best, and heading outside where a big yellow school bus was waiting. The bus had significantly less people on it than Liam would have imagined. The bus driver helped him put his large bag under the bus and then it was time for him to choose a seat.

Since there were a lot of empty seats Liam just took one at the back with a couple empty seats around him, well empty until a small blonde girl rushed onto the bus and sat in the seat across from him.

“You came for pre-camp too?” The girl asked, she was probably around 16 or so and had a thick German accent. She was pretty but didn’t strike Liam’s interest in the slightest, and he of course had no idea what she was talking about.

“Uh pre-camp…?” Liam asked.

“Camp doesn’t start for another week, pre-camp is for all us eager beavers to get settled in and whatnot, I figured you’d know. Are you new?”

Instantly Liam was filled with horror, how had he missed that, what the heck was he supposed to do for a week with a minority of people where he knew no one, he suspected that his cabin mates probably wouldn’t even be there yet. He knew he should have waited a couple of days for the impulse decision to pass, he should be in Ibiza drinking with his classmates right now, but somehow the thought of that seemed even worse.

“Yeah I am new, uh I’m Liam, from Wolverhampton, England.” He forced a smile before putting his headphones in as the engine flared and the bus began its journey into the middle of nowhere.

Liam drifted in and out of consciousness during the 4 hour bus ride, but the further he got into the wilderness the clearer his thoughts were and he started to realize that maybe this wasn’t such a bad decision, he was just a little worried about potentially being alone in his cabin for an entire week.

He listened in on stories other people were telling from their previous years at the camp, these kids sound like they have everything figured out and they’re even younger than I am…

The bus eventually reached its destination, underneath an old rusty gate down a dirt road, crossing a bridge over top a small river a big open field came into view with high ropes courses off to one side, some little brown buildings labeled Mess Hall, Tuck Shop, Camp Store, and Nurses Office. A clear blue lake sat behind with a small beach, some fire pits, a basketball court, some football nets, a wall of canoes and kayaks, even a few tiny sailboats, at the other side of the lake must have been the great Canadian Rockies because they were some of the biggest mountains Liam had ever seen. The next things that Liam noticed were the trees, trees in all directions, all taller than tallest skyscraper in England.

He followed the other 10 or so kids off the bus and into the mess hall where they were all looking at lists, cabin lists, Liam waited for them all to clear out before he even attempted trying to find his own name. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 and so on until 40, but where was cabin 6 Liam wondered out of curiosity, at the very bottom of any list was Cabin 6 written in pen with 5 names, Liam Payne was the last one added. Why was cabin 6 the last minute choice he wondered? Next Liam checked the little map that had directions to every cabin assuming he was allowed to go off on his own as no one had given him any instruction and that seemed to be what everyone else was doing.

Upon looking on the map Liam understood why cabin 6 was the last one they wanted to use, it was in the middle of buttfuck nowhere. From the map, it looked like it was closest to the lake though, but also farthest into a forest, down a little trail of its own, winding farther and farther into a forest that looked like an abyss. Well at least that’s what it looked like as Liam walked down the long trail on his own carrying 3 bags of stuff, it had taken him at least fifteen minutes to walk from the mess hall to the cabin.

“This is going to be a fucking long summer, I should have stayed in fucking England.” He spoke to himself as he walked through the door to find the other beds empty and the cabin seemingly vacant.

“Tell me about it…” Groaned another voice from a back room,  another voice with an English accent…

  “I can’t be myself with you always on my back about everything!” Harry  yelled at his mum, he hated fighting with her as they had a great relationship generally, but sometimes things just needed to be said.

That fight was probably the main contributor to the mass of “summer vacation” pamphlets Harry found of his bed when he came home from school. There were little books advertising all sorts of summer getaways for kids, sleep away camps and whatnot, on top a little note from his mum saying ‘H, I understand what you’re going through, so I’m sending you off to be your own man at summer camp. Luv mum’. Harry laughed, his dark curls falling over his eyes, he yelled down a “THANKS MUM” and soon enough she was standing in his door way beaming at her son.

“The only thing is those pamphlets are just for show, I already paid for you to go to the one called Summit or something, the only thing is your flight leaves early this morning so we’re leaving here in 5 or so hours…I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but they had deadlines!” His mother spoke.

“Mum, thank you, really, this is going to be great.” Harry smiled, enveloping his shorter mum in a big hug.

A couple hours later Harry found himself alone on a plane, sat in between a smelly large woman and an older business man, but across the aisle was one of the most attractive boys he had ever seen, if not THE most. The mystery boy had light brown hair, sparkling blue grey eyes and a very displeased expression on his face. Harry couldn’t help himself from staring and thinking wouldn’t it be lucky if he was going to this camp too…

Louis could feel someone eye fucking him from across the cramped cabin of the plane he was currently on. It was a tad uncomfortable but Louis was determined not to give whoever it was the satisfaction of acknowledging their presence, so instead he focused on falling asleep because, it was going to be one hell of a time difference once he arrived at camp.

The 20 year old from Doncaster had been searching for something, the feeling that there was a part of him missing had been tearing away at Louis for longer than he cared to remember, that was how he ended up drunkenly entering all sorts of stupid internet contests one night when he couldn’t sleep. Most of the contests were for winning vacations to various parts of the worlds, and a couple months later Louis got an e-mail from some summer camp in Canada that had apparently declared him the winner of their “Win a summer in Western Canada” competition. He didn’t complain, but upon reading the fine print Louis realized that he had to be 19 to attend this camp, which was a small problem as he was going to be turning 21 in December of the same year. They obviously weren’t a great camp since Louis was easily able to bull shit being 19, and just like that he was in.