July 14th, 1996
Summer came again, the teenagers once
again found themselves gathering together in the cool July morning
helping to pack both suitcases, sleeping bags, and campers into the
buses ready to whisk them off to Camp Crowshaven for the weeks to
follow. This year, Ruby, Les, and Tera, to name a few were not the
newbies unaware of how things ran, but were old hats at the
bus-packing event.
Ruby dashed around, hugging old friends
she hadn't seen in awhile and with that burst of confidence, happily
skipped up to Les, guitar on her back, and smiled up at him. He
nodded back at her, his eyes glowing. It was good to see her again,
her face pretty with a smile lighting it up and he felt a tug on his
heart with her standing before him. Something he still did not fully
understand in his young years as to why he felt how he felt for her
or even if she felt the same. He did notice the wrist bands were
gone and the scars had faded considerably.
“Hi, Les,” she said, breathlessly.
“Guess what? I've been practicing and writing music!”
“That's hella cool,” he said back
and leaned over to give her an awkward hug. Pulling back, he looked
her over, a bit hungry for more. “I can't wait to hear all of it.”
Just at that moment, Jess, having
gotten the majority of the campers safely loaded, strolled up to
them. She squeezed Les's hand and smiled at him, as seductively as
she could manage in her young teenage years.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi,” Les responded and winked at
her. She leaned over and kissed him on the lips. Les noticed the
crestfallen look of Ruby, her shoulders starting to sag, and secretly
wished this wouldn't set her back emotionally. Jess turned and
noticed Ruby, unaware of her emotional state, and smiled and winked.
“Hi, Emerald, Diamond, Sapphire,
Ruby, Jewels,” she said. “Hey, we should call you that, Jewels!”
“You like that?” Les said, somewhat
cautiously. Ruby shrugged in response.
The bus-driver, Bob, looked around at
the young counselors in training.
“All-aboard,” he called jokingly.
Les and Jess, hand in hand, happily skipped over to the bus to board,
as did a few of the others, Geoff and Howard, to name a few.
Geoff bounded up to Les and pounded his back, bellowing, “Hey there, Trip!”
Tera walked up to Ruby and grabbed her
hand.
“Come on,” she said softly and
began leading Ruby towards the bus. She looked over at her friend
and continued with, “I'm sorry, I didn't tell you.”
“You knew?” Ruby asked.
“Yeah,” Tera began. “He told me
they were getting together when he went to prom with me.”
“Why didn't you tell me?” Ruby
whispered, accusingly.
“I don't know, I guess I was hoping
it would fizzle out or something,” was all Tera could manage and
they boarded, finding a seat together in the middle of the bus.
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