Chapter Three

Still befuddled, I crashed to a halt, almost knocking Mikey over. Chad had stopped. “There’s our cabin”, he said, pointing. “Aww. It’s like a mini Abraham Lincoln establishment!” said Emma. “I love it!” she continued, rushing forward. “Ugh. We’re going to stay in that? It’s so, like, small and un-glitterish,” complained Jessica, looking at her bright pink glitter-infested nails. “I kind like it”, I said. “It’s homey.” Emma threw a grateful look in my direction. I smiled to myself, especially when I saw Tanc take his turn looking puzzled. When we walked in, it was like someone had thrown a switch and sent us back to medieval times. The place was crawling with all sorts of artifacts, and it looked much bigger than it had seemed from outside. “The bathrooms are downstairs, and there’s food in all of the cabinets. There are also extra blankets and stuff if you get could during the night,” said Chad, gesturing towards various spots. We followed him into the bedrooms. “Unfortunately, this is one of the smallest cabins (here Jessica muttered “No kidding.”), so you’ll all have to share the same room. You can take turns changing in that bathroom right there or the closet over here. Lights are usually supposed to be out by ten-thirty, but since it’s way past and it’s your first day here, you can stay up a little longer.” Satisfied that we knew what we were doing, he turned and went into his own room. The minute his door was shut, Tanc grabbed something from out of his book bag. “Pillow fight!” he declared. Scrambling to grab our own to defend ourselves, the next couple of minutes were spent in almost complete chaos as me, Mikey, and Emma teamed up against Tancred. A sudden shout from Jessica made us freeze in place; Mikey standing on one of the beds, poised to whack Tancred on his head, Emma bending to retrieve her pillow from under the bed where it had flown, and me, pillow raised over my head in an effort to fend off Tancred, who was ready to attack me while feathers fluttered all around. We looked at Jessica, bewildered expressions on all our faces. “You people act so immature! Can’t you just act your ages for, like, once?!” she cried, glaring at us with her arms crossed. I sneaked a glance at Tanc, and that got us going. It started with me and Tanc chuckling, but soon escalated into roars of laughter coming from the four of us. Jessica gave her trademark eye roll and left the room. I could hear her chatting away on her phone, probably to one of the other gossip girls. Pretty soon we calmed down, and Tancred and Mikey went into the primary room of the cabin to play video-games, leaving me alone with Emma. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, I started to unpack my stuff. Emma turned to me and, with a grin, said, “Got enough underwear?” “Oh shut up,” I replied with a smile. She laughed and placed her belongings in one of the small closets. “We should claim our beds before the others do”, she said. “Yeah, probably should,” I responded, peeking at her out of the corner of my eye. She was staring out the window. A light rain had begun to fall. “Hey,” she said faintly. “Hmm?” I looked at her. With a shake of her head, she said, “Never mind.” I grinned. “C’mon, tell me.” “No, you’ll think I’m crazy or something.” “No, I won’t. C’mon, try me,” I answered. Emma blew at the strand of hair that was falling over her right eye. She looked at me and I put on my most sincere look. She laughed. “Alright, fine. Do you think it would be okay for us to sleep out by the lake? Like, all five of us?” I glanced outside. “Now? Hate to break it to you, Em, but it’s kinda raining out there.” She sighed. “I know, but it’s just something I’ve always wanted to do.” I raised an eyebrow. “Sleep in the rain?” She nodded, then grimaced. “I know. It sounds crazy. And weird.” She turned away and started furiously throwing stuff in to a drawer. “What? No!” I exclaimed. “I mean, yeah, it sounds crazy, but only because I never took you to be the nature-loving type. Actually, I think that’s kinda cool. That you want to do that, I mean.” Emma whirled around to face me. “Really, Robby? You’re not joking or anything, right?” she asked. “Yeah. I mean, no I’m not joking and yeah, I’m totally serious.” Emma reached out and hugged me tightly. “Jeez, Rob. You’re always so sweet,” she said, laying her head on my shoulder and wrapping her arms around my neck. My heart fluttering, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around her waist. For a second, Emma hesitated, then snuggled her body more comfortably against mine. For a minute or so we just stood there, holding each other, and then Tancred appeared in the doorway.