My Summer Love Story

Jackie’s Pov

“There’s a game tonight!” Lena calls into our cabin. We left the door open earlier in hopes of a breeze but now Lena stands in the doorway, grinning at us. “It’s Texas man hunt, so go find your men.” Raine says coming into our room. “I know who I’m going after.”

I glance at Liz where she is painting her nails on my bed. “It’s Nate, Cade’s counselor.” She mouths taking the purple nail polish from me and painting one of her fingernails. She quickly paints the rest while I change into something suited to running around in the dark and then we leave as a group, Raine and Laiken leading the way with glowing flashlights.

-

“So, who you going to try and find, Jackie?” Liz whispers from her spot next to me in the dark. We’re crouched at the edge of the forest line, hiding behind some bushes that Liz pointed out when it was a little lighter outside. I shrug, realized that she couldn’t see me and reply with an “I don’t know.” Technically I don’t even know the rules. We never played where I was from, too many stuck up kids to play a friendly neighborhood game of tag.

“Hey, guys.” Someone says from behind us. I hold back a shriek when I realize that it is Vicky’s voice.

“Do you know who’s on our team?” Liz asks moving over slightly so Vicky has some room behind the bush. “I forgot to pay attention.” She adds on sheppishly.

“No way? You?” Vicky laughs. “Our team is Willow 2 B, Walnut 2 B, Cherry 1 G, Oak 1 G, Fig 2 B.” She says, sitting cross legged in the leaves. “So that means they have Maple 2 B,
Willow 1 G, Cherry 2 B, Oak 2 B, and Fig 1 G.”

“What?” I whisper in Liz’s ear.

“Willow 2 B is the boys bunk, Maple 2 B is the other boys bunk in our age group, Willow 1 G is the other girls bunk in our age group, and we are Maple 1 G.” She explains. “They just aren’t creative with the names. Third graders are apple or holly, fourth graders are pine or plumb, fifth graders are lemon or lime, sixth graders are elm and fir, seventh graders are dogwood and dragon, eighth graders are oak and fig, ninth are walnut and cherry, and we, the tenth graders, are maple and willow. It all depends on what grade you are going into next school year.” I nod along to it, seems pretty easy, not that I’ll ever remember all of the names.

“So next year we’ll be counselors?” I ask.

“Exactly,” Vicky replies. “Well, we’ll really be CIT’s like Laiken.”

“Counselors in training,” Liz explains when she notices my silence. “We get to help the younger kids, assist in activities, help with food time, and do anything the counselors ask us to.”

“Okay, I think I got it.” I say slowly, letting the information sink in for a bit.

“Is it time to search? I ask Liz, who checks her watch.

“Yeah,” She replies, shifting so her weight is now on her right side.

“Should we go now?” Vicky whispers from my left side. Liz nods and we creep from our hiding spot, stopping when someone runs right past us. I heave a sigh of relief and duck behind another bush, careful to keep my head low and make sure my bandannas are still in place at the same time. Vicky, Liz, and I have two blue bandannas tied around our heads and I remember Liz telling me earlier that a boy from Willow 2 B was our captain and he wore three blue bandannas. The other teams color was green and the captain was a girl from Willow 1 G named Brianna.

We finally make it out of the bushes and I try to ignore the small leaf particles that are stuck onto my clothing and hair.

“Let’s split up.” Vicky decides a second later, jogging to the right. Liz agrees and jogs off to the left, leaving me in the clearing by myself.
So not good.

-

“I gotcha!” I whisper-yell, placing the palm of my hand on the crouching kids shoulder.

“Jackie?” A familiar voice asks.

“Alex?” I squint but can’t see anything.

“Yeah, have you found anyone yet? Well, besides me of course.” He laughs and my face burns in embarrassment.

“I- uh, no. Not yet.” I hear someone rustle beside him and try once again to see, but give up.

“Who’s there?” I whisper to Alex.

“Chris, my best friend.”

“Sup?” A voice says from somewhere beside Alex. I’m assuming it’s got to be the Chris kid.

“Um, hey, I’m Jackie.”

“I know who you are. Alex talks non st-“He’s cut off and I think that Alex covered Chris’s mouth with his hand by the way Alex yells about being bitten a second later.

“Have you guys caught anyone yet?” I ask, ignoring the wrestling they are now doing and take a seat beside Alex.

“Yeah we got a couple of giggling girls from Fig 1 G and a boy from Cherry 2 B.”

“Giggling girls?”

“Yeah, they wouldn’t shut up; something about a guy in Maple 2 B.” He snaps his fingers.
“Cade! They were talking about Cade.”

I can feel my face pale and my heart thumps a hard beat against the inside of my chest, threatening to just pop out and slither across the ground. Glad for the cover of darkness I take a few seconds to recover.

“Cade?” I ask, wincing at the shakiness of my voice.

Get a grip. You’ve never been jealous before.

“Yeah, you know; blonde, your friend, Maple 2 B?” He questions, obviously not noticing the rage that is going on inside of me.

“Yeah, Cade,” That’s better. “You said they were in Fig 1 G right?”

“Yup, why?”

“No reason.” I give a little sigh of release.

They are just eighth graders for gosh sakes. Cade couldn’t possibly be interested in girls so young.

Or could he? And why do I care so dang much?

--

A couple minutes later we split up. I hear a girly shriek from the direction that the guys headed in and figure they got someone else. I still haven’t caught anyone yet, maybe I should try the trees again.

I prowl through the trees that lace through the camp site, dodging behind thick tree trunks as I come to them and peeking out through the other side.

“Gotcha!” I hear a made-up war cry and spin around to see a girl about my height standing there. Willingly I hand over one of my two bandannas and she goes happily on her way. I hear her a little down the hill telling one of her team-mates where I am, so I hurry to another place, careful now that I only have one bandanna left.

--

“Boo ya!” I cry excitedly, this time clamping my hand down on a real opponent. He grumbles something and hands over his last green bandanna; then starts’ trudging in the direction that I’m guessing is where their base is located.

Liz runs past me and tags me before she realizes who it is. She has a red bandanna in her hand and I stare at her questionably.

“I thought we only had green and blue?” I ask confused.

“This is a wild card.” She explains patiently, working her feet excitedly across the ground.

“It’s worth extra points and I’m gonna go hand it in to the counselors at our base.”

“Great, tell me when we win!” I call after her as she makes her way to our base.

In fact, I don’t even know where the heck our base is. Disadvantage much?

I head in the direction that Liz went but try to stay behind trees; sprinting the extra distance to the next one. I catch a glimpse of long hair and chase after it, ignoring the fact that I’m out in the open. A few more steps and I touch the girls back, she stops long enough to glare at me and then tosses a bandanna my way, giving me a huff of anger before turning and running in the opposite direction.

I feel like I’m caught in one of those war gaming play station games. In fact; why not pretend
I am if it makes the time go faster?

-

Fighter planes zoom over my head; I can only hope that they are my own planes and not the enemies. I crawl on elbows and knees to safety, which is otherwise known as a jungle bush. My green and brown camouflage blends in well with my grassy surroundings and I don’t hesitate before jumping into the bush; the thick material on my outfit will protect my soft skin.

Bombs erupt around me and I duck my head for safety, relishing in the fact that they sound far away.
But not for long.
Gloomy thoughts don’t get you anywhere, solider! I scold myself. I grasp onto the fact that at least it sounds safe out there. But wait, what is that? Is that… Footsteps? Oh no, oh no, oh no oh no-
The last words bounce around inside of my head as bullets ring around me torso.

--

“I’m dead!” I wail, as I feel a light push on my shoulder. I drop to my knees and roll on the muddy ground. What’s the phrase I learned in first grade? Ah, stop, drop, and roll!

“What the heck? Calli! I think she’s hurt!” A girl calls from somewhere above me.

Voices? But that means I’m aliv- oh, oh no.

I peek out of my closed eyelids and notice two girls standing over me. Grinning sheepishly at them, I back away slowly into the bushes until I can’t see their shadows anymore and break into loud giggles, trying my hardest to keep them silent with a fist shoved in my mouth. I’m there fifteen minutes later when Maxy and Liz find me.

“Jackie, are you okay?” Maxy’s worried voice says. At the sound of the concern in her voice I burst into another round of giggles, imagining the look on those poor girls’ faces when they saw me stop, drop, and roll on the grass covered ground.

They didn’t even remember to take my last bandanna!

That makes me laugh louder than before and Maxy and Liz shoot each other confused looks. Maxy winds her finger around her ear lobe, indicating that I’m probably crazy.

“They, oh, ha, I’m dead, ha ha, jungle, girls, bahaha!” I say, trying to work my way around the out bursts of laughs.

“Umm, I think she might have hit her head on something. Those girls did say they think she was hurt.” Liz says crouching down beside me. “Jackie, how many fingers am I holding up?” I push away her hand and wipe the tears out of my eyes.

“Guys, I’m fine. But I think that those poor girls are going to be scarred for life. I think they thought they gave me a heart attack or something?”

I explain the story, careful to add the details of my war gaming experience and soon they both are howling with laughter beside me.

“You mean; you got so caught up with…” Maxy giggles. “Your forest game that you forgot you were playing man hunt?”

I laugh. “Yeah, I guess I did.” I shoot them both a sheepish grin. “Stupid, huh?”

“No it’s brilliant! They should make it up as a game for color war!” Liz goes on rambling and I heave myself into a standing position, brushing myself off for the first time all night.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but I’m starving.”

They agree and Liz leads the way back to the camp fire that they have no set up. Last time I wasn’t so thrilled to eat a roasted hot dog but now, well who knows? It becomes more like home every day here.