Silver River by Purple Dragon Jensen is a 12 y.o. kid that goes on a trip with the school. During this trip, and with the support of his friends and family, he'll discover things about himself that he didn't know, and grow up to become a more complete person. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged.

Chapter 3

The next morning was absolutely chaotic. There was a lot of movement in the hotel during breakfast. The teachers just kept talking through their mobile phones, and all the girls were whispering. And when you thought that everything was getting calmer, some mobile phone would ring again and the teachers would exit the lounge again.

I knew something was wrong. It was pretty obvious. But I just didn't have enough interest to investigate it, so I concentrated my efforts in getting a proper breakfast. Later, we were gathered in one of the meeting rooms at the hotel.

"Good morning, girls!", Mrs Morgan, the other teacher staying at our hotel, greeted us. She was a bit older than Miss Cooper, but she was also quite nice.

"I don't know exactly how to say this gently", she added. After a small pause she continued. "It seems that some of the boys have screwed it and they are in a big trouble now."

We gasped and looked at each other, wondering how serious would that be.

"From what I know", Mrs Morgan kept talking, "someone from the staff, at the boys’ hotel, discovered that some of your peers smoking joints in one of the rooms"

Even I gasped when we heard that. Our school was definitely open-minded and tolerant about many things, but drugs were just not one of them.

"The police is already involved", she added. "We haven't been able to talk to any of the boys yet, but we have already spoken with Mr. Scott and Mr. Murdock", the other teachers in the trip, "and no one will move from there until the situation is resolved."

It seemed quite serious. I got my mobile phone and started texting Joey and Kevin, asking what had happened and if they were all right. I was pretty sure they wouldn't have been involved in such a mess, in any way.

They totally hated drugs, as much as I did. But I wanted to make sure that they were not in a serious trouble. The only one time that I had even tried to smoke a cigarette, Kevin reprimanded me so hard that I ended up crying. As I said, he seriously overprotected me.

I sure didn't expect an answer soon, anyway. The police had probably taken away all of their mobile phones for the moment, quite likely.

"So, for the moment all the boys will have to stay here, in Berryside, at their hotel. You girls will continue with the trip as we planned, but the boys will have to stay with Mr. Scott and Mr. Murdock. I'm truly sorry about the boys, I know it’s not fair, most of them are as innocent of this as you, girls, and I’m sure that most of them would want to have nothing to do with drugs, but that’s all that we can do anything else until everything is clear. It just wouldn't be fair for you girls to have to stay here too, as you have nothing to do with what happened."

My mind kind of disconnected at that point from what she was saying. I knew that she was still talking, but my mind was somewhere else. They were going to drop me at the other hotel and continue the trip. Just because I was a boy. It wasn't fair. I didn't do anything at all. It wasn't fair, it really wasn’t!

I had been looking forward to this trip for so long, and now I'd just have to stay here because some stupid boy decided to fuck it up, while the girls were gonna be still on their way. It was definitely not fair.

I went towards Miss Cooper, nearly with tears in my eyes, while Mrs Morgan kept explaining what they were doing next, and answering to the girls' questions. I wasn't brave enough to ask out loud about me, but I definitely needed to know.

"Miss Cooper, please...", I tried to get her attention, even with a whispery voice.
"What’s wrong, honey? What happens?", she asked me worriedly as she saw my sad face.
"Do I... really have to stay here? It's just not fair!", I exploded.
"Why on earth would you have to stay here, Jen?", she replied, perplexed.
"Well, Mrs. Morgan said that all the boys would have to stay here, in Berryside, for a while. I don’t want to stay here, I don’t want to be dropped at the other hotel while you keep travelling". I finally lost my voice and hugged her, crying.
"Oh, sweetheart! but that doesn't go for you!”, she exclaimed, while she hugged and comforted me.

”Of course you will be coming with us!".

My face lit up almost instantly when hearing that.

"There, there, baby, it's OK!", she kept hugging me, as I finally calmed down. My sister cleaned my face from my tears and hugged me too.

"Let’s go and get ready, girls”, finished Mrs. Morgan.”We'll have to leave soon."

Although Miss Cooper and my mum weren't the most intimate friends on Earth, they were pretty close. They had been friends since when I was around 3rd or 4th grade. My sister Erika had been unfortunately involved in an unfortunate accident. It was nothing really serious in the end, but she had to stay in the hospital for a while.

Miss Cooper was very concerned about Erika, and she ended up visiting her almost every day. Miss Cooper had been "Aunt Sue" for Erika since then, when we were not at school. I kept calling her Miss Cooper, though.

I was very worried too at the time. I almost couldn't even sleep some of the nights. I remember that I got lots of hugs and cuddling from her and from mom the whole time back then, and constant comforting, and them telling me that everything was going to be all right.

Miss Cooper used to call me baby then, in a nice way. I kind of liked it. And then, the name kind of stuck. Whenever I needed a hug for any reason, which was more often than any other boy, I could count on her. As I said, she was definitely my most favourite teacher in the world.

So I went back to our room, and started gathering my things. Erika was already there, and she was as happy as I was that I could continue the journey with them.

Our next stop was Crystal Lake. It was a really lovely place, a lake with really clear waters with a small island in the middle. There were row boats, some small forests around, and all of it was encircled by some low mountains. There were small log cabins on one the sides of the lake in which we were going to stay for the next 4 days. 4 girls per cabin.

Hopefully the boys would be able to join us soon, too.

The trip there wasn't particularly exciting, I kept mostly to myself and my music. One of the girls that were in the park yesterday, listening to Joey and me and singing along, tried to engage me into some conversation, but finally gave up after being unable to extract more than monosyllables from me. She seemed nice, though.

My sister and her friends were fixing each other's hair. They had just braid Ash's hair and were starting to get bored when my sister waved me to go with them. I didn't exactly know what they were up to, but could easily imagine.

"Jen, please, let us do your hair!", asked Erika.
"Yes, please!", added Ash in support.

I looked at them with suspicious eyes.

"Oh! come on Jenny! don't be that hard!", she pouted. "Don't make us beg!"
"Hmph... OK", I finally nodded, sighing. The spell of Erika’s puppy eyes was too strong to resist.

And that’s how I ended up with cute pigtails. They felt somehow funny, but they were okay. Miss Cooper said they suited me. I just found them funny, but I kinda liked them.

Chapter 4

We finally got to Crystal Lake. We got out of the bus and waited for Mrs. Morgan to arrange whatever that was needed for us to get to our cabins. For obvious reasons, Sarah, Ash, sis and I were going to share one.

I had to seriously go to the little boys' room. Even though the bus had toilets, as long as it is not an emergency I usually prefer to go to a proper bathroom. I guess some of the girls were also like that, because as soon as we got out of the bus, half of the girls went there. I was glad I didn't have to wait a queue. I went directly for a stall, as I always do. I don't like urinals, and I definitely don't like people around when I go. I cleaned my hands, smiled at the mirror when I saw my pigtails again, and went out, not without receiving some weird looks from the men in the room.

I got out of the toilets, and started walking towards our group again, when saw a girl that was staring at me. She seemed a bit younger than me, I guessed that probably about 10 or so. Anyway, to be honest, with me having still my hair in pigtails, I probably seemed a bit younger than myself, too.

"Are you a boy?", she asked me, with a funny look on her face. I just nodded.
"You don't look like a boy, you know?", she stated.

I just shrug my shoulders.

"You can talk, can't you?", she asked me, with a worrying look. I nodded again.
"Are you sure?", she added, with that funny look on her eyes again.
"Yes", I finally answered with a monosyllable, which brought a smile to her face.
"Yay! I made you talk! You don't talk too much, do you? My name is Emily", she offered her hand.
"Jen", I answered, making an effort to shake it slightly.
"Yeah, I can see that you’re quite shy, aren’t you? Don't worry", she grinned, "I don't bite." I just nodded.

"Jenny! Come!", shouted my sister from where the bus was, shaking her hands in my direction. "Come on! Hurry up!"

That earned me another funny look from Emily's eyes, and another shrug from me as a reply. "Jenny? Really?” I nodded. “Are you sure that you're a boy?". I nodded again and shrugged. She laughed.

I had to go back anyway, so I tried to say goodbye to her.

"I... I have to go", I finally said, pointing at my sister and her friends.
"Yeah, I guess. I hope we'll see each other later? You seem nice, you know?", she asked me, and I just nodded back. I liked her.

I went back with my sister, got my luggage, and followed them towards our cabin. Mrs. Morgan had already told them the way and given them the key. They were just waiting for me.

"Making friends, huh?", she asked me softly.
"Yeah, she's Emily, I like her", I answered.

Ash hugged me silently, acknowledging my shyness, which finally turned into a group hug.

"You'll get over your shyness, Blondie, don't worry", added Ash, comforting me.
"I hope so, Ash", I finally said, giving her another big hug.