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 7

It had been a while since I last played with someone my age. Well, not really my age, but a couple of years younger. As I have skipped first grade, and having being born lately in the year, in November, I kind of used to hang out with kids much older than me. Joey was already 15. Matt and Kevin were 14. My sister and her friends were 14. I was still 12.

It was almost eight in the afternoon. We would probably have something less than an hour of sun to play before going back to have dinner, so we went towards a bunch of trees, not far away from the cabin area.

If Emily was definitely a talkative person, Keith wasn't left behind in the least. Roy didn't seem to talk as much as his cousin Keith did, but I guess that would have been quite a hard thing to do. I don't think anyone would be able to overcome those talking machines, Emily and Keith! In any case, Roy was still the youngest of us, he was only 9.

It was quite funny seeing Emily and Keith constantly throwing verbal punches at each other, but they were never ill-spirited and you could see they were just joking. I couldn't stop laughing.

"Jenny, do you know how to climb a tree?", asked Roy suddenly. "We should teach her!", he exclaimed, looking eagerly at the others.
"Him", corrected Emily. Roy just shrug and kept on. "Can you?"

I just nodded.

"Cool!", he exclaimed happily. "Come on guys, the last one is a rotten egg!", he added, pointing to a tree.

We spent some time running, pursuing each other, climbing and generally fooling around. It was so nice, I felt happy.

"Jenny", asked me Keith, out of the sudden. "I'm just curious. Have you ever tried a dress on?"
I simply shaked my head.
"I think you should. It would suit you", He added, with a frienfly wink.
I didn't say anything, but couldn't stop noticing an akward smile in Emily's face.

The day was almost over. Emily and I had already had a shower, but the boys still have to get ready or dinner, and the sun was already setting, so it wouldn't make so much sense to try to stretch the time.We went back to the cabins.

After talking to mum and dad by phone, as I used to do every day (even though they were kept fully informed of everything that happened by our school staff), we had a quick dinner together. I mean my schoolmates, our teachers and I, and we were dismissed. We were supposed to try to go to bed early, as the next day we'll be going on a horseback ride during the morning, and we shouldn't be too tired to have fun.

Sarah and Ash suggested I should invite Emily to our cabin, as we could have some fun together. Erika fully agreed, so I went with her to Emily's cabin, to ask her and her parents. Our cabins were reasonably close, in any case.

Emily's parents were very open and friendly. Erika explained to them how we were on a school trip and Emily and I have become friends, and I was quite shy. Older people, as friendly as they might be, tended to intimidate me more than younger kids, so I guess I didn't even say a single word, apart from some nods, head shakes and a couple of monosyllables. Jay, Emily's little brother, was looking at me from behind a door with mischievous eyes, but he finally dared to join us. I guess he was quite afraid that I might still be angry for what happened earlier with the water balloons. I wasn't.

I don't know how old Emily's parents thought I was, probably her same age, but I guess they were happy that we would be taken care by 3 older girls, who seemed very responsible, by the way. Jay let sleep that he would like to come with us, but he was refused because he was still too young, and also because it was a girl's sleepover, and he didn't belong. Probably they thought that I was a girl, too.

I wasn't really girly or anything like that. I didn't have such a cute face that I shouldn't have been a boy, or anything like that. My sister was quite androgynous in her features, too. I obviously wasn't butch either. I mean, I'd have never gone all macho or anything like that. That wasn't me. And I didn't want that it was me, either. I wasn't even called miss so often, just when I was hanging around with just my sister and her friends, I guess. It didn't bother me in the slightest.

Emily was so happy to come with us that she could just not stop talking. It was funny. I mean, she had just been invited to an sleepover by some older girls! I loved seeing her that happy!

So, back to our cabin it was. We put on our pajamas, told stories, talked a lot, even me, and generally knew each other better. We painted our nails, we did our hair, and had a lot of fun. Erika and her friends did this kind of sleepovers once in a while, and I was always welcome to them.

Emily and I finished up with matching hairstyles, two braids each. Sarah said we looked like sisters, but I knew she was kidding, we weren't that similar. She was a brunette, I was dark blonde. She had brown eyes, mine were green. She had a really cute button nose, mine was slightly bigger.

Emily brought up Keith's earlier question. About me trying a dress on. They found it funny, but didn't seem surprised.

"You haven't, have you?", asked Sarah, jokingly. "Maybe you should. What about if we all dressed up?"
"Even better", replied Ash. "What about if we dolled up these two?", she said, pointing to Emily and me.
"Yeah, why not?", added Emily. My sister nodded in agreement.
"Well, I'm game!", I agreed, with a smile. "It will be funny!".

And so it was. None of us had carried too many clothes, but there were some cute dresses among the stuff the girls have brought. Of course, the dresses were quite big for Emily and I, but we didn't really care, we were just playing, it wasn't as if we were going to go anywhere, or something.

I already knew a lot about makeup, I mean, I was already in eighth grade, and many of my friends were girls, wasn't it? I didn't really mind Emily and I going through a makeup class for her benefit, though, and she seemed to be loving every minute of it. My sister and Sarah were already experts, so we really did learn a lot! Emily lamented that her cousin Lisa wasn't here yet, because she would have also loved it, but it was no biggie, we could repeat it agan any of these nights.

It was past midnight, almost 1, when we finally went to bed. I hadn't realized how tired I was until then, and tomorrow was going to be a long day. As soon as I laid in my bed, I was off.