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 9

As we had planned, Joey and I gathered together to play some music and sing in the same place we had been the day before. Emily and Keith decided to come along with us. Emily's cousin, Lisa, had to arrive somewhere in the afternoon, so Emily told her parents so send her our way as soon as she was here.

"Please, tell her we're in the woods, by those trees", she said, pointing her finger towards the place. "Will you, mom?"

I was really looking forward to meet Lisa. I already knew a lot about her, and as far as I knew Emily had also told her a lot of things about me.

We spent half of the afternoon playing our guitars, singing and making jokes. When Lisa arrived we were already singing, so she just sat with us and started to sing along. Joey had to leave us earlier, but we decided to stay a bit more, getting to know each other. Well, Emily, Lisa and Keith already knew each other quite well, but you know what I mean.

I was starting to get more comfortable in Keith's presence, I even started talking a bit, but I went back to my usual shyness when Lisa came. She greeted us and hugged her cousin, then turned to me and introduced herself.

"Hi! I'm Lisa!", she said. I just smiled and nodded. Lisa was a 9 y.o. girl with dark hair and deep green eyes. She seemed to be as extroverted as Emily.

Emily started making mockery of my shyness. I guess she already knew me enough to know what would work with me.

"Hi, Lisa. I'm Jenny. Nice to meet you! I know you can say it!", she ordered me to say, with a naughty bright on her eyes.
"Come on, it's not that difficult!", she added with a grin.

"Hi, Lisa. I'm Jenny. Nice to meet you!", I finally said. We all laughed.

Lisa turned out to be as nice and friendly as Emily. She had kind of the same smile, you could tell they were cousins.

We went back a bit later towards the cabins. I had to leave my guitar there, at least. We were surprised by an uproar, it seemed that some of the boys were fighting. When we got closer, we were suprised to find out that one of it was Joey. The other one was another of our schoolmates, called Lucas.

"Don't you ever say anything about her in my presence again!", said Joey angrily when Lucas was on the floor. "And if you even dare to get near her, I swear you'll regret it"

We tried to get closer, but Raoul and Kevin blocked our way.

"Don't go there, kids", said Raoul. "Get back to the cabins"
"You really don't want to go there, Jen. Trust me", added Kevin, looking at me with a concerned look. It was very unusual to see Kevin so serious.

We just nodded and got back. I had the feeling that whatever happened there had to do with me, but I didn't know why. Luckily there didn't seem to be any teacher around, so I hoped Joey wouldn't have any problems.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing around with the other kids. Mike, Roy, Nick and Jay were running and playing, and we just joined them. When the afternoon was coming to an end, Emily, Lisa, Jay and I went back to Emily's cabin.

"Hi kids", greeted us Emily's mother. "Did you have fun?"

We just nodded.

"We were planning on going to the eating area to have something to drink", said Emily's mom. "Fancy an ice-cream? My treat!"

We quickly agreed, and went to the eating area with Emily's and Lisa's parents.

"So, how are finding Crystal Lake so far?", asked Emily's mom, looking at me. "Are you having fun?"
"Yeah!", I nodded.
"You're a nice kid", she added. "I'm glad that Emily and you are becoming good friends"
"Mom", interrupted Emily. "Can Jenny sleep with us in our cabin tonight, with Lisa and me?"
"I don't see why not", she answered, smiling.
"I'd have to tell my sister", I replied.
"Don't worry, we'll tell her later", said Emily's mother.
"I'd have to get a pajama from our cabin, I guess", I added.
"You can borrow one of mine if you want, I don't mind", offered Emily.
"Can I join them too, mum?", interrupted Jay, Emily's 7 y.o. brother.
"You want to be with the girls, Jay?", she questioned him, smiling. "You want to be a girl too?"
"Dunno. Can I?", he asked again.
"Of course, honey. If the girls don't mind"

My sister of course didn't have any problem with me sleeping in Emily's cabin. In fact, I guess that now that the boys were here in the camp, they preferred not to have to take care of the little kid for a night. I didn't really considered me a little kid, I mean I'm already 12, but I knew they did. I also found out that my sister, Miss Cooper and Emily's mother had been talking other during the afternoon, so Emily's parents probably knew a lot of things about me already. Not that I minded, really.

In any case, just to play safe, I decided to ask Emily to tell her parents that I was really a boy. She replied that they already knew.

"I told them the first day I met you", she said. "I usually tell mom everything"

Emily and Lisa's mothers stayed with us, while their parents went out for a while. As they had brought a TV and a DVD player, we got to see some film, and also played some board games. Emily lent me a cute white and pink pajamas, she said it suited me. Jay became jealous and said he also wanted a girl's pajama for the night, so Lisa gave him one of her smaller ones. I also found out that I didn't find it that difficult to talk with Emily and Lisa's mothers, even if they were grownups. It felt good.

We didn't go to bed too late, anyway, because we had to get up quite early in the morning and we were already a bit tired from the day. I had to get up quite early, as we were going to go on an excursion in the morning to visit some place or another.