Director Hobbs walked up the trail towards them. “Rachel, I’m going to borrow Ms. Martinez for a few minutes." “Uh….. Okay.” Rachel looked from the Director to Erika and back. “I’ll save you some food.” “Could you come with me please, Ms. Martinez.” Director Hobbs asked. She led Erika down the path and around the mess to the infirmary “What’s this about?” Erika was starting to get nervous. “I just need to have the nurse give you a quick check up….. It shouldn’t be much or take long.” Camp Kumoni By Anistasia Allread Edited by Nick B and Alexis

Erika jumped, startled to an awakening state. A hand was shaking her shoulder. “Come on sleepy head, we need to get to the mess for dinner.” Rachel smiled. “you’ve been asleep all morning.”

“Have I?” Erika wiped the sleep dust from her eyes.

“You missed out on Grizzly’s dumb survival class and the lame horseback trail ride.”Rachel stepped down and headed for the door. “Come on, they’re waiting for us.”

Erika climbed out of bed and joined Rachel on the trail to the mess.

“God, I must have been tired.” Erika yawned. “I felt like I laid my head down just a few moments ago.”

“Slept hard, huh?” Rachel grinned. “I hope you’re restored for the game this afternoon.”

Director Hobbs walked up the trail towards them. “Rachel, I’m going to borrow Ms. Martinez for a few minutes.”

“Uh….. Okay.” Rachel looked from the Director to Erika and back. “I’ll save you some food.”

“Could you come with me please, Ms. Martinez.” Director Hobbs asked. She led Erika down the path and around the mess to the infirmary.

“What’s this about?” Erika was starting to get nervous.

“I just need to have the nurse give you a quick check up….. It shouldn’t be much or take long.”

Erika’s heart leapt and fluttered around in her chest like a startled finch in a cage as they reached the door to the infirmary and entered.

“I’ve got her Donna.” Director Hobbs greeted an average looking woman wearing purple scrubs.

“Hello Erika…….. Martinez, right?” the nurse asked.

“Yea.” Erika nodded.

“Erika could you go behind that screen over there and get undressed please.” The nurse gestured.

“What’s this about?” Erika asked.

“A health consideration was brought to our attention, and we just need to follow up on it.” The nurse smiled. “It will be painless. Please go behind the screen, and undress.”

Erika’s heart didn’t know whether to skip beats or flutter. She began to feel faint as she disappeared behind the cloth divider. An examination table was set up with the ‘icky’ paper on it. She slid her top off over her head and slipped out of her jeans. She quickly slipped out of her panties, took off the gaffe and folded her jeans around it, tucked her genitalia and slipped her panties back on. Please don’t have her make me strip Erika bit her bottom lip and stepped up on the stepping drawer to sit on the rough paper in her panties and bra.

“…..I’ll let you know.” Donna told Director Hobbs.

Please don’t have her have me strip, please don’t have her make me strip became a mantra in Erika’s mind. She sat on the exam table, feeling exposed, vulnerable and scared half to death.

“Okay, Erika, let’s get down to business.” Donna smiled as she came around the screen. “Oh, I need to have you completely undressed dear.”

Oh my God! What am I going to do!? Erika’s brain screamed. Oh my God, Oh my God!

“Oh, don’t be worried dear. I have seen lots of girls in here for lots of reasons.” Donna gave her what was supposed to be a reassuring smile.

“I’m…… Uh…. Not really comfortable with this.” Erika started to stall.

“I’m sorry, Honey, but I have to examine you.” The purple clad nurse insisted. “It was brought to our attention that you may be trying to hide something.”

That Bitch! She just couldn’t wait until I explained it to the others, she went to the Director. Erika could feel her heart racing, her palms sweating and hot, angry tears welling up in her eyes.

“I’d really rather not.” Erika shrank in on herself. She wiped a tear that had leaked from her eye, betraying her.

“Okay, It looks like I’m going to need some help.” The Nurse called.

“What?” Erika protested.

“You really leave me no choice, Erika.” Donna sighed.

Erika’s heart nearly stopped as Director Hobbs followed by Victoria and Phoenix came around the screen.

“What are you doing here?” Erika cried.

“You’ve been hiding things from us, Erika.” Victoria stated. “I’m just making sure that everything is, shall we say, out in the open.”

“But….” Erika found that her words wouldn’t come.

“What have you been hiding?” Phoenix inquired as she held one of Erika’s arms. Director Hobbs took a firm grasp of the other while the nurse grabbed a hold of Erika’s panties and pulled them down.

Erika was shaken awake. Her eyes fluttered open and she tried to catch her breath as she began to focus on her surroundings. The cabin…… she was in the cabin not in the infirmary, catching up on her sleep. She turned over and came face to face with Rachel.

“Whoa.” Rachel grimaced and turned away. “Talk about morning breath. Are you alright? You were moaning in your sleep.”

“Sorry.” Erika muttered. “Bad dream.”

“It’s lunch time.” Rachel said stepping off the lower bunk. “Phoenix asked me to wake you to get some food and to join us.”

“How long was I asleep?”

“Oh about four or five hours.” Rachel shrugged. “You missed a pretty cool morning. Grizzly Adams showed us some useful stuff….. that is, if you’re lost in the woods, or want to become a hermit. Then we rode the horses on a pretty cool trail. I’m a bit sore, but it was better than riding around in circles in the arena.”

“Where’s Victoria?” Erika crawled out of her bunk.

“Krystal took her down to the mess already……. Brush those teeth and join us down there. We have a game to win this afternoon.”

Erika looked in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. Her mind raced and re-ran some of the dream in her head. God, that was awful. She thought. She fingered her fringe into some sort semblance of a style, and flicked at her now dry and bouncy pigtails and headed down the path to the mess. The sky was still gray and looked to even threaten to rain. The weather was almost a perfect reflection to how Erika felt.

She entered the noisy dining area and quickly found a seat at Columbine’s table. She looked down the table at the girls. Victoria’s eyes were still bandaged. At least she wouldn’t be sending Erika dirty looks and scowls. Dani greeted her gaze with a smile, but Katie looked a bit nervous and looked away as Erika smiled a greeting at her.

The mess hall quieted down as Director Hobbs made her way to the front. “Alright, guys, and girls, quiet it down. I have an announcement.” She called for everyone’s attention. “I know that pranks are a tradition at camp, but they can cause problems not only for one another but for the camp staff who have to clean up after you all.” She paused scanning the room, making eye contact. “A prank was pulled this morning which resulted in a camper getting injured…. She was lucky that she didn’t lose her eyes sight. So as of this moment, there will be no more pranking each other’s cabin or one another. Anyone person, caught pulling a prank will spend their free time working around the camp.”

Groans and hisses rose from the teens in the mess hall.

“Any Cabin!” Hobbs raised her voice to be heard above the ruckus. “Any cabin caught or found pulling pranks will lose all points for the week, and be spending their free time working.”

The buzz continued around the mess hall.

“That is just the Price to Pay for causing trouble.” Hobbs called out over the group. “Do I need to remind you of Charlotte’s Tale?”

“What’s Charlotte’s tale?” Erika inquired of Rachel in a whisper.

“A story someone made up about a boy that got pranked and picked on so much that he turned into a girl.” Rachel snickered. “It’s just an urban legend…. Like, what boy would want to be a girl?”

Erika’s soft, nervous giggle joined Rachel’s snicker. There’s actually a story about this? Erika thought. I may not be the only one? I’ve got to hear about this Charlottes Tale.

“Now to other things.” Director Hobbs went on. “Due to the incoming storm, the lake will be closed to swimming this afternoon.”

Erika didn’t hear anything else announced, her mind still raced, dodging in and out of the horrible dream she had, as well as mulling over the idea of a story about someone else going through something similar to herself. She made a mental note to jump on to one of the camp computers and search out this Charlotte’s Tale.

She looked down the table at the others, her eyes pausing on Victoria, her eyes bandaged and trying to eat with some grace. Everything else vanished, only her thoughts on informing the other girls of her façade and what lay beneath.

After lunch the girls all started down the path to the kickball field.

“Hold up a minute, Rachel.” A familiar voice called after them.

The girls all turned around to see Josh jogging up the trail to them. “Hey.” He greeted them with his award winning smile.

“Josh.” Rachel’s voice had an edge to it.

“I just wanted to thank you girls for not ratting our cabin out on that raid this morning. I’m sorry that you got hurt in the action.” He directed the last part to Victoria.

“Just keep your goons away from us for a while.” Rachel snarled. “I didn’t tell for your benefit, but for all of our benefit. If we can’t prank one another’s cabin, what fun would camp be?”

“Well…… Thanks.” He turned and captured Samantha’s attention. “I’ll see you tomorrow night?” Josh added before jogging off.

“God, he’s cute.” Katie sighed. She then looked at Erika and bit her lower lip.

“Leave him alone, he’s mine.” Samantha placed a hand on her hip and glared, drawing Katie’s attention and a smile.

“Ah….. Young Love.” Krystal giggled.

The kick ball game was a blow out. Krystal’s leg was in top form and kept kicking the ball over everyone’s heads. Rachel with her finesse and athleticism was able to kick the ball into holes and to weak sides of players and use her incredibly strong legs to out run and dodge throws and even stole a few bases, which was good, because with her new breast forms, Erika found out how off balanced suddenly growing breast could be. Her kicks were sloppy, and her throws were off balanced and a bit wild.

Katie was on second, Rachel was on third and Krystal was up to ‘bat’.

“I told Katie.” Dani blurted out to Erika.

“You told Katie what?” Erika looked to her petite friend.

“You know, about what we talked about this morning.” Dani muttered in a low voice. “About you not being who we thought you were.”

“That explains the sour looks at lunch.” Erika thought aloud. “How did she take it?”

“She’s still trying to figure it out.” Dani admitted. “She’s a farm girl. Cows don’t do that kind of thing and she hasn’t experienced the multifaceted dimensions of city life, so it’s kind of hard for her…… but she told us that she’d think about it and try not to jump to conclusions.”

“She told us, who?” Erika looked at the cute blonde.

“Samantha was there helping me explain things.”

“Oh.”

“Just give her some time….. just keep being yourself. I think she’ll come around.” Dani gave Erika a side squeeze.

The girls in the outfield all moved really far back knowing that Krystal’s was able to slam it hard. The ball bounced in from the pitcher. Krystal jogged a few steps towards the ball and kicked softly. It still sailed over the pitcher’s head, but landed just behind second base in a huge hole created by the un-expecting outfield. The girls in the outfield had to run hard to try and scoop up the ball, but Krystal had done the damage. Katie and Rachel were already across home while Krystal was safe on first base.

The girls were just finishing up the game when large raindrops began to fall from the sky. They quickly shook hands and headed off the field and into the safety of the trees. A warm wind began to pick up causing the towering evergreens to sway back and forth. Creaking and groaning under could almost be felt as the looming trees took on the strain of staying upright and proud.

“Columbine!” Phoenix called the girls to her. Krystal, guiding Victoria was a bit slower in joining the huddle. “We’re going back to the cabin. We’ll decide on what we want to do once we’re there….. okay?” She looked at each of the girls who nodded their assent.

The trees kept most of the rain out, at least there seemed to be less rain hitting them running for cover than there seemed to be when one of them dashed across a clearing in the canopy.

Once inside, the cabin, the girls each flopped on their bed. Krystal and Victoria reached the cabin last. Victoria had torn the bandages from her eyes and was squinting at everything around them with bloodshot eyes that looked irritated and watery.

A low rumble of thunder could be heard echoing off the surrounding hills.

“Did anyone see the lightening?” Dani asked looking around for help from the others.

“It’s still too bright out for us to see any unless we’re looking at it.” Katie explained. “If you do see one, go ahead and count the seconds until you hear the thunder to see how far away it is.”

“It looks like free time has been moved up and extended.” Rachel stated.

“What do we do if the power goes out?” Dani looked to Rachel.

“The mess hall has a large backup generator so that they can keep the kitchen operating. They also have extra lanterns and lots of board games down there.” Rachel explained. “They light a huge fire in the fireplace and the cooks pop a bunch of popcorn. Sometimes though, it’s fun to just hang out in the cabin and enjoy each other’s company, play games here or have a pillow fight.”

“I think we’ve had enough rough housing for the day.” Phoenix warned.

“Yes, I think you’re right.” Rachel looked over at Victoria. “Do we have a lantern or two so that we can stay here in the cabin?”

“Just whatever flashlights we have.” Phoenix shrugged. “I’ll go down and talk with Director Hobbs and the other counselors and see what I can get. You girls start deciding what you want to do whether you want to stay here and tell ghost stories or truth or dare, or if you want to go down to the mess and play Monopoly, charades, and checkers and stuff….. Any volunteers to come with me?” She looked around hopefully. No one made a move. “Alright. I’ll go down and see what Director Hobbs has planned for this evening and see what options we have.” Phoenix stepped out of the cabin.

“Do you all want to go hang out in the mess or kick back in here?” Rachel asked after Phoenix was down the trail.

Each of the girls looked around at each other.

“Can’t we do both?” Katie asked. “I mean, if it gets boring down at the mess, can’t we just come back to the cabin?”

“We can, but they want us to do so as a cabin.” Rachel explained. “So if we go down there, we are there as a cabin and if a few of us want to come back here, then we have to come back as a cabin.”

“Oh.”

“How long do you think Phoenix be gone?” Erika inquired of Rachel, then let her gaze wander to Samantha, Victoria, Dani and Katie.

“That depends upon how long winded Director Hobbs wants to be….. Why?”

Erika’s palms began to sweat as she glanced over to her cabin mates. Samantha and Dani both smiled, Katie looked away and Victoria squinted through sore eyes at her. “We need to talk.” Her voice broke as she said it.