Camp Kumoni Ch. 40 by Anistasia Allread Assisted and proofed by Nick B “You aren’t going to peek, are you?” “No!” Erika asserted, disgusted by the thought.

Dani was the first to break the silence. “Well it’s about time.”

Several of the others started to hoot and whistle as the two became lost in each other’s embrace.

“You need to come up for air sometime,” Rachel laughed. She took the nozzle she was holding and began spraying them again.

Phoenix stepped out of the walk in and started towards the two. “Alright you two, that’s enough.”

Samantha released Erika’s lips ever so slowly, yet it was like she was pulling a band aid off of a wound. Those lips. Those beautiful, soft, wonderful lips.

Erika opened her eyes to see the copper haired counselor standing behind Samantha. “Exploring your sexuality at this age is a healthy thing,” she began. “But please, let’s do it in a more private manner.”

Samantha turned three shades of red,

“Well it’s a good thing I hadn’t mopped the floor yet,” Katie giggled.

The ladies of Columbine, finished their tasks, helped mop the floor, wipe down the stainless and finished putting the dishes away.

“I’ll go get Sheila to do the final inspection, if you all want to head back to the cabin,” Rachel stated.

“I sure could use a shower,” Erika sighed.

Rachel smiled. “What do you mean, I just gave you one.”

“But Samantha was being a water hog. Besides I need to wash my hair in water that doesn’t feel like it has fry grease in it.”

---

The clock radio went off in the middle of a heavy metal song. Erika decided that it was too early for that kind of music and threw her pillow across the cabin at Rachel.

“Hey!” Rachel protested.

“It’s the Fourth of July.” Dani’s voice was full of excitement. “It’s one of my favorite holidays of the year.”

“Do we get to sleep in today?” Victoria groaned.

“No,” Rachel stated. “But no exercise this morning. We need to spend the time decorating the cabin for inspection.”

“That’s right. We got all of those decorations.” Krystal propped herself up on her bed.

“You guys got Fourth of July decorations?” Tricia inquired.

Samantha started to wake up. “Yeah.”

“That is so cool!” Tricia exclaimed. “I love this cabin.”

“It’s Sunday, right?” Victoria asked.

Phoenix flipped over. “Yes.”

“That means we get to switch back to morning showers.”

Katie stretched. “Oh, Thank God.” I have such a hard time waking up without my shower in the morning.”

One by one the girls tumbled from their bunks and made their way to the bathroom to take care of their bodily functions.

“Why don’t you get a head start on your shower?” Rachel suggested to Erika. “That way, you’ll be through as we get down there. When you get back up here, you can start on the cleaning.”

“Okay. But I need a little longer for a shower this morning. I need to shave.” Erika grimaced.

“Do what you have to do. We’ll see you down there.”

Erika grabbed her toiletries and towel, along with a pair of shorts and a red tank top before making her way down to the showers.

Erika’s mind wandered to the previous night to Samantha’s lips pressed against hers, the taste of her tongue and the feel of her soft silky skin against hers.

The daydream like state carried her into the bathroom where she sat her toiletries on the counter and absent mindedly looked into the mirror. A pretty brunette girl with large blue eyes looked back at her. An imaginary image of Samantha came up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist, while her imaginary lips pressed against her neck, before the image’s chin rested on her shoulder and smiled in the mirror at her.

Who’d ever thought that Samantha Thompson would ever have anything to do with ‘the plague’? She smiled at herself in the mirror, studying the face that stared back at her and slowly her smile faded. She wasn’t the plague, she was Erika, or was she? Was she really Erika, or was she Eric? Did Samantha kiss Eric last night or Erika?

If Samantha likes, Erika, and finds Erika attractive, will she feel the same way towards Eric or will she just see Eric as ‘the plague’?

Erika grabbed her toiletry bag off the counter and distractedly dragged her towel behind her as she entered a shower stall. She had to admit, Erika was a striking image. As Eric, if he had seen such a girl on the street, he’d look twice, but Samantha wasn’t gay, she was attracted to jocks and such. Why would she be attracted to a guy trying to be a girl for the summer?

The hot water poured over her as she contemplated the current situation. Maybe Samantha didn’t have a type. Maybe Samantha was exploring other avenues. Was Erika then just an experiment, or was Eric the experiment.

Erika rinsed her hair and pushed away the troubling thoughts for a few moments, while she concentrated on shaving her body, getting as close a shave of the peach fuzz on her face as she could then carefully denuding the hair under her arms. She then carefully scraped the hair away from her legs and double checked their smoothness with her fingertips before putting the pink razor away.

“You almost done in there, Erika?” Samantha called from outside the stall.

“Yes. Just a few more minutes.” Erika called back. She could hear the voices and noises of the other girls as they undressed and got into their own showers.

“Tricia had a really cool idea,” Samantha said by way of a greeting as Erika exited the shower stall. “We’re going to braid our hair and sew red, white, and blue ribbon through it.”

Erika looked blankly at Samantha. “You can do that?”

“Of course, silly.”

“How do you get it out?” Erika bit her lower lip in thought.

“It’s not tied or sewn in that way.” Samantha giggled. “I guess I should have said it is woven into the braid.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Even with her morning breath and her hair a mess, she was beautiful. How did she do it? Like a moth to a flame, Erika found her lips drawn to Samantha’s. An electric spark of pleasure raced through her body, causing a certain something in her gaffe to strain against its confines.

“See you back in the cabin.” Samantha smiled before closing the door behind her. She popped her head back out. “You aren’t going to peek, are you?”

“No.” Erika said, disgusted by the thought.

“I trust you, but some of the others aren’t quite sure yet, so it’d be best if you combed your hair and stuff up at the cabin,” Samantha whispered.

Erika sighed, grabbed her bag and bundle before heading back up to the cabin.

She wrapped the towel up around her head like a turban and began picking up and cleaning the cabin. She was just finishing with the sweeping when Rachel and Tricia entered.

“Wow, you’ve gotten most everything done,” Tricia complimented. “Thank you Erika.”

Rachel dumped her stuff off in her drawer and retrieved her suitcase from the closet. Dani, Katie and Victoria arrived and gathered around with them to watch as Rachel pulled steamers, balloons, flags, sparklers and a ‘Happy Fourth of July’ sign out and laid them on the bed.

The girls rushed to put their thing away and threw themselves into their decorating task. Krystal, Samantha and Phoenix arrived in the middle of the excitement and joined in the fun.

One by one, Victoria pulled one of the girls off to the side and deftly braided each side of their head. Once Tricia was finished with her decorating, she borrowed Rachel’s largest needle. With quick strokes, she threaded the colorful ribbons through the braids, leaving some out at the ends like streamers.

“Should we wear our Lavender shirts?” Phoenix asked of the group.

“It’s Fourth of July. We should be wearing red, white, and blue.” Dani asserted, voicing every ones opinion.

Erika looked up after Tricia finished sewing the ribbons through her hair and noticed that the new addition to the group was wearing her lavender wrist bands. She glanced around and found that everyone but she was wearing their lavender wrist bands. She turned pink at the thought of not supporting her girlfriend and after thanking Tricia, quickly wrapped the scraps of shirt around her wrists.

“Come on, Rachel,” Victoria gestured.

“My hair’s too short,” Rachel scoffed.

“I can do something with it. You can’t be the only one in the cabin without ribbons.”

“It’s alright, really,” Rachel grimaced.

“You’ve got to show your cabin spirit,” Katie encouraged.

Rachel stomped across the cabin. “Will it shut you all up?”

“For now,” Samantha smiled.

Victoria pulled the crown of Rachel’s hair back into a ponytail and braided it.

Dani and Katie stood at the door of the cabin and surveyed their handy work.

“This looks really good,” Dani smiled.

Katie looked to the glowering girl getting ribbons sewn into her braid. “Rachel, this was a fantastic idea.”

The corners of Rachel’s mouth threatened to smile. “Thanks.”

---

The mess hall was filled with excitement as the campers were eagerly awaiting a day of rest, relaxation and a lot of fun. It sounded like most were planning on spending the day in the water or on the beach.

“When are your parents coming?” Erika asked of Samantha.

“I’m not sure,” she shrugged. “It’s a couple of hours drive from the city, so it will probably be sometime this afternoon.”

“Do you want me with you?” Erika questioned.

“Nah. I think I can handle it,” Samantha shrugged. She looked into Erika’s concerned eyes and swallowed. “But I wouldn’t mind if you were close by, just in case.”

Erika gave her love’s knee a squeeze in loving understanding.

Bowls of sugared strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream were set on the table followed closely by large stacks of waffles.

“That is so cool,” Tricia bounced. “A red, white and blue breakfast.”

As they were finishing their holiday breakfast, Director Hobbs took her place at the front of the mess hall. After getting their attention she began the week’s point totals for the cabins. Even without its leader, Oak cabin took the lead in points for the boys. For the girls, it was close. Only five points separated the two top cabins for the week. Rachel was disappointed to find out that Columbine cabin came in second.

“Do today’s inspection points count in that or next week’s?” Tricia asked.

“Next week’s,” Phoenix answered around a bite of strawberry.

“Due to recent events,” Director Hobbs continued. “There will be no more mixed gender boat or canoe check outs and today, everyone is restricted to the camp’s main campus. No wandering around the lake or taking off on to the trails.”

“Typical,” Rachel growled. “She calls an attempted rape an ‘event’.”

“You all have noticed that the Firefighting helicopters are using our lake and because of this, we are asking anyone canoeing or boating to stay on the sides of the lake. Anyone going into the middle of the lake will lose their lake privileges for the summer.” She paused for emphasis, “Everyone have a good Fourth,” She finished with a smile.

Erika looked up from her plate to see Director Hobbs standing at the end of their table.

“I just wanted to let you know how overjoyed the judges were this morning when they entered your cabin.” She scanned each of them. “They asked me to go take a look for myself. You girls really out did yourselves.” She smiled. “I am personally awarding your cabin ten extra points.”

“Thank you,” Dani grinned. “It was Rachel’s idea.”

Director Hobbs smiled at the athletic young girl before taking them all in again. “Have fun today, girls and don’t forget, you three have kitchen duty this evening.”

“We all have kitchen duty this evening,” Dani stated after Hobbs left.

“No, you don’t,” Erika argued. “This is our punishment. You need to enjoy your Fourth.”

“As Rachel pointed out last week, we are a cabin,” Victoria vocalized. “When one of us does well, we all do well. When one of us gets unfairly punished then we all get unfairly punished. That’s all there is to it.”

“It’s the Fourth of July,” Erika protested. “You should be out enjoying fireworks, watermelon and ice cream or something, not cleaning a kitchen.”

“So should you,” Krystal stated. “You all get up at the crack of dawn to exercise with me. That isn’t fair to you. You aren’t the ones who are fat. Besides, I can look at helping out as a bit more exercise.” She smiled.

Krystal turned to Katie. “It’s my turn to clean the floor tonight.”

“Enough about tonight,” Samantha said, ending the conversation. “Rachel what did you have planned today?”

“I am going to teach the boys that girls can kick their asses in basketball.” She grinned. “Any of you want to join me?” No one said anything. “Come on Krystal, I could really use you out there.”

“I can’t play basketball,” The large girl admitted.

“All you need to do is keep the boys busy and if you get the ball pass it to me. I’ll take care of the rest.” Rachel smiled.

“We’ll see.” Krystal was non-committal.

“What about you, Dani?” Samantha inquired.

“Katie and I are going to the beach to enjoy the water and sun.”

“Tricia?” Samantha prodded.

“I don’t know,” The blonde in pink admitted. “Probably work on my tan a bit. Maybe pretend to read a magazine while checking out the guys at the beach.”

“That sound fun,” Victoria giggled. “I think I’ll join Tricia.”

“What about you, Erika?” Samantha asked.

“I was hoping that you would join me in canoeing around the lake.” Erika was hopeful. “I’ve lost my duck and would really like to see if I can find him.”

“You’ve lost your duck?” Rachel snorted.

“Haven’t you seen the mother duck and her babies?” Erika inquired.

Katie smiled. “I have. They’re so cute.”

“Yeah, So?” Victoria raised an eyebrow.

“The black duckling is missing,” Erika explained. “I noticed it the other day. I kept hoping that he’d show up, but I haven’t seen him. I want to see if maybe he’s lost or hurt or something.”

A loud thundering noise grew louder and louder.

“The firefighting helicopter,” Tricia spoke.

“Oooh. I hope that you duck didn’t get swallowed by that water bucket,” Rachel smirked.

The horrifying look on Erika’s face was enough to get the athletic girl to start chuckling.

“You are so mean,” Tricia stated. She turned to Erika. “I’m sure that your duck didn’t get swallowed by the water bucket. The noise alone drives the ducks to the edge of the lake.”

“We’ll help you search,” Katie responded, looking at Dani who smiled and nodded.

The girls got up and left the mess hall then split up, going in different directions.

“You never answered me.” Erika looked to Samantha, the fear of being rejected washing over her.

“I would love to go canoeing with you,” she smiled.

---

“Stay out of the middle of the lake!” Todd called after them as they slowly paddled away from the dock.

“I almost forgot.” Erika looked at Samantha. “I need to stop by that area where Josh attacked you. I left my flip-flops there.”

Samantha went white at the suggestion.

“Never mind, I’ll get them later,” Erika quickly corrected.

“Slow down so we can catch up,” Dani called from another canoe.

Erika rested her paddle across the canoe and relished the feel of the water craft silently slip through the water.

“So what does this duck look like?” Dani asked as their canoe came along side.

“It’s a duckling, a baby duck and it’s the only black one.” Erika scanned the reeds along the shore.

“You sure it’s not with its mother?” Katie asked.

“Yes. I counted them a dozen times and looked for a couple of days.”

“Tell you what. Dani and I’ll head around the other side of the lake and meet you in the back.”

Erika shrugged. “Fine by me. Just be careful if you find him.”

“We will,” Dani assured.

The two turned the canoe around and paddled back towards the docks and to search the other side of the lake.

Erika looked across the lake at the smoke covered hills. The yellow brown haze seemed to fill the entire skyline. Another thump thumping sound of the returning chopper echoed around the tree lined lake.

The two girls pulled in their paddles and let the canoe drift into the reeds as they watched the chopper hover over the lake, re-filling its bucket.

Wind currents created by the blades of the air craft buffeted the girls and reeds. It caused waves on the surface of the water that rocked the canoe, disturbing the peaceful lake.

Straining under the weight of the water laden bucket, the helicopter slowly at first rose up into the sky and began speeding away over the tree tops, as water sloshed and fell in large sheets to the lake and then to the forest floor.

Samantha holding to the reeds to keep the canoe from drifting sighed as the loud noise started to disappear. A silence descended upon the forest around them. Even the birds seemed to keep quiet when the chopper was near.

The girls slowly dipped their paddles into the water and pulled, dipped and pulled. The only sound now was the dripping of water off of their paddles as they reached to dip them again and again.

Samantha froze; her paddle in midair. “Shh. I hear something,” she hissed.

Erika froze as well and strained to hear for any noise that wasn’t familiar.

“Over there.” Samantha pointed with her paddle towards the shore.

“What is it?” Erika whispered.

“I’m not sure, but it sounded out of the ordinary.”

The reeds in this area of the lake were quite thick and tall as they stabbed at the sky over the heads of the girls.

A sudden whooshing noise erupted as two birds hiding in the reeds took flight. Samantha stifled a scream at the sudden clamor. She paused and tilted her head to one side. Erika followed her lead and again concentrated on listening.

“Up there.” Samantha pointed just ahead of them.

A strange noise, not quite a peep, but not a croak either sounded muffled amongst the reeds as they scraped along the hull of the canoe.

Samantha paused again then turned her head a bit. “We passed it.”

Erika dug her paddle into the water behind her and using leverage pushed on the oar against her hand and halted the canoe’s forward momentum. Two more similar stokes and they were floating the way they came.

Erika paused mid stroke. She could now hear the strange noise. It definitely wasn’t a frog. It wasn’t the chirping of a bird or chattering of a squirrel either. Erika pulled in her oar and slowly stood up in the canoe to scan around them.

“I think it’s coming from shore,” she said, almost in a whisper.

As carefully as she dared, she lowered herself to grab the canoe and cautiously slipped her legs into the water. Her feet sank in soft, cool, mud. She then slowly waded to the shore stopping every couple of steps to get her bearings on where the sound was coming from.

Samantha watched and listened as her dark-haired friend slowly searched the shoreline.

Erika stopped and looked down by her feet. She stepped back two steps and paused again. She was so close she could taste it. She heard the muffled noise again and stepped one step forward and up on to shore. Her eyes stared at the ground through the tall grasses and marshy weeds, straining to see where the strange sound was coming from.

She heard it again. Coming from right where she was looking.

Samantha thought Erika was going to dive through the mud, she moved so fast.

Erika brushed a few of the reeds away and found a dark hole its sides nearly vertical. Down in the bottom of the hole, a dark object called up towards the sky.

It was so dark she couldn’t tell what it was. She shifted her head off to the side to allow more sun to penetrate the darkness. There at the bottom of the hole was a black ball of fluffy feathers.

“It’s him!” she cried to Samantha.

She knelt on all fours and slowly lowered her hand into the hole. “Come on, little fella,” she cooed. “Come on. I won’t hurt you.”

Terrified, the little black creature fluttered around the deep hole trying to find an escape.

“Come on,” she coaxed. “I’m just trying to help you.”

Her hand felt soft down and a few more course feathers. Her hand flailed in the bottom, trying to get a hold of the duckling. Finally, she was able to get a hold of a wing and quickly brought it to the surface and cradled it in her two hands.

“I’ve got him! I’ve found my duck!” she cried.