What could I do? Especially as i’ve already given Anna the bare bones.

“F@$k!” Nena exhorted, “that is, well, harsh.”

Well i’ve never heard her swear before so that in itself suggested she understood the implications.

“Yeah, well hopefully these new tests will prove my innocence.”
“More Eis anyone?” Anna suggested.
If theres one thing that lifts the spirits, its good ice cream.
“Lets finish up here then we can go in the restaurant, my treat,” I proposed.
“Now were talking,” Nen beamed.

Its a pity Dad didn’t have time to ‘do’ the castle earlier, he would’ve loved it, all the secret rooms and hidden staircases. I resolved to get him something from the gift shop after our posh ice cream, hey, I can be the thoughtful daughter. We got lost a couple of times so it was nearly three thirty by the time we collapsed in the restaurant.

“P was saying you’ve been singing with a band,” Anna prompted.
Is nothing secret anymore?
“Loosely,” I admitted.
“’s not what Max said,” Nen put in.

Blabbermouth von Strechau!

“So?” Anna pushed between mouthfuls of her ‘Pina Colada’.
“You heard about Ralf trying to drug me?”
“As if you could keep that quiet in Valley,” Anna observed.
“Well against my better judgement I agreed to sing with the band after Stefan, that's the lead singer, caught me singing along.”
“This is the girl who can’t sing,” Nen noted.
“She has got a history of not being able to sing,” Anna agreed with a chuckle.
“Who’s telling this?”
“Soz girl,” Anna allowed, “so you sang with the band that night?”
“Yeah, they do some covers as well as their own stuff, they’re actually pretty good in a sort of punk meets mainline rock kinda way. So anyway,” I paused to shovel one of my strawberries into my hole, “’o ‘ey ad a uver ‘onsut I ‘onn,” I swallowed the fruit, “Jules got me an Max tickets so we stayed with J and Boris.”
“Your sister’s boyfriend yeah?” Anna queried.
“Yeah, so anyhow when we got there Stefan recognised me and I ended up on stage again.”
“Clearly reluctant,” Nen suggested to Anna.
“Very, so that's it?”
“Well...” I started.
“Oh you’ll like this Anna,” Nen enthused.
“Thank you Miss Foghorn,” I huffed.
“Go on Gab,” Anna encouraged again.
“Well Sofe sent us tickets to Moselfest.”
“Sofe?”
“Max’s cousin, Sophia? Where I spent New Year?”
“Okay,” Anna allowed, “we tried for tickets, sold out months before.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, “anyhow when we get there BlauHase are on the bill, Stefan see’s us, I sing with the band which scores us back stage passes and access to the Green Room.”
“Tell her who you met,” Nen jollied.
“I hardly met him,” I pointed out.
“Who didn’t you really meet?” Anna asked, her interest clearly now piqued.
“Erm, Francis Rossi, you know from Status Quo? He said I sang well when he walked through the Green Room afterwards.”
“You know, I miss all this stuff,” Anna sighed.
“Yeah, never a dull moment with our Gab’s,” Nen confirmed.

We finished our Eis and whilst the others used the facilities I hit the retail opportunity. Of course they had all the usual tourist tat, kids dress up stuff, overpriced bottles of wine, postcards and so on but almost hidden behind that lot I found a proper guide to the Hardenburg as well as a guide to the Burger and Schlosser of the Pfalz region. Neither were very expensive so I bought both tomes before rejoining the others outside at our steeds.

“So back to the camping?” Nena suggested.
“Guess so,” I agreed.
“Come on then,” Anna put in, “we can grab a few rays before dinner.”

We set off back down the valley, into Bad Durkheim, retracing our ‘usual’ route through the Kurpark.

“So what are we eating tonight?” I queried.
“Er not sure,” Anna admitted.
“Not pizza again anyhow,” Nen opined.
“What about one of these places?” I suggested as we passed one of several restaurant bar places by the water filter thing.
Anna shrugged, “can suggest it I guess.”

We did a quick change back at the tent and went to find the others. Well it was hardly difficult, there was what appeared to be a fiercely contested beach volleyball game in progress between our lot and I’m guessing the mysterious fishing males of the species.

“Heya guys,” Pia greeted us as we joined the peanut gallery watching the match, “all historied up?”
“For today,” I agreed.
“Gab suggested we eat in town tonight,” Anna mentioned.
“Rain check,” Donna told us, “the lads are doing a barbeque, should be fun.”

Well provided we don’t all end up with food poisoning I’m okay with that.

The campsite has a fire pit and barbeque facilities which is where we all drifted once the volleyball tournament was decided. Heidi fetched the boom box and soon we were all sucking on cold-ish beverages while a couple of the lads got the coals going. Ah, this is the life.

The sun was drifting towards the horizon by the time the first lot of food was ready, I took a chance on a bit of fairly charred chicken, at least with that you can see if its cooked quite easily. Over the next couple of hours I sampled cremated würst, a scraggly bit of pork steak and some unnamed fish apparently caught by our hosts. We, that is the girls, had supplied the salad stuff, surprisingly fresh, from the camp shop, guess I’ll get tapped for my share later.

“Gaby right?” a tall, dark stranger asked.

Well lets face it its not difficult to be tall compared to me, he’s got brown hair and I don’t know him from Adam other than he’s camped a few metres from girl central.

“That’s me,” I agreed, perhaps slightly emboldened by the couple of beer bottles at my feet.
“Ernst, you want another drink?”
I shrugged, “Sprite® or something diet?”
“Coming up.”

A couple of minutes later I was nursing a can of diet Pepsi® with Ernst beside me. Around us there was a lot of giggling as my girlfriends paired off with the lads, nine of us, seven of them – not that I want to be paired off but it looks like Ernst has other ideas!

“You didn’t come with the others.”
“Had stuff to do at the weekend, work an’ that.”
“Work?”
“Yeah, Con’s parents have a snack bar that we run, you?”
“Nah, college, we’re here for a month.”
“Must be nice,” I opined.
“It can get a bit boring to be honest.”
“Oh I can see that, not doing anything all day, partying all night.”
“Yeah, sounds good, try living it.”

To be honest I couldn’t imagine more than a few hours of inactivity, as a family holidays have always had walks, bike rides, visits to stuff, certainly not day after day at a beach.

“Yeah, I prefer doing stuff.”
“Your friends said you went to the Burg?”
I gave a shrug, “you don’t have to sit by the lake to top up your tan.”
“Like your hair.”
“It was only supposed to be for prom.”
“Well it suits you, makes you stand out from the crowd.”
“If you can find me at all, I’m a right midget."
“I found you."
“Well its not much of a crowd,” I pointed out.

Did I mention he’s quite buff?

“You do sports?” I enquired.

At some point, maybe it was as the temperature dropped, I found myself almost snuggled into Ernst’s side and it felt nice. Once he got started on his football exploits the conversation became somewhat one sided, I’ve no interest in kickball but how does that matter? I did find out that he’s eighteen, him and his friends are from the Frankfurt area and he’s doing an engineering course at college.

I’m not sure how things got there but we’d been making out for a bit before my brain engaged gear.

I pulled away and sat up, “I shouldn’t be doing this.”
“Why not?”
“I’ve got a boyfriend,” okay, I know I’m always denying it.
“He’s not here is he?”
“No,” I agreed.
“So what's the problem?”

Put like that there isn’t one, its not like me an’ Max have vowed to be exclusive or anything is it? I had a moment of dé ja vu, memories of laying amongst the rocks at the side of Lake Como with Toni last year.

“You got a girlfriend?”
“Celine.”
“Won’t she mind?”
“How’s she gonna know? she’s at one of those summer camp things in Amerika.”
“Cool.”
“So you coming back down here?”

I guess there’s no harm, its not like we’re doing anything more than snoggin’ is it?

“You coming to bed Gab?”
“Hmm?” I managed, twisting round and straining to see who it was.
“Its nearly midnight,” Con advised.
“It is?”
“Come on, you can see lover boy again tomorrow.”
I guiltily sprang up and looked at the gently snoring figure I’d been cuddled up to, “we were only kissing.”
“If you say so, come on, its freezing out here.”
I hadn’t noticed the temperature but after Con mentioned it I started to shiver, “gis a hand then."

Last night was filled with thoughts of failed drug tests and the repercussions, tonight its a comparative study of the kissing techniques of Max, Toni and Ernst. Admittedly my sample is quite small, maybe a bit more practice is in order? Am I really that sort of girl though, I mean, me and Max are a couple sort of officially, I shouldn’t be kissing random lads I’ve only just met should I? Well its not like Max or, like what was it, oh yeah Celine, will get to find out is it and who’s to say he wouldn’t be doing the same?

I thought on that a moment. No, now I think about it I can’t see Max with anyone else, even dished up on a plate. I had a twinge of guilt at that realisation but come on, what's wrong with a bit of holiday romance, its not like I’m sharing his sleeping bag is it?

Maddy Bell © 21.01.2018