It was a bit of a shock to see hot pink decorating her fingernails as well as her toe nails. Every time she moved her hand the bright color caught her attention. Part of her wanted to hide her fingers. The hot pink polish would do nothing but attract attention to her, something she still wasn’t used to.   Camp Kumoni By Anistasia Allread

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Chapter 19
 
“Where did you learn to kick like that, Krystal?” Rachel inquired.

“My big brother played goalie in soccer. It was my job to kick balls at him as part of his practice.” The large girl smirked. “as he got better, so did I.”

“I am so tired.” Dani whined as she dragged her feet down the path towards the cabin.

“You should be.” Katie smiled. “I didn’t think you could move that fast.”

“But we still lost.” Dani complained.

“Only by three points.” Phoenix commented from behind. “We lost by three points to a cabin who is obviously a very athletic cabin. We all did awesome.”

The girls entered the cabin one by one and flopped down on their beds.

“A loss still feels like a loss.” Rachel rolled onto her back with her forearm covering her eyes.

“Phoenix, what else do we have going today?” Katie inquired.

“We have two and a half hours before dinner.” Phoenix checked her clock. “The camp wants us to spend this time as cabin bonding time. We are supposed to work on getting to know one another and support one another, so that we can become a closer knit group.”

“We’ve already kind of done that.” Dani pointed out.

“I know, you guys are doing really well. I’m impressed.” Phoenix smiled. “You’ve managed to do in a few days what it usually takes cabins a few weeks to do.”

“Phoenix?” Rachel called from her lazy position. “As a hypothetical, How do you feel about cabin pranks as a team building exercise?”

“That really depends.” Phoenix posed. “Officially I’m supposed to be against them. But personally, as long as no one gets hurt, or anything gets damaged, and more importantly, I don’t ‘know’ about any of it, I’m fine.” Phoenix chuckled. “Besides it wouldn’t be summer camp without inter cabin pranks………. What did you have in mind?”

“If you’re not supposed to know about them, then I can’t really tell you, can I?” Rachel moved her arm and looked across the cabin at Phoenix, mischief lighting up her eyes.

“I was just curious as to how serious you girls were going to take the pranks.” Phoenix stated. “As a hypothetical team building exercise of course.”

“Well, Oak cabin isn’t going to like the fact that we beat them today in volleyball.” Rachel thought aloud. “So there may be a panty raid in the next night or two.”

Several of the girls moaned. “Panty raids are so stupid.” Victoria shook her head. “They are so unimaginative…. ‘hey let’s go embarrass the girls by running into their cabin and grabbing their panties’. It’s just stupid.”

“What if we beat them to it?” Krystal posed.

All eyes went to the quiet blonde. “What do you mean?” Katie asked.

“We could do one of two things.” Krystal spoke quietly, not used to the attention she was getting. “We could either raid their cabin first, or we can make it boring for them by each of us placing a pair of panties out for them, so it isn’t a challenge.”
“Leave them a bunch of granny panties.” Katie snickered.

Dani, and Rachel began snickering, the others joined, and soon they were all giggling and laughing at the thought of taking the fun out of the guy’s panty raid.

“We need to come up with some really good pranks.” Victoria mentioned above the laughter.

“We could T.P. someone’s cabin.” Katie smiled.

“Been done.” Rachel shot it down. “It’s as cliché as pantie raids.”

“We could ‘tornado’ someone’s room.” Dani suggested.

“Flour bombs.” Samantha added.

“We could flour bomb a cabin and leave a ‘lean’ at the same time.” Dani’s eyes sparkled.

“What’s a ‘lean’?” Katie asked.

“It’s when you fill up a bucket of water and lean it up against a door so that when they open the door from the inside, the bucket spills across the floor.” Rachel explained. “If you add a flour bomb to it. The water mixes with the flour and creates a gooey mess.”

“I don’t like that idea.” Phoenix sat up. “It could cause damage.” She stood up and walked to the door. “I’ve got to go to a meeting in a few minutes. If you are going to plan out pranks, I shouldn’t be here.” She looked at each one of the girls. “Remember, no causing damage or harm.” With that, she left the girls alone in the room.

“Instead of filling the bucket with water, why not pig slop, or watered down chicken manure.” Katie suggested. “It would smell pretty bad after a day or so.”

“That is sick.” Victoria wrinkled her nose.

“Only if we need to retaliate a bad prank.” Rachel stated. “Again, that’s ‘damaging’.” She imitated Phoenix’s voice.

“How about…..” Krystal paused. Again, all eyes in the cabin were on her. “It’s not exactly damaging, but what if we gelatin their toilet.”

“Huh?” Victoria, Dani and Katie inquired in unison.

“We mix up a couple of packages of gelatin in hot water and pour it into their toilet.” Krystal blushed. “the cold water will set it.”

“That’s almost as sick as the bucket of chicken crap idea.” Rachel blurted out.

“How would they get it out?” Victoria asked.

“That’s the worst part.” Krystal wrinkled her nose. “They have to spoon most of it out, or it could clog up the pipes.”

The girls in the cabin groaned and made gagging noises, including Erika.

“If we need to get really nasty.” Dani looked at the others. “We could do all of them to one cabin.”

A silence fell over the cabin as the girls thought about the gross and disgusting things brought up.

“I thought we were scheduled to have this time to bond as a cabin.” Victoria thought aloud.

“Yeah. So?” Rachel looked to the Latina.

“So what kind of meeting would Phoenix have to go to?” Victoria posed.

“She didn’t mention anything about a meeting when we got back.” Samantha pointed out.

“She just got up and decided to ‘go to a meeting’.” Victoria continued. “Besides, didn’t she have a meeting before the volleyball game?”

“She said she did.” Rachel agreed.

“Who is she meeting with and why?” Dani stated the obvious.

“Could she be telling Director Hobbs about our planning pranks?” Katie put the idea out there.

“Nah.” Rachel defended. “If she did, she would lose our trust, and that is the last thing she wants.”

“How can you be so sure?” Victoria asked.

“The little talk we had this morning about who is in charge of the cabin.” Rachel confirmed.

“What else did she say?” Dani asked.

“It’s between Phoenix and I.” Rachel stated.

“So what are we going to do until dinner to bond as a cabin?” Victoria put the thought out for the others.

“We can get all girly and paint our nails and play with each other’s hair.” Katie suggested.

“You can go ahead.” Rachel laid back down on her bunk. “I’m not a nail painting kind of girl.”

“I could use some time to work on my comic.” Erika stated.

“Come on Erika, you could use some polish on those toes.” Dani urged.

“I’m not really the nail painting kind of girl either.” Erika replied trying to get out of it.

“That isn’t fair.” Dani pouted. “If I had to dress like a slut and go to dinner, then it’s only fair that you get your nails painted.”

“She has a point.” Samantha looked to Erika.

“It would only be fair.” Victoria agreed, smiling at the dark haired girl.

Erika looked up from her computer and saw six sets of eyes watching her with anticipation. The only one not staring at her, wanting her to join them was Rachel, who had her headphones on and eyes closed, listening to some music.

“Come on, Erika.” Dani coaxed. “be re-born.” She threw the saying back at Erika.

“All right, All right.” Erika stuffed the laptop away and joined the girls on the floor.

They had already gone through their things and pulled out their nail polishes and had them pooled in a pile before them. Several shades of pink, from a soft pink of Krystal’s to a hot pink of Samantha’s. Bright red, dusty rose, plum, black, green, mauve, gold, polish with flecks of glitter, polish that glowed in the dark. Erika had only seen that much nail polish in a nail salon.

“I’ve brought some face scrub too.” Victoria reached over and tossed a tube into the pile of growing beauty aids.

“I brought my mani-pedi kit.” Samantha pulled a bag out of her drawer.

“Hand cream.” Krystal volunteered.

Erika was introduced and initiated into the ‘girls club’. That is, she was welcomed to join a group of girls as they did girl things. The only things missing were their pajamas, and a pillow fight. The girls took turns applying the face mask to one another, then rubbed the hand cream into their hands, and feet.

“Pick your polish.” Victoria urged the girls, all sitting around with goo on their faces.

Erika was suddenly tossed into a dilemma. Eric had never polished his nails before….. well not since he had gotten into his mother’s nail polish when he was four years old. That had created a huge mess and gotten his bottom swatted.

Erika looked at the different possibilities. What color should she choose? What color would she wear normally? Normally? What was she thinking? She grabbed the black nail polish. It seemed to be a pretty safe bet…… not too feminine.

“You’re not a goth.” Samantha whispered to her friend. “Try something brighter.”

Erika put the black polish back in and looked over the lot of colored bottles. Samantha wanted her to try something brighter….. Erika picked up the brightest bottle there, the hot pink.

“Is this better?” Erika whispered to Samantha.

“Much better.”

“Okay, if you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want with you?” Dani posed to the others.

One by one they went around their circle, each giving their three suggestions. Two of the main items that they all agreed upon was an axe, and a Swiss army knife. The third item, could not be agreed upon. Some said a guy for company, but they couldn’t agree whether he should be cute, smart, or strong. Others said certain books. Krystal had brought the subject of books first. But then again, they couldn’t decide if it would be better to have a survival book, or a book for entertainment, or faith. Matches seemed important, but with the right tools, one could build or make a fire. Erika’s mind kept saying that a long length of rope or a large ball of twine would be a must.

Erika washed the facial mask off her face and looked in the mirror. Her face did seem to look healthier. Almost as if there was a glow to it, but that could have been from the residue the mask and water created. She felt her face and was astonished at how smooth it felt. Her cheek felt silky soft. Practically satin smooth.

Erika returned in time to have the other girls of the cabin corner her and began giving her a manicure and pedicure. All she could do was sit on the bunk and allow them to file, and paint her nails. Krystal took one hand, while Samantha took the other. Katie and Dani each took a foot while Victoria unbraided Erika’s hair, brushed through it, then after parting it down the middle, braided each side.

It was a bit of a shock to see hot pink decorating her fingernails as well as her toe nails. Every time she moved her hand the bright color caught her attention. Part of her wanted to hide her fingers. The hot pink polish would do nothing but attract attention to her, something she still wasn’t used to. Attention in the past meant beatings, embarrassment, or humiliation. Another part of her however, liked the intense color and enjoyed seeing it flutter before her as she moved her fingers.

Dinner time was drawing near and they all needed to change out of their sweaty, dusty clothes and pull on something that was somewhat clean and presentable. It was a good thing that they were going to town soon to do laundry. Erika wondered how they were going to last two weeks before doing laundry again.

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End of Chapter Nineteen