Boys of Summer

By Melanie Ezell

For the Big Closet Transgender Archives Summer Romance Contest 2008

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I can see you,
Your brown skin shining in the sun,
You got your hair combed back,
And your sunglasses on, baby,
I can tell you,
My love for you will still be strong,
After the boys of summer have gone.

Don Henley- Boys of Summer

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Notes: This story was partially inspired by an Altered Fates story I read on Fictionmania recently called 'My Best Friend's Girl'. While this story is completely different from 'My Best Friend's Girl' in almost every way, it was the sweetness of that story that made me contemplate what might just happen on a summer camping trip where a bit of experimentation results in an outcome that maybe- just maybe- improves the lives of all involved in unexpected ways.

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1.

Caleb, or Cassie as he supposed he should call himself for now, drifted in and out of consciousness as he watched the trees pass by, his long, dark hair blowing in the warm breeze as his mom’s old beaten up convertible cruised down the old park roads towards the last paved parking area for a good fifteen miles. Without thinking about it much he reached up one hand to push the loose strands away from where they were tickling his nose as they flew about, catching a glimpse of the baby blue nails on his fingers as he did so. This was going to take some getting used to.

“Hey, come on lil’ bro- er, sis, it’s the CANOE TRIP! You know the rules- no feeling down for yourself while we’re out on the water.” He gave his older sister a sneer and flipped her off, but he knew she was right, and that he had better give it a better effort or he’d be in major trouble.

“Hey, none of that now you two. We’re almost there, and when we park your Uncle Robert is waiting for us with the camping supplies and canoes already set, all we have to do is call down and he’ll send your cousin up to get us.” Ruby gave her two ‘daughters’ a glance that said ‘obey me’ before turning back to watch for potholes in the ancient pavement.

‘Cassie’ did his best to show some enthusiasm, but was having a hard time knowing he’d be spending the entire trip this year as a girl. It was his own fault, he knew. He’d been tormenting Kayla mercilessly about how useless she would be out on the river this year now that he’d started to grow up. When asked why he thought she’d be so much dead weight, he’d casually dropped that it was obvious, since she was a girl and he was a boy he’d be stronger than her. This had, of course, led them into another round of one of their old and oft repeated battles; he would lead in with the old ‘male’ arguments, him being man of the house, all that, while she’d insist that being the eldest meant she knew better, and if he wanted to argue about someone’s capabilities based on sex to take it up with Mom. As usual, he’d declined when push came to shove, but she wasn’t letting him get away with it this time. So, after three weeks of Kayla and his mom planning behind his back and another week at the beginning of vacation taking a crash course in girl lessons to try and prepare him for the journey ahead, he now found himself setting out on his family’s annual canoe trip sans masculinity, and was most definitely not looking forward to the reaction from his Uncle Robert and their cousin Jobe.

Not that it took much to make him look passably like a girl. His mom was a beautiful woman, and even at thirty five was often the target of wolf whistles whenever she went out, even from his own friends. Unfortunately her beauty tended a bit more towards the cute end of the spectrum than the glamorous, and topping out at only five foot two and a hundred and five pounds she wasn’t doing him any favors in the size department, and from the stories she’d told him and pictures he’d seen his father hadn’t been much bigger. He still felt bad for his mom whenever he thought about what had happened with his dad; pregnant with Kayla at eighteen she’d quit school and married Henry Wessler. Shortly after having Kayla she managed to get pregnant again, and with how tight things were for her and her nineteen year old husband they could hardly afford a second child on what he was making doing various odd jobs around town. Despite his small size and in a last ditch effort to make things as easy as possible for his wife Henry had signed up for the army in hopes that Grandma Celia, who had kicked her out when she’d first gotten pregnant with Kayla, would let her move in again and help with the children. He never even got to see his own son before he was killed just a few weeks later in a firing range accident, never seeing active duty either. Uncle Richard and his then- wife Louise had let her and Kayla move in with them, and that’s how Caleb had spent the first twelve years of his life, tagging along behind his cousin Jobe as often as possible until Ruby earned her GED and an associates degree from the local community college and moved them three hours away to find a job. One thing they had made sure to keep up with was the annual canoe trip, though- they’d been doing it for as long as he could remember, and he knew there was no way anyone would break the tradition any time soon. So every summer they make the trek down to the Cherokee River camp site for the three week vacation, three days out on canoe followed by two weeks out at the old secluded cabin Richard has managed to find for next to nothing back when Caleb was still in diapers. An old gas generator and a well with a pump provided all the comforts needed, and they were at least a five hour walk through dense woods from their nearest neighbors, with the only access to the old cabin being either from the river or over the old dirt logging roads all over the mountains. In years past they had sometimes drove up to the cabin when the weather looked like it might not hold well, but everyone, even the usually girly Kayla, preferred the more gritty canoeing trip to get in the spirit of things.

He looked over at Kayla one more time to catch her looking at him, and quickly stuck his tongue out at her before turning back around. He had been disgusted to find that he looked almost exactly like her when they’d first decided on his punishment. They had the same tanned complexion, dark hair and dark eyes, even the same nose. So maybe he’d let his hair grow just a little longer than was good for him, but his girlfriends usually liked it that way, said it was sexy to run their fingers through. It was disturbing to find that all he had to do was put on a bit of eyeliner and a padded bra and voila! There stood a copy of his sister. Not that he was ever picked on at school for being girly or anything- he was just kind of, well, small, like his mom and his sister. ‘Compact’ as his mom called it. It didn’t really bother him, and he’d used it to his advantage a few times to get dates with girls who were too intimidated by the larger guys or had been abused. He knew they viewed him as ‘safe’, one of the ones who wouldn’t hurt them, but he liked it that way and worked hard not to do anything that might hurt that image, and more often than not had friends asking him how he did it when they’d walk into the lunch room to find him sitting at a table surrounded by girls. Of course, he’d also been in his share of scuffles after someone or other called him a derogatory word or otherwise questioned his sexuality, but he’d normally come out on top, and when he hadn’t he’d play up his small stature to shift the blame. After all, would someone who was barely over five foot pick a fight with the six three behemoth in the chair beside them if they knew what was good for them? And it would usually work.

The vehicle slowed as it pulled into the large open lot at the entrance to the park, and his mom Ruby turned around and smiled at the two before announcing, “We’re here!” to a chorus of whoops and hollers from the teenagers. Caleb/Cassie looked down at his outfit and shuddered a moment, but determined he’d not let it get to him. After all, who would see him besides family? The gaff thing was uncomfortable, and the fake boobs his mom had insisted on despite having to break into the ‘new car fund’ to get them felt weird glued to his chest, filling out the bikini she’d insisted on all too well for his tastes, the thin blue and white piece of swimwear showing clearly through the thin summer dress she’d allowed him to wear over it. What sixteen year old boy would be caught dead wearing something like this? And on a canoe trip too? They pulled to a stop in the nearest available space to the on site restrooms, the last they would see for the next three days until they arrived at the cabin. Oh, joy.

“You two best go now or forever hold your peace.”

“Race you there sis!” Kayla was out of the car in a flash, hopping over the side in her short shorts and tank top and making a mad dash for the doors, but as Cassie tried to do the same his mother put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Now, be a bit more careful sweetie!”

“But Mom, Kayla just-“

“Kayla wasn’t wearing a skirt! Now, remember?” He grumped as he instead carefully raised himself out of the seat and sat on the upper edge of the back before swinging his legs together over the edge and sliding down, trying to keep his skirt down in the process. His mom gave him a nod of approval. “Good! Go on.” She waved her hands towards the weather worn building where his sister had already disappeared and locked the door, meaning he had to wait until she was out before he could go. He could have just used the boy’s side, as his mom and sister had done on previous trips when the other was already using the girl’s, but he knew his mom wouldn’t allow him that luxury.

Hopefully, he thought as he waited, this wouldn’t be how the entire trip would be.

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2.

Cassie had almost caught Kayla when the sound of rustling bushes drew his attention away from the chase and towards the closest of the myriad paths leading from the parking lot and into the woods in time to see a tall man with closely cropped sandy hair and a pair of faded cutoffs making his way out of the forest and in the direction of their car. Kayla was quicker to react than he and with an exclamation of “Jobe!” tackled their cousin, bringing him to the ground with a low ‘Oof’ and a fit of teenage giggles. Cassie laughed at the tangle of limbs on the ground and strolled over at a more leisurely pace to say hi to his older cousin.

“Hi Jobe!”

“Hi you two! Kayla, Ca...leb…” Jobe gave him an odd sideways look as he lifted Kayla to her feet and stood up, and it took Caleb/Cassie a moment before he understood the older boy’s confusion.

“Eep! Kayla! Give me my dress back!” The chase was on again as his sister took off with a squeal of pretend fear and he dashed after her while trying to hide his blush. He was more than amply aware of the bouncing of the false breasts on his chest as he tried to catch his sibling, along with the tight fit of the bikini bottoms as they tried to crawl their way upwards and show his cousin a lack of things he would rather not think about. When he caught her-

“Hey!” The strong arm caught him unawares and nearly caused him to fall to the ground before he was spun about to find himself face to face with someone’s abs. He looked up… and up… and up… what must have been six feet of solid flesh to see a pair of bright green eyes staring down at him under an unruly mop of black hair. He tried to pull away, but the boy’s hands held firmly onto his biceps as he caught his cousin approaching from the corner of his eye.

“Ah, guys, this is my friend David Monroe. Him, his sister, and their little brother Eric came down with us since their parents are going to Europe or something this summer. David, these are my cousins. The older one over there is Kayla and this is, uh…”

“Cassie!” Kayla called happily as she approached and eyed the youth holding her little brother with an appreciative look.

“Yeah, yeah, Cassie. Uh, David, if you don’t mind letting go of Cal-er, Cassie for a bit, I need to talk to- her.” Jobe shot Cassie a look that told him that yes, they would talk, and if he didn’t like the answers he received that Cassie might not enjoy this trip after all, though that seemed less and less likely as the day went on anyhow.

“Sure,” David replied, and with a final glance downwards- not towards his face, Cassie noted with more than a little disgust- let Cassie go. Jobe started walking towards Ruby, indicating that Cassie should follow, and with more than a little trepidation he did so, snagging his dress from his sister on his way by and throwing it on as quickly as possible.

As soon as he reached the car he was yet again directed by a jerk of a thumb to follow Jobe behind the restrooms. He followed most of the way, but paused for a moment in fear before rounding the corner to the back of the rickety old building. The moment he rounded the corner he was grabbed roughly and slammed into the wall, shaking the entire structure with the impact.

“Just what do you think you’re doing showing up dressed like, like, THAT! Dammit Caleb!”

“It wasn’t my idea! Mom and Kayla, they-“

“What, MADE you dress like that?” Cassie nodded as best he could and tried not to cry as his cousin drove his thumbs deep into his shoulders. “Really?” He nodded again. “Shit!” Jobe pushed himself away and Cassie dropped to the ground from being held nearly a foot and a half up by his cousin. He lost his balance and fell forward into the older boy, who barely caught him before he landed face first in the dirt. “Whoa! Sorry! Jeezus, what happened?”

“It’s kind of complicated.” He rubbed the painful marks on his shoulders, already starting to bruise, while he did his best to explain exactly what happened that brought him on the family trip as a girl, and by the time he finished not only was Jobe no longer angry, but he seemed to be smiling a bit too. From the best of Cassie’s recollection, this was never a good thing. “All right, what harebrained scheme are you cooking up now?”

“I’m not!” Cassie, knowing better, crossed his arms beneath his chest and tapped his foot like he’d seen his mom and sister do when they knew he was lying about something, which caused Jobe’s smile to stretch and contort into a wide grin. “All right, seriously? I was just thinking about how perfect this is for the numbers.”

“Numbers?”

“Sure! There was gonna be four guys and two girls, a bit of a bad balance but I figured we could have made do. Now, since you’re spending the next month like THAT,” he swept his hands over Cassie’s dress to show what exactly ‘that’ meant, “things’ll be a bit more even, ya know?” Cassie could see his point, but-

“Waiddaminute, you’re gonna set me up with one of your friends for the next month? How could you do that to a friend? How could you do that to ME? Come on, Jobe, I might be in a dress, but I’m still a guy!” Jobe gave him a firm stab with a finger in the side of the left breast, and he yelped and jumped back. “Hey! That hurts, you ass!”

“Exactly. You may be a guy under all that, but from where I’m looking,” Jobe made a point of staring down his cleavage, “you can’t tell. Hell, you’re wearing a bikini and I still can’t tell ‘cept that I know you!”

“That’s not the POINT, Jobe!”

“Oh, come on, it’s not like I’m asking you to make out with him or anything!”

“Jobe, that’s NOT the POINT!!!”

“No, THOSE are!” Jobe pointed to the breast forms again. “Hey, do it, don’t do it, I don’t care. But if you’re gonna be dressed like that, one of ‘em’s bound to hit on you sooner or later. Geez, you look just like your sister, and even though she’s my cousin I still think she’s hot, so what does that make you?”

“It makes me NOTHING. I’m. Not. Doing it.” Cassie turned around on one foot and stomped back around the building and made his way towards where his mom was still trying futilely to get the top up on the convertible without help. The motor in the electric top had died before she had ever bought the car, and they had never seen the point of paying to get it fixed when the money could be spent on something important or put towards a brand new vehicle. As it was, they usually left the top down unless it was raining, and even in cold weather preferred to wrap up warm before resulting to using the top, which since the heater refused to work never make a lot of difference. He went around to the other side and began working at the stubborn rusted hinge, and in a few seconds they had the plastic top swinging into place.

“So, does your cousin understand why you’re dressed like that?”

“I think so. Dang it, Mom, didn’t you let Uncle Richard know what you were doing to me?”

“Yes, I did, when I called last week. He didn’t say anything about your cousin having guests, and I’m assuming from Jobe’s reaction he never said anything to him about what I was doing either. Rich always was a bit absent minded.”

“Absent minded? Absent minded! Mom, Jobe’s decided that since I’m supposed to be a girl for the trip he wants to set me up with one of his friends!” The frantic whispering back and forth across the car was giving him a sore throat, but the last thing Cassie wanted was for their unexpected guest to hear that he was a boy dressed like a girl. His mom’s calm manner and measured words only served to upset him- did she not even care? Or was she so out of it she couldn’t see the problem?

“Well, sweetie, it does make sense. Your sister told me while you two were back there about his three friends, and it sounds to me like he’s trying to accept that you’re for all intents and purposes a girl at the moment and trying to treat you like it. Now if we can just get it through YOUR head that you’re a girl-“

“But I’m not-“

“FOR THE TIME BEING, I think this trip can be a lot of fun. I’m sorry this happened, sweetie, I really am, and if I had known about Jobe bringing along friends I would never have had you do this, but I didn’t, and now we ALL have to live with the consequences of it.” She gave him a look that said she really did understand why he was upset as she circled around the rear of the car and stretched out her arms for a hug, which the pretty young man gladly accepted. “And I promise you,” she continued, “when I see your uncle, I’m going to tear him a new one.” Cassie smiled at that. They were still hugging when Jobe made his way back around from the back of the restrooms, and when he saw the two of them he smiled.

“So, are you two done talking or do we need to wait even longer?” Kayla grabbed Jobe in a hug again and started dragging him towards the car where Ruby now had the trunk open and their bags already set out and ready to go. David walked up on his other side and casually slugged his arm before heading towards the car himself, with a small leer towards Cassie.

“You two were gone quite a while. What were you doing back there, or is it all sordid things I should ask about when the mom’s not around?”

“Eww!”

“Dammit, David, h-she’s my cousin!”

“How disgusting!” Ruby stepped forward swiftly and slapped the rude youth across the face sharply, causing him to lose his sneer in exchange for a look of shock.

“Geez, lady, I was only joking!”

“Don’t you EVER talk about my daughters like that again! Jobe, if I hear that he tried anything inappropriate with either Kayla or Cassie I’ll-“

“Don’t worry, Aunt Ruby, I’ll take care of it myself.” Jobe favored David with a look that promised lots of pain in the future, and Cassie almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

Cassie was surprised when Kayla walked up beside him and put her arm around his shoulders before she leaned down towards his ear. “Cute, but a bit of an asshole. I can handle him for the summer and maybe teach him a lesson or two. Hopefully you’ll have better luck with his little brother!” She gave him a quick swat on the butt where neither of the boys could see before she headed over to the pile of bags to grab something light herself as the two boys loaded themselves down with camping gear and the luggage necessary for three weeks ‘roughing it’. “Come on, lil’ sis, time’s a wastin’!”

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3.

The canoes, or more correctly three canoes and the aluminum flat-bottomed fishing boat they used for carrying their equipment, were all pulled up and anchored firmly on the sandy shoal they had always used as a starting point for their trip. While Cassie was loathe to admit it, he had greatly enjoyed the leisurely stroll down to their departure point this year, a big difference from the previous summer when he had ended up carrying a good portion of their goods himself and nearly collapsed from exhaustion when they finally reached the canoes. Instead, this year all he had was a single rucksack that contained the few personal items he had deigned to bring; his MP3 player, a sketch pad, a few pencils with other bits necessary to do his drawings, and a copy of ‘Storm Watch’ he had been meaning to read but not gotten around to yet. It also had another bikini, a pair of shorts, a pair of sneakers, and sunscreen with bug repellent, because you never know what will happen, and despite all his begging his mom had refused to allow any of his boy clothes even as emergency wear. For the moment, though, he could forget all the things he would have to deal with over the next three weeks and just enjoy the sun on his skin and the smell of the trees, with the birds singing as they danced above him, his sundress dancing around his legs-

He wished he had not thought about the dress. It was cool to be sure; he had been surprised that despite covering a good deal more of his body it somehow felt less sweaty than his cutoffs normally would have by this time. But he did not like it anyways. Nope. Not one little bit.

“Ouch!”

“WHOA, watch it!”

“Dude, you ran into ME!”

Cassie smiled again as he watched the two older boys still trying to make it down the path laden down with more than either one should really have been carrying. For a moment he felt a twinge of guilt at not carrying more, but when he thought about what both of them had done so far on the trip already, figured it was the least they were due in the way of preemptive punishment. “Come on boys, we’re waitin’ on you two!” He could not resist a perfectly good chance to rib them when he knew they could not get him. Jobe’s mouth started to move in the beginnings of a return insult, but he was cut short when a long root came out of nowhere to trip him up, sending him sprawling in a spray of pots, pans, and other pieces of camping gear. Cassie started giggling even as another young man made his way up the path from the beach and towards the fallen boy, collecting what he could on the way.

“Thanks Eric.”

“No problem Jobe.”

Jobe managed to make it down the rest of the path in one piece before dropping the now worse for wear goods roughly in the flat bottom boat with a loud metallic clang. “Kayla, Ca-ssie, Aunt Ruby, this is Eric, David’s little brother, and their big sister Emily. Eric and Emily, these are my cousins and my aunt.” Eric looked like a slightly less bulky version of his big brother David, his brown hair buzzed almost completely away and a pair of glasses giving him a very clean, intelligent appearance, which Cassie hoped proved to be true after meeting his brother. Emily on the other hand was a small girl, almost as small as he and his sister were, with honey blonde hair and a cute ‘cheerleader’ build that was only slightly less attractive for her less than enthused attitude. It was obvious from the looks that Jobe was giving her he was completely infatuated, while the looks she returned to him said quite clearly ‘not on your life mister’. He was not sure why, but Cassie felt an almost immediate dislike for the girl before him.

“She’s a stuck up bitch I’ll bet- looks like you’re the only one with any luck.”

“Kayla!” He slapped her on the arm as she backed away giggling, but was too stricken by her words to really give any chase. Instead he turned back around towards the two unknowns to find himself face to face with Eric.

“Um, hi,” said the tall boy, holding out his hand nervously towards Cassie while staring at the ground. Cassie took it carefully, giving it a light grip like his mom and sister had taught him to. Not ‘dead fish’, but gentle and disarming as opposed to a test of strength. Eric seemed to stare even more solidly at the ground for a moment before lifting his own hand away and backing away quickly. Cassie could not help but giggle at the boy’s nervousness, though he could not fathom what the young man might have to be embarrassed about.

Kayla had a smarmy grin on her face as she stepped towards him and started to speak, but was cut off by the girl Emily. “Ugh, I hate stuff like this. Can we get going to the cabin now?” She crossed her arms and tapped her foot- a gesture Cassie recognized as the same one he had used on Jobe earlier- as she eyed the others in their group with another look, this one saying ‘and if I’m not treated like a princess, there WILL be hell to pay.’ Cassie found himself laughing again, which drew a scowl from the girl. He would have to keep an eye on her and the older brother, he decided, though the younger brother seemed like a good guy.

“Allie-OOP! That’s everything!” Uncle Richard looped around from the flat bottomed boat, where he had been loading and lashing down the last of the supplies, and made his way over towards the cluster of kids surrounding his sister. Richard was a man of average size, with brownish red hair that seemed to defy the seeming rule that any man over the age of forty should be going bald, instead bushing out thickly from his head in an unruly mass. He had the same dark complexion as the rest of his family, but while his sister had taken after their half-Hispanic mother in her looks, he took almost completely after their father’s Irish side of the family in almost every other way, making for a very odd mishmash of features that nevertheless combined to make him quite a striking man. He gave his sister Ruby a mighty bear hug, lifting her off the ground, before turning and doing the same to his niece Kayla, causing her to squeal when he did so. When he finally turned to Cassie, his face took on a surprised quirk. “Ah,-“

“Cassie.”

“I know that!” He reached down without a second’s more hesitation and lifted Cassie into the same kind of bear hug he had given both the young man’s mother and sister. Cassie was embarrassed when without meaning to he let out a squeal that matched his sister’s almost perfectly. “Good to see you young ‘un! How’s the big city treating the three of you?”

“Not bad, big brother.” Ruby stepped up on her toes and gave him another hug along with a kiss on the cheek.

“Doing okay on money? I can lend you some if you need-“

“No.”

“All right then.” That was the only thing his mother always seemed to regret about these trips, Cassie mused. His Uncle Richard owned a small but successful construction company back in their hometown of Brighton, and was always trying to get Ruby to accept money to help out, but she always refused. He would still send extravagant Christmas and birthday presents, and found every opportunity to give to them in any way that Ruby could not return or reject, but she remained adamant that she wanted to raise her family on her own merit, not her brother’s money. The check from the government every month still helped pay part of the bills, and whatever they might not manage to cover out of what she made as a clerk at the bank they simply did without. She would not let Cassie or Kayla have a job because she did not want them taking time away from their studying, making the same kind of mistakes she had made at their age.

“So, how’re we gonna split up for the canoes?” Jobe clapped his hands together as he started eyeing the crowd around him, and his gaze settled on Emily.

“Let’s do it in pairs, a guy and a girl,” David recommended, himself eyeing Kayla.

Cassie looked over towards Eric, who was looking oddly interested in the patch of dirt directly before him, and gave a defeated sigh.

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4.

Jobe’s idea seemed to have stuck in the heads of the other members of the party, and Cassie shortly found himself floating down the river paired off with Eric, the two older couples taking the other canoes while the adults occupied the fishing boat, all floating along at a leisurely pace. He had taken the opportunity to change from his dress to the cotton short shorts his sister had leant him for the trip prior to disembarking, and for the only time he could remember since he had first seen them felt grateful that his mother had insisted on quality breast forms and the ugly fleshy gaff-thing over his arguments on cost and only being seen by family. From the wolf whistles he was receiving not only from David but his own cousin as well combined with his own feeling of nakedness, the bikini top just barely covering his fake breasts, he was sure that anything less would have meant disaster in the presence of their guests. A noise from the back of the canoe drew his attention, and he turned to see what had been said.

“What?”

“Oh, uh, nothing.”

“No, seriously, what?”

The young man blushed and sputtered for a moment before responding coherently. “Ah, I was just saying you seem nice is all.”

Now it was Cassie’s turn to blush as he turned around quickly. “Oh. Thanks.”

A few seconds passed, Cassie lazily paddling while listening to Jared laugh as David told him some undoubtedly dirty joke across the space between the two canoes a few yards further down the river, before Eric spoke to him again. “I mean, not like my sister. I mean, not that she’s mean or anything, but she’s kind of prissy and a drama queen like all the other girls she always brings around, and you’re not. Prissy I mean, I mean you didn’t seem like it, all full of yourself and stuff. I mean, you look cool, no, I- dammit!- I…” His voice faltered and faded off, but Cassie could tell from their sudden shot forwards accompanied by furious splashing from behind that he had instead decided to take his frustrations out on the water.

Cassie felt the urge to laugh, but fought viciously with himself to keep it in check, and after a moment finally managed to return a stunted “Thank you.” He was uncomfortable with the idea of some boy tripping over his tongue trying to talk to him, but knowing what it was like on the other side of the fence he tried not to do any of the things that he had always seen hurt his friends. He knew what Eric was trying to say, and could even sympathize with him from a couple of his own early experiences with girls, before they had gotten comfortable around each other. The churning behind the canoe lessened somewhat, and Cassie could imagine he heard a sigh of relief. What the hell, he decided, in for a penny… “You seem nice too.” It was only encouraging the poor boy, he knew, but better to have that than be stuck with a partner who was constantly staring at his toes and afraid to speak, right?

The conversation all around dried up for a long while after as the company concentrated on making headway down the river in the humid summer air. As much as Cassie loved to canoe, the heat was one thing he could always do without, and the sun glaring off the surface of the river made him wish desperately for the sunglasses he had- again- packed in their main bag instead of his knapsack. The only sounds in the air were the soft ‘slap- slap’ of the paddles as they passed through the water and the rustle of wild things hidden in the greenery along the banks to their left and atop the short sandstone cliffs to their right, the gentle whisper of the leaves in the trees above. He gazed around and marveled at the myriad shades of the forest, the greens and browns and yellows with the occasional flash of robin’s egg blue or gentle lavender marking the locations of wildflowers. This was what he loved about these vacations, even more than the chance to relax and spend time with his family, it was the retreat into the natural world that brought a smile to his face whenever he would remember summers past.

“What’re you thinking about?”

“Huh?” Eric’s voice had broke his concentration enough that he faltered in his paddling, but Cassie quickly made to correct the slight err in course that resulted. “Nothing really, just the trees, and the flowers and the water. I love it out here.”

“I can tell.” Eric seemed to have calmed a bit, and Cassie smiled. Maybe he’d be all right to hang around with after all. “This is my first time this far out into the woods, but you look like you’ve been here a lot.”

Cassie sighed contentedly. “Every summer since I was really little. Didn’t Jobe tell you? We come out here every year as a family. Even if we can’t get together twice in the rest of the year, we always make time for the camping trip, it’s our big family tradition.”

“Wow,” Eric responded, impressed. “I hope we aren’t ruining your summer by being here too.”

“Of course not!” Cassie shot him a smile over his shoulder. “The more the merrier. Besides, I don’t think there’s anything, once we get to the cabin, that could ever make me sad.” He mused on the thought of the cabin, thinking about how much fun things would be when they got there. A small frown creased his forehead when he considered what the sleeping arrangements would possibly be like, but he decided that could wait until later to sort out. A thought occurred to him to get the other boy to open up a bit more. “What does your family usually do over the summer?”

There was a pause before Eric started to answer, in a slightly bored voice that Cassie could tell was nothing more than an act. “Nothing much. Mom and Dad usually go off somewhere and leave us with either our grandparents or one of our aunts for a month or so. Last year David and Emily were counselors at a youth camp down the road from our Aunt Lucy’s place, but I mostly just sit around and read.” His voice perked up, and the smile on his face was virtually audible. “But I’ve never got to do something like this. It’s… nice.”

“Yeah, it is.” Cassie thought for a moment. This was obviously something special to Eric. The more they talked, the more he hoped they could be friends for the summer, or at least get along, if for no other reason than that the trips were supposed to be fun for everyone. What would be the point of going if you didn’t try and enjoy it? “So, what kinds of books do you normally read?”

“I’m reading this really good book right now,” Eric said with excitement over a subject he knew, “have you seen that show on SciFi, ‘The Dresden Files’?”

“No.”

“Well, it’s based on this guy’s books about a modern day wizard and all these things he does. I saw the show and it looked cool, so I went looking for the series-“

“That makes me think of the book I brought to read, ‘Storm Watch’ or something like-“

“That’s it! You’re reading it too?”

“Well, I haven’t started it yet,” Cassie confessed, amazed that the two of them were actually reading the same book at the same time, “is it any good?”

“Oh, it’s great! There’s- well, you’ve just gotta read it.”

They passed the next two hours discussing various books they had read, both pleasantly surprised to find that they shared similar tastes in literature. It was refreshing to Cassie to have someone around who could talk to him about literature, since his sister hated Sci-Fi and Fantasy and his mom never had the time to read except during vacation. At last they came to the sand bar that marked the half way point for the day, and under Cassie’s direction slid the canoe up beside the equipment boat to join the others for a picnic lunch, still chattering excitedly away.

---

5.

“Well, it seems you two have really hit it off.” Eric’s eyes turned almost instantly at the sound of his brother’s voice from looking at Cassie’s face to yet again staring at his feet, almost as though a switch had been flipped, shutting him up. The sudden change in the youth’s demeanor worried Cassie, but before he could say something Kayla had already grabbed him from behind and dragged him away.

“Come on, you’re gonna help me make some daisy chains.”

“What? Why?”

“Because, every girl should know how to make a daisy chain, and I know that you don’t, that’s why.” She pulled the young boy in girl’s clothing away from the gathering swiftly and towards a small grassy mound where the wild flowers had made refuge on the water’s edge. After making sure they were out of hearing distance enough to talk, she bent down to begin collecting flowers. “Help me out with this, I wanna talk to you a bit away from everyone else.”

“Oh.” Cassie lowered himself to the ground near where his sister stood and settled onto a long flat stone before searching for appropriate flowers, watching her carefully to see what flowers she chose and which she left to see what kind she needed. “What did you want to talk about?”

“You!” She giggled. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed your flirting with him, ‘sis’.”

“Who?”

“Eric, that’s who! The coy little looks, the giggling, the excitement you’re showing when you talk to him, you are SO flirting!”

“Am not! We’re discussing books!” He watched his sister begin stringing the flowers she had gathered together, slitting the stem of one and sliding the stem of the next through it so that the blooms would lay side by side and connected, until he thought he could do it, and began construction of his own chain. “You know you and mom don’t like the same stuff I do. I’m just having fun talking about something I like.”

“And?”

“And what?” He looked up to see her giving him a wide eyed grin. “Kayla, I’m sure I don’t know whatever it is you’re trying to hint I know, so can you please enlighten me?”

Kayla flumped down next to him on the rock. “You can’t tell? He likes you, and you’re just making it worse. You’re wrapping him around your little finger and he’s already too far gone to notice.” Moving her hands quickly, she tied off her chain in such a way that Cassie could not see any line or seam before settling the finished flowery halo upon her brother’s head. “You’re just too cute, you know that?”

“No way, Kayla. Please, stop tormenting me will ya?” He attempted to tie his own chain off, but was so clumsy about it she took the chain from his hands gently and finished it herself, placing it on her own head.

“Perfect. And I’m not tormenting you, I promise. Honest? I’ve always thought it would be great to have a little sister, and now that I have one even temporarily I’m not gonna waste the opportunity to do all the things I’ve always wanted to with her.” She gave him a warm, sisterly hug. “You make a pretty good brother, and even though we argue a lot you’re not bad considering some of the horror stories I’ve heard from my friends. But even with that I think you can learn a lot being a girl for a while. I’ve really liked teaching you the girl stuff this past week getting ready for the trip, and now that you’re doing it straight through for the next three weeks we’ll have so much fun!”

“Sure, I bet.” Cassie opined, but he smiled and returned the embrace for a moment. “What about Jobe’s great and daring plan to pair us off so he has a chance with Miss Princess?” The two glanced over towards the site where the adults were still trying to dig the necessary food out of the packs from where Jobe had carelessly thrown it into the boat while he and the two elder Monroe siblings lay sprawled at the pebbly edge of the water talking. Eric was reading his book further back from the river while from the looks of things occasionally making sure there was nothing he could do to help.

“I think he’s in for a long fruitless battle on that one, but I’m not gonna try and stop him if it keeps her out of my hair. God, did you see her in that canoe?” Cassie nodded that he had. One reason he had made sure to fall behind the other two had been to get away from Emily’s constant complaining about the heat and bugs. She never even set her paddle to water, instead relying on Jobe to do all the work to move their vessel while she did nothing. “I’m glad he’s after her, ‘cause if I had been riding with her we’d be one camper short by now.” The two laughed together as they spent some time concocting various means of ridding the party of the sour girl, each new method trumping the last in terms of silliness.

“But, but…” Cassie tried to stifle his giggles long enough to change the subject. “But what about David?”

Kayla’s smile quickly turned to a frown as she turned to her little brother. “Oh, he’s a bit of a piece of work, one of those ‘god’s gift’ types if you know what I mean. I guess he’s okay company if you're a guy, but let’s just say I’m not expecting to exchange emails with him when this is all done.” Her smile returned, and she poked him in the side playfully. “Now, you and-“

“Don’t say it Kayla-“

“ERIC, though,” and she set off running and making kiss faces as Cassie chased her back towards the encampment. He drew close enough to take a lunge at her fleeing form, but missed her arm and instead caught the waistband of her shorts, dragging them down as she staggered forwards.

“Girls, stop that! Kayla, I know you’re wearing a bikini but please pull your shorts up! The food’s almost ready, we were just about to call you two back in any case.” Ruby cast a disapproving glare towards the two girls, whose grins refused to waver under the onslaught, though they discontinued their horseplay and settled down to eat.

Richard retrieved Jobe and the others from the beach, while Eric cautiously approached the picnic blanket that both Kayla and Cassie had settled upon and, without looking directly at Cassie, asked, “would it be okay if I sat here?” Cassie scooted over closer to his sister in answer, and still blushing the other boy lowered himself to the stretch of open blanket at the same time the rest of the youths claimed and occupied the opposite side of the blanket, leaving the ends open for the two adults.

It did not take long for the food to disappear with all the campers being hungry from a long day of paddling down the river, and with little to no extra conversation the group packed their camp away and prepared to set off again.

David stopped before climbing into his canoe, and turned around to face the other teenagers who were still behind him. "Hey, I've got an idea! Let's switch partners around for the next leg 'til we stop for camp. I'll take Cassie, Eric can take Emily and Jobe, you can take your cousin Kayla."

Cassie took a good look at David, who, noticing his stare, did obscene things with his tongue. "Uh, no." Cassie stated firmly, before grabbing Eric by the arm and physically dragging him towards the canoe furthest from his older brother.

"Oh, come on, it'd be fun!" David tried to follow the two and grabbed Cassie's arm, but Jobe, to Cassie's surprise, came forwards and picked David up by the shoulders, breaking his grip in the process.

"No, David. That's twice you've messed with Cassie. Come on, man, leave my cousin alone before I regret inviting you on this trip and have to hurt you."

Kayla approached Jobe and with a pouty look asked, "What about me?"

Jobe glanced towards Emily, who was again stamping her foot impatiently, then towards David, who looked like he could not decide whether to be angry or piss himself. With an exasperated sigh, he signalled Kayla towards the middle canoe. "Come on, you're with me."

---

6.

The rest of the day's boat travel went smoothly, the water being high enough thanks to recent rain that several of the usually rougher stretches of the river were much calmer than normal, though Cassie knew that the really fun- and challenging- parts were still ahead. The second day would be rougher than the first, and by the end of the third day they would all be feeling beaten, bruised, and quite ready for a nice clean shower once they had the well primed at the cabin. Then the real fun could begin.

"I'm sorry about my brother."

Cassie turned his attention from the marshmallow he was roasting on his stick across the fire to see Eric preparing a hot dog for the flames. "That's okay, I have to deal with guys like him sometimes at school."

Eric settled on the half-rotted log they had drug up to use as a seat as he let his link of processed meat product char in the flames. "With your looks I bet you have to deal with a lot of jerks like him."

"Oh, you have no idea." Cassie let a small smile cross his face as he considered just how little idea the other boy had. Usually guys like David were a problem because they thought they could get by with hassling him about his height, at least until they would somehow 'accidentally' end up with a black eye or similar injury that they mysteriously could not explain to the school. Sometimes he would even take care of an unwanted guy who just would not leave one of his girl friends alone, some of them- a lot of them- much worse than David. "I can deal with him if I have to, but I've always kinda thought it was better to just avoid guys like that if I can."

His hot dog thoroughly black and crunchy, Eric pulled back to enjoy his piece of charcoal. "I mean, he used to not be like this, even around girls, but the last few months he hasn't been the same, since..."

"Since what?"

"Since Lisa broke up with him." Cassie thought he would be sick when he heard the distinct 'crunch, crunch' of the other boy chewing through the overdone hot dog, but tried to block it out as he blew on his own flaming, dripping ball of gooey goodness.

"Why, what did she do?"

"She was the head cheerleader, back at school. Don't get me wrong, he's always been an ass. But, like, okay, the girls had this new super awesome cheerleader on the team, right?" Cassie nodded. "Well, uh, come to find out she's actually a guy, Dane Phoenix, this really small kid who was in my grade. I kinda knew him, we'd gone to a couple of LAN parties and things together. A lot of people thought he was a girl for a long time. Uh, anyways, David made a nasty comment about 'fags wearing skirts' where Lisa could hear it-"

"That's awful!" Cassie said out loud, thinking of his own situation.

"Yeah, I thought so too, and so did Lisa. She slapped him good, and dumped him on the spot. Now none of the girls on the cheer team will even speak to him, and none of the other girls will go out with him since Dana's always been real good to them."

"Dana? Oh, Dane."

"Yeah. So, now David's kind of fed up with the girls at school and I guess figures if he can't have them he should try to torment them as much as possible. I think his mind just hasn't processed that you two aren't automatically against him- at least, weren't until he started treating you like he does the girls at school now." Eric shifted a bit uncomfortably, as though talking so much and in such great detail had left him out of words for the rest of the night. Cassie, however, had remembered something he wanted to ask.

"SO, like, why did you get all quiet when we got around your brother earlier today?"

"I dunno what you're talking about?"

"At lunch? We landed and were talking, but when we got near your brother you got all quiet again." Figuring his marshmallow was cool enough to start eating, Cassie gingerly reached out his unoccupied hand to free the sticky mass from the stick he had been using to roast it. Popping the entire molten orb in his mouth at once, he could not resist the small 'mmm' sound that escaped as he enjoyed the first marshmallow of the trip.

"He doesn't like to see me talking to girls so much any more." Eric shrugged. "I think he's just kind of jealous that they didn't extend the punishment to me? Like since I'm his little brother I should have to suffer just 'cause he did something monumentally stupid?"

"That doesn't make any sense." Cassie responded curiously before returning part of his attention to the bits of marshmallow still stuck to his fingers and placing a new one on the end of his pronged stick.

"I know." Eric prepared himself a second hot dog, and Cassie had second thoughts about attempting another marshmallow if he had to see another lump of charcoal consumed before deciding the risk was worth it. "But I also think it makes him uncomfortable that I'll still talk to Dane- er, Dana too."

"Does it really bother him that badly?" Eric nodded, and Cassie made a mental note to be extra careful when around David. Then a new thought occurred to him. "What about your sister?"

"Oh, Emily? She's a bit flaky, and a bit of a brat, but the only bad thing I've ever heard her say about Dana was that she thought she should have had the spot on the cheer team over some freshman." Eric grinned. "The only problem there is that she's not any good at cheerleading." The two of them laughed at that while they ate their second treats.

At last, the fire began to die down, and rather than rebuild it from the small stockpile of wood beside his stone seat, Cassie said goodnight to Eric, stood up, and made his way through the darkness to the small pup-tent he was sharing with his older sister.

He was changing out of the shorts and bikini he had been wearing all day and into the boxer shorts and tank top his mom had allowed him for sleepwear until they reached the cabin when he heard his sister grumbling and waking up behind him.

"You finally coming to bed?"

"Yeah, but don't look, I'm changing."

"Not like you have anything I haven't seen before," she giggled as she shined her flashlight directly on him.

"Hey, stop that!"

"Oh, come on, Honey, give me a strip tease! Hey, ouch!" She rubbed vigorously at the spot where he had popped her knuckles even as Cassie picked up the flashlight and turned it off, hiding it under his side of the open sleeping bag they were sharing as a mattress. "You're no fun."

"No, I'm not. Go back to sleep." Kayla muttered something under her breath about 'stupid little sisters' as she rolled over and pulled the second open sleeping bag up around her shoulders, but Cassie did his best to ignore her as he curled up on his side of the 'bed' and tried not to think of anything.

Instead, his thoughts turned to three weeks ago, right at the beginning of summer, when he had first heard about his situation.

~~~

"WHAT! Mom, you can't be serious! Cum'mon!"

"No, I've had about enough of you two bickering, and this time you started it, so you're getting the harsher side of the punishment."

"But moooomm!"

"Don't 'But mom' me!"

"But-"

"AAAaatt! Don't forget, I'm punishing your sister too, not just you. If you keep this up you might find her not receiving any punishment at all!"

Caleb sighed as he admitted defeat. Besides, if Kayla was doing all the outside chores for the rest of the summer that meant he would not have to go out in the middle of the day and get all hot and sweaty. No mowing... no weed-eating... no taking out the trash even. Instead he would be inside, under the nice cool air conditioner helping out with the housework and doing all the 'girl stuff' he had picked on Kayla about so much, which didn't sound so bad.

Until he had learned that he would be dressing as a girl all summer to do it. He looked down in disgust at the frilly lacey concoction in his hand as he pondered just why he now owned a bra. No, not just a bra- BRAS. Plural. And panties, too, though anything else he would be borrowing from Kayla. According to his mom, 'every girl should have her own underwear as sharing is unsanitary.' But how did this apply to him, Caleb, a boy?

"All right, Cassie, it's time to change."

"Cassie?"

"Well you can't be Caleb if you're a girl can you?" Ruby had given him a purely evil look when she said that, and he had felt the first twinges of fear at the gleam in her eyes as she continued, "From now until the end of summer, whenever we are home you will be Cassandra Deanne Wessler, or Cassie for short. You're lucky I'm not making you do this for the canoe trip too!"

Of course, that had changed when he tried defying her a few days later by coming downstairs dressed in his normal clothes and refusing to change. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions," he said. "You can't make me do it if I don't want to," he said. "I'm practically an adult now," he said.

Since then not only had he not been allowed a single stitch of boy's clothing unless it was deemed absolutely necessary by his mom, but she had also guilt tripped him with the cost of the breast forms and weird fleshy gaff thing, both of which he would be paying for with his meager weekly allowance for- well, a lot longer than he cared to think about.

---

7.

"Wake up sleepy head!"

"Gngh... go away."

"Waaaaaake uuuuuuup...." Something tickled Cassie's nose, but moved quickly out of the way when he went to swat it before returning to tickle him again.

"Nooooo... 'mashleep..."

"If you're not out of bed in- oof!" Cassie returned his pillow to its rightful place beneath his head before dozing off again for a few seconds. "Well, if you're gonna be that way about it."

"YEEEE!!!" The foghorn did the trick, and if it had not been for her rapid exit Cassie was sure he would have ripped his sister limb from limb. "Kayla, you bi-"

"Language!" Ruby warned from outside the tent.

"-ig ugly witch," Cassie finished, correcting himself quickly when he realized the adults were already up and about. He crawled out of the tent and made his way barefoot over to the campfire where the smell of bacon and eggs had not only him but all the other campers drooling. "Sorry mom."

Ruby gave her youngest a hug before going back to preparing their breakfast on the large flat rock she was using as a hotplate. "Food's almost ready. You're always a grump in the mornings, I know."

"That's why I brought the fog horn this year," Jobe made the mistake of adding, and before he could so much as move a flying tackle from Cassie sent both him and his cousin rolling down the embankment and into the river.

"Is she always so violent?" Emily pushed Kayla ahead of her out of her tent, where the other girl had run to hide from the wrath of her supposed sister. "Eww, is that bacon? I only eat fresh fruit for breakfast." Emily turned up her nose at the smell assaulting her, but her watering mouth belied her interest.

"Well you'll just have to change your ways today, 'cause you'll be needing the energy," Richard answered her, while grinning like a maniac and happily biting into the first crunchy strip as Ruby placed more to sizzle and pop while the grease ran down the dip in the stone to flavor the eggs. "We're setting out in about an hour and a half, as soon as we're packed up."

"You two need to change before you eat," Ruby admonished both Jobe and Cassie as they climbed back up the short embankment, thoroughly soaked from the short wrestling match. "Especially you, young lady."

"Me?" Cassie gestured at himself before looking down. Noticing the nipples of the breast forms sticking out prominently through the soaked tank top, the areolas being obvious through the thin white material, he let out an embarrassed "Eep!" before running off towards the tent where Kayla was already busy changing.

"Hey, what are you- HEY!"

"Kayla, I need clothes!"

"Those are MINE!"

"Kayla!"

"CHILDREN!" Ruby's voice cut through the bickering like a hot iron through butter, not only silencing Cassie and Kayla but the burgeoning conversations of the other teens around the fire as well. Richard just continued humming to himself as he munched another piece of bacon and started on his third egg.

"Sorry mom." The two teens responded in unison. Shortly after, both emerged in fresh bathing suits and shorts with their hair pulled back, looking a good deal more prepared to face the day as well as chastised, if not completely at peace with each other.

"We need to separate you two. Eric, come sit between my girls." The young man just rising from his own tent looked on confused, roused by the promise of greasy, delicious bacon only to find himself being pulled into the middle of a sibling argument. Eventually the bacon won out, and he dropped himself unceremoniously between the two apparent girls, one of whom was eyeing him enviously as he sat in nothing but boxers.

"Careful you don't burn a hole in his underwear staring at them like that lil' sis."

"Kayla!"

"GIRLS!!! If I have to warn you one more time..."

"We'll make you sit with David," Jobe said, drawing a punch in the side from his friend and a small scream from both Cassie and Kayla as they both promised not to fight any more.

---

8.

Uncle Richard had declared the partnering arrangements for the day, and as they set off that morning the various watercraft were split Richard and Cassie, Eric and Kayla, Jobe and David, and finally Ruby and Emily in the flat bottomed boat, where the teenage girl was learning first hand that while she might be able to get the boys to paddle for her, Ruby was having none of that, resulting in more than a few grumbling complaints as she was forced to take up her share of the rowing.

They had not been on the river long when a word from Uncle Richard had him and Cassie falling back behind the rest of the group to talk.

"So, kiddo, how're ya holding up?"

"With the whole girl thing, or the paddling?"

"I dunno. Both. Neither. Just tryin' to make some small talk is all."

"I'm doing fine, Uncle Richard. At least, I guess I'm doing as fine as I can."

A few seconds of silent paddling passed in which Cassie was vaguely distracted by a passing mother duck with her young in tow. Uncle Richard did not seem in any hurry to catch up to the rest of the group, though, and Cassie knew that he would eventually want to talk more.

It did not take much longer for the tension to break. "That was a bit, uh, interesting when you came out of the water this morning."

"How?"

"Well, you looked pretty, ah, convincing."

"You mean my tits right?" Cassie could feel the heat from his uncle's blush even across the distance between them in the canoe. "Mom insisted I be as realistic as possible once she decided to go whole hog."

"She certainly did that. But really, are you doing okay? I can let you spend the rest of the summer at my place if you need to..."

"No Uncle Richard." Cassie spun around on the canoe seat, so he was face to face with his uncle, but kept up with his paddling in reverse. "Thanks for the offer, but I guess I did get myself in this situation."

Richard laughed. "Yup, you did at that. From how you've already been using it, though, I think you've already learned your lesson."

"What's that?"

"That a man can never argue with a woman and hope to win."

Cassie started to laugh along with his uncle until what Richard had actually said came through. "Hold on, what do you mean 'the way I've been using it'?"

Richard gave him a serious look for a moment, even stopping paddling to hold his chin in his palm, before letting his face break into another grin. "You're tellin' me you can ask that question and not know exactly what I'm talkin' about?"

Cassie thought about the question for a moment before he realized what his uncle was saying. "Oh, so you're not going to answer me because you can't without losing the argument?"

Richard leaned forwards and gave him a fatherly pat on the shoulder. "There now, see? You're thinking like a girl already."

Fighting hard against the urge to smack his uncle with his oar, Cassie instead chose to spin back around to face forwards, attempting to beam the words 'I ignore you' straight into his uncle's brain.

His plan was even successful for about a half a second, when his uncle just had to say, "Damn, even turn on the ice just like a girl."

"You JERK!" For that, Cassie decided, his uncle must pay. "Who's your current girlfriend?"

"Why?"

"'Cause I'm gonna call her and let her know just how much of a mean, vile old man you are, picking on your 'niece' like that!"

"You know, I bet the boys would love it if I untied your bikini top right now."

"PERVERT!" He almost spun around in his seat again, but the raucous laughter of his uncle was making it hard to keep a smile off his own face. Their canoe raced forwards to join the rest of the throng to Cassie's repeated calls of "PERVERT PERVERT PERVERT!" and his uncle's continuing laughter.

Soon they found themselves at the front of the group, with the others lagging slightly behind. Richard leaned forwards conspiratorially and asked Cassie in a stage whisper, "you wanna start a race?" Cassie nodded and set himself ready, paddling furiously the moment his uncle announced, "Aaannnd they're OFF!" It did not take but a few strokes for the other two canoe teams to pick up what was happening and set chase, the two younger men catching up quickly while Kayla and Eric pulled into a close third. They kept the pace up for another quarter of a mile before Richard called a halt.

"Why'd we stop?" Eric asked in between gasps.

"The rapids section is just a little bit further on. Hear that roaring sound?" The teenagers all nodded before Richard continued. "Okay, up until now I've let ya'll get by without life jackets since you can all swim and we haven't been anywhere really rough, but that changes now. Life jackets- ON!" As one the entire group, including Ruby and a disgusted looking Emily, pulled the dirty yellow life vests out from under their seats and buckled them on, pulling the straps taught as they did so. "If there's any second thoughts about this now, too late, last chance out was yesterday morning." The roar was growing louder as the current continued to pull their craft toward the rocky whitewater even without their paddling.

Even having prior warning and experience, the majesty of those first rapids always took Cassie's breath away. Looming up in the distance like a second, misty horizon, the short drop down to the next stage of the river was a scary unknown the first time you went down it. Cassie suddenly saw the reason behind his uncle's splitting of the teams, guaranteeing that one of the more experienced campers was with each of the newcomers and had control of their respective canoes. Cassie nervously wiped the sweat from his eyes and forehead before gripping his paddle tightly, knowing that the first test of the trip was right ahead, drawing steadily closer.

"On the right!" His uncle called with a gleeful note in his voice, and Cassie quickly threw his paddle to that side, rowing furiously to turn the craft away from the jutting stones threatening to take them under.

"More right, Uncle!" Using his paddle like a pole he pushed away from a second series of rocks before screaming, "Left!" Using all his strength to propel the slim and craft away from the looming bed of sharp stones and sand bars that had suddenly appeared. Just ahead was the fall- just another fifteen feet, and then down about a foot and a half and they would be clear of the first obstacle, though there would be no more wide open spaces to the river for the next two hours at least. The cool spray as the water splashed up through the narrow passages between the rocks and down onto his face felt good, but he knew that after they got through canoeing today he would have to check on the contents of his backpack.

"Eeeek!" Cassie turned slightly to see Emily lose her paddle to a root sticking out into the water as the flat bottomed boat made its way down the least treacherous part of the rapids and towards the barely submerged sand bank that would let them get out and drag the boat around the edge of the waterfall. He fully expected more screams when Emily found that there was a nest of crayfish in the bank, but did his best not to let his thoughts leave the tricky bit of steering ahead of him.

"You ready?"

"Yeah!"

"Three, two, one, over!" With a final desperate attempt to keep the canoe away from the more dangerous rocks both above and below the fall, they went over the edge, just for a moment balanced precariously between the upper and lower river before, with a mighty splash, they landed complete and more than a little damp at the foot of the fall. "Whoo-eee!"

"Hahah!" Cassie reached back and gave his uncle a quick high five before navigating down to the first rest stop of the day, a small beach just downstream from the waterfall that gave a perfect view of the turbulent waters, which also happened to be the last easily accessible rest area before that night's camping stop.

Richard hopped from the canoe and stretched before grabbing Cassie up in a powerful bear hug. "I NEVER get tired of that! Ah, the first thrill of the trip, not to be the last!" He spun Cassie around a couple of times before setting him back down, slightly dizzy but none the worse for wear, on the sand to wait for the rest of their crew.

Jobe and David were the next two down, bumping repeatedly into rocks and turning sideways as they fought each other for control of the craft, working against one another rather than together and ending up sideways as they went over the fall, nearly toppling over and spilling themselves in the river. They barely were out of the way before Kayla and Eric came down behind them going a good deal faster than Cassie and Richard had been and managing a half second's air time before themselves falling to the river below, slapping smoothly into the water and turning to slide up the beach beside Cassie and Richard ahead of the older boys, who were stuck trying to paddle in opposite directions around a rock caught on the nose of their canoe.

"Hey, you two, hurry up and get over here!"

"As soon as this idiot stops fighting me," Jobe freed a hand from his paddle long enough to smack David upside the back of his head, which coincidentally freed their canoe from its stalemate and let it slip in the direction David was still paddling.

"I know how to use a stupid canoe, okay?"

"I'm senior camper here, you need to listen to me on this river!"

The brewing fight was cut short when a high pitched scream followed by a metallic 'clump' and a repeated "Get it off get it off get it OFF!" signaled that Emily had found the crayfish.

---

9.

"That was AWESOME!" Eric was hyped up on the experience of whitewater canoeing, bouncing around with the adrenaline rush from fighting his way down the river and ready to go again, a feeling that Cassie could relate to. Full of nervous energy himself, Cassie was pumped for a different reason.

"Uncle, are we doing it again this year?"

"What? Oh, I don't know." Richard looked from Cassie to each of the other members of their troupe, sizing them up. "Mmm, not on the trip out, but I'll take you out some time this week or next if you want to."

"Yesss!" Cassie pumped his fist in the air and jumped up and down a couple of times before rushing forwards and giving his uncle a huge hug and, on impulse, a kiss on the cheek. "Thanks Uncle Richard." Spinning away from the slightly shocked man, he laughed a bit as he skipped back a couple of paces, happy enough to willingly embrace a little bit of girlishness for once. "Who's coming with me?"

"What are you going to do?" Eric stepped forwards bravely, after having conquered the waterfall feeling he could do anything.

Cassie and Kayla replied in unison, "The Cliff of Death!" Kayla was as excited as Cassie, and embraced her younger sibling while giggling excitedly.

Eric gulped a little nervously, no longer feeling so brave as a moment before. "The, The Cliff of Death?"

"Sure!" Cassie grabbed him by the upper arm and pulled him over to a better vantage point to see a large, nasty looking outcropping of rock jutting up from the woods a few miles away. "That's it over there, we call it The Cliff of Death 'cause the first year we found it there was this like totally old human skeleton down at the foot of it!"

"No we didn't! Cassie!" Kayla came forward and grabbed the youth's other arm. "She's lying to you. There were two human skeletons, one of them was still wearing a pair of cowboy boots and the other was-"

"Hey hey hey you two, stop trying to scare the poor boy!" Ruby came up from behind and pushed the two 'girls' away from Eric, who now looked thoroughly green. "Don't listen to them, honey. It's just a big rock the girls and their cousin and uncle like to go repelling from. They've got several crampons set permanently in the stone and Richard double checks them every year before letting the girls go climbing, so it's perfectly safe as long as you're careful." She glared at her two children who stood back pouting like she had broken their favorite toy. "And just for THAT, you two are taking the flat bottom tomorrow."

"No!"

"Mom!"

"Ruby, I don't think-" Richard started, but his sister cut him off with a sharp look she normally reserved for her children, the distraction in her attention giving Kayla a chance to whisper something in Cassie's ear, causing his face to light up.

"But mom," Kayla started in a pathetic whine, "we're just girls, you can't expect US to do that!"

"Yeah, why can't the boys do it, they're stronger than we are!" Cassie followed his sister's lead, even going so far as to give Jobe a pathetic look asking for help.

"They'd have no trouble doing it!" Kayla said, and out of the corner of her eye caught both Jobe and David puffing up at the praise of their masculinity.

Then David stepped right into it. "We don't mind, Miss Wessler, really!" Jobe caught on to what was happening, but David continued on before he could stop him. "We'll do it, you don't have to make the girls!"

Ruby sighed. "Alright," she cast a look at her two 'daughters' that told them in no uncertain terms that they had won the battle but the war was far from over. Then she smiled an evil smile. "If you two really want to carry the flat bottom through the woods and let the girls have your canoe, I can't stop you."

"Wait, what?" Jobe smacked David upside the back of his head for at least the third time that day, making Cassie wonder if the two really were friends or not.

"You just volunteered to carry the boat. It can't make it over some of the rougher water ahead very easily, at least not loaded down like it is without losing a lot of our things, so it has to be hauled down the trails to the end of the rapids. Usually either me or Jobe and Richard do it, but since you were so kind..."

The look of horror growing across David's face was, Cassie later decided, even better than the one on Eric's face when she had told him the story about the dead body. The big difference was that what her mom was saying was true.

"That's enough rest. Back to the boats!" Cassie climbed in front while Richard shoved their canoe in the water, and soon they were off again for the last leg of the day.

---

10.

"Whoo, I'm bushed." Cassie stretched as far as he could before standing up from the camp fire. "I'll see everybody again in the morning."

"Good night, sweetie."

"'Night Cassie."

"Yeah." He yawned noisily before shuffling sorely the few feet back from the fire to his tent, where Kayla was already laying down reading. "Do you always go to bed early when we're on these trips?"

"I learned a couple of years back that I feel better in the mornings if I go to bed a bit early. Since there isn't much to do after sundown when we're out in the woods until we get to the cabin except talk, and that's mostly what we do when we're at the cabin too, I just figure I might as well make the canoeing part as easy on myself as I can." She marked her place in her book before turning back to watch Cassie finish changing. "Though there is one thing I'd like to talk to you about tonight, if that's okay."

He was tired, but knew what she probably wanted to talk about. Oh well, he thought, might as well get it over with. "Sure." He crawled under the covers himself, rolling over to face his sister. "Shoot."

"How do you feel about being a girl?"

He sighed. "I'm not really a girl, Kayla. You know that."

"Might as well be. You know Mom isn't treating you any different than she does me."

"I know. I dunno, it's weird. I'm a boy, but here I am with tits and a, uh- looking like a girl. Since Mom told me that I'd be spending the entire trip as a girl with this stuff stuck on me I'd been really nervous, but it's actually been kinda anticlimactic. Like, it's actually easier to deal with NOT being able to take the boobs off, you know?"

"Yup. I've never been able to take mine off."

"Oh, har de har har." He slapped her playfully on the shoulder. "Seriously. You try being a boy who has to pretend to be a girl for the summer."

She seemed lost in thought for a moment. "Maybe that's your problem."

"And how do you figure that?" He was curious about what she might have in mind, while also being nervous that he would not like what she might have to say.

"You're pretending to be a girl. Maybe, instead of thinking 'I'm a boy pretending to be a girl for the summer', you should just be thinking 'I'm a girl for the summer.' You know?"

He pondered what she had said. "I think so. Like, don't be a boy dressed as a girl, just, like, be a girl? I dunno, does it work that way? I think therefore I am?"

"Sounds good to me." Kayla yawned sleepily, her eyes drooping. "I think, therefore I'm a yam." She giggled. "Good night, sis."

"Good night Kayla." He gave his sister a hug, but instead of going right to sleep decided he needed to think through what she had said a bit more.

'I think, therefore I am. A girl? Hi, I'm Caleb Wessler, I'm sixteen years old, and I'm a boy." He breathed a heavy sigh, and braced himself for discomfort. 'Hi. I'm Cassandra Deanne Wessler. I'm sixteen years old, and I'm a girl. You can call me Cassie.' Not too bad, he thought, just a little more work and it might just work. 'Hi, I'm Cassie Wessler, I'm sixteen years old, and I'm a girl.'

'Hi, I'm Cassie Wessler.'

'I'm a girl.'

'I'm sixteen years old.'

'I'm a girl.'

'Cassie is a girl.'

'I'm Cassie.'

'I'm a girl.'

'I'm a girl.'

'I'm a girl.'

'I think I can handle this,' he thought as he- no, 'she,' fell asleep, repeating her mantra over and over, trying to believe it.

---

Notes: Unedited, unproofed, untested. This is the first ten 'chapters' of the massive story I began for the Summer Romance contest. Thoughts? Editing ideas? Fleas? All are welcome. *scratch scratch scratch*

Boys of Summer 11-15

Melanie E.

---

One summer never ends,
One summer never begins,
It keeps me standing still,
It takes all my will,
Then suddenly, last summer,
Then suddenly, last summer...

The Motels- Suddenly Last Summer

---

11.

Cassie squeezed his eyes shut against the bright sunlight streaming in through the open tent flaps.

'No. I'm a girl for the summer. Might as well get used to it.' He... She gently rubbed the sleep from her eyes, listening to the sound of the birds chirping in the trees outside, along with a soft 'pat pat pat' along the roof of the tent. Rain? He, 'drat, think GIRL!' She sat up and reluctantly opened her eyes to see that the sun was not near as bright as she had first thought. "Kayla, can you PLEASE take that flashlight away from my face?"

"And a good morning to you, too! At least it wasn't the fog horn again."

"Yeah, yeah. Is it raining?"

Kayla turned the light off, sending the room into a state of shadowy near-darkness. "You just now noticed? It was thundering pretty good last night about three. Uncle's been listening to the National Weather Service on the emergency radio, seems a line of storms moved in more quickly than they were expecting. It's not really supposed to set in until tonight, when we should already be at the cabin, but we're gonna be pretty well soaked today all day." She pulled the top sleeping bag away from Cassie before she could react and grab it, and started folding it to put away. "Did you pack anything for rain or are we gonna have to dig it out of the boat?"

"Oh, nooo!" Cassie whined, remembering too late that her rain jacket was stuffed in with her clothes for the cabin. "I should have grabbed it when I got my sunglasses out!"

"Well, it just so happens..." Kayla whipped a bright pink jacket from her bag and presented it smugly to Cassie. "Voila!"

"Uh," Cassie took the offensively girly piece of clothing from her sister with a look of disgust. "What's this?"

"Your rain jacket! Mom pulled it last night and gave it to me this morning when I came out to give you." She giggled happily.

"I don't remember it being this... pink, before." It was a sturdy rain jacket, and she recognized it as her sister's old one that had been replaced just this year. It was in much better shape than her own military-green monstrosity, which in the past two years had did less to keep her dry and more just managed to keep her uncomfortably damp but not soaked.

Kayla frowned at her, looking slightly disappointed. "Well, I thought you'd appreciate it, but if you want I can see if mom has your old one stored away."

No, no, that's okay, I do appreciate it, really!" Now feeling very guilty, she took the rain jacket and held it tightly. "I just wasn't expecting it, is all. I'm still getting used to all this, Kayla."

Kayla hugged her sister comfortingly. "I know. Just wait, next year you'll get a new one since I got it this year." She giggled for a moment before continuing. "Look at it this way, it's less embarrassing wearing it since you're a girl than if you were still Caleb!"

"That's for sure!" Cassie had to giggle along with her big sister as they changed into the cargo shorts and thin long sleeved tops Kayla had brought back for the wet weather. Cassie was tempted to skip the sports bra in the stack of clothing her sister handed her, but recalling trying that the day after they had first attached the breast forms changed her mind.

"Good girl."

"Shut up, Kayla."

Breakfast that morning consisted of granola bars and water since nobody had thought of covering the wood or fire the night before to prevent the rain from soaking through, and all the campers were feeling less than chipper as they completed packing up the last of the camp. That day's boat assignments were Kayla and Cassie, Ruby and Eric, and Richard and Emily, with a less than happy Jobe and David bringing up the rear in the flat bottomed boat, now sporting a large blue tarp wrapping and covering the more water-sensitive cargo.

Richard stood up in his canoe, rocking it violently and causing Emily to squeak as she gripped the sides fearfully. "Okay, people, last leg of the trip! We got about six more hours to go, give it eight for the rain and maybe a bit more if it picks up a lot. Jobe, you two will be pulling off in about an hour, you know the spot where we usually stop? Good. We'll meet up with you at the normal spot, and the last two hours or so we'll all be together as a group again. Oh, one more thing." And with that, he placed his right foot on the side of the canoe and tipped it over sideways, spilling him and Emily both into the water before the teenage girl had a chance to scream.

"Hey, no fair!" Cassie called as she laughed, watching her uncle stand up in the knee-high water and right the canoe before lifting a thoroughly soaked and unhappy Emily back into her seat, then climb carefully in himself, watchful not to tip it over again.

"Why did you do that!" Emily screamed and slapped Richard across the face, who was luckily in too good a mood to even care.

"We get the shower first when we get to the cabin now! Oh, yeah, ouch!" Rather than do anything that would cause problems, Richard picked up his paddle and started the procession. It was an old family rule- first team to get dumped in the water gets the first showers since they were more than likely the most miserable. Cassie and Kayla usually won the honor some time during that very last day, being the youngest and least experienced with their canoe, but once in a while either their uncle or cousin would 'cheat' to get it, the downside being that you would also have to be the ones to prime the well pump, something Cassie never liked having to do.

"Come on, lil' sis," Kayla whispered in her ear, "let's show them we don't need the showers first by making it all the way down to the cabin without flipping this year!" Kayla's hand appeared over Cassie's shoulder, and she quickly reached up and squeezed it to agree with her sister.

"Let's do this!" The two set off as quickly as their paddles would take them, closing the distance between their canoe and that of their uncle in record time before surpassing him. Cassie was delighted to realize just how large of a disadvantage her uncle was at having Emily in his canoe- like with the boys, she was refusing to help paddle, and instead sat with her arms crossed and a put-upon pout on her face, playing the 'spoiled princess' role to the hilt.

"Geez, she doesn't have a fun bone in her body, does she?" By now they were well ahead of the others, and Kayla wanted to talk. "Not like her little brother, huh?"

"What? Oh, come on, Kayla, not THIS again."

"Oh hohoh, yes! Did you know that the entire time we were canoeing together yesterday all he talked about was you? 'Cassie this' and 'Cassie that.' It was kind of sweet really."

"Really?" Cassie frowned, not sure if she liked the idea of a boy liking her.

"Really, really. Does that weird you out?"

Cassie paddled on in thought. "Yeah, a bit. Don't you feel weird about it? A boy liking me?"

"Hmm." Kayla laughed. "Not really."

"Why not?" The river was getting rough up ahead, and Cassie wanted to finish the conversation before they had to stop just so they could keep their concentration on the river.

"Because I already know at least one guy at school who likes you too, and I guess talking to him desensitized me to the idea."

"WHAT!" Cassie stopped paddling and jerked around, nearly turning their canoe over. "Who? He's gay, right?"

Kayla laughed again, a sound Cassie was starting to dislike. "Nope. Okay, he's bi. What, it never struck you that even as a guy you're a little hottie? You DO take after me and mom, you know."

"Oh, so now I look like a girl even as a guy?"

"No, not particularly. I mean, he knows you're a guy, but a lot of the girls at school think you're cute too, something in the water or something."

"Shut up."

"Yes ma'am." Now the hard part of the trip was just starting, and as they tackled the first big set of rapids, the sky opened up above them. The storm had arrived early.

---

12.

"This sucks."

"Tell me about it." Kayla grimaced as she tried to force the canoe a little higher above her head. The rain had begun to come down in sheets, preventing any of the campers from seeing far ahead, and when they had reached the stop for Jobe and David to pull off and carry the boat their Uncle Richard had concluded that it would be safer for everyone to stick together and take the journey on foot. That had been an hour ago, and Kayla and Cassie were both feeling the toll of two days of paddling combined with the weight of the wood canoe.

"Alright, let's take another break, then we'll switch shifts." Richard dropped his canoe unceremoniously beneath one of the dryer clusters of trees surrounding them on the rough trail through the forest, marked out years ago on one of their first canoe trips. "You boys doing okay so far?"

Jobe wheezed towards his father in response, rain dripping from the hood of his jacket.

"Well, the girls can take the next shift, can't you Cassie?"

His saying her name not having registered at first, Cassie's sigh of relief as she sat her canoe down quickly turned to a whine of panic. "Who? What? US! But Uncle Richard!"

"Hahah! Have fun, girls!" David slapped her roughly on the back, toppling her into her sister. "Oops! Sorry!" He turned towards Jobe, who was staring daggers at him yet again. "Hey, man, I didn't mean to!"

"They're just girls, man, you can't be rough with them like that. What's gotten into you lately?"

"Hey, waiddaminute here!" Cassie stood up angrily. "Are you saying I'm weak or something?" Jobe cowered back slightly under her steely gaze. "What, just 'cause I wear a bra all of a sudden I can't stand up for myself?"

"Cassie, come on, I didn't mean it like that-"

"Yes you did!" Now both Jobe and David were wearing similar penitent expressions, one afraid of the teen ball of fury in front of him, the other afraid of what the first would do should he say anything. "God, Jobe, you're such a..." Cassie stopped herself, shocked by what she was about to say.

Seeing her expression change suddenly from insulted anger to one of confusion, Jobe risked a "What?"

Her expression hardened again, showing no more of her confused and disturbed feelings. "You're such a boy," she finished lamely, before plopping back down next to her sister.

"Well, yeah?" Jobe gave her one of his patent sideways grins. "I kinda noticed."

"IF you two are DONE," Ruby interrupted the escalating battle with a hard stare at each of the two teens. "Now, I think I've had enough of all this fighting! Cassie, stop being such a little snot towards your cousin. And Jobe, I expected Cassie and Kayla to do this kind of thing to each other, but you? Now, I know you were just trying to help, but Cassie isn't a little kid any more, she's a young woman and you need to respect her." While her words were aimed at Jobe, Cassie could feel her mom's eyes boring into her, driving the reason behind her own punishment home.

For her part, Cassie was in no state to argue with her mom, too upset by what she had been thinking to truly worry about the reprimand. 'Did I really just SAY that? I guess I really am learning something from all this- hopefully nothing that gets me beat up.'

It was less than a quarter hour later that Richard called for the group to pick up their boats and head out, and with some reluctance Cassie abandoned her canoe and took up the right hand rope attached to the nose of the flat bottomed boat. A gentle tap on her shoulder drew her attention away from the upcoming misery of dragging the large weight down the trail and towards Eric, who was standing behind her self-consciously staring at his feet.

It was hard to hear his mumbling through the rain, but Cassie could just make out Eric's words. "I can take your shift pulling the boat if you want."

"Really?" Cassie asked him, disbelieving of the offer.

Eric smiled slightly, lifting his eyes to her face for just a brief moment before turning his attention back to his feet. "Yeah, I don't mind, really."

Cassie, in another fit of impulse, leaned forwards and gave the young man before her a small hug. "Thanks, but I don't think Uncle Richard OR my mom would like it if I let you do that. Besides," she laughed, "you'll get your chance to pull this thing all too soon, believe me." She watched him as he blushed and turned away to rejoin her mom, who gave her an odd look, at their own canoe before returning to the flat bottomed boat.

"I told you he liked you, didn't I?" Kayla poked her in the side when she drew within range, and they both began the long walk to the next rest stop, trying and for the most part failing to ignore the rain that had by now thoroughly drenched everything around them.

"Kayla, stop it, please?"

"What, I'm just sayin' is all." Kayla laughed at the obvious discomfort of her 'little sister' with the idea of a boy having a crush on her. "Best get used to it lil' sis, this is the kind of thing sisters do." A particularly stubborn root caused the two to have to devote their energy towards getting the boat 'up and over', effectively braking the conversation while they concentrated on the path ahead, searching for more possible pitfalls.

After making sure the trail was more or less clear of further obstacles, Cassie turned to her sister. "How do you know about what sisters do anyways?"

"Friends, talk shows, and the Lifetime channel," Kayla answered snottily, causing both girls to snort and cackle.

"Yeah, next thing I know you'll have me painting your toenails while we discuss our favorite brands of lip gloss or something."

"Hah! Not likely! Emily might want to get in on something like that, and I don't know if I could handle that conversation with you in any case." Kayla reached over and gave Cassie a pat on the head. "But if you wanna do pedicures, I've got this really gross sore on my heel where I stepped on a broken shell yesterday that-"

"Eww, Kayla, that's disgusting! I don't want to hear this!"

"Well, if you're sure..."

"YES!"

Kayla laughed again, and continued to laugh as they made their way down the trail a steady distance behind the others, talking all the way.

---

13.

Having decided on holding off on any large meals until they were safely ensconced within the cabin, the campers settled on small periodic snacks of granola bars and water to tide them over while they made their way through the vertical river of rain, only growing worse the further they moved, sticking to the river as best they could to keep from losing their direction.

Teams hauling the flat bottom boat were swapping out in roughly half hour shifts, and by Cassie’s best estimate they had been moving on foot for about four hours. Everybody was wet and miserable, with no end in near sight as the worsening weather caused more and more delays in getting to the cabin. Cassie hoped they would be in before nightfall, but with how dark the sky was staying thanks to the unexpected storm she had a strong suspicion that they would most likely be stubbing their toes in the shadows long before they ever saw their goal.

“Okay folks, let’s take another rest.” Her uncle dropped the cord where he had been taking his own shift hauling the flat bottom monstrosity through the thickening mud and compost of the forest trail they were traveling on. Of everyone on the camping trip Cassie knew her uncle was both the hardiest and most experienced camper there, and with how storm battered and drained he was beginning to look she loathed catching sight of her own reflection. “Ruby and Eric, your shift is up next. Think you can handle it?” Cassie saw both her mother and Eric nod exhausted assent to her uncle.

Even with having to lug so many heavy objects through the woods Cassie was happy. She loved rain, she loved these woods, and she loved the cabin that was waiting their return at the end of the journey. She could just imagine arriving and beginning the unpacking of the food her uncle and cousin had already dropped off. It was not uncommon for her uncle to take his truck up to the cabin a few days early with plenty of food and other things they would need for such a long stay. He had an ancient freezer he could load into the back of his truck, an old ice- block type that he used to haul the food out and store it in until they arrived. The truck would stay at the cabin in case of an emergency, and from what both he and their cousin Jobe had explained to her he would take those first couple of days to really ‘rough it’ before the rest of their entourage, Jobe included, even set out for the meeting spot.

She reflected on that for a moment, and her uncle’s tiredness suddenly took on a whole new dimension. She thought she was tired? He had been out in the woods for close to three days before coming back to the meeting spot for them! Now that Jobe was old enough to drive on his own he would not even have had a reason to return since dropping off their supplies, would he? And she knew that besides testing it to make sure it would run, he NEVER turned the generator or the well pump on before they arrived, preferring to get the itch for ‘solitude and simplicity’ out of his system while it could not hurt anyone else.

"Not much further now people, another hour or two and we should be there." Her uncle turned around and grinned at the group from under the poncho he preferred over the others' more conventional rain jackets.

"How?" Kayla was the quickest out with the question that was on the faces of those in their group who knew how much time the trip normally took. "We can't be going faster than we do in the water, and with all this rain..."

"Hehehe, you never noticed, did you? We left the river about two hours back, where it takes a big bend. You kids' Aunt Mandy got me this," their uncle held up a small computer with a bright digital screen wrapped in plastic for the group to see, "for Christmas this year. It's some kind of GPS device that shows a map of where you're at. I knew the river took a bend, but I never felt comfortable with the idea of leaving it before because frankly I'm shit with a compass." He chuckled again at that while Ruby berated him mildly about language in front of the children. "Anyways, I used it on my way up to meet you all and found out it allowed me to cut a good three hours off the normal trip following the river, so I went ahead and marked it in the little computer thing. If I had been taking the flat bottom today I was gonna use it and surprise you all by skipping the normal meeting spot like I usually do anyways and going overland ahead to steal the first shower. Since Jobe and David got themselves the honor of taking the da- stupid thing instead," he gave his younger sister a sheepish grin, "I was just gonna save it, but when the weather made us leave the river I figured why not get us out of this as soon as possible." He stopped talking and instead prepared to bask in the praise from the others.

Cassie was not the first to shout in happiness, and when her sister gave her a hug and started jumping up and down she was more than happy to join in. Early showers! Sitting around the fireplace nursing a cup of cocoa and watching the rain would beat carrying a canoe through it any day.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" Eric ran to the boat and grabbed one of the ropes, attempting to move it on his own across the muddy ground. "Let's get going?"

"Right!" Ruby rushed to his side and grabbed her own rope. "First ones there get the first showers!"

"Hey, I stole those cheap and square!" Richard took off after the quickly moving pair, who were just beginning to realize that without his 'little computer thing' they had no hope of finding their way to the cabin regardless. "Hah! Forgot something, din'cha?" He waved the small yellow and black box around a bit to the scowls of the dissenters.

"Come on, less talk more cabin!" Cassie pushed him with the nose of her canoe, and soon the group was off again, heading quickly for warm food and dry clothes.

---

14.

Cassie's eyes grew wide as she lifted her canoe over the last line of scrub bushes and into the meticulously well kept clearing where the cabin sat. A collective sigh of relief rose from those around her as her uncle led the way to the canoe rack while Jobe and David pulled the flat bottom boat towards the riverside doors of the cabin for unloading.

"Well, we're here."

At first glance, the cabin was an unimpressive site to behold. Lying squat and- at the moment- dark through the veil or rain, the weather worn pine paneling on the outside gave the impression of a rundown, shabby hunter's retreat. Cassie, however, knew that the inside was quite different, with cedar paneling, a warm stone fireplace for chilly nights and s'mores, two large well ventilated bedrooms and a full working bathroom once the well was primed and ready. They even had a generator that Uncle Richard had paid to update to solar powered three summers ago, providing them with enough electricity for lights and a few other conveniences, though it looked like they would be using the backup gas generator for a while to start. Cassie could see Uncle Richard's enormous green truck peeking out around the far edge of the cabin, where it would stay unless they needed a quick way into town for emergencies or wished to risk the two hour drive to the nearest gas station slash pizza place slash Seven Eleven.

"Bathrooms!" Emily screeched and dropped the end of her canoe, racing into the cabin and leaving Richard in a shaky position as he tried to fight the sudden shift in balance.

"Hey, we need to finish up out here first!"

A loud "Fuck you!" was all the response Emily gave as she grabbed for the handle of the door and twisted it- only to find it locked. "Dammit!"

"Hey hey hey, watch the language! You may not be one of my daughters but that won't stop me from punishing that kind of behavior!" Ruby waited until Eric gave her the 'all clear' before lowering the end of her own canoe and stomping off towards the angry teenager now screaming and pulling at her hair. "Now you get back here and help us unpack, or so help me..."

It did not take long for Jobe to pull the key from around his neck and unlock the door of the cabin, letting fresh air in and allowing everyone to start carrying in their share of the packing while Richard dragged Emily off towards the pump house. She was in an awful foul mood after being denied her princess act yet again, and Cassie knew Emily would have to either get her act together and join in to help everyone else or keep it up and ruin her own fun. Cassie was determined not to let it get to her, though, and vowed to enjoy this trip even if it killed her.

"Need help with that?" Michael approached her with a swagger that, while she was sure it was meant to look sexy, only made her a little more sick of his arrogance.

"No thanks. I got it." She hefted the case of clothes she was carrying up a little bit higher to prove it.

"Come on, let me have it." Michael grabbed the handle and pulled, yanking the- admittedly- slightly too heavy case from her hands before marching into the cabin ahead of her.

"Hey! What an-"

"Asshole!" Kayla finished for her, not even flinching at the angry look from her mom for her use of filthy language. "Here sis," she said, handing Cassie the two smaller cases she had brought up, "let me handle this."

Cassie held back a bit and was glad she had when a resounding 'smack' rang out from inside the cabin, followed by Kayla's voice screaming at such a pitch and intensity that Cassie was glad she could not make out the words. Michael ran out of the cabin with his hands over his ears and a red welt on his face that seemed to glow in the stormy twilight. She glanced at her mom, but Ruby seemed in no hurry to get involved in the battle between her eldest daughter and their guest for the next two weeks.

At last the well was primed and ready, the bags and boxes were inside, and Richard had the generator started up and running on some of the emergency fuel for starting and dark days like today. A warm fire was set, Emily was locked in the bathroom with the shower running despite the fact the water had to be freezing, and the other campers were all gathered around the fireplace trying to dry some before starting the next stage of unpacking. Almost unconsciously the group seemed to have split, the girls on one side of the room with the guys occupying the other, filling the floor space instead of running the risk of soaking the three old couches which had obviously seen better days, lest they collapse under the weight of the very damp and very tired group. All were silent, resting for a moment before the arduous task of pulling everything out of the packs and bags around them.

It was a much more relaxed group who responded to Ruby's question, "So, what's it gonna be for dinner?"

---

15.

Cassie found hanging around her older sister to be a lot more fun than she would have anticipated before the trip. The longer she was around her, the better they seemed to get along, so when Kayla volunteered for unpacking in the 'girl's room' after dinner, she gladly followed her lead.

"Thanks for the help lil' sis."

"No problem 'big sis." They laughed for a moment before continuing their unpacking, making sure to take the same bunk bed. Cassie cleared her throat before continuing. "Uh, sis? Will it be okay? Me staying in here?"

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Kayla gave her a searching look before the light came on over her head. "Oh! Because?" She gestured at her crotch, making Cassie blush.

"Yeah, obviously. I've never slept in the same room with a girl before." Kayla gave her another look that said 'oh, really'? "Well, besides you." That seemed to satisfy her. "Do you think it will be a problem?"

Kayla paused in making up the top bunk and turned to Cassie. "Pull your shorts down," she ordered.

"No!"

"Come on!" Kayla reached forwards and gave a sharp tug, bringing the nylon track shorts Cassie had donned after her shower to the floor along with her panties.

"Kayla!"

"Well, what? It's nothing I've never seen before." Cassie glanced down at her smooth crotch before jerking her shorts and panties up tightly. "Whatever that glue thing Mom and you used did, it definitely makes you look like a girl even naked."

"But Kayla, she doesn't know! You and Mom do, and you're related to me, but that Emily girl-"

"Will never EVER know, Cassie, unless you give yourself away. How long did Mom say that glue would last?"

Cassie rolled her eyes. "Two weeks."

Kayla nodded. "And when did she glue it on?"

"The day we headed out."

"Yup! That gives you another... ten or eleven days before you need to worry about it, and by that time she won't see anything but a girl even if you do act a little butch now."

Cassie got nervous. "Have I been acting too boyish?" She bit her lip anxiously, causing Kayla to laugh again.

"Nope, not in the slightest! Keep it up, nothing will happen." Cassie let out a deep sigh of relief, releasing the breath she had not known she had been holding.

"Phew! Okay." It was only a few minutes more and they had the room finished, with all four bunks made up and their own clothes as well as their mother's unpacked and in the drawers, Emily's bags waiting for her on her bed- neither wanted to risk another drama attack if they messed with her things.

By the time everyone was completely unpacked and settled, the sound of the rain continuing to fall was enough to draw out universal yawns of exhaustion. Without further conversation the family and guests moved as one to their respective beds and called it an early night. Tomorrow was another relaxing day, with the canoeing behind them unless they chose to do it and no set plans for the next two weeks.

Cassie climbed the ladder to the top bunk while Kayla crawled into her own bunk directly below. Emily had huffed a bit about having to unpack her own things before setting her cases on the floor and crawling into the opposite top bunk without any more complaints. Cassie felt odd sleeping in nothing but her panties and a tank with her in the room- she felt odd sleeping in panties in a tank anyways, she forced herself to remember- but by now it was too late to worry about it, and if Kayla was right it would not matter in the slightest what she wore so long as she acted appropriately.

"G'nite girls," Ruby called as she waltzed in wearing her extra large sleep shirt and shut the lights off.

"'Nite Mom."

"G'nite Mom."

"Good night Miss Wessler."

Cassie listened to her mother's breathing, and the slight snoring of Emily, as she slowly drifted off to sleep herself, filled with dreams of climbing rocks, swimming, and running through the woods with her family.

---

Sorry for the delay between posts- gotta wait on access to the internet on an actual computer 'fore I can post these things.

Anyone interested in either volunteering as an editor/testreader/poster or who just has any recommendations or ideas, just PM me and we can set somethin' up!

Melanie E.

Summer days,
Wasted away,
But Oh,
On those summer nights!

Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta- Summer Days

Boys of Summer chapters 16-20

Yet again, these are unedited and untested. Any mistakes, well, smack me around a bit, I'll learn eventually!

Melanie Ezell

---

16.

Cassie expected to awake bright and early to see the sun shining through the window at the foot of the bunk beds. Either that, or late and comfortable while the rain continued to beat down around them with the smell of Uncle Richard's special rainy day sausages drawing her towards the kitchenette. What she did wake to, however, was completely unexpected.

"Yo, I'll tell ya what I want, what I really really want,
So tell me what you want, what you really really want,
I wanna HEY,
I wanna HEY,
I wanna HEY,
I wanna HEY,
I wanna really really really wanna zig a zig, ah."

A squeaky exclamation came from the top bunk immediately opposite her followed by a lot of thumping and whining before the Spice Girls went quiet again. She could tell by the sounds now coming from below that she was not the only one to be waked early.

"What the hell?"

"Sorry!" Emily squeaked from her bunk. "I thought the headphones were in, I'm so sorry!" This was a different side to the girl than what Cassie had seen before, and she could not help thinking it was a shame it took something embarrassing to get the girl not to sound like a little brat.

A chuckle from below confirmed that Kayla felt similarly. "Z'okay. Put 'em in. Need sleep." The bed lurched as Kayla rolled over, and a quick glance towards the window confirmed to Cassie that it was either still dark out, or the storm had worsened. A bright flash of lightening illuminated the room for a moment, proving the storm was growing, but not helping to identify the time. With a sigh, Cassie rolled over herself and pulled the sheet tighter around her to try and catch another hour or two of rest, maybe.

It could not have been more than fifteen minutes later that Cassie felt more than heard movement from Emily's bed, followed by the creak of the door being quietly opened and closed again. Another fifteen minutes without Emily's return caused Cassie to worry; surely if she was in the restroom she would be back by now? Crawling carefully from her on bunk so as not to disturb her older sister, who from her breathing had at last fallen asleep again, Cassie left the bedroom as quietly as possible.

She found Emily curled up on the more reliable of the two couches, holding a small square of light in front of her and oblivious to the world. The headphones were off again, and Cassie could clearly hear the sounds of people talking coming from Emily's direction. Moving closer as quietly as possible, she soon started to be able to make out what was being said. She laughed when she recognized Robin William's voice, causing Emily to jerk around sharply in surprise.

"Why are you up? I thought ya'll had gone back to bed."

Cassie shrugged as she approached the other girl. "Eh, couldn't sleep, and when you didn't come back I got worried and came to check on you."

"Oh." Emily glanced away, and in the dim light from the screen appeared much younger than she had before. "I'm okay."

The two paused in silence, unsure of how to continue. At last, Cassie decided to break the tension. "So, what're you watching?"

Emily breathed in heavily, reluctant to respond. "You ever seen 'The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen?'"

Cassie chuckled a bit at the name. "Uh, no."

"Well, it's pretty stupid but I watch it sometimes when I can't sleep." By this time Cassie was close enough to make out the images on the small screen Emily was holding. Emily pulled herself up on the couch and made room beside her, and in an unexpected act of friendship asked Cassie, "You wanna watch it with me?"

"Sure." Cassie settled on the ancient piece of discount furniture next to the girl she had previously seen as snobbish, and wondered what could have brought around such a change. The movie was fascinating in a very confusing and juvenile way, but she shortly lost interest and decided instead to try and draw Emily into a conversation.

"Are you better now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You seemed like you didn't want to be here. If you didn't want to come, then why did you?"

A hard look passed over the other girl's face, but quickly softened. Emily shrugged. "Jobe invited my brothers, and my mom and dad thought this would be a good experience for me. They ran off to Europe or something while I'm out here stuck with those two dummies, a guy who's had a crush on me since sixth grade and a lot of people I don't know." Her voice rose in pitch and volume as well as anger as she progressed, but she caught herself and cast an apologetic look in Cassie's direction. "I'm sorry. I was supposed to be in Band Camp next week, too, and instead here I am, and so far I've just been miserable."

Cassie felt compelled to be kind to the girl beside her, and seeing a chance to share a bit of family wisdom took it. "Well, you know, it's a lot of fun out here if you just try to make it."

Emily paused the movie still playing on her iPod and let out a huff. "Fun? How?"

Cassie grinned. "There's swimming and hiking and canoeing, fishing..."

"But I'm not interested in any of that," Emily pouted, letting a little bit of the 'spoiled brat' routine creep back into her demeanor.

"Okay, how about spending the time getting a suntan?" Emily shot her a look that said quite clearly 'you must be joking.' "Maybe not. Come on, there's lots to do, if you just try! I'll help you find stuff to do inside if you want."

Cassie flinched after making the offer knowing her own plans would be thrown out the window if Emily took her up on it, but the thankful look on the other girl's face told her it was the right thing to do. "Thanks," Emily said, "but I know you don't want to be stuck inside all the trip. You seemed so happy on the way up here just watching the trees..."

"You were watching me?" Emily blushed, and for just a moment Cassie could see a much softer look in the other girl's eyes. Emily shuffled around uncomfortably before settling back down and returning to her movie.

"ANYway, I just need to make those... BOYS know I'm not happy out here. I hope they have as miserable a time as I'm going to."

Cassie patted Emily's shoulder companionably. "Only if you make yourself miserable." Cassie stood up and made her way as carefully as she could back towards the bedroom to catch a couple more hours of sleep and think over exactly what she would have to do to make sure Emily had a good time. Even if the whole spoiled brat thing was the real Emily and she had just been lonely for tonight, nobody deserved to be unhappy.

This is what summer vacation is all about! Cassie thought happily. Having fun, making new friends, and getting away from everything.

She drifted back to sleep with thoughts of all the fun things her and her sister could maybe, just maybe, use to show Emily how fun camping could be.

---

17.

"EEEEEEK!!! GetitoffgetitoffgetitOFF!!!"

Cassie was up, out of bed, and in the front room of the cabin before anyone else had time to react, dashing madly for the couch where Emily was shrieking bloody murder.

"EEEEEWWW!!!"

Cassie vaulted over the back of the couch, making it and the floorboards complain loudly, but landed safely on the other side and turned to face the frightened Emily-

Who had a walking stick stuck in her hair.

"Ohit'ssoGROSSgetitoffIdon'twannatouchitPLEASE!" Emily cried, but by the time Cassie could fight back her laughter enough to risk moving Jobe had already burst through his own door and across the room, followed closely by Eric, then everyone else. With a shake of his head, Jobe reached down and carefully removed the, Cassie could not deny, very evil looking but completely harmless insect from the girl's hair.

"Come on, Twiggy, your place is outside."

As soon as the large pest was safely released outside, Emily jumped to her feet. "I TOLD ya'll I didn't want to COME! I HATE IT HERE!" Tears were rolling down her face as she dashed for the door to the room the girls were sharing and slammed it tightly.

"Jeez, she never seen a walking stick before?"

Eric shook his head. "I hadn't either. You think it's still nearby?" Jobe nodded, and escorted the excited younger boy out to see if they could find it again. Cassie harumphed when she saw that nobody else seemed concerned about Emily's situation, and made her way to the door, knocking lightly.

"Go away! I want out of this cabin!"

"Please let me in, Emily. It was just a walking stick! They get in the cabin sometimes when we aren't here for some reason, but they're completely harmless! Just weird looking."

"I don't care! It's hot out here, there's bugs everywhere, I DON'T WANT TO BE HERE!"

Cassie had had enough of this. "Well, TOUGH! Like it or not, you're here for the duration, just like the rest of us. If you don't want to enjoy yourself, FINE, but so help me I'm gonna MAKE you get out here and do some things with us as a group!"

"And we'll help her drag you out if we have to!" Ruby was by her side now, knocking on the door too. "Let us in, girl, or there won't be a door left to lock by the time we're through with things!" Cassie cringed at the threat, but that was why her Uncle had all the doors switched to open towards the living room- one camper locking themselves in their bunkroom throwing a fit had convinced him THAT was a good idea, and the pins were easily removable. "Don't make me come in there!"

A sniffling and red-eyed Emily opened the door for them, still sobbing and crying. Cassie decided this was probably a situation that called for a hug if she had ever seen one, and quickly wrapped her arms around Emily in a tight embrace. "Hey, come on, we want you to have fun. I'm sorry you don't want to be here, but you just gotta try to find something you like is all." Knowing this might be a limited chance, she gestured over her shoulder quickly for Kayla to dash into the room, preventing Emily from being able to shut them out again if she got upset. Ruby stared at her youngest with a strange look in her eye, the same as the last time. Cassie wondered what was with the looks her mom was giving her, but at the moment Emily needed to calm down.

"I hate woods... I hate camping... I hate canoes..."

"Then don't think of this as a camping trip!" Ruby approached from behind Emily and joined Cassie in the hug, wrapping Emily snugly between them. "Think of it as- summer camp, or a spa retreat with no hot springs or something."

"The hot tub gets delivered next week."

"That's right, so next- what?" Ruby lifted her head and turned to Richard, who had a smug grin on his face.

"Just kidding."

"Richard!"

His joke was enough to break the tension within the room, and everybody laughed far more than the joke was worth. They were interrupted by a knocking about from the boys' room, followed by a small crash and a bleary eyed and wild haired David stumbling out of the doorway. With a mumble that could have passed for 'Morning' in an optimistic situation, he hooked around the corner and into the bathroom.

A loud "Cool!" broke in from outside, followed by some muffled discussion between Jobe and Eric, who it seemed had found their walking stick.

Cassie looked down into Emily's face. "You better now?" The other girl nodded a little and gave Cassie a squeeze before extracting herself from Cassie and Ruby's grips.

"Yeah. Sorry, ya'll." She wiped a hand across her cheek to dry her face. "I'll try to be more positive."

Ruby and Richard both opened their mouths to say 'it's alright' but were cut off by the sound of the toilet flushing and David exiting the bathroom again.

He looked around in confusion at the group around him, toothbrush in hand. "What'd I miss?"

---

18.

Eric and Jobe's Walking Stick Adventure ended the moment Richard announced breakfast ready, and after all members of the group had showered and dressed, it was time for the serious vacation activities to begin.

"So, whadda you wanna do?"

"I dunno, whadda you wanna do?"

"I'm up for anything. You?"

"Sounds cool. Emily?"

"Uh... sure, whatever."

"How about we go swimming?"

None of the others could come up with an activity they wanted to do more than swim, so thanking Eric for his suggestion and completely ignoring the rain that was still falling steadily the others filed out and down to the small dock near the river, promising the adults to head back in the moment either the thunder or lightening returned. On the way Jobe grabbed the flat bottomed boat and dragged it into the water a short distance out into the river, tying it up to the dock before joining the others in some playful splashing and water fights.

Despite constant reinforcement from her sister Cassie was still nervous about wearing nothing but a bikini to swim in, afraid of somehow exposing herself or, possibly worse, exposing her false features for what they were to closer inspection than she really wanted to be receiving. Ruby had finally given in and leant Cassie one of her own one piece suits, and combined with a tiny pair or swim trunks Cassie almost felt comfortable. Canoeing had been one thing, since she could avoid physical contact and, having just met the Monroe's, doubted they would dig into too much about any inconsistencies in her appearance if they looked closely enough to see them- not that there were any, she mused to herself grumpily. The small amount of horseplay they had participated in during several of their breaks over the last three days had already given her a close call when Kayla nearly caught a nail in a loose edge of the fancy rubber gaff/false vagina trying to tug down her shorts. She had kept it hidden well since, but first thing after her shower she had fixed it with the bottle of adhesive they had brought, vowing to be more careful.

The biggest surprise to most of the group was Emily's participation in their activity. After her refusal to so much as speak to anyone for the first few days of the trip, her turnabout pleased Cassie greatly. She even appeared to be taking Jobe's continued attempts at flirting with a better nature, a mixed blessing since it meant their group yet again split roughly into boy-girl pairs. As much as she liked the boy, Eric's affections were lost on her, though she was loathe to admit it to the poor boy. He had loosened up greatly since arriving at the cabin as well, opening up to her and talking nearly nonstop about almost anything that came to mind as far as she could tell, almost as though he was scared to stop.

"Okay okay, slow down!" She finally managed to slip in between breaths while he panted. "We've got two weeks to talk, okay?"

Eric ducked under the water for a second before resurfacing with a blush. "Sorry, I usually don't talk this much, I just... I like talking to you."

"That's cool, but you wanna have things to talk about later, right?" The boy nodded vigorously, spraying Cassie with water she tried pointlessly to block. She smiled. "Then take it easy, and relax!" He got the message, and when David and Jobe challenged him to a few laps across the river and back she shifted around to set herself floating on her back, and without another word tuned the world out.

She mused on the interesting effects of swimming with boobs. Not that they were that big, but they did change her center of balance somewhat even in the water, and she had to constantly remind herself to adjust to compensate. Being rubber, they wanted to float when she was face down, but lying on her back with them thrust above the surface, the weight made her have to arch her back slightly to keep from sinking and raise her neck to keep from snorting water, neither of which came naturally to her. She was still trying to come to grips with this new interplay when something wrapped around her waist and pulled her down into the water below, her scream emptying her lungs of air.

Cassie struggled frantically to get away from the constriction surrounding her, but the more she kicked and fought the more water she swallowed. Finally, after what felt like hours, her flailing landed a solid blow against whatever had grabbed her, and she pulled herself out of the water in a panic, gasping for air.

"Jeezus, Cassie, are you okay?" Cassie spun towards her sister's voice, grasping frantically for her even as she moved in closer. Kayla wrapped her arms around her sister and hugged her, maneuvering her closer to the shore even as the water erupted behind the girls, a shaggy black mane gasping for air.

"Bitch!" David spat as he stood, still clutching his privates where Cassie's foot had found its mark.

"Ass!" Emily swam furiously towards her brother and slapped him soundly across the face before turning her attention to Cassie, who was still choking and on the edge of tears. "Are you alright?" She joined Kayla in embracing the younger girl, all prior animosity from Kayla disappearing the instant she saw how this new girl was watching out for her sister.

Kayla could see Cassie was still in no position to explain, so she took the opportunity to do it for her. "Cassie loves the water, but still has problems sometimes when she gets surprised like that. She almost drowned when she was little 'cause someone did the same thing to her, and her foot got caught on an old piece of rope while under."

"That's horrible!" Emily exclaimed. "What kind of jerk would do such a thing? Besides the obvious one." She shot her older brother a look that could have melted steel. Jobe coughed nervously before raising his hand. He swam towards his cousins, and with Kayla's permission took her position comforting Cassie. She flinched away at first, but when he made no move to dunk her again, she quickly calmed.

"She was only seven, I didn't mean to hurt h-her or nuthin', uh..." Jobe glanced around, refusing to look at David, then deciding he had to. "I should have let ya'll know not to-"

"I'm alright." Cassie cut her cousin off mid-sentence, her voice croaky but finally calm enough to speak. "I overreacted, like always." She lowered her arms from her cousin's neck and put on a brave face, but she was through swimming for the day.

---

19.

It was not long after Cassie left the water that the storm returned with a vengeance, sending their small group back indoors until things calmed down. With the air cleared between the girls, Kayla and Emily became fast friends, working hard to pull Cassie into their conversation despite her admitted lack of knowledge on their chosen subject of...

"Boys?"

"Yeah!" Emily exclaimed, hanging over the edge of her bunk. "You know, what kind of guys do you like?"

Cassie balked. "Wh-why are we talking about BOYS? I don't wanna talk about boys!"

"Oh, you're a lesbian?" Emily asked with a strange glint in her eye. "Don't let Eric know, it'll break his heart. And David'll just hit on you even worse." Cassie and Kayla both shivered at that prospect, making Emily laugh. "Come on, he's not that bad, really. He didn't used to be, anyways. The whole thing with the cheerleaders at school kind of threw him for a loop, and he hasn't been the same since."

This was something that Cassie wanted to hear more about. "Yeah, Eric was telling me a bit about that. He said that one of your cheerleaders was a guy who dresses like a girl?"

"Not exactly. Dana's probably at least as much a girl as I am, but she was born a guy. I was kinda mad at her at first 'cause I've wanted on the cheer team like SO BAD since junior high, and now I'll be a senior and still not on the team, but she's a lot better than I am."

"Yeah, that's great and all," Kayla interrupted, "but what's that got to do with Captain Asshole?"

"David used to date the head cheerleader, Lisa Gilbert. She-"

"-why in the hell would she-"

"HEY! Like I said, he was better then. Anyways, he was mouthing off to some of his friends and said some pretty bad things about Dana where she could hear him. Nobody would even TALK to him the rest of the year, and he's just got worse since then. Personally, I think the problem is he thought Dana was hot and didn't want to sound 'gay' or somethin' in front of his friends. So, are you out at school yet?"

Cassie was still trying to absorb the story she had been told, and the sudden change in topic startled her. "Huh? I'm not gay!"

Emily wouldn't let up. "Oh, so you DO like guys then?"

"What? How? Kayla, help!"

Kayla just laughed. "But little sis, you're doing SO well on your own? Why don't you tell her about Avery?"

"Avery's my best friend!" Cassie replied indignantly. "We've never, and will never, date or anything like that!" Cassie's continuing flustered denials fell on deaf ears as the two older girls rolled around on their bunks, laughing.

---

20.

"Kids, time for dinner!"

Kayla, along with the improved and much friendlier Emily, hopped up from her position atop her sheets and rushed out to the table, stomachs growling in protest at their having skipped lunch. Cassie followed at a slower pace, nervous about seeing the boys. What would she say to David? Did she want to say anything at all? Nervous, she paused for a moment on her way out the door to listen to the calming sound of the rain beating on the cabin's old tin roof.

"Cassie, you coming?"

"Yes, mom!" With a sigh, she shuffled forwards to her seat at the table, between Kayla and Emily and opposite the boys. Eric grinned at her while Jobe waved, but David kept his eyes focused on his plate and refused to look at any of the other members of the party.

"O-kay!" Richard clapped his hands to draw the group's attention, warming up his announcer's voice. "Tonight, for your dining pleasure, we have- mustard greens!" He gave a wide wave, and Ruby pulled the lid from the first of the dishes before them with a showy gesture, allowing a cloud of steam to escape. "Black eyed peas! Fried okra!" Cassie's mouth was watering now, as the delicious smell of the okra wafted towards her. And lastly- FRIED CATFISH!"

Glazed eyes stared forwards from the faces surrounding the table as the teenagers as one moaned in ecstasy at the smell coming from the collection of dishes before them.

"DIG IN!"

Richard barely finished speaking before hands were diving for the various serving spoons and tongs, moving piles of food from the earthenware crockery to plates before vanishing almost as rapidly into stomachs. It was almost a quarter hour before anything resembling coherent conversation resumed, followed shortly by a collective yawn from the table as a whole.

"Thanks for the great dinner, Uncle Richard."

Richard reclined back in his chair, munching on a piece of fish while unbuttoning his jeans. "Thank your mom, it was her idea."

All the teenagers gave their thanks for the great home cooked meal while Ruby smiled at the group around her. "You're welcome."

"So, what're we gonna do until time for bed?" Eric asked.

"Well, I don't know about ya'll, but I know exactly what I wanna do," Jobe answered, mimicking his father's motions and stretching. "Sleep!"

The more conscious campers agreed with a round of nodding and 'yup' s, and as quickly as the group was gathered together the food was put away, dishes washed, and those who could keep their eyes open helped the sleepier individuals find their way to their beds.

In a way, Cassie was glad the dinner had passed without her having to talk to David beyond the occasional 'pass the peas, please,' or similar sentiment. She still was not sure exactly what to make of the eldest Monroe sibling, but was determined to not let it get her down. After all, look at how much better Emily was after just a little conversation! Maybe, given a few days, her and Kayla could start to work their magic on David too. She winced when it occurred to her just exactly what she was thinking of doing, though.

'If I'm going to be a girl for this trip, well, I guess flirting's part and parcel of the whole package, isn't it?' She crossed her fingers. 'Let's just hope he doesn't find out my secret, the last thing I need is to be medevac'd when he tries to kill me.'

"Hey, lil' sis, you coming?"

"I'm on my way, Kayla, give me a minute!"

"Last one in has to turn out the lights!" Kayla called back, reminding Cassie of the cabin's oldest- and most annoying and painful- rule. Without lights, anyone with a top bunk was almost guaranteed to stub a toe or two before making it into bed.

"Coming, coming." With a final sigh, Cassie swung her way into the room, thumbed the light switch, and with a minimum of fuss and only a handful of 'ow!' s and 'Shoot!' s pulled herself under her covers and fell into dreamland.

---

Notes: I'll try to get the next chapters out sooner, but expect Echoes 5 before chapters 21-25 arrive, sorry.

Boys of Summer 21-25

Melanie Ezell

New Kids on the Block got a bunch of hits,
Chinese food makes me sick,
And I think it's fly when girls get fine for the summer,
For the summer,
I like girls who wear Abercrombie and Fitch,
I'd take her if I had one wish,
But she's been gone since that summer,
Since that summer.

LFO- Summer Girls

---

21.

Cassie woke up with her alarm clock and rolled out of bed, slipping her feet into fuzzy white bunny slippers before beginning the walk across the floor to the door. She glanced around sleepily at her room, admiring her canopy bed and vanity before heading for the bathroom to take a shower.

As she bathed away her dreariness, she considered what she wanted to do that day. Cheerleading tryouts meant she needed to start practicing her dance steps, and supposedly Eric Idle was going to be teaching biology at her school this year, along with some kind of special herpetology class.

Stepping out of the bathroom, she found the hallway flooded- how annoying!- and she was forced to take her canoe downstairs to breakfast, where her Mom and Dad were already awake and eating green eggs and ham with her Uncle Richard.

“Good morning, sweetie!”

“Morning Dad!”

“Good morning, baby.” Ruby rose from her seat and gave her daughter a hug, then Richard passed her the orange juice.

“A little late getting ready for your date today, aren’t we?”

“Huh? What date?” Cassie asked.

“Well, isn’t Avery picking you up for the dance this morning?”

She had forgot! And after setting up the entire thing with Geri, Melanie and Victoria, too!

“Oh, no! I have to hurry!”

“No need to panic!” Emily crowed as she came around the corner, carrying the most beautiful, shimmering dress Cassie had ever seen, in a scintillating pattern that reminded her of fish scales- with matching shoes! “Come on, he’ll be here any minute!”

Together the two of them dashed about, getting Cassie ready for her big dance, and when they were almost ready Kayla came in to help with her hair and makeup, wearing a black bikini.

At last, Cassie descended the stairs to see Avery in his basketball uniform, with her mom taking pictures as she melted into his arms, and he lowered his lips to hers-

~~~

“NOOOO!!!” Cassie shot up from her bunk before braining herself on a low roof beam. “Oww! Damn you, Kayla!”

The only response she received from the focus of her curses was a grumble followed by a soft snore.

---

22.

The weather had managed to clear up a good deal over night, and that morning Cassie decided would be the perfect time to ask her uncle about visiting the Cliff of Death. It didn’t take her long to get cleaned up and ready, and over a breakfast of toast and wild mushrooms she popped the question.

“Uncle Richard?”

“Yumgrnfl.”

Interpreting his mumbling as “yes, what?” She decided to press on. “I was wondering if we could go up to the Cliff today?”

Richard swallowed roughly, pausing before answering. “Well, I suppose I could make time in my busy schedule of relaxing to head up there-“

“Yes!”

“-and make sure everything’s okay for later this week.”

“Aww.” Cassie pouted. “But if it’s ready can’t we go up today and climb?”

Her uncle stifled a laugh. “I think not. One, it’s too slippery today, and I’ve got a lot of testing and replacing to do before I’ll feel safe lettin’ any of you even near that place. Two, we let ya’ll relax yesterday but there’s still a lot of work to do around the cabin.” Cassie shuddered at the idea of having to help dig a new drainage line for the toilet- again. “And lastly, I don’t know if you’ll wanna do a lot of climbing with all your recent, ah… changes.”

“Changes?” Richard gestured to her chest. “Oh. OH! Yeah, I guess that might be a bit, um, uncomfortable.” She recalled the harnesses from previous camping trips, and tried to imagine how much more painful they might feel when combined with the constriction from her ‘gaffe-thing’, and couldn’t hold back a wince, which her uncle returned in sympathy.

Richard took another bite of the mushrooms he had spent the previous day hunting down before continuing. “Not to mention if something were to catch and,” he scooted closer to her and in a whisper added, “rip off.”

She could feel the color drain from her face. “Yeegh.”

He just nodded. It suddenly occurred to Cassie that just maybe her uncle knew more about her mom’s preparations for this trip than she had thought.

She felt him chuckle as he patted her back in reassurance. “Don’t worry. I’ll head up today and check things out, see what needs to be done and all that. Maybe the day after tomorrow things’ll be dry enough to go up.”

Cassie smiled and nodded her head, but with a green expression on her face. Suddenly rock climbing had lost all its attractiveness, and been replaced by a hollow dread.

---

23.

The clear air that morning was inspiration for another round of swimming, and while she had reservations Cassie decided it was better to get in the water again right away rather than torture herself for days before getting in again. After only a few moments- and a handful of threats from Kayla and Emily- she was able to ignore her fears and have fun, and by the end of an hour she was laughing just as much as she had been prior to the incident the day before.

She was having trouble believing it was already the fifth day of their trip. They had just arrived, and already things were a quarter of the way over- it always got to her at one point or another, but she was surprised it had come so soon this trip. Her distraction did not go unnoticed by the rest of the group.

“Hey, ev’rything alright?” Eric asked as he approached her, carefully and slowly as all the boys had been doing.

Cassie broke herself from her thoughts, and smiled at the look of concern on the boy’s face. “Yeah, things’re great. I was just thinking about how we’ve only got another two weeks out here before we have to go back.” She sighed.

Eric gave her a lopsided grin. “You really DO love it out here, don’t you?”

“If I could, I’d live out here all the time,” she agreed, taking a moment to gaze at the trees and wilderness around them. Then she laughed. “Well, maybe not ALL the time- the nearest movie theater’s at least three hours drive away, and don’t even ASK about decent Chinese takeout.”

Eric laughed with her, and her reverie broken she rejoined the rest of the group as they climbed out of the water for lunch.

They had a quick snack of potted meat sandwiches and mountain dews (Cassie cringed at the spread on her sandwich, ‘cat food’ by any other name…), and afterwards Kayla and Emily decided to drag her off for some sunbathing while Jobe grabbed both David and Eric and took the flat bottomed boat upstream ‘crawdad huntin’’. Eric was excited while David tried to act indifferent, though the slightly off look in his eyes told that his feeling about crayfish were probably similar to those of his sister.

As soon as the flat bottomed boat made the turn around the bend up the river and out of sight, Emily turned to Cassie and grinned wickedly. “My little brother likes you, my little brother likes you,” she chanted in sing-song.

Cassie steamed. “No he doesn’t! Come on!” The prissy look was back on Emily’s face, and a retort was on her lips, but Cassie knew exactly what to say to put her back in her place. “Do you want me to tell Jobe you have a crush on HIM?”

“WHAT! Eww!” Emily screeched. “You wouldn’t!”

“Then don’t pick on me about your brother. And YOU,” she said, turning on her sister, who was chuckling gleefully on her other side, “not another word about Avery, or Eric, or David or boys of any kind or you’ll wake up in the morning with nothing to wear but the clothes you slept in, so help me!” Now both of the other girls on either side of her were laughing, and she felt an irrepressible smile growing on her own face. “I’m serious you guys, please?” She got out right before breaking down into her own giggles.

“Oh, all right,” Kayla agreed after regaining control of herself. “But on one condition.”

“What?”

“Nope! Not gonna tell, you have to agree before I’ll let you know!” Kayla said solemnly.

“That’s not fair!”

“Nope, but it’s just the way things are, miss clothes-snatcher. We never did find my underwear after the last time you pulled that little stunt.” Cassie contemplated digging the bucket out of the attic where she had hidden it, but decided against it. Besides, Kayla had been twelve at the time, who knows what had gotten into them since then? Though…

“I could fetch them now if you want?”

“Oh, god, no!”

---

24.

“You made the right choice, little sister.”

“Yeah, well I’m still not sure I agree with you on that.”

“Oh, hush and enjoy yourself.”

The agreement had been horrible. Cassie debated with herself whether not being tormented about boys- if that were possible to begin with- was really worth the pain of this, this, TRAVESTY against her manhood. ‘Hold the phone, I’m sitting here with boobs and wearing panties. Screw that.’ She shrugged.

“You’ll have to redo my left foot, you smeared the polish.”

“Well, sor- RY, your Highness.” Cassie stared downwards at where her own left foot was currently sitting in her mom’s lap as she painted the nails a bright seafoam green. Manicures and pedicures went against the very fabric of what camping was about, but it was a price agreed upon by both Kayla and Emily for their relationship cease- fire, and even her mom had agreed it would be a ‘fun experience’ for her.

Not that she had to admit it.

Kayla plopped her own foot back in Cassie’s lap before handing her the bottle of solvent and a hand full of cotton swabs. With a ‘harrumph’ Cassie set about cleaning off the offending toes before placing more cotton swabs in between them. Retrieving the bottle of ‘Love-me-not Lavender’ from Emily’s collection, she got down to the work of repairing her work on her sister’s foot.

“Gentle strokes, and remember, not too much polish or-“

“’Kay, I got it!” Cassie grimaced, and bit down on her tongue as she concentrated on getting a smooth coat.

“This foot’s done, raise your other one. Same color?”

“No, pink!” Emily yelled from where she was performing the same action on Ruby’s feet.

“Not on your life! I guess keep the green.”

“It’s not green, it’s sea-“

“-foam. SORRY, keep the ‘sea foam,’ then.” Cassie shifted her feet before returning her attention to the toes before her. “God, Kayla, when’s the last time you cleaned between your toes?”

“Quiet, you. You know you’re loving this.”

“Whatever.”

“I love you too.”

The girls went silent for several minutes as they all concentrated on doing their best with their charges. ‘I guess the worst is over,’ Cassie thought to herself as she let herself relax and get on with the job before her.

“So what’s this I heard from Kayla about you having a crush on your friend Avery?”

“Mo-om!” Cassie tried to object, but her complaints were drowned out by the uproar and guffaws from the girls around her. And now she had to start over on her sister’s foot again, too.

---

25.

Richard had agreed to cook the boys’ catch of crayfish for dinner provided they stayed to learn how to do it, and Cassie was more than happy she wasn’t in their group for that particular lesson. The first time he had cooked the things when they were camping, she had thought she liked the Cajun spices, and was excited about the warm spicy smell arising from the carrots and potatoes, at least until they added the ‘mudbugs.’ Whether the screaming sound was them or just the steam escaping their shells, she didn’t care- she hated the taste, she hated the smell, and she definitely hated cooking the things alive.

Kayla and Ruby stayed inside to help fix the sides, but knowing Cassie’s feelings on the creatures the entire family agreed to let her sit outside to avoid the smells. It was a warm night, with the crickets and frogs singing from the trees all around, and a full moon giving plenty of light for Cassie to take a short walk down the shoreline.

“Mind if I join you?”

Emily was at Cassie’s side before she could turn to see her, and Cassie was more than happy for the company. “Couldn’t stand the smell either, huh?”

“Ugh! The smell was bad, but watching your uncle suck the heads- god, I thought I was gonna be sick!”

Cassie laughed. “And THAT is why I came out for a walk.”

Emily nodded in agreement. “Your mom said we could have some of the carrots and potatoes later, but they were cooked with those things so I’ll probably just have a pee bee and jay sandwich, IF I eat anything.”

“Mom and Kayla like them, and so does Jobe. Uncle Richard’s crazy about ‘em, I swear if he could eat ‘em every day while we were out here he would, but lucky for us Mom put a stop to that after even her and Kayla got sick from the stench one year.” Spotting the rocky stretch of shoreline she was looking for, Cassie bent down to find a good skipping stone. “What about your brothers?”

Emily stuck her tongue out in disgust. “Ack, they were doing just like your uncle and cousin. They at least taste better, right?” Cassie glanced up and shook her head in the negative. “Eww.”

“Tell me about it.” Finally finding a good skipping stone, Cassie took careful aim from her crouched position and made her toss. One… two… three… splash. “And the worst part is the cabin’s gonna smell like that for another day or so at least too.” She located another stone and stood up for her next shot. “It’s pretty clear tonight- maybe Mom will let me come out in a tent to get away from the cabin?”

Emily sat down on the rocks next to her. “If she does, I’m joining you.”

Cassie took her second shot. One… two… three… four… five… the stone bounced off a high rock in the water before making a satisfying ‘plunk’ sound on the other side. Their silence was golden, as both girls simply sat and listened to the sound of the water and the woods around them.

“Cassie?”

“Yeah?”

Emily shuffled across the rocks until she was right next to Cassie. “Why do you get so nervous when we talked about guys?”

Cassie shrugged, a little nervous now. “I dunno. I, I guess I’m just not interested in guys like that right now.” She wasn’t sure if she liked where this was going. “Why’s it so important to you and Kayla?”

Settling down again on the large flat sandstone block Cassie was using as a seat, Emily sighed. “It’s just one of those things. Well, like I said before,” Emily paused.

Cassie turned to her, wanting an explanation. “What?”

Emily stared at her feet. “If you like girls, that’s okay too.”

Cassie blushed for a moment, before realizing she was being set up for getting teased again. Standing up, she stomped off angrily. “I thought the whole ‘pedicure’ thing was supposed to mean ya’ll were gonna leave me alone about relationship stuff?” She thought, ‘the guys at school give me crap ‘cause I’m small, what’s this about huh?’

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry! It’s just-“ Emily stood up herself, and began pacing around. Cassie crossed her arms and tapped her foot impatiently on the pebbles, waiting for an answer.

“Well?”

“Shit!” Emily turned to her, and approached quickly.

Cassie wasn’t sure what she had been expecting, but it most definitely wasn’t for the other girl to pull her to her and bend down, kissing her lips passionately. Cassie’s first reaction was to pull away, but her brain stopped her. Here she was, standing under the light of a full moon, with a cute girl holding her close and she wanted to get away?

Not really.

Wrapping her own arms around Emily’s neck, Cassie leaned into the taller girl and closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of their bodies pressed together.

Whether they had kissed for a few seconds or hours, Cassie wasn’t sure, but Emily’s pulling away inevitably seemed to happen too soon. Cassie opened her eyes lazily, and with a smile on her face looked up into Emily’s-

To see her crying.

A sob escaped Emily’s lips as she jerked away from Cassie as though she were burning, and ran as hard as she could for the cabin, leaving Cassie feeling incredibly frustrated and wondering, ‘what the hell is going on, and what am I gonna do now?’

---

Comments, comments comments! More to come soon! Any recommendations, questions, etc. just PM me.

---

'Cause it's a cruel,
Cruel summer,
Leaving me here on my own,
It's a cruel,
Cruel summer,
Now you're gone.

Ace of Bass- Cruel Summer

---

Boys of Summer 26-30

Melanie Ezell

---

26.

Cassie rolled over in her sleeping bag, trying to work the rock she had slept on out of the small of her back without much success. Annoyed, she climbed from her resting place beside the river and cast a glance back towards the cabin, wondering whether or not to brave going back so early in the morning.

Would Emily be awake? What would she say to her if she was? Cassie had tried to talk to the girl the night before, but all she had received in response were muffled sobs from the other girl's bunk and questioning looks from her sister and mom. She had stayed inside afterwards just long enough to grab her sleeping bag and explain to her mom and uncle about the smell before heading back out, to the same spot they had been the night before.

She shivered in the early morning dew, and quickly packed her sleeping bag away. 'If Emily isn't ready to talk to me, well, I still need to eat.' She yawned as she began the short trek back to the cabin.

"Good morning, miss 'too good to sleep in the smelly old cabin with everyone else.'"

"Good morning, Jobe." Cassie wrapped her arms around her cousin and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, causing the boy to blush. Two people could play at the 'annoying cousin' game, after all. "What's for breakfast?"

"I dunno, what'cha fixin' me?"

"Oh, ha ha." She stuck her tongue out at the older boy as she inspected the contents of the cabinets. "Pancakes okay?"

A tired Richard stumbled out from the boys' room. "Sounds fine to me," he grumbled as he collapsed into his favorite chair.

"Me, too." Kayla added in, poking her head around the bathroom door. "And a towel, while you're at it."

"AND BREAKFAST IN BED!" Ruby called from her room.

Cassie growled. "Why don't I just fix EVERYBODY breakfast, then?"

"Sounds good to me. Extra bacon for me, please, really crunchy, I don't like it when it's all rubbery."

David managed to dodge the first fork, but the second one struck him cleanly in the forehead, tines first.

"Ow! Dammit!"

"Don't harrass the cook." Richard recommended without turning. "They have all the sharp stuff at hand, and her mom's been known to slip laxatives in peoples' food when she's messed with."

The look of disgust on David's face was like a work of art as Cassie gave him her best 'Evil Grin'.

"She wouldn't."

"Watch me."

David gulped loudly, but sat down quietly and didn't say another word as Cassie set about preparing breakfast for the cabin, humming happily to herself.

---

27.

"And that's when, heh, that's when, heheh, that's when she-"

"Uncle Richard-"

"That's when she-"

"UNCLE RICHARD-"

"That's when h- she said, 'well, THAT wasn't supposed to happen.'" Richard fell out of his chair laughing as Cassie stared at him in horror. "We had to replace the drain line after that, 'cause we could never-"

"UNCLE RICHARD!!!"

"-get that damned clog out of the plumbing."

Richard continued to laugh while Cassie banged her head into the table, hoping against hope she would disappear before suffering another round of Death by Embarrassing Story. She raised her head when she heard a soft feminine laugh to find Emily chuckling along with the boys, but the moment her eyes rested on her the other girl stopped laughing and blushed, turning away from Cassie.

Cassie grinned. If Emily wasn't going to talk to her because of last night, she would just have to talk to Emily on her own. Excusing herself from the table, Cassie crossed over behind the other girl's seat and placed her hand on her shoulder, ignoring her flinch.

"Emily, can you walk with me? We need to talk."

"Uh, I dunno, I was gonna ask your sister to-"

Cassie squeezed Emily's shoulder slightly. "Please?"

Emily gulped. "O-okay."

Cassie kept one eye on the other girl as she lead them down the river and back towards the rocks from the night before. Emily hesitated only a little at the edge of the rocks before following Cassie out to the large flat stone they had used as a seat the night before.

Cassie sat herself down on the rock and wrapped her arms around her knees before looking up into Emily's eyes. "Okay, we need to talk about what happened last night."

"I'm sorry, I just... um."

Cassie watched closely to make sure Emily wasn't going to run off again. When it seemed like she was going to stay, Cassie stood up and wrapped her in a hug. "It's alright, I was just a little surprised. I didn't know you were a, uh, les-"

"NO!" Emily jerked away and gave Cassie a hard look. "I'm not! I mean, oh, I dunno! This is the first time I've thought I liked a girl!"

"Okay, uh."

The kiss this time was slightly less of a shock, but its suddenness and urgency still threw Cassie for a loop. Caleb made a grab from the recesses of her desires to take control, and it took all her willpower to break the kiss and step back from Emily's embrace. "Emily..."

"Cassie, I-"

"Emily!" The force of her words stopped the other girl in mid- apology, the tear streaks on her face making Cassie ache to kiss her again and make it all better- but she knew that wouldn't work. "Emily. *Phew* Okay. I like you a lot Emily, really. But I don't know if we should be doing this. There's a lot about me you don't know." Emily made a move to speak, but Cassie raised her hand to stop her. If she didn't finish this now, she never would. "See, I'm... I'm..."

"What?"

"Uh..." Seeing the look on Emily's face, half hope and half fear, Cassie couldn't bring herself to reveal the uncomfortable truth of the situation. "There's someone else in my life right now," slipped from her lips before her mind caught up to her mouth and clamped her teeth shut with a sharp snap. She watched Emily's face for a reaction, and was more than surprised when she spotted a small smile tweaking the corners of her mouth.

"Avery?"

Cassie shivered. "Oh, god no!"

Now Emily's voice held a faint note of challenge as she stood with her hands on her hips. "Well, who then?"

Again, her mouth ran away before her brain could catch up. "His name's Caleb."

"Oh, really?"

Cassie cursed the day she ever agreed to wear girl's clothes as she apologized to herself for what she was about to do. "Ah, yeah. Sorry." She scratched the back of her head nervously as she tried to come up with more explanation. The crunch of pebbles underfoot signalled her that Emily was coming nearer to her again, and when she looked up into the taller girl's face, she saw an expression of mixed sadness and embarrassment, with just a touch of... relief?

"Why didn't you tell us about him when we were teasing you earlier."

This one was easy for her to field. "Please don't tell my sister. If Kayla heard about Caleb, I'd never hear the end of it." Emily nodded, and with a slight giggle gave Cassie another kiss, this time on the cheek. With a sigh, she also wrapped her in a hug. "Are we okay?"

Emily sighed into her shoulder. "I dunno. I feel so silly, though. I thought you were, well, you know, and you have been so nice to me, and I dunno, I just." Emily stiffened against her, and Cassie could feel her growing nervous again. In answer, she tightened her own grip on the taller girl. "I DO like you, and I can't promise I won't do something stupid, but I'll try not to bring any of this up again. It's gonna be hard, though. Sigh. ARE we okay? I won't kiss you again..."

"Z'okay. It isn't the first time someone's thought I was gay," Cassie whispered, trying to keep the depression in her response to a minimum. 'Sheesh, sometimes you just can't win.'

---

28.

Cassie was growing tired of fielding questions left and right from everyone in the cabin about what she had been up to with Emily, and it was with great relief that she went out hiking on her own, looking for more mushrooms for her uncle, or maybe some polk salad for the hell of it. Or a nice, green handful of poison ivy to give to David if he kept up the jerk attitude. The thought of him with his mouth and eyes swollen shut made her smile until she realized how mean it would be, though she couldn't contain a light chuckle at what ELSE would get all red and itchy if he touched IT after she gave him the ivy.

She turned the volume in her headphones up a bit more as she hopped across a series of rocks spanning the river to reach the other side, admiring the swirling patterns of the rushing water around the many large and small protrusions that made up the crossing. She remembered when she was smaller her uncle having to carry her across on his shoulders, and how he almost always would fall in and get soaked, but somehow manage to keep Caleb- her, completely dry. Not that it mattered since their destination was always the little hot spring about a quarter of a mile away for a warm relaxing soak, but it was the thought that counted.

This time, though, her goal was much closer. She had spotted the small clearing covered in wildflowers on the far bank on their way down in the canoes, but had forgot about it until today. The last thing she wanted for the moment was to be disturbed, and a nice nap among the wildflowers sounded like just the thing to give her a chance to think over things in private. Or not. She still wasn't sure whether she wanted to think about anything at all yet, or let it sit for a while. 'Not like it makes much difference, I still did the right thing- I think.'

It didn't take her long to find a clear area away from the water to lay the blanket she had brought down. The sky was clear after the rain of the last few days, with the humidity making anything much more active than a short walk seem like torture. Cassie pulled out her book and laid down on her blanket to relax, trying to lose herself in the adventures of Harry Dresden.

She wasn't sure how long she had been asleep, but she was jarred from her dreams by a gentle hand shaking her shoulder.

"Come on, Cassie, your mom sent me to find you. It's lunch time. I brought sandwiches. Uh..."

Cassie groggily opened her eyes to see Eric leaning over her and holding a picnic basket. "Hi, Eric."

"Uh, hi." The boy grinned sheepishly before standing back up, giving Cassie enough room to sit up and notice how the shadows had changed.

"How long have I been out here?"

"I dunno, maybe two or three hours? Emily told us you needed some space, so nobody bothered you for a while."

"Oh. Thanks." Cassie stretched, trying to get rid of the kink that had developed in her shoulder where she had slept on it wrong. "So what'ja bring?" She asked, clearing a spot on her blanket for Eric to sit down.

---

29.

Cassie made sure to give Eric plenty of time to get back to the house before setting out herself, and took her time crossing the river again and making her way towards the cabin. She had a lot of thinking still to do, and felt sure that she wouldn’t be able to do it if she was near everyone else. It only took her a few minutes to get back to the rocks where she had met with Emily just that morning, only to find that she was not going to be as alone as she had expected.

“Can we talk for a bit, hon?”

“Sure, mom.”

Cassie wasn’t sure whether to be happy or upset to find her mom waiting for her return. She felt for sure she needed to figure this out alone, but she also knew that her mom would stay there until she found out what was going on. ‘But how much should I tell her? This isn’t just about me, it concerns Emily too.’

Ruby gave Cassie a tight hug as she settled down next to her. “So, how’s your vacation going so far?”

Cassie shrugged, then smiled. “Okay. Good, I think. You know how much I love it out here.”

“Uh huh, you always have. I really chewed your uncle out the other day, you know. If I had known we were gonna have guests up here…”

“I know, Mom. I’m okay.”

Ruby laughed. “I noticed. You don’t need to wind your cousin up so much, though. I heard about all the little flirty things you’ve been doing just to mess with him, and I was kind of surprised when Kayla told me about just how comfortable you seem like this. I didn't think ya had it in you.”

Cassie laughed. “Mom, I’m just trying to act as much like a girl as possible, and trust me, it’s taking a lot more thought and effort than I expected.”

“Well, there are such things as tomboys, you know. Most girls aren’t as girly as you seem to think.”

“*sigh* Maybe not, Mom, but Kayla can be, and from what I’ve seen, Emily definitely is. All trying to act butch would get me this summer is left out by both groups, ya know?”

Ruby gave Cassie a gentle squeeze. “If you think so. Tell me, though- do you really want to spend the entire summer trying to act, or do you want to spend it relaxing and having fun? If you keep trying to force yourself to act like you think you should, you'll just make yourself miserable.”

“Yeah, Mom, I know.”

"Honestly, I'll admit I wanted you to be a bit embarrassed about dressing like a girl this summer. I figured we'd come up here, your cousin would rib you a bit, you'd both get over it, and that would be that. You'd have some interesting summer stories to tell if you ever chose to, but otherwise this was gonna be just family." Cassie watched as her mom deflated, almost like a balloon. 'She must have been more worried about this than I thought.' "Can you forgive me?"

Cassie didn't even have to think about her answer. "Of course, Mom. Come here." The two hugged, and Cassie was glad the conversation was finally over.

“So, tell me about what happened between you and Emily last night.”

“What?”

---

30.

After another gruelling half hour of trying in vain to sidestep her mother's questions, Cassie finally managed to break away. She had just enough time for some light sketching before dinner, if she could find the time alone, but with family and guests popping up around every turn the woods seemed just a bit too crowded. She had settled on her bunk as a good escape from the crowds, and was just starting on outlining a quick sketch of everyone swimming the day before.

“So how was your talk with Mom?”

“It was… wait, was that your idea?” Cassie was less than happy with another interruption- her day had seemed to be nothing more than one after another- but was hoping that perhaps picking a fight with Kayla would help her to relieve some of the tension.

Kayla’s laughter was enough answer for Cassie. She was starting to get angry- what right did Kayla have to go off and do something like that?- when Kayla smiled at her. “It wasn’t so much my idea as something Mom wanted to do but didn’t have the courage to.” Kayla’s face grew more serious as she continued to look at Cassie. “She really was upset about getting you into this position, and I think after the way Emily came back last night she was worried she had found out. You’ve been trying really hard to fit in with us, and I let her know that, but you know what Mom’s like.” Cassie did. Overprotective in the extreme most of the time, for one thing. It had amazed her that her mom would even consider the clothing thing in the first place, but sometimes her mom’s decisions were confusing.

A loud voice from the kitchen, probably Jobe, Cassie thought, called out to them. “Hey, dinner’s ready you two. You gonna eat or what?”

"Just a minute! God, I swear that David kid's a bad influence on him," Kayla hissed from her bunk. "He wasn't this annoying last summer."

"He's always been like this, I'm just usually tormenting you so much you don't notice."

"That's for sure!" Kayla grinned. "You know, I think so far this has been one of my favorite summers out here."

That caught Cassie's attention, and she turned from her sketch padto stare at her sister.

"Seriously! You've been a lot cooler than usual, and it's been fun."

That hurt. "You're just saying that because I'm stuck like this."

Kayla shook her head vigorously. "Not at all! It's been fun, yeah, but mostly it's just that you haven't been a little jerk to me all the time."

"What! I am not a jerk!"

"Yes, you are!" Kayla insisted. "You're not that bad at home, most of the time, but you're as bad as that David guy most of the time when we're out here." Cassie gave her a suspicious look. "Okay, maybe not THAT bad, but some of the pranks you used to play on me were just mean."

Cassie was about to throw her pen or her sketch pad at her sister, anything to make her stop complaining, but took a second to cool down and think. Had she really been that bad? "So this summer's better for you because I'm acting like a girl?"

Kayla started laughing loudly again. "You're kidding, right? That's been entertaining, no doubt. It's funny seeing you being yourself one moment and the next trying to act like what you think a girl would do. You need to ease it up a bit. No, I could do without the girl thing, it's mostly just been nice you actually doing things with me."

"Really?"

"Really!" Kayla agreed.

Cassie smirked. "But I thought older sisters were supposed to hate having to do things with their little brothers... and sisters, too."

Kayla shrugged, and propped herself up on her elbows, laying across her bunk. "Well, Mom and Uncle Richard are pretty close, and I always just thought it'd be fun if we could get along like they did. Do. I mean, like, we usually go climbing in the summer together and stuff, but it's usually just 'cause we have to be safe or everyone else is going too. Now, we can go together just to hang out and have fun TOGETHER, you know?"

'I think I do.' Cassie nodded, and, because it felt like the right thing to do, hopped down from her bunk and landed in Kayla's. "Yup."

"DINNER NOW OR I'M EATING YOURS!!!"

"COMING JOBE!" The two yelled through the door together, and Kayla gave Cassie a quick squeeze before they both got out of the bunk and headed out to dinner.

---

NOTES:

Alright, it's been a while since I posted. Here's a little head's up. I know this chapter was a bit dialoguey (is that a real word? Evs.) I had to get it out of the way, and that's what took so long to write it. I'll no doubt be going back and re-editing it at some time in the very near future, but since I FINALLY got it finished last night I figured ya'll might want to see what's been taking so long. It still doesn't feel quite right to me- it's a bit flat, to be honest. But I couldn't move past here without getting it out of the way. There'll be more drama between the girls in later chapters- trust me on that :P I picked a kind of weird way to write this story, with five mini-chapters making up each day, for what I plan on being a three week vacation, for a total of 100 mini-chapters. It's gonna take a LOT longer to write than I ever thought, though hopefully not as long as I'm spending on Echoes.

Melanie E.