Back to the Dream Page
"So how'd your date with Andrew go last night?" Kassandra asks, taking a seat next to her best friend on the couch. The two were in the counselor's lounge, half an hour early for the counselor meeting.
"It went well," she replies with a smile. "He really is a great guy."
"I'm glad it's working out. At least I won't have to kick Joey's or Jason's butt for pushing you towards Andrew then."
May giggles. "I can just see you do that too. Remember when you actually punched Joey? Oh, that was priceless!"
Kassandra closes her eyes and thinks back to the event.
It was the middle of her summer at Wild Woods when she was fifteen. Kassandra and May had just walked out of the their cabin when they were both ambushed by Joey and one of his pals. Before she realized what was going on, Kassandra felt some things slither down her back.
"Eww!" she screamed, jumping around. May was not fairing much better.
As Kassandra pulled the back of her shirt up to shake whatever the things were off her back she glared at Joey and his friend who were laughing rather hard at the two.
"Man Kassie, you look so funny right now! Now you'll think twice before trying to look in my box!" Joey says in between laughter.
Kassandra looks at the ground where there were four slugs slithering. "Ugh," she says with disgust. "I cannot believe that a sixteen year old boy had to put slugs down my back to get even with me for something I didn't even do. You're really making me wonder what's in that box now Joey."
"Don't deny it. I caught you sitting right next to it!"
"I was sitting on your bed! I didn't even notice until you came in freaking out that I was invading your space and trying to look inside. Get a grip! The entire world does not revolve around you mister."
"Man, you can be such a witch sometime."
Kassandra looks over at May and sees that she's shaking out the last slug. "Why did you have to involve poor May?"
"Hey, I only put two down her back. It was kind of the whole wrong place, wrong time thing," Joey's friend states. "Don't get mad at me! It was all Joey's idea."
Joey slaps him on the head. "Thanks a lot stupid."
"So this was all your idea? Over a stupid box? Man Joey, sometimes I wonder why I even…" she starts but stops, realizing what she almost said.
"Why you even bother to wear clothes? To save us all," Joey's pal responds.
Kassandra could feel tears begin to form but shove them back, mentally telling herself that she wouldn't let them see her cry. Instead, before Joey could say anything, she swings out and makes contact with his stomach, making him double over. "That's for being a jerk!" she exclaims before grabbing May's hand and running off.
May and Kassandra's laughter subside as May wipes away some tears. "We really have some wonderful memories at this place, don't we?"
"Of course we do. So many summers here. It's bound to happen that we will have millions of memories. It's just not certain if they'll all be great ones," Kassandra returns.
"Most are, even the sad ones. Did you ever find out what was in that stupid box?"
"Nope. Ever since then, I have not seen it in plain sight and I was not stupid enough to go search for it. However, I do think that it is something very private for him to have freaked out like that."
"This is true. I wonder…"
"What are you two talking about? You look so intense," Joey says, entering the room with a big smile on his face, followed by Vince. "No mischief I hope."
"Who, us?" Kassandra asks with an innocent look.
"Hmm, why do I get this sudden uneasy feeling?"
Vince laughs. "The history you two must have had together."
"Besides her decking me once in a while, we got along fine."
"Yeah, fine in the sense that he kept tormenting me up until a few years ago," Kassandra points out. "Thank God you haven't corrupted any other campers."
"Well if you didn't react by screaming and trying to retaliate, I would have left you completely alone. But you had to be a total girl about it. Made it pretty amusing, even after Jason grew out of the torture stage."
"At least there's someone who has maturity between the two of you. Pranks that you do now are one thing. Complete torment is another, especially when tormenting young girls."
"What, saying you and May over there were defenseless? I don't think so!" Joey says with a laugh. "You two had quite an imaginative mind when it came to retaliation. You have to admit that."
"Well duh. We're good like that."
"Right. And you wonder why I liked tormenting you so much."
"Have they always been like this?" asks Vince, feeling exhausted just witnessing the banter.
"Usually. It's been a lot worse. Like Joey said, Kassie has actually decked him a couple of times," May comments. "Of course, there was that time that we were doing some self defense thing at camp and the two got paired up to do a co-ed thing. Man, that was definitely bruise city."
"Oh really?" he asks, intrigued while still watching the pair argue. "Tell me about it."
May shakes her head as she thinks back to that precious day. "It went something like this…"
"Now kids, I don't want anyone getting hurt here. This is why we are all wearing protective gear and are using mats on the floor. Boys, I want you to advance on the girls and wrap your arm around their necks but not tightly. Girls, I want you to try those moves we went over," Bob instructs, looking over the crowd of fifteen and fourteen year olds in front of him.
"You sure you can handle me?" Joey asks with an arrogant smile on his face. "I mean, I don't want to embarrass you or anything Kassie."
"Shut up and come at me," Kassie replies, annoyed at Joey's comment. 'Stupid boy. Always has to be stronger and more arrogant.'
"If you say so," Joey says, shrugging. "Promise me that if you get hurt you won't go crying to Bob though. I'm just doing what he said and what you obviously think is going to be nothing."
"It will be nothing. Now quit yapping and come at me."
"I can't."
"What do you mean you can't?" she asks, turning around to stare at him.
Joey again shrugs. "I can't hit or even hurt a girl. Against my beliefs."
"Are you kidding? Joey, you have never been considerate of any girl's hurt feelings before, especially mine when you're in the mind for teasing. Don't start now."
"If you say so," he says right before rushing at her, startling Kassandra with his speed. However, he was not quick enough.
When Joey was within reach, Kassandra caught a hold of his arm and used all of her force to twist his arm behind him, making him flinch in pain. Before she could complete the move, he managed to turn on her and pushed her to the ground. From there, neither could focus on anything else but to get the upper hand on the other. Eventually, Bob separated the two but not before both were bruised and glaring at each other.
"That's enough. Both of you go back to your cabins and cool off. I don't know what happened but it's over."
"I'm sorry sir. We just got carried away. It was all in good fun, right Kassie?" Joey states.
"Right," she returns with a nod. "We're good friends and we just got swept away with trying to best the other with defense moves you taught us."
Bob looks at the two and sees the truth in their eyes and nods. "Fine. Stay but no more misbehaving on your parts, ok? I don't care if you're friends or not."
Both Joey and Kassandra nod their heads as Bob moves back to the front of the class and everyone returns their gazes to him and off of them.
Vince laughs uncontrollably. "So what happened after that?"
"Well, the two definitely didn't talk for a while, but eventually, Jason got them to talk again. I think it was a tossup as to who was more upset. Kassandra for having gotten scolded for the first time in her life at camp or Joey for being beaten so much by a girl," May responds.
"I bet probably Joey. Man, I always thought he was the ladies' man here. I guess not with Kassie."
"They've had their bad moments like that but they have also had many more positive ones. Just like any other childhood friendship."
"True." Vince turns his attention to the two who seem to have called a truce and are sitting on a couch, calmly talking. "I guess the war is over."
May chuckles. "Guess so."
"What a beautiful day it is today," Kathy says brightly, coming into the room, followed by Bob. "I'm not surprised to find you four here early. Where's Joey?"
"I'm right here," Joey responds with a laugh. "I know, the irresponsible one is here instead of the responsible twin. Thought I'd try to impress you today."
"Well you have," she returns with a smile.
Soon, the rest of the counselors pile in, taking a seat and giving their attention to Kathy and Bob.
"Thank you everyone for coming. I called this meeting because I wanted to plan the rest of this summer session with you to ensure that the campers are definitely doing what they want to and find fun. Are there any suggestions for what we should do?" Kathy asks, opening the floor for the counselors to throw out ideas as Bob writes them on the board.
After all the ideas are expressed, Kathy smiles. "That's a great list. I will consider all of them and put together a calendar to hand out to you all by mid-week. Now, I also wanted to go over a few other things. First of all, I have noticed that some of you haven't utilized your free days off. Is it because of who is scheduled to have the day off with you or what?"
"Well, to be honest, it does have to do with that. Many of us have particular fellow counselors that we would like to relax with, and if we are on different days, it seems like most of us would rather just hang out on the grounds," a girl with blonde hair says.
"Okay. Bob and I figured that might be the situation. I have redone the schedule and will pass it out tomorrow morning with the morning paperwork you all fill out. Now I also want to address all of the inappropriate behavior that has been occurring lately."
"We understand that you are all near adults if not adults at this time but we would appreciate it if you would remember that there are many children running around here at camp," Bob states. "Please, if you do think of doing anything that you deem above a G-rating, don't do it, or if you absolutely have to, do it somewhere else away from innocent eyes. It would be much appreciated by the entire camp. It also shows you respect others around you if you all consider each other enough to restrain yourself."
"As Bob said, we would just like things to be toned down a lot. I don't want to have to redo the rules for counselors. I really don't want to be that type of tyrant, but I will if we have any further problems. Is that understood?"
All the counselors nod their agreement and Bob smiles. "Good. Now go and have a great rest of the day."
Everyone gets up and start making their way to their different destinations.
Jason catches Kassandra's eye and tries to smile but stops as she only weakly smiles back. 'This is not a good sign,' he thinks to himself as he sighs and decides to take a different route back to his cabin.
Kassandra watches as Jason leaves, feeling a pain. 'Oh Jason… What is to become of us now?'
Vince observes the interchange and begins to wonder if something happened between the two the other night. 'That's definitely weird behavior for the two,' he thinks to himself. 'Did they get into a fight?'
May also notices and sighs, getting a sinking feeling that something was really bad between her friends. 'Could it be that something has already died between them before it even had a chance to live?'
Deciding that she needed time to think, Kassandra walks off towards the shore, leaving May and Allison behind. The two look at each other but allow her to wander off, realizing that she needed space to sort out whatever happened.