Later that night, I went to talk to Bob. "So Bob how's it going?" I asked a little nervously.
"Okay, I guess. Let me guess, you want to ask me something about Karin!"
"Yeah. Who told you!"
"No one. I was just guessing. So ask away."
"Um, do you like her?" I asked quickly.
"Of course I like her, she's one of my good friends!" he said sounding a little offended.
"I mean more than a friend."
He looked from side to side to make sure no one was watching. When he was satisfied, he went really shy and nodded his head.
"So were you going to ask her out this week?"
"Maybe....why do you ask?"
"I'm here to give you a pointer on something."
"Pointer's are always good."
"You may find it hard to find a good time to talk to her. My advice to you is, don't give up on trying to talk to her. If you are able to ask her and she turns you down, don't worry about it, but don't pester her to go out with you. She'll probably forgive you and you'll be back to good buds again."
"So your saying she doesn't like me?" asked Bob.
"I can't tell you that. I promised not to say anything, and I won't tell her that you like her okay?"
"Okay. How about we go start a fire and roast some marshmallows with everybody."
"Good plan!" I answered.
A few minutes later we had a fire going. Everyone was there except Karin.
"Where's Karin?" asked Scott.
"I don't know," I answered.
All the sudden Karin walked bye and said to Scott in a joking manner, "Silverchair sucks," and kept on walking.
Scott got this really weird look on his face like, ‘what the heck.'
"Hey why don't you join us sometime!" shouted Clint.
"I will, I just have to find my special roasting stick."
"Okay, while your gone were going to be talking about you," he answered. Then all the boys bent their heads together and pretended to whisper something about her.
"Thanks," replied Karin.
"Hey no prob Bob," answered Dave.
"I thought I was Bob," complained Bob.
"Just drop it," said Karin.
When Karin was out of earshot I asked, "seriously how can we get her and Bob together."
"I don't know. Is she scared of anything, because we could all pretend to go or do something Karin would be scared of, and would be to freaked out to come with us. Bob would stay behind and try to talk to her, and we could all hide in the bushes and eavesdrop on them,"answered Clint.
Bob smacked him for the last sentence he said.
"She is scared of thunderstorms. She almost got hit by lightning once," I said thoughtfully.
"The weather is talking about rain towards the end of the week, maybe there'll be a thunderstorm," replied Dave.
"No dummy, you don't get many thunderstorms out here. It's not going to happen..." said Scott mocking Dave.
"Whatcha talkin about?" asked Karin, who had obviously come back, and surprised us there.
"Oh, just about the time when you almost got hit by lightning," answered Bob.
She looked thoughtful for a minute. "That was scary. I never used to be scared of lightning, but now it's changed."
We all laughed. I was right.
"So are you going to show me how to roast those really big marshmallows with that fancy stick of yours?" asked Bob.
"I guess," replied Karin.
She went over to Bob and showed him how to use the stick. The problem was he purposely did everything wrong Karin was trying to show him. Dave and I were watching them. "So what do you think of this?" I asked.
"Those two are hilarious. Karin is trying hard to teach him something. Bob is acting stupid and they're having a good time."
"I guess."
"So are you having a good time?" asked Dave.
"Me? Of course I am. Why wouldn't I? This is a dream come true."
"You just seem preoccupied."
"You mean about Karin and Bob?"
"Yeah, don't be. Just let them be. If they're meant to be together they will be. If they aren't, that's their loss."
"I see what you mean I guess."
"Good, so do you want to go for a walk?" he asked.
"Sure," I replied happily.
We told the others we were going for a walk and I told Clint and Scott to make sure Bob didn't try anything. Then I went and took hold of Dave's arm which he purposely put out for me.
"So where are we walking to?" I asked Dave when we set off.
"I figured we'd take a walk to the beach if that's okay with you."
"Sure."
We pretty much walked in silence to the beach which is unusual for Dave. I guessed he must have been preoccupied with something, after he had distinctly told me not to be preoccupied. When we got to the beach, Dave sat down on a log which had once been the trunk of a tree, and had been drifting in the sea for who knows how long. He patted the seat beside him indicating for me to sit down. I did, "the sky sure is pretty tonight," I commented breaking the silence.
"It is," he answered. There wasn't a cloud in sight. "So do you know much about the sky?"
"Naw, all I know is that the moon, stars, and satellites light up the sky at nicht. People have tried to show me the milky way and the big dipper, but I don't know where they are."
"Me too," he replied. There was silence for a bit then he turned to me and asked, "would you like to go on a date with me sometime?"
"Are you asking me to be your girlfriend, or just to go on a date, date, like out for supper or something, because one time a guy asked me out on a date, and after that he thought I was his girlfriend, and I wasn't."
"Both, but more the first one," he said shyly.
"I'm honoured Dave but...." he cringed, "I don't know you that well yet."
"I guess your right, its just that before, all the girls I've asked out practically have all never shown up and stuff. I didn't want to ask you out too late, and then never see you again. I'm sorry," he confessed.
"Don't be," I answered, "I really like you, but if I was to be your girlfriend today, it would be for all the wrong reasons, and it wouldn't be fair to you. Give it a few days."
"So we're still friends right?" he asked.
"Of course," I answered and we hugged.
"You won't tell the others about this will you?"
"My lips are sealed," I said pretending to zip them shut.
"Good, I won't either. We'll just be good buds like Karin and Bob."
"Sure," I replied. We stayed there a few minutes longer and left. While on our way back I mentioned to Dave, "we should all go for a picnic on the beach tomorrow, and then go swimming. We could get to know each other better then."
"Good plan." The wind began to pick up and I started to shiver. (I was only wearing a t-shirt and shorts.) "You cold?" asked Dave. I nodded, and he took off his jacket and gave it to me.
"Thanks...your not cold now are you?"
"No."
We got back to the campsite and when Scott saw us he had to comment. "The two love birds are back!"
Dave was really offended, and I was a little offended too, "we're not love birds," he said angrily striding towards Scott and dumping him off his chair.
"Watch it man, can't you take a joke?"
"You watch what your saying, it's bad enough you offending me, but when you offend Melissa, that crosses the line!"
Scott opened his mouth to say something, but Bob cut him off. "Just quit it guys. It's pointless. You guys are even now, so stop it!"
~*~*~
The next day had turned out to be very nice weather wise, especially for our picnic on the beach. Anyways during lunch we played this German game called "Stop Dallop" but I have the idea, no one in Germany has heard of it, or even played it for that matter. It was pretty childish, but was fun and we had great time playing it.
After lunch we went swimming. Beside us on the beach there were a bunch of chicks about 19 or 20 years old wearing bikini's probably hoping to pick up some guys. Well they sure caught the attention of Scott and Clint. Dave and Bob probably would have paid more attention to them, but Dave was to busy trying to impress me, and Bob was trying to win the attention of Karin. "So why don't you wear bathing suits like those girls?" asked Scott.
"Same answer to the question, why don't you guys wear speedo's," stated Karin smartly.
"Ewww, that'd be disgusting and uncomfortable, not to mention uncool," commented Clint.
"You see, if we wore bikini's we wouldn't be able to have fun and would just sit on the beach all day," I answered.
"Okay then, I challenge you all to a chicken fight," said Scott.
We divided into teams. Dave and I, Karin and Clint, and Scott and Bob.
"I call fighting Karin first," shouted Bob.
"You're goin' down buddy!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
They got into the water, and when Scott and Clint were neck deep, they got on their shoulders.
"Ready go!" shouted Dave.
Bob pretended to not be paying attention, clearly to let Karin make the first move. She did. She stuck her hands in the water and flicked some water on Bob, doing no damage at all. Bob who was confused, flicked some water back onto her. She began to splash him more and more each time, so they ended up having a massive water fight. Then Karin stopped suddenly while Bob was still splashing and tried to push him off, unfortunately Scott held on. Bob clued in and they started their fight. They were having a ball. Bob knew that Karin didn't like it when people let her win, so he tried his hardest and in the end finally pushed her off Clint. She went underwater, and we couldn't figure out where she went until she grabbed onto Scotts ankles and pulled him under with Bob on top. She quickly surfaced, grabbed Bob and held him underwater. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and your out of here," she yelled, and then let him surface.
"I won," he shouted rubbing it in.
"Yeah, but I just won the wrestling match."
"What wrestling match?"
"The one where I pinned you down."
"Okay," he said not quite believing it.
Since Dave and I was how much fun Karin and Bob had, we decided to fight each other as well. Since I'm fairly short I decided to hitch a ride on Bob's shoulders (he was my teammate) to the deeper water where I would be a little lighter to carry, but the water was way over my head.
We began our pushing match right off the top unlike the other two, and Dave also tried his hardest, so I lost. Now my problem was I couldn't swim. I didn't tell them, I just figured when I fell I would grab a hold of bob, but I fell a little too far backwards. Fortunately my feet hit the ground and I managed to push myself up to the surface. I came up gasping for air and between gasps tried to say, "help I can't swim!" but panicking didn't help, and that's just what I was doing and I began to sink.
