April 23rd, 2011

Catalina, California, USA

The Island

“Alright, I think it’s recording now.”

Kat turned to face Cole. “Oh, so you’re still doing the camera thing?”

Cole smiled. “Yeah, I think it’ll be cool. We can go around the island, doing stuff, having adventures, and then get the whole thing on video and watch it later.”

Kat nodded, and looked into the camera lens. “Well, we’re just a few minutes until we get to Catalina now. Poor Lukas over here has been hunched over seasick pretty much the whole time.”

Lukas had his head resting on the table, clutching his stomach. Cole zoomed the camera in on him.

“Lukas, say something for the audience! Let them know you’re still alive!”

The child seemed to hesitate for a moment, but eventually a weak and feeble thumbs up raised itself into view. Suddenly, the boat’s speakers roared to life.

“Alright, kids! We’ve reached the island now. Go find your guide and make sure you have all your stuff with you before you get off!”

The kids around them erupted into cheers, screams, and laughter. Kat shrugged her shoulders.

“Huh, guess we were a lot closer than I thought.”

Cole turned off his camera for the time, and the three kids went to find their adult. As they left the ship and got to the shore, Lukas surveyed the land.

“Man, this place looks crazy.”

Cole kicked a rock down to one of the dilapidated buildings around them. “It kinda looks like a zombie map. We should find Frankie and Baja later and see if they wanna play zombies with us.”

Kat looked at the boys in front of her and smiled, beginning to feel a lot more mature. “You two are weirdos, you know that?”

Cole blew a raspberry at her, then raced down the steps to the heart of the camp. Lukas followed not too far behind.

…

Later, the boys were in their cabin getting settled. Lukas put his sheets neatly on the bed, when Cole came up to him. 

“Hey, which activity do you plan on going to?”

Lukas shrugged. “I dunno. I’m not very good at arts and crafts, but I don’t see learning about fish to be super exciting.”

“Oh, come on! They let us touch a stingray. That’s pretty cool.”

“Can’t stingrays kill you?”

“I don’t think so. Not this one, at least. Probably.”

Lukas sighed, and put his backpack down on the bed. “You know which one Kat plans on going to?”

“Nope, but we could go ask her. Her cabin is right across from ours.”

Lukas’ ears perked up. “Really?”

“Yeah, come’on.”

In perhaps a convenient coincidence, the two boys only made a few steps out of their own cabin when they saw Kat walk out with two of her female friends by her side. She smiled at the two as they came over. 

“Hi Cole, hi Luke.”

Cole waved at the three girls, with which all three waved back. Lukas stood at his side behind him, listening in. 

“Which activity are y’all going to?”

“We’re going to the stingray one. Our guide says it’s starting right now, over by the big church place.”

“Mind if we join you?”

Kat shrugged. “Be my guest.”

The three girls led on. Cole and Lukas stuck a little farther back. The darker-haired of the two poked his elbow into his friend’s ribs.

“Not so nervous about that stingray now, huh?” Cole whispered.

Lukas began turning red. “Shut up!”

“So, you guys excited for the bonfire tonight?” Kat asked behind her. The two boys stood back up to attention.

“Oh, uh, yeah. That’s the s’mores thing and stuff, right?” Cole asked.

“Yup. I wonder if they’re gonna have a telescope like they did at Mount Oswald. It was fun to look at the planets in that thing.”

Lukas shook his head. “Yeah, for the five seconds they let us use it for.”

“I’m pretty sure they took you two off early because you were screwing with the zoom settings.”

The kids laughed amongst each other, as they walked towards the group of fellow children amalgamated around an antique mission chapel.

…

The next relevant event was the very bonfire Kat had mentioned. There was no telescope, and while there were s’mores the adults quickly realized that toasting them each on the large fire would take too long, and so they quickly began letting the children just have whatever graham crackers, marshmallows, and Hershey’s bars they wanted.

The three sat by a couple of their other friends, including the previously mentioned Frankie and Baja as well as the two girls from earlier. Lukas was sitting on a blanket he had grabbed from his cabin, preventing his behind from being poked at by the dead bark of the log he sat on. Cole, who sat next to him, grabbed a reusable water bottle — his own — and spun it on the ground. The top landed towards Kat.

Kat sighed. “Alright, what’s your dare?”

Cole crossed his arms. “I bet you can’t eat a whole s’mores in one go.”

The girl looked up, grinning. “Oh, you’re going easy on me now? If you say so.”

The other kids’ gasped at Kat’s confidence, while Cole watched on observantly. In her hand she took two graham crackers, and sandwiched a marshmallow and Hersey’s between them. Kat continued squishing them until the massive puffy mallow was turned near flat — a move Cole clearly did not anticipate — and then plopped the whole thing into her mouth. A few seconds of munching later, and she had swallowed the whole thing.

Cole shook his head. “That’s not fair…”

“Too bad, so sad. Shoulda been more specific. Now, do I get my truth?”

Acknowledging the rules of their modified game, Cole nodded. Kat’s eyes slowly watched over all those in attendance, thinking deeply, until she finally spoke.

“This one is for all the boys. I want you to describe to us, in detail, who your ideal crush would look like.”

Frankie and Baja turned beet red. The two girls with Kat giggled, while Kat herself looked triumphantly down at Cole’s posse.

“Um… I d-don’t really want to…” Frankie stumbled.

“Yeah, I mean… i-isn’t it against the rules, to ask m-multiple people?” Baja pleaded.

Cole looked down, shaking his head vigorously. “Oh, don’t be a bunch of wussies! Fine. I’ll go first.” The boy then turned his gaze up thoughtfully to the night sky, his arms crossed in his lap.

“I like… punk girls, you know? With dark, slicked-back hair, and those jackets with the metal spike things on ’em, and all that… black eye makeup, whatever it’s called.”

In his seat, Frankie snickered to himself. “Cole likes punk girls!”

Cole shot him a glare. “Oh, and what girls do you like, Frankie? Care to share it with the class?”

The boy quickly backed down, coughing nervously. The others laughed at his embarrassment. It was at this time, however, when Kat’s eyes landed upon the blonde boy across from her.

“What about you, Lukas? I’m curious what your answer is.”

Lukas’ eyes widened. The girl’s blue eyes pierced into him, comforting yet expectant. He swallowed, and tried to open his mouth, yet his voice was soundless. After all, how was he supposed to give his answer when it was right there in front of him?

Before the moment escalated any further, Cole outstretched an arm defensively in front of Lukas. “I don’t think he has to answer if he doesn’t want to.”

“Oh, so Lukas doesn’t have to answer, but we do?” Baja asked aggressively.

Cole sighed in compromise. “Okay, fine. No one has to answer.”

Kat gave a look of self-satisfaction. “That’s alright with me. I mostly just wanted your answer, anyway.”

Cole shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He, along with everyone besides Lukas, didn’t have the pleasure of sitting on a blanket. “Hey, you guys wanna try moving? My butt is gonna get a rash from sitting on this log, and you can barely see any stars here.”

“Wanna try moving over to the basketball court?” One of the girls asked. 

Cole turned his head around. A few feet away was an empty basketball court, darkened by the lack of ambient light from the light poles all around the cabin. “That might actually be a good idea. Let’s check it out.”

When the group reached the court, a particular object caught Cole’s eye. He pointed his finger upward, and called out to the others. “Hey guys, check it out!”

Lodged at the top of the iron-wrought fencing of the court was a large football. With a running start Cole jumped onto the fence and tried to grab it, but his hands fell just out of reach and he landed back to the ground.

Taking a few quick looks around, his eyes landed on the blanket in Lukas’ hand. “Lukas, can you hand me that?”

Understanding the mission, the boy complied, nodding and tossing the blanket to his friend. Cole wound up the cloth into a rope, and began swinging it around to gain momentum, nearly succeeding multiple times in whacking Kat right in the face.

“Hey, Indiana Jones!” Kat yelled after taking a few steps back. “Watch where you’re swinging that thing!”

When Cole was satisfied with the speed, he whipped the blanket into the fence. The football budged, but only by a bit. He did this a couple of more times, each time freeing the football just a little bit more. The other kids watched in a trance as Cole whipped the blanket again and again into the fence. That is, until their trance was broken. 

“All of you! Off the basketball court!”

The kids didn’t know much about the voice, other than that it sounded like a very angry adult. Cole quickly stopped swinging, and twisted his head around.

“Crap, run!”

Without much time to think, the kids did exactly as told. Lukas was the first to spot a gate in the fence, which he quickly dashed towards. Kat must have noticed too, as she helped him push the door open. Both of them rushed into the woods.

The two kept going until they both finally ran out of breath. It was only when Lukas lifted his head and turned around, that he realized what had happened.

The others, including Cole, had all run off in the opposite direction. Only he and Kat went towards the woods.

“Shoot… Kat… I think we went the wrong way,” Lukas said in between heavy breathing. He took a few steps back to the campgrounds, when Kat quickly tapped him on the shoulder.

“Wait, Lukas! Take a look at this!”

The boy turned over to where Kat was. There, in the middle of the trees, was a large and open field of grass. Kat walked over to it, and sat down on its surface.

“The dirt is really soft here. The grass is, too. Come check it out!”

Lukas went and sat over by the girl. The ground did in fact feel comfortable to the touch. The clearing had also created an open view of the night sky.

“Alright,” Kat said, her eyes looking up at the stars. “What constellations do you recognize?”

Lukas laid his fair blonde head towards the ground, his arms crossing underneath it. “Okay, well… that one, over there, is the Big Dipper.”

Kat giggled. “Uh huh, yeah. Sure.”

“And that one… right over by those three stars, is the Ursula Minor.”

“It’s called the Ursa Major.”

“Whatever. I was right, right?”

“Nope. Not even close.”

The two laughed for a long time, then followed into silence. All that could be heard was the distant, ambient chatter of the bonfire, and the gentle wind across the tops of the pine trees. Lukas’ eyes stared upwards, the night sky glistening across his irises, his heartbeat rose and yet he felt a strange calm take over. Next to him, he heard Kat lie down as well. He stayed deathly still as he felt the warmth of her body get towards him, as she scooted not-so-subtly closer. Then, in what felt like an endless minute of tension, she laid her head gently against his shoulder.

Neither one knew how long they stayed that way for.