Chapter Ten - Turn-a-round
It was a little past mid-morning, art classes had been great but the heat that was building over the camp now was perfect for a little swim time. Outdoor activities were being opted into, instead of being indoors all day like had been planned for most. Troubles with certain buildings and their air conditioners forced that.
With that decision... The entire kid population of Pawa was now being let loose on the proud waters of Lake Pawa and its sandy beaches.
Mandy watched as her charges swam in the cooling waters of Pawa from onshore. She could see that the girls were having so much fun, splashing around and making quite a noise as they enjoyed the lake. She found the sound of their playing to be actually great to hear, her mood had been much more lighter than ever.
She could see a group of boys out on the water, paddling a flotilla of canoes past about a fifty feet away. The boys, around thirteen or so were very interested in the bikini clad young girls of her cabin, to the point of nearly crashing into one another as they gawked. One she could see, nearly fell right out of his canoe as he looked over the girls. Mandy stifled her laugh at the youth, knowing that was just in their nature to be like that.
She shifted on her feet, feeling the heat from the sand seeping right through her sandles, as the day had gotten incredibly hot. Even in shorts and a tank-top...Mandy felt so damned hot. She saw Olivia in the water with the girls, still just off to the side of them. She smiled, as the day was so bright and everything.
Mandy looked down the beach, and saw two of the pre-teen aged cabins engaged in a very spirited game of volleyball on the sand. By the way they were playing, it was more than just competitive in nature. She could not help but break a smile, as she caught sight of Sunny playing with her group of girls.
She watched , as the woman dove and bounded around on the sand as the match went on. Sunny was so graceful, leaping so effortlessly as she spiked the ball like a pro over the net and past the young boys that were her cabin’s opponents.. Muscles taunt and lean moved like a well oiled machine, making the large tattoo dance on her sweat covered leg. The girl’s strong body settled, as she urged her girl’s on, as the boys theat they played seemed to be not up to the task of playing these gals.
Mandy could not believe how effortlessly the woman moved, Sunny was so smooth in each motion, yet it seemed so strongly. She was like a goddess, yet even she had never heard of a goddess spiking a ball like that ever. Mandy smiled at that thought, as it did describe the woman to a tee.
As she watched, Sunny looked over and obviously saw her. The woman give a looping wave with a big smile on her sleek face, then made a playful gasping motion as if she was pretending to be winded from playing with the kids, but she looked so fresh that even her joking made Mandy giggle. Sunny then flashed a second smile, as one of the girl’s near her asked something.
The sweat soaked teeshirt Sunny wore clung to her upper half like a glove, and Mandy then noted how developed the woman really was as she leaned over a little to listen to the girl that was asking her something.. For an athlete like Sunny so obviously was, that was a tad unusual to be endowed like that... dispite that, to Mandy, that was a smile producer.
Mandy could not help herself... Sunny was so very pretty, to her she was past the point of beautiful. She could not help but notice how Sunny’s spirit seemed to shine right through the beauty she had, it just made her feel even more attracted than ever.
Sunny went back to the game at hand, seemingly almost into the match as much as her girls were. Mandy made herself turn back, needing to keep an eye on her group. She had to make herself mentally remind herself that she had let her mind wander off from her duties.
To her shock, Olivia was already standing right next to her by then. She saw that the woman was brightly smirking at her like a Cheshire cat. Mandy had been caught again looking, and it seemed it was always by the observant woman.
“ Who is that your looking at?” Olivia asked, seeing who it was that her younger colleague was looking at.
Mandy could not help but break into a very crimson blush. That made Olivia chuckle as she saw the brightness of the girl’s face
“ Her name is Sunny.” The short young woman replied, with a big smile that made her blushing even more prevalent.
“ Sunny, Hu?” Olivia smirked, looking at Mandy.
“ That is her name...” Mandy beamed, feeling a little giddy all of a sudden... but calming it almost as quickly..
“ Interesting... This ‘Sunny’ lady is attractive as hell, I see by how you are looking.” Laughed the woman.
“ Yeah... she is...” Said Mandy, her eyes swooning a little as she spoke the words.
Olivia turned to have a slightly longer look at the athletic woman who was playing Volleyball near them, regarding who Mandy had been eyeing for a long moment. She turned back to her young partner and looked into the browns of Mandy’s eyes.
“ Dare I ask if there is there some definite ‘like’ going in the mix for you?” Cheekily asked the woman.
Mandy rolled her eyes, and caught herself giggling away like some schoolgirl. She was feeling so shy at the moment, almost like the first time she had ever seen CC, as she heard the question. She felt herself now really beginning to blush, and she fought to answer her friend and colleague.
“ I think so...” She said, taking a glance over at the woman who was now fully involved in the game.
“ Is this a mutual thing between the two of you, or are you looking from afar? Seriously here... is it?” Prodded Olivia.
The smaller gal shrugged her shoulders, and gave a sigh. Olivia squinted at her, it seemed like that was not quite the answer she was thinking would have came.
“ It isn’t?” She asked.
“ I am not sure of anything yet...” Said the girl with a small pout. “ You know I just met her this morning while I was out having my smoke and coffee.....” Mandy replied shifting on her feet. “ I sat and talked to her for a while and everything... Even after that, I am not even sure if she is into girls or anything in the first place.”
“ She might be though...” Teased the woman. “.. You can never tell what a person is attracted to...”
“ That is the point to what I am saying... I am not sure if she is gay or if she isn’t.” Said Mandy.
“ Then you just go right up to her and ask her then plain as anything... After everything with Alison and that reptile she is seeing... why the fuck should you not do that?” Said Olivia.
Mandy shot a look that said ‘ you got to be kidding’ right at Olivia. The senior councilor seemed to be a little perplexed by the look she had been given. The shorter of the two took a deep breath in, knowing that Olivia was not quite getting it.
“ Yeah, like I can just go up to someone out of the blue and ask straight out ‘ Hi, I am hoping that you are... because I really think I like you?’” Explained Mandy. “ That would not really work...”
“ I guess that you can’t...” Nodded the woman, realizing the little speed bump in her plan was a very monumental hump instead.
“ If I ask that, and she is not gay...it might offend her that I even asked that... or it could end up scaring the hell out of her.” Explained out Mandy, wanting to make sure that Olivia had some sense of what she was saying..
“ I can see the problem in being that straight forward....being way too forward...” Said Olivia. She paused to think on it a little longer. “ Then why don’t you take the time to just poke around and see what comes around? If you don’t do it so obvious like... you might find that out. ”
Mandy knew that plan of Olivia’s would be hard to do sort of covertly, but it was a good way to find out things like this She knew that she wanted to be friends with this woman, and to make sure of not scaring her off just because she was feeling so amazingly attracted to her. She quickly decided just to see what might go, and keep her attraction at bay... it was the only safe way to go with this.
“ I think I will do a wait and see sort of thing then....” Mandy said, convincing herself of that.
Olivia was going to give a comment for Mandy, but she suddenly heard an argument breakout in the water near them both. From experience, she knew that the two extremely loud voices were of Ashley and Annette. They were the two who were bitching at each other again with such fire. She sighed and began to turn to quell the twin’s venomous sniping of each other.
“ We’ll talk later about this, Kid” She said, hurrying over to where the girls were arguing nose to nose in the water.
Mandy just sighed and went back to work, her mind not really wanting to discuss the pros and cons of being so straight up with the woman she found so attracting. She sighed, and tried to collect herself, and not act like some love sick girl.
Mandy watched the other girls frolic in the water a little harder to ignore the ruckus near them all. Olivia was trying her best to calm things with the McCabe twins. By the way the two girls were starting to calm down, the woman obvious had managed to put a lid on this little spat and had both girl’s more relaxed and communicating again.
Mandy was glad that Olivia had the skills to handle the fighting twosome, because her inner thoughts were all on the woman with the amazing tattoo. Since she had chanced meeting her earlier, it seemed that Sunny was all she could think of. She tried to focus and do her councilor shtick, but her mind always seemed to do nothing but make her look over at the lean girl.
******
The campfire light up the evening darkness as songs rose higher that the embers that flew up into the air. The nightly bonfire was in full swing as the entire camp gathered for the ritual, sing-a-long that ended the day...everyone doing it with great joy while sweating because of the heat that still hung from the daylight hours.
As soon as it was over and the fire was being snuffed out with a well placed bucket of water by a senior male councilor, Mandy and the entire crew of her cabin headed off back to their home-away-from-home. Other campers did the same, as the day was over and the time to get some sleep was upon them all.
Mandy stood in the center of the cabin, as it was her time for her ‘ walk’ duty while Olivia was off getting the alternate lists for activities that were posted in case the heat got even more hot... a list that came out when the weather was going to be either too hot or stormy the next day. The weather report on the radio had predicted a hotter day than it had been today.. it sounded like it would be blistering, judging from the loud mouthed DJ.
The short councilor slowly walked her way up and down the hallway like area, listening for any troubles or squabbles that would break out from time to time. It was like music to her ears, as the whole area seemed to be a quiet enough for a baby to sleep. She smiled, hoping that she could slip out before her own bedtime and have that all important last smoke of the day.
Olivia came in to the cabin, and was throwing Mandy a large smile. The woman carried a large clipboard and a tall glass of what seemed to be ice water in her hands, while ignoring the sweat that was dripping down the sides of her face.
“ Did they have some strange choices for the activities?” Mandy asked, seeing the woman’s face.
“ There are some...really unique activities suggested... but nothing that weird I guess.” The woman responded.
“ Then... why the odd look?”
“ That is not why I am smiling...” Olivia said.
Just then, the short councilor saw that Sunny had made her way in to the cabin. Mandy was stunned to see the woman there, and felt her heart beginning to pound a little faster than it had been.
“ Found this young lady outside... and she was asking for you.” Smirked Olivia. Mandy knew what she was thinking about.
Sunny smiled and looked at Mandy, there was this strange sort of heat coming out of those eyes
“ Doing the walk thing, eh?” She asked with a giggle.
“ Yeah...” Said Mandy, feeling that overwhelming wave of shyness come over her again.
Sunny nodded, obviously she has done this sort of duty more than a time or two. She seemed to be almost nervous, as she stepped a few times, getting closer to where Mandy stood
“ One of my friends and I were going to drive in to town for a late coffee at the truck stop before we turn in... I was thinking you might want to come along and decompress for awhile.” She asked. “ After a day like this, it is good to get away from Pawa, at least for a hour or so...”
“ Well...” Started Mandy, obviously surprised by the invitation.
“ Oh, go ahead...” Jumped in Olivia, not even letting Mandy reply. “ I’ve got the girl’s covered for awhile, and you have not gone for your smoke break yet either. Go on..”
Mandy could tell that Olivia was giving her a little silent nudge, reminding her of the little talk they had earlier on in the day. It was clear that Olivia was trying to help and give her a kick in the shorts, and that was sweet as all get out, but she felt her nervousness growing with each moment.
“ Sure why not...” Finally agreed Mandy, her voice coming out way softer than usual.
“ Great! Meet me out at the parking lot... I drive a red Honda that is parked closest to the front of the Admin building.” Said Sunny, seemingly so elated at the girl’s answer. “ See you in about fifteen then...”
Sunny left the cabin, as Olivia looked at Mandy. The smirk on her face showed she was satisfied with herself.
“ See... I think she likes you.” Said the woman.
“ Like I said, well see.” Said Mandy, going to grab her smokes.
Olivia smiled and watched the girl go off to meet the pretty woman. She smiled and stood there on ‘the walk’.
“ I think this could be a turning point for her... she deserves to be happy after all of this crap” She said to herself.
She giggled to herself and went back to listening as the girl’s readied for bed. She shook her head as by the sounds of it.... the McCabe twins getting into it again. She giggled as this was going to be a normal night in the comfort of Cabin Nine again. She smirked, hearing the two girls starting to snipe at one another a little louder still. She was going to wait for a moment, then break it up once and for all.
Miss Ashfield suddenly came in to the cabin a few moments later. Olivia was a little shocked to see the head of Pawa making a ‘cabin visit’ so late in the evening.
“ What a plesant surprise to see you tonight, Alexis...” Said the woman.
Olivia’s pleasant greeting was met by pure silence, which took Cabin Nine’s senior councilor totally by surprise. The look she saw painted on the head lady told her that this just might not be a social call after all.
“ Would you stop by my office after lights out please. Around eleven or so?” The woman said flatly.
“ Your office?” Olivia asked with a hard swallowing breath. “ Is there a problem, Alexis?”
“ You’re my most senior councilor here at Pawa...” Started the woman. “ You need to hear some information... Information that I have just gotten conformation on in the last hour.”
Olivia was now stunned with the woman’s words. She looked at the woman, who stood there with a rigid stance. She was reading the expression Alexis had on her sleek face, and was worried.
“ Is it about that some of the councilors are not working out this year or something...” Posed Olivia, thinking on why the woman would look this serious. “ Are there problems?”
Miss Ashfield did not hesitate to reply.
“ It is about a councilor here at camp... one of the new ones in fact... and you need to know some things about this information directly from me.” She said flatly. “ It is not about you in any way...”
“ Is Mandy in trouble or something?” She asked, processing things.
“ Heaven’s no... but she might be one that is in a bit of danger... as well as some others working here at Camp.” The woman flatly said, her voice turning rather stiff as she spoke.
“ Sounds serious.” Squinted Olivia, hearing just how tight the woman’s voice was getting withe each syllable.
“ Very much, Olivia... that is why I need to speak to you in private later..”
“ That bad?” Said the woman back, knowing the woman long enough now that dramatics are not part of who she was.
Miss Ashfield leveled her intense gaze at the councilor. She seemed to pause for a second, as if making sure she knew what to say next.
“ For the good of this camp, and it’s continued survival to serve as a summer respite for kids... yes it is.” Said Miss Ashfield, then turning and leaving the cabin almost as fast as she had appeared.
“ I will be there then.” Agreed Olivia to the exiting woman.
Olivia had a sinking feeling weigh in the pit of her stomach, knowing that once in private with the woman... this will be revealed. There was something very bad going on, and even though she had to know... she did not want to know it either. She just sighed and stood there in overseeing the girls.