At The Lake

Chapter Three

He caught me totally off guard.

I'm about to respond when I hear Heather, "Hey Emily! Come to the trampoline!" She shouts, standing in the shallow end of the lake.

I sit for a second and digest what just happened.

Ryan thinks I'm pretty. Oh gosh, Emily, what are you, fifteen?

I act like it was nothing, "duty calls," I look at him and say. I slide my shorts down, while I'm still sitting in the chair and throw my towel on top of my bag. I hop up and run to the water, "let's go!" I smile.

Heather, Missy, two other campers and myself pull ourselves up out of the lake onto the trampoline ladder and get on top of it. Every year I get on this and every year I forget how hard it is to maintain your balance, especially with multiple people on it.

After about a full minute, we all get our balance.

"Okay, on three start jumping!" Heather smiles. After what Ryan just told me, I love seeing a smile on her face.

"One." I start.

"Two... THREE." Heather finishes.

Immediately, we are all jumping, or attempting too, and then we're all instantly on our butts. You can only get one good jump in before your legs act as jello and the trampoline is flopping back and forth on top of the water. We all fall down and we start laughing so hard. We then realize there are only three of us on the trampoline and we look over the edge. One of Heather's friends actually fell off the edge. Giggling, she pulls herself back up and we laugh even harder.

I catch myself take a second to gaze over at Ryan who is in the same spot, gazing back at me, smiling. I catch his eyes and I look away, reeling my attention back into Heather and her friends.

"I'm going to go check the time, we should be heading off to the obstacle course soon." I look at Heather, "Alright!" She answers back.

I can tell he's still watching me, but it doesn't bother me. I take a dive off of the side of the trampoline and swim to the swimming area. I walk out of the water and up to my chair. I grab my towel and fish through my bag, kind of ignoring Ryan. I find my phone and check the time.

"Oh wow, it's ten till 4. We have to move on to the obstacle course." I tell Ryan.

"Crap!" He jumps up and runs over to the lifeguard.

"TEAM HERCULES. LAKE TIME IS OVER, TIME TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT ACTIVITY," the lifeguard shouts through his megaphone.

I have my shorts and tank top on already, my hat on my head soaking up the lake water from my hair in a bun, and my towel over my shoulder.

Ryan walks up, "Thanks. I wasn't even paying attention."

"No worries." I respond. I'm still confused at why he said what he did. I mean it was really sweet and it made me happy, but what did he want from it?

I walk away and find Heather and Missy with a group of girls, "Ready?" I smile.

Team Hercules starts walking towards the obstacle course and I realized something was different about it, since the last time I was here. They upgraded it. I am stoked. I love obstacle courses and this wasn't your typical course. It had mind puzzles and physical parts this year.

You know what, focus on this. Not him, he is a friend, that is it. I think to myself.

I look over at Ryan, "you're going down..." I mouth.

"In. Your. Dreams." he responds.

I laugh and start one of the lines. Ryan jumps in the front of the other and there is a camp staff member holding the whistle. I automatically have this competitive feeling and I NEED to beat him. I'm pretty competitive anyway, but this was different. I didn't want him to think I couldn't hold my own.