“I was worried you guys hated me, and you were just being polite to tell me away from everyone else,” I mumble into his chest as my chest constricts slightly with the admission.
“We could never hate you. That was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.” He hugs me tighter then pulls away to stare into my eyes so I see the truth in his words. “No one stands up to Mr. Smyth, especially not in a room full of people. You defended yourself and Jay. That’s what a team is supposed to do. It’s also what friends do.”
A kiss lands on top of my head, and I glance over to see Noah smiling at me.
Jay stands with his back to us. Maybe Parker thinks I’m brave, but Jay may not. Disentangling myself from Parker, I walk over to Jay and touch his arm gently just as I’d done in the Corral. He doesn’t turn, though, so I walk around to his front. He refuses to meet my eyes, and I stand there for a minute, giving him time to acknowledge me.
When he remains silent, I consider saying something sweet but opt for humor. “Here’s your first anatomy lesson.” I lightly punch him in the gut, and his head jerks up, eyes wide with surprise. “That’s your stomach. From walking into it once, it feels like a brick wall, so I’ll have to come up with a better name for it. I’ll let you know when I do. Lesson two could come at any time, so stay on your toes.”
When I wink at him, he smiles. I think we are fine, now. I link my arm through his and Noah’s, and we walk over to the picnic area where karaoke and the fire pit was set up.
“We’re going to get a lot of that over the next couple weeks. Either people will get bored, or they’ll try to make it impossible for us. How do we want to handle this?” I hold my breath as I wait for the others to respond. I don’t want to be the one to make this decision.
“I’m with Cassie. I don’t care what people say to me. I won’t let people hurt her, though,” Lucca offers as he opens and closes his hands into fists.
“I agree. I like our team.” Noah squeezes my hand. “I know I’ve done well on other teams, but this is the first one I actually feel close to. I don’t want to change. I won’t let them hurt Cassie, either.”
Jay, sitting at one of the tables, stares at his feet and doesn’t offer a suggestion.
I move to stand beside him. “I say we use it to our advantage. I want you guys to know I trust all of you. Even though I was goofing around with Jay, I have no doubt if I told him I was uncomfortable he would have stopped. We’ll have to be careful, though, because if guys think I’m easy they may try something when you’re not around—”
Before I finish, Jay jumps up. “They won’t try anything. I was serious when I said that I’d break Kevin. If I have to take out every mother fucker here, I will.”
“Jay! No one is going to try anything.” I hug Jay in hopes he will calm down since I misread how upset he was earlier. “I was going to suggest, actually it’s Mr. Smyth’s suggestion, that you teach me how to protect myself. I think I’ll be better at that than swimming.”
He stands there for a moment, but he finally wraps his arms around me. “You’re still going to learn to be a better swimmer, but we can add some defensive moves into your training schedule.”
“Training schedule? Will we have time for both? I think I can manage with the swimming,” I say. We have a lot to accomplish if we’re going to win.
“Both!” I hear from four different voices.
“Fine, but you guys have to do it with me.” I sigh. I can be amenable. “Later, though. Right now, we have other things to work, and we’re wasting time. I was going to head down to the hammocks by the lake to write my piece. Where’s everyone else going?”
“You can’t go there alone, at least not right now. We can all go down there.” Parker seems set on this so no one argues. “I have everything with me so we can head there, now.”
We walk in silence for the first half of the journey. The spot we want is about five miles away, and it will take us about an hour to get there. Now, is a good time to bring up my issue with what we’re writing. “Who sees this information? Do we want to be completely honest in what we’re writing?”
“It should only be the counselors, but I guess someone could break in and look at them. Why?” Noah asks, confusion clouding his blue eyes. “You want to go steal everyone else’s papers?”
“Ha! No, I don’t care what everyone else writes. I was thinking the opposite actually. What if someone took our information and used it against us? If I write down I can’t swim and I’m horrible at math, they could use the swim thing against me.” I don’t think anyone could use this stuff against us, but I don’t want people reading my personal stories.
“That’s a fair point. I don’t know of anyone that can break in except you, but anything is possible. What is your suggestion?” Lucca smirks at me.
“I was thinking we write what we want people to know even if it’s misleading. We then verbally talk through the pieces with each other so we all know the truth.” I hope they go for this. I’m not in any rush to tell them my life story, but I’m in even less of a hurry to let strangers know about it.
“I like that idea.” Parker and the rest agree.
Decision made, we spend the rest of the morning writing fake memoirs.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
About an hour later, chuckles echo from several of the guys. I lean over to peek at Lucca’s essay, but he covers his paper with his arm.
“Cheater!” Lucca yells at me in Italian and nudges me away.
I end up falling into Parker who just pushes me back against Lucca. Lucca nudges me again, and I go back and forth between the two a few times before I suddenly lean back. Unprepared, the boys end up knocking their heads together.
I giggle at both of them. “You should always be prepared.” While they’re still rubbing their heads, I jump up and grab Lucca’s paper.
Lucca leaps to his feet and chases me around the table. “Hey! Give that back to me. I’m not done yet.”
“I want to know what you were laughing about. That and I’m ready for a break. Who uses a pen and paper anymore?” I jump over a bench to try to get away, but he’s too fast. He grabs me from behind and hauls me up over his shoulder.
“You’re in trouble, now. How did you prepare for this scenario?” He laughs at me and walks toward the water.
“Lucca! You wouldn’t.” I drum my fists on his ass in panic. The paper crumples in my fist. “I’m still holding your paper! You’ll have to start again!”
“I don’t mind a pen and paper. Starting over won’t bother me.” Undeterred, Lucca keeps walking. “What are you going to do when you’re wet for the next several hours?”
At this point, we’re dangerously close to the water. I look up and see the other boys with their arms crossed, laughing at us. I didn’t even think to ask them for help.