“Where’s Fallon and Lily?” Parker asks.
I point to where Fallon and Micah stand. “I see Fallon. I’ll go get her.” I glance over at Lara. “Do you see Lily? She could be anywhere, marking her territory.”
Lara spits out her drink. “That could get messy,” she says, referencing our earlier conversation. “I’ll go find her.”
I jog the short distance to Fallon and reach her just in time to see Micah stalk off. Did Micah leave because they fought? Slowing down, I opt not to mention it. Hopefully, she’ll talk to me if she wants me to know. “Hey! Parker asked me to come find you. He is ready to show us his surprise.”
Fallon frowns as she stares off at the trees. She slumps a little. “You go ahead. I’m not in the mood to dance.”
“Nope. No way.” I slash my arms through the air in refusal. “We’re here to have a good time. I’ll drag you along if I have to. We’ll deal with Micah later.”
“I’d like to see you drag me out of here, runt.” She smiles slightly, now, but she’s covering. She’s correct about the dragging part. If I had to guess, I would say Fallon’s about four to five inches taller than me with the legs of a model. I’m just short.
“I’m sure I could manage after I found a way to knock you out.” I joke, hoping to lighten the mood. “You have no idea what crazy things we would do to you then, though.”
“Fine! Let’s go.” She glides through the people, and I jog to catch up.
We walk up just as Lara reaches the group with Lily.
“Come on, we have to hurry,” Jay warns us. He doesn’t have much patience at times.
We reach the clearing where we normally have our team meetings. The picnic table is covered in bottles, tubes, and a bucket. I reach over to touch it, and Noah slaps my hand gently. “You have to say the magic word before you can play.”
I’m having a good time tonight, so I’ll play along with him. “Noah, Noah, Noah. What am I going to do with you? Do you want to give me a hint as to what the magic word is?”
He laughs. “It rhymes with flees.”
“That’s the best you could come up with?” I roll my eyes at his lack of imagination. “Is it please?”
“I didn’t think through what the word could actually be. I figured you’d slap my hand back or something.” He pouts. “Way to throw me off my game.”
“That’s my goal for camp, make sure that Noah has no idea what’s coming next.” I flick his nose lightly to get him to stop pouting. He really is cute when he pouts.
“What happened to teamwork?” He crosses his arms and raises one blond eyebrow. “We’re trying to throw the others off.”
“How will we ever learn if we can’t recognize deflections within our own team?” We better get back on track. It looks like Parker’s already explaining to the others what the plan is. “What’s this stuff you’re trying to hide from me?”
“This is black light and glow in the dark paint.” Noah points to the buckets and spray cans. “The other campers just came in light colors so their clothes will glow. I know several others came prepared with glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets, but Parker wanted to do something different for his last year.”
I’ve never seen a black light, so I was already excited. Now, we’re going to be covered in paint. “Are there different colors? Will it ruin our clothes? How do we use it?” I rattle off the questions too fast to give Noah a chance to respond.
Parker hears me and includes us in his explanation. “It will all wash off in water, so nothing will stain. We can wipe it on, throw it on, or paint it on. It’s up to you how you want it to look.”
Everyone grabs containers to see what they want to use. Lucca takes one of the buckets, and Parker takes another and opens them up to reveal light blue and purple paint inside. They take out paintbrushes and flick paint on everyone.
Noah runs off to the side, and I follow him.
“What’s that?” I ask as Noah tucks something into his shirt.
He shrugs back at me. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s something, or you wouldn’t have touched it. If you don’t want me to know, just say so.” I try not to sound sulky, but I do anyway.
He reaches behind his neck to unclasp a necklace. “I almost forgot how to take this thing off. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t have it on.” He hands the necklace to me.
I’m afraid to touch it. What could be so special that he never takes it off?
“Does it mean something special?” I examine the necklace closer. One end has a red bead on it, and the other has a black and white bead where the black and white are swirled together. Two, thin leather strings make up the necklace: one black and one white. The strings are tied in knots, and in random intervals, there are little silver beads on the white band.
Careful, I return it to him. Instead of putting it back on, he holds it up and runs his fingers along it. “I started this, well, my mom started this, right after the accident. The red bead stands for the accident. The black band represents my life before the accident, and the white band is for what I would have again one day. Each knot was a month in time to show how long my recovery took.”
His fingers run over the little silver beads. “The beads are for each milestone I hit, like there’s one for when I could move my fingers the first time and one for when I could tie my own shoes. The last bead, the black and white one, stands for the last goal I made for myself to show that I was truly recovered. I had to run a mile in less than five minutes. I wear this to remember that there’s no journey too long or so hard that it can’t be made.”
Warmth fills my chest at the touching tribute to what he went through. “I’m honored you let me see it. Were you hiding it from the paint?”
“Yes. I know Parker said that it washes off, but I don’t want to risk it.” He hooks the necklace back on and tucks it into his shirt. “It was an honor showing it to you. I don’t tell many people about my accident because they tend to think I’m not capable, even though I’m fully recovered.”
Once he has the necklace safely tucked away, I grab his hand and drag him back over to the group. We have to hurry now because everyone else is half covered already.
Parker and Lucca dump about a can of paint each on me and in the early dusk, I now glow slightly. Lily and Lara whip yellow and pink paint down my arms while Fallon paints green in my hair. When they’re done, I’m pretty well covered except for my face.
Jay walks over with a couple bottles and some small paintbrushes, and I guess he’s going to do some sort of war paint on my face. He holds up one of the brushes. “Would you like me to draw something on your face? It can be whatever you want. I’m told I’m decent at this sort of thing.”
“Put a monkey on her cheek and then maybe a banana on the other,” Parker encourages.
I sigh. Looks like I might get stuck with this monkey nickname.
“If that’s what she wants. It’s her face.” Jay gives me an out if I want one.