Josh was on his guard, ready for everything to go south and the three others to suddenly turn on him, revealing this had all been a big joke to get back at him. They made it to the basketball hoop and Jared ran over to grab the ball.
“Alright, let’s pick teams!” he said, trying to spin the ball on one finger, but messing up almost immediately and sending the ball off into the bushes.
Martin burst into laughter at that, slapping his knees in amusement. “Way to go, Tony the Tiger! That was grrrrrreat!” he wheezed as Jared sighed and ran off to retrieve the ball once again.
Josh smirked at the joke, then added, “Yeah, I thought you’d be a little better handling orange balls,” making Martin laugh even harder and even getting a chuckle out of Ricky.
Jared groaned at the stupid jokes at his expense, not even being that bothered by Josh joining in on a little gentle ribbing. For some reason, now that they’d shaken paws and made up, a couple of jokes between the guys didn’t upset him so much.
“Laugh it up, Josh. Sounds like you and Martin just picked teams,” Jared said, walking over and standing next to Ricky. “Let’s show ‘em a thing or two, buddy.”
“Sure thing, Jared,” Ricky said, then he began to pull off his shirt to show off his fit chest, making Jared’s tail just about twist itself into a knot.
“W-what are you doing, Ricky!?” Jared sputtered, despite taking the chance to get an eyeful of the raccoon’s sleek fur and surprisingly broad shoulders.
“Shirts versus pelts. Come on, it’s a nice day, and we’re all guys here,” Ricky said nonchalantly, tugging at Jared’s shirt and getting it halfway off before Jared finally gave in and got it the rest of the way off, revealing his slim, sleek, and fuzzy chest to the others.
“You two need a minute to cool off, or are we going to play?” Martin called over while the deer next to him wolf-whistled, making Jared blush under his fur.
Ricky was unfazed, however, and just looked over Jared for a moment before just saying, “You look good. Let’s go!” The raccoon grabbed the basketball and dashed ahead, and before long the four teens were working up a good sweat in the hot summer sun, letting their past quarrel fade away, and along with it a bit of their resistance to simply playing along and enjoying their weekend at Camp CritterCreek.
Jared and Martin didn’t even bat an eye when Jack and Soren finished up their lunch nearby and waved before heading off to their next assignment. Jared was too busy watching the cute raccoon currently dominating the game to notice Jack wandering off with Soren, while Martin was busy coming up with creative trash-talk to unleash upon their opponents alongside Josh to notice the bear leaving.
A small group of critters gathered to watch the game, with lots of girls in particular cheering on the hot shirtless teens currently in the lead. Josh hadn’t felt this great in years; his college baseball career ended early to a bad knee injury he got sliding into home plate his sophomore year, but the strong pair of deer legs he’d been gifted at the camp let him jump and run like he never had before.
A fast pass from Martin led into a perfect three-point shot from the deer, reminding Josh of the rush he’d gotten hitting a home run or striking a batter out… Wait, had he really played baseball? The more he played, the more intensely the memories of instead playing basketball all through elementary and middle school bubbled to the surface of his teenage mind. If he hadn’t been focusing so hard on the basketball match, he might have been able to fight them off, but the combination of the hot sun beating down on him and the rush of adrenaline he was feeling made it next to impossible for him to keep his old self from sinking deep, deep down.
In the end, Ricky and Jared won the match, but Martin and Josh had put in a good fight of their own, bringing things up to a tie for a long time before a fantastic play from Ricky and Jared cinched things up. For a moment, Josh felt the urge to be a sore loser about the whole thing and storm off, but a pat on the back and a big smile from Martin calmed him down. Meanwhile, Jared and Ricky slumped down with their backs up against a nearby cabin as they panted in exhaustion and basked in their win against the other two.
“That… that was great…!” Ricky panted, his eyes half-closed as he wiped his sweaty hair out of his eyes.
“Yeah… you were great, Ricky,” Jared gushed, looking over at the sweaty, tired teen sitting next to him. Something about seeing the raccoon panting and dripping with sweat just seemed so oddly familiar to Jared as vague memories of making love to Jackie drifted through his mind. He shook his head, barely even understanding what he was experiencing in these memories. Then without thinking, his body began to move.
Not even considering the consequences, Jared parted his lips and leaned in close to Ricky, getting within only an inch of the raccoon’s muzzle before managing to stop himself. Ricky’s tired eyes snapped open and locked with Jared’s, and a look of confusion briefly flashed across his face as he saw the tiger hovering over him…