You lay on the floating dock for what seems like hours, happily soaking in the sun. You can’t imagine why you hadn’t done this sooner; it seems like you could just lay here forever. The other girls seem to feel the same way. With a contented sigh, you roll over to talk to Holly, whose laying the other way looking out into the lake. “Hey, isn’t that a canoe?” You ask, spotting something appearing on the horizon. Holly and the other girls look up. “Yep. It looks like there’s a couple of guys in it too. It must be the boys from the camp across the lake Counselor Brooke mentioned earlier.” Samantha, a pretty blonde girl sitting on the other side of the dock, mentions.
The thought of guys makes a weird tingling feeling run up your spine. Even though you’ve clearly been acting enough like a girl to fool everyone into thinking you’d always been one—enough to fool yourself, honestly, which was a little scary—and it seemed like this place was changing reality to match the new memories which kept appearing, seemingly out of nowhere—the idea of acting like a girl—a pretty girl, no less—in front of guys-err, other guys—was bizarre to you.
The canoe approached at a steady pace, the three guys in it moving the boat along surprisingly quickly. You certainly couldn’t imagine being able to a canoe that quickly. In seemingly no time at all it had pulled up next to the dock. There were two guys about your age and a older dude who was clearly a counselor, who nodded at you and your friends.
“Ladies.” He said with a smile, flashing a gleaming grin that sent that weird tingle up your spine again. “I was just out in the canoe with Jake and Andy here and we decided to come say hello. I’m Counselor Sean, by the way.” He added. You managed to stammer out a hello along with the other girls. You couldn’t quite wrap your head around why you were acting like that. Usually it was the guys who got all flustered around you, particularly when you were strutting around in your cheerleading uniform on Fridays at school. Poor Gavin even walked headlong into a wall when you’d winked at him on the way to class.
Right? Something about that didn’t sound right, but.....the more you tried to think about the way things used to be—you thought? Your head just kept getting fuzzier and fuzzier. Briefly shaking it, you turned your attention back to the boys, who thankfully didn’t seem to have noticed you having, like, a total brain freeze.
“Are you girls looking forward to the dance?” The guy sitting in the front of the canoe—Jake—asked. You giggle and slide forward a bit. Jake has longish(for a guy) blonde hair and is wearing a Carolina Panthers cap, and he’s looking at the way the camp’s swimsuit hugs your body with open appreciation. “We definitely are!” You chirp. “The camp’s got, like, all these neat dresses and costumes and stuff.” The other girls nod.
Counselor Sean glances down at the watch he’s wearing. “Oh shoot. It took us a bit longer than I thought to get out here; we’ve got to get back to Camp Eagle’s Nest for the next round of activities. Tell Brooke hello for me, ladies.” He adds, flashing that smile again. Reluctantly, you and the other girls call your goodbyes as the boys’ canoe turns around and heads back to the other side of the lake.
Holly giggles and pokes you in the shoulder. “That Jake guy was totally into you!” She says excitedly. You smile slyly. “He, like, totally was, wasn’t he?” For some reason the idea of a guy being into you was now both very familiar and even.....welcome?
“So what do you want to do now?” She asked.