Page 10 of Class Clown

Chewing on the gooey goodness of the candy bar gave me a moment to think, and allowed my higher self to drive for a minute. Cole might be a big kid at heart, but I knew he wouldn’t endanger the campers, so I relaxed and nodded.

I pointed at him. “Again, you should have asked about the cabin roomie thing.”

“Rubes, I think after you’ve survived a ten-year stint in the Marines, including deployments, you probably don’t get bothered by finding outyour buddy’s sister will be sharing your cabin.” Cole popped his own candy into his mouth and smiled. “Are we good?”

“I meant you should have askedme,” I replied with an eye roll that my friend Meredith would have applauded.

“Oh,” he laughed. “Well, that ship has sailed I’m afraid. But, you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Where was the other RN going to be staying?”

“With the cook staff, but we needed to hire on another staff member and had been trying to figure out where to put her. This ended up working out better for everyone.”

“There’s no other place for me to sleep?” I asked, thinking again about Nico in my space. It was awkward even if he wasn’t a felon.

“Sorry.”

“You owe me big time. You can start paying me back by pilfering a sheet from the laundry area to hang around my bed and dresser for some privacy.”

Cole nodded. “Done. Now, since you’re here, let’s go check out the health center cabin.”

Chapter 3

Ruby’s Truth: White sheets do not make for good neighbors.

When I returned to the Funky Bunks cabin from setting up the health center a couple of hours later, I was met with the sight of Cole holding a sheet in one hand and a staple gun in the other. He was looking up at the log ceiling and frowning. Someone had thought to open the curtains and I was happy to see that at mid-afternoon the cabin was a little brighter with some natural light.

“What’s up?” I asked, closing the back door behind me. I felt better after brushing through my hair, washing my face, and spending some time deep-diving into the exam room.

“I thought I’d staple the sheet to the ceiling for you, but then stopped to wonder if I’d get in trouble for that.”

I approached him and patted him on the back, surprised at him stopping to think first. “Look at you, all grown up and caring.”

He shook his head. “I don’t like this new, more mature me. He's no fun.”

I giggled as I looked up. “Two things. One, if the camp director can’t staple a sheet to the ceiling in the Funky Bunk Cabin, then what was the point of taking this job?”

He laughed and nodded. “True. I don’t think it’ll cause any permanent damage.”

“Nothing noticeable at least.”

He began to unfold the sheet and glanced my way. “You said two things?”

I pointed at the cloth hanging between us. “You chose a white sheet.” He looked down at it, nodded, and shrugged, forcing me to explain. “White is see-through when light shines from behind it.”

He smiled. “Shadow puppets are a basic ingredient to summer camp.”

I turned so that my back was facing him, and wiggled my hips. “To be clear,thisis the shadow you’ll be seeing.”

He tamped down on a smile and made busy with the sheet. “Yikes. I’ll be having nightmares for sure. Sadly, white is all we have because they need to be able to bleach them.” He shook out the sheet and handed me the staple gun. “You want to staple?”

“There’s another problem.”

“I know. You’re short. Don’t blame yourself,” he joked as he patted the top of my head before lifting the sheet edge toward the ceiling. “You can’t fight genetics.”

I blew a raspberry at him. Sure, our Chinese mother was not far over five feet tall, but all three of us children had inherited our dad’s extra-large frame, putting me at about five feet six inches. Cole had gone from baby to the biggest child, and was over six feet tall, and built like a guy who brawled on weekends. He made a show of tilting his head sideways as though he were having to avoid hitting it on the ceiling. He wasn’t. The ceiling was lower than a house, but still over his head.

I tugged at the sheet until he let go. “You got one twin-size sheet, genius.” I wiggled it at him. “That’ll never go around the entire bunk. I’ll start hanging it. Go get two more.” He saluted me and I called after him. “And don’t get distracted. Your sister is your top priority.”

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