sleep away at Camp Wiŋtke

Chapter 11

Julie, Belinda, and Terry walked out of the chow hall after finishing their lunch and saw several buses pulling up the drive.

They stopped and watched as, down by the cabins, the buses stopped and a few dozen boys, a few of them already in girl clothes, poured off the buses and quickly formed up to get their cabin assignments.

"Guess they're excited to get here," Belinda stated.

"Check it out, most of them didn't even bring a bag with them," Terry observed.

"Well, they do already know what this is all about," Julie answered.

"Just look at them," Belinda added, "some of them are very pretty."

"Yes they are," Julie approved.

The three of them watched for a few moments longer before Terry suggested they go try a little archery before everything got crowded.

Julie and Terry had never even picked up a bow before, but Belinda, back when he was seven, had attended Boy Scout camp. That was back when his dad was still in denial about what was so obvious and trying to interest his son in masculine activities.

Belinda gave Julie and Terry lessons in how to hold the bow and arrow, how to aim, and how to shoot. After a few rounds Terry began to hit the target with each shot but never got as good as Belinda, who hit the center or near the center with almost every shot. Julie, on the other hand, was never able to successfully even hit the target twice in a row. He also struggled with getting the hang of pulling the bow string back correctly, finding he didn't possess the strength.

By the time they were done at the archery range, most of the new arrivals had gotten their cabin assignments, changed and had joined in the various activities.

"There sure are a lot of campers here now," Belinda pointed out.

"Counselors too," Julie added. "I wonder if any of them are like Amy?"

"I bet there are." Belinda responded, glancing down at his watch. "Hey, it's about time for one of the classes. You guys wanna go?"

"Which one?" Julie enquired.

"How to not act like a brave when you're dressed as a squaw," Belinda replied reading from the schedule he had pulled out of his pocket.

"No thanks," Terry quickly responded. "You guys go, I'm gonna shoot some basketball. I'll catch up with you at dinnertime."

After sitting through the interesting class, the boys both chose to stay for the next activity which was a craft session.

Of course, being that this wasn't a normal camp, this wasn't a normal craft session either. In this class they got to experiment with nail polish. The counselor in charge taught them all about how to care for their nails and how to correctly and confidently apply polish.

When the class was over, Julie walked out of the big house with various shades of red and pink polish mixed with silver glitter, on her fingers and toes. Belinda sported baby blue nails with little, pink plastic 'gem' hearts attached to about half his nails.

Belinda grabbed Julie by the arm as they began to head down the stairs, "Come on, let's get dressed for dinner. We need to get there early. It is going to be crowded tonight."

Back in the cabin, Julie chose a crisp white blouse, green plaid skirt, and another pair of sandals; this time with long silver straps that wrapped around his legs several times, almost to his knees.

Belinda picked a sleeveless, pink, knee-length cotton, sheath dress and pink ballet flats.

As they were putting on their shoes, Terry came in and quickly changed into a dress similar to the night before in a different color.

Heading for the door, Terry noticed Belinda's polished and adorned fingernails. "Um, Belinda? What did you do," he cautiously inquired.

"Oh, you like it," Belinda asked with a gleeful smile, stopping to stick out his foot so that Terry could see his painted toes. At the same time Julie stuck a foot out right next to Belinda's.

"Your toes too??? . . . Wait, both of you? Geez, they done got to you. Well, you guys can do what you want, I guess. If you like it, I'm happy for you, but nope . . . it's not for me."

Belinda laughed and they continued out the door, towards the cafeteria. As they walked, they saw some of the new arrivals emerging from the other cabins.

They were surprised to see these new arrivals were wearing much fancier dresses, some in styles that were appropriate for a semi-formal dinner. There were little black dresses, long light dresses, dresses that were tight, dresses that flowed, and one boy had on a dress that was really short but had a longer sheer skirt over it.

These boy's shoes were also nicer than anything the new campers had found in their closets.

Julie began to feel a twinge of jealousy as she looked around and noticed that many of the returning campers were expertly managing heels.

"Do you think their parents paid for a more expensive package than ours did? Their clothes look a whole lot nicer than the stuff we get to wear," Julie noted. "And a lot of them have on high heels."

"Maybe you just get nicer things when you come back," Belinda suggested.

"I don't know, but I think I like the idea of coming back," Julie replied.

"Me too," Belinda added. "Most of them are walking in their heels, as good as my mom does."

When Julie, Belinda, and Terry entered the dinning hall, they got in line for food and then took seats in a spot where no one else was.

Before long the place had started to fill and some of the older returning campers had taken seats by them, yet pretty much ignored them.

Julie couldn't help but admire how pretty and convincingly feminine some of them were with their makeup, dresses, and jewelry. A couple of them were so convincingly feminine looking that Julie found himself unable to stop staring.

"Belinda," Julie exclaimed in a whisper, hoping the others didn't hear. "Look around. Not only are all the returning campers wearing makeup, but a few of them have their ears pierced, too."

Belinda hadn't noticed this and quickly looked up from his plate. Scanning the room, he was instantly jealous. Large hoops, tiny hoops, diamonds, gold balls, dangly chandeliers; the returning campers really did look amazing.

Julie and Belinda went on and on about how beautiful the returning campers were and how they both hoped that would be one of them next year.

Belinda, still jealous of all the boys with pierced ears, vowed that once he got home, he was going to do whatever it took to convince his parents they she let him get his ears pierced.

Terry, this whole time, sat and silently ate, occasionally looking at the two of them like they were crazy.