Kurt gave the "silent llama" hand gesture by touching his middle and ring fingers to his thumb as the children gathered around him in the shade of a maple tree. Some of the children were mimicking him and only a few of those were actually quiet.
He was getting tired of waiting when the other camp counselor Blaine came around the corner shouting "RIFFS!" followed by a unanimous chorus of "YEAH RIGHT!" from the children and followed by silence.
"Doing the llama is the longest way to get them to be quiet," Blaine whispered and winked. "Alright kids!" He said, clapping his hands together. "Who's ready for a game of capture the flag?"
Leave it to Blaine to take over. Kurt sighed. He had been counseling at this camp for many summers before and all of a sudden this Blaine guy comes to fill in for Elliott who was on a summer yoga retreat and starts changing everything he's ever done. One of the girls who had been coming to this camp for years came up to Kurt and even told him she liked the way Blaine did things more than his way!
Kurt stepped forward with a mini whiteboard with a diagram of the playing field. The camp was on a huge farmland so they had plenty of play area. He pointed out the boundaries between the two sides, splitting the field in two, and showed the outside border of a fence and tall grass. They pointed to where the "jail" was, a box made of orange traffic cones where the children would go for ninety seconds if they were tagged on the opposite team's side.
"So rules for hiding the flag: It must be at least two inches visible and must be reachable by the shortest member on your team. Bring it back from the hiding place on to your own team's side, and you win!" Kurt explained.
"Alright, enough with the rules! Let's get to the FUN!" Blaine practically sang as he brought out strips of blue and red fabric to split the campers into two teams. Of course, neither Kurt nor Blaine had to heart to split up best friends.
Kurt gathered his red team of children and left to hide their flag first while Blaine's blue team stayed by the tree to not see where they were going.
"Good luck, Hummel," Blaine teased, winking yet again as Kurt walked by.
Kurt rolled his eyes trying not to notice the way Blaine's plaid blue shorts flattered his hips nicely as he waltzed away, being tugged forward by an alarmingly strong little girl. "I won't need luck, Blaine. You see all the older kids I have? We're gonna beat you in no time at all."
As Blaine's team hid their flag, Kurt's team gathered to strategize.
"We should hide it at the very back of our territory. That way they have to run really far even if they do find it," one boy said.
"And we should decide who will be runners and who will be guarders," another girl said.
"Very good ideas, everyone!" Kurt helped them divide into defense and offense and then it was their turn to hide the flag.
Blaine arrived back with his team and he smirked at Kurt. He passed him and whispered into his ear, "Good luck finding our flag."
Kurt just shook him off and set out on the left side of the field to hide their flag.
The team walked to the very edge of their territory as planned and found a bush to stash the flag in. They pushed it pretty far down into the bush so you had to reach your arm in quite deep to retrieve it, taking precious time that would probably get their opponents tagged and sent to jail!
"Alright, team! Let's go!" Kurt gathered them into a huddle and they all put their hands together to shout "GO RED!" and Blaine did the same and shouted "GO BLUE!" with one of his teammates wearing a Michigan shirt shouting the loudest.
The game began at the sound of Kurt's whistle and all of the campers took their positions. Well, it seemed like Kurt's teammates took their positions while Blaine's teammates spread out randomly.
The first few runners on both teams were the fast boys who loved the idea of retrieving the flag for their respective teams and being the hero and thus reason for victory. One blue member was tagged instantly when he crossed over to the red side by a brunette girl who shouted "Gotcha!" triumphantly as he begrudgingly went into jail.
This opened a pocket for her to bolt through and she made it across and over the hill out of sight from the red side.
"Get her!" A blue team member shouted as she ran past him in a blur of pigtails.
The game continued for while, teammates running and tagging people into jail with no sign of the other team's flag. Kurt and Blaine were also participating in the game by defending their own sides. Kurt tagged a little boy blue member who was still extremely fast despite being so small.
"Sorry, buddy, gotta go to jail," Kurt said, ruffling his hair. The little boy sighed dramatically but went to the orange traffic cone jail.
Suddenly, Blaine took advantage of the distracted Kurt and bolted through the red team's side with two other campers at his side. Blaine saluted Kurt and grinned, wiping his brow of sweat that was fighting the gel in his hair.
"Cut them off!" A red camper shouted, circling around the trees and catching one of the blue team members by surprise.
Kurt bolted after Blaine. The only way he would be tagged is if three campers blocked him off or if Kurt caught him himself. Kurt saw the second of Blaine's henchmen get tagged as he zig zagged across the field and around trees after Blaine. He took off suddenly in the opposite direction, planning to cut Blaine off as he passed a large oak tree.
With his arm outstretched, he was inches away from tagging Blaine when he tripped on a root of the tree, sending him flying forward and colliding with Blaine resulting him both of them in a heap on the grass.
"Blaine I'm -"
But Kurt was interrupted by shouts of victory as members of his red team crossed the territory border with a red handkerchief being waved in their wake. Some blue team members trailed behind them, but they knew it was too late. Kurt's red team had won.
"Erm, counselor Kurt? Why are you and Blaine on top of each other on the ground?" a young girl camper asked.
Blaine and Kurt were so busy watching the red team win that they had forgotten the position they were in. They looked at her, and back at each other, both realizing at the same time how they were oriented.
"Oh! We um, ahem," Kurt bolted off Blaine, brushing his shorts of invisible dirt in embarrassment.
Blaine was smiling as Kurt helped him up. "Hey campers! Let's applaud the red team for winning today! Go to the tree over there and help yourselves to some popsicles!"
At the mention of frozen treats, all attention had been removed from Kurt and Blaine as the campers rushed to the coolers.
"Only one per camper, please!" Blaine shouted after the children.
Kurt shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. "That was good thinking," Kurt said. "And sorry for tackling you."
Blaine was still donning his cheeky grin. "You're forgiven. And plus, I needed the campers to be occupied so I could do this."
Blaine took a step forward and cupped his hand on Kurt's cheek, pressing his lips lightly on Kurt's mouth.
"Mmph!" Kurt squeaked, taken off guard, but then relaxing and deepening the kiss further.
"I KNEW IT!" One of the older campers shouted from her perch underneath the tree. "You owe me your popsicle!" The camper next to her sighed as he handed over his cherry treat.
"I suppose I should make sure Christopher gets his popsicle," Blaine said, still looking like he wanted to kiss Kurt again.
"Congratulations," Kurt said.
"For what? Your team won."
"For now having an extremely attractive new boyfriend," Kurt said as he waltzed over to give Christopher another popsicle.
Blaine was surprised. Who knew Hummel knew how to tease him back? He jogged back to the tree and accepted a popsicle from Kurt with a phone number written on the stick in red sharpie. They both ate their popsicles, celebrating both of their victories.