Silena, after much contemplation, had decided to wear a comfy crew neck, jean shorts, and some white sneakers for her first date with Charlie. She spent at least an hour with her siblings trying to decide what was best, but she eventually decided to go with comfy casual. While one of her siblings braided her hair into two french braids, she filled all of her cabin mates in on her time talking to the boy from Cabin 9. Since this date was making things kind of public, she figured it would be best to get ahead of the talk.

"Wait so how long have you two been talking?"

"Charlie? Who's- ohhhh wait you mean that Beckendorf guy? From 9? Okayyyyy he's cute!"

"I mean, so where do you see this going?"

Silena navigated the questions with much more ease than she had anticipated. She found it surprisingly easy to talk about Charlie. She even caught herself smiling more than once while getting into the details that she had deemed appropriate to share with the group. She was relieved though when her hair was pronounced done, and she was able to head to the dining pavilion with the blanket in hand.

She searched for Charlie all throughout dinner, hoping to catch a glimpse of her soon-to-be date, but she was never able to catch him. Not even when she got up to give her offering. She tried to just be present throughout the meal but she was getting so excited she hardly touched her food. Finally, once everyone started to get up from the meal, Silena deemed it appropriate to stand at the end of her cabin table and wait for her date.

She stood there, blanket in hand, and scanned the masses of people heading to get good spots to see the fireworks. Most of the crowd had thinned out by the time Charlie came up and tapped her on the shoulder. She heard his voice before she saw him.

"Hey!"

"Hey! I was getting nervous you had decided not to…" Silena turned and her sentence trailed off as she scanned the boy in front of her. "... come." They were wearing practically the exact same outfit. Crew neck. Shorts. White sneakers. The only thing different was that he was wearing a backpack and she was holding a big blanket.

He stood there stunned.

And she burst into laughter.

"No way!"

"Oh my gods, I can go change. Do you want me to go change? I'll go change right now-"

"No Charlie, please don't. I think it's cute." She was trying to contain her giggles.

"Are you sure?"

She walked up to him with a smile and grabbed his hand.

"I'm positive. Now come on, I want to get a good spot."

She started pulling him in the direction of the fireworks. He started laughing a little too.

"Ok if you're sure. And actually-" he tugged the opposite direction from where she was leading him-not daring to let go of her hand- and said, "I have a spot that I think would be perfect for this."

"Oh okay, lead the way!"

He smiled and started leading them toward the edge of the forest, just next to the beach. Hand in hand they walked a ways into the woods and up a hill. Once they cleared the top, Silena realized why Charlie had insisted they come to this spot. It was surrounded by trees so it was nice and private, but it had a beautiful view of the water, and a perfect view of where the show would take place. Silena turned to him.

"Gods Charlie, this is perfect! How did you find this place?" She started unfolding the blanket to get set up.

"Well it- oh here let me help you with that." He put down his backpack and grabbed one of the sides to help her spread out the blanket, "But it's actually a funny story. Do you remember that bird I showed you?" They both sat down on the newly spread blanket. Criss-cross applesauce, facing each other.

"Yeah, how could I forget?"

He laughed softly.

"Well it wasn't always so… polished, let's say. I took it out one day for a test and it bolted for the forest. I had to go sprinting after it, and was only able to catch up with it because it crashed into one of these trees." He motioned to the foliage around them. "She didn't get too damaged thankfully, but when I stood up and looked around I realized how beautiful this spot was."

"Wow." Silena looked around again at the view. "Well it's stunning, thank you for sharing it with me." Her gaze landed on Charlie and she found him looking back at her, smiling. His deep brown eyes staring into hers. She looked for words to say but was enveloped by the warmth those eyes provided. She could have sat there the whole night doing just this…

Charlie shook his head slightly like he was coming out of a trance, and cleared his throat. Silena's cheeks warmed.

"I um… I brought some snacks." He smiled at her while reaching for his backpack. "I didn't know what you would want so I tried to get a little of everything." He began pulling things out while listing them and spreading them on the blanket. "I've got some chocolate chip cookies… sour gummy worms… and salt and vinegar chips. Oh and I brought some water bottles and gatorades. You didn't mention drinks, but I figured we'd get thirsty at some point. How did I do?" He looked a little nervous waiting for her response.

Silena laughed, "You did great. These are actually some of my favorites so you get some points."

"Oh heck yeah!" He did a small fist pump to himself which got Silena laughing further.

"Well help yourself, I don't really want to have to share all of this with my siblings."

"Thanks! I am actually pretty hungry." Now that her nerves had settled she realized just how little of her dinner she had actually eaten. She decided to start with some gummy worms and he reached for the chips.

"Ok good, I was worried I over packed since we were just coming off of dinner."

"Yeah, I actually didn't eat much at dinner."

They were both now facing the water, catching the last bit of colors dancing on the waves as the sun dipped down behind them.

"Oh… how come? Is everything ok?"

"Oh yeah! I was just a little… nervous…" Her eyes dropped to the floor and she stretched out one of the gummy worms she was holding.

"How come?" he said as he finished his chips and reached for a cookie.

Silena half scoffed, half laughed and raised her eyebrows at him. It took him just a half second too long to realize what she meant.

"Wait, me? You were nervous for our date?"

Silena gave a nervous laugh, "Yeah."

"I, Charles Beckendorf, make you, Silena Beauregard, nervous?"

Now Silena actually laughed.

"Yes Charlie, you do."

Charlie let out an exasperated sigh and layed back on the blanket.

"Imagine that."

"Do… I make you nervous?"

His head snapped to look at her and he sat up.

"Are you kidding me? Absolutely you do. I couldn't sleep last night. I drove Nysa up a wall all day today obsessing about what to wear and what snacks to bring."

Silena laughed, something she was finding herself doing more and more with this boy.

"Well, you have nothing to be nervous about with me. I… think you're really great Charlie."

He beamed, Silena could have sworn he had a slight glow.

"And you certainly don't have any reason to be nervous around me Silena, I just feel lucky to be here. I've kindddddd of had a thing for you for a little while now."

"What?" Silena's cheeks hurt from smiling so big.

"Yeah… You're kind of the dream Sil." There were those warm brown eyes again.

Just then the first firework went flying up into the air. They were both so engrossed in the conversation they hadn't realized how dark it had gotten. Charlie extended his hand to her and she happily took it, but not before scooting in closer and resting her head on his shoulder. They sat like that while watching, taking in the fireworks and occasionally reaching for a snack or some water.

Once the show had finished, they took their time packing up. Talking and laughing and finding any excuse they could to be close to each other. Silena's breath completely left her while they were folding up the blanket together and she found him right in front of her, their faces just inches away.

They held hands walking back to the cabins, again taking their time. They were in absolutely no rush to be apart. When the dreaded moment finally did come though, they walked to the space between their cabins and faced each other.

"I had a lot of fun tonight, Sil."

She smiled.

"I did too… maybe we could do something again soon?"

"I'd like that a lot. Like a lot, a lot."

They both laughed and Silena got up on her tiptoes to hug him. He wrapped his arms around her waist- slightly disrupted by her blanket that he had insisted on carrying. And they stayed there like that for probably too long. But they didn't care.

Finally Silena whispered, "Charlie?"

"Yeah Sil?"

"You're kind of the dream too." She pulled away slightly so they were face to face. Their breaths gently intermingling. Silena had never wanted to kiss anyone so badly before. It seemed like Charlie felt the same way because he slowly began to lean in.

"HEY! GET A ROOM!"

They both jumped back slightly to find that a small audience from both of their cabins had accumulated, and they were now playfully jeering at them from their respective porches.

Silena laughed nervously and buried her head in his chest.

"We are never going to live this one down."

He laughed and hugged her close.

"Yeah I don't think so."

"Well," she pulled back and kissed him on the cheek, "at least the night was worth it."

She pulled away from the embrace and he handed her the blanket.

"Goodnight Sil." He said, with a look on his face that Nysa would have described as lovestruck (and later did).

"Goodnight Charlie." She waved to him as she walked to her cabin, and he watched her go all the way to the door. Once she had been completely ushered inside by her siblings, Charlie started walking to his own cabin with his own siblings waiting to usher him inside. As he reached the porch steps, he heard a collective squeal come from Cabin 10 and he couldn't help but smile.