Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Lisehrin, character consistency is one of the things I worry about so thank you for saying that. To readerandreviewer and ClassicTVGrl6080, I hate cliffhangers too! Jessica, here is part two. There will be a part three, but I can't promise how soon you'll see it. I'm a very slow and nitpicky writer.
Same disclaimer still applies. Now on to the second chapter. : )
-----"Are you alright?"
Flat on his back on the forest floor, his ribs aching, Tony Micelli stared up at the girl wavering over him. The girl who had just tripped over him. The girl who at the moment, looked anything but alright. It was a rather dumb question he had asked, even for him. Her clothes were smudged with dirt and little twigs were tangled in her hair, which hung like a pale curtain around her even paler face.
What made him jump to his feet, however, was the way her whole body shook as she gasped fitfully. "Hey, hey…just take it easy," he said, surprised at the soothing tone of his voice. Awkwardly, he placed a hand on her back for support. "You'll be alright in a minute. Just calm down."
Her staccato breaths persisted for several more minutes, long enough to cause Tony to worry. What if she was seriously injured? Was it his fault? Should he leave her to go get help? These questions preoccupied him so much that it took him another minute to realize that her breathing had slowed and evened out. He rubbed her back in relief.
"Oh, hey…you're okay now, eh?" She nodded, eyes downcast, and he knelt down to pick up the object he'd dropped. Holding it in front of her, he asked, "So…does this belong to you?"
She gasped at the sight of the red feathered arrow. "Oh, where did you find it?" she exclaimed with a mixture of surprise and relief.
Tony pointed upward and the girl tilted her head back to take in the maple that towered over them. Branches in the first tier were mostly broken, lying scattered on the ground around them.
"It was stuck up there," he explained, "and I had to climb up to get it." At her look of astonishment, he shrugged. "Wasn't so hard. Actually it was a lot of fun. What wasn't so fun was the tumble back down. Branches broke and I hit the ground pretty hard. Got the wind knocked out of me, just like you. Anyways, here you go."
He offered her the arrow again, which she took and then flung her arms around his neck. "Thank you," she exhaled, sending a tingle down his spine. It wasn't so much the expression of gratitude that pleased him as it was the way in which she demonstrated her appreciation. If ever there was proof of the old Micelli magic, this was it: a girl had her arms around him and he hadn't even had to use one of his bad pickup lines.
It was a pretty nice fit, he decided as he put his arms around her. She was slightly taller than he was, but at his age, that was true for most girls. She wasn't a raving beauty, but Tony suspected that, given time, she could become one. It had happened to Donna Benicello back in Brooklyn last summer. Who was to say that the same thing couldn't happen to this girl? He held her closer, enjoying the feel of her cheek pressed against his.
Her skin is really soft, he noticed, and then scolded himself. Cool it, Micelli. After all, it's not like you're gonna marry the girl or nothin'…
He was brought out of his daydreaming by the girl extricating herself from their embrace. Her face was as red as the sunset bleeding through the trees as she engaged in the type of grooming that only girls concerned themselves with.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, pulling the leaves out of her hair. "I don't know what came over me."
Tony's arms dropped to his sides. He shrugged. "It's alright."
"Thank you for finding my arrow. I'd better get back to camp."
"Wait!"
She turned back to face him but Tony was momentarily at a loss for words. Why had he just said that? He wasn't sure, but he had to come up with something to say, so he asked, "Do you need help finding your way back?"
"No, I'll be all right. It's still somewhat light. Thanks again."
"No problem," Tony said. He watched her vanish into the thick foliage, thinking the question he had really wanted to ask wasn't if she needed a forest guide. On impulse, he went chasing after her.
"Hey! Oh, hey…" he called, panting as he caught up with her. "What do you say we meet tomorrow night…at the big rock up the way from here. You know where I'm talkin' about?"
The girl's eyes were wide, but she nodded. "Yes, I know," she answered shyly.
Well, well. So, she knew about Make-out Rock. Tony was surprised, but apparently there was much more to Miss Camp Wildwood than what he had originally thought.
"Would nine o'clock be okay?" she asked, still shy.
"Uh, yeah…nine o'clock would be good."
"Okay."
He started backing away. "Okay, see you then."
"Mm-hmm."
"Yeah…oh!" Not watching where he was going, Tony's foot slipped on a loose rock. He wobbled but regained his balance, gave her a final wave and then dashed off back in the direction of his camp. It was growing darker by the minute now, but still he knew where he was going. He had come through this forest often enough with some other boys to spy on Camp Wildwood in the past few weeks that he probably could have made it back in his sleep.
Tony grinned at the thought his campmates as he ran along. When he got back to camp, he really had a tale to tell.
-----"So, I was on my way to Camp Wildwood to…you know…check out the chicks again, when I saw this arrow stuck up in the branches of a tree. One of the Camp Wildwood girls was standin' underneath the tree and she asked me real polite-like…very upper-class, you know…if I could get it down for her. And I said real cool-like, 'Depends. What are you gonna do for me?'"
Tony was outside his cabin after dinner, telling a group of campmates about what had happened to him that afternoon. He felt a little guilty about embellishing his tale, but excused himself with the reasoning that he had to make his story sound as good as possible for two reasons. The first was that the story wasn't exciting enough the way it actually happened. The second and far more important reason was that it seemed like every boy at camp except Tony had met a girl at Make-out Rock, some more than once. He had to make up for quantity with quality.
"Then what happened?" wondered one of his roommates.
"Well, then I climbed up and got the arrow for her. But I didn't give it to her, not at first. She said she wasn't sure how to thank me so I said, 'How about with a kiss?'" He looked around to make sure everyone was listening to him, and was pleased by what he saw. One boy was practically drooling.
To maximize the suspense, he waited until everyone urged him to go on before he continued. "She acted real shy…you know how girls are…"
Another roommate of his nodded knowledgeably. "My girl, Regina, is always acting like that. Like when we met last week, she told me that she –"
"Oh, hey!" Tony interrupted, straightening up. "Johnny! Who's tellin' this story – you or me?" When Johnny closed his mouth without another word, he nodded. "That's what I thought. Now…uh, where was I?"
"She was shy," someone prompted him.
"Uh, right," Tony faltered. Maybe fictionalizing his meeting in the woods was not such a good idea. Suppose the other, more experienced boys realized he was making it up? Swallowing, he concluded his story by quickly saying, "So I asked her to meet me at Make-out Rock tomorrow night and she agreed."
"So what was her name?" asked a tall boy named Bruce. He was standing slightly behind the crowd surrounding Tony and scowling suspiciously.
"Uh…" Tony blanked out. "I don't know," he realized, and then winced because he had said that out loud.
Bruce crossed his arms. "Yup, exactly what I thought. You didn't meet no girl in the woods!" he sneered.
"Yes, I did!" Tony insisted. He looked around at the now suspicious crowd. The boys were glancing at each other and muttering between themselves.
This is a disaster, Tony thought. He had to say something and quick. "I didn't get her name because...well, names aren't important! What's important is tomorrow night. That's real and so is this girl…uh, whatever her name is. You can believe me or not. I don't care. Goodnight!"
Bruce was still scowling as Tony walked past him into his cabin. Closing the door behind him, he breathed a quiet sigh of relief.