When Ian returned to the waterfront, he found the entire camp engaged in yet another relay race. This one was apparently designed to get the kids as wet as possible without actually dunking them into the lake, because those who hadn't already been drenched from the last games, were now soaked. And as he stopped and leaned against a tree to watch what they were doing, Ian saw that there was a good reason for that.

Each team was in a line facing the lake, but about fifty feet from the actual water's edge. The first person in the line had what looked like a one-gallon bucket. That person would run to the water, and fill the bucket, then return to the team and turn around so he (or she, in the case of the girls' cabins) would be facing the same direction that the others were. He then handed the bucket back to the person behind him in line – but had to hand it over his head. The next person would hand it back to the person behind him – but had to put it between his legs, like hiking a football, then the person behind him would go over the head once more and so on until they reached the last person in line. This person ran to a rain barrel and dumped the contents of the water into the barrel. Assuming there was anything left in the bucket by then, because as Ian watched there was a lot of times when someone would mess up or miss the bucket, and it would end up tipped over someone's head, soaking that individual. Much to the enjoyment of all those around.

Ian couldn't help the smile on his face as he watched the boys in his cabin giggling and laughing with Shawn and River – who were both far less drenched than the kids were, mainly because it was a lot harder to dump a bucket of water on someone who was towering over you. It didn't save them completely, of course; water still splashed everywhere, and one time as he was running to the waterfront, Shawn slipped when he tried to stop and ended up face first in the shallow water. The kids howled with laughter, and Ian snickered. So graceful.

He could have joined them during that relay race – which took almost a half an hour for them to finish – but Ian didn't want to get wet, and he didn't want to disrupt the game, so he waited until a winner was declared (Peru) and then walked over to join his sodden cabin mates.

"Ian!"

They rushed him enthusiastically, all of them clamoring for his attention and eager to see how he was doing, and Ian was hard-pressed to keep them at arm's length so they wouldn't get him just as wet as he was.

"Easy guys," he told them, as Chance broke through and threw his arms around his waist, pressing his cold little wet body against him and soaking that side of him. "I'm fine."

"How's your back?" River asked, coming over to help him get the kids settled, and well aware that Gary was holding off starting the next game until Australia was ready to participate once more.

The other campers were all watching this as well – not just Australia – and Ian shrugged, hating being the center of attention like this.

"It's fine."

"Good."

"Ready to play?" Gary asked, smiling as he walked over.

Ian would have rather just watched, but he couldn't really get away with that; the only way he could sit out was if he said he didn't feel well, and that would just get the boys upset and Ian was already learning that he didn't like it when the boys were upset. It took them too long to settle down once they were in an uproar. Better to go along and avoid that situation whenever he could.

He wasn't a genius for nothing, right?

"Sure."

Ian moved a little closer to the boys, who were torn between watching Ian and waiting to hear what Gary was going to say next, but when Ian turned his attention to the camp director, they did too.

Gary waved at a few of the camp staff members, and they and two of the lifeguards went over to the equipment shack (this was a building that held all the supplies needed for canoeing and sailing – including lifejackets and oars – as well as having fishing equipment, water toys and pretty much anything you could think of that a camp filled with active children might need for playing in the water.

Apparently, that included several five-gallon buckets filled with water balloons, as well.

There was excited murmurings as these were brought out; the kids all knew what to do with water balloons, after all, but Gary grinned and held up his hands for silence.

"All right, you guys…" he waited until he was certain that all the cabin groups were watching him and were quiet – which didn't take long – and then continued. "This next game is going to be fun. I want you to get into your lines in your teams again, and then the first person in line is going to run over to the bucket in front of their team…" he pointed to where the staff and lifeguards were setting up. One bucket per team, with enough space in between each team to make sure there was maneuvering room.

"Then, you sit down on your water balloon, and pop it – and you have to pop it with your butt, not with any other part of your body – and run back to the team and slap the hand of the next person in line, who will run down and pop their balloon and so on… understand?"

There were a lot of smiles and excited chatter among the kids. This was going to be fun! The counselors groaned at the thought of being forced to flop their own butts down on the ground – after all, they weren't quite as flexible as their charges, and most of them were a lot higher off the ground to begin with.

"Line up!" Gary called, and immediately the kids pushed and shoved their way into lines, each eager to be in the front so they could be first to pop their water balloon. The counselors were just as quick to keep them from getting too out of line with the pushing, and the kids eventually got into some semblance of order.

"Go!"

Wilson, who had ended up in the front of their line, took off at a run, reaching the bucket only a few feet behind the campers from the other lines. The lifeguard who was standing there waiting pulled a water balloon out of the bucket, setting it on the ground for him. The little boy plopped down on it, breaking it immediately and soaking the seat of his shorts. He grinned, scrambled to his feet and ran back to the line, slapping Chad's hand and heading for the back of the line, where Ian was waiting.

"That was great!"

Ian just shook his head. It was going to be a long afternoon.

OOOOOOOO

It was, too. There was one relay race after another, and all of them involved water. Even though Ian and the boys didn't go in the water, by the time Gary Hines excused all the campers to go up and get changed before dinner, they were all completely drenched.

"Don't forget! We're camping up in the field tonight," Gary said gesturing for the counselors to hang back as their kids went rushing up the hill towards the cabins. "You're going to want to make sure your kids change into something warm."

"We're not having a campfire up there, are we?" Hank asked, curiously.

"We are, but we won't actually have a fire," Gary said. "It'll be lanterns and stuff – with games and singing… You'll see when you get up there after dinner."

The counselors headed up the hill, too, and this time Hank walked beside Ian and Shawn. River was walking with Sierra, flirting outrageously with her and holding her hand to help her up the hill – help that she didn't need, but was more than happy to accept. Danin and Ann joined the little group.

"I was hoping to get a rest from singing," Hank grumbled, after looking around to make sure there weren't any kids lurking around.

Ian looked over at him, surprised that he wasn't the only one who hadn't enjoyed it.

"Aww, I liked the singing," Ann said.

"Me, too," Danin agreed.

"But it's almost as much fun to watch you guys every time they started a new song," Ann said, looking at Ian and Hank both.

"What do you mean?" Hank asked.

"You get this pained look in your expression…" Ann said.

"Like you're being tortured," Danin added, nudging Ian, who had been giving the same looks during the last campfire. "Singing's fun!"

"If they didn't repeat the song a hundred times," Shawn said, shaking his head. He didn't mind singing at campfire – he'd been doing it since he was little, after all. But man, he hated repeating the songs over and over.

"They just did that so the kids could learn the words," Ann assured him. "It won't be so bad tonight."

"You think so?" Hank asked, hopefully.

She nodded.

"I asked."

"I hope so," Ian said, speaking up for the first time. He was already wet and miserable. Later that night, he'd be dry and miserable, and the last thing he wanted to add on to it was singing.

"We'll try to convince Gary that we need more stories and less singing," Hank said. "That might work."

"Maybe."

Ann didn't look all that convinced, but Ian was willing to grab for any straw he could.