Not surprisingly, it was only a couple of minutes before Cassie and Ian were the only two eating. Since both of them could be counted on to not spill their milk all over the table, Shawn went up and got Australia's box of memory books, handing one to everyone at the table – except Cassie. The boys grabbed theirs excitedly, as did all the other campers who were getting theirs from their respective counselors, and soon the room was filled with loud murmurs of conversations, punctuated by the occasional excited yelp from one of the kids when they found a picture of themselves, or of one of their friends.
Curious, Cassie set her fork down and reached for the little booklet in front of Ian.
"Oh, God," River said, thumbing through his own and looking up at Ian with a gleam of amusement in his blue eyes. "I've got to send that picture to your mom, Brooks."
Ian scowled. He didn't even know what picture it was, but just from the amusement that River was getting out of it, he knew it had to be something that he wasn't going to like. Cassie looked up from the book she had picked up and looked over River's shoulder, and smiled. Then she thumbed through Ian's booklet until she found the right page, and showed it to Ian.
"It's adorable."
He looked and saw it was a picture taken at the campfire the night before. One he hadn't seen anyone taking. One with him sitting beside the boys with Libby comfortably situated in his lap, her head resting against his chest half asleep. Great.
"That's not me," he told her. "They just cut her out and superimposed the picture…"
Before Cassie could say anything, Sammy looked over Ian's shoulder at the picture in question.
"That's you. That's me beside you, see?"
Ian sighed, and pointedly ignored Cassie's amused giggle.
"Here's another one of you, Ian!" Chance said, flipping through his book excitedly. He turned it so Ian could see, and sure enough there was a black and white picture of Ian with several of the boys, covered with chocolate syrup and mustard.
"Is that blood?" Cassie asked, looking at the picture and then at Ian as if to look for gashes. She saw several bruises and the cut on his forehead, but no blood.
"No. It's chocolate syrup."
"What?"
"It's from tank wars," Sammy said, grinning. He'd been covered with flour and ketchup in that picture.
"It's a glorified food fight," River told her, smiling.
"Sounds like you had fun," Cassie said.
"It was great," River told her.
"Yeah!" Sammy agreed.
The rest of the boys nodded their agreement as well, all smiling hugely.
"It was!"
Ian wasn't nodding, Cassie noticed. She didn't call attention to that, however. Instead she looked at Jack.
"Are you and Sam enjoying yourself?"
O'Neill nodded.
"We like it here."
As opposed to some people.
"Will you sign my book, River?"
They all looked up as one of the female counselors from the 7 year olds' cabin came over, her memory book in hand and a slight smile on her face as she regarded the Californian.
"Sure."
"Mine, too!" Chance yelled, pushing closer.
"Me, too!" Brian yelled, handing his over as well.
"And me!"
"Sign mine, Shawn!"
"Mine, too!"
The room was suddenly filled with kids yelling, each of them asking (at the top of their voices) for someone to sign their books. The Australian boys ended up moving around to the other tables as they sought out other signatures and to make up for them leaving several others came over to the table where Shawn, Ian and River were sitting, pushing their books in front of them and asking for a signature – and of course, a short message. Jack took the opportunity to sneak off and join Sam at the staff table, but Cassie simply sat beside Ian, watching in amazement as what had been order and quiet suddenly became a room filled with babbling people.
River was the most popular – especially with the girls – but that was fine with Ian. He had his hands full anyways. He was more popular than he wanted to be, and it didn't help that most of the other counselors – male and female – were curious about Cassie.
"This is your girlfriend, Ian?" Ann asked, coming over and looking at Cassie with a smile.
"Yeah."
"I almost decided you'd made her up just to keep me at arms' length."
Ian scowled, but Cassie simply smiled.
"I'm Cassie."
Ann sat down, equally amused.
"I'm Ann."
"It's nice to meet you."
Ann pushed her book in front of Ian.
"Sign this?"
"Fine."
"You're studying to be a doctor?" Ann asked as Ian reached for the book, debating just how pissed Cassie would be if he left Ann a less than gentlemanly note in her book.
"I will be," Cassie confirmed. "I start at Johns Hopkins this fall."
"Wow. Impressive."
Cassie smiled.
"It helps to have a genius for a boyfriend. He helped me with my homework when I needed it."
"You did it on your own," Ian said, firmly, looking up from where he'd signed his name in Ann's book. "I just helped a little."
"What do you do?" Cassie asked Ann.
"I'm studying psychology at Yale."
"Wow."
"It sounds more impressive than it is," Ann said, modestly.
"I'll bet it same in handy around here…" Cassie told her, smiling at Ian as the kids crowded around every table in the room, chattering loudly and only increasing in volume as they tried to get attention from those around them.