We soon learned that Coach Bombay wasn't exactly ruthless when it came to handing out punishment.
He appointed Connie and Ken to cooking duties for the rest of the trip, Fulton and I to dishes duty and Portman and Guy had clean up duty. Not exactly back breaking stuff, especially after experiencing his wrath with the Captain Blood practices.
The other Ducks were kind of pissed off with us too. Especially Russ and Dwayne. Averman had eventually seen the funny side of tying a snake to his foot after a few hours of sulking and had told us that he was going to use that in the future to scare his brothers.
Charlie was annoyed that he was pranked and Guy wasn't, especially since it was Guy's idea to lock Fulton and Portman out of the dorms back in LA and Jesse was too upset about moving to bother with being mad at us about pranks.
So basically outside the group that got busted, Averman, Banks and Jesse were the only ones talking to us. I didn't mind though, I hadn't really bonded with any of those guys anyway and Fulton was the one I wanted to hang out with.
"Wanna go check out the pond for a while?" Connie asked Guy, Fulton, Portman and Ken. The others had all gone off somewhere and hadn't bothered to invite us.
Oh well I didn't care.
"Yeah okay" I replied hoping that Fulton would agree to come too.
I stole a glance at him and was relieved to find he wanted to come too. Connie must have seen it because when I looked back at her she was giving me a knowing smirk.
Oh shit! She's gonna want to know the gossip now, especially after I promised her I'd tell her today.
"C'mon Cat lets go!" Fulton tugged on my arm.
The group ended up being comprised of Connie and Guy and Fulton and myself. At least Guy could keep Connie entertained.
Portman and Ken decided that exploring on the other side of the camp would be more fun than going to the pond.
"I wonder where the others went?" I must have been thinking out loud because Connie responded with
"Who cares?"
"I care" I heard Guy mutter. I looked up in time to see that Connie too had heard it and she wasn't happy.
"Its not like we were invited anyway" Connie spat at him.
Guy retreated back as if she was venomous.
"And who's fault is that?" he'd set himself up. I glanced across at Fulton who seemed to be expecting what was coming.
"If you want to get technical its your fault" Connie yelled.
"How is it my fault? You are just as much to blame!" Guy yelled back.
"Because it was you who pranked the Bashes in LA you idiot!" Connie screamed.
"Don't call me an idiot! You're the one who woke me up last night" Guy was obviously used to arguing with Connie.
To tell you the truth this was getting scary. I'd been lucky enough to avoid witnessing one of the famous Connie and Guy fights.
"Come on, they'll be at this for hours" I felt Fulton's breath on my ear and I shivered, not expecting to find him so close.
He led me away from the fight that was getting bigger and bigger by the second. Neither Connie or Guy seemed to notice us leaving and to be honest it was fine by me.
"Sorry I got you into trouble last night" Fulton turned to me giving me a shy look.
"You didn't get me into trouble, I could have said no" I replied thinking it was so adorable how he was being so considerate.
"Did you want to say no?" Fulton asked slyly.
I shook my head "Nah it was too much fun to pass up" I replied smiling at him.
"I'm glad you had fun" Fulton replied putting his arm around my shoulders.
"Me too" I decided to continue the trend and I moved my arm to rest around his waist.
Fulton squeezed me in closer as we walked towards the pond. It felt good to be with him like this.
We walked in silence the rest of the way to the pond in each others arms. Once there he cleared a spot for us to sit down next to the water. Funnily enough there were some ducks bobbing on the water.
He shifted so that I could sit in between his legs with my back resting on his chest. The butterflies in my stomach were growing by the second. I almost burst out with excitement when he rested his chin on my shoulder. I'd never liked a boy even half as much as I liked Fulton and it looked like he liked me back.
"You looking forward to heading home?" he asked me after a while. To be honest I hadn't been thinking much about it.
"I guess so, my teams not half as fun as you guys though" I replied staring out to the water.
"Its not gonna be half as fun here without you" Fulton whispered making me smile.
"Do you really mean that?" I asked. I couldn't believe this was happening. I was hoping that maybe he'd kiss me but at the same time freaking out. What if I was a bad kisser? He'd hate me and tell the rest of the team about it.
"Of course Jules" he replied.
I felt his lips softly kiss my cheek. I head a soft sigh escape from my lips.
Oh my god! I can't believe I just did that! He's gonna think I'm a complete fuckhead now.
I could feel my face start to burn and I was hoping that I wasn't turning as red as I felt like I was.
"Julie?" Fulton had pulled his face away from mine.
"Yeah?" I answer hesitantly. I was convinced he hated me now.
"I have something to tell you" he replied.
I turned around and looked at him. I noticed a little blush creeping across his cheeks. It was so cute.
"What is it?" I replied softly my eyes transfixed on his shy smile.
"I um…. I like you….. a lot" he finished his sentence and looked at the ground obviously embarrassed. The blush had grown deeper.
I was flustered. It was what I had been dreaming about.
It was now my turn. I saw Fulton's eyes move from watching the ground to look at me.
"I like you too" I replied softly giving him a shy smile of my own. I couldn't believe I'd just admitted to him that I liked him. I'd never ever done that before.
"Good" he said laughing nervously.
I decided that this would be a day of firsts as I moved a little closer to him. I stopped just short of his face and waited for his reaction.
He smiled and moved closer.
I closed my eyes in anticipation. I felt his lips touch mine briefly before we were interrupted by that stupid Duck whistle.
We broke apart looking around like startled rabbits. We looked over towards the trees and saw the group of Ducks that weren't speaking to us. My eyes rested on Charlie who didn't look very happy at all.
Averman looked quite proud and Goldberg looked disgusted, not because of Fulton and I liking each other, but because he had to witness us kissing.
"Coach wants us at the camp" Charlie finally spoke.
It didn't take a genius to detect the hostility in his voice. He was really pissed at us now. Surely he couldn't be that upset over a little prank could he?
"Okay" Fulton replied standing up. He'd obviously noticed Charlie's attitude too.
"Guys no more kissing in front of us okay? Connie and Guy are bad enough!" Goldberg joked after the others had turned around to leave.
Only Averman and Banks laughed. The others were still upset about being pranked.
"You know I heard Charlie was like that when he was rounding up the Ducks to meet Tibbles and saw Connie and Guy about to kiss. I don't know what his problem is but if he's rude to you again I'm gonna kick his ass" Fulton told me as he offered me his hand as help to get up.
I had to laugh, it's gonna be cool having a Bash Brother as a boyfriend. No one will want to mess with me!
Wait, how can he be my boyfriend if he lives in Minnesota and I live in Maine? Its gonna be way too hard.
"You okay Kitty?" he asked giving me a quick hug before we started walking back to camp.
"Yeah, just sad about leaving that's all" I replied. I conveniently left out the part about him being my boyfriend.
Get a grip Gaffney, you two have shared one tiny little kiss. It doesn't mean you're going to get married or something.
"Me too, its gonna be hard having my girlfriend live in Maine" he replied as if he was reading my mind.
I stared at him in shock "Am I your girlfriend?" I asked hopefully.
"Yeah, if you want to be" Fulton replied showing me his smile.
"Of course I want to be" I almost scream. It took every ounce of strength I had to stop myself from jumping up and down.
"Good" he replied kissing me on the forehead.
We held hands all the way back to the camp ignoring the teasing from the other Ducks, especially Portman and Averman.
We took a seat next to Connie and Goldberg. Apparently Connie and Guy hadn't made up because Guy was sitting next to Jan and he didn't look happy at all.
"Okay Ducks I have a huge announcement to make!" Coach Bombay started.