Where Did the Time Go? : Part XV
Ron walked out the door of the cabin, absently scratching himself in that most typical guy's way. It wasn't quite six in the morning and the sun wasn't even fully up yet, but he awakened as if his alarm clock had gone off beside his bed, his body, at least, trained to be up this time of the morning. Shaking off sleep, he was momentarily disoriented. The bed was far from soft but he had been exhausted so he quickly fell asleep not long after the midnight lights out. Roughly five hours later his not quite fully rested mind had yet to identify exactly where he was.
One step into two inches of fresh powder covering the ice encrusted older six inches of snow and it came back to him in a rush. Not only was he not in his home or Kim's, he wasn't even in a hotel room like he originally expected, though the quality of the bed had fooled him. No, he was standing outside, in his boxers and a tank top, in weather that was at the very least ten degrees below freezing…
…in the middle of Camp Wannaweep.
The shivers he had weren't from the sub-freezing temperature. He'd put on a brave face for Kim when they got there, even summoning the courage to walk with her to where cabin 13 once stood, but the place still gave him the Cold Chill Willies. It didn't matter that none of the things that had bothered him so that summer of his tenth year were here any more. Cabin 13 had been razed after Gill pretty much destroyed it. The remaining larger cabins had been remodeled into semi-rustic hotel rooms. It was mid-winter so the blood sucking arthropods and the evil squirrels were nowhere to be seen and, most importantly, nobody on the trip seemed to be interested in tormenting him, unless you counted Kim's continuing tweak about Bonnie. Even the toxic grotto had been cleaned up and the entire area scoured for any more hidden pools of the old runoff.
No, despite all that, despite all logic that there was nothing there to hurt them, he could feel it in his bones.
Camp Wannaweep was a place of evil!
Ron knew it when he was ten. He knew it when they had been tricked into coming here when he was fifteen. He even knew it when they returned just over a year ago. He still knew it now. On top off all that, every time before he had been right. He was right about the toxic lake. He was right when he saw kids his age who would have normally simply ignored him suddenly turn into his tormentors. He was right when Gill tried to trap them twice and he was right when Summer Gayle had used the water from the lake to create a monster snowstorm over Middleton.
Just being here made him shiver.
Well, standing past his ankles in snow was bound to make him shiver too.
It would have been nice if their ration of firewood hadn't been burned up the night before, but the rest of the guys were apparently a bunch of pyros who'd apparently never seen a fireplace before, which was kind of strange since even most apartments in Middleton had them. Ron just rolled his eyes and watched as the other five guys threw log after log into the relatively new fireplace, cheering as the flames leaped clear up into the chimney. It was a wonder they didn't do something stupid like break up the furniture and throw it in as well.
He did get a chuckle out of the fact he was the one behaving halfway like an adult. Maybe if he'd protested their behavior and made the wood last until morning he'd feel completely mature about it, but they weren't doing anything that would cause lasting harm and there was a more mundane source of heat so he just sat back and let them have their fun.
Even after bed-check and lights-out the flames were still pretty impressive and the talking started. He started getting some notion of why he was now semi-accepted by these guys and of course the talk was running the gamut from their adventures and misadventures on the field and the multitude of ways they had run afoul of their parental units, but it was mostly about girlfriends.
There was no way to avoid it, eventually five sets of eyes came to rest on Ron in the orange glow of their over-fed fire. He felt trapped. He could tell them the absolute truth, which would either amount to admitting to them he was still a virgin or they simply would not believe him, assuming incorrectly the two had been at it clear since the prom. There was no way in the world he was going to lie either.
In a moment of inspiration he just shrugged and said, "She makes me the happiest guy on Earth."
It might not have been the 'whole truth' but it certainly seemed to satisfy them, at least for the time being. He fell asleep feeling a little guilty that what he said could have been construed as Kim was doing things that made him so happy but at least they hadn't pressed for details. It was the best result he thought possible, so he left it at that.
He started to go back inside when movement caught his eye. At first it seemed like nobody else was even up at this hour, but somebody was out on the lake, not far from shore. The moon had come up late and was three quarters full, so there was just enough light to see by.
Ron had never even conceived of seeing Lake Wannaweep frozen over, but there it was. If the place wasn't so full of unpleasant memories for him, he would have to admit it was actually a very beautiful sight, the surrounding landscape covered with snow and ice, the moon reflecting off the sheet of ice on the lake's surface itself.
He stood there transfixed by what he saw. He had seen skating plenty of times before, but it was mostly either on TV, or just the sight of kids circling the rink at Middleton Mall. This was something else entirely. Ron didn't know the names for all the twirls and jumps, but he knew enough to tell that the person out there skating on the lake knew much more about the sport than most. None of the jumps alone were as spectacular as those seen on television during competitions, but the display as a whole was a thing of beauty and grace.
Forgetting for the moment how cold he was, he sat down on the steps of his cabin and watched. He had been skating with Kim several times but for the most part, she moved on the ice like a hockey player, though the last couple times had been spent entirely holding his hand, just enjoying his company.
This skater moved on the ice with the fluid grace of a dancer…like a ballet dancer. Suddenly it occurred to him who he was looking at. He couldn't see her face and her hair was tucked up into a thick stocking cap, but he could tell by the way she moved he was watching Bonnie Rockwaller out there on the ice.
That shocked him just a little. He had known her since Junior High and he never once suspected she could do that. Thirteen years of ballet (if she'd kept at it after the Talent show debacle,) a black belt in Karate and now, apparently, a passably good figure skater. He shook his head slightly, wondering exactly how that would skew how he thought of her.
Her routine finally came to an end and she glided toward the dock. He watched a few minutes more as she took he skates of when he finally realized she was going to walk right past him and he was standing there in his underwear. Not to mention the fact he was now chilled right to the bone. How long had he actually been standing there watching her?
He turned to head back inside, but his feet had gone completely numb in the snow. Without being able to feel the bottoms of his feet, they caught on the step and he went down, hitting his chin on the steps.
Moments later, he realized somebody was shaking him. He opened his eyes and as they focused he realized that he was looking up at Bonnie. She had a pair of skates draped around her neck by the laces.
He shook his head to clear the fuzziness and was rewarded by a splitting headache.
"Ron, are you okay?" She asked, propping him up on the step.
"I…I think so." I think I tripped.
"You need to be more careful." She helped him stand up, brushing a little snow off his shoulders. "My God, Ron, you're cold as ice. Just what the hell are you doing outside in your pajamas?"
He blinked, suddenly remembering he wasn't actually in pajamas, but his underwear, having slept in what he'd worn during the day. The it occurred to him once more, that he'd wanted to be indoors before she got to him. Now it was too late for that and she was standing right there, apparently trying to deflect his embarrassment while she made sure he was okay.
Ron noticed Bonnie had the strangest look on her face. He was used to seeing her look alternately irritated or smug or sometimes happy. He honestly didn't know how to begin to interpret the look she was giving him at that very moment.
"Uh, I better get dressed and all." He said finally, feeling like the few seconds they had been standing there were actually many minutes.
"You sure you're okay, Ron? I heard you hit, that sounded pretty nasty."
"I'm alright, I've had a lot worse knocks from some of the bad-guys." He stood up to go back inside. The lights had come on and he heard voices. Soon almost everyone would be up, getting ready for another day at the lodge and the slopes. "Um, your skating is really nice."
Bonnie gave him perhaps the warmest smile he had ever seen on her. "Thanks. It's been a while since I was able to do it on natural ice."
"I didn't even know you could do that." He said.
"There's a lot of things you don't know about me." She said softly as he closed the door.
Bonnie rushed back to Cabin 9, her mind awhirl with things she wished would go away. She's heard the thunk and saw Ron go down out to the corner of her eye and had rushed right over to him. She figured at first it was her just being a normal human being but after a few moments helping him up she realized something.
She was having the strongest urge to wrap her arms around him and hold him tight. There was also a bit of a desire to kiss him, but it was nowhere near as strong as her craving for an embrace. She had hugged him before when she learned there was a possibility of honest friendship with him but she knew now this was something slightly different, something more.
The problem was, it made her deeply ashamed.
What had seemed so clear to her before now was a muddled mess. It had all been about hurting Kim, about driving a wedge between the two and possibly enjoying a little time with Ron was something more than a secret, hesitant friend. Now it was clear to her that wasn't even possible, that doing anything to come between the two of them wouldn't just hurt Kim, it would also hurt Ron.
Why hadn't she seen that before?
Then there was how he was dressed. She was trying to puzzle out in her mind why she had called his underwear pajamas. Perhaps it was the fact that, as he lay there for a moment, she saw something she had not expected to and it surprised her. It also muddied her thoughts even further.
Scrunching her eyes shut as she covered the last paces to her cabin, she kept telling herself she wasn't attracted to Ron. She just wanted a friend, a real, honest friend. She didn't want him as a boyfriend, she only wanted some man to love her the way he loved Kim, that's all.
That's all?
Bonnie growled to herself as she very nearly tripped the same way Ron had. She let herself back into the cabin, throwing her skates onto her bed. Danika was busy brushing her hair out and she could hear voices in the bathroom, where apparently Kim and Marie were already up, getting ready for the day.
She glared for a moment at the softly smiling blonde, sitting there in a flimsy nighty working on her hair. All she cared about was taking Kim down a peg, and most likely taking her down as well. That was fine, Bonnie could respect that, though she was finding less and less to respect about Danika as a person.
Bonnie knew that she would never win Ron over by knocking Kim down, much as she wanted to do so to that little Princess. No, the only way that would ever happen would be for her to be just as good as Possible.
How could she make that happen?
Listening to the other girls giggling in the bathroom, her eyes came to rest on Kim's luggage.
"Okay, let me see." Kim said, reaching under his chin. She'd made him sit down on the steps as they got ready to get on the bus.
"Really, KP, it's just a bruise." He protested as she examined his injury.
"Um, hmm. Looks more like you've gone three rounds with Monkey Fist." She said. "At least you're not being a baby about it."
"What's that supposed to mean?" He said as she helped him up.
"It means you're behaving like an adult instead of moaning about having a nice purple bruise on your chin, Honey. Okay, I see what you mean, that didn't come out too good."
"So, what are we up for today?" He said, grabbing his board where it had been leaning against the cabin.
"Just going to play it by ear." She said. "Though I do have to spend some time reading this afternoon, so if you want to hit the slopes by yourself…"
"No way, KP. Since we're staying at Wannaweep, rule one applies. You're not going to do any dangerous reading without your buddy."
She giggled slightly at the joke, then stopped in her tracks.
"What is it?" He asked, trying to figure out what had apparently caught her attention.
"I don't know. Something just pegged my weirdar, but I can't put my finger on it." She slowly looked around, from building to building. Ron did the same, not really wanting to admit his 'bad road' feeling had been going off almost constantly since they got there.
"Maybe it's just nerves." She said finally, resuming their trek to the bus.
"Did Bon-Bon keep you up all night snoring?" He asked, remembering the last time she had been forced to bunk with her teammate.
"Honestly, I have no idea. I was out like a light the moment my head hit the pillow. I'm glad we didn't make any plans to sneak away last night."
"There's always tonight, KP." Ron said, Putting his free hand on the small of her back.
"I'm kidding, Ron. It's easier for us to get some 'us' time at home anyway. Let's just have some fun today."
"Okay." He stopped suddenly and stuck his board down in the snow, pulling Kim closer to give her a great big good-morning kiss.
"Mmmm, at least we know your jaw is still working properly." She said, giving him a couple more quick pecks while his arms were still wrapped around her.
They walked the rest of the way to the bus, hand in hand, not noticing the round hole in the ground beside Cabin 1.
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