Chapter 10
Sam woke up when Jake and Quinn rolled over her. She yelped which woke up Kit. Kit took one look at what was going on between Jake and Quinn and climbed over Sam to get between the two guys.
Sam scrambled out of the sleeping bag she was sharing with Jake as Kit and Nate broke up the fight.
"What brought that on?" Kit asked both of the combatants.
"Quinn and his mouth," Jake responded.
"Jakey can't take a joke," Quinn said.
"Quinn," Nate warned, betting he knew what the joke was about. He met Kit's eyes above the heads of Quinn and Jake. Kit gave a nod, having a good idea on what the joke was about also.
Both Nate and Kit glanced at Sam who was standing nearby.
"You two need to knock it off," Kit warned them.
Jake gave Quinn a look. Quinn gave Jake a shove.
"Stop it, Quinn," Nate told him.
Quinn gave a sigh and nodded. Nate let go of his younger brother and Kit let go of Jake.
Kit turned towards Sam. "Sorry about that, Sammy."
Sam nodded.
"You go wash up in the stream and we'll get changed, okay?" Kit asked her.
Sam nodded, heading down to the stream to give the guys some privacy while they changed into clean clothes.
"She's going to disown us at this rate," Bryan chuckled.
"She should be used to it," Nate responded, also chuckling.
"Let's hurry and get changed so Sammy can too," Adam said, getting out some clean clothes to wear.
"When did she finally quit shivering, Jake?" Kit asked as he quickly took his shirt off and put on a clean one.
"About halfway through the night," Jake answered, starting to change.
"Is that why she was in your sleeping bag?" Bryan wondered.
"Why else?" Kit inquired. "She's eight years old, for crying out loud."
"Better than your sleeping bag, I guess," Bryan conceded.
Kit snorted.
Jake finished changing and pulled on his boots, then headed down to the stream without a word. His brothers watched him go.
"Quinn, you can't tease him about his friendship with Sam," Adam told him now that Jake was gone.
"What exactly did you say?" Kit asked as he pulled on his boots.
"I teased him about being ten and sleeping with his first girl," Quinn shrugged. "Then I told him that maybe he needed to marry Sammy now."
His brothers groaned.
"No wonder he jumped you," Nate shook his head.
"Not that he knows what people do when they sleep together," Kit murmured.
"Still, you shouldn't have said it," Adam said.
"Jake's sensitive about his friendship with Sam," Kit nodded. "It's not everyday that a ten year old guy likes hanging around a little girl."
"He's always been sensitive about their friendship," Bryan pointed out.
"Jake can't take much teasing," Nate said. "Especially about Sam. Heck, he can't take much teasing, period.
"Which is prolly why he started hanging around with her in the first place," Adam replied.
The other four nodded.