For once in her camping life, Madeline did not wake up with the sun. She slept in, most likely because she had talked to Gilbert for so long last night. He seemed like a nice guy to her. She still couldn't shake the feeling that she knew him from somewhere.
Madeline opened her bag and pulled out a pair of old jeans and a red plaid shirt. She put her hair up into her signature pigtails to keep it out of her face. Tying her boot strings and unzipping the tent, it looked like the start of a good day.
"Hey," Madeline jumped. It was Gilbert, sitting on one of her lawn chairs. Were they always going to meet like this?
Madeline raised a quizzical eyebrow, "Good morning."
Gilbert grinned brightly and Madeline laughed. This guy had no life.
"Hungry?" she asked.
Gilberts eyes widened comically, "really?"
"Yeah, but save some pancakes for Kumatango this time."
Somewhere on the campsite, Kumajiro belched loudly and several nearby birds took to the skies. Gilbert wiped the remaining syrup from his face with a fancy cloth napkin.
"Where did you get that from?"
"What?"
"The napkin."
"What, this?"
"No, the other cloth napkin embroidered with the little yellow birds."
"Brought it from home"
"Why?"
"Why not! Can't a man have his own napkins without being penalized anymore? Yeesh."
At that, Madeline burst out laughing.
"What!"
Madeline looked up at the sun. It must have been about one o'clock. Still pretty early in the day. It was warm and her skin tingled from the sunshine. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Gilbert lazily sip lemonade through a straw. How long had he been there? It wasn't like she disliked his presence. Truth be told, she liked to have him around. Not a lot of people talked to her and she was quite shy, but Gilbert was easy to get along with. Sure, he was a little odd, like how he was waiting for her when she woke up. That was edging on creepy, but for some reason, she didn't mind.
Gilbert was perfectly content just sitting around with Madeline and drinking lemonade. There weren't many people around, and songs of birds accompanied by the soft wind through the trees seemed to put his cousin Roderich's piano playing to shame. Generally he simply couldn't sit still, but being with Maddie was so different.
"Hey Gilbert," her voice brought him out of his summer thoughts.
"Hmm?"
"Was there anything you wanted to do today?"
Oh man I totally forgot!
"Want to go swimming?"
"Yeah, sure."
Suddenly, he jumped up and started running in the direction of his campsite, "Last one there is a rotten egg, Birdie!"
A/N: helloooooo lovelies:) i really appreciate the feedback i've recieved, but if you have any suggestions or ideas let me hear them! thank you kindly~!