Trans Boy

sixteen. calm storm on a wild sea

"I'm so glad we don't have to sleep on cold concrete anymore!" Zaila announced. Out of all of us I think she was taking it the worst sleeping in the rec room. At least we could all find sleep while there. She was impossible to help.

After a moment of just sitting in silence, comfortable with each other and where we were at, Roami stood up from her bed. She'd put her things on one of the island bunks, but she was laying on a bottom bunk with Cody. We all continued to sit on thee bottom bunks despite all of our belongings sitting on the top bunks above us.

"What's the plan for today?" She asked, looking to Laura and Jango.

"We've got lots of little activities set up; rustic fishing, black smithing of sorts, arts and crafts, nature hike, survival techniques in the woods," Jango started to list off, looking at the ceiling while she tapped her fingers, counting as she went. Laura looked at her with a proud smile, listening as she continued. "So basically anything you can think of that has to do with the outdoors and other sorts of summer camps. We'll probably start grouping at ten. . . which is in twenty minutes."

Only twenty minutes to ten. The day had already flown by. I'd picked up on the fact that breakfast was put out at eight, sometimes seven-forty, and we'd left before it was ended which was around nine-ish depending on how slow or fast the group would eat. How had we spent so much time in our cabin?

Chrissie giggled. "What's 'rustic fishing'?"

"Fishing that's rustic," I answered before thinking. "Pay attention," I added, laughing with the others. Chrissie rolled her eyes and flipped me off but otherwise left me alone.

We stayed another minute before going to the main meeting area that we'd been in with Adam before. A couple staggering bits of the other groups were waiting, some sitting and others just talking in small groups. I disregarded Laura and the group, walking over to Amy and Jordan.

"Hey," Jordan broke away from an argument he and Amy were having to greet me. Amy put her hand on my shoulder but didn't turn away from Jordan.

"You're so stupid if you think that!" She practically shouted, laughing emptily. Jordan gasped. I had no idea what they were going on about, but it was pretty amusing. Especially since no one else was talking loud enough for anyone else to hear. They were the loudest two people here. But no one was doing anything about it, and they didn't seem to really be disrupting anybody, so it continued without hesitation.

I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder, turning to see Theo. He smiled and watched Jordan and Amy with a grin. Rhonnie was sitting in the grass, twirling her finger around a flower she'd found. There were lots of wild flowers here.

"What's the issue now?" He whispered, still smiling.

I shook my head and looked down. "Dunno," I answered, knowing the answer was useless.

Instead of speaking low like he had to me, he shouted, "Ames! Jordan! What's the matter this time?" It sounded like this had happened before. At least a couple times.

They both turned their attention to him, their eyes shifting from his face to his arm around my shoulder to his face again. I looked towards another small group sitting in the grass, hiding my smile from Jordan and Amy. They smiled nervously at me, pausing their conversation to look at the suddenly quiet Amy and Jordan beside us. It was now silent. No other groups were talking.

"What's wrong?" Theo tried again. That resulted in them both shouting over each other. Theo laughed like a parent watching their children fight for attention. In all honesty, that's what it reminded me of most. They were both competing for his attention now, not fighting with each other so directly.