BECOMING SUPRA

Chapter 8: Camp Weekend

Alarm bells echoed early in the morning. It was camp weekend. Seniors gathered at the crack of dawn, in preparation for a six-hour trek through the ever-green wilderness to their perennial camping site at the core of a natural reserve.

They formed groups; each chaperoned by a staff member and found a comfortable pace. Syrah preferred a faster stride but decided to slow her speed in order to match Æsh's.

Neel and Raë had traversed this route many times over. Trekking through dense shoals, over brooks and streams and steep rock formations, past grassy valleys and frothy-falls that fanged its way down the mountain.

At the halfway point, they broke for lunch by forest pools swarming with blue butterflies.

With the midday heat peaking, Raë couldn't get her shoes off fast enough to wade in the cool of the pools. Neel took refuge under the shade of a clutch of trees. Sakura and Shazia soon joined him. Lydia and Imkong followed close behind.

Raë was sampling her lunch of fruits and sandwiches when Neel nudged her up and nodded in Æsh's direction. Syrah, was crawling feline-like towards Æsh. A water gun in hand, she pointed and squirted his bare feet. Æsh laughed or rather half-laughed. Then pointing at his torso, Syrah squirted his t-shirt till it became completely drenched.

"Wet t-shirt alert," said Sakura.

"Where?" asked Shazia, looking around.

Sakura raised an eye towards Æsh.

Æsh was flapping his shirt, shaking the excess water off when Syrah leaned in close to whisper something in his ear, then reaching out she got hold of his shirt and started flapping it for him, assisting him in drying off.

"Give it a break!" said Neel, rolling his eyes.

"Watch, in no time, Syrah will have him devoured," said Lydia.

"What Syrah wants, Syrah gets," Shazia said.

"That's because she is a bladderwort," said Neel.

Raë and Imkong laughed.

Bladderworts were carnivorous flowers that swallowed organisms' whole. They were bright yellow wonders, delicate and wide-mouthed, beautiful and ensnaring, both.

Syrah reached up to Æsh's lips and wiped a drop of mayonnaise with her fingertip, then puckering her mouth she drew on it with her tongue.

Neel broke out into a loud guffaw, it was so exaggerated, it caught all of them by surprise. Syrah's attention broke, she turned in their direction and found the whole gang staring, but without batting an eye, she went back to brazenly flirting again.

"Æsh looks embarrassed," said Lydia.

"Actually, I think he's enjoying the attention," said Imkong.

Raë had had enough of the show, with her lunch eaten, she was ready to resume the trek. She walked to the forest pool and dressed herself with her socks and shoes. They had a couple more hours before reaching their destination. It was primarily a downhill trail, the hard part already behind them but she was sticky and itchy and couldn't wait to get to the freshwater lake and have a quick swim before changing into fresh attire.