When the game finishes we take the littles back to the cabins to get ready for dinner, stopping on the way to grab the now dry name plaques. The girls look incredibly pleased with themselves when they hang them up above their beds.
It has been a long day for them and once their plaques are up, they mostly have a nap or read a book. They're going to sleep pretty well tonight.
Zoe tells Aisling and Tabitha to take the next forty-five minutes off and meet us back at the Great Mess Hall for dinner; they look just as exhausted as the littles do. With the girls calm and settled, Zoe and I share the counsellor bed.
Zoe pulls out her phone and smirks. "Look!" She holds the phone up so I can see whatever it is that's amused her.
Jefferson Lakes Holiday Retreat updated their status five hours ago.
We offer our sincerest apologies for the incident that occurred during last nights welcome banquet. We are confident it was an isolated incident and the children staying at the retreat are reminded that throwing food is not acceptable behaviour.
All guests have been offered 25% off their next visit as a goodwill gesture.
"Ohmigosh." I frown. "I can't believe they're offering twenty-five per cent off!" I sigh. I mean, I probably should have seen it coming. Somewhere like Jefferson Lakes isn't going to just sweep it under the rug and forget about it, they need to keep guests in their favour.
"I know, but we got away with it! They called it an 'isolated incident'!"
"I thought you guys said it was a foolproof plan?" I ask, feeling slighting annoyed but not entirely sure why.
"No, Robbie said that. And everything has a little risk; we could have been recognised, but we weren't because you were a fabulous distraction." Zoe is still smirking and I can't help but smile too.
"I guess I was pretty good."
"The best." She knocks her shoulder against mine. "So how was your dance with Ryan Jefferson?"
I roll my eyes. "Fine."
"Did you want to throttle him at all?" she whispers, checking that the girls are all still focused on their chosen activity.
I think about everything he said last night; yes, I could have throttled him when he was talking about the retreat. But, when he was talking about the trails and being outside, I don't know, I guess it threw me a little.
I shrug in response because I don't know what the right answer is. The way they talked about him before, I was expecting someone stuck up and all about themselves. I mean, he was kind of when we first started talking. But it was a nice surprise to hear him talk about exploring the forest.
"Waaaait. . ." Zoe looks me up and down suspiciously. "You liked it!" She squeals.
"No!" I gasp, not because it's untrue, but because I don't want to be teased about it.
"Okie dokie," Zoe replies in a very unconvinced way.
At twenty past six, we get the girls back up and head outside to join the boys. The queue in the Great Mess Hall is long, but it moves quickly. Dinner is pasta bake, garlic bread and salad; the littles eat it ravenously, as though they haven't been fed all day.
When everyone is finished we head to the play area in at the end of the cabins so the littles can blow off any last bits of energy they might have. They run around, squealing in delight. Some of the boys start a pirate game on the ship, which involves quite a lot of people having to walk the plank. The girls start to join in, eager to show off their amazing jumps from the plank. Nellie is the only one who doesn't go over, instead, she sits on one of the swings; her feet don't leave the ground as she sways, looking off into the distance.
"I worry about her." I nod my head in Nellie's direction.
"Yeah." Zoe frowns slightly. "Give her this week, she might just need to settle in; it's her first time. After that, we'll have to start setting up group activities and stuff around making friends." I forgot Zoe's been here before. She probably sees this every year with one of the littles.
At eight, I say goodnight to the girls and leave them with Zoe who is laying in the counsellor bed, reading a book by the light of a small lamp. Most of the girls will be asleep within minutes, some of them were already snoring softly as Zoe read them the bedtime story.
Robbie is leaving his cabin just as I reach the bottom of the steps so I wait for him to catch up. "How was your first day as an official camp counsellor?" he asks as we head back towards our own cabins.
"Better than I thought," I answer, thinking about all the happy little faces I've seen today.
"Yup, it sneaks up on you."
"Hey, Cass! We're going to make s'mores on the beach, want to join?" Crash calls as he and Josh approach us, arms laden with all the things needed to make exactly that: giant marshmallows, chocolate, biscuits and skewers.
"OK," I say. "Let me grab a jacket first," I add realising there is a nip in the air now that the sun is going down.
"Yeah, I need to grab the cooler, we'll meet you guys on the beach," Robbie tells the others.
"I told you we forgot something!" Josh says to Crash as they head towards the beach.
I've never really thought of myself as an evening person before. If my friends invite me to something that I know is going to run late, I normally say no without thinking; the thought of missing out on a movie, or a book, snuggled up in bed with ice cream, too horrifying to even consider. But for some reason, I want to go and make s'mores on the beach with the guys.
Robbie and I meet back outside the cabins moments later. Hoodies on and cooler in hand, we head down to the beach. Spotting the other two who look confused, even from a distance. "Let me guess, you can't start the fire?" Robbie smirks as we near them.
"We're actually just admiring the awesome pile of sticks we've collected, thank you very much." Crash huffs as Robbie pulls a lighter out of his pocket and sets the awesome pile of sticks on fire.
I cross my legs and shuffle a little closer, trying to get all the warmth I can. They picked a good spot, we're not too far from the lake so we can hear the gentle lapping of the water, and we're spaced far enough from the other families and counsellors that we don't have to worry about them overhearing us.
Josh passes around the bag of marshmallows as Robbie hands out skewers, which Crash snubs in favour of a stick he found and thinks isn't too dirty. We grimace as he tugs a piece of bark off his melted marshmallow.
"Dude, that's disgusting," Josh mumbles as he slides his marshmallow onto a biscuit.
"Nah, it's nature, it's good for you," Crash says in a matter-of-factly way before stuffing the whole marshmallow into his mouth as an example. I take a sip from my Diet Coke just as he starts to cough. We watch as he pulls a leaf from his mouth and tosses it into the fire like it's a completely normal thing.
"Isn't that meant to be good for you?" I smile innocently.
"I'm not really in a leaf mood." Crash shrugs.
"So highlights of the day, go," Robbie says to the three of us, turning his skewer above the fire. I slide my marshmallow onto a chocolate Digestive rather excitedly; this is the kind of thing Mum and I do on our road trips.
"Mikey found me a rock," Josh says simply. We all nod, knowing that for a child to gift us something, whatever it is, is a big deal. "It's a pretty neat rock actually, it's got some moss on it that's so soft."
"I've got his sister Kelsey, she's really sweet," I tell Josh. "But my highlight is that this really shy girl, Nellie, I think I've made a connection with her. Maybe. She likes to sit with me, she doesn't really say much, but I think she's still a little nervous." The guys nod, they know exactly what I'm talking about, and it feels good to be understood so easily.
"Yeah, I think it's a hard adjustment for some of them, especially the young ones. Just keep sitting with her and she'll open up," Robbie replies.
"So my highlight is that the hot girl from our counsellor group, Emma, keeps looking at me in a 'you're smoking hot' kind of way. I give it a week before she's begging for a date." Crash raises his eyebrows and smirks, turning a serious conversation into a joke once more.
I roll my eyes, as do Robbie and Josh, obviously just as unimpressed.
"Dude, she was looking at you in a 'there's something in your teeth' kind of way," Josh smirks.
"Wait, what? Did I really have stuff in my teeth?" Crash frowns as he forces another marshmallow onto the stick.
"Ask Emma and find out." Robbie teases. I smile too, feeling easy with these guys. At school, I speak to the guys in my classes, when forced to, but I don't hang out with any of them.
"What's your highlight then, Robbie?" I ask, realising he's the only one who hasn't had a turn.
"Being back here." He smiles easily. We all turn to take in the view of the lake as the sun starts to disappear from sight, sitting in silence, waiting to see the first star of the night.
Until Crash starts to cough again, pulling a piece of bark from his mouth, ruining the moment.
"Oh, and getting away with revenge. Did you see what they put on Facebook?" Robbie adds.
"Yep. It's a good day for Camp Little Willow." Crash smiles. I think he might've just said his first serious sentence ever.
We melt the last of the marshmallows and finish of the chocolate and biscuits before heading back to the cabins for the night. I'm more tired than I thought I would be, I didn't realise that looking after the littles was going to take up so much energy.
It's worth it though. Every second.