Girls Summer Camp

By Eve Black

© November 18, 1998

Mistake

Dana got out of the backdoor of the luxury sedan, dropped his duffle on the gravel and closed the car door gently. He stared, standing still and silent, as his parents drove away, leaving him behind in the dust for the whole summer.

"Oh, my," Bunk Mother Amanda said, as soon as she got up close to the boy. She kept looking from her clipboard and then back again, as if that would make a difference somehow. "You can't possibly be–"

"Dana, Ma'am."

"But you're not a girl… Are you?"

"No, Ma’am. I'm a boy, all right. They’re forever making that mistake. Dana is a boys too. It’s Swedish."

"No," Amanda decided, shaking her head sagely. "Boss Campbell is most definitely not going to like this one tiny bit."

Phone Home

Several hours later, Dana sat in a chair that was too big for his tiny frame outside the office of Ms. Elizabeth Campbell–Camp Director.

Summer camp had seemed the perfect way to spend the summer as soon as he'd got wind of its Computer Science lab. It was to be a “summertime of making new friends, building memories, and advancing one's knowledge of the internals of advanced workstation operating systems." His parents had jumped at the idea– perhaps too eagerly.

They had never really taken to Dana. Something akin to a couple of fast-track professionals, who had been smitten by a kitten–graceful and confident–and instead got shackled with a puppy–clumsy and uncertain.

Now, here he was on the first day of sleepaway camp and already things were going terribly wrong. Dana's life was like that.

"Dana!" yelled a cheerful voice that left no room for dilly dally.

The boy popped into the office. "Ma'am?"

"Your father." The Boss held out the telephone to him across her desk.

"Dad?"

"Son? Ms. Campbell will explain everything to you. Now, you mind her and remember—anything she says goes. Your mom and I are together on this."

"Yes, Sir."

"Good, Boy. Now, you have a great summer.”

"I will, Sir."

"That's my boy. We're counting on you."

"I'll be good."

"We know you will. And we both love you very much."

"And I–" But the line was already dead.

Bunkmates

"Abigail! Stacy!" Assistant Director Amanda yelled as she led Dana up the steps to his home away from home.

The bunkhouse was at the far end of a long row of others, each exactly like the one before it. On three sides was the most beautiful green forest you could imagine. And on the fourth was a mountain lake so pure you could drink from it.

Inside there were three bunks with footlockers and not much else. On one reclined a stocky redhead a few inches taller than Dana. On the other was a reedy brunette.

The first thing the big one said when she laid eyes on Dana was, "You've got to be kidding! There's no way I'm spending my summer with a dyke."

"I," Dana said. "Am not a lesbian."

"Hey, I know a pussy hound when I see one."

Amanda had been in the summer camp game a long time–nothing astonished her about the campers anymore. "There's a reason for that Abigail. Dana is a boy."

Abigail looked like she was going to puke. Stacy on the other hand looked interested–maybe a twee bit too interested.

"But this is a girl's only camp!"

Amanda crossed her arms and rested them atop her ample bosom. "Listen, there has been a major screw up on the camp’s part. Dana here was supposed to be staying at the boy's camp across the lake. Instead, he landed up here."

"So? Throw him in the lake," Abigail sneered. "He just might make it there."

"It wouldn't make any difference. The boys camp–just like the girl's camp–is chock full."

"And?"

"We've already spoken to both your parents about him staying here. They said, if it's okay with you guys, it's okay with them."

"Cool," Stacy smiled, nodding a big yes.

"No way!" Abigail disagreed, shaking a larger N-O. "I'm not letting some sex crazed teenage gigolo, his gutter mind bent on date rape, sleep anywhere near me."

Dana dropped his duffel next to the empty bunk and plunked himself down. This stuff was way over his head.

Amanda played her trump card. "Did you know that Dana here is a certified computer genius."

"Really?" Stacy grinned. "Good looking and brains too."

"Highest score on the entry exam."

"So what?" You’ll need to forgive Abigail. She was always a little slow on the update.

"With him on your team, you've got an excellent chance at intercamp Best-of-Fair."

And that was something that every teenage girl computer-geek coveted. The chance to look a boy computer-geek in his pimply face and say, "Suck my weenie."

"Glad to have you onboard, Dana."

"Thanks." Dana tried not to wince when Abigale’s handshake clamped on to his right hand, like a lobster claw. If there was one thing he'd learned on the Nature Channel, it was never showing fear in front of wild predators.

Insurance

The camp infirmary was trim and tidy as was Nurse Parker the woman who ran it.

"Think of it as insurance," the nurse suggested to Ms. Campbell.

"It won't hurt him in anyway?"

"No, not at the right dosage. It would take at least three times this amount to have any visible effect."

"So, why bother?"

"Dana seems every bit the sweet kid. But he's poised on the brink of adolescence. It's just possible that over the summer he might bloom. All this does is put a damper on him until he's safe and sound back with his parents."

"Seems foolproof enough." The bottle was tiny and brown and sealed with an eyedropper at one end.

‘Just a drop a day before breakfast,’ Ms. Campbell told herself. ‘What could possibly go wrong?’

Human Error

What Nurse Parker failed to take into account was the magnitude of the Director’s concern.

In a word, Ms. Campbell was worried sick. She’d never married and had no kids of her own. Her camp was both her one true love and life. Dana, in some ways, was a godsend. The joint Science Fair at the end of summer between the boys’ and girls’ camps was a really big deal. With him, Ms. Campbell’s girls might just beat out the boys across the lake. Those bragging rights meant a lot to her campers and her.

So, it became her solemn duty to see that Dana got his two drops every day.

Now, Nurse Parker's one true love and life was the unaware Ms. Campbell. Playing it safe, she knew, just wasn't going cut it. Dana in many ways was a bedevil. A single false step and her beloved just might land up in the hoosegow. She couldn't stand the idea of the Director out of her life.

So, she figured that two added drops from her a day was perhaps pushing it but merited under the circumstances.

Dance

"Me dance?!" Dana said to Amanda. He and about five other girls were gathered in the main recreation room on a lazy and rainy afternoon.

"Sure. Every camper has to learn a few dance steps. Nothing fancy, just the Cha-Cha, Fox Trot and Waltz. It’s for Summer’s End Ball"

"Couldn't I just Twist the night away?"

Amanda, like everyone else in the camp, had mastered the trick of getting Dana to do just about anything. "Dana, this is just about as important as the Science Fair. After it's over, we always have our big dance. Over there right now the boys are doing exactly what we're doing. We’ve got a secret edge this year though. You're our Man. We're counting on you to help us girls."

"You can depend on me."

"I knew I could. Now, you start with Abigail."

His bunkmate grabbed his left hand with her right and snaked her left arm round his slender waist. Abigail was a head taller than him. She stared masterfully down into his pretty blue eyes.

"But shouldn't I–"

"Just follow," Abigail commanded.

Not once in all the days, with all those girls did, did Dana get to lead.

By the end of July though he couldn’t care less. It was fun, fun to be spun round like a top. And to be dipped so deep his hair almost dusted the floor. Best though was when Abigal lifted him high into the air. It was like he was light as a feather, like he was flying.

Wrong

"But it says Wonder Woman?!" Stacy was right, her tee shirt fit him just right. It was just the false advertising stenciled across the front that bothered Dana. And this was just the tip of the titanic iceberg. All his cloths were wrong. Not that the official camp uniform was that bad. It was just that it was…girl's stuff.

First off, his khaki shorts were way too short. Looking at him going they looked every bit the de rigueur summer short. Seeing coming looked exactly like skirt. Skorts is what the girls called them. Worst, the zipper wasn't in the bow where a feller could wrestle with it. Instead, they’d tucked her astern.

Now, his regulation tee shirts were a bright orange with "your name here" on both sides. The sleeves were roomy, making Dana's skinny arms look even skinner. The neck kind of swooped, showing lots of neck and chest.

Bu the biggest insult was that everything fit him to a tee. In line, waiting for his chow, he fit right in, indistinguishable from any of the other girls at the camp. Nobody even gave him a second glance or commented other than, "Please, pass the salt." Dana was of two minds about himself playing the star in ‘The Princess and the Pauper.’ He was glad that the girls’ awkwardness, hesitation, and restraint had vanished. He no longer felt embarrassed or excluded. What kept him up most nights in terror was that come summer’s end, he’d be back at Lauderdale’s Boys’ Academy.

Boy Bashing

After lights-out each night Stacy and Abigail would gab. Dana never spoke. He felt it wasn’t his place. But sometimes to Dana, it was magical hearing their sweet voices out of the pitch dark like that, almost like the whisper conversation of angels or mermaids. The hush of the wind through the White Pines, the gentle lap of the waves against the lakeshore and the harmony of the screech of crickets and hoots of owls added an ancient and wonderful chorus.

But not tonight. Tonight, the topic of conversation was trashing and bashing boys.

When he couldn't stand it anymore, he interrupted from out of the darkness, "But we're not all like that."

"Yeah," Abigail sneered. "Right. And the Pope’s Polish."

"Okay," said Stacy, ever the peacemaker. "I'll bite. What makes you so different?"

"Well, what I've always wanted in a girl was…well…a friend."

"A friend?"

"Yeah. A best friend."

"Listen,” Stacy said, “I know that if I look in the Oxford Dictionary for the word, ‘Computer-Geek’, it’s your picture I’ll see beneath it. But surely, you must have had a friend at some time in your life."

"Sure. Guy friends. But it's not the same."

"Sure," Abigail cut in. "You can't have a guy friend with benefits."

Dana ignored Abigail and her dismissal of 7% of men. She was all bark and no bite. In truth he though she was kind of cute, in a Pit-Bull sort of way.

"I've always been afraid… Afraid that if I wasn't good. Wasn't the best. That my parents would take me back to wherever it was they got me from."

Dana waited in the darkness for some cutting remark that would tear his flimsy flag of truce to tatters. But he heard only silence–both girls lost in troublesome thoughts of their own.

"Saying you're afraid, needing to say you're afraid, putting it out there. That's not something you can do with another guy."

"Why is that?" Stacy whispered.

"You just can't. That's all."

"That's so sad."

"Anyway, a girl, my girl. She'd be my best friend and everything else besides. And I would never laugh or scold her when she was afraid. I would only hold her close till it went away."

"Cool," Stacy said.

"You guys are like that. I can talk to you like I could never talk to anyone else."

"Whatever," Abigail dismissed. But she sounded like she was trying to convince herself of something.

"Good night, Dana."

“Goodnight, Stacy. Goodnight, Abigail."

Then there was only the sound of the summer night.

Happy Birthday

"For me?" Dana took the brown paper bag, stuffed with tissue paper from Stacy. It was only the two of them, something that seemed to be happening more and more often as the summer deepened the forest’s green and the lake grew warm as bath water.

"It's your birthday, isn't it?”

"Yeah." Dana was quiet for a space thinking about his mom and dad so far from him on the day he’d been born.

"Open it."

When he unwrapped it, he didn't know what to say. "I don't know what to say."

"Here, let me show you."

"I don't think–"

"Your arms go through here," she began, tangling him up in the contraption of lace and elastic. "And it snaps in the front."

The snap of that snap sounded fatal, funeral, and final.

"Thanks." Dana assayed at last.

"It's like mine. It’s padded. But someday I won't be needing that."

"I can't possibly–"

"It's okay," And to prove it, she gave him the biggest warmest hug she'd ever given anyone that was not kissing kin.

That settled it in Dana's mind. He was tangled up in Stacy now for better or worst. He'd have to wear the darn thing everywhere he went, or he’d hurt her feelings. He couldn’t stand even the thought of that.

Two days counting, and no one, except Abigail, had noticed anything new about Dana. And all Abigale did was roll her eyes and pat him in the back.

Dana

Dana was out-gunned and out-manned. He was a good kid, done horribly wrong through no fault of his own. He'd been patient as the other boys in his middle school raced ahead of him. The matured fiercer, faster, and finer with the ladies.

 When he could get his parents’ attention, they promised him that his time in the sun would come. And he’d sprout up just like an oak sapling.

And in a manner of speaking, they’d been spot on. His young body was eager for a major growth spurt. The upshot of it was that, thanks to his daily drops, he landed up taking a left when he should have gone right. By August, he'd grown three inches–all of them in his hips. And it seemed that he'd been blessed with his mom's classic pair shape. Certainly not a prom queen by any stretch of the imagination, but he'd have no trouble birthing babies.

Instead of graduating to manly pushups and chin-ups, he’d been reduced to the ignobility of the girlie variety.

He bid farewell to his gawky-boyish days, ushering in an unwelcome and lingering girl-next-door phase. His hair draped, golden as corn silk, his cheeks rosy as a Red Delicious and his eyes bluer than the azure of summer skies.

Anyone that caught sight of him had to smile. “Yes sir,” they all agreed. “That pretty thing was going to be quite the beauty one day. And was going to make some lucky Jasper very happy someday.” Lamentably, nobody had bothered to let Dana in on his potential for “Here comes the bride.”

Happy Unbirthday

Each morning before the others got up, Dana would sneak out quietly from his bunkhouse. He would stroll up the shore of the lake to the little beach that was his sanctuary. It was just a rim of sand ground powder white by glaciers that had rushed by millennia ago. A perfect crescent caught in the light of the rising sun and nestled in the grasp of a stand of young birches. Sometimes as Dana nestled within the arms of the nurturing lake water, he’d forget where he ended and where the wonders of Mother Nature began.

After, he would lie on his towel letting the morning sun and breeze caress his skin–gently drying him. Dana never wanted this private time to end, but still it always did.

"Happy birthday," Abigail smiled when he returned to the bunkhouse.

"But my birthday was last month."

"Okay then... Happy Unbirthday.”

She handed him an unwrapped box. Within and beneath the tissue paper was a beautiful one-piece bathing suit. It was of that color red did not shout for attention, but instead gracefully received it.

"It's French cut. You know, makes a lady’s legs long and slinky."

"Thanks,” Dana said, trying to be polite. “But my old bathing trunks are just fine."

"About that… You see. I just happened to glimpse you out swimming the other morning. Not that it was something that I wanted to do. But somebody as lucky as you should really be wearing a swimsuit with a top."

"Lucky?"

"You're lucky it was me. Lots of boys sneak over to see us girls, you know."

Dana turned bright red and wrapped his arms across his budding bosom.

"It's no big deal. But a girl has to always be aware of her surroundings, you know."

"Thanks." But to Dana’s way of thinking, the farthest thing from his mind was the thought that he was lucky.

Big Dance

‘Why should I feel blue?’ Dana mused.

He had not one but two best friends. Both of whom thought he was totally awesome. The brilliant memories they had built over the months, each would cherish for a lifetime. They had all grown up little together, each helping the other to become a better person, a better and more genuine understanding of themselves.

And as foretold by Director Campbell on the mishap of his arrival. The three had won top honors for their computer science project among the girls.

And against the boys?

Well, what they presented blew everyone’s mind. Lossing boys, winning girls, and grownups stood and applauded when the Directors from both camps awarded the three brilliant young ladies the ‘Best-of-the-Fair’ award.

Stacy and Abigail primped Dana for the big dance. Stacy spun his already gold hair high atop his head. Abigail did his makeup, her face scrunched up in effort, as she lauded his unalloyed perfection. Each girl lent something old and something new and something borrowed. Dana lent his humble and grateful nature, revealed through the majesty of his celestial blue eyes.

When he sashed into the recreation room, Amanda in began in awe, "You look…" Only to have words fail her.

"I know," Dana smiled. He knew exactly what he looked like. He looked like his mother in her high school prom picture– perfect skin, gorgeous hair, and petite and slender.

All the girls sat around giggling, waiting for the boys to arrive. And the boys took their sweet time getting there. As if their regal preparations eclipsed that of the fairer sex. Once they made their entrance the music and fun kicked in.

Abigail and Stacy had been through this before, so they knew the ropes. They even knew some of the guys from last year’s soiree. The French for an elegant evening party.

"Eric and Scott,” Stacy said, to the twin boys that loomed over them. “This is our bunkmate, Dana."

"Damn," Scott grinned pushing in front of his brother. "You girls sure are lucky to see this vision every day."

"Glad to meet you," Dana said, his voice sounding oddly soft and regal to him.

"Would you like to dance?" Eric didn't even wait for an answer. Instead, he took Dana by the hand and led him out onto the crowded dance floor.

And what did Dana the ever the wallflower do? Why, he danced his little buns off. Other than once to take a pee, he never parted from the dance floor. It had become as dear to him as each breath. And every boy wanted to dance with him.

He put it down to their appreciation of his well-honed dance artistry. That indeed was true, but only in part. What the boys most accounted themselves fortunate of was putting their hand on his ass and looking down at his tits.

He didn't mind all that much though. He’d decided that he loved dancing. And even though pretty much all the boys sucked. He much preferred his camp mates. ‘But’ he reckoned. ‘Without someone to twirl you round what's a girl to do?’

He lay awake on his bunk that night tired, but somehow still excited. Besides him the soft breathing of his two friends mixed wonderfully with the beauty of the waning summer’s night.

‘Tomorrow,’ he admitted sadly to himself. ‘Camp is over. And my parents will take me back to the big city. And I will return to boys’ school like none of this ever happened. Like it was all some Midsummer’s Night Dream.’

Going Home

Dana was neither surprised nor unhappy that he was the last ‘Happy camper’ to leave. He was actually kind of glad. It gave him the chance to say a tearful “Goodbye,” and, “Let’s keep in touch,” to all the girls that had grown to mean so much to him. When his mom and dad walked into the recreation hall, he stood up from where he’d been sitting on his duffel.

“Hi, Mom.”

“Hello, Dana.” His mother’s face went disinterest to lukewarm acknowledgment progressed to mild confusion and finally settled on an unfamiliar look of genuine warmth. “My, you’ve certainly—” his mother struggled for a pithy word to capture something that escaped containment. “—grown up over the summer.”

“I missed you.” Dana leaned in close and hugged her warmly.

His mother stared at him as if seeing him anew. Then she pulled him into her with genuine warmth. “Well,” she smiled. “You know what? I think you and I are going to become best friends.”

She placed her arm in the crock of his and they strolled out and back to the car, chatting all the way.

When they arrived at the sedan, Dana’s father was leaning nonchalantly against the driver’s door. He assessed Dana’s transformation then shrugged a noncommittal shrug. The meager acquiescence of a man who had already registered everything of note in this world. Satisfied, he loaded his son’s duffle in the trunk and got in behind the driver’s wheel. Uncharacteristically, squeezed in the front seat between his dad and mom felt very right to Dana somehow.

“Ready to go home, Son?”

“Yes, Dad.” Suddenly, Dana was all misty eyed. “I do want to go home.” And he gave his father a feather light kiss on his scruffy cheek.

If his father minded that demonstrative in any way, he didn’t say anything. Then the engine roared to life.

As they drove out through the camp’s main gate, they saw a large banner stretched above. As it swept by, they read, “THANK YOU DANA.”

“Well,” his father grinned. “Looks, like somebody made a lot of great memories this summer.”

“You know dad,” Dana smiled. “I guess, I did.”