Christy was glad Jeanine couldn't see her face. She couldn't repress her smile.

"How come guys don't start to like girls at the same age as girls start to like boys?" Jeanine asked, patiently holding her head still.

"I don't know. Maybe G.o.d is giving the girls an extra year or two to polish up their manners. That way, when the guys are old enough to be interested in them, they'll be the kind of girls worth being interested in."

"I never thought of it that way," Jeanine said, genuinely persuaded. "Will you teach me how to have better manners?"

"Sure, if you'd like. Hand me a rubber band." Christy tied off the end of Jeanine's braid.

Then Jeanine turned eagerly to face Christy. With her hair off her face, Jeanine was a pretty little girl.

"First, I'd say lose the rubber bands. I don't think that's going to help with Nick at all. Next, try to chew with your mouth closed and not to talk when you have food in your mouth."

"What else?" Jeanine asked.

"Well, sitting up straight always helps."

Jeanine immediately straightened her back and held her, head up high. "Like this?"

"Yes, that's very good. I might mention screaming next. There's a place for screaming. Like in the pool or on a roller coaster. But for the most part you don't need to scream a lot during the day just for the sake of screaming."

Jeanine nodded solemnly. "What else?"

"That's a good start. Always try to say kind things and be considerate of others."

Jeanine beamed, looking anxious to take off and try some of her new charm techniques on Nick. Just as she was about to hop up, Christy touched her arm and asked, "May I bless you, Jeanine?"

"Bless me? But I didn't sneeze."

Months ago, one chilly morning on the beach, Todd had placed his hand on Christy's forehead and blessed her. At the time she didn't want the blessing and didn't receive it well. But his act had stayed with her all this time. For some reason Christy felt the urge to bless this girl, who was blossoming into a young lady right before her eyes.

"Just close your eyes," Christy instructed. She then placed her hand across Jeanine's forehead, "Jeanine, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and give you His peace. And may you always love Jesus first, above all else."

Jeanine opened her sparkling eyes. A big smile spread across her face. "That was neat!" she said. "What does the 'love Jesus above all else' mean?"

"It means in every situation you face as you're growing up, may you fall in love with Jesus and love Him more than you love anything else."

"Thanks, Christy." Jeanine hopped up and impulsively gave Christy a hug. "You're the best counselor in the whole world!" Then off she ran down the trail.

Christy sat for a moment, thinking about the advice she had just given. She wished she could say she already had that kind of love for Jesus. She did love Him, but she wanted to love Him even more. Todd once said that was good because it meant she was "hungering and thirsting after righteousness."

Even though her talk with Jeanine hadn't gone the way she had planned, she felt good. She had given Jeanine what she needed, and maybe the blessing would help Jeanine feel loved.

Christy sat with Amy, Sara, and Ruthie at the evening meeting. She was glad Amy and Sara had included Ruthie into their little group. Christy quietly told Amy and Sara in the cabin that night that she liked the way they were being good friends with each other and with other girls in their cabin. Both girls looked pleased and proud.

For devotions, Christy read them her favorite psalma" Psalm 139. Then she talked for a few minutes about how much G.o.d loved each of them and how much He wanted them to promise their hearts to Him.

Christy felt like her "message" had gone well and antic.i.p.ated lots of discussion afterwarda"and hopefully a conversion or two. She gave her closing line and waited for their responses.

All of them had fallen asleep except Sara.

Christy tried to hide her disappointment as she asked Sara, "Do you have any questions?"

"Yes," Sara said. "Has Jaeson kissed you yet?"

"No, of course not."

"Why not? You like him and he likes you."

"Sara, that's not enough of a reason to kiss a guy. When you give away kisses, you're giving a little part of your heart that you can never take back. You have to be careful that you don't give away too many pieces too soon or to the wrong person."

"You have been kissed before, haven't you? What was it like? Did you close your eyes?"

"Sara, let's talk about this later. I think we both need some sleep, okay?"

Christy pulled up her sleeping bag over her ears and only heard a m.u.f.fled response from Sara about how n.o.body ever wanted to talk about it. Promising herself she would talk to Sara tomorrow about kissing, Christy fell asleep.

She floated in and out of a confusing dream in which Jaeson tried to kiss her and she didn't know how to respond.

Friday dawned overcast and chilly. It was the first morning Christy put on jeans instead of shorts. She pa.s.sed on the chance to have an invigorating shower and pulled her hair back in a ponytail rather than washing it. Her neck was stiff. She felt like she had been at camp for six months instead of six days.

Everyone at breakfast seemed on edge too. Perhaps it was because this was the last full day of camp or because it was cold and rainy outside. Whatever it was, the mood hung over the camp all morning. At lunch two of her girls argued over the last half of a grilled cheese sandwich until one of them fell backwards with her chair. If Christy hadn't rushed over in time to hold them back, there would have been a major fight.

"Here." Jessica offered Christy's table a plate of sandwiches. "My girls aren't very hungry."

Jocelyn grabbed the first sandwich. Ever since her recovery early that morning, she had been eating everything in sight.

Jessica then confided in Christy over the roar of the savage campers, "I don't like it when they get this way before the counselor hunt. You would think they were out for blood!"

"Our blood, I suppose," Christy answered.

Jessica nodded and headed back to her table of sa.s.sy whiners, who kept asking when they could leave so they could go to the snack shack and buy candy bars.

Trie instant they burst out of the dining room, the sun popped through the clouds and looked as though it would stay around all afternoon. Within minutes Christy felt boiling hot in her jeans and sweatshirt and decided to change into shorts before the counselor hunt. She also wanted to take along a towel to sit on inside her tree.

The cabin was a disastrous mess. The girls hadn't worked on it at all during cabin cleanup, and since Christy was in the counselors meeting during that time, she hadn't been there to motivate them. They had lost points for the mess, but her girls didn't seem to care.

Christy hurried down to the lake. Six canoes were lined up on the sh.o.r.e with a bright flag mounted on the stern of each. Christy was a.s.signed the canoe with the orange flag and tied the matching orange strip of cloth to her waist. She was to relinquish this sash to the first camper who found her.

Dean Ferrill gave the rest of the instructions, and Christy mounted her "trusty steed" with a surge of excitement. With paddle in hand, she waited along with the other counselors for the signal.

"On your mark, get seta" Dean Ferrill's shrill whistle blew, and Christy plunged her paddle into the water on the left side, just as Jaeson had told her. She got a good, swift start and was ahead of the other girls by several yards in no time. With each stroke she felt the muscles in her upper arms stretching and letting her know that she was giving it all she had.

Christy was glad she had changed into her cutoff jeans and her Camp Wildwood T-shirt when she felt the sun beating down on the tops of her legs. The sun's intensity seemed double because of the reflection off the water.

From the sh.o.r.e behind her, Christy could hear the shouts from the campers. They were to stay put until the first counselor's canoe touched the sh.o.r.e on the opposite side. Then they were released to run around the lake and find the counselors.

Jessica was right. From the way the campers' yells and screams echoed across the lake, they did sound like they were out for blood.

Near the middle of the lake, the three guys overtook Christy and pa.s.sed her, all three stroking in unison, with their canoes lined up neck and neck.

Then Jessica pa.s.sed her and called out, "Keep going, Christy. We're almost there."

Christy paddled harder, keeping her canoe straight and aiming for a nice, big open spot on the sh.o.r.e. Jaeson hit the sh.o.r.e first. Then Mike, Jessica, and Bob. Right behind them, Christy's canoe made the welcome sound of hitting mud and gravel. She hopped out, pulled her canoe to sh.o.r.e, and ran with soggy tennis shoes to her hiding spot in the hollowed-out tree.

She found the tree with no problem but realized she had left her towel in the canoe. From the echoing sounds of the wild campers running around the lake, she knew she didn't have enough time to go back to retrieve it.

With her muddy tennis shoe, she tried to sc.r.a.pe out some of the gunk on the floor of her hiding place. It seemed she was leaving more mud inside than she was managing to get moldy bark out. The campers' voices sounded closer.

Christy gave up and wedged herself into the triangular hideout. Drawing her long legs up close to her chest, she wrapped her arms around them and tried to make herself as small as possible. Then she tried to slow her breathing down to a calmer pace.

The inside of the tree was actually kind of interesting. A few inches from her face, the wood appeared to be rippled in several layers around the opening of the trunk. It smelled musty but in an earthy way that didn't bother her.

As a child, Christy had always liked stories about woodland critters who lived in the trees. She pictured one of her storybook elves or dwarfs being delighted to use her hideout as his home.

The first camper's footsteps came pounding down the trail right behind Christy's tree. She held her breath but feared her loudly pounding heart would give her away. Several more ran by, yelling and screaming, and Christy actually felt frightened. Not that they would find her; that was the game. But what if they were so wild this afternoon that they thought it a good idea to tie her up and leave her there?

She wiggled slightly, trying to improve her position. The bark was poking her and she felt tingles up and down her legs, probably from them falling asleep. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness of her cave, Christy realized that the bark in front of her face appeared to be moving. She looked closely and discovered a nonstop string of red ants marching across the entrance, only inches from her face.

With great control she kept herself from screaming or even moving an inch. Another h.o.a.rd of campers thundered behind her down the trail. She kept silent. Then she felt that tingly sensation from her legs move up her arms and onto her hands. At that moment, she realized she was covered with ants.

"Yiiiiii!" she screeched, ejecting herself from the tree and jumping around in the woods, slapping her arms and legs in a futile effort to get the ants off her.

Two girls from Jessica's cabin found her in the midst of her furious dance and ventured carefully toward her. "Can we have your orange strip?" they asked cautiously.

"Come and get it," Christy said, still shaking and stamping her feet. Dozens of red ants fell to the ground. But it wasn't enough.

One of the girls timidly drew near and s.n.a.t.c.hed the end of the orange cloth. As she pulled it from Christy's waist, another dozen ants emerged and raced down the cloth and up the girl's hand.

Now she too was screaming and shaking, doing the Christy ant-dance.

"What are you two doing?" the other girl asked. "I'm taking this back to the other side!" She grabbed the orange cloth, shook it out, and took off running.

"You're supposed to get in your canoe and beat her back," the girl explained.

"I can't," Christy wailed. "I still have ants in my pants!"

"Maybe if you run to the canoe, they'll fall out, and then if there are any left, you can sit on them and squish them all."

Christy was close to tears. "They sting. My legs feel like they're on fire!"

"Then jump in the water," the girl suggested. "Look, they bit me too." She held out her hand, revealing a baker's dozen red spots.

"This is awful!" Christy cried. "Are you okay?"

"I'm going to go to the nurse."

"Good idea." Christy slapped herself on the legs as she raced to the canoe. Then, because the cool lake water seemed like the only thing that could possibly stop the stinging, she jumped in and came up soaking.

"Christy!" Jaeson called out as he ran up and pushed off the canoe next to hers. "What are you doing? Get in your canoe! Come on! I'll push you off. We can paddle together."

In spite of her misery, she jumped into her canoe and let Jaeson push her off, knowing she had no time to explain. With quivering arms, she numbly followed Jaeson's shouted-out instructions.

"Paddle left. Paddle right. Come on, Christy, faster!"

Her hair was dripping in her face, and her legs were shivering and burning at the same time. She glanced at her arms and saw the red marks beginning to swell.

"Paddle left. Paddle right. Faster!"

"I can't keep up!" she cried out to Jaeson. "You go ahead."

Jaeson pulled out in front of her, and with a quick thumbs-up, his strong arms shot his canoe through the water like a well-aimed arrow. He made it to sh.o.r.e and planted his flag before his runner arrived. Since he was the first counselor back and most of the campers were still on the other side, it seemed a hollow victory with so few to cheer for him.

Christy paddled slowly but steadily, trying with all her might to ignore the increasingly painful stinging in her arms and legs. She still was a ways from sh.o.r.e when her arms gave out. "Come on, Christy," Jaeson called. "You can do it! Paddle left. Paddle right."

She tried, but it seemed pointless. Her chest was heaving from being so winded, and her head began to throb. The breeze nudged her a few feet closer to sh.o.r.e as she tried to catch her breath.

"Come on, Christy," Jaeson called again. 'Your runner is almost here! Only a few more paddles."

Christy stroked three times on each side of the canoe and seemed to drift backward rather than forward. She looked to the sh.o.r.e and saw Jaeson waving his arms and coaching her to give it full steam.

Just then the girl with Christy's orange strip in her hand shot through the woods and crumpled on the gravel as she plunged her strip of fabric into the hole meant for Christy's flag. The score was now counselors one, campers one.

Hanging her head, Christy realized how dizzy she felt. Hearing a splash in the water, she looked up and saw Jaeson swimming out to her canoe. He took hold of the rope in the front and towed her the twenty feet to sh.o.r.e.

"I'm sorry," Christy apologized, reaching for Jaeson's hand to help her out.

"Christy, what happened? You're covered with red spots!"

"Ants," she breathed out, feeling completely exhausted. Her soggy tennis shoes slipped on the gravel, and Jaeson caught her just before she fell.

"You're going to the nurse," he said. "Put your arm around my shoulder. I'll help you walk to camp."

"Are you okay?" Dean Ferrill asked when he came over and saw Christy's polka-dotted skin.

"I'll take her to the nurse," Jaeson offered. "Cheer the rest of the counselors in for us, okay?"

Limping and leaning against Jaeson for support, Christy felt ridiculous to have been defeated by a bunch of stupid ants. She said nothing all the way to the infirmary. Jaeson talked the whole time about other mishaps he had seen at camp over the years, everything from broken collarbones to split lips. Somehow nothing he said made her feel better.

"Red ants," Jaeson told the nurse when she opened her door. The nurse took a quick look at Christy's arms and said, "Oh my, this doesn't look good."

"Wait till you see this." Christy exposed the back of her raw legs to the nurse.

"Oh, my gracious! What did you do, girl, sit on their convention center?"

"I think so." Christy tried hard to smile but without much success.

"I'll check on you later," Jaeson promised and left Christy in the hands of the sympathetic nurse.