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Friday, August 22, 2014

Cassie's Journal - August 21, 2014



Happy 14th Birthday, Tim!

There’s a good chance that this is right up at the top of the list for Tim’s best-ever-so-far birthday; with at least part of the reason for that being due to a tent-mate mix-up that probably won’t be corrected for at least a few more hours.

Yes, that does mean that there’s a boy in my tent as I write this; but let’s back up to the beginning of the day and start our update there.

Our morning started out fairly normally with Tai Chi, breakfast, and football or cheerleading training.  Michael and Tim had extra guys at their workout, but I don’t think that had anything to do with his birthday – just that more guys are starting to think about football with training camp starting on Monday.  From what they told us later, at least a few of those guys are going to wish they’d started getting ready sooner this summer.  Tim is definitely feeling pretty good about his chances – and Michael’s – for making the team now; though they haven’t played much against the best returning players so far this summer.  At least they’ll know one way or the other soon – and Tim’s really excited about that too.

I wonder how he’ll react when he sees his girlfriend at the cheerleader tryouts on Monday?  That’s going to be fun!

Michael, Rowen, and Tim all had the day off for Tim’s birthday; so we were able to hang out together for the rest of the day after the boys were finished their football practice.  We went for a cool-down swim first; and then we decided to haul the extra tents over to Tim’s house and set them up so we had that work out of the way before going for a bike ride around town and at the park.  We also picked up food and treats at the grocery store and bakery so we could do a picnic at the park for lunch; and more swimming was mixed in with the picnic and biking while we were there.  We went back to Tim’s house in time for three of us to help Tracey and her other volunteers with getting everything ready for the birthday party and dinner.

While we did that, Tim was put in charge of welcoming the rest of his guests – including the other teens that are here for the camping adventure.  There were more tents set up then, and while that included all of our classmates; there were also some older football buddies and their girlfriends.  Tim doesn’t have a huge back yard, so by comparison to camping at my house, Michael’s, or Rowen’s; it seems a bit crowded tonight.  I’m getting ahead of the story again, though, so let’s back up to the pre-dinner fun.

It’s Tim’s party, so you can guess that tossing a football around was a given while we hung out and kept ourselves entertained for the hour and a half or so we had until dinner was ready.  It was hot out, so most of the girls were content to relax and chat while the boys ran around; and there was apparently a lot to talk about.  That ranged from shopping recaps and back-to-school news to the latest gossip and even football and sports news.  Carolyn Landry is here both as Tim’s cousin and a girlfriend of a football player, and though her big news of the day isn’t official; she’s very proud that her big brother will be named as a freshman starter for his college football team soon.  That’s not a surprise to any of us here in Witch Falls; but I’m sure it is for a lot of the other players on his team.

I liked getting to spend some time with Carolyn – we haven’t seen each other much this summer; and it’ll be another year before we’ll be on the same baseball team again.  She’s also getting ready for her own high school sports endeavors this year, and since she wants to make her own mark on college sports when it’s her turn to go to college; she’s at least as fired up about it as Tim is about football.  While the gossip side of the girl chat included some teen drama; there wasn’t really any drama going on at the party to speak of today.  Once again, that’s a big switch from last year, when Tim was at the center of the teen drama for our grade – and Nora and Vanessa wouldn’t even come to his party.

I guess it’s a good thing that his party isn’t next week; or that probably wouldn’t be the case.  Vanessa and Nora made it quite clear tonight that they’ll be at the cheerleader tryouts on Monday; and spent most of their time hanging out with the few returning cheerleaders that were at Tim’s party with their boyfriends – or stag, in Jenny’s case.  Jenny wasn’t actually invited to the party; though she did get an invite to camp with Rebecca tonight.  Tim didn’t mind when she came along with Rebecca and Lucas for dinner too; and I doubt that his parents even noticed one more than expected.  Martin and his helpers just kept grilling until the boys stopped eating.

It’s a good thing that they’re having a good summer on the farm equipment repair side of the business this year!

Then again, Sarah’s probably said that every year since Kyle was about three.  I wonder how much the college loses on food expenses per football player?  Probably nothing worth mentioning compared to the NCAA revenues from the games.

Martin left work early to do the grilling for Tim’s party, and while Rowen and I had expected to miss our baseball practice tonight; we ended up getting to do that anyway – and it was Tim’s choice.  We’d had dinner and done the birthday gifts, song, and cake thing by twenty-to-seven.  Tim had still wanted to do the weekly Thursday night football scrimmage at the park, so while the boys did that; Rebecca, Jenny, Rowen, and I went to our baseball practice.  Martin and Tracey got a few teen clean-up volunteers, but everyone else either went with us to the park to watch football or baseball; or go for a swim and just hang out at the park while Tim was busy.

Our baseball practice was done before the guys had finished their scrimmage, but even Tim lost interest in football at about the same time that most of the girls went for a swim.  Girlfriends in bikinis seem to have that effect on teenage boys – who knew?

We swam until it was nearly dark; headed back to Tim’s house; and started our campfire pretty much as soon as we were there.  Michael and I were on music duty and took turns playing guitar.  Some of our friends danced along to the music; but we mostly all just sat around the fire and toasted snacks while chatting and sharing scary stories when we weren’t playing or singing music.  Since it was a weeknight, we were given a firm fire curfew of midnight, and while we stuck to that and were even a few minutes early with getting the flames doused; that was hardly the end of the fun for us.

A group of us went back to the park for a midnight swim; couples went for moonlit walks; and sitting out around the tents and having fun was an option too.  That brings us up to the actual camping part of our night, and how I ended up with Michael in my tent instead of Rowen.  I’m certainly not complaining, and this isn’t meant to put blame on anyone else if we get caught; but it was definitely my shy friend’s choice to have an extended cuddle time with her boyfriend in his tent for his birthday.  We’ll also skip all details about other tent-mate mix-ups that are happening right now; since that had nothing to do with our decisions.

What I will say is that I hope that Rowen and Tim have had as much fun as Michael and I have had.  That is why I’m writing this so late – we definitely took full advantage of the opportunity our best friends gave us.  That did still require being very quiet with some many campers in tents close to us; but that was really just made it a bit hotter for us – not to mention strange and sometimes funny.  The strange and funny was more due to things we could hear from other teens who weren’t as careful or quiet; but let’s not go there either.  I’m also not going to name any other names either – you either know who you are if you’re reading this; and don’t need to know about anyone else’s teen fun in this particular area.

Yeah, I know that I don’t always skip over those kinds of things; but would you really rather have me write about teen romance in graphic detail all of the time?

Don’t respond – I might not want to know the answer to that question!

While Michael and I have finished playing now, I’m writing this while he’s taking a turn in the bathroom; and we’ll be moving on to some quality cuddle time once he gets back here.  I want to be ready for that, so it’s time to wrap this up and get on with the rest of my night.  I’ll let you know tomorrow whether we get in trouble for coed tenting or not; though I will assure you that if we do get into trouble that it has totally been worth it! ;^)

On that note, and the sound of approaching footsteps; I’m out of here.  Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!