Two hours had passed and I still couldn’t think of how to take my wand with me. I had made my broom pocket sized so I could make it into an earring for when I didn’t have pockets. Wait…why didn’t I just do that with my wand? I would have a cute set then when I needed it. That was PERFECT! I was about to say a spell to shrink my wand when there was a tap on my tent. “June, are you coming to the dance?” a young boy asked. I realized that my troop left without me and I opened my tent, seeing Kasey with a nice deep purple dress shirt and dark jeans with dirty dress shoes. I saw his troop standing behind him and I looked down. “Don’t worry June, they know.”
“A—are you sure Kasey?” I asked shyly without looking up. I felt his hand go to my shoulder and I looked up to see him giving me a warm smile. “O—okay…well I was trying to shrink my wand so I could take it with me tonight…” I said softly. Kasey took his wand out and put a spell on my wand so it would shrink to my broom’s size, and I could wear it as an earring.
“How is that?” Kasey asked as he put his wand into his front jean pocket. I smiled and put it in my earring hole.
“Perfect.” I smiled and got out of my tent. “How do I look?” I blushed and spun around slowly so Kasey and his troop could admire my dress.
“Beautiful,” Kasey said softly and smiled shyly. One of his buddies punched him in the arm lightly and gave him a smile. Kasey just blushed and scratched the back of his head. “Ready?” I nodded and skipped to the road. The boy’s followed and Kasey caught up with me.
“Thanks for getting me. My troop never told me they were leaving…” I said softly and ran my fingers in between the fabric of my dress.
“You’re welcome. My troop leader saw that they had left, and he didn’t see you. So, I decided to come over and see if you were okay. I also wanted to see if you remembered the dance and that you were saving me a dance…” Kasey said with a blush.
“How could I forget about the dance? I love camping, but the dance was just a bonus on this terrible camping trip…I—I mean it was terrible…until I met ummm…you…” My cheeks turned a pale rose, and I looked the other way making sure Kasey didn’t see me blushing. I heard the boys behind us make fake gagging sounds and I giggled slightly.
“What are you giggling at, June?” Kasey asked and I turned to face him.
“Your friends…they’re making fun of us,” I said with a giggle and a smile. Kasey turned around to glare at his troop members, but they kept making innocent little jokes about him and I. They started to make-out with themselves, and I turned around in the middle of it. All the boys at my middle school did this so I knew it didn’t mean anything and I just laughed.
“Would you guys just stop?” Kasey spat slightly upset.
“Oh, c’mon Detective, she doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. We’re just poking a little fun. No harm done bro,” a boy with a dark buzz cut said. He smiled and the sun bounced off his red braces. He wore dark colored worn out jeans, black converse and a nice blue polo with an American Eagle logo in the left-hand corner over his heart. Kasey sighed and shoved his hands in his pockets.
“Yeah Derrell, but still, I really don’t want any of you screwing this up,” he said, and I looked at him curiously.
“Screwing what up?” I asked and cocked my head in interest. Kasey became nervous and his troop members tried to help him out.
“Oh, it’s nothing June. He just doesn’t want us screwing up the dance for him,” a boy with natural red hair and metal blue square framed glasses said covering for Kasey. He scratched the back of his head nervously and his freckles became more visible as his cheeks got darker. He had a slight southern accent and I smiled at what he was wearing. He wore a plaid button down, boot cut dark jeans and a pair of worn down dark brown cowboy boots.
“Uh huh, I’m not fooled that easily, but okay. Are those your favorite pair of cowboy boots?” I asked with a smile. The boy nodded and gave me a smirk.
“Hunter!” Kasey shouted and the southern troop member looked at him.
“I’m only being friendly Detective. Don’t worry about me,” he smiled politely, and he became excited as we came up to the building where the dance was. “We’re their guys’!”
I turned around and saw a large building that seemed to be their cafeteria or something. It was a beautiful building and my hands started to sweat. I knew there was a karaoke “competition” tonight and I wanted to sign up, but I was super nervous to do so. Kasey looked at me with a smile. “Are you ready to go in June?” he held his hand out for me to take and I wiped my hands on my dress so they wouldn’t be so sweaty when I grabbed Kasey’s hand.
“Y—yeah, I’m ready…” I stuttered as my heart raced. We walked in the building after the rest of his troops, and I saw my troop members awe over Kasey and his troop. I just rolled my eyes in disgust and sighed. “Why does my troop have to be so nauseating over boys?” I said in slight disgust.
Kasey looked at me and looked in the crowd. He saw my troop drooling over his troop and chuckled a little. “All of my troop members have girlfriends besides me. So your troop is not going to get any boy action tonight. Boy action, meaning flirting.” Kasey informed me. I smiled happily knowing that my troop members wouldn’t be getting hit on by his troop members. My heart raced a little after I heard him say he didn’t have a girlfriend. I was a little confused on why my heart was racing, but I shrugged it off figuring it was because of the karaoke “competition” later on tonight that I was not a part of I hoped. Who knows what my troop members did this time to play a cruel trick on me.
“Hey Kasey, can I ask you a question?” I asked shyly. Kasey nodded and gave me a friendly smile. “Where did the name Detective come from?” I giggled as I said it and Kasey blushed.
“Well…to tell you the truth I got it from my troop members. It started when I had first joined the troop. We were doing an activity that involved detective skills and I was the first one to figure it out. So, I was deemed the name Detective by my troop members because of that,” he said with a smile as he finished the story. I giggled at how cute that story was and smiled.
“That’s so cute!” I said with a smile and Kasey blushed as we headed to the soda bar. “What do you want to drink?”
“Cola is fine,” he said with a smile. I smiled back and got the sodas. “I’ll meet you at a table, okay?” I nodded and turned back to the bar.
“Two cokes please,” I said to the bartender. He smiled and got me two cokes from the tap. He set them down on the countertop and winked lightly at me.
“They’re on the house miss,” he smiled. I gave a small smile back.
“Thank you,” I searched for a name tag and his name was Zackery. I smiled “Thank you Zackery,” I said and turned around to head to the table Kasey had found. I saw one of my troop members flirting with Kasey at the table and she saw me with two drinks in my hand. She slyly took his hand and held it lightly. I dropped the drinks and ran onto the dance floor. I got to a corner, leaned into it and slid down hitting the floor crying into my knees.
Not too long after that had happened there was a man on stage tapping on the mic. “Good evening, everyone! Who is having a great time tonight? Now it’s time for the karaoke contest. Those of you who signed up please come up when your name is called, if we have any last-minute contestants please sign up to my left. Now our first contestant is Grace H. C’mon up Grace!” the man said. He was way too cheery for my taste, and I just didn’t pay attention. I heard a familiar voice but didn’t pay any attention to it.
The contest was going by quickly and I heard someone slide down next to me. I didn’t look at them; I just sat there crying into my knees. “You know June, he does care about you. When he came back last night, he told me all about your adventure. He can’t stop talking about you even if you guys have just met,” the voice said. It was the voice I had heard earlier, and I looked over to see Hunter sitting next to me with a friendly smile. He held his hand out and I noticed a symbol on the palm of his hand that I thought meant fire, but I wasn’t sure. Hunter noticed me looking at it and gave a shy smile. “It means fire. I’m a fire elemental, but only you and my troop know that. I go to AutoBurro too, but I’m going to be a freshman this year. Kasey and the rest of the troop is a year behind me. No-one else goes to AutoBurro in our troop though. Just Kasey and I and hopefully you,” he smiled, and I watched as his symbol glowed orange. He snapped his fingers and a single flame flickered from his pointer finger on his left hand.
“That’s so cool…” I said softly and heard awful voices on stage. “Oh no…” I sighed and covered my ears in pain. I watched as Hunter did the same and I giggled a little. “You’re the nicest fire elemental I’ve ever met…well you’re the first one I’ve met, but my comment is still true,” I blushed slightly.
“I get that a lot at school. I can have a temper, but the symbol holds all of my power so it’s easy to not blow up on others. Thank you, family ancestors,” he chuckled with a smirk. I giggled and took my hands away from my ears since the three troop members of mine were finished singing terribly. Hunter removed his as well and then I heard Kasey’s name.
“Up next is Kasey Carter!” the man said. My troop member that was flirting with him whistled happily and I rolled my eyes before putting my head back into my knees.
“Hey everyone, I’m Kasey and this song is dedicated to a girl I just met. This is for you Juniper,” he said before he started to sing. I recognized the song instantly; tears filled my eyes again and I never looked up to watch him. I sang softly with him, and my eyes went over to Hunter, but he wasn’t there anymore. The song reminded me of my parents, but nobody needed to know that. Just hearing the song again made me happy but sad at the same time. I felt someone kick me actually kind of hard and I looked up to see Kimberly, the girl who was flirting with Kasey earlier and the one who broke my wand the day before.
“You’re going to get it in the van tomorrow on our way home,” she spat at me before getting down to my level. She dumped her drink all over me on purpose and I saw some flames coming from her shoes. I looked behind her to see Hunter with a flame in his hand. I smiled lightly and Kimberly tugged my pony before she got up and left. I realized Kasey was done singing and I got up to leave the building. I wanted to get out of there as fast as I could. Hunter followed to make sure I was okay since Kasey was being blocked by the trio who loved to hate on me and make my life miserable.
“What did you guys do to June?” I heard Kasey ask angrily before I left the building. I smiled a little knowing he did care, and I looked back quickly to see him ready to burst. Kasey saw me being guided by Hunter and smiled lightly knowing I was in good hands for the moment. “You three are going to pay,” he spat and ran after Hunter and me.
“Kasey, wait! What about me?” Kimberly shouted after him and I heard him say a spell under his breath. I looked back again to see Kimberly filled with soda and pudding and a boy apologizing over and over again to her. I stiffly laughed and felt a hand on my shoulder.
“June, can we talk?” I looked at the hand and saw Kasey attached to it. I looked at Hunter and he nodded. I nodded in response to both of them and Hunter went back to the building. “I’m sorry for what happened earlier…” he said softly.
“I—it’s okay, I should be used to that by now. She did that every time she knew I liked someone at school. You have a really nice voice by the way…I would have gotten up there, but I’m afraid to sing in front of a huge audience…” I said shyly and sniffled, wiping my tears away. I was starting to feel sticky because of the soda that was dumped on me, and I wished there was water somewhere close knowing there wasn’t.
“What happened to you?” he asked, noticing I was starting to get uncomfortable. “Thank you for the compliment and that’s okay. I was never good at singing in front of others either.”
“Kimberly, the girl who was flirting with you, she dumped her drink on me just as you finished singing. It is now starting to settle into my skin and dress, and I do not like it.”
“Well, I can always clean you up with a spell if that helps.”
“That might work, but I don’t want anyone to see since magic isn’t allowed in front of non-magic folk. Just be careful please. I’m a little surprised that you were scared to sing in front of others once upon a time.”
“Yeah, I was when I was younger. When I’m done cleaning you up…would you be willing to ummm…sing something for me? Y—you don’t have to; I just want to hear your voice…” Kasey said shyly and took out his wand. He said a water spell and I was drenched in water, but the water had little soap bubbles in it to clean me up. I giggled as the soap scrubbed since it tickled. Once I was clean the soap disappeared, and it was just water. “There, you look clean now,” he smiled lightly and put his wand away.
“Ummm…well I can try to sing you a song, but I can’t promise it will be good…” I said shyly and looked at the moon for a second with a smile. I quickly thought of a song I could sing and had the perfect one. I took a deep breath and started to sing as the music got louder in the dance hall.
I finished singing and Kasey smiled brightly. “That. Was. AMAZING! June, you have a wonderful voice.”
“Th—thanks…” I blushed and became shy. Kasey got up and held his hand out. I heard a slow song coming from the dance hall and smiled. I took his hand gently and he pulled me in close. I felt his breath on my cheeks, and I was breathing lightly on his face. Kasey put his arms around my waist, and I rested mine around his neck as we were hugging each other. I laid my head on his left shoulder as we slowly went around in a circle dancing to the slow song that was being played. Best camping trip ever. I thought as I smiled happily.