summer {n.h.}

thirteen

After lunch, which luckily I kept all of it on my tray this time, Niall and I's cabin has arts and crafts as the afternoon activity.

At lunch, Harry managed to explain how days worked. It was breakfast, then activity one for the day. Washing up for lunch, which lead to activity two for the day, and then rest hour. Lastly every night there was a theme for an activity for the whole camp. Some workers even got off some nights.

The cabin cluster walked in a line to the art room. Their were two tables, one for Niall's cabin and one for mine. The girls huddled around me as I showed them the craft. I had to re-read the directions to the craft, a friendship bracelet, around a hundred times. We begs in weaving and braiding the strings together, giggling at small jokes.

I glance at Niall who hunched over the project he worked on with his boys. Markers and colorful paper covered the boy's table, along with cups of paint and little canvases.

Abbie and Ava plop down next to me, hands tangled with pink and purple string. They stare at me, frustrated.

"You guys need some help?" I ask, their eyes darting over to Niall.

"Can we go paint?" Ava asks, her blue eyes widening in plea.

"You guys don't want to make bracelets?" They shake their heads as I chuckle.

I head over to Niall's table and the girls plop down, covering their hands in paint.

"Niall, can some of the girls join you? They're not into the activity we're doing." His blue eyes look up at me, and I feel my knees start to buckle.

"Yeah, of course. No need to ask." Niall grins at me and turns back to his paper. I bite my lip and go back to my table, where my remaining four girls sat in whispers. They immediately look up when I sit down, and Brittany pulls on my hands.

"Andy, guess what!" Piper whisper-yells to me excitedly.

"What is it?" I smile at their antics.

"Niall's painting you a picture!" Zoe whispers loudly and showing off her missing tooth in the front as she smiles widely.

"Why's he painting me a picture?" My brain starts going in all different directions.

Piper sighs and looks at Sophia. "You tell her, Soph." I hold back laughs, as the girls continue to act like thirty-year-olds. Sophia tugs on my shoulder, and I lean down for my ear to meet her mouth.

"Niall likes you." She mutters shyly and her big brown eyes widen in anticipation, waiting for my reaction.

"Yeah, we're friends. I like him too," I explain to the girls.

Zoe groans in aggrivation. "No, he like-likes you."

"He has a dent on you!" Piper shouts so loud that the whole camp could hear it. I try and shush her.

"Not a dent! It's called a crush." Zoe argues back, rolling her eyes. Brittany sits on my lap, her pink tutu lined with tiny sequins. She starts to braid my hair as she talks.

"Do you like like Niall back?" As she concentrates, her tongue darts out of the corner of her mouth.

I shrug as Zoe shrieks. "Eeee! You do like-like him!"

"I don't know. Maybe."

Reed runs over and shoves a piece of paper at me. Piper jumps over the table and peers over my shoulder. My hands clutch the picture. A stick-figure Niall is holding me bridal-style like a superhero, while a stick-figure Zayn is glaring at us. I giggle and look over him. Niall is in between blushing and bursting out laughing.

I glance down at the picture again and fold it, placing it in my pocket careful not to rip the precious doodle. Perhaps, the young, playful girls were right. Just maybe, though.

-Mia and Sadie Rose