Eager Beaver

Chapter Thirty-Five - Bad Baby

I swallowed the tension in the back of my throat and looked down nervously at Nate. At least from the seat on the rock I was a little taller than normal. He was smirking, his arms crossed proudly over his chest displaying almost every cub badge possible and a huge number of outdoor adventure skills badges too running up both of his sleeves. He had a bright red neckerchief around his neck, and was also wearing a green cub hat like Zach's.

"Shuddup." I shot back at him, although it didn't sound very intimidating. "I was always a big boy."

"Were you?" Nate challenged. "I thought you were five. Or was it three?"

I went red, not knowing what to say. "He's eight." Charlie shot back on my behalf, putting a protective hand on my shoulder.

"Whatever." Nate dismissed. "I can't believe they're going to let a little baby bedwetter into cubs." He pontificated to no one in particular. "At least I won't ever have to share a tent." He remarked, clearly holding back a snicker as he stared right at Zach. "I guess the babysitter will be happy to change his diapers, won't you Zachary?"

"What are you even doing here?" Zach demanded.

Nate sighed, examining the back of his finger nails. "My aunt told me they didn't have anyone to do Oopsy-Coopsy's special ceremony. So I stepped up." he gave a martyred sigh, as if he was somehow doing me a huge favor.

"Well no one wants you here." Zach growled at Nate. "So just lay off."

The bigger cub flashed a toothy smile, like he had us all just where he wanted us. "What are you going to do if I don't?" He challenged him, grinding his fist menacingly into his other hand, cracking his knuckles.

"You won't do anything either." Zach retorted, nodding his head over to the adults. Some of the parents were hanging around to watch the ceremony - my own, Ms Diaz, Ross, and Nate's aunt included. The two of them locked eyes like two grizzled old feuding gray wolves, looking like they were about two seconds away from tearing each other's throats out. Still, no one moved, neither daring to pounce first. .

"Let's go play Cooper." Charlie interrupted the stand off, taking my hand and sliding off the rock. "I want to see how Leo is doing."

I nodded and followed along behind him, eager to get away from Nate as quickly as possible. I paused for a moment before we ducked behind the boulder however, looking back bashfully at the two bigger boys still locked in a staring contest. "Zach, aren't you coming?" I asked.

Zach broke his gaze, blinking blearily as if were waking up from a dream. He shook his head from side to side to shake away the tension before he gave me a curt nod, jumping down and leaving Nate standing uselessly by the rock with just Val moving up next to him like an obedient little cub slinking up beside its pack leader. Nate let out a lupine snarl of frustration, flailing out his balled up fist to knock Val's paper plate full of snacks to the dirt.

"Hey!" the littlest cub complained, but a vicious growl from the sixer was all it took to silence him again.

I was just about to say something about Nate to the others, when Laurie and Leo ran right up to us - their infectious happy grins curing my bad mood. Laurie was still pretending he was an ape of some kind, and now Leo was copying him, both boys giggling themselves breathless as they took turns making monkey noises at us.

"What are you doing?" Zach asked tersely, clearly still a little annoyed about what had happened with Nate.

"Taylor said we were cheeky monkeys." Leo explained.

"So we're being chimpanzees!" Laurie added.

Charlie rolled his eyes at his brother. "You're not a monkey, you're a beaver kit!" he insisted.