treacherous • alan bosley

calm before the storm

it was the last few days before camp ended, and maisie was already starting to miss it. sure, she had started off pretty rocky, but she felt like she had really found her footing. her article was almost done, she had met some really great friends, and overall held a certain mojo she had never felt before. it was scary to think of what could happen once everyone got back to the real
world.

in their very closed environment foes had turned to friends despite all odds. in a way, everyone had been essentially forced to like each other. it was an amazing payout, but it wouldn't be like that at school. maisie could only imagine how all hell would break loose on the first day of school.

the girl sat at dinner with ronnie and petey, watching as alan made his rounds. he had gone to almost every table trying to steal their pudding cups. maisie thought it was actually kind of cute. annoying to some, but endearing nonetheless. she tried not to stare too hard, wanting him to come over on his own volition.

"uh, maisie?" sunshine asked to the girl who was now in outer space. he couldn't help but notice that anytime alan entered the room, maisie was suddenly nowhere to be found. she was sitting right next to him, but was too far gone to communicate with.

"huh?," maisie shook out of her trance, realizing her and ronnie had been talking before she saw alan, "what were you saying? something about after i left the locker room?"

ronnie chuckled, finding her lack of an attention span endearing, "yeah, so i thought it would be funny if- you know, cause gerry called me fruitcake- i thought it would be funny, if i... kissed him."

maisie's mouth gaped open in surprise, which she quickly clamped a hand over. to keep from bursting out laughing, she pressed her lips together to form a tight line.

"in the locker room?" she asked, looking over at gerry from where he was sitting. she had wondered why he had given ronnie the stink eye before he sat down, but suddenly all the pieces were clicking into place.

"yes."

"on the lips?"

"yes."

"with tongue?"

ronnie scoffed, giving the girl a small shove, "no! that would've been too much."

maisie roller her eyes, knowing that wasn't a problem the boy seemed to have, "yeah, that's crossing a line."

"i thought so." he replied, causing the girl to laugh. there was something so interesting about this boy to her. besides all the california stuff, he was unlike any boy she'd ever met. while some might have thought he was crazy or a hippie, maisie thought he was cool.

"that's awesome," the girl shook her head in disbelief, "i mean... i woulda never thought any guy would have the balls."

"yeah." petey spoke up for the first time since he sat down. it was quite jarring for the pair sitting across from him. he hadn't said a word, and then suddenly was loud enough to stop all conversations.

"no, yeah, so awesome, sunshine," petey continued, looking at the boy with suspicion, "and uh, it's not like i care or nothing. but bein' your roommate and all, uh... you was just messin' with bertier, right? you- you was just messin' with his mind, right? you're not really, uh..."

ronnie and maisie shared an equal look of confusion, wondering what had gotten into the boy. he seemed really freaked out.

"what are you talking about, petey?" the quarterback asked, taking another bite of his food. though petey seemed to be on edge, everybody else was cool as a cucumber.

petey sighed, just looking for a straight answer, "look, it doesn't matter to me, man. if, you know, if..."

he began to do some questionable gestures that had maisie cracking up. she didn't understand all the sudden sensitivity. it wasn't exactly like petey was psyching himself up to say a swear. there was nothing wrong with saying the actual words to the question he wanted to ask.