Nail Biter

1

Her hand stung like Hell and was bleeding more than enough for it to be noticeable to anybody who happened to pay attention. Trying her best to work through the pain, Gwen dragged a small wooden stool up to the shelf beside the television and climbed on top, reaching to grab the first aid kit from the top shelf. She felt around the dusty wood for a moment before grabbing the clean plastic handle of the container in her hand.

"Gwen, are you in here?" David opened the door, poking his head in and calling for her.

"Son of a-" Gwen was shaken slightly by his sudden appearance, nearly falling off the stool with first aid kit in hand.

"Gwen!" David rushed in, ready to help, but she quickly managed to steady herself against the shelf, straightening up as she immediately realized that pushing back on it was a terrible idea. She stepped off of the stool, her heart racing from the sudden shock. She nudged it back against the work table with her foot.

"What is it, David?" Gwen asked in as monotone a voice as she could manage. She quickly tucked the first aid kit under her arm, shoving her hands into her pockets, tensing at the pain that came with the rough fabric of her bleeding thumb.

"Oh I just didn't know where you were and-" David was quickly cut off by the sound of shattering glass as a rock flew through the window near the end of the room and landed on the floor. A piece of paper secured to the rock with string read "Dolph" in messy handwriting. "Things are getting out of hand." As David finished his sentence, his voice raised slightly in pitch. His usual smile looked almost tired.

Gwen immediately threw both of her hands in the air in an exasperated fashion, dropping the first aid kit on the floor. She pushed past David, who was still standing in the way of the door. Immediately, she feared he may have caught a glimpse of her hand. She tightened her fists, hoping that David would believe that he may not have seen anything at all.

"Alright, you little shits!" Gwen was barely surprised to see what appeared to be a shoddy catapult in the middle of the open field outside. She marched towards Max, who was loading a rock with his own crudely made name tag tied to it into the catapult. "What in God's name are you doing?" She demanded, snatching the rock away from him.

"Trying to see whose rock will go that farthest," Erid responded cooly, tossing her own, smaller stone from one hand to the other.

"Like Hell, you are." Gwen made her rounds through the group of campers, confiscating the stones that they still had. Nerris, Nikki, and Dolph had already launched theirs, and Nurf's was heavy enough to possibly break the catapult. Neil had insisted that Nurf would use it last. Her arms full of stones, she walked back up to David. "Sit them down and do... I don't know, 'board games camp,' or something, just keep them distracted."

David smiled brightly, which eased Gwen's worry. If he had noticed something, he would have said so. "Can do, co-counselor!" He chirped. Gwen rolled her eyes and walked towards the lake to throw away all the rocks. That way, the campers would have to find new ones all over again.

She returned to the cabin to pick up the first aid kit, which was still on the floor. By that point, her thumb was nearly finished bleeding. Gwen opened the kit and fished a small band-aid from under a box of gauze and closed the kit, leaving it on the desk before walking out of the room, closing the door behind her. She moved on towards the washroom to clean off her hands before opening the band-aid and wrapping it around her thumb, checking in the mirror that she hadn't stained her clothes. Unable to find any red spots, Gwen assumed that nobody else would either. Tightening her ponytail quickly, Gwen left to check up on David.

He had indeed managed to calm down the campers. Within the five minutes, Gwen was gone, he had sat them down at picnic tables and handed out sheets of paper, hoping to teach them how to make airplanes. Gwen sat down at the picnic table farthest from where David sat so she could keep a better eye on the kids in that area.

"Hey Gwen, what happened to your finger?" Space kid jumped up and pulled himself up to sit on the bench next to Gwen.

Gwen was silent for a moment. "I cut it throwing away those rocks." She said absentmindedly as she watched the other campers run back and forth with the paper planes that David showed them how to make.

A good number of the crafts were too mangled to actually fly, though a handful was at least decent enough to glide for a few seconds. At this point, Max would rip apart any piece of paper he was given and throw it on the ground. Then, David would follow him around as Max threw more and more supplies onto the ground, knocking stacks of paper and stickers off of picnic tables and watching in glee as David walked around reorganizing it all.

"I made my own rocket!" Space kid held up his own plane, though it appeared to be entirely improvised and half squished by his gloves.

"That's," Gwen pauses as she took the folded paper in her hand, noticing how Space Kid's face lit up when she picked it up. "Very good, Space Kid." Gwen's tone was as pleasant as she could manage. She offered the paper rocket back to him, half paying attention to David as Space Kid raddled off the different parts of the rocket ship.

"Hey, Space Kid," Gwen stood up. "How about you tell me more, later? I'm gonna go deal with Max."

"Roger that, Gwen!" Space Kid gave her a clumsy salute before rushing off with his paper spaceship. She nodded and walked off towards Max, who was still leaving behind trails of paper for David to deal with.

"Hey," she stood in front of Max and snatched away the stack of paper he had under his arm. "Cut that shit out. We already have enough work to do."

"It's only enough as long as you fucking excuses for counsellors are busy." Max stuffed his hands into his pocket, looking proud of himself.

"Go piss off your inmates." Gwen tucked the paper under her arm before approaching David, who was still trying to pick up the ripped up paper.

"David," she put the small stack of paper down on the table beside her and knelt down to pick up some of the ripped pieces herself. "I'll take care of this, you keep an eye on the kids while I sweep up the mess."

"Gee, thanks, Gwen!" David stood up, giving her his signature cheerful smile. Gwen's stomach lurched when he looked down and she could have sworn that she saw his smile falter before he looked up again. She quickly balled up her fists, looking down at the ground and continuing to pick up the bits of scrap. She forced herself to focus on the paper and how lucky she was that it wasn't a windy day. After a second of awkward silence, David walked back to tend to the campers.

Gwen glanced up from the ground, watching him show the kids how to fold a paper crane. She never knew he could do that. When their eyes locked, she realized that she had been staring. Gwen immediately looked back towards the ground, crumpling up the ripped paper in her hand. She quickly gathered all the biggest pieces and wandered off to toss them away. A half-assed job, sure, but she needed a second to think without the background noise of several crazed children.

Gwen couldn't help but mentally scold herself. Not only had she been staring creepily at her coworker, but David definitely saw her hands. No doubt, she was in for a lecture.