Summer Nights | Lams

June 2nd

"John. John. John. John."

John woke up to Alexander repeating his name over and over in a hushed tone, while sitting at the end of his bed. John groggily opened his eyes and yawned.

"Why are you waking me up at this ungodly hour?" John asked, looking at the alarm clock. It read 6:45. "Do we have to be somewhere?" Alex shook his head.

"First off, quiet down, we don't want to wake up the other two," Alex said, gesturing at the other bunk bed. "Second, no, not really. We don't have to do anything for the first week of each month. It's all free-time," Alex explained. John glared at him.

"Then why the hell did you wake me up?" John whined, quieter this time.

"Because they say breakfast starts getting served at 8, but they actually start at 7 if you put in the effort to get up that early. We get first dibs on the food." John's face slowly lit up as Alex informed him of the reasoning behind the early rising.

"Okay, yeah," John said. "I'll go. But do I have to get out of my pajamas?" Alex shrugged.

"No, you don't have to. But we have like 15 minutes so you might as well," Alex reasoned. John thought about it and concluded that Alexander was, unfortunately, right. He, as silently as possible, pulled on shorts and a t-shirt. They snuck out of the cabin at 6:55, and headed to the cafeteria. John looked around at all of the scenery. As awful as mornings may be, they were lovely once he was actually up. Not that John was even fully awake yet, but he was getting there.

Alex, on the other hand, was very much awake. Very much. He was cheerful, humming and skipping as they walked to the cafeteria. Just the shorter boy's personality alone was enough to make John smile. He recognized the tune Alex was humming and started quietly singing along with it. John looked at him when the song ended, still smiling.

"You have a really nice voice," Alex told him. "Do you play any instruments?" John nodded.

"Ukulele and guitar," John told him. Alex's eyes sparkled.

"I love ukuleles! I've always wanted to learn," Alex told him.

"It isn't too hard. I could teach you someday," John offered. Alex was beaming.

"Really?" he asked. John nodded.

"It would be my pleasure." They finished up the conversation as they walked into the cafeteria. Sure enough, the smell of eggs and bacon wafted throughout the large room. Counselors were sitting around at tables eating, and Alex and John got into the line.

Both boys ended up getting an absurd amount of food, but it was practically a buffet, so they couldn't exactly be blamed. Alex looked around, and then went over and sat down by Martha and the man she was talking to. John followed suit, unsure of anything else he could do.

"Hey, boys," the man Martha was talking to said as they sat down. "I expected this to be the year Alex didn't put the effort into waking up so early for food, but it looks like instead he dragged another along," he chuckled.

"Oh, come on," Alex said. "John is a total morning person."

"I feel like a dead rabbit," John said, glaring at his new friend. George and Martha laughed hysterically, while Alex rolled his eyes playfully.

"You don't know what you're saying, dork," Alex teased. "This is George and Martha Washington; they own this camp." John smiled at them.

"I met Martha yesterday, but not George," he said. "I'm John."

"Nice to meet you, young man," George said. "I'm glad Alex can get along with you, he's had some issues with that in the past."

"That's because the others were all assholes."