Every Summer Has A Story

Ch. 42 - God Bless Fried Chicken Night

Eve could feel an impending sense of doom before her tires even hit the dusty camp gravel. She couldn't explain why, but there was just something in the air that immediately had her belly feeling uneasy. Even Thea seemed to be squirming slightly in her seat as they came up around the bend near Algonquin Lodge. Sure enough, an ambulance and police cruiser sat with lights flashing at the entrance of the lodge. The rest of camp grounds seemed to be a ghost town with nobody in sight but Zayne and The Rev hovering near the back of the ambulance. 

"Oh my God," Thea breathed, "what the hell happened?"

Eve slammed on her brakes and parked where they stood, not bothering to pull her keys from the ignition. Her feet hit the ground in a dead sprint as she tore towards Zayne and The Rev, a hundred questions running through her mind simultaneously. 

Zayne's expression was unreadable as she reached them, Thea on her heels.

"What is going on?"

The Rev sighed heavily and motioned toward the ambulance, 

"It turns out we have a previously unknown and serious bee sting allergy this week."

"Oh wow," Eve sighed, running her hand through her hair, "what happened?"

Zayne motioned toward the woods,

"Nathanael had his cabin collecting kindling back in Whistling Pine for a fire building activity and one of his boys stumbled upon a nest."

Eve felt the color drain from her face.

"Thankfully," The Rev smiled, "Nathanael recently had excellent training in how to spot anaphylaxis and promptly administer an Epi-Pen."

Zayne blew out a sigh.

"He called me right away and we got it taken care of."

Thea shifted back on her heels and gave the guys a smile.

"I'm going to go catch up with my cabin and make sure nobody is freaking out," she paused, "thanks for taking me to the doctor, Eve."

Eve's eyebrows shot up a little but she recovered,

"It's no problem."

Thea waved and walked off toward the direction of Girl's Village, all of her anxiety effectively masked for the spectators. 

~

The following evening Eve was sitting with Ellison and a handful of her campers stuffing her face. Elegantly, of course. The campers were still buzzing about Nathanael's heroics the evening before and she could hear snippets of conversation from various tables, each with a new embellishment. Nathanael was, of course, eating up the attention and sat prouder than a peacock among a sea of adoring fans. 

Eve chuckled good-naturedly at his antics.

"God bless fried chicken night," she drawled, looking away from Nathanael to eye her drumstick.

Ellison stuffed a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth and Eve narrowly avoided cracking a crude joke with campers in ear shot.

"I live for taco night and fried chicken night," Ellison agreed.

One of the campers wrinkled up her petite nose. She was too beautiful for her own good at 16 and she knew it.

"I don't know how you can stomach that," she commented with a swish of her long black ponytail, "eating meat is unethical."

"Ah yes, the woke teenager," Eve thought with amusement.

She fixed little miss woke with a stoic look and decided to change the direction of this conversation before someone tried to argue back.