As a White Knight on His Steed (CrissColfer)

"What If I Want to Kiss You?"

Chapter 9 – “What if I want to kiss you?”

Sunday, June 15 – Saturday, June 21, 2008

When the first campers began to arrive on Sunday, Chris couldn’t believe his eyes.  “Were we seriously ever that little?” he asked Darren.  “How are we possibly going to teach those munchkins how to ride?”

“Don’t worry,” said Darren.  “We learned, and so will they.”

Ryan had made it clear that all staff were required to attend the Sunday campfires as “community-building time.”  Mondays through Thursdays, each staff member (other than the counselors) would be assigned to one night off of campfire duty.  Chris was given Tuesdays off, and Darren had Thursdays.  Ryan explained that he always gave the members of each team separate nights off, since, “togetherness is good, but not too much togetherness.”  On Fridays, everyone would come together again for the final campfire of the week.

Chris felt excited about their first campfire, especially when he saw that Darren was bringing his guitar.  Although Chris could faintly hear Darren strumming in the other room every night while he was in the shower, Darren always put his guitar away by the time Chris came out of the bathroom.  Chris hadn’t wanted to put Darren on the spot by asking him to play for him, but he was curious to hear how Darren sounded without the muffling sound of the water.

Sitting down on one of the six logs surrounding the campfire, Chris noticed that several of the other staff members also had guitars.  He already knew that Ryan and Matthew played, and now he saw that Mark, Chord, and Jacob obviously did as well.

Once all of the campers were seated, and David had explained the procedures for making s’mores (at which point the assembled boys erupted in cheers) it was time for campfire songs.  The counselors passed out songbooks, but Chris didn’t need one.  He still remembered all of the old songs – Git Along Little Dogies, Home on the Range, Old Cowhand from the Rio Grande, Happy Trails, etc.

Once they’d sung their way through most of the traditional songs, Ryan asked if there were any requests.  This being the first night, the campers seemed to be feeling shy, and no one spoke up. 

Darren offered, “I’ve got a song you might like, and it even kind-of has a horse in it.”

There was a chorus of encouragement, so Darren began to play.  Chris immediately recognized the tune as an old Monkees song – Daydream Believer.  He wondered fleetingly what the song had to do with horses, before all thoughts were pushed out of his head as Darren began to sing.    

Of course, Chris had heard Darren sing before.  They’d sung together every night of every summer as kids.  And tonight Darren had been singing along, just like everyone else.  But this was different.  No one else seemed to know the words to the first verse of the song, or at least no one else was joining in, and Darren’s voice ringing out on it’s own was the most beautiful thing Chris had ever heard.

By the time Darren reached the chorus, Chris realized that his mouth was hanging open, and tried to cover by singing along.  Most of the staff, and a few of the campers, joined in as well.  At the end of the chorus, though, everyone stopped and let Darren sing the next verse as a solo.