Finish lunch, then back to work.

Chris spoke up after the commotion settled back down. "Hey Big Frank. Can I ask a question?"

Frank looked at him warily. "Sure."

"You said we could do whatever after the work was done on the cabins. Are we restricted to the campground?"

Frank didn't lose the skeptical look. "Well, this isn't a prison camp. Stay out of Old Man Rinehold's pasture to the north. His bull isn't friendly. Other than that, you only have to show up in the hall by 7:00 AM each morning. If you are missing, and aren't dying in your cabin, I'll consider that abandonment and fire you. "

Chris didn't reply, just chewed his sandwich, looking thoughtful.

"There's not much around. The closest town is 30 minutes away. And it's pretty small. Doesn't even have a McDonalds."

Chris looked up. "Oh, that's alright. I was thinking about the convenience store up the road from camp. Just to refresh supplies if we need to."

"The Laroux Trading Post? Little bigger than a convenience store. Good thinking. However, this week I'll be heading to Branson, about 2 hours away. If you need supplies, or forgot something, let me know and I'll pick it up for you. Any of you."

There were a few murmured "Thanks Coach," that floated about.

Everyone had soon finished eating and resting, and began to wander outside again. The weather had warmed up considerably since this morning. As they gathered on the porch, Alan turned to the group.

"There are a few more things for the beds to get. Two more trips and we'll be done with that part. How's cleaning coming?"

Stacy spoke up. "Just about done! It won't take long if we all pitch in on that last cabin."

Alan grinned. "Good! Ok, how about we do this? We keep the teams the way they are. The cleaning crew switches to assembly, and the bed crew switches to mattress. By the time we start heading down to the boys cabins, you should have enough done we won't have to stack mattresses on the floor."

No one seemed to object, so Alan continued. "Anyone want to switch? You don't have to keep doing the same thing, if you hate it."

Again, no one really said anything.

"Ok, let's finish this up."

Steve had been quiet since the disaster during lunch. The wheels in his head had been whirling at fantastic speed, trying to figure out who had been touching him. Neither girl had even looked at him when it happened. The red head? She had been talking to Alan the entire time. The small girl? She looked like she'd pass out if anyone said boo to her. She had looked as surprised as anyone when Steve let loose the cloud of chewed food.

It *had* to be her.

Working up has much courage has he had in a very long time, he walked up to his prime suspect. "Hey, I'm Steve and I wanted to apologize for what happened at lunch." He stuck out his hand in offering.

The smaller girl's eyes went wide behind her glasses, as she immediately blushed crimson. "It..It's O..OK," she stammered. She glanced around, looking for Jill. Unfortunately, Jill was a good distance away, talking to Stacy. The boy's hand just hung in the air in front of her. She looked at him, back to where Jill was, then sensing it was taking far to long, took his hand softly and shook it. "Ah..Ahiri."

Steve gave a silent sigh of relief when she took his hand. "No, really. I don't normally do that. I was just, you know, so...surprised..."

She looked at him blankly.

Was...was she playing dumb? Hard-to-get maybe? The silence just hung between them. Steve began to get more nervous. "You know...when...when you...come on, you know."

She looked at him quizzically now. "Um...No."

Steve was now beginning to sweat. He could feel his face starting to redden, and out of the corner of his eye, Joker and Bobby were now glancing his way, watching the exchange. What if he was...wrong? But he couldn't be! She was right across from him! "When you...d-during lunch...when you..." His voice had devolved into a stammering whisper.

She still looked at him, looking more puzzled than ever. "When I was eating my lunch?"

Steve finally lost his nerve. "Nevermindnicetomeetyou." he said and quickly walked back over to his friends. Joker was the first to say anything.

"Well there. What was that?"

"Nothing." Steve said and began to walk the trail down to the bed frame storage building. Joker and Bobby looked at each other and shrugged. Steve's bright red face told more than he was letting on. But he obviously didn't want to talk about it.

Ahiri stood there for a moment, too stunned to be nervous. What had she been doing to get the boy so flustered? She looked at herself and everything seemed to be in place. She didn't feel a booger or anything in her teeth. It was a complete mystery. She finally shook it off when she saw Jill waving to her to come on.