Witch of the Wild Woods

May 22nd - Friday / Evening

"Ladies first," Luna offered, volunteering to go second after the pixie girl. Barely clearing the fragile five-foot mark, the wisp of a young woman took a timid step up to the microphone on stage. Her hair was dyed such that it captured the essence of a perfect autumn day; amber, auburn, and burnt rose fading into a bright apricot at the tips of her cropped bob cut.

A whisper barely managed to escape the pixie girl's mouth, "Hi. I'm Nina."

One of the boys that sat like a granite mountain jeered, "Use the microphone, tiny!"

Nina brushed a hand through her hair; bangs fell to cover the left half of her face. In a slightly deeper tone; "My name is Nina Montgomery," she repeated, staring daggers into the boy who'd shouted at her. Nina continued, "And I hate people who make others feel small."

The same boy laughed, "So you, like, hate everyone then?"

"Yeah," Nina said without skipping a beat, "I love Kolas, and I'm from Salem, Oregon. It's my first year and... yeah. Thanks." Nina stepped back and dropped her head.

Lane was busy scanning the crowd. Analyzing, judging, sizing everyone up. So far, he was not impressed. Never really a social creature, Lane nevertheless excelled at assessing social situations. Who played off of whom? Who reacted to what? What were the subtle clues that gave someone's intentions away? Of course, this effort, natural as it may have been, was draining. He'd take a crime novel and a strong cup of coffee on a deserted beach any day of the week over a party... or whatever this 'baptism' was turning out to be.

Jude clasped Nina on the shoulders and asked the crowd, "Guys, what do we say?"

In unison, some more excited than others, yelled, "We gladly receive your words!"

Then, Jude stepped to the side. When Nina looked up, a hail of water balloons was lobbed straight toward her. She tried to contort herself into a ball, but it was too late. She was drenched. Fortunately, Jude stood waiting with a shrink-wrapped t-shirt and dry towel. A wide smile was plastered on his face, "Congratulations Nina; in the name of the sky, the earth, and Spirit Lake you are now officially a counselor. Furthermore, you are hereby rechristened as..."

As Jude considered, holding two fingers against his chin and looking to the sky, the other councilors began to shout potential nicknames, "What's the smallest city in the world? Is Liechtenstein a city? What about Hudson, there's like nobody up there."

With a glimmer in his eyes, Jude brought his fingers down upon the Nina's shivering body; "I dub you, Vatican."

Nina snatched the shirt from Jude and hurried off stage, "Great. Thanks."

Lane watched as Nina broke into a sprint up the auditorium stairs. Before she reached the top, Nina pulled off her grey belly shirt, her bright pink bra strap visible. His eyes lingered a little bit longer on the plaid black mini skirt, her pale calves, thighs...

Next up was Luna. She grabbed hold of the microphone stand as suggestively as humanly possible. Nearly wrapping her lush lips around the grill of the mic, she winked at Lane. Her wild gaze caused Lane to shift uneasily. He tried not to cringe thinking somebody may have noticed, but all eyes were on Luna as she made her introduction; "Well hello there, my darlings. How are you all down there?"

A few wolf whistles from the guys and one from a girl with electric pink hair arose.

Luna planted her feet and continued, "Why, aren't you lot excited? How fun. I'm Luna Apolloene Woods, I'm from... well, short version: born in Senegal, then my mom and I were abducted and trafficked through Sudan to Tunisia. After my mother passed, I stowed away on a cruise ship to France. Lived in Niece for a little bit, got arrested, then sent to Juvenile detention in Normandy. At the ripe old age of eleven, I was adopted by my lovely brother's family. Been living in the 'Land of Enchantment' ever since."

Lane looked upon a slack-jawed crowd and smirked slightly. His sister could certainly captivate an audience with her life experience. An early life, admittedly, that no one should have had to endure. But there was a mix of pride and pain that always struck Lane whenever Luna offered her testimony. She never shied away from any opportunity to open up. It was a way to overcome the pain. Her way at least.

Jude shook himself from the collective wonderment, "Um, wow, that's certainly a journey. Thanks for sharing. How about your one love and hate?"

Luna looked over to Lane and smiled wide, "I love... bears. And I hate not being bare." She blew a kiss to the audience and spread her arms wide in anticipation of the water balloon bombardment. None came. There was a great uneasy shifting among the audience of councilors. Who wanted to throw the first stone at the sex-trafficked orphan?

Unsurprisingly, a crowd was never without its douche bag. A lithe boy with dark aviator shades unceremoniously chucked his balloon. To everyone's surprise, Luna plucked the balloon out of the air off hand before it sailed past her.

Triumphantly Luna raised the balloon above her head and gave a mock frown, "Don't want to let a bad pitch go to waste." Pinching the balloon until its skin broke, Luna drank in the shower of water that fell over her. Lane felt himself twitch below his waist as he remembered, not moments ago being under the shower with her. He remembered the scent of Shea Butter radiating off her hot skin and the lavender conditioner in her hair. Those feelings continued to surge underneath the surface of every square inch of his body. He felt it all rising and pulsing, begging for release.

Then everything dimmed. Lane remembered the possibility that Luna may not have felt anything at all after their encounter.

With a sideways grin, Luna took a low bow, grabbed her new shirt, and made her exit off the stage. She skipped the last step and continued skipping until she found her seat.

Jude stammered after her, "W-Wait a second, we've got to rechristen you."

With a chuckle, Luna brushed off the request, "I was actually rechristened on the way up here. But, go ahead if you must."

Struggling to pick a nickname, Jude scoffed, "You said like five different places. Kinda hard to pick one." He looked to the audience but they were no help. Their eyes were all fixated on the drenched, skin-tight shirt Luna had yet to change out of. It wasn't exactly transparent, but the material clung in a way as to give zero misgivings that Luna had chosen to be without a bra, as per usual.

Luna sat back down on the bench and delicately crossed her legs; "Well, Lane's family is from New Mexico, perhaps there's a city there that suits me?"

Grasping at straws, Jude quickly dubbed Luna from afar; "Um, sure, you are hereby, Roswell. Lane, why don't you step up-?"

"Actually," Luna raised her hand, "Lane is really more of a 'Roswell.' I've always been partial to Cloudcroft. That okay?"

Impatiently Jude acquiesced, "Sure. Cloudcroft, everyone."

A smattering of applause rose and quickly died; "We receive your words."

It was Lane's turn. Unlike his showboating sister, Lane took his cue from Nina and swiftly grabbed the microphone, "I'm Lane Woods; love a good mystery, hate injustice. I'm from Sante Fe, New Mexico. Thanks." He tried to walk away but a few water balloons found their mark. Apparently, Luna had stolen the attention from the majority of the group. Only a few councilors were still interested in Lane's pho-baptism.

Luna was enough of a distraction that Jude had to snap the audience's focus back to the stage; "Alright people," he spoke in a soothing, fatherly tone, "We're going to be here all summer long, so let's learn to give everyone the equal attention they deserve."

Lane watched as a few others tossed their balloons without aiming. Luna, however, held up her balloon and locked eyes with Lane. Her strawberry lips parted slowly as she mouthed, "This one's for you, love." Then she set the balloon in her lap and stroked it. It would come when Lane least expected it.

Jude clapped and wrapped up the ceremony, "I guess we're going with Roswell for you then, so, yeah: you're Roswell. Everyone, what do we say to our new counselor?"

The crowd shouted, "We receive your words, Roswell!"

Lane looked over the crowd of councilors and noticed Nina still hadn't come back yet. Turing to Jude, Lane accepted his shirt and asked, "Where do I go to change into my new digs?"

The girl with the electric pink hair hollered, "How 'bout you take it off on stage, sugar!"

Applause rose from the audience as did the temperature in Lane's cheeks.

Jude chuckled and gave Lane a firm pat on the back, "Restroom's up there, bud. Hurry back though cause we're about to announce our famous opening night game!"

Lane glanced to Luna to see if she would follow him to the restrooms. As the crowd cheered at the mention of the night game, Luna stood on her seat, tugged off her wet shirt and slipped into her new camp t-shirt. Lane turned away as the councilors who noticed Luna's quick-change burst into excited howls and whoops.

The faded ambient chatter of the group echoed up to the Great Lodge as Lane reached the top of the auditorium steps. Early evening sun melted everything in a butter glaze through the lush pine trees. Creaking, chirping and rustling leaves calmed Lane's rabbit paced heart from the near-death via stage anxiety he'd had moments ago, and he breathed in deeply: Zen.

Along the back wall on the deck of the Great Lodge, Lane instinctively walked towards the furthest stall out of the eight unisex bathroom stalls. There was some graffiti on the blue and white bathroom marker. Someone had scribbled, "Got Penis?" In a word balloon over the gender-neutral stencil.

Lane rolled his eyes, twist the knob and entered the single-serving bathroom. The door had already slammed shut behind him before realized Nina was in the fetal position in the corner sobbing.

Reaching behind for the door handle, Lane apologized, "Sorry, didn't mean to-"

Nina looked up, mascara running, "I knew this wasn't a good idea."

Lane pushed the door open, "I'm sorry. Did you wanna talk about it? Outside maybe?" One foot out the door, Lane looked down as Nina shook her head. Her hair looked like a mess of falling Autumn leaves. She still hadn't put her shirt on either. Nina kept her knees pressed up against her nearly flat chest, and arms wrapped tightly around her legs. Taking in a shuttering breath, Nina admitted, "I didn't want to come."

Nina's camp shirt had been tossed in the corner by the trash. Lane considered going back into the restroom and handing it to her but thought better of it. Instead, he offered a gentle, "There's nothing making you stay. You could just drive home, right?"

Exhaling an exhausted breath, Nina explained, "No. Mara was my ride up here, and she's a lead. I begged her to get me out of my parent's house. She won't take me back there now."

Always one for a logical solution, Lane offered, "Don't have to go home. You have a friend's place you could crash at? Don't even have to tell your folks."

Embarrassed, Nina shifted away from Lane, "Not really much of a social animal."

Lane cringed, more at himself for not having solved the problem than Nina's lack of friends. Much like Nina, Lane didn't have a massive retainer of friends to speak of either. Fortunately making new friends was still in his skill set. Risking any impropriety, Lane crossed over to Nina and extended his hand.

Lane cleared his throat and introduced himself, "Lane Guster Woods. I hate having to be sociable and love being alone with a good book. I'm from Sante Fe."

Nina wiped her eyes and smiled. She took Lane's hand and kissed his wrist. Blushing, she immediately released his hand and apologized, "I'm so sorry, I thought-"

With a wave, Lane dismissed her apology; "How about we get back down with the others. If they get too weird for comfort, we can ditch and get coffee or whatever, deal?"

Nina nodded. She pulled her original top back on and allowed Lane to pull her up off the floor. On her feet, Nina wrapped her arms around Lane. She felt unusually cold; could have been anemic. Her heart also beat way too fast for someone Nina's size. Maybe that's why she looked five years younger than she claimed to be? As their embraced persisted, Lane reminded himself of the waiting crowd.

Throwing a hand over Nina's shoulder, Lane ushered the pixie out of the bathroom and back toward the amphitheater. About halfway down the wooden staircase, whoever was on stage whistled. She had wild red hair nearly down to her butt, and bright neon lime eyes; "Looks like Little Vatican made a new friend. Has he gone through your Rosary, hun?"

The group gave a collective low whistle. Lane looked over to Nina who nearly hyperventilated. Her pale skin was bright pink. She pivoted on her heels. Before she could sprint off, however, Lane caught her by the shoulder; "Don't let 'em get to you."

Nina nodded quickly, sniffed, and kept walking down with Lane.

One of the other girls among the councilors called out, "I'd be your new friend, Vatican. But, I don't think I'm as holy as thou art, or whatever."

Jude made a weak attempt to move the process along, "Alright guys, we got a half dozen of you left to go. Let's stay focused. This a serious tradition."

Luna had not broken eye contact with Lane. She knew the whole story before Lane even uttered a word. Instinctively, Luna slid over and made room for Nina patting the seat beside her. With a friendly smile, she offered, "Come on, new-friend, saved ya a seat. Nice and warm just for you." Luna spread her arms wide for an embrace.

Nina looked to Lane first for safety.

Lane nodded and gestured to the seat, "It's alright, Luna's weird... like us."

Nina gave Lane a weak smile. She stepped over the stone block and sat beside Luna. Not one to shy away from comforting others, Luna wrapped her arms around Nina. Pushing the bangs back out of Nina's face, Luna fawned, "Your hair is absolutely gorgeous. I'm more of a spring person, but these colors are divine. I love your style, Nina." Luna planted a quick peck on Nina's head and turned back to face the stage. The frail girl blushed something fierce.

Lane took a seat on the other side of Nina and watched the mock baptism come to a close. More councilors were renamed. Water balloons were thrown. At the end of everything, the sun had finally set. In the center of the stage, a massive fire pit had been lit. Shadows danced through the trees as the flames grew brighter and higher. Once again, taking center stage, Jude drew the crowd's attention; "And now, ladies and gentleman of Trillion Pines, the moment your summer truly starts: The Night Game!"