RejuVacations Lake Day -- (Author) RecessBoy

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Author: RecessBoy
Timestamp: Mar 31, 2024 at 6:19 AM
Content: This story is set in an AR camp where adults go to experience childhood camp experiences and be a kid again. This was a monthly prompt from the creator of the universe: Reva.

Dallas' cabin was a fun one in the camp, of course there was plenty of fun activities, but no one was more excited for their day at Lake Wayback than Dragon Cabin of Castle Canyon. The whole group had been so worked up that Logan had thought of zipping more than one of his campers in a sleeping bag to keep them from squirming and causing such a ruckus. But the day had come, "Dallas! Dallas! Wake up! It's LAKE DAY!" A grey and white canine had practically been jumping on his bed neighbors' bed, Dallas himself had looked so much at peace until Rocky started to quasi-violently rouse his buddy awake. "Rocky, you know you shouldn't wake up a sleeping bear." His nine year old voice had commented groggily. "Yeah but you're not hibernating, so get up! There's waffles at the mess hall, and it's lake dayyyy."

The honey colored bear with the maroon hair slowly got up from his Power Pack bedspread, turning and sitting up in bed, slipping his foot paws into a pair of slippers emblazoned with the RejuVacations logo. "Fine, fine." He answered, groggily looking to to get his teeth brushed and to splash water on his face. Rocky had followed along, brushing his own teeth, though he wondered. "Dallas, you know you don't really open your eyes until you..." The bear was already running the faucet and cupping his paws, splashing his face with the cool water, his eyes opening wide and awake as soon as the water made contact with his face. "I don't like mornings." He said plainly, cleaning his toothbrush and putting it in the cup with his name taped on it. "Let's go get brekkie." He commented, right before the adult brown bear stepped in front of the two in the bathroom. "I don't think so boys, I want you two to get out of those PJs and take a shower. You two skipped yesterday and I'm not letting you get away with it again." His arms crossed, and in his paws were two sets of camp clothes, one from Rocky's footlocker, the other from Dallas'. "Don't forget to throw your Pull-Ons in the trash." He instructed, though Dragon cabin was not exactly the most hidden cabin, every one of their campers knew that it was the cabin they assigned the boys who tended to have nighttime issues keeping dry. "Aww, come on Logan, they're not Pull-Ons, they're Sleeptites." Rocky whined gently, taking his own clothes and heading toward the shower stalls. "Ehh, whatever. They're still diapers." Dallas said, grabbing his own set of clothes from Logan and shuffling back to the shower stalls. "I better smell body wash you two! No Oklahoma Car Washes."

Dallas stripped himself of his PJs and grabbed a towel from the rack in the large bathroom area of the cabin, there was a wall of shower stalls, private and each had a curtain, in the middle of the hallway was a towel station, and a trash can where all the boys in the cabin placed their used nighttime underwear. Dallas draped the towel over himself and slipped off the Iron-Wolf Sleeptite from his body, the 'totally-not-a-diaper' landed on the floor with a crinkling noise, and the bear cub reached down and tossed it in the garbage. his clothes were put to the shelf opposite the shower stall, and he placed the towel on a hook outside of the stall.

Once each cub's hygiene was taken care of, the two quickly dried off and dressed up to go get breakfast. At this point the two were already hungry enough to eat more than their fair share of waffles and bacon and sausage. The boys stood in line, gathering up waffles and other accoutrements, and went back to their cabin's table. "So...they got this thing. Called the Blob. And Logan goes on a diving board and launches you high up in the air." Rocky mentioned, his maw full of waffles and syrup. Dallas could only look at his friend in a certain amount of...astoundment that such a small camper could shove almost half a waffle in his mouth and still talk like nothing was in there. "Dude, you don't... just talk between bites." Though there was a moment of terror when Dallas had realized what was awaiting them at the lake.

After breakfast, the boys of Dragon Cabin and the boys of Phoenix Cabin had changed into their bathing suits, and nearly all of them sprinted to the lake. Awaiting them were their respective counselors. "WOAH WOAH WOAH." Logan bellowed, trying to keep every single boy from jumping off the dock and into the water. "Leave your towels on shore. We've got Marco Polo, other games...and THE BLOB!" Each boy's eyes were drawn to The Blob like it wasn't on full display for each of them on the way there. It had been inflated yesterday in anticipation for the older campers having their lake days. There was a cacophony of oohs and ahhs from the campers. "So, who's first?" Logan asked, looking around for which one of the campers would dare to go first. Though no one actually spoke up first.

One boy raised his paw. "I'll go!" He was a golden retriever from the Dragon Cabin. Max looked a little nervous as he steps up and puffs up his chest, his cobalt eyes gleaning like some kind of folk hero. "Alright Max! Come on up!" Logan started to climb the lower of the two diving boards, while Max treaded on the half-inflated bag of air, settling on the end towards the lake. "Alright, fellas, let's have a countdown! Five!" That was all Logan needed to say, the kids took it from their with a chorus of high-pitched and almost screaming voices. "FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! BLAST-OFF!" On that first B sound, all the big brown bear did was drop himself from the end of the diving board.

Dallas' Excerpt from his memoirs of Camp Wayback:

What happened next was highly contended among the boys of Dragon Cabin, and would become one of the legends of Castle Canyon to this day. See, the reason why Logan used the lower of the two diving boards was of course, because our little grade school bodies were so much lighter compared to his, so he didn't need the extra momentum of a whole six extra feet of height to launch this scrawny nine year old into the air. As Logan's body made contact and the air quickly got shoved to the other end of the bag, Max's floppy ears were an immediate ninety degrees from their resting position, his maw looked almost like someone put a leaf blower to his face. And the boy was launched at least seventy feet in the air. No cap. Half the boys on the dock were cheering in excitement, a fourth of us were screaming thinking Max was gonna die. The other fourth were too shocked to even make a sound. Max had so much airtime that he flailed about and still had time to tuck himself into a cannonball before he made contact with the blue waters of Lake Wayback. As impressive as his launch was, and it was, the splash he made was otherworldly. I mean, this splash went so high it was like someone three times his size had created it. We all gasped in awe of the massive splash, and soon we waited for Max to rise from the depths. Now, Max claimed that he didn't stay just a little longer down there before he started to swim up, but I think he's full of beans. It seemed like at least a minute before we saw golden fur emerge from the water. And every single one of my fellow campers and myself cheered. Max had ascended from just another one of our cabinmates to the cabin hero, he was the boy who stared into the abyss, unafraid to see what stared back. I'll never forget seeing him face that dread and fear of the unknown, and I still talk to him to this day.