Sunshine Days - Chapter 36
After the commotion had calmed down, Vince gathered up his crew for the Shindig and went to work on getting it back off the ground. Those who were not involved either in attending or organizing the party were ushered back into bed, in spite of all the excitement surrounding Durham's meltdown and arrest.
Vince, Jaime, Roy, Jess, Andre, David, Jonathan, and a few others were sat in a small circle around a bed. Their only light in the darkness of the cabin was a small flashlight which made the collective faces look like ghostly floating heads to Jonathan.
"So Eddie says that we ought to wait until Beth and Lars go back to bed. There's no telling exactly how long they'll be up but I'd estimate around an hour. Maybe longer." Vince was explaining in a low voice to the sea of expectant faces. "If I can get someone to keep an eye on them, we can know for sure. When they do go to bed, we'll wait a little longer just to make sure that they're asleep for real."
Some of them nodded. Jamie spoke up, "Where we gonna move to? We can't have it here, can we?"
Vince shook his head. "We got people here who want to sleep."
To underline that point, someone from the far end of the cabin gave a mumbled shout. "Yeah! So shut up already!"
Vince sighed and rolled his eyes. He lowered his voice. "So this cabin is out of the question."
Roy raised his paw and said, "What about Cabin A?"
"Avery and Henry are in there," Vince replied. "If we go over and kick them back out, Henry's sure to know what we're up to. I'm not sure if they're planning on staying there or coming back to B to sleep either. So if we're going to do this, we probably can't use either cabin tonight."
There was a pause before Jamie asked, "Maybe we could use one of the girl's cabins. Cabin C should be empty."
Vince shook his head again. "That's right next to the Leader's cabin. They could hear us if we get too loud."
"We could try being quiet."
"Still too risky."
Jess spoke up, "Maybe we should wait until tomorrow..."
"Tomorrow's when the other cubs come back from camping." Roy replied. "We might not be able to get a chance to throw it then."
"Of course we could," Vince said, "We'd just have to use the Rec Room or something."
"Hold up, I thought tomorrow was the night of the Farewell Fire," Jamie said.
"Shit. You're right..." Vince grumbled and rubbed his chin in thought. He was quiet for a moment. "We'll have to throw it tonight then."
"What about the Rec Room?" Jonathan added. His voice seemed unused to being raised in group conversations as it cracked and sounded unsure of how its volume should be.
Vince gave him a proud smile but shook his head, "Avery's little brother is in there. We promised him the whole night in there to himself. I don't think he'd be very happy if we came in and kicked him out again. But that was a good idea!"
"What about the Main Lodge?" David asked.
"Definitely not. Beth and Lars would definitely notice if something was going on in there. Not just because of the light but the noise. You know how loud it can get in there, with the noise amplifying and everything."
There was a long pause. Finally, Roy spoke up again and said, "We can't use the Helper's cabin, could we?"
Vince thought real hard about it. "No...I don't think we could. There's some guys in there that I know wouldn't be down with what we're doing in there."
From the rear of the cabin came a loud, exasperated groan. "Shut UP!"
Vince pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Now at a whisper, he said, "We probably need to come to a decision quick..."
"Maybe we should just drop the whole thing..." Jess said, shaking her head in frustration.
"We can't do that," David whined. "This'll be the last year we'll ever be able to do a Shindig..."
"He's right," Jamie said, "Most of us probably won't even be here again next year either."
"But it's for our own good," Vince said dully.
"No," Roy said firmly, "We're doing this tonight. What about..."
He was interrupted as the door to the cabin opened. Jonathan had thought what everyone else was thinking for a moment, that Lars or Beth had noticed that they were still awake and came to tell them off. His heart jumped in his chest until he saw who it was.
Avery and Henry had returned from Cabin A, appearing to have gotten bored pretty quickly. That or they might have gotten tired.
Henry frowned at the collective and said, "What are you doing?"
"This is the Coalition of Nosy People," Vince said smartly, "Wanna join?"
Henry took a step forward, glaring intimidatingly at them. Avery put his paw out and held him back, shaking his head. "Let's just go to bed. They're probably just telling ghost stories or something dumb."
Henry snorted, "Yeah...ghost stories for babies, huh?" He said as if he were expecting a laugh.
Avery shook his head and muttered, "Whatever."
They both passed the groups on the way to bed. Avery glanced over and gave Vince an apologetic look. Apparently, he'd tried to talk Henry into staying at Cabin A but Henry couldn't be swayed. Henry had complained about how 'boring' and 'gay' being alone in a cabin with nothing to do at night other than listen to music and play cards. The excitement of watching Durham get arrested must have been a tough act to follow for Avery and he couldn't manage to keep the bull in the cabin with him.
Though it actually turned into a blessing in disguise for Vince and his crew. They all looked at one another, coming to the same realization together. This meant that Cabin A would be free again. Faces lit up brightly and hopefully, all eyes on Vince as they waited for him to make the decision.
Vince grinned. "It's on."
~ ~ ~
To say that keeping everyone together and not letting the Shindig fall to pieces was as difficult as herding cats would have been an insult to both Jonathan and Vince. But it was true that it was a tricky task to organize and keep everyone in line. They still had to wait some time before the Leaders went off to bed. But Vince seemed to manage it with ease, making sure no one went out and everyone kept the volume down.
Lars seemed to stay up forever, just standing in the doorway, standing guard and making sure no one got out of bed for anything. Finally he disappeared back into the darkened Leader's cabin. When no lights came on after ten minutes, Vince sent Jamie over to check if they were asleep.
By the time Jamie got back, some of the others were starting to get antsy and agitated. A few complained about wanting to go already while a couple gave up and decided to go to bed. Those who stayed awake did so by reading or playing video games by flashlight. Jamie came back with good news, saying that Lars was quite a loud snorer and that they were safe to move.
"We'll still need to take precautions," Vince said. "We'll head over in pairs, being as quiet as we possibly can. Make sure the screen doors don't snap back shut and keep the noise inside to an absolute minimum until we can be sure there'll be no interruptions. Roy, where'd you put that cooler?"
"Out around the side of the cabin. We'll be good on food and drinks so there's no need to head to the kitchens." The skunk replied.
"What if someone needs to go to the bathroom?" Chuck asked, "Or stuff..."
Vince looked out the window. "Again, head over in pairs and try to make as little noise as possible." There weren't any windows on the large, concrete structured building so they wouldn't be able to see if anyone was in there or not.
David looked to Jonathan and asked, "Need to clean out."
Jonathan blushed profusely and mumbled, "Probably..."
David frowned. He could tell Jonathan was still uncertain about attending the Shindig. He nudged him gently and said, "You wanna stay here?" He tried to sound more concerned for him rather than disappointed.
Jonathan was quiet. He shook his head softly. "I dunno..." This would likely be the only time he'd ever have the chance to do something like this. He knew that. If he stayed in bed that night, he'd never know what he was missing out on. If he went, he wasn't sure just how wild it would be. Would he even be able to handle it? Would it be too much?
David reached over and stroked his paw in the darkness. "You don't have to go if you don't want." Then he said something that surprised Jonathan. "I can stay here too, if you want. We can hang out or go to sleep or whatever."
"But...You'll miss the Shindig..."
David smiled, "I don't care. I'll skip any ol' thing if I can hang out with you."
Jonathan bit his lower lip. Though it certainly wasn't the pup's intention, Jonathan felt extremely guilty and knew that David really wanted to go to the Shindig. And it was the last one too. It didn't occur to him until years later that David meant that he only wanted to spend what little time they had left at Camp Sunshine Days together and that it wasn't a guilt trip.
Meanwhile, Vince had Jess and Roy head over to get Cabin A set up. They needed to hang blankets over the windows to keep the light from escaping. The wooden walls were enough to block out some sound but they'd still have to keep it down unless they wanted trouble.
"It'd be better if we had the Rec Room," Andre grumbled as he was sent out to collect the large cooler and bring it in to the cabin. The Rec Room was just about completely sound proof and they could play music or video games without worry of being heard.
Once Jess had come back and informed them that the Cabin had been set up, Vince began to send people out in pairs, sending them off to either Cabin A or the restrooms. "Do not go anywhere else, under any circumstance." He had warned, "There's enough snacks to go around and there's nothing we need in any of the other cabins."
Jamie had been sent back to the Leader's cabin with a flashlight to make sure that none of the adults woke up and caught them. The hastily formed plan would be that Jamie would signal Vince with the flashlight if he heard any noise from inside the cabin that sounded like someone was waking up or getting ready to come out. If that happened, Vince would run out and tell them that he had to make an emergency visit to the bathroom, complaining that he felt sick to his stomach. That would (hopefully) distract Beth or Lars long enough to let the others evacuate from Cabin A. Vince kept his attention on the Leader's cabin as he sent people out two at a time.
Vince looked over at David and Jonathan. "You guys ready to go?"
"One minute," David said. He turned his attention back to Jonathan, his eyes locked on to Jonathan's through the darkness.
Jonathan knew that it all came down to his decision. He thought about how much the Shindig meant to David and hated the thought of him missing out on this event, seeing as it was going to be the last of its kind. He also felt like he had a swarm of bees in his stomach just thinking about being in a room with a bunch of naked, sex-having cubs. David reminded him that his decision would not change how he felt about him at all.
After a long pause, Jonathan made up his mind.