Chapter 16
“How are you holding up?”
Barnes shook his head, dodging a playground ball that came soaring at him, and then caught it easily and chucked it back at Peter, who didn’t dodge it in time and found himself out of the game when the ball bounced off the side of his head.
Dodgeball wasn’t a game that he’d expected to be played with little kids Peter’s age, but the balls were soft and there seemed to be little chance of injury – even if the aim was poor and the ball hit someone in the head. It was the most insane game that he’d ever seen since it involved every cabin and as such all of the kids. That was a lot of balls flying through the air at one time. Barnes hadn’t been hit, yet, but even his battle honed reflexes were bound to fail him, eventually. He caught a ball that was coming (more or less) his direction and flung it away, trying to lessen the force of his throw but not quite able to be as careful as he might have been in a tamer environment before responding to his fellow counselor’s question.
“This is nuts.”
Ross nodded, just as a ball hit him in the hip careening toward Bucky, who caught it and saved him from being out. For the moment.
“Yeah, you think this is crazy? Wait until they fill them up with sugar before sending them to bed, tonight.”
“Seriously?”
“Yup.” The other man crossed his fingers over his chest in a show of sincerity. “This is just the start. It-“
A ball struck him in the chest and he wasn’t able to catch it before it bounced off and hit the floor. Ned crowed, excitedly from where he’d been standing next to Carlos – on the opposite team as his counselors.
“Gotcha!”
Kindle rolled his eyes good-naturedly and waved at Ned before trotting to the side of the gym to stand against the wall with everyone else who was out and was waiting to return to the game.
So far they’d played a couple of relay races and a game where the kids had to try and figure out what the word that had been stuck to their forehead was – without being told. Dodgeball was going to be the last one, Barnes was sure, since it was almost time for dinner.
He had to admit that he was ready to take a break.
OOOOOOOOOOO
“How long do you let them go?” Coulson asked, standing next to Jay Nor and watching as the kids and their counselors threw balls at each other like crazy people.
He’d walked the perimeter of the camp – joined by Tiny the camp dog, of all people – and had then wandered down to the gym to see what was happening down there. And had walked into bedlam.
Jay shrugged.
“The schedule says until five-thirty, which will give them half an hour to get ready for dinner. But if they look like they’re getting bored, we can end things early – or switch to a different game.”
“How many games are there?”
“Hundreds. All designed to make them run around and tire themselves out. It makes them too tired to get into trouble, later.”
Coulson smirked.
“Good plan.”
“We think so, too.” He knocked aside a ball that had come his way after bouncing off a little girl. “How are things going?” he asked the SHIELD agent. “Anything we need to know about?”
“Not at the moment.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“Yes.”
Phil agreed, completely.
“We prefer it that way, too.”
OOOOOOOOOOOO
It was closer to six by the time Jay finally blew his whistle to get everyone’s attention to tell them it was time to call a halt to things, for now. The kids were still enthusiastic – although a bit winded, for the most part – but were ready to settle down a little. For the moment, anyway.
Besides, they were hungry and the smell of something savory had been in the air for the last half hour or so.
“Dinner is in ten minutes,” Jay told them once they’d quieted enough to hear him. “You’ll find tables with your cabin name on it. Everyone head on up.”
There was a mad dash to the exits and Coulson watched as Peter ran out the door with Ned and some of the boys from his cabin. Barnes slowed when he reached Coulson, who was now simply standing by himself against the wall since Nor had followed the kids toward the door.
“Are you having a good time?” Phil asked Barnes with a slight smile.
He’d looked like he was, for a while, anyway.
“It’s like nothing I’ve ever done,” the Winter Soldier admitted. “But I’m not hating it.”
“Good.”
“Anything I need to know?”
“Not really. We’re watching the doctor.”
“Because…?”
“A comment he made. Not to mention, he was quick to let his roommate know about Peter being here.”
“Are you watching the roommate?”
“We’re keeping an eye on his social media, but he doesn’t have much of a presence and hasn’t posted in months, so we’re not too concerned about him.”
“And the doctor?”
“He hasn’t posted on social media in a while, either, and the context of the conversation makes it seem as if he was just sharing something interesting.”
“Tony Stark’s son is an interesting topic.”
“True.”
“Then why are you watching him?”
“A comment he made.”
“About Peter?”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell me what he said?”
“Later.” Phil gestured to the now empty gym. “Your kids are waiting for you.”
Barnes gave him a less than amused look but he was right.
“Yeah.”
He turned and headed for the door, too.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
“What are you doing?”
Tony looked up from his tablet when Pepper walked into the room. She was fresh out of a shower and dressed in a striking ‘little black dress’. Since Peter was safely at camp, they’d been discussing going out for something a little more formal than chicken nuggets and he’d simply been waiting for her to finish getting ready. He turned off the tablet and set it on the end table by the sofa and stood up.
She looked and smelled amazing.
“Just listening to some chatter.”
Pepper smiled at the verbiage.
“Is it secret SHIELD chatter?”
He echoed the smile and offered her his hand.
“Nothing secret,” he assured her. “Just something that JARVIS wanted me to hear.”
“Anything I need to know about?” she asked, suddenly a little worried.
“Nah.”
Probably. JARVIS was going to do some more investigating in Stephen Strange’s history, but it wasn’t anything that Tony wanted Pepper to be aware of. Not unless his AI found something that had been missed, before – which was highly unlikely, but it never hurt to be certain.
OOOOOOOOOOOO
The cafeteria wasn’t as loud as the gym had been, but the conversations over dinner were varied and noisy. Especially when the kids were all trying to be heard and were talking louder and louder to be heard over the others.
“Hey kids.” Jay had waited until dessert was almost finished before standing up and walking to the front of the room to get their attention. Sure enough, all conversations died and all eyes turned toward him. “Did you get enough to eat?”
There were assorted shouts of affirmation and applause and he smiled and raised his hand for them to let him be heard, again.
“Stack your dishes, and then head up to your cabins. When the bell rings meet up at the field.”
“What are we going to be doing?” Ned asked. Since the youngest campers had the tables closest to the front of the room (and the serving area for meals) Ned’s question wasn’t missed. “Horseback riding?”
Jay shook his head, not at all annoyed at the question.
“No horses, tonight.” There were some disappointed noises – mostly from the girls – but that only made his smile grow. “You’ll see. Make sure you’re wearing something you can run in.”
Which told them not to wear flip flips or beach shoes.
“Dismissed!”
With more excited noises (and the camp director had been doing the camp thing for a long time and knew that almost everything was exciting when it’s the first day at camp) there was a mad dash for the doors.