Chapter 22
“Pizza?”
“Awesome!”
None of the campers complained when they entered the cafeteria and discovered they weren’t having pancakes for breakfast. Some of them did look a little uncertain, as if they didn’t believe that it was really what they were having and wasn’t some kind of prank by the staff, but when everyone had been seated and was accounted for by their counselors, trays of pizzas were brought out to the tables that were against the far wall. On these trays was every kind of pizza anyone would want. Pepperoni, cheese, sausage, Hawaiian, even vegetarian and meat lovers. All kinds. The campers were called up by their tables and told to help themselves, since there was going to be plenty. Excited at the novelty of this menu the kids were chattering and laughing as they ate their breakfast. They weren’t given soda, but there was hot chocolate, orange, apple, and grape juice, as well as milk so there were plenty of options for every taste.
“Are we doing this every day?” Peter asked Jay, who had walked by Alaska’s table eating a slice of Pepperoni pizza.
The camp director shook his head, looking pleased at the reaction.
“Wouldn’t you get bored if you had pizza every morning?”
“I wouldn’t,” Greg said, munching his slice (and talking with his mouth full).
“Me, either,” Ned agreed.
“Well, we’re not having pizza tomorrow,” Jay told them, smiling when they groaned in exaggerated disappointment. (And some that wasn’t so exaggerated) “Finish eating, boys,” he said, waving his pizza. “We have a busy day ahead of us.”
He walked off before they could ask what they were doing, but that didn’t stop them from asking Bucky and Ross, who showed them the schedule but admitted that neither of them knew what ‘activities’ meant.
Luckily, they didn’t have to wait long.
When the last camper had returned to the pizza table to grab a final slice and everyone was more or less just talking about what they wanted to do that morning, Jay walked up to the front of the room. He didn’t even need to raise his hands for quiet; the kids all saw him and were interested in what he had to say.
“Mornings are for cabin activities,” he told them. “This includes arts and crafts, canoeing, horseback riding…” he paused when a group with the youngest girls all started whispering loudly to each other, excitedly, and then started again when they realized they weren’t being as silent as they thought they were and stopped with slightly embarrassed smiles. “Swimming, and nature hikes. Not just any nature hike, of course,” he added when some of the kids groaned at the thought of just walking around for no reason. “It includes a closer look at our very own waterfall and the chance to look for fossils… if you find one, you get to keep it.”
“What’s a fossil?” one of the girls asked.
“An imprint of an animal in stone,” was the reply. “We’ll tell you more about it when it’s your activity day.”
“Like a bear?” Ned asked.
“Older than that,” Jay told him. “Much older,” he said before Ned – or any others could start suggesting older animals. “Think dinosaurs and older.”
“Wow.”
“I hope we’re doing nature walk,” Brian said.
“Me, too.”
Jay pretended that he didn’t hear.
“If you’re done eating, stack your plates and tidy up your tables a bit. Your morning activity is taped to your cabin door. Take time to get your cabin cleaned if you left it messy, and when the bell rings, next, report to the area the paper tells you to go to, okay?”
There was a lot of agreement and the clanging of plates and glasses being gathered by excited little hands. Since it had been pizza, there hadn’t been a lot of need for cutlery, but there had been salad for anyone who had wanted it (most of the campers had turned their noses up at it) and so there were some forks and spoons that clattered as well. It didn’t take long, and there was soon a mass exodus toward the door.
Barnes shook his head, amused at just how fast the boys could get something done when they were eager to do something else. He didn’t follow Peter out of the building, relying on the fact that he was going to be with the group and Ross to keep him out of trouble for the moment. Coulson met him on the porch.
“How’s it going?”
“It isn’t as terrible as I thought it would be.”
The SHIELD agent smirked.
“Say that again after your first full day.”
Good point.
“Anything going on that I need to know about?”
“The area’s clear,” Coulson told him. “Katie went on a run this morning and checked the camp perimeter and the nature hike route. Looks clean.”
“Are we hiking today?”
“No. Tomorrow. But we like to think ahead.”
“I can relate.”
“Good. If you get a chance, talk to Ned.”
“About…?”
“Apparently, he has a splinter that is in an embarrassing spot and can’t get it out, but doesn’t want anyone to know… We’re pretty sure it’s on his rear – or his hip, maybe.”
The Winter Soldier frowned.
“How do you know about it?” he asked, curiously.
Coulson gave him an enigmatic smirk.
“It’s what we do best…”
Barnes snorted.
“What do I say?” he asked. “Let me see your ass?”
“I think that isn’t a conversation a counselor should have with his campers,” Phil told him, making both men snort, amused. “Just be discreet and ask him if he’s managed to hurt himself, or something…”
Ugh.
“Alright. Anything else I need to know?”
“No. It looks like Peter’s having a good time.”
“He is.”
“I’ll let Tony and Pepper know.”
“You do that.”
Barnes headed up the hill to the cabins and Phil turned and went into the cafeteria. Pizza wasn’t the worst breakfast in world, but he needed another cup of coffee.
OOOOOOOOOOO
The kids were excited when Barnes joined them. Brian was holding the paper that had been taped to their door.
“Look, Bucky,” he said, brandishing at the man before he’d even crossed the threshold. “We’re canoeing today.”
Barnes hesitated.
“That’s great.”
“You don’t like canoeing?” Ned asked, curiously.
He hadn’t missed the lack of enthusiasm in Barnes’ tone.
“I like it just fine,” he assured the boy. “I was just hoping for fossil hunting, today.”
“Me, too,” Carlos said. “But canoeing will be fun, too.”
Except that the surface of a lake in a tiny little boat was as exposed as any place Barnes knew of, and that made him uncomfortable – even though he knew there was next to no chance that anyone would be hiding out in a tree waiting to take a potshot at him, or worse, Peter. Old habits died hard, sometimes.
“You can canoe with your prosthetic, right?” Brian asked Bucky.
Since the little boy was wearing shorts, his own carbon fiber leg was out for everyone to see. He was used to being gawked at, he’d told them the day before when they were getting to know each other, and he wasn’t self-conscious about it and hadn’t been for a long time.
“Yeah.” Bucky moved his arm, admiring again the new one that Stark had made for him. It was a work of art, really. “Can you?”
Brian grinned.
“Yeah. As long as I don’t fall in the lake wearing it.”
It was safe to get wet but could drag him down if he was in water over his head. It was one of the things they’d discussed with the boy’s parents the day before and both men had promised them (and themselves) that they’d make sure to keep anything like that from being a possibility.
“We’ll have life-vests on,” Ross pointed out. “No sinking on our watch.”
Bucky nodded his agreement.
“Right.”
But maybe he’d team up with Brian and Let Peter and Ned have their own canoe. Just in case.