While the Muskrats gleefully shoot arrows into targets, you drift over to Pearl.
"Hey," you begin with a smile. "I just wanted to say, the last couple days have been great. I mean, we talked before camp started, but it's been even better now that we get to be in the same place."
Pearl keeps one eye on the kids, but gives you a vaguely friendly, "Yeah, it is."
Okay, that's a good first step.
Thanks to your conversation with Jared last night, you know exactly what the next step should be.
For the next half hour, you make friendly conversation with Pearl, making sure to mention all of the things that Jared told you that she likes—and making sure to say that you like them, too. "They do waterskiing on the lake, right?" you mention casually. "It would be cool to go down there and watch it together sometime, wouldn't it?" You put a slight emphasis on "together." "I mean, not as cool as actually waterskiing, but…"
By the end of archery, the conversation with Pearl is snapping back and forth, quick and easy and definitely starting to spark. It's visibly hard for her to pull away when she finally has to say, "Um, I think we need to go help the kids put their stuff away." She can't resist giving you one more grin as she says, "But we'll talk later, okay?"
You're not sure where this is going, but you think it's somewhere good.
The rest of Cabin 12's time at archery goes pretty smoothly. And in Cody's case, not just smoothly but excellently. He manages to get three or four arrows close to the bull's-eye, crowing, "Did you see that?" after each one.
"I've never seen him so confident," Pearl says under her breath as she watches Cody excitedly tell Sydney and Dylan all about his success.
Zoe walks down the line, catches Pearl's quiet words, and grins. "This is what Camp Cedarcrest does for kids."
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