"I don 't like James," the boy said, making a sour face. "It sounds so stuffy an' all. Like a man or something. You'd expect a Professor to be named James. Or a father to be James. I'm definetly not a daddy." He shook his head furiously at the ludicrous idea. "Besides, I think I'm more of a Jamie anyway."

Jamie's face split into his puppy dog grin, the one that gave people urges to rub him behind the ears, at his friend. "Did you even bring bug spray?" he asked her. "The bugs might try to eat you if you didn't."

He looked around at the other cabins as they passed them by, the people walking around. There were people all over; it seemed they came out during the day. The lake wasn't far off, he could hear the water lapping about, and there was that distict feeling of being out in the high sun with the water nearby that made him want to cringe a bit. Putting his hand above his eyes to shield the sun out, he saw a few people playing out in the water, the sun dancing on the waves, sparkling over the grey-green water.

"Urgggh! People swim in that?" he asked.

-----------------------

Ashlie chuckled at Bucky and shook her head. "Trust me," she said, "even I wouldn't want to sleep in the wild. The one time I ever went camping in a tent, I swear I thought I was going to die. Bugs and all, and a thin sleeping bag on the ground, my parents decided we had to eat packaged food and stuff. It was terrible. I refused to ever do it again. But, about the next year, the family kind of... fell apart, so... yeah."

She shrugged lightly and smiled at the two kids. She liked them. Maybe one day she'd have a children of her own. Or adopt. Adoption would be nice.

"Don't worry, Bucky," she said, still feeling absurd at calling the girl by such a strange name, "we have a cabin. Which is basically, a little house, not even a real authentic cabin or anything. There's beds and pillows and blankets and microwaves and lighting fixtures and heating and cooling. We'll be fine."