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I heard voices and commotion outside
a few minutes later
, so I got up
and made my way into the great outdoors. Jayden was standing outside of someone’s tent with her arms folded across her chest.
I couldn’t
remember if it was Shawn’s tent
or Chris’s tent, but
Matt and Stacie approached at the same time I did.

“…I’m not kidding, Jayden,” I heard Shawn’s voice from inside. “Open the damn door.”

“Not until you apologize,” she said seriously.

I looked at the door to the tent and the zipper had been tied shut from the outside. I glanced at Matt and
Stacie just as they noticed it
too. Stacie covered her mouth to keep from laughing.

“I’ll just cut it open, then,” he replied.

“Go ahead. Ruin a brand-new tent.”

“Open the damn door.”

“Not until you apologize for calling me a lesbian.”

Matt made a sound and
glanced
at me with surprise.
“You called her a lesbian?” he said to Shawn.

Shawn’s face appeared at a side window and he looked at all of us standing there. By then Chris and Cali had also arrived.

“Great, you’ve
got
a mob waiting for me?” Shawn said to
Jayden
.

“Just apologize and I won’t
deck
you myself,” she answered.

Matt shook his head. “Man, Shawn, you called her a lesbian and you don’t expect to get your ass kicked?”

“I didn’t call her a lesbian!
I only said that I was glad she
wasn’t
a lesbian.”

Cali scoffed.
“
That’s just as bad
.
Just
apologize
,
you jerk.
”

“Fine, I’m sorry.”

“That doesn’t sound very sincere,” Jayden said, hiding a smile.

“Okay. Jayden, I’m
really
sorry
,
and I’m very
relieved
that you’re now
sleeping
with Ty and not Cali.”

There was a low murmur of responses from the group, and I could tell that they were expecting Jayden to react somehow. But Cali’s retort was very clear and I don’t think I want to repeat her choice of words.

Matt stepped up to the window and said, “You’re in a hole, man. You’d better just do what you can to fix this.”

“You guys are insane,” Shawn replied. There was a movement of sound inside and a few seconds later the blade of a knife popped through the tent fabric. Everyone was laughing when his hand appeared to cut the tie off the zipper, and then the tent door
zipped
opened. When he stepped out I expected him to be somewhat upset, but he smiled at everyone and said, “Sweet, now I get to make you all breakfast.”

“Awesome,” Jayden replied dryly. “And by the way, that’s my
dad’s
brand new tent.”

The look on Shawn’s face was priceless.

I glanced at Jayden as everyone was slowly leaving the scene
,
and she was smiling at me.

“Oh, welcome to a normal morning at one of our campouts.”

“This is normal? People getting locked in tents and stuff?”

She shrugged and waved the tent off. “Ah, that’s nothing.
”

“So what’
s he going to do to
you
? Am I gonna have to stand guard through the night, to make sure nothing happens to
our
tent?”

She shook her head. “Nah, he
wouldn’t dare
.”

I looked at her warily. “Are you sure? Is he going to poison our food?”

With a laugh she said, “Maybe.”

I was a little nervous for breakfast, with Shawn casting evil looks at all of us while he prepared the food. Jayden assured me he was just a great actor and loved being overdramatic. I believed her, but I was still grateful when she handed me a plate of food that she
had
prepared herself.

The plan for the day was motorcycles in the morning, and boating in the afternoon. Matt and Shawn both had their bikes, and Matt
unloaded Joe’s pair of
YZF’s
. He also brought
another one of
J
ayden’s
that I hadn’
t seen before—a KTM EX
C
450.
Apparently it was Jayden’s ‘baby.’
I was slightly impressed.

Chris sometimes went with them, but he wasn’t interested in going this time.
Jayden wanted me to ride her YZF
, but I could
n’t
help but feel a little
intimidated
. I could ride just fine, but I knew
her
ability far out-skilled my own
and I wasn’t sure what to expect.
I was relieved when the other guys claimed the same about themselves.

“Her dad put her on a motorcycle when she was six years old,” Chris told me. “We
were at my uncle’s house
and all the boys were riding around on these
little 50’s, racing around
the proper
ty. Jayden insisted on doing it
too, so Joe put her on one
. A
fter five minutes, she was riding better than the older kids. When she was eight she wanted to do motocross. Joe really didn’t like the idea of that, but he let her do it. I think she did it for
seven
or
eight
years. She’s
a pro
and she’s better than
all
of us, so don’t feel intimidated.”
I was pretty
grateful
for his encouragement, and I laughed when he added, “She’s the only girl I know that had to rush from a motocross race to make it to
a
ballet
recital
.”

We took off on the bikes
up
a trail just past the cabin
. I actually did have a good time and Jayden
was a lot of fun to ride with.
For some reason—probably because she’s so sassy—I thought she might be a little competitive with me, but she wasn’t at all. Shawn, however, tried his luck at competing with her and
it was funny to hear the two of them go round and round with each other
.

“Shawn knows she’s better, but he likes to mess around with her,” Matt said when we were parked at the top of a canyon
later that morning
. We were watching Jayden and Shawn take on some
obstacles
just below us. “He can be pretty scary sometimes, though. I don’t always know if he’s really that ballsy, or he’s just stupid,” he chuckled. “Check this out.”

He motioned to where they were and I watch them both climb a fairly steep bluff. It was
n’t
really
too
high up, but
it wasn’t something I would climb. W
hen they were at the top, I saw them circle around until they were facing the edge.

“They’re not gonna jump
off
that, are they?” I asked with my mouth open. I certainly hoped not.

Matt laughed. “Oh, yeah.”

I watched Shawn signal that he was going to go first and Jayden’s motion indicated she was saying, “Be my guest.” Shawn revved his bike and took off over the edge, coasting a little bit in the air before roughly landing at the bottom. He spun around and pulled off to the side to watch Jayden.

“Don’t look so freaked out,” Matt told me
with a smile
. “If Shawn can do it,
Jayden can
do it
even better.
”

I slightly relaxed, b
ut instead of taking the same route Shawn did, Jayden turned her bike around and
climbed
it another level up the bluff. She
took herself as deep
as she could and faced out.

Matt was laughing again. “Oh, no way!”

Shawn took his helmet off as he sat on his bike, and shook his head.

She revved her bike and I almost had a heart attack. She jumped it off the first bluff onto the lower one, and took off from there into
the air. She went higher and fu
rther than Shawn, and added
a tail wag in the process. Her landing was way smoother
,
and at the end of it, she stopped abruptly onto her front wheel, lifting the back one into the air.

When she dropped it down I heard Shawn yell, “You’re
such
a showoff!”

Matt was hollering “
Whoo-hoo
!” from where we were, and I finally
released
the breath I was holding.

Jayden peeled in a circle before taking off onto the trail
that climbed
to where we were. Shawn put his helmet back on and followed her up.

“You are insane!” Matt told her when she arrived. “I think you need to apolog
ize to Ty for stopping his heart
.”

She
flipped her helmet open
and looked at me with surprise. “I’m sorry! What’s the matter?” She was absolutely beautiful with her bright eyes
showing
her
concern
.

I shook my head. “Matt’s right;
you’re insane.”

She laughed and said, “I’ve done that one before. It’s actually pretty easy.”

“When?” Matt asked.

“Last summer. But I made sure Chris was with me, just in case I needed put back together,” she grinned.
“
That’s
the one I wanna try,” she pointed. The bluff was about the same height, but there was also another bluff she wanted to jump
to
. “Maybe tomorrow, when Chris comes with me.”

I shook my head at her as Shawn pulled up
and flipped his helmet open
. He was reaching into his pants and said, “Here, let me give you my balls. I don’t think I need them anymore.”

“Gross!” she excla
imed as he laughed. She pulled the face back down on her helmet
and took off the way we had come up.

Matt was laughing as Shawn was shaking his head at him.

“You see
that junk?” Shawn asked. “That’s just crazy.”
He looked at me and
added
, “You two ever get married, you’d better get
some
pretty good life insurance on that girl.”

He
flipped his helmet closed and left after Jayden, so Matt and I did the same.

Cali and Stacie had lunch st
arted when we came back at noon, and
Shawn had to tell the entire camp how crazy my girlfriend was.
None of them seemed surprised, but
Chris looked at her with a tiny smile and shook his head. Then he looked at me, and I got the impression he probably felt the same way I did when
he
watched her do it.
I’d heard a few stories here and there about how much Jayden loved riding, but to actually witness it firsthand was a little different.

Josh and Silvia ha
d been there for about an hour, so
I took the fuel filter and went to work putting it into the line. When it was ready, Matt and Chris launched it into
the water and took it for a run
. Chris thanked me profusely, happy that it was running great again.
His gratitude added a tiny little bit of hope to my desire that we might be friends someday.

There was plenty of room on the boat for all of us to go out, so we loaded on and Matt drove it out into the middle of the lake. All the guys were just in swim shorts since it was already pretty hot out, but it was
interesting
to
me to compare all the girls. Stacie and Silvia were both in bikinis lounged out to sunbathe; Cali was also in a bikini, but it covered a little more and she had shorts on; and I couldn’t even tell what Jayden had on because it wa
s covered with
board
shorts and a t-shirt
.

“Wow, Ty, Jayden was right,” Stacie said to me. “You really do have a hot body.”

All the girls laughed a
nd Jayden tossed a towel at Stac
ie’s face. Matt scowled at her too, but then he said, “Hey, baby, if you want me to have a six-pack like Ty, then just say so.
I’ll stop hiding my perfect abs just to make Shawn feel better.”

Shawn wasn’t offended and replied, “My strength is in here, man—” he pounded his chest with a fist. “My heart and soul will outlast your superficial brawn.”