by Reni Huang
Panicked, Julia quickly grabbed Geoff’s arm, “Please don’t start making people give up their lunches for me. I’m good, honest.” To prove her point, she reached out and grabbed the yellowish red fruit from Wynn’s plate and took a bite.
Geoff was still eyeing Mudd’s plate of uneaten tacos, to which Mudd responded by emitting a low growl and hovered more tightly over his plate, taking a large menacing bite out of the taco, snapping it in two.
After lunch, Julia was wrapping her long knit scarf around her neck when Geoff asked, “Julia, you coming with us to go snow tubing?”
“I have to rehearse for the Talent Show with my small group first.”
Geoff groaned. “Let me guess, you have Alison as your leader, right? Man, she can be such a drag. Tell her to forget it, no amount of jumping in the air doing the splits is going to beat Big Poppa’s break dancing rap.”
Julia swiveled to look over at Wynn for confirmation and repeated, “Big Poppa’s break dancing rap?”
Wynn smirked and nodded.
“Big Poppa,” Geoff said, pointing to himself.
“Break dancing rap,” Wynn echoed his eyes full of mischief.
Julia laughed, “I can’t wait to see that.”
Chapter Sixteen
Dance rehearsal was miserable. The routine was more complicated than Julia had initially realized, and it didn’t help that both Suzy and Gracie were naturally talented dancers, taking to the complex dance moves with ease. Even Jane although stiff was starting to get the hang of it. But for some reason Julia always ended up a step behind everyone else.
After a couple run through, Alison finally got fed up with her and snapped, “You just lack confidence, Julia. Stop watching the other girls, that’s what’s slowing you down. You have to know the next move on your own and go for it. Don’t follow them. We’re supposed to be in sync!”
Alison huffed and marched towards the sound booth to recue the song. She had to do it herself since no one was around to do it for her. She had been disappointed when Julia had informed her that Wynn had gone snow tubing with Geoff and the others and wouldn’t be able to take care of the music for them.
They were midway through the song when a flood of wet but boisterous flush-faced guys came into the chapel, sloshing in snow from their thick jackets and heavy boots. Julia froze, waiting for Alison to turn into a tyrant and yell at them to give them some privacy. But she was disappointed. The added attention seemed to only make Alison more animated as she led their small group in finishing the dance routine with a flourish to a thunder of applause.
“That was awesome,” Geoff hooted from the back of the room where he was making himself comfortable. “Alright, now go enjoy the snow. It’s our turn to practice.”
The girls looked at Alison waiting for her command. She nodded at them and said in a sugary sweet voice, “Good job, girls!”
Having only seen Lexi and Elliott in passing ever since breakfast, Julia wasn’t sure where to find them. So she gratefully accepted Suzy and Gracie’s invitation to hangout in the cafeteria for the rest of free time. A couple tables were occupied by groups of people playing various games of cards. One of the tables held a familiar face, and Julia smiled with relief as she rushed towards him, “Ellie!”
Elliott turned around and smiled, “Hey, want to join us?”
“Sure,” Julia said. “Let me just get something hot to drink first, I’m freezing.”
“I’ll come with you,” Gracie said as Suzy deserted them, making a beeline to squeeze herself between Elliott and his Bible study leader Rob Morioka, the “Hoppa” as Suzy called him.
Flipping through the assortment of individual apple cider, hot cocoa, coffee, and tea packages, Julia was debating between the French Vanilla or Hazelnut flavors when she was vaguely aware of the fact that someone had joined them. Stealing a sidelong glance, Julia recognized the sleeve of the puffy navy blue jacket immediately.
“Hey,” she heard his low voice greet them as he reached for a mug.
“Hi,” Gracie replied back. She had taken an orange from the three-tier basket that held a variety of fruit, and was peeling off the skin.
Steadying herself, Julia looked up at him. “Hi,” she echoed. His expression was guarded. Gracie was looking at her with an expectant expression on her face, so Julia added, “This is Gracie. Have you met Wynn?”
“Yeah, I know who you are,” Gracie said.
At the same time Wynn said, “Oh, hey, nice to meet you.”
He paused to survey the beverage choices before him then in a change of attitude he leaned over and said conspiringly, “What are you getting?”
Julia smiled, “Too hard to decide, French Vanilla or Hazelnut?”
Pretending to think hard, Wynn finally said, “Both?”
Julia faked a gasp. “Can we do that?”
Glancing over his shoulder as if to make sure no one was watching them, he said to Gracie, “You won’t tell, will you?” Gracie giggled and shook her head no. Wynn looked back at Julia and said in his most serious tone, “Only this one time.”
Julia nodded and crossed her heart, “Promise.”
Placing the two packets together he ripped both tops open with one deft move and poured the brown powder into his mug.
“There’s no turning back now,” he teased with mock seriousness, as he pushed the button to release the hot water from the canister and handed the steaming mug to Julia.
“Thank you,” she said before taking a sip. From the corner of her eye Julia noticed Gracie staring at her with a knowing look.
A couple card games later, Julia was stepping out of the cafeteria with her friends back into the cold snow covered grounds when an unexpected flurry of snowballs suddenly began to sail about their heads.
“We’re being attacked!” Suzy shrieked, ducking behind Gracie for protection. This exclamation was greeted with a roar of laughter as several guys jumped out from behind trees in front of Cedar Chapel. Julia recognized them to be the guys from Geoff’s small group, clearly done with rehearsing for their breaking dancing rap. All around her people quickly began scooping up balls of snow and throwing them back at the assailants without mercy.
“Protect the women and children!” Rob yelled in a playful show of bravado, throwing his body over Gracie, who was standing closest to him. She laughed in response.
“Forget that,” Elliott countered. “I’m using their defenseless bodies as a shield,” and he pretended to make a grab at Julia’s arm. She laughed and moved out of his reach.
“Regroup! Regroup!” a guy from Geoff’s group was shouting. They laughed and tumbled, throwing snowballs with a fury, at times blindly as snow rained down in arching clumps from above.
Upon seeing Julia and her friends, Geoff began advancing towards them calling to his buddies, “Why are these girls so dry? Is this a snowball fight or isn’t it?”
To her dismay, Elliott and his friends suddenly turned towards them with the same mischievous grins. Suzy was the first to break rank and she ran away squealing, Elliott taking off after her, scooping up handfuls of snowballs as he pursued her. Gracie clung to Julia’s arm for a moment before abandoning her in a shriek, followed by Rob close at her heels.
Julia stared wide eyed at the two guys standing in front of her.
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, her mind racing.
Geoff threw Wynn a glance then charged towards her a wide grin on his face. Without a second thought, Julia jumped up to smash the closest icicles dangling from the rooftop off, catching one before it fell, while the others shattered across the icy ground.
“Oh, no you didn’t,” Geoff laughed appreciatively, but backed up slightly as Julia threw him a challenging smile and raised her icy dagger.
“Oh, yes I did,” she said, feeling cocky. She glanced behind him at Wynn, who was standing back an amused expression on his face. He held her eyes, his smile expectant as if to say “give your best shot.” That was all the encouragement she needed.
Fis
t tight around her icicle, Julia bent to scoop up a handful of snow with her free hand before leaping towards Geoff to swing an arching throw before releasing her mound of snow towards his face. Geoff ducked, dodging the white blow before rushing at her, encircling his arm around her waist and carried her off towards a snow bank. Not giving up, Julia used the icicle to strike at his back only to shatter the useless ice shards.
Still slung half across Geoff’s back, Julia looked up to see Wynn running towards her with a huge pile of snow in his arms. She squirmed free of Geoff’s hold a second before Wynn came knocking Geoff to the ground. Julia stepped away as both guys fell to the ground with Wynn throwing his mound of snow on top of Geoff, burying half his body. Pushing her hair away from her face, Julia thought for one fleeting moment that she was safe, when she was suddenly jerked to the ground.
Her eyes flew open with surprise to stare straight into Wynn’s laughing face.
“Whose side are you on?” she yelped, pulling her arm free from his hold.
“No man’s,” Wynn smirked. When she frowned at him, he quickly dropped the attitude, his expression unreadable, “Truce?”
Sitting up in the wet snow, Julia shrieked and covered her head as snow flew about her. She looked up to see Elliott running back to bury Geoff under yet another pile of snow.
Wynn stood up and leaned down to offer her a hand. Julia took it, brushing the snow off her pants with her free hand as he pulled her up. Tilting his head down, he caught her eyes, reached into his pocket and pulled out two crumpled and wet packets of hot cocoa mix.
“Round two,” he asked and she smiled.
* * *
The evening, after the closing worship set, Julia was still scribbling down notes in the retreat booklet, when she vaguely noticed the main lights were being turned back on and the worship team up in front was dispersing. Julia absentmindedly nodded as Lexi told she was going to join her small group and stood up to leave. It wasn’t until Gracie came over to tap her on the shoulder that she finally looked up.
“Alison’s getting impatient,” Gracie whispered. Behind her, Suzy was staring at her strangely as if not understanding how anyone could possibly have so many things to write down. Julia quickly shoved her booklet, pen and Bible back into her knapsack and stood up.
Small group was more or less the same as before, awkward, tense, and uninspiring, which was disappointing considering how thoughtful and well-constructed the discussion questions printed in the retreat booklet were. Julia missed Natalie and their regular Bible study group back on campus.
“Do you think there’s still any refreshment left in the cafeteria?” Suzy asked as they trudged out of Alison’s cabin towards their own.
“Some Cup-o-Noodle sounds good,” Gracie said.
“I’ll share one with you,” Suzy offered.
“Ok.”
As the girls made their way down the darkened path, their boots squishing through the cold slush, streaking rays from flashlights came swinging towards them from the opposite end of the trail.
“Is the cafeteria still open?” Suzy called to the shadowed figures.
“Nope, just closed.”
“I saved some oranges from lunch,” Gracie told them. “It’s back in my cabin.”
“Let’s go.”
Turning around, the girls headed back up the path towards the Girl’s Cabins.
Julia ended up hanging out in Gracie’s cabin until lights out. The other girls were already changed into their pajamas. Some of them were snug in their sleeping bags, others still visiting with each other, when a knock came at the door.
“Security,” a guy’s voice called out.
With a huge smile, Suzy quickly jumped out of Gracie’s bunk and ran to open the door. Gracie looked at Julia and they exchanged a suppressed giggle.
“Hi!” Suzy said, then whirled around and to announce, “Julia, it’s Wynn!”
Julia climbed out of Gracie’s bunk and joined Suzy at the door, peering out.
“You’re security?”
“For tonight,” he smirked. “We rotate. Is this your cabin?”
“No, I’m two cabins down.”
“Lexi was looking for you,” he informed her.
“C’mon, Suzy,” Julia said. “Goodnight, Gracie. Thanks for the oranges.”
Gathering up their stuff, the girls headed back out to the bitingly frigid darkness.
“Lights out,” Wynn reminded the cabin before closing the door.
“Night, Wynn,” a chorus of girls sang out and the light emanating from the windows flickered off.
Dropping Suzy off at the next cabin, with Wynn giving his protocol lights out warning, he and Julia continued the last couple of steps over to the front steps of her cabin.
“Cold out,” Julia said as they reached her door, the visible puff of air escaping with each breath blew out in agreement. “How much longer do you have to stay out?”
“I’m almost done, just have to check the guy’s cabins and Rec. room for stragglers,” he answered nonchalantly.
Julia fought back the urge to offer to walk with him. He didn’t need a babysitter.
“Well,” she said, giving him a smile, “Thanks for walking me back.”
She was about to open the door when he said, “Everything is good between us, right?”
Julia turned to face him. He was looking back at her the distance he usually put between them whenever his friends were around was gone.
Something about his expression garnered honesty, so she took a deep breath and said, “I was pretty mortified when I first found out about my journals. I can be brutally honest in them because I figure no one’s ever going to read them.”
“I’m sorry I read it.”
“You did?” she squeaked, panic threatening to set back in.
He nodded.
“How much?”
“Enough.”
Julia shuddered at the thought of him reading all her embarrassing entries and stood there in front of him feeling completely stripped away.
“What are you thinking?” he asked me.
She swallowed hard. Something that had been nagging at the back of her mind came racing to the fore.
“Trying to figure out what God’s trying to do by letting you read my journal.”
He laughed rather sheepishly, “Any conclusions?”
Trust in God in the good times and in the bad.
Sounds good in theory, but how do I trust Him when I don’t understand what it is He is doing? What does that trust look like in a practical sense?
“Maybe,” Julia faltered, struggling with the right words, “I think I relied too much on my journals before, I depended on it like a security blanket. I could hide behind it and become invisible,” She shrugged.
“I don’t think you hide.”
Julia laughed. That was true only in his case. Maybe it was because he was such a straightforward guy. He spoke the truth, so it made it easier for her to do the same.
“You’re the anomaly. I can talk to you.”
She meant it as a compliment. But the guarded look on his face came back like a fortress.
“Ok, well, I better let you go inside,” Wynn said finally.
He took a step back then headed down the path.
Chapter Seventeen
For some reason Elliott was in an extra grouchy mood the next morning.
“Where do you want to sit?” he grumbled as they entered the already crowded cafeteria.
“Hm,” Lexi mused, scanning the crowd. “He’s not here yet,” she whispered cryptically at Julia, making her frown. She had insisted that nothing happened the night before, but Lexi seemed to think otherwise.
Elliott stopped at an empty table towards the back of the cafeteria. “Feeling anti-social?” Lexi teased him, as she pulled out a chair and proceeded to dump her belongings on it, slipping out of her snowboarding jacket and tossing that on top of the pile.
“Are you done staking your claim?” Elliott grum
bled.
Unaffected by his mood, Lexi just cupped his jaw with her hand, giving it a slight squeeze. “C’mon, let’s get some food into you.”
A few minutes later Lexi was busy scooping large portions of scrambled eggs on to Elliott’s plate, which he held out for her. Julia had a sneaky feeling he was enjoying Lexi’s undivided attention, even though he refused to wipe the grumpy expression off his face.
Julia reached for the large serving spoon and was attempting to scoop up an uncooperative sausage, when Wynn appeared at her side. He appeared even more exhausted and scraggily than Elliott, but in a much better mood.
“Hey, mind if I cut in? I overslept.”
“Yeah, of course, no problem,” Julia said, moving aside slightly to make room for him. She glanced over her shoulder but didn’t know the person standing behind them. Wynn looked too and gave the girl a feeble wave.
“Morning, Wynn. Tough night?” the girl joked easily with him.
He let out a low raspy chuckle and cleared his throat. “Not too bad.”
At the end of the buffet line, Julia walked with Wynn to the beverage cart. The first cup she took from the rack was heavily encrusted with leftover food around the rim.
“That’s unappetizing,” Wynn remarked, leaning in close to check out the crusty residue. He reached over to lift a new cup from the rack. They both peered inside and spotted the yellowish stain along the side, and shared a disgusted look. He dug around a little more until fishing out two decently clean cups.
“Thanks.”
Julia was pouring herself some tea when Lexi leaned in and whispered, “So nothing happened, huh?”
When they got back to their table, Julia was surprised to see Wynn’s laptop case and Bible already placed next to her stuff. Lexi noticed too and refused to stop smiling.
* * *
The morning continued with more mixed signals.
“What did you do to her?” Suzy whispered to Julia during small group time. She shrugged also wondering why Alison was throwing daggers in her direction throughout the discussion.
“You know who’s a really great dancer?” Alison said out of the blue towards the end of their small group discussion. Julia had no idea where this was coming from, but assumed it stemmed from her thinking about their Talent Show routine later tonight.
“I think she’s asking you,” Suzy hissed at Julia under her breath.
