Free Girls Only: Girl Scout Trip by Selena Kitt

What
can you do with a dozen fourteen-year-old Girl Scouts, three dozen Hershey’s
chocolate bars, two boxes of graham crackers and four bags of marshmallows when
you’re thirty miles from any known civilization?
    Paige
could think of a few things, not the least of which involved going to prison
for homicide—those pointy marshmallow sticks would make a great weapon,
she mused—but she gritted her teeth and agreed to take them all down to
the lake to swim so Brandi could finish setting up camp.
    “Are
you sure you know how to pitch a tent?” Paige asked doubtfully, watching the
other “adult volunteer” in their little band of merrymakers pulling tent poles
out of a bag.
    Even
though Brandi had taken charge once the bus had arrived at the camp site, barking
orders clearly enough to get the girls moving, setting up their tents and
unpacking their gear, Paige still wasn’t quite sure Brandi knew what she was
doing, exactly.
    Maybe
it was her own brunette’s natural prejudice against the petite blonde—or
maybe it was Brandi’s bright idea that using some of the kerosene would help
the fire start a little faster. Paige had thankfully made it to the girls
before they tried that brilliant idea, or all of them would have gone
home to their parents without eyebrows.
    “I’ll
be fine!” Brandi blew a stray length of blond hair out of her eyes, sitting
back on her heels in her hiking boots. She was wearing her green Girl Scout
sash with all her badges, everything from her Brownie wings to her Senior Scout
badge and Paige had to resist the urge to make a joke about Girl Scout cookies
being made from real Girl Scouts so hard she actually bit her tongue. “Please,
just take the girls down to the lake. Let them swim and have fun. I’ll finish
up here.”
    “If
you’re sure?” Paige glanced over at the giggling group of girls, already in
their suits, towels slung over their shoulders, among them Paige’s little
sister, Jess—the sole reason she’d agreed to come along on this
exasperating outing in the first place.
    “Go!”
Brandi insisted, flashing her a very broad smile as she struggled with the tent
bag. “I’ll have it all fixed up by the time you get back. That’s your tent,
isn’t it?”
    “Uh,
yeah, but…” Paige looked over at her gear—less than half of what most of
the other girls had dragged along. She was a seasoned camper, even if she’d
never been a Girl Scout.
    “I’ll
set your tent up too, as payback, okay?” Brandi stood, brushing her hands off
on her khaki shorts and shooing Paige toward the waiting gaggle of girls. “Then
we can get that fire going and roast hot dogs and marshmallows!”
    “Okayyy,
but no kerosene, right?” Paige backed away, still doubtful, but there was no
arguing with that blinding, over-confident smile and squeaky reassurance.
Besides, what trouble could she get into setting up tents, Paige reasoned,
directing her charges down the path toward the beach.
    The
girls were just as obnoxious down at the beach, snapping each other with wet
towels, comparing suits, whispering jealously about Jess’s impressive cleavage,
even at her age. Paige looked at her sister, listening to the other girls with
her own painful memories of being teased about her ample bust size, knowing the
girl would eventually come to appreciate her bra size. It certainly drew all
the boys’ attention, that was for sure—although in Paige’s case, that had
been annoying. For Jess, who didn’t have a gay bone in her boy-crazy little
body, it would be a boon.
    She
took out her Kindle and read for an hour while the girls swam and played and
generally made a nuisance of themselves. The sun was starting to sink low in
the sky and she judged it was about seven. Time to get them all back to camp
for dinner. As if on cue, Jess sidled up and started complaining that she was
hungry. Paige stowed her Kindle in her beach bag and stood, brushing stand off
her cut-offs.
    “Let’s
go then.” Paige led the