Blame it on the weatherman [Ryleigh]

It was the perfect day for hiking!

The eleven year old thought with a dreamy sigh; the sky above them was a picturesque light blue and there was not a cloud in sight. A gentle breeze added a much needed crispness to the air. There was nothing worse than trying to complete prolonged exercise in clammy heat. Ackley thought with a slight wrinkle of his nose, which conveyed the displeasure he felt at the very idea.

It was the end of their first week at camp, and their counsellor had come up with the idea of spending the day on a hike, which would be followed by marshmallows and scary stories at the camp fire. Ackley couldn’t wait for the evening camp fire. If wizarding marshmallows were anything like the chocolate he tried in Diagon Alley they were bound to be delicious. And what self-respecting eleven year old didn’t like a good fright? The wizard raised kids were bound to have some good stories he hadn’t heard of before.

Their hiking group consisted of ten kids and two counsellors, and they’d been grouped into pairs. That way they’d be able to both socialise with each other and maintain a steady pace throughout the hike. Ackley had just been paired with a girl his age, which was great because he had become fed up of worrying about making a fool of himself in front of the older kids. He hadn’t got to talk to her much, but she seemed like a really nice person. The best thing about Ryleigh was her accent! He had to resist the urge to chuckle every time he heard it. It was amazing! She sounded just like the movie stars he saw on TV.

The Briton turned to face Ryleigh with a bright smile on his face. He was clad in navy blue baggy trousers and a matching t-shirt. They were a bit big on him, but looked less tattered than his usual fare, as he’d borrowed the outfit from one of his bunk mates. It was nice to wear something relatively new rather than one of Lawrence’s cast offs for once. Not that he’d ever say that out loud! As his grandfather reminded him often enough his parents worked hard to put food on the table.

“Are you excited for the hike? Have you been on one before? My grandpa likes to take me and my big brother Lawrence on hikes when the weather’s nice! I think he’s going to take my sister Beverely next time. She’s not a baby anymore” he rambled excitedly as he waited on her answer. He extended a slightly dirty looking hand to the girl. He’d clearly been snacking on something recently and neglected to wash his hands afterwards. “My names Ackley by the way and your name is Rayleigh right?” They’d been in several activity groups together during the week, but since they hadn’t an opportunity to speak one on one before he felt the need to introduce himself.

“You going to stay around for the stories later?” He asked in a curious tone. Their counsellor had made it clear anyone who wasn’t interested in listening to the stories would be free to head to their bunk early instead. Though why anyone would want to do that was beyond Ackley.

@Ryleigh Katō

Temporarily holding her baseball cap in her teeth as she redid her ponytail, Ryleigh nodded emphatically to Ackley’s questions and let him ramble on for a bit. As soon as it was back on her head, she didn’t hesitate to join right in.

“Yeah, hiking is awesome. We used to go up to the mountains, like, once a month. There’s all sorts of cool trails. Have to watch out for the mountain lions, though – my brother Owen is two-and-a-half years younger than me and so up until like two years ago, we had to put him on my dad’s shoulders so the mountain lions wouldn’t try to go for him.” She shrugged; she was mostly over how morbid it sounded. There were signs all over the trails warning parents of this; they also recommended carrying small dogs (or not bringing them at all) for the same reason. It had scared Ryleigh at first, when she was little, but now that she was older she understood that the mountain lions wouldn’t attack because they were mean: they were just hungry. And all you really had to do was just make noise and tell them to go away and eat something else instead, and that was usually the end of it.

“How old’s Beverely?” she asked, pulling a granola bar out of her pocket, unwrapping it, and taking a bite. “Want one?” she offered, pulling out a second and holding it out to Ackley, who already had a hand held out to her. She high-fived it then put the granola bar in his hand.

“Oh, hi, yeah I’m Ryleigh,” she nodded. ‘Ackley’ was an interesting name – she definitely didn’t know anyone else named Ackley. Did he have any nicknames? She was tempted to ask.

When he asked about the stories, she bobbed her head again. She was feeling a bit like a bobble-head figurine, with all this nodding.
“No way am I going to bed early in the summer,” she laughed dramatically. “That would be so lame.”