g r a v i t y [shelby]

The shadow of the rock climbing wall was long and JR put a hand up to his brow to block the sun as he looked all the way up before his gaze slid to Shelby. A smile tugged on his lips as he asked, "You ready?" The summer heat hung in the air and it felt muggy, making him wipe away little beads of sweat from his forehead more often than usual. JR didn't mind the heat much though. As long as he was outside and doing something fun rather than being stuck inside doing arts and crafts. He liked school, but considering he wasn't competing for grades, he didn't feel a huge incentive to put all of his effort into the more academic activities.

It was early afternoon and JR had met Shelby at the Wall, as it was called around camp, after they had talked about it yesterday. He couldn't quite believe that she hadn't done rock climbing yet as it had been very high on the list of things to do as soon as they had dumped their stuff in their cabin. He and Benny were always racing to the top and JR didn't want to admit that the record had been pretty dead even so far. He was determined to edge out his competition though.

Today with Shelby wasn't exactly competition though. He had mentioned that she hadn't done rock climbing and didn't know how so he had offered to show her the ropes. Literally. "You'll have fun," he promised her, his smile getting bigger as he nodded toward the wall and taking a step closer, motioning her closer.

@Shelby Trickett

Shelby had tied all of her hair up into a tight ponytail and it was already falling out, strands escaping from the elastic and plastering themselves to her damp forehead. Nobody warned her how humid it would be in America. Even the breeze from the lake wasn't enough to cool her. Her hands were sweaty too, which was her main concern right now. She wiped her hands on her shorts again, glancing with a worried expression at JR. "Maybe?" she replied, apprehension in her voice.

She wanted to go rock-climbing, she really did! But she was scared of falling off and she didn't want to be scared in front of Tomie or Benny so she had just avoided the wall until now. But it was just JR, and if he made fun of her (which seemed unlikely) she could hold Griffin over him - he owed her, or something. He couldn't laugh at her, and if she fell she would just swear him to secrecy.

Grimacing, she stepped forward, looking up at the wall with all its weird-shaped nubs sticking out the wall. There was a pulley thing, and a bag of chalk on the ground. She looked at JR. "So do I get hooked up to the... the thingy?"

He tried not to let his smile get wider as she answered his question with a question of her own. JR glanced down at the harness in his hand, trying to hide his amusement. He didn't mean to laugh at her and he knew she wasn't a Gryffindor, but her obvious apprehension made him want to laugh. At least, she wasn't dragging her feet.. much. She stepped up and he gave her an encouraging nod before he grabbed a black harness for her. He fiddled with it for a moment, trying to get it the right way up for her before holding it out to her.

"Right, so, here's your harness. You just step in through the big holes," he said as he held it lower for her before he realized it would probably be awkward if he helped her into it better if she fastened it herself. After handing it off, he took his own and stepped in, doing it slowly so she could follow suit. "See? Like this," he said, guiding her as he did up his own harness.

Normally, there were camp counselors helping with the harness or older camp students volunteering for the chore, but it was busy at the rock wall today and the counselors were busy with some of the really newbs. JR had smiled to Brad, one of the tall blonde American counselors with an accent that JR had no idea how to describe, and told him that they were ok for now. Brad, clearly the epitome of a safety scout, had waved him off with a 'sounds good, little dude' and had gone off to help another French student who was trying to put her arms through the harness.

"You're at least better than her," JR said with a snicker as he glanced over at Brad and the French girl, hoping it would make Shelby feel a little better.