Chapter Ten

 

 

 

The inside of the tent was still dark when Blaine woke. Adam had rolled a little away from him in the short time they’d been asleep. Still unconscious, Adam looked peaceful for the first time since he’d told the family who he really was. Blaine moved a lock of blond hair that had fallen in Adam’s eyes. He shook his head and sighed. First thing we have to do when we get back to the mainland is get him a real haircut. God, I butchered his hair but good.

Although the urge to kiss Adam’s forehead was strong, he didn’t want to risk waking Adam. Blaine eased out of his sleeping bag, held it aloft so it wouldn’t make as much noise as it would against the nylon tent bottom and quickly rolled it up. He gave Adam a brief smile before he turned to the zipper and slipped out into the predawn darkness.

“God, you’re noisy,” Seth muttered, half-asleep as Blaine went into the tent they shared.

“No, I’m not. You’re just a light sleeper.” Blaine spread his bag next to Seth’s.

“Yeah, whatever.” Seth rolled over and started snoring.

Blaine eased down onto his sleeping bag. It would’ve been nice to wake up with Adam, but they weren’t sure how Seth’s folks would react and neither of them wanted any more drama on the trip.

He was just starting to doze off when Seth’s mom’s voice rang out. “Okay, sleepyheads, if we’re going to go see the ponies walk from north to south, we need to get some breakfast now.”

Seth rolled over with a loud moan. “Jeez, Mom, can’t we skip it this year?”

“No, we’re not skipping it this year. It’s always the highlight of the trip. We need highlights, so get out of bed and go grab a quick shower while I fix breakfast. Don’t be surprised if there’s no hot water—the other campsites filled up yesterday and I bet we’re the last ones up.”

He glared at Blaine and mumbled, “Somehow, I doubt that.”

“Me too.” Blaine got out of his sleeping bag. “Let’s get going. I want to see what all the foals look like this year. We’ve only seen a couple along the beach and that’s unusual.”

“I bet they’ve been hiding.” Seth struggled out of his bag too.

“Stop chatting and get going,” Seth’s mother called. “As soon as the griddle’s going, I’m getting the hotcakes cooking, so if you want them hot, don’t take long.”

“It’s almost worse than Christmas,” Seth mumbled as he grabbed his towel and shower bag.

“I heard that!” his mother shouted.

On the short walk to the shower, Adam caught up with them. “Hey, do you two want to guard the door for me?”

“What?” Seth asked.

“I want to use the men’s shower today,” Adam replied. There was a note of trepidation in his voice. “I’m really a boy, so I should be using the men’s room, right?”

Seth stopped on the sandy trail and looked at Adam. “I guess. But do we have to do this right now? You didn’t use the men’s room yesterday.”

Adam glared at him. “I wasn’t thinking about it yesterday. It’s a reflex to just use the women’s room. I’m done with that. I need to be me, and that starts now.”

Blaine put his arm across Adam’s shoulder. The contact felt good and natural. “Of course we can watch the door for you. I guess we’ll be doing that for a while.”

“Until everyone’s comfortable with who I am.” A sly grin crossed Adam’s face. “You know, I bet it will be a blast to be able to pee standing up and not make a huge mess.”

“What?” Seth wrinkled his nose. “Please don’t tell me you’ve been trying to pee standing up with your current equipment.”

“No.” Adam frowned at him. “I haven’t been. I’m not that stupid.”

Blaine got them all moving on the trail again. “Let’s not drag this out. I don’t want to miss out on hot pancakes.”

There were enough people waiting for showers, that Blaine watching the door while Adam took his wasn’t a huge deal. Blaine and Seth just let Adam go first. Blaine made Seth go last, so he still had a hot breakfast when he got back to camp.

“Don’t take too long,” Seth’s mom urged. “I heard the Saltwater Cowboys ride past the campground while you boys were in the shower. If we’re going to walk along the beach with the ponies, we’ve got to get moving.”

“Can I just stay in camp?” Seth asked as he grabbed the last couple of pancakes and final piece of bacon.

“No, you can’t,” his father said. “We’re not going to be leaving you out of anything this family does as a unit for a while, so deal with it. Eat quick, we’re ready to go.”

Seth’s mom beamed at his dad. Blaine figured after some of the hushed discussions they’d had the past couple of days, she was happy he was showing unity with her without having to be prodded to do it.

The sun was about halfway out of the Atlantic Ocean when they headed north down the beach. Just past the campground there was already a crowd of people heading that way.

Blaine kept an easy pace with Adam at his side.

“Other than the pony swim, this is my favorite part of the camp out,” Adam whispered.

“It is really cool,” Blaine agreed, although all the people that crowded down the beach made him nervous. Crowds were never his thing, but he worried for Adam. He knew that no one would be able to tell for sure if Adam was male or female, but he didn’t want anything to happen to upset things.

A soft frown darkened Adam’s face for a moment. “I just wish Mom and Dad were here.”

“We wish they were here too,” Seth’s mom added. “But they aren’t, and we’re not going to dwell on that. If they are determined to miss out on the good things in life, there’s nothing we can do about, and no reason to make ourselves sad because they’re being stupid.” She rubbed Adam’s hair with a heavy sigh. “We’re going to get you a proper haircut tomorrow. It’s not something we can put off.”

Adam brightened. “A real boy’s hair cut?”

“Whatever you like,” she replied. “Do you have any ideas?”

“A few. I don’t like the Beiber look, but I do want something short and spiky. More like Blaine’s than Seth’s.”

Seth turned and walked backward, and some of the people around him stared for a moment. “What’s wrong with my hair?”

“It’s on your head.” Adam flashed him a playful grin and laughed.

Blaine and Seth’s folks joined in the laugh.

“He’s got you there, kiddo,” Seth’s dad said as the laughing died down.

They topped the rise and a rolling thunder of hooves on soft sand reached them. Around them the other onlookers paused. Seth’s folks stopped, but Blaine, Adam and Seth pushed their way through the crowd to see what was going on.

Just down the sand dune, a large group of men on horseback drove the herd of ponies along the beach. They ran on the wet sand, just shy of the water. Every now and then one of the ponies would splash into the waves like it was trying to get away, but would turn back after a few feet. There were ponies of every color imaginable. Black, white, brown and multicolored equines raced along the shore. They moved with perfect grace, even the young ones, some of which moved in and out of the herd and other smaller ones stayed close to their mothers’ side as they trotted up the sand.

The Saltwater Cowboys waved their hats and whooped now and then to keep the ponies moving. A cheer went up from the crowd. It shook Blaine to his core, and before he realized it, he was cheering too.

Adam grabbed his hand. “Come on, let’s stay with them as they get to the south corral.”

“Okay.” Blaine glanced at Seth. “You coming?” The crowd was already moving closer to the ponies, joining the folks who’d jogged down the beach with the herd from the north corral.

“Sure, why not.”

“You boys come back to camp for lunch!” Seth’s mother called as they headed down the sand dune toward the ponies.

Blaine didn’t notice if Seth replied, he focused on keeping from being jostled and making sure that Adam was safe. Halfway down the hill, a thought hit him.

If Adam’s a boy, then I shouldn’t be treating him like a girl. He’s going to have to be stronger. But it might be okay if we’re going to be together. Couples protect each other.

From then on, the day passed in a haze of excitement. They stayed with the north herd until it joined with the south herd in a corral close enough to Chincoteague that the hotels on the shore were clearly visible. A lot of people were gathered on the shore there and cheered as the herd entered the corral.

A large man stood up the corner of the corral and announced that the ponies would swim across at low tide, right before sunset. Another cheer went up from both sides of the channel.

“I’m heading back to camp,” Seth announced, then yawned. “I might even go back to bed. It was a really early morning.”

“Good luck with that,” Blaine said. “Your mom’s not going to let you.”

“Wanna bet?” Seth said and started toward the beach.

“What do you want to do?” Blaine asked as Adam stared at the ponies in the corral. There were already several vets in white coats moving among the equine and he remembered reading somewhere that vets checked over all the ponies before the swim across, just to make sure they were in good health. “We could go over to the festival.”

Adam shook his head. “I don’t think so. We should just head back to camp.” His tone was sad again as he started in Seth’s wake.

“Your mom loved doing the festival, didn’t she?” Blaine fell into step beside him.

“Yeah. It doesn’t seem right doing it without her.”

“Okay. But when we get back to camp, let’s take a swim.”

A warm smile pushed away Adam’s frown. “I like that idea.”

“Good.”

 

* * * *

 

“Okay, let’s get to the shore for the pony swim,” Seth’s mom roused them all for the second time that day.

“Right. Come on, boys!” his dad chimed in.

“What side of the channel do we want to be on?” Blaine asked as they started down the trail.

“You mean, do we want to see heads or asses?” Seth asked.

His mother frowned at him. “That’s not how I would’ve put it.”

Seth stopped in the trail and made a dramatic gesture. “No, but it’s the same point, right?”

“Right,” his mother agreed.

“Let’s got to the Chincoteague side,” Adam said. “It’ll be more crowded, but it’s cool watching them come out of the surf.”

“Then we’d better hurry for the bridge.” Seth’s father shooed them all along. “With all this traffic, it’ll be faster to walk.”

Sure enough, his prediction was accurate and they walked across the bridge to the mainland faster than any of the multitude of vehicles managed to make it. The only ones that made any time at all were the boats already lining up along the channel where the ponies would swim.

They reached the beachhead and joined the crowds coming from the pony festival.

“If we get separated, you boys make sure to head back to camp as soon as all the ponies are on shore,” Seth’s dad said as the crowd closed in around them.

“Will do,” Seth and Blaine replied in unison.

Adam laughed at them. “I keep forgetting that you two do that a lot.”

“Don’t worry,” Blaine said. “Give it a few weeks and you’ll be able to do it too.”

“Not sure if my folks are ready for us in surround sound,” Seth said with a chuckle.

The noise from the crowd made it hard to hear, then people started cheering again.

“I guess the ponies are on their way,” Adam said, jumping a bit to try to see over the heads of the people in front of them.

“Probably.” Blaine glanced around to try to find a spot where they could get up higher. There were a few light posts nearby, but there were already kids on them, leaning, trying to get a few. An idea hit him. “Seth, help Adam get on my shoulders.”

Adam turned and blinked at him. “You can’t be serious.”

Blaine shrugged. “Why not? I’ve been working out this year. Put on more than a little bit of muscle. You’re not that big. I can take it, for a little while.”

Seth laughed. “Okay, let’s do this. I want to see the two of you go down in this crowd.” He stepped around behind Blaine’s back.

“You sure?” Adam asked.

“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t.” Blaine braced himself.

After an awkward scramble, Adam’s weight settled on his shoulders with Adam’s legs wrapped under Blaine’s arms.

“How’s this?” Adam asked.

“Fine by me.” Blaine bore the weight better than he’d expected. “Are you comfortable?”

“Not terribly, but I can see the ponies. They’re about halfway across.” A note of excitement came into Adam’s voice. It gave Blaine a thrill that he was able to provide Adam with a new experience.

Adam set up a running commentary as the ponies made their trek. The fact that he could see and Blaine couldn’t made Blaine wish he was just a little taller and could see over the heads of all the adults between him and the shore. Before long he noticed that some of the other teens were doing a similar thing, but most of them were boys on the bottom and girls on top. He felt good being a little different than everyone else. The fact that he was able to be different with Adam made him feel even better.