About 15 minutes later, a shrill whistle blast signaled it was time to go back to the buses. Joey and Pacey emerged from the hallway laughing. They'd walked through a total of six times. "Thanks for going in with me Pacey," she smiled.
"You're welcome Jo. Anytime."
"I better go round up my girls. See you on the bus," she said, releasing hand (which she'd been latched onto for the last fifteen minutes), and walking off. Immediately, she noticed her hand had become cold, but before she could further analyze why she missed Pacey's touch, Carrie and Jen walked over to her. "Where are the other girls?" Joey asked.
"Umm..there's Steph and Sarah coming from over there, and um..over there is Brook, Lexi, and Angela." Carrie said, proudly having found everyone.
"Great." Joey smiled and proceeded to call the other girls over. "Come on, time to go get on the bus." She smiled as they happily followed her.
Once all of her girls had safely returned to their seats, Joey returned to hers next to Pacey. She was about to say something when Mr. Williams stood up, bracing himself against the seat as the bus began to move, and began addressing the group. "We'll be arriving at Fort Campbell in about a half an hour. When we get there, your bags will be waiting for you in piles sorted by group. Gather them and bring them to you barracks. Once you've finished unpacking, spend sometime getting to know everyone in your group. Remember, everyone needs to be at the play field by 1 o'clock," he finished and sat down.
"Pacey." Joey said lying her head down on his shoulder. "Don't move. I'm going to take a nap," she mumbled, as she closed her eyes.
"Okay Jo," he whispered back. In a few minutes her breathing had evened out. Pacey smiled, admiring her beauty as she slept. He watched her like this until they arrived at Fort Campbell. "Hey Jo. Joey..." he whispered, reaching over and running the side of his hand down her cheek in a subtle attempt to wake her.
"Mmmmm...Pacey?" she said fluttering her eyes, "Why did you wake me up?"
"We're here sleeping beauty. Final stop, Fort Campbell," he smiled. Joey smiled back and sat up, stretching.
"Thanks for being such a good pillow Pace," she said with a smile as she got up and escorted her girls off the bus and to their piles of bags.
"Joey?" Lexi asked, as they gathered their things and headed toward their barrack. "Do we have to stay with boys?"
"No, they stay on the bottom floor and we stay on the top floor. Don't worry, they aren't allowed to come upstairs. Which also means we can't walk around downstairs except to use the main door to exit." Joey explained, as they walked up the stairs of the barrack.
They were the first group there so they got their choice of beds. The rooms were separated by open-faced walls with a bed against each wall. Since there were seven girls in her group, Joey stayed in a cubicle with Brook. Once they'd laid their sleeping bags out across the mattresses, the girls all piled into Joey and Brook's cubicle to chat until it was time to play capture the flag. Lexi, Carrie, and Angela were piled on Joey's bed with her. On the opposing bed sat Steph, Sarah, Jen and Brook. "Okay, so why don't you all tell me something about you, then you can ask me questions."
As asked, they told Joey about themselves. Now it was her turn. "Okay, so who has a question for me?" she asked, once the last girl had finished talking.
"I do!" Carrie spoke up. "Who was that cute guy you sat with on the bus?" This caused Joey to blush.
"Oh, that was just Pacey."
"Is he your boyfriend?" Lexi asked.
"Oh, no. He's been one of my best friends since I was your age, before that even," she said, fondly.
"I dunno, you two sure looked cozy on the bus." Steph teased causing Joey to blush some more.
"Come on girls," she said checking her watch, "I'll tell you more about Pacey later. Now we have to get to the play field or we'll be late!"
Upon arrival at the play field, Joey noticed a row of orange cones stretched out down the middle of the field. The girls and boys had already separated onto opposite sides. Joey led her group to the girls side just as Mr. Williams came out to go over the rules.
"Okay. I'm sure all of you know the rules to Capture the Flag, but just in case, let's go over them one more time. The object of the game is to cross enemy lines, retrieve the flag, and bring it safely back to your side without getting tagged. If you get tagged you have to go to jail. To be freed, a member from your team must crossover and tag you without being caught themselves. If they successfully tag you, you are both given a free trip back to your side. Other than that, you start, and stop at the sound of my whistle. Have fun!" Mr. Williams said, finishing his speech and walking off of the field. When he was a safe distance away as not to get trampled, he blew his whistle.
Joey's girls took off running leaving her alone. 'Well, might as well play.' She thought to herself. 'Hmmmm..I remember how to play this. I need to wait until some poor unsuspecting sixth graders run out to leave me an open space to run,' she smiled to herself remembering how this was her, Dawson, and Pacey's favorite PE game in middle school. Just then three unsuspecting girls ran across the line giving Joey an opening. She took it and ran toward the flag. All she knew was that she had to keep running as not to get tagged. She was almost in reaching distance of the flag, which was someone's old sweatshirt, when a pair of strong arms caught her around the middle, and pulled her tight against a tall figure.
"Look what I caught," her capturer said, leaning down and whispering into Joey's ear, causing a shiver to run up and down her spine. "And where were you going in such a hurry Josephine?"
"Pacey," she said breathlessly, relaxing into his embrace. "Don't sneak up on people like that. You almost gave me a heart attack."
"Jo, as much as I enjoy this position," he said, suggestively toward Joey, "I'm afraid you just drew a 'go to jail' card."
"Oh come on Pace. It's me. Can't you just let me go? Just this once?" Joey whined.
"Sorry Jo but rules are rules. Now if you resist arrest I'll have no choice, but to carry you over there myself." Pacey smiled down at Joey.
"Thanks for the offer Pace but I'll go peacefully," she said, patting him on the shoulder as she headed off toward the jail. Pacey watched her as she walked away, but quickly turned his attention back to the game as she reached her destination and began to turn around.
The game went on until just before 3:00 when Mr. Williams blew his whistle again signaling its end. "Okay, everyone find your counselor and follow me. We're going to go visit the bunkers at Fort Campbell. They're almost exactly the same as Fort Watters, except with more rooms and an old cannon mount on top." He waited a few minutes until everyone was back into groups. "Great, follow me!" he announced as they headed off on their short hike to the bunkers.