Chapter 8 - Motivation

                                    

                                          
Sang 
"If we're needed for this, are we going to have to swim out into the middle of the lake?" Sang asked, blinking at the sight before her. A mile or so from the main camp, the site included a lake that the river where the campers went panning for gold ran into. It wasn't very big, so the campers were supposed to race in two-person kayaks in teams of two from one side of the lake to the other. 
On the one hand, Sang understood why she and Sean were there. On the other . . . was the camp really having their doctor and nurse act as lifeguards? 
Sean smiled before pointing to a rowboat Sang hadn't noticed. "If there is a problem where we need to rush out into the middle of the lake, we'll use that. But since everyone is required to wear life jackets and there's nothing dangerous in the water, I don't imagine that's too likely. Though it's possible a camper will get beamed in the head by someone's paddle, and then we might be needed." 
Sang winced at that thought, her eyes seeking out Gabriel and Luke, standing together in their swim trunks with bright orange life jackets on. That wasn't likely, right? "Does that often happen with kayaking?" 
Sean shrugged. "Can't say I have much experience with kayak races. If these gremlins were serious about the race, I might be worried about them trying to hurt each other on purpose, but no one seems too excited."
That was certainly true. She and Sean stood a little back from the crowd of campers, but she could hear groans from here and more than one camper complaining that it was too hot to race. It was certainly the warmest day of the camp yet, and she didn't blame the campers for wanting to swim rather than kayak all the way to the other side of the lake in a race that appeared to be just for the sake of racing. Though she'd expected some of the guys to be excited about it just for the sake of competition. It was hard to believe that with this many kids not one of them was feeling competitive. 
"How about this?" the counselor Wyatt called out, raising his voice to be heard above the complaining. "Whichever team wins gets to have ice cream sandwiches before anyone else." 
His suggestion was booed down by several boys. Sang couldn't exactly say she blamed them. If everyone was going to get an ice cream sandwich, was it really a reward to get it first? 
Then one of the boys suddenly stood on his toes as he pointed to Sang. "How about whichever team wins gets a kiss from the nurse?" 
Sang's eyes popped wide open, her cheeks flaring red as several of the boys cheered and whooped at that, clearly finding that idea much more exciting than getting an ice cream sandwich a little earlier than someone else. Irritation flashed in Sean's eyes as his hand twitched toward her, almost like he planned to grab her to drag her away, but he stopped himself in time. Since she was supposed to be single, Sean being so protective over the idea of her kissing another guy would probably look weird. 
It took the counselors several minutes of shouting to get the campers to calm down before Kota, his voice firm, said, "That's not an appropriate reward. Ignoring the age difference, you should never try to coerce or trick a girl into kissing you." 
"That's right," Victor agreed. Sang could make out the offended, blazing fire in his eyes from here. "And over half of you are too young to be kissing anyway." 
That comment got a few boos, though Gavin joined in with saying, "If we have to hold a class on what it means to respect the opposite sex, we will! You don't get to use a nurse who came here to help keep you kids healthy like she's some sort of trophy." 
Jared didn't say anything, merely crossing his arms over his chest and scowling out over the campers. It occurred to Sang that maybe she should say something about her sort of confrontation with him to the guys . . . but he hadn't exactly been threatening, more just rudely voicing his opinion on Sang's presence at the camp. There was the fact that he'd made her uncomfortable, but she didn't want to make too big a thing out of it in case she was seeing something that wasn't there. And she didn't want to distract the guys when protecting the campers and finding out how and why they were getting hurt without remembering what happened was supposed to be everyone's priority.