Copyright © 2018-2024 DouglasDD. All Rights Reserved.
CHAPTER 8
CAMP BEGINS
SUNDAY, JUNE 15
Austin’s phone alarm went off at seven-thirty, disturbing a dream in which he and Ned were dancing around the room naked, while William lay on his bed jerking off. Austin shook his head to clear his mind and reached down to gently stroke his morning wood. He looked over at William’s bed and was surprised to find it empty and unmade. He felt a pang of disappointment, not because William left without saying anything, but because he wanted William to see all of his naked body when he clambered out of bed.
After showering, Austin donned his shorts and picked a fresh t-shirt. Like the shirt he wore the day before, this one had a partial keyboard on it and a quote that read, “When you play, never mind who listens to you—Robert Schumann.” Austin thought that was a good shirt for him to wear, because even if it were only William listening to him, he would still play his best.
On the way to breakfast, he saw Ned exiting the elevator. “Hey, Ned,” he called out.
Ned turned around and grinned. “Good morning, Austin. Did you come down the stairs?”
“Yep, and I go up the stairs, too.”
“But you’re on the fourth floor.”
“And you’re on the second floor, so what does it all mean?”
“I think it means you like climbing stairs and I like riding elevators, eh. Where’s your roomie?”
“I dunno. He was gone when I woke up.”
“That wasn’t nice of him. Mine hasn’t shown yet. Melanie said he probably won’t show until late this morning since he’s been here before. Want to have breakfast with me?”
“I think I’d love to have breakfast with you.”
The boys walked side-by-side to the dining hall. They got into the buffet line and filled their plates with French toast, mixed fruit, bacon, and a blueberry muffin.
“I thought about just having cereal, but this is way better,” Ned told Aiden.
“I like big breakfasts,” Austin said. “Looks like you and me like exactly the same food.”
“Shows we have good taste in food, eh.”
They found an empty table and set their trays down. “I’ll go get us both something to drink,” Aiden offered. “What do you want?”
“Orange juice for me. I’d have a milk, too, but you only have two hands, which won’t carry three drinks.”
“Looks like we both like the same juices too. And I saw they have carriers at the drink station, so you can carry more than two drinks, so milk and OJ for both of us.”
Ned looked at Austin’s chest with a look of surprise on his face. “I just noticed you have a different shirt on than yesterday. It looks the same with the piano and quote, but then I saw it has a different quote and I realized that meant you must have a different shirt. I like the quote.”
“Just play because you like to play,” Austin said as he headed for the drink station. On the way, he walked past William, who was sitting alone at a four-person table but didn’t notice him.
“Hey, roomie, aren’t you gonna say hello?” William called out.
Austin was surprised to hear his roommate’s voice. He turned his head and saw him at the table. “Good morning, William,” he said stiffly.
“Aren’t you glad to see me?”
“Sure I am,” Austin said without conviction.
“Well, you don’t sound like it. Are you mad because I left without waking you up?”
“No. It was just weird seeing your bed empty and messy.”
“What, after one day you’re now my mother? Does this mean I have to report to you anytime I leave the room and make sure my bed is made?”
Austin shrugged. He was ready to end the conversation and get his drinks. William’s plate was full of food and his milk glass was about a third empty. Even though he didn’t want to, Austin tried to make peace between him and his hard-to-read roomie. “You can come join me and Ned for breakfast if you want.”
“Ned? You mean your skin flute playing boyfriend?”
“He’s just a friend I made yesterday.” Austin had no idea what a skin flute was but didn’t ask William to elaborate. He suspected that his roomie was not referring to a musical instrument.
“Sure, why not? Where are you guys sitting?”
“I’m gonna get my drinks and you can follow me when I take them back.”
He returned with a carrier holding two glasses of milk and two glasses of orange juice. William rose from his table and followed Austin. As soon as he saw Ned’s brilliant blond hair, William knew he must be Austin’s new friend.
Trying to maintain his distance from William, Austin kept his introductions formal. “William, this is my friend, Ned. Ned, that’s my roommate, William.” Austin was surprised that the boys shook hands instead of fist bumping.
“Hey, Austin, I just noticed that you have the same t-shirt on as yesterday. Since you are hitting puberty it’s probably a good idea if you showered and changed shirts every day,” William sneered.
Austin sat down, hating himself for feeling sorry for his ass waffle of a roommate for a couple of seconds and inviting him to the table. He started eating his French toast without much enthusiasm. It didn’t help his mood that the French toast was cold thanks to his taking forever to get milk and OJ. We should have gone to the drink station first and then found ourselves a table, Austin whined to himself. Then I wouldn’t have seen William and I’d have hot food.
Ned had heard enough. “Maybe you should look at Austin’s t-shirt before you go shooting your big mouth off,” he sniped, knowing he was getting off on the wrong foot with Austin’s roommate. At the moment he didn’t care.
William looked carefully at Austin’s t-shirt. “Whoa, this is a lighter brown AND it has a cool quote on it.” He read the quote aloud and said, “I’ve played some Schumann, including his piano concerto. But I don’t agree with his quote. Like, I’m not going to play for an audience of assholes at all.”
You play for yourself so you’re playing for an asshole all the time, Ned and Austin thought simultaneously. Austin picked up a piece of bacon, took a bite, and then said to William, “I took a shower, by the way.” Then looked across the table at Ned. “Oh, and thanks for sticking up for me, Ned.”
“Shit, am I ever sorry I followed you over here,” William said to Austin. “I woke up early, couldn’t get back to sleep, decided to sign up for a practice room and look around for any cute girls who came to camp yesterday that I haven’t seen yet, and saw a couple and said hi, and one of them was pretty nice. She plays the violin. Then I came to breakfast, started to eat when Mr. Grumpy sees me and gives me shit because I let him sleep in until his alarm was set to go off.”
He took a deep breath and continued his tirade. “You and your friend talk about me giving you shit, but it’s you two who’ve been giving me shit this morning.”
Austin didn’t respond to William. He focused his eyes on Ned, shoved a piece of cantaloupe into his mouth, and chewed. He was tired of William. All he wanted to do was play the piano, and if it meant sleeping under one of the benches in the courtyard to get away from William and his dramas, then that’s what he would do.
William finished his tirade and went back to attacking his breakfast. He felt the reasons he’d given Austin for getting out of bed and leaving the room early were, for the most part, legitimate ones. He did want to check on the availability of the practice rooms and he did want to see if there were any new girls to check out, but he also wanted to have breakfast without Austin being around him.
He ended up being successful in meeting two-thirds of his goals. There was plenty of open practice time, so he signed up for lucky Room 7. Just as he was about to give up seeing any new girls, he met Shannon in the buffet line. Shannon was thirteen, played the violin, and had long red hair. William thought she was very smart, then realized that anybody who attended music camp there had to be smart and talented, with Austin being a possible exception. Talented? Yes. Smart? Not so much.
He thought about Shannon as he scarfed down the last of his breakfast. He thought she was hot and wondered if she was still a virgin. If so, he hoped he could do something about that state of affairs. After all, a girl had seduced him into losing his virginity (not that he minded), so it was time for him to return the favor.
He asked if she wanted to sit with him but she said she would be sitting with her new roommate, so he sat alone and enjoyed fantasizing about her. He thought about getting one hand inside of her shirt and his other hand in her pants and rubbing her to an orgasm on a bench in the courtyard. His cock was becoming delightfully hard. And then he made the mistake of acknowledging Austin as he walked by.
He had been successfully blocking out the endless chatter between Ned and Austin while he enjoyed his fantasy when he heard Austin’s voice. “Earth calling William. Are you there William?”
“Fuck you guys,” William snarled. “I was thinking about a pretty girl I saw in the buffet line. I’d point her out to you two fags, but she left with a couple of friends. I bet you never noticed her.”
“Maybe we did notice her, but you have to tell us what she looked like,” Austin said.
“She had long red hair, and was wearing a blue t-shirt, and has a nice rack for a girl who’s only thirteen.”
William’s description caught Ned’s attention. “Did you find out what her name is?”
“Yeah, she told me it’s Shannon. She plays the violin. I saw her at the camp, but never… ” The glaring look Ned gave William made him wonder what he’d said wrong. He doubted Shannon was Ned’s girlfriend since they’d only been at the camp for a day. “Who put a hair up your butt?” William asked Ned.
“Shannon’s my sister,” Ned finally spit out.
“So?”
“So, I think she can do better than hang around you.”
William picked up his tray. “Fuck this shit, it’s time for me to go do something worthwhile. You’re acting more like her mother than her little brother. And yeah, I know that’s true because there’s no way you’re her big brother.” William started to move away from the table and then stopped. “Hope you didn’t leave too big a mess on your sheets last night, roomie,” he said to Austin.
“At least I wasn’t bouncing on my bed,” Austin retorted. William stomped away in disgust.
“He is such an asshole,” Ned muttered.
“I didn’t know Canadians knew words like that,” Austin said with mock seriousness.
“We know them. What we don’t do is use pussy words like ass waffle.” He looked over in the direction William had gone and said, “There has to be a way for you and me to become roommates. Even if the camp won’t let us, maybe I can talk my roomie into switching when I finally meet him.”
“That would be excellent,” Austin agreed.
After bussing their trays, Austin and Ned went to Ned’s room where he picked up his flute and scorebook. They headed to the auditorium to find a practice room. All the rooms were in use, but there were a couple of openings at nine-thirty, which was a little over an hour away.
“The rooms sure filled up fast,” Austin said.
“At least after today the staff will be reserving some practice time for us. At least I can play my flute anywhere, which is kind of hard to do when you play the piano,” Ned noted.
“Let’s go check out the library and see what they have.”
Ned told Austin he liked that idea. The boys walked to the main building which housed the library. “Did you really do, um…you know…did you really…”
Austin didn’t want to confess to masturbating to someone he hardly knew, but William had outed him, causing him to elect to confess and go from there. “Yes, I really jerked off. I got all turned on and decided to take care of the problem.” Since Ned had put him on the spot, Austin decided to return the favor. “Do you do it?”
“You mean masturbate?”
“That’s what we were talking about.”
Ned was feeling uncomfortable and wished he had never brought up the subject. Entering the library saved him having to answer. School libraries had a way of stifling any kind of conversation.
While Ned went to the fiction section, Austin perused the music section. He found a scorebook of Handel Keyboard Suites and decided to check it out. Ned arrived at the counter at the same time as Austin with a science fiction book to check out.
A girl who looked to be high school age was working at the desk. Austin handed her his key card which she tapped on a reader. “The is due in a week,” she told him. “No renewals for campers.”
Before Austin could step away, Mrs. Farnsworth, the head librarian, rose from her desk and walked to the counter. “At Bainbridge School we expect our books to be returned in the same condition they were in when they were checked out,” she said without introduction. “I know that may not be true at the schools you come from. If you see a problem with the book, tell us now or you may be liable for a fine.” She returned to her desk without waiting for any comments. Austin immediately placed her into his mental file of bitches, ranking her at the top with Mrs. Spencer, the assistant principal at Fairhaven Middle School.
The student at the counter gave Ned and Austin a look and a shrug that said, Don’t blame me, I just work here. Ned checked the book out and the boys left the library.
“Are you mad because William likes your sister?” Austin asked as he and Ned sauntered to the music hall. Even though Ned thought the question was weird, he was happy that Austin didn’t continue asking about masturbation.
“Not really. My sister can take care of herself. I’m sure she already knows William is what you call an ass waffle. I mean my sister is an expert at running my life, so I’m sure she can run her own just fine.”
Austin nodded as the boys entered the music building in silence. They had planned to read in the library, but they decided to leave lest the librarian yell at them for turning the pages too hard or breathing too loudly. They discussed sitting in the auditorium to pass the time until their practice room was available. They sat in the front section where all the lights were on full. They opened their books and Ned started reading while Austin studied the notes in the Handel scorebook, playing them on the page with his fingers. I can play this he thought, wishing the grand piano on the stage was available.
At ten, they went upstairs to their practice room, finding it empty and ready for their use. “Do you want to play the music in your book?” Ned asked. He had noticed Austin’s finger work on the pages while they were sitting in the auditorium.
“We reserved the room for the two of us. I want us to get good together so we can play in one of the recitals.”
Ned smiled. He and Austin had already become good friends. They spent the hour working to perfect their favorite transcription in Ned’s scorebook. Five minutes before their hour was up, they left the room for the next camper. Austin went to the classroom where Christian would be meeting with his group of campers while Ned headed back to his room to put his books away and maybe meet his roommate.
William let out his ire on the piano in his practice room, banging away through some Beethoven. He wished there was a way he could get Ned’s roommate to agree to switch rooms, so he could talk Austin into rooming with his little faggot friend. He knew his playing was terrible because his mind wasn’t on the music but on his cock.
He wasn’t sure if his raging hardon was because he was thinking of Ned and Austin naked and fucking on Austin’s bed, or because he was thinking of him fucking Shannon on her bed, or because playing Beethoven often gave him a boner. But any boner he got from playing music never strained and twitched the way his hardon was now.
He opened his shorts, pulled down his zipper, and took his cock out of his underpants. He was not thinking of masturbating, he just wanted to free his erection from its prison to allow him to get back to playing. That idea didn’t last long; after playing a few measures the image of him fucking Shannon on his bed while at the same time Austin was fucking Ned on the other side of the room filled his head causing him to stop playing again.
He grabbed his cock in his hand and whacked himself to a quick climax. He placed his cock back into his now cum covered underpants, closed up his shorts, and exited the practice room, hoping he might be able to catch sight of Shannon.
When Ned entered his dorm room, he saw evidence that his roommate had arrived, but he wasn’t in the room. Ned lay on his bed and played with his flaccid penis through his pants. He thought about how nervous Austin had made him when he asked if he masturbated and how happy he was when they reached the library and he didn’t have to answer him.
He started to get hard and took his hand away from his crotch. He wondered what he would have told Austin if his new friend had come back to the subject. He knew what jerking off was, but he had never done it—at least to the kind of finish he heard his friends at school and others claimed was the best feeling in the world.
He felt they were all full of bullshit. They were all eleven and twelve and there was no way they did something he was afraid to do. The reason he was afraid was that if they were right then he was a total dork because he might not make that feeling happen. He went back to rubbing himself through his pants. It always felt good when he did that or stuck his hand inside his pants or underpants and played with himself. A couple of times he even got naked and humped his bed, which felt awesome
A couple of weeks ago, he’d pulled his pants down and humped the couch through his briefs. It had felt so good, he had stopped and pulled his little boner out of the pee slit and went back to humping. The feeling topped anything he’d experienced before, but he wasn’t able to explore himself any further.
Shannon had come back from a friend’s house sooner than expected and caught him with his pants down. She told him what a nasty boy he was and that she never wanted to see him doing something like that again. The embarrassment he felt negated every good feeling and brought him close to tears. He swore to her he would never do it again in the living room and pulled up his pants, making sure his sister didn’t see his boner.
He had rushed to his room and dropped onto his bed. He couldn’t imagine how anything could feel better than the sensations he experienced by simply rubbing himself, or rubbing himself on his sheets, or experiencing the feelings he’d been enjoying on the couch before his stupid sister came into the house. His friends had to be full of bullshit; the point he’d reached just then had to be as good as it got. As for not doing it again, he would restrict playing with his cock to his bedroom or the bathroom so he wouldn’t get caught by her again.
What Ned didn’t know was that after Shannon entered her own bedroom, she stripped naked and masturbed to a satisfying orgasm wishing she’d been nicer to her stupid little brother, at least until she’d had a chance to see if he had his penis exposed. Her best wish was that she had been a few minutes later so she would have seen him with his underpants pulled down as well.
Maybe Austin could tell me what was true, Ned thought. Austin didn’t strike him as being full of himself. From what he’d heard William say at breakfast, Austin must do it. But did he do it all the way, if there was such a thing. Maybe I should bring the subject up, he thought, as his little cock became rock hard from his ministrations. He felt confident Austin would be honest about what the subject of jerking off was really about, and maybe even give him a demonstration.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a keycard unlocking the door. He quickly pulled his hand away from his crotch and sat up on the bed. The door opened, and John Irish stepped into the room.
“Hey, you must be Ned,” John grinned.
“I am. And I bet you’re John.”
“At your service.” The two boys looked each other over. John elected to say nothing about the little bulge he noticed in Ned’s shorts, but he liked the idea that his roommate appeared to have an active boy tool. After ten somewhat awkward seconds, John broke the silence. “I just got shown around by my guide or sponsor or whatever he is, which was dumb since I went to music camp here the last two years.”
“My sister told me you went here last year.”
“And I know your sister is Shannon since you both have the same last name. I went to the week camp two years ago and to the full camp last year. You must be pretty good playing the flute since you’re at the full camp and you’re only eleven. I could only go to the week camp when I was eleven.”
“I guess I’m okay. I applied, somebody came to listen to me play and recorded it, and the next thing I knew I was accepted.”
“Your sister is really a good violinist. She’s better than I am. When I saw your profile, I kept wondering what you looked like. I figured you had red hair like Shannon, but yours is more, brownish blond, or maybe it’s blondish brown. Whatever, I bet you’ll be a fun roommate. I know I’m thirteen and will be fourteen in a couple of days, but I don’t think it matters how old we are since we’re all here for the music.”
Ned wondered if somebody had made a mistake. Shannon had told him that John was a quiet person who kept to himself. While the boy standing in front of him had the same name, quiet was not the word to describe him.
“I’ll try to be fun,” Ned told his roommate. But the way he babbles he might think I’m a quiet person who keeps to himself.
“Just all your blond hair sitting all over the place on your head and across your face tells me you’re a fun person. I’m gonna unpack since the cafeteria opens for lunch real soon and we have that meeting for everybody and then we each get to play one of our three short pieces that we practiced. Do you want to go to lunch together so we can get to know each other?”
“I’m going to have lunch with my friend Austin, but you’re welcome to join us.”
“I will if Austin is cool with it. What does he play?”
“Piano. And he’s cool about everybody except his roommate who isn’t always nice to him.”
“That’s too bad. We’re in this together for four weeks so we might as well be cool about it. If it was for one week it might be different, but four weeks is a long time to have to live with a butthole, if that’s what his roommate is.”
“Austin calls him an ass waffle.”
“Ass waffle? I love it.”
Ned helped John with his unpacking and getting things set up. Since Austin wasn’t sure how long Christian’s meeting would last, he and Ned couldn’t set a definite meeting time. Austin told Ned he’d text him when the meeting was over. Ned received the text at twenty to twelve. He texted back that he would be at the lunchroom in a few minutes with his roommate, John.
Austin waited for Ned and John outside of the main entrance. After introductions were made, they went inside, filled their plates with food, and located an empty table. Austin found himself liking Ned’s outgoing roommate, who was the opposite of what he and Ned were expecting after what Shannon had told them.
“Okay, I know you play the violin,” Austin said to John, “but Ned never said where you were from.”
“Eugene, Oregon. My father is a biology professor at the University of Oregon and my mother teaches music at North Eugene High School and plays the viola in the Eugene Symphony. I have a sister who is fifteen and plays the cello and a brother who is ten and drives everybody nuts playing the trumpet. Now you know me. So, tell me about yourself, Austin.”
Austin gave the equivalent information. He then told them what happened at Christian’s meeting. “It was a long waste of time,” he concluded. “William had already told me everything he told us. Just remember the unwritten rules are don’t have sex in public and don’t get caught alone in a dorm room with a girl when the door is closed.”
“I don’t’ know about the sex in public part, but I know I won’t get caught alone in the room with a girl,” John chuckled.
“You don’t like girls?” Austin asked.
“Oh, I love them. Some of my best friends are girls, but my boyfriend is a boy. You can figure things out from there. And since I already know what you’re going to think, I’m going to tell you that you’re right. And Ned, you don’t have anything to worry about from me. I want to be your friend, but I won’t be hassling you even though I think you’re cuter than hell.” John looked at Austin. “And the same goes for you, because you’re pretty f-n cute, too. I just wanted Ned to feel safe since we’ll be sleeping in the same room—I have no plans to rape him.” Although if he wanted me to, I’d sleep with him in an instant, John thought.
“How well do you know my sister?” Ned asked John. He was still trying to work out in his mind how her description of John’s personality had been so wrong.
“Not very well, especially when you consider we both play the same instrument. I don’t know if you noticed, she can be kind of headstrong. She kept acting like she was special and the queen of the violin while I was some poor slob from a small town in Oregon. She liked to rub our faces in how they did things way better in Canada. No offense, roomie, but I didn’t like your sister all that much, so I finally quit talking to her.”
“I’m not offended. I know how headstrong she is. She thinks she’s my mother times two. When she told me you were my roommate she said you never talked much and kept to yourself. Then you came into the room today and talked up a storm. Now I know why her description was different from how you really are.”
“It looks like you two won’t be members of the Shannon Walsh fan club very soon,” Austin snickered.
Ned and John looked at each other and laughed.
Some of the parents who had dropped off their child Sunday morning stayed for the recital. Only a handful of parents came to the school for the recital. Austin’s mother, Valerie, wanted to drive down from Bellingham to have lunch with her son and listen to him play.
Josh Fielding, Austin’s piano teacher, discouraged her from coming. “Right now, the big thing for him will be bonding with his roommate and some of the other campers to establish friendships. He doesn’t know anyone at the camp. You will only be in his way and slowdown that important part of his development.”
“I miss him. I want to, no, I need to see him.”
“You’ve seen the camp schedule; there will be plenty of opportunities for lunches and for listening to him play. As hard as it is, stay away from him for now.”
“Until when?”
Josh pointed to the next public recital, which was over a week away. “That looks like a good starting point.”
“That’s so long from now.”
“Good,” he grinned.
As much as she didn’t want to, Austin’s mother had to admit that Josh was right. She would just have to wait for the proper moment and give her excess mothering to James until she saw Austin again.
After a lot of battling with himself, Austin picked the “Goliwog’s Cakewalk.” Chopin was going to be his choice, but he hadn’t practiced it for a couple of days and he didn’t feel confident enough in his mastery. The students played in the order of their seniority as campers and students at the school, with the first-year campers playing first.
After he finished playing, Austin felt good about his performance. The students, teachers, parents, and others in the audience applauded enthusiastically when he finished. Ned gave him a hug around his shoulder when he retook his seat. “You were really good,” Ned told him as the next performer took his place on the stage to play a Mozart work for clarinet and piano. Mr. Boardman was the girl’s accompanist.
When Ned’s turn came, he played an Irish ballad without accompaniment. William was one of the last to play his prepared solo. He sat at the piano, still furious over Austin playing the Debussy Cakewalk. He thought about making a last-minute change to one of his other two pieces but decided to play the Cakewalk just to show everybody how much better he was than his twelve-year-old roommate.
He finished to loud applause which wasn’t as enthusiastic as Austin had received. William knew he had played the piece perfectly, unlike Austin who had hit a couple of sour notes. He attributed the lack of energy of the tired audience. This would be one of the few times everyone in the camp would be playing something in the same recital.
Mr. Boardman was sitting backstage since he and Rene Zimmer were providing piano accompaniment for those who needed it. The plan was for the piano students to be the accompanists by the end of camp. He compared the performances of William and Austin. William’s was technically perfect; his keyboarding and tempo were flawless.
Austin missed a couple of notes and was a little off tempo at times. But Austin had done a remarkable job of capturing the musical colors inherent in Debussy’s music, especially for one so young. He did a much better job of capturing the essence of the music.
Boardman had no doubt that Austin was the more talented of the two, but William was the more accomplished performer. This was due in part to his pedigree and upbringing and because of his age and experience. What Boardman couldn’t figure out was what William was doing at the Bainbridge camp. While the camp had an excellent reputation and attracted students from around the country, it was not a premier music festival. The campers were talented musicians. Having the camp on their resumes was prestigious. But they were also younger and less experienced musicians.
William had played as soloist with two amateur orchestras and a semi-professional ensemble as a thirteen-year-old. Boardman felt he should be experiencing the next step up. He should be learning and performing at summer festivals and camps that attracted Julliard level students. While he was the big name and the big cheese among the pianists, he was spinning his wheels at Bainbridge. The camp had done well by him, but it now had nothing new to offer.
As the students filed out of the auditorium to their dorms and dinner, Boardman watched Austin leave with Ned, the flutist. The two had become quick friends, which didn’t surprise Boardman. They were both talented, outgoing boys who seemed to be naturally drawn to each other. Boardman was ready to make Austin his project for the summer. With the right prodding, the right teaching, and the right attitude on Austin’s part, Boardman saw greatness in the ultra-talented young boy’s future.
Next: Friend? Not Friend?