Dinner was complete and utter bedlam. The noise and energy levels were beyond anything I had witnessed thus far at camp. The atmosphere was syrupy thick with male hormones. Posing and posturing all around.

We gave up on any semblance of conversation at the director’s table and resigned ourselves to being spectators to the hoopla. Himself reached into his pocket, pulled out ear plugs and pushed them into his ears. He made some adjustments and then nodded with satisfaction. He looked over at me and smiled, gratified. I smirked at him and laughed.

We were just finishing dessert (raspberry crumble) and the third go-round of screaming “We’ve got spirit, yes we do!” at screeching levels when Jake brought Collin over to me and tapped me on the shoulder.

“Collin’s head hurts.” Jake said into my ear.

“Let’s go up to the office.” I yelled back and then stood up to leave. I walked over to Himself, pulled out the ear plug in his left ear and stooped down to speak. He cringed at the sounds of the dining hall. “I have to go up to the office. I want to see you before you leave though. OK?” Himself gave me the thumbs up and then held out his hand. I gave him back his ear plug and he briskly put it back in his ear.

Collin and Jake followed me to the Health office. As soon as we stepped into the stairwell and the door swung closed, the noise level dropped by several decibels.

“Man that’s loud! It’s total insanity in there.” I said as I shook my head in disbelief.

“Oh ya, eh?!” Jake said.

“Is is because of the girls?” I asked him as we made our way up the stairwell.

“Well, yes, that and it’s fueled by all the sugar the campers had.”

“Sugar?”

“You know, all the treats the parents bring up. Did you see all the pop, cupcakes and chocolate bars the families brought to their campers?” I shook my head. “Well there was a metric ton and, ya, the kids gorge themselves on all that junk food and then they bounce off the walls the night after Visitor’s Day. It’s a phenomenon. Tonight we will have extra staff assigned to hut patrols. The campers take forever to go to sleep and we have to squelch any sort of panty raids.”

“Panty raids? No!” I glanced at Jake.

“For real. The Panty Raid of 1987 was infamous. Camp Acorn’s history was marred by the scandal and it must never happen again. Not on my watch anyway.” Jake looked at me with  complete seriousness.

“For real?” I stopped to look at Jake closely.

“No joke, Nurse Anne.” Jake stopped and looked me in the eye, somberly.

“I can see that our Tripper Girls are safe with you on duty, Jake.” I said as I turned and continued up the stairs with Collin following behind.