Niall:Seems random
Daniel:Hughie wants to. Kids from class want him to go. Us actually
Niall:You want the Halloween plans to be camping with your class?
Daniel:Hughie made me text to ask, so it’s not really me
Niall:Can I think about it?
The class is staring at me. “He said he’d think about it.”
***
We pull into our tent space, one sandwiched in between three other occupied spots. When checking in, the employee informed us that this wasn’t traditionally a busy weekend for the campground. That we would, the royal we including the students from class, pretty much have the campground to ourselves.
What had been particularly nice about this campground was that the tent spaces actually came with the tents. My experiences camping at home was that, when you rented a spot in a campground, you were literally just paying for renting the ground for the night. You brought everything else with you.
This made packing for the trip much easier. I had gone out and bought a couple of air mattresses and some other camping essentials while Niall and Hughie did the food shopping. And boy, did they go overboard with the food. Niall reminded me that it wasn’t just them but a group of always hungry college students. That, even if they were responsible for themselves,would likely not plan well enough for a weekend fending for themselves.
Which, it turns out, Niall would be immediately disproven.
Once out of the car, I take in the little community of tents and a smile immediately comes to my face. Each tent is decorated in a different theme, and most of them are things that Hughie has talked about. Super Mario, Minecraft, Marvel, and oddly enough Jurassic Park. Niall begins unpacking the car and carrying things to our tent, which happens to be the Super Mario tent. Hughie walks past the car and looks at all the tents, then turns back to me.
“It’s perfect,” Hughie says, grabbing my hand and pulling me forward.
The Jurassic Park tent flap suddenly unzips, a giant inflatable dinosaur popping out of the opening. It turns, facing Hughie.
“RAWR!” The dinosaur starts a slow, stumbling run. Hughie screams, then laughs as the dinosaur chases him around the tents. Niall pokes his head out of the tent, casually observes for a few moments, then retreats back in.
Slowly the rest of the students emerge from their tents, everyone in costumes that match the decorations. Hughie runs from tent to tent, peeking inside, saying hi to everyone.
“You know, I was a bit skeptical of this plan,” Niall says, his arm wrapped around my waist. “I didn’t have a lot of faith in a group of college kids. Actually, I didn’t know what to expect at all.”
“The best class I’ve ever taught.”
The afternoon is, for the most part, action packed. The kids play an actual football game, asking Niall and I to referee. Which, in reality, is mostly Niall because I’m still struggling with the fundamentals of the game. Which is shown when I let a goal stand and have Noah screaming about it being offside.
There’s also mini golf, disc golf, and a ropes course. It gives Niall and I some time to ourselves, the students unintentionally playing babysitter.
“How’s this compare to Halloween at home?” Niall asks, topping off my glass of Sancerre.
“Well, last Halloween our condo complex set up tables outside on the sidewalk. We drank and gave out candy together so it was easier for the kids. I think Michael and I went through like four hundred pieces of candy.”
“Holy shit.”
I laugh. “Yeah, and we always got the good stuff. No trash candy like Smarties or SweeTarts. Or those gross like peanut butter taffy things. You know, the ones that come in the black and orange wrappers?”
“Can’t say that I do.”
“Good. They’re fucking terrible.” I take a sip of wine. “Last year everyone from the condo dressed as Savannah Bananas and Party Animals.”
“What’s a Savannah Banana?”
I roll my eyes. “You need to be on social media more.” I pull up TikTok and show him a variety of videos, both of the Bananas and Party Animals.
“And, let me guess, you and Michael dressed up as two of the hotter ones?”
I find a picture on my phone and show him. “Michael was Jackson Olson and I was Tanner Thomas.”
