Searing pain overwhelmed his corneas as Stanley opened his eyes. The light bulbs overhead were unforgiving and uninviting. He immediately had to close his eyelids down over their glare but after doing this a few times the pain started to subside and he was able to look around freely.
As soon as he took in his surrounding environment he knew that the dream he had had was no dream at all; everything that had taken place was imprinted in his memory like children writing their names in wet cement. It was both embarrassing and amazing all at the same time.
Still, as he looked around inside the dimly lit cabin he saw that he was surrounded by remnants of femininity; much to his delight. Everything inside reeked of sugar and spice, and he had never felt so out of place in his entire life. He imagined this is what it must've felt like to be kidnapped, or perhaps even knocked unconscious and simply waking up someplace else.
He sat up straight, and that's when he noticed the pain in his head. He had a pounding headache, and as he clutched his face in his hands and rubbed his temples he would have given anything to get rid of it. As he sat there in someone else's bed he started to wonder what would become of him now. He felt as though his very well-being was at stake, as if the events of yesterday would have a negative impact on today.
Toughening out his headache proved to be more difficult than simply waiting it out. The lights in the cabin were the bane of his existence; however...they did offer him the necessary help he needed to properly look around. As he did so he felt a lot like a spy, but rather than spying on other countries or intelligence agencies he was spying on the opposite sex.
On the wall next to him were cut-outs and posters of various rock bands and other celebrity figures. They were laid out randomly and held up crudely with pieces of scotch tape. Many of the paper clingings were overlapping, and he made the accurate deduction that the girl who usually slept in this bed wasn't very organized.
Directly across from his bed was another, and unlike the plain sheets that he slept on the others had vibrant colored patterns on them; as did the bed in the corner across from it. Both beds and areas were neatly organized, with science-related cutouts and the like strewn out across their respective walls. The cutouts were held in place with thumbtacks - one cutout right next to the other- until both sets of customized wallpaper met between the two windows on that side of the cabin.
On the other side of the door was the final bed. This one was much different than the others. Several colors lit up that area of the cabin, but the color that was mainly in use was pink. The sheets on the bed were fluffy, and bulged out like a giant pink cloud. Unlike the other walls in the cabin the walls in this area were cluttered with pictures of teen heartthrobs and handsome actors. Where the other walls maybe had just a few pictures of men between the other pictures which helped express themselves, the girl who took up residence in the final area had at least three pictures of men for every one picture on the other girls' walls.
With the pounding in his head still going on Stanley had not noticed the giggling. But as he stared around at the beds and walls of the cabin his mind started to churn, and this helped to fight off the massive headache he was experiencing. When his headache finally stopped pounding he was able to hear obvious giggling coming from the front of the cabin.
His eyes trailed over to the door and he saw that it was cracked open only slightly. He saw a pair of eyes and a flash of red hair peek out through the cracked door and then retreat. In instinct he threw himself back down on the bed and covered up with the bed sheets. It was then that he noticed his clothes were no longer wet from his late night swim, and only after he realized this did he realized that he was fully clothed - right down to his shoes.
Sheepishly, he buried his head under the bed sheets as well.
His face began to grow flushed as he realized that there were two girls giggling. He heard them open the door and step in slowly, all the while trying to conceal their giggling from him. His body became stiff as a board as though the embarrassment of the situation was too much for him to handle, and he shut his eyes tight in an effort to escape the situation even more as he felt the two girls step to his bedside.
The giggling was still going on, but one of the girls spoke in between stifling laughs.
"Umm...Stanley?" she said.
Unsure about how to proceed, Stanley simply spoke from beneath the sheets; refusing to face the two girls - and reality.
"Yeah?" he said, his voice cracking slightly in nervousness.
He listened to the two girls giggle some more, and a moment later the other girl spoke up.
"Um...it's us, Stanley - Becca and Mona. You know, from school?"
"Rebecca?" Stanley asked from under the covers. "And Ramona?"
"Yeah, that's right Stanley." The first girl said. "Lacey told us about what happened to you."
Stanley tried his best not to groan. Indeed he was familiar with the two girls at his bedside. They were twin sisters, and some of the smartest girls in school. They weren't quite as smart as he was, but when they put their minds together they were a force to be reckoned with. In Stanley's mind the two girls embodied the term 'nerd,' maybe even as much as he himself did. When he thought of them images of their carrot-top hair came to mind, along with their pale white skin and freckled faces. In chem class the two were always partners, and Stanley always took comfort in the fact their hair was always frizzy and they always opted to wear the whitest lab-coats available. It made him look like less of a geek in comparison to the two 'mad scientist chicks' that stood next to him.
"You guys...you came all the way over here? Just to check on me?" Stanley asked, his eyes shut tight still.
There was a brief moment of silence in which the girls did not giggle. Stanley could tell that they were having some sort of unspoken conversation on the other side of the sheet he was hidden under.
"No, we didn't, Stanley..." Rebecca said. "We go to camp here."
Stanley tried to hide the fact that he was frowning, although he had no idea why he was trying to hide it. The two girls couldn't see him underneath the sheet, nor could he see them for that matter.
"Stanley..." Ramona said. "Becca and I know how you must feel, but you can't stay buried under that blanket forever."
"I...uh..." Stanley said, trying to sound cool and composed. "...yeah, I know..."
"So why don't you just let us see your face, then?" Rebecca asked. "You don't have to get up or anything. Just pull the blanket off your head. You know - take it slow."
"Uhh...I don't know..." Stanley said, still unsure about how to proceed.
"C'mon Stanley, it's us! You know us." Ramona said. "We have classes together all the time! Hey, maybe you can even help us with our summer project? What do you say?"
"Umm...well..." Stanley said. He was becoming paranoid that the girls could see him now. For some reason he felt as though they could see how red his face was and how nervous he was feeling.
"Stanley..." Rebecca said in a nurturing and soothing voice. "Everyone knows you're the smartest one in school..."
Rebecca's comment did help him to feel better. He felt his hands stop shivering, and his body began to loosen up. He also began to think that even if the two sisters had seen him naked he probably didn't have much to worry about. Becca and Mona were very unsightly; so much so that Stanley doubted they had ever even had boyfriends, much less seen a boy naked. The nerdy redheads were built like ironing boards, and Stanley figured that girls like them who sported flat buns and a flat chest probably didn't have dates lining up at their front door.
The girls heard him let out a deep sigh, and a moment later Stanley started to pull the blankets down from over his head.
The first thing he saw were their faces looming over him, and after taking both of them in Stanley couldn't help but gasp and stare.
