Chapter 125

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The guys had told me a little bit more about their work with the Academy and the grand tradition of camping after Christmas up until New Years. I told them that it was fine and that they could still go. They fussed over that because they didn't want me and Lexine to be alone without them for a week. I offered for us to go with them but that didn't appease them either. Finally Preston told me about it being a kind of introduction to the Academy and seeing if new comers could band into teams. My first thought was about Lexine and what it would mean for her. Surely she was way too young for that? I left it up to them and they said that they would talk to Phil and figure something out.

After conferring with Phil, a decision was made. For the first few days of their camping trip, Chase, Brady and Wyatt would go and then come back home to switch places with Preston and Jake. That way they could all participate and us girls wouldn't be left alone. To my great surprise however on the morning of New Years eve, Preston had me and Lexine bundle up into warm clothing and shoes to spend the day outdoors with before hustling us into the car with Jake. "We are taking you out to the campgrounds today so that the whole family could be together. It's being held out on one of the Island's campgrounds this year so we can watch the fireworks from the beach. I think that you and Lexine would enjoy it." Lexine clapped her hands in pleasure yelling, "Yes!" and I had to smile. "It's a great idea and I'm happy to be with all of you."

Tiger was taken to the vets for boarding and after driving a while, Preston pulled over at an IHOP to feed us. Perusing the menu, I noticed that the picture of a cheeseburger made my mouth water. A waitress stopped by our booth to take our orders. Preston who was sitting next to me in the booth of course noticed my interest in the burger and asked her if lunch items were available yet. She told us yes while looking down at my stomach with a smile so that's what I ordered. "Pregnancy cravings are kicking in I guess." I said sheepishly. They laughed and teased me about being weird when the food came out. Weird or not, that didn't stop everyone from taking a French fry or two from my plate! I ate the pickle first before attacking my cheeseburger. The rest of the drive took over an hour and when we got to the campground's parking lot, I shivered a little as I stepped outside. The air was a lot colder this closer to shore. Jake pulled out a little set of pink gloves to slip over Lexine's hands and a matching pink knitted hat to keep her warm. Preston pulled out a black pair of leather gloves for me with a black fuzzy knit beanie. He put the hat on for me as I tugged on the gloves. I grinned at him as he then pulled a large backpack out and a rolling cooler.

Jake took Lexine's hand in his to lead the way down a path into the trees. We saw a few cabins and then various spots where large and small tents had been erected. Further down the path in another clearing a very large tent had been set up and I saw Chase, Brady and Wyatt waving to us. I grinned and Lexine ran towards them shrieking in delight.

I couldn't help hurry towards them myself. They took turns sweeping me and Lexine up for hugs and kisses. Their scruffy beard stubble scratched me and I giggled when Wyatt nuzzled my neck. "Don't start something that you can't finish." I whispered a playful warning in his ear. He laughed and swatted my rear end. They showed me their tent and it was large enough for all of us with cots. There was a portable heating unit and the sleeping bags were battery powered to stay warm all night. I'd never been camping before and Chase told me that we would be spending the night there. My mouth opened to tell them that we didn't pack some overnight things, but Preston held up the backpack from the car with a grin. Academy men were always prepared! Lexine climbed on the smallest cot with a light blue sleeping bag to claim it as hers.

They took us around and introduced us to different people. There were different stations of interest and Lexine found the engineering station to be absolutely fascinating. They had erector sets there and she sat down at the picnic table to play and put something together. Wyatt and Brady sat on either side of her watching her build something. The man in charge of the station was an experienced engineer and watched our daughter avidly as he took a seat across from her. He asked her a question about a piece that she was using but of course she didn't answer him. She did sneak a glance up at him but then focused her attention back to her work. Preston stepped up next to him and bent down to whisper in his ear. I'm sure it was an explanation as his confused expression cleared up and he looked intrigued. It seemed that Lexine was going to be staying there for a while so Brady and Wyatt stayed with her while Jake, Preston and Chase accompanied me around.

When I got hungry around lunchtime, there was a grill site set up with hotdogs, chips and drinks. I saw North standing at the grill with tongs, cooking the hot dogs. I greeted him and he gave me a nod with the corner of his mouth slightly turned up when he saw that my expanded waistline. He made sure that I got the biggest hot dog and barked at Luke who was standing nearby to dish some fruit out onto my plate. Luke's blond head along with his playful brown eyes popped up and he came toward me with a spoon and bowl of cut fruit which he heaped on my plate until I stopped him laughingly. Preston took my plate from me and took me over to an empty side of a picnic table and set it down there for me. As I sat down to eat, Chase set a bottle of water in front of me and Jake handed me a fork and napkin.

I looked up to see Owen Blackbourne sitting across from me along with Sang and Dr. Green. They were eating their lunch as well and I saw that Sang had fruit on her plate as well. "I see that North got you too.", she said to me with a shy smile. I laughed and agreed, "It looks like he and Luke decided that I'm eating for ten instead of two." The corner of Owen's mouth twitched slightly and Dr. Green's eyes lit up, "Congratulations are in order of course. I can't wait to see your baby! They are always so cute and ogling them makes a great date with my Pookie." We chatted throughout eating and then left to go check out some more things.

Over on the beach, Axel was speaking about marine biology and it was kind of interesting to hear him speak. He was obviously passionate about it and had some smaller fish tanks to showcase some smaller creatures. A young lady about a few years older than Sang was with him and while she didn't smile much and didn't look too friendly, her eyes did soften as she looked at Axel. This must be the elusive Kayli. Raven stood nearby and watched her with a tiny smirk on his face. Her long dark hair waved in the wind and I had to admit that she really was pretty. Preston pulled me forward towards Axel and he gave us a welcoming smile. "I hear that congratulations are in order." he said to us. Jake grinned big and slid an arm around my shoulders, "Thanks, we are really happy about it."

Preston introduced me to Kayli and she actually smiled a little which changed her from pretty to stunning. We shook hands and made some small talk. Raven came up behind me to pick me up off the ground with one arm behind my knees and the other behind my back, "Ah, a malysh on the way! It is good." Axel looked amused as did Kayli. Preston, Jake and Chase however did not look so jolly. "You blockhead! Put her down before they kick your ass and after they are done it will be my turn!" Kayli said without any real anger behind her words. Raven set me down gently only to go over to Kayli and throw her over his shoulder and take off running down the beach with her screeching at him and smacking his butt. I giggled at the sight and Chase came up to me and asked, "Are you feeling cold sweetheart? Let us know if you do." I assured them that I was feeling fine.

"I hope that you enjoy your day here." Axel said in that smoky voice of his before turning his attentions to some potential Academy members. We continued on our way until I got tired and felt a little chilled. Chase took charge and brought me back to our tent and had me lie down on my cot with my heated sleeping bag. He said that needed to get some rest before the big night. I took a very nice warm nap and as I stirred awake, I saw that Lexine was taking a nap as well in her cot. I stretched and my movement alerted them that I was awake. Jake came into my line of sight and got down on his knees to be eye to eye with me.

He gave me a gentle kiss and smoothed my hair back, "Did you have a nice rest? The jellybean doing good?" I nodded, "I feel great, but I do need to use the bathroom." He helped me up out of my cot and put my jacket and shoes back on me. The bathroom was a short walk away and was different than the last one I had used and I hurried since I had to go so badly. I felt relieved after I had gone. Jake took me off the path on the way back and into the trees. A couple hundred feet through and then he took me behind a large tree. "I need some sweetness from you. I just want to kiss you for a little bit in private." he said to me and lowered his head to mine. We didn't take things any further than kissing and just made out for a while like teenagers until we heard some voices of people walking by. Straightening out our clothing, we got back to the path to see three guys in their early twenties walking our way. Two of them were obviously twins, tall, blond and handsome. The third guy was shorter, had dark brown wavy hair and intense brown eyes.

They greeted Jake and he introduced me to them, "Sweetie, this is Brandon and Corey with the Thoma team and Victor who's with the Blackbourne team. Guys, this is Delphine." I smiled and shook their hands, "It's so nice to meet you." Brandon and Corey smiled and nodded at me while Victor said, "I met your daughter earlier over at the engineering station. She's quite a smart little girl." I smiled proudly. We made some more polite chit chat until Jake's stomach growled and he announced that it was dinner time. When we got back to our tent to see if Lexine was awake yet, my whole family was there waiting for us. Making our way back to the grill where we had lunch, the line wasn't too bad and they had me and Lexine sit down while they got the food and drinks to us. Dinner was BBQ chicken legs and grilled vegetables. Normally I didn't care for Brussel sprouts but they tasted just as amazing as the carrots, zuchinni too with some kind of garlic herb marinade. I enjoyed dinner and even stole some of the Brussel sprouts off of Wyatt's plate.

There was still a few hours to kill until the big event of fireworks at midnight, so we walked around some more until it was time. Brady and Jake went back to our tent to grab some stuff and the others laid out blankets on the beach just like the others were doing. Brady came back and was pulling the cooler and holding a big paper bag with handles. Jake had a big bag in each hand. The big paper bags had a dozens of brownies, cookies and mini cupcakes which they shared with everyone there. The cooler held chilled bottles of sparkling apple cider and packs of plastic disposable wine glasses. The guys made sure that everyone that wanted some had a glass to toast the New Year. I had a cupcake along with a cookie and drank my apple cider. The countdown began and the fireworks started at one. I gave all of them a kiss and Lexine did too in between getting excited over the bursts of color in the sky.

We all helped clean up before we went to back to our tent to sleep. I was almost too tired to brush my teeth and use the bathroom before going to sleep. I forced myself to and Preston walked me over to the ladies restroom. Lexine had fallen asleep on the way back with Brady carrying her and I figured one night without brushing her teeth wouldn't kill her. I used the bathroom first before washing my hands and face. While I brushed my teeth, I looked over and saw that Sang and Kayli were also there doing the same thing at the other sinks. We exchanged smiles around our toothbrushes and then left at the same time. Outside a few feet away, Preston stood there with Owen and Axel talking. The three leaders of our teams waiting for their ladies. While Owen and Axel were certainly handsome, Preston was the one who took my breath away. He quickly slipped his arm around me as the other two claimed their women. We said our goodnights and took off in different direction toward our tents.

Someone had already turned my sleeping bag on so I was more than happy to quickly change into a pair of thermal top and bottoms from the backpack and slip into the warmth. The portable heater was turned on and air in the tent lost the chill as we all fell asleep. It felt like only a minute had passed but it must have been a few hours later before I heard Lexine whimper. That got us all up and she had woken up confused not to be in her bedroom. She just needed a trip to the bathroom so we put jackets on with shoes while Brady did the same. He walked us over to the bathroom and I used the bathroom as well. When we got Lexine back into her warm sleeping bag, she fell back asleep quickly. I however had trouble settling down with my stomach protesting slightly. I grabbed a snack of peanut butter crackers that one of them had thoughtfully set out along with a box of juice. Brady made sure that an LED lantern was on low so that I could see and not wake the rest of them up. He of course stayed up with me until I felt better. In the morning, I opted to wait for my shower after I got home. I really didn't like the ones there so Lexine and I could wait until we got home. The guys decided to follow my lead and just brushed their teeth and hair.

A couple of the teams were cooking pancakes for everyone but we decided to forgo that and stop for breakfast somewhere else. Instead we stopped by there to make our goodbyes and broke down camp. We had two cars, Brady's pickup truck and the family SUV of course. Everything was loaded up and we got in to go home. Stopping at a Denny's on the way back we ate heartily. For some reason I felt like a cheeseburger again which amused Brady, Chase and Wyatt who hadn't seen me eat that yesterday morning. Chase looked thoughtful and mentioned that he wanted me to see my doctor for a prenatal checkup, "It's just to see if you are anemic." I nodded and agreed to it. It couldn't hurt to check and make sure that I was doing well.

We picked up Tiger on the way home and Lexine held him in her arms. The two of them really were the best of friends. I was happy to get home and gave Lexine a bath before taking one myself. I didn't mind a night out in the tent with them but to be truthful, I really wasn't so big on roughing it. But as much as I loved them, I would live outside if they wanted me to. I happily went downstairs to be with my family.


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