Chapter Text
Ravi yawned so wide that his eyes watered and his view of the campers running back and forth across the soccer field blurred. He briefly wiped at his eyes before refocusing on the game. He had decided to sit out the Grizzly versus Badger competition and opted for a lonely picnic table under a large pine tree on the edge of the field that had plenty of shade from the summer sun. Jorge hadn’t been too happy about him sitting this game out, but Xander had understood. His co-counselor had witnessed him dozing off during breakfast that morning, which was unusual for someone who prided himself on being a morning person.
Some of the players cheered when a goal was made and the sudden outburst caused Ravi to jump slightly. He exhaled loudly. If it had not been for the recurring nightmare of the Kikiwaka beast returning to camp to hunt down him and his best friend, Tiffany, he wouldn’t be so tired and jumpy.
“Hey, Ravi!”
Ravi jumped again. He blinked and shifted his focus to the person skipping up to him from the path on his left that led to the hiking trails in the pine forest. Lou stepped up on the bench and sat down beside him on top of the picnic table. Her signature cheery smile was ever present as she nudged his shoulder with her own, good-naturedly.
“Hi, Lou,” he replied tiredly, crossing his feet at the ankle and stretching his arms a little.
Lou studied his tired posture. Her smile faltered, but only a little. She nudged his shoulder again and asked, “What’s the matter? Griff keep you up all night with those scary stories ‘bout that biker gang?”
“No. But he does say they were the closest to family he had before coming to camp. Though, I am not sure why you would give a child access to tattooing instruments at such an early age.”
“Especially when he ain’t that great of an artist. I think Zuri’s helping him draw better, though.”
“Just what we need: Those two starting an underground tattoo parlor at their summer camp,” Ravi said between yawns.
Lou chuckled. She watched his shoulders slump after he stretched again. “Hey, seriously. What’s going on, Ravi? You look like… well, you’ve looked better.”
Normally, Ravi was an open book. His siblings had oftentimes labeled him an oversharer. But being exhausted because of a childish nightmare was embarrassing to admit when he considered himself a pretty logical person. Plus, he did not want Lou to think less of him as if he were a scared CIT instead of a mature counselor. He looked away from Lou, but he felt her gaze on him.
“It will sound ridiculous…”
“Probably. You’re a pretty weird guy.”
Ravi scoffed, “Are you here to offer criticism or comfort?”
Lou shrugged and gave him a sweet look. “Honestly, it depends. I’ve known you for a long time, Ravi.”
He gave her a light glare to which she continued to wait patiently for him to speak. He gave up and sighed. “Alright. If you insist on knowing…I keep having the same horrible nightmare each night. It has ruined my sleep. And, well, part of me is worried that…”
He was too embarrassed to finish his sentence. Nervously, he folded his hands in his lap and looked straight ahead to the soccer field in the distance. He uncrossed his ankles and then crossed them back again.
Lou nodded slowly. She scooted closer to him and then gently placed her hand on his back, which caused him to tense beneath her touch. She calmly said, “I get it.”
Wordlessly, he turned his head and made eye contact.
“Part of you is worried that your nightmare will come true.” She gave him an understanding smile. “I’m tellin’ ya. I get it.”
Ravi unfolded his hands, but gave her a skeptical look. “Yes? You do not find my reason for sleep deprivation ridiculous?” He loosely-crossed his arms. “Weird, as you so politely described me earlier?”
Lou snorted with laughter as she removed her hand from his back. “Why would I make fun of you for that? Ravi, I used to think anything that I dreamed would come true. Like would actually come true true.”
Ravi uncrossed his arms and his expression became less defensive and more open. “Really?” he asked quietly.
“Yup!” Lou shrugged and then placed her palms behind her to lean back. “But then I realized those were all just coincidences.”
Lou watched as a camper in the distance kicked a ball across the soccer field and into the goal. The players burst into cheers and screams again, but this time Ravi didn’t jump at the sound. He kept his gaze on Lou as she continued to speak.
“Just cause I dreamed something, didn’t mean it would really happen. And I think the thing that helped me the most was when I started paying more attention to when I had a dream and nothing happened. Instead of getting caught up on when I had a dream and it coincidentally came true. Those things were just chance. Not cause I dreamed them.”
Ravi thought over her words for a moment. He nodded slowly and agreed, “That is a good point.”
“Yeah. Once I had a dream that Zuri gave me a bunch of gold cause she kept getting packages of it. Didn’t happen.”
“She likes to bury those in different places for when the market crashes.”
Lou turned away from the campers to raise her eyebrows at Ravi.
He explained, “She used to watch doomsday prepper shows with the nanny when she was younger.”
“Hmm. I think she might want to meet my cousin. He’s got a bunker on my gran’s farm!”
Ravi shook his head. “Don’t encourage it.” He sleepily rubbed his eyes and let out another yawn. “So, you no longer believe your dreams are premonitions?”
“Nope,” Lou said as she sat up straight again. “Zuri hasn’t given me a single ounce of gold. Gladys hasn’t turned into a chicken with rainbow-colored feathers. And my pet pig has yet to come back from the dead and make me a human sandwich with lettuce and tomato.” She gave him a worried look. “That last one really freaked me out, though.”
Ravi chuckled. “I suppose that’s true.” He inhaled the fresh summer air, feeling better than he had in days, and then smiled at her. “Thanks, Lou. You’re right. Dreams are just that. Dreams. I was silly to think I had anything to worry about. I suppose even the most brilliant man can have a lapse in judgment from time to time.”
“Brilliant and modest,” Lou smirked.
“Oh, always modest.”
Lou laughed brightly and, despite his tiredness, Ravi laughed too. Her shoulder brushed against his shoulder as they laughed and it made him smile wider. Soon, her laughter quieted and her gleeful expression changed to something softer and serious.
“Is something the matter?” Ravi asked. He felt his eyelids getting heavier, so he blinked a few times.
“Uh.” Lou blushed a little and shyly looked down at her hands. She picked at the chipped purple nail polish that Emma had painted on her fingernails a week ago.
Ravi dipped his chin and leaned a little closer to her. “I am sure whatever it is can’t possibly be more embarrassing than me crashing Tiffany’s date and being a third wheel to two campers.”
Lou looked up at him with an amused smile. She scrunched her nose and said, “Tiff was pretty peeved about you being on that canoe ride with Aiden. She fussed about it all last night.”
“Well excuse me for being worried that the Kikiwaka would pop out of the water and attack my dear friend while Aiden bored us with useless facts about baseball!”
“Aiden is a little cutie, I think Tiffany was willing to take her chances.”
“She told me as much before she pushed me off the canoe.”
Lou giggled and Ravi couldn’t help but smile. He had always found her giggle delightful, even if it was at his expense. He let out a drowsy laugh and then prompted, “So, please share what is on your mind.”
“So…” Lou drummed her fingers on her knee nervously. “Want to know something that was really a hoot?”
“That expression means that something is funny, right? Hoot. What a funny word. Hoot.” He gave her an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Sleep deprivation makes me a bit loopy.”
“It’s probably barely a hoot,” she said shakily. She held up her finger. “Now, that Gladys turning into a chicken dream was a hoot and a half.”
“I suppose if she turned into a normal-sized chicken that could be amusing.” His eyes widened with fear. “However, if she turned into a human-sized chicken, that sounds like a terrifying dream. And I certainly wouldn’t want that to become reality.”
“Me either. And it didn’t.” Lou saw the fear disappear from his eyes. He looked at her, patiently waiting and giving her his full attention. She felt herself getting lost in his gaze and her blush reddened. “So, another reason why I stopped thinking all my dreams would come true… cause for like two months I kept having this, uh, really interesting recurring dream about…”
“About?”
Lou tucked some loose strands of her hair behind her ear. “...things.”
She paused and gave him an expectant look, hoping he would just be able to fill in the blanks himself. But Ravi didn’t pay attention to any of the signs of embarrassment she was giving off, so he just sleepily blinked at her.
“You know…”
Ravi looked down at the grass in thought for a moment. He shook his head and then returned his gaze to her. “Sorry, I actually do not know. Dreams about what sort of things?”
Lou crossed one of her arms over her other and nervously held onto her own shoulder as she averted her gaze. She bit her lip and lowered her voice, “Dreams about me and you.”
No guess came to Ravi’s mind as to what Lou could be talking about. Honestly, he was too tired to come up with any good guesses; and all he wanted to do was close his eyes, drift off to sleep, and possibly rest his heavy head on her comfortable looking shoulder.
“Me and you?” He heard clapping from the soccer game in the distance. It woke him up enough for his brain to come up with a guess. A smile formed on his lips and he chuckled. “Let me guess! We turned into cows or some other favored farm animal and went on a hilarious and wholesome adventure?”
Excitedly, Lou gasped. Her eyes lit up. “That sounds adorable!” She momentarily forgot not to make eye contact. “Imagine us as sheep, oh! Or goats! And we travel the world in a hot air balloon together! But we still have the ability to talk.”
“That is adorable! And very much incapable of happening, thus proving to yourself that your dreams don’t actually come true.” Ravi clasped his hands together. “So I was correct in guessing your dream!” He physically patted himself on the back. “Even sleep deprived I’m a genius.”
Lou scrunched nose and made a clicking sound with her tongue. “No,” she dragged the word out as she gently swatted his hand away from patting himself on the back.
“No?” Ravi frowned slightly, genuinely surprised that he had guessed incorrectly.
Lou messed with the strands of her ponytail as it rested on her shoulder. “It was a little less adorable. And a lot more like we were making out in the tool shed.”
Ravi felt his stomach drop to his toes and his heart nearly burst out of his chest. He had to gasp for air. “Wha–” No longer were his eyes tired with sleep, but they were wide as he stared at his friend. “I think my sleep deprived brain must have misheard. So, there’s a tool shed and..”
“And things are intense,” Lou said in a far off tone as she stared off into the distance.
“Intense?” He tugged at the collar of his red button-up shirt with the camp logo on it. “Did it get warmer out here? This sunshine is uh, really…Did you say making out? Like we were…”
Lou whistled lowly. She grinned as the look in her eye became more glazed over as she continued not to look in his direction. “Dream Ravi is a really good kisser. I mean, Grade A smooching, let me tell ya.”
Ravi gulped and shifted on the picnic table. His foot slipped on the bench it had been resting on and he had to hold onto the edge of it so as not to fall off. He winced from the pain of a splinter he was sure he now had. “I am? I mean, he is?” He stammered.
Lou let out a breath and then cleared her throat. “But, uh, you don’t want to hear about any of that.”
“We could have a discussion,” he squeaked out; his voice higher than normal. He didn’t even feel embarrassed for his tone because his brain was too broken to develop or analyze feelings apart from extremely curious and very much thrilled.
Lou waved away her memory. Less shy now that she had gotten everything out in the open, she finally made eye contact with Ravi. She had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the dumbstruck look on her friend’s face.
“I know. Guess I’m the weird one now, huh? But after having that dream for like two months, and the only thing you and I’ve ever done in the tool shed is drag out those old tires for Gladys to sell in town, it proved that dreams are just dreams.”
Ravi’s eyebrows shot up. “Two months?”
Lou started to feel embarrassment heat her face again. What was she thinking telling him her kinda funny, but mostly hot, dream? She couldn’t help but think of all the times that Zuri and Tiffany accused her of being an oversharer. She really hoped she hadn’t just freaked Ravi out. The whole point of her walking over to the shaded bench in the pine trees was to see if he was doing okay. Xander had mentioned to her early that Ravi wasn’t feeling well. And because she cared so much about him, she had searched all over camp just to check on him. Now he was staring at her like she had sprouted feathers or something.
“Point is, dreams are meaningless, so sleep better tonight! I hope I helped!” She said in a rush. She climbed down from the picnic table, but instantly missed the warmth of his shoulder so close to hers when she had been seated beside him.
Ravi continued to stare up at her. “I…” He looked up at the blue sky and then returned his eyes to hers. “...won’t be thinking about the Kikiwaka.”
He let out a shy laugh and then smiled at her. Lou felt her heart do a backflip in her chest. She blushed again, “Good. Glad I, uh… Well, see you later.” She bit her lip and embraced the bold feeling that rushed over her. “Maybe in the tool shed. In my dreams.”
Ravi’s heart stopped. He couldn’t even find his voice as he watched her wave at him and walk back toward the hiking trail. Once he could speak again, he whispered, “For certain in mine.”