“We are four people, becoming a family.”

“Okay! Burt, do you take Carole?” “You bet I do!”

“And do you Carole, take this man...” “Oh, yes I do, yes, I do!”

“Hey, Kurt, it's time to wake up. Come on now.” A hand nudging his shoulder brought Kurt back to awareness. An ache tore through his chest and he choked back a sob as the knowledge washed over him: he had been dreaming, and his father was dead.

Kurt cracked open his eyelids. The window was open. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, a soft wind was blowing a fresh pine scent into the room, and the sky outside was a brilliant blue. It was a beautiful, miserable day.

“Rise and shine, buddy, we can't be late, now can we?” Josh chirped, with a slight edge to his voice.

Kurt wiped his tears away and peered at the clock on the nightstand. 7:51 a.m. “Ugh. Where do we need to be and when?” Maybe he should have paid more attention to the schedule last night.

“Morning services. Come on and get dressed, we need to be at the chapel by eight,” Josh said, lacing up his shoes.

Kurt groaned at the word “chapel,” sucked back into his dream. It would have been a happy dream, were it not for the fact that it was about a day which would never come to pass. “Why do we have morning services? Don't we have Worship every afternoon?”

“Yeah, but today's Sunday, Kurt. Hurry up, morning services are mandatory.”

Kurt just couldn't. He couldn't bring himself to do it. “I'm not feeling well, Josh. You go on without me. I'll catch up with you later.”

“Kurt, please, it's mandatory, I don't want you to get in trouble.” Josh sounded genuinely concerned.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but trouble or no trouble, you're just going to have to go talk to your imaginary friend without me today,” Kurt replied, rolling over and covering his head with the pillow.

* * * * *

After Kurt had wallowed, napped, pontificated, showered, moisturized, blow-dried and dressed himself, he felt well enough to go to breakfast. The line was already closed, but he found toast and juice at the self-serve station. Kurt walked over to the table, where Josh and Cate were already sitting, and set down his tray. As he pulled out his chair, something caught his attention in his peripheral vision.

A head full of dark curls, headed out the back door at a quick pace.

It was everything Kurt could do to keep from breaking into a run to follow him, but he did walk very fast indeed, dropping his tray on the table as he went. Cate and Josh watched his sudden departure, then quickly resumed their conversation, Josh reaching out a hand to steady Kurt's wobbling juice glass. They were already starting to expect odd behavior from Kurt.

Kurt had almost reached the door when a sudden obstacle stepped into his path. He was so focused on pursuing the dark-haired boy that he bumped shoulders with the obstacle, who turned out to be Jessica. Kurt squeaked in frustration, but backed up and quickly apologized, eager to get around her and out the door.

“Where were you this morning, Hummel?” Jessica barked. “Morning worship is mandatory. It's Sunday!”

“I wasn't feeling well.” Kurt growled.

“You look fine to me. Did you go to the nurse?”

“Uh, no, I didn't realize we had a nurse. I'll make sure to avail myself of her services next time.” Kurt forced what he hoped was a winning smile onto his face. “I'm very sorry to have missed morning services, but I'll be there this afternoon.” Whatever, just get out of my way! Kurt thought.

“See that you are, Hummel. I expect you to be in prompt attendance at all scheduled activities, is that clear? You aren't off to a very good start.”

With one last hard look, she turned and stalked off. Kurt waited, with his forced smile and his hands folded behind his back, until the minute her eyes were off of him.

He dashed to the window.

Eyes of Gold was nowhere to be seen.

* * * * *

Trees. More trees. Dirt. A rock, boo. A meadow. Meadow's over, more trees.

Kurt trudged along the path with his arms folded. Josh marched at his side, swinging a walking stick and looking around cheerily, seemingly inspecting each and every tree. Just like a puppy, which one is he going to wee on? Kurt mused.

Josh chatted lightly with one of the “Tigers,” a skinny blonde boy named Sid. Cate was several lengths behind them alongside a fellow Butterfly, a petite brunette whose name Kurt couldn't remember.

It felt like they had been hiking forever. And every step was taking him further away from his pursuit of Eyes of Gold, who was definitely NOT a Tiger. To add injury to insult, the wind was messing up Kurt's hair, and the dust was sticking to his clothes.

On the other hand, after they got back from the hike it would be time for Worship. Maybe the woods aren't so bad after all, Kurt thought.

“Okay guys, time to stop for lunch!” Amy announced, leading them into a clearing by a stream. “We have sandwiches, sodas and fruit. After we eat you can explore a bit, and we'll start heading back at two o'clock.”

Kurt took a turkey sandwich and a diet coke, and sat with Cate, Josh, Sid and the brunette, whose name turned out to be Alice. Kurt half-listened to the conversation while daydreaming about Eyes of Gold.

“You just cut an 'x' over each fang hole, then suck the poison out!” said Sid.

“Are you sure?” replied Alice, “I read on the internet that that's just an urban legend. And it's disgusting.”

Ugh. My top remedy for a snakebite is not to go hiking in the first place. I have nothing to contribute to this conversation, Kurt thought, zoning out again.

He finished his sandwich and killed time by plotting a heist on the coolers to obtain a second diet coke. Ultimately he abandoned the plan, not wanting to upset the only counselor who seemed at all inclined to be kind to him.

Groups of campers started to get up and wander off into the woods along the stream, dipping bare feet into the water or collecting river rocks. Kurt looked around and realized that Josh and the rest had gone off without him. Not that he could blame them, as he had been stewing all morning.

Kurt got up and walked towards the stream, picking out a path that he thought the other campers would be less likely to choose. He was still struggling to shake the horrible mood that had started first thing that morning, when he realized that he had been dreaming and his father was still dead. The distraction of happy chatter made it difficult to get back to his place of numbness and he needed to get away.

Kurt sat on a rock and dangled his legs over the water, watching it swirl and bubble around the smooth stones. The noise was soothing, but he wished he had thought to bring his ipod instead.

“Hey.” A small voice out of nowhere startled Kurt, and he looked around quickly. It was the boy from the bus.

“Hi, sweetie, your name is Ian, right?” Kurt smiled despite himself. Something about this boy brought out his protective side and he really couldn't say why.

“Yeah... whatcha doing?” “Nothing, just thinking.” “What about?”

“I have a lot on my mind these days. What about you?” Kurt asked. “I was looking for frogs but there aren't any. Frogs are one of my favorite animals.” Ian said.

Kurt smiled. A whole two sentences, he's really opening up, he thought. “You're on Team Tiger, right?” Ian nodded but didn't say anything.

Kurt tried again. “Aren't you hot in that sweater? This is the first shade we've had all day.”

Ian tugged nervously at one cuff of the heavy, long-sleeved shirt. “No. I'm fine.”

Kurt stood and took a step towards Ian. “Why don't you roll up the sleeves at least? You'll feel better. Let me help you.”

“No,” Ian whispered, wide-eyed. He folded his arms around his middle, clutching his arms hard and digging his fingers into himself. “Don't.” He seemed to collapse into himself, shrinking back a step.

Kurt frowned, trying to piece together the reaction. “Sorry... well, we should be heading back or they'll leave without us. How about you hike back with me?” “Okay.”

Kurt got up and Ian followed. He held out his hand to the younger boy, but Ian didn't take it. He hiked back with Kurt but always kept a few steps behind, watching Kurt with wide eyes, still hugging his arms to his chest.