Though Mrs. Diver and Mrs. Reynold only swam in the lake for about 10 minutes before getting out to sit on their towels on the pebble beach, the girl swam and splashed for over an hour before they were too tired to continue.
The girls laid out their towels on the beach and all lay together in a big pile of dripping bodies. Mikey was both tired and possibly the most happy he had ever been in his life. He couldn't remember having this much fun with any of his other friends and there was no way that he and his boy friends would ever lay together draped across each other like all of the girls were. It felt kind of nice to be relaxing like this without a care in the world. He idly wondered why boys didn't ever lay together in big groups.
Mikey must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew Molly was shaking him gently and saying "Michele, get up my foot is falling asleep." He felt something moving under him and realized that it must be Molly's aforementioned foot. He sat up and saw that most of the girls were now dressed in their hiking clothes again and were eating their lunches from the paper sacks that Mrs. Reynolds had given them before they left camp.
"Sorry." Mikey apologized to Molly.
"Don't worry about it." Molly said while trying to rub some life back into her foot.
Mikey went over to his pack and pulled out his sack lunch. He was about to open it when Mrs. Reynold stopped him. "Michele, why don't you change back into your hiking clothes first. We need to start heading back soon so we can make it back to the camp in time to do some more activities before dinner. You can eat your lunch while we walk."
Mikey thought about arguing, after all he was fairly hungry, but he knew it wouldn't take that long to change his clothes and she did have a point about being able to eat while they walked.
Mikey changed quickly and it wasn't until he was done that he realized that he hadn't turned his back on the group or made any attempt to hide his body from them. Maybe he was becoming more comfortable with being naked around other girls. Or rather, around girls he reminded himself. After all he wasn't really girl; he was a boy under the influence of a magic necklace that had turned him into a girl temporarily.
His introspection was interrupted by his stomach growling loudly and embarrassingly. A couple of the girls snickered when he blushed.
The hike back to the camp was quicker since they didn't take the time to search for animal tracks or try to identify birds and plants like they had on their way to the lake. By the time that they reached the camp it was mid-afternoon. Mrs. Diver gathered the girls together and asked "Okay girls, what should we do for the rest of the afternoon until it is time to make dinner?"
