Chrissy Reveals, She knows who Everett is.

As they sat around the campfire as the rest of the group sang and roasted marshmallows, Chrissy knew in her head she liked Everett and so did most of the other girls there. They could tell by just the way she bent her neck when they talked. He got up from his comfortable rock and went around to sit next to her, on the ground. On the way around he couldn't help noticing out of the corner of his eye the hopeful looks from some of the other girls as he passed them all to sit next to Chrissy, then they all turned back to what they were doing with little pouts on their lips. She stopped her conversation with Angela long enough to say "Hi, Everett", because she had always been a polite person. No one mentioned that she wasn't exactly available. That was obvious too, she thought. She was with Brad, who was at work that night.

Being with Brad was the natural thing to do, since Brad was her brothers best friend. Her brother, Jacob, or Jake, as everyone called him, was on a mission. He was older, by 24 minutes, but at 19, he knew he wasn't quite ready, or willing to serve. "It's a waste to go on a mission if you're not ready", he'd say. "I know it's true, but I just don't think I can do it right now." He had decided to finish playing college baseball first, and he was really good. Good enough to be courted by two or three professional teams at the time. By the time they were 22, their bishop had told Jake to stop waiting around for things. "Jacob," he said, "Either you're going or you're not. Make up your mind. You've reached your goals, but I think you shouldn't waste any more time. You can play ball when you get back." So he went to the doctor and the dentist and ultimately the Missionary Training Center headed for Japan, and Brad, his best friend had promised to look out for Chrissy.

Though he usually came to the activities because of Chrissy, Brad wasn't at this activity or even in this ward. He had to be at work as the night clerk at the Cotton Tree Inn. He tried to trade his shift but wasn't very successful, or more than likely, hadn't tried very hard. These things came up more and more lately. Something was really off about her relationship with Brad. They had grown up together. He was James' best friend and they did everything together...the three of them, and Angela. He went to all her recitals and even wrote, faithfully, when she went on a mission, right after he came home. It all turned around when she had been home for a month or two, right after Jake left. They had stepped backwards somehow. Now, he was acting like they were "just friends" and it was bugging her. Badly.

Chrissy was happy to flirt tonight, because it had been so long since she had, even with Brad. Even in the company of 25 others, including her best friend Angela Wilson and her other roommate, Suzy Masterson. It was nice to talk to Everett. It was already out of the way that he was from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, A small town in Southern Germany where the Olympic games had once been held. Quite a few of the freshmen girls fawned over him, but he intentionally left out the part where he had been living in Switzerland  and singing for Europa Records. Chrissy knew this already because she saw him sing in a show about a year ago, in Las Vegas, right after she returned from a semester abroad in Munich. Only when he performed, he went by a stage name: Hawkeye.

"How is your semester going for you?" she asked Everett as he situated himself on the ground beside her? She always tried to disguise the fact that she knew who he was. It had gotten easier, to act it, but so much harder not to say anything.

"It is well enough," he said, his thick accent almost getting in the way of his words. "My astronomy class is hard though. I fall asleep."

"I've heard that can be a problem." Everyone at UVU who took astronomy knew they had signed up for nap-time. "Have you tried any heavily caffeinated drinks?" They both chuckled. Everett looked at the ground and Chrissy sized up his sideways smile he threw at her.

Everett scooted a little closer to Chrissy right as he remembered they were in a crowd of other young single adults from the ward, eating s'mores, and sitting next to Angela and Suzy.

Ah! Angela. Her brown hair whipped around at the very instant she saw Everett inch closer to Chrissy. She smiled, devilishly and quickly stood to grab the guitar off the picnic table behind her. She proffered it to Hillman Sinclair. "Here, Hill, I think you should play us a rousing chorus of some S & G. Or Beatles. Or something." She only did this because she knew he would never pass up an opportunity to show off, or "share his talents," as he liked to put it, and he usually always made Chrissy sing too.

Hillman tried to look surprised, which shifted the guilty look away from Angela. One would have thought it was because she was embarrassed to ask Hill to sing, Angela was happy that Chrissy was flirting again.

"Nah," said Hillman. "Though I love a good show, or rather, to put on a good show,
not this time." He offered no excuse. He was just playing to the crowd.

"Hill, Hill, Hill Hill," chanted Angela, Chrissy, Suzy and a few others including Everett. "Hill, Hill, Hill, Hill."

Hillman rose out of his camp chair, waving his hands like some kind of happy dictator hushing the crowd to address his constituents. "Fine," he sighed loudly, but they all saw the smile on his face that told them he wasn't opposed in any way to show off. And why not? He really was pretty good, but he didn't sing Simon and Garfunkel, or the Who, or The Beatles. He played some Adele. And he sang it like he meant it.

So did everyone else. "and you played it to the deep." roars and hoots came from the meager crowd, and Hillman was beaming. He loved a good show, and he loved to be the good show. He reached up to his neck for the guitar strap and addressed the crowd. "While we're all in such a good mood," he said as he looked over everyone and rested his eyes on Chrissy, "CHRISSY!"

She knew it was coming, it always did. She threw her head fall back and rolled her eyes and sighed out loud in a way Everett couldn't not notice sitting right next to her. Nor did anyone else close not notice, which stirred them more.

"Chrissy. Chrissy." He couldn't help but make it sound like she was a 6 year-old who just got her hand caught in the cookie jar. "We all know you are pretty darn good at what you do."

"You know it," said Suzy, the vile betrayer of trust, who rats out your talent at the first moment she can.

Hillman continued, "And everyone should know you look fantastic in a lab coat...I know," he announced with confidence, to the general population of the campfire, "she's my lab partner." Hillman winked at her. "Chrissy, Chrissy, Chrissy."

"Yes, Hillman?" she matched his tone, shaking her head.

"Would you do us the honor of gifting us with your voice? Right here? Right now?" He raised his eyebrows and waited.

"No, Hillman," she continued in the same tone.

"Chrissy." His eyebrows were raised and he continued to hold out the guitar. It was cheep wood, but got him dates, so he loved it.

"Um," she tease the crowd, "I'm really not sure," she said with a sly smile, "I couldn't possibly know anything for a campfire." Which obviously wasn't true because most of the people there gave her silly looks and a few cat-calls.. She knew plenty, but to sing in front of Everett would be different. This wasn't like her. She usually would love to share her talents. She wasn't one to hide her gifts in the bushes, but tonight was different. Previously she had told herself, "the next time, I'm going to sing one of Hawkeye's songs." Tonight, Hawkeye was there, and she had turned into a ball of bumbling nerves.

"It mattereth not, Chrissy," Said Angela. "You've been playing that new song for months. It's perfect and you know it," she said, steeling a small glance at Everett, who looked at the two friends with a hint of confusion.

And almost like she knew what Chrissy was thinking, Suzy said "you shouldn't hide your talents under the bushes."

"With roommates like you, I sure don't need enemies." She sighed a big sigh, knowing she'd never get out of it, unless, somehow she died in the next 10 seconds.

"What ever! I know you've been taking guitar lessons, Chrissy, and you've got that new song down well enough you could sing in in your sleep." Angela said, quietly. But did she know the significance of the particular song Chrissy thought about considering.? Angela really knew how to get to her, and it was working. She could sing this one in her sleep, and play it too.

Chrissy bit her bottom lip and wrinkled her nose.

"Come on," Hillman said, "do it for me." His arm started to shake and the guitar wavered.

She stared at the sideways smile he gave her and wrinkled her nose. "I don't know..." Chrissy hesitated in her words as she took the guitar from Hillman.


He let out a loud "WHOOP!" as everyone clapped for her. They all loved a good show, and they all knew she was good. "Thanks. I don't think I could have held onto that much longer." as he let go of his ax.

She played a few chords and started, "Please, Story Smurf, tell us a story...Um, I don't know. Come on, Please? oh, all right then...." The crowd laughed. She laughed too, "no, really though."

"Is she good?" Everett asked Suzy, quietly.

"Why don't you wait and see for yourself." Suzy was always one to talk up her friends talents and let others discover them too.

Taking a deep breath in the midst of hot dogs and s'mores, she turned to her roommate and said, "Angela, I don't know if I can do this."

Her friend smiled at her, "Sure you can. What's stopping you?" She really was the best to give kind, encouraging words. She had faith in everyone. For everything. She had no idea why her friend whom she had known for most of her life couldn't do something she loved to do all of the sudden.

First Chrissy looked apprehensive as her best friend said those words. She raised her right eyebrow, and scrunched up her lips to show her protest. In the end, her nerves lost and she gave in to the pressure.  "Okay," Chrissy whispered and let out a big breath as the ruckus died down. "I don't know if I can play this one with you here, Everett," she said quietly to him. She wanted to add "because I've been in love with you for at least two years, since I saw you perform in Las Vegas as Caesars Palace with 'Hawkeye'," but she resisted the urge.

"Why not? I'm sure you'll do fine. Give it a shot." He ignored that last part she said. For once he was grateful it wasn't him everyone was trying to coax a song out of, but smiled suspiciously, as if things like this happened to Hillman and Chrissy quite a bit. He sounded so encouraging, that Chrissy forgot he was a native German speaker.

As she readied the guitar strap over her shoulder and neck, Chrissy half smiled as her nerves were nearly overcome by calm. She made sure the capo was in the right key, and as she played the first notes with confidence, Everett understood immediately why she said "with you here." It was one of his songs. One from his bands English CD. Not a ballad, but not a fast, rock tempo either. So steady and sure was the pop-ish tune coming out of the instrument by her hands, he looked and noticed that she had closed her eyes for concentration.

At that single moment, Everett Vogel realized Chrissy knew who he really was. She was singing his song so perfectly, soulfully and so full of emotion that he hoped it was only because she like music so much and had heard it somewhere, maybe it passed by on Pandora while she surfed the Internet, but something inside him told him that was unlikely. As he watched her wrap her hands and fingers around the strings and the body of the instrument, and her hair fell into her face, he knew it didn't matter because she didn't need her eyes to play this song. During the process, while everyone mostly listened with appreciation and as her face softened with the melody and the tempo of the music was perfect, while the words came out effortlessly and so beautifully, he knew then that she knew who he really was.

Everett looked into the fire, mesmerized by the sound of the red-haired beauty's voice sitting next to him, singing his own words . He tucked his knees up to his chest and held his legs as she finished and everyone cheered. He sat, staring into the fire, not cheering, or even looking in her direction, and never having heard one of his songs with such passion before.

"I can't understand it, but I do.
That stranger I saw yesterday,
As he smiled at me,
he reminded me of you
And I knew my life would look up
From the next time I see you.
Looking towards you,
Looking towards you."


She smiled and bit her bottom lip a little as she stood and handed Hillman back his guitar. "That's new." Hillman said, "It was really nice!" He smiled as he retrieved his guitar. No one here had heard that song before, she'd never sung it for anyone but her roommates before, but Everett knew it by heart. Louder, Hillman said, "Give it up everyone for my lab partner, Chrissy MacDallan!"

The applause grew and fell just as quickly as he said that, taking his guitar back. She sat back down and pursed her lips together, looking around her. Angela and Suzy were smiling huge smiles at her in approval, "You were great!" They both said. Then turned to talk talk to someone else. Hillman started playing something by The Beatles and some of the others sang along as others talked and roasted marshmallows. From what she could see of Everett, he had a glazed look on the side of his face. She couldn't tell if he was pleased or not. He was still staring into the fire.

"I'm sorry if I ruined it," she said quietly in his direction, without looking at him, and with the most respect she could rally. He continued to look into the fire as if she had said nothing. She looked at him quickly, and then, annoyed, she swiftly pushed herself off the ground, dusted the dirt off her back side and shook her hair out of her face. She turned to the picnic tables full of chips and dogs and drinks, made it to the other side and grabbed herself a bag of marshmallows. "I should have played something else," she muttered under her breath as she furrowed her eyebrows and scrunched her nose.

"No," the voice came from behind. It was thickly laced with a German accent which made her turn on her heals to see Everett less than two steps behind her. He had a dazed look on his face, "that was beautiful."

"I thought you might be a little wierded out." She said. "I thought, maybe I'd ruined a perfectly wonderful song. When you didn't say anyth--."

"I couldn't. Listen, Chrissy, I have heard heard my music performed so many ways so many times, but never that way before. Even I've never sung it that way before. It was beautiful, just like your friends over there said," he said as he nodded towards the crowd at the bon fire. He stepped closer to her and raised his hand gently to her elbow. She could fell the sincerity in his words. And there was a soft, nearly a magical feeling in his touch. They locked eye contact and instantly, she knew automatically what she had to do next.

"I have to go home Everett," She told him, looking away and trying to ignore the flutter she was feeling in her chest . He still held her arm. "I have a bio test tomorrow that I need to wrap up some loose ends for." She hoped he didn't see her breathing change, or the color rise in her cheeks.

"Can I come over after your test?" He never broke eye contact. He intensified his gaze and somehow managed to lead him to the far side of the picnic table and leaned against it. More relaxed now, he followed it with, "I'd really like to run something by you."

"I don't know. I've got to work for a few hours and I really need to talk to Brad about something." She could still feel her heart beating really heavily.

"Oh. Sure, okay." He sounded distracted at this revelation. There always seemed to be this Brad, whom he had never met.

"How about another time." Chrissy didn't really know what had just happened. She couldn't quite read the look on Everett's  face, but she couldn't ignore what she just felt. It had been several months since Brad made her feel like that. Probably since before her time in Germany as an exchange student. She couldn't be sure any more. She turned away from him and went back to the fire. She found Angela and Suzy and told them she was going home to study.

"You sure?" Suzy asked.

"You're going to miss ou-out!" Angela said, a little sing-songy.

"Yeah, I've got to study some more."

"Okay bye," Angela said.

"Yeah, bye," Suzy said too, "You study waaayyy too much". The girls hugged and wished her luck on her test.

Chrissy smiled, forced a laugh and said, "that's why my GPA is 3.875. What's yours?" She giggled and got a friendly scowl out of her roommate. "I'll see you tomorrow." Chrissy left the group, looked over at Everett one more time to see him still looking at her, "See you later," was all she could convince herself to say, but she just couldn't break eye contact as she walked away. He smiled at her and looked down, at which point Chrissy looked in the direction of her car. She made the last fifty or sixty feet by herself with only her bag of marshmallows to keep her company, climbed into her car and drove away in silence. Neither one of them noticed her roommates sizing them up, with devilish grins.

As soon as Chrissy was in her car, her two best friend in the world bounced over to Everett.

"What was that all about, Everett?" Angela asked him as she pulled some gooey marshmallows off a roasting stick and sandwiched it between to graham crackers and chocolate pieces. In her opinion, this was the only way to eat marshmallows, because in their own right, they are disgusting.

"I really don't know," he said, still following the trail of Chrissy's footprints with his eyes.

"You know what I think? I think you like her." Angela was playing the adversary right now as she dusted the dirt from her jeans. She could see it, Suzy could see it, and every one else was pretty suspicious. Sure, there were the few hold outs in the ward. Probably three or four freshman girls who relished in the thought of going out with a foreigner with a hot accent. They refused to see it. But he couldn't argue. He couldn't accept or deny the accusations either so he returned the campfire and rejoined the revelry.

"I think he was leaning," Angela nodded into the direction of Suzy's ear as soon as he was out of range.

"Yeah." Suzy said. "Me too." They both smiled, then at the same time, both said,

"Brad."

The party didn't wrap up until nearly 10:30, when the bishop declared it over and he had to leave, but not before he began clean up. Those who were left got clean up duty, and Everett and a couple other of the guys helped put out the fire with Hillman after everything else was finished.