Note to Reader: This is my first ever fan fiction. I first started writing it on the 23rd of August in 2006 and for a long time tried the best I could to write this given information I know about the characters featured. In this, I tried to keep everyone as in-character as I could, but instead of tackling the usual things people like, I figured I'd do something a little different and go out on a limb with Samson and Almondine. Ever since I saw "Squirrel Seats" (And how shunned on the bus Almondine seemed) I pondered the possibility of how they would react should they ever actually speak to eachother. Heh, I had to make some assumptions about Almondine's character the most, but I figured it helps me to learn how to write with the limited amounts of information provided to me from the show and make educated guesses. Disclaimer: I do not own "Camp Lazlo" or any characters featured in this story—Only the story idea. Well, I hope y'all enjoy?
Chapter One: A Hike?
It started out just like any ordinary day at Acorn Flats. Out blared Ms. Mucus's bugle, waking all of the Squirrel Scouts. She shouted her orders to them, and all of the Squirrel Scouts went through their daily-morning routine of showering, tooth-brushing, and other things to prepare to enter the day. After all was said and done there, they were ready to disperse and hang out with their friends to play, talk, and do the daily activities.
Patsy began to head off with Nina and Gretchen to the mud puddles, while others began to run off to play and climb and do various things. However, before they got too far, Jane Doe, the Scout Mistress of the Squirrel Scouts, tried to stop them, for she had an announcement to make.
"Squirrels! I have an… —be careful!" she shouted to a Squirrel Scout who was hanging from a high branch, laughing. She lacked the projection in her voice required to get their attention, and thus many Squirrel Scouts didn't acknowledge the fact she was calling to them. She tried again, "Squirrels!" in her same soft, high voice. "Ugh," she sighed in frustration as Ms. Mucus stepped in.
"Alright, scouts, listen up!" Ms. Mucus shouted in her loud voice, and that was all that was needed. Suddenly every scout came to a halt and the shouting and laughing ceased. Even the tennis balls of a nearby tennis game paused in mid air from Ms. Mucus's voice.
"Thank you, Ms. Mucus," Ms. Doe said to her as she stepped towards the cluster of Squirrel Scouts. "Okay, as you all know, I have told you all about a hike we'll be going on, do you all remember? Well, we are going to-day! Are you all packed?"
"Yes, Ms. Doe," they said.
"We finished that yesterday," Amber added.
"That's good!" Ms. Doe exclaimed. "Oh! I almost forgot! We will be going on this hike with the Bean Scouts as well! Isn't that great?"
Most of the Squirrel Scouts moaned, while Patsy smiled and sighed happily at the thought of seeing Lazlo yet again.
Many of the other scouts muttered to themselves. Exclamations like, "Man, we have to be around the boys again?" and, "The Bean Scouts smell bad!" followed by, "You've got that right!" could be heard amongst the crowd.
"Now, now," Ms. Doe said, "I know you guys are just as excited about this hike as I am!" She smiled. "Go get your bags! We'll head over there in one hour to meet up with them across the lake. Don't want to be late!"
The Squirrel Scouts headed off to their cabins to retrieve their bags. One hour later they wandered onto the boat as it was started, and a moment later they were off across Leaky Lake to their neighboring camp in Prickly Pines.
Meanwhile, the all of the Bean Scouts had just began preparing. They never really got up with the sun, as the Squirrel Scouts do. They were all quickly packing, and in the Jelly Cabin, the trio were discussing how they felt about the hike.
"I think it will be an adventure!" Lazlo exclaimed.
"Lazlo, you think everything is an adventure!" Raj replied. "But what if we get lost or hurt or bugs fly up our noses?! Aaah!" Raj grabbed his trunk and shuddered at the thought.
"Bugs up nose!" Clam hopped by, holding his backpack for the hike above his head and smiling his default, goofy smile.
"Don't worry, Raj," Lazlo replied. "I'm sure everything will go great!"
Raj, still a little unnerved, replied, "Okay, Lazlo; if you say so…"
Down in the Fava Cabin, Samson, Ping-Pong, and Dave were preparing. Dave and Ping-Pong were already done, while Samson, on the other hand, was still busy packing away his health buddies into his backpack for the hike.
"Okay, Health Buddies! In you go, Eyeball Buddy, Skin-Rash Buddy, Asthma Buddy, Allergy Buddy and—" He reached behind himself on his bed for his last "buddy", but felt nothing. "—Aaah, nerts! Where are you, Foot-Fungus Buddy?!" He turned around and saw that his foot-fungus spray had just rolled off the bed. "Oh! Phew! There you are!" He smiled and put the last buddy in his bag. He then grabbed a bottle of water, tissues, bandages, hand sanitizer, a feather duster, spray cleaner, cloth cleaning rags, and some other things he considered as necessities, and put it all in his bag. Though, he didn't consider at the time, that most of that stuff would prove to be either superfluous or just plain not needed at all, if brought on a hike.
Ping-Pong and Dave, hearing the voice again, suddenly realized it was Samson. They looked at Samson funny, and Dave said, "Do you really need all that?"
"Of course!" Samson replied. "You never can be too careful!" Samson zipped up his backpack, which was just about to give out from all of the things he put in. He put it on his back and fell face first as soon as he leaned forward to walk. "…Merp…" He got up. "Maybe you have a point…" He looked into his backpack again, and removed a few things, reluctantly. He then tried to put his backpack back on again and this time it fit. "There…" He turned to the stack of things he took out and looked in an unsure manner at them, hoping he wasn't going to need the quarter gallon of hand sanitizer, feather duster, cloth cleaning rags, and spray cleaner he took out, amongst other things.
"Come on!" Ping-Pong said. "It's time to head out."
"Coming," Samson said heading over to the exit, then pausing and looking back.
"You won't need that stuff, Samson," Dave said, knowing exactly why he was looking back.
"Okay," Samson said as he ran out to the group of the Bean Scouts, whereas they met up with Ms. Doe and the Squirrel Scouts by the lake.
"Okay, Squirrels!" Ms. Doe said as she exited the boat with the other Squirrel Scouts. "Let's now give the Beans our Squirrel Scout Salutation! Ready?" At that, Ms. Doe blew a note for them to begin on, and the Squirrel Scouts muttered inaudibly in a listless and slightly annoyed manner.
"Oh, kay, then…" Ms. Doe looked at them. "We'll need to practice that more when we get back from the hike, then!"
Their muttering grew louder then subsided. Patsy looked at Lazlo and smiled. "Hi, Lazlo!"
Lazlo noticed her and waved back. "Hello, Patsy!"
Patsy just stood there and looked at him dreamily. Lazlo, whom was completely oblivious as to why she was looking at him like that, just smiled back.
Scoutmaster Lumpus groaned, "Let's just go and get this over with," and motioned out to the woods.
"Oh, not yet, Scoutmaster Lahmpas!" Ms. Doe said to him, unaware that she mispronounced his name again.
"Oh, it's Lumpus, Ms. Doe," Lumpus corrected.
"We still have to organize the scouts into pairs!" Ms. Doe said as she began to pair them all up, much like she did at the "Shin Dootenannebaloo". She obviously doesn't really consider change too much, as she hums merrily, pairing them in nearly the exact same manner she did before.
"Can't we choose our own partners?" Gretchen said angrily as Jane Doe brought Clam over to her.
"No, no; not to-day," Ms. Doe replied. "This way you can learn to get along with whoever you're paired with, as well as keep an eye on each other so you don't get lost!"
Clam looked at Gretchen and smiled.
"What're you lookin' at?" Gretchen growled.
Almondine was paired with Samson yet again. Almondine looked around, then at Samson as she said, "This seems familiar…"
Jane Doe soon paired Lazlo with Patsy, much to Patsy's liking, and Nina and Raj were also paired off. In fact, Ms. Doe took the liberty to pair off everyone, including the Lemmings, who posed as extra who she paired off to be two partner teams of two.
"Alright-y!" Ms. Doe exclaimed. "Now we can use the buddies' system so no-one gets left behind or alone!"
Soon, they all began to cluster together so that the Beans could talk to their Bean Scout friends and the Squirrels can talk to their Squirrel Scout friends. The buddies' system that Ms. Doe wanted to try became complicated by this. All of the scouts were engaged in a conversation with someone except Samson and Almondine. Almondine didn't really share many interests with the others, while Samson just generally blended into the background too well. They looked at each other, thinking the other was going to go into the group and enter the conversations with the others, but before they even moved, Ms. Doe wanted their attention once more.
"Okay! All of you settle down and get back into your pairs!" Ms. Doe said to them. They of course did not hear her and thus Ms. Mucus was needed.
"Listen up, you little piggies!" Ms. Mucus exclaimed.
"Hey!" Ted the background pig scout exclaimed, offended.
Ms. Mucus ignored the background scout nobody cares about and continued, "Y'all'd better go 'n' stand next to your partners now!" Ms. Mucus shouted and that was, again, all that was needed.
"Listen up, scouts!" Ms. Doe continued. "We'll all be going soon! Remember: you may talk to your friends and all when we're on our way during the hike. You'll have to keep an eye on your partner though, so everyone stays safe! But for now, Slugman is going to take the roll!"
"Um, it's Slinkman, Ma'am…" Slinkman tried to correct as he began to take a quick roll.
When Slinkman finished, Ms. Doe said, "Okay, everyone; let's go!" And began with Scoutmaster Lumpus to lead them off.