Chapter 1
"There once was a man from Nantucket, ya? Who kept all hi-"
"Wakka, you loser, shut up," Tidus groaned, "No one wants to hear the Nantucket story."
"Tidus," Auron spat, "Don't be a bully. We're out here to-" Auron flinched, wishing he wasn't being forced into camping because of his past decisions, which had led him to owing A LOT of time doing community service. "To... Have fun."
The boy scouts were sitting around their 'well-prepared' campfire (about to go out) eating their 'tasty' smores (year-old chocolate (provided by Wakka!), some oddly lumped marshmallows, and stale, slightly salted graham crackers.)
Voicing everyone's opinion, Baralai, the group pansy, said "These are gross..." and then added, in a whiny, girl voice, "And I broke a nail."
After an extremely awkward interval of silence, Auron muttered, under his breath, "Faggot."
"I heard that," Baralai whined. "You're a bad camp leader!"
"Baralai!" Tidus and Nooj shouted at the same time, "Shut up!"
As Baralai looked down at his feet, attempting not to cry, Yaibal broke through the foliage around the camp site, and dropped a pile of firewood at the edge of the fire pit.
"Duty done, sir!" Yaibal shouted, saluting Auron. Yaibal stumbled forward and almost fell in the pile of burning embers as Jecht, Tidus' father and the other camp leader (also for community service,) hit him on the back of the head.
"Congratulations. Would you like a cookie..." Jecht's lip twitched. "...Soldier?"
Yaibal thought for a moment, then saluting Jecht as well, said, "Sir, yes, sir!"
Jecht blinked a few times, completely stunned into silence after Yaibal's display of total mental deficiency. He muttered something incoherent under his breath, and took a seat on a log, beside Auron, surprised at the softness, due to moss, and some rotting.
"But..." Yaibal said "...What about my cookie."
"Shut up!" Jecht said.
"Okay," Yaibal said, his voice cracking with hurt and disappointment from the leader's rejection of him.
Leader Braska, who'd remained quiet up till then said, in a notably more soft voice than that of Jecht and Auron, "There are no cookies in the middle of the woods, Yaibal. Maybe when we get back. Hey, we'll even get you your favourite brand, okay?"
Little did he know...
The stores nearest their homes were currently sold out of Yaibal's favourite brand of cookies, because Clasko, a boy living on their street, who had somehow made it into Girl Guides rather than Boy Scouts, was throwing a sleep-over and had bought many a cookie, for all the girls in his patrol were coming.
"Well," Braska, "I'm off to bed, and it's time for you boys to hit the hay."
Tidus looked with distaste at the tent he would be sharing with Gippal and Wakka. The leaders would sleep in a separate tent, and Nooj, Baralai, and Yaibal would sleep in another tent. Seymour and O'aka would be sleeping in another tent, perfectly pitched because O'aka apparently traveled and camped quite a bit. Gippal, Wakka, and Tidus had struggled in vain to pitch their tent properly, however they seemed to have forgotten a pole, causing the tent to lean precariously to one side.
Groaning, Nooj got up and went to the tent he was sleeping in, throwing Gippal a desperate look over his shoulder. Tidus grinned. Nooj and Gippal were good friends and had wanted to share a tent, but Nooj had instead gotten stuck with Yaibal and Baralai.
It was quite hilarious.
But then, it meant Tidus and Wakka would be sharing a tent with Gippal. Gippal wasn't a bad person or anything, but he was so... arrogant.
'Ah well...' Tidus mused, 'Better than sharing a tent with a queer.'
He looked uneasily at Baralai and hastily got up to go to their tent. Snuggling down into the warm depths of his sleeping bag, Tidus attempted to sleep.
Just as he felt a wave of drowsiness come over him, Gippal burst through the tent flap, Wakka trailing behind. Wakka settled himself down for the night, but Gippal just flung himself to the ground, knocking a bag sideways and into Tidus' face.
Sitting up quickly, Tidus flung the bag at Gippal and began to speak: "If you don't be more careful, I'm gonna shove this bag up your a-"
"Tidus!" he heard his father shouting from the tent beside them, "Shut up, won't ya!"
Groaning, Tidus shot a glare sideways at Gippal, and abruptly lay back down, hitting his head to the pillow with force, making a slightly audible thump. Behind him, Gippal stuck out his tongue and crawled inside his own sleeping back.
They stayed like that for awhile, until a shrill squeal made each of them sit up, trying to identify the screamer. A coarse, throaty laugh from their right told them that Baralai had clearly been the one, as they could hear him whining for Nooj to quit laughing.
For the second time that night, Jecht raised his voice in control.
"Shut up!"
After some commotion from the pansy tent, everyone settled down, and sleep was just washing over Tidus as an odd cracking noise, like feet treading over dry twigs filled the silence.
From the tent beside them, Tidus heard Baralai saying, "What was that?"
Tidus but his lip. Soon enough, his father or Auron would silence Baralai and no doubt poke fun at him for his fear of sounds in the night. Knowing they would, and that Baralai would be so humiliated made Tidus feel slightly guilty.
He was scared, too.
Well, kind of. He was fully aware that the snapping was probably just an owl, or some other nocturnal creature, wandering the maze of trees around them.
Sighing, Tidus snuggled into his sleeping bag, and, finally, sleep found him.
Waking up the next morning, Tidus was surprised to find himself feeling completely revitalized. He'd gotten a good sleep, despite the whining from Baralai.
Going over the day's schedule in his head, Tidus groaned. They had to go on a hike. A hike.
Slowly, Tidus got dressed and left the tent. Everyone else was already up and eating, and his seat was taken so Tidus took a seat beside Yaibal. Yaibal made a sad attempt to swallow the slime that was their breakfast, and, turning to Tidus, his face went slightly green. He muttered something about being sick and ran off into the forest.
"What's with him?" Jecht asked bluntly, staring after Yaibal.
'He's sick," Tidus said, shrugging, "I guess it was your cooking; I think I'll skip breakfast."
Jecht glared at Tidus and opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Yaibal, who crashed into the clearing, screaming.
"Monster! MONSTER!"
Auron stood up and said, "Yaibal, shut up. What are you talking about?"
"It was a monster!" Yaibal exclaimed. "I swear! It tried to kill me! With a weapon in the form of big, pointy, teeth thingys! It'll ill us all! "
Baralai connected his pinky and thumb, then moved his hand to his mouth, his three fingers flailing as he tried to express the horror that haunted him.
Tidus heard rustling in the bushes, and turned his head to the side, glancing askance at what he determined was Yaibal's monster.
As a pair of small, beady, but somewhat cute eyes stared at him, hidden partially by fur and whiskers, Tidus, purely on instinct, picked up a rock and threw it at Yaibal.
"Retard!" he shouted, watching as the bunny sitting at the edge of the clearing turned to hop closer to a nearby bush, the fluffy tail bouncing as it moved.
"That's your monster?" scoffed Gippal, "What's it going to do? Nibble our bums?"
"FINE!" Yaibal shouted. "Be that way! It looked like a monster! The forest is dark, okay? DARK!"
Laughing at Yaibal's shouts, everyone got up and started their hike.
Yaibal followed behind, trying not to cry.