Chapter One – Camp is Compulsory

"Look, I'm sorry; I really don't have time for this. I've got a million other things to do!" Ezekiel overhears a girl saying in a shrill voice. He's sitting in reception, outside the principal's office, waiting to be given a tour of the school.

"It's one of your duties as school captain, you knew this when you were voted in," Ezekiel hears the principal say.

"I'm aware of that, but I wasn't expecting some kid to show up halfway through the term. What kind of person transfers schools partway through their last year of high school anyway?" the girl says snottily.

"He's not transferring, he's been homeschooled up until now," the principal replies. Ezekiel finally realises they're talking about him.

"Well that's even worse," the girl says.

"Courtney, you're wasting time standing here arguing with me. Just show the kid around," the principal commands wearily. Ezekiel looks up as a girl with long bright purple hair walks into reception, smiles at him, then walks into the principal's office.

"Sierra, finally!" Courtney says. "I need you to do something for me." Sierra, Courtney and the principal walk out of the office and look at Ezekiel. He tries to pretend he hasn't been eavesdropping. One of the girls, presumably Courtney, smiles at him brightly.

"Ezekiel, hi! I'm Courtney, the school captain. Listen, I'm supposed to be showing you around but unfortunately something else has come up, so my secretary, Sierra, is going to do it instead. I hope you don't mind!" Courtney says warmly.

"Uh, no, that's okay, eh?" Ezekiel replies.

"Great, see you later then!" Courtney rushes off. The principal rolls his eyes and goes back into his office.

"Hi, Ezekiel, I'm Sierra, welcome to Drama Heights High!" Sierra says enthusiastically.

"Thanks Sierra, you can call me Zeke, eh?" says Ezekiel.

"Okay, Zeke! We've got fifteen minutes till the bell rings so I'll show you the boring stuff first and then we'll get to the really interesting stuff!" Sierra leads Zeke out of reception and down a hallway where she stops in front of a classroom.

"This is where we have our first class, home room with Ms O'Halloran. She's also our English teacher. We have English last period in the same room. Show me your timetable and I show you where your other classes are." Zeke hands Sierra his timetable and she shows him all his classrooms. She also shows him other important place like the nurse's office, Ms O'Halloran's office and his locker.

"Okay, we have five minutes before class, I can show you the good stuff! Eee!" Sierra says as Zeke closes his locker. Zeke follows her down the hall a little way where she stops in front of a locker.

"This is Cody's locker!" she says happily, giving the locker a kiss. Zeke looks at her, confused.

"Like, who's Cody, eh?" he asks.

"Cody Anderson. He's totally the cutest guy in school!" Sierra gushes.

"Oh, so is he like your boyfriend then?" Zeke wonders.

"Well, not exactly, but I'm sure he'll come around soon!" Sierra assures him. Zeke just nods. "He usually hangs out in the library, want to go see him?" Sierra asks.

"Uh…" Zeke starts, but Sierra doesn't let him finish before she grabs his arm and drags him towards the library. The bell goes while they are on their way there but that doesn't stop Sierra.

"Shouldn't we go to class?" asks Zeke. "I don't want to be late on my first day, eh?"

"It'll only take a minute. If we're late I'll just say it was my fault. Oh my god, there he is!" Sierra squeals. Two guys walk out of the library, a skinny one with red hair and glasses and a short brunette. "Cody!" Sierra calls. The short guy looks up, clearly alarmed. He hides behind his friend who is completely oblivious and just continues rambling about something.

"Aw, isn't he cute?" Sierra says.

"Uh, I guess so?" Zeke replies. At that moment two girls walk by and Zeke is completely captivated by them, forgetting all about how cute Cody supposedly is.

"Who are they?" Zeke pines. Sierra notices the look on his face and who his gaze is directed at.

"Uh no. No no no no." she says.

"What do you mean?"

"That's Lindsay and Heather, and no offence, but girls like that will never date guys like you!"

"Why not?" Zeke asks.

"Uh, hello! Look at them. Besides, Lindsay has a boyfriend and Heather refuses to date high school boys."

"Oh," says Zeke sadly.

"Zeke, you're new here and so you don't understand the social hierarchy, so I'm going to tell you how it goes. I'm not saying this to be mean, I just think you need to know. At the top of the social ladder are the popular girls and boys. Then it goes the jocks, then the nerds and the so-called "wannabes", then the weird loners and then at the very bottom is the weird new kid. Basically if you date someone more than one rung below you it's social suicide. If you can work your way up that's great, but don't get you hopes up." Sierra explains.

"It seems kinda complicated," Zeke says, scratching his head through his woollen beanie.

"I know, but you'll get the hang of it. Come on, we better get to class."


Once they get to class, Sierra ditches Ezekiel and takes a seat next to Cody. Cody sighs when she sits next to him and moves as far away as he can while still staying in the same seat. Zeke stands awkwardly at the front of the classroom as everyone else takes their seats. Ms O'Halloran enters and looks him up and down.

"Who are you?" she asks shortly.

"I'm Ezekiel, Miss. It's my first day."

"It's Ms. O'Halloran, thank you. Take a seat, please." Ms O'Halloran gestures to an empty seat at the front of the classroom. "Alright, listen up please people, I'm going to do the roll now!" Despite Ms O'Halloran's instruction everyone keeps talking. She begins the roll anyway. "Cody."

"Here!" yells Sierra.

"Sierra, I can answer my own name!" Cody complains. Sierra giggles and flutters her eyelashes at him. Cody sighs.

"Heather," Ms O'Halloran calls. "Heather, will you answer your name please?"

"If you know I'm here, why do I have to answer?" Heather says snarkily.

"Watch your attitude Heather," Ms O'Halloran warns.

"Ugh, whatever!" Heather says and goes back to talking to Lindsay. Ms O'Halloran continues with the roll.

"Anyway, I told the waiter that I ordered my meal without gravy, so they took it back but I swear all they did was wash the gravy off and serve me the same meal." Heather tells her friends.

"Oh my god, that is so wrong!" Lindsay says.

"You really should have just left then," Courtney advises.

"I would have, but my parents refused to leave, it was horrible." Heather shakes her head.

"I would never stand for something like that. My parents would never force me to stay at a place like that," Courtney says.

"Princess." Duncan coughs under his breath, having been eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Excuse me?" Courtney snaps.

"You heard me, Princess." Duncan smirks.

"No one asked you!" Heather retorts.

"Duncan!" Ms O'Halloran yells. "I've had just about enough of you, get out of my classroom!"

"What? Why?" Duncan protests.

"You're continuously talking while I'm trying to take the roll! Now get out before I think up a worse punishment!" Ms O'Halloran threatens.

"But Ms O'Halloran, the girls were the ones talking!" Duncan complains.

"Right that's it, detention after school. Now go to the principal's office!"

"But…" Duncan starts.

"End of discussion!" Ms O'Halloran glares at him. Duncan grabs his things off his table and stalks out of the classroom. The girls watch him smugly and Ms O'Halloran continues with the roll. After it has been established that everyone is there, Ms O'Halloran gets Beth to hand out some coloured paper, scissors, glue and magazines.

"What's all this for?" DJ asks.

"We're making vision boards today." Ms O'Halloran tells them.

"What the heck is a vision board?" Leshawna bursts out.

"I've made plenty of these! It's where you outline your goals and dreams and other things you want on a poster so you can visualise where you want to go in life." Courtney explains.

"Thank you Courtney, but I'm the teacher, I'll do the explaining!" Ms O'Halloran snaps. Courtney huffs and folds her arms. "You're going to use these magazines to find things you want out of life and glue them to the paper so whenever you look at your vision board you will remember what you need to do to achieve these goals." Ms O'Halloran explains.

"Ms O'Halloran, I'm not sure if you're aware, but we're seventeen, not ten. Aren't we a little old for cutting and pasting?" Heather points out.

"I agree with Heather, surely we could be using our time for something more productive?" Alejandro says. Heather shoots daggers at him. "What? I am agreeing with you!" he defends.

"I know, and it's annoying!" Heather retorts.

"Both of you be quiet, I say this is what you're doing so you will do it!" Ms O'Halloran says. She then sits at her desk and starts reading one of the magazines. Courtney has already started her vision board. A few others start looking through the magazines for things to cut out, but most people just start talking to their friends. Geoff starts making tiny paper planes out of the magazine pages and throwing them at the back of Bridgette's head so they get stuck in her thick blonde hair.

"Look, she hasn't even noticed!" Geoff laughs to Trent. Trent gets out his guitar and starts playing a tune.

"Did you write that?" asks Gwen. Trent nods and starts singing. Gwen smiles and starts writing in her diary. Courtney and Heather look over at her and raise their eyebrows knowingly. Gwen blushes, shuts the diary and gets to work on her vision board. Geoff throws another paper plane and this one hits Eva in the face who has turned around to see what Bridgette is doing. Eva and Bridgette immediately turn to look at Geoff. Eva gets up out of her chair and walks over to him, slamming her fists down onto his desk.

"Think you're funny, do you?" Eva growls.

"Uh, no!" Geoff gulps.

Meanwhile, Harold is trying to explain the difference between toads and frogs to Cody, Owen and Noah. None of them are listening however, as Noah is reading a book, Owen is eating some form of cake that he found in Noah's bag and Cody is trying to get Sierra not to take pictures of him on her phone so she can print them off and stick them on her vision board. She already has several glued on that she had been carrying around in her wallet. She has also cut the letters of his name out of one of the magazines and stuck them on.

"Okay Tyler, question two, your idea of the perfect outfit is; A, heels and a dress, B, whatever is comfortable, or C, everyone occasion calls for a different perfect outfit!" Lindsay reads from one of the magazines.

"Uhh… I guess whatever is comfortable?" Tyler says.

"Really?" Lindsay says, disappointed.

"Why what would you say?" Tyler asks.

"Well, everyone occasion has a different perfect outfit of course!" Lindsay tells him.

"Okay, I pick that one too then," Tyler agrees.

Izzy has flipped over her desk and is sitting in it, pretending it's a ship.

"Arr, mehearties! Make way for the SS Kaleidoscope!"

Sadie looks over at Katie's page to see what she is doing but all Katie has done so far is write Mrs Justin Macpherson in cursive in the top right hand corner.

"Uh, Katie. What are you doing? We both know that I'm the one who's going to marry Justin." Sadie points out.

"I don't think so Sadie. I mean I know you have a crush in him, but he definitely likes me better!" Katie responds.

"Where do you get that idea from?" Sadie says angrily.

"Well, obviously I'm the prettier one!" Katie tells her.

At that moment the principal walks in, bringing Duncan with him. He looks around the classroom in shock. Ms O'Halloran looks up from her magazine and quickly takes her feet from off the desk.

"Mr. Paulson! What can I do for you?" she says sweetly, standing up and going over to him.

"Blaineley, can I talk to you outside for a moment? Duncan you can go and sit down." Duncan goes back to his seat and Mr Paulson and Ms O'Halloran step outside.

"What seems to be the problem?" Blaineley asks once they are in the hallway, trying to conceal her nervousness.

"Blaineley, what I witnessed in there was a train wreck. Kids were up out of their seats, playing guitar, using their phones, reading unprescribed books. One girl was brandishing a pair of scissors at someone. And you were doing nothing about it!" Mr. Paulson scolds her.

"Mr. Paulson, I can explain!' Blaineley laughs nervously.

"This is your last chance Blaineley. Any trouble with this class again and I'm going to have to take drastic measures." Mr Paulson warns.

"D-drastic measures?" Blaineley stammers. "You're not going to fire me, are you?"

"No, it will be much worse than that, trust me!" Mr Paulson says and walks away.


The rest of the day passes without much incident as Blaineley's class doesn't have much to do with each other. Eventually period six English rolls around.

"Okay class, today we're going to do a practical activity!" Blaineley figures she can't go wrong if she has the students doing something where they have to get up and involved. "We'll be acting out Romeo and Juliet! First I'll give out the roles and then we'll need to set the scene!"

"I'll be Juliet!" Courtney calls out.

"Fine, you can be Juliet!" Blaineley sighs. "Who wants to be Romeo?" No one answers. "Anyone?" Blaineley asks hopefully. She really needs this class to go well because she does not want to find out the consequences of it not going well.

"I will do it," Alejandro offers.

"What! Why?" Heather protests.

"It's okay Heather, it is only acting, I am not really in love with Courtney." Alejandro smiles.

"Ugh, as if I care about that! It's just that… you're such a horrible actor! No one should have to suffer through that! Justin should do it." Heather suggests.

"Oh if Justin is Romeo, can I be Juliet?" Katie asks. Sadie glares at her.

"Justin?" Blaineley asks.

"No that's okay, Alejandro can do it. Reading makes me squint and I don't want any wrinkles near my eyes." Justin says. Blaineley assigns the rest of the roles and then gets them to start setting up the room.

"You know, Justin may like me better, but Trent definitely likes you better!" Katie says to Sadie. "And if I date Justin and you date Trent we could double date! We could even hang out with the popular girls, probably!" Katie smiles.

"I guess you're right!" Sadie concedes.

"You two wannabes are so deluded!" Heather sneers.

"Okay, we need to push all those tables to one side of the room so that we have an area for a stage," Courtney instructs. "Then we'll need some tables and chairs to act as the set, so…"

"Who made you in charge?" Duncan asks.

"I made myself in charge, because I'm the lead in the school musical and captain of the drama club, so I'm the only one who actually knows anything about acting!" Courtney retorts.

"Well, I've got news for you, no one gives a crap!" Duncan says. "You're not as good as you think you are, Princess!"

"Like I care what you think! Will you just do as I say?" Courtney huffs.

"No way, I want to be the director. I have more life experience." Duncan folds his arms.

"What, you think 'cause you've been to juvie you're so worldly now?" Courtney scoffs.

"No, I think that since you're such a stuck up pain in the ass you'd give everyone a headache before we even started the play. It's bad enough you're playing Juliet." Duncan says.

"Now, guys, let's not fight! Maybe you can work together…" Blaineley tries to smooth over the situation.

"There is no way I'm working with him!" Courtney asserts.

"Well there's one thing we agree on!" Duncan snorts.

"Urgh, will someone please back me up here!" Courtney demands. Everyone stays silent. Duncan laughs.

"Maybe if you weren't such an uptight know-it-all your friends would actually like you!" Duncan smirks. Courtney gives a cry of frustration and storms out of the room.

"Uhh…" says Blaineley.

"Should we go after her?" asks Gwen.

"Yes, it might be best if you go with her Gwen," Blaineley agrees. Gwen follows Courtney out of the classroom. "Okay, who wants to be Juliet then?" Blaineley asks.

"I'll do it!" Heather volunteers.

"It wouldn't be because Alejandro is Romeo would it?" Geoff elbows her.

"Ew, no! I wanted to be Juliet all along, Courtney just got in before me!" Heather says.

"Alright, who's in charge now that Courtney's gone?" Justin asks.

"I thought we established that it was me!" Duncan reminds him.

"No way! No one wants to take direction from a loser like you." Heather says.

"But you all just let Courtney leave!" Duncan complains.

"Yeah, that's just because they knew I'd be a better leader! Courtney understands. Alright people, start moving the tables." Heather claps her hands.

"Like, the guys should probably do it, eh?" Zeke says.

"Uh, what?" Heather snaps. "Who the hell are you?"

"I'm Ezekiel. I said the guys should move the tables, you know to help out the girls." Zeke repeats.

"What are you saying?" Bridgette folds her arms.

"Well, you know, since guys are much stronger than girls. The guys should do it, eh?" Ezekiel continues, oblivious to the death looks he is receiving. Eva grabs Ezekiel by the collar and shoves him against the wall. "You want to say that again, pipsqueak?" she spits.

"Uh, no, that's okay," Zeke finally realises he's made a mistake.

"That's what I thought!" Eva lets him go and starts to walk away. Blaineley breathes a sigh of relief. Geoff starts laughing.

"Oh, you've got a lot to learn man!" he says shaking his head. "Next you'll be saying guys are smarter than girls!"

"But, they are…" Zeke says.

"What?!" Eva yells.

"I'll hold him, and you punch!" the normally calm and non-violent Bridgette says to Eva, but Eva already has Ezekiel on the floor and is beating Ezekiel to a pulp.

"Oh my god!" Blaineley starts freaking out. "Somebody help him!" DJ grabs Eva and drags her away from Zeke. "Bridgette and Eva!" Blaineley yells. "Both of you to the principal's office, now! I can't let this behaviour slide." Eva and Bridgette shoot daggers at Ezekiel as they exit the classroom. "Someone take Ezekiel to the nurse's office please!" Blaineley instructs. No one moves. "NOW!" Blaineley screeches. DJ quickly grabs Ezekiel and carries him to the nurse's office.

"This is a disaster!" Blaineley groans as she sits down at her desk.

"So do we keep going or what?" Heather says.


After school Mr. Paulson calls Blaineley to his office. Blaineley knocks timidly on the door.

"Come in," Mr. Paulson calls. Blaineley enters and takes a seat opposite him. Mr. Paulson raises his eyebrows at her. "So. One girl walking out of class, two sent to my office for fighting and the new kid in the nurse's office on his first day. Not exactly what I had in mind when I gave you that warning this morning."

"I'm really sorry, Mr. Paulson." Blaineley says.

"You didn't heed my words, so now you'll have to face the consequences. You'll be taking your class on a behavioural problems and teamwork camp. I've taken the liberty of printing these permission forms for them. The camp is compulsory, if they don't bring this back by Friday, their parents will be called. One way or another your class will be going on this camp." Mr. Paulson tells her.

"How long is the camp for?" Blaineley gulps.

"It's for a week. It's this place called Wawanakawa. Apparently the guy who runs it is excellent at whipping kids back into line. You'll leave first thing on Monday morning." Mr. Paulson says. He hands Blaineley the permission forms and dismisses her. All she can think is this punishment is definitely worse than being fired.