Okay! So, you guys obviously didn't enjoy that last chapter so much…honestly, I can't say that I blame you. :-/ I think I gave myself too many dots and not enough space to connect them in, if you will. But I promise, this chapter is much better. Review and confirm my thoughts when you're finished? I would appreciate it more than Courtney would appreciate Duncan leaving her alone. :-D
I've gotten several requests for The Big Sleep, so here it is! This fic only focuses on the Bass, but if anyone out there wants something Gopher-tastic, hit up my profile and PM me! Specific thanks to ForbidenFaerie and TDIATGirl1301 for the idea, along with some others who wish to remain anonymous :)
And P.S: This is the longest one yet, so you might want to hunker down with, say, your bed in case you fall asleep trying to finish it! Hopefully it'll be more interesting than that…but no one's a good judge of their own work. -Smiles-
Disclaimer: I think we all know what I'm going to write here.
"Gooooood morning, campers!" Chris called happily as he approached the group of groggy teens. His hair was perfectly windswept, shirt perfectly ironed and perfectly crispy, smile perfectly whitened—in short, he looked rested. Not only rested, but pampered as only a TV host could be. He glanced around at the bodies sprawled out all over the area, watching for any response to his wake-up call.
No one stirred.
Upon deciding that this lack of reaction was unacceptable, Chris scampered up to the spot where the most teens were lying, held up his favorite red megaphone, and yelled, "You've all reached the 29 hour mark! So wakey-wakey!"
A chorus of groans and protests came from both teams as the few who had fallen asleep woke up and the ones who had managed to stay conscious guarded their ears against the unwelcome noise. The sun was just beginning to rise over the treetops, silhouetting the camp's outline, and a slight shadow fell over the dusty bonfire grounds. It couldn't have been later than six or seven in the morning.
Chris walked around in a slow circle, examining the contestants with a scheming, television-worthy smile pasted onto his face.
Tyler rocked himself on his tree stump until he had gathered enough momentum to stand, and then stretched his arms out over his head.
Harold had worked himself into a pose that resembled something a person saw in yoga advertisements and had begun chanting, "Ohmmmmm…ohmmmmm…"
Eva jogged in place and snarled at anyone who dared to look her in the eye.
Duncan drew a skull and crossbones in the dirt where he lay spread out on the ground, Geoff next to him.
Katie and Sadie would whisper for a moment, and then burst out laughing.
Bridgette lay sound asleep while Courtney stared at her disappointedly, tugging at the cuffs of her sleeves.
DJ was nowhere to be seen. Chris shrugged; he'd turn up sometime.
Glancing around at the state of her fellow teammates, Courtney detached herself from the group and approached the smiling host separately. She rubbed her eyes quickly and smoothed out her shirt, doing the best she could to look presentable, and then moved to stand in front of him. The host faced her expectantly.
"Chris, can I have a second?" She proceeded on without waiting for an answer. "My team and I were talking last night, and we've decided that this whole challenge is completely unreasonable. 29 hours is more than a day without sleep, and we're not even done yet." She stabbed a finger into her palm for emphasis. "This is literal torture on the basis of sleep deprivation." She twined her fingers together as she finished making her appeal and stared at the man standing in front of her. Chris smiled back blankly and blinked a few times.
"Well?" she prompted, waving him along with her hands.
"Well what?" Chris asked through his megaphone, a grating screech coming from the machine.
The Bass spokesperson winced at the noise, but didn't dare ask him to part with his beloved apparatus. "Well…" she said, trying to come up with a valid substitute for their situation. She hadn't anticipated total indifference when she had been talking this over with her team last night. "Won't you do something about it?"
Chris shook his head and raised the megaphone once more. "I'm afraid not, Courtney! You see, we're already nearly two days into the challenge! To stop now would totally throw off the whole schedule!"
The girl he spoke to glared, but refused to fight with authority. She sighed and walked back to where the Bass were stationed and surveyed the crowd. The only person who she would really enjoy sitting with, Bridgette, had managed to sleep through Chris's wake-up call. Courtney walked over to where she lay and gingerly sat down next to her, still glaring at Chris, muttering under her breath; the words 'sadist' and 'narcissistic' could be heard.
-
Geoff, having successfully risen from his half-asleep, half-awake state, began walking in Chris's direction after that, Duncan following a meter or two behind. The look on the latter's face said, 'I could be leading if I wanted to—I just don't feel like it.' It was probably true.
"Chris, man, what time is it?" Geoff asked as Duncan came to stand beside him.
"SIX A.M!"
Without a word, Duncan snatched Chris's megaphone, extended his arm up over his head, and threw the megaphone into the dirt with enough force to shatter a window. It clattered to the ground as the trio stared at it, rolled around on its end, and then settled a few meters away. Duncan looked up at the host as it stopped revolving and shot him a fierce look, daring him to retrieve his item.
Chris's smile didn't falter, but he didn't move to pick up his megaphone either.
"So tell me," Duncan said through clenched teeth, "What made you wake us up at the ungodly hour of six in the morning to tell us that it's been 29 hours?"
"That is pretty random, dude," Geoff declared, nodding in agreement with Duncan. "Like, it's not a day, and it's not a day and a half. 29's just sort of hanging there." He watched Chris intently.
"Oh, that!" the host responded. "Well, ya see, the network said that I wasn't allowed to bother you guys before six. Some rule about 'child protection' or something," he said, making quote marks. "Believe me, I would've woken you up way earlier than this. But that would've lost me my paycheck!" He nudged Duncan as a friend would.
"Don't. Touch. Me."
"Sheesh," Chris said, stepping away from the boys, one cheerful and one brooding. "Don't have a fit, dude." He held up his hands in mock surrender and scurried over to his post behind the makeshift podium.
"ALL RIGHT, CAMPERS!" he said, addressing them all. He cupped his hands around his mouth and tried to get the attention of each. "You've had four minutes to get yourselves up and running. So hurry up and start talking or something, because you're boring right now!" He clapped his hands to say 'chop-chop' and then moved to go grill one of the cameramen.
Every conscious camper was ready to strangle the host.
_-=-_
About an hour later, nearly all of the teens had gotten moving. Bridgette, only recently roused by all the noise, looked around the grounds blearily. "Oh… gosh," she said after a defeated yawn. "Did I fall asleep?" She looked around for Courtney, but couldn't spot her.
Tyler, propped up on his left shin in order to stretch out his right hamstring, responded instead. "Yeah. You were out cold!" He stood to switch sides, got back down on the ground, and then leaned forward, trying to touch the tip of his tennis shoe. "Ouch!" he screamed, twisting over to fall on his side while clutching the back of his thigh.
"What?!" Bridgette asked, jerked into alertness.
"Aw, man," Tyler said, sitting again. In an attempt to look macho, he brushed it off saying, "It's nothing. I think I just pulled my hamstring a little there." He started massaging his leg, attempting to hide his pain.
"Right…" Bridgette gave him a sympathetic smile as she stood and stretched out her back. She gazed at the people around her, counting them all.
Katie and Sadie sat cross-legged together, gossiping.
Harold was practicing some form of martial arts. Or something like that.
Eva did bicep curls with two massive rocks that she must have found, all the while maintaining a steady jog in place.
Tyler was still trying to massage out the strain he'd put on his hamstring.
Bridgette's eyebrows furrowed in sleepy confusion. That was only six people, counting herself. Where had Geoff gone? And Courtney? She walked over to Katie and Sadie and squatted down to get level with them, deciding that those were the two she'd most like to talk to. "Hey, does either of you know where Courtney went? Or Geoff? I don't see them."
The pair looked up at her and then back to each other as if the answer would be found on the other's face. After a second, Katie looked back up and answered. "I think Courtney went to the bathroom."
"Oh my gosh!" Sadie exclaimed. "I was about to say that! Like, those exact words!"
"No way."
"Way!" They clapped together from excitement over the small discovery, causing several other campers to look up at them in annoyance.
Bridgette rolled her eyes at the look-alikes playfully, unmindful of the irritated looks being shot in her general direction. "And Geoff? And Duncan and DJ?" she reminded them.
"Umm…" Sadie started, seeming to give the question serious consideration. "I think Duncan and Geoff went to untie DJ from that tree he tied himself to last night. Like, before Chef did that whole ballet thing." She looked at Katie for confirmation, who nodded rapidly in response.
Bridgette nodded as well, accepting the explanation. After thanking them, she carefully hopped over the arms and legs of her peers, making her way back towards the washrooms to find Courtney and to get cleaned up after sleeping on the ground.
"Hey, Courtney!" she called, entering the rickety building. "You in here?"
Courtney looked up from the sink, yawning. "Oh, hi, Bridgette," she forced out in greeting.
Bridgette paused in the doorway and took a second to look at her. "Courtney," she said after a second. "You don't look so good." Bridgette walked up to her and began fixing her own ponytail in the mirror. "Are you okay?" It had only been a week together, but the two had become fast friends.
The brunette shook her head quickly to clear it and straightened up from bending over the sink. "I feel fine!" she affirmed a second later. Bridgette shot her a skeptical look. "Well, as fine as anyone could feel after missing two nights of sleep," Courtney amended sourly. She splashed her dark complexion with a bit of water and dried her face, Bridgette watching her in the mirror.
"All right," the blonde said after a second. "I'll buy that." She wet a paper towel and rubbed it over her arms to remove the majority of the dust. It'll have to do for a shower, she realized sullenly. "So…who do you think will win the challenge?"
Courtney looked up. "Assuming that it's someone from our team?"
Bridgette nodded while her friend seemed to give the topic some consideration. "And assuming that it's not me?" she asked after a second. "But only because I keep on a tight sleeping schedule!"
Bridgette laughed at her friend's need to defend her position—she hadn't even fallen asleep yet! "Sure."
"Well, originally, I would have thought that Geoff would be our best bet since he's such a 'partier'," she said sarcastically, "But he already looks rather comatose." Bridgette agreed. "I might say that Eva would win, but if she keeps exercising at the rate that she is, she's going to completely wear herself out." Bridgette suggested that they go ask Eva to slow it down, but Courtney didn't seem keen on approaching the girl. "DJ's already out, and Harold and Tyler are obviously hopeless," she said thoughtfully. "So, I guess that just leaves…ohhhhh, no."
"What?" Bridgette asked.
Courtney looked slightly horrified as she lifted her face out of her hands. "That means that our team's fate is lying with Katie and Sadie! God, this is a disaster."
Bridgette made a slight face, but managed to look at the situation optimistically. "Well, it might not be so bad," she said, mentally scanning through the rest of her team. "They probably go on a lot of sleepovers." She shrugged. "Wait!" Her mind fell to the green-haired delinquent on her team. "What about Duncan?"
Courtney's expression darkened as she violently wrung out a washcloth. "What about him?" she asked, though it sounded more like a statement.
"Well," Bridgette said, confused by the sudden change in Courtney's mood. "He might be able to win!"
"That boy," Courtney began acidly, "Is not capable of winning anything more than a detention sentence. I promise you, even I'll be able to stay up longer than he will."
Bridgette gave a mental shrug and nodded. "What made you forget about him?" she asked with a small smile.
"I'm just tired, okay?" Courtney snapped. Then, seeming to regret her outburst, she said more softly, "He's not exactly on my list of highest priorities, you know."
-
The girls' chatter on the way back from the washrooms consisted mostly of complaints toward the challenge. When they neared the grounds again, Courtney brought up something she'd been considering. "I think it would be a good idea if we held a team meeting now," she announced.
Bridgette smiled, although she was a bit confused by this proposition. "Okay. What for?"
"We need to go over our strategy." The pair approached the rest of the campers and lowered themselves onto two stumps, glancing around at the other Bass gathered in the area. "Wait. Where is everyone?" Courtney didn't see the glowing green Mohawk she'd come to look for, or the cowboy hat, or the hulking Jamaican.
"Sadie said that they went to go untie DJ." Two heads—one blonde and one brunette—turned to regard the BFFs. They seemed to be playing some sort of game, or perhaps that was them laughing over past memories. It was difficult to tell.
Courtney propped her elbows on her knees and supported her chin in her hands while Bridgette rested back on her arms, which were stretched out behind her. "They'd better hurry up," Courtney stated, frowning in the direction of the woods. Bridgette merely shrugged and drew in the dirt with the toe of her sandal, settling in to wait.
_-=-_
"DJ, dude, what did you do?" Geoff asked his buddy. "This knot is, like, fully impossible!" Geoff squatted on the ground, tugging at the rope, while DJ remained parallel to the earth, tied to the fallen tree. Duncan stood behind Geoff, directing him occasionally.
"Hey, I don't know how I got it so tight!" DJ replied. "I was already half asleep! I'm telling you, it was all in Chef's magic fairy dust. That man has powers."
Duncan scoffed. "Magic fairy dust doesn't exist," he said firmly. "I bet it was just some lighting trick Chris rigged up to make us think we'd get tired." He grabbed a branch off of the ground and began snapping it into halves. "He's trying to screw with our heads." Then, looking down at DJ on the ground, he added, "Apparently, it worked."
He dropped about six broken twig segments into the dirt.
"Hey, man, it's not my fault!" DJ protested. "I go to bed promptly at 9:45 every night, just like my Mama told me I should. This body's not designed to pull all-nighters!"
Duncan gave a slight smirk at the mention of DJ's 'Mama' but didn't pursue the subject. Then, seeing that Geoff was still struggling with DJ's knot, Duncan knelt down beside him. "All right, loser," he said jokingly, pushing him out of the way. "Let me do it."
"All right, man," Geoff said, scooting over. "But Deej got himself really stuck there." Geoff slapped DJ on the back. "I dunno how much luck you'll have."
Duncan snorted and flipped out his pocket-knife. "Luck is for suckers." He addressed DJ: "Don't move." DJ let out a little yelp at the sight of the knife, but did as Duncan instructed. After a few moments of sawing, the rope fell open and DJ rolled out onto the ground.
Duncan straightened up next to Geoff, and the two gazed down at their companion. He lay on the ground, staring up at the canopy of trees, not moving.
After Geoff and Duncan exchanged glances, Geoff snapped his fingers in his pal's face. "DJ, dude, you in there?" He leaned down to wave his hand over DJ's eyes, and then twisted back around to look at Duncan. "I think we killed him, man."
Duncan cracked a smile. "Yeah, guess so." He took another look at the boy on the forest floor, made his analysis (that faker!), and then looked back at Geoff. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go." He started tramping back towards camp, sticks cracking under his Converses.
"Wait, dude, what abou—"
Duncan held up a hand to shush him, shooting him a crafty look. Geoff's eyes filled with comprehension.
Ohhhhhhh, he mouthed, walking away as well. DJ was playing dead! "Uh, yeah, Duncan, I'm ready to go back to camp!" he said over-theatrically. "Without DJ! …Because he died." He winked at the delinquent, now several meters in front of him. Duncan rolled his eyes at his bad acting.
DJ jerked up and looked around, causing Geoff and Duncan to each dart behind the nearest tree. "Guys?... Guys! Where'd you go?!" DJ hopped up and looked around frantically; that forest was creepy, even if you were on the edge of it!
At Duncan's signal, Geoff hopped out from behind his tree—"Dude, you're alive!"—while Duncan revealed himself saying, "You are way too gullible, man."
DJ jumped back and put a hand to his heart. "Aw, NOT cool! You should know to never scare a brother like that!"
Geoff pounded fists with Duncan, who had walked back to join them. "Hey," the prankster said. "You're the one who was playing dead."
DJ made a face, but cleared it quickly. "All right, true that." DJ's back was covered in dry bark, and a few crinkled leaves clung to him. "So, you guys ready to head back?" Three heads—one blonde, one dark, one green—turned to regard the camp.
"Why not?" Duncan asked sardonically, recommencing his march in that direction. DJ and Geoff chattered behind, laughing at the joke they'd just pulled on each other. But Duncan? He wanted someone to bother.
_-=-_
"Finally!" Courtney exclaimed as she saw the three boys approaching. She and Bridgette had gathered the remainder of the Bass team together in a circle for their meeting, but she knew that they wouldn't wait there much longer; Eva already looked ready the throttle someone, and Tyler's concentration kept wandering over to the Gophers.
"Get over here!" Courtney commanded, while Bridgette motioned to the trio with her hand. Upon noticing the circular formation, the boys chose places: Geoff sat between Bridgette and Katie (who was, predictably, sitting next to Sadie), DJ sat on the open side of Sadie, and Duncan pushed between Eva and Courtney. Courtney eyed him crossly; she'd purposely sat next to Eva to keep her from having another fit! And Duncan was certainly not included in her first pick of friends, either.
Quickly counting the members in the circle and concluding to have the full ten, Courtney cleared her throat and began. "Okay, everyone? In light of our situation—" she glanced at Katie and Sadie, "—I think it's time we figured out the best strategy for staying awake and maximizing our chances for success." She looked around expectantly.
Duncan responded. "What kind of strategy could we possibly need?" he asked jeeringly. "It's just staying awake. I don't think that even you can come with a strategy for that." He picked up a stray stick and jabbed it at her.
Courtney grabbed his stick and tossed it to the ground, but ignored him statement. "Well, it's obviously not quite that simple," she began, "Since we already have two people out." She gestured to Bridgette and DJ, who quickly found something to examine on the ground. "The Gophers are ahead of us now. Any ideas?" She adjusted herself so that she was facing away from Duncan and looked out at her team.
Katie and Sadie raised their hands, classroom style. Courtney's eyebrows raised faintly in surprise, but she quickly accepted her role as teacher. "Yes, Katie and Sadie."
The two girls beamed. Sadie turned to Katie. "Katie, why don't you start?"
"Oh, no," Katie declined. "I started last time. You go."
"But it was totally your idea! I think you should."
"Naw, go ahead. It's no biggie."
Courtney eyed them with frustration. She cleared her throat and chose a speaker herself. "Sadie, why don't you start?"
Sadie looked up and shrugged. "Oh, okay." She looked at Katie before continuing. "So, when me and Katie have sleepovers, we like, never actually sleep. We just stay up the whole night talking! And sometimes we go on the computer. But it's mostly talking. So, we really think that will help!" Courtney watched them for a moment longer, Katie congratulating Sadie on her excellent delivery.
Bridgette, figuring that Courtney was about to completely discard all that the girls had just said, cut in. "All right, so, everyone heard that, right? Talking helps you stay awake. So, if you feel yourself starting to drift, um, find someone to…talk to?" She looked at Courtney, who shrugged in a 'good enough' way. "Thanks Sadie, Katie, I'm sure that will be really helpful."
Courtney leaned over to her right and whispered to Bridgette. "You do realize that the whole computer thing is completely irrelevant right now, don't you?"
Bridgette nodded. "But I was right about the sleepover thing," she pointed out.
Courtney acknowledged that fact with a quick bob of her head. "Okay," she resumed. "Any other ideas?"
Harold raised his hand.
"Yes, Harold."
"I think we should, like, amend that last statement," he wheezed. "It wouldn't be very advantageous of us to converse with the other team because, like, that's keeping them alert too and all. We need to stay within the limits of our own, like… team."
"Dude's got a point there," DJ said from next to him, holding out a single finger.
"Wait!" Several heads looked around, trying to locate the owner of the cry. Tyler saved them the trouble by continuing: "What if I wanna talk to someone on the other team?"
"Like I said," Harold began. "That wouldn't be very advantageous."
Geoff, sensing the possibility of a romantic interest, turned to Tyler. "Who do you want to talk to on the other team, man?" he asked with a growing smile.
Tyler, noticing his gaffe too late, clumsily attempted to cover. "No one! I don't want to talk to anyone over there! What are you talking about?"
"You definitely said that you want to talk to someone over there," Duncan pointed out, gesturing to the other team. "Cut the bull." All eyes rested on Tyler.
"No one!" he whined, shying away from their gazes. "I don't want to talk to anyone!" He fidgeted with his headband. Perhaps he was sweating a bit more than usual?
Sadie whispered to Katie, who then perked up and announced, "I think Tyler likes that Lindsay girl!" The duo pointed in the blonde's direction.
The expression on Tyler's face confirmed the accusation, but he continued to deny it. "I don't like her! I don't!"
Duncan shot a sly look at Courtney and Bridgette before addressing Tyler. "Hey, it's okay to like her, man. She's hot." While Bridgette remained unperturbed, Courtney's lips had pursed, and her back had stiffened. He continued. "A total babe. Banging, even. And dumb as a door-knob too. Man, if you could only get her in a room alone, you could—"
"Duncan," Courtney interrupted. "No one wants to hear about your unfulfilled fantasies!" She turned to him slowly, as if it caused her great pain.
Duncan smirked and played the card he'd been planning for a while. "You're just jealous of her rack."
"WHAT?!" Courtney yelled, taken aback. She shoved back on her tree stump in an attempt to put more distance between herself and the delinquent, nearly losing her seat and falling off.
"What, are you deaf?" he asked after he finished chuckling. "You're just jealous of her—"
"I heard you the first time!" Courtney shouted. "I'll have you know that—" Bridgette placed a calming hand on Courtney's shoulder, warning her to stop talking before she said something stupid in defense of her 'rack'. Thank you, Bridgette. After a second or two of deep, yoga breaths, Courtney opened her eyes and looked at the people settled around her, steadfastly ignoring the boy on her left.
"Ugh," she said. "Meeting adjourned!" She rose from her tree stump snappishly and walked a slight distance from the crowd, Bridgette's hand falling off of her shoulder. The rest of the Bass quickly dispersed after that, leaving Tyler and Harold sitting together.
"So…" Harold said, casting around for a conversational topic. "You're attracted to Lindsay?"
"NO!" Tyler looked around for an escape and found none. "…Okay, maybe a little." Harold's gaze didn't waver. "…What?!"
_-=-_
Several hours after the slightly disastrous (yet highly amusing) team meeting, DJ found himself sitting next to Geoff, a bit aside from the rest of the team.
Bridgette looked amused by Tyler's attempts to speak with Katie and Sadie, while Courtney just looked bothered.
Eva moved to step 500 in her 5,000 step fitness routine—crunches—most likely doing them in time with the music blasting from her MP3 player.
Harold was asleep, occasionally mumbling something about ninjas and defending the universe.
Duncan had announced, about half an hour earlier, that he was going into the forest to find some good carving wood while posing the question, "What else am I supposed to do?" Neither Geoff nor DJ had had any reply to that, though Chris had insisted that a cameraman go with him.
Chris himself had recently run back to the kitchens, claiming, "Hunger doesn't flatter my figure!"
DJ silently cursed himself for falling asleep so early in the challenge. Not only had he let his team down, but it had also left him with a lot more energy and a lot less to do with it. Geoff and Duncan could concentrate most of their efforts on not falling asleep, but DJ obviously wasn't struggling with that problem. But then again, he thought, Would I rather have slept and lost, or have stayed awake and risked some serious mental stress?
Sitting slightly more upright, he began to internally weigh the pros and cons of staying awake for, say, three and a half days. That sounded about right. He pulled his knees up toward his chest and rested his forearms on them.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!" Geoff screamed, jerking up from where he'd been reclining. His cowboy hat flew off of his head and landed a meter away.
"What?!" DJ shrieked, flattening himself against the ground and covering his head. He peeked up at Geoff. "What happened? You fall asleep? Have a heart attack? Is there—" he gasped, his voice reaching an unnaturally high pitch, "A snake?" He searched around frantically for the sight of anything reptilian, but didn't spot anything.
Geoff jumped up onto a tree stump, his eyes scanning over the whole camp like he was looking for something in particular. DJ pulled himself back into a sitting position. After a second, Geoff's breathing evened out and he hopped back down, leaving a set of sandal-prints in the dirt. "I just thought…I didn't know if…" He crawled over to retrieve his cowboy hat and then returned, plopping it onto his head. "DJ, dude, is it possible to dream while you're still awake?" he asked, uncharacteristically serious.
DJ's eyebrows furrowed while he tried to recall what he'd learned in health class. Had they even covered dreams? Yeah, he was pretty sure they had. "I don't know," he replied thoughtfully. "Dreams have something to do with your subconscious, I believe. So, if you were gone out far enough for your subconscious to kick in, I guess it could be possible." He shrugged, searching Geoff for any clues to the reason behind his outburst. "But tell me: What happened?"
"Well, no offense or anything, man, but I don't know if I can really tell you this," Geoff dithered, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. DJ waited. "Aw," he said after a second, back in his loud, enthusiastic tone, "I guess it's no big deal! Maybe telling you will make me feel better!" He took one more look around the camp before turning back to DJ. "So, I know that I didn't fall asleep, okay?" he established. "I was just zoned out for a little while there."
DJ nodded, not recalling any point where Geoff's eyes had actually closed. Vacant staring, though? He'd done a lot of that.
Geoff smiled as his claim was validated. "So, I dunno if it was a dream or what, but I dreamed that… I dreamed…" DJ watched him take a deep breath. "I dreamed that we'd lost the challenge and then voted Bridgette off!" he squeaked. Then, continuing normally: "It kind of freaked me out, man."
Two heads—one dark, one blonde—turned to regard the surfer chick. She sat a good way away, talking with Courtney animatedly, as if she were recounting a story.
"Bridgette," DJ repeated, turning the idea over in his head. "You like Bridgette." He smiled affably, offering his fist to Geoff for poundage.
Geoff returned it. "Yeah, bro, I think I do." He gazed in her direction far too dreamily for someone who just 'thought' he liked a girl. "She's just so chill. And pretty. And nice! She's really nice. But I haven't gotten to talk to her too much." Geoff sighed and focused back on DJ.
"Well, why don't you talk to her now, G? She's wide open!" DJ nudged his buddy's shoulder with his own.
"I don't know, dude," Geoff said, flopping down onto his back. He pulled his hat a bit more forward on his face to block out the late afternoon sun. "I'm not too good at that whole thing."
"No way," DJ said, hauling Geoff up off of the ground. "Come on. We're going over there right now, and you are going to talk to her, and it'll be fine." He pushed Geoff in the girls' direction, while Geoff forcefully resisted. He, however, was no match for the strongman behind him, powered on by his good intentions. "Don't sweat it, bro. I'll stay behind you the whole time in case you really need the help. Like your wingman!" DJ had always found that concept interesting.
"All right, dude… If you say so," Geoff said, slowly becoming more sure of himself. Then he paused. "Like my what-man?"
DJ laughed as he and Geoff closed the gap between the girls and themselves. "Nothing, man," he said. "Now go ahead." With one final shove, Geoff was off. "How bad could it be?" DJ asked himself as Geoff approached the girls.
He was about to find out.
_-=-_
Duncan knelt on the forest floor, carefully inspecting two seemingly similar chunks of wood. He held up the block in his right hand to a slit of sunlight filtering through the leaves, and then held up the chunk in his left. Upon deciding that the left piece was favorable to the right, he pocketed it, along with several others he'd found previously. Turning around quickly to head back, he nearly walked headfirst into a camera lens.
"Get that thing out of my face," he sneered, shoving it carelessly. The cameraman struggled to follow behind as he took off abruptly. "Why are you so annoying?"
The young man didn't reply.
"Oh, yeah," Duncan said wryly. "You're not allowed to talk to me." He smirked at the guy, forced to put his best efforts toward capturing Duncan's oh so fascinating trip on film. "You realize," Duncan said, "That Chris is never going to air this. You're wasting your time."
The intern narrowed his eyes, but still didn't reply. The trees appeared to be thinning out by that point, which seemed to give him great pleasure.
-
Duncan continued to weasel at the man halfheartedly, but it wasn't quite as fun since he never replied. After exiting the forest (and the intern splitting the scene soon as Duncan was in someone else's sight), Duncan went about locating Geoff and DJ. A quick survey of the area revealed DJ sitting in the thick of the Bass, looking distressed. Geoff sat a good way away from everyone else, laid out on the ground—spread eagle—his hat partially covering his face.
Duncan strode to where DJ was sitting and parked himself next to him. Reaching into his pocket and pulling out a hunk of wood, he said conversationally, "So, Geoff looks messed up."
"Oh, dude," DJ said, relieved to have someone to talk to. "You have NO idea." He shoved back half a meter to give Duncan more room.
One look at DJ's face had Duncan saying, "Don't even tell me." The criminal flipped out his knife and absentmindedly shaved at his recently-found wood.
DJ's expression became pleading. "Oh, naw, man, don't do that. I need your help with this!" Geoff needed it even more.
The delinquent sighed. "Fine, then." He looked up from his whittling and back uninterestedly. "What happened?"
DJ was quiet for a moment, offering the explanation: "Okay, just hold on. I need to make sure I get all this right." After sufficient remembrance had taken place, DJ resumed. "Right dude, here goes. So, Geoff's liking Bridgette, okay?"
Duncan nodded to his carving; that came as no surprise to him.
"So after he had this dream thing about her, I told him to go talk to her. No problem, right?"
Duncan looked up from his carving, unmoved; obviously there had been a problem, or else DJ wouldn't be talking to him about one.
"Okay, so there was a problem," DJ admitted. "See, it started out fine. Bridgette was over there sitting with Courtney." He gestured to where Courtney sat, unaccompanied. "So when Geoff got over there, he asked Courtney if she'd leave for a second."
Duncan snorted and raised an eyebrow. Courtney? Leave? Oh yeah, he could totally see that happening.
"Naw, dude," DJ said, reading his thoughts. "She was actually cool with it. She just asked why he wanted her to leave, which is, ya know, normal. But when Geoff went to think up an answer…aw." DJ shook his head. "It was bad."
"I don't see what he could of said," Duncan said, "To deserve that." He waved in Geoff's general direction. The boy had rolled over and was lying face in the dirt, still spread-eagle, obviously even more depressed.
"Just listen, bro," DJ resumed. "First it was okay: Geoff told Courtney that he wanted to talk to Bridgette alone. But then he tried to, I dunno, take it back or something, and he told Courtney that she could stay if she didn't want to sit alone. So then Courtney asked why she would mind sitting alone, and Geoff said…man, what did'ee say?"
DJ thought about it for a moment. Duncan opened his mouth, presumably to have DJ speed it up, but DJ said:
"Okay, got it! So Geoff said—" DJ changed his voice so as to impersonate their other friend. " 'I just didn't know if you'd feel like loser or something if you weren't sitting with Bridgette.' To Courtney!" DJ looked to Duncan for his reaction.
After taking half a second to soak in what he'd just been told, Duncan doubled over laughing. "But wait, man!" he said in between guffaws, "That doesn't even make sense!" His torso shook with laughter. "Sitting alone? And Bridgette?"
"I know!" DJ replied, frustrated. He didn't seem to find the situation quite so funny. "I think Geoff was just trying to be sensitive to Courtney's feelings…or something." Mind returning to the present, DJ summarized: "So now Courtney's seriously ticked off because Geoff implied that she's a loser when she's not with Bridgette. And now Bridgette's ticked off because she thinks that Geoff called Courtney a loser. It's a big mess, dude."
Duncan, having mostly recovered from his laughter by that point, saw a perfect opportunity for making trouble. He spoke slightly louder than necessary and said, "But Courtney is a loser." He watched her out of the corner of his eye.
Courtney looked around like someone who thought she'd heard her name, but who wasn't quite sure. After a second of not spotting anyone, she returned to monitoring Eva—she'd seemed to have taken that task upon herself in hope of preventing a blow-up.
DJ pulled his head back a little, thinking Duncan's sudden statement was directed at him. "Well, I don't know, man. She seems cool to me…?" Duncan ignored him. "I mean, I guess sometimes—"
"No," Duncan cut in. "Courtney's definitely a loser." He watched Courtney that time, their eyes meeting as her head jerked up. Her dark eyes narrowed.
"And besides being a loser," Duncan continued, staring at her, "She's also uptight, bossy, controlling, and has a bad temper." Duncan ticked the traits off on his fingers while DJ watched helplessly. His eyes darted from Courtney to Duncan; he was concerned that they were only a few meters apart.
In a flash, Courtney grabbed Eva by the wrist and pulled her to where she stood. "Eva!" she said, also quite loudly. "Don't you think that Duncan's a total idiot who can't even think of a decent insult?" It obviously wasn't much of a question.
Eva pulled her arm out of Courtney's death-grip, but answered with a concise, "Yes." Courtney looked back to Duncan, posing a silent challenge.
Stepping a bit forward, Duncan continued. "And she's annoying, tense, a goody-goody…"
"And don't you think that Duncan's a disgusting, immature, brainless imbecile?" Eva looked at the CIT who had just spoken, almost too confused to be angry.
"And you know what else, Deej?" Duncan asked, preparing for the final blow. DJ furrowed his eyebrows, afraid to answer. "Courtney's pretty ugly, too."
"Okay, that's IT!" Courtney yelled as she stomped over to where Duncan stood. "What is your problem?!"
"Well, apparently," Duncan said, crossing his arms, "I'm a brainless imbecile." He smirked.
"Apparently!" Then Courtney spat back, "You don't even know what that means."
"I think I've got a pretty good idea," he said in response. "Hey, DJ," Duncan said, calling to him. "Do you think I'm a brainless imbecile?" DJ's eyes widened as he grappled for a suitable response.
Courtney spared him. "Don't bring DJ into this!" she ordered. "He didn't even agree with your weak attempt at vilification!" Courtney looked back at Eva, who was looking more and more furious by the second. "At least my person agreed with me!"
Duncan scoffed. "Your person's psychotic." Eva jumped at him, and was prevented only by Harold, Sadie, and Tyler's combined reflexes; Duncan didn't flinch.
Courtney made a mock-delighted face. "Ooh, what a big word!" she cheered. "Who'd you learn it from, your prison warden?"
Duncan pulled himself up so as to stand a little taller. "Actually," he corrected, "It wasn't prison—it was juvy. And I learned it from you." Courtney gawked at him, momentarily unsure of how to respond; she hadn't been expecting that. "You know," Duncan said, standing right in front of her. "There are a few other things I'd like to learn from you, too." He licked his lips suggestively.
Courtney sucked in a huge breath. "Get away from me!" she screamed, barely keeping herself from slapping him. "I'm tired, and I'm not dealing with you right now!" After storming across the entire open space, she turned away and began massaging her temples. A minute later, Bridgette returned to stand next to her.
Courtney appeared to give a rapid review of what had just happened. Judging by the amount of times Bridgette looked over to him, Courtney mentioned Duncan many, many, many times.
_-=-_
Chris crept up to his podium long after the sun had retreated out of the sky. The campfire had been lit, little shadows jumping around whenever anyone moved—not that there was much movement. "40 hours, campers!" he stage-whispered; he had to be sure the cameras could hear him! He took another look around at the teens, most knocked out, some only hanging on to consciousness by a thread.
Katie and Sadie leaned against each other, snoring. Chris made himself a mental note to wake them up soon and send them away.
Eva sat on the ground, seemingly finished with her fitness routine for the night.
Tyler's head bounced around on his neck as he struggled to keep from nodding off. Chris snickered at him.
Geoff sat behind Duncan with his head in his hands, Duncan eyeing Courtney contemplatively from behind.
Courtney herself jogged in place in front of the crowd, which seemed to take a great effort on her part.
Harold was still asleep on the ground, though no more mentioning of ninjas or the universe could be heard.
Bridgette and DJ had previously been sent away to get some dinner; they hadn't seemed very happy about the prospect, either.
Chris slumped over his podium, regretting his agreement to this challenge; it was boring! He picked at the dirt under his nails unenthusiastically, blankly monitoring the campers. Searching through his mind for a means to speeding up the process, he slowly smiled. He had just the thing. Now, all that he had to do was locate a textbook…
Better? That's certainly what I was aiming for.
Longer? Heck to the yes.
Enjoyable? I won't know that unless you review. Which leads me too:
Requests? Comments? Complaints? Please PM or review and let me know!