Chapter 4

"Rise and shine b******!" I heard Black Joker say.

I opened my eyes. It was the morning and for some reason Black was here.

Ellie sat up, saw black and asked, "Morning Black. Where's Vivaldi?"

"She's looking for that b***** Julius," he replied.

I started to get my clothes so I could change in the bathroom. Ellie was doing the same. We walked into the bathroom together.

"This is troubling. I don't think a camper has ever gone missing before," Ellie said.

Black was yelling at the other girls now very loudly.

"That is terrible," I agreed. "Oh and I just remembered, why did Debbie get in trouble with Black anyway?"

Ellie smiled. "She called him 'BJ,'" she said. "He hates it when people call him BJ. The older campers used to do it before they aged out of the camp. Needless to say, he hated them all."

"That makes sense," I said as I finished putting on my clothes.

"It certainly does" she said looking at the showers. "Ugh the worst part about camp is that if you want hot water you have to shower in the middle of the day."

I made a face. I normally showered in the morning but I didn't want to while Black was here. If other girls showered in the morning so there was no hot water that was going to throw me off a bit.

We left the bathroom and she showed me where the laundry bins were in the back room. When we came back into the bunk, the bathroom door was closed and Anita and Veronica could be heard talking quietly. Debbie was still in bed. The only move she had made since I had left the room was that she put her pillow over her head. Black was glaring at her.

"Trying to glare a hole through her Black?" Ellie said.

"Shut the f*** up and wake up your d*** friend," Black said.

"Sure thing," Ellie said grabbing her iPod and a speaker from one of her shelves.

She plugged her iPod into the speaker and played a song that had an alternative sound to it. I couldn't catch the lyrics but it had a lot of electric guitar in it and screaming. Even though the speaker was next to her head, Debbie had no reaction to this loud song.

"Huh, that usually works," Ellie said turning off her iPod.

"Go away BJ. I'm trying to catch up in my beauty sleep," said Debbie in a muffled tone because her head was still under the pillow.

Anita and Veronica came out of the bathroom just in time to see Black completely lose his temper and yell a long string of profanities at Debbie.

Debbie then sat up and whacked Black in the face with her pillow saying, "Shut your mouth BJ. I'm up."

Black opened his mouth to respond when Ellie cut him off by loudly saying, "HEY! Let's talk about where we think Julius is! Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Debbie was in the bathroom by this point and Black had missed his chance to yell at her for now.

"I still think Ace killed him," Veronica said.

"Julius and Ace are BFFs Veronica. It's not like Julius even wanted to play assassin in the first place," Ellie said.

"What do you know Ellie? It seems like your hiding something," Anita said.

"Well we were talking about the game. Ace wanted to know who had to kill who. No I didn't tell him who I had to kill before you ask, but Julius did. Julius also said it was a stupid game that was a waste of time." Ellie said.

"Did Ace tell you guys he had to kill Julius?" Anita asked.

"Yep, he did," Ellie replied with a nod.

"Then what happened?" Anita said.

"Well- hold on a second. Do you hear that?" Ellie asked.

It got quiet as everyone listened. It sounded like someone started running water in the shower.

"She didn't," Anita said.

Someone started singing in an out of tune voice to some opera song I have never heard before.

"She did," Veronica stated indifferently.

"If I don't get my breakfast I'm going to kill her," Ellie said.

"I think Black beat you to that last night," Veronica said.

"Then I'm going to lock her in the backroom with my iPod and speaker on full blast. My iPod will also be locked with a new password that she will never guess," Ellie said.

"1, 2, 3 and 4?" Veronica asked.

"Not telling," Ellie replied with a grin.

"Let's get back to 'what happened?'" Anita said.

"Oh right, well then I had walked into the bunk and the door had closed so I missed everything else. Ace couldn't have killed Julius because I was in the bunk for about a minute and he wouldn't have had enough time to kill Julius for real and hide the evidence," Ellie said.

"Ugh, talk about your anti-climax," Anita said.

Ellie shrugged and then realization crossed her face and she smacked herself in the head with the palm of her hand. "D*** why didn't I think of that?" she said.

"Ellie remember what your parents said," Anita said.

"Yeah yeah but that's not the point. The point is that we missed breakfast and I could have gotten us to it on time if I had just said 'coffee.'" she replied.

"You're f***** kidding me. The only thing I needed to get the b**** out of bed was coffee?" Black asked.

Veronica looked like she felt the same way as Ellie did.

"I don't get it. Is she addicted or something?" I said.

"Yes she is. She says that she isn't but that is a total lie." Ellie explained.

"Guys you know she is going to be really angry for the whole day if she doesn't get her coffee," Anita said sounding scared.

"Wait are you saying that the b**** goes through withdrawal without her f****** coffee?" Black asked with an amused look on his face.

"Yeah, she gets headaches and she whines for the whole day," Ellie said.

"It's terrifying. She chooses someone to hate for the whole day and she treats them like crap." Veronica said.

"It was me the last two times it happened," Anita said. "Debbie may not be the best friend ever but I would rather be her friend than her enemy, she is scary."

The water stopped at the same time the singing did. We sat and waited.

"I'm going outside. If I don't see you out there in five minutes someone is going to get their a** kicked," Black threatened as he headed towards the door.

When the door slammed behind him Anita said, "Awkward."

"Is he gone?" Debbie asked from the bathroom doorway. She was fully dressed and her hair was a bit damp.

"Yes, no thanks to you. You do realize we missed breakfast right?" Ellie asked.

"I got it covered," Debbie said walking over to her bed. She pulled out a basket with bread and a jar of peanut butter. "How long do we have until Black blows his top?"

"Four minutes as of now," Ellie said.

"Then bon appétit!" Debbie said handing me two slices of bread.

She passed out bread to everyone else and the peanut butter with a plastic knife.

"Where did you get this stuff?" Veronica asked.

"The kitchens. That's why I got yelled at yesterday. Of course Black thinks I returned the food. Ha! what a moron," Debbie said in between bites of her sandwich.

"Debbie that 'moron' could have heard everything you said about him," I told her.

"Everyone knows I hate him. He hates me too so there's no love lost between us," Debbie said.

I finished my sandwich and went to the bathroom to brush my teeth again. Ellie, Veronica and Anita joined me. Debbie came in when we finished brushing our teeth to brush hers.

"She was drinking her coffee," Ellie whispered as we left the bathroom.

"Debbie, hurry up!" Veronica called.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Debbie replied. She ran to her bed, grabbed a book from her shelve and joined us at the door.

"We went over five minutes," Ellie said solemnly.

"Rats. So who wants to go first? Take one for the team!" Debbie said.

I stared at her. She was the reason Black was mad in the first place.

Ellie looked at all of us and said, "Debbie I'm sorry but you've just been voted off the island."

Debbie looked astounded and said, "No dear Eleanor, you've been voted off the island."

"Do you even know what that means?"

"Do you?"

"Debbie now you're just being stupid," Ellie said.

"Au contraire Ellie. I am smarter than you! I bet you don't even know what I just said.

"I'm not an idiot! It means 'on the contrary.'" Ellie said.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. It was Anita. She was pointing over her shoulder and beckoning for me to follow her.

"WELL I CAN'T SPELL AND YOU KNOW THAT YOU B****," Ellie yelled at her as I followed Anita into the backroom.

Veronica was there already. She looked up when we walked in and said. "Oh good, I was getting worried, Ellie never cusses. She has to be really angry to do that. Anyway we can go out through here."

She pointed behind her. There was a door that I had not noticed before. We walked through the door just as Debbie screamed "MATH IS FOR LOSERS!" at Ellie.

"Those two are really loud," I commented.

"I know. Debbie is all volume because she is so small. Ellie is loud because… I don't know actually she just is," Anita said as we rounded the side of the cabin.

"Finally, what the hell took you so f****** long?" Black said. He was standing with White who had brought the entire boys bunk with him. They all looked really amused at the argument in the house. You could actually hear Ellie and Debbie from out here.

"We got distracted by their argument. What are the boys doing here?" Veronica asked.

"We are going to split up into groups to look for Julius," White said.

"Where's Vivaldi?" Anita asked.

"She's looking for him too," White said.

"Are Debbie and Ellie fighting again?" Boris asked.

"Unfortunately Debbie made us miss breakfast so she didn't get her coffee. We all know what happens when Debbie doesn't get her coffee," Veronica said.

Boris frowned. "Well this is just great. I can barely put up with her even when she has had her coffee," Boris said.

"Coffee is very important, it keeps you awake chu," Pierce said.

"You would know," Anita said with a grin.

"Will one of you please go stop them from potentially killing each other?" White asked.

I could understand why he wanted this to end. The other bunks were coming back from breakfast and they were giving us some pretty weird looks. Some of the campers had started to surround us and their counselors were trying to get them to leave but to no avail.

Anita was shaking her head frantically. Veronica looked sick at the thought of going in there.

"I'll go I guess," I said.

They both turned to stare at me. "Are you sure?" Anita asked.

"Well neither of you were volunteering," I said.

"Well what in the f****** world are you waiting for b****? Get in there and get those two f****** idiots to stop their d*** fight and come outside!" Black yelled.

"Fine," I said and I started to walk towards the bunk. However before I got anywhere near the door, it burst open. Debbie stomped outside of the door and slammed it shut behind her.

"Oh no, Debbie looks furious," Anita said sounding frightened.

Debbie walked over to us with a deadly expression on her face. No one said anything and the crowd began to disappear.

Once the crowd had left White said, "Alright. Now that that's over, we are going to split you up into search groups so we can go and look for Julius."

"Wait a minute. Are you saying that we have to miss our activities just to look for Julius?" Blood asked.

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?" White asked.

"That's not fair! He can just stay lost! No one likes him anyway," Elliot said.

Anita looked at Ace. He just kept smiling. "I like Julius," she said quietly.

Debbie glared at her. "I don't give a d*** what happens to him. I want a cup of coffee and then I want to go do something that makes me think of camp. I agree with Elliot, he can stay lost," she said angrily,

"Have a heart Debbie," Veronica said.

"BUTT OUT VERONICA. I'M NOT IN THE MOOD FOR YOUR ATTITUDE." Debbie yelled.

"Fine then, If you don't want to help us find Julius so we don't get sued by his f****** parents then you have music first," Black said.

"Cool," Blood said standing up and walking away.

Everybody got up and followed. The only ones that stayed behind were Anita, Veronica, Ace and me. Black said something about 'watching the d*** brats' and left. Anita went up to the house and came out a few minutes later with Ellie.

"I'll leave this to you. I need to make sure Black doesn't kill one of the others. Veronica, you're in charge," White Joker said leaving.

When he was out of earshot Veronica said, "We're splitting up. Ellie, Anita and I will make it look like we think he is somewhere in bounds. I think that he went to that house in the woods. Ace you know which one. So that you don't get lost, here is a map that I drew last year. When you get to the cluster of buildings be careful you may be spotted there. And whatever you do Alice, DON' T LET ACE LEAD."

They left after that and headed towards the mess hall. "Let's go Ace," I said.

We walked around the rose garden and when we were beyond it Ace grabbed me.

"Careful, Joker almost saw you," Ace said pointing towards one of the buildings.

I looked over. Joker was standing in the doorway of a building that had musical notes on it.

"I'll distract him. You go over there and try to find Julius. I don't think Joker wanted me to go look for Julius anyway," Ace said with that smile of his in place.

He walked over to Joker. Joker was focused on Ace and I was able to run to the forest. I walked deeper into the forest and then I turned and headed away from the lake.

I had been walking for a few minutes when I found a small cabin. I found the door and I knocked on it. The door opened to an annoyed face.

"What? " Julius said.

"Have you been here this whole time?" I asked him.

"Yes I have been here the whole time. Why? Are people looking for me?" he asked.

"Yes," I responded. "You went missing last night and everyone thought that Ace killed you and hid the body.

Julius' eyes widened. He stepped aside and gestured for me to come in. It was a small cabin with a bed, a desk, and a chair. There was also a small refrigerator and a microwave. A door to the left led to the bathroom.

"Okay so obviously, I'm not dead. Any questions?" he said.

"Ace killed you in the game though right?" I said.

"Yes, he did kill me in the game. He wanted to play the game and I didn't. I frankly see no point in it," Julius said.

"Um… is it for group bonding?" I suggested.

"Ha," he said. "Tell me, how many people wanted to look for me?"

I didn't say anything. That seemed to answer his question because he then said, "Let me guess, Ellie, Anita Veronica and Ace are the only others looking for me."

"Well… yes," I said.

"I thought so," he said going back over to the desk and sat down.

I went over to the kitchen area and looked around. There was a coffee maker and some coffee beans that were strewn around the counter top.

"Do you want me to make you some coffee?" I asked him.

He looked up at me and looked at me. "Um sure," he replied.

In a few minutes I had finished making the coffee. I brought it over to him and set it down on the desk.

He took a sip of the coffee I made for him and after a moment said, "Seventy points."

"For what?" I asked him.

"For the coffee, that's your score," he said.

"Oh. So I got seventy points out of…" I trailed off.

"One hundred," he said.

There was a long pause. I looked at what he was doing. He appeared to be fixing a clock or a clockwork doll. The way he worked made it look like he was some sort of professional clock fixer.

"You're really good with clocks," I commented.

He stopped and looked sort of embarrassed. "Thank you,"

He glanced at a clock that had been mounted on the wall over the door I came in on. "We should go. It's almost lunch and I'm sure everyone would be upset if you went missing too," he said getting up.

I got up from the chair and he opened the door. He led me through the forest to the main road of the camp that led to the mess hall.

"Did you spend a lot of time there last summer?" I asked him.

"Yes, that is my favorite place at camp. I discovered it my first year here. No one else goes into the forest because the camp's property doesn't extend very far over there. " he said.

"You like to be alone don't you?" I said.

"I don't like to be in a crowd," Julius replied.

The mess hall was getting closer and closer. The other campers were heading to lunch and there was a big crowd outside of the mess hall.

"Let's get this over with," Julius said.

The crowd outside of the mess hall suddenly began to shrink. They must have opened the doors.

"Hey!" someone called.

Ellie walked over to us. She looked worried. "Good, Veronica's plan worked. We got worried when we found out that Ace had to use himself as a diversion. Oh and by the way Julius, the Jokers want to kill you," she said hastily.

"Oh joy," Julius said.

"Well at least someone was able to warn you before they found you," Ellie said. "Come on! Lighten up! Always face death with a smile on your face!"

Julius turned blue. "Again I say; 'let's get this over with,' "he said walking into the mess hall.

Ellie looked sympathetic and then dragged me with her into the mess hall.

Another long chapter...that took me a long time to write... Well it's up now... and Julius is back from the dead...and hopefully I tied up any loose ends... (i really like typing "..." too much... SEE THERE I GO AGAIN!)

I am sorry it took so long for me to post this chapter. It's pathetic and I have no excuse other than I had too much homework. (I always have a lot of that.. it really eats up my free time...)

So, I am putting up a poll on my profile about what activity should happen next. (Like music, art, nature etc.) the poll also shows who teaches what topic (yes I know Vivaldi and the Jokers are there... the bunk counselors have to teach some of the topics to the kids in the age group they are in charge of... so HA! (I just completely made that up... ))

Please tell me if I went out of character for someone... (other than my over the top OCs)

Thanks for reading!