Chapter Ten
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"Finally!", a very tired Al Gore huffed as he tried to catch his breath. He had done no real strenuous work that involved him exercising or anything. He had just been sat in his hired room using various glues and paperclips to hold some furry brown pieces of fabric together. But of course, he was once a very popular man. Being so popular meant it was totally acceptible to act like you had just run a marathon or something else that deemed appraisial when all he had done was about 30 minutes of... whatever people would call what he was doing. He smiled as he took a step back from his masterpiece, his eyes glazing over slightly in amazement. "This is actually going to work", he mumbled in appreciation to himself. He couldn't really believe that his plan was finally coming together. With one last proud smirk he opened his room's wardrobe and pulled out a coat hanger. With as much grace as Al Gore could possible use, he hooked his brand new ManBearPig costume on to the coat hanger and put it away. If people weren't going to hunt for the monster because they didn't believe in it... then Al Gore would make sure they did believe in it.
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"Okay children. I need you all to find your travel buddy and hold their hand", Mr Garrison began once he had parked the bus in the camp's parking lot. The camp itself wasn't as run down or basic as I had expected it to be. Much like everyone else, I had expected the camp to be just tents circuling around a campfire. It turned out that it was actually a modern lodge-like place. Quite large in size, but not too excessive. If anything, the place looked much more like a large motel-cabin complex compared to a camp.
"That's right Mr Hat". Mr Garrison's voice bought me out of my thoughts. "Staying with your travel buddy until we're signed in at the reception is very important. That way it'll be harder for you to get lost and hurt yourselves". At the mention of the word 'hurt' Tweek 'GAH-ed' beside me. Deciding to ignore his panic, I turned towards Red who was mouthing something to me from her seat.
"Will you be my travel buddy Nay?". I smiled at the use of the nickname she had given me. She was so creative. She was just amazing, and now she had asked me to be her travel buddy. Why was my stomach so queasy all of a sudden? Maybe I shouldn't of aet that chocolate bar on the way here.
"This will be great practice for the living museum trip next week, as you will have to stay with your travel buddy all the time we're there. Isn't that right Mr Hat?".
"It sure is Mr Garrison".
"Weak dude". That was Stan, who obviously wasn't happy at the thought of having to hold someone's hand for the entirety of the museum trip planned the following week. Interestingly enough, pretty much none of the boys looked too happy about it. I guess I was the odd one out. Hopefully I'd get to hold Red's hand for the whole day. Why did the thought of that make me smile so much? The sound of Mr Garrison opening the bus doors alerted me that we were about to get off the bus.
"Okay. All of you wait outside the bus so I can take register. Once that's done you can pick your travel buddies while lock the bus door". Before Mr Garrison could even finish his sentence the bus was almost already empty. All the kids clearly desperate to be first to pick their friends to travel with. As I made my way off the bus behind Tweek, I smiled when I noticed Red waiting just outside. Before I could go to her however someone had grasped onto my arm and was pulling me in the other direction.
"What are you doing?", I questioned in a threatening tone as I tried to pry my arm from the person's grip. "St-Stan? Let me go. I don't want to be your travel buddy".
"I don't want to be your travel buddy either dickhole. I'm trying to help you". At this I ceased my attack on his hand, and followed him wordlessly while he lead us to Kyle.
"You can't be travel buddies with Red", Kyle started as Stan let go of my arm.
"What? Yes I can".
"You can't Nathan. It's for your own good", he reasoned sternly
"Look I liked her first you can't tell me that I can't sit by her!", I argued back, my voice rising slightly.
"No you don't underst-", Stan began before turning to me with a questionning look on his face "...You like her?". Oh shit. Had I said that? I didn't like her did I? I mean, I know I liked her. But I didn't like-like her did I?
"Err.. No", I spluttered. "I mean- Erm- As a friend... yeah as a friend". Kyle nodded obviously believing my lie, while Stan continued to stare at me knowingly. Luckily once Kyle spoke Stan turned his eyes away from me.
"Nathan. You can't be travel buddies with Red because she's a girl". I looked at Kyle dumbly. I was clearly missing a few details here. "Girls have cooties dumbass".
"What? What's cooties?". At my question Stan and Kyle looked at me with incredulous expressions. Obviously knowing what cooties were, was common knowledge. There you go again Nathan. Continue to embarrass yourself. You're doing a pretty good job so far.
"Seriously?". I nodded at Kyle's question, never taking my eyes off the floor. I was too mortified to look at either of them. My reaction earned a chuckle from Stan, while Kyle made no sound.
"Look", this was Stan, "Just... Just don't be travel buddies with Red. We'll explain what cooties are after". I nodded my head again and slumped away back to the rest of my classmates. Now I knew why my head was all fuzzy whenever I spoke to Red. She had cooties. They were affecting me. She was trying to infect me with them. I didn't like-like Red. Her cooties were just messing with my mind. How could I have been so stupid. Feeling a little betrayed I returned to Tweek's side and slumped my back against the bus. Tweek turned to speak but he stopped when he noticed I wasn't looking at him. I was looking past him. Staring into a face that was glaring back at me. Red must've known that I knew about her cooties because she was now looking very angry with me. Bebe, (Who was leaning on Red's shoulder), had a similar expression as she too, tried to stare me down. Maybe Bebe had cooties too. Did they give you the ability to read minds? Because how else would they know, that I knew?
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"What on Earth is that noise?", Al Gore snorted to himself as he leapt up from his bed and stood so that he could see outside of his room's window. He gawped lightly at the sight of the bright yellow school bus in the building's parking lot. How splendid, Al thought. The arrival of a school class made his plan's success rate expand. Before he would've had to wear his new costume and run through the forest until he came across some hikers or trekkers or some homeless people who had decided to reside there. Now however he could just wear his costume infront of the class of children and they'd all tell their parents. Then their parents would get worried and they'd tell the police who would finally start investigating the area to locate ManBearPig. This was perfect. He would finally catch ManBearPig once and for all. He was super cereal about this. He just needed to time it right. Bursting out in his costume now would just be a disaster. He needed to catch the class out in the forest so that they'd believe in the monster. He needed it to seem believeable, and ManBearPig rushing out of a pre-booked room, running through the reception just to scare a bunch of children didn't really seem realistic at all. Deciding he would work on his new plan later, he picked up his door key and made his way out of his room to have some breakfast.
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Once the register had been done, Mr Garrison continued on explaining how to act until we were in the safety of our rooms. Surprisingly, he had left Mr Hat in the glove-compartment of the school bus. This was the first time I had seen the teacher without his puppet-counterpart, and I wouldn't be surprised if this would also be the last time.
"Okay children. I hope you have all picked your travel buddies". Keep on hopeing Mr Garrison. Keep on hopeing. "Make sure none of you get lost because I am not running after your arses. You get lost, then you get left behind". Obviously, Mr Garrison got exceptionally cranky without Mr Hat around. As Mr Garrison sighed loudly, he directed the kids to start moving towards the reception while also making his way there himself. As I joined the line infront of me, Tweek rushed up to catch me and carefully grabbed my sleeve. I first looked at his hand and then at his face. Panic was the sight I was met with.
"W-what are you -GAH- doing?".
"Walking towards the reception...".
"Y-You didn't have -ACK- a travel bu-buddy. Y-You could've got -ERG- lost or k-killed man". I rolled my eyes at this and waved my free arm towards the line infront of me.
"It's like a two minute walk... and how could I get lost, I mean. It's hard to miss a line of kids this long Tweek". He shook due to his low caffeine level, but kept his grip firmly on my sleeve. Noting this, I looked back towards his hand. "How come you're holding on to my sleeve? Shouldn't you be getting back to your travel buddy".
"I -ACK- d-didn't have one". I smiled at this. Not to be mean, but because now I felt less singled out for no one choosing me as their buddy.
"So that means I'm stuck with you huh?", I sneered in a joking fashion. He looked offended at first, but once he had realised I was joking he laughed lightly and began dragging me towards the reception. Once all of us had entered the reception Mr Garrison tiredly rang the bell on the receptionists desk and waited for her to shuffle in to her seat.
"Hello sir. Sorry for keeping you waiting. How can I help you?". Mr Garrison gestured towards the children as if making it very obvious why he was actually here. She blushed slightly and began typing away furiously on her computer database. "Mr Garrison is it?". He nodded in reply, a small smile playing on his wrinkled face. "That's good", she continued as she rustled through a bunch of papers on her desk. Once she had found the correct forms, she handed Mr Garrison them along with a slightly bitten pen from her pocket. "If you could just sign and date here Mr Garrison. You'll also need to supply me with the parents letters saying that the children are allowed to be here if that's okay". As he quickly finished scribbling his name on a dotted line, he pulled a thick envelope from his shirt-pocket and handed it to the woman at the desk.
"Here". With a thankful smile, she took the envelope and the forms that Mr Garrison had now finished signing.
"Was that Al Gore?", one of the students asked as she watched a man walk into a room down the hallway.
"Shut up Lola this is important", Mr Garrison snapped, causing the mentioned girl's eyes to water slightly. The receptionist's eyes went wide after hearing the teacher say this to one of his pupils.
"Okay Mr Garrison, everything seems to be in order", the receptionist began nervously, before grabbing a bunch of keys from a draw under her desk. "If you ever have any problems with your room, make sure you come back here and ask for Michelle".
"Why? Is that your name?".
"No", she smiled in an sickeningly sweet way, before getting up from her seat and heading towards the staff room behind her. As she did this, a very bored looking staff member came from the other side of the staff room and looked at the children that were crowding the reception. His eyebrows flew up his forehead faster than you could say surprised, and the look in his eyes seemed to darken slightly in self-pity. Taking a deep breath he mustered up something similar to a smile and nodded his head towards the corridor.
"If you'll follow me to your rooms...", he started before his words dampened into mumbling. Mr Garrison nodded and directed with his hands for the children to follow the man.
"Go ahead children, I'll be right there", he said comfortingly before heading out of the reception and back to the bus. He was either going to release Mr Hat from his glove-box prison, or to bring in his luggage. We were only staying for two days, so everyone had only really bought some pyjama's and fresh underwear in their bags, but Mr Garrison had bought enough luggage to easily last a week. The plan was to get settled in and do some team building activities today. Then we'd sleep the night, and spend tomorrow doing some more activites to do with getting along and using less profanities before travelling home on the night. I was pulled from my thought when Tweek tugged me to hurry up. We had made it to the reception but none of us had dared let go of our travel buddies. Mainly because we were scared of being shouted at by the incredibly moody Mr Garrison. If Mr Hat helped calm him down, then I prayed desperately for it to be Mr Hat that Mr Garrison had gone to retrieve.
"H-Hurry Up! Oh Jesus!", Tweek ordered with another tight tug on my sleeve. Despite being affectively told what to do by the dramatic coffeeholic infront of me, I laughed and did as he commanded. Once I had started walking, Tweek had quietened down and was making sure that his eyes remained on the staff member who was leading us to our rooms. Smirking, I guessed that Tweek was trying his hardest to not get lost and decided that in comparision I would look around and take in the surroundings. Despite the fact that the place was going to be home for today and tomorrow, it wasn't very homely at all. The walls were painted in a creamy brown colour and was sparsely decorated with paintings of boring things. Boats and geometric shapes for example. Why would people buy these paintings? Maybe I just don't understand because I'm 10. I need to be an adult to understand stuff like that. Did I need to be an adult to understand Red? I mean, if all girls have cooties then doesn't that mean mom has cooties? If mom has cooties how come dad doesn't care? What if dad doesn't even know about mom having them? Nah. My dad knows everything, so I bet he'd know if mom had any. If he knew then why would he still be with her though? It was times like this where I wished I was an adult already. I just hate not understanding something.
"Okay children I'm back", came Mr Garrison's raspy voice. He had Mr Hat tucked into his shirt pocket and was busily heaving a suitcase along the floor. The man who had been leading us to our room had somehow disappeared during my thoughts. Mr Garrison took a final deep breath before looking at the keys in his free hand.
"Okay", he gasped. What the hell was so heavy in his suitcase? As if to demonstrate how heavy his suitcase was, it fell loose from his hand and hit the corridor floor with a bang.
"Ow. Oh Jesus!". I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that Tweek was the one that had said that, seeing as Oh Jesus was one of his catchphrases... but I can assure you that, that 'Oh Jesus' came from the suitcase. What the hell was Mr Garrison up to? Realising that his class were now looking at his suitcase intently, he rubbed his forehead nervously and quickly threw all the room keys except for one onto the floor.
"Sort yourselves out", he dismissed hurriedly while dragging his talking luggage into the room he had obviously deemed as his own. While the rest of the class were busy still staring at the luggage, I acted quickly and picked up one of the door keys. As soon as I had picked one up, the rest of my classmate suddenly realised how smart I had been and lunged for the four other keys. I made my way to the room I had earned, making sure to not even look at Red when she stared at me when I passed her. Leaving the ensuing battle, I opened the door and rushed inside to pick a bed for myself. The room had four beds, so it looked like I'd be bunking with three other people.
"This one's mine fella's", Butters exclaimed as he jumped on one of the beds. I looked at him increduously before rushing to another bed to make sure I actually had somewhere to sleep tonight. As I landed on the bed I heard Tweek's voice stutter about owning a third bed in the room. I closed my eyes in satisfaction once I felt how comfortable the bed actually was. I was going to have a good night sleep. I kept my eyes closed and awaited a fourth voice to say that they now had the final bed in the room. I had almost gave up waiting when the fourth voice made it's appearance. It was Craig's... and boy did his voice sound unhappy. Maybe he didn't want to be stuck in a room with us three. But to be quite honest I would've probably prefered it if he weren't in the room either. It was only for tonight though, so I could easily put up with the entire situation.
'Bzz'
Opening my eyes I fished through my pocket and brought my phone into view.
-Hello Nathan. You have 0 friend requests, 1 notifications and 0 new messages.-
Clicking on the notification button I was met with Token's latest status; 'At Stark Forest Appreciation Camp for the weekend. Going to be a great laugh! - With Clyde Donovan and 13 others'. The status had already gotten a couple likes, so deciding to follow the crowd I liked it myself before placing my phone back into my pocket and sprawling myself over the bed I was on. Butters giggled at my action while Tweek stared cluelessly. Craig was too busy sulkingly failing to open up his bag. This was the most emotional I had seen him. Normally he was basically devoid of emotion all together, being stuck with Butters, Tweek and I as roommates was probably a really big deal for him. Getting up from my position I walked towards Craig and sat on his bed so that I could better see why opening his bag was taking so long. However he completely stopped messing with his bag when I came over and was instead staring at me. His frown decreased slightly, as if it were an attempt to hide what he was feeling but it didn't cover it up entirely.
"You're sitting on my bed", he stated monotonously. I chuckled much like he had done to me on the bus before I smirked at him in a hopefully friendly fashion.
"Do you need help with your bag Craig?". He continued to stare at me before returning to fiddle with his bag.
"You're sitting on my bed", he repeated a second time. A bit more animousity in his voice. At the change of his tone Tweek did his trademark 'GAH' from across the room.
"I thought you said we were friends", I whispered to Craig nervously. Maybe I was right. Maybe he was just lying on the bus.
"Yeah... we are". He mumbled in a non-chalant way. Craig had a very funny way of showing friendship indeed.
"Fr-Friends help each other Craig. I'll help with your bag if you wa-"
"I don't need help". Noting that this was getting no where I got up from his bed and went back to my bed so that I could grab some money from my bag. He flipped me off once I had got my back to him. He had obviously thought I wouldn't notice, but I could easily see him do it from the corner of my eye. Deciding to remain cool, mainly for my own health, I collected some of my money and turned to Tweek. He looked at me curiously.
"W-What?".
"I promised you a coffee dude".
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CHAPTER TEN! Finally we're at the Appreciation Camp at last. I've managed to stick to the plot I've had all along while adding quite a few references and the such. The buddy-idea is from the same episode as the whole Living Museum episode which I spoke about in a previous chapter. So I legitimately do have a reason to involve the Museum in this chapter because I'm going to set this story there soon. I just really want to tell you guys the entire plot right now because I want to know what you guys think of it... But I can't do that, because I'd ruin the story. #FirstWorldProblems ahaha.
I can tell you that the whole 'cooties' thing has no real affect on the main plot as of yet. It's mainly there as a sort of hitch in the romantic side of the story, but if I find a way, I could try and work it into the main plot. I'm not sure how I would, but I could try. Depends how I feel about things ahah. The inclusion of Facebook all of a sudden is because of the Stick Of Truth game. [GET IT]. It's just warped my fragile little mind. But nah, I just thought I'd mention why I'm using social networking all of a sudden in this story, because some of you might not of realised why I was.
BTW expect some more Stick Of Truth references soon too, (and therefore spoilers). I'm truly fighting myself over including the character 'Douchebag' in this story. Not as anything too important, but basically as a secondary character or something? I don't know. I'm planning to delve into the whole RPG thing after the camp part as a sort of mini-plot, but I'm not sure how far to delve in. Let me know what you guys think about that idea. If you could also let me know whether I'm writing the real characters 'In Character' because that would be a large help. I think I'm doing an okay job, but it's kind of hard to do so, because some of the characters are hardly developed on the show anymore.
Also... Before I end off this gigantic author's note-thing, I want to thank 'IhateMarySue'sSoooooMuch' for his review. I'm glad you're enjoying it dude! It's people like you that help me stay motivated so thanks a bunch! A Cartman spinoff isn't out of the question, but I don't think I'm going to write that until I've finished the main story. It's just easier for me that way. Thanks for letting me know you'd be interested in it though! Means alot! :)
Disclaimer; For the tenth time; South Park is not owned by me!
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