Disclaimer: I don't own Hamtaro or any things like that, so yeah.

PART TWO

Revenge of The Campers

"Stanley Williams! Hey!"

It seemed as though Stan had just arrived, gotten everything stowed away in the big counselors' cabin, and changed when suddenly this woman had attached herself to him. He gaped down at the brunette whose giggling face was buried in his shirt and blushed.

"Your name wouldn't happen to be Gabe by any chance, would it?" he asked. The girl giggled, looking up at him.

"What?"

"Gabriel, the angel…You wouldn't happen to be one, now would you?"

"You big flirt," she retorted, punching him lightly on the arm.

"Actually, I was being serious this time…" He couldn't take his eyes off of her.

"C'mon! You know who I am!"

"Um…Do I?" The young woman smiled widely, still giggling.

"Dexy! Stop it!" Pashmina laughed, falling to the ground. Dexter fell with her.

"I'm not tickling you that bad, am I?"

"Yes!"

Cappy sighed, watching the two older Hams with his arm draped around the shoulder of

"Penelope! Make him stop!"

"Sorry Sissy. You're on your own."

"Pen-el-o-peeee!"

"Alright. I'll stop," Dexter caved.

Cappy laughed faintly, still looking down in thought. With his thinking and Pashmina gone, everything was quiet. He felt Penelope's gaze.

"What?"

"Nothin'. You just look so cute when you're concentrating."

Cappy reddened, pulling his cap over his face. "Penny…" She laughed.

"What were you thinking about?"

"This camp. That whole summer. How I hated girls."

"You don't still hate us, do you?" Penelope teased.

"…" His silence made her worry.

"Do you?" Cappy stayed quiet, staring at the grass.

"Um…I really don't know, lady," Stan tried to explain.

"Yeah you do!"

"No…I don't think so…"

"C'mon!"

"At least give me a clue…?"

"Um…no?" Cappy finally answered.

"I think I'm gonna go find Pashy." She pushed his arm off of herself and hurried away.

'…I don't think I do. I haven't for a long time, anyway…' Cappy wanted to say as he watched Penelope run off.

"So…Recognize me yet?"

"Ugh…"

Stan stared at her lips. Normally, he recognized people by the way their mouths moved, or by the color, size, and shape of their teeth. He got nothing. Not. A. Thing. He listened to her voice again. It wasn't familiar. Then it hit him…her eyes!

Only one person in his whole entire life had brown eyes as rich as hers and that was

"Candace Fox!"

"There ya go!"

"Aaaaaah!" They screamed gleefully as Stan spun her around in their embrace.

"I have a bleeding child!" Boss called, rushing into the nurse's station with a young boy under one of his strong arms. A familiar older woman came out from the back.

"Little Boss Jones? I didn't think I'd see you again! Hello!"

"Hi. Um…Yeah. I'm not really here to chat." He indicated the boy.

"Oh my! Well, Honey, we'll get you fixed up right away." She carted him off as Boss was about to sit down in a waiting chair. As he lowered himself, the old chair suspiciously creaked and groaned, causing him to shoot back up. "Why don't you have a seat for a minute?"

"Oh, no. I'm good," Boss hurriedly replied. "Say, ugh…Is Josie here?"

"Josie? You mean the little girl who wanted to be a vet?"

"A marine vet," Boss heatedly corrected, but she didn't hear.

"Oh heavens no! She stopped volunteering here five years ago when she began her second year of college! Haven't seen her since."

"Oh…"

"So, what have you been up to, Boss? Surely, you're out of college by now."

"Yeah. I'm going through Med school right now to further my degree. Most my friends still have a year of regular college to go. Some are already graduated."

"That's nice. Why couldn't you have taken care of Billy, then?" she teased.

"Don't have a license yet, ma'am."

"Oh. Well, Billy, I'm all done now. I hope to see you soon, Boss! Good luck back at school!"

"I still have all summer!" he fake-laughed.

Boss sulked his way over to the younger boy's cabin then crashed at his own.

"Hey everyone! Guess who's here!" Stan said opening the big cabin's door, stepping in and to the side to reveal Candace.

"CANDY!"

"HI!"

"Hey, Foxy!"

Candace's smile vanished instantly. "Hello, Troy. I didn't think I'd have to see you…"

"Here at the greatest camp in America?"

"Actually, I was looking for 'ever again'."

"Ooh. Ouch!" Troy frowned at her displeased tone and matching sour expression. She grinned, giggling. "Huh?"

"It's nice to see you again," she told him.

"Not for me…" Oxnard muttered. "This is a nightmare."

"It'll be fine, Oxy," Hamtaro said.

Troy laughed. "I thought you were really pissed, I mean-"

"I'm an actress. Get used to it," she cackled, walking away from Stan to talk with Troy. "So, how's everything going…?"

"Grr…" Stan stalked off in the opposite direction in a slight huff.

After dinner, all the campers and counselors gathered around the stone fireplace to meet each other and form groups. As names were read and people were assigned, some of the Hams noticed they were missing somebody.

"Hey, like, where's Boss?" Sandy asked, hushed.

"I don't know," Cappy replied, whispering as well.

"Is he like, still at the cabin?"

"I don't know."

"Was he like, at supper?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know anything?" Penelope glared at him.

Cappy just shrugged and lightly said,

"I don't know!" This got a few chuckles, but none from Penelope.

"…Corrine Barkley, Maddie Carthwig, Lucas Crisp, Christine Duvalle, Carrie Finch, Karl Jansen, Jenny Lang, Davis McCrey, Polly Parkinson, Matt Robins, Greg Swift…Howdy Lawlace, Stan Williams, Mecca Arekeseyeba…? Sorry if I got that wrong," the main counselor said, moving down the list.

Mecca was here?

Howdy's eyes opened as wide as their squinted selves could. He looked around, scanning the large room. She was no where to be seen.

"Huh?" he managed to utter. His friends looked equally confused.

"Maybe she signed up but couldn't do it," Panda suggested.

"Maybe…" some others agreed as everyone was dismissed.

Walking up the cabin's steps, Stan watched Cappy fail at putting his arm around Penelope's shoulder with a surprisingly happy expression after getting blown off by her and Troy succeed at getting his around Candace's, only for a moment. The brunette slapped his hand off of her but held it as they walked into the cabin. Stan glared.

"Jerk," he muttered through gritted teeth, biting the inside of his cheek and bitterly thought, 'Candace would never even think about wanting to be with you…'

Once everyone was in and the door was shut, they felt a colder air about the place than they did before. Then they saw it. Her- Mecca, strewn across her bunk with that same old, but now less intense scowl on her porcelain face, even as she slept. The Hams smiled at her.

"Figures. She always picks the strangest times to come and go…" Dexter chuckled, elbowing Howdy, who still gaped at her.

Had she gotten prettier? Howdy kept wondering this as he stared on at his old camp sweetheart in disbelief and stupor. He lightly chuckled at Dexter's statement, absent-mindedly, as to not seem rude.

"Hey, gang!" Boss roared heartily.

"Like, where were you? You like, totally missed out on dinner and everything." He didn't answer, but asked,

"What's wrong, guys?" instead, after noticing some of their upset expressions.

"Nothin'…" the ones who 'knew who they were' dribbled.

"Well, I know something' that'll cheer you up!" he said enthusiastically, masking his own, slight, disappointment. "While you all were out, I set up a computer in the corner over there. Has internet and everything!"

"Yay…" those same few replied in a simplified fashion.

Everyone was asleep now. Boss crept out of his bunk and snuck across the room to the computer to test it out.

After a few hours of not being able to fall asleep and several game sites, a loud ping indicating someone had sent something to him sounded. Fumbling in a startled way with the volume, he closed out the page he was on and opened up his messenger program, which he had forgotten to sign out of earlier.

Boss quickly looked behind him to see if the rest were still sleeping and turned back to the screen, satisfied. He was astonished that no one had woken up between the bright light emitted from the computer or from the loud noise, but he became even more so with the IM. It was simple, but it was from a stranger. Probably one who was at another site he went to as well and checked out his profile.

BrittTheBrit: asl?

He typed back.

BossMan81: 24md.c., u?

BrittTheBrit: 23f?

BossMan81: u don't know where u r?

BrittTheBrit: i could tell u in nautical miles, but i'd have to wake up cap'n.

Nautical miles. Boss smiled at this. It sounded familiar. They typed again.

BrittTheBrit: she's a real b.-.h if u wake her up.

BossMan81: lol. u on a boat or something?

BrittTheBrit: actually, yea.

Boss held in his breath painfully.

BossMan81: kewl. g2g.

He signed out with a strange, almost overwhelmingly sad feeling. The girl he just chatted with reminded him a lot of Josie somehow.