Well the day finally came through. The Thursday of the last week of camp, aka, the capture the flag showdown that I had been anticipating.
My team had gone through the first team of kids no problem, unfortunately, the same went with Egbert and Strider's team, and that left our two teams, just waiting to go up against each other, as I'd expected.
I'd been hoping to go against Egbert since the beginning of camp, but at the same time, wouldn't it have just been a huge relief if Egbert and Strider's team had just gone down in the first versus round against the other team?
Though, it was nice to dream, that wasn't the case.
Egbert's team had expected us to be good, so, with that in mind, they readied themselves for this game, probably just as much as we had.
It was almost painful for the counselors, because technically, we, ourselves, couldn't really participate in the game.
We stood by the line that crosses into enemy territory, guarding, to make sure the kids didn't play unfairly, but that was basically it.
I stood on one end of the line, and Gamzee stood at the second line, on the other side of the field, quite a bit away from me.
Of course, Egbert and Strider were forced to do the same.
They would stand a few feet in front of us, right behind enemy lines.
We were basically powerless.
We weren't allowed to call the kids out, if we saw anyone sneaking around, we weren't allowed to tag anyone, all we could do was call for time out, if some foul play went down, and debate with each other about who was in the wrong, and there wasn't really even very much of that, the occasional accident, one kid tagged another, after they were already in the safe zone, and thought that they'd gotten them before they escaped.
That type of shit, but since that only happened every once in awhile, if at all, that basically just left Egbert and I staring each other down the entire time.
Of course I'd ended up with Egbert instead of Strider on the other side of my line, because god just fucking hated me that much, didn't he?
Though, I suppose it was a lose-lose situation, seeing as Strider and Egbert were equally as obnoxious.
I guess if I had to choose between Egbert and Strider, regardless I'd complain either way, I'd most probably choose Egbert, seeing as all his douche friend and I could do was talk shit at each other, and Egbert and I could make actual small talk.
But at the moment, I wasn't exactly paying attention to my dorky colleague, I was much too busy cursing, as I watched one of the kids from my team getting chased on the other side of the line where she could be tagged.
Our team had already lost quite a few kids to Egbert's team, leaving several of our best players sitting in a pretend jail cell on the other side of the field, useless, instead of trying their hardest to get their flag with the other kids.
"Swearing at them isn't really going to do much, Karkat." Egbert informed me.
It wasn't a stern bit of information, it wasn't even a statement that was telling me to stop. It was just a useless tidbit that Egbert decided to throw at me because he obviously fucking loved wasting my time.
"Shut the fuck up." I replied, nonchalantly, watching the kids, as, thank god the kid from my team made it beyond enemy lines, and back into the home-free zone, without being tagged.
"Ha! In your face you heinous motherfucker!" I exclaimed, pointing at Egbert, victoriously, a smile spreading across my face.
I held up my hand, as the little girl from my team ran passed me, and she high-fived it.
John shook his head at me, a dopey grin on his face.
"Jeez, where'd you learn to be so competitive, Karkat? I mean, Jesus, man! It's a silly game of capture the flag that we're not even really playing, and you're still like this." Egbert laughed a little, I'd learned by this point that the fuckload that he'd just spewed from his moronic mouth wasn't really a protest against my behavior, it was more of an affectionate way of showing how he was in constant awe of me.
Who could blame the kid?
"It comes naturally, I suppose." I shrugged, replying to the original question.
I was really unsure of whether or not my competitive nature was a matter of gene, or if that was just the way I was, regardless.
Really, no one had ever "taught" me to be competitive, it was just how things had always been with me. Everything was a hundred times more fucking exciting if it was made into a competition.
Kankri had learned that about me when I was at a very young age, and began using my natural lust to compete to trick me into doing household chores, or other shit like that.
It'd started when I was about five or six, and I'd always refuse to clean up toys off the floor after I was done with them, so Kankri would offer to help, and he'd say whoever got the most toys back in the toy box in the shortest amount of time was the winner.
Of course, with that method, the toys were back in the box before he could blink an eye.
And seeing how well that worked, he continued to use that method for many things in my younger years.
"So, your brother wasn't competitive or anything? You didn't get it from him?" Egbert asked, breaking me out of my thoughts.
What the fuck?
I'd never mentioned Kankri to Egbert, he was before his time.
Kankri had been gone for almost over two years now, and Egbert and I hadn't exactly been on speaking terms back when Kankri was more frequently in my life.
"No, I…"I trailed off, being startled by the sudden subject of my brother, this seemed to be happening a lot lately.
It was almost as if karma, or god, or whatever the fuck it was, was trying to guilt trip me for cutting off ties with him.
First Eridan had brought it up at Sollux's party, and now out of nowhere, here was Egbert, blabbing the fuck on.
"Kankri wasn't much for competition." I replied, simply.
"He didn't like all the shouting, and breaking of rules, and whatnot, you know… normal shit that comes with competition. It was all too…"
I found myself trailing off for a second. It was a single fucking word, that I'd probably unconsciously said out loud many, many times, and yet, the very word just brought back so many memories.
"Triggering." I finished.
Memories.
Repulsive memories, useless memories, pathetic memories, hell, even memories that were actually happy, or okay.
It was hard to think of the good memories, when I was so mad at him, it was hard to focus on what things about our childhood were actually slightly okay, when my brain was determined to hold to the bad memories for dear life.
"I never really met Kankri," Egbert said, as if this was the first time he'd acknowledged it.
"What was he like?"
"A douche." I replied, simply, before elaborating.
"A shamefucking douchey pain in my goddamn ass."
Egbert blinked.
"That's a lot of profanity for one sentence." He informed.
"I can do a lot better." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Kankri and I, we just…"
I somehow felt the need to go on, so that he could understand that I wasn't just some asshole, who hated his brother for no fucking reason.
"I guess we just don't see eye to eye. Not anymore."
Egbert opened his mouth to say something, but he was cut off before he could even manage to get a word out.
The shouting of kids was what had cut him off, and it compelled me to swing around and look, for, it was coming from my direction.
To my horror, it was one of the kid's from Egbert's team, my team's flag in hand, running as fast as he could with it, trying desperately to get beyond enemy lines.
Five of the kids from my team were chasing him, but to no avail, the kid was obviously faster than all of them.
If he just crossed this line, their team would win.
Fuck.
Fuck—It was times like this I wished I could intervene in the game and fucking trip the kid.
"Natalie, I swear to fucking god, you catch him!" I shouted at them, as they were getting closer and closer to the line between our territories.
The kid wasn't slowing down, and the kids from my team weren't getting any faster.
I turned to Egbert, and glared at him, as if it were his fault that his team was about to win.
He shrugged his shoulders, giving an apologetic smile.
I promptly flipped him off.
The kid was a few feet from crossing the line and getting into the safe zone with my teams flag, and—fuck.
God fucking dammit.
I'd started this job, wanting to be able to kick Egbert's ass from the start, as soon as I knew he was here, and that there was a competition that had been my goal.
But you can't always get what you fucking want.
And I've found I usually don't.
The five kids from my team that had been chasing him, stopped next to me, trying to catch their breath, as I let my rage stir silently, knowing it was only a matter of time before it boiled over.
"We lost…" Natalie said, sadly, gasping for air.
"No—" I started, keeping a calm tone from the beginning, but the anger and sarcasm became more obvious as I went on.
"You don't fucking say? No! Did we lose? I did not know that! What a fucking ravishing observation, Sherlock! Thank you.""Karkat!" John said, making me realize that he was still fucking there.
"Don't be so mean, my kids won fair and square, all right? How about you show a little sportsmanship, huh?"
I wanted to strangle him so bad in that moment, but he was right.
This was no way to act in front of the kids.
With a heavy, agitated sigh, I extended my hand to Egbert. He took it, and we shook hands, but what the kids didn't know, was that I'd dug my nails into the palm of his hand and whispered "I don't know when, or how, but Egbert I swear to god, I will find something to kick your ass at, and I will kick it, and oh—how I'll fucking kick it."
Egbert smiled nervously as I let go, and he instantly rubbed the palm of his hand with his other hand, trying to get rid of the stinging sensation I'd not doubt left there.
"Good game, Egbert." I said loudly, so that the kids could hear, and so that they'd believe I had good sportsmanship.
At this point, all the rest of the kids from both teams had started gathering around, including the kids that had been locked away in pretend jail cells for what was left of the game.
Strider and Gamzee came around as well.
Strider smugly tossed an arm around my shoulders.
"I guess the best man won in the end, huh Kitkat?" He teased, salting my wounds.
"Strider," I said, with a mock cheerfulness in my voice.
"I will fucking smite you."
. . . .
We met up on Friday at the campground as well.
It was an extra day than we'd usually have, but it was our last day, and it was time to pick up our salaries that we'd made over the time we'd spent working there, and say good-bye to the kids.
When Gamzee and I walked up the driveway to the campground, all the kids were all gathered up, as well as all of the counselors, in front of the main cabin at the top of the driveway, just like they'd been the first day we'd started working there.
Gamzee and I had been late that day, and things hadn't changed.
We were the last ones to get there, just like the first time.
All 20 kids from our group instantly flocked to us, and after a moment, we were all silenced, as the camp owner, or whatever the fuck she was, gave a drawn out cheesy speech about, how, it'd been a great pleasure to have us there, and that hopefully they'd see us all again next year.
I always hated shit like that.
It had always felt like a guilt trip, well, not to me personally, because, of course I would be back next year. I needed the fucking money.
But I meant, as a kid, I'd always felt pressured and annoyed when leaders of huge group things like this would do the whole "hopefully see you next year" speech.
Because you'd feel obligated to smile and agree to come back, and then you'd feel like a douche next year, when you didn't.
"Oh, and I almost forgot!" She exclaimed, cutting herself off.
And with that, she started handing out these little silly looking attendance trophies to all the kids.
Oh, after all that build up, there wasn't even a real fucking prize for the capture the flag showdown, the winning team didn't get bigger trophies or anything, every single fucking little kid got an attendance trophy.
It was the whole "everybody is a winner" charade.
I tried my hardest not to let my fucking eyes roll to the back of my sockets and get stuck there forever, over how annoyed with this I was.
"Counselor Vantas?" One of the kids tugged at my sleeve to get my attention.
This kid was doing all the talking, but the rest of my group was watching us intently as if to say this was a message from all of them.
"We just wanted to say, most of us have been coming here for three years now, and well, you're bossy, but you're still our favorite counselor that we've ever had, so… yeah." The little girl smiled innocently.
"It was cool how you took the game so seriously and all," One of the boys added.
"And even though we didn't win, we still had fun."
"Maybe you can be a counselor for the sixth graders next year~!" Another kid added.
"We promise to work harder and win for you next year."
I shook my head.
These kids had been a pain in my ass for weeks now, but it was moments like these that proved children weren't the worst creatures on earth.
"I'll see what I can do, guys." I told them, not making any promises, but still, leaving a tint of hope.
"Aight my 'lil miracles, enough with all this cheesy talk, why don't you all up and bring it in?" Gamzee suggested.
And then, they did that stupid fucking thing where they "bring it in" and stack their hands together, on top of one another.
"Come on, Counselor Vantas! You're part of the team, aren't you?" One of the kids asked, as they all stared at me intently, waiting for me to join their little sissy circle.
I rolled my eyes before "bringing it in", and when I did so, Gamzee smiled the dopiest grin, looking fucking ecstatic that he got me to join his little sappy circle party.
"Let's all agree to kick team Egbert's asses next year!" One of the kids shouted.
At that, all the kids cheered and raised their hands out of the little circle of hands.
It was in that moment that I realized how much my speech patterns really did rub off on these kids.
But did a give a fuck?
No. No, not really.
A/N: Hi guys! I almost thought for a moment that I wouldn't get this chapter out in time, because tomorrow, (or today, it's almost 2am right now) is Thanksgiving. Thanks for reading, as always guys. Review and/or follow if you have the time! I'll see you all next week! Thanks for being so loyal to this little silly story I have going. Raiden
I have to go to a big boring family thing. It's obligation apparently, so I'm going to have to go on a road trip to my uncle's house with all my noisy siblings and put up with cousins I only see once or twice a year. eue Tis the season, huh?
Anyway, yeah. Normally if I were up late writing a chapter I'd post it in the morning, but I'm unsure if I'll have time. I am pretty happy with this chapter, so I hope it's to your liking.