Word Count- 1977
The gang, those who actually go to school, aren't overly happy with these new classes that they didn't sign up for and yet have to attend, some more than others. Cam, of course being Cam, decides he's not paying attention and music provides him with an idea...
None of them had wanted to take this class, it had been a surprise on their timetables for their final year at Suncoast High. Apparently this year there had been too many free blocks on their timetables so they were filled with study classes as well as Personal Finance and First Aid.
Cam yawned and didn't bother covering his mouth. He was only half listening to what their teacher, Mr Ross, was saying. Something about keeping to the side of the creepy CPR dummies. He twisted one ear bud into his ear and blocked out Jodie and her cronies' gossip with his music. "Red Cold River" by Breaking Benjamin played into his ear.
Two weeks ago they had learned how to bandage a cut on the hand and how to doan elevated sling. Last week had been the Primary Survey and putting someone into recovery position. Now this week was CPR. Cam had already forgotten most of the previous weeks' lessons. First Aid bored him, why would he waste brain-room on stuff he didn't care about?
"Thirty chest compressions, two rescue breaths. You would do this until the ambulance crew arrive. Now get into groups of two or three and you can try this yourselves," Mr Ross instructed, getting to his feet.
The man, Mr Scott Ross, had brown hair slowly greying and matching stubble and was getting slightly onto the overweight side. Still he was Cam's favourite Physical Education teacher. It was just too bad he couldn't make First Aid fun. Although, Cam suposed, there was no chance to intentionally throw and hit people with projectiles in First Aid, while in PE it was more acceptable.
The class scattered as they got into groups. One of Jodie's friends was squealing for some reason. Cam looked over and caught Carly's eyes. Carly looked to Jodie and rolled her eyes. Cam grinned at her.
"Cam," Zac waved him over to where he and David were kneeling on the ground beside one of the blue canvas bags containing the half human CPR creatures. David unzipped the bag and revealed the dummy inside. The torso part was a muckied pink with dirt seemingly embedded into it. There was no skin on the exposed white plastic skull but there was a face formed of too bright pink coloured silicone. The features were vaguley resembling of a human. Cam poked the nose. It was cold and rubbery.
"Cam, move the...thing onto the floor," Zac said.
"I'll get the wipes," David stood up and walked over to Mr Ross who was holding a large tub in his hands.
Cam half lifted, half dragged the dummy off of the bag and onto the floor, holding it by its plastic and silicone shoulders. Zac folded the canvas bag in half. The song playing changed to Blink- 182's "All the Small Things."
Zac set the folded bag beside the dummy. There was a slight padded bit in the middle which would offer protecion for their knees. The dummy stared vacantly at them with its pink silcone eye shapes.
"We should name it," Cam said, "it looks sad, maybe giving it a name would make it feel better."
"I got some wipes," David announced. He dropped one blue antibacterial wipe onto the dummy's chest.
"Perfect, I don't want to catch anything from this thing," Cam said.
Zac wiped down the dummy's chest with the wipe. David kneeled down beside the dummy's head and wiped the face and inside its ever so slightly open silicone mouth.
"We think we should give the dummy a name, make it feel better, the creature looks sad," Cam told David.
"Correction Cam thinks that, but I do support it," Zac said as he casually chucked the wipe to the left. It landed near to where Evie and Carly were wiping down their dummy.
The music changed again as the current song ended. "Smooth Criminal", the Alien Ant Farm cover of the original Michael Jackson song, began playing. Cam grinned as an idea formed in his head.
"We should call it Annie. Cause it's a Little Anne dummy," Cam said, referrring to the printed letters on the blue canvas bag which read "Little Anne".
"Why don't we just call it Anne then?" David asked.
"Annie sounds better," Cam said. He just wanted a chance to make the "Smooth Criminal" reference. He was a sucker for refereces. He had been the one to start the "what are those?" trend at Suncoast High. People still hated him for that.
"Cam, earplugs," Mr Ross spoke from behind him.
Cam removed his ear bud. The music still drifted out quietly from the earplug hanging down his chest. He had the cable under his shirt, coming out at his neck.
"Okay Cam, you go first. Stand up," Mr Ross instructed.
Cam sighed and got up to his feet to stand beside Mr Ross. He was about the same height as his teacher.
"Now what do you do first?" Mr Ross clasped his hands, "remember your primary survey - DR ABC."
Cam didn't remember. He hadn't paid attention since the first week where they had just been talking about gruesome injuries. That had interested him. This didn't.
Cam pretended to think. He had no clue.
"You would check for ..."
"I would check for...dangers," Cam said slowly. Evie was over-exageratedly lip synching the word to him.
"Are there?" Mr Ross asked.
"No." Cam didn't miss a beat. They were in a classroom. Unless a snake or something got in again, there weren't going to be any dangers.
"How do you know? You didn't look."
"It's a classroom sir, I don't think there's anything dangerous."
"Pretend, Cam. Now check for dangers."
Cam looked around the dummy. Just some carpet and a Zac. Nothing overly dangerous, not unless Zac grew claws and fangs and spat fire. He already had scales.
"There are no dangers," Cam announced.
"Now you check for a response."
Cam kneeled down at the side of "Annie". He bit his bottom lip and tried not grin too widely. His purpose was to entertain, not be laughing so much he couldn't do this. He planned it in his head, he wanted to do this. He needed a new legacy beyond "Vine Guy."
"Annie?" Cam asked the dummy, "Can you hear me? Annie? Are you okay? Are you okay Annie?"
Cam kneeled down and pretended to shake the dummy's grimey shoulders. He heard Zac give one of those weird nose snorts.
"Annie are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay Annie? Would you tell us that you're okay Annie?"
"Get out Cam," Mr Ross said," Go to the Principal, I'll phone her ahead to let her know you're coming so you just don't skip out."
"I'm just doing first aid sir," Cam looked up and Zac who was shaking slightly with supresed laughter, "We called the dummy Annie, I was just making sure she was okay."
"No, you were messing about as usual, which is why I'm sending you to go see Prinicpal Santos."
"Alright," Cam got back to his feet. "Bye Annie," he said to the dummy.
He walked slowly towards the door, head up, well aware everyone was staring. It was just a song reference. Then he got another idea. He turned back around.
"Cam, office. Now," Mr Ross re-enforced.
"I'm going sir."
He grinned and Moonwalked backwards to the door. Sometimes the Camster really was brilliant.
"Everyone get back to it. You are adults, or near enough now, surely you all know how to behave," Mr Ross said.
The door shut signalling Cam's departure.
"Pretty sure Rita's not going to care," Evie said to Zac, Carly and David.
"She'll probably just do that sort of "really?" look that she does and send Cam back to class," Zac agreed," I don't think Cam being Cam is cause for concern."
"Mr Ross only sent him out so he wouldn't start laughing, look at him," Carly said, discreetly pointing at the teacher. Mr Ross was standing beside the window, giving them a side view. He was trying not to laugh.
"Shoud we get back to it?" David asked.
"Why?"
Cam was slouched in the chair opposite Rita, well Principal Santos' desk. She didn't look overly concerned, more fed up at having to be there talking to him about this. He knew for a fact she was meant to have left early today, yet here she was.
"I was bored and First Aid is boring," Cam explained, "Why do we have to do these classes? They're terrible."
No one he knew liked that they were forced to do those classes.
"It was not my decision to run these Core Plus classes, but if you focus and pay attention you will get valuable skills from them," Santos said.
That was a very typical teacher thing to say.
"Cam, you're friends with Mermaids and a Merman, any first aid knowledge you have is valuable," she paused for a moment, "We can't go to a hospital or a doctor if anything goes wrong. There might be a day when your skills save Zac, Evie or any of the others, so please try and take it more seriously."
"You know, I didn't actually think about it like that," Cam said. He actually hadn't. He hadn't thought about anything like that, he just assumed the Mermaids could take care of it themselves. They helped Lyla when she got zapped with the Trident, and before that Santos herself when she got hit with a Moon Ring.
"There is a lot of responsibilty being involved in our world and keeping this whole thing a secret from anyone else, but I really appreciate all the help you've given us, I know the others do to even right up to the Mermaid Council. So with that in mind I think this whole matter can be forgotten. It's not even that serious an issue."
The Mermaid Council appreciated him? That felt surprisingly good. He hadn't been there that night in the Chamber with the leader of the Mermaid Council, but from what he'd heard she was not the nicest Mermaid around, yet the others appeared to hold a deep respect for the council that occasionally bordered onto fear, so having those Mermaids value what he'd done? He'd take that as a win.
"So I'm not getting a detention or anything?" Cam asked, wonderingly.
"No, you will not be getting detention. All you did was reference a song while actually doing your first aid work, I really don't think that warrants any punishment, and besides I think Mr Ross found it more amusing than he let on, he's a big Michael Jackson fan."
"Wait you know what song that was?" Cam asked. Mermaids knowing Michael Jackson just seemed weird.
"I'm a Mermaid, not a hermit. Now go back to class and try and take to First Aid more seriously in the future."
"You know I won't Ms Santos. " Cam pushed back the chair and stood up.
The Mermaids had their own healing potions, they didn't need Cam.
"We all know you won't Cam."
Cam opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He pulled the door shut behind him and started the walk back to class.
Although, if his friend's lives were at stake, he would want to protect them. Goddammit, he was going to actually pay attention in First Aid. The Camster could have a better legacy, one in which he was responsible for saving his friends, and all he had to do was listen to Mr Ross. He could do that. And he could prove people wrong, that was always fun.
Cam returned his earplug to his ear. Annie are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay Annie? How the hell was that on again? It was only in his playlist once. Bloody Spotify.
I can write light stuff! This was inspired by something I really wanted to do during First Aid class, which we were forced to do this year along with Finance. I really wanted to say what Cam said to the CPR dummy to the CPR dummy, but I didn't.
Hope you enjoyed!