THE FOLLOWING IS A NONPROFIT FAN-BASED WORK OF FICTION
THE TOTAL DRAMA FRANCHISE IS OWNED BY FRESH TV, TELETOON, JENNIFER PERTSCH AND TOM MCGILLIS
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Review Response (Because I can do that now):
Gucci Mane LaFlare: Shannon's accent is mostly done through sounding out her dialogue in my head, then trying my best to recreate those words phonetically. Having a distinct voice for her really helps (In this case, that of Cammie McCloud from gen:LOCK). Scottish People Twitter on reddit helped with some of it also. As for Ezekiel, well, uh, can't really say much without spoiling, but read on I suppose
Guest: The romance in this isn't 100% planned out, there's like one relationship that's set in stone throughout this, the rest is all vaguely nebulous ideas in my head. I never really had an idea for Ezekiel at first, but I do now and that's all I can say.
Random tangent, but is it just me or are the relationship names in Total Drama really bloody boring? Just slap their names together in a vaguely pronounceable way and call it a day. I dunno, maybe it's just because my first real experience with fan culture was RWBY, and they have a spreadsheet with all the different puns for each ship.
Content Warning: Is this necessary anymore? Well, there's 12 fucks, 3 shits, and 1 bastard, in case you were wondering.
It was a (relatively) beautiful morning on the Island. Birds twittered in the trees as the morning dew on the grass glistened. A few days had passed since the 23 teenagers had been made to jump off of a cliff and perform manual labour, and they were finally settling into the rhythm of Wawanakwa, with the awful food and the cameras everywhere and the 22 other freaks they were stuck with
That rhythm was to be broken as an overly egotistical man marched proudly over to the cabins, produced a megaphone from one pocket, an airhorn from another; and blew the airhorn into the megaphone, creating a sound of such volume that the sheer impact would have toppled a tree had one been positioned directly in front of it.
There was, however, no tree to be toppled, but the birds stopped twittering and looked up from their phones, the dew was blasted off the grass in a 15ft radius around the megaphone, and the 23 sleeping teenagers were rendered very awake.
The worst casualty amongst the startled wakeups of the campers was Leshawna, who smacked her head on the bunk above her as she bolted upright. Recovering quickly, she dashed over to the window to go yell at Chris.
"Ow! It's 7 in the morning, do I look like a farmer to you?" Leshawna's yell attracted the attention of the two farmers in the group, Ezekiel and Beth, both of whom had been awake for at least an hour already due to being on freaky farm time.
"What did I do, eh?" Came the cry of indignation from the Bass cabin. No-one paid Ezekiel any notice as Chris put down the airhorn and began yelling into the megaphone, thereby completely invalidating the point of a megaphone.
"You have ten minutes to get dressed and get out here; anyone not here automatically loses the challenge!" Despite the tiredness of the vast majority of the campers, as mass scramble ensued to get dressed in the allotted time. Highlights of said scramble include Harold wearing a shirt full of mayonnaise courtesy of Duncan, Cody getting distracted by the sight of Gwen in her pyjamas and running into a post, Tyler managing to fall over with every piece of clothing he put on, and an alarm clock going off which Eva punched through a wall.
But despite the injures and condiment spillage, 9 minutes and 34 seconds later all the campers were assembled in front of the cabins, looking incredibly worse for the wear: almost everyone was yawning with bags under their eyes, it was enough to make even Justin look bad (I am resoundingly heterosexual); in fact the only people who looked remotely okay were Eva, who refused to show any sort of weakness and was at that moment in time growling at Cody, who had attempted to mess with her MP3 player; Ezekiel and Beth, likely due to their aforementioned freaky farm hours; Heather, who just seemed unfazed by the lack of sleep; and for whatever reason Adam, who stood away from the group fidgeting nervously as per usual. Almost all of the campers were still too tired to talk, the exception being Shannon, who was swearing profusely as she tried to sort out her hair, which during the night had messed up enough to cover both of her eyes. With a final mutter of "fuck fucking fuck", she tossed the right-hand side of her fringe back and finally made it stay there, just as Chris Maclean strolled proudly over to the campers.
"Morning! Hope you slept well!" the response to the host's cheery greeting was a series of very disgruntled murmurs, some whispered threats from Gwen, and an overly cheery "Hi Chris!" from Heather, who was evidently looking to suck up; "You look really buff in those shorts"
Chris's response was an "I know", accompanied by finger guns and a wink neither of which I even wanna consider the implications of seeing as he is almost twice the age of everyone else there. Moving on from the questionable I-don't-want-to-call-it-flirting, Chris began walking down the line again.
"Okay, I hope you're all ready because your next challenge begins in exactly one minute" Chris said as he stopped his walk at Owen to check his watch. Speaking of Owen, it was he who spoke up next
"Oh, excuse me! I don't know if that's enough time to eat breakfast"
"Oho you'll get breakfast Owen", said Chris in an incredibly sinister tone "Right after you complete your 20-kilometre run around the lake!"
This provoked a mixed response from the campers. Several depressed slumps, a few exaggerated sighs, a couple of indifferences, and an angry rant from Eva
"Oh, so you're funny now?" She began marching at Chris, fists raised menacingly "You know what I think would be funny, shoving that megaphone up your-" Eva's string of violent imagery was thankfully ended before it could begin by Geoff and Duncan holding her back, while Courtney stage-whispered "Eva! Try to control your temper."
After a second of consideration, Eva elected to give Courtney no verbal response, and instead her head snapped back to Chris
"You're enjoying this aren't you?"
"A little." Chris replied with his arms clasped confidently behind his back. He then gestured to his watch, again "you have thirty seconds"
Confession Cam – Why did I have to wake up at 7?
Courtney: "Okay, that girl, Eva, has got to get a hold on her temper. She's only been here three days and she's already thrown her suitcase through a window, broke a lock on one of the bathroom doors…"
Geoff: "Man, Eva really needs to learn to chill. Just relax brah, life ain't all about winning. It's about the good times between the wins"
Courtney: "… almost got in another fist fight with Shannon, broke three pairs of Harold's glasses, dented the dining table…"
Shannon: "Am I tae blame for the Bridge Troll bein' so pissed off? Aye, probably. I have a tendency tae rub people th' wrong way when I first meet 'em. Am I gointae talk tae her aboot it? Fuck no, that girl could snap a man's bones like a twig!"
Courtney: "… and just this morning, she punched my alarm clock through a wall!"
Eva: she sits in the confessional, scowling at the camera with her arms folded "So what? I have a temper. You got a problem with that?"
After an undetermined amount of time, the campers were lined up on the unmarked starting line, all arrayed in various poses, ranging from the serious runner's crouches of Tyler and DJ, to the borderline comical backwards leg of Trent, and the 'standing there' of Heather. Chris was, of course, on hand to melodramatically announce everything
"Okay runners! On your marks, get set… GO!" And so they were off, charging out into the woods in almost perfect unison. Except for Tyler, who immediately tripped on an untied shoelace and fell down hard. But he recovered quickly, chasing after the others in an awkward looking jog with his back bent forwards and his arms hanging limply from his sides. I guess he isn't a running jock.
The sun beating down overhead was brutal, with no cloud coverage whatsoever to prevent the scorching heat singe the backs of necks or burn exposed shoulders. Although all the campers had started off running, it didn't take long for several of them to slow to a leisurely walk, some falling into step to talk among themselves. One such group was the very odd couple of Harold and Gwen. At least it was on Harold's end
"Do you know how much longer?" He received no reply, and was met only with the hurried footsteps and panting breaths of Justin and Bridgette, who were in the process of overtaking them. Once they were gone, however, he got an actual response from the goth
"Don't walk beside me." Well. So much for that conversation.
Instead, then, we move to a different part of the woods, where Heather has been bumped by a passing Ezekiel
Confession Cam – Boy am I glad to be not them
Heather: "I don't run. And I definitely don't run in high-heel wedges"
Heather's irritated stomp through the woods was brought to a sudden halt when she came across Owen, who was on his hands and knees, desperately lapping at a puddle that contained multiple leaves, several sticks, and a duck, who looked rather irritated at having his home drank. As he drank, he began rambling to himself in-between slurps.
"Can't" slurp "catch" slurp "breath, must" slurp "have condition!" as he reach the end of his sentence, his voice trailed off into the upper echelons of pitch, and his arms gave out, sending him splashing into the puddle, angering the duck even further, who gave Owen what I must assume was a rude gesture with his wing, before flying off. Heather, meanwhile, was equally unsympathetic
"Yeah, it's called overeating" she snapped, hands on her hips "look into it." Such comments were unappreciated by the passing Leshawna, who took a break from running to lean against a tree in order to both catch her breath and mouth off Heather
"And what's your excuse, you skinny, annoying…" she trailed off as her lack of breath caught up with her "Hoo. I'm too tired for insults."
Any potential retorts from Heather were cut off by the appearance of Chris, who had decided to drive by on a quad bike to yell at the campers some more.
"Pick it up people! If you're not back by dinner time, you don't eat!" Normally, the threat of withholding food is a significant one, enough to motivate people to put in some effort. But when the cooking comes from a man of such culinary talents as Chef Hatchet, then the motivational effect is significantly diminished. As a result, the only people who responded to this call were Owen, who hauled himself out of the puddle and staggered off in the general direction of the mess hall; Shannon, who accelerated from 'leisurely stroll' to 'brisk walk'; and Noah, who actively slowed down to a gentle walk.
Confession Cam – Throw enough spice on and anything's edible if you ask me
Noah: "Our first challenge was jumping off a cliff into shark-infested waters, there's no way our second is gonna be running. Besides, starving is preferable to the stuff they serve here."
And now, an overview of the contestants' positions at the midpoint of the race, provided to me by this handy digital map you lot can't see, because visuals weren't in the budget.
In the front of the pack, to no-one's surprise, is Eva, with a substantial lead over those behind her. The closest to her are the group of Duncan, Geoff and DJ, moving as a trio it seems. Further down we find the first Gopher of the pack, that being Justin, whose glorious modelling muscles aren't just for show (not a word out of any of you), and he is followed by Courtney, and right behind her is Bridgette.
More Gophers follow now, with Beth and Lindsay moving together as a duo, and Leshawna having hit her second wind and begun slowly catching up to them. Ezekiel comes next, followed by Izzy, and then Trent, who makes up the last of those running the race.
Up next are those walking, and leading the pack is Shannon, followed closely by Adam and Cody, having as much of a conversation as you can when one participant is practically mute. After them is Heather and Gwen, the two occasionally sniping at each other only with words and not bullets.
Wait, I forgot a runner, Tyler technically counts, but he keeps tripping over tree roots and running into tree branches, so he's not making very good pace. Katie is next, trudging along due to sadness about her missing friend. Noah has stopped, apparently having collapsed despite doing no more than walking and Owen has also stopped in order to pick him up, despite his own lack of fitness.
And bringing up the rear is Harold, who keeps having to stop to take a breather every 3 and a half steps.
The Mess Hall – 22 minutes later
By this point, most of the campers had arrived in the Mess Hall, in various states of exhaustion, and were sat around their teams' tables. The only ones missing were Noah, Harold, Owen, and Leshawna, who had run out of second wind and dropped down the standings significantly.
All those present in the mess hall looked up from what they were doing when the door slammed open, and Owen barged in, Noah slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes
"CLEAR A TABLE, STAT!" he yelled as he ran over to said table, upon which he laid out Noah and began performing chest compressions. Leshawna staggered in a few seconds behind, and dropped to the floor in exhaustion, cheering about having finally made it in her slightly delirious state.
And finally, in walked Harold, clutching his chest and leaning on the door frame, wheezing even heavier than usual.
"What took you so long?" asked Courtney as Harold began convulsing in a very worrying manner "We just lost the challenge!" clearly, Courtney's priorities are in entirely the right order.
"I think I'm having heart palpitations" Harold replied as he began doubling over. The Bass began muttering in disappointment as Harold collapsed on the ground, and over on the Gopher side of the hall, attention was still on the still-unmoving Noah. Until Gwen began pondering.
"Hey wait a minute…" she began. Behind her, Owen had decided he'd given enough chest compressions and prepared to give Noah mouth-to-mouth. As Owen's head began its descent, Noah's eyes shot open and he slapped his hand over Owen's mouth. Gwen ignored this and continued her train of thought
"If they lost, that means we won the challenge!" she proclaimed. Noah rolled his eyes at such spectacular deductive skills, but the rest of the Gophers began cheering heartily, happy at having escaped elimination yet ag-
"Whoa there, hold your horses guys!" said Chris "That wasn't the challenge!"
"What did you just say?" asked Gwen, abject fear plastered on her face. Chris chose not to answer her directly, instead walking over to the giant curtain at the bottom end of the hall no-one had noticed or questioned until that point.
"Who's hungry!" he declared as the curtains swung back to reveal a table laden with actual food, as opposed to the increasingly twitchy slop they'd been fed over the past few days. There were several turkeys, bowls full of mashed potatoes, a veritable navy of gravy boats, a baker's worth of bread rolls, and it was all so very like something you'd have for Sunday lunch rather than breakfast at half 7 in the morning. For some inexplicable reason, it was glowing and sparkling like it was in an infomercial or something
Confession Cam – Fuck, now I'm hungry
Gwen: "After days of nothing but brown sludge, I almost cried when I saw that buffet"
Owen: "And then I saw it! The buffet table! It was beautiful! There was turkey, and enamel bars and baked beans and maple syrup!" his eyes shut and begins sniffling. "Can I have a minute?" he then starts crying about the food.
Noah: "So the food turned out to be actually good. I was still right about the challenge. I'll take being half right over all wrong"
35 minutes later
It turned out the buffet was for everyone, not just the Gophers, and sure enough all the campers had eaten to their hearts content, which naturally meant half the table was devoured by Owen alone. The teens were all in various states of exhaustion, slumped against walls and each other groaning from how full they were.
"Ahh, I haven't eaten like that since that meal with the Native Americans!" Izzy said to no-one in particular. Noah, who was sat next to her, raised an eyebrow
"That was not eating. What you did in there was pure chaos"
Suddenly, from behind the curtain, Chris leapt onto the table, megaphone back in hand, and started yelling into it again
"Okay campers, time for part 2 of your challenge!" the groans of full bellies turned into groans of great annoyance, with a faint "called it" from Noah being heard amongst the chorus.
"I thought eating was the second part" said Owen, still eating
"What more do you want from us?" asked Gwen, who had apparently consumed enough food to form a noticeable bump in her stomach. And it seemed Heather was in agreement with Gwen, as unlikely as it may seem
"Weird Goth Girl is right," that got a glare from Gwen, which Heather ignored "haven't we been through enough?"
"Hmm, let me think about that" replied Chris, scratching his chin in thought "No!"
"It's time for…" from seemingly nowhere, a dramatic fanfare began as Chris announced, "The Awake-A-Thon!"
"The What-A-Thon?" asked Owen, removing a lot of the dramatic tension
"Don't worry" said Chris as he jumped down off of the table and brought the megaphone to bear against Owen's face "This is an easy one. The team with the last camper standing wins invincibility."
"So," Gwen began "What you're saying is the 20k run, and the turkey eating frenzy, were all part of your evil plan to make it harder for us to stay awake?"
"That's right, Gwen!"
"Man, he's good." Silence followed this last question, as the teens let the news of their next task wash over them. Chris wasn't having any of it.
"Move, move move!" he yelled at them, turning up the volume on his megaphone as he did so. The campers all began their forlorn march outside. Except for Trent, who stopped to talk to Gwen
"So, how long do you think it'll be before everyone's out cold?" he asked, still clutching his stomach as if to stop its contents bursting out. Gwen did some quick mental maths, and replied
"About an hour, give or take." She then noticed Owen walking by, panting like a dog and with shoulders slumped, and she quickly amended this estimate "Maybe less"
The Campfire Pit – 3 hours later
The weather in Muskoka had sure picked a hell of a day to be brutal. The sunlight hadn't abated in its baking of the ground below since it had scorched the backs of necks several hours earlier, and now its rays continued beating down on the campers below, assaulting them alongside the inexorably creeping exhaustion that seeped into their minds.
The campers were split into their teams, with the Gophers occupying the west side of the campfire pit, and the Bass occupying the east, with a large no-man's land in-between that no-one dared cross. The campsite was dotted with various logs of differing shapes and sizes that served as chairs, some being the stumpy remains of once proud trees, others being long logs laid on their sides to form a makeshift bench.
The clock that would be edited into the top corner of the screen read 3:02:27, but none of the teenagers knew that. For them, time was no more than a vague notion, something that was clearly passing, but no-one knew by how much. Ask one person and they might say 2 hours, someone else may say 10. The only one with even the slightest idea was Harold, who had learned how to tell the time using the position of the sun in the sky. He had tried explaining this skill in great detail to the rest of his team, but after 20 seconds everyone except Ezekiel had tuned him out.
"The oldest known hour sundial dates back to the reign of the Pharaoh Thutmoses III, who ruled Egypt in around 1500 BC. It was an L-shaped stone with lines scored along its upper face. When aligned to the sun…" Harold hadn't actually got to the part where you learn how to actually tell the time with the sun, he was still on the history of solar timekeeping as a whole, and had just recently finished the part on the Byzantine sundial-calendar. Somehow, Ezekiel was able to keep listening to this lecture that had been going on for twenty minutes now, and hadn't shown the first signs of falling asleep. If anything, he was actually paying attention.
Confession Cam – That lecture is making me want to become history
Ezekiel: "Haroold's the only one here who's really talked to me." He scratches his chin in thought "Shoore, a lot of what he says makes no sense, but at least he seems to like me, eh"
As Harold continued yammering, the rest of his team were forced to find other things to do in order to not get bored to sleep. Most struck up conversations with those sat near them, some procured forms of entertainments such as books from pockets, and others simply kept themselves occupied with their own thoughts. The Gophers were doing much the same, and so time marched inexorably onwards.
8:23:32:44 into the Awake-A-Thon
As the clock ticked by, the campers were starting to show signs of fatigue, bags beginning to form under their eyes, despite having only been awake for about ten hours, a perfectly reasonable amount of time to be awake for. Eh, teenagers, their body clocks are all out of whack.
Bearing the brunt of this fatigue seemed to be Gwen, who I would have pegged for the type to be primarily nocturnal, but then again nocturnal creatures do get to sleep in the day.
"This is the most boring thing I have ever done in my life" she lamented as she slumped, fighting back yawns with every word
"Could be way worse" said Trent, who was sat next to her, as he too fought back yawns. Gwen looked at him and cocked a confused eyebrow
"Oh yeah? How?"
"I could be stuck here without you to talk to." Pretty smooth there guy. Gwen seemed to think so to, a small smile coming to her face for the first time in several days, and the faintest hints of a blush made their way to her cheeks.
From the main Gopher conglomeration, Heather noticed this, her eyes narrowing as she watched this new bond form. Filing the information away for later, like some sort of villainous secretary, she resumed her own plots to get ahead in the competition
Confession Cam – My school secretary once lit me on fire, so if you ask me most secretaries are pretty villainous
Heather: "So, my strategy is to get two other campers to form an alliance with me and take to the final three. The question is, who can I find who is either desperate or dumb enough to do whatever I say?"
As if on a mission to prove that karma is little more than a concept goody two-shoes use to make themselves feel better, the universe then decided to provide Heather with the exact answer to her question.
The answer was Lindsay, who was for whatever reason trying to do a headstand.
"What are you doing?" asked Gwen incredulously, apparently just as confused as I am
"Trying to get the blood to rush to my head" Lindsay replied as she tried to find her centre of balance, once she succeeded, she looked in Gwen's general direction and smiled "I think it's working!"
I'm not even going to comment. However, it appears that Beth was, for a certain degree of 'comment' at least
"Can I try?" she asked with her hands clasped eagerly, sounding far too enthusiastic to experience a potential brain haemorrhage. Lindsay gave an enthusiastic "Sure!" in response, and Beth merrily flipped herself over and tried to fine her own centre of balance next to Lindsay.
A metre or so away, Heather witnessed all of this, and smirked in glee, muttering a quiet "perfect" to herself.
"Lindsay! Beth!" Heather called from behind the other campers. Both girls tried awkwardly to look in her direction, almost losing their balance in the process "Can I talk to you for a sec?"
"Sure!" they both replied happily, not noticing the downright predatory grin that had formed on Heather's face at their answer. The two girls turned themselves the right way around, waited a few seconds to regain their ability to see as their blood returned to its normal position, and the two of them followed Heather to the spot behind the bushes where they were being led.
Once the three girls made it into the clearing, Heather turned to the other two with a confident smile, arms folded across her chest
"Okay, I have a plan to get me and two other people into the final three, and I chose you guys"
Showing an incredible lack of survival instinct, both girls' reactions was very positive. They both smiled, and Lindsay let out an excited "Really!?"
"You should know that this is a very big deal," Heather continued "I am placing my trust in you, and trust is a two-way street." The other girls began nodding eagerly
"So you'll do everything I say then?" despite the menace in those words, the response remained positive, Lindsay exclaiming her third "Sure!" in as many minutes. She then turned to Beth and began squealing
"We're going to the final three!" Beth got the memo and both girls began squealing excitedly
"EEEEEEEEEEEE!" It was then that Heather's smirk dropped, as she realised the price she had to pay for easily manipulated lackeys
Confession Cam – Oh for god's sake I thought the squealing was over when Sadie left
Beth: "I can't believe it! Heather is taking me to the final three! I'm going to the final three! I'm going to the final three!" she finally breaks out of her joyous celebration to clasp her hand together in thought "I wonder what will happen then?"
"Speaking of alliances," said Lindsay as she walked next to Beth and turned her gaze to the other campers "you know who I think is reeeally cute…?" she directed Beth's view towards the Bass side of camp, zooming in on Tyler, who was lounging against one of the less rotted log stump seats, and faring far better in terms of exhaustion that most of his campmates.
"Oh no" cut in Heather, imposing herself in-between Lindsay and her view of the jock. "No no no. You can't date him"
"Why not?" came the confused reply
"Because he's on the other team!" Heather said like it was obvious. Which it sort of was, but not to Lindsay. Not that Heather's explanation helped anything, as Lindsay seemed more confused if anything
"Uh-huh?"
"You can't inter-team date, it's like" she paused for a split-second, trying to come up with something "against the alliance rules." Nailed it
"There are rules?" came the synchronised response of Beth and Lindsay. Heather looked taken aback for a moment, but quickly regained her composure
"Remember what I said about trust, Lindsay? Of course, you could always leave the alliance. If you do though, I can't protect you from getting kicked off."
"No, I wanna be in the alliance!" Lindsay replied, scared of the concept of being left to fend for herself
"Good" said Heather, face shifting back to the smug smirk it usually wore "Then it's settled". And with that, she walked off.
Lindsay slumped in sadness for a bit, then looked back up at the red-clad object of her affection. He happened to notice her gaze, and he waved friendlily at her. Lindsay perked right back up, and waved back, bouncing eagerly in place, which happened to make Tyler very pleased with how everything was going for him right then.
Confession Cam – Lucky bastard
Lindsay: "Heather said I couldn't date him. She never said I couldn't like him"
Tyler: "Oh yeah baby, it's Tyler time!" he yells, fist pumping incessantly. Eventually, he fist pumps too hard, and falls over, crashing to the ground. A few seconds pass, and then his upraised fist is visible, accompanied by a "Woo!"
11:59:48
Time continued its passage, and soon enough almost half a day had passed. The bags under the camper's eyes, which had finally faded around the 9-hour mark, had fully returned, making it seem as though the teens had been awake for far longer than they actually had.
By this point in time, most of the campers were sat down, either attempting to converse with each other, or simply focussing desperately on staying awake. The exceptions to this were Courtney, who was jogging in place to try and keep herself awake; and Owen, who was doing a strange kind of shuffle around the Gopher encampment, his eyes wide with manic determination and a crazed grin on his face.
From somewhere unknown to all, even me, Chris began whispering dramatic narration as if it were a nature documentary
"We are now twelve hours in with all twenty-three campers still wide awake." Some of the campers looked up in curiosity to find the source of this voice, to no avail; while others ignored it and tried to stay focussed on anything that would keep them awake. But the biggest reaction came from Owen.
"WOO-HOO! Stay awake for twelve hours? I could do that in my sleep!" he yelled, snapping several of his teammates out of their reveries on drawing their attention to him. He stopped shuffling in order to triumphantly raise his fist in the air, and let out another "WOO-HOO!"
He then froze in place for a second, and collapsed backwards, expression unchanging until he hit the ground. He landed with a very loud 'THUMP', and started snoring, completely out for the count.
One down, 22 to go.
13:12:56
Above the campers, the sky burned a bright orange, as the sun took its final steps below the horizon. And beneath that blazing sky, the campers continued with their struggle against the ever-encroaching inky blackness of sleep.
The sound of a book slamming shut echoed across the Gopher encampment, accompanied by a long sigh, as Noah leant back against a large log in frustration. From the other end of the log, Cody stopped cloudgazing and looked over to him
"Finished?" he asked.
"For the third time. If I read this thing once more I'm going to start talking in ambiguous prose" he replied, not looking over to Cody. "Ugh, I'm going to have to start talking to people, aren't I?" Cody shot him a smirk
"Looks like it." Noah sighed again.
"Fine" He lamented. There was silence for about ten seconds, before Noah spoke up again. "So what do we talk about?"
Cody shrugged. "Dunno. What book were you reading?"
"Heart of Darkness"
"Any good?"
Noah held the book up in one hand, inspecting it briefly, before dropping it dismissively. "Meh" was his ultimate opinion. Silence fell on the boys, lasting another twenty seconds, before Noah groaned in frustration
"Ugh dammit, surely between you, me, and" he gestured towards Adam, who was playing solitaire just to the pair's right "the king of games over here, we can come up with something to talk about"
"I don't think he talks" said Cody. Adam, who had looked up upon being mentioned, tried to speak up in his defence, but all that came out was the syllable "ahc", and a series of choking noises
"So" Cody spoke up again, "anyone got anything we can do?". Noah shrugged, while Adam looked to his half-finished game of solitaire. And something within him stirred. Maybe it was some newfound courage. Maybe it was a sense that he could actually get along with these people. Or maybe it was just sleepless delirium
"Wasn't gonna finish anyway" he murmured to himself as he shuffled his game of solitaire back into a neat pile with surprising dexterity, and shuffled around awkwardly to face the two others.
Confession Cam – I'm missing The Bill to stay up for this, you lot better appreciate it
Adam: "So I may not have talked to anyone in a while. Or ever. But it can't be that bad. I mean what's the worst that could happen. Other than they think I'm really weird and never talk to me again and tell everyone I'm weird and I spend the rest of my life friendless and alone." He rubs the back of his head nervously and sighs "Yeah, nothing at all…"
Adam opened his mouth to speak, faltered, tried again, and started coughing. He closed his eyes, took several deep breaths, and finally, he was sufficiently steeled.
"I-I, uh, I can talk, actually" he said. As he did so, he started yo-yoing the deck of cards in his hand idly, despite the laws of physics strongly disagreeing with that action.
Noah and Cody, who'd been watching Adam's pre-conversation ritual with a faint air of bemusement, took this as their cue to say something.
"So you can", said Noah, leaning back and smirking slightly. Then he noticed Adam's card yo-yoing, and his expression went back to confusion "Okay how are you doing that?"
Adam looked confused as well. Then he noticed his nervous habit, and a noticeable look of relief washed over his face
"Oh that. Just, you know, card tricks. It's just a hobby of mine really" he turned back to Noah and Cody, and fanned out the cards "Anyone for a game of, well anything, really. I mean, only if you want, it's not like you're obligated or anything, I just thought it could help pass the time and uh…" Adam began trailing off into quieter explanations and even quieter apologies.
"I'm down" interrupted Cody, shrugging his shoulders. Adam stopped rambling and smiled, and both boys then turned to look at Noah.
"Eh, why not, gotta do something to pass the time"
Adam's smile grew, and he began dealing out cards, and so time passed ever onwards.
13:56:02
Twilight hung over the island of Wawanakwa, the sky burning orange as the campers continued their struggles against somnia.
But as the rest of the currently awake Gophers sat, occupying their time through idle conversation, or card games, or in the case of Heather, glaring at everyone; there was one who sat alone resting her head in her hands, morose and afraid.
This one was Katie, and the reason for her melancholy was fairly obvious. The gaping hole next to her that should have been filled by Sadie.
Confession Cam – I for one am glad of the large decrease in ear-splitting shrieks. Now if only that number would drop even more
Katie: she sits in the confession cam curled up into a ball, sniffling quietly. Fast forwarding through the next four and a half minutes, she keeps sniffling, until she can finally muster up the words to speak: "Th-this is the longest I've been away from Sadie" is all she manages to choke out before breaking down in sobs again.
"I don't think I can do this" she whispers to herself, barely audible
Katie sighed to herself as she stared at a rock on the ground that bore a vague resemblance to Sadie. As her thoughts drifted to better days filled with best friends and mall trips and whatever else it is teenage girls do, she remained unaware of nearby thoughts arriving at her.
And by that, I mean someone had finally noticed Katie and actually cared. Two someones in fact. Lindsay and Beth, having just finished a truly riveting conversation about the important distinction between plaid and tartan (or something to that effect, both me and the Confession Cam zoned out), noticed Katie sitting all on her lonesome, and such an idea troubled them.
Electing not to beat around the bush as it were, the two girls made their way over to the third, going mostly unnoticed as a result of all the crying. It wasn't until Beth actually spoke that Katie even registered their presence.
"Are you okay?" was the question, and the answer was first surprise, then uncontrollable sobbing into Beth's shoulder. Beth patted Katie on the shoulder for a while, until Katie's sobbing died down into sniffles.
"I'm sorry" she murmured as she peeled herself off of Beth and tried to sort out her clothes. "It's just-"
"You misth your friend, don't you" Beth surmised. Katie's expression cracked, and tears threatened to well up again, but she fought them down and simply replied
"Yeah…"
Not missing a beat, Lindsay threw an arm around Katie's shoulders and pulled her in for a one-armed hug. Katie leant into it, sniffling.
"Thank you" she murmured into Lindsay's shoulder.
"Aww, don't worry, you'll see, uh…" Lindsay tried to comfort Katie as she tightened the hub, but trailed off as she realised she had no idea who it was she was referring to. The turned to Beth and mouthed a message for help. Beth mouthed back, "Sadie".
"Oh yeah; you'll see Hayley again soon, I know it" Lindsay said with utmost confidence, ignoring the slapping sound of Beth facepalming. But, as it turned out, Katie either didn't notice Lindsay's error, or chose to ignore it. Instead she looked up at the blonde girl, eyes wet with tears and asked:
"Really?"
"Sure!" Lindsay stated as she smiled down at Katie.
"If you two are asth closthe asth you sthay, there'sth no way you won't sthee each other again" cut in Beth, the sentimentality of such a statement offset somewhat by the sheer sibilance of her sentence being the stimulus for several litres of spittle to start spraying from between her teeth.
"And until you do, we'll be your friends!" Lindsay added happily, both girls choosing to ignore Beth's slight speech issue.
"You will?"
"Of coursthe!" Beth exclaimed. She and Lindsay smiled happily at Katie, and Katie smiled back. Then, Lindsay released Katie from the hug, and the three girls sat down together, and the conversation about girl things gained a new participant.
"Stho istn't Justhtin like stho cute?"
"Oh I know, he's just gorgeous!"
"He's no Taylor, but he is really hot…"
As their conversation about that paragon of a human specimen who I have no attraction towards whatsoever continued, the group were blissfully unaware of an eavesdropper.
Heather had heard the whole tale, and as her pawns made a new friend, an evil grin crept onto her face, and she began chuckling to herself as she steepled her fingers menacingly.
The grin was wiped off her face when said pawns evidently ran out of words to describe the perfection that is Justin, and resorted to very loud "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"-ing.
Confession Cam – Does anyone have a screwdriver I can drive through my eardrums?
Katie: She looks defiant, and holds her fist in the air with an aura of determination "I'll see you soon Sadie! But first, I'm gonna win this! For you!"
Heather: "I can't exactly get Katie into the alliance, not without letting the others know something's up", she begins filing her nails as she continues on "but a new pawn? That I can work with"
14:34:35
At long last, the sun had set on what felt like the longest day ever, replaced by the surprisingly chilly summer night of Canada. It was rather windy I suppose.
By this point in time, most of the campers had hit their second wind, and none had fallen to the Sandman's embrace since Owen. Conversation flowed far more freely, as the sleepless delirium slowly begun to set in, gradually lowering everyone's inhibitions.
In the Bass encampment, Shannon and Izzy swapped wild stories, Izzy currently detailing the time she allegedly fought off a legion of angry chefs with nought but a poorly cooked leg of lamb and the giant 'E' from the restaurant sign. A few metres away, DJ was looking at the trees, stroking his chin in thought as he examined them rather critically. Courtney was still jogging on the spot, though her movements had gotten more and more jerky as time went on, as the exhaustion continuing to get to her. And towards the front of the group, Harold had finally finished his lecture on timekeeping (with a brief tangent on Swiss watch smuggling), and he and Ezekiel conversed far more normally, the prairie boy having several questions about life as a normal teenager that Harold was more than happy to answer. Currently, Harold was attempting to explain slang
"Soo, wicked and sick are good, bad and ass are bad, but badass is good?" despite the lesson, Ezekiel still seemed incredibly confused. Despite his trepidation though, Harold was pleased with his progress. He clapped his hands together as if praying, and gave the prairie boy a small bow
"Excellent! You have learned well, my young Padawan" Ezekiel leaned backwards, leaning on his hands, and shook his head.
"You know, I doon't think I'll ever get the hand of this teen lingo, eh." The two boys sat in silence for a minute, until Ezekiel spoke again
"Say, Haroold?" he asked. Harold looked up
"Yes?"
"You know that word you keep calling me? Pada-so'omthing?"
"You mean Padawan?" Harold replied, cocking his head to the side in confusion
"Yup, that. What's it mean, exactly?"
"It's a term from Star Wars, it refers to the apprentice Jedi training under a Jedi Knight" he explained like it was obvious
"Oh" Ezekiel remained quiet for a few seconds "What's a 'Star Wars'?" he then asked.
Harold did not reply with words, at least not initially. Instead, he let out a long and probably exaggerated gasp.
"You mean you've never even heard of the greatest saga known to man?" he asked once he'd finished gasping. Ezekiel tentatively shook his head.
"I had no idea that you were this out of the loop. Gosh, if I'd known, I'd have started with the bare essentials." With a determined look in his eye, Harold briskly stood up, confusing Ezekiel further.
"Uh, Haroold, what are you doing?"
"My duty" said Harold solemnly as he bent down to pick up a long stick "Clearly, it falls to me to tell the greatest tale ever know." For a moment the noble façade broke "Gosh, this would be so much easier if Chris gave us a DVD player"
By this point, Ezekiel's look of confusion had begun turning into one of concern. He opened his mouth to ask Harold what he was doing again, but the nerd pre-empted him
"Hush, young Padawan. Now is the time for the debut of the one man show I worked on at Performing Steve's Performing Arts Camp." He grasped the stick in two hands as though it was a sword, and assumed a battle stance, the stick raised high to his forehead
"Now, our story begins a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, on a planet called…"
Confession Cam – I can't tell who's more sleep deprived, him for doing that, or me for watching all of it
Ezekiel: He nervously adjusts his toque "You knoow, I'm starting to think Haroold isn't exactly a normal teenager, eh"
Across the Bass encampment, Izzy was just finishing her latest story
"And then 'BOOM' the head chef came out of the horse!" she yelled, arms raised above her head wildly, and a manic grin plastered on her face. Shannon, who was next to her, simply raised an eyebrow at her
"Ye know, I dinnae believe half th' shite tha' comes outta yer' gob. But fuck me if it in't entertainin'. Ye ever' consider'd writin' books?" Izzy grinned wildly at this
"Oh, I thought about that. I even went to a library to practice my storytelling skills, but the threw me out when I turned this dusty old book into a pop-up book. Apparently, it was a 'priceless artefact' or something. They tried to have me arrested, but I made a hang-glider out of the autobiography section and escaped off the roof!" she said in a single breath
"The fuck kind of library is tall enough tae hang-glide off?" Izzy's grin somehow grew wider than it already was
"The big one." Shannon looked at her funny, then shook her head with a small smile, and looked away. As it happened, she looked in the direction of Ezekiel and Harold
"Hey, Dizzee Rascal," she began as she nudged Izzy with her elbow "what th' fuck is Beanpole over there up tae?"
Izzy looked to where Shannon was gesturing, and was met with the sight of Harold swinging a stick around with impressive finesse, and narrating a series of increasingly strange events. In front of him sat Ezekiel, who was suffering more and more second-hand embarrassment by the second.
"Now this I haftae see" Shannon said as she walked on over to the two misfits, Izzy following behind with an eager grin.
"An' what th' fuck's this shitshow then?" Shannon asked as she dropped herself down on the ground next to Ezekiel, Izzy splaying herself out on her back like a cat next to her. Ezekiel jumped a little, but quickly regained his composure as best he could.
"Um, Haroold's explaining what a Star Wars is, eh", he said, gesturing to the display Harold was giving.
"And then vwoosh vwoosh, Revan defeated Malak in single combat, and destroyed the Star Forge…" Harold narrated, swinging his stick as though decapitating an opponent in front of him. Before either Shannon or Ezekiel could pass further comment, they were interrupted by Izzy
"Ooh, ooh, I love Star Wars!" she exclaimed, jumping to her feet and procuring a stick of her own from… somewhere "my uncle was going to be in Star Wars, but he kept taking the podracers out for joyrides so he got fired and replaced by this Irish guy who kept wanting to find people"
Harold seemed rather put out at Izzy's interruption, and looked to be about to start complaining, but was interrupted yet again, this time by Izzy swinging her stick at him. Harold managed to parry the blow fairly easily, swatting the stick away. Izzy brandished her stick at Harold like a pirate with his first cutlass.
"En guarde!" she proudly proclaimed, her grin never leaving her face. Harold stared at her for a second, before adopting a fighting stance with his own stick, grasping low in both hands, pointed skywards.
"I must warn you: I have been trained in all seven forms of lightsabre combat at Jedi Master Steve's Jedi Camp." Izzy gave no verbal response, her grin simply widening, threatening to stretch out past her cheeks. With no further words, the two lunged at each other, sticks clacking against each other while both made 'vwoosh' noises with each swing.
From the ground, Ezekiel and Shannon looked on in wide-eyed confusion, neither of them having any clue what to make of the two redheads swinging sticks at each other. After a minute of silence, between the two, Shannon eventually spoke
"Fuck me, is no' even ben' a day an' we've already got a sword fight." She turned to Ezekiel "So, how long 'till someain carks it?" Ezekiel looked at her confused for a moment, trying to piece whatever the hell it was she just said together. Before he could, Shannon spoke up again
"Actually, now tha' I think aboot it, there's nae danger a' tha' happenin. I mean, look a' Beanpole, he'll tire hes'self out a'fore the five-minute mark." Ezekiel looked back to the duelling pair, and sure enough, despite a scant few second having passed, beads of perspiration were already formed on Harold's forehead, and his breathing was becoming more and more laboured. Visibly relaxing, Shannon, flung her arms behind her head and leant back, content on enjoying the show before her.
"So, Wurzel, wha' in th' fresh hell possessed ye' tae come to this place?" Ezekiel looked at her, as if expecting her to cut him off again. When nothing came, he turned back to the fight in front of him and began.
"Well, I suppoose it all began at the end of that spelling bee, eh…"
Meanwhile, at the other end of the campfire pit, there was tension in the air.
On the ground were Adam and Noah, staring intensely at each other, neither boy willing to blink first. Without breaking their gaze, they both drew a card and added it to the hands they were holding.
Simultaneously, their concentrated frowns shifted into triumphant grins, and they both slapped their cards on the ground, yelling victoriously as they did so
"Straight flush!"
"I summon the unstoppable Exodia!"
Their triumphant grins remained for a second or so, before both were replaced with a look of confusion. It was Noah who broke the silence
"How long have you been playing Yu-Gi-oh?" Adam's confused frown deepened.
"How long have you been playing poker?" he replied, tilting his head to the side. Noah frowned
"Touché" he conceded, casually throwing his cards into the pile in the middle.
From in-between the two confused victors, Cody's eyes flicked between the two hands of cards he held
"Aw man" he lamented as he threw down both his pair of aces and his Winged Dragon of Ra.
Assuming the game to be over, Adam somehow began undealing the cards, causing them to fly off of the ground and into a neat pile in his hand. Next to him, Noah and Cody looking on with confusion.
"Okay seriously how do you do that?" asked Noah incredulously. Adam paused mid undealing, the card still hovering in the air, and looked at Noah with slightly panicked eyes, then pointed to himself. Noah nodded, his face conveying the unspoken statement of 'obviously'.
"I mentioned the card tricks, didn't I?" Adam asked. When he received no response, he elaborated "It's just, card tricks are something of a hobby of mine. Well, more like magic tricks as a whole, but card tricks are the only ones that work. Well, I say work, more like don't go wrong"
"What's the difference between a trick that doesn't work and a trick that goes wrong?" asked Cody.
"Well, er, a trick that doesn't work sorta just kinda… fails. A trick that goes wrong still happens, but not in the way you plan."
"How so?" asked Noah. Adam stammered for an explanation for a moment, before drooping his head.
"It's easier to show you" He stood up, and started rummaging around in his pocket for something, while Noah and Cody moved themselves to sit on top of the log, anticipating an imminent demonstration. After rummaging in his right pocket for 10 seconds, Adam switched to his left, failed to find what he was looking for there also, then looked in his hat, and pulled out a small plastic sphere about the size of a pebble.
"So, uh, you guys know the whole 'disappear in a puff of smoke' thing, right?" His impromptu audience nodded.
"Yeah, well, uh, I've been trying to figure that out, and I've almost got it, but there's still some, er, significant technical issues, so to speak"
Adam took several deep breaths, and after rolling out his shoulders, clicking his neck, and exhaling once more, he threw the plastic sphere down on the ground as hard as he could. The sphere burst open with a loud 'poof', and a large amount of smoke poured out, covering not only Adam, but Noah, Cody, and the log they were sitting on. All three began coughing profusely.
After several seconds, the smoke cleared, and Adam remained standing exactly where he was. But something had changed in the cloud of smoke.
Looking down, Cody and Noah noticed that the log they had been sitting on had vanished. They stayed there, suspended in the air for a second, before looking at each other with worried looks on their faces. Then, they both tumbled to the floor, landing hard on their rears.
"Sorry" Adam called to them "I'm still working out the bugs with that one"
"There's more than one?" asked Cody from the ground. Adam sighed
"Just wait."
"Turned oot the bit of paper she stuffed oop my nose was a poster fer this shoow, eh." Ezekiel finished his story, and Shannon looked mildly concerned.
The battle was over. Harold lay on the ground, clutching his chest, wheezing heavily, moaning something about 'heart palpitations again'. Izzy was knelt over him, rubbing a pair of pink slippers she'd pulled out of… somewhere together, until the point they were crackling with static charges that bounced from slipper to slipper with a bright blue glow.
"Clear!" she yelled as she plunged the slippers down on to Harold's chest, the makeshift defibrillator causing Harold's body to rise off of the ground briefly, twitching and smoking. Harold's only response was a moan of pain, and Izzy began rubbing the slippers together again. From the log nearby, Ezekiel turned to Shannon
"Shooldn't we be helping them?" he asked, concern etched all over his face. Shannon, on the other hand, seemed unconcerned.
"Wurzel, I've ben' 'ere three days, an' in tha' time I've learned two things. One, ye dinnae piss oaf Eva, and two, ye dinnae get yersel' involved in anythin' Dizzee 'as planned"
"But I think Haroold's having a heart attack, eh." Shannon turned to inspect the resuscitation more closely.
"Nah, i''ll be fine" she eventually concluded, waving her hand dismissively. And surely enough, after a second shock to the chest, Harold awoke, coughing and complaining about a singed aorta.
"See, wha'd I tell ye? Fine"
As if fate itself were listening, at that exact moment there was a faint 'poof' from above the two, and with that as the only warning, a large log descended from the heavens and slammed into the ground next to Ezekiel and Shannon with a massive 'THWACK' , the impact launching them up into the air, the log standing proudly upright like a totem pole without the weird faces. Everyone on the Bass gaped at the sudden appearance of the log, and as a result no-one noticed the faint yell of "Sorry!" from the other side of the campfire pit.
Confession Cam – Have to say, was not expecting that outcome
Shannon: She wipes the sweat from her brow "Fuck me, tha's ten years oaf mah life"
Ezekiel: "Is the ootside woorld always this dangerous, eh?"
Adam: He holds his face in his hands "I swear, I have no idea why it does that". He lifts his head up and sighs to himself "At least no one got a concussion this time."
17:04:47
Midnight had come and gone, and the moon hung ethereal overhead, basking the campers in its pale reflections. The cold Canada winds blew through the campfire pit, sending chill to bones and chatters to teeth. Harold had passed out for good not long after being resuscitated, claiming exhaustion, and was snoring against a log, irritating everyone within earshot. The only other Bass to have fallen into slumber was Tyler, whose eyes had slowly drifted shut around midnight.
Over in the Gopher side, those responsible for the sky log Izzy currently sat atop in lotus position were back at the card games, having actually settled on playing a single game at a time. Not that the individual game mattered, as the winner always seemed to be Adam, who possessed an uncanny knack for getting the exact right card at the exact right time, and always seemed to know when someone was bluffing. Noah suspected foul play, but lacked any real evidence, so kept going in the hope of catching the wallflower in the act, or at the very least figuring out how he made the cards fly. Heather continued her irritated observations of her teammates, reserving her worst glares for Gwen and Trent, whose conversation was still ongoing, and showed no signs of stopping in the foreseeable future. In front of Heather, Lindsay, Beth and Katie continued their conversation about girl things I understand half the words of, though during conversational lulls Katie would sometimes look off into the middle distance morosely. Justin stood alone away from everyone, hands on hips proudly, abs showing through the slightly too tight shirt he wears I swear I am heterosexual.
On the Bass side of things, DJ was for some reason in the process of climbing a tree, though his large build made such a task difficult due to the weaker branches snapping under the pressure. Duncan watched his progress curiously, laughing to himself at the falls, while next to him Geoff sat with his chin in his hands, being oddly quiet for once. Courtney was still jogging on the spot, but at this point jogging was hardly the right word for it. Staggering on the spot would be more accurate, or maybe faltering on the spot. Eva sat alone, listening to angry-sounding music and glaring at anyone who drew near. Harold and Tyler had been propped up against logs, and were snoring away contentedly. From atop the sky log, Izzy regaled Shannon and Ezekiel with increasingly bizarre stories that she claimed were true. Shannon seemed to enjoy them, while Ezekiel looked more and more as though he was regretting ever venturing into the outside world.
And alone in front of all the Bass, Bridgette sat, cold and slightly afraid. A particularly frosty breeze blew through the campfire pit, chilling the campers to the bone, and was completely unstopped by the thin summer hoodie Bridgette wore. She hugged herself, teeth chattering, and tried her best to ignore the cold, the deep dark woods only a few metres away, and the fatigue that plagued her more and more with each passing minute.
Bridgette was taken out of her reverie by the sound of someone sitting down next to her, a relatively heavy 'plunk'. She uncurled herself from her little ball and turned around to see Geoff lounging about a metre from her, a relaxed grin on his face but a nervous glint in his eyes.
"Hey" he said, flicking his cowboy hat out his eyes almost too casually for it to be natural "How, uh, how's it going?"
Bridgette looked at the ground remorsefully, and sighed. "It's… not going well. I'm cold, I'm tired, and the woods are freaking me out." She punctuated that last thought with an involuntary shudder.
"Yeah, I saw you shivering back there, you must be pretty cold."
"I know. Stupid summer hoodie." The last part was muttered to herself, but not quietly enough for Geoff to not catch it.
Geoff said nothing, instead responding by taking off his shirt and passing it to Bridgette. She looked at it, then Geoff in confusion, to which he simply replied
"I know, it's not much, but it's better than nothing, right?"
Bridgette's confused look never left her face as she asked, "But won't you get cold?"
Geoff laughed and waved her off
"Nah, it's all good brah." He said as he chuckled again. "I've had ice dumped on me at parties too many times to really feel the cold"
Bridgette finally cracked a smile, and she draped Geoff's shirt over her shoulders. As she did so, Geoff hastily turned around to look back at Duncan, who happened to be watching the whole exchange with his chin in his hands and a bored look on his face.
Geoff shot Duncan a look that said without words "Am I doing this right?". Duncan's response was equally nonverbal. He rolled his eyes, but flashed Geoff a thumbs up and leant back with the faintest hint of a smile on his face.
Geoff grinned, and turned back to Bridgette excitedly, just as she'd finished adjusting the shirt for maximum warmth.
"That's better. Thanks." She said as she smiled warmly at Geoff.
"No problem brah." Geoff said as he leant back into a far more relaxed position.
And as the conversation continued, two new friends found a bulwark against the inky tendrils of sleep.
But unaware to them both, there was a watcher of this whole process. Well another one, one that wasn't Duncan bored out of his skull.
"And then I escaped down the Nile surfing a crocodile, and the fez merchant got 25 to life!" Izzy wrapped up her tale of misadventure, and gazed down upon her almost captive audience. And something was amiss. While Shannon was paying just as much attention as she always was (very little), Ezekiel, who was normally listening in a combination of awe and horror, seemed worried, gazing off into the crowd of Bass with a troubled expression.
"You okay down there?" Izzy called from her perch. Shannon looked up, confused, then turned to Ezekiel and saw what Izzy was talking about, the prairie boy having not noticed Izzy's call.
"Summat on yer' mind, Wurzel?" she asked, lightly nudging him with her elbow. However, lightly is a relative term, and Ezekiel ended up toppling to the ground in a heap, letting out a startled yelp as he fell.
"Oops" said Shannon as she hauled Ezekiel off the ground like a sack of potatoes. "Ye' alright?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm alright, eh" He said unconvincingly, adjusting his toque as he did so. Shannon frowned, and raised at least one eyebrow, the status of the other remaining unknown.
"What were you looking at?" asked Izzy, having appeared suddenly from behind Shannon.
"Jesus fucking Christ when'd you get doon?!" Shannon yelled, clutching at her heart in shock.
"Um, noothing?" said Ezekiel. Izzy seemed unconvinced, and grabbed Ezekiel by the cheeks and turned his head to look in the direction he had been previously, perching her own head on his right shoulder and squinting to try and pinpoint what had him so enthralled. Shannon, shaking off the shock, joined her on Ezekiel's left, effectively sandwiching his face between theirs, causing it to turn a rather deep shade of red.
As Shannon looked out in the general direction Ezekiel was looking, she found herself stumped for ideas for what he could have been looking at. The only things of note in direct line of vision were the bossy girl who was still staggering on the spot, and the blonde girl talking with the blonde guy, who was now missing his shirt, Shannon was stumped for what had Ezekiel so entranced. Sure, the bossy girl and the blonde girl were both hot, but she didn't take Ezekiel for that sort of guy. Shirtless blonde guy maybe, but Ezekiel definitely didn't seem like that sort of guy. Making a mental note to try and remember people's names, she released Ezekiel and moved away, forgetting all about the mental note in the process. Izzy stayed squinting intensely for a few more seconds, before shrugging and releasing Ezekiel as well, unintentionally causing him to lose his balance and fall over again.
"Hm, guess yer's jis' tired then." Shannon concluded. Ezekiel nodded from the floor, and began picking himself up
"Uh, yup, that's it, eh." Shannon's visible eyebrow raised again, but she shrugged and plonked herself down on the ground again, as Izzy began scurrying up the sky log again.
"Jis' try not tae fall asleep" she smiled and gestured to Izzy "Need someain around tae remind me not a'body here's a complete loon"
"I'll do my best." Ezekiel turned to give one last look back, before settling back in for another wild story, quietly hoping that the strange tugging feeling he got in his stomach whenever he looked at that beautiful blonde girl was just a side effect of Chef's awful cooking.
21:43:22
"And at last, Courtney finally falls asleep, the exhaustion of the past day finally taking its toll upon her. For once, she seems at peace, free at last from the burdens of self-imposed leadership, from the stress of high expectations. For now, she is free to just lie there and dream. One wonders what such a person dreams of, what pleasant thoughts can unwind such a highly strung girl. Does she dream of met expectations, or of finally rebelling from such rigid structures; does she dream of freedom, or of fulfilment? It's impossible to-"
"Adam, what are you doing?"
Adam paused mid-monologue at Noah's interruption, mouth still open mid-word.
"Was I doing that out loud?" he asked after several seconds of silence.
"If you're referring to the flowery analytical narration, yes."
Adam clamped his mouth shut, his face going red.
"I liked it" chimed in Cody from between the two of them. He thought for a moment, then an eager grin came to his face "Hey, could you do Gwen next?"
Adam looked confused. "Um… why?"
"Well, you seem pretty good at learning how people think," at this, Adam gave a conciliatory tilt of the head, "I was just thinking, getting a bit of insider knowledge, as it were, could be useful"
"I'm pretty sure at this point you've struck out at least twice" cut in Noah. Cody waved him off without even looking
"Ignore him, he's just jealous."
"Of what, your comedic value?" Noah shot back. Cody actually turned around for that one.
"C'mon man, why'd you have to be so negative?" he asked. Noah looked at him like he was stupid.
"I'm being realistic, and you're being delusional."
Cody didn't respond to Noah, but he did lean over to Adam and stage whisper "He's jealous"
As Noah buried his head in his hands and groaned in frustration, Adam looked at Cody curiously.
"He is?" he asked "He doesn't look jealous. More… fed up. And worryingly still"
"What?" Cody turned back to Noah, and sure enough, the bookworm had yet to remove his head from his hands, and was indeed sitting uncannily still. With a slow creaking noise, Noah toppled over forwards and landed on the ground, not even grunting in pain.
"Is he okay?" asked Adam. Cody leant forwards to check, but before he even left sitting position the sound of snoring began emanating from Noah's prone form. Cody leant back, sighing to himself.
"Another one bites the dust I guess" he said. From in front of the two boys, way off in the distance, the first streak of orange sliced through the sky, as the sun slowly began its long crawl up from beneath the horizon.
A new day had finally dawned on the 18 campers still standing, and only time would tell who would be awake to see its end.
I'm not dead, and neither is this trainwreck!
So ends part 1 of the Awake-A-Thon. Yep, part 1, because this is already the longest chapter so far and it's only been a day. A few plot points have been set up, and Adam finally does something other than stutter a lot and swallow fish.
The sharp-eyed among you may have noticed me changing the order of events around a bit, and some that haven't occured at all, and the reason for this is threefold: 1) I feel like having absolutely nothing happening in the first twelve hours is dumb. 2) It breaks up my deranged ramblings with bits of canon, which is always good to have. And 3), I AM A GOD IN THIS REALM AND THE LAWS OF TIME WILL OBEY ME.
Ahem
This is probably the chapter I'm proudest of, and also the one that was hardest to write (funny how that works). Prior chapters had some editing errors, or I left in what I call "placeholder dialogue", which is dialogue that sucks, but gets the point of what's meant to happen in the scene across for me to come back and edit later. The most egregious example of this is the bit between Shannon and Eva, because that just did not flow well at all for me.
And yes, I know the bit between Bridgette and Geoff is as cheesy rom-com as it gets, but I was both out of ideas and also have friends who are currently dating who literally met with the whole "lending coats in the rain" cliche, so I'm going with it.
So yeah, leave a review, say what you liked, what you didn't, any advice, seriously I need that this is my first time doing anything like this, or just call me an infidel and declare a crusade against my bloodline. Follow this if you want to know when the next chapter will come out without consulting lunar charts for blue moons, and favourite if you like this that much, can't think why, but people like weird things.
See ya next time or something, unless we all die over the course of this apocalpyse we're all trapped in.