Disclaimer: I don't own any of this and I ain't getting paid for it, so suck it up and deal. Oh, except for I own myself and my stuff and the ideas… and I own Christine and Luthien too, because they said I could own them. :-D *does dance * I own two people.. I own two people. Okay, I'm done now. ^_^
Chapter 18: A special practice, a water balloon and a sweet scene
Wednesday Afternoon
Since Spot hardly ever danced, he was walking along the paths of camp. Of course he would have to go back soon, but at the moment he was content with walking. It gave him something to do other than stare at Race while he danced. Race looked good when he danced. Spot was mad at Race. He didn't want to be fighting himself to not jump on Race when he was trying to glare.
Somehow, walking always calmed Spot. He was used to walking the streets of Brooklyn as he sold his papes. This reminded him of Brooklyn and New York, and the way that things used to be. Spot picked up his pace. He would have to be back soon.
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Blink stood by Jack, who had a cigarette in his mouth, wondering what they were going to do for the night. In what was a highly improbable scene at Medda's stage, the boys were missing one very important thing. Medda.
"So what are we gonna do for tonight, Jack?" Mush asked.
"I dunno."
"Clear out! Let him think. Give him space!" Les shooed the other boys away and sat down next to one of his many role models. Race looked around impatiently.
"So Jack, ya done thinkin'?" Race asked. Les smacked the older boy with his hat. Race fluffed the kid's hair and left Jack to find Spot.
"Well, dis camp… it's fulla fan goirls, right?"
"Yeah," Mush agreed. He did not know where Jack could possibly be going with this line of conversation.
"Well, fan goirls… dey usually know everythin' about a show, right?"
"Yeah," several boys agreed.
"So, all we gotta do is find a goirl dat knows da part a Medda." Jack looked up, apparently pleased with himself for finding such a simple solution.
"Da biggest fan goirls in camp are Artemis, Gryffin an' Nike," Skittery said, lifting his head from his chest where he had been resting. Kid Blink made a snorting noise in his throat.
"Gryffin wouldn' help us if we was da last guys in da woirld right now."
"Be nice, you," Race snapped at him as he returned, still Spotless. Blink shot Race an angry look.
"She shoah as hell ain't gonna play Medda for us tonight."
"Fine, guys, we won' ask Gryffin ta do it," Jack interrupted, fearing another near-fight between Spot and Blink. "Den dat jus' leaves Artemis an' Nike. Which one are we gonna ask foirst?"
The boys looked around at each other. Storm, who happened to be leading the horse trail that ran behind the amphitheatre, heard their conversation and called to the boys from her horse.
"Have any of you ever seen Nike play Medda before?" she asked them.
"No," was the general reply.
"You should ask her. She's really good. Artemis is a great performer too, but Nike… she's got Medda nailed. It's quite amusing."
The boys nodded, taking Storm's words into consideration. None of them had ever seen Nike perform before, but they were willing to take the other staff member's word for it. It was known in camp that Nike often got up and danced as Medda when one of her songs came on.
"Okay den, dat's settled. Dave! Wheah's Dave?" Jack asked, looking around. David laid a hand on Jack's shoulder, since he had been standing behind Jack since the conversation started. "Oh, Davey! You'se gotta go ask Nike ta sing for us. Can ya go ask her now?"
Dave rolled his eyes. "Are you aware of the fact that she hates me?"
"No, I ain't. And you're not getting' outta it. Tink a it dis way. At camp, Orchard is ta da rest a da camp what Brooklyn is ta da rest a da Newsies. Jus act like you'se talkin' ta Spot."
"Spot doesn't look like he can beat me up and drown me in the Connie," Dave muttered under his breath.
"What was dat Dave?" Jack asked
"I said I'm goin'. Come on Les. She seems to have this thing for kids."
Davey walked off up the hill toward the rest of camp. Blink fidgeted with his vest, wrestling with his idea.
"Hey guys, I gotta favor ta ask you'se." Mush smiled. He was glad that he was not the only Newsie that Blink was going to get roped into this. "Have any of you ever seen dat movie, Top Gun?"
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After lunch, Gryffin had some time off. She was waiting for Willow to come by, since she planned on spending the time with her 'sister.' This week, Gryffin, Hermione, and Willow were telling the campers that they were sisters, that these were their real names, and that their parents were Sydney and Justin Wolfe, descendants of Diego Wolfe, who happened to be a vampire in Willow's book. They left the vampire part out.
Blink walked out of the dining hall with Itey. He smiled slightly at Gryffin as he passed her. She turned her head away.
"Hey! You'se kids!" the boys yelled as they stepped off of the ramp. "You'se want to go play some games? Come on!"
The campers rushed around Blink and Itey, following them down to the games field. Maddie was barely a step behind Blink, and she was obviously not letting any of the other campers closer.
"So, Itey," Blink started, "Do you'se know how ta play any a dese games?"
"No. Don't you?"
"No. All da games I learned have ta do with gambling, cards or dice." The boys lapsed into silence as they reached the field. Itey looked up, smirking.
"I'se got a game. Hey goirls, listen up! Foirst, make a pathway here… dere ya go. Now, da game's easy. Da foirst one ta catch Blink wins. On ya mark…" Blink shot Itey a deadly glare. "Get set…" Now was not the time for glares though, and Blink took off running out of the crowd of girls. "GO!"
The girls chased him around the little field. It did not take long for them to catch him, since there were so many children in such a small place. The Newsie shot a look that promised death to Itey as the youngest girls grabbed onto his arms and jumped on his back. He was slowly drug to the ground, yelling all the way. The munchkins piled on top of him. Someone got the brilliant idea of starting to tickle Blink. His laughter sounded out between his shouts.
"Hey! GIRLS! hahaha! Stop! New Game! Get Itey!"
Gryffin smiled as about half of the girls ran toward the other boy. Many of them did not want to give up the prey that they had already caught. They squealed with delight as Blink started tickling them back as he tried to get up. He really was good with them, and it was sweet to watch him play with the kids. Gryffin sighed. What had she done to this poor boy again?
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Gryffin sighed as she sat down next to Willow by the pool bathrooms. It had been a cool day, and both of the staff members were still wearing jeans and sweatshirts. Even though it was only a little over sixty degrees out, Gabby still had the campers running around in their bathing suits and playing with water balloons at Sports and Games. Gryffin was supposed to be helping Sky to foot the bran, but Sky had said that she did not really need the help so Gryffin decided to stick around on No Sock Island simply because she did not feel like speaking to any large group of people. Willow sat in a folding chair that Gabby brought from her car. The two listened vaguely as Gabby explained the rules of the games to the campers, being careful to include the rule that said you were not allowed to get the staff wet.
Since Gryffin was not exactly in much of a mood to talk, both she and Willow took out their notebooks. Willow was working on her vampire novel called Among the Sheep, and Gryffin was working on the first fanfiction for Willow's unpublished book. Willow was not sure weather to be happy or offended, since the story that Gryffin was working on was slash between two of the best characters in the book. In Gryffin's eyes, Willow had asked for the story to be written. She left on male character named Nicolao saying, "Come inside, Merrick," to another vampire, and closed the scene. That was an invitation for a fanfiction.
The girls played on, bouncing the balloons into the air with their sheets. Gabby came over to talk to the two. Gryffin half-listened as she wrote. Every so often, Willow would come back with some snide remark that was usually degrading to Gabby's character, and Gabby would laugh. It rather annoyed Gryffin that Willow would say such things to such a nice lady who was old enough to be one of their mothers, but since Gabby didn't seem to mind Gryffin kept her mouth shut.
SPLASH!
For the second time that day, Gryffin's sweatshirt and jeans were soaked. She looked up icily in the direction the water balloon had come from. Vash, the hairy, disgusting pig, was standing there in nothing but his ugly red swim trunks laughing at his joke. Gryffin did not see the humor. Willow, who had been sitting in the chair, only got her butt and the very bottoms of her pant legs wet. Gryffin was not even mad about the sweatshirt or the pants though. She was completely pissed that Vash had just soaked her notebook, which held everything that she had written since about January. Willow had just closed her binder, so it was not such a big deal.
"I told you I'd get you back," Vash said to Willow, still chuckling. Gryffin stood up and walked toward the oversized boy.
"You are such a JERK!" she yelled, pushing his chest. "Look at my notebook! Look at it! This notebook has my entire life in it. The stuff in here can never be replaced, no matter how hard I try to remember the exact wording and phrases. You! You ruined it with your stupid freaking WATER BALLOON!" Gryffin stamped the ground. It was all she could do not to slap him right across the face. Willow held her tongue for once, letting Gryffin get her yelling out of her system first, since Gryffin hadn't had anything to do with the water balloon that Willow had rolled over the roof of the bathroom and onto Vash's head. "I freaking HATE you, you… AHHHHH! And believe me, I do not hate many people, but right now, I wouldn't care if you jumped off the bridge."
Gryffin dropped herself back to the ground. She picked up her notebook and started to smooth out the pages, hoping to salvage some of it. This notebook was filled with the all of the fanfictions and the original fiction that she had been working on for the last year. Now, it was ruined. Vash made a face behind her back and walked back into the pool through the back gate. Spot continued walking to the amphitheatre from where he had stopped to witness the yelling on the road. Nobody noticed that he was there. Willow got up and walked into the pool gates. Gryffin could hear her muffled words from the other side of the building, but she had no interest in what her friend was saying. She took a deep breath and sighed.
"Why," she wondered as she let her head drop against the cool concrete blocks. "Must it always pour when it has to rain?" As if on cue, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky. This day just kept getting better and better.
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"Alright guys," Blink said, pushing in the movie. "Jus' watch dis, an' den I'll tell yas what I want yas ta do."
The boys had moved into the staff house. They had agreed to help Blink, since it was not in the nature of a Newsie to turn down a friend when he asked for help. Just when they were finishing, Davey returned with Nike.
"So," she said, getting right to business. "What do you want me ta do?"
"You're going to do it?" Jack asked skeptically.
"Yeah. If I wasn't going to do it, would I be sitting here?"
"Okay then. Da foirst thing we gotta do is find you'se a dress."
Nike looked at Jack like he was nuts. Put Nike in a dress? He obviously did not know whom he was speaking to.
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An hour later, Gryffin was walking back to the barn to pick up her campers. Blink was already there with Sky and Skittery. He was chatting with Boots. Luna handed him a CD, and he slid it into the pocket of his pants.
"Hey Gryff!" Storm called from the tack room. "Look what I got from my secret pal."
Gryffin walked toward Storm, careful to keep her face blank. She knew full well what Storm had, simply because she WAS Storm's secret pal.
"What did you get?" she asked curiously.
"DUCT TAPE! Blue, silver and red." Storm replied, absolutely grinning.
"Awesome," Gryffin said with a chuckle. "You can never have enough duct tape."
"I want to play with it," Storm said, ripping open the silver package. If she was not going to make anything worth keeping, then it was best to waste the silver stuff, simply because it was cheaper and more common.
"What are you going to do?"
"I don't know…" Storm looked around the barn, looking for something to duct tape. "Hey Boots! Come here!"
Storm started walking toward Boots with a rather large and silly grin on her face. "Do you want to play a game?"
"Okay Storm. How do you play?"
"First, give me your hands." Boots stuck out his hands, and Storm quickly started to wrap them in the duct tape before he could change his mind.
"What are you doing!?!" he yelled.
"Hold still. This won't hurt a bit." Boots did anything but hold still. Blink backed away, slightly frightened of the barn staff at the moment. Luna, on the other hand, walked over to Storm and began to help her hold on to Boots.
"What are we doing with him, Stormy?" Luna asked, holding Boots' shoulders so that he could not run away.
"You'll see," Storm replied as she finished his hands. She took the tape to his ankles instead. "Here, back him up against this post."
The girls proceeded to tape Boots to the wooden post in the barn with his hands above his head. The boy yelled in protest.
"Hey! Stop! Lemme go! What are you doin' ta me! Blink! Help me Blink!" Seeing that Kid Blink had no intention of moving to separate the crazy girls from their fun, Boots picked a new subject. "JACK! JACK! Where are you!?! Help me!"
Storm pulled a feather from Luna's cowboy hat that was in the tack room as Luna finished taping Boots' to the pole. Angel, who had come in regards to Boots' shouts, realized what Storm planned to do and unbuttoned the boy's shirt.
"Awe, come on guys. Don't do this… no… stop!" Storm took the feather and ran it up Boots' side. He started cackling. Gryffin laughed as she shooed the last of her campers out of the barn. It was the first time she had truly laughed all day.
"And that, kids, is why you never give barn staff duct tape."
End Eighteen
A/N: Sorry it took so long guys, I kept having to do things with my family and such and I just did not have any time at my computer. Hope you enjoy, and nineteen will be up tomorrow! ^_~ Luv ya all!
Shoutouts!
Shot: Artemis is going to start getting mad… she's never first anymore. You always beat her. ^_^ Well, a lot of others beat her too, but you have been first for a while. WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO RACE!?! Wait… I really don't want to know… I sent him to you, so have fun. XD I go to West Virginia University. I have no idea where Kean is… and I will IM you sometime to chat. ^_^ Thanks for readin'!
Kristan: Naked pics of Christian Bale lying on a beach? What? Someone's going to have to fork over the link to THAT. I'm not sure about getting involved in a Newsies RPG… I don't know… maybe, but I don't think that I like the idea much. Oh, and just wondering… why don't you ever sign in when you review? You could know when I update quicker that way. (plus I like signed reviews ^_^) Luv ya hon!
Cassie: hehe you've gotta love Top Gun. Wonderful, wonderful movie, even if the guys are older than my mom now. Glad you enjoy!
Arty: I think I know all of what is going to happen between now and the end, both good and bad.
Maddie: Yeah, I like watching Spot and Race… they're funny, even though I can never make Spot turn out quite the way I want him to. He's surprisingly hard to write. Not ten things I hate about you… though that is a good movie. * WINK WINK TO ARTEMIS *
Chipper: I'm really glad that you said it wasn't a Mary-Sue… because frankly, I was worried that it was going to end up that way. Almost everyone else who reads this is my friend or camper, so I wasn't sure if they didn't think it was bad because it really wasn't, or because they knew the people and the places. I always LOVE new readers…so you get a strawberry covered Newsie cookie of your choice. ^_^ I like Race/Spot too. It's just so freakin' cute! Enjoy the rest!
Brownie: YAY! As I said to Chipper, I LOVE new readers, and you can have a Newsie cookie with M&M's and caramel on top. The boy is of your choosing. I liked Spot/Race in the beginning… but for some reason I don't like it as much now because I notice when I write, I keep writing Race with one of the girls at camp, and I have to totally re-write the piece. I don't know what I'm going to do with him… he's just too awesome of a character. Well, keep reading and enjoy!! ^_^