Too hot. Well, that was always the case, but Alex chose to recognize this
factor for the time being. It was the only thing she found worth focusing
on while riding this rickety bus against her will. She wasn't fond of
change, and here she was, leaving what had been home for the last half year
or so. She wasn't even sure how long it'd been really. Nor did she care.
All the other girls of D-Tent remained respectively quiet. Each of the seven had been lost in their own thoughts and ideas for the past ten minutes or so of the half hour ride to their male counterpart, Camp Green Lake. Unable to see through the dusty windows, and not even paying attention to the relation of speed between her and the bus, it came as a great surprise when the guard ordered them to stand up and move out in a single file. Sierra, their now former counselor, brought up the rear. She'd agreed to accompany them to their new "camp", out of pity.
The majority of the guys were still out on the lake, digging their holes. And the ones who weren't were either resting in their tents or the Wreck Room, so the only glimpse any camper got of them so far was their yellow bus rolling by. Seeing as they already knew everything about Camp Green Lake, because it was basically the same as Camp Squirrel but for boys, the seven were given the grace of not having to listen to Mr. Sir's pep talk.
Shortly after getting their new, bright orange uniforms and new, brown boots, sarcasm intended, and they'd said their good-bye's to Miss Sierra, the boys of Camp Green Lake began to return from digging holes. They were greeted by the sight of five different tent groups of girls racing about, trying to get settled, except for D-Tent who had arrived first and was already in their tent. They did not have to share one with the boys, exactly, because of the lack of space, but it was directly connected to theirs with only a door flap to separate them. A short man wearing a green coat and khaki hat burst in, frightening half of them.
"Hello and welcome to Camp Green Lake! I'm your new counselor, Dr. Pendanski. Have any questions, and you may ask myself or any of your fellow D-Tent comrades, who seem to be arriving right about now! Follow me and ya'll can meet each other."
The girls looked about at each other stupidly for a moment before blindly following the frightening man out of sheer confusion. Their brains had been rattled by his quick entrance, rapid speech, and quick exit. They were introduced to the sight of two sweating boys that stood with looks on their faces, just as dumbfounded as their own, and a small kid that lay on a cot in the corner looking at them with small curiosity. Dr. Pendanski began his rapid talking again.
"Girls, these are Ricky and Rex," he commented, pointing to each one in turn. The black boy's blanched stare turned into a scowl directed at the counselor. "Oh, and Zero in the corner there. No need to say anything just yet. I suppose we can wait for everyone to arrive until real introductions can be made."
The wait was not long, and as the other four boys entered the tent their faces were just the same as the other two's had been. "Okay now! Boys, these are your new tent mates. Before you go off with your silly little names.." He proceeded to name off the last four. "Jose, Alan, Theodore, and Stanley."
One of the first boys they'd seen, the black kid with dirty glasses, immediately turned to correct this introduction. "This is how it really is. I'm X-Ray. This is Zig Zag, Magnet, Squid, Armpit, and Caveman." It did not go unnoticed by a few of them that Zero's name must be his nickname, rather than birth name. "And this is Mom," he added, pointing to Dr. Pendanski. As usual, Alexandria figured, Kita stepped up first.
Her voice was sharp and cold, like the sting of metal against your skin. "I'm Kita Macaby." Short statement, powerful impact. Her long brown hair swished when she flicked her head to get it away from her eyes, revealing the diamond stud in her nose and in talking, revealed the sapphire ball on top of her tongue.
Following up her best friend, Alexandria spoke up. "Alexandria Cobb, Alex if you like." Her voice was a bit more pleasant to the ears, with a heavy southern accent, but not nearly as dramatic. She heard someone whisper, "I like," but she chose to overlook the comment for the time being.
"Riku Hall." The short reply came from a girl that stood to the side with her arms crossed and a look about her as if being here with these people was more lethal to her than a pit of Yellow Spotted Lizards. But her tone of voice was merely bored, not haughty.
"I'm Cerra Eaton. It's nice to meet ya." She giggled breathlessly and stuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Her green eyes sparkled ditzily and her bright smile gleamed perfectly. One or two of the girls rolled their eyes, but said nothing.
"Name's Chelsie Perez." While the girl was clearly half Mexican, her voice didn't give it away. It remained in a monotone tone, clearly revealing her discomfort. Cerra moved beside her, putting a comforting hand on her arm. Chelsie feigned her a smile, one that Alex caught and nearly choked on laughter at.
"Laura Stewart." Her voice was bright and relaxed, but the girl wasn't all that appealing as a person. Not to say she wasn't pretty, that was far from the truth, but she looked like she was hiding something and that aroused distrust amongst the other girls.
"I'm Kiora...Colby!" She added quickly in a frightened voice. Her pith black, wavy locks hid her dark features. Her, unlike many African American's of her time, was natural, without any perm of any sort added to it.
"Mom" grinned widely. "Nice to meet all of you. Now that names have been exchanged, I'll leave you to get to know each other. The Warden has decided that no camp member is allowed to leave their tent for the next hour without excuse. This way, you may interact without pressure of whether or not you should stay, because its required. Have fun!" And with that, he disappeared.
The fourteen D-Tent members were left to stare at each other. Guys on one side, girls on the other. After a few whole minutes of silence, Alex turned and retreated to the safety of the female's tent. Kita followed, and soon every girl had turned their backs on the guys, who only looked on in stunned silence.
"Dude, there are girls...right next door to us."
"I know."
"Whoa."
Their conversation was based mainly on this for the next ten minutes, as was some of the girls' about them. Finally, after the initial shock began to fade, they regrouped in the guys' tent to finish out the next fifty minutes.
At first, the topics were light in order to get through the usual "polite topics", before the girls began to warm up to their new environment and the guys. They felt safe enough to stretch rest on the boys' cots, and finally the expected questions aroused.
"So," X-Ray began, taking it in as his duty to ask because of his position, "why are ya'll here?"
"Why are we here, as in at Camp Green Lake, or why are we here, as in what crimes did we commit?" Kita, unofficial leader of her own tent, spoke up when no one else did.
"Crimes."
"Well, me and Alex here, well, eh.." Kita stopped short, giving her a sideways glance. Alexandria cleared her throat hesitantly, a sign for her to continue. "Alex threatened her mom with a knife, ran to my house, and when the police were called on her they came to my house. See now, we were there to discuss plans on how to get rid of Alex's mom, here, and the police found evidence of that. Sent us here on attempted murder and, for Alex, curable insanity. Funny reasons, I think."
"Kill yer mom? Now why'd ya wanna do that?" Alex glanced to the left at a boy with a toothpick in his mouth. She stared unsurely for a moment and sharpened her words defensively.
"I've got ma reasons, so don't get all like that on me. She was screamin' and hollerin' at me, and I was just plain sick of it. She's the insane one, I say. Didn't do nuttin wrong. Won't say I didn't deserve it, but I hadn't done nuttin to get that sorta reaction."
Either he accepted the reasoning or had no further comment, because the boy she remembered as Squid didn't press her for more details. Two of the girls, Kiora and Chelsie, refused to answer X-Rays question on account of not being comfortable with that information yet, and the other girls didn't tell for them.
"Basically, my grandparents couldn't control me and I got sent here on basis of being in need of 'sever anger management'." Cerra rolled her eyes angrily and didn't say another word on the subject.
"I shot a dude." The guys looked at Laura curiously, and she continued to explain. "Well, he deserved it! Came after me with a gun. So what was I supposed to do? But because of the distance between myself and the guy, they charged me with aggravated assault. Brought the charges down a lil' lower cuz of my age."
"Which would be...?" Magnet questioned.
"Fifteen."
"Well, how old are the rest of you?" They answered it shortly in turn. Chelsie and Kita were the oldest at seventeen, and Kiora the youngest at fourteen. Laura and Cerra were both fifteen, leaving Alex and Riku at sixteen. After this newly released info, the room fell quiet when no one could think of anything to else to talk about. X-Ray broke the silence again.
"We can go to the Wreck Room when our hour is up, but it's just barely half over for now." The others agreed unenthusiastically to the idea, but thought it was best because of their situation. During this time at which they rested their voices, a breathy sound came from the corner.
"Awww..." Cerra started to squeal, but Riku clamped her hand over her mouth and gave a silencing glare which she submitted to. Kiora was breathing deeply in her sleep on Caveman's cot. Kita gestured the rest of D-Tent into the girl's camp so they wouldn't wake her.
The fiery redhead, not able to keep her mouth shut for long, began bouncing up and down even while her bottom was still amazingly attached to her star sheet covered cot. "Come on, we gotta do something! I'm bored. Oh! I know!" She raced her nonexistent shadow to the battery-powered boom box hidden beneath Riku's bed, who let out of a shout of resentment, but calmed down upon realizing Cerra's intentions. She set in on the bed and hit play. Immediately came the sounds of Britney Spears. Chelsie raised her eyebrow at Riku, who blushed. "Well, ya'll were out and, erm, I was...bored."
"Uh uh."
Cerra immediately fixed the problem and soothed the girls' ears with the voice of Blink-182. She jumped up and grabbed Alex's hands, twirling her about in a slight dance move before she knew what was happening. Too stunned to think much about it, Alex regained her senses in the middle of a turn, which she followed out gracefully. The two giggles heartily at the situation and the looks on the boys' faces.
"Wonder what else they do together?" Zig Zag's hinting voice didn't go unnoticed by the sharp ears of Riku and Alex, who looked at each other and cracked up. Cerra and Chelsie grinned lightly as well. "What?" Zig Zag blinked in confusion. He'd rather expected them to be angry, not humored.
"Nothing," Alex waved it was just as such. No time for opening up just yet.
"Sure it's nothing," Squid put in. Alex only grinned madly.
The whole tent began to open up to each other, sharing jokes and laughing the whole time, but always wary of Kiora in the conjoining room. It seemed like only minutes before Mr. Pendanski came in through the guys' tent, smiling at them as if he cared. "Good to see that ya'll have gotten along so well! Doesn't seem like some other tents are having such luck. Well, just here to tell you all that you are now allowed to leave the tent. If you wish." And leave he did.
"Well, who's coming to the Wreck Room?" The girls immediately began to protest.
"Need to do more unpacking."
"Need to get settled in."
"I'm too tired."
"Maybe later."
Looking a bit rejected, the guys of D-Tent left the girls to themselves. It was then that Alex realized, 'Maybe it won't be so bad here.'
All the other girls of D-Tent remained respectively quiet. Each of the seven had been lost in their own thoughts and ideas for the past ten minutes or so of the half hour ride to their male counterpart, Camp Green Lake. Unable to see through the dusty windows, and not even paying attention to the relation of speed between her and the bus, it came as a great surprise when the guard ordered them to stand up and move out in a single file. Sierra, their now former counselor, brought up the rear. She'd agreed to accompany them to their new "camp", out of pity.
The majority of the guys were still out on the lake, digging their holes. And the ones who weren't were either resting in their tents or the Wreck Room, so the only glimpse any camper got of them so far was their yellow bus rolling by. Seeing as they already knew everything about Camp Green Lake, because it was basically the same as Camp Squirrel but for boys, the seven were given the grace of not having to listen to Mr. Sir's pep talk.
Shortly after getting their new, bright orange uniforms and new, brown boots, sarcasm intended, and they'd said their good-bye's to Miss Sierra, the boys of Camp Green Lake began to return from digging holes. They were greeted by the sight of five different tent groups of girls racing about, trying to get settled, except for D-Tent who had arrived first and was already in their tent. They did not have to share one with the boys, exactly, because of the lack of space, but it was directly connected to theirs with only a door flap to separate them. A short man wearing a green coat and khaki hat burst in, frightening half of them.
"Hello and welcome to Camp Green Lake! I'm your new counselor, Dr. Pendanski. Have any questions, and you may ask myself or any of your fellow D-Tent comrades, who seem to be arriving right about now! Follow me and ya'll can meet each other."
The girls looked about at each other stupidly for a moment before blindly following the frightening man out of sheer confusion. Their brains had been rattled by his quick entrance, rapid speech, and quick exit. They were introduced to the sight of two sweating boys that stood with looks on their faces, just as dumbfounded as their own, and a small kid that lay on a cot in the corner looking at them with small curiosity. Dr. Pendanski began his rapid talking again.
"Girls, these are Ricky and Rex," he commented, pointing to each one in turn. The black boy's blanched stare turned into a scowl directed at the counselor. "Oh, and Zero in the corner there. No need to say anything just yet. I suppose we can wait for everyone to arrive until real introductions can be made."
The wait was not long, and as the other four boys entered the tent their faces were just the same as the other two's had been. "Okay now! Boys, these are your new tent mates. Before you go off with your silly little names.." He proceeded to name off the last four. "Jose, Alan, Theodore, and Stanley."
One of the first boys they'd seen, the black kid with dirty glasses, immediately turned to correct this introduction. "This is how it really is. I'm X-Ray. This is Zig Zag, Magnet, Squid, Armpit, and Caveman." It did not go unnoticed by a few of them that Zero's name must be his nickname, rather than birth name. "And this is Mom," he added, pointing to Dr. Pendanski. As usual, Alexandria figured, Kita stepped up first.
Her voice was sharp and cold, like the sting of metal against your skin. "I'm Kita Macaby." Short statement, powerful impact. Her long brown hair swished when she flicked her head to get it away from her eyes, revealing the diamond stud in her nose and in talking, revealed the sapphire ball on top of her tongue.
Following up her best friend, Alexandria spoke up. "Alexandria Cobb, Alex if you like." Her voice was a bit more pleasant to the ears, with a heavy southern accent, but not nearly as dramatic. She heard someone whisper, "I like," but she chose to overlook the comment for the time being.
"Riku Hall." The short reply came from a girl that stood to the side with her arms crossed and a look about her as if being here with these people was more lethal to her than a pit of Yellow Spotted Lizards. But her tone of voice was merely bored, not haughty.
"I'm Cerra Eaton. It's nice to meet ya." She giggled breathlessly and stuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. Her green eyes sparkled ditzily and her bright smile gleamed perfectly. One or two of the girls rolled their eyes, but said nothing.
"Name's Chelsie Perez." While the girl was clearly half Mexican, her voice didn't give it away. It remained in a monotone tone, clearly revealing her discomfort. Cerra moved beside her, putting a comforting hand on her arm. Chelsie feigned her a smile, one that Alex caught and nearly choked on laughter at.
"Laura Stewart." Her voice was bright and relaxed, but the girl wasn't all that appealing as a person. Not to say she wasn't pretty, that was far from the truth, but she looked like she was hiding something and that aroused distrust amongst the other girls.
"I'm Kiora...Colby!" She added quickly in a frightened voice. Her pith black, wavy locks hid her dark features. Her, unlike many African American's of her time, was natural, without any perm of any sort added to it.
"Mom" grinned widely. "Nice to meet all of you. Now that names have been exchanged, I'll leave you to get to know each other. The Warden has decided that no camp member is allowed to leave their tent for the next hour without excuse. This way, you may interact without pressure of whether or not you should stay, because its required. Have fun!" And with that, he disappeared.
The fourteen D-Tent members were left to stare at each other. Guys on one side, girls on the other. After a few whole minutes of silence, Alex turned and retreated to the safety of the female's tent. Kita followed, and soon every girl had turned their backs on the guys, who only looked on in stunned silence.
"Dude, there are girls...right next door to us."
"I know."
"Whoa."
Their conversation was based mainly on this for the next ten minutes, as was some of the girls' about them. Finally, after the initial shock began to fade, they regrouped in the guys' tent to finish out the next fifty minutes.
At first, the topics were light in order to get through the usual "polite topics", before the girls began to warm up to their new environment and the guys. They felt safe enough to stretch rest on the boys' cots, and finally the expected questions aroused.
"So," X-Ray began, taking it in as his duty to ask because of his position, "why are ya'll here?"
"Why are we here, as in at Camp Green Lake, or why are we here, as in what crimes did we commit?" Kita, unofficial leader of her own tent, spoke up when no one else did.
"Crimes."
"Well, me and Alex here, well, eh.." Kita stopped short, giving her a sideways glance. Alexandria cleared her throat hesitantly, a sign for her to continue. "Alex threatened her mom with a knife, ran to my house, and when the police were called on her they came to my house. See now, we were there to discuss plans on how to get rid of Alex's mom, here, and the police found evidence of that. Sent us here on attempted murder and, for Alex, curable insanity. Funny reasons, I think."
"Kill yer mom? Now why'd ya wanna do that?" Alex glanced to the left at a boy with a toothpick in his mouth. She stared unsurely for a moment and sharpened her words defensively.
"I've got ma reasons, so don't get all like that on me. She was screamin' and hollerin' at me, and I was just plain sick of it. She's the insane one, I say. Didn't do nuttin wrong. Won't say I didn't deserve it, but I hadn't done nuttin to get that sorta reaction."
Either he accepted the reasoning or had no further comment, because the boy she remembered as Squid didn't press her for more details. Two of the girls, Kiora and Chelsie, refused to answer X-Rays question on account of not being comfortable with that information yet, and the other girls didn't tell for them.
"Basically, my grandparents couldn't control me and I got sent here on basis of being in need of 'sever anger management'." Cerra rolled her eyes angrily and didn't say another word on the subject.
"I shot a dude." The guys looked at Laura curiously, and she continued to explain. "Well, he deserved it! Came after me with a gun. So what was I supposed to do? But because of the distance between myself and the guy, they charged me with aggravated assault. Brought the charges down a lil' lower cuz of my age."
"Which would be...?" Magnet questioned.
"Fifteen."
"Well, how old are the rest of you?" They answered it shortly in turn. Chelsie and Kita were the oldest at seventeen, and Kiora the youngest at fourteen. Laura and Cerra were both fifteen, leaving Alex and Riku at sixteen. After this newly released info, the room fell quiet when no one could think of anything to else to talk about. X-Ray broke the silence again.
"We can go to the Wreck Room when our hour is up, but it's just barely half over for now." The others agreed unenthusiastically to the idea, but thought it was best because of their situation. During this time at which they rested their voices, a breathy sound came from the corner.
"Awww..." Cerra started to squeal, but Riku clamped her hand over her mouth and gave a silencing glare which she submitted to. Kiora was breathing deeply in her sleep on Caveman's cot. Kita gestured the rest of D-Tent into the girl's camp so they wouldn't wake her.
The fiery redhead, not able to keep her mouth shut for long, began bouncing up and down even while her bottom was still amazingly attached to her star sheet covered cot. "Come on, we gotta do something! I'm bored. Oh! I know!" She raced her nonexistent shadow to the battery-powered boom box hidden beneath Riku's bed, who let out of a shout of resentment, but calmed down upon realizing Cerra's intentions. She set in on the bed and hit play. Immediately came the sounds of Britney Spears. Chelsie raised her eyebrow at Riku, who blushed. "Well, ya'll were out and, erm, I was...bored."
"Uh uh."
Cerra immediately fixed the problem and soothed the girls' ears with the voice of Blink-182. She jumped up and grabbed Alex's hands, twirling her about in a slight dance move before she knew what was happening. Too stunned to think much about it, Alex regained her senses in the middle of a turn, which she followed out gracefully. The two giggles heartily at the situation and the looks on the boys' faces.
"Wonder what else they do together?" Zig Zag's hinting voice didn't go unnoticed by the sharp ears of Riku and Alex, who looked at each other and cracked up. Cerra and Chelsie grinned lightly as well. "What?" Zig Zag blinked in confusion. He'd rather expected them to be angry, not humored.
"Nothing," Alex waved it was just as such. No time for opening up just yet.
"Sure it's nothing," Squid put in. Alex only grinned madly.
The whole tent began to open up to each other, sharing jokes and laughing the whole time, but always wary of Kiora in the conjoining room. It seemed like only minutes before Mr. Pendanski came in through the guys' tent, smiling at them as if he cared. "Good to see that ya'll have gotten along so well! Doesn't seem like some other tents are having such luck. Well, just here to tell you all that you are now allowed to leave the tent. If you wish." And leave he did.
"Well, who's coming to the Wreck Room?" The girls immediately began to protest.
"Need to do more unpacking."
"Need to get settled in."
"I'm too tired."
"Maybe later."
Looking a bit rejected, the guys of D-Tent left the girls to themselves. It was then that Alex realized, 'Maybe it won't be so bad here.'