A/N: Sorry it took a bit longer for this chap.
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The foursome woke up bright and early, 7am, for breakfast in the cafeteria.
Ryan opened up the lodge door and stepped into the mess all. It was already pretty crowed with classmates, but he spotted a free table against the wall and directed his roomies over to it.
"So, after breakfast we go straight to the Nature walk." Marissa said after swallowing a mouthful of banana.
"Ew, more nature? I already got my fair share of nature on the walk over to this feeding stable." Summer whined before stealing the abandoned toast crust left on Seth's plate.
"Well maybe that's because it took us 10 minutes to get here when SOMEONE insisted on walking all the way around the cabins because of what looked like to be a snake."
"It was a snake Cohen!"
"Yea, the rare stick snake species is a true find I hear."
She shot him a glare and he clamped his mouth shut.
Ryan, who sat next to Marissa, grabbed the schedule of events and looked it over. Nature walk, that could be cool, he thought. "Yea, but the hike is only 45 minutes, then we have 2 hours of free time before rock climbing."
"No! My manicure." Summer mumbled to herself and inspected her newly painted nails.
Seth smiled, he found her ability to complain about everything adorable.
...
Seth looked around frantically when he heard her scream. He bounded down a small dirt slope and behind a clump of tall bushes to find Summer whimpering with her hands over her face.
He was about to ask what the hell was the matter when he saw the dead fox carcass. Seth cringed and turned away. It was broken and bloody, it looked as if it had been stabbed with something long and sharp several times, then had its insides ripped out.
A moment later Ryan and Marissa came running down the hill.
"Ugh." They both groaned and turned away quickly after they getting a glimpse of the disfigured animal.
Ranger Brad, who was leading them on the hike, showed up a second later, "Get away from it, could have rabies." He motioned for Summer to move away.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew." Summer bolted past him and behind Seth.
"What did that?" Marissa asked to no one in particular with a look of disgust.
"A bear?" Ryan offered.
"No, a bear wouldn't stab at an animal like that. What ever is responsible for this thing went on hacking away after the fox was already dead, then ripped the intestines right out..." Ranger Brad was completely fascinated.
The four teenagers just stared at him.
...
Summer sat on the front porch of the cabin, flipping through the newest Cosmo with Lindsay Lohen on the cover. She figured this was the best way to spend her few hours of free time before she was sent on another torturous excursion, like rock climbing, or fishing, or scalping! She was in the middle of an article when the door of the cabin opened and closed.
"Hey Sum." Seth greeted. Summer glanced up at him quickly then refocused her attention on her Cosmo.
"I'm gonna go see about taking a boat out on the lake for a bit, wanna-"
"No." She said without even looking up.
"It's a nice afternoon, I thought-"
"No."
Seth sighed, "Alright then, enjoy your day sitting on the porch doing the exact same thing you could be doing in Newport." He said dryly.
"And sailing isn't?"
Seth ignored her and thumped down the wooden steps onto the dirt walkway heading for the dock.
Summer's face fell. She was tired of going out of her way to be mean to him, and she was tired of seeing that 'my-puppy-just-got-ran-over' look he had been sporting these past few days. This was so stupid, she liked him, he liked her, why couldn't they just be together? She had been asking herself that sane question all week. Summer ran her hands across her face and closed the magazine.
Marissa and Ryan walked out the front door hand in hand.
"Oh, there you are. Ryan and I are gonna go for a walk, k?"
"Uh okay." Summer scowled as they walked away. What happened to Solidarity huh Coop? Just abandon Summer. Not like she is bored out of her mind or anything.
She sighed and reopened her magazine. A moment later she heard the crack of twigs. Her head popped up and searched the forest around her. Just trees, bushes, dirt, leaves, and other foresty things.
She ignored it and went back to her magazine. Then she heard it again, more footsteps. Summer stood up and walked to the opposite end of the porch. More rustling.
"Marissa? Ryan? Cohen!" She called, and the noise stopped for a moment.
It was quiet for a few seconds, then she heard it once more. Her pulse quickened. This time is was louder, the footsteps were heavy, not small like a forest animals have. It was shuffling around behind the cabin. Summer gathered all the nerve she had and moved down the wooden pouch steps. When she did so she heard the footsteps speed up and away. She walked along the side of the cabin, heading for the back. The footsteps started running now, running away, back into the woods.
Summer turned the corner to the back of the cabin, no one was there. She ran her hands though her hair and exhaled the breath she had been holding in. Must've been some stupid kid messing with her, or some idiot taking a leak behind her cabin.
She started to head back when her foot kicked something heavy, like a rock. She glanced down and her heart stopped. It wasn't a rock.
It was a two-foot shark hook. A pointy, heavy, rusty shark hook. Summer couldn't breath, all he color drained from her face.
She heard creak, it sounded like it was right behind her. Before she had a chance to think she bolted around the cabin. Summer never ran, not even when she had PE the year before, but today she did. In fact, she sprinted. She ran along the dirt path past the other lodges and down to the docks.
Seth had already untied his small boat and was about to push off when he heard her heavy sandals clomping along the dock.
He couldn't hide the large smile that spread across his lips the moment her saw her, "So you decided to join me after all?"
"Yea." She said out of breath and allowed him to help her into the boat.
Seth pushed away from the dock, started up the motor, and steered the boat towards the center of the lake.
He watched as Summer hugged herself and stared off into the distance with a somewhat troubled expression.
"What's wrong?"
She snapped around to face him, his voice startled her, she had forgotten he was even there. Summer debated whether or not to say anything, maybe he'd just think she was paranoid again. But this was weird, and she knew deep down that he wouldn't tease her, he'd listen. That's what she needed, someone to listen, because this was way too weird to keep to herself.
Seth cut the engine.
"Okay, so after Ryan and Marissa went to have wild monkey sex in the woods, I'm sitting on the porch when I start hearing footsteps coming from behind the cabin. So I walk over there, but the owner of the footsteps had already ran away."
"It was probably just a raccoon or something."
"No, they were definitely from something big, like a person."
"We'll it was probably a water polo jerk running around, trying to scare you."
"Yea that's what I thought... before I almost tripped on a big ass shark hook!"
Seth's eyes grew large.
"Freaky huh?"
Seth took a moment to gather his thoughts. "You sure it was a fish hook?" He asked sternly.
"No Cohen, it may have been a new shiny bike..."
Seth stared at her.
"Yea I'm sure." She rolled her eyes.
"Yesterday, right after we got off the bus, I started to wander around a bit and I met this guy, uh. John Crant. He's the caretaker, and he had this old shed. I didn't really get a good look, but I'm pretty sure that the things resting against it, where shark hooks."
The look of utter horror on Summer's face made him regret ever telling her. "But, uh, I'm sure that's just a coincidence..."
"What if there are sharks in this lake?" She looked around quickly, god she hated sharks. She's seen every Jaws movie about 5 times each.
"No, they're aren't any sharks." He learned forward and touched her knee.
His words didn't help, but the sound of his voice did. She nodded.
"Let's not jump to conclusions." He added.
"Right..."
The two of them rode around the lake for a while, bantering and joking, just being Seth and Summer. It had been almost an hour and a half, and they knew they only had 30 more minutes until "free time" was over so they decided to make a lap around the small area of the lake where they were permitted once more.
They rode along the shore laughing when they spotted two figures step out of the woods and onto the sand. Seth drove closer until they recognized the strays as Ryan and Marissa. They both looked out of breath and a little ruffled.
"What the hell happened to you two?" Summer asked as they slowed.
"Yea, didya have a run in with Smokey? I told you Ryan, 'Only you can prevent forest fires'. "Seth said in his best Smokey the Bear impression as he pulled the boat up to the sand.
"No, we were being chased." Marissa said and tried to flatten out her hair.
Seth and Summer exchange worried glances.
"Were their any shark hooks involved by any chance?" Seth tried to sound casual about it.
"Or psycho fishermen!" Summer added.
Ryan helped Marissa in the boat, then pushed it back into to he water before hopping in himself. Summer moved to the seat next to Seth.
"Yea, how'd you know?" Ryan asked.
Summer's jaw dropped.
"Well not the psycho fishermen part..." Marissa added.
"But, but, the fishhook?" Seth waited for an explanation as he steered the boat across the lake toward the dock.
"We were walking around when we started hearing stuff. At first we thought it was just some students, so we ignored it. But the person wasn't going away, it was getting annoying. So we decided to head back the way we came-"
"-and the direction of our stalker." Marissa finished. "Then we found this shark hook propped up against a tree trunk." She said and hugged Ryan's arm tighter.
"That's when we thought it'd be better to walk along the shore instead of the woods." Ryan continued.
Seth and Summer both shared their own fish hook horror tales with Ryan and Marissa as they made their way back to the dock.
...
After rock climbing with the rest of the Junior class, the foursome decided to stay in the rest of the night. They were all a little to freaked to do anything else, not that there was anything else to do anyway.
After chilling in the living room next to the fire in front of the TV for a few hours, they decided to hit the sack around 10. ...
Summer raced as quickly as her feet would carry her through the dark woods. Her heart was pounding and her tear stained cheeks were hot. She was growing tired, and out of breath. But she had to keep moving or else he would get her. She kept moving, faster, faster until her chest burned with every breath. She leaned against the trunk of a mossy tree to steady her breathing.
Everything was quiet, she couldn't hear the footsteps anymore. Thank god, she lost him. Summer closed her eyes and brushed her hair out of her face.
The moment she started moving a hand grabbed her and threw her against the trunk. The figure moved closer and finally she could make out his face in the darkness, it was the old caretaker.
He slowly lifted his big shark hook, railing it above his head. Summer whimpered and tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he was too strong. He raised the hook and swung right at her head.
Summer awoke abruptly and popped right up out of bed. She was struggling to breathe as she squinted into the darkness. She was freezing, stupid heater- less cabins. Her blankets were smushed up in a pile at the foot of her bed. She untangled them and laid back down, pulling them up to her chin. Her heart rate had just returned to normal when she heard a noise. A scratching noise from outside the cabin. Her throat tightened up. It was him, the crazy fisherman with the shark hooks.
She turned to her left and found Marissa's bed empty. Her initial reaction was panic. But then she realized Marissa had probably went to sleep in the boys room with Ryan. Nice, there's that solidarity again.
The scratching noise grew louder, and she swore she heard a man's voice. Summer jumped out of bed and bolted into the boys' adjoining room.
Ryan and Marissa were all snuggled up together on one bed while Seth was spread out on his back in his. Summer quietly crept over to his side and crawled under the blankets next to him.
She faced him, quietly watching him sleep as she traced over his features with her index finger. He began to stir so she brought her hand up and rested it on his chest before closing her eyes.
"Mmm." He moaned sleepily and slowly opened his eyes to find her small body curled up against his side. "Summer?" He turned towards her.
She didn't say anything, she just buried her face in his chest. She didn't want to talk, or give explanations, or apologies, she didn't want him to ask questions because she knew he would. He was probably just as confused as she was. Besides, there was a psycho killer outside and she knew it. The only way she'd feel safe was if she was with him, and possible a shot gun, but there weren't any of those around.
A wave of relief washed over her when she felt his hand slid across her back, the other brushing through her hair.
She closed her eyes and thought of Seth, the creepy caretaker outside drifted from her mind, he wouldn't be the man invading her dreams anymore, Seth Cohen would.
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The foursome woke up bright and early, 7am, for breakfast in the cafeteria.
Ryan opened up the lodge door and stepped into the mess all. It was already pretty crowed with classmates, but he spotted a free table against the wall and directed his roomies over to it.
"So, after breakfast we go straight to the Nature walk." Marissa said after swallowing a mouthful of banana.
"Ew, more nature? I already got my fair share of nature on the walk over to this feeding stable." Summer whined before stealing the abandoned toast crust left on Seth's plate.
"Well maybe that's because it took us 10 minutes to get here when SOMEONE insisted on walking all the way around the cabins because of what looked like to be a snake."
"It was a snake Cohen!"
"Yea, the rare stick snake species is a true find I hear."
She shot him a glare and he clamped his mouth shut.
Ryan, who sat next to Marissa, grabbed the schedule of events and looked it over. Nature walk, that could be cool, he thought. "Yea, but the hike is only 45 minutes, then we have 2 hours of free time before rock climbing."
"No! My manicure." Summer mumbled to herself and inspected her newly painted nails.
Seth smiled, he found her ability to complain about everything adorable.
...
Seth looked around frantically when he heard her scream. He bounded down a small dirt slope and behind a clump of tall bushes to find Summer whimpering with her hands over her face.
He was about to ask what the hell was the matter when he saw the dead fox carcass. Seth cringed and turned away. It was broken and bloody, it looked as if it had been stabbed with something long and sharp several times, then had its insides ripped out.
A moment later Ryan and Marissa came running down the hill.
"Ugh." They both groaned and turned away quickly after they getting a glimpse of the disfigured animal.
Ranger Brad, who was leading them on the hike, showed up a second later, "Get away from it, could have rabies." He motioned for Summer to move away.
"Ew, ew, ew, ew." Summer bolted past him and behind Seth.
"What did that?" Marissa asked to no one in particular with a look of disgust.
"A bear?" Ryan offered.
"No, a bear wouldn't stab at an animal like that. What ever is responsible for this thing went on hacking away after the fox was already dead, then ripped the intestines right out..." Ranger Brad was completely fascinated.
The four teenagers just stared at him.
...
Summer sat on the front porch of the cabin, flipping through the newest Cosmo with Lindsay Lohen on the cover. She figured this was the best way to spend her few hours of free time before she was sent on another torturous excursion, like rock climbing, or fishing, or scalping! She was in the middle of an article when the door of the cabin opened and closed.
"Hey Sum." Seth greeted. Summer glanced up at him quickly then refocused her attention on her Cosmo.
"I'm gonna go see about taking a boat out on the lake for a bit, wanna-"
"No." She said without even looking up.
"It's a nice afternoon, I thought-"
"No."
Seth sighed, "Alright then, enjoy your day sitting on the porch doing the exact same thing you could be doing in Newport." He said dryly.
"And sailing isn't?"
Seth ignored her and thumped down the wooden steps onto the dirt walkway heading for the dock.
Summer's face fell. She was tired of going out of her way to be mean to him, and she was tired of seeing that 'my-puppy-just-got-ran-over' look he had been sporting these past few days. This was so stupid, she liked him, he liked her, why couldn't they just be together? She had been asking herself that sane question all week. Summer ran her hands across her face and closed the magazine.
Marissa and Ryan walked out the front door hand in hand.
"Oh, there you are. Ryan and I are gonna go for a walk, k?"
"Uh okay." Summer scowled as they walked away. What happened to Solidarity huh Coop? Just abandon Summer. Not like she is bored out of her mind or anything.
She sighed and reopened her magazine. A moment later she heard the crack of twigs. Her head popped up and searched the forest around her. Just trees, bushes, dirt, leaves, and other foresty things.
She ignored it and went back to her magazine. Then she heard it again, more footsteps. Summer stood up and walked to the opposite end of the porch. More rustling.
"Marissa? Ryan? Cohen!" She called, and the noise stopped for a moment.
It was quiet for a few seconds, then she heard it once more. Her pulse quickened. This time is was louder, the footsteps were heavy, not small like a forest animals have. It was shuffling around behind the cabin. Summer gathered all the nerve she had and moved down the wooden pouch steps. When she did so she heard the footsteps speed up and away. She walked along the side of the cabin, heading for the back. The footsteps started running now, running away, back into the woods.
Summer turned the corner to the back of the cabin, no one was there. She ran her hands though her hair and exhaled the breath she had been holding in. Must've been some stupid kid messing with her, or some idiot taking a leak behind her cabin.
She started to head back when her foot kicked something heavy, like a rock. She glanced down and her heart stopped. It wasn't a rock.
It was a two-foot shark hook. A pointy, heavy, rusty shark hook. Summer couldn't breath, all he color drained from her face.
She heard creak, it sounded like it was right behind her. Before she had a chance to think she bolted around the cabin. Summer never ran, not even when she had PE the year before, but today she did. In fact, she sprinted. She ran along the dirt path past the other lodges and down to the docks.
Seth had already untied his small boat and was about to push off when he heard her heavy sandals clomping along the dock.
He couldn't hide the large smile that spread across his lips the moment her saw her, "So you decided to join me after all?"
"Yea." She said out of breath and allowed him to help her into the boat.
Seth pushed away from the dock, started up the motor, and steered the boat towards the center of the lake.
He watched as Summer hugged herself and stared off into the distance with a somewhat troubled expression.
"What's wrong?"
She snapped around to face him, his voice startled her, she had forgotten he was even there. Summer debated whether or not to say anything, maybe he'd just think she was paranoid again. But this was weird, and she knew deep down that he wouldn't tease her, he'd listen. That's what she needed, someone to listen, because this was way too weird to keep to herself.
Seth cut the engine.
"Okay, so after Ryan and Marissa went to have wild monkey sex in the woods, I'm sitting on the porch when I start hearing footsteps coming from behind the cabin. So I walk over there, but the owner of the footsteps had already ran away."
"It was probably just a raccoon or something."
"No, they were definitely from something big, like a person."
"We'll it was probably a water polo jerk running around, trying to scare you."
"Yea that's what I thought... before I almost tripped on a big ass shark hook!"
Seth's eyes grew large.
"Freaky huh?"
Seth took a moment to gather his thoughts. "You sure it was a fish hook?" He asked sternly.
"No Cohen, it may have been a new shiny bike..."
Seth stared at her.
"Yea I'm sure." She rolled her eyes.
"Yesterday, right after we got off the bus, I started to wander around a bit and I met this guy, uh. John Crant. He's the caretaker, and he had this old shed. I didn't really get a good look, but I'm pretty sure that the things resting against it, where shark hooks."
The look of utter horror on Summer's face made him regret ever telling her. "But, uh, I'm sure that's just a coincidence..."
"What if there are sharks in this lake?" She looked around quickly, god she hated sharks. She's seen every Jaws movie about 5 times each.
"No, they're aren't any sharks." He learned forward and touched her knee.
His words didn't help, but the sound of his voice did. She nodded.
"Let's not jump to conclusions." He added.
"Right..."
The two of them rode around the lake for a while, bantering and joking, just being Seth and Summer. It had been almost an hour and a half, and they knew they only had 30 more minutes until "free time" was over so they decided to make a lap around the small area of the lake where they were permitted once more.
They rode along the shore laughing when they spotted two figures step out of the woods and onto the sand. Seth drove closer until they recognized the strays as Ryan and Marissa. They both looked out of breath and a little ruffled.
"What the hell happened to you two?" Summer asked as they slowed.
"Yea, didya have a run in with Smokey? I told you Ryan, 'Only you can prevent forest fires'. "Seth said in his best Smokey the Bear impression as he pulled the boat up to the sand.
"No, we were being chased." Marissa said and tried to flatten out her hair.
Seth and Summer exchange worried glances.
"Were their any shark hooks involved by any chance?" Seth tried to sound casual about it.
"Or psycho fishermen!" Summer added.
Ryan helped Marissa in the boat, then pushed it back into to he water before hopping in himself. Summer moved to the seat next to Seth.
"Yea, how'd you know?" Ryan asked.
Summer's jaw dropped.
"Well not the psycho fishermen part..." Marissa added.
"But, but, the fishhook?" Seth waited for an explanation as he steered the boat across the lake toward the dock.
"We were walking around when we started hearing stuff. At first we thought it was just some students, so we ignored it. But the person wasn't going away, it was getting annoying. So we decided to head back the way we came-"
"-and the direction of our stalker." Marissa finished. "Then we found this shark hook propped up against a tree trunk." She said and hugged Ryan's arm tighter.
"That's when we thought it'd be better to walk along the shore instead of the woods." Ryan continued.
Seth and Summer both shared their own fish hook horror tales with Ryan and Marissa as they made their way back to the dock.
...
After rock climbing with the rest of the Junior class, the foursome decided to stay in the rest of the night. They were all a little to freaked to do anything else, not that there was anything else to do anyway.
After chilling in the living room next to the fire in front of the TV for a few hours, they decided to hit the sack around 10. ...
Summer raced as quickly as her feet would carry her through the dark woods. Her heart was pounding and her tear stained cheeks were hot. She was growing tired, and out of breath. But she had to keep moving or else he would get her. She kept moving, faster, faster until her chest burned with every breath. She leaned against the trunk of a mossy tree to steady her breathing.
Everything was quiet, she couldn't hear the footsteps anymore. Thank god, she lost him. Summer closed her eyes and brushed her hair out of her face.
The moment she started moving a hand grabbed her and threw her against the trunk. The figure moved closer and finally she could make out his face in the darkness, it was the old caretaker.
He slowly lifted his big shark hook, railing it above his head. Summer whimpered and tried to wriggle out of his grasp, but he was too strong. He raised the hook and swung right at her head.
Summer awoke abruptly and popped right up out of bed. She was struggling to breathe as she squinted into the darkness. She was freezing, stupid heater- less cabins. Her blankets were smushed up in a pile at the foot of her bed. She untangled them and laid back down, pulling them up to her chin. Her heart rate had just returned to normal when she heard a noise. A scratching noise from outside the cabin. Her throat tightened up. It was him, the crazy fisherman with the shark hooks.
She turned to her left and found Marissa's bed empty. Her initial reaction was panic. But then she realized Marissa had probably went to sleep in the boys room with Ryan. Nice, there's that solidarity again.
The scratching noise grew louder, and she swore she heard a man's voice. Summer jumped out of bed and bolted into the boys' adjoining room.
Ryan and Marissa were all snuggled up together on one bed while Seth was spread out on his back in his. Summer quietly crept over to his side and crawled under the blankets next to him.
She faced him, quietly watching him sleep as she traced over his features with her index finger. He began to stir so she brought her hand up and rested it on his chest before closing her eyes.
"Mmm." He moaned sleepily and slowly opened his eyes to find her small body curled up against his side. "Summer?" He turned towards her.
She didn't say anything, she just buried her face in his chest. She didn't want to talk, or give explanations, or apologies, she didn't want him to ask questions because she knew he would. He was probably just as confused as she was. Besides, there was a psycho killer outside and she knew it. The only way she'd feel safe was if she was with him, and possible a shot gun, but there weren't any of those around.
A wave of relief washed over her when she felt his hand slid across her back, the other brushing through her hair.
She closed her eyes and thought of Seth, the creepy caretaker outside drifted from her mind, he wouldn't be the man invading her dreams anymore, Seth Cohen would.