I can't believe I'm starting a new fic. But, hey, when it hits you, it hits you! And this probably hit me after listening to my entire Camp soundtrack four and a half times straight... but that's beside the point. Anyway! Welcome to mah new fic. It's a fusion between our loverly newsboys and the movie Camp, which is about a theater camp, as you'll soon find out. -grins- I'm really excited about this fic. It should be a lot of fun; very light-hearted, which is a nice change of pace from Angelsight. -beams-

Disclaimers: Sita doesn't own anyone, le sob, as she is not using any of her original characters in this (Audience: -gasp!-). All newsboys found in this fic belong to Disney, and all original characters belong to their respective owners. Some of the people that Sita knows in real life, like Jorinda and John, belong to themselves.

Warnings: Language, slash

Standing Ovation: A Comedy About Drama

Chapter One

The four yellow buses rumbled over the highway, slightly startling other travelers with the stream of noise that poured from the buses' open windows.

"Wicked was totally robbed at the Tony's, I don't care what you think."

"Oh, bull, just because Wicked's budget was fifty thousand times greater than Avenue Q's, you assume that makes it a better show!"

"Ugh, I just saw the David Hasselhoff version of Jekyll and Hyde yesterday."

"May God have mercy on your soul, if you've still got one after seeing that."

"Springtiiiiime for Hitleeeer and Germanyyyyy!"

"You know, I'm just starting to realize what a tragedy it was that Jonathan Larson died. He was an absolute genius."

"Never insult Mandy Patinkin in my presence again!"

"I think it's hysterical that because Bob Fosse's feet were deformed, people started thinking that it was cool to perform like their feet were deformed."

"And, Edna, you've got me goin' hot and heeeeavy! You're fat and old, but baby, boring you ain't!"

Wordlessly, drivers in other cars glanced at the comedy and tragedy masks plastered onto the side of the buses, as well as the words "Camp Ovation" stenciled in large letters. Suddenly, it made sense. They were driving beside a group of theater-obsessed teenagers, not a bus full of crazies.

Though, sometimes, it was difficult to tell the difference.

"SWINGER!"

Lute McDonaghey grinned at the sound of her Ovation nickname and glanced over her shoulder to find a tall, dark-haired boy racing towards her. Her green eyes widened as he proceeded to lift her clear off the ground and swing her in a circle. She laughed, shaking her head, as he put her back down.

"Snitchy, did you really have to do that?"

His buck-toothed grin widened. "Duh. Of course I did."

"That's what I figured."

Snitch's smile faded slightly as he stared at her, head cocked, hands on his hips. "I haven't talked to you in, like... a week, hon! What happened with your dad?"

Swinger's eyes narrowed and she shook her head angrily, tossing her short, brown hair behind her ears. "Okay, because I got a C, one C, on my damn report card, he wanted to send me to summer school."

"Yeah, I got that much from what you were shrieking over the phone."

"Quiet, you. I basically told him that I couldn't not go to Ovation because it would bring about the downfall of time or some shit. I don't remember what I said. But he said that he'd let me go if I did this homework packet thing that he made up."

"Well, that doesn't sound too bad."

Swinger stared at him. "It's fifty pages, Snitch."

"You're shitting me!"

"Nope. Ten pages each for english, math, Spanish, history, and science."

"That sucks, babe."

"Especially since the C was in Home Ec."

"So you're doing all this for nothing."

"Basically."

Snitch immediately pulled her into a hug; she sighed and rested her head on his chest. "Just once."

"Just once what?"

"Just once I'd like to be good enough for him."

Snitch shot her a sympathetic look.

"Hey, guys!"

"SKITTERY!" With a squeal of delight, Snitch dashed towards the tall boy walking towards them, and Swinger couldn't help but laugh.

"Snitch, you look like you're trying to eat his face."

"Quiet, you."

She laughed again. "You two have fun, not that you'll need the encouragement. I'm gonna go unpack."

She headed towards the girls' bunks, a grin on her face.

THUNK.

Colleen Dupont muttered a curse under her breath as her suitcase toppled to the ground, flying open and spilling her star charts across the pavement.

"Crap," she hissed, dropping to her knees and carefully gathering her papers back into a semi-neat pile. Satisfied with the condition of her charts, she eased them back into the suitcase, brushed her chin-length, burgundy hair from her eyes and blinked as a taxi pulled up directly next to her.

Kayleigh von Melford, the girl that stepped from the taxi, looked as though she could have been a model. Her fiery-red hair fell nearly to her waist, and her hazel-green eyes seemed to shine golden in the sun. She was tall, beautiful, and, from what the shorter girl could remember, an absolute bitch.

Well, my horoscope did suggest to make nice with a Gemini. And she's a Gemini if I've ever seen on.

"Hey, you're Kay von Melford, right?"

Kay blinked and nodded as she tugged her suitcase out of the back of the cab. "Uh, yeah. How did you know?"

"We did Follies together last year, remember? I'm Colleen Dupont. People call me Zodiac."

"Oh. Zodiac. Yeah, I remember."

Zodiac wasn't stupid. Even past Kay's bright, courteous smile, she could sense the boredom and the arrogance. And her aura reeked of egotism.

But she sure as hell wasn't going to go against her horoscope. She didn't have a death wish.

So when Kay looked expectantly at her, than at the sleek, leather suitcases that she had pulled from taxi, Zodiac cleared her throat, forced a smile, and bent to retrieve them.

"Here, let me get that for you."

Kay didn't even attempt to make her smile look sincere. She simply turned and walked back towards the camp, her short, white skirt swishing behind her.

Zodiac managed to trudge after her, carrying her luggage as well as Kay's, her hazel eyes narrowed dangerously.

It was going to be a long freakin' summer.

Isabella Tortuolo strode into the bedroom reserved for the older female camp members and grinned widely, tossing her long, auburn hair over her shoulder.

"Everyone can rest easy, 'cause I'm here. No, no, really, there's no need to worship me, but if you insist, go right ahead."

Swinger briefly glanced up, then immediately returned to the music in front of her, concentrating on playing her piccolo.

The taller girl frowned and dropped her bags on the floor.

"Swinger, where the hell is everyone?"

Swinger rolled her eyes. "Nice to see you, too, Raven."

"You know I love you. Now where is everyone?"

"Blunder already dropped off her crap and went out, and I swear I saw Zodiac trailing after Miss Priss herself."

Raven blinked, raising an eyebrow. "Zodiac, hanging out with Kay von Melford?"

Swinger shrugged and briefly played the "Twilight Zone" theme on her piccolo.

"So what are you doing for auditions?"

"The Mamalogue from Once Upon a Mattress. You know, where Aggravain's going on and on about how she wants Dauntless to get married."

Raven nodded. "Yeah, I know."

"How about you?"

"Singing 'Turn Back, O Man' from Godspell."

Swinger grinned and shook her head. "I can see you as Sofia."

"I was Sofia. You know, we gotta get you into a musical some time."

"Not a chance, Ravy. I don't sing."

"You do too sing. You sing well. And I'll kill you if you tell anyone I'm giving out compliments without expecting any in return."

Swinger snickered and shook her head again. "Nah. I'm sticking with the straight plays."

Raven sighed and collapsed onto her melodramatically. "All right, but you should listen. Ravy knows best, you know."

"Like that time you told Mush that Snitch had a crush on him when he definitely didn't?"

"Um..."

"Or when you decided that you wanted to do a transgender version of Pirates of Penzance?"

"Yeah, that one kinda rings a bell..."

"How about when you decided it was a good idea to get Davey drunk?"

"Oh, come on, we finally got him to admit he was gay!"

"Yeah, and then he tried to rape Skittery and ended up pantsing Blunder."

"... shut up, Swinger."

"Okay, since you know what's best and all."

"Why, Mistah Meyers, I do declare!"

Colin Meyers grinned as he walked through the door, unceremoniously dumping his bags on one of the bunks.

"Nice to see you, too, Snitch. But please tell me that your hand isn't in Skittery's pants."

"Of course it isn't!"

"Riiiight..."

"Holy shit, Mush, what happened to you?" David Jacobs asked suddenly, getting a clear look at the other boy's face for the first time. Mush blinked and automatically covered the yellowing bruise on his face. He smiled sheepishly.

"You guys are gonna laugh at me."

"Probably," Skittery replied, grinning, as he leaned forward and rested his chin in his hands. Snitch immediately moved behind him to rest his head on his shoulder.

Mush sighed, then continued. "I went to junior prom in drag."

The other three boys were silent.

"Why would we laugh at you for that?" David asked quietly.

"Because it was a stupid idea."

"Well, yeah, it was," Snitch replied bluntly, frowning. "But it's not funny that you got the shit kicked out of you for it."

A loud crash sounded from directly outside of the boys' room, followed by a pained "OW!"

Skittery laughed. "Sounds like Blunder has arrived."

A few seconds later, the door burst open and Margaret Blünd dashed into the room, her stringy, black hair bouncing in its ponytail."

"MUSH!" she squealed as she half-tackled, half-fell on the curly-haired boy.

"Good God, Blunder!" he cried, laughing. "I think your bony elbows are digging into some kind of organ that I need."

"I'm not bony!" Blunder blinked suddenly and prodded at the bruise on Mush's face.

"Ow."

"What did you do to yourself?" she asked, brown eyes wide with concern.

"He got the crap beaten out of him for going to his junior prom in fishnets and heels," Snitch said, sighing. "I spent my junior prom at home with a tub of cookie dough and TV Land." He sighed again, pouting.

"I went alone to my junior prom," David added. "Tried to pay my sister to take me, couldn't cough up the cash."

Skittery snorted. "I'd much rather go alone than with your sister. No offense, Dave, but Sarah needs some serious therapy."

"You think I don't know that?"

"Um... hi."

The idle chatter stopped immediately as the five friends turned to stare at the newcomer.

He was standing in the doorway, with the same sheepish, slightly uncomfortable look on his face that nearly every new Ovation member carried with them on their first day at the camp. He wasn't too tall or too short, and while he didn't have the physique of a bodybuilder, they could easily see the sleek muscles beneath his simple, white, T-shirt. He brushed a bit of his thick, blond hair out of his face as one clear, blue eye nervously focused on the five returning campers. A plain black patch adorned the other eye.

Much to the delight of the five, he was a very nice-looking boy.

He cleared his throat after a few moments of silence. "Uh, I'm new, and they told me that this was my room."

More silence. They continued to stare.

The blond boy bit his lip. "Okay, then..." He pointed to a large chest of drawers. "Is anybody using those drawers, or I can use them?"

Mush was the first to break the silence, never once glancing away from the other boy. "You can get into anybody's drawers that you want. Believe me, you won't get any complaints."

The three other boys fought back a laugh as Blunder promptly smacked Mush upside the head, struggling to keep the grin off of her face.

"Don't mind Mush, he's slightly insane."

"Thanks, Blunder, I love you, too."

Blunder grinned and turned her attention back to the new boy. "So! Um... welcome to Ovation!"

He blinked, then smiled broadly.

"Be still, my beating heart," Snitch muttered. Skittery poked him in the ribs.

"Thanks! But, uh, is there a bathroom or something that I can use?"

Wordlessly, they all pointed to the small door leading out of the room. He grinned, nodded his thanks, and walked out.

Snitch immediately jabbed Skittery in the side. "You were checking him out!"

"Oh, please, and you weren't?"

"... I'm only human."

Blunder giggled. "I'm officially giving Mush the thirty-foot rule."

"Not fair!"

"Thirty-foot rule?"

"That means Mush can't come within a thirty-foot radius of him until we find out if he's straight or gay."

David snorted. "Please. As if a straight guy would come here."

"I don't know, Mouth, he looks pretty straight to me."

"Can you not call me that?"

Once again, the chatter stopped as the blond boy re-entered the room. He raised an eyebrow at them, but said nothing as he began placing his clothes in the drawers.

"Oh, by the way, I'm Isaac."

"Don't tell me no one's given you a nickname yet!"

"Uh.... they haven't."

Snitch sighed in an exaggerated fashion and scooted towards the front of the bed, pushing Skittery away in the process.

"Hey!"

"It's an Ovation tradition. Everyone gets a nickname. For instance, we've got the lovely and talented Blunder, thus named for the fact that she can't walk two feet without maiming herself."

"I love you, too," Blunder muttered. "That's Snitch. We call him that because he had a major crush on one of the old camp directors during his freshman year. He stole a pair of the guy's underwear."

Isaac raised an eyebrow as Snitch reddened. "I actually like the nickname thing." He looked curiously at Mush. "They call you Mush?"

The curly-haired boy blushed and nodded. "Yeah. Blunder says that my voice makes everyone turn to mush."

"It so does. Wait until you hear this guy sing!"

Isaac grinned, then looked expectantly at David, who gulped.

"They tend not to use mine, because I get mad when they do. I prefer just being David, but if you must know, they call me the Walking Mouth because.... erm... well..."

"Because you talk a lot?"

"Nah, because he gives good head."

"Shut up, Snitch!"

"Moving on, so we don't completely terrify the new kid!" Skittery yelled, clapping a hand over Snitch's mouth and shooting David a dangerous look. "I'm Skittery. My first year here, I got a horrible case of stage fright at the auditions, so I started singing the only thing I could think of at the time - the Ave Maria."

Isaac laughed outright; Blunder and Mush both swallowed and smiled nervously at the sound.

"So, how do you go about getting a nickname around here?" he asked, still grinning.

David shrugged. "The way you look, the way you act, something you're good at-"

"Like giving head."

"Shut up, Snitch!"

Snitch grinned as he continued. "Off the top of my head, just looking at you right now, I'd say your nickname would be something along the lines of Pirate."

Mush threw a pillow at him. "Not cool, Snitch."

"What?!"

"No, really, it's okay." Isaac was still grinning as he reached up to tap his patch. "At least you aren't staring and whispering like most people do. But, really, I don't mind."

"Believe me, if that patch is the worst of your problems, then you're basically perfect," Mush said solemnly, a mirthless half-smile creeping onto his face. "The rest of us are more fucked up than you can imagine.

Snitch broke the slightly uncomfortable hush.

"Well, not Pirate. That sounds stupid."

"Fine, then. What about Blink?"

"I actually like that," Blunder offered.

Isaac nodded as he thought it over, grinning. "Yeah. Actually, I do, too."

"Then Blink you are!"

Isaac - Blink - laughed again.

He has the most amazing laugh I've ever heard... okay, no! Down, boy, Mush thought, mentally reprimanding himself.

"So is there some kind of ritual that I have to go through to make this nickname official?"

"Yes. You have to wrestle Mush naked in the lake."

Blink raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"No, not really." Snitch beamed even as Skittery jabbed him in the side again.

"But you probably should start unpacking," Blunder advised. "We've got the welcoming ceremony in about fifteen minutes, and then, we have auditions."

Blink nodded and smiled at her. Blunder gulped and stared down at the floor.

"Okay. Unpacking. I can do that." Humming softly to himself, he opened a duffel bag and began to remove various types of sports equipment - a basketball, a baseball bat, shin guards.

The four boys sighed in defeat, but Blunder raised her head and smiled a tiny smile, her warm, brown eyes lighting up.

He was straight.

For once, just once, things were going her way.

"When we emerged

Wiped out from that play

Nine o'clock, stars and moon lit the way

I thought

Hey, what a way to spend a day

Hey, what a way to spend a day

I make a vow, right here and now

I'm gonna spend my time this way."

-- "Why," Tick... Tick... BOOM!

Curtain

Well, yay! The first chapter's finished. And I know, it's pretty awful, but that's life. Some of the lines, like about Snitch's cookie dough and the thirty-foot rule, are actually taken from the movie. As I said before, this isn't exactly the best thing that I've ever written, but it's really not supposed to be. It's just supposed to be a little fun thing for me to write. ... though, hopefully, the following chapters will be better than this piece of crap. But, anyway! As this is the first chapter, I have no review-related shout-outs, so I'll just thank my darlings whose characters I picked for this.

Much thanks to B (studentnumber24601) for Blunder, Raven (Raven46) for herself, Lute (Thumbsucker Snitch) for Swinger, Rachelily (Kattabean) for Kay, and Colleen (Oxymoronic Alliteration) for Zodiac. And, as always, crazy mad love and thanks to the entire NJL, because I honestly don't know what I'd do without you guys. -mwah- Aaaaand that's all from me! LUNCHTIME!

And, as usual, reviews are much-appreciated and begged for. -hinthint-