Chapter 9: Colliding Confusion
By: iluvguygermaine00 & Cimmy

Author's Note: Sorry for taking so long to update, but we're back now, so enjoy!

Emily: It's the thought that counts, so keep reviewing, because no review sucks! We're thrilled you like this story, so keep reading!
FlatOutCrazy: Julie won't be killed anytime soon. Although, there are some tensions in this chapter. And Luis won't be a squished bug. Not yet, anyway. Luis will get his happy ending, just like the others, don't you worry.
Chelsea: Yeah, Luis is sort of hot. And now he's comforting too. It's getting better and better. And protected sex is fun. No, wait, that came out wrong. And there'll be some swinging and swunging in this chapter. That sounded just strange. We hope you like this chapter, since you've been waiting a looong time for it… (Cimmy urges you to blame her, and she's also sorry for not reviewing more, she's been bad at feedback lately.)

Charlie's point of view
By: Cimmy

When I get back from my breakfast fetching, there are something going on between the happy little campers. Although, they look all but happy. Except for Julie, who's been a pest ever since she met Mark.

I don't remember leaving a team of fighting imbeciles behind when I went to get Julie some food, so she can finally shut up for one second. I realize that it's Luis who's scolding, surprisingly enough at Portman. And for once, Portman doesn't beat him to a bloody pulp in exchange.

"What's going on?" I ask Julie, while putting down her tray of food on the table. This is the first time she's not bugging anyone since we got here.

Julie tilts her head to the side, shrugging. "I don't know. Luis just showed up, yelling at him. Something about doing something bad with someone. Don't ask me what it's about, they speak in riddles. I can't deal with riddles."

"Maybe I should break them apart before something bad happens," I point out, but Luis beats me to it. Or actually, it's Portman he beats. Wow, Luis must really be angry, if he has the guts to do something like that. Most people would've thought twice about punching Portman, probably because they would be afraid that he'd hit back. "Hey, cut it out!"

They barely notice me, but I manage to get Guy and Ken's attention. They quickly run over to see what's going on. Julie gets up from the chair, gasping. "Charlie, do something!"

Well, there's not much to do. Portman just glares at Luis, without making an effort at giving back at him. Fulton shows up, stepping between them. "This is really mature," Fulton hollers, shaking Luis around. "What's this all about?"

Fred and Connie join Julie and me by the table. They look guilty for some reason, but I don't think it has anything to do with the current fight. Catalina also comes bursting back, from the other direction. She takes one look at Fred, and then she glances at Portman. Of course, after that, she runs off again. Does that girl ever do anything else but running?

"Could you calm down?" Portman requests, not at all surprised. What the hell is going on behind my back? Can they never behave? "Could you please hear me out before you jump to conclusions?" He gets up, obviously not too affected by the punch. Oh, I hope he won't hit back. Poor Luis.

Luis is still looking outraged, upset about something. "How could you do anything so disgusting?" he hisses. "You're below scum; you're not even worth it. How could you treat anyone that bad?"

"Look, you haven't heard my side of it," Portman starts, but is cut off by Fulton.

"Why don't you both just tell us what this is all about?" he suggests. "We're not here to fight; we're here to have a good time. Luis, please share with us what it is that Portman did that was that terrible."

We all look a bit confused thanks to Fulton's somewhat incoherent babbling, but Luis doesn't seem amused. Just furious, and close to tears at the same time. "I don't want to hear anyone's side of it. I just find it sickening. I've heard enough."

He turns around to leave, but Fulton grabs his arm. "I think you should sort this out. You can't stay mad at each other, you're friends, remember?"

"Doesn't change a whole lot," Luis mutters. "By the way he treats his friends, I'm lucky I'm still alive."

"That's not fair," Portman speaks up. "You don't know half of it."

"And spare me the other half, thank you. You can go to hell, for all I care." Luis yanks his arm away from Fulton and walks back from where he came. I can see that Catalina is waiting for him around the corner, running up to him and pulling his arm.

Julie gives me a confused gaze, like she's questioning me about the current events. I know just as much, or little, as she does. "Maybe we should get going," I say. "Portman, stop with the whimpering. We'll deal with this later."

"But..." Fulton objects, but Julie interrupts him before he can finish his whining.

"Charlie's right, we're here to have a good time. I for once won't let this ruin my Spring Break."

"Hey, I was the one who said that, not Charlie!" Fulton exclaims. Well, sorry for stealing the spotlight, dude.

Okay, so what did just happen? Luis is mad. Obviously. Portman has done something unpleasant. Granted. Fulton is upset because they're fighting. Figures. Julie is insane because she's in love. Spare me. Guy is absent right now, but is definitely trying to win Connie back. Very obviously. Connie is either crushing on somebody, or having a nervous breakdown. As usual. Fred is behaving very strange, and has either been dumped by Catalina, or is moping because she's avoiding him. Sigh. Catalina is miserable about the same thing, whatever it is, but is running after Luis, or the other way around. Moan. Ken is annoying, now when he's in love. And Samantha? I don't even know where she is. The same goes for Adam, even though he's physically around here somewhere. Okay, so that was a tiny bit mean of me to say.

Yep, I'm the best captain alive. I think I'll go to sleep again.

Adam's point of view

So, Julie's nagging has brought us all backstage. We've been dealing with her upbeat behavior all day long. Even though something is clearly wrong among the players, Charlie mentioned some fight after I got back from brushing my teeth, we're all here. All but Luis and Catalina, I don't know why they aren't here.

"I want to hear them play," Julie exclaims into my poor ear. "Who's up next?"

"Probably someone with a slight hearing disability, the way you howl," I groan. "Where's Guy?"

She spins around in a circle, barely looking. "Don't know. So, who's up next?"

I shove one of the programs into her hands and start walking back to find the others. How did I end up with Julie anyway? I strayed away from the flock, and that way I ended up with the complaining Cat. I spot Samantha over by the snack bar. She's not eating, but she's staring at a fire extinguisher. Why does every one of my teammates have to be so strange? But she's probably the sanest of them all, and that says a lot.

"What's up?" I ask, and she almost falls over with surprise. And she's still not the even remotely close to the other insane bunch of Ducks... "Sorry if I scared you. You know where Guy is?"

"Nah, but he's probably around here somewhere. I'm hiding from him here; I figured this would be the last place he'd look."

"You wanna join me to go look for the others? I'm lost."

Samantha gives me a smile, sighing because of the effort of moving. I laugh back, grabbing her wrist to drag her along. "God, that's so much hard work. Can't we just stay put and let them find us?" she suggests, letting me pull her across the floor. My God, use your feet, girl.

We run right into Charlie, or it's more like I'm running into him, Samantha is of course too far behind to be run into in any way. Or so I thought, until Guy makes an appearance from the left, crashing into her with a thud. All four of us start complaining, whimpering, groaning, whatever suits the situation best.

"That was unnecessary," Charlie mutters at me. "Look before you turn a corner the next time, will you?"

"I can't really be blamed for you not looking!" I point out. Guy and Samantha are pretty much exchanging the same words, but down on the floor. "We were looking for you. Well, I was, I don't know what those two are doing, really."

Charlie extends his hand to help Samantha up, and she shoves Guy off from her. "There's no time for that now, Germaine. We have to go find the Bashers and Connie."

"And Fred," Guy adds. "Oh, and Ken."

"Ken is one of the Bashers," Samantha points out. "Where's Julie?"

"Oh, she's missing too... Maybe we should make a list?" Charlie says sarcastically. Then he bites his lip. "That's not a bad idea, though. Anyone got a pen?"

Suddenly we can all hear Julie giggle from down the hallway. Mark must be somewhere close. Then she starts to talk, with some sort of high-pierced voice. Fred comes walking from around the same corner Charlie just came from, Julie glued to his side. He looks to be in pain by her yapping. I would too.

"Please, Jules, could you lower your voice. You're giving me a headache," he begs. "I'll pay you, if you just shut up."

"I'm just saying..." she starts all over again, and we turn our hearing off. I wave at Charlie to follow, and the others just tag along as well. Samantha is shooting Guy some nasty glares, and he's looking around, probably searching for Connie. Could he be more obvious?

"There she is," Charlie points at Connie, who's walking out from the bathroom. "Where have you been?"

She stops, just so she can motion at the door. "Where do you think, idiot?" He doesn't seem to get it anyway, so she just sighs and hurries over to us. I notice that she's tugging at Fred's arm, before skipping up to Julie. Why did she do that?

"I'm hungry," Julie starts to whine. My brain starts to process her words again, after that long, unnecessary rant about Lethal Cause.

"Yeah, me too!" Connie whimpers. "Let's get something to eat, you guys?"

Charlie wrinkles his nose. "We have to find Portman, Fulton and Ken first. Who else is missing?"

"Well, Catalina and Luis are, but they weren't here in the first place," Julie says, taking a leap at Charlie. "Please, Charlie, we have to get some food!"

Guy looks at Samantha. "Aren't you gonna start whining too? Every other female does."

"I'm not that hungry," she points out. Why she's not hungry isn't something we have time to ask, because Fulton shows up, with his two companions' right behind him.

"Dude, we have to get some food!" Julie exclaims.

We roll our eyes, every one of us. At the same time. That's how obvious she is. "I guess we could eat," Ken mumbles.

"Great! Awesome! Food! Oh, and then we have to go find Mark, I have to talk to him before he goes on. You know, Mark, as in..."

"Lethal Cause!" we all exclaim.

"We know, you can't stop talking about him. Chill, Cat," Portman growls, obviously not in a very good mood.

One of the people, who'd been watching us bicker, approaches us, well, mostly Julie. "Hey, do you mean Mark Berger, the lead singer from Lethal Cause?" he asks her. Oh, no, she's going to start rant again, isn't she?

"Yeah, I do, he's great," Julie says.

"How do you know him?"

"Well, he's the one who got my friends these backstage passes, and he and I have been going out," she exaggerates. What I know, she's only been out with him once. That's not dating. That's a date.

"So, you're his girlfriend? Interesting. Would you mind taking part of an interview later? Maybe let us take some photographs of you and him together? Here's my card, come back here later if you're interested."

Julie seems unsure about this, since she was practically just making the whole thing up. "Uh, sure," she says nervously, accepting the card. The man leaves, and Charlie yanks the card out of her hand, ripping it apart.

"There, problem solved," he announces, grabbing her hand to get her away from there.

"What'd you do that for?" she exclaims, although looking relieved anyway.

"Who knows what sort of pictures he was going on about," Charlie snorts, making Julie blush. "And you're not that guy's girlfriend, so there's no way in hell you're going to do any interviews."

"I could be!" she howls.

Why do I have the feeling that the facts she just gave to that guy, will only get us into some major troubles?