The Zeta Project Season 3 Episode 5

by clutzattack

Kim's WB The Zeta Project Road Trip

6. Day 5

Mandy suddenly announced that morning that this was the morning they were supposed to be participating in the flag raising ceremony.

"But we haven't practiced!" Ro insisted.

"It doesn't matter. I'll tell you what to do. We have to be there ten minutes early, so just keep that in mind," she said then headed off.

"I've got a record of the procedure loaded in my…"

"I know, Zee," Ro said before he could finish. "I'm sure it'll be fine. No one's made a big deal out of this yet."

With Mandy giving everyone instructions under her breath, they put on a very professional flag raising ceremony—complete with a formal color guard to escort the flag bearer as she was heading to the flag pole. It was Ro's job to actually pull the rope that pulled the flag to the top of the pole. Mandy whispered, "The flag should be raised briskly, or quickly with effort in the morning. At night it should be lowered slowly and more ceremoniously."

Ro hauled the flag up the pole very quickly. As she was tying off the end, under Mandy's instructions it occurred to her that she'd just raised the symbol of the United States: the symbol of their government…the same government that was supposed to secure freedom and liberty to "all", which at the moment didn't necessarily include Zee. How ironic was it that they were now showing their support for a government that didn't support them? It felt strange. After reciting the pledge of allegiance, the director made a short announcement. She didn't say anything about Redwood's snake attack, but reminded the girls not to keep food in their tents as it might attract wild animals. As if snakes liked chocolate.

Ro was handed a small bead for having participated. She had less than a half dozen beads in total. In truth, she didn't even remember where she'd put the other ones that she'd been given during certification. But, she didn't care, so what did it matter?

"How many beads do you have?" Ro asked Mandy.

"Not as many as I've had in previous years. I haven't done as many activities because we've been practicing the skit," Mandy sighed. "Oh well."

Breakfast was extra delicious which made up for the fact that Ro didn't like dinner last night. She was absolutely starving which made things harder as she hadn't asked Mandy for any food last night. They were second to last in line. They might have had a chance at placing higher by sending an alternate in Jennifer's place to do the competition. It would have worked out better if they'd asked Jennifer if she could whistle before they had her cram her mouth full of peanut butter. Rather than trying to whistle, she'd been trying to explain that she can't even whistle despite her mouth being full of peanut butter. The director thought it was worth more credit than the person who'd refused to even taste the peanut butter, which is why they weren't last. Somehow as a result of Ro's performance, there was a large increase of the number of young girls who were caught with their elbows on the table. After it became obvious that they began that they were purposely putting their elbows on the table for a chance to perform a song, they stopped asking people to sing a song as a punishment. Even when the girls still left their elbows on the table for a chance to be in the spotlight of attention, everyone just gave up on calling out the people with their elbows on the tables for the morning. Maybe by lunch the excitement would die down?

"Now, for our educational hour for today, we're going to learn first aid. First aid is the FIRST AID that is given in the even of an emergency. I don't know how more simple to explain it. If you ask me they should have taught this first… What would have happened if you had broken your leg on a trail? What are you going to tell your buddy? Sorry, I'm not first aid certified. We won't cover it until the second to last day of camp. And that's when your buddy, holding in the pain and possibly bleeding all over the place will sarcastically say, 'I know.' Oh well… luckily none of you have hurt yourselves…yet…"

If Zee has been a human, his face would have gone pale. Jennifer was demonstrating the Heimlich maneuver and mouth to mouth resuscitation on a dummy she made out of stuffing a pair of jeans and a shirt. The head was a blown up balloon. He didn't have a nose for his buddy to pinch. He didn't even have a lower abdomen for them to wrap their arms around. His robotic anatomy in his abdomen area was nothing like that of a human's.

"I'll be back," he whispered to Ro then slipped off.

Mandy noticed that he was gone, but didn't ask about him until it'd been a while. "Is Zee coming back?" she asked.

"Yeah, she'll be back," Ro assured her. "Just went off for a little while."

What Ro thought that she liked most about Mandy was that she didn't ask them personal questions, and she never asked them to explain their odd ways. Zee's absence remained unnoticed by the rest of the hour until near the end Jennifer noticed he was missing when asking everyone to demonstrate that they knew first aid on each other. "Where's Zee?" she asked when she was going to check him off as being certified. First aid was actually one thing she thought was important, and not worth doing a slop job on.

"She had to go do something for a while. She said she'd be back shortly."

"Who's her buddy?"

Ooops…Zee had just gone off by himself. Should Ro tell Jennifer he didn't have one? "No need to worry, I'm here! Zee piped up. Ro could see him climbing out of their tent. He was now wearing one of the outfits that she'd bought in the store. She wouldn't tell him that most people couldn't hear a simple conversation from that far away.

"You going to show me you know first aid now?" she asked.

Zee pulled out a cell phone, and pointed to it. "9-1-1, first number on the speed dial," he said, smiling innocently.

Jennifer laughed. "Nice try, let's see you show me where to put your hands for the Heimlich maneuver on Ro."

Zee went to wrap his arms around Ro, while Ro embarrassedly mimicked a scene where she was choking. It felt a little silly to be wrapping his arms around her (an intimate gesture) for only a simple demonstration. She could feel that there was something different about him as he stood behind her. First of all he was actually wearing her clothes, but what else was it? "Good," Jennifer said. "Now, I won't ask you to perform mouth to mouth, so just tell me what the steps are."

Zee almost began reciting the medical procedure as it was recorded from his data banks, but remembered to paraphrase, and make it sound more like what Jennifer had been teaching. She asked him several other questions about treating broken bones, hypothermia, cuts, and snake bites." He answered all of her questions correctly.

It was Ro's turn next. While Jennifer suggested she practice on Zee, Ro asked if it was okay to demonstrate on Mandy, as she'd practiced with Mandy. It was hard enough to find where to put her hands on a real person, much less on someone who didn't really have a stomach. Ro passed the certification as well.

They were dismissed to their tents to get ready for lunch. Ro followed Zee into their tent. "So what's up?" she asked Zee. "Something's different."

He lifted up his shirt. He'd wrapped a towel around his middle to give it some bulk. "Just in case, you'd actually had to demonstrate on me… I didn't want your hands to go through my hologram… But you cleverly managed to avoid the situation." He was grateful not to have been put in such a position, but sad that he had this problem in the first place.

"Don't worry about it. Just don't get anything on my shirt. I like that shirt a lot," she teased him.

"We have clean up for lunch, so I think that I'll just change out of it, as there's a greater chance it'll get dirty during clean up." It was a simpler explanation that trying to explain that he really didn't care to be dressed up in girl's clothes. Ro wasn't about to protest either, and tell him not to go to the trouble. She didn't want him to remotely become comfortable in them or with the feminine appearance.

"Hey, Ro, Zee?" Mandy called inside their tent. Ro could see her shadow on the wall of the tent. She was standing right outside of their tent! Ro's heart nearly stopped. If she could see her shadow, then could anyone else see their silhouettes from the outside of the tent? Could they see Zee's outline, with his pencil thin waist? He was wearing his hologram right now, but Ro didn't think that his hologram had enough substance to it to make a shadow on the tent wall! Had they gone through this entire week so far without realizing this? What if Mandy was close enough to their tent to possibly see through it?

Ro quickly dashed in front of Zee, so that if he did have a shadow, hers would be blocking it. But, then she realized, Zee was still wearing her T-shirt. The T-shirt would cover up his thin waist. She relaxed a little, "Yeah?."

"Didn't mean to bother you, but I just thought I'd remind you that if you want to get a canoe, you might bring your swimsuit with you to change into, or you might change into it now and wear it under your clothes to lunch," Mandy spoke politely.

"Oh, right," Ro sighed. Her heart was still pounding from the scare that Mandy had given her. "Do you want to just sit on the dock and watch?" Ro asked Zee.

"I'm fine doing anything you want," he replied, considerately.

"Maybe for a while, I really do want to go hiking to the falls later."

"You know that free time is extended by a half hour today," Mandy reminded her.

"Since when?" Ro asked.

"The director announced it last night after dinner, Ro," Zee commented.

"I guess I wasn't really listening then."

"So you up for it?" Mandy asked.

"Sure."

"Don't forget your towels!" Mandy said, then her shadow left the tent.

"That was scary," Ro commented to Zee.

"What was?"

"I thought she would be able to see our shadows…"

"And why would that be bad?" Zee asked innocently.

How could she tell him without making him feel too conspicuous about his body. "Well… you kind of have this unique profile, or silhouette… It's not bad or anything, but it doesn't look…"

While she searched for the right word, Zee provided one for her. He didn't allow his voice to sound sad though, "Human?" he asked.

Ro was thinking of saying "normal" rather than "human" but even that would have been an insult to his character. "You just have a really thin waist…" she said quietly.

"I thought being skinny was deemed as a trait of beauty?"

"Only to a certain extent, then it becomes sickly."
"Right. Well, I assume you'll want the privacy of the tent to yourself, so I'll be waiting for you outside when you're done changing." He left Ro in the tent.

Ro felt a pang of guilt for not being able to think of something else to make him feel good about himself, but even after he was gone nothing was coming to her mind. She held her swim suit in her hand, but really didn't feel like changing into it, especially now that she was aware that it cast a shadow on the tent wall. Instead, she'd ask Zee to come with her to the bathroom so she could change without having to worry about semi transparent walls.

They managed to be first in line for lunch, as their campsite was the cleanest. This would make it the cleanest for two days in a row. They would also be having pizza for lunch, two days in a row. The best part about the whole ordeal was that clean up was going to be really easy. "We'll definitely be first in line to have a canoe now!" Mandy smiled.

Ro draped her towel around her shoulders, and walked behind Mandy to the dock, with Zee at her side. Mandy went up to the counselor stationed by the canoes to ask for permission to use one, and to help dispatch it into the water, as well as find oars for it.

Zee scanned the lake. Way across on the other side he could see the dock for the boy's camp. There were a few canoes over at that end, but none of the boys were making use of them. Perhaps if Bucky got in a canoe they could meet in the middle of the lake to talk to each other?

Ro sat down on the dock and began to untie her shoes and take off her socks. She stuck her foot into the water, and quickly pulled it out again. The water felt like ice! "Is it too cold?" Zee asked.

"Too cold? You could cryogenically freeze anyone you wanted by just throwing them in the lake!"

His eyes narrowed as he looked at the shimmering surface of the water. "The water is 10 degrees Celsius."

"And in Fahrenheit?" Ro asked.

"About 50 degrees."

"This is crazy. Don't they worry that the people who go swimming here are going to get sick?"

"I'm sure they have a medical waiver form that you sign before coming to camp."

"I don't remember any form!"

"Bucky probably agreed to it when he signed us up."

Ro grumbled as she took of her pants and shirt. Maybe she'd just get a tan here on the dock instead? She wrapped her towel around her shoulders and held her knees up to her chest. "Are you cold?" Zee asked.

"I'm going to be. I'm just preparing myself for the shock."

Mandy approached them, "Ready Ro?"

"I'm having second thoughts. The water's really cold. You'll get used to it. But we won't be playing in it much today."

"Thank goodness."

"You sure you're going to be okay watching from the docks?" Mandy asked.

"I'm very sure," Zee insisted.

"Will you watch my clothes?" Ro asked.

"Of course. Would you like me to watch yours as well, Mandy?" Zee asked.

"I was just going to leave them here on the dock, but it would be very nice if you'd do that."

Zee gathered up their clothes and took them to the shore end of the dock where the water was very shallow, and sat down on the edge. That way no one would be worried about him drowning if for some reason he did fall in. In a few minutes several girls began coming and taking out the canoes. Among these girls were the three girls that they'd played the rope prank with from last night. They approached him on the dock rather than heading off to try and secure one of the last canoes.

"I know we met last night, and that I've seen you around at dinner and stuff, but I feel really bad that I don't know your name," one of them spoke to him.

"I'm Zena, or Zee," Zee introduced himself. "Ro's my friend over there," he pointed. Chances were if they didn't know him, they wouldn't know her either.

"I'm Laura, and this is Heather and this is Carrie," Laura, the shortest of the group, introduced her friends.

"Pleased to meet you."

"You going to swim or canoe?" Carrie asked him.

"I can't swim so I was just going to watch from here on the dock."

"Would you mind keeping an eye on our clothes then? I mean, just as long as you're sitting there. We don't want you to inconvenience yourself or feel obligated…"

"It's no problem at all," Zee insisted. He knew that they'd asked only

because of the pile of clothes that he already had by him.

"Thanks. Sometimes people will come and dunk your stuff in the water so that it's all wet and cold when you come back to it."

How mean. He wouldn't let that happen to Ro's stuff. "Are either of you

going swimming?" he asked.

"Carrie and I are. Laura is going canoeing with Mandy," Heather answered.

Laura would be the third person for the canoe then. "Mandy and Ro already have a canoe reserved," Zee informed her.

"That's good. I tried to get here early, but it seems like they're already taken." It was true, while they were talking the last canoes had been dispatched.

"The water's really cold," Zee commented to Heather and Carrie.

"We know, but you get used to it. We'll probably only do a practice lap or two for tomorrow. We'll be doing the distance swimming part of it."

"Isn't it usually three to an event?"

"Not for swimming, only for major group competitions. One of the canoe competitions, is actually just a two person event."

It made sense now. Twenty-one people from each side would be a lot of swimmers for a simple distance swimming race. "I wish you good luck."

"Thanks," they said, then set their clothes down near him to watch while they went to the edge of the dock to dive in. Laura headed off to where Mandy and Ro were with the canoe.

"The first thing you'll need to know is what to do in case your canoe flips over." The counselor instructed Ro and Mandy. "So what I'm going to have you do is get in, then you're going to tip you over your canoe then turn it over and climb back in."

"We'll be practicing right near the dock so you don't need to worry," Mandy assured Ro.

"That's not any more comforting."

"I was hoping not to get wet, but I guess that isn't going to happen," Ro trailed off.

She was handed an orange life-preserver to put on before she climbed into the canoe. Mandy took the front position. Ro was handed an oar, but she didn't know what to do with it. The whole situation made her feel uneasy. What the heck was she supposed to do? The counselor pushed them out a little bit and Mandy began to shift her weight back and forth, rocking the canoe. Ro remained stationary, but then realized that the canoe probably wasn't going to flip if she didn't help out. She leaned far over to the right, and that's when she felt herself being dumped into the icy cold water. Her muscles immediately cramped up, but began to work themselves out as she began to tread water. She resurfaced within a second to see their canoe, floating upside down. Her paddle wasn't very far from her. She reached for it before it got too far away. Mandy was laughing. Ro couldn't laugh as her teeth were chattering. Mandy paddled over to the side of the canoe. Ro followed her exampled. "Now, lift!" Mandy instructed Ro. She let go of her paddle for a moment to help turn over the canoe.

Ro pushed on the canoe, and it slowly began to roll back over upright again. Ro really had to push, then it finally turned upright the rest of the way. She'd been afraid that it was going to scoop up a lot of water, and sink to the bottom, but it didn't. Somehow the water washed out while they had it on its side so it didn't completely fill up. Mandy picked up her paddle and threw it into the canoe. Ro reached for hers again and threw it in over the side of the canoe. "Now to get back in," Mandy said. "Ro, you stay on that side, at the back end. I'm going to swim around to the front on the other side."

"Okay…"

She'd never tried to get into a canoe before. It was over her head's height while she was just floating by its side. How could she puller herself out of the water into it?

"Grab the side," Mandy instructed. Ro held onto it. "Now, you're going to do a pull up while swinging your right leg over the edge. We have to do it at the same time or the canoe will flip over again."

"This isn't going to work!"

"If you feel it starting to turn over, drop back into the water."

Ro grabbed the edge of the canoe and began to pull herself up into it. Swinging her right leg over the edge. She could see Mandy pantomiming her exact moves. Wait, wasn't she supposed to be following Mandy's example? No! She was actually doing it the correct way--on her own!

At the same time they both rolled into the middle of the canoe. Ro crawled to her position in the back of the canoe while Mandy resumed hers at the front.

"Good job ladies," the counselor complimented them. You pass. Now, you can switch into a canoe with less water in it while I empty out this one for the next user, and remember, only go clockwise around the lake."

"Sure," Mandy said. They quickly switched into another canoe. Mandy then began to paddle away from the dock. The canoe began to turn until Mandy instructed Ro to paddle on the opposite side of the canoe.

They began to move forward, in a straight line. Mandy then gave Ro the full crash course tutorial for directing the canoe, the best way to hold the paddle, and how to take the best strokes that would make her the least tired. "During the competition, they'll also ask us to do things like switch places or jump out of the canoe and get in again. Luckily they don't ask us to over turn the canoes in case one actually does sink into the middle of the lake. During all of this, though, we'll be trying to race to the finish line. They usually have six canoes from each camp competing at the same time."

"How will everyone have a turn then?"

"They do it in groups, and just compare the times from each group."

"One more thing. Shouldn't we be practicing with three people?"

"There's only two for this one."

"Two?" Why was she practicing then? "Wouldn't one of your other friends be more qualified?"

"Laura will be with us for the three person canoe race."

"She doesn't want to do the two person one as well?"

"Do you not want to?" Mandy asked. She almost sounded a little hurt.

"Well… I thought that you'd want to win. This is my first time in a canoe, and I know that I'm not very good at it."

"I think you're very good. You managed to climb into the canoe on the first try."

"Yeah, but, still..."

"Buts are for sitting on. You're going to do well on this one. I know it. Besides, I'll be here to tell you what to do."

"If you don't mind losing, that's up to you."

"We're not going to lose."

"'And if we do?"

"Then it was a lot of fun. Now, no more talk about your lack of qualifications. I've got to teach you how to quickly get in and out of a canoe."

It seemed like it'd taken a long time to get back into the canoe, and like a lot of things could go wrong if they weren't purposely balanced on each side. If there was a quicker way, she was anxious to hear it.

"Now, not many people make use of this technique, but it's really handy. I'll demonstrate it the slow way, then show you the quick way. You usually use this technique when helping just one person get back into a canoe."

With that, Mandy jumped into the water. It splashed Ro and she felt cold all over again. She was grateful that the weather was really warm again. Mandy swam to the edge of the canoe. "Let's say that you've fallen out. The first thing you do is swim to the side of the canoe, somewhere in the middle of it, as I have."

"Then?"

"Then you're going to spread out most of your weight on the opposite side of the canoe from me."

Ro shifted her weight backwards. "Now what?"

"Now, you're going to lean over, not too far though, as you don't want to tip the canoe over and fall in, and place your hands on my shoulders."

Ro carefully leaned over and placed her hands on the orange life preserver right above Mandy's shoulders. "Now, you're going to push down really hard on my shoulders so that my head is under water. Then you're going to move off to the side.

"You want me to shove you under the water?"

"As hard as you can without falling in."

"Okay then…" Ro said hesitantly. She pushed really hard on Mandy's shoulders, but it was really hard with the life preserver resisting, trying to keep her above the water. The canoe lurched a little which scared Ro enough to back off of Mandy, and jump to one end of the canoe. Mandy quickly popped out of the water, throwing her entire waist over the side of the canoe. Where did she get that kind of energy to lift herself out of the water like that? Mandy was now leaning over the edge of the canoe. It was Ro's weight on the other side that kept them from tipping over. Mandy quickly crawled the rest of the way into the canoe. "You see? Easy!"

"How did you do that?" Ro asked.

"The force of the preserver trying to float will rocket you out of the water. If you forced a beach ball under the water it would shoot into the air several feet once you let go of it."

"That's mega schway" Ro said, amazed.

"Now, the trick is that when they call for use to get out of the water and back in, we both have to do it at the same time so that we don't have to balance the weight." Now that Ro thought about it. Mandy was really close to her height and weight measurements. They were already pretty well balanced. "They won't let you hang onto the edge while you jump out—and it'd probably rip your arm off or something—so you're going to just jump out, right at the side of the canoe with your arms over your head. As you're jumping out, turn so that you're facing the canoe, and don't jump too high as it might rock the canoe, but just kind of take a high step out of the canoe. It's going to give you the force you need to dunk you in the water and shoot you back out again. When you start coming up again from the water, grab onto the side of the canoe, and pull yourself in, as you saw me do. If we practice it once or twice, we could be in and out in a matter of seconds. You ready to try?"

While she'd felt like she'd just managed to get to a comfortable temperature again, she was willing. "Oh, and one more thing," Mandy added, "I'm always going to jump off on the left side of the canoe, and you'll jump off on the right."

"Even if we switch places?"

"Even if we switch places."

"Ready?"

"I guess."

"ABANDON CANOE!"

Ro stood up and quickly took a large step out of the canoe, turning around to face the canoe as she did so. The ice water covered her head, and then she was shooting up out of the water. The life preserver felt like it was slipping up over her head. It wasn't holding her properly. She caught the edge of the canoe as she was coming up, but she didn't have enough energy to pull herself over the edge. Luckily as she was hanging on the edge it was enough balance for Mandy to make it back in. "It didn't work," Ro commented, holding onto the edge of the canoe.

"Your life preserver isn't tight enough. Let me pull the straps for you," she offered. She leaned over the side of the canoe and began to yank on the straps. Ro felt the life preserver tighten a little. "Now I'm going to dunk you and I want you to try to crawl in."

They repeated the process that Ro did for Mandy the first time. She made it half way into the canoe, and Mandy had to pull her the rest of the way in. Her legs almost felt too cold to move. "This isn't going to work out," she said disheartened.

"You're letting this one bad experience get to you. Even worse, was it really wasn't that bad. I just forgot to tell you to tighten your straps before you did it. This next try is going to be much better." As Ro's life preserver had settled back down to her chest again, Mandy began to tighten the straps even more. To felt like someone was hugging her really tightly. It made her think of Zee for some reason… But, he rarely ever hugged her. He held her close to him, or he carried her sometimes, but he never really hugged her, tightly. It was a shame. This feeling of being squeezed felt very reassuring and comforting.

"One more time?"

"Yeah. I just wish the water wasn't so cold."

"ABANDON CANOE!"

Ro repeated the process, but this time the life preserver didn't hike up above her head, but stayed with her. She felt herself pop out of the water, and immediately threw herself over the side of the canoe. It was simple enough to pull her legs in and resume her position at the back. Wow! She did it!

"I told you so!" Mandy laughed. Maybe she could do this after all. "That's all I wanted to practice for today. We can go back to the dock now."

"You don't want to practice switching places?"

"I didn't want to take up your time, but we can if you think you've got time."

"How long has it been?"

"About forty five minutes," Mandy checked her waterproof watch.

"Ten minutes won't hurt."

Mandy grinned. "For switching places, I'm going to walk over you, and you'll just slide on your but along the bottom to the front, or back."

Good, Ro didn't think she could stand up in the canoe without falling out, much less walk. "SWITCH PLACES!" Mandy yelled.

Ro dropped off of the seat of the canoe, and scooted her way over to the front of the canoe. Mandy took large strides over her to the back of the canoe. The canoe didn't rock at all! Ro surmised that Mandy must secretly be a gymnast to have that sense of balance. Zee would be really good at walking in a canoe, she guessed, but he wouldn't be able to participate because he couldn't jump out of the canoe into the water.

They'd easily switched the one direction, but just to be sure they practiced switching back. It was a flawless maneuver. "Good job. Let's head back. Laura is waiting on the dock."

"Laura?"

"She was with us last night."

"Oh! I remember." Ro felt a little bad. She'd been around Laura for the whole week without having known her name. "I feel so bad for not knowing her name!"

"Don't be. She wouldn't want you to be."

"What were the names of the other girls?" Ro asked, feeling embarrassed still for having to ask.

"Heather's over there doing laps with Carrie. Heater has the long brown hair, and Carrie is in the blue bathing suit."

And there was Zee on the dock, carefully watching their clothes. He actually looked a little nerve-wrecked. Watching Ro out there in the middle of the lake, and him unable to be near in case she fell in and got caught under the canoe was what was tormenting him. He felt much relieved to see them returning to the dock. Ro climbed out of the canoe, while Laura climbed in. Zee had gotten up, and was holding her towel out for her, as well as his towel. He didn't need it as he hadn't even gotten wet.

"Thanks," Ro said, wrapping the towel around her torso, tying the end in a knot so it'd stay up. She took her neatly folded clothes from him but didn't bother to put them on. She slipped on her shoes, not bothering to put on any socks. "See you tonight," she said to Mandy.

"Have fun hiking!"

As they got near the end of the dock Zee noticed that Heather was near the shore part of her lap, he called out to her, "Is there anything you want me to do with your clothes? I'm going to be leaving to go hiking with Ro."

Heather stopped swimming and treaded water in place to answer him. "You can just leave them there. I was just coming in!"

Excellent timing. He and Ro walked to their campsite to let Jennifer know they'd be out hiking. "Just you two?" she asked.

"Just us two," Ro repeated.

"If you're going to go hiking I'd like to see someone else go with you. That way if one of you gets hurt someone else can run for help while one of you stays with the injured person."

Just great, the buddy system wasn't going to be good enough. They couldn't ask Mandy to come with them as she was canoeing. Jennifer could read the disappointed look on their faces.

"It's a fairly hazard free trail so I guess I could just let you to go if you took a radio or something to let me know if something happens…And you both are first aid certified… But camp rules don't permit me from letting you go swimming there without a third person present."

"Oh, no, we weren't planning on going swimming," Ro insisted. "I'm just in my swimming suit because we just got back from the dock."

"Oh, well that's fine then."

"Is a cell phone okay instead of a radio." Zee asked.

"If you get reception up here."

"I do."

"Then let me give you my number."

They returned to their tent so that Ro could put on her clothes again and they could pick up a small first aid kit to carry with them. "You going to change out of your swimsuit?" Zee asked her.

It was fairly dry, which was a good excuse to just put her clothes on over it, but that wasn't why she was choosing not to change out of it. "No." She put her shirt and pants back on over her bathing suit, and put on her socks.

They set off hiking down the trail to the hidden falls. At the junction they made a right rather than a left. The trail was downhill for a very short time, but was mostly uphill. It had to be for the water to be running into the lake. They hiked in silence for the most part of the trail, as it was tiring to be talking and hiking up hill at the same time. They could hear the small creek of water off in the distance, but the trail apparently didn't follow along side of it. However had marked this trail wasn't concerned with plotting out the shortest distance to the falls, but the most scenic. There was lots of foliage and green trees, but no breathtaking view of a valley, or the edge of the mountain.

As Ro wasn't taking the initiative to start a conversation, Zee didn't feel like disturbing her by starting one. They hiked for several minutes. They knew they were getting closer from the increasing dull roar of a water fall. "We're getting close!" Ro exclaimed. She found renewed strength and picked up her pace.

The creek began to run along side the trail and they came into view of the water fall. It was very impressive, thought it was much smaller than Ro had imagined. The water was only falling the short distance of about twenty feet. The disappointing factor was that while she'd thought that there would be several water falls, there really only was one. The water fall was spread out over a wide distance, and had several broken spaces between the falling sheet of water, making it appear like several small water falls. There was a really shallow pond, that collected the water, then channeled it into the small creek which ran into the lake. "We're here!"

So they were. He was trying really hard to analyze what made this setting so beautiful and romantic as Ro deemed it. There were several ferns around the edge of the pond, and a couple of rocks. He'd seen prettier settings on post cards. But, they were seeing this in person, so that had to count for something. Ro looked around to see if anyone else was there with them. They seemed to be alone. She took off her pants, folded them, then set them on a rock. She still kept her shirt on.

"Ro, what are you doing?" Zee asked.

"I'll just be wading. Don't worry, I won't be swimming, like we said we wouldn't." It seemed like they were still breaking the rules somehow. She took a small step into the water. It was actually warm! The pond was shallow enough so that it could be heated up by the sunlight. She took a few steps out so that she was in knee-deep water. The water wasn't warm anymore, but did get cooler. It was very pleasant compared to what the lake water felt like. She walked out further until the water was up to her thighs.

"I don't think you should go out any further," he cautioned her. "There might be an undertow or possible sharp rocks that could be dangerous." He couldn't help but worry about her. She'd saved his life by rescuing him from the feds and by helping him to get around in this human world. In return, he would protect hers.

"This is as far as I'm going to go. But you worry too much. These water falls aren't that big, and they're really spaced out. And—there's not a single rock that I've stepped over so far. It's all just a really fine, mushy clay type ground." She squished her toes in it. It felt really good and relaxing. "Oh, Zee, if only you could feel this!"

He wished he could. He really did. But he couldn't. He'd only be able to analyze how fine the dirt specks were, and imagine how they would compare to other substances that had the same density. Ro began to kick the water with her feet. It was tons of fun seeing the diamond specks go flying through the air as the caught the sunlight.

"Come on in!" she insisted.

"I can't."

"Sure you can. No one's here."

Why was she insisting? She knew well enough that he couldn't experience the same enjoyment he could. "It's not smart."

She began to take large, sloshy steps towards him. "You'll just be missing out if you don't." He didn't seem persuaded at all. "Oh, come on! No one's here!"

He quickly looked around the entire area, then scanned again with his X-ray vision. No one was hiding behind any of the rocks. He removed his feminine hologram, and resumed his regular stature, then took two steps into the water. It was a good thing that his titanium alloy wouldn't rust. Even on his robotic face Ro could see that he wasn't amused. It was hard to tell what Zee's emotions were when he was in his synthoid form. It nearly lacked expression entirely. She hated it. It wasn't fit for the being that it contained inside of it. It could express Zeta, but not Zee.

"Not like that!"

Of course, it would be foolish for him to get caught in this form. He began to shrink, and he replaced his feminine appearance. His hologram, right above his calves where the water reached was blurred. He could see his metal skin right above the first two inches where the water reached. From there it gradually resumed it's realistic appearance and didn't become so washed out. He knew why the hologram did this. It typically worked by creating an entire field around him, working in select sections of his body. The section that was under water wasn't activated at all, and the section right above his knee was working in perfect condition. The section at his knee was what was struggling as half was in the water, while the other half wasn't. This was the wishy washy part that looked unrealistic. "Better?" he asked.

Ro surveyed him, holding her chin with one hand, and resting her other hand on her hip. She was tired of seeing him in that appearance. She was almost forgetting that he was really a guy underneath it all. "Can we just pretend that we're not at camp for a while?" she asked, almost in a pleading tone. She was playing with the dirt at her feet with her big toe, looking down at the dirt swirls in the water it made before the water became cloudy in his particular area.

Why did she have to make things hard for him to guess? Couldn't she just tell him what it was that she wanted? He wondered what portion of his confusion was based on the fact that he was generally under a masculine persuasion, and what part was just his own lack of programming to understand human emotion. And what percent was Ro just being indiscrete? Surely if he thought about it long enough it would come to him. "You want me to pretend that the feds are after us?"

What a space case he was. She'd have to spell it out for him. She walked through the water, more easily once it was down to her knees again. She found she couldn't look him in the face as she explained, "I guess, I miss seeing you as you usually are… I mean it's fun having a best friend here at girls camp, but it's been so long I think I'm forgetting what you usually look like." She'd emphasized the "girls" part of camp.

She like his masculine holomorph better than she liked this feminine. In a second, when Ro looked up Zee was before her. "Better?" he asked, remembering to use his regular voice.

"Much better." She almost wanted to reach her arms around him and tell him how good it was to have him back, but he'd never really gone anywhere. What did she mean "almost" ? She did want to reach her arms around him. And why shouldn't she? She slid her arms though his holograph and found his waist. She hugged it gently, lightly resting her head on his chest. "This week has been really fun," she said, "Thanks for being a part of it." He was about to compulsively wrap his arms around her as well when she released him. Someone was coming.

If he'd been paying closer attention he might have heard them sooner. Then again, with the monotonous droning of the water falls, it was hard to hear anyone coming. This person wasn't coming from the trail though. It was coming from the top of the water falls! It wasn't just one person either. It was several.

"Looks like this is the end," a young male voice was saying above them.

"Bucky?" Ro asked, then shouted.

"Someone call?" he asked. His face next appeared at the top of the water fall, off to the side.

"Ro! Zee! What are you doing here?" he asked.

"We were going to ask you the same question!"

"Hey guys! Check this out!" Bucky called his friends over. One by one faces began to appear at the top of the water fall along side Bucky. "How do we get down?" Bucky asked.

"You think I know?" Ro retorted.

"Wait right there, we're going to find a way down," Bucky called to them.

Like they would dream of leaving. This was far too interesting to walk away from. Ro distanced herself from Zee a little. Bucky and his friends disappeared from the top of the waterfall. Ro truly wondered how they were going to get down. They didn't look prepared to swim so she didn't think that they were going to jump down. She wasn't sure about how deep the water would be either. She patiently waited for a few minutes. The sound of twigs breaking and bushes rustling to the side of them let them know they were coming closer. They'd found a way around the side of the water falls and had managed to climb down.

Bucky and his friends were dressed in various patterns of camouflage. They all looked rather dirty and sweaty as well. They'd been hiking for some time it looked like. "What are you doing here?" Ro asked him.

"Been hiking, and a little exploring" he said simply.

"Well, good job. You found someone."

"We weren't looking for you."

"Then what were you looking for?"

"We were actually following this one trail… It ended at the creek above us. So we decided to do a little exploring and rock hopping and followed the creek and found ourselves here. We knew it had to dump into the lake as we'd been hiking up hill to get to it. We just didn't expect to find this."

"Welcome to hidden falls," Ro said sarcastically. Her sarcasm was laced with a little sourness for Bucky having intruded on her small sanctuary. But, as she was a little happy to see him, she wouldn't be too hard on him.

"Hidden falls, really?" One of the boys behind Bucky asked. "Are there any girls nearby?"

"EXCUSE ME!" Ro snapped. What did he think was in front of him?

"Oh sorry. I didn't mean to insult you it's just that…"

What, was she not pretty enough for his tastes? "I'm just what?" she glowered.

"Available," he squeaked. Ro had this look in her eyes that sent chills up his spine—chills more cold that the ones he got from jumping into the lake.

If he'd meant to say "pretty", but had changed his mind and given her safe answer instead she'd never know. Still, she wasn't really single… It must have just seemed that way because she was hugging Zee. But how could he have seen that? They weren't in sight when she'd done it. She'd heard them coming before they'd have been in sight. Or maybe just seeing them together led him to that conclusion?

"So, how far is your camp from here?" Bucky asked.

"A few minutes hike. It's all downhill so it should be easier."

"Thank goodness. We've had our share of physical exercise of the day."

Everyone behind him muttered and nodded in agreement. "You're still going to hike back," Zee commented.

"Yeah, but it will be shorter if we go around this way."

"What makes you think you can just come through our camp because it's shorter?"

"We let you come through ours."

His smug look made Ro's temper flare a little. He was right, but did he have to rub it in? "You can try, but we're not prepared to escort you through."

"No need, we'll take care of it ourselves."

She hoped that he really was capable of taking care of himself and that they didn't get caught or sent home. "How long do you have until you have to head back?" she asked.

"Not long. We might be a little late as it is."

"I guess that you should probably start back soon then."

"We should accompany them," Zee commented.

It was probably the nice thing to do. "I'll get my shoes and pants on, then," Ro said. But, as she turned to the rock that she'd put her pants on, they were gone! Did she put them on another rock? She hurried over to the rock, lightly stepping over the smaller pebbles that surrounded it. Her feet quickly turned brown from the fine dirt mixed in with the pebbles. She searched on the ground around the rock. Where had her pants gone? "Zee, did you put them somewhere?" she asked frantically.

"I haven't. I've been here with you."

"This had better not be your idea of a practical joke!" the turned on Bucky.

"Don't look at us! We haven't been anywhere near those rocks. We came from around the side over there, remember?"

How did she know that there weren't more of them hiding in the bushes, ready to steal her things when she was preoccupied with them. "You swear?" she asked him.

"Honest! We didn't take your pants! We were just hiking!"

She looked at each one of the boys. None of them looked guilty, or that they were trying to pretend to be innocent. They didn't look like they were part of a larger operation either. "I can't just walk back like this!" Ro exclaimed. She wasn't wearing anything but a bathing suit and a shirt! Walk—she looked to where she'd left her shoes. It would he hard to walk in her bare feet. Her shoes an socks were still there, luckily. She still couldn't believe that her pants were gone. She looked around one more time for them but they were gone.

"What's the big deal?" Bucky asked.

"I can't come back to the camp looking like this!" Sure she could explain that she'd only been wading, but she just as easily could have been swimming. And how would it look if she was found with out any pants and a group of boys trailing behind her? It would not be good at all. Also, if she tripped, she'd have no protection for her legs. What if the mosquitoes came out too? She hadn't thought about that. Here she was by a large concentration of water with no repellent on. Her legs would probably be spotted with bites by the time she got back. What was most upsetting, was that her pants were gone to begin with. Someone had took them, but who?

Ro began to lead the group back onto the trail. She thought looking for foot prints would be helpful, but she really couldn't distinguish what were her and Zee's prints, and what were the intruder's. Zee could though. It's a large group of them. There are about six different sets of prints here. Six. Wasn't that the number of towels they collected on the first day here at camp? Oh no. Please don't let it have been Redwood. They would love nothing more than to get Ro in trouble from having been with a bunch of boys at the hidden falls. Then again, it wasn't her fault Bucky had showed up. But what about Zee? Had they seen him holomorph? She felt absolutely sick. Her pants linked her with the crime scene. She had to get the back, or to stop Redwood before they told a counselor. They were going to be in big trouble, especially if Redwood went to fetch a counselor, and bring them back with them. Even worse, what if they went to call the feds? "We have to hurry!" Ro shouted, and began to lead the party back down the trail. They had to catch up with them. Undoubtedly they would be running back as well.

One of the boys asked while struggling to keep up with the group. "Don't you have another friend? She was, pretty dark-haired... fair skin?" he asked.

They thought that Zee was pretty? Oh no. She couldn't have them falling for a make-believe girl who was actual a male synthoid in disguise. "Yeah. She's back at camp. She didn't come with me." Please let him as well as all of Bucky's friends be simple minded and not realize the similarities between Zee, and Zee. She purposely didn't mention his name, and his girl name as she didn't want them to connect the similarities between the names with the persons.

Another boy asked, "What cabin are you staying at, Zee? We haven't seen you all week!"

They were in trouble now. "I'm actually a park ranger for the camp grounds. I'm not really one of the campers," he lied. What a smart, safe answer.

"Why weren't you in uniform then?" More trouble.

"I wasn't on duty yet."

"Didn't you have a friend with you? What was his name…"

"Ron," Ro said quickly. She then cursed herself for having just picked a name so similar to her own! It was her fault because she was thinking about the similarities in Zee's names so of course she would think of one similar to her own and accidentally spit it out. She especially cursed herself for having thought of such a dumb name as she hadn't mentioned their name when she was there.

"Haven't seen much of him either. Is he also a park ranger?"

"Not really," Ro spoke quickly.

They were hurrying down the path when Zee suddenly threw his arm out in front of Ro, stopping her so quickly she nearly slipped and fell over. "They're coming!"

Who was coming? Agents, or counselors and Redwood? She couldn't see much of them as they were really far away on the path below them. Small specs, but they were getting closer fairly quickly. Should they hide? Half of the boys darted behind trees on the path. "Ro! Do you still have that gadget I gave you from gizmo shack? The bracelet type thing?" Zee asked her a little loudly.

Dr. Edmund's bracelet? He had it. She'd returned it to him shortly after they'd arrived back at the camp. While his back was to Bucky, but facing Ro he surreptitiously pulled it out of his chest and handed it to her. "Yeah…" she stuttered. He'd been referring to it in code so no one would recognize it for what it was.

"Use it!" he instructed her.

She quickly put it on, and the image of a young boy began to cover her, complete with pants and a different shirt. She was in disguise now, and her pants problem was solved! She just wished that the hologram didn't look so much like herself, but there wasn't much they could do now.

"Ron!" One of the boys commented. "So you had her use the bracelet so you could sneak her into the boy's camp? Sneaky," he remarked.

"Get out from behind the trees!" Zee instructed them. Confused, as it'd been their instinct to hide, they crept out from behind the trees. "Start walking down the path, slowly and casually. Act like nothing's wrong!"

Hesitantly they got in their formation again, and began to walk down the slopes again. In a few minutes the group of six girls camp trooping up the path in front of them along with their camp director, Marianne, and Jennifer. It was Redwood, alright. Jennifer looked worried while Marianne looked smug. The director looked mad.

"YOU there!" the director shouted pointing to the group of boys. What are you doing here?" she demanded. Each looked at each other with a befuddled look.

"Sorry?" Zee spoke. "Is something wrong?"

"You've crossed over the line of the boy's camp, and are now in the girls' camp boundaries."

Zee's face changed to an apologetic one. "Oh, we're very sorry! We were following this trail from our camp, and found this one creek. We were just following it to see where it ended up when we found this trail. We're so sorry! We didn't realize this was a part of your camp!"

"You have some really beautiful water falls," Bucky added. He could see where this was going.

Zee's performance was so good, Ro almost believed that they were innocent. She was going to make a point of not speaking though as she couldn't really disguise her voice.

"Where is she! Where's that girl that was with you!" an accusing voice came from behind the director. It was Cynthia. She held Ro's pants in her tight fist.

"Who?" Zee asked.

"Ro, she's looking for Ro," Jennifer said humbly. She didn't say anything at all about how Ro had said she wanted to go hiking with Zee to the hidden falls. It would get her in trouble for having let them off with just a cell phone as a third person. Then again, if things became serious, she'd have to confess her fault. Ro's life was more important than her job. She was feeling rather guilty at the moment for possibly having some responsibility in this.

"We saw her down at the water falls!" another venomous voice came from the group behind the director. "She was with him," she said, specifically pointing at Zee, "and the rest of them!"

"'We just came from the water falls. No one was there," Jerry spoke up. He'd caught onto what was going on as well.

"I have proof she was there!" Cynthia seethed.

"You have a pair of pants, how is that proof?" Bucky snidely asked. He loved revenge, even if it wasn't his own.

"These are hers!"

"Is her name sewn in them?" Bucky asked. "How do we know that they're not yours, and that you're trying to pass them off as this Ro girl's? And are you the kind of person to stoop to stealing someone else's pants because you're too poor to afford your own?"

Someone behind Bucky oohed, "Burn!"

The director shouted for silence. She really wasn't taking the situation well. Jennifer had lightened up. She knew that something was up, and that these boys were covering for Ro and Zee somehow, but she didn't know how they were exactly doing it or why. In her heart, though, she knew Ro and Zee were safe somewhere, and she was highly relieved. But she was still concerned as Cynthia had been complaining about Ro and group of boys, but not about Zee. Where was Zee in all of this? Hadn't they gone off together?

"She's hiding somewhere! I know it!" Cynthia raged. She stepped out in front of the group and began to push her way through the group of boys. Ro squeezed her way to the back of the group.

"Cynthia!" Marianne restrained her.

"We'll be going to check and see if she's there in person, thank you," the director commented. "But I can't just leave you young gentlemen here, and I can't let you go unescorted through our camp…" She'd emphasized the young part more than the gentlemen part.

"Jennifer, please escort these young men back to their camp, and see to it that their counselors are notified of the situation, and how they were found over here." Ro was glad that Jennifer would be escorting them rather than Marianne.

"That's not fair!" Carl protested. "How were we supposed to know that this was your camp's trail?" He was speaking out of turn, rather than as a part of Zee's plot. Then again, getting in trouble had never been a part of his plan. He'd assumed they'd be let off the hook for a honest mistake, but it didn't seem that way.

"The trails are unmarked as to whether they're part of the girls' camp or boys' camp," Jennifer added quietly.

It would be an injustice indeed for them to be punished for being ignorant of this. Especially if the trails were unmarked. Still, the director couldn't help but think that there were up to mischief to begin with. The fact that they managed to find their way into the girls' camp scared her. "I guess it would be unfair. Just take them back to their camp then, and explain to their counselor the misunderstanding."

Beautiful. Simply beautiful. Could Zee scheme, or could he scheme?

"But he's the one she was with!" Alexandria pointed at Zee.

She didn't mention anything about Zee being a synthoid. None of them mentioned seeing Zee in his girl appearance there either. They must have walked in while they were distracted when they were talking with Bucky and his friends.

"I'm sorry. I haven't been seeing anyone from your camp," Zee said--oh so innocently.

Ro was waiting for Cynthia to spontaneously combust from anger.

It was Jennifer who noticed that something was weird. She looked over at Ro. "What's your name?" she asked Ro.

"That's Ron," one of the boys spoke up so Ro didn't have to answer.

"Is your name Ron?" she asked him. Everyone laughed. Jennifer took a step closer so that she was standing in front of Ro. She looked deeply into her eyes. "What's your name?"

"Ron," Ro's voice squeaked. Jennifer's gaze seemed seem to show that suspected something was up, but not that Ron was really Ro in disguise.

"Ron here reminds me of Ro. He's got blonde hair and blue eyes like Ro, and he's about the same height, weight and build as Ro. Could it be that you've mistaken him for Ro?" Jennifer asked Cynthia.

"I did not! I know I saw her!"

Unfortunately the director seemed to be leaning towards Jennifer's explanation more than Cynthia's. "I have her pants!" Cynthia shouted.

"I'm not going to get into how wrong it was for you to take them, but that would be pending on if you really did take them from the scene or if you snuck into her tent—which would be far worse of an offense. I would have to call your parents if it turned out that you were sneaking into other girl's tents and taking their things. Are you sure that these are Ro's and that you found them on a rock at the hidden falls?"

Ro would have imagined that Cynthia would be crying from frustration, but no tears were running down her face. She was shrieking in rage, "I saw her! These are hers!"

Her friends behind her all testified the same thing. However, they were unsure now if it really was Ro that they'd seen. They would continue to stand behind the fact that they'd found the pants rather than take them as they didn't want the director to call their parents.

"Very well. I will have to see for myself."

"I'll bet she knows we're coming by now and she's gone off into hiding," Marianne commented. "You've certainly been yelling loud enough, Cynthia." Marianne was getting the strong feeling that Ro would not be there. She would start planting the doubt now so that if Ro really wasn't there, her girls wouldn't be in too much trouble for this stunt. "There might be some unmarked trails like the one the boys followed that Ro might have gone off to pursue."

Smart excuse. Ro wondered why they didn't try to back track and go through the boys' camp then try to sneak in back to the girls' camp later.

"Let's hurry then," the director said, pushing on ahead on the trail.

Jennifer lingered behind to take the group of boys back to her camp. She didn't start walking immediately, but waited until the director and Marianne and her girls had gone off ahead some distance. She stepped out in front of the group of boys and addressed them. "Boys. Ro is one of my campers. I know that something's up, and that you may be covering for her. But, please I need to know. I she and Zee okay?"

"We'd like to tell you that they are, but we can't as we didn't see anyone there," Bucky apologized. "If they were heading to the falls, we would have seen them on our way here."

Jennifer smiled, but was only a little reassured. "Maybe she changed her mind, and they didn't go to the falls, but on another trail?" she said hopefully.

"I'll be that's what it is," Zee tried to sound reassuring.

Jennifer wished that she'd taken Zee's number so that she could call them. "I hope they turn up soon," she sighed.

She then began to lead them back along the trail. They made it back to the main road of the camp and began to walk along it. Girls were poking their heads out of their tents to get a glimpse at the parade of boys going by. Ro couldn't help but blush. She wondered if the hologram she was wearing was blushing. Is this was Zee felt like when he was over at Bucky's cabin in his feminine form? Then again, he wouldn't feel this kind of embarrassment, would he?

At the border of the girls' and boys' camp, there was one of the counselors from the girls' side. Jennifer would have to go into the boys' camp to talk to one of their counselors as there wasn't one patrolling the road.

"Uh… this is actually our cabin," Bucky spoke up as Jennifer came up to it. She'd escorted them back, but hadn't found one of their counselors yet to let him know what was up.

Ro already knew she was going to let them off easy. It wasn't worth her time to hunt one down when she could be cleaning up their campsite, or helping girls work on their skits. "I'm going to let you off here then. I trust that when you see your counselor you'll tell him what's up."

"Oh, of course," Bucky said.

"Liar," Jennifer called his bluff. "No matter though. I'm sure you'll boast about it to each other and your counselor will find out sooner or later." That was probably true. "If you find out anything about Ro or Zee, please, feel free to send word over. With one of your counselors, mind you."

With that she headed back to the camp to look for Ro and Zee. "Inside, everyone," Bucky instructed everyone.

Inside of their cabin Ro dared to turn off the bracelet. "We've got to get back soon!" Ro exclaimed. "Poor Jennifer! Can't you see she's worried sick about us?"

"We?" Bucky commented. "I'm not going anywhere."

Nice save. She'd forgotten that Zee was a guy again, so she had to account for the fact that they didn't know he was really a girl as well. "Right, sorry."

"Well, I've got to get going back to my patrol," Zee excused himself. "See you guys later!" He turned to Ro, and winked. It seemed only proper if he were really pretending that she was his girlfriend. He left the cabin and hurried down the road. He'd only have to kill a few minutes before returning to the cabin to reassure Ro that he had a plan.

He pulled out the phone and dialed a number, then held it up to his ear. In his feminine voice, but in an extra flirty tone he spoke, "HI! I'd like a delivery made to camp Pico Blanco, cabin B3. Yes, you remembered me! Just something quick. I don't have a lot of time to wait. Maybe an order of crazy bread? I know it's not big, but I can make it worth your time… Thank you very much. Twenty minutes? No problem. I'll be impatiently waiting!" He did a quick girly laugh then hung up. Things were set. He then turned and headed back to Bucky's cabin. –Twenty minutes, the guy would be speeding to get here that quickly.

He knocked the same rhythmic pattern on the door that the boy had used the time that they'd been escorted from the boy's cabin on the far end to Bucky's cabin.

The door opened. Zee was standing there in his feminine appearance, looking a little surprised. "It worked!" he exclaimed. He stepped into Bucky's cabin.

"Zee? What are you doing here?" Ro asked.

"Zee? You have two friends named Zee?" someone asked.

"Yeah. The park patrol on, and Zee," Ro smiled. He was back.

"What are you doing over here?" Zee asked. "I was coming over here to see if I could use one of your computers to check my email."

"I got hung up at the hidden falls. I ran into this crowd, would you believe it? But it's a long story. –Listen, I need to get back. They're looking for me, and for you as well."

"I ordered some crazy bread from the pizza place a few minutes ago as payment for being able to use one of your computers." Like a pizza delivery guy would really go out of his way to deliver crazy bread. It had to be because Zee tipped him so much yesterday. "It will be here in about twenty minutes."

They might be a little late for dinner, but it was better late than never. "We need to get going right about now, but you're welcome to use the computer," Bucky motioned toward his laptop. The reason Jennifer hadn't seen any counselors was because they were all at an activity that Bucky was supposed to be at now. The boys quickly packed up and headed off, leaving them alone in the cabin. They didn't have a chance to talk to Bucky about whether or not he'd had any luck finding anything else on his computer.

In twenty minutes, the pizza delivery guy arrived, right on time. "You found the place!" Zee said in the same tone he'd used on the phone. Ro couldn't believe it. He was flirting with the delivery guy!

"It was easy. I came here yesterday, remember?"

"I know, but that time we were at the road entrance…" Ro knew there had to be some reason for this act.

"This your cabin?" he asked Zee.

What a stupid question. Like Zee would invite him in. It also definitely wasn't this guy's place to even be asking!"

"My younger brother stays in this cabin. I was just over here to check my email. But it took a while because his computer was having problems," Zee said sweetly. Ro felt sick. This was just wrong.

"I hope things worked out then."

"They did. Thanks for your concern."

"I have your order," the delivery boy remembered.

"How much do I owe you?" Zee asked.

While he wanted to tell Zee that it was free of charge he couldn't because it was a delivery, and a rather small one at that. "There's a minimum delivery fee…"

"No problem," Zee said. He pulled out his cred card and heavily paid and tipped the guy. Unfortunately this caused him to think that Zee was even more keen towards him than he really was.

Zee had other things in mind. "Thank you," he said, then took the crazy bread from him and began walking with Ro back towards their camp.

"Need a lift?" he asked as they walked off. It wasn't company policy, but who would find out?

"Sure!" Zee chimed.

Ro was appalled now. The delivery guy held the door open to his truck. "I'm Steve, by the way.'

"I'm Zee," Zee said. "Coming?" he asked Ro.

There had to be a good reason for this. Ro climbed into the truck next to him. The delivery guy turned around and started driving them to the girls' camp. He was stopped at the border line buy the counselor on duty. Zee and Ro slouched in the seat so that the counselor wouldn't see them.

"Just making a delivery," he waived off her scrutinizing eye. She let him pass, but was very wary about the matter.

"Where do you want to be dropped off?" he asked.

"Right here's fine," Zee told him, sitting up again. "Sorry about that back there. We're not actually not supposed to leave the boundary of the camp."

"So that's what the patrol is for."

"Yeah, thanks for the ride. It would have been a long way walking back."

Too bad most people didn't keep barf bags in their glove compartments, because Ro felt she was going to need one.

The pizza guy brought his truck to a stop in the middle of the road. They weren't quite at the campsites yet, but pretty much out of the eye of the counselor at the border. "Thanks!" Zee said, getting out of the truck along with Ro.

"You're welcome," he replied, then turned around and drove off. He would already be in trouble if anyone found out he'd given them a ride. He didn't need to get in trouble for flirting with them as well. He wasn't going to press the relationship any further. It had been fun, and at least he was well paid for this trip.

Zee handed Ro the bag of crazy bread, "Don't throw the bag away. We need it."

Ro took the bag from him, but didn't really feel like eating. She couldn't believe what had just happened. "You were flirting with the delivery guy!!!" Ro accused him.

Why was she upset? Was she jealous? He hadn't been Ro's type, so he didn't think this was the case ."I'm sorry, did I do it wrong? I thought I was using the same tone and gestures that you use when you want to persuade someone to do a special favor for you."

Did this synthoid have to monitor her every move? Sure she'd used her feminism to get things that she wanted, but seeing Zee do it to someone else made her…jealous? She felt as mad as the time that Zee had kissed Tiffy, her sister from her adopted family. She felt like she'd been slapped across her face. But why was she so mad? It wasn't like Zee was flirting with a girl! How ridiculous. Synthoids weren't capable of real flirting, or were they? There were so many new peculiar personality traits in Zee that she knew were strictly a result from the conscience chip. Was it possible that he had more typical emotions than the average synthoid as a result from the module as well? Oay, everything about Zee seemed like a big mystery. Her only comfort was knowing that she seemed like just as big of a mystery to him as he was to her.

"Playing on someone's emotions with your sexuality isn't something you should do for favors," she tried to tactfully instruct him. She made a mental note that she herself would be more careful about watching herself to see that she wasn't being a hypocrite.

"I'm sorry. I wanted to make sure he was here in time so that we could make it to dinner on time. I couldn't wait for him to put a pizza in the oven for a delivery so I had to convince him to come out here with a small order, regardless of policy."

"I'm sorry for nagging or scolding. You did well," she complimented him.

As they began to walk towards the campsites girls all over began shouting their names. Apparently everyone was looking for them. Ro stupidly held the bag of crazy bread in her hands. It wasn't long before Jennifer was there to greet them. She hugged Ro tightly, "I'm so glad you're safe." Before she could reach over to hug Zee, he stepped back.

"Zee's a little touchy," Ro explained.

"Sorry," Jennifer apologized.

In a few minutes, the director was summoned as well. Redwood conveniently joined the crowd. They had been scolded for having led everyone on a crazy goose chase. The would have been severely scolded if it weren't for the fact that Ro and Zee were actually missing. The director looked absolutely exhausted, but with her fair share of irritation as she asked, "Do girls know what a scare you've put everyone through?"

"Scare?" Ro asked innocently.

"What's going on?" Zee asked.

Jennifer explained to Ro, "Cynthia said that she saw you with a boy at the hidden falls. Naturally concerned we went to look for you. But, you weren't there! That's when we started to look for you and couldn't find you anywhere! We were worried that you and Zee had gone off hiking by yourselves and that you both might have gotten hurt."

"Oh, no! We just went to the edge of the road to wait for the pizza delivery guy," Zee explained. The bag in Ro's hand was proof that they weren't lying. It even still felt warm.

"Are these yours?' someone asked. A pair of pants was shoved in front of Ro's face.

"Thos aren't mine," Ro said, trying to sound casual. She wasn't going to be mean enough to set them up with having stolen them from her tent. After all, they really were her pants.

Cynthia screamed, "Liar! I saw you with those boys!"

"Boys? You mean the pizza delivery guy?"

There was no way Cynthia could win. Ro was holding the bag of crazy bread in her hand, and there was no way Cynthia could prove the pants were Ro's if Ro didn't admit they were hers.

The director had had it. "Girls. I am very disappointed with you. Setting someone up for a phone call home or expulsion from camp, is not the kind of pranks we approve of here. Your parents will all be getting phone calls home. Keep this up, and you'll be sent home, and you will not be allowed back to this camp ever again! Now, just for the record, whose pants are these really?"

One of the Redwood girls stepped up. They knew no one believed them or ever would believe them. "They're mine," she spoke up. The director had already decided in her mind that they were guilty of trying to set Ro and Zee up. It would be best not to anger the director even more now by continuing to tell the truth. Marianne believed them though. She would prevent the director from being too harsh to their parents, not that their parents really cared. They'd simply call them on their cell phones a minute later and explain what really had happened.

"Thank you," the director sighed, frustrated. "The truth at a last." She wasn't going to further interrogate them and make then confess that they'd never seen Ro either. She'd leave them some dignity.

Ro was trying very hard not to smile. Zee had a serious expression on his face. The director turned to them, "You two are another story. Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going?"

"Well… we didn't think that we needed to tell someone where we were going if we were still inside of the camp grounds. We weren't even on the trails," Ro explained. She wouldn't let the director put them on the hot spot. They weren't going to get in trouble.

"I'm concerned with the fact that you invited a stranger onto our premises," the director next addressed the issue of having the delivery guy driving through the campsite.

"We were waiting for him at the road. We didn't invite him into the site. You might want to talk to whichever counselor is on patrol."

The counselor was summoned. "He said he had a delivery…" she said, feeling rather scared for her job.

The director was tired of hearing this bickering. "No more deliveries are to be made inside of the camp. They are all to be picked up at the road entrance. Girls, next time, please tell several people where you'll be next time. Now, girls," she said turning to Redwood, "I'll be calling your parents."

News that they were missing had reached the lake and dock, but no one particularly felt concerned to give up their prized canoe to go look for Ro. They could simply say that they'd remain here to make sure that she didn't reappear there. Ro almost thought that she should be a little hurt that Mandy hadn't at least come in to look for them, but she knew that Mandy knew better than to worry about them or if they'd disappeared. If someone said that they were hiking to the falls, it could just have been an excuse for Ro and Zee to sneak over to the boy's camp on the trail she showed them. No one would be able to find them if they were hiding at the boy's camp. She knew they were safe, and suspected that this was actually where they were. She wasn't worried. One thing was for sure, though, she'd be asking them what had happened when they came back.

Most everyone was late to dinner as the excitement of Ro and Zee's return had delayed them in getting to the mess hall. Mandy hadn't wanted to come in from the lake, but the counselor had insisted that she was hungry, and she did want to call it an evening. Mandy sat with Ro and Zee for dinner, but didn't ask them about what really had happened. Too many unsuspecting ears were listening in on their conversation.

There was only one skit tonight as they'd had an extended free time hour, and dinner was late. They'd only planned to have one skit today. The last two skits would be performed tomorrow. Laurel had to do their skit before Redwood, who'd drawn the last card. The skit was, really good. The time you had to prepare did make a difference. What was even more impressive was that the skit seemed really original. Someone from another camp, though, commented that they'd seen a similar skit before at another camp.

"Are we getting up early again?" Ro asked Mandy on their way to the showers.

"No, and that's the best part. We've gotten them two days in a row. They're going to be on their guard tonight. They're going to have a miserable night of sleep, waiting and anticipating for when we'll come, but the best part is we won't be coming at all!"

"What if they had different plans than that? What if they actually plan to come and do something to us. We've only had one prank played on us the entire time."

"The pranks do seem to be highly concentrated on Redwood this year. The boys seemed to have lightened up a bit too. Usually Laurel is hit the worst because we're closest to the edge of their camp. Maybe because we know those guys so well, they've told everyone else at their camp to lay off? But don't get me wrong, several other campsites here have had small pranks on them. Some of the girls said they woke up with make up all over their faces. I'll bet it was just their tent-mates having a little fun, trying to blame the prank on someone else though. Another girl said that someone took her bra and got it wet, then put it in the kitchen freezer. It was returned to her the next morning, frozen solid."

"Should we sleep light too?"

"You can, but I'll bet Jennifer will catch them if they try and sneak over."

"I'm a light sleeper too," Zee offered. He'd definitely be awake all night long.

"No need to worry then!"

A hot shower would have felt nice, especially after swimming in cold water all day long, but by the time that they got in line for the showers, the warm water had run out. Zee wouldn't have known though as he always took a cold shower. He was waiting outside of the shower stall for Ro when someone in the bathrooms loudly shouted, "Does anyone have any tampons?" He found that he didn't know what to do in this awkward moment. He told his hologram to stop looking embarrassed, and as if he didn't know what to do with himself. He began to wonder if she should naturally be carrying tampons on him as a precaution. He'd never had to deal with this thing with Ro before. She took care of herself and her own hygiene. She'd never asked him to go to the store to pick up some. She even spared him from talking about it. "You're a synthoid. This kind of thing shouldn't concern you. You're supposed to understand both gender perspectives. You don't need to feel uneasy about this sort of thing," he told himself. But, he was only trying to fool his own senses. Playing two genders was hard. He was far more experienced at playing the male gender. He was at the point where playing the female gender was actually work. Luckily, another girl had one in her toiletry's bag.

As Ro climbed into her sleeping bag back at the campsite she whispered to Zee, "I really enjoyed today."

"But, Ro, we almost got caught! I nearly revealed myself!"

"Nearly, but didn't. I don't think they know. The feds would have been here by now."

"They might still be coming."

"Then you keep an ear out and we'll bolt if they do. Good night, tin man," she whispered.

Redwood was very careless when they tried to sneak into their campsite at 2:00 in the morning. They clumsily couldn't even made it past the first tent without waking up the girls inside. The girls had turned on their flashlights, looked through their windows to scan the area before going back to bed. Redwood only waited a whole minute before trying to move forward again. "Ten minutes, you've got to wait a whole ten minutes!" Mandy would have said if she'd been there. "Ten minutes makes sure that they've had enough time to fall asleep again. Twenty if you're really not sure."

Apparently, Redwood was only concerned with delivering their packages. Very tiny objects began to rain over their camp, landing in scattered positions everywhere on the ground. It was two minutes before the campers realized what they'd done. Skunk scented stink bombs. The whole camp stank with the putrid smell. Girls were waking up, unable to breath because of the smell. Ro began to cough. She covered her nose with her sleeping bag, but it was still hard to breathe. "Those things should be considered a biochemical hazard," she coughed. Something had to be done. They had to be removed or the smell would never leave. But no one could get near one. Two girls had even thrown up from the bad smell. It wasn't entirely skunk, but had several other putrid smells to it.

Jennifer was going to be the one to hold her breath to get close to one, pick it up and dispose of it, but Zee offered. "I've got a little sinus congestion so I can't smell anything, anyway," he explained. He really was just going to turn off his olfactory sensors to get close enough to them. Also, the smell wouldn't linger on him as he was made of metal, like it would on Jennifer or another camper. She handed him the garbage bag to pick it up in, like how an owner might scoop up their dog's poop. Zee went around and collected all of the stink bombs. What horrible little things they were. He tied the bag off, and the smell was mostly gone, but a large trace of it still lingered. Jennifer instructed girls to take their towels and begin fanning out the area. Other girls donated their body sprays to spray inside of the tents.

Zee was carrying the garbage bag to the dumpsters, but realized that if the trash wasn't immediately picked up, they would continue to smell during the night, as the dumpsters were fairly close to their campsite. He thought about tossing it in the lake, but that would be polluting. He had a much better idea of what to do with the stink bombs.

Redwood had gone off running and laughing after they'd thrown the bombs. His night vision turned on and he scanned for the foot prints, just to make sure. If this was one of Bucky's pranks he wouldn't want to accidentally seek revenge on the wrong group. No, the foot prints were in mass, and while they led away from Redwood's tents, they didn't lead back to them. Some of them had gone back to the bathroom while others appeared to be heading out to another campsite. Perfect. Redwood was trying to pretend that they'd gone to the bathrooms in order to try and convince people of their innocence.

He couldn't wait to sneak into their camp in another few hours as the potency of the stink bombs might have died down. He was lucky that he'd collected them so soon, to prevent their entire smell from dissipating into the Laurel campsite's air. His hologmorph began to change into Cynthia. Cynthia seemed to be the leader among Redwood. She was the safest person's identity to take over. Casually began to walk into the camp. He made his way over to their camping chairs. He found subtle places to hide the stink bombs, which smelled pretty rotten, but not enough to wake up the entire campsite anymore. He placed some under camping chairs, in the frame work. He placed a couple under the tables that they'd be meeting at for their educational hour, and few by their food cupboard. All tomorrow, they would be smelling the stink bombs, but not knowing where they were hidden. They'd be sniffing around for the concentration of the smell, but since he'd placed so many in discrete hiding spots, they'd never find them all. Either way, when they woke up, things would be smelling a little rotten. Laurel would eventually air out over the night because they'd removed the source. Redwood would be stinking until the girls removed all of the bombs, or until they took the smell home with them.

He had three left. He looked at the vacant tent. Redwood was still out playing pranks. He hurried over to their tent. No one was inside. He let himself in, and pulled one of the stink bombs from the bag and began to crumple it in his hand. He looked for one of their bags. Each conveniently had had their name embroidered onto their bags to personalize them. Seeing Cynthia's bag he began to sprinkle whatever it was that made the stink bomb stink so bad, inside of her bag. It sifted to the bottom of the bag, like sand. Now her clothes would smell awful for the rest of the week. He wondered if the smell even washed out… He pulled out another bomb and repeated the process for as two more of the bags. He couldn't say that he hadn't warned them not to leave Ro alone. He quickly exited their tent when he could sense that there were foot steps approaching from off in the distance. He'd made it! But, if he wanted to make this revenge really sweet, he'd linger around a little bit longer… His holomorph began to change as he hid behind a tree. When Cynthia and her friends came back he stepped out from behind the tree, "And where have you been ladies?" he asked in the director's voice.

They stood there, frozen, but not speechless. They'd had an excuse already planned. "We just came back from the bathroom."

"Do I need to send a plumber there? You were gone for a long time."

"That's not your business."

"Get to bed," he finished, then walked off, smiling to himself. He'd given them quite a scare.

"You were gone for a while, we were beginning to worry about you," Mandy said when they got back.

"I had to go some distance out to get rid of the stink bombs in a place where it wouldn't bother us anymore."

"Redwood isn't that far," Mandy laughed. She'd only been joking; she had no idea how truthful it really was.

"Don't be surprised if tomorrow hints of the smell reach your nose," he cautioned them.

Still, before he crawled into the sleeping bag Ro insisted that he be sprayed off as he'd been handling the stink bombs. While Zee had his hologram show small signs that it had been misted by a body spray, the spray was really collecting on his metal body, and was about to slowly roll down the front of it in small droplets. It wouldn't absorb into his "skin." Vanilla Lace, it was a very nice smell.

"So what did you do with them?" Ro asked.

"You'll find out tomorrow morning."