First meetings over, time for the teams, cabins, meals, and what Peyton thinks of Chef. Thanks for reviewing OmniIBIBUltraInstinctGodzilla and Gucci Mane LaFlare (correct!).
Soon enough, we were all sitting on the stumps outside the campfire pit. Chris welcomed us to Wawanakwa officially. It was like in summer camp books, how there was always a welcome campfire to start the first evening with notices about what to do during the coming weeks. Except it was daytime and the campfire was out.
"The campers sitting around you will be your cabinmates," Chris said, "Your competition, and maybe even your friends, you dig?"
At that moment, I saw the guy with the mohawk holding up a fist to Harold. Well, lucky he was a guy and I was sure he wouldn't be sharing my cabin. As for friends, I was hoping, but not with someone like him. Too scary.
Chris went on to talk about how the person who stayed the longest without getting voted off would win the hundred grand we were all vying for. Well, duh.
The guy with the mohawk spoke up. "Excuse me," he said, "What will the sleeping arrangements be? Because I'd like to request a bunk under her."
He jerked a thumb at the Asian girl, whose eyes widened. "They're not co-ed, are they?" she said, sounding nervous.
"No," Chris assured her. "Girls get one side of each cabin and dudes get the other."
The blue-eyed blonde raised her hand. "Excuse me, Kyle? Can I have a cabin with a lake view, since I'm the prettiest?" Debatable. I wouldn't mind saying that she was prettier than me, but the Asian girl was definitely prettier than her and I personally thought Courtney was, too. I mean, I also thought Leshawna was, but probably that was specific to people who like big-boned beauties.
Chris apparently did agree with her. "Okay, you are, but that's not really how it works here. And it's Chris."
Katie and Sadie were also pretty concerned about their sleeping arrangements. They held hands as they spoke. "I have to live with Sadie or I'll die." Katie told the host.
"And I'll break out in hives," Sadie added. "It's true."
"This cannot be happening," I heard the goth girl mutter.
Owen, however, pulled her and Tyler into what appeared to be affectionate headlocks. "Aw, come on, guys, it'll be fun! It's like a big sleepover!"
I heard Tyler whisper something, but couldn't hear what it was.
"Here's the deal," Chris went on. "We're going to split you into two teams. If I call your name out, go stand over there." My name wasn't called for this, but as each camper whose name was called moved, I tried to commit them to memory, especially the names I didn't know.
The first name called was Gwen. This turned out to be the goth girl. The Asian girl turned out to be called Heather, and the blue-eyed blonde was Lindsay. The team also had Trent, Cody, Beth, Katie, Owen, Justin, Noah and…Leshawna. That was not good news for me. How would I ever get both the chance and the confidence to talk to her?
The team was called the Screaming Gophers. It had a green symbol with a little yelling gopher on it.
The only bright spot, in my opinion, for my team at least, is that I'd actually ended up on the same team as the one person I'd spoken to. I'd only said a few words to DJ, but I was getting a good vibe from him. On the other hand, the one name I still hadn't heard was the name of the guy with the mohawk. He turned out to be called Duncan, and he was on my team. I was very pleased there was a divider between the two sides of the cabins, because I wouldn't have slept one minute with him in the same room as me. It looked like I'd be sharing with Bridgette, Courtney, Sadie and Izzy. Together with the guys (besides Duncan and DJ, we had Geoff, Tyler, Ezekiel and Harold), we were the Killer Bass, with a red symbol with a savage-looking fish on it.
Before Chris took us to unpack in our cabins, he showed us the confessional. It was a little outhouse with a camera in it. We were allowed to use it any time we wanted to talk to the audience, or if we just needed to vent.
Actually, I went to make a confessional as soon as I'd unpacked. "So…well…I'm here. On the island. It's just…well, I'm a little scared. What if I make a mistake I can't take back? Hopefully if I do, I'll get voted off and I'll never have to see anyone again when the summer's over. Most of the people seem nice, so hopefully I'll be okay." I shivered. "But I'm not so sure about a few of them."
Things went mostly smoothly in the cabins. Sadie said practically nothing, still sad at being separated from Katie. There were three bunk beds, so she took the bottom of one and didn't use the top. Courtney and Bridgette quickly chose their bunks, too. Courtney had the bottom one on one side, and Izzy took the top, so when Bridgette put her bag on the other top bunk, I was left with the one below her. I didn't have any preference for bunks, so that was all fine for me.
"So what do you think of the camp so far?" Bridgette asked. "I know it's not the five-star resort they said it was going to be, but it doesn't seem too bad."
"Uncomfortable, but could be worse." Courtney replied, perched on her bed. "It'll all be worth it to win that hundred thousand dollars."
"I think it's okay." I said softly. "We're roughing it a bit, but at least we got to bring pyjamas and makeup and music, and we've got beds. That's more than some reality shows do."
"I guess you're right." Courtney said, shrugging. "We've got it good in some ways."
"It's just for eight weeks," Bridgette added, "So we'll be back to normal life by the end of the summer. I just hope it stays hot."
Apart from all the campers and Chris, we were apparently totally on our own, as well. That felt kind of like a slice of freedom. It's the kind of feeling I got as a kid on the first day of summer vacation, but increased. Chris mentioned something about how all of us were sixteen, old enough to be CITs at real summer camps.
When he mentioned that, Courtney said to us girls, "I was actually a CIT last summer at a camp just out of Toronto. I was hoping that was one of the things that would help me out here. We did a lot of leadership tutorials and hikes and orienteering." I just hoped that didn't mean she was going to try and act like she was our counsellor. As I said, I didn't like confrontation, but I didn't like knuckling down, either. I mean, yeah, I'd listen to her, but if she got too bossy, I'd have to figure out whether I hated confrontation or being bossed around more. Tough choice.
Soon after that, we heard a piercing scream from the Screaming Gophers' cabins. The girls' side.
Half our team looked in with the rest of the Gophers. "Man, that white girl can scream." Leshawna commented.
Sure enough, Lindsay was standing on a stool, staring at a giant cockroach. "What is it? Kill it, kill it!"
DJ gave an almost louder scream and jumped on the nearest bunk, which nearly cracked under the pressure his jump caused.
"That was my bed." Gwen commented, scowling. And there were only six beds in the cabins.
Eventually, Duncan killed it. Don't even ask me where he got the axe, but it happened.
Tyler went in to tell Lindsay "If you ever see one of those again, just let me know, cause, you know, I could do that too."
Lindsay smiled adoringly at him.
"They always go for the jocks." Duncan muttered from the doorway. Well, Lindsay looked like a prom queen.
Lunch at the main lodge was more of an ordeal for me. Chef Hatchet, the camp cook, was a menace.
"Listen up!" he bellowed. "I serve it three times a day, and you'll eat it three times a day. Grab a tray, get your food, and sit your butts down NOW!"
I couldn't even look up at him, I was so scared of his yelling. I didn't know how Beth could ask about food groups, Owen could make jokes and Gwen could complain that her food moved.
Just as I was about to leave with my…thing that looked like a dead sloppy joe, I heard a voice ask "Yo, what's up, girl?"
I looked up to see Leshawna. She was looking straight at me. I managed to hold her gaze for one moment, and then I managed a small smile in reply. "Nothing much." I managed to say, hoping I sounded normal.
Leshawna smiled back and took her own tray off to one table. "See you later." I was just kind of flattered that she even bothered to speak to me. She'd been very aggressive with Harold earlier, but the fact that she bothered to be nice when she didn't have to say anything was sweet. I mean, it didn't mean anything. It couldn't have.
Everyone was sitting with their teams, although Katie and Sadie seemed to have mixed up where they were supposed to sit. In fact, Katie was sitting on one side of DJ. I sat on the other.
"Welcome to the main lodge!" Chris said from the doorway.
Geoff looked up. "Yo, my man, can we order a pizza?" He had to duck a meat cleaver Chef threw at him. "Whoa, it's cool, G! Brown slop is cool! Right, guys?"
Chris said our first elimination challenge started in one hour.
"What do you think they'll make us do?" Katie asked anxiously.
"It's our first challenge," DJ pointed out. "How hard can it be?"
Just under an hour later, everyone was in their swimsuits and standing on a clifftop, with shark-infested waters below.
And I think everyone heard DJ's mutter of "Oh, shit."
The challenge, like the episode, will be next chapter. I tried to get a little bit more original content in here. And yes, I had Leshawna speak to Peyton because she does that to Eva in canon. But unlike Eva, who just gives her a cold stare, Peyton actually replies.
And yeah, I didn't censor DJ. Come on, who DIDN'T know what he actually said? He got halfway through before it was bleeped out.