If you read Chapter 9's AU, please don't try to kidnap anyone. Thanks. Also, yet again, I base a chapter off of my life. I need to stop this.

*Ten years ago; Camp Triggerfish*

Pearl had felt awkward. Her dad insisted she be "escorted" to her village, but there were other kids. They were watching. Being the rich was all fun and games until the other kids tease you, but no matter how much Pearl insisted that she could do stuff on her own, her father would always find an excuse to pay money for it, just to show off his wealth.

As they approached the village lodge, Pearl hid her face in her hand-nubs (she wa sonly eleven at the time). This was dumb. However, when she walked in, she realized she was the only one there. Besides the counselors, but whatever.

"Hello, welcome to Sea Snake Village," said an adult Jelly. "I'm the village's head counselor. You can call me Tori. And your name is…"

"Pearl."

Tori looked at her list of campers. "Pearl.. Pearl… Here you are. You'll be in Cabin 4 with the other ten and eleven year-old girls. Your luggage has already been delivered to the cabin. Make your bed, set up your area, etcetera. You understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh, I see you have manners, do you young lady?"

"Yes ma'am."

In her head, Pearl cringed. Her father had always made her be polite and respectful to adults, but inside, she was tomboyish and rowdy. She wanted chaos and adventure, not kindness and respect.

The escorts left, and Pearl went to her cabin. There were six beds, and four were taken. The only ones left were both bottom-bunk. Four kids and one counselor stared at her as she entered, as if another child walking in was some sort of magical occurrence.

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hiiii!"

"Hello!"

"Greetings!"

The fourth kid just nodded at her. The others seemed annoying, so she decided to choose the bed bellow the girl who nodded. She didn't seem to social. Now, all she had to do was make her bed and set up.

But that's where she came accross a problem. She didn't know how to make her bed. She looked through her well-organized suitcas lined with gold, until she found a note from the maid that would clean her room.

Dearest Lady Pearl,

I really, really hope you have found this note. I'll tell you everything you need to know about making a bed. The thin sheet with elastic corners is a "fitted sheet". Match each corner to a corn of the mattress and tuck them in. Once that's done tuck the other thin sheet (the one without elastic) under the matress at the foot of the bed. Put the pillows in their cases and you're done!

-Violet

Pearl was confused. I do NOT understand ANY of this, she thought to herself. She shrugged and simply threw her velvet blanket ontop of the mattress, not really caring about the purple silk sheets that were supposed to go first.

"Great," said the counselor in the cabin as Pearl had settled in. "Now that everyone's here, let's go around and say our names. I'll start. My name is Sabina." Sabina pointed to one of the kids. "Now you go."

"My name is Luna," said a hyper girl around Pearl's age. Luna had shoulder-length orange tentacles that were quite literally glowing. "You wanna go next?"

By the way, just saying, fanfics can't exist without an OC named "Luna". FACT.

"Sure," murmured the girl in the bed above Pearl's. "I'm Camber. What about you?" Camber pointed below her.

"Yo. I'm Pearl." Noticing what everyone else was doing, Pearl shrugged and pointed next to her.

"I'm Kathy," said a small child. Kathy looked up. "You can go now."

"My name's Brooklyn."

"Lovely!", said Sabina. "That all of us. Sea Snake Cabin four!"

"Yay..?" The girls said trying to respond as hyper as their counselor had.

"Now, let's meet the kids from the other cabins!"

Sabina led the girls outside of the cabin. She chatted with the counselor from the cabin for boys of the same age as the girls in her cabin (ten and eleven) while the kids chatted with each other.

After half an hour or so of chatting, the Sea Snake Village went to dinner. That night they were serving grilled small fries with roasted veggies and ice cream (from otter milk) for desert. The first meal was a great opportunity for Pearl to be herself like she had always wanted. She got to eat with her hands, slurp soup, and try cheap summer camp food. It was… beautiful.

When dinner was over, Tori lead them all back to the village for "village time". That was nice, since Pearl had already made a friend: a boy her age named Oran. Pearl and Oran had nothing in common when meets the eye, but inside they were practically the same person; Both squids were rowdy, immature, and loud.

All of the Sea Snakes met together in the lodge for a part of the day when head counselors went over how everyone's day was with their village. Most kids said it was good. Tori wrote everyone's report down and put away her super cool head counselor binder thingy.

"We can just hang out until it's our turn to use the shower house."

The second she finished, four ten-year-olds, three boys and a girl, grabbed a shovel ran outside the lodge and towards the corner of the village where the camp boundaries met the woods.

"I was here last week," said Camber as she looked around. "There's a metal plate on the ground somewhere around here… Aha! Now you can use your shovel, Landon."

One of the boys, Landon, gripped the shovel and dug around the metal plate trying to find its corners and figure out what it was.

"Hey, guys! I think I dug up an entire side of it!"

"Hurry up," Camber warned. "When the other kids and I discovered the metal here last week, Tori stopped us before we could get much further. Is anyone watching us?"

"Two other kids are, but no counselors," said another of the boys.

"Really, Penley?", said Landon as he stopped digging to catch a break. "I don't see them."

Penley pointed to Pearl and Oran, who had been watching them the entire time.

The older squids walked over to them.

"What are you doing?", asked Oran, confused.

"Digging up a metal thingy," the other kid siad, casually.

"Sora!", whined Landon. "Why'd you tell 'em that?"

Sora shrugged. "Why wouldn't I trust them? They're around our age, and they don't look like the type to tattle on you."

"Fine," said Landon as he picked the shovel back up and kept digging.

"Can you keep a secret?", Camber asked.

"I dunno," said Pearl. "I've never been told one."

"I can," Oran responded with a nod.

"We think…" said Penley. "That we…. Found…. Treasure!"

"Treasure?", asked Pearl and Oran in usinsion.

"Yup," said Camber. "Came across it last week. But Tori REALLY doesn't seem to like it when kids try to dig it up. That's what led us to the conclusion that it's valuable."

"I have the entire top of it!", Landon said in a loud whisper.

The others gathered around him.

"So," said Sora. "Should we dig down now and try to get the whole thing up?"

"I wanna dig," said Penley.

"Sure," said Landon, handing Penley the shovel.

Penley held the shovel up and tried to hit it into the ground as hard as he could. However, instead of hitting the ground, it hit the metal thing. The sound of the collision rang across the village. It ever drew Tori's attention.

"What was that?", Tori shouted from the lodge.

"Uh oh," Camber muttered.

"We gotta hide this!", Penley said in panic.

"I shouldn't have trusted you," Landon sighed.

"I wouldn't have either, if that makes you feel any better," Sora added.

"Are we gonna be in trouble is she finds out?", asked Oran.

Camber nodded. Harshly. Pearl gulped in fear.

"Uh.. I'll try to cover it before she finds out?", said Penley.

"No, she knows about it," said Camber. "If she finds us here, we're in big trouble."

My dad's gonna kill me if he finds out I was helping with this kind of thing, Pearl thought.

"What are you doing?" It was Tori. She found them. "Camber! I thought I told you to stay away from that!"

"You're dead," Landon whispered, nudging Camber's arm.

Tori walked over to where the kids were standing. Her co-couselor, Ben (village secon-in-comand) walked next to her, looking much less angry. He was generally more carefree. Most of the kids loved him.

"Aaand, I see you have a shovel." Tori sighed. "Why do you keep trying to dig that up? It's just a piece of metal."

"Well," said Pearl. "If it's 'just a piece of metal' why are you getting mad at her?"

"Uuhhhh…"

"Just try not to get hurt," said Ben. "Metal scraps are dangerous."

Tori looked at her watch. "We'll talk about this later. It's our turn in the shower house."

The Sea Snakes grabbed their shower stuff and went to the shower house (the showers sprayed ink, Inklings die in water, this is an obvious fact). They took showers, changed into their pajamas, brushed their teeth, went back to village, and went to bed.

The rest of the week was pretty basic. They did ropes courses, turf wars, and other fun summer camp activities that parents pay too much money for you to do. The entire time, however, those six were suspicious of that metal thing.

However, one night, things started to get…

Creepy.

Author's Note: Hi.