Part IV – Duncan's Fall

Heather sat lightly on the tree stump, filing her nail absently. Beth and Lindsay exchanged anxious glances. Neither of them knew exactly why they had been called out, and neither of them were quite sure if they wanted to.

Finally Heather glanced up, as if just noticing they were there. Beth and Lindsay jumped slightly, but Heather just smiled at them adoringly, oblivious to their nerves. "Why, Beth, Lindsay!" she exclaimed.

"You are such wonderful friends, so loyal and caring. Surely you know what to do about the situation at hand?"

"Situation?" Lindsay replied blankly.

Momentarily, Heather's pleasant expression faltered, replaced by a dark look of contempt, but then she re-composed herself and smiled openly. "Why, yes. With Gwen gone, Lake Wawanakwa is in terrible danger of falling into the wrong hands. We are very lucky that I am on the ballot tonight, but right now, that delinquent has eighty percent of the vote."

"Oh," Lindsay answered slowly, as she processed what Heather had said. "But why is that bad? I mean, Duncan's scary, but he's smart."

Heather rolled her eyes with an impressive sigh. "Of course he's smart. But, seriously, he's a juvenile delinquent. Do you really think he cares about us campers? And that's why it's a problem that he's smart; he can rope in a lot of voters and then turn the camp into his own little kingdom of terror."

Lindsay blinked. "Oh, I see . . ."

Beth frowned momentarily, but even she eventually agreed: "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am!" Heather retorted, tossing a lock of her hair over her shoulder. "But I want you to do something about Duncan's supporters." Her eyes narrowed, as if challenging the two to oppose. But both were obediently silent, and Heather's smile grew. "Now, I want you to go down to the other campers and talk to them.

"LeShawna will most likely be the hardest to convince, so leave her to last. Her vote isn't as important. But I want you to tell them how terrible a delinquent Duncan is, and how bad he'd be for the island. Use as your major points that Duncan has been slipping into Chef's quarters and stealing all the good food for himself, without sharing any with us, and that he let DJ's old rabbit out, and that's why it got eaten."

Beth and Lindsay collectively gasped. "Did he really do that?!" Beth asked incredulously.

Heather laughed. "No, of course not. But they don't need to know that, and Beth, you're good at computers so you can do some Photoshop on Chris' computer."

"Is that really okay to do?" Lindsay questioned uncertainly, and Beth nodded chimed her agreement.

"Of course it is!" Heather cried, exasperated. "We're trying to save Lake Wawanakwa, by whatever means. Are you in, or not?"

Beth and Lindsay exchanged glances, but spotting Heather's dagger glare, they nodded vigorously Heather smiled, pleased by their complete compliance. "Good. Now, get to it!"

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Heather smirked, her hands gently brushing the wrinkled votes before her. Beth and Lindsay had done their jobs well. She had been planning to slip in and change just enough votes to win her place as the head of Lake Wawanakwa, but when she'd opened the vote box, she'd been pleasantly surprised that the statistics had taken an entirely new turn. In a mere twelve hours, she had gone from have just twenty-five percent support to being backed by a full seventy percent. Only LeShawna and Noah had voted otherwise, apparently, but that was to be expected. As she had told Beth and Lindsay earlier, LeShawna would be the hardest to convince; afterall, she was close with Duncan's girlfriend. And Noah, well, he was just too smart for his own good, but he could be dealt with easily enough later on.

Heather gently closed the lid of the voting box. She had no job here.