Chapter 2
July 7th, 1997
The next morning everybody was in the mess hall for breakfast.
"Annie, you never told us what you have planned this year." Kelsey put two slices of bacon on her plate.
"You'll see, soon."
"Who are you picking on this year?" Jamie asked.
"Well, I can't pick on Scott anymore, so I decided to go with Katie." Annie grabbed a big spoonful of eggs from the bowl in the middle of the table and put them on her plate.
"But she's your counselor," Kelsey said. "If you pick on her, you'll get kicked out of the camp."
"I don't think so. They get paid extra to keep me."
"When do we get to see what you're doing?" Jamie asked. Jamie finished her milk and it gave her a mustache.
Annie smiled mischievously, "Tonight."
"I can't wait to see," Kelsey said. Kelsey noticed that someone was missing from their group, "Where's Tisha?"
"I haven't seen her since last night." Jamie wiped her face with her sleeve.
"Jamie, use a napkin. Stop acting like a barbarian."
"I'd rather act like a barbarian than a princess."
Across the mess hall, the female counselors were eating.
"So Leah, how's it going with your kids so far?" Jessica asked.
"I haven't had any incidents yet, but we haven't done anything yet except the climbing wall and all of my kids had fun." Leah took a bite of her eggs.
"I haven't really had any problems either," Hayley said.
"What about the bed wetter?" Jessica asked.
"If she wet the bed, she took care of it herself." Hayley took the last of the bacon. She left the table to refill the plate.
"Hey Rookie, you've been quiet, how's it going with Annie Robinson?" Leah asked.
Katie moved eggs around her plate with her fork. "She hasn't done anything. I haven't had any problems with her at all."
"Oh, but you will. It's only a matter of time." Hayley put a new plate of bacon on the table and sat down.
"My kids are great, we're going canoeing with your cabin today," Jessica said to Leah.
Jamie and Kelsey were standing out by the lake with their cabin mates listening to instructions before they could start canoeing.
"Everyone needs a partner and a life jacket," the instructor said.
Jamie grabbed Kelsey's hand. "You're my partner."
Jamie pulled Kelsey over to the life jackets and picked one up for each of them.
"I hear there are snakes in the lake," Jamie said.
"Jamie, stop it! I'm not going in the lake." Kelsey said. Kelsey put her life jacket on.
"You are, if I tip our canoe over," Jamie said.
Kelsey gasped. "You wouldn't dare!"
"How do you know?"
"You would get all wet and you would have to change your clothes," Kelsey said.
"I don't care if I get wet. It would be worth it to see you in the water swimming with the snakes. If a snake happens to swim in your underwear, that's bonus points."
"I don't want to be your partner anymore," Kelsey said.
"It's too late, Blondie." Jamie said. Jamie pulled Kelsey towards a canoe.
Kelsey screamed. "Leah!"
Leah ran over to Jamie and Kelsey. "What is going on here?"
"Jamie's going to tip our canoe over."
"I'm sure she's not and if she does, it's not that big of a deal."
Kelsey stomped her foot on the ground. "You don't understand. I can't get my hair wet."
"You'll be fine, Kelsey." Leah said. Leah rolled her eyes as she walked away.
Jamie and Kelsey got in the canoe and Jamie started paddling. Kelsey wasn't helping, so all they managed to do was go around in a circle.
"Kelsey, you have to help or we'll just be stuck going around in a circle."
"I can't paddle, I'll break a nail."
"You don't need your nails at camp, loosen up and get dirty."
Kelsey picked up the oar and dipped it in the water with one hand and tried to push the water back.
"What are you doing? That's not going to work. Use both hands and put some muscle into it." Jamie said. Jamie demonstrated how to paddle.
Soon they made it out to the middle of the lake. Jamie started rocking the canoe.
"Jamie, stop!" Kelsey started crying. "I don't want to go in the lake."
"Jamie, that's enough! Stop teasing Kelsey." Jessica said from another canoe next to them.
"Fine, I'll stop," Jamie said. "I'll stop for now."
Blair, Jo, Tad, and Rick walked in the door. They had just gotten back from Jordan's funeral. Natalie and Tootie were sitting on the couch.
"Hey Nat, where's Mrs. G?"
"She's in the kitchen, she's on the phone," Natalie said.
"With her lov-er," Tootie said.
"Tootie!" Natalie said.
"I'm glad she gets time to talk to Bruce, she really misses him," Jo said.
"Mrs. Garrett never really told us why she came back and he didn't, it's obvious they still love each other, I mean they are still married," Tootie said.
Blair looked down at the floor and started playing with her bracelet, "It's my fault."
Tad walked over to Blair and tilted her head up to look at him, so he could look her in the eye. "Blair, what happened is not your fault?"
Blair broke eye contact with Tad and turned towards the other girls. "Mrs. Garrett doesn't talk about it, because she doesn't want to upset me."
"Is this about Kelsey's twin dying?" Jo asked.
Blair nodded and played with the charms on her bracelet.
"Mrs. Garrett told us about that before we found you, but she didn't tell us the whole story," Natalie said.
"Yeah, she told us she was with you after it happened, but she never told us that's why she left the Peace Corps." Tootie said. Tootie put the magazine she was reading down on the table.
"I don't really want to talk about it guys, I feel awful that she had to leave Bruce behind to take care of me," Blair said.
"She must really love you," Tootie said.
"Of course she does, she's Mrs. G," Jo said. "Don't feel bad, I'm sure she would've done the same thing for any one of us."
"Yeah well, I'm going upstairs to change." Blair said. Blair turned around and walked up the stairs.
"Yeah, I better go get out of this dress too," Jo said. Jo scratched her neck. "I don't know how Blair wears these dresses all the time. They are so itchy."
They heard a squeal in the kitchen and the sound of feet rushing into the living room. Mrs. Garrett appeared a few seconds later.
"Guess what? Bruce is coming home!" Mrs. Garrett said. Mrs. Garrett grabbed Rick and danced around the living room with him.
"That's great Mrs. Garrett," Natalie said.
"Yeah, when is he coming home?" Tootie asked.
"In four weeks," Mrs. Garrett said. "Then we are going on a two week cruise to the Bahamas."
"That's wonderful, Mrs. G," Jo said. "Is he coming home for good?"
"Yes, I'm so excited. Oh my, I have to call my travel agent," Mrs. Garrett said.
Later that night, everyone was asleep. Annie heard Katie get up. Katie turned the light on. Everybody in the cabin woke up.
"What's going on?" Missy asked.
"Who turned on the light?" Beth asked. Beth covered her eyes with her sleeping bag.
"I was sleeping," Mary said.
"Yeah, turn the light off," Annie said.
"Which one of you put itching powder in my sleeping bag?" Katie asked. Katie scratched her legs.
Missy rolled over in her bunk and faced Katie, "Where would we get itching powder?"
"Yeah, turn the light off, so we can sleep." Annie rolled over and faced the wall. "We have to be up at six."
"Alright, but you better go back to sleep." Katie grabbed a change of clothes and a towel. "I'm going to go take a shower."
Katie turned the lights out and left the cabin.
"Good job, Annie," Mary said.
"Thanks, but that's only phase one." Annie climbed down from her bunk and put her shoes on.
"Where are you going?" Missy asked.
"I'm going to go do phase two." Annie grabbed a flashlight. "I'll be back soon." Annie left the cabin and went out into the night.
Annie walked into the bathroom and spotted Katie's clothes and towel on a nearby bench.
"Perfect." Annie snatched the towel and clothes from the bench. "Now it's time for phase three."
Annie walked out of the bathroom and looked at the 'girls' sign on the door. Annie slid it out easily and turned it over to the other side that said 'boys.' Annie slid the sign back into position. Annie smirked, "you're in the wrong bathroom now."
Annie walked away from the bathroom to complete the next phase of her plan.
Blair was sitting and reading a book. She stopped and looked at her surroundings. She was sitting in the first class cabin of a commercial airplane.
A stewardess walked past her and she grabbed her arm.
"Yes, Mrs. Warner-Warner, do you need something?"
"May I have a glass of juice?" Blair asked.
"I'll get that for you right away."
Blair looked at the seat next to her. Tad was sitting there listening to music with a pair of headphones. He looked over and smiled at her. She smiled back at him. The stewardess brought Blair her juice and left to attend to the other passengers. Blair sipped her juice and went back to her book.
Blair was finishing chapter seventeen when turbulence jolted her eyes away from the page. She looked over at Tad and he gave her a reassuring smile and patted her leg.
"It's OK, it's just a little turbulence," he said.
Blair nodded and went back to her book. A few minutes went by and Blair put her book down and got up from her seat, "be right back."
Blair walked towards the bathroom. Blair lost her balance as the plane hit another patch of turbulence, she fell in the aisle. The plane nosedived and the oxygen masks came down.
Blair screamed.
Blair heard Tad's voice in the distance.
"Blair, wake up!"
Tad was shaking her, "wake up, you're having a nightmare."
Blair bolted upright in bed and tried to catch her breath. Tad turned the light on and saw tears running down her face. The door to the bedroom opened and Mrs. Garrett walked in.
"Sweetheart, are you alright? I heard screaming."
"She just had a nightmare. I'll take care of it. You can go back to bed." Tad said. Tad got out of bed, went into the bathroom and came back with a glass of water.
Mrs. Garrett was worried, but she went back to her room anyway.
Tad handed Blair the glass of water.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Blair took the glass of water and shook her head. "I don't remember it."
Tad could tell that Blair wasn't being truthful.
"It was the plane crash again, wasn't it?"
Annie was on the boy's side of camp. She had one more thing to do before she went back to her cabin. Annie ran up to the bathroom and slid the sign out of the door. Annie flipped it over and slid it back in. She had now fully switched the boys and girl's bathrooms around. Annie looked towards the mess hall and admired her handiwork from afar. Satisfied Annie started walking back towards her cabin.
Annie wasn't more than fifty feet away from the bathroom when she heard rustling. Annie turned her flashlight on and pointed towards the bushes.
"Who's there?"
There was no answer.
Annie looked towards the lake at the dilapidated remains of the old bathroom from fifty years ago. "That story isn't real. It's just a story they tell us to scare us. The ice princess never existed."
The sound of a twig breaking startled Annie from her thoughts. She shined the flashlight beam in the direction of the lake.
Missy was awake in her bunk, she couldn't sleep. Annie hadn't come back yet.
"Psst, Mary, are you awake?" she asked.
Mary rolled over in her bunk. "What's wrong?"
"I'm worried, Annie hasn't come back yet," Missy said.
"She hasn't?" Mary asked.
"No, I think something must have happened to her," Missy said.
"You don't think the ice princess got her, do you?" Beth asked. Beth sat up in her bunk, having heard the entire conversation.
"No Beth, I'm pretty sure that's just a story and she ain't real," Mary said. "But Annie should've taken one of us with her. We're supposed to bring a buddy if we leave the cabin."
"Well you know Annie. Rules are meant to be broken." Beth said. Beth looked at Katie's bunk. "Katie never came back either."
Mary heard rustling in the grass outside. "Shh, someone's coming."
The girls all lay back down in their bunks and pretended to be sleeping. The door creaked open and someone came in. Beth heard the sound of shoes hitting the floor and she opened one eye to peek at the person who came in.
"Annie, we were worried the ice princess got you," Beth said.
Annie jumped out of her skin. "Beth, I didn't know you were awake. You scared the crap out of me."
"Sorry, what took so long?" she asked.
"I had to walk over to the boy's side of camp." Annie said. Annie climbed up to her bunk.
"Why?" Missy asked.
"You'll see in the morning. The only thing I'll tell you is that I switched the signs on the bathrooms, so you'll have to go to the boy's side to use the girl's bathroom."
"That's good to know," Mary said. "Where's Katie?"
"She didn't come back yet?" Annie asked. Annie rolled over in her bunk and faced the wall, she smiled mischievously. "That's weird."
In the morning Missy, Beth, Mary, and Annie woke up.
"Where's Katie?" Missy asked. "Didn't she come back?"
"Guess not," Annie answered. The bell rang for breakfast, "we better go to the mess hall."
"We're going to the bathroom first," Missy said.
"Well the new girl's bathroom is on the way to the mess hall," Annie said. "Let's go, we only have a few minutes before we have to be in line."
"I have to go to the bathroom real bad," Tisha cried as she ran towards the bathroom.
"Hey Tisha," Serena called. "That's the boy's bathroom."
"Wasn't it the girl's bathroom before?" Tisha squirmed and hopped from foot to foot.
Kelly shrugged her shoulders, "it's the boy's bathroom now."
"Let's go find the girl's bathroom," Hayley said grabbing Elsie's free hand. "Come on, Elsie."
Brett walked into the bathroom.
"Who's there?" Katie called from a stall.
"Katie, is that you? What are you doing in the boy's bathroom?"
"This is the girl's bathroom," Katie said.
"Not anymore, it says 'boys' outside on the door."
"OK, look could you do me a favor?"
"What?"
"Get me some clothes," Katie said. "It's a long story and I'm not really sure how it happened, but I think it had something to do with…"
"Annie," Brett said.
"Yeah, I think Annie is responsible for this. Now could you please go and get me some clothes."
Katie and Brett came out of the bathroom and started walking towards the mess hall. Brett pointed to the flagpole, "Hey, is that your underwear?"
Katie covered her face when she saw that her pink panties were high in the sky, flapping in the wind.