"Why are we doing this again?" Isabella asked as she shoved another sheet of paper underneath a hut door.
"Why? Did I hear you just ask 'why', my comrade?" Annie led her two close friends from camp down from the hut porch. "The reason, my dear Watson, is elementary."
"You know Holmes never actually said that in the books." Michelle chimed in.
"Oh hush! Who is the Brit here? Anyway, the reason, is that we were beaten, and we were beaten using the most awful, pernicious, malicious, deceiving and downright vain way imaginable." Her friends looked at her with their eyebrows knotted together at Annie's colourful vocabulary. "We were beaten using the sheer privilege of one Charlotte Darcy, and her precious father's digital media company."
"It was my own fault getting tagged for being too slow. There's no reason to take it out on her." Michelle replied.
"No that's exactly what she wants you to think!" Annie led the way onto the next hut porch and slipped the paper underneath the door. "She wants to you to feel like it's your own fault, so that she feels vindicated!"
"I don't even know what that word means!" Isabella exclaimed.
"Surely you've got a dictionary on your phone? No matter. They cheated, and Charlie was the means, thanks to that app, and her wealth and privilege. We have to right this wrong, and make her feel the sting of humiliation that the rich often make the less fortunate feel."
"And are you sure this is the right way to do it?" Isabella responded.
"I trust my gut, and my gut is always right!"
Charlie collapsed onto her bed in hut 60 at 3:30pm that afternoon after a hard hour of rock climbing. The pain in her arms made her believe that over the next 24 hours her muscles would grow to be the size of Popeye's (and that wall was her spinach), but somewhere at the back of her mind she knew that that probably wasn't going to happen. The disappointment didn't last long, as she reached for her phone to see whether any of her friends or family had sent her anything. Upon seeing the little envelope sign with no number next to it to indicate a new message, she saw the little symbol telling her that she had a new voicemail, and she wasted no time in addressing this.
"You have…122 new messages."
Charlie almost fell off the bed in shock at this. 122? She thought.
122 NEW messages? What the hell has happened?
"Message one."
"HARRY DIDYA PUT YA NAME IN THE GOBLET OF FIYAH" a voice cried out.
Charlie paused as she took in what she just heard.
She couldn't. She simply couldn't. Charlie had always thought it was the people of the internet indulging in hyperbole and over-dramatics when they typed out utterances like ?, or I CAN'T, but at the present moment, she began to understand that this might not be the case. Determined to understand this bizarre message even more, she pressed on with the remaining 121.
"Message two."
"Have a biscuit, Potter" declared a stern voice in some kind of European accent. Was it Irish? Scottish? She wasn't quite sure. It didn't sound very good, whatever accent it was.
"Message three."
"It's Wingardium LeviOsa, not LevioSA!" A high pitch voice squeaked.
The cogs were beginning to turn again in Charlie's mind. She recognised that quote…she thought. She might have been wrong.
"Message four."
"Turn to page three hundred and ninety…four."
That didn't even sound like a young girl's voice! What adult has been sending her Harry Potter quotes?
Ah! That was it! Harry Potter. She knew she recognised them somewhere.
"Message five."
"Hey Charlie!" Finally someone who wasn't sending anonymous quotes! "It's aunt Gigi." Charlie's face erupted with a smile. "I hope you're doing ok at camp! We sure are missing you at home. Call me back when you get the chance. I've got some pretty important and urgent information for you." Her aunt's tone grew far more serious just then. Thanks, love you, bye!"
Charlie began to ponder on what this information could be. She also wondered whether any more of these messages were from her aunt, and so, she decided to plough on.
"Message six."
"NOT MY DAUGHTER YOU BITCH! Oh no! Oh gosh, I'm sorry, that's a bad word. Please forgive me."
Ugh. This was going to take a long time.
It wasn't until thirty two messages later (thirty two messages filled with different interpretations of quotes from Snape, Dumbledore, and other characters that she had already heard before) did Charlie find another one of interest.
"Message thirty eight."
"Hey Charlie." Her aunt's voice sounded a bit different this time. "I hope you've been having a great time today doing…whatever kids do in the wild these days!" She sounded almost upset. "I've just called to tell you that everyone back home is doing ok. Your father though has had to be admitted into hospital. He's had a really bad cough ever since he came back from his trip to Rio a couple of days ago. They're not quite sure but they think it might be pneumonia. I'll keep you informed, but it doesn't seem to be too serious at the moment. Love you loads! Bye!"
Charlie didn't like the sound of this. She wasn't aware of her father spending much time in Southern America, but then she often didn't know about the more impromptu business trips of her father's until a day or two beforehand, so it didn't seem too out of the ordinary. She just hoped that her father was ok, as she continued to battle through the messages of "TROLL IN THE DUNGEON", "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good", and "One can never have enough socks".
"Message sixty one."
"Hey Charlie, it's aunt Gigi again." She sounded as if she had been crying. "I'm sorry to disturb you with more bad news, but I'm afraid your father's taken a bit of a turn for the worst. I won't go into too much detail, but he's sweating and shivering and coughing up blood, and going in and out of a coma at the moment due to his difficult breathing." That was too much information. "I'm sorry you're so far away, as I know you'd probably prefer to be here right now with him. I'll call you if there's any change."
Charlie didn't know how to respond to this. Her aunt was right, she wanted to be right there in San Francisco with them right now, even if it did sound all a bit too gory for her. She felt so powerless stuck out here in the wilderness (and without wifi). She was frantically playing and quickly stopping and deleting each and every Harry Potter related message now in order to get to any important ones.
"Message one hundred and two." Charlie snorted a bit at hearing this automated voice say such a high number, and then quickly suppressed it when she heard her aunt's voice.
"Charlie," her aunt paused, "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry. Everything happened so quickly. You're going to have to come home for the funeral. It's pencilled in for next Tuesday, and we're going to send a limo for you to go to the airport tomorrow." Her aunt's sobs flooded through the phone, as Charlie felt the whole world shatter around her. She couldn't believe it. "I'm sorry you couldn't be there, but just know that he loved you very dearly. Your mom and I were holding his hand at the very end, and it was quite peaceful. He just slipped into a coma and dropped off. Call me back as soon as you get this so we can organise your arrival plans. I love you so very much my dear. See you soon."
She couldn't believe it.
Her mother? No, this didn't ring true anymore.
But that voice sounded so much like her aunt's!
It sounded like Charlie's freakishly accurate impression of her aunt.
No, she knew exactly what was going on here.
She ended the voicemail call and started dialing her aunt herself. After a couple of rings, she picked up.
"Hey Charlie!" Her voice was as energetic and lively as per usual. "How's camp going?"
"It's going…fine. How is everyone?"
"Everyone's…fine."
"Really? How's dad?"
"He's good. In fact, he's great!"
This was all Charlie needed to hear. She couldn't hear what her aunt was saying anymore anyway, as the blood boiling in her head was causing a ringing in her ear.
"That's great, but I gotta go now. I hear the dinner bell ringing! See ya aunt Gigi!" With that, she hung up.
As she paced around the hut, all she could think of as she went through the remaining Harry Potter messages (which were being added to as time passed by more anonymous voices) was the sheer humiliation that she felt. How could she have been fooled so easily? And hurt so badly by four little voicemail messages?
Annie Bennet was the answer, and Annie Bennet was the person that was going to feel the humiliation next.
"You should've seen her face when she went to dinner that evening. She looked like she was going to be sick every few minutes!" Annie joked to Michelle and Isabella as they stripped off and climbed into the shower cubicles.
"You don't think that was a bit cruel?" Michelle questioned hesitantly, as she turned on the water and tried to avoid the icy jets as much as possible before it would begin to warm up.
"Yeah, maybe. But hey! She was gullible enough to believe it," Annie shouted over the sound of the water as she turned round to wash her back, "and she got to hear some really talented campers reciting some of JK Rowling's greatest quotes. If that's not entertaining enough for her far superior tastes then I don't know what is."
At that moment, Annie could've sworn she heard the sound of fabric falling off the floor. She couldn't see whether a towel had fallen off the hooks on the wall, due to the cubicle's wooden swing door (even though she was pretty tall for her age). It would be no problem though. Nothing to worry about.
Eventually all three girls had decided that they were clean enough, and couldn't spend any longer in the lovely warm showers otherwise they'd risk having free activity time taken away from them for wasting water. As soon as they stepped out of their cubicles and immediately lunged forward for their towels, they could see that they weren't hanging up, and they weren't on the floor either.
"Oh god" Isabella muttered as she frantically searched round all the other empty showers.
"I heard footsteps earlier, but I thought that it was just one of you two moving about a bit." Michelle was beginning to dig a bit deeper into this mystery.
"Someone stole them, and I think I know exactly whom." Annie mumbled, with a hint of disgust in her tone.
At that moment, Isabella screamed and the other two turned round to find a large spider crawling their way. This spider was almost as large as Annie's foot, which it was now approaching at a worrying speed. The girls had no choice but to run out the only exit and straight into the broad daylight which greeted them outside (as well as the other girls who were gearing up for a game of Ultimate). The shock and surprise on their faces and the faces of other passers-by was matched in contortion to the shock, humiliation, and fear on the faces of the three girls from hut 59. They immediately ran to the nearest scattering of trees to hide themselves, and were shortly greeted by Ms Kulp Senior, with three clean towels.
"Oh dear, girls. I'm so terribly sorry. What in the name of Freddie Prinze Junior happened?"
"It was-it was Charlie Darcy! She took our towels and then set a huge spider loose!" Annie protested.
"Yes, and it was a massive spider!" Isabella started to quake, either from cold, or the memory of the eight-legged surprise.
"Oh Annie, what happened?" Just at that moment, Charlie walked by and stopped upon seeing the girls in the towels. "You look like you've seen the ghost of my father!"
"You!" Annie tried to launch herself at her look-alike, but stopped where she was upon realising that the towel (and her nakedness underneath) restricted her ability to fight.
"Ghost of her father?" Ms Kulp interrupted. "Please someone enlighten as to what has been going on here!"
Charlie stepped forward towards Annie before yelling, "she impersonated my aunt and sent me prank calls saying my dad had died!"
"Does this have something to do with all these sheets telling of a…'competition' to call in and recite your favourite Harry Potter quote to win a prize of $500?" Ms Kulp pulled out a poster and showed it to the girls. Charlie grabbed hold of it and looked over it with revulsion.
"How did you get hold of my number?"
"You shouldn't leave it lying around whilst you're doing watersports." Annie crossed her arms whilst trying to cover herself with the towel. "What gave it away?"
"Oh, you're impression of my aunt was uncanny," Charlie said smugly, "but one little thing gave it away; you mentioned my mom. My mom left when I was a baby, and I don't even know if she's still alive. She wouldn't even know that my dad was dying, let alone come visit him."
"I'm sorry Annie, but you really did that? That is a terrible thing to do my dear! Invasion of privacy and cruel prank calls!" Ms Kulp directed to Annie.
"You're talking to me about invasion of privacy? After what she did just now?!" The young Brit replied.
"You are right. What you both did to each other is despicable, appallingly cruel, and completely against the moral standard that we try and exhibit here at Camp Walden. Both of you will lose free activity time for the rest of the camp." At this both girls let out a groan. "And both of you, go back to your huts and pack. It's to the isolation cabin for you!"