Cody's tongue pushed partially through the gap in his teeth in concentration, shuffling around the letter tiles on his wooden rack in search of a good word to place down on the board. Noah watched him patiently from the other side of the board. Cody was cute when he was deep in thought. "Aha!" Cody snapped his fingers then, and he assembled 'GIZMO' with the Z on a triple letter score. "Thirty-seven points," he proclaimed, putting his hands on his hips triumphantly.
"You're getting better at this, small fry," Noah complimented. Swiftly, he put down his own tiles he'd been planning to utilize across a double word score. "Fifty-two points," he calculated.
Cody's mouth fell open. "'Quixotic'? Is that even a word?"
From his bunk, Harold's nose drew out of his comic book. "Quixotic: An adjective," he spoke up as if he'd been summoned as a human dictionary, "Used to describe that which is exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical."
Noah gestured his hand provingly. "Example: Harold's ambitions to win one hundred thousand dollars on a reality TV show were quixotic at best."
The red-haired teenager scoffed loudly. "As if. My superior skills are destined to take me to the top three finalists. Gosh."
"Could you three please play your little brain-games somewhere else?" Duncan complained, rolling over in bed lazily. "You're geeking up the place."
"Or you could leave," Noah suggested, picking up new tiles to replace those he'd placed.
Cody sprawled out on the floor with a soft groan, ready to forfeit. "Noah, after this can we play something I can actually win?" They'd been in the cabin the majority of the morning, and in that time he'd lost half a dozen games of Hangman, two rounds of Battleship, a game of Mastermind, and what was looking to soon be three games of Scrabble.
Noah shrugged acquiescingly. "What do you want to play?"
Cody popped right up from the floor and hurried over to his luggage stuffed under his bunk. He scrounged for only a moment before holding aloft a copy of Super Smash Bros Brawl. "Wicked!" Harold commented as Cody unpacked his Wii and several nunchuck controllers.
The brown-haired teen grinned. "I also brought along Mario Kart," he said, shaking the box.
"That's great and all," Noah spoke, ever sarcastic, "But how do you propose we play those without a TV and a power source?"
"I know where we can find a TV," Harold broke in again. All eyes in the cabin went to him, knowing exactly what he was thinking even though he hadn't said it.
"Oh man," Duncan laughed, slapping his forehead, "McLean will be pissed." He pointed a finger-gun, "Count me in."
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"Breaking into the production control room and stealing a TV doesn't sound like a recommended camp activity," Noah said flatly.
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"It's not like we're going to steal one of Chris' TVs," Cody said, "We're just gonna borrow it awhile and then put it back. There shouldn't be anything wrong with that, right? Aha."
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"I knew this guy in juvie who was doing time for shoplifting flatscreen TVs from a department store," Duncan shared with the camera. "Guy had the worst mullet I've ever seen. It looked like a rat crawled on his head and straight-up died. We used to call him 'Roadkill'. Oh man, those were good times."
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"Of course, it would be optimal to sneak in under the cover of night," Harold shaded his eyes with a hand. "Like the deadly samurai! Who-ha!" he chopped his hands through the air. "But I think we can make it work during the daytime." He nodded.
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
Noah knew that no matter what he said, this was happening. He sighed resignedly, picking up the Scrabble board and dumping the pieces back into the box.
—
The four of them managed to navigate their way to the large tent that served as the show's production booth. They'd approached away from the main path to avoid attention and were now crouched behind some trees and brush, watching the tent for any activity that might alert them that someone was occupying it.
"Well, it isn't a challenge day…" Cody breathed out softly. "So it's probably not in use, right?"
"The code of the ninja dictates we should lie in wait for at least half an hour to be certain of the enemy's movements," Harold inputted.
"Yeaaah," Duncan drew out, rolling his green eyes in a wide circle, "I'm not waiting in these bushes for half an hour."
Izzy popped out of the bushes right next to them, causing them all to jump. "Hey guys, what'cha doin'?" she asked exuberantly. "Are you on a mission of espionage?"
Cody clutched his heart. "Izzy! You scared the hell out of us!"
"Whoopsie! Sorry, striped-yellow-polo-kid, hehe," she apologized, not sounding very sorry.
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"My name is Cody," Cody said with exasperation, "How does she not know that?"
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"Think you could maybe keep it down before you get us caught?" Noah spat with some annoyance.
"So it is a mission of espionage!" she exclaimed. Izzy clapped her hands together with quick excitement. "Just tell Izzy how to help!" she offered, referring to herself in the third person.
"You can start by stuffing a sock in it," Duncan said, shoving her back. He stood. "The four of us are going inside. Stay here in the bushes and alert us if anyone's coming."
"Okel-dee-dokel-dee!" the orange-haired girl saluted. "I'm a watchdog! Arf arf!"
Cautiously they tread out of the bushes. Harold lifted the flap on the tent, peeking in. Seeing no one, he waved the others in.
"Well, we have plenty to chose from," Noah commented, an eyebrow lifted high on his head. There were ten TVs mounted to the wall, each displaying different camera views of the camp. Cody hmm'd thoughtfully, walking over to the control panel and pressing the 'cycle cameras' button of TV #10. It flipped to an alternate view of the dining hall, where Beth was braiding lanyard together for a keychain. He pressed it a few more times, switching from the dock where Trent and Geoff were fishing to the beachfront where Katie and Sadie were sun-tanning to the forest where DJ was bird watching.
"Jeez, Chris can really spy on us with these," he realized.
"Are you surprised?" Duncan folded his arms. "This place is basically a prison with him and Hatchet as our wardens. Or did the shitty food not tip you off?"
"A grim but not altogether inaccurate analogy," Harold commented from beneath the desk where he'd crouched to start sorting through the many tangled wires to disconnect one of the TVs.
"We waived most of our privacy rights when we signed the contract before the show," Noah stated, "Didn't any of you read it?"
"Dude, it was four hundred and thirty-three pages long," Duncan snorted.
"And…?" Noah asked, as if it were a moot point.
"Could someone please follow his coaxial cable and tell me where it leads?" Harold spoke up. Cody got down underneath the desk to lend a hand.
"Oh man, look who's on the john!" Duncan exclaimed then, pointing to TV #7. He turned the volume dial on the control panel up.
'I just really miss Lindsay…' Tyler said, looking forlorn. 'She was all I could think about yesterday. I wanted to use my rad yo-yo tricks for the talent show, cuz I know she's watching from home, but the team chose Harold instead! Can you believe that?'
"Boo hoo," Duncan mocked, "my girlfriend got kicked off the island and I can't get the tear stains out of my tracksuit!"
"Are you always this mature?" Noah commented dully to the performance.
"Ca-caw! Ca-caw!"
"Dude, that is one ugly-ass sounding bird," Duncan's monobrow arched.
"That's because it's not a bird…" Noah's eye twitched, "It's Izzy."
The Bass and Gophers all glanced between one another.
"Then let's just grab one and go!" Duncan said, seizing one of the monitors.
"Don't—!" Harold started, but it was too late, the punk had ripped the device right off the wall. One of the wires sparked and the tent smoldered a moment before catching fire. "Idiot!" Harold shook his head. Cody yelped and bolted for the nearest fire extinguisher.
"Ca-caw! Ca-caw ca-caw!" The warning sounded more insistent.
"We need more time," Duncan said. Next thing Noah knew, the green-mohawked teen had grabbed him by the shoulders. "Egghead, you go stall whoever's out there." He shoved him out of the tent.
He came face-to-face with Chef Hatchet. The shadow of the man fell over him; he felt paralyzed from the head down. It took him a moment to shake off the feeling and find his voicebox. "What do you know? Just the person I was looking for."
"What'chu doin' in the production tent, boy?" Hatchet interrogated.
"Breakfast," was the first thing out of Noah's mouth.
"Breakfast was six hours ago," the intimidatingly-large man said.
"Right. Well. It was delicious," he bluffed. "I was hoping I could get the recipe. To take home. For next Mother's Day." Admittedly, sarcasm was his strong suit, not out-and-out lying.
"You liked it?" the chef said in surprise. "The eggs was five weeks old! And they was seagull eggs."
"Wow. Didn't even notice," Noah continued to feign. "Must've been all the other quality ingredients."
The man scratched his chin. "Sure, I guess I can show ya. It's my own version of Eggs Benedict; I call 'em Eggs Hatchet." He withdrew a carving knife out from under his apron suddenly; Noah gave a tiny screech. The man laughed and his huge arm came down over Noah's shoulders, making the boy flinch. "Let's you an' me go to the kitchen." Noah felt himself be physically dragged across the ground.
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"Huh. The know-it-all actually pulled it off," Duncan said with some measure of surprise. "I was kind of hoping Hatchet would make him into tomorrow's meatloaf, but eh," he shrugged, "Take what you can get, I suppose."
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
Duncan's head peeped out of the tent flap, glancing around. He called back to the other two, "We're in the clear, guys."
—
About an hour and one needlessly frightening recipe lesson later, Noah escaped Chef Hatchet's kitchen. It wasn't long before he bumped into Cody, who was going around spreading the word to other campers about the upcoming 'Brawl Tournament'. "It's at six o'clock tonight in the old boathouse; wanna come?" he asked Geoff.
"Dude, so gonna be there! That sounds massively epic!" the blond high-fived the shorter teen.
"Noah!" Cody noticed the dark-haired boy, jogging up to him. "We've got it all set up!" Cody grinned. "Harold and I figured out how to put four of the TVs together so we'd have one big screen to play on. DJ and Trent even helped us drag in one of the futons and a bunch of extra pillows to sit on. Everyone's really psyched!"
Cody most of all, it seemed. He wondered briefly how many of the campers Cody had invited. Noah chuckled and ruffled the other's fluffy hair. "So then, what are we doing until six?"
"Well, we haven't had much time to be alone yet today…" Cody began smoothly, intertwining his fingers with Noah's as he endeavored to turn up his charm. "Wanna go into the woods and fix that?" he waggled his eyebrows.
Noah smirked. "You read my mind, Romeo." He put a kiss on the tip of the other boy's nose.
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"Thinking back to old crushes I've had, all my come-ons have always pretty much fallen flat," Cody revealed with a chuckle, scratching at the back of his head. "Noah's the first person I've flirted with successfully. I mean, we are dating, so I guess it makes sense… I'm just saying it's a pretty nice feeling not being rejected all the time. Junior High really sucked for me! Eh heh…"
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
The two of them left camp hand-in-hand to find a place they'd be certain to be alone. Noah took a seat leaning back against a tree trunk and Cody joined him, sitting shoulder to shoulder. The dark-haired teen got out his latest novel, placing it in his lap. A moment later Cody felt Noah's arm snake around his back. Cody let himself be pulled closer, setting his head down in the crook of Noah's shoulder happily.
It was hard to keep track of how many minutes went by, the only indicator of time passing being the occasional rustle as Noah flipped a page in his book. While he was perfectly content to cuddle in silence, eventually he couldn't hold back any longer. "Hey, Noah?" he interrupted softly.
"Hm?"
Cody lifted his head. "I just wanted to say… I'm really glad you asked me to start going out with you. You're really awesome."
Noah's gaze pulled away from his book. "Me? Awesome? You must be delusional. Are you dehydrated?"
"I mean it!" Cody argued, giving the brown-eyed teen a light shove.
"Fine," Noah conceded, "I'll believe that you think I'm awesome." He lifted his book up to his face as if the matter had been closed.
Cody put his palm down on Noah's book, forcing it down. "You are awesome," he fought, "You're like, the best boyfriend a guy like me could ask for!"
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
Cody's blue eyes widened into saucers, slapping both his hands over his mouth.
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"Okay. So Cody and I have been trying things out for five days now," Noah began introspectively. "I think we've both been avoiding using the term 'boyfriend' because it implies a certain degree of 'officialness' neither of us were prepared to commit to, for our own separate reasons." His brow drew back down to its usual state, "I want to think it's a good sign, but it would be, dare I say, quixotic," he used air-quotes, "to get my hopes up."
~~kkkssshhhttt…!~~
"You're not a half bad boyfriend yourself," Noah returned nonchalantly.
"I… I…" Cody sputtered, tongue-tied, until what Noah had said had caught up to him. "You… you really think so?" He scratched the back of his head. "W-well, thanks."
Noah smooched the side of his face; Cody felt his heart rush for just an instant. "C'mon," the brown-eyed teen said, standing and offering Cody a hand up, "Your Brawl thing is going to be starting soon. You don't want to miss it."
For a moment he'd almost forgotten about it. Cody accepted Noah's help up, a grin appearing on his features. "You're not missing it either. You may have an edge at Scrabble, but I'm a master at Smash Bros," he nodded confidently.
For once Noah felt like Cody wasn't exaggerating. They headed for the boathouse.