"Alright children. I feel it's about time for us to begin." Alice ushers the three boys into her cabin which they do slowly. Their methodical, yet unhurried trudging into the building was starting to wear on her patients. They had done the crime, but it seemed they didn't want to do the time for their recent actions.
Alice still wonders how they managed to get their hands on the softball equipment, to begin with. Ether Jason was too smart for his own good or Susie was just being lazy that day. Seeing as she used magic for everything she did around camp, it must have been a special kind of laziness.
She closes the door behind the group of boys as they step in and guides them to the middle of her cabin. "I hope you're all ready for a long hard day of work," Alice said, raising her wand in the air and casting a spell that almost completely destroys her home. The instantaneous flash of light sends bits and pieces about the place turning the once cozy, organized cabin into one big mess. A table flips upside down, her bed uproots itself, and dirt from her little garden flies in through the windows and completely engulfs the floor. "Now I'll be back in an hour. So, I expect it to be similar to how it was previously."
"Come on Alice ya really gonna make us do this?" Michael asked her, confusion and innocent painted over his expression. He still thinks he had done nothing wrong despite the overwhelming evidence against him. "If anything, Jason should do all the cleaning."
"One hand, all hands Michael." She spoke crudely, with both eyes closed. "Or would you prefer I tell Susie about this little mishap?" He gulped and shook his head. He made it clear that he would rather settle the matter in private. Alice scared him but at least she was fair. Susie was someone he'd rather not get on the bad side of at all.
"We'll get it done." He says not making eye contact with her.
Alice looks at him with almost pitch-black eyes, then smirks. "Good. Get it done before I get back now." She steps back out of the cabin, locking the door behind her and leaving the troublemakers to clean the mess she had conjured and Michael to stew in his own silence.
"Yo, I can't believe we're doing this," Aubrey mutters. They had started the off cleaning by flipping all of the furniture back to their upright sides, afterward deciding to divi up the work. Aubrey would be sweeping the floors, Jason would be scrubbing down the walls, and Michael would be doing not much of anything. Instead sets on Alice's bed, still upset with the position they've been put in. "I oughta break your neck, Jason."
"What?" Jason shoots a glance at the aggravated wolf. "What did I do?" He said, throwing his arm's out in confusion, a worried look in his eyes.
"Man, you got us into this. Shoulda been more careful." He half yells at him in annoyance as he tries and fails to sweep the dirt muck from the floor. Try as he might, his persistent sweeping hadn't seemed to do much. The garden dirt wasn't going anywhere. The surface of the wooden floor was caked, from one end of the cabin to the other, in dirt, soil, and thorny rose paddles. It didn't matter how much or how hard he swept; the mess just doesn't appear to go anywhere at all. "Next time, try a little harder to not get me and Michael caught up in the bullshit."
Jason stops his cleaning completely. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Aubrey was really putting all of the blame on him, for being told what to do. "But Micheal asked me to do it!" He says asked, but he really means forced. They always made him do things he never wanted to. He could have always said no but that probably wouldn't end so well for their relationship, and they were the only friends he has or at least they were the kids who would talk to him back home. If for any reason they stop hanging out with him, he'd be an outcast for sure. Never mind what the kids on the island thought, it's what everyone back home would think. Usually, it was best to just roll with the punches.
"Why don't you both shut up and do ya work," Michael murmurs from Alice's bed. He sounded like he was sick of hearing them argue and moans over who did what. They were acting like babies, and it was starting to give him a headache.
"Yeah, Michael." Jason agreed.
"Yeah, whatever. I was done talking to this cornball anyway." Aubrey goes back to sweeping the floors to the best of his abilities. Though the process is slow, he eventually begins to make progress. Even if his wild sweeping did more harm than not. "Man as if Oliver stealing my girl wasn't bad enough. Now I gotta do this." The wolf said he was done talking, but he wasn't quite done complaining about their imposed punishment just yet. "I swear he has another thing coming. I'm jackin it." He lays his broom against the wall and takes a seat next to Michael on Alice's bed. He props both arms up by his knees and rests his chin in both hands.
Jason finishes scrubbing down the walls and takes note of Aubrey's work or lack of work. "Aubrey come on, you were supposed to clean the floor."
"Yeah, I cleaned it." The wolf boy held a handout to the still mostly dirt-covered cabin floor.
"What do you mean? You barely did anything." Alice wouldn't be happy with this. The whole reason they were doing this was so that Susie didn't find out about what they had done last night. "Did you literally forget why we're here?"
Aubrey looks at him, a smile crossing his face, a squint covers his eyes, and he begins to laugh. "Ohh I know you're not talking to me like that." He spoke through his chuckling. There was a bit of shock in his tone. Jason had never had an attitude with him before. The sudden change threw him off.
"Yes, I'm talking to you like that, cause you don't seem to care if we get in trouble or not." He snaps at Aubrey. The boy was irritated with how things were going, with last night, the punishment they were going through now, and how his friends were treating him recently.
Aubrey's smile vanished from his face and a dark expression shroud over him. "If you feel some type of way about it, why don't you clean it up yourself?" Aubrey walks over to him. Angrier at Jason than he was before. The wolf was fuming and ready for a fight. It was just like him, resorting to his fist to win an argument he couldn't fight with words.
"It's not my job too. It's yours, so clean it up!" Jason yelled. He and Aubrey are in each other's faces, his forehead practically pressed up against the wolf. Saying he was fed up would be an understatement. Jason was passed fed up. He was angry and done taking the abuse from Aubrey. "Come on Michael tell him." He appealed to their leader, begging him for a different resolution to the conflict, instead of just moping on Alice's bed.
"Just... clean up the mess Jason." Michael groans. He was sick and tired of the noise and just wanted it to stop.
Jason does a double take before completely redirecting his focus to the koala he'd call his friend. "But it's not m-"
"Look, I'm really not in the mood right now! Just do it." He barks the order at the purple-haired boy. Micheal goes back to sitting and eventually laying on the witch's bed. His say was final, after that he wouldn't be saying anything at all.
"Wh-uh." Jason begins to speak, but he knew there was nothing he could say that would change the angry koala's mind. "Yeah, Michael." Jason sighs in defeat. They were already being punished and they blamed him for that. Jason didn't want to risk his friendship with the two boys as well. He would just roll with it like he's always been doing. 'Just roll with the punches' he thinks to himself.
Jason finishes the work left over by his friend. Though now thinks of the wolf as more of an undesirable person to be around. He hated him but he wouldn't say anything about it. He looks over to where his were the two boys were still sitting. Aubrey was talking in a hushed tone of his usual wannabe gangster attitude about what he would do to Oliver once he finally caught up to him. Jason knows that most likely wouldn't go anywhere. The wolf was all bark and no bite.
He wouldn't really do anything or at least not by himself. When Jason turns his head slightly over to Micheal, the koala looked like he was lost in thought. He nods along to everything Aubrey was saying though not actually paying attention to the words that were spilling out of the wolf's mouth. Jason wonders what it was he could have been thinking about. It wasn't like Michael to stay silent for so long. Besides Aubrey, Micheal was the mouthy one. Jason especially wonders if the silence had something to do with Max.
He takes his eyes off Michael when the koala looks up at him and brings them back down to the floor. He hadn't done too bad if he'd say so himself. Of course, he was no stranger to cleaning up other people's messes, so by this point, he thinks it must just come naturally to him.
Once Jason was officially done, almost as if on cue, they hear the sound of the front door unlocking. Alice returned just as he finished cleaning the rest of the floor. He swore it was as if she could sense that the work had been wrapped up.
"Ahh, boys! Excellent work." She exclaimed, stepping in and observing the cabin from top to bottom. "It looks just as clean as before. If not even more so."
"Aw, well. You know me. I'm a hard worker." Aubrey said. "All trap, no cap." the wolf walks up to her, taking more than his fair share of the credit. "So, we good now? like can we go or what?"
Alice giggles at him. "Uh, uh, uh, children. We're not finished yet. We still have two more cabins to clean." The cabin erupts in a collective groan. They thought it was going to be one cabin a day, but the real punishment was Alice eating up their time with no breaks in between cabins.
"Come on Alice. Are you serious!?" Micheal Try's pleading with her. Though to no avail.
"Way serious." She smirks at them before guiding them all out the door. "Come now, Betsy's home is next." She leads them across the grounds to their next objective. The group drags their feet. Alice's cabin alone was enough to get them exhausted. When she notices the group's slow walking, she uses her wand to levitate the boys through the opened door of Betsy's cabin. Second verse, same as the first she cast a spell that completely destroys the place and ushers them to work. "Alrighty then, same as before. I'll be back in an hour or so. So, make sure you fix the place up nicely." She shuts the door and leaves the boys to their work. Much like before the cabin was a mess. The wells, and the floor as equally bad as before but now with the addition of, previously inanimate, objects now alive and running around.
"Ugh, this isn't fair. It's gonna take forever the fix all this." Aubrey cries out, catching one of the not-so-inanimate pots and throwing it out the window. "Can't believe this is how I'm spending my day.
"Why don't you just work with your mouth closed," Jason muttered under his breath, however, it was just audible enough for it to not go completely over Aubrey's head.
"I'm sorry? What did you say?" Aubrey questioned.
"I said work with your mouth closed, or are you stupid and deaf now," Jason repeats even louder this time while adding a little extra flair to his insult.
"Ha Stu-, okay." Aubrey coughs out a bewildered chuckle. "When did get so big huh?" He gets in Jason's face once more, ready for the fight they didn't get to have last time. "Then maybe you're big enough to take a beating then."
"Okay, that's enough both of you." Michael intervenes. He didn't do it because he cared and doesn't want to see his friends tear each other apart. He gets involved because he didn't want to hear more arguing between the two boys.
"But he's talking the utmost craziness to me! Me! You can't be real!" Aubrey exclaims to their leader. The wolf was defiantly feeling a shock he couldn't well explain on his own.
"Okay, okay man. Jason apologizes so he can shut the hell up." Michael said. Even if Jason was right, even if the wolf deserved the insult, there was just too much noise right now. The noise he didn't want to deal with.
Jason looks at the spaced-out koala in shock at what he was just told to do. "What?" He usually would do what Michael said but this time was different. He couldn't. "I'm sorry Michael but that's not gonna happen."
The pink-haired boy stares, dumbfounded "What?" The words barely pass through befuddled lips. "What...the hell is wrong with you. Just say sorry." His confused demeanor betrayers a confidence that has long since gone.
"No, Michael." Jason stands his ground. He wouldn't apologize to someone who didn't deserve it. He was tired of everything they put him through, so now he was taking a stand. "We wouldn't even be here if weren't for you."
Aubrey puts a hand over his mouth. The wolf wasn't expecting timed little Jason to go after their leader now. "Holdup. You're not gonna let him disrespect you like that right Micheal?"
He gives the other boy a hard stare, his eyes partly glowing red. "Take that back Jason." Michael silently growls, demanding Jason resend his statement.
In truth, Jason probably should have quit while he was ahead. His mind tells him to shut his mouth and just say he was sorry, but his emotions tell him to keep going, keep letting out everything he was feeling. Things couldn't get any worse if he did.
"You know if you weren't so in love with Max, maybe you wouldn't bother him twenty-four-seven." The cabin falls into an instant, eerie silence that sends shivers running up Jason's spine.
Even Aubrey has to stop his snickering. "Jason chill." The wolf whispers. When Jason looks over at him, he can see that the wolf doesn't tell him to remain silent out of malice, but out of concern. He had defiantly messed up.
"Uh Michael I'm sor-" Before he can issue any apology, Michael rushes up to him. He grabs Jason by the neck and slams him up against the wall, pinning him to it.
"Don't talk to me like you know anything about me." Michael held him against the wall, a hand gripped tightly around his neck. "Cause you don't know shit about me." He tightens his grip around Jason's throat "You know what." Micheals growling settles into a light whisper. "Instead of all the talking, maybe you should put that mouth of yours to better use." He said, running the thumb of his free hand over Jason's lips.
"Wh-what." Jason attempts to speak but the words only come out in a barely audible gurgle. The whole time Michael stares at him. The boy's eyes were soaked in flames hotter than the warm grip around his neck.
"You heard me." He says, letting Jason go. "Get on your knees and start sucking."
He was hesitant at first, but he didn't know what else to do to make things right. Jason gets down to his knees and starts to undo Michael's belt buckle. He thinks it was either this or getting beat up and shunned by his friends and he'd rather not go through that.
So, the choice seemed easy to him. It would be quick. All he had to do was hold his breath, so he didn't have to stand the taste and not choke. Before he could actually undo Michael's belt, however, he's pushed back against the wall.
"Queer." Michael spat at him. "You were actually gonna do it homo?"
"Ay yo, he was actually gonna do it." Aubrey instigated from behind Michael with a bit of uncomfortable laughter in his voice.
"God, ya even worse than that faggot Max." He starts redoing his belt as he belittles the slightly shorter boy. "I don't wanna hear anything else from you today... understand?" He leans down to Jason. "All I wanna hear is yes Michael or no Michael, you got it."
Jason quickly shakes his head in agreement while looking at the ground. tears would have started falling but he didn't feel like he deserved to even cry. Things had gotten out of hand. He had stepped out of line when he should have just stayed quiet. Maybe he should have just apologized to Aubrey, none of this would have happened otherwise. He couldn't afford to lose his friends now. No matter how bad they are. They were the only ones he had.
"Good." He stands back up with a smirk. "Now clean up this mess. I'm not asking twice obviously." Michael and Aubrey go to take a seat elsewhere whilst Jason gets to work cleaning the entire cabin on his own. He had a lot to do if he wanted to make Betsy's place look even passable before Alice returned. Michael had made it clear that if they wound up in more trouble, they would no doubt take it out on him so there was no room for mistakes.
Though the odds seemed out of his favor. As before with Alice's cabin, he manages to get everything done with a few seconds to spare before Alice returned. She walks in through the door after unlocking it and takes a moment to admire the boy's work as she had done before.
"Ah boys, wonderful work. I see you've missed a spot or two." She points to a few dusk particles here and there that gets Jason's heart to start racing, but she waves them off. "Nonetheless a job well done." She leads them back out to their final job of the day and maybe the biggest. They March their way to Susie's cabin seeing Oscar, Hedgehog, and Max along the way. The trio had just come from that direction they were heading, and Max was carrying an album in his hands. Jason thinks it must have been important because the bat would not tear his eyes away from the thing as he walks.
Jason decided to hang back and waited for the other group to pass before he stops Max. "Hey, Max..." He starts. He did have much time, so he had to make it quick. "I'm really sorry about last night. I never wanted things to get out of hand."
"Uh...yeah no problem." Max was uneasy at first, but he accepts the apology when he recognizes the genuine remorse in his voice. Though the more he looks the more sees some weird bruising around Jason's neck. "Are you okay man?"
He puts a hand around his neck as Max begins to look closely. Attempting to hide the marks. "Yeah, just hurt myself... a little. No big deal..." He lies. He didn't want to make things worse. He didn't even remember what had happened to him earlier.
"Right..." Max looked unconvinced. Though he wouldn't pray if the boy didn't want him to. "Hey, maybe you could hang out with us sometime. Me, Oscar, and everyone. You know, if you want that is." Max offers. He looks at the ground thinking the invitation over before bringing his eyes back up to Max's.
"Yeah, sounds cool. I might." He accepted before hearing shouting from a distance.
"Jason come on!" Michael noticed he was gone and was now calling after him like someone would their dog. He didn't want to go but he didn't really have a choice in the matter.
"Y-yeah... Michael, I'm coming!" He shouts back with a stutter. "See you, Max." He runs off waving Max goodbye and catches back up with his group as Alice knocks on Susie's door.
The head witch opened the door slightly to see who had been knocking this time around. When she sees Alice with the three boys behind her, she opens the door and steps out. "What's this now?" Susie asked.
"These boys are here to clean your cabin." She pushes them forward. "Use them for whatever you need." She said, leaving the group in Susie's care.
"Whatever I need huh?" Susie puts a hand to her chin and stares at Aubrey. She looks the boy up and down and bites her lower lip as he becomes visibly uncomfortable. "Nah..." She whispers, waving a handout in front of her, pushing whatever unholy thought she had in mind. "Alright boys come on in." She gestures the group into her cabin. "I have a pile of dirty underwear that I just refuse to get up."
