Here's the next chapter. Thanks for your review, Sideshow Cellophane 26 (reading my mind again..) and ProfessorSmooth.
Once I got to the campfire pit, I looked around at the rest of the group again, trying to remember everyone's names. I remembered Beth, Gwen, Bridgette, Geoff, Owen, Justin, Izzy, Courtney, Duncan, Heather, Katie and Sadie, but that was about it so far. That was more than half, at least.
Chris was soon in front of us. "This is Camp Wawanakwa, your home for the next eight weeks. The campers sitting around you will be your cabinmates, your competition, and maybe even your friends, you dig?" I noticed Duncan holding up a fist to one of the guys whose name I'd forgotten.
Chris went on to explain the schedule. In order to fit in all the challenges, we'd have three or four per week, which meant some weeks we'd have breaks, but others we'd do challenges that lasted two or three days and no breaks. We'd be in two teams. After each challenge, the losing team would go to the campfire pit at night after casting their votes for the teammate they wanted to send home. Then that person would be sent out of the contest (I wondered momentarily what I would do if I was out before eight weeks was up and I was still stuck in Ontario until my booked flight home to Springfield, but dismissed the thought – I was not going to lose). The winner would be the one who would stay on the island the longest without being voted off.
"Excuse me, what will the sleeping arrangements be?" Duncan asked. "Because I'd like to request a bunk under her." He pointed to Heather.
"They're not co-ed, are they?" she asked.
"No." Chris assured her. "Girls get one side of each cabin and dudes get the other." The cabins had two doors, so I guessed that there was a wall between those sides.
"Excuse me, Kyle?" the blonde...Lindsay, her name was...raised her hand. "Can I have a cabin with a lake view, since I'm the prettiest?" What a princess.
"Okay, you are, but that's not really how it works here. And it's Chris." the host frowned as he corrected her.
Katie and Sadie grabbed each other's hands. "I have to live with Sadie or I'll die." said one of them...well, obviously Katie. The thin twin.
"And I'll break out in hives." added the other girl, Sadie. "It's true."
"This can not be happening." Gwen muttered.
"Aw, come on, guys, it'll be fun!" Owen said, putting one arm around her and the other around that waterskiing tracksuit boy. "It's like a big sleepover!"
The boy in the tracksuit glanced over at Duncan (who was giving a deer a noogie...no, seriously) and muttered to Gwen "At least you don't have to sleep next to him."
Then it was time for Chris to tell us who was in each team. "If I call your name out, go stand over there." I didn't memorize the names, since I was only listening for mine, but I heard Gwen, Owen, Katie, Trent, Cody and some others. I managed to remember Trent as the boy who brought the guitar with him, and Cody was the puppyish boy.
"From this moment on, you're officially known as the Screaming Gophers!" Chris announced.
"Yeah!" Owen exclaimed. "I'm a Gopher!"
"Wait!" cried Katie. "What about Sadie?"
Chris ignored her, calling out the rest of the names, including mine. I tried to memorize them this time, since this would be my team. I already knew Courtney, Duncan, Sadie, Geoff, Bridgette and Izzy, but then I memorized the rest of the names – Eva, Harold, Ezekiel, Tyler, and DJ. I realized with relief that Heather wasn't on my team, but then again, Gwen wasn't either. Our team was the Killer Bass.
"But Katie's a Gopher!" Sadie called out. "I have to be a Gopher!"
Courtney put a hand on her shoulder. "Sadie, is it? Come on, it'll be okay."
"This is so unfair!" Sadie cried as Courtney led her back to our team. "I miss you, Katie!"
"I miss you too!" Katie called back tearfully. Just my luck to be stuck with one of them. At least they were separated.
The last thing Chris showed us before our cabins, was the confessional outhouse. No, seriously. An outhouse. Luckily, there were other bathrooms, but we'd have to deal with flies buzzing around our head while telling the audience.
I ducked into the outhouse after Gwen had gone in. Lindsay and Owen were waiting their turn outside. "So, I already hate Chris. Why tell us we're at a five-star resort when we're at a place worse than Kamp Krusty? Mom, Dad, siblings, you guys better be watching right now! But I'm playing to win, okay? I will be richer when I come home...although I better convert it to American dollars at the airport before I get home."
We were given a little while to unpack. There were three pairs of bunkbeds in our room, so I dumped one of my bags on a top bunk. Bridgette took the one below mine, and we started all the introductions.
"Where are the outlets?" I heard Lindsay ask from outside her cabin. "I have to plug in my straightening iron."
"There are some in the communal bathroom." Chris told her. I looked out to see Linsday looking confused.
"Communal bathrooms? But I'm not Catholic!"
"Not communion, communal." Chris reiterated.
"It means we shower together." Gwen told her, sitting on the steps of her cabin. "Idiot." Lindsay began wailing, as some of the other Gopher boys looked out.
"I'm glad we're in our own cabin with just guys, you know what I mean?" Owen muttered to his teammates. They gave him weird looks. "I mean, no! I didn't mean it like that! I love chicks. I just don't wanna sleep near them...uh, I mean..."
"Excuse me, Chris?" Geoff was out on the deck of our team's cabins, watching Bridgette. She'd just put her surfboard in our cabin and was coming back for her bag.
"Is there a chaperone of any kind in this facility?" Geoff questioned.
"You're all sixteen years old." Chris pointed out. "As old as a counsellor-in-training at a regular summer camp. So, other than myself, you'll be unsupervised. You've got half an hour to unpack and meet me back at the main lodge."
Courtney, who was already unpacking busily in our cabin, looked up from her bag and remarked "I was a counsellor in training at summer camp last year. I think my experience will give our team an edge."
Whatever. Courtney seemed nice enough, though. At least she didn't act like Heather.
At that moment, I heard a scream from the Gophers' cabin on the girls' side. The rest of us crowded around the door.
It was Lindsay. She was standing on a stool, above a cockroach. "What is it? Kill it, kill it!"
DJ screamed too, and then jumped up on one of the beds. Soon enough, everyone was screaming, either trying to get away from the roach, or trying to squish it. Eventually, Duncan appeared at the door, holding an axe. He held it high, and then brought it down.
"Well, that's one way to kill a cockroach." Gwen commented.
"Awesome." Harold added.
Tyler went up to Lindsay. "If you ever see one of those again, just let me know, 'kay, cause, you know...I could do that too." Lindsay smiled at him.
"They always go for the jocks." Duncan muttered.
I laughed at him. "So what? You jealous of him?"
"Are you kidding?"
"Course I am!" I teased. "Lindsay has about as much brainpower as my dad. That isn't much."
Then we went to the cafeteria, and that was where we met Chef Hatchet. "Listen up!" he bellowed. "I serve it three times a day, and you will eat it three times a day! Grab a tray, get your food, and sit your butts down NOW!" Huh, could be worse. I've spent half a semester at military school. To be honest, the cadets were scarier than this guy, and that was after they made friends with us and finished the hazing rituals.
"Excuse me, will we be getting all the major food groups?" Beth asked.
"Yeah," added Harold, "Because I get hypoglacemic real bad if I don't get enough sugar..."
"You'll get a whole lot of shut the heck up!" Chef yelled at him.
"Have a cow!" I heard Owen mutter to one of the other boys.
Chef heard him. "What was that? Come closer, fat boy, I didn't hear you!"
"I didn't really say anything important..."
"I'm sure you didn't! You, scrawny kid!" That was Noah, who I was standing behind. "Gimme your plate!" He dumped double helpings of red slop onto the poor kid's plate.
I waited to get my helping, then I beamed a big fake smile at the guy. "Thank you very much for this food, Chef." I said sweetly. "Looks good."
He didn't yell at me, but he muttered "I hate suck-ups."
"Okay, it doesn't look good, but I've had worse at military school." I said, breezing off to my team's table before he could reply.
"Yo, what's up, girl?" I heard Leshawna ask behind me. I turned, but she was speaking to Eva, who just looked at her coldly. "Oh, it's gonna be like that, is it?"
I caught Leshawna's eye and grinned at her. She returned it, before going to her table.
"Welcome to the main lodge!" Chris said brightly as we all picked at the lunch.
Geoff turned around. "Yo, my man, can we order a pizza?" He had to duck the meat cleaver Chef threw at him. "Whoa, it's cool! Brown slop is cool! Right, guys?" I grinned across the table and mouthed Nice try.
"Your first challenge begins in one hour!" Chris told us.
"What do you think they'll make us do?" Katie asked nervously.
"It's our first challenge. How hard can it be?" DJ said.
An hour later, we were all standing on the top of a cliff in our swimsuits.
I know, I'm still trying to forge relationships. Stephanie will be doing more soon. And yes, she has been to military school – there are a couple of chapters of her first story when she, Bart and Lisa all attend, based on the Simpsons episode "The Secret War Of Lisa Simpson". So please review!