So I read this thing on TV Tropes (I dunno how true or not it is) that Dramarama was originally envisioned by CN to have the teens as 10-11 years old before Fresh changed them to toddlers for more story potential.
And it got me thinking about what could've been, and I remembered that the original Island took place on an old summer camp.
And yeah, that's how we got here right now.
I hope you guys enjoy it :)
Chapter 1
"Welcome to Camp Wawanakwa"
Chris double checked his list while he walked around the campgrounds. The flag was hung, the beds were made, everything was in its place for campers to come and stay over the summer.
All that was missing was the campers.
He sighed as he walked to the docks, the boat should be showing up any minute. He couldn't believe he was having to stoop as low as to be a summer camp counselor. Him, Chris McLean, star of FameTown and numerous badminton and cat movies. Now stuck on some crummy camp on an island in the middle of Muskoka with no civilization reachable by land.
But he supposed it could be worse.
He could be dealing with teenagers.
The boat's horn blared out in the scenery and pulled up onto the dock. Chris exhaled deeply and put on a smile.
Here was the start of 3 months of torture.
"PASS IT AROUND, -79 BOTTLES OF SODA ON THE WALL!"
Well there goes whatever's left of my eardrums, Chris rubbed his ears in annoyance at the musical introduction.
The first kid that was off was a small blonde round boy, singing way off key. He wore a green shirt with red sleeves and a hem, and a red "W'' in the middle. The standard camp shirt all the kids got when their parents signed them up. Over it he also wore a red opened camping vest.
"WOOHOO!", he exclaimed as he looked around the camp. "WE'RE HERE! THIS IS AWESOME!"
Chris's smile faltered a little bit, but he straightened it back up as he shook hands with the boy.
"Hi there", he tried to match the boy's enthusiasm, but failed. "Welcome to Camp Wawanakwa. You must be Ow-"
"Awesome to be here", the boy tried to hug him with the handshake. "I'm Owen! It's nice to meet you!"
Chris tried his best to shove Owen off to the side. "Same kid. Go wait by the steps for the other kids."
Owen obliged. Chris sighed, this kid and his enthusiasm was gonna be a handful.
"Oh FINALLY", the next kid was a girl with black hair in a ponytail, and her shirt had the sleeves ripped off. She also wore an enormous scowl and clenched fists. "I thought he was never gonna stop that stupid song!"
Chris looked down on his clipboard of names. "Eva. Welcome to camp."
Unlike Owen before, Eva didn't even acknowledge Chris's presence as she walked into the dock. Considering how she looked half ready to punch something, Chris figured that was probably a good thing.
"So where's the ghost and dead bodies?!"
Third up was another girl with brown hair, splattered with bits of teal paint all over. On her shirt were similar paint splatters in different colors. She smiled wide, which didn't bode well with what she has just asked.
"I'm sorry what?" Chris wanted to make sure he heard right. "Dead bodies?"
"Yes! The dead bodies of the counselors of the past! Isn't this place supposed to be haunted?"
"Uh….oh! No!", Chris started to correct her. "You must be thinking of Boney Island, on the other side of the lake."
He pointed off to the distance to a dark island. The only thing separating the two was a large boat of water, only accessible by canoe.
"Ohhh", and her smile quickly vanished to a frown of disappointment. "Great."
"Sorry Gwen", Chris chuckled as he watched her sulk and joined the 2 kids before her. At least now he wasn't the only miserable one here.
Chris felt a bump behind him as he saw another boy in headphones, loudly blaring rock music. Like Gwen, his black hair also had splattered paint, but in a bright green instead of teal. His camp shirt looked like it was ripped to shreds by a pair of scissors, under a spiked dog collar that looked way too big for him. He didn't seem to at all notice the adult he just bumped into as he was fake drumming to his music.
"Hey! Hey", Chris tried to get his attention, before signing and taking the headphones off. "Duncan!"
"Hey!", Duncan looked up, annoyed at the counselor. "What'd you do that for?!"
"I don't think you'll be needing these here kid", Chris held the headphones up, still blaring away.
"I will if Owen starts singing again", Duncan sneered and snatched them back to hang around his neck. He turned to look at his new surroundings. "So this is it?"
"Yup", Chris nodded. "Join the other kids by the end over there."
Duncan grumbled and walked over, mumbling to himself. "I'd rather be holed up in Dad's office."
"Sweet! It's just like Muskrat Boys!"
Out came camper #5, a small lanky freckled redheaded boy in glasses, his shirt adorned in various pins and bottle caps.
"It sure is Harold", Chris half lied. It was a camp, there were camp activities, but like heck they were actually gonna get badges for it. That didn't stop Harold from looking around in awe.
"So is it true this island has 20 different varieties of mosquitoes?"
Coincidentally, Chris smacked a mosquito around his neck. "Yes."
"Yes!", Harold fist pumped the air in excitement as he walked away. Getting excited over mosquitos, Chris thought to himself. This kid is weird.
"Alright who's next-OWW!"
"Sorry."
Chris looked down at the small surfboard that had just hit his shin. Underneath it was a small girl with blonde hair, her camp shirt seemed to be stained wet and salty with seawater.
"Ugh...no worries Bridgette", Chris held onto his knee, his smile forced now more than ever. "Just...take it easy with that board."
Bridgette nodded and walked over, straddling the board over her head.
"What you bring a surfboard to a summer camp for", Duncan asked, his tone dripping in rudeness. "This ain't exactly Malibu."
"My mom said there was supposed to be a beach", Bridgette explained, hiding slightly behind her board.
"There is", Chris pointed out to another part of the island holding a beach. Or a rather pitiful attempt at one, with little sand and trash littered around.
"Awesome digs here!"
Well at least camper #7 seemed to like it. A blonde boy with a large cowboy hat that seemed determined to engulf his whole face.
"Glad you like it Geoff", Chris offered a handshake, but Geoff only replied with a fist bump.
"It's great to be here man."
"Well it's no problem man", Chris offered it back.
"Thanks man."
"If you two say "man" one more time, I'm gonna puke!" Gwen's voice shouted out from the ever growing huddle of kids.
Chris rolled his eyes and looked back at Geoff. It was then that he realized under the boy's pink button-up, his camp shirt….was not there.
"Where's your camp shirt?" He asked. "We can't exactly have you walking around shirtless all day here."
Geoff sighed sadly and his out his other hand, the camp shirt all bundled in his hand. "Do I HAVE to wear it?"
"Yes", Chris sighed and pointed to his own matching shirt. "Trust me. I feel your pain."
Geoff looked dejected for a minute, before putting a small smile back on with a shrug. He started to put his shirt on as he walked over to the group.
"So THIS is it?"
Chris looked down to a girl with long raven hair. She wore dark pink sunglasses on her head, and an angry glare on her face. But what really stood out to Chris were the jewels embroidered on her camp shirt
"We're staying at this crummy hole for the summer?"
"...Are those EMERALDS?", Chris ignored her question as he looked at her camp shirt. "And real DIAMONDS?"
"Yes", the girl rolled her eyes. "Like I was gonna wear this stupid shirt without some flair in it."
Chris looked in awe at it, this shirt was now worth more than he was ever gonna make this whole gig. Some people really do get all the luck. He shook his head and continued on his welcome routine.
"Welcome Heather", he said. "And yes this is gonna be your summer jewe- uh home."
Heather scowled and faced the other kids, clearly not impressed by her new "friends" so far.
"Ok now it's-"
"Camper #9!"
A small voice rang out as a boy rushed off the boat. He also had black hair, and a camo hoodie tied around his waist. His camp shirt had four "W"s sharpied into each of the sleeves, making 9 "W"s in total. His sleeves were also decorated in 9 sharpied musical notes.
"...I am the ninth one right?"
"Yes Trent, you are."
"Oh good", Trent sighed in relief. "That makes a good start here."
He walked over more calmly to the other campers. Amongst the other 8 kids, one had caught his attention the most.
"I like your hair", he pointed to Gwen.
"Huh?"
"Your hair. It's neat how it has those blue splats."
Oh….", Gwen looked at her hair, which was actually teal, and smiled. "Thanks. I like your shirt."
"Oh", Trent looked at his own shirt. "Thanks."
Duncan and Owen snickered to each other at the sight. Despite trying their hardest, it was pretty evident Gwen and Trent were blushing.
"Ok", Chris checked on his clipboard. "So who's next?"
"I am."
Chris looked down at his feet to a small brunette boy with a large tooth-gapped smile. True, all the kids were kinda small, cause kids are small, but this one was even shorter than the rest. Not helped was how his shirt looked to be two sizes too big for him, hanging on for dear life over a long beige undershirt.
Chris squinted his eyes at the kid. "Cody? Are you sure you're 10 to 11 years old?"
Cody nodded. "I just turned 11 a few months ago."
"...ok then" Chris shrugged. "You gonna be alright with that shirt?"
"Yeah. I like it!", Cody walked confidently over to the group.
"Oh we're HERE!"
The next kid was another blonde girl, but her hair was pushed back by a blue beanie. Her camp shirt was the standard light green, but somehow the red edges and "W" were glittery….and pink.
"Yes", Chris greeted her. "We've been here for around 10 minutes now."
"Oh right", the girl giggled and looked up at Chris. "Wow. You're the biggest fourth grader I've ever seen."
"I'm not a fourth grader. I'm Chris."
The girl just looked at him in confused silence.
"...Chris McLean?"
Another beat of silence.
"...Your counselor?"
"Ohhh! Right!", She waved to him. "I'm Lindsay."
"Well I'm glad you at least know who you are", Chris couldn't help that snark coming out.
"I am too!", Lindsay replied earnestly. "Life would be SO confusing if I didn't!"
Chris could hear some of the other kids snickering a little bit as Lindsay joined them. He shrugged, it'll probably sort itself out somehow.
"WOAH!" THUD!
Chris looked over to see a brunette boy flat on his face like a pancake. The boy quickly brushed himself back up on his feet. His face and arms were littered in bruises and bandaids and his shirt seemed to have taken a similar beating too.
"You ok Tyler?"
Tyler shot him a thumbs up and a smile of various missing teeth. He ran over to the other kids, and in his excitement tripped on his untied shoelaces, landing face first on the dock again. "OOF!"
Chris winced at the sight. This kid was definitely gonna have an experience.
Footsteps brought his attention back to the boat, as a boy with dark hair and a white ski cap walked on the deck. He looked a little taller than most of the kids, but had a nervous shy look on his face. In his hands he clung onto a grey stuffed bunny, who was wearing a matching camp shirt.
"DJ?"
"Yes", he nodded and said quietly. He seemed like he was trying to hide behind his bunny, avoiding Chris's eye contact. He quickly walked over to the rest of the kids before Chris could say anything else to him.
"Ah you can loosen up here big guy", Duncan greeted him with a devilish grin. "We're not gonna bite…..much."
DJ gulped.
Ok we're almost done, Chris thought to himself and counted the kids, 13 in total. Just a few more to go. Hopefully the last kids will come eas-
"HI!"
Chris was interrupted again and felt his legs pulled together. He looked down to see a small brunette girl in glasses hugging him by the waist. Chris wasn't sure what to do, this kid is touching him, WHY is this touching him?!
"Hello…. Beth", he looked down at his clipboard fast to check her name.
"It's so great to meet you!" Beth finally let go of the hug and smiled up at him with slightly crooked teeth. A smile that matched all the smiley faces pins and patches on her camp shirt. "My mom saw you on that figure skating show."
"Aw yes", Chris was never to turn down a compliment, even as he was brushing himself off from that unwanted hug. "I knew I rocked that!"
"Oh yeah I saw that", Harold added. "One of the skaters dropped another on her head...but they got immunity that week."
"They're lucky", Tyler added. "I hope I'm gonna get dropped on my head."
Well I think that's already happened, Chris quipped in head, as he watched Beth run to the other kids. He couldn't help but snicker as she got close to Heather's space, as Heather tried everything in her might to recoil as far away as possible.
"SUMMER CAMP GET READY TO BE ROCKED!"
And out came a boisterous girl with curly dark hair and hoop earrings, and her camp shirt tier in a knot in the back.
"Because LeShawna is in the HOUSE!"
She walked over to high five Chris. "How ya doing?"
"Uh...great", Chris was taken a little off guard by more energy.
"Nice to be here! Everybody y'all all better watch out cause I am going to rock your world!"
She joined the group with various high fives and good greetings all around, acting like she'd known everybody there for years instead of just a boat ride.
"Great to see you here", she put DJ in a hug, which he returned after some quick hesitation.
"Oh my gosh Sadie we're here!"
The next camper, or in this case campers, were 2 girls with similar black haired pigtails. On both of them were a variety of sequins and fake jewels on their camp shirts.
"Oh my gosh Katie. I've never been to summer camp before."
"I know! And we get to be here together!"
"It's gonna be the best summer ever!"
Chris rolled his eyes as the girls squealed. These 2 definitely were gonna be a headache. Though he wasn't sure if they'd be a bigger headache than the rest of the kids yet.
As Katie and Sadie walked to join the rest of the group, behind them came a pale boy with brown hair and a blue tocque. His shirt was stained in mud and green stains on the front.
Considering the boy was in the middle of picking his nose, Chris guessed quickly where those came from..
He got over his brief bit of grossed out to greet the boy. "Ezekiel. What's up?"
The boy in question turned to Chris, and looked up at the sky. He took his finger out his nose to point. "I think I see a bird."
Chris looked in disbelief, as he could hear the other kids snickering behind them.
"You don't get out much do you kid?"
"Nah I get out all the time eh. I help out on my family's farm outside a lot."
Chris wasn't really sure how to respond to that. He still had more kids to get to. If anything he'd talk to that kid more later. "Just….just try not to cause much attention to yourself ok?"
"Yes sir", and Ezekiel left to join everybody else.
"That's just…..wow", and Gwen was right. It WAS "wow".
Next came a girl, with brown hair and freckles all over her face. Her camp shirt was clean and pristine, not even a wrinkle in sight. She seemed to be the only one who got a shirt and didn't decide to make "modifications".
"Hello Chris", she greeted him politely as she walked to the rest of the kids.
"Hello Courtney", Chris sighed in relief. Finally, a DECENT child.
"Hi", she greeted everyone else. "Nice to meet you all."
Owen thought so too, as he quickly grabbed her in a hug. "How's it going? I'm Owen!"
"Nice to meet you Owen", Courtney managed to strain out in the hug.
"Hello"
"Yes hi", Chris turned back to the boat, his nose in his clipboard. "So are you Justin or-"
"Yes, I am Justin"
Chris looked down on the kid and his eyes went wide at the side. Cause standing there was...the cutest kid he had ever seen. With blue gleaming eyes and fuzzy black hair, and a perfect smile to match. His shirt had gold star stickers on the sleeves and the bottom was cut off slightly, as if he was trying and failing to make a crop top.
Chris must've had a heart within him after all, because he could feel it melting.
"Uh...nice to have you here", Chris wasn't sure what else to say.
Justin kept walking with confidence, apparently used to this sort of reaction. And it wasn't the only reaction he garnered. As he walked, several of the girls around swooned at him. And not just girls either.
"Uh….hi", Owen came over to him, the only one with the courage to actually talk to him, a slight blush on his face. "I uh, like your pants."
"Thanks"
"Cause they look like they're worn in a little bit", Owen tugged on his shirt and blushed redder. "Did..your mom buy them like that?"
"Uh, no. I've just worn them for a while.", Justin shrugged.
"Oh...oh cool", Owen gave him a thumbs up and turned his back away. "Stupid!" His face went into his palms.
Off on the dock came another adult, not a child. A large man with a white apron over a matching shirt and a sailor hat.
"Thanks Chef", Chris gave the larger man a thumbs up. Chef returned it as he changed his sailor hat into a chef's one.
"Alright campers", Chris called out to the kids. "Let's go over to the fire pit so we can go over the rules and get more acquainted."
He watched the group of kids walk up the dock onto the campgrounds for the first time. Giggling, talking, walking, in Tyler's case tripping, but eventually they all say either on the ground or on logs over the circular pit.
"Ok so this", Chris pointed around them. "Is Camp Wawanakwa. Your new home for the next 3 months. Here is where you-"
Suddenly Chris stopped and squinted at the kids. "Wait a minute."
He looked down at his clipboard and counted the heads. The kids looked at each other confused at what he was doing.
"18, 19, 20. There's 20 of you", Chris looked back down at his clipboard and then to Chef beside him. "We're missing a kid."
Chef looked out at the group, then groaned. "I know who it is."
Chef quietly walked back towards the dock, the group watching him as he walked on the boat that had brought them all here.
"Come on kid", they could faintly make out his voice. "This is our stop."
"I'm not going", another younger voice rang out.
"I don't think you really have a choice in that."
Then they heard a quick groan and steps coming out of the boat, as the younger voice protested furiously.
"Put me down! No! Let me go! I don't wanna be here!"
"Too bad kid, you already are", Chef climbed up the steps into views of everyone else. In his arms was a struggling small boy with dark brown hair, a large forehead for a 10 year old, and a blotch of zinc on his nose. He didn't appear to be wearing a camp shirt at all, or if he was it was covered by a blue hoodie and a red sweater vest.
"Ah there's our last kid", Chris looked down at the boy, who was still struggling to escape Chef's grasp. "Welcome to camp Noah."
"Hmmph", Noah gave Chris a large glare in Chef's arms. "So you're the schmuck my mom sent me to, huh?"
"I sure am."
"Well at least you're a schmuck that admits it."
This got a giggle from some of the other kids behind them. It almost got Chris' smile to break, but he caught himself as he saw Noah smirk. He wasn't gonna give that little runt the satisfaction.
"Well you're just a little stinker, aren't you?" Chris forced his smile wider and ruffled Noah's hair a little hard. The smirk vanished off the boy's fair as he tried to straighten back his hair. Chris turned his attention back to the other campers.
"As I was saying", he started back up. "This is where you're going to do activities, make crafts, and maybe even make some friends. This fire pit is where we're going to meet up at the end of the day. We'll roast marshmallows and generally hang out here before curfew. Curfew is at 9 where you'll go to your bunks-"
As Chris continued on, Noah continued trying to squirm or call to Chef to put him down. Chef didn't seem to pay him much attention though, probably thinking he would try to run back to the boat if Chef let him go. He was clearly looking impatient.
"-And breakfast will be in the mess hall over there where you'll have all your meals and-"
CRUNCH!
"OWW!"
And Noah fell onto the ground as Chef waved his arm around. And then quickly proved the last paragraph right by running immediately back to the boat.
"Oh, not so fast, kid!" And Chef was quickly on his tail in a background chase. The rest of the kids laughed at the chase going on.
"Ok. Maybe this place isn't so bad", Duncan revelled in the chaos.
"So anyway", Chris tried his hardest to get the attention back to him. "For some of the activity challenges, we will be splitting you up into teams of 2. One headed by me, and the other by Chef. The twist being, we get to choose each other's team members.
Chef huffed as he came back into the scene with Noah in tow, and quickly dropped the kid by Chris' side. Noah looked like he had just tired himself out from their chase, and made no effort to try again, instead lying on the ground huffy in defeat. Chef pointed to the boy by their feet and said, "Your team can start off with this one."
Of course, Chris should've figured as much. But at least the fun part of choosing Chef's team was giving him all the kids he DIDN'T want.
See, Chris and Chef had a little side bet going on that the team who won the most challenges by the end of the summer would get $100. And like heck was Chris about to give up $100 that fast.
"Well then Chef you'll get…. Ezekiel", he fired back. As clueless as this kid looked so far, Chef was gonna have a fun time dealing with him.
" ...Justin"
Gasp! Chris was gonna have to deal with the cute kid who could steal his organs and get away with it. How could Chef do this to him?!
"...Eva"
Good. She and Chef can probably go toe to toe on temper.
"Cody"
"Tyler"
"Beth"
"Courtney"
"Trent"
"Harold"
The names went back and forth as the teams were split up. Soon enough, Chef's team had Harold, DJ, Eva, Duncan, Bridgette, Geoff, Harold, Courtney, and Tyler. And Chris's team had Noah, Owen, Justin, Heather, Cody, LeShawna, Beth, Lindsay, Gwen, and Trent.
"And then there were 2", Chris said looking at the final two girls.
"But you CAN'T split us up", Katie protested.
"PLEASE", Sadie continued. "We wanna do this together. Please?!"
"Can we please?"
The 2 girls kept pleading as Chris and Chef looked at each other, silently agreeing. If they were gonna be this annoying trying to stay together, imagine how worse they'd be I'd they were apart.
"Alright", Chef sighed. "I'll take both of them."
Katie and Sadie squealed as they hugged Chef's knees. "Thank you thank you thank you!"
"Alright alright settle down", Chris broke them up. My team will be", he unrolled a green flag with a yellow center and a dark green gopher inside. "The Screaming Gophers!"
"Cool", Owen awed at the flag. "I'm a Gopher!'
"Yes you are Owen", Chris responded. "And for Chef you kids will be", and Chef unrolled a red flag with a green center and a maroon fish in the middle. "The Killer Bass."
"Awesome", Harold had a similar awe to Owen's at their team flag.
"Alright. Chef and I will be dropping off your luggage in your cabins. Girls will sleep in the left cabin, boys in the right. You got a half hour to get your stuff together and meet in the mess hall for lunch, starting now."
The kids got up from their stumps and made their way to their respective cabins, talking amongst themselves and walking around the place.
Chris started to head down with Chef to the boat to get the different suitcases and backpacks.
"Well", he started to make some small talk as Chef pulled the luggage onto the docks. "I guess so far this isn't that bad, right?"
Chef looked at Chris with his usual unhappy expression, and held out his arm. "That kid BIT me."
And there were a series of little bite marks on Chef's arm in the perfect curve of a row of front teeth. Chris winced, and slowly pushed the arm away from him.
"You're right", Chris nodded as he took 2 backpacks over his shoulders. "It's ALL bad."
Now I know what you're thinking. "Wait a minute aren't we missing one more camper?"
And I know. And don't worry, they'll turn up.
I hope you like it. I hope everyone wasn't too out of character, or at least was believable in the sense that "they wouldn't act this way as the teens we know and love, but this is what they probably were like as a child".
But I hope you guys liked it ^^