"… Cindy Barn, Jay Lewis, Michelle Campbell and Michael Campbell. Group Forty-four consists of Serena Reynolds" – I perk up – "Miette Dixon" – who in the world is that? – "Ash Ketchum" – yes! – "Clemont Greene" – double yes! – "and Trip Carter."
The elated expression on my face freezes.
"Just my luck to be stuck with you three," Trip mutters, looking about as ecstatic as I am. I glare at him, but Serena touches my arm.
"Ignore him. He's not worth it. That's what you said to me, right?" she whispers.
I nod, feeling kind of… stupidly happy that she remembered what I said.
Sawyer finishes reading from his list and continues, "You will be traveling in your groups for the next three days, so remember them and try to get along. As mentioned in the previous briefing, the forty-five groups will be divided into five mega groups – Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and Epsilon. Follow your mega group leader, stay safe and have fun!"
"Alright, Epsilons, lift those butts off the ground and let's get moving!" Freya, our mega group leader, barks out, her voice amplified by a loudspeaker.
Trip stalks ahead, leaving us behind, and a blue-haired girl suddenly darts in front of me, making me jump. I catch a whiff of her perfume, something sweet and frankly unappealing, and she giggles, her eyes sparkling with mischief.
"I'm Miette. It's a pleasure to meet you." She bats her eyelashes. "You're Ash, right?"
"Um, yeah, nice to meet you."
She holds out her hand. I take it, giving it a firm shake.
"My, what a strong grip."
"Thanks?"
She laughs again, but I'm not sure what exactly is so funny, before she flits away, as abruptly as she came. She moves like a dancing breeze. When I turn back to Clemont and Serena, I'm confused by the expression on Serena's face – her cheeks are slightly puffed up and her azure eyes are dark with ire.
"Hmph," she says annoyedly before storming past me.
"What's gotten into her?" I ask Clemont blankly.
His gaze swivels between me, Serena and the direction where Miette darted off.
"I haven't the faintest clue," he says eventually, but his knowing gaze implies otherwise.
We store our backpacks in the cargo compartment and file into the bus. Since Serena is apparently unhappy with me for some reason, I sit next to Clemont in the bus, but my attention keeps slipping to Serena, wondering what I did to upset her. Her expression turns even more sour when Miette drops into the seat next to her, and I have to resist the urge to eavesdrop on their conversation.
She's my friend, and she deserves her privacy.
My curiosity reaches an all-time high when I see Miette lean in, whispering something in Serena's ears that makes her turn a bright red and start flapping her arms wildly. She catches me looking at them and her scarlet face burns even more, as if that were possible. I quickly avert my eyes because my attention seems to be making Serena uncomfortable.
Clemont is fiddling with some kind of cubic contraction that can transform into different shapes, and he lets me try it when he catches me looking. It's pretty fun, and I cycle through the configurations, quickly catching onto the pattern.
"You're good at this," he remarks. "Bonnie gave up after ten seconds."
"You're better at it than me, though."
He just laughs. "I made it, so of course I know it inside out."
The bumpy ride comes to an end and Freya booms at us to get off. We retrieve our belongings, and watch as the bus rumbles away. For the next three days, we're left to our own devices. Having to hike everywhere with the gigantic backpack on my back is going to be a pain. We're clustered next to a large lake, and I spot a fleet of kayaks moored to the pier, bobbing gently on the tranquil water. A spike of excitement runs through me.
"Form groups of three to four people, everyone!" Freya orders. "Once you have a group, assign one person to take the life jackets from me."
Someone raises their hand. "Are we going kayaking?"
"Does the rooster crow? Does the monkey climb?"
"Um, yes?"
"Then you have your answer!" Freya folds her arms and snaps, "I don't see y'all moving! If you don't form a team in another minute, I'll dump you into the lake."
That gets people scrambling to form teams. Serena, Clemont and I naturally form a group, so we're not worried. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see a sullen Trip wandering around, keeping to the outskirts of our mega group and gripping onto his camera tightly. Abruptly I wonder if he has no friends. I almost… pity him.
Before I can dwell on it, my feet are already carrying me to where he's currently fidgeting restlessly on the fringes. His eyes narrow when I approach, and he jerks back when I grab his arm.
"C'mon. You're in our group, aren't you?"
He's too stupefied to fight me when I drag him back to where Serena and Clemont are waiting with skeptical expressions on their faces, but he breaks free of my hold and pointedly dusts off his arm. But I notice satisfactorily that he doesn't comment anything, even when Clemont loudly whispers, "Are you serious?"
An elderly man shakily steps forward and instructs us on how to kayak and other safety details, and then we're led to the kayaks group by group and helped into the cockpits. I take the lead, and Serena sits behind me, followed by Clemont. Trip brings up the rear. Our destination is the other side of the lake, and our kayak is given a hard push before we begin paddling.
We're off to a rough start, as none of our paddling is in sync. Our kayak rocks dangerously from side to side, and at one point, starts spinning and heading in the wrong direction.
"Oh seriously!" Trip snaps irritably. "If you were gonna drag me into this team, then at least be good at the activity we're doing!"
"Speak for yourself!" I shoot back, paddling furiously. "It's because of you that we're turning round in circles!"
"I'm not the one who keeps hitting the side of our canoe!"
"Says the one who can't even steer! Your strokes are all over the place!"
"Um, guys, maybe you should calm down a little?" Serena interrupts placatingly. "It's not going to get us anywhere."
"Yeah, we're the group that's the furthest behind as it is," Clemont pipes up.
"And that's all thanks to your idiotic best friend!" Trip sneers.
I'm not about to let him get the last word in, petty as it is. "Don't you ever get tired of hearing yourself spout nonsense?"
"Don't you ever get tired of only having one brain cell for company?"
"WHAT?" I whirl around, nearly upending the canoe. Trip smirks at me, and I just… don't care anymore. I submerge my paddle in the water and splash a huge wave of water at him. Granted, some of it spills onto Clemont, who squeaks. It wipes the smirk off Trip's face, which contorts into rage.
"Oh, you're on," he growls. He prods his paddle into the lakewater and splashes back at me. And then we're engaged in an aggressive war of water splashing, which is admittedly beyond childish of us, though at this point I've gone too far to stop.
"GUYS!" Serena shouts, but her voice tapers into a shriek. And suddenly our kayak is tipping over and I'm being greeted with a faceful of water that swarms my ears and mouth. There's oppressive darkness for a few suffocating seconds before I break the surface and shake my head, water droplets flying everywhere.
"Pah!" I spit out a mouthful of salty water. I glance around for the others, who have all thankfully re-emerged.
"Fweeee!"
I flinch at the sharp whistle sound.
"You four!" Freya bellows using her loudspeaker. She's on a small ferry and her expression is twisted into displeasure. "Get on board, now."
We don't need to be told twice, and crew members help heave us onto the ferry. We're a shivering, soaking mess on the deck, and towels are draped over our bodies. Freya clicks her tongue.
"I've never seen a more pathetic team," she says, scowling. "Hurling insults at each other like there's no tomorrow… What are you all, a bunch of five-year-olds?"
"You heard us?" Serena asks timidly.
"How could I have not when you were yelling at the top of your lungs like it was a shouting contest?" Freya fires. Serena shrinks back. "Here's what we're going to do. You will sit down, and you will go around in a circle and compliment each other. Now."
Trip makes a strangling noise in the back of his throat, but one glare from Freya is enough to make him comply without further protests. And it's just my luck that I end up sitting next to him, both of us exchanging dark glares.
Clemont has no issue praising Serena's cooking skills, and while she fumbles a bit, she eventually says that my eyes are clear and guileless. Trip snorts, earning him a warning look from Freya.
What am I supposed to compliment about Trip?
My eyes land on the camera around his neck, and I settle on, "You take great pictures."
"You've never even seen a photo from me," he mutters.
"Is that true?" Freya asks me, and I sheepishly nod my head. "You're not supposed to make up stuff about each other. That defeats the point of this!"
"I don't even know him well enough to think of a compliment!" I retort defensively.
She considers me for a few moments, and then sighs. "Fine. I'll let it slide. Trip, don't think you're getting out of this. Compliment Clemont."
His eyes simmer with ire, but he grinds out, "You're really smart. There. Are we done with this stupid thing?"
Freya shakes her head, her chin set determinedly. "No. We'll keep doing this for as long as it takes. Until you all show remorse for your actions."
I bite back a groan.
"Now do the same, but in the reverse order."
We go round and round in pointless circles. Serena and Clemont don't encounter much problem, but Trip and I rack our minds for creative, patronizing comments when it's our turn. It gets to the state that our compliments become increasingly backhanded – at one point Trip compares my tenacity to that of a mule's, and I gush in a sickeningly sweet tone over his fashion that sticks out like a sore thumb.
Once the other teams are long done with kayaking, that's when Freya decides to let us off the hook. Our clothes have already dried, and dusk is encroaching on the horizon. The large clearing beside the lake serves as our campsite and dinner consists of canned mushroom soup and grilled chicken skewers, which taste absolutely divine after the kayaking we did. As the sky darkens to black and night descends upon us, we huddle around a campfire and toast marshmallows until they are a deep, golden brown.
"It's a clear, beautiful night, so we're going to sleep outdoors with no tents," Freya announces after we've finished the last of our meals. "It's only nine now, but we have an early day tomorrow. Lights out in two hours. You can do whatever you want until then."
I retrieve my phone and message Brock that we're setting up camp now, and he replies back almost immediately.
Don't pick a spot too far away from the others.
His swift response makes me wonder if he's just been staring at his phone, waiting for me to text him.
Someone pokes my shoulder, and I whirl around. Miette gives a twirl, and I blink at the lacy, thin nightgown that she's wearing. It hugs her curves and flares around her ankles, dipping dangerously at the chest area. I quickly avert my eyes, but not before I catch her sultry smile.
"So Ash, what do you think of my dress?"
"Uh… It looks very chilly."
She pouts. "So you don't find me pretty?"
"H-huh? Uh…"
What am I supposed to say? No? Yes? Where is Brock when you need him?
Miette gazes at me expectantly.
I reluctantly reply, "You look… pretty."
"Hmm… You don't sound very confident. Why don't you take a closer look at me?" she purrs, way too close for my comfort. I leap about a foot backward, scrambling for an excuse that would let me get away without being rude, but I didn't need to.
A firm hand closes around my arm and Serena says tightly, "Sorry, Miette, but I have plans with Ash right now."
"You do?" I blurt out.
The glare she sends me is enough to burn me alive. "Yes. We do."
"Oh yeah, we did agree to go on that, er, walk, didn't we?" I hastily amend.
She hauls me away with inhuman strength, and I swear I hear Miette chortling behind us. For what reason, I can't fathom. The only thing that my brain can process now is that Serena seems peeved, and the cause may just be linked to me.
A/N:
It has been eighty-four years (give or take) and I'm finally back! Tbh this has been rotting in my drafts for a long time (I stumbled upon it yesterday and was surprised) so I decided to post it. I can't lie, I've lost a lot of motivation for fanfics in general, so the story may be going somewhere... or nowhere. Hopefully not the latter.