Chapter Six- Thrown together
A new day donned very bright, and extremely hot. With it being just seven thirty in the morning, the mercury had already been touching ninety six, and was in fact, rising even higher to the triple digits. Camp Pawa was now literally baking under the oppressive heat that covered it.
Despite the brutal heat of the morning, the kids of the camp were already finished their breakfast, and on their was across the camp back to their designated cabins, ful of excitement of what the day was going to bring
The girl’s of Cabin five were no different. CC walked just beside Mandy and Donna, as they strolled back to their cabin, to get the day’s activities layed out after they changed into lighter clothing to fend off the heat.
As the tall girl walked along with her friend, she had a very strange feeling hit her that something seemed as little off this morning. She could feel a sort of vibe that came from one of the other two girls, and felt like it was something deep and brooding. She was not sure of who it was, but she looked at each girl in silence, trying to read the faces.
The tall girl first looked a Donna, who seemed unfazed by anything, then looked over to the shorter girl that she walked with. She noticed that Mandy’s face and whole way of acting was more somber and serious than she had seen the girl before. Watching the girl for a few moments as they walked, she instantly had the sense again that something was not quite right with her new friend. She could not exactly put her finger on what it could be, but it was clear that the girl was deeply troubled..
Thinking back, the small girl was been almost as quiet as the girl named Lori always was. Her mind flittered to that fact that she had seen it happening over the last day or so. It was not as if Mandy was ignoring her, or anyone else in the cabin, but she was acting just a little off. It was as if the girl’s mind was preoccupied with something, or if she was heavily thinking. Either way, it was not like her as far as she knew.
CC thought back to earlier this morning, when they had snuck out together for their morning smoke behind the bathrooms. The goth girl was mad at herself, as she had not seen it right off. She now recognized that their was a glassy, very far away look held in those brown orbs of Mandy’s when they were smoking, as if the girl was miles away from where she actually was.
Troubled with her friends unusual behavior, the goth girl wondered if it had anything to do with her decision to tell Mandy about her secret. Could have that been one of the reasons for the girl’s sudden stoic and silent behavior. She thought that possibility through, as she continued to follow the others.
In her heart she knew. CC did feel that her admission was not the reason behind the girl’s sudden change of mood, but without an answer replace her fear, she still gravely worried about her friend. Only thing she knew, something was making the girl act like this, but all she could do for her friend, was to hope that sometime soon, her friendship would be deep enough that she would come out with it to her.
CC sighed and noticed that they had arrived back at the cabin, Mandy had already headed inside, not one word had been spoken in the time it took to get from the dining hall to the cabin. Pushing the girl would solve nothing, she knew, so she just decided to give the girl the time and space to think.
Once inside, the tall goth girl noticed that Tracy was also inside the cabin and already complaining away in her whiny best, as usual. CC just shook her head at the very annoying girl and headed over to her bunk to wait for the counselor to come in and read out the list of activities that were for the day.
She looked over and saw that Mandy had went over and took a seat on her own bed. The girl looked over at her for a moment, and a small smile broke the serious mask that had been hanging on her all morning. CC returned the brief smile, beginning to hope that the small smile she had gotten, no matter how long it had been flashed to her, was a good sign.
The very loud Tracy was in perfect form for her, as she was now complaining so hard over the heat of the day, to everyone that was unfortunate to be in earshot..
" Look at my hair..." She said loudly, staring into a mirror she had perched on the small sidetable next to her bunk. She flipped the ends of her long blonde locks, as she peered at her own reflection " All of this humidity has totally ruined it."
" You look fine!" Said Mary, the only one that seemed to even hang around with her, sighing. It was obvious that even she was getting fed up with the girl already this morning.
" With that mousy hair of your’s Mary... I would not want to talk about being ‘fine’..." The girl jabbed, with a scoffing sound.
Mary seemed to take the hurtful words in stride somehow, as she silently handed the girl a hairbrush she produced from a large square travel trunk just beside the bed. Tracy nearly tore the brush out of Mary’s hands, not even pausing to give a small word of gratitude in the process. She just took it and began brushing her long hair out, while sharply complaining about things as she did
CC just sat on her bunk and give a sneer to herself, as she was feeling so disgusted with the blonde girl’s attitude this morning. The girl had been a pain over the first six days that they had been at camp, and now it seemed as if the girl was building to be a even bigger pain in the ass ever waking moment. The goth maiden shook her head as she looked over her shoulder, as the Tracy’s voice was now beyond just being grating on her, it was feeling more like a chainsaw to her head.
Tracy spotted the goth girl shaking her head and seemed to know who the shake of contempt was for. She threw her brush on top the floor, attracting the attention of everyone in the room.
" You making fun of me over there, freak?" She said loudly from across the room, getting the young teen in black’s attention as well..
CC calmly lifted her head, fearlessly locking eyes onto the cabin’s diva. She had never been intimidated by anyone, especially not by some blond bimbo like Tracy.
" I’m just laughing at just how shallow of a person you really are, Tracy." She said flatly. " That’s all!"
The beauty queen sneered, as if the girl’s word did not even hold any weight for her.
" At least I have style grace that all of boys go for, rather than your mix and matched graveyard robbed look you so proudly wear." Tracy said, her words dripping with snideness. " I really don’t think that anyone could get any more ‘shallower’ than what can be dug out of a grave."
" I actually like who and what I am, thank you very much..." Said CC, her eyes never leaving the girl’s " at least I don’t look like some scrawny retarded Barbie doll in clothes that her mommy payed for her."
The girl gave a small snuff of being condescension, and stared down the lass in black.
" You could not possibly look this good, even if you tried, freak..." started Tracy, a evil gleam coming into her eye. " The only thing you would ever end up attracting would be corpses anyway, or at the very best, living alone with twenty cats."
CC looked over to the girl, a small smug grin now was on her face
" I know how you end up attracting the boys, Princess..." She said, never flinching under the girl’s stony gaze. " If I had to take a guess how you actually get the guys to notice you, you probably either sneak into the boys bathroom and write your number on the wall, or do you give it away for the price of a Big Mac, to dole out your ‘services’?"
Tracy sputtered with anger and stormed over across the cabin’s interior and right to the girl. She stood there, her eyes now turning a shade of red as she glared down at the smirking CC.
" At least they would want me, rather than a reject from some really bad horror picture, Cunt!!." Spat Tracy, leaning over the girl sitting and locking eyes. " I got the looks, the style and everything else that you don’t... what could guys ever possibly might want with a broom riding witch like you?"
" I am sure they want to be with someone that is... Human, rather than a walking poster for botox!" CC said with a smirk.
Tracy screamed in rage and gave the girl a vicious open hand slap right across the face, which knock the girl off the bed and to the floor. Now in a frenzy, Tracy jumped on CC with her manicured hands locking themselves through the girl’s long dark hair and ending up pulling out a small handful out in her anger.
CC rolled onto her back and pushed the girl off of her with one of her knees, standing the girl up with her strength.
" Your totally fucking nuts, don’t you know that!!" CC verbalized loudly.
The goth girl went to get up from her disadvantaged place on the floor, but the blonde kicked out her own foot, and caught the black dressed right between the legs while she clamored to get up. CC sprawled her to the ground a second time with a small yelp, her face contorting with the pain that came with the underhanded blow the girl did. As she layed there, she groaned a little with the onset of more pain.
Writhing on the floor as she tried to catch her breath, CC looked up at the girl that stood over her menacingly, a mocking smirk on the face of the girl.
" Don’t think you’ll be using that any time soon, bitch..." Hissed Tracy, seeing how the girl was in pain. " Probably smells like fish anyway!"
Surprisingly, CC was back on her feet almost instantly, her scowling face only inches from the blonde girl’s. In a single instant, CC shoved the girl back, then followed that up with a perfect straight left hook with ever ounce of strength behind it. The punch connected squarely with the side of the blond’s jaw, and sent the all pink dressed girl sprawling to the floor in a heap.
" Fuck you... little rich bitch!!" Screamed CC, her eyes flaring with her anger as it was now her turn to loom over the girl on the floor. " I should kick your sorry ass for that!"
" Kiss my ass, dyke..." Squeaked the girl from the floor, as she tried to get herself back to her feet, although much slower than CC had earlier.
CC was going jump on the girl and finish the job with a flurry of punches to the face before Tracy had the chance to set herself when Mandy quickly appeared and grabbed her from behind. CC was going to fight herself away from whoever it was that was holding her back, but quickly she had realized who it was that restrained her.
" She is not worth getting yourself kicked out of here for..." Mandy said, barely being able to hold back the much taller and much madder girl.
" Let me just kick the crap her!!" She spat. " Just let me!!"
" Is...It...Worth... It?" Said the smaller girl, putting an accent on each word, in hope that CC would listen to her
CC felt her coming back to her senses, Mandy’s words had taken the fire of her rage and dowsed it. The very words she had been told to her, now rang very true in her mind.
" Your right..." Hissed the Gothic girl, stopping her struggles and then standing stone still. " Miss plastic there is not worth anything like that!"
Tracy finally scrambled to her feet, and quickly slunk back to her bunk. Mary helped her keep on her feet, but there was a secret smile on her face as she did.. It appeared that the blonde girl’s yearning for a fight was all gone.
" You’ll pay for this, you mutant freak..." She said, looking at the girl with hatred flaring.
" As if!!" Spat back CC, as Mandy finally released her from the bear-hug she had used to control her.
Councilor Olivia stormed in a moment later, her eyes flashing with her own anger. She stood in the middle of the cabin, her face was red and her posture ridged.
" Girls!! What in the name of God is goin’ on here? I can hear the frickin’ lot of you from the dining hall going off like a wild pack of animals" She screamed, looking around at everyone. No one answered, and the woman plopped her hands on her hips. " Answer me girls...!!"
The group was very silent for a moment, as the woman looked at every face one after another. She did stop at Tracy, who stood there with her head down, and eyed her for a moment or two.
" Nothing..." Spoke up CC, glaring at the girl with the swollen cheek. " Just a difference of opinions, Miss Olivia."
" We have... worked some stuff out, Miss Olivia..." Said Tracy back, her eyes going down to the floor.
" Really?" She snuffed. " By making noises like a band of orangutans, you have brokered a peace accord with all of that caterwauling? Call the middle east, they have not tried that yet!"
" We just have made peace here, Ma’am..." CC said, sitting down on her bunk.
Miss. Olivia sighed and shook her head. She had her suspicions about what had happened, but seemed to be letting that go for the time being.
:" As long as you gals have worked out things..." She said, looking at the clipboard. We have our itinerary, and a special announcement..."
The group perked up on hearing the words from the lady. It seemed that for the time being, the little scuffle was washed away by interest in just what news the lady had brought for them all.
We are going to ready ourselves for a little camping trip into the wilderness today..." The woman announced. " We are going to camp out on a island out at the far end of Lake Pawa."
" Blake Island?" Asked Mary.
" The very one...." She said. " We are going to set up camp there, and learn simple survival tactics. We are all going to split up into groups of two, and stagger our camping places on the island so we are near enough to one another, for safety, but far enough that each team has to cook, gather water and wood and other things for survival by themselves."
Tracy groaned, as the thought of camping out in the wilds seemed not to be her idea of fun. With a disgusted scrunch of her face, she looked up and glared at the leader of her cabin.
" Are you having a problem with going camping, Miss McDonald?" Olivia asked.
" Do we hafta?" The girl whined. " I think that sleeping outside, and ick.... Going to the you-know-what outside, is not my idea of fun in any way, Miss Olivia..."
" Well, you can just stay back at camp here, and Administrator Kirkwood would be in charge of you the whole time." Said the Councillor flatly. " Staying back hear means that you will be put to work in the camp’s mess hall and work in the laundry until we come back in two days, and then join us for the remainder of your stay here. Would you like to be doing that, Miss. McDonald?"
The girl sighed, showing that plan clearly was not what she wanted either. Sighing, she looked at the taller middle aged woman, her face showing that she already had made a decision based on that.
" I’ll go..." She muttered in defeat.
" I thought you’d might join us in the great outdoors...Welcome to our expedition!" Miss Olivia smirked with almost glee. " Every team will each get a two person tent, sleeping bags, flint, water, a few cooking and eating utensils and enough food for two days out there... follow me and we will go and grab this stuff... after I assign the groups." She looked at her clipboard. " Tracy and Mary are together, Donna and Lori and the last but not least, Mandy and Crystal."
Mandy shivered, as she thought of being with CC all alone like that. Her mind was split between feeling excitement , and fear of her own self and feelings that circled inside of her. She stayed silent, hoping that she might find a solution to this and fast... but it seemed that there was no answer.
With the others, she followed to pick up the supplies for the next few days. Blake island would be a crossroads for her, and she already knew that.