| abstract
| - Well, to put Lyn’s experience on the island so far in fewer than three words, it sucked. It’s only been twenty-seven seconds. She had totally expected to have seen a five star resort, hot tub, and a pool table. Not dirt. She had already seen flies when she first arrived, swarming around her baby blue suitcase, which matched the color of her shorts. She let loose the deepest sigh of all, as she scanned the unexpected area around her. Lyn, to say the least, was a little bit unnerved at this predicament. To put it bluntly. “Katelyn, the local band geek. You’re here. Pleasure to see you arrive!” A male, tenor-sounding voice echoed in her ears. The chocolate haired girl merely shrugged in response. “Sorry, but we’re going to have to shorten your name to something else. There’s another girl who has a similar name to you coming here. Don’t wanna mess things up.” Chris ended that sentence with a wink her way. Lyn shuddered. To be polite, she plastered a sickly sweet smile on her face and held out her hand. “Hey, Chris. Nice to meet you!” Not so nice. “I guess I can go by Lyn. Less confusing that way, you know?" “Yes, that’s fine by me.” His dazzling, movie-star-polished smile formed dimples on his face. Typical fake celebrity with a godlike complex. Jeez. The middle aged man had directed her to trudge to the end of the dock. The dock was long, but there were only three other campers there. A girl with choppy black and blue hair who looked incredibly unimpressed, and a relatively average looking guy, kinda tall, rounded features, dark skinned. There was also a petite girl, a little nerdy looking, but she had a smile on her face. She introduced herself as Beth, possibly short for Elizabeth, and Lyn shook her hand reluctantly. Lyn slowly slunk to the back of the group, edging towards the left. She was tempted to whip out her notebook and write, but she decided against it. She wanted to stare at her new rivals. She bit back a grin. At least she could hear the birds chirping. Maybe she could go birdwatching on a free day. That would be kind of fun, at least. The water was also relatively clear, other than the beach being grimy. Oh well. It took about three minutes until the next boat arrived. A short, medium-built male made his way out of the boat. His hair was so blonde, it was nearly white. Lyn’s eyes widened at the sight of this boy. His name was Drew. The kid sat behind her in her English class at school- she had never spoken to him before, except for a few remarks in class. “Everyone, our skater boy, Drew.” So, he skateboarded. Interesting- gathering people of different stereotypes. Lyn would make sure to keep her eyes on him. Chris chuckled, a hint of the devil in his voice. Perfect. Drew held out his hand, which the host took. “It’s nice to meet you guys. I’ll just kinda... Sit in the back.” Drew was always quiet- he quickly scurried behind the others, sitting down, not wanting to be seen. He put his sandaled feet into the water, getting the bottoms of his cargo pants wet. Lyn shrugged, not wanting to cause a scene about them knowing each other. After a few moments, the next boat arrived. A boy with a cowboy hat and beachy blond hair jumped out, his buttoned down pink top just screamed “party”. His features were angular, but he was an attractive guy overall. He seemed nice enough. “Here’s Geoff! King of party.” “It’s great to be here, man!” “It’s great to have you here, man!” “So excited for the party to start, man!” “Thanks, man.” The two began to try to out-man each other, which lasted much longer than what the other campers would have liked. Getting annoyed, Gwen shouted two words at them that caused Chris to wave Geoff off. Geoff smiled and shrugged. The gothic-styled girl sighed loudly as he began to grab his bags, running a hand through her blue streaked hair. She slumped in place. “If they say man one more time, I’m gonna puke." Lyn decided to make some conversation, by laughing softly, and whispering. “The intelligence of these campers so far, I swear.” The other girl smiled slightly, crossing her arms. “You at least seem sane.” “You too. I’m Lyn, what’s your name?” The goth girl furrowed her eyebrows, not expecting to be asked for her name so soon. She exhaled through her freckled nose slightly, and uncrossed her arms, making eye contact. “My name’s Gwen.” Lyn smiled, only to be interrupted by a very attractive female strutting off of the boat. Not too shabby. The blonde girl waved at the campers and to Chris, smiling. “Hi~!” Her high-wattage smile came to a halt, as she pursed her lips and furrowed her brow. She tiled her head to the side, and folded her perfectly tanned arms in confusion. She even looked pretty like that. “Okay, you look, so familiar?” Lyn wanted to throw herself off the dock to be eaten by a shark. The girl managed to stop herself. “I’m Chris McLean.” ‘Dear God’ he thought. Silence. ... “The host... of the show?” The now-irked host drawled. An invisible lightbulb flashed above the girl’s head, as her blue eyes widened. “Ohhhh! So that’s where I know you from!" “Y-Yeah." Chris decided to make this short and sweet. “Listen, Lindsay. We chose you because you’re pretty, and nice to top that. Try not to mess up early on, okay?” The blonde nodded, smiling. What a bimbo. The girl strutted to the group, and stood in front of it, playing with a strand of her hair. She didn’t notice Beth trying to introduce herself, and kept looking around, the smile on her face staying. The contestants saw someone climb out of the boat. She was tall, thin, pale, with jet black hair that reached her mid-back. Wearing nothing more than a sports-bra type shirt and revealing shorts, she seemed to want eyes on her. She donned sunglasses, and she didn’t look too impressed. Taking them off and scanning the area dramatically, she appeared to be of Asian decent. Her skin was paler though, which made them think she was of mixed blood. “Heather. Welcome.” Heather was immediately taken aback by her surroundings, and she began to inwardly panic. “I’m calling my mother. I’m not staying here.” Chris sneered, with a smile on his face. “There’s no reception here. You can’t call them.” Heather let out a low sigh in defeat. The host was right, her cellular devices couldn’t grasp anyone’s attention, especially in this area. There was no cell phone tower in sight. She began to wonder why exactly she signed up for this show- defeated, she began to walk towards the group, only to be interrupted. Beth gasped lightly and ran up to her, sticking out her hand and wanting her to shake it. She got up in her face. “Hi! Looks like we’re your new friends for the next eight weeks!” The rest of them could see the spit flying all over Heather’s face. The latter grimaced, trying to get away from Beth as quickly as possible. Heather growled, nearly shoving Lyn and Lindsay out of the way so she could stand in between them. The dark haired girl crossed her arms, and scrunched her nose at Lyn, huffing. After a few moments of awkward silence amongst the campers, a boat pulled forward slowly. “Bad to the Bone” was playing on a boom-box under this terrifying boy’s foot. He was tall, lanky, and had a green dip dyed faux-hawk as a hairstyle. A skull shirt was on his top half over a long sleeved white top, and his face was heavily pierced. He looked incredibly angry. He looked like he was about to rip someone’s face off. It was moderately terrifying, to say the least. Chris smiled a fake smile. “Duncan.” The punk took a step forward, threateningly. “I don’t like,” he paused, cracking his knuckles, “surprises.” Chris, unfazed, simply waved it off. His smile was not weakened by his threats. “Yeah, your parole officer warned me about that. He told me to give him a holler anytime you hurt someone to have you sent back to juvie. And I’m sure the cameras that are on you will be proof enough for you to be thrown in there for a long time.” The last two words Chris uttered sent shivers up the contestants’ spines when he said it in an almost mocking way. Duncan, instead of mauling Chris like the others expected him to do, merely shrugged it off as if it was nothing. The punk mustered a sardonic smile. “Okay, then.” Duncan meandered down the dock, and stuck out his tongue suggestively at Heather before stating, “Meet you by the campfire, gorgeous.” “Screw off. Try someone who’s at your standards, thug.” The punk ogled at Heather, wiggling his eyebrow(s) in an explicit manner, before pretending to grab his groin. “Any time, toots.” Heather turned away, scoffing at the new boy’s attitude. She would not let him get the last word in, in another case, but for now, she would plot a way to get him back for his blatant disrespect. Another boat arrived, and a relatively tall, yet pretty girl stepped out of it. Hair held in a high ponytail that reached her mid-back, her appearance screamed “west coast”. She didn’t wear any makeup, but that didn’t stump her appearance, as she let her natural beauty show instead of using cosmetics. Her smile was thin-lipped, but dazzling nonetheless. She held onto an orange surfboard under her right arm, and a blue duffel back was in her left hand’s grasp. Chris smiled at the camera, before ushering the blonde to walk towards him. “Our surfer chick, Bridgette, has arrived.” Duncan called out from the crowd; “This ain’t Malibu, honey.” Bridgette’s smile faded, as she began to scan her surroundings. She sighed in disbelief. “I thought we were going to be on a beach?” Chris’s smile didn’t fade. “We are! Look around!” “I mean... One with waves?” The man shrugged. “We never said anything about waves.” Bridgette, dejected, decided to quickly get over it. Her smile quickly threw itself back on her face, and she shrugged. “Oh, well.” “That’s the spirit. Join the others.” The surfer narrowly avoided knocking out Chris’s teeth with her surfboard as she turned around to say goodbye to Chris. The man decided to just tell her to go and look pretty, annoyed that she hit him in the face. Bridgette apologized multiple times, but she decided to give up, placing her bags at the end of the dock like everyone else. Chris stood, waiting for the next contestant, only to feel a soft breathing on his neck. He turned, to become face to face with a very dorky, yet slightly good looking young fellow. Bright red hair, most likely native to southern Scotland, sat on this boy’s head, and it was knotty and wiry. The boy let out an asthmatic wheeze, and wiped his nose on his sleeve. “Meet,” Pause. “Harold." Chris took a step back, trying to re-gain some personal space that he had lost in this encounter. “I thought this was going to be some fancy talent show. Not at a dirty summer camp...?” The host shrugged. “We’re going to be doing camp-y stuff now.” Instead of the expected groan from the boy, he pumped a fist in the air and belted out a “yes”. “This is so much more friendly to my excellent skills.” The beanpole staggered slightly, but then retained his so-called composure as he blended with the group. He sneezed, but thankfully covered his nose. He began to chatter with Beth about his life-threatening allergies, and the girl went along with it, desperate to make at least some sort of friend. The next boy to arrive, to put it bluntly, was huge. The others thought that DJ was huge, but this boy, although the same height, also was huge in diameter. He was enormously fat, but almost jolly. He moved quickly for such a big guy, and grabbed Chris, hugging him to his chest. “It’s so great to be here! Woo!” Dropping the host back down to the dock, he chuckled. Chris and Owen bantered back in forth various excited exclamations, which ended in the former of the two to send him with the others. The mountainous boy made no argument, happily joining the few on the dock. The next two were practically fraternal twins- fraternal the key word of that sentence. One was tall, one was short. One was thin, one was plump. One was dark skinned, one was light skinned. But they both had the same smile plastered on their faces, as they happily jumped in place. Kathryn and Sabrina, a.k.a Katie and Sadie, as they preferred to be called, were attached at the hip since they were in kindergarten. Friends since childhood, they have been practically the same person since they were little. Neighbors, they spent almost every waking moment together. “Katie, Sadie! So good to see you here!” The two girls squealed in delight, but paused to scan the area surrounding the two. Sadie was the first to gasp. “Katie! Katie! It’s a summer camp.” Katie replied, eyes lighting up like stars in the sky. “OMG! It totally, like, is!” “I’ve always wanted to go to a summer camp!” “Same!” “I love it so far! We have so much in common!” “Eee! I know!” The two shared a moment together, hugging, and squealing, much to the others’ annoyance. Chris tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, waiting for the two girls to get on with it. Lyn, from across the dock, realized that Katie was the one with a similar name. The girl inwardly cried in pain. The two twins, ignoring Chris, locked arms and skipped to the end of the dock together with their luggage. Gwen looked ready to cry, and so did Heather. They both prayed that they wouldn’t die of annoyance. A boat arrived, and a short, yet frail looking boy came out wearing a large blue knitted hat on his head, with mousey brown hairs sticking out. A green sweatshirt the same color as a grandma’s couch was on his body, along with ratty blue jeans and running sneakers that seemed to be worn out big time. Other than being dressed like a hobo, he was a relatively cute looking boy, having a button nose and large brown eyes. “Ezekiel, what’s up?” Ezekiel, preferring to be called Zeke, was from Quebec. Bilingual, he spoke both Canadian-French and English. He had a slight accent, but he could still speak English mostly fluently. Zeke’s eyes narrowed, and he cocked his head to the side lightly, before he finally understood what Chris was asking. “Oh, nothing much. I’m glad to uh, be here.” His stereotypical Canadian accent certainly didn’t make him sound as smart as others would have thought, but Chris was actually very impressed. The next boat arrived to show a somewhat thin boy, relatively tall (taller than most of the girls there so far), and he had short, styled brown hair. He had an upturned shaped nose, which suited his features, and teal colored eyes. He smiled broadly, showing a small gap between his two front teeth, causing him to have a cutesy appearance, rather than a dashing one. He wore a long-sleeved sweater that had two colored stripes going around the mid-section, and a collared shirt that peeked out from above and below the knitted top. He also donned pants that seemed to have incredibly deep pockets, which are later revealed to be an epi-pen and a kazoo. To put it bluntly, the boy looked like an oversized fourteen year old, getting the height of the puberty rather than the toned looks. He had an air around him that could be labeled as “trying to be cool but failing”. He made his hands into the shape of a gun, and pretended to shoot some “sick fires” at the host. “It’s Cody! The Codester! The Codemeister!” Chris shouted slightly, fist-bumping the boy. In response, Cody grinned a large grin, and high-fived Chris after the fist-bump. “Great to be here, man!” Again with the “man”s. It was getting old to some of the campers that were there. Cody, after a quick conversation with Chris, sashayed towards the females, flashing a gap-toothed smile at the group of girls. He unclouded his throat. “Hello, ladies. Glad to see you gorgeous women here. Heheh.” Attempting to make his speech silky, he slithered over to Bridgette, The gap-toothed boy simply wagged his eyebrows to Lyn, who turned away, before he could say anything else. Cody decided to position himself between Lyn and Gwen, smirking at the latter in an innocent yet coquettish way. The teen sure did fail at smooth talking the ladies. Most of them predicted that he was living in “fantasy land”. A few other campers arrived after that, including an angular-faced jock that said nothing but a loud crash (which doesn’t count as talking) and a thumbs up to prove that he wasn’t hurt. Chris introduced him as Tyler, before he made his crash landing into everyone’s luggage. Tyler was originally from New Brunswick, nearing the border of Maine, the furthest northeast state in the USA. He was a dual citizen of both countries, having a passport, and attending a private school in Southern Maine. Although he went to school there, he spent summers in Canada, which caused him to audition for the show. Tyler participated on most of the school sports teams, excluding football and basketball. Even if the only sport he truly succeeded at was the swim team. The next camper to arrive was a busty, curvy African-decent female named LeShawna- She was bursting with confidence when she arrived, and although quickly bantering with Heather, she was still smiling. Though easily set off, she seemed like she was a relatively good person overall. LeShawna also threatened to smack Harold all the way across the island and back, but the red-headed “master of skills” blushed, and sighed loudly. We have found the odd-couple, everyone. Hold the applause. The next boy to arrive was obviously of mixed blood, having a pale skin tone, but indian features. Tanned skin, chocolate brown hair, and eyes to match his hair were some of his attributes. His sense of fashion wasn’t exactly on the scale of modern, but he definitely came off as someone who didn’t exactly want to be in the limelight. Sweater-vest, over a polo-shirt, over a long sleeved button up, along with shorts. Warm on the top, cool on the bottom. “Noah, great to see you arrive.” Chris said, a wink in his voice (although he did not physically make the gesture). Noah seemed to stay stoic through this, quickly questioning Chris. “Did you get the missive referring to my life-threatening allergies?” He asked, tone low, yet still going through puberty. The host merely shrugged. “Eh, I’m sure someone did.” Noah’s eyes darted back and forth quickly, before he inhaled loudly through his nose, showing evident distaste in the area that he would be staying in. “Is this where we’re biding?” He definately used big words, that’s for sure. The sweater-vest-clad teen was interrupted by a certain punk with a green mohawk. Duncan pounded a fist into his hand, smiling threateningly. “No, it’s your mommy’s house. And we’re havin’ a big party.” Noah, unfazed by Duncan’s attempts to prod at him, simply smirked. “Cute. Oh, and by the way, your piercings are absolutely adorable. Did you poke all those holes in your face by lonesome, big guy?” The bookworm’s voice absolutely dripped with cynicism, causing Lyn to giggle, and the rest of the campers’ eyes widen. Silence. Duncan’s eye twitched abruptly, before reaching out to grab Noah’s lip. Noah didn’t attempt to move away as the punk snatched it. He pulled a needle out of his pocket, and gave the tanned boy a condescending smile. “Yeah, you want one?” “Uh, no thanks.” Noah started, still unaffected by Duncan’s threats, “Can I have my lip back please?” The mohawked teen released Noah’s lip, in an act of both respect and apathy. “Thanks.” The boy whose lip was just released shrugged it off, standing behind both Cody and another girl, Eva, who had arrived a few minutes prior. Eva growled to herself for zero reason provoked, which caused a few surrounding campers to shudder. Eva was born in a small village in the Netherlands. To put it bluntly, she’s foreign, strong, and has a thick accent to match- well, thick is an overstatement. She moved to Quebec at the tender age of six years old, was raised by her parents and was soon enrolled in a small, private school, where they all spoke French. Her parents strictly spoke Dutch to her in her house, so Eva had quite a mixed accent. Being trilingual, however, has its perks. If Eva dressed and groomed herself to compliment the muscular, yet curvy figure, she would be easily labeled as an exotic beauty, having boys on her left and right. But, she decided against it, letting God do its work on her, and in God’s work, it actually means giving her extreme anger issues that had caused multiple teenage boys to go to the emergency room. She was not exactly the sweetest grape on the vine, to put it lightly. Although, Cody did not hesitate to flirt with her. But, the flirtations he committed caused him to have a bruised thumb (and a bruised ego). Noah leaned over to Lyn after Eva hurt Cody, scooting closer to her, as he whispered lightly in her ear. “She’s a keeper.” The band-geek snorted, covering her mouth to keep her from laughing too obnoxiously. Her laugh wasn’t the most pretty sounding noise. After a drop dead sexy male named Justin, a petite hispanic brunette named Courtney and a female with wild, orange hair which made her look exotic named Izzy. Chris stepped up to the twenty-four campers, clearing his throat. “Well, campers, here we are,” He paused, flashing them all a pearly white smile, “Follow me to the campfire, this way.” Chris waved his arm in a motion that suggested the twenty-four of them had to follow. Few groaned, obviously unhappy to be there, but Lyn simply decided to walk beside the African-Canadian girl with the hard-to-remember first name and the bookworm, whose name she believed to be Noah. The trail was, obviously, a dirt trail, that had countless roots sprouting out of the ground. The band geek attempted to walk around them, not really in the mood to trip today. The blonde surfer (Bridgette, was it?) nearly tripped, but was caught by Geoff, the party dude whose name was hard to forget. Multiple mosquito bites later, they arrived at a clearing, which looked like one of those campsites that you’d pitch up a tent at. Although, some of that vision was faded, as twelve stumps resided in front of a campfire pit. If you looked down another path, you could see a large open space, along with two log cabins. The campers were ushered over to the stumps, where half sat down and half stood in the back or on the sides. Drew shuffled nervously in place, his white-blonde hair covering his eyes slightly. He pulled his black beanie closer to his ears- nervousness wasn’t exactly fun. He sat down hesitantly next to Lyne, who was seated next to Noah. Once the chit chat between campers was over, Chris signaled the cameras to roll once again. “Okay, campers. This is the campfire pit-" “No, really?” Duncan scoffed. Noah snickered beside him, as did Zeke. Chris shot Duncan a look, as the punk rolled his eyes. Chris cleared his throat once again, repeating the sentence he attempted to state before he had been so rudely interrupted. “Okay, campers. This,” the host paused, waving his arms around the area, “is where you’re going to be staying for the next eight weeks.” A low grumble came out of Heather’s mouth, and Gwen shot her a glare from the side. “You’ll be staying here with each other. For the next eight weeks, you’ll make allies, enemies, and maybe even friends. You’ll be staying in those cabins over there.” Chris finished, pointing to the two log-cabins that stood near the mess-hall. Duncan wiggled his eyebrows. “If we’re taking requests, I’d like to bunk under her.” He pointed towards Heather. She made a disgusted noise. “They’re not co-ed, are they?” Chris shook his head, ignoring Duncan’s lewd comment. “No, they’re not. Boys will get one side of the cabin, while girls will get the other.” Heather sighed in relief, while the blonde, Lindsay, raised her hand and cocked her head to the side. “Can I get side closest to the lake because I’m the prettiest girl here?” “Okay, that’s true,” Chris paused, earning glares from every other girl at the camp, “but that’s not how it works around here. Gophers get the left cabin, while Bass get the right side. Any questions?” Chris received no more questions, so he decided to move on swiftly. He pulled out a card with names on them. “Now, I’m going to split you all into two separate teams! When I call your name, stand to my left, and you’ll be given directions. Okay, first off, Gwen.” Gwen sighed slightly, stood up, and trudged towards where Chris had signaled. She crossed her arms, and looked to her left slightly. “Katie and Beth.” The taller of the twins looked up with a worried expression flashing across her eyes, looked over to Sadie in panic, and then nervously placed herself next to the goth. The latter of the two, Beth, had no issue, and silently walked over to them. “Owen.” Owen, ecstatic to be called, yelled out “woohoo!” before running towards the group. Gwen’s eyes widened in terror when he wrapped his arm around her. “Heather, Justin and Lyn.” The first of the two stood up and strutted, jet black hair whipping behind her as she did so. Justin calmly joined, while Lyn was moderately embarrassed to be called with two of the hottest people on the island. “Cody.” The geek stood up, smiled softly (dropping the cool-kid act), and quietly joined them. “Trent, Lindsay, LeShawna and... Noah.” As the last name was called, the dark haired boy smirked, closed his book and then scurried to the group. The first three merely shrugged and smiled- before Chris chucked a pole at the group, hitting Lindsay straight in the face. The blonde yelped, and Owen picked it up. “You are now known as...” The pole unraveled a cloth, with a strange design. “The Screaming Gophers!” Everyone looked unimpressed or embarrassed, excluding Owen. Said boy cheered, and held up the banner, dropping it into LeShawna’s hands so he could grab Trent and Noah in a headlock. “Aw yeah! I’m a gopher! Woo!” Gwen let her gaze stop into the camera. “You have got to be kidding me.” Chris smiled (no one was sure if it was real or not) at Owen’s antics, and whipped out his paper once again, with all new names on it. He didn’t intend on listing all of them off, however, so he instead instructed them all to stand over on the other side of him. Sadie stood, frowning. “Wait, what about Katie?” “What about her?” Drew snapped. The girl began to sniffle, not quite crying, but she was obviously upset. “I’ve never been on a team without Katie before... Katie, I’ll miss you!” She shouted the last part, waving to her friend. Katie, looking just as forlorn, waved softly. “It’ll be okay, Sadie.” Courtney assured. “C’mon, we can be your friends in the meantime. You can get experience from this, trust me, I’m a CIT.” Sadie stayed silent for a few moments, before nodding. She knew this was for the best- she would try to switch, but if it didn’t work, she decided not to dwell on it- Katie would understand. The Killer Bass and the Screaming Gophers. They would need all the luck they could get.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)