Part Two: Summer Camp

"Excelleeeent, campers! Well, let’s get this thing set up!"

In a few moments the race is set. From here to the camp entrance, and back! Full sprint! The big kid ropes one of the tall, lanky kids in be his second. If things go wrong, he can always pass the blame.

Andy and the big kid set down in the dirt. The big kid throws one final nasty smirk, which Andy dutifully avoids.

"On the whistle…

Ready?

3…

2…

1…"

Mark blows the whistle and big kid starts kicks off!

---

Come on, Andy whispers to himself. You can do this, you know you can. He pumps himself up mentally but doubts do creep in. Did he bite off more than he could chew? Naaaa.

He sets down in the dirt next to smirky and tenses his muscles, shifting his weight in time with the countdown. Pow! The whistle blows and he shoots out like a rocket.

"Run, Andy, run, no squishy caterpillar can beat a Rattlesnake!"

"Jaden you got this, go go!"

As Andy touches Jaden's hand he storms off, winking at Em.

Jaden tears off, leaving his opponent at the gate. But the gravel is loose, and Jaden skids his way into the camp. Ahead of him, he sees the Caterpillars going wild.

"DAVID! DAVID! DAVID!"

Jaden turns to see the lanky kid sprinting his heart out. It looks like he might pass the rocker but Jaden digs deep and…

"DRAAAAW!"

Groans erupt in front of the main building. Milo’s presence has gone unnoticed. Joan nervously looks to Mark.

"Eh… arm wrestle tie breaker!"

The strong kid smirks and goes to sit at the bench nearby. He pulls up his sleeve and gets ready!

"Ah! No. I’m afraid another Caterpillar will have to compete. You’ve already tried, Jacob!"

A younger kid, not too strong looking gets shunted forward. He doesn’t look too keen to have all his pressure resting on his shoulders.

Mikey frowns. Arm wrestle, and Jaden and Andy are out. The others will almost certainly want him to do this after all.
Rather than volunteering for it, though, he turns to Em. "That kid looks like a wimp. Do you want to take him? Would be awesome if a girl beats the Caterpillars, right?"

Em doesn't much like sports, she doesn't like the idea of digging latrine trenches, and she REALLY doesn't like the notion of being forced into a footrace at the whim of the evil counselor (the takedown is now officially in the planning stage)... but she cheers on Andy, and then Jaden, just the same. She's on the sideline with Georgie and Mikey, jumping and cheering as the soccer star gets out to an early lead, leaping up and down and screaming louder and louder as Jaden's lead starts to evaporate. "Go! Go, Jaden, go!"

And that's when she realizes Milo isn't on her shoulder anymore! It's a frantic moment when she realizes he's on the ground, and on the track! Fearing he might get trampled, the girl scrambles forward to grab him, narrowing missing crashing into both runners as she sprints to the other sideline, rat in hand.

She's sitting on the ground catching her breath and blowing a lock of blue hair from her face as Mikey hits her with his proposal. It's just going to be that kind of day, the mostly-brunette thinks to herself with resignation, cuddling Milo for a moment before tucking him into her clothing.

"Yeah. Yeah! Lemmie at 'im, Mikey!" she says, rising from the ground to her full and imposing height of four-foot-something.

Moments later, her hand is wrapped around her opponent's, and she wears a fearsome snarl on her face and the ref counts them down. And then she's -- she's friggin' arm wrestling! Em has never arm wrestled before! She and her equally spaghetti-armed opponent strain and grunt and fight... but their hands barely move as the seconds tick by.

It's an even match! Neither can budge the other's arm as kids cheer and shout from all sides. It's bedlam, and sweat beads on brows as they pass the thirty second mark. Em's arm starts to hurt, and she knows she won't win an endurance contest, so her mind starts to race... and lands on a course of action that some people might consider cheating, but no real rules of engagement have been established...

So she acts! Her free hand goes to the other kid's shorts and she grabs a handful of fabric. Tugging a little, she narrows her gaze as they make eye contact, and she smiles a little when the boy gives her a you wouldn't look.

And then she pulls his shorts down and pins him!

"SHE CHEATED!" erupts from the Caterpillars, as Em drinks in her victory. Jaden and Andy catch their breath and you all gather around Em in congratulations.

"HEY! SHE CHEATED! and then the big kid is coming for you!

Joan and Mark, their attention momentarily taken by eachother, scramble.

"Wh…" they look confused. They hadn’t seen anything. Now, it’s just the small boy that Em pants’d furiously pulling his shorts up, tears welling in his eyes.

The cries of cheating go unanswered, as the two counselors scramble to cover their misstep.

"Eh… Kyle! Kyle… she goes to comfort the young boy … why don’t you go see Camp Leader Kim, eh? She’s the nurse!" fearing some unaccounted for injury.

She sees your team cheering, and announces you the winners.

Phew! That was a close one…

The big boy is still bearing down on you.

"Jacob! That’s enough. You lost. Fairs fair. Go with Mark and he’ll get your shovels."

The boy, and the rest of the Caterpillars in fact, give you ugly stares as they are marched away.

"Now… Joan says, hefting a blunt looking axe on to her shoulder … ready to chop some wood?"

Mikey howls with excitement when Em beats the Caterpillar boy. He runs up to her and hugs her before immediately realizing his mistake and letting go again. He clears his throat. "Well done," he tells her awkwardly, putting a hand on her shoulder. Then he turns to Kyle and grins. "Suck it, losers! Rattlesnakes eat catterpillars for breakfast!"

At Joan's question, he smiles and says to his friends: "After I chopped up Asimov, chopping some wood should be a piece of cake!"

Jaden elbows Mikey and shushes him, giving warning looks to the rest of the gang. "Keep it down, will you?? You never know in what kind of trouble a slippery tongue can get us in" he says in a hushed voice.
"Shall we then?"

Spud groans. Chilling sounds like hard work, although axes are cooler than digging. He nods friendly to some of the Caterpillars, saying, "Good race," because that's what Coach Rogan told him to do once after pinning a smaller kid in wrestling: be gracious in victory.

He also congratulates Em. "Did you see his shorts fall down? Everybody could see his tiny thing. I guess those Caterpillars lost their pants when they cross the Rattlesnakes. Haha, that's funny!"

Haha Em, what a cool trick you pulled, he says, fake laughing. If there was anything his dad had tried to instill in him and actually succeeded, it was fair play. He didn't think much of cheating but he certainly wasn't going to let on that he felt that way.

Yeah tiny! he says to Georgie. And no latrine digging for us. Huh.

As things initially escalate, Em doesn't even seem to notice Mikey hugging her -- she's too busy making snake fangs with her fingers, glaring and hissing, "ssssssssss!" at the opposing group of kids.

When order is restored and her friends drag her away, the girl just shrugs and nods at Georgie and Andy as they walk towards their next pre-determined labor camp destination. She's not embarrassed or ashamed by what she did -- indeed, she's mentally moved on from having just pantsed a two-legged caterpillar.

As much as he disagreed with cheating, on their walk to the next activity he had to admit to himself that it was very funny.

I mean the look on that kid's face. Come on, it was hilarious, wasn't it? This time his laughter was genuine. After all, he didn't do it. He was also relieved, not being sure how well he would have handled the whole excrement detail.

It’s less of a predetermined labor-camp destination, and more of a aimless walk among the trees. You get the distinct impression that Joan isn’t an accomplished outdoorswoman. No… much more likely that this is for extra credit. Either with her school, or her parents.

The only sounds you hear are the birds chirping, warning others of your passage through their domain, and the small talk that you make. The view is beautiful. The trees are all around. And the water shines a bright, Summer-y blue. Here and there Joan instructs you to pick up a fallen branch that looks like it’ll do the trick. Though she doesn’t sound too confident when she does so. Those branches quickly fall to the ground when she offers the chance to use the axe! In time, you all get your own turn! The axe doesn’t do much to help the cutting, but it does provide a good laugh as you each struggle to chop through strong branches. It’s a good time.

You return to drop your gatherings once or twice, grab some water and head back out.

How much wood do you need anyhow?…

On one excursion you pass, what looks like, an old bunker on your left, down near the water. It looks old. The paint is all chipped, and the crates outside look all busted and worn out. Joan doesn’t pay it much heed. A possible hideout? An old World War Two bunker, still housing one final holdout, refusing to believe the fighting is done? A base of operations for a group of Russian spies? Who can say for sure…

"Great job, Georgie!" she announces, as Georgie manages to hammer, rather than chop, his way through a particularly stubborn log.

"Do… do you prefer Spud? I heard the others…"

"Are you guys getting tired? Wanna head back for snack?"

"Spud is fine," he says, eyes a little dreamy with the head rush from the small amount of exercise and being spoken to directly by an older girl, practically a woman. "You can call me Spud, Miss Sheedy."

Tired? Heck no Miss Sheedy. The truth was he really wasn't. He was still soccer fit and could have chopped wood a while longer. Plus he enjoyed showing off for the girl, even though he really would have liked a snack. He was always hungry.

Em is hot, her arm hurts, and that base looked cool. She's more than done with chopping, gathering, and bludgeoning wood, but she's also suspicious of the older girl and maybe doesn't much like the way some of the boys are inching towards ga-ga over her.

From the ground, where an exhausted Morgan is laying splayed out, face-down in the dirt, the brunette answers without even lifting her head.

"What kind of snack?"

Mikey is initially excited to swing the axe but when he does and notices how blunt it is, he quickly loses interest. Once he's chopped up a semi-thick branch, he passes it on to Andy, who seems far more into the chopping than he is.

As they're traveling through the forest, he keeps occasionally glancing at Joan. She's really pretty. But he's at least as interested in the others' reactions when they talk to her than in the woman herself, so he's watching Andy and Georgie closely the entire time.
"I'd like a snack," he says. "Something chocolatey would be perfect!"