by Aurora Smith
“We could come back as camp counselors.” Vanessa said.
“Not sure they’ll let me. They won’t let my father come within ten miles of this place,” I said, laughing. My father was a pain but he was kind of awesome.
“Yeah you cause way too much trouble!” Christina was scolding me. She always fought to try and not be a part of any prank I came up with, but at the end of the year, when I really needed her for a big one, she would come through. And boy did she ever come through; she underestimated herself and took herself way too seriously.
“I’ve got Dominick in my group this year!” Vanessa said, giving Christina a suggestive look.
“Good for you,” she retorted with an overzealous ‘I don’t care, go choke on your own spit’ kind of tone. Vanessa and I both started laughing. Christina had it bad for him and she had no idea how to deal with it. I personally had no idea how that felt. My too skinny frame and freakishly big eyes and lavender hair weren’t exactly honey for all the bees. Don’t get me wrong, I got a little attention, but it was mostly the band geeks or the strange, overweight kid in the back of class who told stupid jokes and smelled like bacon and cheese. There was Adrian though. He was so cute and loud and fun and he had actually asked me out on a date. It was a dream. We laughed and he paid for my food and my movie ticket and that was the night I got my first kiss. But the dream ended when his nightmare began. He came up to me the next day and told me that he had a dream so awful and the end result was him wanting to go to England to be a foreign exchange student. I grilled my father and he finally admitted that it was him. So Adrian was in London, enjoying English girls who probably didn’t have weird hair.
“Speed up,” Vanessa said, bringing me out of my thoughts. All three of us kicked up our heels and booked it to the cabins so we could get to room six. We were willing to fight for it, too. You’d think that a siren, a vampire and nightmare would be a sure win, but there were some seriously crazy chicks here. Like for instance: death. Death had a daughter. She was a freak, too.
We stepped into the main cabin, through the little door that opened up to a big main room with mismatched couches and dusty throw blankets hanging on their backs. After that room was a long hallway that had ten doors on each side of the hall. The walls were stark white and the doors a dull, fake wood with little cheap golden door knobs. The kind that you could break into by putting a long object into the tiny hole and clicking the lock open. We walked into the room and a strange smell came spilling out when we opened the door. It wasn’t a bad smell, just different. I was expecting the stale smell of collected dust, but instead I smelled sea water and mud. Siting on the bottom bunk of one of the two bunk beds was a girl I had seen around but had never spoken to. She had brown hair that went down to her chin and curled inward with cute layers. Her face was square and wide with pretty golden eyes. She looked nervous with her things sitting on the bed she had obviously chosen. This girl was known for being quiet and that was all I really knew about her.
“Hi,” I said, walking completely into the room, making sure she was the only one in there. She was.
“Hi,” she said anxiously.
“You’re in cabin six this year?” Christina asked. “Anyone else with you?” She eyeballed the room and looked like she was ready to start busting out the ‘me me me meees.’
“No, just me.”
“Oh, great. Nice to meet you…” I raised my eyes expectantly at her.
“Abby,” she squeaked. k`1`2
“Abby,” I finished with a smile, trying to help her not look so nervous. “What are you exactly?”
“A mermaid,” she almost whispered, and we strained to hear her.
“Really? I’ve never met a mermaid!” I didn’t add that I’d always heard that they were as mean as a starving Viper.
“Oh, well…It’s nice to meet you.” Abby smiled into her hand and I got the impression that she was either a very bad mermaid or was hiding something. Or she could have been nice. I guess I would find out.
“You’ve got legs.” Vanessa said, accusations rolling though her pointed teeth.
“Don’t do you know anything?” Christina scolded. “Mermaids get legs when they’re dry!”
“Yeah, haven’t you ever seen the movie Splash?” I said and laughed at Abby’s amused expression.
“I get top bunk!” I yelled and ran to the bed above Abby, Vanessa and Christina looked bored by the whole top bunk, bottom bunk thing. Christina walked to the bottom bunk on the opposite side of the wall that my bed was on and put her pillow on the bottom bunk.
“I wonder who our counselor will be this year?” Christina asked and I couldn’t help but notice that blame was oozing from her eyes as she looked at me.
“What?!” I asked her.
“Oh, you know what! Every year we get a counselor who’s two shakes away from an armed guard.” Just then the door opened and a rumble unlike any I had heard before followed it, but I didn’t see anything.
“Oh no,” Vanessa complained.
“What?!” But I trailed off, “Is there a squirrel on your shoulder?” Yes, definitely, there was a squirrel on Vanessa’s shoulder. I screamed and sat up on my knees as a big, lazy looking rat crawled across my pillow and sat down, looking sideways at me.
“Hello dears.” A soft, tranquil voice filled the room and all four of us groaned. I was beginning to like Abby, she wailed her displeasure along with us. Seven different colored birds few into the room, their wings flapping cold air around us and tussling our hair. Then a little orange fox scampered through the legs of our bunk beds. Then his puffy, white ringed tail disappeared under our counselor’s queen sized bed. A tall, completely naked, robust woman with long, flowing hair that had tiny daisies stuck all through the golden locks, came into view. A doe and her three babies came trotting in behind her.
Mother Nature.
“I said, hello dears!” Same sweet voice but the tones were sharper.
“Hi-er-hello, ma’am.” All four of us stammered our own unsure greetings. She accepted this and walked over to her bed with different kinds of rodents at her feet, her bare butt out in the open for all of us to try not to look at. I had seen the poor kids who had Mother Nature as their counselor. They had animals all over them the entire summer. How do you get away with things with a woman who is everywhere? Christina gave me a scandalized look, more blame on her face than I think I really deserved. I saw now why she sent her animals to do her bidding, she couldn’t exactly walk around naked as a jay bird, encompassing the perfect form of the female body. I wondered if any of the boys in camp had seen her, or if the ones who had had just dropped down dead. She was very natural though. Very, very natural.
“So. Look at this group of girls I have the pleasure to be with this year. A vampire, a siren, a mermaid and,” she looked me directly in the eyes, her lips twitching with unsaid words and accusations. “Nightmare’s daughter.” She turned her face away from me and looked at the group. “I’ve heard that this room is very…spirited.” Her beautiful, full cream colored face was begging us to argue with her. “Don’t try anything funny this year, my little darlings, because my friends will be following you everywhere.”
A blue macaw landed on the railing of my bed, startling me. A fat squirrel scampered onto Abby’s lap while a lizard the size of a small child crawled slowly up to Christina’s, and the stupidest looking ground hog started sniffing around Vanessa’s blanket. She gave a little giggle and flitted out of the room, leaving the four of us with wide, gaping mouths and smelly animals in her stead.
Well played, Tortellini. Well played.
***
I woke up early the next day so that I could go take a warm shower. I pushed a few frogs and a gerbil off of me when I stood up from my bed and pushed a few parakeets away with my bare feet. I didn’t think I could but I did manage to get out of the room with my towel and change of clothes without Mother Nature seeing me. I did have a blue macaw in tow, though. So far I’ve gone to the bathroom,
dinner and to the ‘beginning of camp’ campfire with a large, freaking neon colored blue parrot on my shoulder. I tried shooing it away but it would squawk and flap its feathers which brought more attention my way so I tried to ignore it and accept the pity I received. A few people here knew what it was like and they bowed their heads in respect as I would walk by.
Justin had a group of adoring girls around him, including Vanessa. He was already Mr. Popular and he hadn’t even looked in my direction since we had gotten our luggage.
I had noticed that Liam was sitting away from the group, on the outskirts of the forest, looking uncomfortably at the camp fire. I had walked over to him and we chatted for a few minutes, never talking about more than the weather and who we were rooming with. Apparently he was in a room with a brownie and he hated not being able to see him but he didn’t mind having everything picked up for him. After that I kind of side stepped away and I’m not sure if he ever noticed. But now it was a new day and I would find a way to talk with Justin.
The cold stone floor under my feet shocked me completely awake. The sound of a running shower didn’t surprise me; I was actually surprised that I didn’t hear more people in showers. I never understood why more people didn’t get up earlier and score some warmth. Perhaps two minute lukewarm showers were worth sleeping in for.
I walked into one of the shower stalls and undressed, which gave me instant goose bumps. This was always uncomfortable because I didn’t have much skin to stretch. I turned the shower to the hottest dial and the water almost peeled my skin off.
“For crying out loud!” I yelled to myself as I fumbled with the warm and cold shower knobs. I got it right after a few moments, relaxing in the comfortable steam. The warmth lulled me into another sleepy mind fog.
My eyes flew open as my forehead hit the cold tile in my little shower. The water getting cooler, I had no idea how long I had been out for. I turned off the shower and dried my body off with a towel then dressed in my ripped, tight blue jeans and put on my black and red striped tank top. Then I wrapped my wet hair into a pink ducky towel. I knew it was ridiculous but it fit my head perfectly, besides no one ever really saw it but me.
Just then I heard a boom and the building shook.
“Hello?” I yelled, but of course that was stupid. The sound had been far away. I heard another explosion and I looked out the bathroom window and saw smoke coming from the forest behind the girls’ cabin. A purple whirl was swirling with the white puff. I stepped into my sandals and opened the side door that happened to face the forest that the explosion came from. The early morning air was bitterly cold and I wished I had a sweater. I looked to my right and saw an ugly purple wool sweater with green diamonds on the front. Usually I wouldn’t touch the itchy material but it was cold and I had just gotten out of the shower so my body hadn’t acclimated yet. I picked it up and slid it on, its tickle providing both discomfort and warmth. Looking up I spotted the last trails of the mysterious smoke and headed into the direction it was coming from. I hated walking into the woods that surrounded the camp, but I felt oddly compelled. Leaves crunched under my sandals and sticks tickled the sides of my feet as I traipsed further through the trees.
Minutes went by, so many minutes that I began to get bored and had become convinced that I had missed whatever it was that I had heard. I turned to head back, realizing all of a sudden how silly this was. What was I going to do when I found something that had exploded? Put it on Instagram? I wish; I had no service out here.
“No! No! NO!” I heard a deep voice and it was muffled.
“Hello?” I said, suddenly frightened. My answer was clanking and then another explosion that blew me on my butt. Seeing stars shooting to the sides of my eyes, I blinked to try and regain focus. There was another cloud of smoke but it was bluish this time.
I should have turned around, I really should have, but I needed to know what was going on. I stood up, the muscles in my butt were sore from landing on it and I tried to shake all of the loose, dead leaves off of my jeans. As I walked through the smoke I heard more clanging, jangling and exasperated murmurs.
“Hello!” I shouted this time, the putrid smell making me gag, and I was torn again between going forward and doing the smart thing by getting the heck out of there. But my curiosity always trumped my smarts.
The fog was thinning and after a few moments a lab came into view. The clambering noises started again; the clanking of test tubes and the fizzing of some concoction was bubbling and hissing in front of me. It was on a long manmade table, a tiny fire below the beaker of reddish liquid. The hissing grew louder as the bubbles rose up. A body slammed into me and I went flying to the left, another boom shook the ground, the sound muffled by the large body that was awkwardly on my shoulders and hip. I was afraid to push whoever this person was off of me, but my tiny body was being crushed. I pushed so that I could breathe and the body moved. I gasped for breath and a white lab coat flipped out of view towards the red liquid. I blinked my eyes and saw Liam pouring the bubbling concoction on his hand as he danced away from the small flame.
“Ah-ha!” Liam held up an arm stump with no hand connected to it.
“What the…” Liam’s mutilated face faced me, with large black goggles on his eyes, making them look bug-eyed and absolutely crazy. I wanted to laugh but I was terrified so I went with what I assumed was a ‘someone save me before this person kills me’ look.
“What are you doing here, weirdo?” he snapped at me.
“Me? Weird?” I got up on my feet and felt something fall to my shoulders. I reached my hand up and felt the ducky towel. I hissed my shock and ripped the towel off of my head, embarrassed. I could tell my wet hair was standing up in odd angles and this itchy sweater was getting uglier by the second.
“What’re you doing out here?” I asked. Liam was still inspecting his invisible hand.
“Minding my own business, oh and saving your life. What are you doing?”
“I-ah-was walking…” I trailed off and took in the crazy scene. There was broken glass and splatters of different kind of colored ooze coming off of everything surrounding the area.
“And naturally you came by yourself?” He stopped writing chicken scratch calculations to scold me.
“I’m not alone!” I retorted.
“Oh yeah.” He looked around. Your blue bird here with you? His pretty lips sneering meanly at me. On cue the dumb macaw landed next to me and gave an angry screech. I looked around again and chuckled. I was dreaming. I had to be. I dozed off in the shower and was still dreaming.
“Liam?” I heard another French accent and my heart leapt.
Justin.
“Ugh” Liam said, turning into the direction of his twin’s voice.
“Wake up! Wake up!” I said but nothing happened and Justin was getting closer. “Dad, this isn’t funny!” My purple hair was tangled and clumpy and I had the world’s ugliest sweater on. Liam gave me a strange look as Justin came around the corner. I looked around franticly for Fred, the only thing that proved to me that I was dreaming.
He was nowhere to be found.
Chapter Six
Justin was now in plain view. His perfect face and beautiful blue eyes were worried and I had nowhere to hide. I decided to solve the problem instead of hiding; I unzipped the sweater, almost taking a nipple off in the process, threw it to the side and began to flip my head in-between my knees and then back as fast as I could a few times, trying to give myself the fluffy look. Mostly I just slapped myself in the face with my wet short strands.
Liam looked at me like I was completely bonkers then rolled his eyes.
“Shut up!” I squealed.
““Liam, où êtes-vous? J’ai entendu une explosion.”
““Je vais bien. Je vais bien,” Liam answered his brother.
Justin walked completely into sight and his shoulders slumped. “Papa vous dit de ne pas, mec.” This was the dreamiest thing I had ever heard. Two french guys speaking to each other in their
language. The words were slurred together and I couldn’t tell one from the other, but it was awesome.
“Je l’ai fait, regardez, ma main est invisible.”
“Quoi?” Justin reached out his hand to his brother and held up his stump arm, touching his invisible hand. “Comment avez-vous fait cela?”
“Ahem.” I cleared my throat and waved to them both.
“Maya, qu’est-ce que vous … I mean what are you doing here?” Justin looked shocked to see me, his pretty face buldging, an oddly protective stance settled in his shoulders.
“Nothing, just talking to Liam,” I said while trying to shoo my macaw off of my shoulders.”
“Oh?” Justin gave Liam a look that was very impressed but Liam just rolled his eyes at him from inside of his gigantic goggles. Hard to miss really, I tried not to be offended.
“She almost got herself killed, or worse, got her face blown off.” Liam said, still distracted by his arm.
“You’re the reason it was in danger.” I said
“I grabbed your hand and put your face over my serum?”
“No…” I just remembered that I had told him I was out walking and not that I had followed the noise of an explosion. Hindsight had a way of being ironic and cruel. “I’m just saying your exploding red stuff almost…never mind.”
“Wait, she almost got hurt?” Justin’s voice was rising and he looked like he wanted to get angry at Liam. I was flattered but it seemed like a bit of an overreaction.
“No. She was never in danger; I just didn’t want the serum to touch her, in case it melted her face off or something.”
“Oh,” Justin said, looking relieved. A cricket started chirping just then, but not because it was quiet; it was more than one, there were hundreds. It sounded like the plague had occurred and we were its first victims. We all looked around. Me with my arms crossed over my almost non-existent chest, Justin with his hands in his pockets and Liam was shaking his bald head back and forth like a wobble headed mad scientist, complete with an invisible hand.