~*~
DAY ONE
“So, how exciting isn’t this?” Jeff exclaimed, dropping his duffle bag on the only grass covered spot in miles. “The weather is perfect, the people here are friendly, it seems like we got the best tent spot in the area.”
Kate leaned closer to Daniel. “What’s he so excited about? He must really dig mud baths,” she whispered, making Daniel snort involuntarily. Other than the two of them, Jeff's declaration was met by agreement all around. While everyone busied themselves with different tasks to get the tents up, Kate swiped a rock clean with her jacket sleeve and carefully sat down. She would be avoiding putting on any kind of water-protective gear, including rubber boots, for as long as possible.
The first disturbance came not long after Lex had opened the third tent bag. Fred, being his usual helpful self, tried to help her find a good place to spread out the tent, and while doing so he nudged Kate off her rock. Intentionally or not, Kate had now gained her very first mud stain on her very expensive jeans. “The nerve!” she hollered loud enough for everyone within a mile to turn their way. “Look what you did!”
“Come on, Kate, help us set up the tents,” Fred said simply, extending his hand to help her to her feet. Kate furiously slapped away his arm. “Kate, it’s just mud! This stuff happens when you go camping.”
“Well, I’ve had enough,” Kate declared, kicking some mud in Daniel’s direction as he was laughing heartily at her stained butt. “It was enough that we had to go by bus here, and now look at the mess on my jeans! Do you know how much these cost?”
Fred raised his eyebrows in a noncommittal way. “Told you to wear sensible clothes.”
Before Kate could explain her view of ‘sensible clothes’, Jeff interrupted her by placing a tent pin in her hand. Kate glared at it as if she’d never seen one before in her life. Jeff was actually quite sure that she never had. “Put this in the ground.”
“What for?” Kate questioned, trying to swipe the pin clean against Fred’s back.
“Because you can’t just sit and watch while the rest of us work,” Matt muttered. He and Chris were already halfway done with their tent. “You came here to help, didn’t you?”
Kate was about to object to that statement when Fred nudged her lightly on the shoulder, his eyes clearly begging her to help him out. With the loudest sigh she could procure, Kate crouched down and angrily slammed the tent pin into the ground. “So, why aren't there any good music playing this week?” she questioned no one in particular.
Matt seemed to feel obligated to answer as he was glaring daggers her way. “I guess the Spice Girls where too busy to show up for a special performance just for you.”
“And the Backstreet Boys were unavailable, they had a gig at a wedding,” Chris said, making the rest of them snicker.
Kate stared blankly at them. “What? I don't get it.”
“I thought you were supposed to be the one with some sense of humor,” Matt complained, waving his arm in the direction of Jeff and Anthony’s tent. “There’s a poster over there, go read about the bands yourself if you’re not gonna help out.”
Kate quickly got up from the ground and wiped her jeans clean with her hands while she snuck away from the others. Fred followed her, still holding a closed bag of tent pins in his hand, trying to untie the knot. “Kate, please,” he hissed quietly as Kate stopped in front of a tree that had a large poster fastened to it. “I know this wasn’t how you planned your summer-” Kate interrupted him with a loud snort but didn’t say anything as he went on, “-please do this for me. Just this once, please Katie. You know Daniel won’t help me out at all, and I want this to work out so much, you know. Can’t you try to like it? For me?”
Still looking grumpy, Kate surveyed Fred’s pleading puppy-eyes until she had to cave. “Fine!” she hollered, throwing her arms into the air and making Fred drop his bag with surprise. Kate snatched it from the grass and quickly untied the knot around the opening. “I’ll be friends with everyone because that’s what Kate McKinley does.”
“Okay, thank you,” Fred said nervously, looking around. “But could you keep it down? I don’t want Lex to overhear anything.”
“Why can’t you just go up to her and tell her?” Kate begged desperately, grabbing Fred by the collar. “You’ve never had a problem with that before, why now? I can do it!”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Fred growled, pulling away from her grip. “I don’t know why, really. It feels like it should mean something when I say it, and… I don’t know. I want it to be special because she’s special-”
“Yada-yada-yada,” Kate interrupted. ”Unless you’re talking about me, I don’t really care who’s special.”
Fred frowned. “Why are you being so pessimistic about all this? I thought you would be happy for me, or at least enjoy the trip for what it’s worth, but all you’ve done since I mentioned going is to complain and moan all over me. I thought you of all people would try to have fun while we’re here. But you’re acting like a spoilt brat right now.”
They just stared at each other for a few seconds. Kate couldn’t even procure the loud gasp that she had planned. “I seem to be right on time for the showdown,” came Daniel’s voice from behind them. He appeared from among the bushes a moment later. “McKinley, my money’s on you, because I doubt Fred would try to hit back.”
“I would never hit Fred,” Kate objected. “Kick him a little maybe, but never hit.”
“I’d pull your hair,” Fred said.
“You wouldn’t dare!” Kate finally gasped.
Daniel sat down between them with his back against the tree, searching through his pockets for a cigarette. “You’re both sad, whiny and pathetic. And I have news for the both of you, but not unless I see some fighting.” Fred and Kate kicked some sand at him. “Fine. We’re having tent issues over at Camp Stupid.”
“What kind of tent issue?” Fred asked.
“Since you’re here with one of the tents’ pins, I’d say you’re part of the issues,” Daniel said, pointing at the abandoned bag on the ground. “But mostly it’s because Red over here conveniently forgot her packing somewhere between Camp Stupid and the moon.”
“What?!” Kate yelled with shock. “Oh, no! Mr. Gonzo!”
Before Fred and Daniel could go over the story, Kate ran away screaming towards nowhere in particular. She disappeared among the tents, leaving a horde of people staring after her. “What’s so important about a poncho?” Daniel asked, shaking his head.
Fred shrugged, starting to walk back towards the tents. “It’s her stuffed giraffe. Were you kidding about her packing?”
“Now when I know how hysteric she’s gonna be all week, I kinda wish I was. The rest of the happy campers aren’t so happy, though. McKinley misplaced the biggest tent, so four of them don’t have anywhere to sleep. I would offer my tent, but I’m already sharing with you and I’d hate to kill more than one of my acquaintances during this week.”
“So now I don’t even count as a friend?” Fred smiled.
“Since you dragged me out here in the mud? Eh, no. You’ll be glad if I let you eat with me next semester.”
Fred rolled his eyes as Daniel walked away towards the service building. He couldn’t for his life figure out why Daniel and Kate were so anti-festival. It wasn’t that much mud and they would be spending time with their friends, what was wrong with that? He had assumed that Daniel would be against the whole idea as usual, but Kate wasn’t normally so quick to judge ahead.
And if they were getting on each other’s nerves now, Fred couldn’t imagine how it’d be a week later.
The tent site was in a state of organized hysteria. When Lex saw him coming, she immediately grabbed her tent and hurried up to him. “Can you believe this? I mean, it’s not that much of a crisis, but Matt was annoyed with Kate already before she lost the tent and now he’s ballistic. Where is she?”
Fred didn’t particularly want to tell Lex about Mr. Gonzo and his whereabouts, so he made something up. “She’s brushing her hair,” he said, as it was the first that crossed his mind. Lex still didn’t look overly impressed by this. “Eh, you know – girl stuff.”
Lex looked even less impressed now. “I’m a girl too, but I don’t run off brushing my hair in the face of a crisis,” she muttered. “Gimme the tent pins, I’ll do this myself.”
Knowing his plan to handle this situation smoothly had failed; Fred scurried off feeling slightly stupid.
As the day went on and no sign of Kate (or Mr. Gonzo) could be found, the rest of the gang managed to sort out the living arrangements without their tent. With only three tents left, it proved to be a challenge. Matt and Chris, whose tent had gone through the crisis unharmed, refused to share with the others unless it turned out to be necessary. Daniel refused to even consider letting Kate anywhere near his tent, even though Fred pointed out several times that it was actually not their tent. Jeff and Anthony offered to take one of the girls in but there was no room for anyone else. This meant that three of them had no place at all to sleep come nightfall.
Daniel took the whole situation with ease, while watching Sammie and Anna trying to force Matt and Chris to change their minds during loud arguments. Fred had also decided to try and stay out of the conflict, still certain that Lex was irritated with him for his earlier comment. He sat down next to Daniel on the tree branch in the middle of their base camp. “Still no sign of Katie,” he commented, just to have something to say.
“Nope, and the longer she’s gone, the better,” Daniel smirked. Fred was almost afraid to ask why he seemed so satisfied, but couldn’t help himself. “Well, Fred, let’s do some math. Three girls have no place to sleep. One of those girls is Sammie, and I plan to be a gentleman about it and-”
”Sammie?” Fred questioned. ”Why the hell would you invite her? You like Anna.”
”I don’t like anyone,” Daniel said, rolling his eyes. ”Sammie is hot, so my plan is-”
“-to make a move on her until she or her friends kick your ass?” Fred asked with amusement. “Everyone with a brain knows it’s really Anna you’re after and I don’t think Anna would fall for your usual moves. She’s a good girl.”
Daniel snorted. “All girls are bad, Fred. You just need to find their inner naughtiness.”
“That sounds very strange and sort of gay,” Fred said simply, following Lex with his eyes as she carried her sleeping bag over to Jeff’s tent. “You know that Anna has some sort of hold on you.”
“She does not,” Daniel muttered. “I’m focusing this trip on Sammie, not some boring brunette.”
“You know, when you like a girl, you’re not supposed to hit on her friend!” Fred laughed. “You just can’t admit that you like someone.”
“I don’t like anyone, I just want to get them into bed!” Daniel exclaimed angrily, getting attention from the others. He lowered his voice to a whisper. “They don’t know, and they don’t need to know, so shut up!”
Fred was still laughing as Daniel stormed off in a similar huff as Kate. “What was that about?” Sammie asked as she took the empty place next to Fred. “Who was he talking about?”
“I’m not sure,” Fred said, trying to sound uninterested. “Do you wanna stay in our tent?”
“And fight with Daniel all night? No thanks,” Sammie smiled, leaning closer. “Actually, I was thinking that maybe you should ask Lex to stay in your tent.”
Fred could think of lots of reasons why that was a good idea – and one big reason why it wasn’t. “Maybe that’s not a good idea,” he said nervously. “Anyway, I’m sure Kate is staying with us.”
“Where is Kate?” Sammie asked a bit worriedly. “She not sad or anything? I’m sure we’ll work this out, she shouldn’t be afraid of coming back.”
Fred, who was glad that he’d managed to escape both Sammie’s conversation topics, stood up. “I better go look for her.”
Sammie grabbed his arm and tugged him down again. “Don’t worry. Hey, are you going to the reception?” she hollered to Jeff who happened to walk by. “Kate is still missing and it’s starting to get dark.”
“That’s okay, I’ll go find her,” he offered and grabbed one of the empty water cans. “Just call me if she comes back.”
“Oh, like there’s any reception out here,” Daniel spat, suddenly back from his excursion.
“Look, Mr. Sunshine is back,” Sammie cheered, making Daniel turn around and walk over to his tent instead. “He’s so easy.”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Fred said, mostly to himself, knowing Sammie hadn’t let go of her tent idea just yet.
The camping site was almost three times as large as the festival area. Standing in the middle of it all, Jeff couldn’t see the end of the random lines of tents covering acres of land. Despite this, he had a feeling that locating Kate somewhere among thousands of people really wouldn’t be a problem.
When he was only a few feet away from the little cabin they used as a reception building, he suddenly heard a familiar, cheerful voice, louder than the rest of the general chatter. Kate McKinley was nothing if not flagrant. Jeff, guided by Kate’s carrying voice, walked up to a group of tents right next to the main path.
She was sitting in the middle of a large huddle of guys, shouting happily as she threw down a bunch of cards on a fold-out table. ”Ha! Got one of ‘em straight houses!” Nobody in the crowd seemed to want to correct her choice of words as she swept her winnings together using her arms. Jeff decided that play time was over before someone decided to lure Kate away by waving a lollipop in front of her nose. ”No, I’m winning!” she told him when he tried to talk her into leaving, so he had to grab her by the hand and gently force her to stand up even though fifteen guys were objecting to this at the same time. ”It’s okay, it’s okay,” Kate excused with a smile. ”I gotta go back anyway. Thanks for letting me play, guys!”
Kate strode off with her head held high, Jeff grimly following her. ”So, when were you planning to come back to us?” he asked after a while in silence (Kate had been humming on a song, but it was as close to silence as it was possible with her in the same vicinity). ”And what are you thinking, being alone with all those guys?”
”You don’t think I can take care of myself?” Kate muttered, leaving her perkiness behind for a moment. Jeff was almost surprised to see her being… well, normal.
”I was just showing some concern, which you don’t really deserve in the first place for running off without letting us know where you were,” Jeff explained impatiently. ”You could get in trouble out here; it’s not like being in the hallways at school.”
”Like I don’t know that!” Kate suddenly snapped, turning around so fast that she kicked up a cloud of dirt with her shoes. This took Jeff slightly off guard and he just stared at her. ”What? You don’t think Kate McKinley can feel something other than extreme upbeatness?”
”There’s… no such word,” Jeff said, a bit taken aback. When Kate stomped off again, he quickly regained clarity. ”Kate, you have no right to be mad at me-”
Kate twirled around once more. ”So, who do I have the right to be mad at? Do I not have the right to be mad at anyone ever? Is Kate McKinley just doomed to walk around being happy all the time? Or am I allowed to actually express what I feel?”
”Calm the hell down and stop referring to yourself in third person, it annoys the crap out of me,” Jeff complained, loud enough to drown out her voice.
”Oh, I’m sorry; I’m here to please everyone obviously!” Kate shouted.
”Why the hell are we fighting?”
”Because I can’t fight with anyone else!” she howled and demonstratively sat down with a thud on the ground.
This random act didn’t surprise Jeff as much as it probably should have. He decided to sit down next to her and offer her some water from the water can. ”What’s up, McKinley? This can’t all be about that poncho, right?”
”It’s not a poncho, it’s Mr. Gonzo!” Kate sighed heavily. ”It’s Fred. And Danny. And my stupid life – which I still love,” she added as an afterthought. ”I’m not suicidal or anything.”
”Never thought you were,” Jeff smiled, patting her reassuringly on the head. ”Fred and Daniel don’t have much time over for you, do they?”
Kate shrugged. ”Don’t tell anyone but-” she lowered her voice to as much as a whisper as she could, ”-I know I’m not the center of the universe.” Jeff had to restrain himself to keep from laughing. ”But lately, you know, they keep forgetting about me. This summer was supposed to be so awesome and we were supposed to do such fun stuff, but now they’re just gonna give their attention to Lex and Anna, just like it’s been all year long. They don’t ask what I wanna do, or how I’ve been, or if I want to go to a festival. Obviously I want to go, but it sort of takes all the fun out of being here when I know they won’t have time to hang out with me. And now when Mr. Gonzo is gone, I have no one at all to talk to.”
”Last time I heard, he was a giraffe.”
”They have feelings too, ya know.”
Kate put her head against Jeff’s shoulder as he put his arm around her. ”I’m sure they do, McKinley, I’m sure they do.”
The remainder of the evening had ended with a big fight between Kate and Matt, even though the rest of them had put the tent situation behind them. Matt felt that someone should tell Kate off for being so reckless with something that didn’t belong to her in the first place, and Kate who had gotten her strength back up since her semi-fight with Jeff decided that she wouldn’t put up with such behavior from ‘the little drummer boy’ as she so eloquently had put it. Naturally, this resulted in a brand new argument that ended when Kate threatened to go sleep in Matt and Chris’s tent.
Finally, Kate grumpily retreated into Fred and Daniel’s tent, creating yet another argument, this time between her and Daniel, but neither one of them left the tent again so eventually they both fell asleep. Fred, disappointed with himself for not grabbing the opportunity to invite Lex, watched her get comfortable in Jeff and Anthony’s tent, sharing a sleeping bag with Anna. Sammie ended up with Matt and Chris, and as of that, silence finally reigned over Suspended Motion’s base camp a.k.a. Camp Stupid.
Until the next morning, of course.