~*~
DAY TWO
The sun was just about to rise above the tree tops when the entire south area was woken up by a terrifying bellow from one of the tents in Suspended Motion’s camp. At first, all of them assumed that it was Kate who provided with the high-pierced screaming as it would come as no surprise by now, but instead it was Fred who came flying out of his tent with the speed of lightning.
Kate was immediately on his tail, worriedly asking him whether he had broken his foot or something during the night. Daniel followed them both out, and despite the early hour and abrupt awakening, he was doubled up with laughter. ”It’s not funny!” Fred yelled at him with panic in his voice. Daniel couldn’t even gasp an objection in his direction.
”What’s wrong?” Kate hollered hysterically, probably in some attempt to calm Fred down, but it the opposite effect on him as he flailed his arms around and almost fell into the fire pit in the middle of their camp.
”What’s going on?” Chris asked groggily as he peaked his head out from inside his tent. ”Who died?” He was pushed aside by Sammie, who seemed to be more startled than sleepy.
Daniel tried to stifle his laughter long enough to get out a coherent sentence. He slipped down on the grass and patiently watched as the scene played out in front of him.
”What did you do?” Lex muttered as she crawled out of the tent next to him.
”I didn’t do anything,” Daniel grinned. ”Not this time. Your hero found a tiny defenseless little bug in his sleeping bag.”
Lex did a double-take. ”What do you mean my hero?”
Before Daniel could explain, Fred viciously tackled him to the ground and tried to stuff some mud in his mouth. Lex decided to use the opportunity to sneak away.
Kate found herself next to Sammie a while after the commotion had ended and everyone had shuffled off to brush their teeth and fix breakfast. Kate, who had no toothbrush due to ‘misplacing’ all her packing the previous day, had to patiently wait until the service building had opened so she could buy what she needed. Kate being Kate, she came back with several paper bags containing everything but a toothbrush.
“Can I ask you something?” Sammie said while looking for her toothpaste. Kate stared longingly at the pink toilet bag Sammie was rummaging around in. “Kate?”
“Yeah, sure!” Kate beamed, snapping out of her daze.
“Why didn’t you let Lex stay in your tent?”
“Of course she could’ve stayed with me, there’s room for everyone.”
Sammie gave her a serious look. “You know what I mean.” Kate just shrugged, suddenly very occupied with a fingernail. Sammie shrugged, a bit annoyed. “Sometimes I don’t get you people. It’s like you try to come between each other instead of helping out. I get why Daniel would act like that, but shouldn’t you and Fred be looking out for each other? Or maybe you just don’t like Lex?”
When Kate didn’t immediately answer, Sammie lost patience and stuffed all her belongings back in her bag and left, unable to figure out how she could be a better friend to Fred than Kate was. “Danny likes you, you know,” Kate finally yelled, making Sammie stop.
“So? What does that matter to you?” Sammie asked, knowing full well that Daniel liked anything in a skirt.
Kate shrugged again. “Are you going to sleep with him?”
Sammie could detect a bit of worry in Kate’s voice, but considering how Kate had basically just insulted Lex, she decided not to care. “So what? Would that bother you?”
“No. I don’t like Danny.”
They watched each other for a moment until Sammie felt she’d had enough with Kate’s weird mood swings. “Well, there’s no problem, then.” Leaving Kate stunned, Sammie couldn’t help but feel that their conversation had gone completely wrong from the start. The urge to go back and apologize came over her, but when Kate never showed up to do the same, she just didn’t bother. After all, what was the real harm? Sammie would never touch Daniel with as much as a stick, and had Kate really been her friend, she would already know that.
Their camp was once again declared as a disaster area when Sammie arrived back. Fred had turned his tent inside out and thrown all their packing in a large pile to go through it, looking for more bugs. “If this is such a problem, maybe you should check in to a hotel,” Chris suggested with an eye roll. He was calmly sitting in front of his own tent, eating a sandwich. “Man, I thought we were city people.”
“They’re not city people, they’re just rich snobs,” Matt said from inside the tent. “Making those three our additional crew was the worst idea since Jeff dated Lucy Porter.” Jeff threw one of the bags at him through the tent opening. “What? It was!”
Lex and Anna came back right as Fred managed to knock over the entire tent he was searching through. Lex gave him an amused smile as he sat on the ground looking thoroughly surprised. “How’s the bug hunting working out for ya?”
“It went well until just now,” Fred mumbled, relieved that Lex didn’t seem to be mad at him anymore.
Jeff got up from the tree trunk that served as a bench. “Are everybody back now? I think we should get going or we’ll miss half the day. Fred, stop poking at that thing, there are no bugs in the cooler.” The others laughed. “Get your passes, people. I’m ready to go – where’s Kate?” He directed this question to Sammie since they left together, but Sammie just shrugged. “Okay. Where’s Daniel?”
“Let’s leave without them, they didn’t wanna go anyway,” Matt muttered, zipping down the tent and locking it with a small padlock. “The important thing is that we’re all here.”
“Hey, we can’t leave without them,” Fred objected, quickly shoving everything back in his dissembled tent.
“It’s okay if you wanna stay behind too,” Matt said with a grin.
“Hey, be nice,” Lex warned. She and Anna began helping Fred get the tent back up in a standing position. “Let’s wait another five minutes.”
Just as she said that, Daniel’s voice could be heard somewhere close. “Cut it out, Red, I don’t care about your ridiculous problems, I don’t wanna hear about it!”
“But it’s true!” Kate sounded close to tears and she was stomping her way forward louder than usual. “Ask!”
“Shut up!” Daniel said with annoyance. Everyone was staring at them when they finally appeared. Kate grabbed his arm and whispered something in his ear, and even though Daniel seemed highly displeased about that, he didn’t pull away.
Sammie had a strong feeling they were discussing her and she couldn’t get herself to look in their direction. She and Kate had always gotten along great and they had never had a fight over anything before. It felt weird to be on opposing sides all of a sudden. Daniel glared angrily at Kate, and without another word he terminated their conversation by walking away.
Kate tried to get eye contact with Fred, but he was too busy helping Lex with the tent. Jeff decided to interfere, afraid that Kate would start to cry. “Everyone’s here, so let’s go then!” They all broke up, getting their bags and entrance passes together. As they began to leave for the trail that lead to the southern entrance, Kate was still standing awkwardly in the same spot.
“Come on, Kate,” Fred called out, reaching his hand out to her. “We’re going to catch some of the bands before lunch.”
“But-”
“What?” Matt snapped. “What’s wrong now?”
Kate’s lower lip trembled dangerously. “I don’t have my pass.”
A collective groan was heard. “What do you mean you don’t have your pass?” Jeff asked nicely, still trying to avoid making Kate upset. Matt had to be restrained by Anthony to keep from shouting in her face.
“It was with my packing,” Kate sighed.
“Stay here and watch our stuff, then,” Matt said with forced calm. “I’m leaving.”
Matt started up the trail with large steps. Sammie shrugged dully again, grabbing Anna’s arm and joining Matt. As they both walked off, Daniel didn’t hesitate before following them. This only resulted in an even more tearful Kate.
Fred seemed to debate whether to run after Lex or stay and comfort Kate. He hurried up to Kate and patted her on the shoulder. “Katie, don’t be sad. I can pay for you at the entrance-”
“The whole thing has been sold out for months in advance,” Chris said, not realizing until he said it that it would only make things worse. Kate whimpered and ran off in the opposite direction.
“Kate!” Fred yelled after her. “Stay and talk like a normal person!”
“Well, this is great,” Chris said angrily. “We can’t leave her here. Right?”
Fred and Jeff seemed to consider this. “I guess not,” Fred said. “I’ll stay.”
“No, you and Kate have been arguing since we got here,” Jeff said.
“So what do you suggest?”
Chris and Anthony tried to sneak off, but were quickly called back. They all argued for a few minutes until Jeff suggested they would draw a straw. Chris and Anthony objected to this idea and thought it was very unfair, since neither of them knew Kate very well. “It doesn’t matter, we’re all here as a group,” Jeff debated, clearly trying to get out of Kate duty using any means possible.
Fred snapped a twig in four pieces and carefully shuffled them to avoid cheating. They all pulled one piece and compared them. “Great, I’ll see you tonight, then!” Jeff said happily, hurrying off before he would be drowned in complaints. Fred followed suit, shouting directions back to the camp on how to handle Kate.
“Sorry, buddy,” Anthony finally said, leaving Chris alone to stare disapprovingly at the twig that had ruined his day.
Daniel was displeased for a whole other reason. Sammie was clearly ignoring all his attempts to get her attention, and even though Anna tried to be nice about it, she was obviously not joyously happy about the attention he was giving them either. At this rate, he wouldn’t be getting either one of them anywhere near his tent in days.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t attracted to Sammie. She was a hot girl with a great-looking body, and Daniel wouldn’t think twice about sleeping with her the day she would give it up. He was sure that the chance would present itself sooner or later. The thing was that she wasn’t very interesting to him. He’d been with plenty of girls just like her, and they gave him nothing in return other than headache and endless phone terror. He could take her or leave her; it didn’t really matter to him.
But Anna was a different thing. For some reason, Anna couldn’t be played or charmed in the usual way. Daniel also had the weird hunch that he shouldn’t try to play her. Something stopped him from pulling his tricks on her. Sort of the same feeling he'd had about Kate when he first met her, although he wouldn’t go near her anyway even if he was paid to do it.
Anna was charming. Anna was pretty. Anna was special. Anna would be his. And, just for fun, so would Sammie, even though he kind of didn't want her.
Only the problem now was that Kate had completely destroyed his plans to do this unnoticed. One day he would lock that girl in a cage and throw away the key. Kate had blabbed to Sammie that he was interested in her, which of course wasn’t true, and this had somehow set off the panic button in Kate’s immune system. Apparently he wasn’t allowed to make this trip fun on his own terms anymore.
Kate could be so high-strung sometimes.
They had all gathered in front of the entrance, where a long line had circled up. Matt was still in a bad mood, and even though Daniel disliked him he was quite sure that starting a fist-fight would have the exact opposite effect that he wanted on Sammie. “Shouldn’t we wait a while? They’re probably on their way,” Lex suggested. She could drive Daniel crazy sometimes with her voice-of-reason approach to all situations. Her obsession with group unity was clearly unhealthy.
“They’ll be here,” Matt said, clicking the buttons on his cell phone. “There’s no reception out here.”
“Told you,” Daniel muttered arrogantly. Matt stared at him coldly but had no time to start an argument before Jeff arrived with Anthony and Fred. “There you are,” Daniel said uninterestedly. “Where’s Red?”
“Chris decided to stay behind and keep her company,” Fred explained, now distracted by Lex and her whereabouts.
Lex grinned. “Chris ‘decided’?”
“Chris doesn’t even hang out with her,” Sammie pointed out.
“What can I say, he’s a gentleman,” Jeff snorted. “Let’s go inside.”
Daniel quickly walked up next to Sammie and nudged her. “Your little friend won’t get Red into trouble, will he?”
Sammie gave up a short laugh. “Why the hell would he do that? Chris is the mellow one, not a troublemaker.”
“You know how guys can be,” Daniel grinned.
“Yes, I do,” Sammie said pointedly, unable to keep from smiling. “You’re a troublemaker, Daniel. Shouldn’t you be able to spot one when you see one?”
“Me?” Daniel asked with fake surprise. “Why would you think such a thing about me? I’m as innocent as a lamb.”
Sammie laughed. “That’s not the stories Kate has told me.”
“Red has been a cheerleader for too long. At some point, those brain damages just become chronic.”
“Well, maybe you’ve been dating too many cheerleaders then,” Sammie concluded, giving him a forceful enough shove in the side that he lost his balance and tripped against the fence. Daniel stared after her with a surprised but content grin.
The spirit was at an all time low back at the campsite. Kate was sitting on the bench, dangling her legs and occasionally sighing, while Chris was sitting on the bench opposite her, head in his hands, ‘babysitting’.
“Do you wanna play cards?” Kate asked randomly.
“No.”
Another couple of minutes went by.
“How about now?”
“No!“
Kate waited patiently while five minutes passed.
“I know how to do a somersault. Wanna see?”
“No.”
“A front handspring?”
Chris sighed forcefully.
Kate sat still, smacking her tongue.
“One time, at cheerleading camp-”
“I need a drink,” Chris complained, banging his fists against the side of his head.
Kate hopped down from the bench. “Oh, yay! Food!”
Chris looked up at her. “If I take you with me to get something to eat, will you please shut up?”
“Probably not,” Kate giggled.
“We’ll go anyway,” Chris decided, pulling her along by the arm. They walked down the other trail toward the area right outside the campsite where all the food stands and market tents had been put up. Kate skipped happily, apparently all over her earlier crisis. Chris felt a crisis of his own develop just by looking at her, but it had nothing to do with a lost entrance pass.
They passed by the reception on the way and Kate waved at a bunch of guys that seemed to know her. Chris didn’t have the strength to ask what that was about. When they got to the food court, Kate’s excitement bubbled to the surface like a shaken soda can. “They have buffalo wings!” she screamed impulsively, making Chris and everyone else jump. “Oh my God! Chinese food!”
“If you need me, I’ll be at the nearest beer tent,” Chris said as Kate started skipping from food stand to food stand, demanding to know which food was ‘yummiest’.
Half an hour later, when Kate had settled for the five best courses and Chris had avoided another nervous breakdown, they both sat down at an empty table with their food. “You know, beer is bad for you,” Kate commented, poking at Chris’s plastic cup. “I get really nauseous when I drink beer. This one time-”
“At cheerleader camp?” Chris added surly.
“No, silly, at school!”
“Just eat, McKinley.”
Kate started smacking away, for once keeping completely silent in the process. Chris kept a watchful eye on her, almost expecting her to explode with repressed noise-making. They finished their meals in a comfortable silence and Kate watched with her nose wrinkled as Chris finished his beer. “Can I ask you something?” Kate asked as soon as Chris was done.
“I guess,” Chris said.
“Why don’t you like me?”
Chris was a bit taken aback by the question. “Uh, I like you fine.”
“No, you don’t. Why have you never asked me out?”
Chris started to laugh and Kate looked awfully offended. “I’m sorry, but what? You and I are almost never alone together. Do you like me?”
“Not especially, and definitely not now!” Kate complained.
“Sorry, but I thought it was funny. You’re a nice girl – annoying, but nice.”
Kate folded her arms together, turning her back against him. “I’m the greatest girl you’ll never not have.”
“And I’m fine with that,” Chris grinned, shoving at her playfully. “Come on, Kate. You and I can be friends. I can even make out with you a little if it’ll make you feel better.”
Kate giggled a little. “Eww, no. Kate is not that kind of girl.”
Chris continued to laugh at her for a while. “Can I ask you something?”
“No,” Kate said and just as quickly added, “Okay then.”
“I’ve figured, even though no one’s said anything straight, that Fred is only on this trip to impress Lex? And Daniel has been drooling all over Anna since before Christmas-”
“I can’t confirm or deny anything, if I tell secrets I’m no good friend,” Kate said proudly.
“Can you nod?”
“I can nod a little.”
“Lex doesn’t know Fred likes her, you know. And Anna knows perfectly well that Daniel is a complete asshole-”
“No, he’s not!” Kate objected at once. “He’s my friend.”
Chris shrugged. “Fine, but Anna won’t fall for him. She doesn’t sleep around, and definitely not with guys like Daniel.”
“I wouldn’t either, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like him,” Kate said.
“Yeah, well, you and Fred aren’t that the most objective people to talk to when it comes to this. And not only is Fred not objective, he’s naïve too. He’s going to have to work hard to keep Lex if he eventually manages to win her over.”
“Why do you say that? You’ve never seen Fred with a girlfriend. He’s a sweetheart; he would treat Lex like a princess! He’s already doing that!”
“Maybe Lex doesn’t want to be treated like a princess.”
“And how would you know that?”
“Because she’s been my best friend for years, and even though I never dated her, she did date Anthony at one point-”
“So? Wasn’t that years ago?”
“I’m just saying: Fred’s got this image of Lex that she’ll never be able to live up to. At least with Daniel, all his intentions are clear for both parties.”
Kate leaned over the table, resting on her elbows. “I know all about Lex and what she has done and who she has dated. If anything, she should be lucky that Fred likes her so much.”
“What do you mean by that?” Chris asked with a bit of hostility. When the subject of his friends came up in conversation, he always felt obligated to defend them to people outside their group.
Kate seemed to have an inner battle with herself whether she should tell him the details or not. “Before Lex met Fred, before last summer…”
“Yeah?” Chris said impatiently.
“Lex hooked up with Daniel.”
“What?! Of course she didn’t! You’re just making that up!” Chris stood up and started to gather his things. Kate followed him when he went over to throw away his garbage. “Stop following me.”
“Don’t be mad at me, I’m just stating the facts. You can ask her yourself if you want. I thought I recognized her from somewhere when Fred introduced her to me, but it never came to me until Daniel started on his mission to get Anna-”
“So you’re jealous? That’s what this is? This is lame, even coming from you,” Chris said angrily. “I never thought this of you, Kate.”
“But-”
“You can find your way back from here yourself. I’m not sure I wanna be in your company anymore.”
“Chris!” Kate shouted as he disappeared in the crowd. Kate could feel tears dripping down on her cheeks but felt no need to wipe them away. She had never lied to someone she considered her friend before, and to not be trusted made her more frustrated than if Chris had just stayed and yelled at her for the rest of the day.
In the festival area, things were going much more smoothly. While Lex, Anna, Sammie, Matt, Jeff and Anthony were caught up in the live music, Daniel and Fred were individually trying to come up with all kinds of ideas and schemes. Fred’s ideas were a little less realistic than Daniel’s, but neither of them could think of something that would actually work.
“I think Sammie’s actually warming up to me,” Daniel said, satisfied with himself.
“Don’t you mean Anna?” Fred questioned.
“Shut up,” Daniel muttered, glaring in Anna’s direction. “She’s not my type of girl.”
“That has never stopped you before,” Fred teased him. “She’s pretty, but she’s nothing special.”
Daniel snorted loudly, making the people next to him turn and stare. “Yeah, ‘cause Lex is such a catch.”
Fred didn’t dignify that with an answer. They stood leaning up against a tree at the back of the musical arena, waiting for the other six to come back. Daniel wasn’t particularly interested in the music and Fred was far too distracted to be able to focus on anything other than Lex. “Man, we need to do something now,” Daniel complained. “We’re only here a week, after all.”
Fred shuffled his feet. “I’m hungry.”
“Man, focus!” Daniel said impatiently. “You’re like a damn child.”
“I didn’t like the food, okay?”
“There’s a food stand over there, go buy something else,” Daniel suggested, tired of Fred’s whimpering. “The others seem to be fine only consuming large amounts of beer. I wish McKinley were here, she’s great when she’s drunk…” His voice trailed off and suddenly he thought of the most brilliant plan.
“What’s with the evil grin, Dr. Doom?”
Daniel didn’t comment on the stupid nickname. “Girls get drunk when they drink beer.”
“Not all girls,” Fred protested, not really following Daniel’s train of thought.
“Well, hopefully our girls do,” Daniel grinned. “When they get drunk, they get easy. When they’re easy, we have ourselves a party.”
Fred whimpered again, now for other reasons than hunger. “That’s a bad idea. I don’t like girls when they’re drunk.”
“I love girls when they’re drunk,” Daniel said happily. When he saw Fred’s moody face, he decided to change tactics. “Look at it this way: Lex is drunk and you show up and help her out when she starts to feel bad. You’re her new hero and you live happily ever after.” He made a grimace at the thought of ‘happily ever after’ but Fred didn’t seem to notice.
“I guess-”
“Great, go offer them a beer now. Oh, and buy those other guys one too, we don’t want them to get suspicious.”
“Why do I have to pay for it?” Fred complained.
“You were the one who was hungry! Now go!” Daniel instructed, sending Fred in the direction of the rest of the gang. Three girls who had been standing next to them, listening in on their conversation, looked at Daniel with disgust. “What?” he asked. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t have fallen for that plan like a charm.” They left him standing there by himself while he practiced some more on his new evil grin.
The rest of the evening went as according to Daniel’s plans. As soon as Fred started serving round after round of free beers, Sammie started to consider all of Daniel’s jokes as a lot funnier. Jeff was the most sober one of them, and Daniel’s idea was to avoid him as much as possible and ditch the rest.
Fred, who was nervously sipping beer as much as the others, was beginning to see faults in the plan. Chris, Jeff and Anthony went everywhere with them, and it was even harder to get to talk to Lex when she was being bubbly and more social than usual. She and Anna had hooked arms and were stuck together like concrete. How Daniel could see this as a successful plan was completely beyond him.
They stayed until the last show of the night, and after that they tried to shuffle themselves home in the most organized manner they could. Fred stayed behind, as Matt and Anthony were leading the way, mostly in the right direction. To his surprise, Lex unlinked herself from Anna and fell back in line to join him. “I guess we had a good time tonight, huh?” she beamed; small fits of giggle disrupting her speech. Fred, who was also quite groggy himself, tried to help her walk straight. “You know, Fred, I’m really glad you’re here.”
“You are?” Fred lit up, almost pulling a muscle in his left cheek. “Really?”
“Of course,” she smiled, yanking his arm to steer him in the right direction. “I’m glad we got to know each other. You’re a great friend. And I knowhow hard you tried to get Kate and Daniel to come as well. I appreciate your help.”
“You do?” Fred said just as happily as before.
“I like you. A lot. I mean, I don’t trust that many people in my life, so it’s a big thing for me to admit to myself that I like you. Sometimes I kinda wish it was you I had dated at the beginning of the year instead of that schmuck-” Lex stopped talking abruptly, not realizing that Fred was hanging on to her every word. “Hot dogs!”
“Eh, what?” Fred said confusedly, shaking his head slightly. “You were saying?”
Lex let go of his arm and wobbled away through the trees to their camp, where Chris had made a fire so they could grill hot dogs. Fred was not at all amused where he was standing, kind of wishing that he could stuff those hot dogs down someone’s throat.
They were all gathered around the camp fire now, loudly telling Chris all about their day and the bands. Chris listened to their stories, but seemed distracted somehow, like he was thinking of something else. Fred went through all the tents looking for Kate, and finally found her hiding in Daniel’s sleeping bag. “Hello, Katie,” he greeted, sitting down heavily on his own side of the tent. Kate whined when he landed on her hand. “Sorry. You know, tomorrow I’ll lend you my pass so you can go see some bands.”
Kate sat up; her wavy hair all messed up like noodles on a plate. Fred suddenly got hungry again. “Really?” she asked, sniffling quietly. “You’d do that for me?”
“Of course, Katie,” he smiled. “You thought I forgot about you, silly?” Kate burst into tears and threw herself around his neck, violently hugging him. “Kate? It wasn’t that nice.” Fred started to lose his breath. “Kate!”
She let go of him, looking at him with her big green eyes. “Choking, not breathing?”
“Exactly,” he said, rubbing his neck. “Sheesh, I didn’t offer you a kidney or anything!”
Kate sniffled again. “Where’s Danny?”
“Gonna choke him too?” Fred laughed. Kate pouted. “I don’t know where he is, somewhere with Sammie maybe. I didn’t see them out there.”
Kate gave him another breathtakingly hug, crying into his shoulder again.
Fred so didn’t understand girls.
Another dispute was brewing outside, as Matt had discovered Sammie and Daniel talking with each other out of his line of sight. Daniel was staying out of their argument, but Sammie, who felt that she hadn’t done anything wrong, didn’t back down. It just wasn’t a complete night until Matt had argued with someone.
Lex, who was camping out in front of Fred’s tent, tried to explain the situation as well as she could to Kate and Fred. Not before Kate could hug her too, of course. “The thing is, Matt is really into Sammie-”
“Matt likes Sammie?” Fred asked, surprised.
“Duh,” Kate replied.
“Yeah,” Lex said shortly. “Anyway, neither of them likes to admit it, and they keep dating all these other people, but deep down inside-”
“-he loves her,” Fred said dreamily, unable to keep his eyes off Lex.
“Something like that, yeah,” Lex continued, not catching on to Fred’s tone of voice. Kate rolled her eyes. “So whenever Sammie talks to some guy, Matt gets really protective, and Sammie doesn’t always like that.”
“She is no man’s possession,” Kate said conclusively.
“Right…” Lex said slowly. “Most guys don’t get that, though, and they think Matt isn’t a threat.”
“But she would choose him over them anytime,” Fred sighed, still staring at Lex. He was just reaching out his hand to touch her hair when Lex made a sudden move and got up from the ground.
Kate watched him get the puppy eyed look again. “Aww, Fred. Go after her!”
Fred hesitated for a second, before clumsily dashing out from the tent and sprinting after Lex. Kate proceeded to watch the fight between Matt and Sammie, deep down inside hoping for Matt to win so Daniel would back off. Sammie eventually lost her patience and left Matt screaming after her while she went back over to talk to Daniel. This really didn’t go over well with Matt, Kate noticed. Then it all happened so fast: Daniel’s confidence ran over and Kate gasped dramatically as he eagerly pulled Sammie into a kiss. Kate had to close her eyes to avoid looking directly at the disaster, but she heard the punch and Daniel’s moan as he hit the ground.
Peeking one eye open, she saw the rest of them pulling Daniel and Matt apart. Fred managed to drag Daniel as far away from Sammie as possible, and the two had a dispute of their own while Daniel gestured in Matt’s direction, clearly wanting Fred to defend him. When Fred couldn’t be persuaded, Daniel shoved him to the side and disappeared towards the service building.
Kate considered going after him to see if he was all right, but before she had decided, she spotted a red lollipop on the tent floor and got distracted.
Daniel stood over by the row of outdoor sinks by the service building with his back turned towards Camp Stupid, a tissue to his nose to stop the flow of blood. Even in his semi-intoxicated state, Matt packed quite a punch. Daniel’s nose was bleeding, his left eye felt like it was going to explode from the blow to his cheek, and his lip was split and bleeding. He had a few cuts too. Matt had hit him so hard and so fast Daniel didn’t even have time to hit back. Daniel’s only impact on Matt was when Matt split Daniel’s lip; Daniel’s teeth split Matt’s knuckles.
Matt McDougal, that big oaf, he belonged in the zoo with the rest of the gorillas. Really, what had Daniel done? Flirted with Sammie? Tried to kiss her? Yeah, Sammie was hot but Matt wasn’t dating her – jealous thug.
And it was over so fast – Jeff and Chris wrestled Matt to the ground, and Sammie was shouting at Matt at the top of her lungs, and Matt was shouting back at her, and Daniel didn’t even have time to throw a punch before Anthony and Fred restrained him. He didn’t get to throw one punch! Daniel was embarrassed – well, as far as he could feel embarrassed by these things. He was Daniel DeRienzo, he didn’t get embarrassed. He didn’t believe in love either – which really got him into trouble tonight. He never believed Matt loved Sammie until just before Matt hit him. Now he believed it. He could see them through the gap between the tents. The fire was still burning in the campsite and for all they were screaming before, they were quietly talking now, roasting marshmallows and they were both smiling.
Actually, everyone was around the fire and smiling, as far as he could see. Even Kate and Fred didn’t seem to care that he was standing all alone in the dark bleeding to death through his nose and lower lip! Fred was sitting with Lex and Kate was giggling between Jeff and Chris. He was all by himself! But at least the blood was stopping…slowly.
He was down to his last tissue when a voice said, “Hey, do you mind if I join you?’
“Yes,” he mumbled, not really caring who it was. Anna showed up next to him carrying a small First Aid Kit. In spite of himself, Daniel smiled…and instantly regretted it. His lip felt like it was going to tear all the way down to his chin. He winced. Anna smiled. “Matt really did a number on you, huh?”
“The big oaf didn’t even give me a chance to hit back!” Daniel complained.
“He doesn’t – not when it comes to Sammie, anyway,” Anna said, opening the First Aid Kit and spilling some hydrogen peroxide on to a cotton ball. “Now sit still while I clean and bandage you up.”
“Is that going to sting?” he asked.
“No, it’s not alcohol,” Anna said, “Now hold still!”
Daniel held still while Anna cleaned the cuts on his face.
“That gorilla belongs in a zoo!” Daniel voiced out loud when she was done.
“Matt? Nah. He’s just got a jealousy streak,” Anna smiled.
“That doesn’t give him the right to assault people!” Daniel exclaimed as Anna took out an ice pack. “Why isn’t anyone else in here showing concern about me? Especially Kate and Fred!”
“Ummm, everyone seems to think you had it coming, you’ve been tempting fate all day,” Anna grinned. She wrapped the ice pack in a paper towel. “Put this on your cheek, near your eye. It’ll stop the swelling.”
“And you didn’t think I had it coming?”
“Mm, sorry, yeah, I did. I’m just the nicest,” Anna smiled. “You did have it coming.”
“How can you say that I should have been assaulted by that mindless goon?!” Daniel asked indignantly.
“He’s not a mindless goon,” Anna said patiently, “But he loves her – and what were you trying to prove, trying to kiss Sammie in front of him? Just not smart at all. You’re supposed to be the smart one! And besides,” she said quietly, “You deserve it for trying to make me jealous. All you did was making Matt jealous!”
Daniel did a double-take. “What?” he exclaimed, “I wasn’t trying to make you jealous,” he said convincingly.
“You’re a good liar,” Anna said, “But I know you’re a liar and I know you’re full of shit. I know you were trying to make me jealous.”
“You don’t think I’d have nailed Sammie if I’d had the chance?” Daniel asked, quirking an eyebrow.
“Oh, I’m sure you would have, but it would have just been an added bonus,” Anna said easily. “Besides, it was obvious.”
“Not that I’m admitting I was doing any such thing, but I don't think it was that obvious,” Daniel looked at Anna defiantly.
“Well, it was kind of the fact that you used Sammie in the first place,” Anna said. “It’s a classic way to make someone jealous, showing interest in their best friend. And Sammie’s the only option.”
“What do you mean? If that was true, I could have used Lex.”
Anna smiled. “You’re this huge asshole,” she said, and Daniel tried to look insulted, “but I don’t think you’d hurt Fred that way unless you were actually interested in Lex. And it wouldn’t have worked if you used Kate because one, everyone knows you guys are platonic, and two, Kate and I aren’t that close. Sammie was the only other option…and also the most dangerous,” she grinned.
Daniel stared at her. “You’re overestimating me. I don’t give anything that much thought and I definitely don’t give people that much thought,” he bluffed.
“And Chris knew. He always reads people really well. He’s known since, like, before Christmas.”
“He doesn’t know shit,” Daniel said defiantly. “I fool everyone all the time and –”
“Fred blabbed,” Anna cut in.
“He did?!” Daniel exploded, dropping the ice pack from his face. “I’ll kill him! I never even told him because of his big mouth and he still blabbed! If I ever get my hands on him, I’ll –” Anna was grinning. Daniel bit his injured lower lip and winced. “Fred didn’t say anything, did he?”
“Nope,” Anna smiled as Daniel looked stunned. “What? You think you’re the only one who’s capable of outsmarting people from time to time?”
Daniel stared at her. Had it been anybody but Anna, he never would have fallen for such an obvious trick, and he knew it. “So you’ve know the whole time? Why didn’t you say anything? It might have spared me a beating!”
Anna laughed. “You had it coming, and besides,” she said, picking up the ice pack and pushing it back on to his cheek, “It was funny to watch.”
“You’re a lot like me,” Daniel grinned, and then whimpered, “Owww.”
“Lip?” Anna smiled.
“Yes,” Daniel said bitterly, “I can’t flash my charming smile.”
“Who said it was charming?” Anna asked. She cleaned his lip with a cotton ball while keeping the ice pack close to his face.
“I’ve been told by my countless admirers,” Daniel said cockily.
“You mean your victims?” Anna smiled again.
“Uh, yeah, them,” Daniel agreed. “So it worked?”
“Did what work?”
“The jealousy thing,” he said and Anna quirked an eyebrow. “Not that I was trying to make you jealous,” he added quickly. Stubborn pride.
“Umm, sorry, but no. I’m not the jealous type,” Anna smiled.
“Oh,” Daniel said, hopefully masking the disappointment in his voice. This was what made Anna so interesting to him. She didn't fall for his usual crap and she was just as smart as he was. And she was beautiful.
“Disappointed much?” she grinned.
“This is why I like you,” he blurted out accidentally and before he could stop himself. “You’re beautiful and smart. You’re talented and you’re charming. And you don’t fall for all my shit,” he said all this very fast. He looked horrified with himself and his sudden inability to control his mouth.
“What is this?” Anna asked with a disbelieving grin, “Seventeen or eighteen years of repressed emotion?”
“See?” he said, suddenly aware of how close she actually was to him. “See what you do to me?”
“Turn you into a babbling idiot?” she grinned.
“Well…yeah,” he admitted more to himself than to her.
Anna chuckled, “Oh, how the mighty have fallen.”
“Can I kiss you?” Daniel blurted out, again horrified by his lack of self-control. He had never asked a girl if he could kiss her before, he usually just went ahead and did whatever he felt like. But it was out there now. He couldn't take it back, even though he wished he didn't sound like such an idiot.
Anna took the ice pack off his face. “For real?” she asked, looking straight into his eyes.
“For real.”
“Not until you admit you like me and I’m special and I’m not like other girls,” she grinned. Of course she was going to humiliate him a little bit. Daniel played games, but Anna could play too. And Anna intended to win.
Daniel sighed. “Are you really going to make me say that?”
“Mmm…yeah. You play the game as well, don’t you, Daniel? We’re both in it to win.”
He didn’t seem to have a choice. “I like you, you’re not like other girls, you’re special,” he mumbled.
“What was that?” Anna asked sweetly, “I didn’t hear you.”
“Haven’t I embarrassed myself enough for you today?”
“Say it.”
“I like you, you’re not like other girls, you’re special,” Daniel said, clearly this time.
“Okay,” she smiled. “You can kiss me now.”
Daniel leaned forward and pulled her closer to him, looking at her, thinking about how beautiful she was. Doubts that he’d never had before flittered across his mind. This was a lot harder when you cared what the other person thought. Did Fred feel like this all the time? How did he live with himself? Daniel’s mind went black when his lips finally touched Anna’s. He was pretty sure he could have stayed like that for quite sometime. He shifted a little to get more comfortable –
“What the hell is going on over here?” Jeff said, suddenly standing right in front of them with his arms crossed over his chest. A string of swear words ran through Daniel’s mind as he began to plot how to best kill Jeff.
Anna pulled away and laughed, “Everything’s fine, Dad, thanks for checking.”
“If he pulls anything –”
“I’ll scream if I’m being raped,” Anna reassured him.
“Awesome, thanks,” Jeff disappeared just as fast as he had shown up. They could hear him laughing as he walked away.
“Asshole,” Daniel muttered.
Anna grinned, then squealed, “Oh, your lip is bleeding again!” Daniel put his hand to his lip while Anna grabbed a tissue and put it near his mouth.
“Maybe that’s enough for now, until your lip heals up a bit,” she suggested.
“Thanks for bandaging me up,” he said, wrapping his arm around her. He kissed her again, and hoped he wouldn't start leaking blood again, and even though she’d said enough, she didn’t stop him when he kissed her. He moved his hand along her side, down towards her stomach, and just barely up her shirt –
“Nice try,” she pushed him away. “Points for subtlety and creativity. But I’m not letting you feel me up or let you sleep with me. Not tonight, anyway.”
Daniel chuckled, “You really aren’t like other girls.”
“No,” Anna said, “I’m not.”
“So what now?” Daniel asked.
“What do you mean ‘what now?’” she said. “It was a couple kisses, nothing more.”
“But I said I like you and everything!” Daniel exclaimed, “I embarrassed myself for you!”
“Once you can feel the way you do without it embarrassing you, we can reevaluate. But I’m not going to let you use me just because you said what most girls want to hear,” she said patiently.
“Not like other girls,” Daniel mumbled.
“Not like other girls,” Anna agreed.
“Okay, fine,” he said. They stood quietly for a moment. “Hey Anna, what do you think about me? Do you even like me?” he asked simply, and there was a shy quality to his voice he didn’t really recognize.
Anna looked at him. “You’re not bad when you’re not being a jerk,” she smiled.
“Would you like…wanna go out sometime?”
“Sure,” she said easily, “but let’s see for how long these so-called feelings last. And how long you can go without being an asshole.” Anna got up. “I’d better get back and go to sleep before everyone gets suspicious.”
“Thanks for the bandages,” Daniel said, not entirely sure how he was not getting laid tonight.
“You’re welcome. Goodnight Daniel,” she kissed his cheek and left.
“Goodnight,” he called. He smiled to himself as she walked away. His lip split again and he shoved another tissue to his mouth. He sighed. Anna Eukovich was definitely not like other girls.
Fred had not yet accomplished as much as Daniel had done over the past hour.
The sound of a tent entrance being zipped down could be heard and a second later, Lex came tumbling in, looking excited. Fred yelped with surprise, not at all expecting her to show up so suddenly. “Whoa, drama!” Lex said with wide eyes. “Can I stay in here for a while? I was planning to go to sleep, but when I got to our tent, Chris and Jeff yelled at me to go away and wait. Weird, huh?”
“I guess,” Fred mumbled sleepily, wondering if he had already fallen asleep and was now dreaming. “You wanna stay in my tent?”
“Yeah,” Lex beamed, making herself comfortable in Daniel’s sleeping bag. “I don’t think he’ll be back for a while, yeah?”
Fred could only shake his head, suddenly at complete loss of what to say. “Uh… Do you want a Hershey bar?” Fred could have choked himself on the spot, as he immediately thought of at least a hundred better things he could have said instead.
Lex curiously poked at all his packing. “No, I’m all right. I ate like seven hot dogs or something. Weird to get the munchies from beer, right?”
“I don’t know,” Fred said uncertainly. “I always have the munchies.”
“Right, but you get paranoid when you’re stoned,” Lex reminisced, sniggering.
“That was one time!” Fred objected.
“That I know of, yeah,” Lex laughed, punching his arm lightly. “We’re a couple of wild childs, aren’t we?”
Fred was thoughtful for a moment. “Not really,” he finally smiled. “You’re wild. I’m a well-behaved jock.”
“No, you’re not!” Lex shouted, grabbing Fred’s pillow to attack him with. In less than a second, along with the pillow, packing went flying around the tent as a huge tickle war broke out. Jeff, who stuck his head in through the opening a while later, was hit in the face by a pair of rolled up socks. “Jeff!” Lex cheered.
“What are you two doing?” Jeff asked, taking a look at the complete mess before him. Fred and Lex were sitting in the middle of a big pile of pillows, clothing items, various candy bars and bags of chips. “Another bug?”
Lex giggled a little but didn’t answer. Fred took the opportunity to randomly throw a potato chip at her head, which landed in her hair. Jeff stared at them. “You’re waking up the entire camping site with your noise,” he told them. “Lex, do you wanna come over to our tent now? Chris has gone to bed.”
“Later,” Lex said, shaking the chip of her head and putting it in her mouth. Another chip came swooping down and the war resumed. Jeff decided to make his retreat before he was dragged in to anything, and left just as Fred and Lex toppled over laughing.
Jeff met up with Kate right outside. “What are they doing?” she asked, hoping for everyone’s sake that it involved some kind of kissing. Of course, it didn’t sound like that, but Kate was an eternal optimist. Sometimes.
“They’re throwing stuff at each other. Just wait, soon he’ll start pulling her hair and they’ll fall madly in love,” Jeff said tiredly. “Look, you can sleep in our tent tonight.”
“Thank you,” Kate smiled, skipping over to the tent on the other side of the camp fire. Jeff slightly regretted his decision, but figured he had to keep the group together and try to resolve their issues before they had to work together during their performance.
A few hours later, when Daniel returned to camp with his tail between his legs and made an attempt to get in to his tent, he found Fred there with a sleeping Lex in his lap. “Looks like you scored,” Daniel muttered.
“She passed out,” Fred shrugged. “It’s okay; I didn’t like the plan much anyway.”
“Too bad, because we’re doing it again tomorrow,” Daniel explained determinedly. “Move.”
“Do you ever learn from your mistakes?” Fred asked, shaking his head. He tried to pull Lex away from Daniel’s side of the tent more or less successfully.
Daniel tilted his head to the side. “She’s drooling.”
“I know! Leave her alone,” Fred said. “Who’s gonna get to beat you tomorrow?”
“Shut up and go to sleep,” Daniel growled, shoving Lex’s feet to the side. She twitched in her sleep and managed to kick him in the stomach.
Fred was actually quite content with the festival so far.