Noelle - Day 28 (Glitch Preview part two)

GUESS WHAT?!
There was really no need to start out this post with a large font!!!  I just wanted to get your attention...did it work?  Yes it did, because you are reading this post, and beyond that, I don't know what might have caused you to read this long, because for reasons I cannot fathom I am incredibly goofy today.

Something I forgot to mention yesterday (365 - daily posts - see the top to find out more) is the fact that since yesterday was Day 27 (of 365), we are officially at 4 weeks.  Take heart my fellow companions, time shall not yet catch up to us as of yet!  I've been practicing my "Thor-writing-voice".  And see, I told you, I'm super goofy right now!

Alrighty, Noelle, focus!  Part two of Glitch, Chapter 1, is on the way!  Just click the link below.

1:03 p.m., August 1st, 2014

NJ Pinewood Scouts Camping Center

“Mphhh!”

“Wake up Ash!”

“Mrrrph!”

“Wake up you idiot we’re there already!”

“Huh?  Oww!!!!”  Ash stared directly into a grumpy Fiona’s face.  “That hurt!”

“Well, now you’re up, so get a move on or else you won’t get a cabin to yourself.”

Ash dragged herself up and stared out the open van door.  A peaceful forest scene greeted her - well, except for Xander and Mark wrestling on the ground.  Fiona followed her gaze and smirked.

“Ignore them.  Mark called Xander a bone head for wanting the same cabin and you can guess it went downhill from there.  I actually had already claimed that cabin, as well as put my bags there, so they’re really fighting over nothing, but hey!  Not my problemo!  I’m thinking about going over there and knocking them both to their senses.”

“So I see,” Ash commented sarcastically.  “I thought that your dojo didn’t condone violence?”

“Whatever,” Fiona snarled, “If they don’t start to acting like the responsible fifteen-year-olds that they’re supposed to be I may murder someone.”

HT appeared next to Fiona and said in the exact same growling tone of voice, “How come you got the cabin by the canoes?”

“Because I got out first.  So there!”

“But I wanted -”

“To got canoeing -”

“And now you took -”

“The best cabin and -”

“I had already -”

“Claimed it so you could -”

“Go night canoeing.”

“Would you two give it a rest!?” Tris screamed from across the campsite, holding a nail polish bottle in one hand and a cellphone in the other. “You’ll give us a headache talking like that!  It’s bad enough that Xander dragged me to this bug-filled no-internet smelly boy scout camp!”

Katelyn jumped down from a tree, making Ash jump, clutching a video camera, yelling, “Yeah!  You’ve been at it all day and it’s been getting on my nerves!”

“You’re one to speak!”  Fiona called back.  “Giggling all the way here!”

“Girl’s gotta have fun some how!”

“These are my best friends?” Ash muttered, grinning all the same.  She dragged her bag out of the back, then explored a little, finding a cute little cabin fairly out of the way where no one would bother her.

Ash heard a yell, so she ran back to camp to find Fiona pinning Mark to the ground yelling about maturity and HT screaming at a messy-haired Xander to give her bag back.  Tris was squealing as she found she shared her cabin with “huge” beetles, and Katelyn was trying to get internet connection from the top of a tree.  The van had already left.  Ash groaned.  “And these are my best friends?”

With an uninterested sigh, she walked back to her cabin and finished unpacking.  Just as she finished, a tiny, pale man came toddling up the path, a perplexed expression on his face.

“Young lady, could you please explain the rowdy bunch of children running about in my campsite?”  He looked up at Ash, glaring at her like it was her fault that her friends were a disorderly bunch.  It was so comical Ash wanted laugh, but she didn’t.

“Er...yes, we have passes.  Its the free-with-a-pass weekend, right?”

The tiny man, whose name tag read Mr. Eustace Richards,  said, “Only if the party had a boy scout as a member, which I am almost certain you do not!”

“Actually, I hate to correct you mister,” Ash said as politely as she could, “But we do have a boy scout in out party.  He’s just currently...indisposed.”

“One of those doofuses?  And I suppose you are a favored member of his posse?”  Mr. Richards snapped.

“I...what?”

“Blond haired kid, taller, handsome face, needs a haircut desperately.”  Mr. Richards snapped again, as if it were obvious.  “When I last checked, he was making faces at one of his other...friends and refusing to give her belongings back.”  He said ‘friends’ like he was saying a bad word.

“Oh, I think you have it wrong.  That’s Xander,” Ash said with an unexplainable blush.  “Um, Mark is our boyscout.  Here, I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

“I’ll need to see your passes, and what might your name be young lady?”

“I’m Ash.  Ash Johnson.”

“I guess it could be worse,” he said with an appraising look.

“Yeah...I think.”

1:43 p.m., August 1st, 2014

NJ Pinewood Scouts Camping Center Office

Xander led the group to the small office building.  Fiona and Heather were still squabbling about cabins, and Mark was desperately searching his bag for the passes.  Ash walked over to him and pulled the passes out of one of the pockets.  Mark gave her an apologetic smile, then began rummaging for his lunch.

“Here, Xander, give this to him would you?”  Ash said, holding out the passes.

He ruffled his hair and gave Ash a look similar to that as a ghost-ridden old man.  “I’m not giving anything to that man.  He’s got leprosy or something.”

“What?!”  Ash said, totally confused.  “What are you talking about?”

“What do you mean what am I talking about?  You’re the disease expert!  That man is sick, and I mean it: sick.”  One look and you would know that Xander wasn’t joking.

“He’s a camp director, Xander, not a rabid squirrel.  He’s not sick.  Why do you even care if he’s sick or not?  Most basic diseases - colds and allergies - aren’t transmittable by touch like that anyway.”

He looked at his feet, blushing.  “I dunno,” he said finally.

Ash made a face, then muttered, “Fine, I’ll give him the passes if you don’t want to.”

Mr. Richards trotted out of the building with a form for them to fill out, coughing hard.  “Ok young la- Astrid, let me see these supposed passes, and I’ll need to see the boy scout to make sure he’s...authentic."  He looked expectantly at Xander, who was filling out the form sheet.

“No, Mr. Richards, that’s my friend Xander,” Ash said with a patronizing smile.  Xander gave her a sharp look, but said nothing.  “This is Mark, our resident boy scout.”

“Oh yes, I remember Xander.”  Mr. Richards held out his hand to shake Xander’s, but Xander looked once at him and backed away.  Mr. Richards looked at Ash, as if expecting an explanation, and said loudly, “This is the man you put your trust in?  I expected better of you Astrid!”

Ash blushed crimson, and the whole rabble got very quiet.  Finally, Ash whispered, “It’s Ash.  Not Astrid, Ash.”  She looked at her feet also to avoid Xander’s shrewd stare and HT’s narrowed eyes.

There was an awkward silence.

Mr. Richards did not press the matter, and Xander took charge.  “These are my friends.  I’m Xander Harrow.  Mark, our ‘resident boy scout’.”  He looked strangely at Ash again, then continued in what seemed like a slightly choked voice, “And then this is my sister, Trisanna.”

Tris shook her bushy brown hair and announced, “You can call me Tris.”

“Carrying on...these are the Chandler twins, Fiona - Fifi at least scowl nicely! - and Heather - er, HT.”

HT grinned widely and waved, while Fiona merely inclined her head at Mr. Richards.  He raised an eyebrow and coughed in return.

“Mark’s sister, Katelyn, our technical genius.”

Katelyn glared at Xander, then shook Mr. Richards’ hand.  She leaned forward and whispered something in his ear.  Mr. Richards gasped and said, “I’ll get it looked at right away!”

“And this is Ash.”  Ash gave Mr. Richards a warm smile.

“Yes, yes, I’ve met Astrid,” Mr. Richards said absentmindedly, hacking slightly.  “So when are you getting picked up?”

“One week from now.  My brother will be coming to pick us up in the van,” said Mark quickly.

“Okay then.”  He lapsed into a coughing fit.

“Er...”  Ash cleared her throat.  “Are you feeling well Mr. Richards?”

“Hm?  Oh yes, I feel fine.  Just fine.  I’ll talk to you later.  Dinner is a six o’clock, three minutes down the road that way.”  The whole party nodded their thanks and began talking all at once.

“Rabid squirrel...” Xander muttered.

3:21 p.m., August 2st, 2014

NJ Pinewood Scouts Camping Center

Ash stretched, letting her bare feet dangle in the water.  The sun was shining, and the water was clear and cold.  She leaned back, balancing herself on a paddle board.  Glancing back at the lake’s shore line, she saw Fiona and Tris take off on a canoe ride, while Katelyn scrambled up the beach, trying to catch a seagull on video.  Xander and Mark were no where to be found.

Suddenly, HT popped out of the water and onto the paddle board, sending Ash grappling for grip on the smooth board.  When the water finally settled, Ash was clinging to the edges trying not to fall off, and HT was glaring at Ash.

Silence followed...a cricket chirped on the distant shore.

“Um...can I help you HT?”

“You were right.”  Heather said, flopping down on the board and watching Fiona splash Katelyn with her boat paddle.

Ash redoubled her grip as the paddle board started to tip over, then asked tentatively, “What was I right about?”

“That conversation was definitely  not over.  What exactly is going on between you and Xander?”

“Heather!?  You can’t be serious!”  HT glared at Ash.

“Ok, maybe you are serious...nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  Mr. Richards...just made it awkward.  He made it sound weird.”

“I want the whole truth Astrid.”

“Please don’t call me Astrid, HT, I hate being called that,” Ash said with a sigh.

“The whole truth!”

“Fine then.  Mr. Richards had it all wrong.  He thought that we were his, how did he put it, posse.  He thought that we were his girlfriends, but we’re just friends.”

HT didn’t give up that easy.  “What about you and him joking around earlier?”

“I’m his friend HT.  Nothing more.  I have to talk to him every-so-often you know,” Ash groaned.

“So there’s nothing.”

“Nothing HT.  I swear.”

“Good, then I’ll go get my own paddle board and we can go to the other end of the lake and back.  Want to see if we can pry Katelyn’s fingers loose from the electronics and join us?”

Caught off guard by the expert change of conversation, Ash stuttered, “Sure!” and followed HT to shore.