𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘳 ~ [𝘋𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘥 𝘹 𝘖𝘊]

⇒ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴛᴡᴏ

"What the fuck did you guys do?" I rounded on Gwen and David, grinning guiltily. "I went to make sure everyone got breakfast, I come back and now you're telling us we're raising money to replace QM's hook?" I wasn't impressed to say the least.

"Oh Avery we did a really bad thing!" The redhead panicked, flapping his arms at his sides. I gently grabbed his wrists to calm him down, turning to glare at Gwen, knowing I'd get more info out of her.

"What bad thing did you do?" I reiterated.

"So you know how after Parents Day Cameron got carted off to Super Guantanamo?" How could I forget? I nodded curtly. "Well it means all his assets are frozen, and we're behind on bill payments." My eyes widened. This was bad. If we didn't keep up with our bills, the camp would be shut down. I slowly realised what was happening.

"And so you didn't want to tell the kids, so you came up with some bullshit about Quartermaster's hook that you actually stole?" I raised an eyebrow. Gwen pulled the hook from the waistband of her shorts, confirming this for me. "Jesus Christ." I gave up on the two of them, walking into the Mess Hall. Max, Nikki and Neil were stood complaining as QM wailed, presumably for his 'stolen' hook.

"I don't understand why he's so upset, he's got a thousand other attachments, arguably more useful." The black haired boy pointed out. His two friends nodded. I really didn't agree with this. Why couldn't Gwen and David just be honest about the situation? Speak of the devil...

"The Quartermaster's hook is his favourite! It's not all about that, but the principle too! Besides, you don't want to spend the rest of summer looking at that sad face." David tried to justify as he walked in trailed by Gwen. I had to admit, the endless cries of sadness coming from the caretaker were beginning to get on my nerves.

"I'd rather not..." Harrison admitted. Oh good, the rest of the campers were here.

"Exactly! So brace yourselves, because we have got to raise five-hundred dollars!" The redhead exclaimed, pointing to an electronic board to track the expenses.

"David, where did you get that?" I sighed.

"I bought it!" He beamed. I gave him an incredulous look that I hoped conveyed my thoughts of 'are you fucking serious'. "Oh." He pulled out a remote and tapped a few buttons, changing the target so it read '$575'.

"So like, what's the plan?" Ered asked. I'd actually been wondering the same myself. I wasn't entirely sure how much of a part I wanted in this, in all honesty. I didn't like the dishonesty and I wasn't about to take the fall when this went inevitably wrong.

"Great question, great question." Gwen nodded. "Does anybody have a plan?" So they weren't organised either, excellent. I wanted to keep the camp open tremendously, but I wasn't going to assist in this. I was close to giving up and going to watch a movie in mine and David's cabin.

"What if we made an ad for TV?" Harrison suggested. Yes, because that's not going to cost us more money either!

"I love that!" Preston squealed. "Imagery so depressing and sad, you'd have to be heartless not to donate!"

"Or we could say what's really happening and hold some sort of raffle or tombola so people have an actual cause to sympathise with?" I muttered to myself. Or at least I thought it was to myself. I looked up to see Max narrowing his eyes at me. I was going to get interrogated about this, wasn't I?

"Yeah, that's good!" My co-counsellor already seemed sold on the ad idea though.

"I don't know Gwen, don't you think it might be a little emotionally manipulative?" David asked. Oh so now he was worried about the morality of the situation? Why can't people just be honest. I get they didn't want to upset the kids, but surely their upset would make them work harder to find something to help the camp?