The Indigo Lights

Children of the Corn

Indigo is unbearably nervous for the up coming activity, the one Pheobe refers to as Group.

Her stomach feels like a gaping chasm of apprehension. Everytime she swallows, a piece of her resolve aimlessly falls into the abyss. She wishes Alex was here too fling his arm around her shoulders and give her his toothy reasuring smile. Unfortunately, Alex and Indi have been operating on a cringe-worthy level of awkwardness.  Formal remarks,  measuered glances, and nauseating silences.

If Alex and Indi weren't fighting, (if you can even call it that), he would tell her that some insignificant camp activity is not worthy of her anxiety, but they are 'fighting', so Indi is left to prep talk herself. Which isn't going well.

She can't think of anything inspiring to pump herself up. She just keeps remebering that she's here, alone, all by herself, in a bubble of solitude, at crazy camp. Alone.

Alex is here, but he's not really here. The last time Indi was thrown into a crowd of hormonal teenagers with out her best friend was the beginning of seventh grade. Now here she is again.

She wouldn't be such a sniveling, winning, insecure, idiot about the whole Group thing, but Phoebe had innocently mentioned that they would be in random groups. And Indi is such and awkward little ardvark. Her skills in the social department are lacking to say the least.

After some time of Pheobe rambling on about frivolous topics as Disney made her bed and Indi folded her multitude of baggy old T-shirts, the girls decide to amble up to the Activity Center. The building is anything but modern and is already overflowing with kids shouting back and forth in failing attempts to be heard over one another.

A man with short blonde hair jumps up onto an elevated platform in the front of the large open expanse of the building. He cups his hands around his mouth and shouts "Hey! Attention campers!" He goes ignored by the majority of the crowd, who continue to overwhelm the space with noise and body heat. "Hey!" He seems to become incresingly annoyed with each time he is forced to repeat himself. "Children of the Corn!" Finally, his outberst is acknowledged by the group and a semi-quiet cover falls over the room. "Welcome!" The man says exasperated, "To Group!" He almost seems out of breath and Indigo surpresses a giggle.
"Today you will be split up in randomly picked groups and given a task. That task is to take a bucket of ice and keep it frozen via a selection of materials for a week. You're going to have to work together and share materials amongst groups. Please stay where you are as the concelours come around and give you a number one through ten. When everyone has recieved a number you will join the others who have your number and they will be your group. Please don't forget your number or change it to be with your friends, it ruins the activity. Have fun!"

Indi feels the fluttering, nauseating, sensation of nervous anticipation in the pit of her abdomin as concelors work their ways through the crowd of campers, rallying off numbers in sequencial order. She's given a three by a tall red headed women who smiles happily at her. People begin to hold up their numbers on their fingers and shout them out. Indi slowly makes her way to a group of congregating Threes. She finds herself surrounded by a mismatch circle of kids, Avery is one of them. She's scowling, an expression Indi has come to associate with her in the short time she's known the brunette. Indi shoots her a friendly smile in which Avery seems to acknwoledge with a curt eyebrow raise. The group is standing around a white five-gallon bucket filled about half way with solid ice.
''There's a bunch of materials up front.'' Says a sandy blond haired boy in Kakki shorts.
"What kind of materials?" Asks a curly haired girl in a Harry Potter Shirt.
"Um, big boxes, packing peanuts, shreaded paper, plastic bags, sawdust I think..." he answers seeming nervous.
The group stands, unmoving, awkward.
"Well what the hell are we waiting for" asks Avery, sporting a dicusted scowl. A short boy wearing basket ball shorts and high athletic socks with running shoes smirks approvingly at her.
Avery rolls her hazel eyes at the hesitent lot of us, "I guess I'll just have to get everything myself." She says frusterated and meladramtic, as she stomps off in the direction the boy had pointed. The short boy follows her like a puppy.

The group releases a collective breath as Avery leaves, the weight of her ever-present scowl lifted. They huddle together awkwardly until Indigo collects herself and speaks up, ''Um...Hi, I'm Indi. Should we make a plan?"
''Yes, that would most likely be helpful." Says the Sandy blonde boy who introduces himself as nigel, although Indi can't stop refering to him as 'kakki' in her head. "I know that in the past it was common to use saw dust to insulate ice during transport, so we should use it as well."
Indi can't help but smile as the boy threads together an intelligent, articulate sentence, but shuffles awkwardly from foot to foot.

It seems from the looks of him that he could join her awkward ardvark herd.

Soon, as Avery and the short boy return, the group explodes with a cacophony of ideas and introductions. Each person is talking over the other, or at least trying to, mean while hands grab at the materials until the floor in front of them is thoroughly coated with a layer of saw dust and sprinkled with packing peanuts.

Indigo clears her throat, trying to quiet the noisy group. She tries again....and again. She's reminded of the blond councelor from earlier and she sypethizes with his frustration. Finally she shouts, "Children of the Corn! Would you shut he hell up!" This gathers the groups attention in a hurry, each person glancing up with a look of annoyance, bewilderment, or amusement. The short boy smiles approvingly and Avery, of course, scowls. Now that she has their attention, Indi feels her anxiety rush back. Her heart thumping loudly in her throat and ears. She shakes her head, reminding herself the stupidity of nervousness at something as mundane as speaking in front of a few individuals.
"I was just thinking that maybe we should talk one at a time, so you know, we can get some stuff done." The boldness from her earlier outberst has clearly faded from her voice, but the group seems to seriously consider her advice.

"Hi, I'm Lanie and I think we should use the saw dust like Nigel said.' Says the Harry Potter shirt clad girl, shy but chipper, sending Kakki a small, fluttered eyelashes, rosy cheeked smile. Kakki doesn't seem to even notice and Indi feels slightly bad for Lanie.

The group begins to follow Lanie's lead, taking turns stating their ideas. A tall girl says they should put some of the walmart bags on top of the ice, to protect it from the saw dust. And a boy with glasses begins to put the whole project together.

After a while, their ideas seem to have actually come together. Although not pretty, the ice bucket insulation seem functioning and pragmatic. The bucket sits in a large Cardboard box, and is wrapped in Plastic bags, mounded with saw dust, surrounded by a layer of shredded paper, and then a layer of packing peanuts.

The campers admire their handy work, and clap their hands to remove the saw dust.
"Damn, it's ugly!" Says the smirking short boy, brown eyes glinting with satisfaction and pride.

Indi feels proud too. Although not just of their ice insulation, but also of herself. Her anxiety has completely dissapeared and has been replaced by an easy-going, comfortable feeling. She was thrown into a group of mostly strangers, without Alex by her side, and she did fine. Actually she did great.

She casually looks aroud the open room glancing at the groups of campers working with their materials. She spots Alex in a group with Disney. He seems at ease as he chats with his group, smiling his infectious smile and running his fingers through his hair. Disney giggles at something he says and Indigo looks away.

"Well, Children of the Corn." Indi says smiling, "We did it!" The group chuckles and agrees, some people clapping hands, everybody smiling. She feels like Dora saying it, but its true.
"But what the hell is the point?" Asks the short boy. Everybody laughs, realizing just how random the entire activity was.

Indi sighs, feeling the memory of her father surface, her fight with Alex rings in her ears. She remembers that she's here at the infamous Peterson's. And she wonders for a fleeting second: What the hell is the point?