Blissfully Ignorant

Six: Jerome

Six: Jerome

Honestly? I can’t see what all the hype for Colin is about.

I haven’t even heard of the bloke before today. I shoot Corina a glance, wondering how she knows him. I’m reminded of how Jasmine – my cousin – spoke to Corina before we left from her wedding, and for some reason I’m guessing Jasmine had something to do with this.

“Oh,” Corina recovers quickly, “Hey.”

“Hello,” Colin nods. He has spiky black hair and bright blue eyes, but nothing specifically special about him. Which doesn’t explain why Corina is practically drooling.

“Searching for me?” he asks with a little grin. Isha lets out a little grumble under her breath, shifting uncomfortably beside me. Rahul, even though he’s standing still, doesn’t look too happy with the situation either.

“Um,” Corina obviously didn’t consider being asked this question, “Sort of. Jasmine asked me to-,”

“Jasmine?” Colin’s face lights up at the mention of my cousin, “So you’re the famous Corina, right?”

Corina’s face turns a deep red and Rahul and I exchange confused glances. What am I missing here?

“Maybe we should give them some space...” Isha mutters, backing away from them. Rahul lets his eyes linger on the two of them before following Isha, while I just stand there.

“We’ll head to the hall,” I say a moment later, “See ya.” Corina just nods fleetingly and Colin glances at me, and I turn around and catch up with the cousins.

“Who’s he?” is my first question.

“Colin Jace,” Rahul replies, pulling open the brown door of the hall. His explanation isn’t helpful, but I let it pass.

The main hall is as big inside as it appears outside. The number of people milling around inside are more than I expected. Some of them are wearing a common grey t-shirt, with the words ‘Amana Resort’ printed in white behind it, while others wear casual clothes.

“Those are the facilitators,” Isha says quietly, pointing to a group of people wearing uniform red t-shirts and talking in a corner.

“Do you know all of them?”

“Some of them,” says Rahul, walking over to them confidently. Isha just grins at me before following him. I sigh to myself – these two aren’t big on introductions. Let’s just hope I escape this encounter without any awkward moments.

“How you been?” a blonde guy is asking Rahul as I approach them.  

“The usual,” the Indian boy shrugs, “Walker, meet my buddy Jerome. Jerome, Walker.”

I nod at him, and to my surprise Walker pulls on a grim expression. “Hello, Jerome,” he states, before turning back to the rest of the facilitators. I glance at Rahul who blinks in confusion.

“Facilitators aren’t usually supposed to socialize with camp participants,” he explains quietly, “But some facilitators are pretty friendly. Walker’s friendly too, except it takes time for him to open up to strangers.”

“Okay.” Honestly, I’m not too big on Walker opening up to me either. I’ve never been one who loves to socialize, that’s always been Corina. Mom always teases me by saying that if she hadn’t met Corina’s mom while both of them were pregnant, I would still be a loner.

Untrue.

“Aw you poor thing,” Isha’s voice comes from behind me. I turned around, shooting her an amused look.

“Yes?”

“You just got introduced to the most hostile of all facilitators,” she pouted. I couldn’t help but chuckle this time. Annoying though she might come across, Isha was definitely entertaining.

“The opening ceremony will start now,” she informed me, “That’s what those chairs are for.” She nodded at several rows of chair set up in front of what looked like a small stage.  Just then, a man in a black suit stepped onto the stage with a microphone in one hand and a printed paper in the other.

He tapped the mic a few times, and then said, “May I have your attention everybody?” He smiled satisfactorily as almost everyone turned to face him, “Thank you. I request you to kindly take your seat before the beginning ceremony.”

“That’s Silo Greene,” Isha whispers as walk over to a row of chairs and sit down. I spot Rahul sitting with Walker and a few other facilitators. “He’s the owner of Amana Resort.”

My ears perk. My father is supposedly close friends with the owner of the Resort, perhaps this is the guy he’s always been talking about.

“Good afternoon, folks,” Silo says with a smile, “A very warm welcome to the Summer Camp of 2012!”

A scatter of applause sounds and he beams yet again. “I’m Silo Greene, and I’m gonna be the father bear to all you baby bears for the coming three weeks. So get used to it.” He follows up his words with a wink and a few chuckles are heard from the rows. “So without much further ado, we’ll begin with some ice breaking games. How does that sound?”

Cheers come from some girls sitting ahead of us, and from the corner of my eye I spot Corina making her way to the row I’m sitting in, Colin Jace following close behind. I bite my tongue to prevent myself from calling her to sit with us. She’s obviously chumming up to Colin and I don’t want to interrupt.

“Okay, I’ll begin by telling you a bit of what we’re going to be doing for the camp,” Silo continues, and I turn my attention back to him. “I can spot many familiar faces,” he smiles at some people sitting in front of him, “And it’s good to see you guys back. It’s also incredibly pleasant to see some new faces in front of me, and I’m glad you’re here with us today.”

Once again, applause from the crowd. “As many of you are aware, we’ll be dividing you all into four groups. These groups will play your family for the duration of this camp, so it would be nice if you tried not to kill anyone.”

Silo’s eyes land on Isha, and she bursts out laughing. I just smile, terribly amused by this.

“The Bananas are our first group, and they usually consist of weird and mentally challenged people.” Everyone bursts out laughing and so does Silo. “Just kidding! The Bananas are made up of funny and entertaining people.”

“I’m a banana,” Isha mutters. I just shrug. Predictable.

“The Chipmunks are people who are friendly and outgoing.” Definitely Corina. “The Snakes consist of intellectual and overall intelligent folks, while Panthers are some of the most competitive people I’ve ever met.”

“What do you think you’ll be?” Isha turns to me and asks.

“I’m not sure.” And really, I’m not. I’ll probably be either a Panther or a Snake, but I’m not exactly sure. Some people think I’m friendly, so for all I know I’ll become a Chipmunk.

“Cory says you’ll be a Snake,” says Isha in passing. I raise an eyebrow and shrug.

“Now, we’re spicing it up a bit this year,” Silo continues, rubbing his hands together. “While you participants will be camping with your own respective groups, you will all be assigned into herds.”

My ears perk. Participants all around me stiffen at this turn of events, and so does Isha.

“All camp activities will be done with your herd. A herd will consist of people from different groups, so you’ll be exposed to different type of people too. How does that sound?”

A couple of whoops came from the crowd.

“They’ll announce the groups tomorrow morning,” Isha whispers into my ear, “Damn. What with these herds, I can’t wait to see who I’m going to be playing with.”

I couldn’t help but agree. The grouping and gaming system did sound fun.

“Great,” Silo Greene grins, “Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Please stand up and stack your chairs to my right. Let the games… begin!”