You are More

3 - And the ugly

Chapter Three

Lyric's POV

 I breathed a sigh of relief as I straightened the final duvet in the last of the girls' cabins. Making one bed was a simple task, but over a dozen? Then it was quite the chore, especially when the beds were bunks. That made it an honest to goodness nightmare.

  Whistling under my breath, I stepped outside, right as Carson came running by. "They're here!" He whooped as he raced past, and I rolled my eyes. Boys. Though considering the male mentality, I suppose he had a good reason to be excited. From what we'd heard, out of the twenty-five teens coming, fifteen were female. Yup, this is gonna be great, I thought, trying to keep some sense of optimism as I followed after my twin.

  Two large white vans - you know, the kind that most churches have for their youth group trips and such - along with another, smaller minivan were in the ranch's gravel parking lot, and, with all the drama of those sci-fi movies whenever an alien craft landing, the first door opened. No steam or blinding lights, though, and the kid that stepped out was far from impressive. In fact, he looked like your typical school nerd. 

  But all my thoughts that maybe this wouldn't be so difficult after all were crushed when the next guy got out - literally. I mean, really, he could probably have The Rock on the floor and crying for his mama in ten seconds flat. Broad shoulders, heavy build, hands that looked almost as big as my head. 

  We're doomed. 

  Optimism? What's that?

  At this point, the other two vans were spilling their occupants, and now the parking lot was milling with two dozen teens and various counselers who had come along and would be my co-workers for the next two months. Louise was already talking to a woman with short brown hair and a harassed look on her face, almost like those moms you see in the supermarket with multiple kids, all asking for different things at once, and when she caught my eye she waved me over.

  As I moved closer, a girl bumped into me and hissed, "Watch it, bitch." 

  "Excuse me?" I turned to face her in surprise. Despite never using such curse words, and rarely hearing one, I recognized it instantly. "You're the one that bumped me."

  The girl looked at me more carefully now, the expression in her dark eyes difficult to decipher, something about it making her undeniably creepy. "You work here, right?" I nodded, and her upper lip curled into a malicious sneer. "That's a good enough reason right there." She breezed past me, flicking her black ponytail back over her shoulder just right so the tips stung my cheek.

  "I see you met Jacqueline." My startled gaze moved from tracking the cranky girl to the woman standing beside me, the same woman that had been talking to my grandmother.

  "Yeah. Not really your typical meet-and-greet sort of introduction, but yeah." I nodded slightly, surveying this newcomer. She was several inches shorter than me, but had an air of clear authority around her. Obviously the leader of this unruly circus of teenagers. As I looked closer, I noticed faint shadows from lack of sleep beneath her eyes, and the beginnings of wrinkles from frowns of consernation on her brow. This was obviously a woman that worked hard, and judging from this so-called Jacqueline's behavior, I understood why.

  Louise, who had been not too far behind the woman, stepped in to introduce us. "Cheryl, this is my granddaughter, Lyric. Lyric, this is Cheryl Davenport, head psychiatrist at Broken Stone Correctional Facilities."

  Any other pleasantries were cut short by someone yelling, "Hey, are we just gonna stand here all day, or do you actually have something for us to do?" Nerdy boy was already proving to have quite the set of lungs, considering that we'd actually heard him over the other conversations, which consisted of everyone trying to talk over everyone else.

  Several moments later, a horrible shrieking sound cut through the air, immediately putting a damper on the voices. Carson was standing apart from everyone else, on top of a mounting block with a megaphone in hand. "There, that's much better," he said with a slight grin, passing the microphone and the "stage" off to Louise.

  Standing above the rest of us, she cut a surprisingly impressive figure, the late afternoon sun making her blonde but quickly going gray hair look almost like some sort of halo. "Hello everyone," she said, smiling at the teenagers around her. A halfhearted response made her frown slightly, and she lifted an eyebrow. "Come on, y'all, you're good healthy kids. You were making more noise than that a minute ago! Let's get a good rousing hello."

  Second time's the charm here, and Lousie continued. "First things first, I want you to get to know the staff. They'll be helping you day to day around the ranch, and if you need help, they're the people to go to." She quickly got her "staff" together, consisting of me, Carson, my friend Elizabeth, and several others.

  "These guys are your training wheels, basically, here to help you along. So Elizabeth, Lyric, Jessica, Holly, I want you four to help these lovely ladies -" she gestured towards where the majority of the girls had clustered "- to their cabins. Carson, Jesse, Noah, if you would show the guys to theirs. We'll meet up in the indoor arena in an hour." Louise stepped down from her perch to grumbles and mumbles and the sounds of the shuffling feet as the teens started to collect their various bags and such. 

  Thanks to Jessica, who's voice doubled as a foghorn when needed, we got the girls moving in the right direction. Five per cabin, with a "counseler" as us volunteers were called in each.

  Once the cabin that I was chaperoning was settled in, the girls really just chilled out, laying around on their beds, talking about surprisingly normal things. Well, seeing as I was expecting them to be comparing criminal files or something, talking about Labyrinth and when the next Sherrilyn Kenyon book was coming out was quite normal.

  There was one girl, though, that didn't join in the conversation. The others seemed relatively resigned to their fates, almost excited about time out of this correctional facility they'd been at. But she laid there, earbuds in, doing something on her phone. If that became too much of a problem, I'd see about taking those up . . . scratch that, talk to Louise about it. I didn't need any of these kids as enemies, really.

  A closer examination, and I recognized her. Jacqueline. The bratty girl from earlier. Oh joy. Of course she'd ended up in my cabin. As if on cue, she looked up and met my gaze, her thoughts obviously echoing mine, but with language that was a bit more colorful.

  I attempted a smile, which she returned as a scowl and went back to her phone. Stifling a sigh, I flopped back onto my own mattress. Yup. This is gonna be a great summer.

  Sarcasm = the new optimism.

  If worst came to worst, I'd trade her for one of Jessica's girls, because that Jess is one tough cookie, not taking nonsense from anyone. We could've probably put her as a counselor in one of the guy cabins and she would be fine. But I didn't want to give up on her. I could do this. Find her soft spot, and it'd be a piece of cake.

  Oh boy, was I wrong.

~~~~~

Bleh, that took forever to get out, and I'm not all that proud of it. It feels clunky in places to me, and it's more of a filler than anything, but the teens are at camp now, so the story is really about to start rolling!

Also, I've seen other authors on here with betas. Don't know exactly how that works, but if anyone does, and is willing or knows someone who is willing, a beta for this story would be quite welcome! I am my own worst critic, but having someone to find all the little bumps so I can smooth them out would be amazing.

Another tiny thing I could use help with; getting pictures of the characters up. I've tried several times, and it's just not working.

So yeah, vote, comment and tell me what you think, maybe even fan if you haven't already! 

Cheese and sprinkles :}

The_Mad_DJ