Alternate Realities

Summer Camp (RQSS)

Written for LilyHarvord for Red Queen Secret Santa 2017.

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Diana Farley, Senior Camp Councilor stood on the edge of the men's cabins with her blow horn in one hand, a walkie-talkie in the other and her eye on the horizon. She shivered and watched the deep blue give way to the lighter yellow of dawn, wet her lips and raised both the blow horn and the walkie-talkie to her lips.

Into the walkie-talkie she confirmed, "Thirty seconds, Barrow." She counted from one to thirty in slow rhythmic pace, then into the blow horn shouted, "WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!"

She paused. Nothing happened so she shouted again, "WAKE UP! Lazy boys sleeping in! Sunshine is a-wasting. It's FIELD DAY!"

The first cabin shook with movement, bodies falling out of bed and onto the floor. Her fellow councilor, Shade, stumbled out and looked for the sun.

"What the hell, Farley?"

Shwoooosh. Shwooosh. The balloons flipped through the air soundless until the splat on the side of the cabin. Shade jumped back. Boys staggered out only to be met with faces full of water. Bombing balloons snapped off of sling-shots and cracked out of trebuchets raining down on targets. Little time was put into adjusting the trajectory. The confused boys jumped and ran, very few awake enough to return to the safety of their cabins.

"Farley!" Shade cursed, shivering and shaking off water. He stepped back into his cabin and stood in the doorway.

"It's field day, Shade. Get your game face on." Farley smirked, arched her eyebrow and into the walkie-talkie commanding, "Cease fire!"

A few straggling balloons crashed into the stones in front of Shade's cabin. He peeled his shirt off over his head and wrung it out on his step.

"You're asking for it, Farley." He wiped at the water, goosebumps covering him.

"If this is the punishment, let's go for another round," she bit her lower lip, pleased with herself. Shade rolled his eyes.

He stretched out his arms and motioned to his torso, "Anytime, Diana." He chuckled watching her cheeks pink. She turned on her heel and marched back to the girls side of camp.

——

Canoe Races

"Boat 1 will be: Cal, Kilorn, Oliver. Boat 2 will be: Ptolemus, Maven, Thomas." Shade rattled off.

Farley looked the boys over and glanced at her list countering, "Boat 1: Mare, Cameron, Elaine. Boat 2: Evangeline, Gisa, Wren."

Each started the motors on their boats and set off to establish the starting line in the middle of the lake.

"It's too early." Evangeline complained, unwrapping her arms from around Elaine.

"I think you two have got it covered. I can do a different event," Cal stated.

"Get in the boat," Oliver sighed.

"What's the matter, never taught ya how to row at the yacht club?" Kilorn bumped into Cal on his way to the dock.

"You know, yachts don't have oars, right?" Maven commented. Cal shook his head to cut off any other retort. Kilorn was his teammate, but he was best friends with a couple of the girls. There was no reason to test his alliances so early in the day.

Cal let Oliver and Kilorn get into the canoe first. Then declared, "I'll take the middle."

"You should be on the back, you're heavier and you'll decrease the drag," Maven regurgitated something Cal had mentioned a few weeks earlier.