We Could Be Enough - Lams

XXIX

"Brush your fucking teeth before you come see me, you moron." I shove Alex towards the direction of the sinks, and he slinks away laughing.

I sit back down on the bed. Jesus, I am completely unprepared for the campers. Why did I even sign up for this. Just kill me now.

"Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey, guess what guess what," Alex says, the words tumbling out of his mouth. He sits down next to me, giddy with excitement.

"What?"

"'Tater tots' is short for 'potato toddlers'" he squeaks. He laughs and rolls onto the floor with a thump.

I stare at him in silence. I often wonder why such things go through his head. Dude. Seriously. I won't be able to eat a single tater tot for the rest of my life without thinking of that.

"Why aren't you laughing, I'm hilarious."

"I am so freakin' tired right now that I'm just gonna..." What am I going to do? Punch a clock? No, that doesn't sound right. My brain feels like what a dial-up modem sounds like. You know what I mean.

"What're you gonna do, buddy?" he climbs back on the bed.

"I'm gonna... I'm gonna... punch... something."

He sits there for a moment. "It took you that long to think of that?"

"Get out of my house."

"What? This isn't your-"

"Get out of my house."

He giggles his little heart out. It's so hard to fake being mad at someone like him. I mean, it's him, what am I supposed to do!

I shove him off the bed again, and he tries to grab the post as he's falling. He gets twisted around on his way down, and groans as he rolls around on the ground.

"Ouch, I think I got a boo-boo."

"Get fucked, nerd."

"Maybe later."

"I said get out of my damn house."

~~~

Half an hour later, we're in the cafeteria with the rest of the squad. Peggy's drowning in a bowl of cereal and Herc's devoured his third orange. So, normal, I guess.

Lafayette's not here, but Eliza said he's spending a little extra time fancying his cabin up. She's having a hard time looking me or Alex in the eye while talking. I feel guilt rising to my cheeks as she secretly wipes away a tear.

"Oh my god, these kids were born in 2010. I feel like a friggin dinosaur!" Peggy wails, trying to drown herself in her cereal again.

"Do 8 year olds know what vine is?" Hercules looks seriously concerned.

"God, I hope not!" Alex says. He sways back and forth in his seat as if he was dancing. He's been doing all morning.

"What are you doing?" I whisper.

"I watched The Road to El Dorado last night. All the music is stuck in my head." I nod my head as he continues. "And by all of the music, I mean all of it. Every song. At the same time. It's crazy up in here." He points to his head as he continues to dance.

"How much sleep did you get?"

"Like..." He counts on his fingers. "5 hours and twenty minutes."

"Exactly?"

"Yeah. Also, have you ever realized how gay Miguel and Tulio are? Like the song 'Someday Out of the Blue' is obviously about a couple who've been together a long time, if you look at the lyrics, and Chel met them like a day ago, so how could that not be about Miguel and Tulio? Here comes the night, here come the memories, lost in your arms, you'd have to be crazy to think that's about Chel."

"Excuse me, I heard Chel? As in Chel the hottest animated female my little self ever saw?" Peggy perks up for the first time all morning. "Chel the reason I doubted my sexuality at such a young age? Chel my wife?"

I laugh. "Yeah, her. Alex was telling me about how Miguel and Tulio are totally gay."

"Oh yeah totally."

I turn back to Alex. "You really should've gotten more sleep."

"Well, duh. I can't really control that."

"I think if you would've closed your eyes instead of watching The Road to El Dorado you would've gotten more sleep."

"I beg to differ."

"Then beg-" I begin to say, but then Mr. Washington's voice on the speaker startles me. He's standing in the corner of the cafeteria with a microphone. Why do we have a microphone in the cafeteria? So James can brag about how he got the last box of fruit-loops?

"Hello staff! I hope you all had a good night's rest before today, because you're not going to get a wink of sleep after these campers get here in about 3 hours. If you didn't, all I can really say is 'Good luck'. And, my god, you will need it."

"That guy is such a meme." Hercules says.

"That guy gives us our pay check." Angelica responds.

"Whatever." He sighs. "I gotta do some last minute things for my cabin. It's looking hella drab in there."

"What're you going to do?" I ask.

"I'm gonna put fuckin glitter on fuckin everything." He says, walking away.

I should probably do some things to my cabin too. I saw that Alex made a banner that goes across his door saying 'Best Cabin Ever!' with stars and things all over it. Apparently Lafayette's 'fancying up' his cabin, and now Herc's leaving to thrown glitter in his?

I don't want to be the lamest cabin on the row.

I've got to beat them.

"Bye guys, see ya later!" I yell back as I sprint out of the cafeteria. I pass Herc walking up the hill. I'm gonna beat them. I'm going to have the lit-est cabin ever.