Cabin Fever

Pete stepped out of the car, sliding the large sunglasses he had resting on top of his head onto his nose. The sun was glaring down on his shoulders and back, reminding him of just one of the reasons he hated summer, and the outdoors.

"John!" a short man with choppy black hair came walking up to Pete's father, a hand outstretched. "I finally got you up here to my Palace."

Pete rolled his eyes at the man, and was glad he had his glasses on so no one would see. The only reason they were here was because his father was friends with the man, Mr. Armstrong, that owned the place. They were getting a huge discount, and Pete's father had given everyone a warning to behave. The man was going out of his way to have the Wentz family at the lovely Vacation Resort, and they were to act thankful and friendly.

But Pete was far from both of those things at the moment. He wasn't thankful, and therefore he did not want to act friendly. He was dragged, literally, into the car and forced, even more literally, to come to Paradise Palace. This was far from any Paradise Pete could have thought up, and it definitely didn't look like a Palace to him. The buildings looked old as Hell, the smell of Nature was making Pete's nose run, and the bugs were already biting at his delicate skin. Oh yes, Pete was going to have the best of times here.

Pete sighed quietly, turning away from his Father and Mr. Armstrong. Their conversation was boring him already; this place was boring him already. Pete closed the door with a slam, earning a glare from his mother who was just filing out of the car. She was about to open her mouth to reprimand him, when a scream came from inside the car, and she rushed over to the other side to check on her two youngest children.

Pete turned around, and almost bumped into a boy dressed in the Resorts uniform.

"I'm sorry," the boy said, his eyes darted uneasily over to Mr. Armstrong, hoping he hadn't seen. It was only the first day; they needed to make the best first impressions on the people just arriving.

"It's alright," Pete mumbled, watching as the boy went to work on piling their luggage out of their car’s trunk. Pete leaned against the side of the automobile, just watching the boy work. Call him rude, but he wasn't going to offer assistance. They were paid to do this, and this was suppose to be his vacation. Vacation and work didn't even belong in the same sentence...Well, at least in Pete's sentence it didn't.

Pete observed the boy from behind his designer glasses. He was skinny and had short brown hair, and he looked around his own age. The boy looked up at him quickly before returning to what he was doing.

Pete smirked; maybe there was one good thing about this place after all. If all the boys were as attractive as this one, he was sure he could find something to do to keep himself occupied.

--

“Leaving!” Pete yelled to his parents from the front door, before letting it close with a slam and making his way down the steps from their Cabin. Pete had been horrified when his father had said they’d been staying in cabins. His mind had flashed back to when he had been in Boy Scouts and the horrific trips they’d taken that resulted in them staying in Cabins (if you could even call them that, in Pete’s opinion they were gross old logs pilled on top of each other to create the form of a “house”), and all the bugs that had inhabited them.

But Pete’s mind had been put to ease when he’d stepped into the Cabin, finding it smelling fine, and looking perfectly clean. Even if this place was a giant bore, at least he’d be staying in a place that wasn’t infested with bugs, or had dirt collecting on the floor.
Pete trekked up the path to the Main House. The place where Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner was held, along with some of the shows and games they had, too.

It wasn’t quite Dinner, and Pete knew he’d just be coming up here in a few hours anyway, but he needed something to do. He’d already gotten everything into his room (he hadn’t taken much with him), and they didn’t have anything set up or scheduled yet since today was the first day and people were still arriving.

Exploring was the only thing Pete could think of doing right now. He’d never been here before, and the place was huge, he couldn’t deny. He could probably spend most of the week exploring and getting himself into trouble.

When Pete finally got to the front of the Main House, he stopped to catch his breath. The Main House was up on a Hill, and it was easy to see the whole Resort from where it was at. Although Pete made a fuss about the bugs, and the lack of things to do, he couldn’t deny to himself (although he would to others) that the place, with its green grass and beautiful flowers blooming everywhere, really was beautiful.

He turned, making his way up the white steps to the Main House’s porch. He could see that lights were on inside the Dining Hall, and he crept up to a door, peeking inside.

Upon looking inside, Pete saw that there was a bunch of the Resort’s workers drawn together in a group. A man with long black hair was sitting on one of the dining tables, talking to them.

“Alright, Guys. I know that for most of you this is just another year under your belt, but we have some newbies, so I’ve got to go over the Rules and bitch to you about protocol,” murmurs and groans of annoyance rippled through the group.

“Why bother, Way! You’re all talk, no action!” someone from the group yelled, making everyone else laugh.

The man, “Way” as he’d been called by someone else, just gave the group an amused smirk.

“As I was saying, most of you already know all this stuff, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded,” Way seemed to pick some people out, looking at them pointedly, earning some more laughs amongst the group, “Most of you here are waiters, except for the small few that work at some of the other stations around here, but for the most part, you all serve the food.

“To start, be polite. Don’t be assholes. They pay good money to be here, so what they say goes. Second, hands outta their water, no spitting in their food, and no damn swearing around the families,” Pete smiled slightly; he could tell that this Way guy was definitely only reciting rules, not following them.

“Alright, ya bums, just follow those main rules and you’ll be fine,” the group dispersed and the man got up from the table, giving the waiters room to clean and set the tables.

Pete, not wanting to get caught, was about to turn back but he stopped when he heard laughter. He peeked around the open door once again, watching as four guys came in from the back of the Dining Hall.

“Oh, well if it isn’t the Entertainment Crew!” the four boys dressed in the same uniform, a dark blue shirt with the Resorts logo on it and black slacks, walked over to the man, laughter dying down.

“Gerard,” a smaller boy with glasses came from the back of the group, smiling, “we got everything set up down in the Theater.”

Pete couldn’t help but notice the similarities between the two, and wondered if they were somehow related.

Gerard’s expression softened and he smiled at the smaller boy, “Thanks, Mikes. You guys are gonna have one busy schedule this summer. They’re upping the amount of Shows and Concerts this year, hoping it’ll bring in more money and members.”

“They’ve just hired a bunch of kids to help with the lights, and backstage equipment. I feel like I’m teaching toddlers,” Pete’s eyes shifted over to a short, slightly chubby boy. He was wearing a hat, but Pete could see his red hair peeking out from it; for some reason Pete found the boy to be extremely attract, and he leaned closer to hear what the boy had to say, putting more weight on the door.

“If I’m going to have to deal with them the whole summer, I want a raise,” a taller, skinnier boy wearing dazzling eye makeup said, dramatically. He shifted his hips, crossing his arms.

“You say that every year. It’s not gonna happen,” Gerard said, rolling his eyes. “Especially if you keep breaking the rules. Wipe that shit off your face.”

The skinny boy rolled his eyes, trying to look upset but failing as the corners of his mouth turned up, “You wear eyeliner too, Gerard Way, and since when have you ever enforced the rules?”

Gerard sighed, “I can’t say I don’t believe some of the rules are a bit stupid, but Mr. Armstrong made them for a reason. This year he’s decided there’s a no tolerance rule. You guys either obey them, or you’re fired. Ever since last year’s incident-”

“Is this because of Terry?” The boy with the hat interrupted and Pete decided that his voice was just as perfect as the rest of him. He didn’t know what it was about this guy, but he definitely wanted to find out more about him.

“But Terry didn’t do anything!” this time another boy spoke up. Tall, with short dark brown hair, his voice sounded musical to Pete’s ears. He wondered what kind of staff this was; they all looked so…pretty. Pretty, Pete thought, describes them perfectly.

They all had looks, Pete decided, but the two taller boys looked more perfected and poised. While the slightly chubbier one with the hat, and the boy with the glasses, looked a bit awkward. Though they had this appeal to Pete; something that made him want to get to know them. Pete shook his head softly; his mind seemed to be spinning in circles.

“He still broke one of the major rules,” Gerard’s voice sounded sad and distant, “I know I never really enforced the rule about the Staff and Member relationships, but Mr. Armstrong apparently did. I knew Terry longer than any of you, and it was horrible that he was fired. Mr. Armstrong cares about this place, and he doesn’t want staff mixing with the people who come here. He’s afraid it’ll bring his rating down.”

“That’s stupid,” the dark haired boy said again, scooting closer to the boy wearing the makeup.

“I agree…but what’s done is done. I’m only enforcing this rule now so none of you get fired,” Gerard suddenly smirked, “I don’t know why, but I’ve come to like you guys.”

Gerard laughed as they threw fake glares at him.

“Another thing…Ryan, Brendon, don’t let Mr. Armstrong see you two…together,” Pete furrowed his eyebrows, confused. The boy in the makeup and the boy with dark hair nodded, looking serious. Were they together, like a couple? Pete was gonna guess that was the case.
“You know I don’t care,” he smiled kindly at the two, “But I’m not sure he’ll be so quick to over look it. First of all, he’s afraid something could happen between the staff, and he doesn’t want fighting to break out in front of the members. And secondly…” he trailed off, looking as if to try to find the right words.

“…because we’re gay,” the boy in makeup finished, looking mad. The dark haired boy, his boyfriend, Pete thought, put an arm around his shoulder for comfort.

“Hey, you know I don’t care,” he laughed as if it were a joke; Pete was clueless, “ but Armstrong…just, watch guys. I know you’ve been together for a while now, but you’ve got to be extra careful.”

There was a slight awkward silence, until the boy wearing the hat spoke up.

“Now that we’ve got that aside, we actually did come up here to tell you something,” Pete leaned in further, desperate to hear the boy’s soft voice even more. He couldn’t really hear him from where he was; his voice was soft and light, not loud like the others. Pete found that he liked that about the boy, it seemed to fit him.

Before Pete could do anything to stop it, the door suddenly gave way to his weight and it flew open; hitting the wall with a resounding ‘thud’ and making Pete fall to the floor in an awkward pile of limps.

He groaned, out of embarrassment and pain, before picking himself up. His eyes were on the floor and before he looked up, be prayed they hadn’t noticed the door flying open, or a teenage boy flying onto the floor.

His eyes flickered up, and he winced. No such luck. All of them were staring at him in shock, making his face heat up.

“Um…hi,” he said to them, before quickly turning and running out onto the porch and down the steps.

Once he was back on the path towards his Cabin, he let out a deep sigh. It was getting darker out, and the summer night air was cooling his heated face.

“Great job Wentz, always have to make an ass out of yourself,” he said out loud, kicking a small stone angrily.

I really hope they don’t remember what I look like, he thought suddenly, I don’t want to be known as the clumsy eavesdropping boy if I ever do get to meet them…

Pete decided that he really, really did want to meet them (one hat-wearing boy in particular), and he subconsciously added it on his list of things to do.