Survival Camp

April 23, 2012
Monday
Late Afternoon

After CC, Warner, and Jinxx had finished untying all the luggage and tossed it all down to Jake, Skip, and I, they climbed off the bus. Andy, June, Tiffany, and Ashley had set off into the wilderness to find wood for a campfire. That left the rest of us to construct the 10 tents, one for each of us. Mick and Jerry were far too tipsy to be paying us any attention anymore and they were on their 3rd round of drinks, not slowing down for anything.

I was still insanely sore from my first catch from Warner. I fact, I felt like I had been tackled by a professional lineman, but I was good at hiding the pain. I've had a lot of practice. After falling heels over head, CC made sure he was the one to throw things down to me and he made them all light tosses.

Now I had moved on from constructing my tent and moved on to build up another one. Strangely I was the first to finish constructing a tent as well as the only girl working on one. June and Tiffany, the only other girls, were still collecting wood. Being CC was building the tent right next to me and seemed to be having a little trouble I decided to approach him.

"Need some help?" I asked as I stood behind him.

"No, I've got this," CC replied without even turning around, "You just finish your own tent."

"I've already finished." I said quietly.

CC turned around to see my tent had indeed been completed, "So you have." he mused, "Alright, come show me what I'm doing wrong."

I stepped past him and inspected his tent. Half of it seemed to be lop-sided, but the other half seemed to be doing alright. "Okay, remove this tent pole. It's not supposed to be where it is." I instructed.

CC nodded once before he did as I had said. When he finished, he held up the tent pole and asked, "So where does this go?"

"That's what she said!" one of the guys called out, which caused the rest of them to laugh but I only rolled my eyes. That joke was getting far too old.

I kneeled down and helped CC guide the tent pole through the loops. When we were finished, the tent stood on its own the way it was supposed to. I stood back to my feet and looked around, seeing the other guys were still having a bit of trouble. "Should we give them a hand?" I questioned as I looked up at CC.

He shook his head, "No, let them figure it out on their own." he said before he sat down in front of the tent.

"Thanks a lot." I heard Jake groan. His tent was on the other side of CC's tent and with a quick glance over my shoulder I realized he was having as much trouble as CC was - if not more.

I smirked to myself before I sat down next to CC.

"So...are you okay?" he asked a bit awkwardly.

I raised an eyebrow at him, "I'm fine?" I replied, but it was more of a question as I had no idea what he was talking about.

"I mean, you took a pretty nasty fall earlier." he clarified.

"Oh that?" I questioned, "That was nothing." I replied.

Now it was CC's turn to raise an eyebrow at me, "Are you sure? I know plenty of guys who would be complaining about being 'injured' after a hit like that."

I shrugged my shoulders, "I guess I'm just used to taking hard hits." I replied. In the back of my mind, I knew that was a better sentence for 'That's what she said' but none of the other guys were either listening or caught on to say it in time.

"How could you possibly be used to hits like THAT?!" he questioned.

"Football." I replied like it was not biggie.

"Powder Puff or Flag?" CC asked.

"Full Tackle." I answered, "You see, back home all my friends are guys and they like to play sports like 24/7 so instead of sitting on the sidelines I play with them."

"Okay...but that was still a pretty hard hit..."

"I had to make a deal with the guys in order for them to let me play with them." I explained further, "Play like a boy or sit out. I chose to play like a boy. That meant I had to take the hits and not whine about the pain so that's exactly what I did."

"Oh." was CC's reply before he became quiet.

"So tell me something," I started, breaking the silence, "You and the other guys who said they were gang members...you're all in the same gang, aren't you?" I asked.

He nodded, "Yes. We call ourselves the Black Veil Brides, or BVB for short."

Eventually Andy, June, Tiffany, and Ashley returned from the wilderness, arms loaded down with wood and they dumped it all in the middle of the campsite before they went to erect their tents.

CC and I were still the only ones who had finished building our tents and CC swears up and down that if I hadn't of helped him; he'd still be working on his own.

While the others were busy working on their tents and Mick and Jerry were nearly passed out from having too many drinks, I decided to go ahead and start the campfire. Because at the rate they were going it was going to be well after dark by the time they all finished.

So I got up and began to dig a pit in the center of camp. Usually campfires are built without first digging pit but those fires have a ring of stone or iron around them; this one didn't. So that's why I was digging a pit because if the wind picked up and the flame was low it would go completely out.

"What are you doing?" CC questioned from behind me.

Without turning around to answer him I replied, "Building a fire." With the pit being dug deep enough, I grabbed a few pieces of wood and began to arrange them in a sort of pyramid shape.

"Do you need any help?" CC asked.

I nodded, "Find a way to start the fire."

"Like rub two sticks together?" he asked.

I giggled, "That's one way to do it."

"What would be another way?" he questioned.

"You could use a pair of glasses."

"But no one here is wearing any glasses."

"Skip has a pair of sunglasses. They'll work just as good. Go see if he'll let you borrow them." I instructed.

"Right." CC replied as he walked over to Skip who was still building his tent and looked like he was about to kick it several times from being so fed up with the tent.

"Good luck." I muttered for CC, because it looked like he was going to need it.