CHAPTER 8
START SPREADIN' THE NEWS
School was finally coming to a close for the year and I couldn't have been more excited. Every summer Patrick and I went to "Camp Northwood" and it was awesome to feel like we were on our own even if it was only a couple of months. On the last day of school I eagerly packed what I would need into Mrs. Fox's van and set my sights towards freedom. The ride to get to Camp Northwood was seven hours, so Patrick and I slept the entire time. When I woke up the van was stopped on a gravel path and Mrs. Fox was getting directions from a teenager in a bright orange vest to the dining hall. I shook Patrick a few times to get him up before he slapped my hands and told me he was awake. The procedure at Camp Northwood was the same every year, on the first morning all the parents and kids eat breakfest together, the counsellars sing a song about Camp Northwood, and then they send the kids to the cabins until lunchtime. Patrick and I really didn't even like camp all that much, but the opprotunity to be away from parents for such a long time didn't come around very often, so we jumped on it when it did. Our cabin was one big room with two sets of bunk beds on either side with a screen door for an entrance. The camp was designed to make kids want to go out and do activities instead of just lounging around the cabin all day and it seemed to work very well. Patrick and I were the first ones to step inside the cabin and meet our counsellar. Viktor was a tall, muscular teenager with brown curly hair that came down to his shoulders. He was sitting inside the cabin playing some music on his acoustic guitar when we walked in.
"Hey guys, what are your names?"
"I'm Tim and he's Patrick" I said pointing behind me
"Right on. Where you from?" he said, still strumming away at his guitar
"Ohio" Patrick mumbled while putting his sheets on one of the top bunk beds.
Viktor acklowleged Patrick's answer with a nod and pulled a pair of white earbuds from his pocket and shoved them in his ears. I got all of my things set up on the top bunk adjacent to Patrick's before a short, pale, red haired boy stepped through the open screen door of the cabin.
"Hi" he said softly as he set his green duffle bag on the bed beneath mine.
Viktor temporarily removed his earbuds to ask the boy the same questions he asked Patrick and I. He said his name was Ethan and that he was from Chicago. Patrick and I had never been to a big city like that before so we passed the time and made small talk about what life was like in Chicago. The answers Ethan gave us were allways short and to the point and he never dared ask a question in return, so it was difficult to pull any useful information out of the conversation. However we did find out that Ethan was 12 and his parents were both lawyers and were very busy all the time. After about an hour of talking to Ethan three identical boys came tramping in, pushing and shoving eachother all the way. They were the Smith triplets. One was Allen, he was the loud one, the next was Adam, he was the tough one, and the third was Alex, he was the mean one. They were from somewhere in Pennsylvania, but Patrick and I really didn't care to talk to any of them. Once we were all in the cabin and had our stuff set up Viktor stood up and cleared his throat before saying.
"Alright dudes, here's the deal. If your all cool to me, I'll be cool to you. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do but you atleast have to be near the rest of us when we go somewhere. If you have to go to the bathroom it's right out the door and to the left. At night you all need to be in your beds at 8:00, I don't care if you sleep or not, but atleast keep it quiet enough so other people can sleep. Those are the only "rules" I have so let's go get some lunch then we'll see what we want to do for the rest of the day."
The walk from the cabins to the cafeteria was quiet and relaxing. The ten cabins that housed the other campers were arranged in a circle around two brick bath houses that were constantly lit up and operational. North of the cabins was the main entrance to the camp, to the east was a large gravel parking lot, to the south were two large fields used for various activities and to the west was a long dirt path that led to the cafeteria and other buildings like the nurse's office and the counsellars cabins. The dirt path that led to the cafeteria was cannopied by the strong branches of tall green pines on either side. We silently walked along the path while Viktor followed behind so he could see all of us. The cannopied dirt path opened up to a small clearing just big enough to hold the "Chow Hall."
The cafeteria was a white, rectangular, metal building that stood out sorely among the green backround. The bulding's facade held a large circular wooden sign that had the words "Chow Hall" burned into it in uniform capital letters. Lunch at Camp Northwood consisted of three parts. First, the counsellars would get up in front of all of the campers and sing a song or tell a story. Then, the campers were dismissed table by table to go get their food and eat. Finally, the counsellars would get up again and explain what activities were available for the day before letting us leave. All throughout lunch the Smith triplets made it a point to make fun of Ethan.
Ethan was a very nervous looking boy whos eyes always seemed to dart around the room like a gazelle watching out for a lion. The experience was very awkward for Patrick and I because even though we fealt bad for Ethan, the bullying wasn't terrible enough to make either of us take action against the triplets. After lunch Patrick and I spent most of our day at the pool meeting people and playing pool tag with Ethan. As we got to know Ethan better he seemed to relax and started having fun. We talked about different T.V shows, video games, school, girls and it became clear that Ethan was really grateful to have a few people he could confide in. From that moment on Ethan, Patrick and I became inseperable. With damp towels draped over our shoulders we made our way back to the cabin while the sun disappeared behind a pink and orange horizon.
Ethan, Patick and I were the first people back to the bunkhouse. After we took off our swimming trunks and put on fresh clothes we laid our towels over the railing outside the front door and sat in a circle on the floor with a deck of cards. By the time the Smith triplets got back to the cabin the three of us were all laughing and having a good time playing a game of go fish. Alex walked by, stopped for a minute and then kicked the deck of cards sending them in all directions.
"What's your problem?" Ethan yelled.
"Shut up faggot." Alex said as he walked away.
"Asshole..." Ethan said under his breath as he turned around to pick up the cards.
"What did you say?" Alex screamed as he ran towards Ethan
When Ethan turned around and saw Alex was right there he swung his fist and hit Alex on the left side of his jaw. Ethan threw an awesome punch that sent Alex to the ground crying, but unfortunatly he was outnumbered. In no time Adam had jumped on Ethan's back and wrestled him to the ground. Ethan's arms were pinned under Adam's legs and Adam had punched Ethan in the face four or five times before Patrick tried to pry Adam off of Ethan. Allen, who had just been watching the fight, grabbed Patrick's left shoulder and pulled it so they were face to face. Allen reared back to punch Patrick when my hand instinctivly shot out. With fingers outstretched the feeling started and Allen dropped to the floor writhing in pain and screaming for his life before he could hit Patrick. I moved my arm in line with Adam who was still on top of Ethan and made a pushing motion that threw Adam off of Ethan and across the cabin where he made contact with the unforgiving wooden wall. Ethan was lying on his back, face covered in blood, Adam was sitting against the back wall cradling his arm trying to hold back tears, and Alex was trying to help Allen out of his pain induced dilerium when Viktor walked in.
"Fuck!" he said as he stammered through the entry way
Viktor pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and called the nurse to come get Ethan,
Adam and Allen. Alex couldn't stop staring at me in complete shock. His face kept the same expression despite the tears still trickeling down his cheeks. Allen was still screaming on the floor as if someone had cut his arm off. It was cruel to let him continue suffering so I went into the feeling, thought about making the pain stop and with a snap of my fingers it did. When the pain stopped Allen's eyes rolled to the back of his head and he immediatly blacked out from shock. Viktor helped load each of the boys on to the nurse's modified golf cart and we watched as she took them back to her office. Viktor had never before seemed intimidating or scary to me, but the way his expression had changed after he was done helping the nurse was terrifying. He slowly walked to the back of the cabin and got four folding chairs. Viktor set three of the chairs up in a row and the fourth directly across from the other three.
"All of you, sit." he said calmly, pointing at three chairs in a row.
We each took a seat quickly and quietly, each of us afraid of what Viktor was going to do.
"I've seen a lot of fights before; I've even been in a few myself and I have never seen someone in as much pain as Allen was tonight." he pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and with shaky hands took one from of the pack and lit it. "I'm going to ask each of you what happened, don't lie to me and don't interrupt whoever's talking. Tim, you can start."
I said "Ethan hit Alex and then Alex fell. Allen pinned Ethan so Patrick hit him and Allen overeacted and started screaming. Adam tried to hit Patrick because Patrick hit Allen so I pushed Adam against the wall, I think I broke his arm. Sorry."
"Patrick, tell me what happened." Viktor said after taking a puff of his cigarette.
"Tim explained what happened." Patrick said softly
"Alex?" Viktor said
"Yeah, what Tim said." Alex whimpered.
"Alright guys" Viktor said cheerfully as he put the cigarette out on the jeans covering his knee. He got up and turned out the lights before leaving for the nurse's office.
"If you tell anyone what really happened, I'll make you wish you were Allen." I whispered to Alex
"I won't" he said.
After that the three of us climbed in our bunks and tried to fall asleep to the noises of counsellars talking about what had happened.
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