The campers finished their breakfast and, under the direction of the counselors, stacked their plates, cups, and other miscellanious items and carried them to the kitchen staff. 

"YAY! Look, everyone!" Volcano yelled. "I CAN JUGGLE FIERY PLATES!" She began her demonstration. One plate. Two. Three plates were up in the air, making a bright ring.

"Ooh!" Spyro said. "The rings of fire look kind of like donuts!"

"You're hallucinating," Hotairballoon said, shoving his counterpart on the arm. 

"Donut deficiency!" Spyro replied hotly. "It's a really serious condition."

Hotairballoon opened his mouth to reply, but a CRASH resounded throughout the dining hall. "Oops," Volcano said cheerfully, looking at the burning pile of dishes.

Jarvis ran for a pot of water, dumping it onto the mess. "That should do it," she said, satisfied. 

"You ruined it!" Volcano moaned in dismay. 

"Thank you!" Shifting applauded Jarvis, shooting a glare in Volcano's direction. 

The Manager stood up on a table. "AHEM!"

The hall fell silent, and she continued. "This morning, your activities are the following: The VUDM and the Chatterbox Queens will be heading to Arts and Crafts. The Mischievous Monarchs and the Killer Campfires are scheduled for... a nature hike. After an hour, you will switch and return for lunch."

The campers divided up into their respective groups. Those hiking were sent to their cabins for the nessecary supplies. "Boots, check!" Sydney said. "Sunblock, backpack, water, hat, notebook, pencil, all check!" Joan and Shadow had the same.

"What is IN your backpack, Puck?" Shadow Dragon asked incredulously, as it was twice the size of her cabinmates'.

"...Nothing... ," Puck said. "I just packed too big of a bag." She patted the side of it. Yep, her bag of pranks were still there. She smiled. "Ready, guys?" 

The Chatterbox Queens met them at the post signifying the start of the trail.

"I will be your tour guide today," a man said. Feather squinted. He looked vaguely familiar. He was the bus driver! The driver wrung his hands nervously as he glanced at the kids. He seemed to be remembering how strange they all were. 

"Uh, let's begin." He started to walk, pointing out flowers and such in a low, bored, drawl.

"This," Shifting sniffed to Somebody, "is awful. How boring can it get?"

Somebody shrugged. "It's a nice day, at least."

"It's HOT," Feather said.

"You're wearing a jacket." Shadow pointed out.

"It has pockets for my dictionaries in it," Feather explained. "See?" She felt someone tap her on the shoulder. It was Puck.

"What?" Feather asked, suspicious. Every time someone had been tapped by Puck, she learned, something bad happened. Puck was silent. She watched as Sydney and Joan passed, talking.

The two AEs were at the back of the group, trailing now, but close enough that they weren't counted as lost.

"I need your help," Puck said.

"With what?" Feather said cautiously.

"What makes Dev mad more than anything else?"

Feather paused. She did like, in a twisted sort of way, seeing Dev get into trouble, but he WAS one of her counterparts. "Well..."

Puck pulled something out of her bag.

"The Oxford Advanced English Learner's Dictionary!" Feather peeped. "Wow!"

"So..." Puck said, waving it around.

"He really, really hates vegetables and being wrong," Feather said quickly. "And when I don't get annoyed with him."

"Thanks," Puck said with an evil grin, handing the book to Feather. Everything was falling into place. 

Ooh, trouble with Puck and Volcano. I'm very tempted to make a pun about volcanoes being explosive but I won't. But something is brewing and 'bout to begin! I'm curious...apprehensive, but curious.

I didn't get to post yesterday because I was in San Diego. I'll do one in a moment, just want to check a few RPs and such.

At the Arts and Crafts center, the CBers were seated around two rectangular tables. The instructor, a lady with wild red hair and brandishing a paintbrush, was informing the kids what the activity was. "Today," she said, waving the painting tool dangerously close to Air's face, "we will have a Free Time. Art is about EXPRESSING YOURSELF—" (Silvery ducked as the brush swooped fiercly above her head) "—Not strict instruction. So, begin! Use whatever materials you can find." 

Everyone scurried off to look for things to pique their creativity.

Spyro snatched up a clump of brown clay. Plopping down in a seat, he began to roll it out into a long snake shape. Then, he folded it into a ring, fluffing it up until it was just the right shape. "Look what I made!" He showed Air, who had taken the seat next to him. 

"...A bagel?" she asked, pausing from her work: Cutting out a circle from a sheet of blue paper. 

"No!" Spyro sighed, frustrated that someone could be so cluless. "It's a DONUT."

"Oh," Air said, starting to snip a diamond. "Well, I can't tell because there is no frosting."

"That IS a problem," Spyro said. "Hmm."  

While he pondered this, Cayke collected some pink and red tissue paper and two green pipe cleaners. "I'm making  tissue flowers," she explained to Danie, who was folding and refolding Somebody's jeans. 

Danie nodded, aware that if she spoke Cayke wouldn't be able to hear anyway. She picked up the arrow now, running her finger down the side. She could FEEL the indentations, but just couldn't read the letters. Heck, she didn't even know that they were letters!

She watched forlornly as Volcano sat next to Cayke and began drawing, with a fat red crayon, a plate. Then, with hard, long strokes, she added flames onto the plate, recreating the scene at breakfast. Volcano paused. More fire, she decided. MUCH, much, more. Soon, the whole paper was bright red. Volcano grinned. "ALL FIRE!" she said in Japanese— "SUBETE NO KASAI!"

"Huh?" Cayke looked at her, confused. 

"Sore wa Nihondesu," Volcano explained. "Anata wa tadishi, nihongo o hanasu nodesu ka?"

Cayke was worried that Volcano had suddenly gone more insane than usual.

Danie flopped onto the ground. Bored. Bored. Why was it that in books the characters always figured out how to escape in less than five minutes? Why was it that in books no one every got STUCK IN A RING! She looked enviously at all the other CBers, having fun doing art. 

Something caught her eye, lying a bit to the right of her spot on the table. A magnifying glass. Carefully, she scootched across the table towards it. Throwing all her weight, she hit the side of the ring. TAP. It tapped the magnifying glass. 

It appeared in Danie's hand. She snatched up the arrow and examined it through the glass. The marks were etched with a knife, seemingly. In chunky, jagged letters, it read:

What do you want? 

Danie was disgusted. What had she been expecting, "How to Get Out of The Ring" typed up and stapled with color illustrations? 

"What do I want?" she asked herself. "Besides getting out of here... a bed."

A plump, cozy bed appeared next to her feet. 

"AAAAAAH!" she screamed. 

Yay! This is un-dead! Because I guess it was dead for a while but now it's not! Anyway, let's get to the story.  And sorry in advance, HAB.

------------------------- 

"What was that about?" St. Owl asked Feather as she ran up to them again. 

"Uh, nothing," Feather mumbled, touching the corner of her new dictionary. "Puck wanted to know how to spell something." 

"Oh, okay." St Owl nodded. Their group was heading to the Arts and Crafts cabana, as they had finished the hike.

They crossed the other collection of campers, going the opposite direction. 

Arriving at the Arts center, they all assembled around the tables. The teacher began to take roll.

"Joan!"

"Here," Joan said, doodling on a small scrap of paper.

"Sydney!"

"Present!" Sydney waved her hand in the air.

"...Feather?" The teacher said, a little bit questioningly.

"Yes, I am present, ma'am," Feather said loftily.

"Shifting Sands..." The teacher paused a moment before reading.

"HERE!" Shifting said boredly.

The teacher looked surprised, peering in closer at the paper to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.

"Somebody."

"Here," Somebody said.

"St. Owl."

"Present."

"Jarvis?"

"Right here!"

"Shadow."

"Here in physicality, perhaps not in mentality."

"Puck!"

There was a silence. Everyone waited, expecting that Puck was hiding or something to play a joke on the teacher. The silence lengthened. The girls looked around the room. 

"Absent?" The teacher asked, unsure.

"She was here a minute ago!" Shadow Dragon insisted. "Or... at least... five minutes ago..."

"Actually, the last time I saw her was during the hike," Feather said. "EVERYONE SEARCH THE AREA!" The campers scrambled around, peeking under tables.

"Missing camper alert!" the teacher called into a walkie-talkie. "Code Purple!"

Meanwhile, Puck was not missing. She knew exactly where she was. It really did help, she mused, that she had taken the hike first. She knew the trail by this point. Glancing among the campers, she slipped in at the back. No one noticed. They were watching the instructor's mustache wiggle.

Correction: No one that could cause Puck trouble noticed. Danie, sitting in puzzlement on her new bed, watched Puck as they began to walk. What was she doing?

"What plant is this?" Hotairballoon asked, plucking an interesting looking stalk and turning it over in his palm.

"Poison oak," the instructor said lightly. 

"AAAAAAAAAAA!" Hotairballoon screamed, dropping it. "I TOUCHED POISON OAK!"

"Don't worry," Spyro said sweetly. "It might not hurt TOO much, and it might not swell so much that it looks like a beach ball." 

"WAAAAGH!" was all that Hotairballoon replied.

Spyro grinned. Maybe camp WAS a bit fun after all.

Puck watched Dev. He was as cool as a cumcumber, smug as a cat as he walked, hands in his pockets, so full of himself. She needed to correct that, badly. She watched as the rest of the campers turned around the corner, Hotairballoon still moaning. Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out a pair of gloves. Gingerly, she picked up the stalk. Tiptoe. Tiptoe. She crept up behind Dev, who was in the back of the group. Thankfully, his shirt was tucked in. Puck pulled back is collar, and in one fluid motion, dropped in the poison oak. 

Dev glanced back, but nobody was there. Puck had run to the bathrooms to shake off the gloves into the trash can—And then washed her hands three times. She then climbed into the window of Dev's cabin, tossed his stuff in the shower and turned it on, applied whoopie cushions to all the chairs, and short-sheeted his bed. 

Agh. I'm having writer's block. I don't have any ideas. I'll post later today when I think of something, but I'm drawing a blank as for now. 

P.S. Did everyone have a good Christmas? If you don't celebate Christmas, then Chanukah? (Even though it ended. Trivia: I celebrate both. Double fun!) 

It's fine if you can't post for a while, CM. I never would have been able to write a CB story this good! We just need to make sure it doesn't fade away to lower pages in the meantime. Top, thread!

AAAAGH! I'm just going to POWER THROUGH this block and write a new chapter. I was looking for the thread at the bottom of the page, and I was scared that it was on Page 2 now, because I couldn't find it, but voila! It was at the (almost) top! Yay! 

---------------------

"Of all the Puck-like things to do...!" Joan groaned, peeking behind a bookcase, while knowing full well that it was impossible for a person to fit in the gap. "And we don't even get arts and crafts time!" 

Sydney flipped up the tablecloth of a supply table and poked her head under. "We'll find her," she reassured her friend, ducking out. "Ouch." She banged her head on the beam. Rubbing her bump, she straightened up.

Joan sighed. Though Puck was really annoying, mischevious, and generally crazy, she was Joan's counterpart, and Joan didn't want her hurt, or... 

The arts and crafts teacher was jabbering madly on her walkie-talkie. "She's MISSING! Gone! Pft! Not with the group! Initiate the search team, Mike. Now! Me and the kids are checking the room and..."

The kids and I, Feather thought as she walked by. She lightly touched her new dictonary, tucked into her coat. Was it wrong to do that? What in the world was Puck doing to Dev? She would need to do it when he was distracted, doing an activity or— 

Oh.

Suddenly, Feather had an inkling of what Puck was up to.  

------MEANWHILE, AT THE NATURE HIKE-----

"This is a weird camp," Air observed to Cayke and Silvery. Volcano trailed behind them, lighting underbrush on fire and cackling before the hike leader noticed and rebuked her.

"Weird how?" Silvery asked lazily, kicking a rock across the dusty path.

"Just... strange. Odd. Weird stuff happens around here."

The three girls were silent, looking at their fellow campers. Hotairballoon was walking with his poison-ivy affected hand hanging out in front of him, while Spyro read from a Boy Scout manual he had borrowed from Squeak. 

"Ahem..." Spyro turned the page. "Poison oak. A woody vine or shrub in the Anacardiacae (sumac) family—boring, boring, boring, BORE! Ah, here it is: Reaction. First causes itching, then evolves into skin inflamation, with severe itching and blistering..."

Hotairballoon moaned. Volcano put another shrub alight, then doused it with her water bottle, giggling madly at the sizzling sound. Dev was scratching his back a lot, wiggling like there was something down his shirt.

"WE'RE sort of weird," Cayke said, shrugging. "What do you expect?"

"No, no," Air insisted. "This is a different weird than normal-weird."  

Silvery laughed. "Weird is the opposite of normal. You can't have normal weirdness." 

"Yes, you can, when you're normal on a regular basis!" Air said. "Anyway, things here are even weirder than usual."

"Yes, they are!" Danie thought, feeling around her new bed to make sure it wasn't an illusion. Maybe she was sick. Maybe she was insane! What if she had gone insane, and she was really strapped in a padded room, having hallucinations of a camp and a ring? Her friends were talking again. She tuned her ears in again.

"One!" Air was counting off strange things on her fingers. "Dev KILLED someone with a brussels sprout pie."

"That's normal." Cayke pointed out. "In fact, I'm surprised this many CBers are still alive with Dev around—Aaagh!"—a brussels sprout zoomed at hyper speed just past her, barely grazing her shorts. "See, my point!" Cayke finished, brushing her thighs. 

"But it's weird," Silvery said.

"Aha! You admit it is possible to be normal and weird!" Air said triumphantly. Silvery groaned. Air held up another finger. "Two! Somebody lost her pants! Three! Volcano lit Silvery Ink's backpack on fire!" 

"That never happened," Silvery said, waving a hand. "You're lying." She glanced backward. "AAAAAAAAH! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!" Silvery threw her flaming bag off her shoulders and onto the dirt path. "Omygosh! VOLCANO! I AM GOING TO..." 

"FOUR!" Air yelled. "Puck ate a worm! Five! Danie is stuck in a ring!" But no one was listening to her by this point. Cayke was watching amusedly as Silvery and Volcano fought, Silvery spewing insults and Volcano fire. Squeak was stamping out Silvery's bag, meanwhile.

"What's in my shirt?" Dev asked, wiggling again. There was definitely something there. He untucked it and shook it out. A fresh, large, sprig of poison oak fell out. 

"Oho!" Hotairballoon crowed. "I'm not alone now!" Spyro whapped his sane counterpart across the knees with his tail. "Oww!" the former complained.

"PUCK!" Dev shouted.

"Air was right," Silvery thought, trying to slap Volcano. "This is a weird camp."

-----------

I really like writing those hodgepodges of activity and insanity. Next chapter teaser: Find out where the bed is from, and how the arrow is related!

Wow. I'm not in this, but this is AMAZING writing!

Keep going, please! 

C'mon, thread, stay up there!

*stretches* Let's do this, guys! Thanks for all the support. It means a lot to me. 

--------------- 

The nurse was filling in random bubbles on a form when a knock resonated on her door. "Come in," she drawled lazily. A man poked his head in, looking frazzled. She recognized him as the counselor designated to lead the campers' nature hike. 

Usually she would be unhappy about being interrupted, but this counselor happened to be quite good looking. "What's the problem, Mike?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes sweetly at him. 

"Uh, I have some injuries, in uh, my group," Mike, said, backing away from the flirtatious nurse. 

"Let's see them," the nurse said, suddenly buisnesslike. Mike led in four campers. The first boy was scratching his right hand where a red rash was beginning to bloom. Another boy followed, shifting uncomfortably as if something was itching underneath his shirt. Finally, two girls shuffled in, glaring at each other.

The nurse snatched a stack of forms. "I'll need one of these to be filled out for each of them." She handed each kid a paper and a pencil. Silvery folded herself primly on one of the blue prop up cots and began to write. Volcano walked to the other side of the room and settled in the corner. Dev and Hotairballoon each sat in a chair. Dev seemed to be in shock, muttering curses at Puck under his breath.

Silvery wrote: 

Name: Silvery Ink

Status: Camper

Injury and Cause: Fell out of a tree because she climbed up it to escape a insane psychokiller named Volcano Flame who lit her backpack on fire. She may have also intended to drop on Volcano's head, but that's beside the point. 

Suggested Perscription (Camper): FEDERAL PRISON FOR VOLCANO!!!!!!!! And a band-aid or two.

Volcano wondered what Silvery was writing. She was scribbling very fast, leaning down over her paper. Volcano turned her attention to her form. She read over the questions. BORING! She decided. 

Volcano pressed very hard with her pencil and scrawled: 

Name: VOLCANO THE TOTALLY AWESOMEEEEEEEE FLAME!!!!!!!!

Status: I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS SO FIREFIREFIREFIREFIRE FUN!

Injury and Cause: TOO MUCH AWESOMENESS LED ME TO BE SO HEAVY I FELL INTO A THORN BUSH! Silvery did NOT push me in! Really! REALLY! 

Suggested perscription (Camper): Bandage and a chainsaw (to murder SI). 

Hotairballoon and Dev filled out their respective forms quickly and handed them back to the nurse. "Poison oak, eh?" she said, looking at Hotairballoon's steadily swelling hand.

"I think," he replied, resisting the urge to scratch it. The nurse bustled off to find some anti-itch cream and a bandage or two.

Meanwhile, the other campers were having free-time. Cayke and Air were playing ping-pong while Danie watched from the inside of her ring. Joan, Sydney, Feather, and St. Owl were jumproping while Puck dived into the mix and made everyone trip.

Shifting, Spyro, and Squeak were playing a game of Go Fish. "Any fives?" Shifting asked.

"Darn!" Squeak said.

Shadow wandered by, reading a book. Puck got an idea. She stuck her leg out, and Shadow, not paying attention, tripped. She fell backward onto Spyro's deck of cards and the silver dragon jumped up, surprised.

"You messed up the game!" Shifting sighed. "And I was winning!"

"Sorry." Shadow gathered herself up as Puck looked on, satisfied with this small victory. 

DINGDING! The activity bell rang, signaling that the free rotation was over. The campers all hurried off toward the meeting pole where they would be assigned their next activities. 

However, nobody noticed that they had left behind a glittering diamond ring leaning against the net of a ping-pong table. And in it, a frantic girl named Danie.