Thank you all again for your patience! Here is the next part.

Day 1, Part 1

Vyolette woke up to strangely tinted sunlight, as if filtering through green foliage. She didn’t exactly remember where she was at first, then the night before came back to her. She was at the Camp of the Arts, a place she didn’t know much about. But they sure had fluffy pillows. She turned over, and saw an enormous spider on the pillow next to her, it’s beady eyes glinting. She screamed and scrambled backwards away from it, only to find that she was on the top bunk of a bunk bed. She fell through the air, landing with a thud on the floor. Thanks to her scream, everyone else in the small cabin was awake, too. They all looked around, startled, and saw Vyolette on the floor. Another CBer hurried forward to help her up.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Secret. What were you doing on the floor?”

“There was a spider,” she said, shuddering. “On my pillow.”

“Ew!” said another girl with shiny black hair. “Where is it now?” Vyolette climbed cautiously up the ladder on the side of her bed, and peeked over the mattress. There was nothing on her pillow.

“I don’t know,” she said, turning around. As she did, she came face to face with said spider, hanging on a thread from the ceiling. Vyolette grabbed the pillow from behind her and smacked it out of the air. It landed with a thud on the ground, and Secret picked it up by the leg. One of the other CBers held open the door of the cabin, and Secret threw it out. The CBer holding the door slammed it shut, and the spider scuttled away.

Vyolette turned to face her cabinmates. There were five of them, six including herself. She smiled a greeting.

“I’m Vyolette,” she said. “Sorry about, um, waking you up.”

“No worries!” said the girl who’d opened the door. “I’m Gracia. Nice to meet you.” And so introductions went. Vyolette met Secret, Gracia, Coral, Levana, and Viola?. They all jumped when they heard the door swing open, and saw that it was Echo. She was carrying a large gong and mallet, and she looked vaguely disappointed when she saw that they were all already awake.

“Morning!” she said, smiling again. “Lovely day. Breakfast is in ten minutes, so be there or starve! I mean, not literally, of course, I’d save you a bagel or something.” She hit the gong on her way out for good measure, and the CBers all winced.

“Better get ready,” said Levana. “I’m not a big fan of bagels.”

They all got dressed, then made their way to the mess hall. It was easy to find, since there were signs everywhere. Useful ones, and not quite so. There was a sign pointing upwards that said ‘Sky’, and one pointing down that read ‘Ground’. They followed the signs until they reached the mess hall. They entered, and found that all the other CBers were already there, rubbing their eyes and yawning. Echo was sitting at a table by herself facing the others. She clapped her hands happily.

“Right on time! Everyone, please find a seat. Then we can go over today’s schedule!” There was a scraping of chairs as everyone found a seat. Vyolette sat next to Secret and Viola?. Her stomach grumbled, but she didn’t see any food. Echo began speaking.

“So, after breakfast, you’ll have Crafting, which is in the art cabin, then after that we’ll go kayaking, then you’ll have a free period to explore the camp, then we’re having auditions for the play we’re putting on! That’ll be fun. Lunch is after that, then we’re going hiking, and after that you have free time until dinner, which is at seven. Curfew is nine o’clock, and I’ll be waking you up at eight every morning. Now, feast!” She made a theatrical gesture with her hands, but no food appeared. They all looked at the table expectantly. Echo smacked her hand to her forehead.

“I forgot the food! Hold on, I’ll be back in a minute.” She ran out of the mess hall. Vyolette and Viola? looked at each other, confused. There was a lot of muttering going on around them. Thirty seconds later, Echo reappeared, pushing a cart laden with food. However, over her blue C.O.T.A. t-shirt, she wore a chef coat, along with a chef hat on her head and a fake moustache on her upper lip. She walked around the room, placing trays of bagels and bowls of cream cheese on the tables. When she came around to them, Vyolette asked,

“Um, Echo, why are you wearing that?” Echo looked affronted. She replied, in a terrible French accent,

“Echo? I am not zhis Echo! I am zhee cook, Escargot!”

“You’re Snail the cook?” she said disbelievingly.

“Yes! Now, if you'll excuse me, rude young lady!” Echo- or Escargot- stomped off to serve more bagels. Viola? snorted with laughter.

“That was… something,” she said. Vyolette nodded in agreement. She picked up a bagel from the tray in front of her and examined it. It was a plain bagel, untoasted. She didn’t see any toasters. She pulled off a piece, ate it, and wrinkled her nose in distaste. Untoasted bagels were not on her favorite foods list. She was hungry, though, so she wolfed it down.

“That was gross,” she said to no one in particular. As soon as the last person, Levana, was finished eating, Echo reappeared, chef attire removed.

“This way, everyone!” she called, leading the way out the door. They all followed her, falling into a single file line. They followed the signs to the art cabin. It was fairly large, with room for all of them to fit comfortably. Smaller tables were scattered around, and an entire wall was dedicated to bins of crafting and art supplies. There was an open spot on the floor, and Echo had them all sit in a circle to play an introduction game.

“Now,” she said. “I want you all to go around the circle and say your name and favorite art.” Secret, on Vyolette’s left, started.

“My name is Secret, and my favorite art is art.” Vyolette went next.

“I’m Vyolette, and my art is music.”

“Soren, writing.”

“Tric, music, I guess.”

“Levana, and poetry, if that counts.”

“Booo, mmyy artt iiss artt.”

“I’m Brooke, I like drawing.”

“Viola?, music and art.”

“Cassandra, writing!”

“Coral, writing too!”

“Gracia, I like drama and music.”

“Glaiss, I like cooking, really anything but music.”

“Clarence. And art.”

“Darkking, probably music or writing.”

“Morr, draw ingg.”

“Harliquin, drama.”

“Will, music. I play violin.”

“Tyberious, theatre, so drama.”

Introductions took a while, but once they were over with, Echo instructed them on what they were to do for the rest of their time in Crafting.

“You can make whatever you want,” she said. “Help yourself to anything from the Great Craft Wall. I’ll be back to take you kayaking in a little bit. Have fun!” She swept out of the room. The CBers split up and chatted while they began crafting. Vyolette found a table with Secret, Tyberious, and Gracia. They all walked up to the Great Craft Wall, as Echo had called it, and began rummaging through the bins to see what craft materials were available. Vyolette found a bin full of all different colors of yarn, so she picked out some purple and silver yarn and went back to the table, already having knitting needles. She was the first one back, so she unraveled her yarn and started clicking away. When Secret, Tyberious, and Gracia returned, they all talked excitedly about their projects. Secret had a handful of origami paper, Tyberious was holding some colorful clay, and Gracia had a block of wood to carve. Vyolette showed them the pretty yarn she’d found, and they all got to work. Every once in a while, Vyolette looked up from her project to see how everyone else’s were coming along. Secret was trying, without much success, to fold a paper crane, Tyberious was using his modeling clay to build a small, colorful igloo, and Gracia was carving what Vyolette thought might be a whale. It looked more like a sideways, blobby tree.

When Echo came back to get them, Secret had succeeded in folding a crumpled origami crane, Tyberious was gluing some cotton balls he’d found around the base of his igloo like snow, Gracia’s sideways tree looked more like an upside down canoe, and Vyolette had knitted a third of a scarf. Echo showed them where to put their unfinished projects, then led the way to the lake.

The lake was right behind the mess hall, and had a long dock with all some boats moored alongside it. There were several pedal boats and one or two motor boats. There was also a bright green jet ski that Vyolette saw some of the AEs eyeing. Echo led them to a large shed. She opened it with a key she took from her pocket, and began passing out kayaks of all different colors. She enlisted Darkking’s help passing out paddles, then she had everyone line up for life vests. They were big and bulky, and, Echo promised, very safe. After making sure each CBer and AE had one (including Boo), she donned one herself and made sure everyone knew how to kayak. It was simple, but always better safe than sorry. They all dragged their kayaks down to the water’s edge and sat in them. Echo pushed each of their kayaks forward into the lake, then went out in hers, following them.

“Remember!” she called after them. “Stay near each other, and don’t take off your life vests!”

Vyolette kayaked away, accidentally bumping into Secret as she went. They both laughed. It was kind of hard to control which way she went at first, but then she got the hang of it and sped around the lake, to her friends’ applause. She, Coral, and Tyberious organized a race, from one side of the lake to the finish line, a reed floating in the water. They got Clarence to judge, and he watched as they lined up their kayaks.

“Contestants, are you ready?”

“Yes!” they all replied.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” they replied, not as enthusiastically.

“Positive?”

“Yes!” they said impatiently.

“Then go!” He said it so suddenly that the three contestants didn’t know what was going on. Then Coral began paddling, and Vyolette and Tyberious were quick to follow. Vyolette was quicker than Tyberious, though she only managed to stay slightly ahead of him, but neither of them were a match for Coral. She flew through the water with the speed and grace of a swan. Or a duck. She reached the finish line way ahead of Vyolette and Tyberious. All the CBers watching applauded, and Clarence crowned her with a bit of plant he’d found floating on the lake. Coral bowed, laughing as the water plant fell off her head.

They kayaked for a bit longer, then Echo herded them back to shore. They dragged their kayaks back to the shed and removed their life vests.

“Was that fun?” she asked. The CBers cheered in response. Echo released them all for free time, and they split up to explore the camp. Vyolette hadn’t gotten very far when she heard a cry of alarm from behind her. The CBers rushed back from all directions. They found that it was Darkking who had cried out. Harliquin and Will stood next to him, looking concerned and panicked.

“What is it?” asked Levana worriedly.

“Mor’s missing!”

When you die in a Ski lodge, say you’re a Æ, or Captcha, are you still aloud to be in your cbers posts?

WAIT WAIT WIT! Colorful igloo? I NEED THIS IRL! YAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Also Rip Mor, but IGLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I will treasure my blobby tree/whale thingy until the day I die.

Ooo. A missing CAPTCHA. I hope she's not dead.

*Shudders* oh, so true. Bagels are gross.

Hmm. I suppose Lev is more of an oatmeal and fresh fruit person. (Part of me is waiting for Tric's imput... :| )

(Kgnc)

Umm sure Boo. Whatever you want. 

Day 1, Part 2

Darkking took charge of organizing the search parties.

“Okay, Brooke, Soren, Coral, and Viola?, you search over by the cabins. Levana, Gracia, Harliquin, and Cassandra, you search by the lake. Will, Glaiss, Tyberious, and Vyolette, you search the woods around the camp. And I’ll go with Tric, Secret, and Clarence to look inside of all the cabins. They all split up, going to search their assigned locations.

Darkking’s group walked to each cabin and checked inside, lifting blankets, looking under beds, all the places they were sure she wouldn’t be, but couldn’t hurt to check. They checked the art cabin and the mess hall, too, along with some of the other cabins they hadn’t been in yet. Mor was nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile, over in the woods, Levana’s search party was wandering aimlessly through the trees, calling out Mor’s name with little hope for a response.

“Where do you think she could be?” asked Glaiss, kicking a pile of dead leaves on the ground.

“I don’t know,” said Will sadly. Vyolette gave him a quick hug.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find her.” They went back to searching, combing every inch of the woods around the camp.

By the cabins, Brooke, Soren, Coral, and Viola? ran into Darkking, Tric, Secret, and Clarence.

“Any sign of her?” asked Darkking at once. Brooke shook her head.

“And I’d assume you haven’t seen her either?”

“No.” he sighed, then spotted someone running in their direction. He squinted. “Is that… Harliquin?” Indeed it was. He halted right in front of them, doubled over and out of breath.

“By… the lake…” he wheezed. “Found…”

“You found Mor?” Soren asked. Harliquin shook his head, and Soren slumped in disappointment.

“We found her life vest and kayak on the shore of the lake, a little ways down this partly hidden tributary. You can’t really see it from the camp. We think she might have gone exploring or something and gotten lost.” Darkking considered.

“Okay, Secret, can you go find the other two search parties and meet us at Echo’s cabin?” Secret nodded.

“On it.” She sprinted off in the direction Harliquin had come from. Darkking led the way to Echo’s cabin, which was unsurprisingly easy to find, for a large wooden sign over the doorway proclaimed, in rainbow-colored letters, “ECHO’S CABIN”. Echo could be heard humming inside, so Darkking stepped up and knocked on the door. After a moment, it opened, revealing Echo with several different hats piled on her head, one on top of the other, a few scarves around her neck, and two different shoes on.

“Come in, come in!” she said, seemingly unaware of her ridiculous apparel. The CBers filed in, noting the overflowing closet at the back of the one room cabin. Echo hurriedly shut the doors, then discarded the scarves and shoes, keeping the hats. “What do you need? You still have almost ten minutes of free time!” She beamed.

“Mor’s missing,” explained Darkking. “We sent out search parties to find her.”

“And? Did you find her?” Darkking gestured to Harliquin, who stepped up.

“We were looking for her down by the lake when we found her kayak and life vest on the shore. We think she could have gotten lost while exploring.” Echo considered.

“A reasonable theory. Okay, I’ll send some of the staff out to look for her.” Tric looked dubious.

“Do you have staff here?” Echo looked affronted.

“Well, of course I have staff here! What, do you think it’s just me? I can’t very well run a camp on my own, can I?” Tric put his hands up in surrender.

“Okay, okay, I was just asking.” Echo smiled again.

“Don’t worry about it! Say, where’s everyone else?”

“They should be on their way now,” said Darkking, looking expectantly at the door. They waited in silence for a minute, then the door burst open as the rest of the CBers streamed in, Secret in the lead.

“We’re here!” she said triumphantly.

“Perfect!” said Echo. “Free time is over now, so I hope you enjoyed it. Onward to the wonderful world of theatre!” She marched out of the cabin, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

“Um, what?” said Cassandra, being one of those who had just arrived. Darkking explained that Echo was sending out people to look for Mor, and, feeling slightly better, the CBers followed Echo to- well, wherever she was headed. She took them to an open auditorium, with wooden benches that rose with each row going back, like bleachers, except on a hill. The stage backed up to a cabin, and had a large red curtain and stairs on either side, leading to backstage. Echo ran up a set of these stairs and disappeared for a moment backstage. Then, she burst out of the center of the curtain, wearing a black fedora, thin, round glasses, and a brown vest, again over her t-shirt.

“Good day, CBers!” she said. She made her voice deeper when she said this, and everyone collectively rolled their eyes. Were there any other instructors here? “I’m Mr. Green. Welcome to my theatre class! Please, please, have a seat.” Echo- ahem, Mr. Green- jumped down from the stage as everyone found a seat on the first and second row of benches. Echo-as-Mr.-Green stood before them, grinning. “Now, I know you are all dying of anticipation to know what play we’re putting on.”

“Yeah, sure,” someone muttered. Echo pretended not to hear them.

“Any guesses?” There were none. “Okay, then. We’re doing… Sleeping Beauty!” She waited for applause, and a few of the CBers clapped politely. She seemed satisfied, and began passing out scripts from a box at her feet.

While she was doing so, Secret leaned over to Soren and whispered,

“What do you think is up with Echo? I mean, she’s kind of weird.” Soren shrugged.

“No idea. We should just go with it.” They accepted a script from Echo and passed one down to Secret, who took it and flipped through the first few pages. Echo instructed them to all separate into two groups: those who wanted to audition, and those who would rather work backstage. Most CBers chose to audition, but a few of them wanted to stick to backstage work.* The auditions were simple. Each CBer who wanted to audition would pick a part (not necessarily the part they wanted to audition for, just any part) and read as that character in a scene, with Echo-as-Mr.-Green reading the rest of the characters. This took a while, and in between each audition Echo frowned thoughtfully and took notes on a clipboard. After each CBer went, they walked back to the benches and sat down. It was very boring. Each time someone tried to talk, even just to whisper, Echo would shush them dramatically. Finally, the auditions were over. Echo wrote one last note with a flourish, then turned to face the CBers.

“Was that fun or what?” she asked excitedly. There was an unenthusiastic chorus of agreement, then Echo let them go. They all trailed in the direction of the mess hall, falling into groups as they walked.

All the kayaking had made the CBers hungry, so lunch was pretty quiet. Echo- ahem, Escargot- had laid out bread, ham, and peanut butter for them to make sandwiches. Most CBers chose one or the other, except for a crazy few who put both ham and peanut butter on their sandwich.

After lunch, Echo caught the CBers before they could leave, reminding them brightly that they were going hiking.

“It’s going to be super fun!” Echo promised. “We’ll see lots of animals and wildlife, and we’ll pass this really pretty river! You’re going to have a blast.”

To their surprise, the CBers did have a blast. The forest was beautiful, with soaring trees and dense green foliage. Echo led them down a worn dirt path, just wide enough for them to walk in pairs. Everyone who had a picture-taking device snapped lots of photos, of the wildlife, themselves, and each other. Echo pointed out some colorful birds flying above them, and at one point Cassandra spotted a doe with two fawns. They seemed curious, and came within feet of the CBers, until Boo sneezed and startled them away.

While everyone else was enjoying themselves, Darkking, Harliquin, and Will were a bit subdued. They kept thinking of poor Mor lost out there. They didn’t blame everyone else for having fun, of course, but they couldn’t help but worry.

The trail led them around and back by the sleeping cabins, and Echo announced that there would be free time until dinner. The CBers split up. Darkking, Harliquin, and Will went back to walk in the woods for a little while longer, Coral, Gracia, Secret, Vyolette, and Clarence wanted to go swimming in the lake, and everyone else went to the art cabin. The swimming group went back to their respective cabins to change into swimsuits, then met back at the kayak shed. They waded in, exclaiming at the cold and splashing each other as they went. They got used to the water after a few minutes, and swam all around the lake, talking about everything they’d seen on the hike, then how bad the food was, then how boring the auditions were, and so on. Once they were in a deeper area of the lake, out further than they’d been kayaking, Gracia said, to Vyolette,

“I dare you to swim all the way to the bottom of the lake.”

“Why?” Gracia shrugged.

“I don’t know. For fun?”

“Alright, I guess,” said Vyolette. “But how will you know if I made it all the way or not?”

“Get a rock or a stone from the bottom,” suggested Clarence. Vyolette nodded, and took a few deep breaths. Then, she dove down into the murky water. She squinted her eyes, trying to see in front of her. She kicked hard with her legs, and drove herself down. Suddenly, the sandy floor of the lake loomed in front of her. She swiveled her head, looking for a stone to take up to the surface. Instead of a stone, she saw a dark lump a little ways away from her. She swam closer. At first, she thought it was a tarp. Then she saw it’s face.

She screamed, then almost choked on water. She pushed off the bottom and rocketed upwards. She burst through the surface, gasping for air.

“What happened? Are you okay?” asked Secret. Vyolette took a few shaky breaths and shook her head.

“There’s something… someone… down there,” she said.

“What do you mean, someone?” asked Coral. Vyolette looked distraught.

“I- I think it’s Mor,” she said. “Someone needs to get Echo. And Darkking.” Coral’s eyes widened.

“So- she’s…”

“Yes. She’s dead.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*If you and your AE(s) could say whether you'd like to perform or work backstage, I would appreciate it. Thanks, and again, I apologize for the long wait.

I'd like to perform, if that's alright.

WHOAH SO GOOD 

Boo and I will perform, but Tric and Lev will stay backstage.