T H I R D   P E R S O N

Graduation was something every student looked forward to and at the same time what they feared the most. They would be on their own now and off to find their own bearing as new adults but as Don said, they were going to enjoy every last bit of their time together. Bryan's van was currently being loaded with the tents, sleeping bags, coolers and everything they needed for their camp out.

It was a three days and two night’s trip with constant supervision from the adults. The girls accompanied Crystal to go shopping for a swim suit because there was a lake at the camp site while the boys went to rent some four wheelers along with Scarlet. Food, clothes, drinks, and everything they needed was stuffed into Bryan's van under Asa and Clarissa’s supervision.

Phyllis, Crystal and April went in Sharon's car to the camp site while Logan hitched a ride with Scarlet to pick Sean and Nata up. Bryan drove his van to the place with Don while Ayo and Jordan went with the truck that brought the four wheelers and the adults went in Mrs. Meyer’s car.

“There are six tents and twelve of us. Let’s discuss our tent mates, people.”  Phyllis stated which caused every body to give their undivided attention. After she made the announcement, they all started sounding off on who they wanted as tent mates which led to an argument. Sean shook his head in amusement as Bryan argued against Jordan's boyfriend/girlfriend system because he had no girlfriend. April sided with the guy because her boyfriend was absent.

“Why not draw straws instead of arguing like children. Luckily, I brought a jotter so half of you will write our names down and the other half will pick a ballot. Whoever is your roommate remains and is unchangeable, okay?” Clarissa, Crystal’s mum, orchestrated to which everyone agreed.

After picking the ballots, Ayo opened his paper and was instantly filled with dread. “Sound off your partners.” Asa commanded.

“Jordan.” Logan named. The duo shook hands and chose a tent to set.

“Bryan.” Don smirked at his best friend who looked exasperated at his luck. The both of them went to pick a tent and set camp beside Logan and Jordan. Phyllis and Scarlet were roomies as well as Crystal and Nata and Sharon and April, which left two people. Sean's lips spread into a wide maniacal grin while Ayo groaned at his luck.

After the camp was set and everything was in position, the boys suggested to have a four wheeler race. April opted out because she didn’t feel like it, so did Phyllis, Jordan and Sharon who volunteered to be orators for the game. They were to race from the camp, around a track and back to the camp where April, Jordan and Asa would be waiting for the winners.

“Select your partners, people!” Phyllis commanded. Ayo and Crystal paired up, Scarlet and Logan did, Sean and Nata were a team and lastly, Bryan and Don. There was a heated argument between Sean and Nata for who should man the wheels which ended with Sean winning. Don drove for his team, along with Ayo. Logan was about to take the steering when he noticed his girlfriend’s infamous blood glare drilling hot holes in his head. The young man surrendered, he liked his limbs attached very much.

“Racers are you ready?!” Phyllis yelled. The racers adjusted their helmets and the partners held on to the drivers. “One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to GO!” Sharon sounded the horn and Scarlet's engine revved to life.

“Eat dust, suckers!” Don yelled as he zoomed ahead of them.

“I don’t suck, I fuck!” Sean yelled earning him a slap on the back from Nata.

“Must you find an innuendo in any sentence?!” She yelled.

Scarlet scoffed to herself. “Amateurs.” She hit the accelerators and sped past the others, leaving a cloud of dust at her wake. Logan turned around and sneered at the ones lagging behind whereas Crystal was yelling profanities into Ayo ears for being the last.

“GO SCARLET! WHOOOO!” Asa rooted for her young mistress.

“COME ON AYO, PUSH YOURSELF SOLDIER! MY GRANDMOTHER CAN RACE FASTER THAN YOU AND SHE’S CRIPPLE!!! WHERE IS YOUR MANLINESS?!” Clarissa rooted for, more like hounded, her daughter’s boyfriend.

“COME ON DON! YOU CAN DO IT!” Phyllis cheered through the megaphone she held. Sharon was almost asleep where she stood while April and Jordan just cheered for everybody in general.

Ayo's four wheeler slowly but surely sped past Don’s four wheeler, causing Bryan to start hounding Don and Crystal to cheer in delight. Nata yelped and screamed for Sean to hurry for Ayo was catching up all the while drumming on his poor back. Scarlet was the Queen of the track being first place, followed by Sean and Nata, then Ayo and Crystal and lastly, Don and Bryan.

Ayo soon overtook Sean and Nata, causing Crystal and Clarissa to cheer loudly. “Scarlet, they’re gaining on us!” Logan yelled.

“Hn.” Scarlet grunted and steered her engine sideways to block Ayo and Crystal’s. Ayo tried to steer away from behind them but Scarlet was making it impossible for the track god.

“AYO DON’T LET HER STOP YOU, YOU CAN DO IT SOLDIER!” Clarissa yelled loudly into Jordan's throbbing ears.

“SCARLET, YOU'RE THE BEST!” Asa cheered. Don and Sean were trying their best to catch up but the finish line was fast approaching. In the end, Scarlet won as predicted. Crystal hopped off the four-wheeler even before Ayo could park properly and marched angrily to Scarlet's front.

“It’s not fair! You kept blocking us, we could’ve won!” She argued but her argument was lost to Logan's stupid taunts and jests. Ayo had to grab his girlfriend to keep her from murdering his brother meanwhile nobody could protect Sean from Nata’s wrath.

“WE CAME LAST! LAST!” The dark girl raved.

“Alright, alright calm down! It’s just a game.” Asa tried to placate. After what seemed like years, they finally calmed and decided to go swimming in the lake because of how hot they were.  The girls went to change in the bathrooms provided while the boys changed in the camp.

Logan wore blue trunks and decided to go shirtless this time, scars or not. Ayo was not comfortable with exposing himself so he wore a dark green sleeveless wet suit. Don wore black trunks instead of a Speedo unlike last time, Jordan wore amber trunks, Bryan wore black trunks with orange trimmings and Sean wore violet trunks.

“Isn’t purple a gay colour?” Don questioned.

“That’s stereotypical.” Sean countered and proceeded to a canon ball when the girls emerged from the bathroom. “Whoa.”  The boy breathed when he saw Nata in a light blue one piece. The light colour complimented her dark skin and made her radiant and sexy. Crystal was in a modest green two piece bikini but it was enough to make Ayo stare off into space. 

Phyllis wore a sexy black one piece and Sharon wore small skirt on a brown bikini top. April wore shorts and a bikini top along with Scarlet who wore red trunks and a black sports bra.

“Well hello gorgeous.” Don smirked as he hoisted Phyllis up. The girl let out a squeal as Don raced for the lake. “Canon ball!” He yelled and jumped into the lake, creating a splash which made Sean wet. The previously long haired boy turned around to yell at Don but was given a shove into the lake, causing everyone to laugh.

Sean spluttered and stood up in the waist high water giving Nata a glare. The melanin goddess only stuck her tongue out and moved back in preparation for a canon ball.  “COWABUNGA!” Nata squealed as she dived into the water.

The others took the initiative and dove into the water and soon, splash wars and chicken fights began. They were having fun until Don suddenly froze, feeling movements in his trunks. “What’s wrong?” Phyllis asked in concern when he dropped her from his shoulders. Don didn’t answer but dipped his hand into his trunks instead.

Eyes widened when the boy removed a black swollen creature from his trunks with blood dripping from it. Phyllis felt her breakfast travel up her throat as Ayo screamed behind her. “LEECH!!!”

“AAAAAAHHHHH!!!” The girls scurried and splashed as they tried to swim out of the water. Asa and Clarissa who were preparing lunch shook their heads and went back to what they were doing. The boys burst into laughter as they high fived each other and gave each other booty pumps (which was weird) and fist pumps.

“Did you see their faces?!” Sean wheezed in laughter.

“Priceless! Even Scarlet scurried!” Logan laughed.

“You shoulda seen April; she was literally rolling out of water!” Bryan laughed as Don squeezed the ketchup out of the fake leech that they used to pull a prank on the girls. Jordan was the first to notice the way the sunny sky became dark and paled considerably when he saw the devilish angry looks on the girls’ faces.

The whole camp was eerily silent as the rest of the boys realized why their grey haired buddy was looking sick. Moments later, the boys were on their knees with bumps on their heads courtesy of April. “Come and get it!” Asa called once lunch was ready but none of them dared to stand up as Scarlet's eyes narrowed dangerously.

It took Asa and Clarissa’s pleas to get the girls to release the boys. Though their heads hurt, they were quite proud of their joke and started planning another one on a private boys’ group chat. When it was night and after dinner  they all made a bonfire and sat around it in a circle, roasting marshmallows and making schmoes. “Craziest thing you’ve done in your life, go.” Don started a confession game.

“When I was still in Beastartica,” Crystal began. “I looted a shopping complex.” She confessed.

“Whaa!?”

“How did you pull it off?!”

“Well I was the decoy and my friends were the ones to steal the cookies. When they were caught, they ran away from the security and led them to me. I bumped into them and held them by their clothes, using my eye colour to my advantage and pretending to be blind. I was as nervous as hell, I didn’t think it would work! Unfortunately, we were caught by my dad and I received the worst punishment in my life.” By the time Crystal finished her crazy story, everybody was laughing.

“I used to do car racing and my dad is a cop. You should have seen his face when he found me at the police station he works at next morning.” Ayo confessed.

“You used to race? No wonder why you’re good with the tracks.” Don complimented to which Ayo shrugged.

“I was dared to steal the most popular boy’s underwear.” Clarissa fessed earning spit takes and laughter.

“Did you do it?” Phyllis asked.

“Yeah, it was that or I walk naked for thirty minutes. I was caught red handed when I stupidly laughed out loud at his strawberry briefs…by his grandmother.” Clarissa laughed at the memory and wiped a stray tear away.

‘I see where the loco comes from!’ Ayo mused mentally. The confession went round within the circle. Everybody laughed at how Jordan hid in a deep freezer during a game of hide and seek, how Don wrote ‘Mr Heng is an asshole and math is a jerk!’ on his math exam script when he was lost, how Bryan wanted to pull a dance stunt on a raised bar and ended up cracking his nuts and family jewels, how Scarlet angrily used her bare hands to turn a stubborn pancake when it refused to turn, how Asa farted in the class and blamed it on the teacher.

At the end of it all, they ended up with cracked ribs as they tried to stop laughing in vain. After that, they played a word game where someone would start a sentence where another person’s sentence stopped.

“I am a girl.” Crystal started.

“Girl, you’re crazy.” Ayo continued, earning himself a glare from his girlfriend. The dark boy raised his hand in surrender.

“Crazy is a strong word.” Logan continued.

“Words like unique would do.” Scarlet said.

“Do you know me?”  Don continued which left Phyllis in a tight spot because it was hard to come up with a sentence starting with me. In the end, she lost and another cycle of words began.

They decided to sing by the bonfire after the games. Logan and Ayo retrieved their acoustic guitars as the others asked them to sing. Ayo started the melody with Logan supporting it and the others clapping to the beat.

Italics: Logan
Bold italics: Ayo
Underlined: both

♪No point in dreaming when you’re alone
No point in walking without a road
No point in crying without that someone there beside you saying it will be okay

I’ll take my time, I’ll take my time
You cannot rush what can’t be timed
And it’s tough believing there’s someone out there happier than me
Happier than me

We may be lost and gone forever
The rain will wash our memory
But when we cry, we cry together
Like it was meant to be

I woke up last night from a dream
That we’d grow old on Bleecker street
Sit by the fire and I play my guitar
But dreams are only dreams

And then I wonder when we leave
Will the moon still be white and the river green?
Sometimes I wonder if we matter at all
If we’re not written down who will remember now

We may be lost and gone forever
The rain will wash our memory
But when we cry, we cry together
Like it was meant to be

Musical intermission and whoops

We may be lost and gone forever
The rain will wash our memory
But when we, cry we cry together
Like it was meant to be. ♪

Everybody cheered and requested an encore to which the duo strummed the tune of a song they all knew. Claps echoed through the place as everybody joined in the song except Scarlet who chose to hum instead.

♪I didn’t smoke no grass today but that’s cause I’m the one on stage
So who am I to take away what makes you feel this great
I didn’t smoke no grass today but that’s because I love to play
So who am I to take away what makes you feel this great.

Does the ground look greener on my side of the speakers
I tried a couple of weekends but that green’s not for me
I thought id get clever make my lyrics come out better
But at 7/11’s where you would find me

Don’t wanna get paranoid
Just wanna be making noise
You want a hit, it’s your choice
But please enjoy the show

I didn’t smoke no grass today but that’s cause I’m the one on stage
So who am I to take away what makes you feel this great
I didn’t smoke no grass today but that’s because I love to play
So who am I to take away what makes you feel this great.♪

They all clapped after the song was over and cheered. After talking for awhile, the adults decided that it was time to sleep so they all went to bed.

***
Songs used in this chapter; Growing Old on Bleeker Street by AJR and No Grass Today by AJR.

Thank you so much for reading. This book is about to take a serious turn after which we shall draw the curtains. Thank you all so much for all the reads and votes, this book is almost 1k reads and over 300 votes. I forgot to announce this but please note that this book has absolutely nothing to do with Beast1: the start of it all. I simply used the characters of the book like you would a fan fiction. I’m sorry for the confusion. You can read my other books in my profile if you liked my writing. Their names are:

Beast 1: the start of it all (a fantasy book.)

Penelope (werewolves/vampires)

The girl with two buns (romance fanfiction)

Love you all.

-Star.

Edit: I have changed the character names.😊