"Pull!"

"I'm pulling!"

"Pull harder! Darn it, why are you such a weakling? Here, just move out of my way! Obviously I need to do this myself--"

"I have it, alright?" With a shove, Vincent slams the box down on the table, face red and strained. "There! Happy?"

Marie gives him a lopsided smile, then a more devious one as she leans in and pats his cheek. "There you go," she says, "just do as I say and maybe we'll win."

He snorts. "We both know, Marie, that if I were leader we'd have already one by now."

"Excuse me?" With a snap of her wrists she turns her head to look at him, eyes narrowed in a classic "mean girl" slit. Everything about her movements scream "insecure" to him.

Ever since she turned eight, she's been in this act. One second she'll be normal, the next, bam--mean girl. Like an actress stuck in a role she's killer, honing in on every imperfection, making others feel insignificant, making herself look bad. It's something that Vincent wouldn't wish anyone to do, yet at the same time he likes knowing that at least it's her who's like that. Her, and not someone he actually knows.

"Nothing, nothing." Vincent grins, leaning his elbow on the box and propping up his head with that hand. A sudden urge overtakes him as his mouth opens again. He doesn't fight it. "I'm just saying that you suck at leading, is all."

Scarlet blossoms on her cheeks. "You-"

Jackie holds back her friends arm, giving Vincent a sharp glance. "Will you two stop it?"

Instantly, he protests. "Why am I the only one in trouble?" At every fight she seems to do that, making him stop but doing nothing to Marie. No one wants her to stop, apparently. Everyone has to change but her.

Jackie sighs, pinching her nose with her free hand. Her voice is a mixture of annoyance and adult-like control and guidance. "Vincent."

"Come on, she's the one--"

"Vincent."

"But-"

Jackie gives him one more chance, her tone stern and final. Something in her words make her sound way too much like his mom. "Vincent."

"Fine," he grumbles, "but only because I'm the bigger person here."

Gasping in indignation, Marie bites her tongue hard. He can tell that it's taking a lot for her not to make another snappy comeback. Haha, he thinks, somewhat rudely, now you're bound by niceness laws to not say anything.

Turning his attention away from her, he opens up the box. Inside is at least a hundred cans of warm soda. At the next table, Cabin Eighteen is unloading bags upon bags of snack cakes. He starts doing the same with the cans. Andy, Avery, and AJ all join him, pulling out each soda and setting them in the table. Sadie and Isabel organize them by color. Green sodas in the front, orange sodas in the middle, and brown sodas at the end of the table.

All of them are sugar free, of course, but no one can complain. It is, of course, a school regulated event. It's a wonder they're caffeinated at all, Vincent thinks.

Once they're finished with the table an adult walks up to them. Her hair is pulled into a ponytail tighter than Marie's head, Vincent thinks with a snort. Her outfit is sharp as well, shirt wrinkle-free and shorts fresh.

"Good job. Now, go set up chairs since you're done already." Despite the sugary smile she adds with it, the tone of authority in her voice is impossible to miss. Before they can say more than an 'okay' she's off again, telling another class of students what to do.

Is everyone this...serious? Vincent sighs inwardly, disliking the fact that he'll have to be serious and grown up soon. Way too soon. First he'll be a senior, then he'll get accepted into college, then he'll graduate and go strait into said college.

A shiver races through him.

Too soon we've all got to grow up.

Andy and Sadie start walking, arm in arm, to the chairs. With a shrug, Vincent follows, accompanied by the ever present set of "A"s.

Avery's the first to break their slight moment of silent. She tosses back her shoulders, an apologetic smile on her face. "So, I'm sorry that you guys lost."

Vincent grits his teeth.

"Hey, it's not so bad. Could have been worse! I heard one team didn't make it halfway until twenty minutes after it began. You guys almost got fourth--"

"Shut up," Vincent practically growls, "it's Marie's fault. And they were antagonizing us! That damn brunette hottie with the green eyes."

With a chuckle, AJ shakes his head, looking amused by his friends. "Oh? You mean the one in the team with the sandy haired guy?" he asks, trying to get a handle on who Vincent's talking about. With so many people here, though, it's hard to be certain of anything. Everyone resembles someone else in some weird way. Even Avery seems to have a doppelgänger--a pale brunette with more freckles than skin.

They reach the rack of chairs sooner than any of them would like. To their dismay, behind the first rack lies rows of others to unfold and set up. The chairs are a mixture of old and new--brown, golden brown, and some a shade of brown rust that's somehow orange.

"Yeah! He's a bench, but he could be worse." He shrugs, unfolding a chair from the rack and starting to set it up. The others do so as well, soon followed by another school--this one three girls and seven boys. The irony isn't lost on Vincent.

He moves with ease, back bending without trouble. Despite the fact that he feels like an old man on the inside, he's got enough energy to do this all day long.

"Finally, people who can actually lift," Sadie comments. She walks with three chairs at a time, struggling but pushing through with an ungraceful ease. "Come on, Vince, A Squad, let's get to work!" She giggles in delight. Vincent finds himself watching her as she goes, wondering how she can be two extremes at once. It's obvious she's really trying, yet at the same time it's like it's natural for her to be like that.

Giggly, girly, friendly, strong, determined, loud, yet all accompanied by a desire to work and work well. It's just too weird for him.

Most everyone is so one sided--at least, on the inside. Sure, he knows they're all complex individuals...yet no one ever shows it. They like to hold parts of themselves in, only sharing them when it seems "right".

This...this is something he doesn't quite know if he likes.

"Did you just call us "A Squad"?" Andy asks, breaking his thoughts.

Sadie giggles again, sticking out her chin as she goes to grab more chairs. "Yes, Andy, I did. What else can I do when there's so many of you guys? I mean, seriously! AJ, Avery, Andy, Adam, Abe, Alex--"

Putting her hand on Sadie's arm, Andy raises her eyebrows. "Adam, Alex, and Abe?"

Blushing slightly, Sadie tilts her head to the other team helping them out. "The tall one is Adam, the skinny one is Alex, and Abe is the one who's great at running. They're pretty cool."

Andy throws her hands out, as well as a large blow of air. "Seriously? Who don't you know?"

Vincent chuckles to himself, watching them as they all set up. His arms hurt a bit, the muscles there but not used to being used. Guess that's what I get for abandoning the gym for so long.

AJ moves with ease beside him, cracking lame science jokes as he goes. "Okay, okay. What do you do with bad periodic table jokes?" he asks Avery, almost breathless with withheld laughter.

"You barium," she responds with an eye roll.

He still laughs, slinging his arm around her for just a second. "Aww...you know, if you keep rolling your eyes like that they'll pop right out of your head."

"You know, if you keep stopping to touch me you'll never get anything done."

AJ grins even wider at her, teeth flashing a streaked white. "Loosen up a bit. You're just lucky there's rules against tussles here--else wise I'd probably knock you into the grass, little one."

"Oh yeah? I think it's you who's lucky. We both know I always win."

"Whatever. You know--"

Snapping his fingers, Vincent brings the two back into focus. Through his annoyed face lies amusement. "Hey, you guys! We have this magical thing called working to do? You should try it, I hear it's fun."

They're not the only ones arguing, though.

Andy stops in her tracks, chair hardly unfolded. Around her everyone keeps moving, a blue of colors and harsh lines beating against each other. Within these colors are emotions all playing out--hazes of green, blue, purple mixing into a complex system of energy. Her eyes stare daggers. Her jaw hangs the slightest bit open. Then, the sound cuts back on the scene Vincent's drawn in his head.

"You gave someone your number?"

Sadie's cheeks cling to a shade of paleness that's near death-like. Not that she's not already death-pale. "Just to talk-"

"We've been here for three hours!"

"It's not like I slept with him-"

"Sadie! Can I not leave you alone?"

"It has nothing to do with that, Andy! Come on. It's a phone number. Gosh. You act like I'm pregnant with his-"

Andy shakes her head, turning away and continuing to set up like it never happened. Sadie runs after her, putting away the chairs while trying to convince her friend not to be so annoyed at her.

Girls are so freaking weird. Shaking his head, Vincent moves on, trying to focus but finding himself unable to. Like a magnet to metal he's drawn to watching the quarrel.

Then, just like that, he's lost himself in thought. A stream of conscious overtaking him, his body relying on muscle memory as he goes. Each thought seems so profound to him, begging him to continue and continue as he tries to understand. To figure out why he and everyone around him is as they are. But it's more than it, he knows somehow. It's answers to questions he doesn't know. And then...it's memories.

Memories like when he was twelve and got into a fist fight with Marie. They had hit each other hard enough leave black eyes, deep purple bruises, and a few bloody scrapes. Of course, it all had to start because she had to be the boss.

"Vincent, that's not how you do it."

"I know how to do it!"

"No you don't!"

"Yes, I do."

She had shaken her head, flipping her hair as she did so. "Nope! You're doing it all wrong. You're so lame. Ugh. Just stop, I'll get it."

"I know how!" he'd insisted, dropping the tent pieces onto the ground. They hit with a clang. "Shut up!"

"Mine, Vincent said shut-"

At that, he tackled her. It was one thing to be annoying, it was a complete other to be a tattler. She had let out a startled shriek, punching him hard in the gut and pushing him down instead. "You can't even fight!" A kick to the gut was next, then she started to walk away.

"Yes-I-can!" he shouted, jumping up and grabbing her by the shoulder roughly. She turned and swung, hitting him in the eye as he hit hers as well. They both started crying, holding their faces and running back to the campsite just twenty-three--Vincent counted each one--footsteps away.

There, both got in trouble and Vincent lost rights to his X-box for a month.

Marie got told "be nice".

He wasn't allowed to go to his friends house for two months.

She got icecream and a bandaid.

With a sigh, Vincent turns away from the memory. Thinking of the years before he hung out with Avery and AJ every weekend always has that effect on him. Hands balled around the metal back part to a seat, he puts it down roughly, not losing his grip until a hand falls on his shoulder.

"We're done! Come on, let's eat," AJ says. He doesn't appear to notice any of Vincent's unease.

With an unaffected grin, Vincent nods. Suddenly he's back to normal, walking to get food with his buddy with his familiar swing and attitude.

*
So, I'm late to post...again. And it's barely over 2,000 words. But at least I posted. Right? Thanks for sticking with me! Hopefully this isn't too bad a chapter. :)