Chapter 10
The next day, Chris gave us a day off, considering the tension that was going on between all of us. Most of the girls hung out at the docks, the ones that weren't at the docks were at the cabins. The guys were on the beach, away from where the girls were, but still in view. I couldn't help but feel like everyone secretly thought that this whole thing was my fault. I don't think I've ever been more on edge than right now.
"Hey, Bridgette and I noticed that you looked a little off. What's up?"
"The guys. I think we should try to make amends with them."
"What? Why?"
"Because, nothing good ever comes out of stuff like this. I mean, even if we don't mean it, we need to do something." We gathered up with the rest of the girls, and I told them the plan.
"And what if we can't act?"
"Well then Beth, stay quiet and let me do the talking." We headed back to the guys, and interrupted their game of football.
"Alright, we need to talk" They walked over and faced us. It looked like it was going to be a surf and turf war.
"What do you want Clover?"
"Well, Trent, I think we need to make an amends if we're going to be forced to be on teams together." He looked around.
"And you all agree with this?" all of the girls nodded their heads and replied "Yes."
The guys had their own little huddle to decide whether it was worth it or not. "Fine, we'll give. But, don't expect us to have fun with you girls anymore."
"Wouldn't dream of it." With that, the girls walked away and the guys continued their game.
"Do you really think that worked?"
"No idea, Bridge, but I hope so." The rest of the day was kind of smooth. I didn't run into Duncan until dinner. But, he couldn't stop staring at me. The whole dinner was filled with awkward glances and death stares. The following days weren't that bad. Aside from the terrible challenges, and losing Leshawna, and Harold. The week was pretty good. The war between the girls and guys continued throughout the week as well. Despite the amends we made, the guys continued to prank us and just piss us off all around. It seemed like Duncan had taken my advice, he started to hang out with Courtney more often. *From the confessional* "If I have to be honest, I'm a little upset about Duncan and Courtney. I never thought I'd admit it, but I'd never tell him that. But, I do kind of miss him. Maybe I'll go back to the cave, and set up the cameras." I exited the confessional and went to get my photography stuff. I headed towards the woods and glanced over at Duncan's table. Of course, he was there with Courtney. I turned my head to look at my feet and continued to the cave.
~DUNCAN'S POV~
I took what Clover had said into consideration. I started to hang out with Courtney, but I couldn't help to feel like I was cheating. I mean, Courtney is really nice and cute and stuff. But I've been through so much with Clover that I can't help thinking I'm doing something wrong. After dinner, I was at my table with Courtney, when Clover passed by to go to the woods. I figured she was going to go to the cave. 'I could've sworn she said that she didn't have a map?' I watched as she entered the woods with a huge duffel bag with her.
"You okay?"
I turned my attention from Clover, and focused it on Courtney. "Uh- yeah. I'm good"
"Okay, well, I'm gonna head to bed. I'll see you tomorrow." She headed to her cabin after that, and I decided I should follow Clover. I headed over to my cabin, grabbed a flashlight and the map. I followed the map out to the cave, and went inside. I noticed that the door around the corner was opened and, so naturally, I went in. I tried to call out to Clover.
"Clover? Hey Clover, you in here?" there was no answer. I called again.
"Hello? Is someone in here?" still, no answer. I could hear someone in the distance but, I wasn't sure if it was Clover or someone else. I debated whether or not I should find out. But, when I heard the sound of footsteps, my mind was made up for me. I ran out of the cave and headed back for camp and fell asleep.
~CLOVER'S POV~
When I got to the cave, I immediately went to the wall-door and opened it. I was only there for about five minutes before Duncan showed up and started to call out to me.
"Clover? Hey Clover, you in here?" I refused to answer him, so I stayed quiet and continued with setting up the cameras. Again, he called out.
"Hello? Is someone in here?" Still refusing to answer, I waited for the next call. But, it never came. I assumed that he realized it wasn't me and left. But, I had finished setting up the cameras and was ready to sleep until Chris woke me up tomorrow. So, I tested the cameras, made a few adjustments, packed up, and headed back to camp. The second I got to the cabin, I jumped into bed and fell asleep. The next morning, I didn't wake up until Chris woke us up at 8:00am. I jumped off the bed and got dressed.
"Well, someone's in a good mood this morning." I looked up to see Gwen standing in the doorway smiling.
"I finally got a good night's rest since being here." I said with a chuckle. We headed to the mess hall for breakfast. When we got there, I was surprised to see the guys and girls sitting together, after weeks of a feud. We got our breakfast and sat down. I ate my breakfast quietly, trying to ignore Duncan and Courtney on the other side of the room. By the time Chris came in to get us for the challenge, I was ready to throw some punches. Chris let us know that the challenge for today was for us to try and build our own motorcycles and have a race with them. We had one hour to build a bike with the stuff that we found in our designated sheds. Since, I worked in a bike shop for one summer a few years ago, I figured I had the best chance, but at the same time I wasn't really sure. My bike was red with, high handlebars, a couple flames on the sides, and some fairly equal sized wheels. We got our bikes to the starting line and waited for Chris to blow the horn for the race to start. When the horn was blown, we all raced off around Chris-made tracks. Each track was different; the first one was all gravel, which Justin, Beth, and Owen wiped out on. The second one was all uphill, which Cody, DJ, and Trent wiped out on. The third one was cement with landmines scattered around, which Bridgette, and Gwen wiped out on. The fourth one was mud. Heather tried to pass me, but I ended up kicking her tire, which made her wipe out. It was only Duncan, Courtney and I left. The fifth track was a water one. We had to figure out how to get across the pond without wiping out. Courtney was a couple feet in front of me, and Duncan was a couple behind me. Courtney tried to throw one of the driftwoods (that she was using to get across) at me. I saw it just in time, and ducked. It ended up hitting Duncan, making him wipe out.
"Sorry Duncan!" Courtney called out behind her, when she realized he was out.
I sped up just as I got back to the shore, to try and pass Courtney. It was the sixth and final track. A combination of all the other five tracks. Knowing when to dodge the landmines were harder than before. Courtney would set one off, but it wouldn't actually explode until I got to it, making it harder for me to have control of my bike. While we were going up the gravel hill, I could tell that she was losing her control on the bike, which made it the perfect time to pass her. I could tell she was mad, but I could care less. The mud part, was a lot worse than the first mud track. Mainly because, not only was there a bit of an incline, but Chris had filled it with landmines. I managed to dodge the majority of them, but not all of them. A couple of the landmines were really powerful and almost made me wipe out. I could see the finish line every time I hit an incline, it wasn't far, but it wasn't close. I sped up some more, but Courtney was right on my tail. It ended up being a head on race, but I won by a hair. Courtney was pissed, she threw her bike down and marched away in frustration. Naturally, Duncan went after her.
"Okay campers! Since Clover won the challenge, that means the Screaming Ducks won! Killer Bass, I'll see you at the campfire tonight! But, one last thing. Since Courtney got down to the final two, she has invincibility!"
Later that night, I was sitting up against a tree by the docks. I wasn't playing guitar for once, instead I was just sitting there enjoying nature. I was listening to the sounds of the waves crashing into each other, the birds nestling down to go to bed, the wind, and the bugs. The fireflies were out and buzzing around. Lighting the night sky with their lights. I happened to glance over to the 'Dock-of-Shame' and saw Justin walking down it. I chuckled to myself, and went back to watching the waves.
"Hey Clover, mind if it sit?" I looked up and saw Owen standing next to me. I motioned my hand, as to say 'It's all yours'. He sat down and looked out towards the 'Dock-of-Shame'.
"So, they voted off the Pretty Boy, huh?"
"Haha, yeah. I guess since they couldn't vote off Courtney, they had to go with their next best option."
I chuckled. "Yeah, guess so."
"So- what's up with you and Duncan?"
"Nothing. Why?"
"Just that he's hanging around Courtney more than with you."
"Yeah, we got into a little argument." I said while leaning my head back on the tree.
"Is that why there was a feud between the girls and guys for a couple weeks?"
"That's the reason."
He leaned his head back against the tree and let out a breath. Just as I was about to ask Owen another question, Duncan and Courtney came down to the dock and jumped into the water. I looked away as quickly as humanly possible. Owen must've noticed, because he pointed towards the 'Dock-of-Shame' and pointed out the fact that Heather was on the dock crying. I couldn't help it, I started dying of laughter. I was laughing so hard that I started to cry.
"You hate her that much huh?" Owen asked while laughing.
"I can't stand her. Besides me beating the shit out of her, this is the best thing I've seen" I said while trying to contain my laughter. Owen stretched out his back, and got up.
"Well, I'm gonna head back up."
"Okay, and thanks for helping me take my mind off things." He smiled and left.
After a few minutes, I got up and headed back to the cabin. I got my pajamas on, and climbed into bed. I laid awake for a while trying to wrap my head around things. By the time I started to drift off to sleep, one of the guys decided to throw a set of fire crackers at our cabin. I jolted up and jumped down.
"Everyone alright?" I asked, looking around.
"Why wouldn't we be?" Heather asked sarcastically. "It was just fire crackers."
I rolled my eyes and started to walk towards the door, I had just opened the door, when one of the huge fireworks went off in front of the door of our cabin, and another one on the side of it. It rocked the whole cabin, making the ones still in bed fall out, it threw me back and knocked me down. I got up, coughed and fanned the smoke out of my face.
"How about now Heather?" I asked annoyingly.
I walked outside and looked around, all I could see were empty fireworks. After seeing Duncan and Courtney being all mushy for the last two weeks, I finally had enough.
"Girls, we need to put an end to this."
"What do you think we should do?"
"Well, Bridgette, instead of pranking them, we need to forgive them."
"What? Why? This is all their fault!"
"No Gwen it's not! It's my fault! Okay!? I started this by going off on Duncan and I'm going to end it."
"When? and Where?"
"Tonight." The girls just looked at me like I was going insane, and I knew I was. But this was getting ridiculous. I spent some time meditating, writing, playing guitar, and figuring out what the hell I was going to do. When my head started to hurt, and I was all out of ideas, I decided to go for a walk. While I was in the forest, I ran into Cody. I don't think a run in with someone has ever been more awkward, I tried to talk to him, but it didn't work. He just ignored me and walked away. That's when I got the idea of how I was going to stop this feud. I headed back to the cabins, and got ready. It was about 10:30 when I got everyone to come outside. I will admit that I was a bit nervous, but my confidence was through the roof as well. I stood on the roof of my cabin.
"Clover?!" I ignored Bridgette and went on with the plan. I whistled with my fingers and everyone stopped talking and looked at me.
"Alright listen up! This feud has gone on long enough, and it's pretty fucking obvious that none of you knows what an amends is! It means to compensate for a wrongdoing! But obviously none of us can do that! I mean, come on! You guys just threw a fucking firework in our cabin! So since I'm the one who started this, I'm the one who's going to end it!"
I jumped off the roof and walked over to Duncan. Courtney, of course, was death galring me the whole time. I grabbed Duncan's shirt and pulled him closer to me. I looked him dead in the eyes, and I could tell he was nervous. "Just let me do this." I whispered as I pulled him in for a hug. At first, he didn't know what to do, and the other campers gasped, loudly. But he ended up hugging me back, tightly, a bit too tight. I pulled myself away and headed back to the roof. I climbed up and looked out at everyone.
"Is everyone happy now? We made up! Now this feud can end! FOR GOOD! And if any of you wakes me up before Chris, you're dead! You understand?" I climbed down the roof and went back to bed.
The following morning, Chris woke us up at 7:30. At breakfast, we sat with our designated teams and ate. Chris walked in and noticed that we weren't separated anymore. He seemed somewhat pleased, knowing that we were all getting along again. He walked around the mess hall a couple times, then stopped in front of me. He looked me up and down, then sat down with a huge grin on his face.
"What Chris?" I asked, looking up at him.
"Oh nothing. I saw your little performance last night, and wanted to congratulate you on your rekindled friendship." He nodded his head toward Duncan as he sat down.
"So what? I was tired of these stupid pranks. I wanted it to end."
"Was it the pranks? Or was it Courtney?" He asked smuggly.
I looked at him with wide eyes, and looked back down at the slop that was sitting in front of me.
"Shutup Chris. It was the pranks. I could care less about Duncan and Courtney."
"That's not what you said in the confessional or your journal."
"You read my journal?!"
"Maybe, maybe not."
I stood up and slammed my hands on the table. "My journal is my business and no one else's! That's invading MY privacy, and that's not okay! So next time you want to find out secrets about someone, go read Heather's diary! It's under her pillow!" I threw my breakfast in his face and ran out.
Duncan came out after me, he ran after me, and caught up when I was leaning against a tree, halfway in the woods.
"Clover? Clover hey, are you okay?" He asked while sitting next to me, and setting his hand on my shoulder.
I lifted my head out of my lap and wiped my eyes. Duncan was looking at me with wide eyes, filled with concern and regret.
"What do you regret?"
"What?"
"Your eyes, they have regret in them. Why?"
He pondered on the question for a couple seconds, then heavily sighed.
"I regret listening to everyone." He looked up at me, and met his eyes with mine.
"What do you mean 'listening to everyone'?"
"I mean, when you yelled at me a few weeks ago, I kept trying to go after you, but the guys kept telling me to leave you be. Then when I would ask the girls, they would tell me that you just needed your space. So, naturally, I listened. I gave you your space and took your advice I started to hang out with Cour-"
"Save it. I don't need to hear why you started to hang out with Courtney. You did it, and that's fine. I really don't care."
"But, you don't understand Clover, I only did it because she wouldn't leave me alone. So, I figured if I hung out with her a bit, she'd be less annoying." He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
"But, the whole time I felt like I was doing something wrong. Like I was cheating on you or something."
"Cheating on me? Seriously?" I chuckled.
"Yeah, I felt awful for hanging out with a different girl for a couple weeks." He laughed.
I turned my head and looked at him. I smiled, "you know, I'm actually happy that we made up. I kinda missed you." He chuckled and sighed.
I decided to head back and figure out today's challenge. Duncan wasn't quite ready to head back yet. So, I kissed his cheek and headed out to the camp.