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[+December]

Cole stood beside the chainlinked fence surrounded by milling junior high and high school students. His mother stood beside him with his bags in her hands. Cole gripped the chain fence behind him with both hands as he rocked gently back and forth.

"This is good for you, honey," said his mother as she tried to press his bag into his arms once more. "It's only a month. You'll be okay."

Cole shook his head. "They'll find me," he said. "They'll find me here; I have no place to hide."

His mother shook her head. "Look at all of the people here," she said. "'They' will never find you here. Now why don't you go make some new friends?"

Cole shifted uncomfortably. He didn't want to be here and he didn't want to be seen here with his mom nudging him forward. He took a few sidesteps away from her towards a group of kids, but he didn't bother talking to them. They would get him, and then what would his mother say? No doubt she would be sorry when her son turned up dead.

[Upsilamba]

"Bye, Mom," Eden Kelly said to her mother as they stood on the edge of the group of kids milling around boredly. Bright, new bags were piled by her feet; even though she had insisted that she did not need any new suitcases, her mother had gone out and bought them just the same, saying that she wanted her daughter to make a good impression to all of the other campers. Similarly, Eden was attired in still stiff jean shorts and a new, peach colored blouse, though she had to admit that she looked upon the clothing with significantly better feelings than she did upon the luggage. "Love ya. See you when I get back." Her mother responded similarly, and then she was gone, leaving Eden to wait alone until it was time to get on the bus.

The first thing she had to figure out was what to do with all her bags--Eden wasn't the sort to pack too heavily, but she would be gone for quite a while, and besides, since she wouldn't have access to a library or a computer while at camp, she had to bring enough reading material to last the entire time. Stretching up on her tiptoes, her eyes spotted what looked like a spot to dump luggage by one of the buses. Slowly, laboriously, she dragged her bags over, leaning against a light-post afterwards to catch her breath and survey the scene. A small bag still hung over Eden's shoulder, and she reached in and pulled out a notebook and pencil, hoping some sort of inspiration would strike her.

[+December]

Cole tried to ignore the shadowing stare of his mother as he milled around aimlessly for a few moments. Suddenly a girl caught his eye for no reason other than the fact that she had a notepad in her hands. Maybe . . . maybe she was watching out for them, too.

"Y-you going to camp, too?" he stuttered. He could have smacked himself, and very nearly did so. How stupid could he possibly be? Nooo she just liked to carry around bags outside of a bus that lead to camp. He paled and started again, "I mean, are they forcing you to go to camp? Your parents."

[Upsilamba]

Eden looked up as she heard a boy's voice and tucked a bit of hair that had fallen in her face back behind her ear. Her mind had been so caught up in surveying everything, in trying to find a spark of something, that he startled her at first, and it took a couple seconds to realize that his words were addressed to her. "Oh...yeah." She nodded and smiled at the boy, flipping her notepad closed.

"Eh..." Eden said contemplatively, tilting her head slightly to the side as she thought about his question. "Not really. More of heavy encouragement. I wanted to go to camp, but this wasn't my first choice." Her English teacher had given her a brochure about a creative writing camp, and she had begged and pleaded with her parents to let her attend, but they hadn't wanted her to be up in the woods focusing even more on her writing than she already did, and instead had suggested this place, Camp December.

"What about you?"

[+December]

Cole shuffled around for a moment, and then looked from side to side carefully before focusing his attention on the girl. "Yes, they made me come to get away from them. But I think that they may be following me." He coughed and looked around. "Hush; I've said too much."

He could feel their eyes on him as he stood there by the chain linked fence. It was as though he were watching a movie through the sniper's lens and now the gunman took aim at the boy standing there with his bags. He shivered and pulled his satchel closer to his body. Protection.

"I-I think they're watching, but . . . if they ask . . . we just talked about how bus rides make us sick."

[Upsilamba]

Eden listened with curiosity to the boy, her eyes focused on him yet also watching the movement behind him, trying to stay alert to a movement of the crowd closer to the buses or anything else of importance. "Whom do you mean by they?" she asked, her interest piqued, but not without a hint of wariness as well. Had he had some sort of run in with a bad group of guys? Did he have friends that his parents disapproved of? As curious as she was, she did not want to get caught up in anything dangerous or illegal.

"Bus rides making us sick it is then." She nodded as if it were perfectly normal, but in her head she was wondering what exactly was going on with this guy. He seemed awfully...suspicious; furtive almost. There was no harm in talking to him though, and, to be honest, he was actually intriguing. "I'm Eden, by the way. What's your name?"

[+December]

"Yes, yes, bus rides," said Cole distantly as he surveyed his surroundings once again. He bit his lip and looked around carefully before he remembered that a girl stood in front of him. He turned to face her just as she started to introduce herself.

He paused. He hated introducing himself--he once heard somewhere that if someone knew your name, that person had control of your soul. It was a thought that made him quake in his boots, no doubt about it. He glanced down at his own black lace-up combat-style boots for a second before looking at the girl and meeting her eye. "Cole," he said, his word gaged carefully as though she would steal it from him as soon as it left his mouth. He felt the word leave his lips and evaporate into the air . . . into nothing.

"I've never been to camp before," he added to fill in the empty void.

[Jenya]

Keira stared at the three people who were standing in front of her. They had been arguing about doomday for quite a long while and apparently they didn’t have any good point. All of their so-called opinion was silly and stupid. Even though this girl really wanted to interrupt and correct their thought, she didn’t do it. Because she knew clearly that they wouldn’t understand, so why bother to talk to them?

Waiting for the bus was a boring job. She wished she could have a book in her hands, but she had packed her books all in the deepest of her pack, and taking them out would be too difficult. She didn’t want to pack her pack again.

Looking around, she found some new people had been added to the queue – two normal people. Well, at least she thought they couldn’t be weirder than that three people. Without too many thinking, she picked up her heavy bag and walked towards them, even thought it also meant she needed to give up her anterior position in the queue. The girl seemed quite happy, Keira was judging them inwardly, but there was something about the guy made her quirked an eyebrow. It looked like he couldn’t stand firmly. Anyway, she walked up and put a big grin on her face. “Hi, I see you guys are waiting for the bus, well, let’s wait together.” It wasn’t a suggestion or a question, but a firm statement. Keira put down her bag and said, “I’m Keira. And you two?”

[Meredith]

Isabelle was terrified of going to camp. Even though she'd been to three different camps three previous summers, the prospect of mingling with complete strangers for weeks and weeks absolutely petrified her. As her mom drove her up to the bus stop, she concentrated on her mantra. Deep breaths. Deep breaths, she thought. Inhaling deeply, she imagined all the negative energy in her body riding out on a wave of air.

She kissed her mom, grabbed her suitcases out of the trunk, and all too soon was standing alone on the sidewalk. Noticing three people, she nodded and smiled a greeting. She then went over to stand by herself, setting her mismatched suitcases at her feet.

[Upsilamba]

Eden subconsciously tilted her head as she stared off into space just to the left of Cole. Who was this guy, and, for that matter, why didn't he tell her who "they" were. It was rather disconcerting to her, and she began to wonder if it wasn't all a strange attempt at humor or some sort of weird ice-breaker. There was nothing she really knew about him other than that he was going to camp also and he hadn't wanted to go. Perhaps this was how he talked with his friends, joking around like they were characters in some action movie (not that Eden watched very many action movies).

"Nice to meet you." She smiled as the boy said his name and returned her attention back to him. A small, wry chuckle escaped her lips as she thought first of how pleased her mother would be that she was "making friends with all of her lovely fellow campers" (or some other such saccharine phrase), and then of how exasperated she would be that the guy Eden was talking to was a bit strange, to put it nicely.

Stuffing her free hand in the pocket of her shorts, Eden turned to see another girl who seemed to be addressing her and Cole. "That we are," she confirmed, then continued, "I'm Eden. Nice to meet you too." More and more people were arriving now, and hopefully they would start loading the buses any minute. As a girl passed by with a smile and a nod to their small group, she returned the gesture, then called over, "Hi. If you're not waiting for anyone else, feel free to join us over here."

[+December]

She was attracting too much attention! Cole shifted around nervously from foot to foot and tried to keep his head down though his eyes flickered quickly around the group. But if he were to move, he would attract other people's attention, and then what?

"Cole," he said to the new girls. "Quiet. They're watching us." He glanced sideways out of the corner of his eyes, first left and then right and then left once more. Finally he paused and looked at the one called Keira. He clamped his lips shut and said nothing.

[Jenya]

“Nice to meet you, Eden” she said, but her attention soon got drawn to somewhere else – the boy – that she didn’t notice another new girl. Who is watching us? There was a big question mark in Keira head. She turned her head from side to side but didn’t notice anything special. Who was the they that Cole was talking about? Oh, wait. Maybe he was just playing with them. Keira had played with her friend in this way before. “They? Who are they?” By asking this question, apparently she had decided to join him. Keira lowered her head and asked in a whisper, probably got infected by Cole. “And where are they?”

In this few seconds, she had already came up many assumptions and started to imagine she knew KungFu and joined the secret mission to protect the whole camp’s safety by finding and arresting two six-feet tall muscle men by wit. And Cole and Eden were her assistant (even thought she didn’t think Cole had the cool look, but assistant was always less smart than the hero, so he was okay)… That might go a little too wild. Keira forced herself to go back to the reality and pushed all those crazy thought behind her head. Maybe we need something interesting to talk about, she thought.

“Do you know why the camp’s name is Camp December?” Still keeping the mysterious tone, she put up her head and asked. “I don’t know. But I think the founder probably is Australian.” Keira winked. “And he must have not noticed that not everyone’s summer is in December.” the sentence ended with a laugh. At least she liked her joke, it didn't matter for her if the other like it or not.

(please don't mind. =P)

[Meredith]

Isabelle jumped as a girl spoke to her. She looked around her, to her left and right, and even behind her, to make sure she was the girl being spoken to. But as she was alone, with most other people standing several feet away, she accepted that she was the one the other girl was talking to.

She walked over to them and stood several feet from the two girls and odd-looking boy. "Hello," she said quietly, looking at her feet. Sneaking a glance up at the three other campers from underneath her lashes, she decided that the boy looked like he would most likely be the most friendly. He looked similar to her--scared and quiet. Looking up at him, she muttered, "Hi. I'm Is."

[Char]

"Bye, dad," Maytre called, waving to her father. She smiled, pretending to be bouncy and excited. As soon as her dad's minivan was out of site, she turned on her heel, narrowed her eyes at the ominous fence, and sat on her suitcase. She rested her chin in her palms, frustrated. Another year at Camp December. L-o-v-e-l-y. She'd always pretended to love the camp; to be anxious to spend part of her summer with kids her age. But deep inside, she knew that she was just going to please her parents. Maytre was not very socially active, even if she did make friends easily.

This year, she decided, she would try her best to start lasting friendships. She'd never tried hard enough to make good friends; it always would end up with the other person ignoring her. The worst part was that no one got to see who Maytre really was on the inside. But if she really tried to show people who she really was... maybe, just maybe, it would work.

[Jia]

Estelle waved goodbye to both her parents, who gave her a sad smile and drove away. She was so excited. It was her first camp, and even though her parents weren't so up for the idea, Estelle was all for it. She stared around her for a bit, and began to realize the feeling of intimidation. Which was quite rare for Estelle, she was usually very courageous about people. The thing was, Estelle slowly realized as she sat on one of her bags, it wasn't about people, it was about everyone being ... different.

There were other Sunrise campers, Estelle knew that confidently. Her usually full-blast was boosted the slightest bit. She stared down at the ground. She wasn't alone, she tried to reassure herself. There are tons of people here that know each other from past summers. Of course you're alone, countered another part of her brain. Estelle debated with her brain for a bit, and finally realized she was alone, but only at this bus stop, at this exact moment. Estelle felt sure she would make friends eventually. Besides, it was camp. Nobody could - or should - remain friendless for long.