Welcome!

[+December]

December stood at the podium they had set up for him underneath the flag pole. A slight breeze kept the flag billowing in the air, flapping and snapping with some sort of pride. The wheezing of school buses came to a stop as the last of the campers gathered their belongings and hurried over to the large crowd of people assembled in front of the main office.

December hated speeches. Damn it, he hated anything that even resembled a speech. No, he had confidence in his speech-making abilities; he just did not like the fact that he could not see his audience at all. Thick black sunglasses on his face shielded his unseeing eyes from the campers, but December still felt utterly naked as he stood before the podium.

He took a few steps away from the podium, his cane in his hand. He had no need for such things to make him feel superior and upright; in any case, he didn't even have cards to read off to conceal behind the wooden stand. Now he clasped his hands behind his back and let the gentle breeze cool his face. For several seconds, he stood there before them as he let them all quiet down. (No doubt, he reassured himself, they were fidgity from sitting on their buses for so long.)

"Good afternoon," he said, his voice strong. He spoke loud enough so that the campers could hear him without a microphone. "I am Mr Cody, and I am the head of Camp December. Many of you may not recognize me because this is my first year here; however, I can assure you that you are in good hands. Now, I would like to go over a few rules with you not because I have a stick up my ass but because I need you guys to be safe to keep your parents happy." I hate playing the bad cop, he thought to himself as he let them chew this over for a moment. But someone has to do it, and I have no qualms to doing so when it means that I will maintain order.

He continued, "Firstly, no one is allowed outside their cabin between 10.30 pm and 7.00 am. If you are caught outside your cabin, you will be punished accordingly. Secondly, obey your counselors. If you fail to do this, you will also be punished accordingly. I guess I am the one who has to inform you that if you break any rules, you will be punished." Ouch. Harsh. He cleared his throat and said, "Thirdly, no drowning people in the lake. Fourthly, no trying to maim any of your fellow campers. Fifthly, you are not allowed to have fire in any place but the group campfire or when within the presence of your counselors on the group hikes. This is extremely important because we don't want to burn down the forest. For a complete list of rules, from everything about not poking each other in the eye with your marshmellow sticks to what type of shoes you can wear on Mondays, please see the lists in your cabins." Good heavens, he really should abstain from such sarcastic remarks. But then again, this was December.

"Now, you will be broken up into groups. When you exited the bus, you received a colored tag. Yellow is for Sunrise, red is for Dusk, and purple is for Twilight. Please find a counselor holding the respectively colored sign and they will divide you into your cabins."

[Loo Koo Noo Koo]

Samantha had been taken to Camp after deciding the counselor bus was way to smelly for her taste. So as the buses arrived holding the runners of the camp, she arrived soon enough with bags in her hands as her boyfriend drove away. She took her things to the counselor's cabin's picked a nice one and dropped her bags at a bed and started to walk around the camp. It was rather nice, she remembered it exactly how it was many years ago. But after she turned twenty she wasn't allowed. Until she wish to become a counselor of course.

Hearing the last of the buses arrive she ran over to the main building to hear the speech. She arrived behind the podium with the head of the camp and the rest of the counselors. When the head finished his speech, with a couple of sarcastic remarks she laughed at. Samantha raised her sign for Dusk, which was red. After he finished she spoke to the big group also like many other counselors did and said "All who has a red flag please stand beside me, boys on the left and make a line. Then please girls you on the right and make a single file line. Thank You."

[+December]

Odhran

"Look at this, Ronan," said Odhran as he elbowed his twin brother in the ribs. "This is pathetic. They round us all up like little rats and now they're assigning us to our cabins, just like last year." He snorted and shook his head before he started to filter through the crowd of people. "Haha. I guess what they were saying on the bus is right: the head of the camp is blind."

He glanced at his brother and continued to scan across the people. Stupid brother; but they were going to have fun this year. Yes they were. Right now he could identify several people he had seen from last year, plus several new people who would be perfect this year. Why, look at that pretentious little brat flouncing around and bragging to her friends about her new outfit. While such speech may make others' stomachs churn, it made some sort of impish spark inside Odhran ignite.

Ronan

Ronan watched the crowd swell around them, and immediately he wished he were somewhere else. Why, he could just imagine disappearing into the trees where he wouldn't be seen by anyone--his brother included--and he could enjoy this camp for the nature at the very least. But a sharp jab to his side brought him back to reality and his brother was saying something or another.

He nodded in agreement. Didn't matter what Odhran was saying; Ronan nodded. He found himself following after his brother and pushing through the crowd in order to keep up. He kept his eye open for the purple signs the counselors held, but now he couldn't see too much except for the top of people's heads.

[Jenya]

Standing in front of the main office, Keira looked at the man who was giving a speech. Oh my goodness... The girl moved her head from this side to that side just for a clearer view so that she could see if the head of camp really was blind. Mr Cody was wearing big sunglasses and Keira’s position was quite far from him, but she could tell that he wasn’t looking. She wasn’t very sure, but started wishing that Mr Cody wasn’t really blind. That would be sad, the girl thought, not seeing anything would be sad. There was something heavy on her heart and she felt regret for gossiping about the Mr Cody.

That was Keira, when she was gossiping/spreading rumours about the other, it was just for fun. However, if later it turned out that the gossip was true, she would feel guilty for it and thought she had to take some responsibility for it. But after she vowed that she would not make fun of the other anymore, she would always turn back to the old Keira after a day.

While she was regretting, she was also paying attention to Mr Cody’s speech – just to find out if what she had planned to do in the camp was allowed or not. The fifth thing he talked about made Keira giggled even though she knew she probably shouldn’t. It was because the word ‘maim’ reminded a joke that she had made before, the exact detail was vague but the fun was still haunting.

“Excited?” she heard Brian – her cousin – said. Brian liked to say only one or two words because he would stammer if he spoke more then three. This summer, Keira’s aunt, also known as Brian’s mother, thought that it would help Brian to talk better if he joined more activity. And in her mind, it seemed that nothing was better than spending time with the talkative Keira. It was only half right, because sometimes the girl could speak too fast that made Brian more nervous to speak.

“Yep.” she gave him a smile. Now it was the time to be sorted into group. Holding the red tag in her hand, she walked toward the counsellor. And she was a little surprised that Brian got a red tag too, she thought he would be in Twilight cause many seventeen-year-old were in that group too. “Hello.” after she got herself into the line, she greeted the people around her. In the crowd, she spotted the Uaithne twins. Eww. How come they’re here again?

[Evie]

Ginny practically leapt off the bus, which was a reaction borne from a combination of influences. One, she was ridiculously excited to be at camp. Two, she was tired of sitting on the bus, because it had been pretty hot. Three, the boy behind her had not been as interested in talking as she had, and had stubbornly resisted her continued attempts, and had finally yelled at her as the bus stopped...so she figured it was a good idea to get away and let him calm down. She hefted her shoulder bag higher to keep it from slipping and repositioned her grip on her heavily stuffed duffel bag; some experimentation proved that she would need two hands, so she stuck the purple tag she'd been given in her mouth for the time being.

She spotted the purple sign and started for it, pausing at times along the way to wave at people she recognized, and occasionally people she didn't, especially if they were younger. Ginny was not the sort of older camper who wanted to plague the poor Sunrise kids; she was too friendly for that sort of thing. However, she wasn't the sort of older camper who was practicing for being a counselor themselves either. No, she was just at camp to have fun, dangit, and that's what she was going to do! And fun was hard to have when someone was unhappy. That was Ginny's philosophy.

When she got in line, she saw that she was behind two very similar heads and grinned—it couldn’t be anyone but the Uaithne twins. They’d started camp the same year and Ginny was pretty fond of them, especially Ronan. It had been her mission for the previous two years to get them to enjoy themselves at camp, and that mission had not changed—she was determined to make them the happiest campers in Camp December that year! After all, after this they only had one more year they were eligible, and she refused to have them miss out on having a fun month at camp. She put her duffel bag down and took her purple tag our of her mouth.

“Hi Ronan! Odhran,” Ginny said cheerfully, tapping the twins on their shoulders. “I’m so glad camp’s started up again. I wait for it all year and it ends up being the shortest month of my life!” She giggled and grinned up at them. “I’m glad you guys are back! It’s nice to have some people you know mixed in with some you don’t,” she added, though she never had a problem making friends (or so she thought).

[+blackcatluvr]

The eighteen year old got off the bus, stopping to look around. She decided to walk where everyone else was headed. 'Just follow the crowd Lykke,' she thought to herself, 'they know where they're going.' Lykke's blue-grey eyes scanned her surroundings. Everyone was walking toward the main building it seemed. She started walking, accidently tripping over people's feet in the crowd. This got her a few dirty looks and nasty remarks. 'Oh wow. It's so terrible I tripped over your white shoes and made a mark. They'll be dirtier than that by the time camp is over.' She wanted to say that, but wouldn't. Of course she wouldn't. She was too shy to say something like that to a complete stranger.

Lykke continued on walking, looking for the adult with a purple flag. It didn't do her any good though, it wasn't like she could see over the top of everyone's heads. She had gotten a purple flag for the group she was in, called Twilight.

She hadn't wanted to come here. Her parents had made her come though. They said it would 'do you some good'. But good for what? For talking back to them, arguing with them? No, a camp wouldn't do any good with that at all. She gave up, not being able to see over everyone's head. Sighing, she decided she'd find someone with a purple flag.
Not too far off, she saw two guys and a girl with purple flags. The girl was talking to the two boys. Lykke made her way over to them, trying to find the courage to ask if she could follow them around to where she had to go. She was now next to the girl, and asked to none of them in particular, "Hey. Um, where do we go for the Twilight group...thing? I'm Lykke."

[Evie]

"Hey. Um, where do we go for the Twilight group...thing? I'm Lykke."

Ginny heard a voice behind her and turned to see a girl she didn't recognize, looking very unhappy. She looks like she's resigned to some terrible fate, Ginny decided, but she was sure that "terrible fate" couldn't be Camp December. No, she was probably just upset that she had to leave behind her friends from back home. Ginny had certainly been reluctant to do that her first year at camp, but she'd quickly gotten over it. The month went by so quickly anyway that it hardly seemed that long...and really, she got to spend eleven months with her other friends! It was a fair trade off.

"Hi, Lykke! I'm Ginny," the blonde said, grinning and seizing one of the other girl's hands to shake. "Right here is where you need to be; see the purple counselor over there? Don't worry, they'll shunt us around to where we need to be," she added with a wink. "Is this your first year at Camp December?" Ginny loved camp newbies, because that meant she got to show them exactly what was awesome about the camp right off the bat.

"Oh, and these are the Uaithne twins, Odhran and Ronan," Ginny continued, pointing to the two boys in front of her. "You can tell them apart by the way they stand. Ronan slumps a little bit," she explained, smiling.

[Pandex]

By the time the bus had finally come to a stop and she was able to make it off, Amethyst was about to explode with excitement. Though December hated speeches, Amethyst loved to listen to them, a smile on her lips as he spoke, her gaze intent on his face. This was the guy that owned the camp now? He seemed... Nice. The speech was over too soon for Amethyst's likings, her gaze going over to the counselors. She would have plenty of time to catch up with them.

With a bright smile, Amethyst made her way over the podium that December stood behind, her gaze on his face. So the rumors were true, December Cody was blind. That would be interesting. He had a friendly face at least, though she couldn't see his eyes. After a moment she managed to get close enough so she could talk to him, her smile unwavering, "Hey, Mr. Cody! I'm Amethyst." She introduced herself in her usual cheery manner.