Although Summer was a little annoying, with her whole Zen movement and healthy eating snippets, I couldn’t argue with the obvious results of her obsession with clean living, nutritious foods, and fitness.
Nor could Gene. His eyes followed her everywhere, watching her shimmy by with a mesmerized grin. Although Summer was essentially doing no hard labor, or really anything with any significance in camp, her effervescence and killer body were enough to carry her through and earn a spot on Gene’s dream team. Bobby, the muscle obsessed actor and Aisha, the long-legged beauty queen, rounded out the quintet. Certainly their superior looks and rock-hard bodies would deem them winners in Gene’s eyes.
And just like that, I was on the outside of a five-four split: me, Shaggy, nerdy computer geek, Dale, and Marsha, the pigtail lady who wished me dead. Not a great start. It might have seemed a little early in the game to be forming this group within the group, but onMarooned, it was a strategy that worked. When it came time to vote out members of our tribe, a solid five could pick off the others one by one with ease.
I knew I needed to jump in head first as I’d wasted so much precious time. Taking a deep breath of courage, I bee-lined it straight to the top. Gene saw me coming and backed away.
“If you’re sick, little lady, stay back,” he said putting his hands in front of him as if to ward off evil.
“No, I’m not sick. I just have a weak stomach when it comes to boats, or any motion rides, really. And that whole thing on the beach, that was just a little dehydration, but I’m…” I stopped babbling since Gene had already grown tired of my thirty-word sentence and had focused his attention elsewhere.
Undeterred, I made my way around the other side. Gene looked up at me and startled.Really, dude? We were just talking. How could you be surprised that I’d still be here?I tried to bury my annoyance.
“Hi again,” I smiled and, like a dork, even waved at him. “What I was saying was I’m fine now and ready to work. What would you like me to do?”
Gene eyed me with distaste and pointed at the water buckets.
“We’ll need water once the fire is started. Take that kid over there.”
My eyes followed the coach’s and landed right on Shaggy. Instantly my face flushed.No. Not him. Anyone but him!
“The one you vomited on,” Gene clarified.
“Yeah, I got that.”
“You said you wanted a job. Now you’ve got one,” Gene said gruffly, and turned away from me for the second time in only a minute. I wanted to argue but realized how pointless it would be. Gene had already pegged me as one of the undesirables. My opinion carried no weight with him.
Reluctantly I picked up the buckets and made my way over to where Shaggy was standing by himself, holding a bamboo stalk as those around him built the shelter. Gene’s five were already a cohesive group and seemed to have forgotten about him.
“Surprise,” I said, making my eyes as big and crazy as possible, which wasn’t a huge stretch for me after the day I’d had. I figured going the carefree, fun route would seem less intimidating to my hapless victim. Clutching two water cans in my hands, I lifted them up for him to see. “I’m sure I’m the last person you want to be alone with, but Gene wants us to go get water.”
Shaggy squinted his eyes as he focused in on me. He seemed to be considering his options as he took his time slowly scanning me from top to bottom. After what I assumed was a thorough inspection, the left side of his mouth curled up in a smirk, and he said, “Nice to see you survived.”
There was a playful tone to his voice, which immediately eased my anxiety.
“Yeah, it was touch and go there for a while.”
“I could see that,” he nodded. “You were looking like one of those ‘after’ photos of a meth addict.”
“Ahh, thank you.” I laughed for probably the first time all day. “So what do you say, Shaggy? Are you coming?”
Oh, crap. The nickname just slipped out. I hoped he didn’t think I was being disrespectful. But there was clear amusement in his eyes. Something told me very little fazed this guy.
Shaggy crossed his arms in front of him, and a second eye scan commenced. I waited patiently, as I had no leverage in this conversation. “I will go with you on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“No more spewing nasty shit in my direction.”
“You don’t need to worry. I assure you, I have nothing left to spew.”
Shaggy laughed at that, and then dropped his bamboo and grabbed both buckets from my hands. “Let’s go, then.”
On our way out of camp, we passed by Dale and Marsha, who were bent over the fire trying to get something started. The two had been chosen as the fire-makers presumably because they were the only ones who wore glasses – a most useful tool for magnifying the sun’s rays.
Shaggy shook his head playfully and gestured in the direction of the unlikely bespectacled duo. “What are the chances we’ll have fire today?”
“I think it will be a cold, dark night.”
