Authors: Jack Parker
"Oh, I almost forgot," Lisa exclaimed right as she was at the door, not noticing at all that Collin hadn't been following her and instead had been staring at the photo on her desk, "I got something for you."
Those words snapped Collin out of his possessed state. He power-walked his way over to the front door of the office to see what it was. Lisa had just drawn something from her pocket and was giving it to him.
It was a small pocketknife that looked like it had never been used before. "I figured you'd get the job as soon as I started looking at your paperwork a few days ago, so I went ahead and got it ready."
Collin didn't know what she was talking about exactly, and any wonder about it faded away when he pushed up the small button on the side and forced the sharp blade of the knife to come out. The silver blade looked flawless, which Collin was sure wouldn't last for long. But something even more dazzling about it caught his eye: down near the base of the blade, his name was written in tiny lettering- COLLIN BANSEN.
"Whoa! It's got my name on it!" he stated.
"Yup. All workers have camp issued knives specifically for them. You'd be amazed how often you'd need that knife for a job here. So just in case someone were to lose theirs, we started a policy a few years ago where we put the owner's name on the knife so it could be returned to them."
"Cool," Collin casually answered. He had no idea what he was supposed to say to that.
"But be careful not to lose that, all right? It takes us over a week to order those knives and get them delivered. Trust me, you don't want to go ten days without one of those things."
"All right, I believe you," he said as he deposited his new knife into one of the pockets in his khaki shorts.
"Okay, you ready to meet your new co-workers?" Lisa asked with a small smile.
"Yeah. Sure thing."
Lisa led Collin outside and into
a
white truck that had a logo featuring a large "A" and "W" side by side in front of silhouettes of simply drawn trees. As soon as they were both in, Lisa put the keys into ignition and drove the truck away from headquarters and onto a one-way road leading deeper into the forest.
"Hey, this'll give you a good chance to learn the layout of the forest," Lisa noted while driving.
"Yeah. Good point," Collin admitted. Today, all he wanted to do was be polite and make a good first impression. He wasn't this used to always agreeing with people and merely saying, "Yeah," or "Sure thing".
The truth was that Collin already knew the layout of the forest pretty well. About four miles from the start of it was headquarters. From headquarters, the road forked; one way led to the campsites and the small lake segments where people were free to swim or fish during the appropriate hours. The other way led to the employee break rooms, warehouse, and other camp facilities that were off limits to campers.
Lisa pulled into the meeting room in the employee area and hopped out of the car. Collin was slightly nervous to be walking in there for the first time. He was always a bit awkward meeting new people when the meetings were forced, although he was slowly trying to get better at it.
The building was solidly built of wood, but that was just about the only thing that made it up. The floors, the walls, the ceiling…everything was made of non-varnished wood. The room was a large and open one with tools piled in a corner and had a somewhat large table in another corner with cheap plastic seats placed around it. There were no clocks to be seen, so anyone wanting to know the time would have to check their watch or cell phone. Right behind it was a large building that looked even plainer; that one was the warehouse.
Collin took
a
moment to look at everybody and take in the place and people he would be working with for the next nine weeks. Nine weeks didn't sound like a long time for him to do what he wanted.
"Hi, everyone," Lisa said as she walked into the building.
Everyone in the room turned their heads and looked at their boss. One guy who looked a few years older than Collin was smiled and put up his hand as if he was waving, saying, "Hey, Lees."
"Hey, who's the new guy?" said a woman who looked about ten years older than Collin was, like she automatically knew he was a new worker.
"Everybody, this is Collin," she explained.
"Hey," he somewhat weakly said as he quickly glanced at everyone and gave a short wave.
"He's going to be working with you guys this summer. I'm sure you'll all make him feel welcome, right?"
A chorus of "Yeah's" and one "You bet" filled the room.
"Great. All right, I gotta head back up to headquarters to file some paperwork. Why don't you guys get Collin used to this place and show him around?"
"Sure thing, Lees," the guy in his early-twenties said.
Lisa smiled and walked out of the building. Collin listened as he heard her start up the truck and drive off, leaving him there to adjust to his new colleagues.
The first one to approach him was the guy who only looked a few years older than Collin was. He was a bit tall and had dirty blond hair that was almost completely shaved off, save for a thin layer on the top of his head. "Name's Ian."
"Hey, Ian," Collin said as he reached out his hand to shake Ian's. "I'm Collin."
"Ha ha…yeah, I know. Lees just introduced you."
"Oh…right."
"Yeah. This your first day here?"
"Tomorrow will be."
"Ohhhhh. You're gonna love it here. Trust me, there are a LOT of cute babes on the lakes."
"Really?!" He didn't mean to sound so excited and interested.
"Oh, you bet! The
best
part is when they're lying on their stomachs with their faces in the towel trying to tan! Then you can look at them
all
you want without worrying about them catching you."
"Cool. I might try that if I ever have to work at the beach with you."
"No, dude, you're
definitely
going to do that if you ever work up there. Man Law says to never waste an opportunity to look at a girl like that."
"Man Law?"
"Yeah. You don't know what Man Law is, Collin?"
"I know what it is! I just don't think that's actually an official rule, Ian."
"That's Mr. Drosdale to you," Ian corrected with a wide smile on his face. " 'Cause, you know, I'm older than you, and Man Law says you gotta treat those older than you with respect."
Never heard that one before,
Collin thought to himself.
And you think I should address you the same way as my teachers just 'cause you're five or six years older than I am?
Ian was standing there proudly with his hands on his hips until he looked at his watch. "Well, my shift's about to start. Gotta head to the beach. Later, Collin!"
Ian jogged out the door and headed in a direction Collin was sure was a shortcut to the beach from where they were.
Just as Collin was turning around back to his other coworkers, he saw that one of them had already come over to him to do the same. She was the girl who looked about ten years or so older than he was. She seemed to be in pretty good shape and had a few streaks of electric green coloring in her hair. In both of her ears were two earrings that were attached to the top rather than down at the lobe.
"Hey," she said in a welcoming way.
"Oh…hi."
"Name's Jessica Maldavo, but just call me Jess. That's what my friends call me."
"Hi, Jess," Collin greeted pleasantly as he put his hand out to shake. "You new around here?"
"No, I've been here for the past few years. It's a pretty cool place once you get to know it."
"I'm sure. What do you do?"
"Well, I do a lot of stuff. Sometimes I clean up places like bathrooms or campsites, and other times I fill in as a lifeguard for Ian when he's out sick or something, and other times I just spend my time on patrol and make sure everything's going smoothly."
"Sounds like that could get boring."
"Trust me. It does."
"Do you bring an iPod or something to help you pass the time?"
Jess started to look more like a typical displeased teenaged girl. "Ugh. I wish. But the people who run the park don't let us use any electronics. It's so dumb! If I could bring an iPod, things wouldn't be
half
as boring."
"I'm sure. You listen to music?"
"
Listen
to it? It's my
life
, kid!"
"Really?"
"You bet. My iPod's only got enough room on it for about twenty more songs, and a lot of the one I already have on it are my own."
"Your own?" He was hardly noticing he was acting almost like a mimicking parrot during the conversation.
"Yeah. Me and some of my friends play in a group, and we record some of the songs we play and put'em on our iPods."
"Sounds cool."
"It is."
"You…uh…ever play in front of a live audience?" Collin asked, now trying to make small talk more than anything else.
"All the time," she answered proudly. "Sometimes even the media comes to watch us. We're
that
huge."
So huge I've never heard of you?
, Collin asked himself.
"Awesome."
"Yeah. When people put an article about us, I always cut it out of the paper and keep it in a drawer with all the others."
"Sounds pretty awesome."
"It is. I love it. Well, see ya! Gotta make another round on those bathrooms!"
As she walked away, Collin overheard her muttering to herself, "I hope there aren't little kids playing Yu-Gi-Oh in there again."
Collin watched as she walked off and sighed lightly to himself. He saw that there were still two other people in the room he hadn't gotten to know yet; one was a girl who looked a year or two younger than him and had long, dark colored hair and seriously looked a bit too pretty to be working in a state forest. Slowly, Collin walked over to her.
"Hey. Haven't gotten to know
you
, yet."
"Oh, hi," she smiled. "My name's Christine."
"Uh huh. What's your last name?"
"Belle. Why?"
"I dunno. You looked around my age and I thought you looked familiar."
"Uh…maybe we go to the same school?"
"You go to Cashel's Trinity High?"
"A
Catholic
school? No, I go to a public one. Why, is that where
you
go?"
"Graduated from it a little while ago."
While Collin was thinking of the next thing to say, he looked to the side and saw the second person he hadn't been introduced to yet. He was a boy who looked a year or two
older
than Collin was, and he didn't look like he had a problem at all with just staring out a window and avoiding conversation.
"Hey, who's that?" Collin asked, hoping to change the subject.
"Nick. Nick Fust."
"Is he a good kid?"