Unmasked (6 page)

“Welcome to the fandom table where we meet weekly and discuss the latest stories; we have the largest library of stories for rent as well!”

Lacey frowned slightly as if a tourist about to barter.

“Have seen the latest copy of that super hero story?”

“Oh-my-gosh-I-know-isn’t-it-amazing?-And-I-totally-shipped-those-two-together-if-you-know-what-I-mean!” she blurted out all in one sentence while slapping her hands on her face.

“I do,” Lacey said enthusiastically. “Though, judging by the looks of my friend, she might not be ready for the intensity of this group.”

Noelle’s face indeed had begun to green when she tried to even make sense of the girl’s sentence.

Lacey dragged Noelle away as the girl screamed, “You-will-buy-this-t-shirt-because-it-is-AMAZING!”

Lacey softly muttered, “She’s best friends with the campus director. I think the campus director was teaching a class on playwriting and that’s where they met. At least, that’s what I’ve heard.”

Suddenly having flashbacks of the booth that looked like a concession stand with the campus director smiling oddly behind it, an uneasy expression planted on Noelle’s face.

“Yeah, she said something really weird to me the other day,” Noelle admitted, hoping that Lacey had some insight on the odd director.

“Mmm,” Lacey replied casually, “a month ago the campus director warned me of falling away from something, but she wasn’t terribly specific. I don’t know. I figure, we might as well stay on friendly sides with her. Something tells me that we don’t want to do otherwise…any other tables you want to check out?”

One table in particular caught her eye as well as about twenty other campers crowding around it. Instinctively she knew that she would like it, and she bolted over toward the table.

“Welcome to Redemption Club!” cried a voice from behind the very lightly decorated table.

Noelle felt Lacey stumble right next to her.

“Looks like this is the club for you, Saint,” called Blade’s voice from nearby as he was beginning to exit the crowd to go to another table.

“It’s not some morality club,” the man from behind the table cried indignantly. “In this club you can compete to earn another placement. For example, if you want to be in another genre or you want to earn a Main Character status, easy this is your –”

“Redemption,” he and Lacey said simultaneously.

Noelle gawked at her.

“You mean – you’ve known about this the whole time?”

“I’ve signed up for it,” Lacey answered in a dignified voice. “But it’s really hard to –”

But Noelle didn’t hear her finish her sentence. She shoved her way to the front of the crowd to hear what the man behind the table was saying.

“Just sign up for a slot on a team, and you’ll begin training for the tournament,” he droned on, but still with a bit of enthusiasm in his voice. “In the tournament, you’ll compete against players from other teams, and the winner will pick the placement and genre of his or her choice.”

The crowd fluttered with anxiousness as he passed the sign-up sheet around. Noelle didn’t even read the name of the team that she printed her name by. All that mattered was that she had a chance to redeem herself. She could prove to the other campers that she deserved a better spot. She could prove that the Author truly did have a big plan for her.

After several minutes, Noelle climbed her way through the crowd back to Lacey.

“So, do you want to see any more booths?” Lacey asked.

Noelle let out another noncommittal grunt, but Lacey already knew that her answer was “no”.

Once the campers had seen Redemption, they had seen it all.

After the rest of Noelle’s cabin mates visited more tables then they could count, and the Redemption table obtained at least ninety more signatures, Lacey rounded up the Extras as they retreated to their cabin for the first time.

“For those of you who have heard facts about lectors,” Lacey intoned as she paced backwards like a tour guide. “Our ‘cabins’ are slightly different than theirs. In fact a better term to describe them would be ‘dormitories’. The name of our cabin is ‘Sage Peak’.

“Boys’ rooms are upstairs and you’ll find your counselor, Marcus, up there to hand out room assignments.”

With a swift motion of the hand, Lacey beckoned for them to keep walking. When they had reached an earshot away, Lacey continued.

“Girls’ room downstairs. You’ll each be assigned two roommates; on occasion you may have three. Also, the building is divided into four sections: Gavin (North Wing), Weese (South Wing), Carliford (West Wing), and Lane (East Wing). At each of the sections there’s a lounge where we’ll often hang out and watch stories. Any questions?”

A flutter of hands shot up into the air, but Noelle didn’t hear any of the questions. She was busy gawking at the size of the Extras’ cabin building. She scanned her map as she spotted another building in the distance. It was Elkwood, the Main Character cabin for the Romance genre. She noted that Sage Peak had to have been at least triple the size of that building.

“It’s because there are so many of us,” an almond-shaped eye girl muttered excitedly, reading her mind while her straight black hair waved enthusiastically in the wind. “Usually stories have one or two Main Characters, but countless Extras. That’s why Sage Peak is so big.”

Noelle jumped in alarm with a little bit of a gasp of air because she had not expected anyone to be paying her any mind. She turned her heel to face the very short, raven-haired girl whose eyes seemed to be permanently petrified with passion.

“It’s a very weird thing to keep your mouth open,” the girl continued jumping up and down as if she were a fireworks display about to explode. “I just assumed that you were shocked on how big the cabin is. Either that or you want to catch a mosquito or two. There are quite a few of those at campus here. They do seem to like Sage Peak more than Elkwood.”

Noelle stood, quite paralyzed by the eagerness drilling out of the girl’s mouth. The best way to describe this girl was like a bubble, so happy and outgoing, and about to pop with sheer enthusiasm. Though, Noelle felt this girl’s attitude slightly alarming that she could be
this
happy after just receiving a spot in an Extras’ cabin.

“Yeah – I um – didn’t know that it would be that big – sorry, who are you?”

“Brisa,” she answered, skipping in place, “But everyone settles with just “Bri”. Or I guess “Sa” could work too.”

“Bri’s just fine,” Noelle answered with a laugh as she introduced herself.

“I absolutely love lectors,” Bri began suddenly, bouncing up and down. “Ask me any question about them and I’ll answer. I know loads about stories as well.”

Before Noelle could quiz Bri on her lector knowledge, Lacey had finished answering the questions, and she led them to the rather ominous looking building. A squirm crawled through the crowd as several noticed that spider-infested wood that plastered the sides and porch of the cabin.

Lacey, once again, seemed to read their expressions.

“It’s fine. You can’t go camping without bugs. I promise that the spiders rarely venture inside, and the other cabins are in the exact same condition.”

Noelle could spot this as an exaggeration from a mile away. She had a hard time believing that the other cabins had nearly as many problems as this one at first glance.

Remember, you won’t be staying here for long,
she reminded herself. She would win Redemption no matter what it took and would land herself a room in Elkwood with the Main Characters.

Lacey unlocked the door, and they ventured inside. This took some of the girls longer than others because they ran circles around the cabin trying to lead a pair of angry wasps away from them.

At first glance of the inside of the cabin with the smell of mold and neglect, Noelle felt extremely uncomfortable, and suddenly she had wished that she would not have done the trust fall because sleeping outside didn’t sound like a half-bad idea.

The walls, sprinkled with a few lighthearted decorations, remained a somewhat blank canvas, slowly deteriorating. Noelle also spotted nearly a dozen spider webs, and she knew that Lacey lied when she had said that the spiders typically only stayed outside.

“Before you explore around, I need to give you each room assignments,” Lacey reached for her clipboard and unclipped several small sheets of folded paper. She handed each girl one, without a name addressed on it. Noelle suddenly realized that their room assignments were picked randomly. She could end up with anyone as her roommate! The same thought seemed to have spread across the expressions of the other campers.

Lacey looked flustered and slightly disappointed as the Extras glanced dejectedly around the building.

“Sorry, some cabins assign rooms just like the lectors by handing out surveys for best fits, but there’s just so many of you that…”

Her sentence broke off as her face flushed a cherry red.

“It’s fine,” Bri piped up, somehow still maintaining a bounce in place. “I don’t think that the Main Characters are very nice people anyway. They always look down upon us, but everyone here seems nice. I would be fine if this was just one building and we all roomed in the same place.”

No one broke in to argue, but plenty of different opinions buzzed throughout the crowd. A few girls in particular, who had already begun a disliking for each other, seemed to be crossing their fingers in hopes that they would be in opposite ends of the building.

“Well go ahead and open your room assignments,” Lacey prodded them. “There’s a map on the news board over there,” she pointed to the wall with the least amount of decoration, where a very misshapen chalkboard stood.

Noelle slowly unfolded her paper as it read:

“Room Name
: Cedar

Location:
Lane (East Wing)”

She traced her way through the map on the chalkboard, and finally, when she knew for sure where to go, she departed toward her dorm.

When she arrived, her first impulse was to tear the pathetic pink streamer on the door clean off. It looked perfectly out of place with nothing else to bring out its beauty, if it had any in the first place, but she decided to leave it alone as she clicked the doorknob and entered.

A girl, with a red bandana and chocolate skin sat straight up in surprise as she nearly spilled a palette of paint all over the stool which she was decorating.

Noelle was caught in a wave of suspense too, but for another reason entirely.

The girl was wearing a mask.

“Can I help you?” the girl began, somewhat tersely.

“New – roommate…” Noelle managed as she wrung out her fingers and hands of the sudden burst of anxiety trapped in them.

“Oh,” the girl looked down as she continued her work, “they come and go so fast. Lacey just forgot to tell us that you were moving in today,” she said without looking up and muttered somewhat to herself, “Thought she’d at least tell us subs.”

“
Subs
?”

“Sub-counselors,” the girl explained. “Even though Lacey’s the main counselor for the girls, she can’t handle everyone because there are so many.”

“Noelle,” piped a voice from behind her. “Are you rooming in here too?”

Noelle spun around as Bri waved her hand up and down as she was washing the window of a car at rapid speed.

“I’m Bri,” she said cheerfully to the sub-counselor.

“Oh so there’s
two
of you?” the girl said, slightly irritated as if she had wanted her own room.

“What’s your name?” Bri began inquisitively.

“Aleesha,” the girl answered shortly, as Noelle noted the harshness in her voice.

“She wants us to leave her alone,” Bri whispered suddenly. Well, Noelle wouldn’t put it as soft as a whisper. Bri’s exuberance sort of cancelled out any chance of hiding a secret. “She wants to paint the stool in peace. Sometimes my friend, Anna, will get upset when I interrupt her playing piano. I guess that we’ll have to explore the room on our own.”

Aleesha didn’t mutter an argument, so Bri and Noelle ventured to the closet in the room.

Noelle glanced back curiously at Aleesha’s mask, but Bri’s voice drew her mind away from the matter.

“Oh, I’ve heard about these,” Bri made an odd noise that sounded familiar to a squeal, but far more amplified.

She held out a sheet of white cloth, a sheet of paper, and a pencil.

Bri wrote on the paper, “Long skirt, size small.”

Suddenly the cloth began to move violently as, what it seemed, dozens of mice began crawling under it forcing the cloth to move in all sorts of directions. Finally the movement died down as Bri spun around, what was no longer a sheet of cloth, but an ankle-length skirt. She tried it on and made another odd sound, familiar to a squeak.

“Oh this is so much fun,” she said, while twirling around the dress several times. “You should try it, Noelle.”

She thrust the skirt into Noelle’s hand as Noelle erased the writing on the paper. Suddenly the skirt began unraveling as it returned to its sheet form.

“The more specific the better,” Bri urged as Noelle transformed the cloth into a t-shirt, somewhat like the one she wore previously.

After the girls transformed it into every shape imaginable, they returned the cloth to the closet, and then they found several others in various colors.

Noelle modeled a few different colors, but Bri argued that she could only picture Noelle in white.

“It just seems like a very nice color on you,” Bri argued, while rolling back and forth on a bed. “I’m sorry, but black just doesn’t look right, and I feel as if red does not suit you, at least, not yet.”

“What are you talking about?” Noelle laughed.

Bri threw her hands up in a rapid motion and shrugged.

“I don’t really know, actually,” she admitted. “I do say quite a lot of weird things, don’t I? Do you think that I’m going crazy?”

Noelle erased the writing on the paper as the black dressed folded back into a sheet of cloth.

“Not to worry, Bri, sometimes crazy people are just what this world needs.”

“But I’m not a lunatic, am I?” Bri asked alarmed, and forcing her eyes to stretch wider.

“Of course not,” Noelle assured her, “besides, the best people in stories are the ones who take leaps of faith and are not afraid to try something different. You of all people should know that.”

Someone rapped at the door, and Aleesha muttered, “Come in,” without looking up from her work.

Lacey stepped in and offered an exhausted smile.

“Hey, if you guys are settled in, we’re going to add a little life to the hallways. The art department let us use some decorations.”

She brandished a few rolls of streamers and various paper flowers.

“When I’m finished with this,” Aleesha grunted as Bri and Noelle went out into the hallway.

“Bri,” Noelle began when she was sure that Aleesha was farther than an earshot away. “Is it common for someone to wear a mask at campus?”

“Well I don’t think that I would like to wear one. It sort of makes it hard to see, plus not many people would be able to tell who I was. Why do you ask?”

“Well, Aleesha was wearing one, and I was wondering why.”

“Wearing a what?”

“A mask.”

Bri tossed her hair back and smiled humorously.

“Noelle, Aleesha wasn’t wearing a mask,” she said in a smooth, silky voice, oddly quiet for her.

“Yeah she was, you didn’t see it?”

Bri shook her head softly. “Maybe you’re simply tired. It has been a long day. I hear there’s a nurse’s office somewhere. She can see if you’re all right, although rest might do you some good.”

Perhaps I’m as crazy as you,
Noelle filled in the gaps sarcastically in her head.

Suddenly something strong grasped Noelle’s hand and yanked her toward the other side of the hallway.

“Bri,” Lacey’s voice called from right next to Noelle as she noticed Lacey’s firm grip encircling her arm, “just go ahead and begin hanging up streamers in that hallway down there, we’ll just be a minute.”

Bri began galloping carelessly down the next hallway.

“Noelle,” Lacey’s voice began firmly. “Look at my face, do you see anything there that shouldn’t be?”

Noelle concentrated hard. She noticed a blemish here or there, but decided that it would be rather awkward to point them out.

“No.”

Lacey rapped on a door, and a girl stepped out. Noelle also noticed that the girl indeed dawned a lilac mask.

“Wait a minute,” Noelle began suddenly, “I think I saw you earlier at the Activities Fair. You were the first one to go visit booths.”