Survival Of The Fittest

((ooc: sorry for holding things up, you can go ahead and skip me this time))

Aileen actually found amusement at the flying squirrels line from Sarah. She didn't know why, but it was actually kind of funny. A look of amusement passed over her face for a few seconds. Though, of course, as the guy pointed out, there was always the risk of rabies from bats. Aileen once came across the symptoms for rabies when searching around Wikipedia, and needless to say, she was freaked out by what would happen to you if you got it. And apparently, it was extremely fatal, with little hope for a cure. Aileen found herself shuddering on the spot, just from the thought of getting bitten by one little tiny bat and getting rabies. It did not help that the article had pictures, either.

"Yeah... you don't want to look up the symptoms, either. It's... not pretty..."

To be honest, there were not very many that Aileen would like to bunk with. She still thought they were probably going to get up to no good. She did not want to be woken up in the middle of the night with a horn next to her ear, or have someone dump something over someone else's head. That... she did not want to deal with.

The guy mentioned something about D and D? A game? Was it that Dungeons and Dragons thing? Aileen honestly did not see the appeal. Then again, she knew very little about it. All she knew was that it involved elves and things like that. Was it like Tolkien, only they were acting out their own adventures? From what she knew, it sure sounded like it. She had no idea how it was played, though.

Although she knew very well it could start up a conversation about a topic she did not understand, she said "To be frank, I don't really understand a thing about D&D..."

At that point, she noticed another person walking up to them, as if he wanted to join in. As always, she did not know him very well.

But, she found herself blurting out to him, saying simply "Sit if you want. We're discussing the trip."

On one hand, this would mean five people in the conversation, and... well, it was starting to become a crowd, and Aileen being Aileen, this was normally something she did not like. But, on the other, they were probably going to invite him over anyways, and... well, it was nice to, at least.

Bat-rabies talk reminded her of the mass of work she still had to do for Bio, but luckily the return of the cabin-buddy topic distracted her. She was going to ask if she could maybe join in with Aaron's D&D game, she'd always been a little bit curious about it, but then she remembered the sex segregation thing.

It was silly. Segregation by gender probably wouldn't make the camp any less hectic. If it was anything like previous school camps everyone would be swapping rooms and making mayhem anyway. Really, no-one seemed to have matured very much since last time. And if they were trying to prevent sex… well… if stories she heard were true then one thing she'd learnt about their class over the past few years was physical barriers were little deterrent to some people's libidos.

Anyway, if there was one advantage to being in a same sex relationship, that was probably it. Not that they'd be getting up to any of those sort of antics. Of course the challenge now was to have a room with a) people she liked and b) people who would put up with her and Reiko. Most people tended to dislike being stuck in a confined space with a couple for an extended period of time. That'd be… Reika probably, and Aileen maybe, if she wanted to then that'd be one out of the way and… she'd think about it. She didn't want to step on anyone's toes by asking and then changing her mind.

She couldn't help but yawn sympathetically after Aaron, she just felt so relaxed for the first time in a long while. The warmth of the sun felt soft and nice against her face and there was just enough cloud drifting over to stop it burning and make it perfect. She wriggled deeper into her bag and closed her eyes, just trying to memorise the feeling.

After a little while Aileen brought up D&D again. She wouldn't mind hearing Aaron's answer on that, but at the rate she was drifting out she probably wouldn't hear it. A lazy smile was forming slowly on her face. She didn't even consciously realise another person had joined them.

Aaron smiled as Allen, one of his fellow math-sufferers, wandered over to the group. He nodded at the boy in a friendly manner, then turned his attention to Aileen, who had just asked him about D&D. It was one of his favorite subjects to discuss, and he particularly loved explaining it to people who didn't know what it was. It was almost a missionary urge; the game helped him stay sane and happy during the school year, and he wanted to share that with other people. Plus, more D&D players meant it was easier to find a group, and reduced the overall social stigma of the hobby (not that there was all that much left).

"Well," he started, "it's a pretty simple thing. Everyone creates a character, which is sort of your persona in the game. You can be pretty much anything you want. I mean, there's the usual Tolkein stuff, you know, elves, dwarves, hobbits. Or, if you want, you can even play an orc. Or a dragon or minotaur or something from mythology. Then you meet up with the other players and go on adventures together, fighting monsters, saving cities, finding treasure, that sort of thing.

"Of course, it's a little more complicated. There are all sorts of rules, and different powers, depending on what race and profession you are. You can cast spells as a wziard, say, or track people as a ranger. Everything is resolved using multi-sided dice. Here..."

Aaron dug around in one of the pockets of his cargo pants, searching for the small cloth bag he kept in it (actually, he kept two, just in case one of his friends had forgotten theirs). Finding it, he pulled it out and tossed it in underhand in Aileen's general direction.

"They're in there, if you want to take a look."

He was so involved in his explanation, he hadn't even noticed Sarah beginning to drift off.

Allen smiled back to Aaron and nodded, deciding to sit down with the small group. He could hear bits and pieces of the conversation Aaron was having with the auburn-haired girl (who he still couldn't remember the name of, he'd have to fix that at some point) and guessed the topic of the chat had switched just as he arrived. That was a bit of a shame, since Allen was really looking forward to the camping trip and had wanted to join in on the conversation. For someone who went hiking and/or camping nearly every weekend, that kind of trip was perfect for him... as long as there wasn't a large lake right by the campsite.

'Ah well, too late to talk about the trip now, unless they go back to discussing it themselves,' Allen thought, leaning back and using his arms to prop himself up. He didn't want to change the topic himself; he thought it would be plain rude of him to butt in like that, especially since he'd only just turned up moments ago. So he just sat there instead, basking in the warm sunshine and listening in on Aaron and Aileen's chat.

Judging from the mention of dies, various races and adventures, Allen guessed his math classmate was now talking about D&D. Allen knew of the game, and had heard a few of the mechanics involved, but that was as far as his interest extended. 'Give me a real adventure anyday,' Allen thought. If given the choice between a board game and the great outdoors, he'd gladly choose the latter. Not that he had a problem with D&D and the people who played it, it was just a personal preference.

"So, uh, I guess an introduction is in order?" he said to the students around him while leaning forward and tucking his sunglasses back into his checkered shirt pocket. "I'm Allen, and I dunno what you did, Aaron, but you're sending your friend to sleep there," he continued with a smirk, nodding in Sarah's direction.

At the mention of Dungeons and Dragons, the boy seemed... pleased at the change in topic. And so, he immediately launched into a description of it.

So, it was a game where you had to defend the city with orcs, minotaurs, and dragons? And it had dice? Although the topic of playing as "a" minotaur would probably seriously hurt her head if she thought about it too much, it was actually... kind of interesting.

After a few more lines of talking from him, soon he was tossing in her direction a bag of dice, offering to show her.

Well, might as well take a look..., she thought to herself.

Opening the bag, she could see all sorts of dice. But, as he implied, they were not the cube-shaped dice she was familiar with. Instead, they had many other sides. How bizarre to see dice like that! Aileen had heard mentions of dice like this, but never actually saw one. For a few seconds, she lifted one out of the bag, and looked it over. Once she placed it back, she reached out to give it back.

"Interesting. Must actually be kind of fun. So everything is resolved using luck-"

She was cut off mid-sentence by the other boy asking if they should introduce themselves. At that point, Aileen realized she only knew Sarah's name. Allen (the other boy) then promptly introduced himself, and promptly pointed out Sarah was falling asleep. A quick glance in her direction confirmed this, as the girl had her eyes closed with a small smile.

It can't be that boring, could it?

Swiftly moving her head towards Allen, and although she was considerably annoyed by him cutting her off mid-sentence like that, she answered "Aileen Borden. Sleeping girl is Sarah Xu. Should we wake her up?"

Ericka's had also drifted from the conversation. It was just... she didn't really have all that much to add to the conversation. She doubted anyone knew what the bunking arrangements were; and she didn't really have an opinion on bats.

She didn't know all that much about D&D, her cousin tried to get her into it but she wasn't particularly interested.

So while the others talked Ericka's mind wandered....
What would happen in book she took from the library?
The combination of the light breeze and the sunlight were very comfortable.
What was Dad gonna make for dinner tonight?
What time is it?
....

When Allen asked for an introduction she returned to attention.
"I think we should," Ericka said meekly, responded to Aileen's comment about Sarah, "Oh! And I'm Ericka Bradley, by the way."

Her cognition of anyone in the vicinity's speech or existence faded as fractal geometric patterns swirled in Sarah's mind. Morphing into a flock of... blackbirds? Something, flying overhead across the vivid sky. The image replayed a few times, the birds jumping back and repeating the cycle over and over. She looked down and out over the alps, she always forgot how high this hill was and those mountains out there looked so close she could draw them. She didn't want to lift her head and stop scribbling but she really needed to start paying attention in math and 0 was such an interesting concept and if she understood that then she'd understand infinity because what if you multiplied the two... not normal multiplication though because that didn't work because the lines didn't cross.

Maybe if she pulled it out and put it in a sphere. God this finals exam was hard, drawing a three-dimensional figure was hard at the best of times but under pressure... at least she had the answer now and could draw it now that she'd drawn it. She wished she could see all of the landscape at once but she couldn't seem to open her eyes more than a fraction. It was like everything was too glary all the time, but she needed to find her cows and they were around there somewhere.

She was vaguely aware of her name being mentioned and she quickly pulled her head back up, she must have been falling asleep in class again, maybe she could just sketch for a little while instead of answering this stupid exam question...

In a nutshell, Sarah was completely out of it.

Aaron laughed a little as the newcomer, Allen from math class, joked that his speech had put Sarah to sleep. Internally, though, he was mildly put off by the comment. After all, there was no way he could really be that boring, right? People were never actually bored to sleep by other people, were they? It was clearly a joke, but still...

Aaron knew he shouldn't take it poorly. He knew Allen was just messing around, having a good time, so he kept his smile, though he was pretty sure it flashed false for half a second. Damn. He'd have to work on that some more.

To cover the awkwardness, he said, "I'm Aaron. Hughes, not Kane, Hicks, or... uh, B." There were more than enough "Aaron"s in Bayview's Senior class, much to Aaron's dismay. Normally, he was glad to have a name that was usual enough to avoid most misspellings, but sometimes it was a pain to be easily confused with other people especially when some of them—he was thinking of that meathead Hicks, here—were distasteful individuals. Aaron B. seemed alright enough, even if his last name was impossible to pronounce. Aaron Kane was somebody Aaron had just barely heard of, and only because of their shared name. Then, of course, there were half a dozen "Aaron"s in the lower grades.

Returning his attention to the others, Aaron noticed that Sarah seemed to be entirely out of it; even when she raised her head at her name, she didn't seem focused. Aaron glanced at her and asked, "Are you alright?"

Then, after a few seconds of thought, he added, "Be sure to drink a lot. You aren't getting heat stroke, are you?" It didn't seem hot enough for that to be a real concern, but it always paid to be safe.

'Aileen, Sarah and Ericka. Right, let's see if I can remember those names for more than five minutes,' Allen thought as the rest of the group introduced themselves to him. Sarah looked pretty much out of it, and with the warm weather, he couldn't blame her for falling, or trying to fall asleep. The gentle heat was making him feel pretty lethargic himself. He still had that physics final to study for and he just couldn't bring himself to open that textbook and study from it. 'Maybe I can find someone from my class and study with them later?' Allen thought as he wiped away some small beads of sweat forming under his longish fringe. 'Peter, maybe? I dunno, we'll see about that.'

Aaron's suggestions to Sarah about drinking made him realise just how thirsty he was feeling. It was warm out and the last time he had a drink (if you could call a couple of sips from the water fountain a proper drink) was in between his last two classes. Allen briefly considered trekking to the nearest water fountain from where they sat, then remembered he already had a bottle packed away in his bag somewhere.

'Well that saves me having to get up and leave the group,' Allen thought. Unzipping the front part of his rucksack, he pulled out an unopened bottle of orange soda, unscrewed the cap and immediately took a couple of gulps. It wasn't as refreshing as he'd hoped it would be, seeing as it had spent the best part of the day inside his bag and therefore it had become warm. At least it wasn't flat; in his opinion there was nothing worse to drink than warm, flat soda, that stuff just tasted vile.

Well, that was his thirst quenched for the moment. So what was everyone going to do or talk about next? Allen decided to keep quiet for the time being, seeing as last time he said something he'd managed to completely interrupt Aileen mid-sentence. That wasn't something he was proud of doing.

Ericka cast a concerned glance at Sarah, the girl who had fallen asleep. When Aaron mentioned that the girl should drink more, Ericka remembered that there was a vending machine a few halls down.

"Do... do you think we should get her a bottle of water? Maybe an energy drink?" Ericka asked the others.

After considering the problem for a moment, Ericka decided that she would indeed go to the vending machine.

"Yeah, I'll go get her something. Water right?"

After waiting a moment to listen for a response she turned and walked toward the door.

((Ericka Bradley continued... later in this same thread, go ahead and skip me again next go around in the post order okay?))

Sarah had responded by lifting her head, but she seemed really... dazed and out of it.

Jesus Christ... is she okay?!, Aileen thought, as her eyes widened behind her frames.

Seriously. Did she get enough sleep last night? Did she spend it studying for the tests? Or did the tests burn her out?

And so, the others acted. Aaron (the boy who was talking about Dungeons and Dragons) had mentioned that she might be dehydrated. And Ericka (the other girl) mentioned running off to get a drink for her.

"Drink? Could work. If she isn't thirsty we could just... I don't know, dump it over her head? No energy drinks as those dehydrate you faster" Aileen said, quickly looking back at the others.

The newcomer was currently doing nothing, and was drinking from a bottle of what appeared to be orange soda. A typical look of annoyance then passed across Aileen's features as she glanced at him. In fact, she almost wanted to say "Hey, thanks for helping in Operation Wake-Up Sarah Xu". In all honesty, she still thought that Sarah was just burnt out from the testing and such that the teachers had flooded the students with. But, it was better to make sure that she wasn't sick or anything. After all, she seemed really out of it and particularly groggy.

Aileen reached over to Sarah, and attempted to place a hand on her shoulder.

"Sarah", she said, in the most firm voice possible, in an attempt to get her out of it.

Sarah was enjoying her bath. It was warm and the bubbles lapped against her neck. She let herself slide further in, the water in her hair was starting to feel cold against her scalp, so down she went. As she came back up a hand fell on her shoulder, she hadn't realised someone else had come in.

"Sarah."

She woke suddenly, feeling like she'd just fallen half a meter. "Bu yao..." She really didn't feel like facing another day just yet, maybe later. She reached out for the table to grab her glasses before she realised they were already on, blinking a few times as she focused on the person who'd woken her up. She looked at Aileen quizzically, wondering what the girl was doing in her bedroom, and why it was so bright.

Oh.

"Sorry... and thanks." She looked around at the others in the circle. She couldn't believe herself, falling asleep in the middle of a discussion. She'd spent way too much time cramming in the past couple of days, so it wasn't really a surprise, but still. She'd have to get a good nights sleep later... Like that was going to happen.

Sarah winced a little as she stretched her arms and legs out. It was good to release the tension she'd built up in that exam period a little, but she had some lingering bruises that didn't appreciate the treatment. It did help her wake up though. To further that process she unzipped her bag and rummaged around for her water bottle. She pulled it out of the bag and pulled the cap open with her teeth.

"So, uh, what'd I miss?"

At Aaron's suggestion, Ericka took off, going to get water for Sarah. Probably a good thing. Plus, it felt good to be taken seriously, to be the one who knew what was going on in a situation. It was like leading a D&D game, only without the slight adversarial nature that always entailed. Aileen suggested dumping the water on Sarah's head if she didn't need to drink it, and Aaron chuckled. That was an interesting mental image. It would certainly make the lunch period more exciting.

As Aileen shook Sarah, the girl perked up, mumbling, then apologizing to the group. Then she pulled a water bottle out of her pack and took a drink. Aaron couldn't retrain himself, and burst out laughing. He quickly clamped down on it, quieting to a snicker, then nothing, and finally said, "We were afraid you might've had heat stroke, so Ericka ran to get you a water bottle."

Then, realizing that sounded a little weird, he added, "It's just funny that she ran off, when none of us even considered that you might have one of your own."

It still seemed a little flat. Too bad. He continued, "And you didn't really miss anything interesting, anyways."

'Hold on a sec... uh oh, she is alright... isn't she?'

Allen had simply thought that Sarah had dozed off, but the others clustered around weren't so sure about that. And the way they were reacting to the situation, Allen wasn't so sure now either. 'Oh crap, what if she really is suffering from heat stroke? Not good, not good at all.'

Aileen suggested dumping some water on Sarah's face, and although it seemed funny to Aaron, Allen didn't find it so hilarious. Mostly because if Allen was in Sarah's position and had water thrown in his face, he would likely have a panic attack triggered by his phobia.

"We should try moving her into some shade, get her out of the sun?" he suggested, looking around and seeing that the gazebo was occupied by other students. "Or maybe we should get the nurse to take a look at her?"

He then heard Aileen calling Sarah's name and looked back round to see her placing a hand on the other girl's shoulder, which promptly caused Sarah to wake up. Although she looked to be disorientated at first, she seemed fine, much to Allen's relief. Then much to Allen's surprise, Sarah pulled a bottle of water out of her bag and started drinking from it. 'Oh if only Ericka was here to see that,' he thought, instantly catching on that her trek was now pretty much pointless.

"You sure you're okay?" he asked Sarah. He just wanted to be certain, no harm in that, right?