Jerry's Cousin // Jack Brewer X OC

•50•

||WITLESS PROTECTION||

|CAMI

We were all in the nearly pitch black dojo in a setup campsite, telling ghost stories. Well, Rudy was trying to, but they were so bad, it wasn't even funny. But, like most times, Jerry seemed a little too invested. "The babysitter thought she was safe, but what she didn't know was-"

"-was what?" Jerry asked nervously, cutting Rudy off.

"The clown. With the chainsaw. Was watching her from-"

"-from where?" Jerry asked quickly, cutting Rudy off again.

"Inside the house!" Rudy declared with a red nose, making Jerry scream.

"Ok, Rudy, this is just pathetic," I sighed, turning on the lights and turning off the fake fire. "It's all fake and boring."

"There is nothing fake about this campout. Now turn the fire back on," Rudy whined.

"Rudy, if you'd just apologize to the park ranger, maybe he'll let us back in the Seaford Campground," Jack suggested.

"Yeah! Me and Jack were just about to-" I cut myself off.

"About to what?" Jerry asked skeptically.

"We were about to take a friendly stroll in the woods to get some more firewood," I lied. We were actually going to go to the lake for a romantic midnight swim, then have a nice picnic afterwards. Wait, no. Swap 'em.

"Oh cool," Jerry nodded nonchalantly. Jack looked at me with a 'you almost blew it' look as Milton looked between me and Jack with a knowing one.

"Anyway, you will go back to the campground and you will apologize to that park ranger!" I ordered, trying to break the uncomfortable tension.

"I am not apologizing to anyone," Rudy sassed.

"You hit him repeatedly with your canoe paddle," I reminded him.

"I thought a bear was attacking my boat," Rudy poorly defended. "If you're that hairy, you should not be swimming in public."

"Why don't I get everyone in the mood with some good old fashioned campout songs," Milton offered, grabbing a guitar.

"Please don't," I immediately declined.

"OHHH! She'll be comin' around the mountain when she comes," Milton began to sing. I slapped my hand over his strumming one, grabbing the guitar's neck, and throwing it towards the locker rooms.

"Much better," I exhaled.

"Well, you got farther into the song than last year," Jack pointed out.

"Very true," Jerry agreed.

"I'm outta here," I decided, getting up from the artificial log. Everyone started agreeing, getting up to follow me.

"Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! See? Ya know, I knew you city slackers wouldn't last out here in the wild," Rudy scoffed. "That's why I did what any responsible camp counselor would do. Pad locked the door and swallowed the key."

"What?!" we all exclaimed, rushing to the door, pushing against the chains which, obviously, wouldn't budge.

"Settle in campers. It's gonna be 3 days til we see that key again," Rudy said. "Well, 2 if I eat a fiber bar." The alarms started going off and 2 masked men in black clothes ran past the dojo with bags of something.

"Hey, check it out," Jack pointed at the robbers. "Those guys are coming out of the Athletic Authority."

"Aw sweet. Must be their annual ski mask sale," Jerry nodded.