| SpyCamp | ✔️

Chapter 24; Campfires

"So, what are we going to do tomorrow?" Zoey asks as everyone sits around the fire, messing with their phones.
"I know what Ella is going to say." Jace said as he started to laugh.
"PARKOUR! LETS DO PARKOUR!" Jace says in the funniest voice he can muster.
Everyone cracks up with laughter except Joey, who looks up for a brief moment.
"Oh come on! At least I'm not always doing my DAGGERS LETS GO DO SOME DAGGERS!" She says imitating his voice.
"At least my daggers come in handy, honestly, when are you going to need to do parkour?" Jace asks Ella.
"Umm in a lot of situations, like what if we need to go through an obstacle course or climb a mountain." Ella says in a matter- of- fact tone.
"CLIMB A MOUNTAIN! LETS GO CLIMB A MOUNTAIN!" Jace says in his joking voice again.
"Okay, I get it." Ella says as she starts to giggle.
"LOOK! I DID IT AGAIN! AND THIS TIME, I WONT LET IT FALL!" Felix said triumphantly as he holds up a stick with a marshmallow on it.
He tries to grab it with his fingers but it's too hot.
"AAAHHH!" He yells from the burning pain.
He drops the marshmallow to the ground.
"NO!" Felix yells as he grabs it from the ground.
"Felix, do you want me to make you one?" Melody offers, grabbing a marshmallow from the bag.
"Yeah, thanks." Felix said putting down his stick.
"Here." Melody says as she hands him a perfectly golden marshmallow.
"How did you..?" He asks.
"It's easy.. You just have to learn the technique." Melody says technique with extra emphasis.
"Hot! Hot!" Felix quickly pops it into his mouth, but spits it out after it was too hot again.
"Oh my god Felix, you need to stop!" Melody says as she starts to laugh.
"May you make me another one?" Felix asks with pretend begging.
"No way! You need to learn to make your own!" Melody said handing him the bag.
After many attempts of the marshmallows catching of fire, or falling to the ground Felix gave up.
"That's it! I can't cook a marshmallow!" Felix said as he tossed his stick into the fire for extra firewood.
"Guys.. I have the perfect idea.. It would make everyone laugh." Jace said the last part looking at Joey.
"Good luck with that." Joey said rolling his eyes.
"Would it kill you to be happy for once?" Jace asked.
"No, if kill myself before I let myself be happy." Joey said with a fake smile.
"Okay Jace, what is it?" Mackenzie asked, getting interested.
"Okay, give me five minutes, I need props." Jace said before he ran into the dorms.

Five minutes later Jace ran out of the dorms, with a pillow stuck in his shirt, making him look plus- sized, and he was pretending to be out of breath.
"HEY! YOU, JOEY! GET ME A SANDWICH! EXTRA MEAT! I ONCE FINISHED A MARATHON BECAUSE SOMEONE DROPPED A COOKIE AT THE FINISH LINE! OH LOOK AT ME IM A BIG FAT OSF THAT SITS IN THE OFFICE ALL DAY! HEY! PARKOUR! I'D PROBABLY POP THE AIR MATTRESS!" Jace said as he walked around the fire pit. When he finished everyone was silent, but in about five seconds Joey cracked up with laughter. Everyone else soon followed, mostly surprised to see Joey laughing this hard.
"Joey! You're laughing!" Zoey says excitedly.
"I know.. But it's... Don't talk about it." Joey said as he finally stopped. His cheeks flushed a light pink.
"Joey! You're blushing!" Melody said pointing at him.
"I am not!" Joey said, trying not to make it noticeable.
"Aww! Yes you are! You are you're adorable pink cheeks!" Melody said in a joking way.
Felix felt a small splash of jealousy when Melody called Joey's pink cheeks cute, but easily waved it off.
Jace pulled the pillow put and threw it into the grass.
"I'm going to head off to bed, I'm so tired, and I really just want to get to sleep before Jordan yells that annoying 'CURFEW' word." Felix says as he got off of the log and stretched.
"I think I'll go too." Ella says as she also got up.
"Same here." Jace says.
"How are all of you guys so tired?" Mackenzie asks, as both she and Melody are no where near tired.
"Well we didn't wake up at 11:00!" Jace said as he too started to get up.
"So, all of you guys are going to sleep?" Zoey asks them, and they bid their heads.
When they leave its just Zoey, Mackenzie, Melody, and Joey.
"So.. What game are you playing?" Joey asks, looking over Zoey's shoulder.
Zoey shows him the phone screen.
"It's really fun, you should get it." Zoey replies and keeps playing.
"So Joey... Do you know anything about when The Other Side burned down our old camp?" Melody asks Joey cautiously.
"I am not allowed to speak of any inside information of The Other Side." Joey says so flatly, there is no emotion in his voice.
"You can't tell us anything?" Mackenzie asks, a little disappointed.
Joey shakes his head.
"Joey, what kind of phone do you have?" Melody asks looking at his phone.
"Why do you care?" Joey asks, clearly annoyed.
"I dunno, just wanted to change up conversation so it's not too awkward." Melody replies, feeling awkward, knowing it's a dumb question.
"iPhone 6S silver." Joey says without looking up.
"Cool, I have an iPhone 6S rose gold." Mackenzie says.
"Me too." Melody adds.
"I got the same one as you Joey." Zoey says , looking at the back of her phone.
"I honestly don't care." Joey said, still fumbling with his phone.
"What game are you playing?" Zoey asked Joey.
"I'm not playing a game. Games take up the room on your phone." Joey says flatly.
"What do you have on it? Pictures of sad puppies?" Melody asks as a joke, but feels as if it were a rude thing to ask.
"No, I have my info here." Joey says.
Melody and Mackenzie look at each other and grin.
Info.
"So, how about your boss?" Mackenzie asks.
"A nightmare." Joey says.
"Like give an example of something he actually told you before." Zoey asks.
"J! BE A GOOD SECOND- IN- COMMAND, AND GET MY FRIEND JACOB HERE SOMETHING TO EAT!" Joey said, imitating Malum's voice.
"J..." Mackenzie says remembering.
Melody drops her phone with a thump.
"It was.. You." Zoey says with disbelief.
"What was me?" Joey asks.
"That bandana we found, with the letter J on it, it was your's..." Melody said, shocked.
"You were one of the ones that burned down our old camp." Mackenzie said, trying not to believe it.
"No, I mean it could of been anyone's! Like look at all the Js around here!" Joey said, cringing at what he just admitted.
"Yeah but I doubt any of us own a black bandana." Zoey said, feeling crushed that her brother did this to her.
"Okay, look I was one of the people who started the fire, but that was only because old Malum made me do it, I had better things to do than burn down a camp." Joey said, trying to ease the situation.
"Well, admitting it makes you look better.." Melody said, not believing he actually admitted it.
Joey looked at the ground uncomfortably.
"Let's just, not talk about this." Joey offered hopefully.
"Okay... What do you want to talk about?" Mackenzie asked.
"I don't know.." Joey said, thinking a little.
"I have a question." Melody said.
"Oh great." Joey said, not excited.
"Is Joey short for something? Or is it your full name?" Melody asked.
"It's my full name." Joey said quickly.
"What? No it's not! Why are you lying?" Zoey began.
"His full name is Joseph Michael Carters." Zoey said, making Joey cringe at hearing his full name.
"Why didn't you want to say anything?" Mackenzie asked Joey, getting curious.
"That name brings up bad memories... I'm not saying anything else." Joey said, looking at his phone.
"But, can you guys like, do me a favor? Don't tell anyone about me being one of the people who started the fire." Joey said, looking at them hopefully. Then added with a cringe-
"Please." They all just looked at him, until Zoey spoke up.
"We won't, don't worry." She said with a smile.
"You know what.. Honestly, Joey I'm starting to think of you as a friend." Melody said with a smile.
"Umm... Okay." Joey said, not knowing what else to say.
Zoey yawned.
"Okay, I think I'm going to start heading into the dorms now... I'm getting really tired." Zoey said as she got up.
"Yeah, I think we'll get going too. Joey, where do you sleep?" Mackenzie asked.
"The basement. In a sleeping bag. With one flat pillow." Joey said, with little emotion.
"That's... Awful. If you want we can go tell Jordan that you should sleep in the dorms.." Zoey says.
"No, do you really think he would say yes?" Joey asks.
"Probably not.. Well, are you going to sleep too?" Melody asks him.
"No, I need to wait for Jordan or someone else to 'escort' me." Joey says rolling his eyes.
"We can go find him for you." Mackenzie offers.
"Okay." Joey said, before going back to his phone.
"CURFEW!" Jordan yelled.
"Okay I think we found him!" Zoey said, looking over at Jordan standing in he doorway of the teachers' cabin.
"Hey! Jordan!" Melody yelled as they quickly ran over.
"Hi girls, is something wrong?" Jordan asked looking back over at Joey at the fire pit.
"No, Joey just says he wants to go to sleep." Zoey says.
"Okay, I'll go with him." Jordan says as he walks over to the fire pit.
"Let's go, Jo." Jordan says as he messes up Joey's hair.
"Ugh, stop!" Joey says as he tries to fix it.
"Good night!" Melody says before he heads into the basement.
"Yeah, good night." Mackenzie says also.
"Night." Joey says as he walks down the steps.