Camp Idol

Episode 13

"Why did this have to happen?" Cori ducked into the tent, eager for a private place away from the critical eyes of Miracle 10. "It's your fault," she grimaced, spotting the magazine and throwing it at the nylon wall. "They think I'm a crazy fan because of you."

Cori sighed and picked back up the raggedy book.

"Then again, you didn't make the necklace disappear..." she frowned. "But neither did I," she heaved an even bigger sigh. "So then what happened to it? Am I being set up?"

Laying down the magazine, Cori placed her head in her hands, thinking on the situation hard.

"It's got to be up there," she thought surely. "I'd go look for it, but I don't want to go back in the cabin. They'd probably just think I was trying to steal more stuff anyways. Ughhh."

For the longest time, Cori remained alone in the tent with her head down- both relieved and saddened by her solitude.

"They must all be so mad at me," she was still pouting when at last, the familiar voices of Miracle 10 made their way towards the camp.

"Did you check all your stuff?" she heard Kole ask. "I don't think she took anything of mine, but I'm gonna look again just to be sure. Here, help me pull out these pegs."

"We need to deflate the air mattress first," said JM. "But do you really think she stole more than Tanner's necklace?"

"Why not?" replied Kole. "If she's a stalker, then obviously she'd want to get as much as she could, wouldn't she?"

"I guess," JM sighed. "But do you really think she's a stalker?"

"She showed up here. She conveniently lost her boat. She took Tanner's necklace," said Kole matter-of-factly. "She's definitely a stalker."

Cori had heard enough. Before the boys could say anything more slanderous, she crawled out of her tent, and without even looking at either of them, ran off towards the end of the dock.

"Oops," she heard Kole laugh, but it was only icing on the cake.

"How am I going to get through another entire day here?" Cori sniffed, resuming her head-on-her-knees position at the edge of the dock.

~~~

Though she was no longer among the boys as they continued to tear down the campsite, her segregation was still not distant enough, for she was still fully aware of all of the glances and whispers.

Well, at least the glances and whispers from those who were outside. Kole and JM worked to disassemble the tents (JM more than Kole), while Axel sat back on one of the logs unhelpfully- but that was all.

Cori kind of figured Tanner would remain in the cabin, but a part of her still wished he would join the others, having found his necklace and ready to rekindle their relationship from the night before.

However, hours later, there were less Miracle 10 members outdoors than before. Tanner neither appeared with or without his pendant, and despite Kole's inability to fit the poorly-folded tents back into their bags, the camp was at last cleared and the others made their way back inside.

Although it was understandable she was now being treated as an outcast, there was still one thing about her solitude that didn't make any sense. Sure Tanner was angry and didn't want to be around... and true, she had never really gotten that close with Axel, JM or Kole... but Nicky U had not come to check on her either. In fact, in all the time the boys were packing up the camp, he had never come out of the cabin once.

"He must be mad at me too," Cori felt as though her heart was sinking into the lake below. "This is just the worst," she was still burying her face in mortification when at last, the sound of footsteps fell upon the wooden planks of the dock.