[CT] No Shenanigans Allowed

[Tamara Sulik]

All in all, Tamara didn't see this new task as something entirely new. She was asked to do pretty much the same thing she did at the academy, only this time in the woods. Alright, the woods part will be annoying. The days where Tam used to run in a field and climb trees were long gone and checking on students in a restricted area was a lot of work already. But she would not turn her back on this extra work. Some staff members had to be there and make sure everything was under control. She was more worried about the teenagers acting like... well, teenagers then have one of them get lost or something. Tam tolerated a lot of actions, she used to be their age once and not that long ago, but she would draw a line and make sure it was respected.

As soon as they all got off the buses, she let the men take control of things. She didn’t mind, for this one. She expected most of the girls, should there be a problem, to come and talk to her. None of them better start their periods while in here even though she was ready for that eventuality. She went straight to her cabin assigned to the staff members. As the only woman, she was ready to claim the ‘ladies first’ thing and pick her bed. Even though she couldn’t care much which one would be hers. They were all the same after all.

She had been told a few of the activities prepared but she knew her presence there had more to do with the fact she was used to watch over the kids than because they wanted her to play the camp aid and organize everything. Still, now that she placed her things next to a bed, Tam headed outside to see if they needed her for anything. She was confident Guy would have things under control, as for Marco, she didn’t know him too well but also trusted him. That didn’t mean they could not use an extra hand. She took a good look at the site. Almost everyone was going to their cabin for now, to pick their beds and see who they were paired with. She walked around making sure no trouble had yet started.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

So Frank had caught a raccoon.

That probably needed a bit more explaining. Frank had actually sprinted toward her cabin the moment she'd arrived, obviously determined to fling her stuff in there and begin the search for Bigfoot since, well, obviously he had to be in the woods, because why else would people be reporting him and stuff? There were totally even pictures and junk, and everyone knew that you should trust pictures, especially if you found them on the internet. So Frank had burst into the cabin, practically flinging her gear.

And a box had sort of fallen on a raccoon. So now Frank had a raccoon in a box and was dragging it out, yelling that she totally, well, had a raccoon in a box. She finally twisted, seeing Tam moving out from her cabin.

"Oh, oh, oh, female person in charge of stuff!" said Frank, waving her hands. "I totally caught a raccoon in my cabin and junk! He's in the box," she began nudging the box toward Tam, grinning widely. "I brought this stuff to catch Bigfoot, so I can at least get some photos with him and stuff. I really want a selfie with Bigfoot to put up as my Facebook picture, y'know? So I totes had this stuff and I kinda flung it at the cabin and I sort of caught this raccoon and I figure that since you're the girl, you're probably in charge of the girl cabin so we should probably do something about him and junk. Oh, did you want me to let him go? We could totally unleash him on the guys or something..."

[Tamara Sulik]

Tam turned her head at the student calling her out. Well, she assumed she was calling her. Who else was a female person in charge of stuff? She might never have seen Guy naked but she was confident the parts there were male. He was named Guy after all, not Girl.

She recognized Frank right away. She was one of those she promised herself to keep an eye on, knowing all too well what she could come up with. She dealt enough with Frank at school to know what to expect. Which meant she should expect everything between “it doesn’t make sense” to “THAT’S FREAKIN’ INSANE”.

And so, just as she thought, Frank came to her, claiming she caught a raccoon. Well, if it was in her cabin, then catching it was a good move, she supposed. She won’t consider the girl totally crazy. This time. A thought did pop in her mind, wondering why Frank had a box, not remembering any in her cabin. The thought found its answer as she explained how she took it with her in order to catch Bigfoot. And they were back in the crazy world of Frank Cox. “Are you sure that box is big enough?” she pointed out, looking at the thing and the raccoon trapped in it. Selfies with Bigfoot. What kind of nonsense these kids can come up with sometimes!

Tam was lost in her thoughts, trying to understand what she had done wrong in this world to deal with people like Frank and Bigfoot. That is, until she realized that Frank had kept talking and was now planning on releasing the raccoon on the guys. Even if some might deserve it, she was there precisely to prevent something like that. “We’ll release it away from the camp. We don’t want it to come back,” she explained. That was the logical thing to do. As for the rest... “Where did you hear about this Bigfoot thing?” she asked. She mostly wanted to know how many others heard about it and who would try and, like her, go after it. Hey, if they wanted to lose their time like this, she had no problem. But she preferred to know, just in case. “You brought anything else to catch that Bigfoot?” she added, wondering if she would have to look around for all sorts of traps now because of her.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Nope," said Frank, looking at the box. "I'm pretty sure that he's, like, super cramped and junk. That box was actually just supposed to hold a few supplies and stuff. It might've had some food: I have to have, like, lots of food with me and stuff on account of the whole eating thing," Frank shrugged. She'd grown used to needing to carry a hefty supply of food with her whenever she went out. Just a nice little side-effect of her power. at least as long as she ate, her energy remained up.

Though it did dip a little when Tam suggested they release the raccoon away from the camp. Frank looked up at her with an impressive pout. Probably would've held and continued, but Tam had almost immediately brought up Bigfoot and, well: "I totally heard it from this whole announcement thing that went up, like, right before we headed out and junk. He's supposed to be in the area, and I'm totally gonna be ready. I already got a few traps set up. Just some stuff like nets and snares and junk that are totally not where anyone is gonna run into them, honest." Almost as if hearing her, a cry sounded in the distance. "See? That's probably not even related to one of my traps, like, at all. They're not even traps. Just, like, surprises for Bigfoot," another yell, "and Bigfoot fans too."

Frank ducked down, hefty the raccoon filled box. "So we were gonna put the raccoon in the boys' cabin, right? I'm thinking six, because it's evil, obviously."

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara looked at the box. She was actually surprised the raccoon was not trying to gnaw its way out, in order to jump on Frank’s face and eat it in retaliation. Worst part of that thought was, Frank might actually cool to see a fighting racoon and might chase after it to teach it some kung fu. She’d rather not start thinking that, otherwise she might as well create images of it and if Frank saw any of them, no matter how cartoonish they would be like, she would find it awesome and give her ideas. No, better cut short with her nonsense about Bigfoot and fighting raccoons. Okay, that last part was only in Tam’s mind, for now, but she was certain Frank was able to think of it if she gave her enough time to do so.

Tam was about to lash out at the fact Frank brought food but she remembered it was necessary for the girl. She needed extra supply of it in comparison to the others. Still, it would explain why the raccoon entered her cabin. “You better be careful with your food supply. f you keep it wandering around, it’s no surprise you’re getting animals in your cabin,” she commented. Didn't those kids know that? Oh wait, most of them must never have gone camping before. She didn’t say anything, then.

Tam didn’t recall any advertisement for Bigfoot but she was not really surprised. It must have been something the students exchanged to each other, it was not meant for the staff to know. “I think someone pulled a prank on you. A boy here who wanted to laugh or someone jealous he couldn’t join, I don’t know,” she replied. She believed in Bigfoot as much as she believed in unicorns of the Loch Ness monster. But if there was one who could believe in it, it was Frank. She had to stop her before she went too far... which was too late as she just heard a shriek into the woods. She turned her head in that direction. Nets and snares... yeah that couldn’t be good. “We’ll check those traps of yours and you will take them off. What will you do if you catch another student, or an animal and forget about it there?” Tam told her. She wasn’t all too sad about some wild animal caught in a net and dying there but it was a terrible way to go and she’d spare them if she could. She also made a mental note to warn Guy and Marco so they can keep an eye out.

She shook off Frank’s comment about the boys’ cabin. “No, we’ll release it in the woods. Come on, you caught it, you will release it,” she said, already heading towards the trees, looking back only to make sure Frank was following her.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Oh, yeaaaah, that totally makes sense," agreed Frank, nodding slowly. "The animals are going for the---wait, he was there before I got my food, well, most of my food in there and stuff. He musta known that I was going to be putting my food in there and----OMG, HE MUST BE PSYCHIC!"

And there went Frank's ability to pay attention. For Frank was now looking at the raccoon and talking about using its amazing psychic abilities to locate Bigfoot. As this was Frank, she spoke right over Tam's conversation about the existence of Bigfoot and the likelihood of someone just paying a trick on her, not that Frank would've listened to most of it. She only stopped when Tam mentioned the traps:

"I, like, just put those up though!" she said, jerking her head up and blinking. "I'm not sure that we'll really need so many traps though, since, like, I have a psychic raccoon now and all. Pretty sure that he's gonna be awesome at the whole finding things--wait, I don't want to release him now! We're bonding," Frank curled her arms about the box, which wiggled.

And no, no she hadn't started heading toward the trees. The trees meant dismantling traps and releasing the psychic raccoon, neither of which were activities that Frank wanted to do anytime soon. Or ever, for that matter.

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara didn’t need Frank to know she made sense. She always made sense. She was made only of sense compared to the girl who was more made of random. She was ready to explain to Frank that the animal must have entered the cabin because someone left the door open or something, but she was already going with the whole idea of a psychic raccoon. She stared at her, as if waiting for Frank to say she was just kidding and realize her joke fell flat. But of course, it was Frank, so it was no joke. The line was too close in her mind between what was possible and the surreal.

Tam touched Frank’s shoulder, forcing the girl to look at her as she heard her talk to the raccoon in hope it would help her find Bigfoot. “Okay, that’s enough. I think it wants to go home. Probably has a family to feed,” she let out, figuring that giving the image of a family of raccoons with mommy staying at home to do the laundry while daddy did 9 to 5 before picking up dinner for everyone was rational enough for Frank to focus on that and let the poor creature go. It was no leprechaun that, now that it was caught, would lead her to his pot of gold. Or in that case, Bigfoot.

She couldn’t care less that Frank just put them. In fact, it was all for the better, she would more likely remember where she put them. “Well, this trip is not for setting up traps in the woods. Bigfoot needs vacations too,” she replied. She doubted the girl would get her sarcasm but she didn’t really mind. She might actually believe it and that would bring in the same result, and the result was all that mattered.

Of course, Frank decided that if the traps could go, the raccoon had to stay. Tam sighed heavily. “You know what raccoons eat? Or how dangerous they can be? That’s not a pet, it’s not here for your amusement,” she told her, taking a harder tone. Why that girl never listened? Tam noticed she was reluctant to go into the woods. “Fine, just tell me what kind of traps you set so we can warn everybody and then we release the raccoon, how does that sound?” she compromised. Tam had no intention to leave those traps there, of course. But if Frank didn’t want to take them off, knowing what she set up, Tam could go around the woods and take them off on her own. That would be an extra burden she didn't intend to deal with but the priority right now was to get rid of the raccoon.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"He has a raccoon family!?" Frank practically screamed. "Well, then we probably can't kidnap him. I mean, I totally know that he's a wild animal and junk, but I also totally know exactly what raccoons eat, because I watch all the cartoons and stuff which shows them just nomming down on junk. Plus, they obviously eat stuff that---"

Frank stopped, blinking as Tam mentioned Bigfoot. Yes, that was enough to derail even Frank. "But this is Bigfoot's home... why would he vacation at his home? That just doesn't make any sense..." She said, narrowing her eyes for a moment. She likely would've continued this, but Tam had already moved along to the whole trap thing and bringing back to the whole releasing the raccoon thing, and that was enough to attract Frank's attention (not that this was a particularly hard task, mind).

"Well, I could show you, like, a few of them, I guess. I really don't think I had a lot of time to set too many of them up. Mostly those whole leg snares and junk like that. I think a net. Maybe two. But, uhhhh, I don't remember where i put them all," Frank turned then, looking into the woods. She had gotten out there and put out traps? She seemed to remember putting out traps, but did that mean she actually did so or just thought about it really hard?

[Tamara Sulik]

As expected, the idea this racoon might have a family seemed to make Frank understand it was better out than in her cage. She would prefer for the girl not to scream it but Tam was ready to give this racoon the most tragic life story ever if that could make Frank understand she could not keep it, psychic power or not.

The girl was such a chatterbox. Tamara should have brought some duct tape. That would have been much useful, even though she suspected the girl could find some weird way to eat through it just so she could talk further. Really, she knew she would be in charge of the girls but he’ll toss her at Guy in exchange of all the work he wanted if she could get rid of her. It had only been minutes and she already proved to Tam she will be one they will all have to watch. She won’t hurt anyone, not on purpose. But she could tell a few might want to hurt her before the end. Maybe they can use her energy somehow? Make her plan an activity for everyone, or give her the honorific task of looking over the younger ones.

Should Tam be surprised she already forgot where she put her traps? Saying that Frank had a short attention span was an understatement. “And how did you intend to see Bigfoot if you cannot remember where you set the traps for him? You know what, we need to find you something to do. Maybe you could think of an activity for everyone to be involved. Like a treasure hunt or something. Maybe someone will spot your Bigfoot that way,” she replied. And yes she was trying to slowly set her mind off of this and was not ashamed of it. Once again, she gestured at the girl to follow her. “Let’s take care of this racoon first then we’ll see about the rest,” she repeated, hoping this time it will work. She had little hope though, it was Frank Cox after all. Tam would not mind grabbing the box and doing it herself then.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"Right! Raccoon!" said Frank, readying the box. She clearly had picked up on at least the last bit. In fact, she took off for the forest at a fairly good clip, trusting on Tam to follow. The sudden movement and the possible not following of the older woman didn't stem the flow of words that came from Frank, however. If anything, Frank talked a little louder, at least until she was certain that Tam had followed her.

"Well, most of my traps are, like, nets and snares and junk, so someone will totally see if, like, Bigfoot's dangling in a tree or whatnot. I totally thought about getting some super equipment and junk, but my parents didn't want it. And I don't need to plan any events, since we're totes gonna be doing capture the flag later and stuff. I'll totally get teams set up and all that for that, though I'm not really that great at the whole game thing." Because it required stealth and secrecy, neither of which Frank was great at. She did, however, make an absolutely brilliant distraction.

"Where should we release the raccoon? I mean, I guess it doesn't matter a whole lot, since he can just use his psychic powers to find his way home, but, like, we should still try to get sort of close to his home." Frank started looking around, her eyes everywhere but on the path in front of her. Which, considering that there was sort of traps about, might not be the best move.

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara didn't expect for anything she said to make Frank suddenly almost eager to release the little creature. She seemed so reluctant before, either because she gave it some psychic power or because of the traps she would have to take away. But now she was pretty much leading the way and Tam had to follow up before the girl actually go into the woods without her. She supposed she shouldn’t complain. She finally got the girl to do what she wanted out of her. Who cared about the method?

“Why am I not surprised?” Tam mumbled to herself as Frank pointed out her parents refused for her to get some special equipment. At least her parents seemed to not only have a head on their shoulders but to use it. She did recall they were planning that game with the flag. She never played herself but Tam was certain she would have kicked some serious ass at it had she done so. “Oh really?” she began to say as Frank said she wasn’t that great at the game. “I think you should still try it. Pretend to be a commando or something. Or create a diversion for your team to win,” she added. Was she giving her strategies about a stupid game? Alright, that job had brainwashed her.

She did feel a little pinch to the heart as all this talk made her think of her son. Mika was growing up and she was not there to see it. Talking regularly through a webcam was not exactly the same thing. She was certain he would have loved to be here had he been allowed to.

She washed away the smile that had appeared on her face and shook those thoughts away as Frank kept talking. Right, she had a job to do here. No time for daydreaming. She looked around them. They could still hear the students if she couldn’t see the camp. “Let’s go a little further. We don’t want it to get lost and come back to the camp,” she told her, pointing further away into the woods as she said it. She had no idea where that raccoon lived and couldn’t care less. “And watch where you’re going,” she added. The ground was uneven, they were in the woods after all, not in a house with a levelled floor. She didn't need for Frank to trip and hurt herself.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"I've tried the whole commando thing before, which is, like, really confusing, believe it or not. There's the whole idea of going commando, which involves stuff you definitely don't wanna do in the woods. Or you can, like, paint yourself up and head out into the woods like Ahnold or something. Very difficult to figure out which to do," Frank nodded, like this was something that everyone went through and it was a darn shame that nobody was addressing the problem. "Diversion's not a bad idea: I am pretty good at distracting people."

If by "pretty" you meant "world-class," then yes, yes Frank was "pretty good" at distracting people. It was a miracle that she hadn't already done something a little more thrilling than trap a "psychic" animal and, well, set various traps.

They wandered about, Frank still chattering away, practically pulling subjects out of the air. She paused when Tam talked, almost as if hearing other noise was enough to poke her mute button. She let out a triumphant little cry at the thought of heading forward, practically skipping ahead. Unfortunately, Tam's warning about watching where she was going came just a little too late for Frank.

She ran into a trap. One of her own, actually: a snare that caught her foot and jerked her completely upside down. Worse, Frank gripped the box tight as reflexes kicked in, plus she let out a loud "wahoo" at the same time. So now she dangled upside down, giggling manically, while holding a vibrating box containing one of the world's unhappiest raccoons.

[Tamara Sulik]

Tamara wasn’t certain Frank knew what the whole commando thing was really like although she could see why it was so hard for the girl to do it. Just picturing Frank having to be all silent and stealthy for once was hard to believe. She might be able to do that. For about five minutes, and that was being generous. Distracting however... now that seemed to be exactly what Frank would brilliantly achieve. Had she ever been more than a distraction? Other than giving Tamara twice as much work, that is. And the woman could not complain, she must do that with every teacher, trainer and any adult who ever dealt with her at some point.

Tamara didn't really bother answering Frank as she talked. It sounded more like a monologue or a conversation where the second party could simply reply with monosyllabic words, which was pretty much what the monitor did. She wished Frank had paid more attention on the path and less on what she wanted to say for all the forest to hear. Perhaps it would have prevented her from falling into her own trap.

Tam startled when she watched the scene. Should she be glad Frank was not more injured than this and actually laughing? She decided that she would. And that meant one less trap to worry about. Tam still ran to Frank of course. “Are you alright? Give me this,” she said, grabbing the box, not really caring if she gave the raccoon another rollercoaster ride before placing the box on the ground. Tam was actually busy trying to follow the rope with her eyes to determine how she should help Frank out of the trap. “Try not to move so much, I don’t want to drop you,” she said as Frank obviously was not helping her. As she tried to get her out of there, Tam couldn’t help but grumble against her in her mind. She even forgot about the raccoon that was now fighting in the box to get out.

[Frank "Sunny" Laffont]

"I'm fine!" chirped Frank, waving her hands. "This is actually kinda fun, the whole being upside down thing. Rope feels a bit snug on my foot though," Frank turned her head to look up her body, seeing that the rope had snagged around her sock. Well, at least she had that going for her. Plus, there was the whole dangling thing, which was still pretty fun as far as Frank was concerned. She giggled a little more before rolling back down.

"Oooookay!" she chirped again as Tam spoke. She grinned and followed the other woman for a bit before returning her attention back to the raccoon. The box moved a few times, and Frank was pretty sure that the critter wanted to go back to her family. She stretched a bit, but of course she was way too far from the box to actually open it or anything (which should be considered a blessing at this point). So Frank gave up, shrugging and letting herself simply bob in place there.

As this was Frank, being quiet for more than a few moments was physically impossible. She started humming to herself. Then dancing a bit. The dancing part was a bit awkward, considering that she was hanging in the air by one leg, but Frank managed to do so more or less. Of course, this was going directly counter to Tam's order/suggestion that Frank stay still, but that certainly didn't bother Frank any.

[Tamara Sulik]

Trying to see whether Frank was injured while she was hanging by one foot, laughing uncontrollably was not easy at all. Normally, she’d say the fact one was laughing was a good sign but it was Frank and one should never assumed anything with that girl. She didn't seem too hurt however so Tam decided that was enough for now and worked on getting her out of her trap. Seriously, she just set the thing up, how could she forget about it already!? Tam tried to prevent from grumbling too much about it. She needed no crazy justification, the explanation was simple: it was Frank she was talking about.

She said she would stop moving. Of course, that promised lasted five seconds. If you add to that the raccoon making a ruckus in its box, Tam had distractions all around her. Trying to drop Frank slowly so she wouldn’t injure herself was not easy with her wiggling around while she hummed something. As a result, the rope slipped and Tam dropped her harder against the ground that she wished to. “Are you alright?” she asked as she quickly went towards the girl. She helped get rid of the rope tied to her ankle.

The raccoon had used all of the patience it had and wanted out now, even if that meant digging a whole out and killing everything in sight. Tam quickly went to the box and while trying to put as much distance between it and herself, she opened it for the raccoon to go. She had wished to release it deeper into the woods, so it wouldn’t try to head straight back to the camp but she figured, at this point, it was better that way. Besides, it ran far away from them, or from the box, or from Frank only but the fact remained it ran away and it was one less problem Tam had to worry about. She turned her head to face Frank. Now she had to deal with this other one.