if i only had a clue {open}

[Deleted]

ANDREENA emilia LEWIS

x - - - WORDS: 496

If there were a map, maybe I would know how to get around this place. Andreena clapped her hands together as she stood in front of what appeared to be a community pool. There was a pool. This was a community. It seemed to fit. Or maybe the term would be camp pool instead since they were indeed at a camp. She blinked once and leaned over the bars of the fence that surrounded the pool. She had always wondered why fences were placed around pools. It was not like there was something inside that should be locked up. Could water run away? Maybe t was the small children. Small children were known to roam, and if there were not gates to stop them, would they ever stop?
She took in a deep breath and ran her fingers over the bars. She was at a pool. Had she not passed a pool beforehand? She turned her head looking in each direction trying to find the pool she had thought she had seen. Had she circled back at some point and found her way back to the pool? She put her hands on her head and softly began to hum that song the Tin Man sand on The Wizard of Oz.

When a man's an empty kettle
He should be on his mettle
And yet I'm torn apart

Jessica had decided that their children needed a break from each other just before school ended. When she came to pick Andreena up from school, she asked what she thought about going to camp for the summer. Andreena was not entirely sure how she felt about spending an entire three months in some place she had never been before. 
She said yes. Not because she wanted to or because she cared to get away from her siblings. She said yes because Heather and Jessica wanted her to. They needed a break more than the others needed a break. They desperately needed time off. They needed a vacation from all the kids. Maybe the solution should have been to not foster so many children, but they loved all of them. They just needed a little while to recollect themselves. So she said yes and went to a camp she had never been to before.

Just because I'm presumin'
That I could be a human
If I only had a heart

She went to the administration's office cabin place and got all signed up and welcomed. Then she went on her merry way as normally she did. It was habit. Say hello, take roll call, and leave so as not to bother anyone.
The problem was that she had no idea where she was. She was lost. She was standing in front of a pool she was not sure if she had passed before, and she was completely and utterly lost.
Andreena held the bars of the fence and leaned her head against it as the song ran through her head.

[Deleted]

It took him a grand total of nine minutes to get himself reacquainted with his place in the cabin. It was not an unfamiliar spot for him, so it was easy to slide right back into the niche he had claimed as his own. It was still somewhat early for whole bunches of people to be there. Really, the conversation was terrible. That was kind of what happened when there was no one there to converse with. So, Jason rummaged around in his chaotically packed suitcase for a pair of trunks and a towel. That took the majority of the nine minutes. Perhaps he shouldn’t be allowed to pack his own things anymore.
Instead of organizing the suitcase like a good little boy, Jason decided that a visit to the pool would be a much more amusing way to spend his time. With that very easy decision made, Jason changed and began the lovely walk to the deeper of the two pools, sunglasses on and towel slung over his shoulder.
The walk was a familiar one along a path he’d made his way down more times than he could count for the last few summers. Jason did not need to pay attention to where he was meandering, so he let his mind wander, took in his surroundings, took the towel off his shoulder and swung it an a circle at his side just for the sake of having something to do with his hands. Nothing had changed, really. The surroundings were nice and constant. Consistency was a pleasant change. Only this time the walk wasn’t as consistent as he anticipated.
As he drew nearer to the pool, he saw a girl. Considering he hadn’t seen too many people in general, one by the pool was a tad strange. Jason didn’t recognize her. But she was there and she looked… confused. Might as well try to help out a bit.
He paused for a moment and put his hands up to his mouth so his voice would carry a little farther in the girl’s general direction. “Are you lost, little girl?” He mimicked the phrase he’d heard from his sister far too many times. Only he changed boy to girl because he obviously wasn’t a girl and she clearly wasn’t a boy. It seemed like a good idea to switch things up for the sake of not offending anyone. Only after he spoke did he realize how weird his comment was. It was probably a little creepy. Whoops. Jason continued his walk to the pool, only to cross his arms across his chest and very casually leaned against the fence to converse a little. “I promise that’s not as serial killerish as it sounds. You just looked a little, well, lost,” he amended with a shrug.

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ANDREENA emilia LEWIS

x - - - WORDS: 494

It had been a long time since she had gone anywhere for even part of the summer. When she was seven, Heather had put her in a drawing class at the local college that took up a week of the summer. By the end of that week, she had drawn a road that vanished, a city of geometrics, a lengthy tree, a shadowed barn, and Cat walking and meowing at whoever was pointing the camera at her. After that, Heather thought that more camps would be useful, so Andreena took a drama camp, a writing camp, a computer graphics camp, which she was not allowed to take if Jessica had not done it with her, and an actual camp like camp called something to the effect of Fire Camp where they ran around outside and walked through the forest and sang silly songs around a camp fire that was not lit up. It took up about half the summer, and afterwards, Andreena was tired. Little three year old Jeanette had caused a fuss the entire time because no one knew what she was thinking, and she hated that. After that summer, Andreena stayed at home with her mothers and eat sister. Even when the twins came, Andreena never left. This was the first time in eight years.
She lifted her head unaware that there was anyone else around. She searched a moment trying to find whoever had produced the words she heard. Very strange words. It was actually rather creepy the words he said, but the voice that held them did not match the words. Two separate entities entwined into one. It was a mix that did not work quite well together. It was like water and oil trying to eradicate their differences and become soluble despite their own natures. Like they wished to extricate themselves from the living a life of drudgery and subjugation to what should be rather than what is. Star crossed lovers that could never be.
"It is only as frightening as you assume it to be," she responded finally finding the boy who had the voice and words that wished for liberation. She took him in not sure what she was expecting. He was young as most the camp, but it was on the older end of the spectrum. She had never been one good with ages, but he was definitely somewhere on the line of CIT whether just too young or just old enough. She also noticed the towel and and trunks he wore. So he knew where he was and what he was doing. It was nice to know that no everyone was always lost in this place.
"Would you be so kind as to tell me exactly where I am?" Andreena looked around trying to remember where she had gone. "I thought I had already passed a pool and yet," she looked back over the rails to the still water, "here I am at a pool."

[Deleted]

Sounding like a creep was probably not the best way to make a good first impression. Creepy comments were usually what gone one reported to the administrators and whatnot. That was never a fun time. Well, based upon experiences that were not his own, it didn’t seem like a very fun time. It was probably a good idea to amend whatever his lovely choice in first statement may have done. Besides, the girl was clearly confused. Jason recalled a similar experience his first summer at the camp. Judging by that and the fact that he couldn’t remember ever seeing her before, he assumed she was new here.
Jason smiled. He was nothing if not glad to help. “Oh, yeah. Not a problem. It is a bit of a confusing layout if you’re not familiar with it.” Jason spun in a small circle to reorient himself with the area. “What you probably passed earlier if pool numero uno. There are two of ‘em here.” He gestured to the pool they were standing near. “This one here’s a little deeper. Only the special people are allowed to swim here. And by special, I mean those who know how to swim.”
He smiled at her once again, then held out the hand that wasn’t holding the towel. “I’m Jason, by the way.” Remembering his earlier comment he laughed at himself and made a small addition. “Which is also not as serial killerish as it sounds.”

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ANDREENA emilia LEWIS

x - - - WORDS: 497

Andreena looked around as he spoke. So there were two pools. She was not going crazy after all. That was somewhat of a relief. She did not need to start off her days at camp as a crazy mess. That would not have been very fun. The last time she had had a serious case of a melt down, it took an entire three weeks for Heather and Jessica to pull her out of it. She was sent to the institute for a week, but was sent home when she just stopped talking about what had upset her. At some point, the episode disappeared from Heather and Jessica's mind, and Jeanette was too young to remember it. That suited Andreena fine, because forgetting was all she wanted to do. She had no need to remember what had happened those few weeks. Eventually, everyone seemed to  forget, and she never brought it up.
She looked back at the pool that was designated for the special people who could swim. "So this is pool number two for those who will have more chance of not drowning. Good to know." This is the place to go if she ever felt the need to swim. Unless, of course, she wanted to swim with the small children, which she guessed would not be too bad. She enjoyed swimming with the twins who were not that old. But the twins were always fun no matter where they were at. They were constantly trying to make things better with silly jokes and silly antics. They were little balls of sunshine. She missed them.
Andreena put out her own hand. "Andreena." She shook his hand several times not too hard in case that would offend him. She met someone who was offended by how hard she swung their hands. They kept spouting out something that did not make sense. Ever since then, she made sure she was not doing anything too hard or too light. It was awfully confusing sometimes, but it saved her the trouble of having to clean up a mess of confusion.
"It is nice to meet you, Jason. I am glad to have a serial killer on my side." She let out a little bright smile. It was her joke of the day. If he was going to sound "serial killerish" on several accounts and then mention it each time, she might as well poke fun at a little bit. Besides, it would be nice to have someone on her side who had some sort of power over others. Suddenly, for about a second, she kind of wished that he was a serial killer just to make her life easier. But that would have caused even more problems she did not want to deal with, so she would deal with him being a normal boy who wanted to swim in the special people's pool and be willing to help the potentially crazy new girl at camp. It was awfully sweet of him.

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Jason nodded, more to show that he’s heard here than in agreement. “There’s also a splash… thingy if you really don’t feel like drowning and a lake.” If he was going to be helpful, he might as well let her know about the other bodies of water in the area. “But I really wouldn’t recommend swimming in the lake. That’s just kind of asking to get eaten,” he added as a bit of an afterthought. Whatever creatures resided in that lake were probably not very decent swimming partners. Jason was just fine swimming in the special people pool.
“It’s nice to meet you too, Andreena,” he replied with a bright smile. It really was nice to meet her. Usually there weren’t too many introductions required with people close to his age. He’s met most of them before at camp or school. Judging by the minute amount of time they’d spent talking, he liked Andreena too. Actually, she reminded him a bit of his sister. Perhaps that was why he had slipped so easily into the tone he used most often with Sonia. Though he was always cordial, it normally took much longer for him to really be friendly. Or maybe it was just his mood. He was in an unusually good mood at the moment, though he couldn’t quite tell whether it had been there before he began his walk to the pool or not. Whatever it was, it seemed like it was going to be a lovely day.
Jason tossed his towel over the fence and put his hands up, palms facing her, like one would if they were surrendering. He couldn’t have people walking around thinking he killed people in his spare time, though it would be nice to be on the same side if he was. Who didn’t need the friendly neighborhood serial killer in their back pocket? “Hey, I said I wasn’t a serial killer. I was just letting you know because apparently my nostalgia sounds a little creepy once it’s spoken out loud to a stranger.” He tried to sound defensive, but he was laughing a little too much at his own ridiculousness for it to ever sound serious. No matter how hard he tried, he really couldn’t pull of serious.

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ANDREENA emilia LEWIS

x - - - WORDS: 506

Andreena blinked once as yet another water related thing was mentioned. "A slash thingy?" Either this was something new that she had never heard of or the day's society was starting to lack in description. "Thingy" was not a word that was often used in her household. Once, the twins came home from school talking about another outlandish story of theirs. Jeanette was struggling to describe some object, so Lila jumped in calling it a thing. Heather harped on that immediately making it clear that "thing" was a word of generalities and being unawares. She would not have her children using generalities and caught unaware. Her children were bright and better than that. After that lecture, no one ever said "thing" to describe anything again. "What exactly is a splash thingy?" Where there were splashes? Maybe like a wave pool only with more splashes. She really was not at all sure what a splash thing could be, but she was sure it would be obvious once he explained. That would bother her later, her momentary stupidity. Yes, a lake. She never had gone to a lake to swim. Marcus had tried to convince their mothers once, but it was indecent to swim in such, so they never did despite how much they all wanted to swim with the fish.
She looked up from her thinking and nodded. "It's been very helpful in meeting you. I do hate to be lost. It's terribly inconvenient. I wind up more annoying than a lost puppy who follows everyone around until they finally lose his sight." Or hers in her own case. She would be a female dog rather than a male. The thought of being dog like was not particularly appealing to her. She thanked him silently for saving her from her puppy tendencies.
Andreena shook her head with a little laugh. This boy, Jason, was a silly boy. Not many people would joke about being a serial killer or not. It was nice to know someone who would willingly go along with some of the strange and silly things she would do. It was nice not to have to think about how other people react before saying anything. She always had to filter herself around Marcus and the twins. It was not so much that what she said was inappropriate for their age group, but more confusing and of a different light than they could manage. Even the people she knew at school sometimes had to be carefully considered before she said anything. Of course, there were always a few people who did not seem to mind anything, and it seemed that Jason may be one of those few.
"Do not worry, Jason the not serial killer, your secret is safe with me. I won't tell anyone who you really are. You do not have to hide your creepy nostalgia when I am around." She giggled at the thought. Now she had a secret serial killer friend and she had only been wondering around a few minutes.

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Seeing that his lack of a decent name for the splash thingy had confused his new companion, Jason tried very hard to remember the proper word for the place he was attempting to describe and failed miserably. He knew it really wasn’t that hard of a word, but for some reason he couldn’t recall it. It was just going to sit there on the tip of his tongue and taunt him. That was terribly rude. He was going to have to do something about that later. Perhaps someone else would be able to help him with his terrible memory for the names of splash thingies. He nodded slowly, still trying to remember what his brain simply refused to help him with. “Yeah, the splash thingy. I can’t actually remember what it’s called. Sorry about that.” He shrugged in a dismissive sort of way, but knew that this dilemma was going to bother him for ages if he didn’t figure it out somehow. With a laugh, he made one more attempt to explain what it was, without actually using its name. Clearly using the name wasn’t an option here. “All I know is that there’s splashing and lots of mini campers in what I assume is a very shallow pool. I haven’t ever actually been there that I can remember.” He added that last bit as an afterthought when he realized that he barely knew what splash thingy looked like. Apparently he wasn’t as familiar with the camp as he would have liked to believe.
As much as he was enjoying the conversation, Jason did hate to interrupt what appeared to be a very compelling train of thought. Perhaps he was being more of a bother now that he’d finished telling her that she wasn’t seeing things. “I happen to think lost puppies are adorable. Well, they’re kind of sad too, but mostly adorable and never annoying. Then again, it probably helps that I’m a sucker for puppy-dog eyes,” he rambled pleasantly. Generally it was the puppy-dog eyes that puppies gave him that he couldn’t resist, but occasionally a human could pull it off well enough that it worked on him. Unfortunately, he never managed to master the skill himself, which was terribly disappointing.
Jason had never met too many people who were so willing to accept that near-strangers were secretly serial killers in their spare time. In fact, he couldn’t remember too many conversations involving serial killers in general. “Why, thank you! You have no idea how hard it is to find someone so keen on keeping this deep, dark secret of mine” It was very hard not to laugh, considering how silly his comment sounded to his own ears, but he somehow retained a very sincere expression. Jason the not serial killer was surprisingly good at keeping a straight face when he really wanted to, though there was something in his eyes that gave it away.

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ANDREENA emilia LEWIS

x - - - WORDS: 292
x - - - NOTES: Sorry about the lack of creativity today.

Andreena shrugged it off. Really it did not matter what exactly it was called. As long as it was recognizable in the future. "Well, I guess it is the splash thingy then." She could rename something for the sake of not knowing it. Maybe it had a terrible name in the first place that did not make sense. Maybe splash thingy was the perfect name for it. Maybe it was for the better.
"So it's like the kiddie pools that are always on the side of the normal pools?" Andreena inquired. That was the closest thing she could think of to fit the vague description.
She laughed at his interjection. "Lost puppies are adorable but very sad until they are found. Imagine what it would be like all alone wandering in a place you have never been. I wouldn't wish that on anyone." She remembered a story she had read about a lost puppy. It was terrifying that someone could be so alone. So lost. To her, lost puppies were not exactly adorable. They brought to her grief and fear.
Andreena threw up her hands. "You are quite welcome! I am here to help even if you are a serial killer." It was odd to think hat he may actually find someone such as a serial killer in a place like this and so young. But if she thought about it, this was the perfect place. A place with many children away from their homes. Someone could have quite a bit of nasty fun. She looked over Jason again. "Well, I'll help as long as you don't try to kill me. I can be a partner in crime, not a victim of it." Those were her conditions. It seemed silly but necessary.