Chapter Two – Fright Night

𝟷𝟻:𝟷𝟷 | 𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟺𝚝𝚑, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙻𝚘𝚍𝚐𝚎

"Dibs snack duty!" Aidan called, pumping his fist in the air, met by Sam's muttering curse of annoyance. He pointed to Cassie. "Cass, you in?"

Cassie looked up from tucking a few stray hairs behind her ear. "Yeah, I'm in." She shoved her hands into the back pockets of her denim shorts. "We just got a new box of chips into the store, and a few cases of soda."

Jackson grimaced. "Come on, at least have something that isn't beige and loaded with numbers. These kids need colour."

"Dude, snack food is literally wrapped in colour," Sam argued. "There's green on the Chikn Chips bags, there's blue raspberry soda, there's bright red Fuego Fritters..."

Jackson rolled his eyes. "You know that's not what I mean."

Nudging his ribs with her elbow, Clem smiled. "Come on, we'll go put together a silly little veggie platter, you square." She turned to Cassie, whispering. "Can you find me some Dew?"

Grinning, Cassie nodded. "I'm on it."

"You're the best," Clem winked, before swiftly dragging Jackson towards the kitchen, skilfully disguising the blood that was rushing to her cheeks.

Astrid unfolded her arms from her chest. "I need to go pack down the studio," she announced before directing to her brother. "Get me some mini-Oreos or I'll tell mom to disown you."

Aidan's eyes narrowed playfully. "You can't do that, you're the one they adopted."

"God, you're such a rodent," she groaned. "That was funny when we were kids, now it's just dumb."

"You're dumb," he retorted.

"You're dumb."

"Enough," Celeste cut through. "Aidan, Cass, go to the store and get the snacks. Az, studio." Astrid turned on her heel and headed out as Celeste continued. "We three will stay here and find something for the kids to do tonight."

Aidan raised his hand in salute. "Yes ma'am," he jested before he too exited the lodge, followed by Cassie.

"So," Conrad started, "what are you thinking, Cel?" He glanced at Sam, who was staring out of one of the grimed windows, before turning back to Celeste.

"There's that old tv in one of the classrooms," Cel responded, pointing over her shoulder to the rooms that lined the wall of the main area they were in. "We could just stick the kids in front of movies all night."

"And rot their brains?" Conrad frowned.

Cel chuckled. "Come on, they'd enjoy it."

"We're not watching movies for the next eight hours," Conrad countered. "I think there's some board games in cabin three." He looked to Sam again. "What do you think, Sam?"

Sam looked up. "Huh?"

"Board games or movies?" Conrad repeated.

Player Choice:
Search cabins or stay at lodge?

𝟷𝟻:𝟷𝟺 | 𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟺𝚝𝚑, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷
𝙷𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚝𝚝 𝙶𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚎

"So," Aidan cleared his throat as he unlocked the rickety door to the General Store, "you got into NYU?" His muscled arm held the door open for Cassie as she walked inside.

She was grinning. "Mhm," she nodded. "Start in the fall." She surveyed over the store, dimly lit by the sunlight from the windows, but still enough to see.

"You living on campus?" Aidan asked, his eyes not leaving Cassie.

She shook her head, her ponytail swaying. "No, my brother has a room for me in his apartment." She walked around the counter, peeking behind the shelves for any candy that might have been hidden away by Astrid.

The keys in his hand made a tinkering sound as they dropped to the floor from Aidan absentmindedly fumbled with them. He quickly snatched them up and watched as Cassie wandered to the storeroom door to open it. "You know, Princeton's only like an hour drive away from NYU," he said, "two and a half if you take the subway."

She looked over her shoulder to him, smiling. "I know." She turned back to the storeroom, pursing her lips. There were a few wooden crates piled in the corner, the remnants of which still waiting to be un-stocked. She turned her head to the shelves, not quite as full as the start of summer, but still laden with the supplies that she and Celeste unpacked two days ago.

Player Choice:
Search boxes or search shelves?

𝟷𝟻:𝟷𝟺 | 𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟺𝚝𝚑, 𝟸𝟶𝟸𝟷
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙺𝚒𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚗

"Don't," Jackson ordered, noticing Clem's hand hovering over the lid of the old-style cookie jar.

Clem froze, a fawn in headlights, her sights gliding over to her friend. "But I spotted the most birds," she argued.

A dark brow hitched as Jackson scoffed. "How many?"

"Sixty-nine," Clementine smirked.

"Bullshit, how many, for real?"

Sighing, Clem bittered admitted "Three..."

"And Molly told me that she had five," he concluded, retrieving one of the knives from the magnetic strip against the wall. "No cookies for you."

"Spoilsport," she muttered, crossing her arms and leaning back against one of the counters. "You used to be fun."

"No, I didn't." Jackson grabbed for one of the large green chopping boards, placing it on the benchtop in front of him. "Go and find something healthy."

She swayed her head as she mimicked him, pushing off from the counter. "Maybe you just need to get laid."

Jackson rolled the watermelon that sat on the corner benchtop over to the chopping board. "Maybe I need to stop dealing with annoying little girls." He looked up, pointing the tip of his sharp knife in her direction.

"I'm older than you," she taunted, turning towards the pantry. "And I'm still right." She glanced to the fridges, thinking. "Hm..."

Player Choice:
Search fridge or search pantry?