Baylen glanced to Alan realizing he was talking to Gwen when he jumped in. He didn't think too much of it though and turned back to Gwen, following her towards the water. He liked how she was up for any kind of shot and he particularly liked ones in motion;they told more stories. Looking down at his camera though, after fiddling with it a moment, he realized he forgot the chip. "Oh man" he groaned. "I'll be back shortly Gwen. I've got to run to my cabin for a piece for my camera. I'm going to grab my swim shorts while I'm there too. I'll come find you when I get back." He gave her a smile and started jogging back to his cabin as best he could in his sandals. Gwen was not a shy girl and he knew she would be talking to someone in no time. He hoped she would still be down for the picture when he came back.

The girl, whose name Jack still didn’t know acknowledged with only a simple nod. He assumed that meant he didn’t need to pay her for any cigarettes. He hoped. He opened his mouth to say something else, but Claire began to speak again. He shut his mouth and turned his head to look at her and listen to what she was saying.

She instructed the campers to get into pairs and to introduce themselves, after which they would proceed to tell their partners two truths and a lie. It seemed that whoever couldn’t figure out what the lie was, they’d be “pressured” to jump into the ocean. Jack glanced down at what he was wearing—a old white T-shirt with the words “Young & Reckless” written in graffiti-style letters on the front along with some pretty cool designs all around the letters, a dumb shirt but one he loved, along with some nondescript basketball shorts. He had no time to change into a bathing suit, and he supposed that it wouldn’t do too much damage to get his clothes wet for a little. That is, if he lost.

He tuned back to Ophelia with an cocky grin. Or maybe he’d lose on purpose so she could see him strip down. Maybe.

“You wanna be partners?” he asked her smoothly.

---

When Claire mentioned getting into pairs, Kalina almost felt sick to her stomach. She hated pair activities, because she wasn’t outgoing enough to seek out a partner on her own. And the others, for whatever reason, be it intimidation or simply not liking her or something else, never came to her. Well, this time it’d be different. She saw Claire had already claimed the only other person Kalina knew, Colline, her cabin mate, so she was on her own now.

Kalina took a deep breath and stepped forward, getting closer to Claire, and approached a boy she had seen earlier in the day (Ryan). He seemed to be acquainted with the boy who was flirting with Claire earlier.

“Hi there,” she called out, trying not to sound bashful. “I’m Kalina… Do you want to be partners?” She flashed him a cute smile and pushed some of her hair behind her ears, so her view of him was not obstructed.

Ryan Had not expected for anyone to pick him out from the group of people that were at the pier. He had intended to take whoever was left, as he wasn't really the kind of person to introduce himself to strangers. Baylen was a different case, as he was his cabin mate, and they would have to know each other eventually. He could see that she was trying not to be shy, and nodded at her upon hearing her request. It was an orientation activity, and he wasn't going to deny someone his name and a few things about him. "I'm Ryan, but call me Pratt like everyone else please." He told her, staying quiet for a moment before nodding to himself. "And yes, I'd like to be your partner." He gave her a small smile and another nod.

Yolanda hung back, instead opting to lean up against the railing of the pier. She wasn't one for partner or group activities. Besides, most had already paired up. She cracked her knuckles as she watched the newly formed partners chat among themselves; focusing most of her attention on a young man with a graffiti styled t-shirt. Yolanda scoffed at his demeanor and decided, quite quickly, that she didn't like him. He seemed cocky and self assured, something she felt no one had any right to be.

She turned her attention to the timid looking girl he was currently charming. She didn't seem his type but, Yolanda reasoned, the boy probably thought everyone was his type. She turned her back on the group and leaned forward on her forearms, left hip jutted to the side and her legs bent lazily. The view was beautiful and held her attention much more than any getting-to-know-you activity ever could.

“darling, there's a place for us;
can we go, before I turn to dust?
oh my darling, there's a place for us.”

-Joanna Newsom, “Monkey & Bear”

Ophelia let her eyes lazily wander up and down Jack’s body with the air of a seasoned veteran examining one of her greener recruits. She was toying with him, she realized, and with the position she was in, being unable– no, unwilling, she bullied herself into thinking– to speak, she clearly had his attention, whether she wanted it or not. She mentally shrugged. Since he seemed intrigued enough, at least with the possibility of sweet, sweet nicotine, Ophelia decided she would be intrigued with him, too.

Before the confident (and maybe a bit too bold, Ophelia thought) boy could assume her silence meant she was giving him the cold shoulder, Ophelia held up a slim index finger, nails bitten to the quick.

With a practiced flourish, Ophelia retrieved her phone from the pocket of her jacket. Her thumb beat a rapid, erratic rhythm on the touchscreen. She turned the screen towards Jack and raised her eyebrows.

I could have written anything, Ophelia thought. I could have told him to fuck off just as easily as I could have given him an invitation to violate my personal space in every sense of the phrase. She had had the chance to let him in or kick him out. Most of the time, none of her feelings towards people ever drifted very far past “slight boredom.”

This time, however, she was bored enough to do something unusual.

Jack stooped to read the sentence on the phone’s display.

“I’M A VERY GOOD LIAR.”

Katherine listened to Claire speak and had an internal scoff at the curfew time. There was no way she'd be sticking to that curfew all summer. That was barely the time when she left her apartment back home to go out and do things, let alone when she would have to be back for.

It was then when she heard what they would be doing for the first orientation activity, it was something familiar to her, years of first day getting to know you activities had prepared her to think up two truths and a lie and sell it to perfection, though she had never been the greatest at guessing other people's fibs. Hopefully whoever she ended up partnered with was worse at lying than she was at reading them.

She looked for a partner, Colline was her first choice as it would have been good to get to know her roommate better, but she was first picked by Claire herself. Katherine then thought of maybe asking Gwen, whom was someone who warmly introduced herself when they were at the table, though Gwen had already been chatting up the veritable Yousuf Karsh with the camera, so Katherine assumed Gwen and Baylen would partner up together. Katherine decided to just jump right in (figuratively speaking) and find a partner she barely knew anything about, which admittedly was pretty much everyone there. Looking over the crowd she spotted someone on the other side of group and walked over to him.

He was an attractive looking boy with well styled hair, and as tall as Katherine herself which was always a plus to find. Katherine believed that he had introduced himself to the group earlier, Greg she believed his name was. As Katherine got close she spoke up, “Hey, Greg was it?” She said, hoping to verify her suspiscions. “You want to partner up for this 'get-to-know-you' activity or whatever?” She said was a bit of a hopeful smile.

Colline turned her attention back to the people around her as Claire began talking. She turned at what Claire said. They had to go up to people they didn't even know and determine whether they were lying. Not only that, but if they didn't get it right, one or both had to jump into the ocean. Colline swallowed nervously as she looked around at the group. She was all for swimming here, it looked great, but it would be thoroughly embarrassing. And how on earth was she of all people supposed to choose a partner.

"You." Claire looked directly at Colline. "Get on over here, girl!" Colline glanced back at Claire, slightly curious as to who she chose. She froze again. Claire was talking to her, or at least she thought so.

Colline nervously walked towards the woman. Now that she got a closer look, Claire seemed only a few years older than herself. Shifting from foot to foot, she looked up at Claire.

"H-hi? I, um, I-I'm Colline." She muttered nervously, tucking her hair back away from her face. She had considered using hair clips, but they always annoyed Colline when they slipped, so she just decided to let her curls free.

"I, uh, I'm not a very good liar." The dock suddenly seemed very interesting to Colline, and she kept her gaze there. It was less unnerving than actually looking at someone. She mentally hit herself. This was not how to politely speak with someone. Her gaze moved back up to Claire, before looking her in the eyes. The blonde seemed rather friendly, if not a little too enthusiastic.

Greg was a little lost in thought when one of the girls from the table earlier approached him.

“Hey, Greg was it?”

His attention snapped back to the real world. Someone was standing in front of him, a girl he recognized from the table, though he couldn’t put a name to the face. She must have introduced herself before he arrived.

“Yeah. Yep, that’s me.” He nodded slightly as he spoke.

“You wanna partner up for this ‘get-to-know-you’ activity or whatever?” She said, smiling

All the others seemed to be partnering up quickly, so there wasn’t many people left otherwise. Not that he’d have been rude and said ‘no’ anyway. Who would do that?

“Sure.” He returned a smile of his own. "Uh, by the way… I don’t think I caught your name earlier, you were already there.”

Baylen jogged back to the group, kicking sand up from his sandals as he neared them. He saw they were forming groups already, pairs for Claire's orientation activity. He was used to these, and this one actually wasn't so bad. having heard the activity before bouncing off he knew how it would work. His immediate thought went to Gwen. He would love to get to know her, though he hoped that today wouldn't be the last day of the camp he would have alone with her in conversation. But his thoughts changed quickly when he saw Yolanda off to the side by herself, leaning against the pier. He stood there a moment, staring again and lost in his thoughts. Perhaps she was his ticket to get his weed. God, I sound like a drugee, but the more I think about it the more I'm craving it! I know Claire fucking has it and I need someone to help me get it. He highly doubted Gwen was someone he could trust to help him score some marijuana off the camp counselor. She was a laid back girl so she definitely could be down for it, especially if she didn't know what it was. But it wasn't worth the wait and risk to find out. Yolanda seemed like the kind of girl that wouldn't give a shit about weed or be completely down to fish it out.

Baylen pocketed his camera and began walking towards Yolanda. When she would look to him he would give a half-smile and a small wave. As he came to her he put both hands up in front of him "I come in peace. I won't force you to participate, but it'd be cool if we were partners for this lame gig." He placed his hands back in the back pockets of his jeans and looked to her, waiting to see how she would reply and if she would be down to get to know him. He was confident he could find out soon enough if she was the girl he thought she was. She definitely looked the bad-ass part, something that intrigued him.

Yolanda turned at the sound of a voice behind her and narrowed her eyes in a suspicious manner. A young man stood before her, all nervous smiles and tentative politeness. He almost seemed afraid of her; most people found her to be unusual and kept their distance. She had once been told that her dark eyes had appeared quite dead and that was what unnerved people. She had rolled said eyes at this but thought there was perhaps a grain of truth to it.

Crossing her arms once again, Yolanda looked Baylen up and down. He appeared to be one of those laid back dressers, which she honestly preferred over those who meticulously chose their outfits. After what seemed like far longer than it was, she relented and gave a single nod. "Fine," She replied simply. Pushing herself away from the railing of the pier, she approached Baylen and un crossed her arms, allowing them to hang by her sides. "If we're going to be partners, I suppose it's pretty important that we know each other's names. I'm Yolanda."

Kalina smiled when Pratt, as he liked to be called, agreed to be her partner for the activity. It seemed she’d at least made a new friend (besides Colline), even if it was for something as stupid as this. Kalina crossed her arms and thought for a moment.

“I’ll go first, then,” she said, taking the lead. “Gimme a second to think…”

She thought about what she could possibly say. Two truths and a lie, huh? She decided she’d might as well try to make it interesting and not say something that was obviously a lie like ‘I have a pet unicorn.’ Her eyes fluttered open briefly and looked over at the water, which was becoming dark as the sky darkened as well. She flipped her sunglasses down over her eyes so he couldn’t see her expression clearly.

“My middle name is Mae,” she said, still looking over the water.

“I can count to ten in Arabic.” Her was remained straight.

“I can play the piano.” As she said the last statement, her gaze turned back to Pratt and she grinned. Everything could be feasible, so she wondered which one he’d call her out on as a lie.

“Which one is it?” she asked, putting a hand on her hip.

---

Jack squinted at the girl’s phone display in confusion. Was she mute or something? Why wouldn’t she talk to him?

“I’m a very good liar,” he read aloud, after which he straightened back up and crossed his arms. “If you’re going to write out everything on a phone display, then anyone would be a good liar,” he pointed out. “I won’t be able to read your facial expression.” He couldn’t help but wonder if she was taking the game too seriously or if she really couldn’t talk.

“Whatever,” he said aloud, deciding that it didn’t matter if she talked or not, and the activity was mind-bogglingly stupid anyway. “Is that one of the three things about yourself or is it just a warning?”

He half-expected a vocalized response from the cute girl, but doubted he’d get one. Maybe she was mute after all. He didn’t think he’d ever met a real mute person before. Didn’t they carry around computers or some kind of technology that spoke for them? Was she just shy? Or really weird? These questions pestered Jack’s conscious, but he again resolved that it really wasn’t that important, and at least she was communicating with him somehow.

When Yolanda nodded Baylen grinned wider, pleased she was down to play the ridiculous game with him and get to know him a bit. Hopefully he would see if she was the kind of girl that just looked the part or really was simply bad ass. But her look, her style, it wasn't forced and it seemed genuine to him. Her honesty with who she was was probably what truly intrigued him.

"OK, since you probably hate this shit more than I do, I'll go first. Let me think of two truths and a lie." He paused for a moment, thinking about his life and what his statements would be. He also thought of how he could segue this orientation activity into seeing if she would be down to help him out, or at least keep his secrets. He looked around the beach, hoping to catch Gwen's eye and give her a smile, making sure she knew he was still looking to spend time with her. He looked back to Yolanda, still thinking to himself, and quietly stared in to her dark orbs for a moment searching for her pupils, which seemed to be lost in a sea of darkness. Finally he straightened himself and said "Alright I got my statements. Good luck, because I'm a good liar." He cleared his throat. "OK, first, my parents run a Fortune 500 company and make mega-bucks. Two, I speak fluent French. And three, my favored vice is alcohol." He let his smile drop to just a small one, keeping his facial expressions toned as she made her decision on which two were true of him and which one was false.

Yolanda stared at him as he spoke, inwardly groaning at his attempts at lying. Whether he knew it or not, his forced neutrality of an expression only made his unconscious tics more obvious. Her mother had taught her how to read a person a few months before she had left on her travels. "Just so you know whether someone is trying to cheat you." Her mother had said.

She went over the statements again in her mind, replaying how Baylen's mouth had moved around the words, looking for hesitations between words. She smiled at him, though it was less a friendly gesture and more a thinly veiled sneer. "You're a fucking bad liar," Yolanda commented abruptly. "You're not an alcohol person. What are you into, shrooms? Weed? Yeah. Anything but alcohol."

As Kalina listed off her two truths and a lie, Ryan focused on her words to see if there was anything off or unlikely about what she had told him. He believed that she could count to ten in Arabic, as he believed that counting in a different language was much easier than speaking full sentences. It could have been something that she just picked up after some time. She didn't look the type to speak Arabic though, so he stayed on his toes. Anyone could play the piano to a certain degree. Memorizing what keys made what sounds and playing them in different orders to make music. She could play piano, it was possible. The first one was messing with him though. It was so possible that her middle name could or couldn't me Mae, and he didn't know what to call her out on. He might have been thinking too hard on it, but he was trying to see the lie surrounded by two truths.

"Your can't play piano." He said to her, hoping that he was right.

"Great." Katherine said with a smile, happy to see that Greg didn't turn her down for this. "Sorry, yeah, I think I introduced myself before you sat down, I'm Katherine. You can call me any number of nicknames but I usually just go by my full name."

"So I guess I'll go first then, just to get the ball rolling. I've gotta say though, I'm known to be pretty hard to guess at these games." She was being a bit cocky, but there was a bit of self awareness in her voice. Though she has been known to be pretty good at the lying part, due mostly to lying to her parents, she would never call herself an expert or anything. She thought for a moment about what she was going to say, though she knew full well what they would be already. She cleared her throat a bit before beginning to speak, attempting to show the least amount of emotion possible with her choices.

"Number One: I played in a riot grrrl punk band in high school."

"Number Two: I got a ninety in grade twelve biology."

"Or finally, number three, I will always maintain that the Beach Boys were better than the Beatles."

Katherine smirked, none of those were entirely certain nor highly unlikely, the perfect blend to throw anyone off the scent of the lie hiding in the midst, though she may be pushing it a bit with her lie this time.

"You're a fucking bad liar," Yolanda commented abruptly.

Baylen raised his eyebrows in surprise at her comment. He was a good liar to his parents and teachers but perhaps she was better at seeing through him. He didn't care whether she got his statements right or not. He simply needed to start the right conversation. "You got me. You're right, sort of. Alcohol isn't my vice of choice. But I do drink a lot when my parents decide to fucking ignore me for weeks on end, which is often" he said in a rather bitter tone. "But if it were easier to get my hands on weed I would be smoking it every day. Unfortunately my dad's full size bar doesn't stock any marijuana. But alcohol is the next best thing. I don't touch the chemical shit." He looked at her intently. "So what about you, what's your vice? You seem to know a lot about them as you rattled off your list there."

Yolanda frowned at Baylen, curious as to whether he was telling the truth about his parents. She hadn't been paying attention to his body language enough to know. Her frown deepened at his last comment.

"I don't have a vice. I don't drink and I don't do drugs. They rot your brain," She looked pointedly at him. "So sorry to disappoint."

"Now, I'll give you mine," Yolanda went on as she looked up at the sky briefly. She didn't particularly want to reveal anything about herself but thought to go with the most obvious. "I'm from South Africa. I can speak Afrikaans. I once broke a man's nose."

It was a good sight right now. Everyone around her was participating in the game. She had to remember to thank Tony for jumping into the water because the sudden idea appeared to have everyone opening up a little to the people around them. If not a little hostile from what she could hear from Yolanda's tone of voice. Nonetheless, Claire smiled at Colline. Colline was a very pretty girl, and Claire wondered if many people had told her that. Probably not due to the shyness she exhibited in front of her. Then again, Claire wondered if that was a fair judgment. Tough thing judging people, she's spent a lifetime doing it and had to remember to try and not to.

But, number one rule when dealing with someone who acts a bit shy. Don't call them out on it. There is no quicker way to annoy a shy person than making them self-conscious and calling them shy. Everyone hates being defined. Claire had to agree with that. Why couldn't people be who they want to be without the fear of social repercussions?

At this point, Claire smiled back at Colline. "Hey Colline, I'm Claire as you already know. Nice to meet you! You're very pretty. Sorry, I just had to tell you." And now to get to the game. Colline appeared nervous about starting, especially when she said she's not a good liar. That was probably true considering her tone of voice. So, Claire decided she would start.

"That's fine, it's still hard to spot a lie. So, here goes. I'll start." Claire began to think. Then the light bulb went on.

"I'm a potential alcoholic. I live in a foster home. And, I hate my parents." Whoa. Things just got real. Claire didn't know why she said those things, but there it was. Just playing a game, or some form of anger that flickered out of her mouth. A subtle bitterness. Not the easiest three things to guess for Colline.

The smile returned to Claire's face. Poker face was on. It's game time.

"I don't have a vice. I don't drink and I don't do drugs. They rot your brain," She looked pointedly at him. "So sorry to disappoint."

A true frown crossed Baylen's face after Yolanda said this. "Yeah, that's a bummer to hear." he said simply and a bit softly. He had given up on her and was getting increasingly annoyed with how hard this was to get one simple fucking thing for himself to get through another camp force fed by his parents as a diversion to make him forget how little they really cared for him. A dark, sullen look crossed his face as he thought of them. Why did they even bothering having a kid in the first place when they had their company as their kid to nourish and grow? As Baylen let his thoughts wander, as they often did, Yolanda continued as she gave her statements.

"I'm from South Africa. I can speak Afrikaans. I once broke a man's nose."

Baylen was bored of this game, over probing Yolanda, ready to escape this camp hell hole or at least cloud his mind so he wouldn't have to think about anything else. As soon as she was done he answered. "You have two commonalities in your statements, you are South African and you speak a South African language. I highly doubt you have one without the other so my guess is that you have not broken a man's nose and that is your lie." He paused for a moment, arms now crossed across his chest. "And it's a good thing your life is so perfect that you don't need a vice to get through it, so congratulations" he said in a harsher tone.

"You're right," Yolanda responded simply. "I broke his jaw." She narrowed her eyes at his last statement, mildly taken a back at the sudden change in his demeanor. She knew that she came off cold but was unsure as to why Baylen reacted so harshly to it. It was just a stupid game; they'd probably not even speak again once it was over.

"I'm not sure why my views affect you. I don't know you and you don't know me, despite what this game promises." Yolanda stated calmly. It wasn't like she thought herself above anyone else - quite the opposite, really. Those were the opinions that she had been brought up with.