Alex only noticed someone standing next to Richard after she had rammed into him. Glancing to the tall boy's side, she saw that it was that best friend of his with the glasses and beautiful hair. Seeing Stacey practically try to dislocate his shoulder with her own, her green eyes widened and she quirked an eyebrow.
And people think I'm the diva? I mean, Jesus, her freaking last name is Hampton. However, before she could contemplate anymore on the irony, she felt an arm go around her back and her shirt being tugged up. Slowly turning her head, she came face to face with an enraged looking Richard. Staring directly into his vivid blue eyes, she donned an expression of indifference. She was about to comment with a snarky, "Yes, you are cute this up close," when she noticed his eyes shift to the side for a quick second. What was that all about? Stopping all further thoughts on the strange action, Alex let out a tiny squeak of surprise when he lightly pecked her nose before gently placing her down. He was lucky too; she was at the ideal height to knee him in the thigh.
Mock glaring at Richard's beaming face, she smoothed out her shirt before replying with a curt, "Don't do that again. You're messing up my clothes." She knew he wouldn't take it seriously because she had returned his hug, showing she wasn't upset with the interaction. Watching her fellow teammate place his arm around the boy next to him, she lightly smiled at the brunet. As Richard pulled out his phone, she decided she needed to greet... this person. Damn it; she had forgotten his name. "Hey... Mark," she decided to go with. It'd probably be close enough. Mal blinked back at her owlishly, then grinned. "It's Mal," he told her helpfully, before making an obviously deliberate attempt to diffuse the awkwardness. "Your name's, like, Anna or something right?" Subconsciously, the girl's grin widened. She liked this guy. "Actually it's MC Giggles but more importantly, I want you to know I actually knew your name. I just wanted to make sure you knew it," she replied mock haughtily with a wink.
However, the two's playful banter came to a premature halt as Alex tuned in on what Richard was saying. Whipping her head to face him, her expression conveyed extreme indignation. Turning to see Caspy's reaction, she witnessed Luca pulling their best friend away. She could
feel the immense guilt coursing through her before being replaced with anger.
Jessica walked had walked into the dining hall with a slightly puzzled expression. She had been at camp for less than 2 hours, and Kat was already throwing snide comments at her? God, what was that girl's problem? Kat and Jess had never gotten along, and she wasn't really sure why. Ever since they met, Kat had been openly antagonistic towards her.
"Heeeeey, Jess-baby! How've you been!"King's voice broke her out of her thoughts. Her expression immediately sprang to life.
"King! Mal! Oh my god, I missed you guys sooooo much!" Jessica cried out, nearly tackling them both with the force of her embrace. She didn't even take the chance to look closely at their faces before she jumped on them. Not quite letting go of her boys, Jess lifted her head to smile at Alex.
"It's good to see you too Alex."The sudden rush of another body plowing into Mal and King made the taller man brace himself, and he let out a rich laugh as Jess burrowed her head into his chest, greeting him cheerfully. He hugged her with his free arm, while the other still hung heavily over Mal's shoulder, and he stared down at her with cheerful eyes. Not registering that Jessica had come up and greeted them, Alex punched Richard in the arm with some force. "Dude, what the hell is your problem?!" she accused exasperatedly. Not really wanting to shake Jessica free King gave Alex a slightly annoyed glance. Alex did not waver at Richard's look; it wasn't like this was a new occurrence for them. They may have been friends but that didn't mean it was a smooth relationship.
"You know my problem, Alex. Look," King twirled Jessica around, moving her from in between him and Mal to his empty side, slinging his left arm over her shoulder while his right still remained close to Malcolm. A Pink on each arm, man, there's probably some poetic metaphor in there somewhere. Once comfortable, he returned his gaze to the fuming Alex, cocking his head innocently,
"I know you're friendly with Fawn but... You gotta admit, he's just not right for this job." He sighed dramatically, pushing most of weight down onto Mal playfully.
Richard blinked for a second, eyes passing between the three around him carefully. At this moment, he was surrounded by a slightly befuddled Malcolm, a very excited, very hyper Jessica, and mad and getting madder Alex. The odds might be a little in his favor, but, not wanting to hold any bad blood with Alexandria he shook his head slightly.
At hearing the tall blonde's accusations, Alex was on the verge of screaming at him, unaware of the public scene it would cause and letting everyone know their business. She was about to yell at him about how he didn't know that and that it
literally hadn't been one day yet and that he hadn't even given Caspy a chance and Caspy
wasn't a kid and you just
don't talk about her best friend like that. However, all she got out was an extremely frustrated, "Damn it, Richard! It doesn't
fucking matter!" before he was compromising.
"Listen, Al, it's hard for me to be around the kid cause of his... Morals, but I'll try to be civil. For your sake. Maybe." He whispered the 'maybe', a sly light glowing in his eyes.
The conflict on her face was clearly evident, uncertain whether she should just accept his sort of apology or tell him off like she was tempted to. But then he said he would try for her... and he really
would because he was her friend, right? Exhaling heavily, Alex shook her head before letting out a small, "Okay."
Mal pretty much turned back to his phone –
shitposting on tumblr as was much preferred to listening to Stacey Hampton – but turned it off quickly when he realised he was on the verge of being rude to his actual friends after she flounced off. He did absolutely love Jessica, after all, and whilst Richard and Alex were wrapped up in their own conversation, it didn't mean he couldn't talk to his fellow Team Pink member who'd practically silenced them with a suffocating hug.
"Jessica
aaa," he said to the girl through King, who'd become a buffer between them. Yes, he was crushing Mal, just a little, and he wasn't sure he realised. He was happy to put up with it, rolling his eyes. "Let's ignore all this crap with Casper Fawn and Team Blue because
our team is totally sorted right now. How are you? How's life? Any cuties you're interested in? And – I've run out of questions, but how about those?"
Jessica was pointedly ignoring the drama going on between the two blue team members. It wasn't her place to get involved, and she knew that Alex and King had pretty
nasty tempers. Of course, she would step in if things got too serious... Anyways. She directed her attention towards her teammate, Malcolm.
Jess wrapped her arm around King's waist securely so she could shift her body weight over to lean towards Mal.
"Damn straight. Pink team is going to kick ass this year." She replied to Mal with a wink.
"I'm doing fine and dandy. Life is pretty awesome now that I'm here! And cuties, hmmm..."With a wink, she reached out to poke Mal's nose lightly.
"As always there's you, Malcolm Okada! You know that you're one of my favorites." She glanced around to see the other fine male specimens.
"Luca is adorable like he usually is, Sebastian has a killer body, and a couple of the new guys look cute too."Bringing a hand up to run lightly through her hair, Alex caught Jessica's eye when she looked up again. Flashing her a sheepish smile, she greeted her before heading into the line to grab breakfast. King sighed once as Alex chewed him up and then weakly complied with his attempts at meeting in the middle. This was better then getting verbally abused by her any longer. As she swept passed him in a quick dash towards the breakfast line, hands reached up to pull his face down. Once Alex and King had wrapped up their
fight conversation, Jessica reached up to grab King's face and tilt it towards her.
"And of course, I can't forget this guy either. How about you pay some attention to me too, hottie?"In an instant, King's bright blue eyes met with Jessica's brown ones, and he grinned cheerfully at her general neediness for his attention. Blinking once, he leaned closer and gave her a quick peck on the forehead, smirking coyly before pulling back and patting her head.
"Don't you worry, hun. I'll give you all the attention you want~." He sang, slipping out of her grasp and pulling away from Malcolm. His hand rose up to the breakfast line, a question grin now replacing his previous flirty one.
"Now, why don't we go grab some grub, I'm fucking starving." And with that he nodded and followed Alex over onto the line, not really realizing he was cutting in front of a few other campers as he slipped in closer to her.
Eventually, Richard and Alex found their casual rhythm again after she had made a comment about how, "This is the nepotism everyone's always accusing us of," after Mitchell had served the two a little extra helping of their favorite foods. Mmm, french toast. "I mean, I legit cried the whole night and day after it happened. Then afterward, I even petitioned to get the day removed and now I'm not allowed fifty miles within DC. They said the whole world couldn't change their calendars because of how the Super Bowl ended... and that February was a short enough month already or something."
Alex proceeded to speak about sports, the Super Bowl to be exact, and King listened in with half of his mind focused on the amazing looking food steaming up form his plate. As she went on in her usual Alex-y way, his pocket suddenly vibrated again. Looking down at his side, he unlocked the screen with a fee hand and read a rather coy message from the lovely Stacey Hampton;
From: Stace ❤
You should totally come to the team leader meeting and claim your rightful title to the throne. LOL.
"Like can you believe that bullshit?"
A sly grin met his face, but it vanished quickly as Alex suddenly voiced for his opinion, and he rose up to look at her with one eyebrow raised. As she listened for Richard's reply, Alex gazed around the room to see where they could sit. Noticing Caspy and Luca, she was just about to suggest going over there when she realized there was a very bright head and a fellow Blue member sitting with them. Frowning in slight annoyance, she decided against it and turned back to see if anyone else had an idea where they could sit. Sparing one last glance at her best friend, she could feel the guilt eating at her once again. Making up her mind, she settled for apologizing and surprising him before his leaders meeting. That way she would be able to talk to him before it too, no doubt that he was going to be worried out of his mind about it. With that decision, she felt better about the whole conflict. Hearing Richard talk to her, she looked to her side to face him.
"Even I think that's going a bit overboard, you friggin jock!" He bumped her arm playfully, a teasing light glimmering in his eye. Returning the gesture with a small, pleased smile herself, Alex was finally convinced that Richard would try for her.
"Anyway, what else has been going on in Alex-land? Anything fun?""Not without you," the girl teased before continuing. "Not really. Just being rich and beautiful, but what's new right?" the shorter brunette joked before glancing up at the blonde in a teasing manner, the connection between the two showing.
Not really sure what else to say due to the message from Stacey, King drifted towards a nearby table with the rest and sat before excitedly messaging back Stacey.
To: Stace ❤
i would if I could bb. maybe ill spy in on the meeting instead tho ;)
The four campers proceeded to talk about what they had been doing since the last time they saw each other and finish their breakfast. An hour later, they got up to throw their trash away and bring their dishes to the pickup station. Deciding that she needed to get back to her cabin and unpack, Alex hugged both Jessica and Richard and waved bye to Mal before heading out of the dining hall.
