[shynessincarnate]

Zoe was feeling fidgety. She kept playing with her hair, putting it up into a ponytail before taking the elastic out and putting it back in again. She couldn’t believe that she had agreed to be a part of the prank. However, she had made up her mind under pressure; when the camp councillor had come in the hall after supper, Zoe had hoped that she could weasel her way out of making up her mind, but Camille and the other girls had pressed on while the man was talking. Zoe had tried to say no, but to no avail; Camille just wouldn’t let it go. To make matters worse, the councillor had noticed the discussion that was going on near him and, pausing mid-sentence, had turned towards the chatty teenage girls with a reproaching glance. Not wanting to attract too much attention to herself on the first day, Zoe had finally caved in and muttered a curt ‘fine’ before turning her attention back to the speaker.

The rest of the evening went by quickly. Zoe had sat by the fire, absentmindedly hearing bits of conversations, letting the odor of the burning wood soak into her clothing. When the flames had started to die out, and students had started to walk away from the pit and towards their tents or bunkhouses, Zoe had followed suit.

Now, as she was sitting in her bunk, Zoe was wondering whether she should just back out or not. Deciding she should at least stop playing with her hair, the toned brunette put the elastic back into her hair and tried to find a better way to occupy her hands. Her brain almost immediately sent her an image: two inch-wide spherical objects. ‘Not exactly what they’re meant for, but what the heck’, she mused. Retrieving the black box she kept hidden, Zoe searched for and grabbed the two matching hollow metal balls. She put the box away and, placing the two spheres in her left hand, started to rotate them around with her hand.

It wasn’t long until Zoe saw someone enter the bunkhouse. “It’s time” the girl said simply before exiting. As a few girls left their beds and left, Zoe quickly pocketed the balls and, on a bout of inspiration, removed the small LED flashlight she kept with her keys before leaving to pull the first prank of her life. She was looking around, wondering where she should go when she saw the small tent that was planted in an almost isolated section. ‘I’ll do this one’ Zoe thought. ‘They look like they tried to hide their tent so they’ll probably think that they’re safe’.

Zoe tried to walk as silently as possible towards the tent and a smile drew across her face when she was only a few paces away. ‘They’re snoring’, she remarked, a smirk forming across her face. Keeping the small flashlight between her teeth, Zoe worked on unzipping the entrance to the tent as quietly as possible. Once she had enough space to crawl through, she entered. Zoe quickly spotted the two sleeping bags in what was the largest part of the tent. Both bags were obviously occupied; she could see the head of one of the two boys and hear the light snoring coming from the second. Remaining on all fours, Zoe surveyed the tent, finding that ahead of her lay another small area. ‘That is where they must have put their suitcases’, she thought, noticing that they weren’t in the main area of the dome. As quietly as possible, Zoe crawled towards the area she had spotted and stopped when she saw the suitcases. ‘Piece of cake’, she thought as she retrieved the very visible underwear from within each suitcase hugging it tightly in her arms as she made her way back out.

Despite having gone through the hardest part of the task without a hitch, Zoe’s heart was beating at a rapid pace when she finally extracted herself from the tent and closed it back up. She quickly made her way towards a dense patch of trees behind the tent, one of the areas chosen by the girls to hide their “loot”, never noticing the shadow wrapped around one of the larger trees she passed or the little red light accompanying it. She knew she was in a good spot when the light cast by the moon diminished considerably. Placing her artificial light source between her teeth again, Zoe looked around and hid the clothing in a rather large bush. Her heart was beating so loudly that she was totally unaware of what was going on around her; all she could think about was getting back in bed. It seemed, however, that fate had something else planned for her that night. As she turned around to make her way back to her bunk, her heart seemed to stop in its tracks as she came face to face with a familiar face. “Hello Zoe”, the person said. It was Luke.