TVH/Okay
From Create Your Own Story
"Okay," you say, reluctantly scooping up your pillow and sleeping bag off the mattress. Megan almost seems surprised that you gave up without much of a fuss. She tosses her hair and flops down on the lower bunk with pizazz. You check to see if the bunk in the other room is still available. It isn't. You sigh and climb up onto the only free bunk left in the second room. Megan and Stacy are chattering as if nothing happened as you move to shove your duffel bag under the bunk. You catch the eye of the slender girl sitting cross-legged atop her black sleeping bag on the bottom mattress. With her dark clothes, dark hair, and dark eyes she seems to be more of a shadow than a real girl. You feel both drawn to her gaze and unnerved by it. You look away and push your stuff under the bunk.
Melissa pokes her head in the doorway. "Dinner is served in the Great Dining Hall of Ferris Castle. Anyone hungry?"
Stacy snorts. "Seriously?"
Melissa ignores her and claps her hands. "That was a rhetorical question. Come on, girls, let's go."
Megan and Stacy roll their eyes, but they obediently follow. You move toward the door and look to see if the shadow girl is following. To your surprise, she's already gone. You enter the first room just in time to see her disappear outside just ahead of you. The two of you join the group and troop down the three flights of stairs and across the path to the cafeteria.
The Great Dining Hall was indeed more of a typical log-cabin-style camp cafeteria than an elegant medieval hall despite the coats of arms, antique shields, and tapestries lining the walls. You catch sight of your little sister across the room, beaming and chattering with her new friends. There was never any doubt she would love it here. The question is: will you?
As you eat, your counselor explains the final step of registration. "Every camper must choose one of three classes. These classes will determine the activities you do and the role you will play in any skirmishes that might come up between the Kingdom of Ferris and it's rival, the Kingdom of The Glade. You will get to choose your class as soon as everyone has finished eating and we have all cleaned our table area. The options are: Rogue, Knight, and Diplomat."
"Diplomat?" sneers a bold, stocky girl with thick black hair and matching eyebrows. "Why is that even an option? That sounds like the most boring class in the world!"
"You'd be surprised, Kim," Melissa replies with her eyebrows raised. "The life of a royal diplomat could be full of all kinds of adventure and intrigue."
Kim huffs, rolls her eyes, and takes a big bite of mashed potatoes. The rest of the meal is filled with lively discussion about the classes. Stacy and Megan are so excited about being diplomats and wearing fancy dresses that they are hardly able to find time to eat between run-on sentences. Susan, who, judging by her Camp Ferris baseball cap, has been to Ferris LHC before, speaks mostly with Melissa as the other girls are not excited about conversing with her. Katrina, an average girl with sandy-blond hair and boring brown eyes says that she wanted to be a diplomat, but you're not really sure who she was talking too as no one seems to be listening. The shadow girl, whose name, it turns out, is Rachel, says nothing.
The meal ends and it is time to decide:
