Story is starting to pick up some speed, hope you're ready for a bit of mystery this episode and a few new characters are gonna get chucked into the mix to keep things nice and exciting! Hope you enjoy…

Chapter 5: Meeting The Ranger

"Jeez, you realize that's not just gonna bruise that's gonna swell up? I guess we could put makeup on it but we've got rehearsal tomorrow, Chas is gonna notice" Lil muttered as she moved Tommy's head from side to side with a single finger on his chin. He was holding an ice block Chuckie had ordered from the donut shop against his bruised cheek, it was lemon flavored and even though it was still in its packet, the citrus smell was starting to irritate Tommy's eyes and his hand was getting sticky as it melted. The right side of Tommy's cheek was already starting to discolor, especially around his lower jaw.

"Philip!" Lil rounded on her brother, "You picked a fight with a group of random boys? What is up with you?"

"Leave it Lillian" He muttered, holding his stomach.

"No, we won't. The two of you have been so difficult today but starting a fight with a bunch of random guys is just insane!" Lil shouted at her brother but shot an angry look at Tommy as well.

No one answered her and eventually her shoulders slumped, and she sighed. Kimi fetched a makeup kit from their cabin and sat next to Tommy to try and work out what shade matched his skin tone.

Chuckie began lighting the fire in the middle of their campsite, once it was smoking, he looked up and spoke to Tommy, "So you think the kid broke his hand?"

"No, I just think he cracked a knuckle or something, my jaw bone is a lot stronger than bones in his hand, he also only really skimmed me so I can't imagine it will be bad" Tommy mumbled through the side of his mouth to avoid irritating his puffing cheek.

"Well either way, if they kick up a stink about it they don't know who either of you are but it is possible they'll tell their parents or even admins over there, one way or another it'll become known that campers from Everwood picked a fight with Woodstock. Chas will probably ask us about it, at least ask us boys if anything happened" Chuckie said this looking seriously at Tommy.

"They're the ones who turned it into a fight, they were freaking out and saying we ruined the whole trip for them. It's not our fault" Tommy spoke up angrily.

Chuckie outstretched his hand and Tommy stopped, "Listen man, it doesn't matter who's fault it is, some kid got his hand broken and have probably already started telling people, from the sound of things he's also got a group of friends with him who will back up anything he says. Trust me, by tomorrow morning the story will be that they were just swimming and a group of camp Everwood boys jumped them. It's how it'll go" Chuckie sighed and lowered his hand.

Tommy thought about this as Kimi started applying makeup, he winced at it then looked back at Chuckie.

"What do we do then?" Asked Phil from the bottom stop of their cabin. "Do we tell Chas what happened ourselves? Get our story out" He continued.

"I'm your friend so I'll trust anything you guys say but your story sounds really…you guys do kinda sound like the bad guys, I mean the rest of us walked along that beach just fine" Chuckie looked from Tommy to Phil, neither of them apposed him. "If anyone asks" Chuckie clears his throat and opens up the map he had been examining earlier. "All of us took walk 4C, which leads us in almost the opposite direction to the lake, I know it does because Suzi and Angelica took that walk at the same time as us. I talked to Suzi before and she said they didn't see a soul. We can all support the story. We went along that walk instead and met up with Suzi and Angelica at the end of it and walked back as a group. They'll back us up" Chuckie folded up the map and looked seriously at the two boys.

"What about this?" Tommy pointed at his cheek that Kimi was applying the last of the makeup on.

"You got stung by a wasp, I'm sure Kimi can give you a bit of a red mark around your jaw. You had a nasty reaction to it" Chuckie stood up and pocketed the map.

"Damn Chuckie, you were always such a bad liar" Kimi grinned at her brother.

"Yeah well, this is a little more serious. We could all get in a good deal of trouble and these two could be up to their eyes in it"

"Thanks Chuckie, I appreciate it" Tommy looked gratefully at his friend. Chuckie smiled at him.

"Well, I'm off to have a little chat with Suzi and Angelica" He walked around the now roaring fire and walked off.

"You can't be serious…I'm playing Hubert's assistant? She doesn't even have any lines!" Angelica shouted as she stormed away from the casting announcement board in the direction of the dining hall, where she knew Chas would be sitting.

"I guess that's what you get for not memorizing your line" Suzi giggled to herself before turning to the board, the majority of the crowd of campers had already left for dinner, meaning they didn't need to squeeze together to read the information.

"Okay so, Kimi, you're playing Clementine! One of the leads, way to go! Umm, Chuckie, you're playing, huh, her father, that's weird, didn't you audition for the role of the butcher?" Lil looked up from the board.

"I'm playing her Dad? Well, I guess that's a step above last time" Chuckie sighed and shrugged at Kimi who laughed at him.

"The resemblance is uncanny" She grinned at him.

"Ha ha haaa" he said sarcastically before turning back to the board.

"Phil and Tommy, no surprises there, Chris and Hubert. Angelica, doctor's assistant, Suzi, town deputy. Lil, town id…well that's not very nice." Chuckie petered off.

"WHAT!" Lil shouted as Phil roared with laughter, "He really does have a eye for casting!" Phil nearly fell off his seat as his sister rounded on him and attempted to push him off the bench he was sitting on.

The rest of the board read:

Dil Pickles – Donkey, stagehand & lighting assistant

Didi Pickles – Set painter and Butchers wife

Stu Pickles – Set assembly and Butcher

Drew Pickles – Barber

Charlette Pickles – Hot spring owner

Chas Finster – Bandit #3

Kira Finster – Citizen #5

Betty Devile – Chip Lead Bandit

Howard Devile – Bandit #2, set painter

The board continued but none of the name names were recognizable.

"I'm a what!?" Dil said, checking his role, "I didn't even audition, how am I a donkey?"

"Listen Dil, playing an animal isn't that bad, especially when you can play it on your own and aren't one part of a horse" Chuckie attempted to console Dil.

"Are you kidding me? Being a horse is way cooler than a donkey!" Dil slumped down on his chair.

Tommy attempted to nurse food into his mouth but settled instead to fill up on several fruit juice poppers as the thin straws were easy to keep in his mouth. They had only been sitting in the dining area for half an hour when Chas came over to their table.

"Heya guys, sorry to bother you but could I quickly talk to the three of you? In the office? He looked at Tommy, Phil and Chuckie who all got up and walked out and into the main clearing, up the steps and into the camps head office. It was very similar to the cabins they slept in, same wood, same design just twice the size and much sturdier. Where their's looked and felt like a strong windy would blow it away, the head office looked like it could weather just about anything. The steps leading up to it were 2 inches thick. It had clearly been repainted in the last six months. Inside there was a hard wood floor, a few small windows and two desks, one for Chas and one for, as the piece of wood on the front of the second desk said, the local park ranger. The second desk was empty now. Chas sat down at his own desk, Tommy noticed the face of it was covered in slips of paper, some with red marks on them. Tommy was only able to spy the bold font of one of them before Chas swiped them into a draw. It read, Administration for rural repairs denies access to funds until lawsuit is resolved. Tommy tried to act as if he hadn't seen anything and it appeared to have worked. Chas leant back in his chair and looked at the three boys.

"I'd offer you lads some chairs but I don't want to take up too much of your night. I just received a call from Quinton, I'm not sure if you know if, probably don't. He's the owner of Camp Woodstock, the fancy lookin' place on the other side of the lake. He wanted to let me know that apparently a bunch of Camp Everwood boys were lurking around the Woodstock owned docks and caused a scene with a few of their local boys. Now I don't take much of what ol Quintin says seriously. But I'm sure there is some truth to the matter, now I'm not accusing anybody, if anything did happen, I'm sure it was just bad luck that anyone got hurt. Now the reason I'm speaking to you boys is because you're the oldest of the young blokes we've got staying here. You're practically regulars at that so I'd like to ask you to just keep an eye on the other lads around here. I won't dance around it, I hate those jerks over on that side of the lake and I don't want to give them a second opportunity to sue the hell out of us. I'd feel a lot better knowing you three boys we're aware of how…bad our relationship is with Woodstock at the moment and to maybe, put the brakes on any situations if they should start to happen between any of the youngins." Chas looked at them and smiled.

"That's all I wanted to talk about" He nodded at them and returned to his desk. Tommy wanted to say something. It felt wrong to accept Chas' trust in them so easily when they were the ones who caused all of this, but he was already being steered towards the door by Chuckie who looked at him grimly.

"Oh, one thing" Chas looked up, they turned around and looked at him.

"What happened to your cheek Tommy?"

"Oh, wasp sting, had a bit of a reaction to it" He answered back quickly.

"huh" Chas looked at him for a second, "Well make sure you drop in on the infirmary if you're having a reaction to it, can't have my lead getting unwell now can i?" He smiled at them as they filed through the door and into the night.

"Well that felt awful" Tommy muttered as they walked back.

"I know, I'm not too happy about it either" Chuckie said coldly.

"At least we're off the hook" Phil grimaced.

"For now" Chuckie said ominously.

"Okay campers, LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD! Let's have everyone up on stage for the first scene!" Chas shouted through his megaphone as he stood on the stage. It was half past 11 and it was starting to be the hottest day on record. They had spent the morning in large groups doing a series of full script read throughs. Tommy and Phil had made the unhappy realization that they were in just about every single scene from beginning to end and had a handful of muscle numbers. Between read throughs lead cast members worked with Chas on perfecting their old timey accents while cast members who had multiple roles worked with Ellie to understand exactly what needed to be built, painted and installed for each scene. Tommy's mouth was causing him more problems than he had bargained for but he had gotten some pain killers from Chuckie's dad and his contorted mouth actually helped him finally lock down the accent of his character. Angelica and Chas had already had a series of arguments and it was only the first day. She had insisted on taking other characters lines and coming up with her own every 5 minutes or so. But it was finally good to get out of their script reading circle and to actually get on the stage, it was shaded by a roof and was much cooler than sitting on the benches in front of it.

"Okay so let me set the scene; the wind howls and crashes against the windows, winter is almost upon you now. Enter stage right, Christopher" Chas stretches out his arms, and spreads his fingers in front of his eyes as if he is pushing through from our world into the world of his creation. Tommy awkwardly walks out onto the stage holding his script tightly.

"Your line…" Chas peers at Tommy who resisted the urge to look at his script and went with memory.

"If it wasn't for this weary house I'd be blown away, I haven't seen a storm like this since I was but a boy." Tommy checked the script at the end to make sure he had said all he had to. His delivery was wooden.

Chas stamped his foot 3 times.

"Oh, who's that at the door? Come in!" Tommy responded to the 3 stomps.

"Enter stage left, Clementine and her father, Eustace!" Chas said excitedly. Kimi and Chuckie meandered onto the stage. They paused.

"Line" Chas said tentatively.

"uhhh" Chuckie checked his script, "Christopher, old friend, may we speak with you a moment?"

The scene played out in a very wooden and forced manner, made all the worse by Tommy's extreme awkwardness at the whole situation. The scene required a great deal of flirting between Christopher and Clementine. All of which goes over the head of her father. Tommy's delivery of every flirt felt like the way he addresses a librarian, oddly formal and slightly afraid. Chuckie didn't make it much better by consistently forgetting his lines. Even despite the rocky start, there was something slightly exhilarating for Tommy to act with Kimi, to portray characters who were so distant to themselves but still have an interaction that felt oddly familiar.

After their scene was finished, they began rehearsing again down in the clearing around the stage. While they did this Stu, Drew and Ellie used measuring tapes to work out dimensions of the stage and how large they would need to cut pieces of cloth and how tall the cardboard trees would need to be. All of this was recorded down by a kid Tommy recognized from school, he was the same height, same build…same hair. Tommy climbed up onto the stage and called out, "Hey Trevor?" The kid looked around and smiled at him.

"Hey T, what's up, I didn't know you were here" He handed the piece of paper he had been writing the dimensions on to Ellie as she, Tommy's Dad and uncle all walked off the stage and back to their group.

"I've been here since the camp started; I haven't seen you once!" Tommy wasn't overly close to Trevor, especially after he had attempted to copy everything about Tommy in the 4th grade, going as far as taking his way of dressing and mannerisms. After something like that they had always been a little awkward, but Tommy liked Trevor.

"I got here yesterday, just before dinner. We've come here every year since I started high school, we weren't gonna come this year cause we thought it was going to be closed but we found out last minute that it was going and had a ton of empty cabins so we drove on down" Trevor shrugged his shoulders, "I wasn't doing anything major this summer anyways"

"Oh okay, wait you didn't think it was going to be on?" Tommy was confused, his Dad had booked them in a few months earlier, they could have just checked the website and they would have known. Trevor looked around them then leaned close to Tommy and said quietly. "I don't think they want to advertise it too much but my Mom knows people around here, so she's gotten all the details. Everwood is getting sued. Sued into the ground type of thing. We thought they would have shut down by now but apparently not"

"Sued by who?"

"Um, I can't remember its name, it's a competing camp near here. Apparently the two of them had a pretty close relationship, like they shared walks and attractions, but then something happened and it damaged the other camp enough to make them try and get rid of Everwood, pretty crazy stuff huh?" Trevor leant back and looked around again, "I should go, I need to help them out with the dimensions of the backgrounds, catch ya later T!" Trevor ran off the side of the stage, through the dressing room, and out into the clearing behind the donut shop that his group were working. Tommy paused, trying to work out what he had just learned. "Everwood is getting sued…right, that piece of paper from Chas' desk makes more sense. But what was that about rural repairs funding being denied? What needed to be repaired? There was all the damage done by those fallen trees but how could that be related?" He thought to himself, he turned around and nearly walked directly into a very tall man who looked down at him. There was a pause as Tommy just stared at up the man.

"Uh, excuse me" Tommy said, he was about to take a step to the side and go around the man when he was stopped.

"What we're you talking about with that boy then?" The man said thickly, Tommy looked directly at him. He had a thin face, a square nose. Thick creases in his brow, his skin war warn from years in the sun and wind, given his complexion an almost leathery feel. He had a thick beard that covered his collar from view. Tommy followed the beard down and saw a pin on his green button shirt. It read, Park Ranger.

"Oh, we know each other from school, just catching up, I didn't know he was coming to this" Tommy said shyly. The man just stared at him, craning his head to the side.

"What happened to your face?" He muttered

"Oh, wasp sting? I was on a walk with some friends, 4C or something like that and –" The man cut Tommy off.

"You know anything about a scuffle that happened near the lake yesterday evening?"

"A-A scuffle?"

"A fight"

"Yes I have, Chas told us about it last night…after dinner"

"Did he now…"

The two of them stood there for a moment.

"Is it alright with you if I get back to my rehearsal?" Tommy inquired, trying to keep his voice calm. The man nodded slowly, and Tommy began to walk away, feeling relieved when the voice of the man came again, quieter now.

"Young man"

Tommy turned around and looked at him.

"Keep some ice on that bruise, or else the swelling will take weeks to go down" With that the park ranger walked off towards the head office. Tommy paused. He had known. What did that mean?

Well there ya go, another chapter done, bit of tension, a few new characters in the mix, where will it go? We shall see!