Bridget learns more about Hell Mel and her exploits as he/she realizes that he/she will have to spend the summer as a girl. Funnier than it sounds. Hopefully.

Chapter 4: The Belle known as Hell Mel

“Hey, you okay Brid?”, said Reina as she gave her a warm cup of chocolate milk and a blanket.

Bridget nervously scribbled “Kinda” on a piece of paper as Mel dragged her two heavy bags in with a single hand.

“I`m glad you’re okay, but usually they come much later. I had no idea you would be near those ruffians.”, said Mel as she sat down on the bed next to Bridget.

Mel saw Bridget writing down something on her notepad, and actually got a good look at the girl for the first time.

To be honest, she was what her sister in-law would call a quiet beauty. Her soft hair wasn`t very long, but it framed her face well, and although she didn`t have many curves in her torso, her legs were shapely enough, especially in that skirt, to gain the attention of many boys. Her glasses magnified her deep blue eyes as well, only adding to this.

This is why, especially, Mel could not figure out for the life of her why she was so shy. She knew that the girl couldn`t talk, but surely she would have gotten used to it dealing with it all her life. Then again, after the experience she just had, she would be pretty shaken as well.

“Hey Bridget!”, said Mel in an upbeat voice as Sarah, the last to come in out of the warm summer air, shut the door. “I know it seems like you feel out of place here, but one of the many goals of the Legendary Five is to make this camp a good place for everyone! How about I give you that long awaited explanation eh?”, Mel stood up and spoke loudly and confidently, something which seemed to get Bridget’s immediate attention and made her stop writing.

Mel could see that Reina had her usual half-sarcastic, half-contented look as Cecilia turned on one of the spotlights from her top bunk excitedly.

The girl took a dramatic pose, as if she was holding a book, and began to speak. Bridget was smiling, not running away in fear this time, and that comforted her to no end.

“It began not so long ago, this saga of the battle for happiness at our dear camp Silva. Several years ago at the ripe young age of twelve, My dearest friends and allies, Jenna and Sarah and I, took it upon ourselves to come to this place of recreation for so many of our school, as evil pays no heed to summer vacation. What we found was a travesty unto good moral standing. One vile villain after another, committing inexcusable acts of dominance and most egregious substance abuse, treating these grounds of supposed camaraderie like so much of a back alley; it was a most saddening site. We, then the legendary four, took it upon ourselves to rid this now nearly noble place of all manner and sort of mistreatment by fellow campers and those who treat this ground with disrespect. In spite of our age, but certainly due to the help of our girl on the inside, the valiant Reina Ballard, we have slowly either reformed or solved many problems plaguing this camp, our major breakthrough being the addition of those wonderfully addictive human communication tools known as computers the previous year. And now, miss Bridget, whom I hope to be calling my newest friend, I extend my official welcome to our cabin, and although I would understand if you would decline our offer, I hope you will join the Legendary Five with us as well.”

The flashlight turned off, and Sarah turned the normal light back on, revealing a surprised Bridget, who unfortunately looked cautious.

After a minute or so of writing, Bridget handed a note out for the girls to read.

“First of all, I can`t thank you all enough for saving my life back there, although I have no idea why you did or would. But even though it was cool to see those bullies get what they deserved for once… I don`t know if I can be your friend, much less join your group. Don`t get me wrong. To be honest from the impressions I have gathered here you seem to be very nice. However, the trouble is, you don`t know me. I have had friends before, and they all either left or betrayed me in time. I know I am not a good person as I get told this enough every school day for most of my life. Please, I’d rather you not get to know me and treat me with neutrality than get to know me and truly hate me. Please, it was not my choice to come here. At least give me this.

Sincerely,

Bridget Alden.”

In writing this, Jack felt somewhat relieved. Aside from the signature, it was the first thing he had said with honesty the whole day.

It was curious to note that the girls all reacted somewhat differently. Sarah walked away casually, while Jenna gave him a long look before going to her own bed. Cecilia looked like she was about to cry, while Mel gripped the paper and had a look of disappointment in her face. Reina, however, walked towards him.

And slapped him across the face.

Jack was caught completely off guard. He almost yelled in the sudden pain, but bit his tongue to make the sound nothing more than an “Mph!”

From his position on the bunk, he could see Reina looking down on him angrily.
“When someone like Mel wants to be your friend, you don`t tell them to fuck off. It looks like I was wrong about you. Come with me tomorrow, I want to show you something important.”

Jack, at that moment was both relieved and saddened. Just as he had thought, once the girls knew even the littlest thing about him, they would be turned off.

“Hey Bridget… I know how you feel.”, said Cecilia who had come up to him after Reina went to bed. “You shouldn`t be scared, really. I`ll tell you more tomorrow, although I can`t see why someone who looks like you would be so cautious around people.”

Jack was again filled with mixed emotions as two girls now, the seemingly impossibly sweet girl and the wisecracking counselor had both apparently had more things to tell him about the girl who called herself Hell Mel. After she went back to her own bed, Jack finally got to open his bags in the bathroom and see his final hope was destroyed.

No spare clothes, only pajamas and a few of his favorite books. Jack, for all intents and purposes, somehow, someway would have to be one of the girls for the rest of the foreseeable future.

Jack took the scissors from his backpack that he had brought into the bathroom, and without hesitation, cut off the pantlegs of his sweat pant pajama legs into shorts and put them on, adjusting the panties so that they adequately covered his male parts, and put on the pajama t-shirt over the bikini-bra.

“It’s really over.”, he thought to himself. He had miscalculated. It was far too late in the night to be considered simply lost at the camp. Getting into the main building would be nearly impossible as well.

The real tragedy of it all was that it had all been his own doing. Changing the computer files, disguising himself as a girl, getting dragged into the situation in the woods, all caused by his own actions.

On top of this all, he was stuck with people that he knew would hate him and already began showing signs of it. This inevitability was something he had realized from the start, not knowing what gender he would be playing to experience it. Regardless, damage control was now a top priority. He had to keep his real gender a secret and stay inconspicuous for the whole summer.

Bridget stepped out of the bathroom with a grim look on her face. Reina payed no heed, and Mel was on the top bunk with a flashlight. Jenna, however, walked over to Bridget as she was getting in bed.

“Hey, I`m sorry for what Reina did to you. For what it’s worth, Mel got her back for you while you were in the bathroom.”
Jenna smiled as her deep, yet warm and comforting voice hopefully provided some comfort to the new girl.

However, Bridget only turned away as she buried herself in her blanket.
“Hey… Mel may act like a nut but you won`t find anyone with a stronger heart.”

The girl in the bed said nothing, and Jenna sighed.

“I guess if you want to be miserable, that’s your prerogative. But let me tell you this. You don`t need a reason to want to be someone’s friend. So go easy on us, okay?”

Jack’s heart was consumed with anger at that statement as the tall girl left. He could not count the amount of times people had asked for his friendship only to betray him in the end. The times his heart had been ripped out and stepped on, the times he finally thought he had a true friend, all lies. His heart had been wrung dry.

With these heavy thoughts, he drifted to sleep.

“Rise and Shine, Brid, it’s time to wake up.”

Jack felt someone shoving him and made a moaning sound, catching himself halfway through. The familiar rough, sarcastic voice of Reina finally jolted him, as a notepad and pen were thrown to him. All around, he could hear the tired moans of the other girls waking up.

“Ugh..what..treachery..is this… for us to be up at such an ungodly hour….”, said Mel.

“Sorry I was so loud, but I need to show miss Alden here a thing or two. You all can go back to sleep. “

“What time is it anyway?”, said Sarah as she revealed her wild bed hair. Bridget had to hold in a laugh as she saw it was still dark outside.

“Oh, I`d say about 5AM. Now, get your ass out of bed! Your uniforms are in the drawers next to you.”

Groggily, Jack got up and immediately noticed something that would cause him some problems. With inhuman speed, he turned away from everyone so that his crotch faced the bed. He hadn`t counted on a morning surprise.

Sheepishly, he took the clothes out of the drawer and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door.

“This is going to be a long summer.”, he though as his cheeks burned red. Quickly as he could, he took off his pajamas and noticed that the paper towels in his bra were becoming disheveled and had almost come out of the cups. He first used them thinking he was only going to need a disguise for a few minutes. He now needed one that would last for two months.

Looking around the bathroom, he saw nothing that would suffice... he would have to spend a portion of the day looking for more stable breasts.

“Oh Joy.”, he thought sarcastically. Jack replaced the paper towels with new ones and put on the shirt and skirt as well as shoes. Fortunately, the skirt flowed enough to hide any more “surprises”. After putting his glasses over his weary eyes, he stepped out of the bathroom to see an impatient Reina grabbing for his hand.

“Let’s go, kid.”, said Reina as she dragged Bridget out the door and into the dark of the early morning.

The camp was eerily quiet in the early morning with the dampness of the dew-filled air making Bridget’s ankles quite cold.

Quickly scribbling down, “Where are we going?”, the new girl showed the paper to her counselor.

“You’ll see.”, she said in a hopeful voice, not at all like he expected her to answer.

Now dragging Bridget through the woods, she slowed down her pace a little until she came to a small overlook facing the lake. Although it was a nice view, Jack saw little point in coming there to talk, or whatever she wanted her to see.

“ you can’t tell by looking, but this lake used to have a huge freaking exposed pipe right in the middle of that lake a few years back. Oh, it wasn`t connected to anything so there was nothing dangerous to leak out of it or anything like that, but that was also why nobody ever bothered to remove it. When Mel got here, she absolutely hated that thing and wanted it out right away’, and took it up with Grandpa…”

wowowow… She was the Doc’s Granddaughter? That’s… right, Reina Ballard. He should have noticed the night before.

“ Anyway, she set up the whole damn thing herself, and without a computer to boot! Went right into town with a couple of the counselors and began getting money in any fairly legal way she could. Man, you should have seen some of the crazy crap that girl got away with. Yeah, there was a bake sale, but to Hell Mel, that was just a cover for the real operation of using card tricks and an arm wrestling scam, to swindle money out of innocent bystanders. Never even caught once. I`d be surprised she was still alive if she weren`t so ridiculously strong.”

Jack was honestly surprised at the tactics Reina mentioned and Reina could tell by the look in Bridget’s eyes.

“Oh, the scam stuff? Hell Mel may talk like a knight sometimes but she’s all craft. If she believes in something she knows is right she’ll go as far as she can without crossing the line to do it. In case you didn`t guess the obvious, we eventually got the money within two short weeks and the pipe was removed. But that ain`t the whole story. You won`t believe what she said when they were driving away with the pipe. I`ll never forget it as long as I live.

She said, ‘what?! You mean I can`t keep it? Insolence! What mockery of values is this! We raised thousands of dollars to get that thing and we can`t even keep it? Thieves! Charlatans! Arrgh!’

Oh man, she kicked that fender so hard it left a dent, and that was with four of us holding her back!”

Jack let out a giggle. The idea of a twelve year old Hell Mel squirming around kicking a truck and leaving a dent was hilarious no matter how impossible it seemed.

“Hey, so you can laugh a little. Throat’s dosen`t seem to be able to take it though. Anyway, what I wanted you to see is coming up just…about…now.”

At that moment, the sun rose above the trees, and shone across the lake, making it literally glow. The rays also hit the dewdrops in the sky, making the formerly normal lake look like a fantasy wonderland.

Jack froze and thought he saw someone..walking? on the lake. Somehow, his view zoomed in closer and he saw the girl from his dreams.. how he looked at the current moment, dancing and looking carefree.

“Hey Brid!”, yelled Reina, snapping her fingers. “Looks like you weren’t quite awake, eh? Anyway, it’s damn pretty, but it only lasts for a little while in the morning. And I can definitely say it looks better without a big pipe in the middle. I don`t know if anything I said helped you, given that you probably went through a lot of shit to be that scared, but if you want to, you can take my word for it that Hell Mel is a-okay.”

Reina helped Bridget up, and guided her back to the cabin. On the way, some of the other campers were coming out of their cabins.

“Oh, and um.. by the way.. I`m really sorry for hitting you. That was not cool in the least. I owe you one, okay?”

Bridget smiled devilishly. At the very least, Jack was glad she apologized.

“Hey early birds, welcome back!”, said Cecilia sweetly as the duo came in. Mel and Jenna were getting up groggily, their messy hair being especially adorable. Sarah was still sleeping, or at least pretending to sleep.

“Hey Cec, hope you guys weren`t worried.”

“We thought you were gonna finish the job from last night.”, said Sarah sarcastically from under the covers. The girls giggled.

“Oh come on guys! I apologized, and all I did was tell her the pipe story and show her the lake!”

“Oh, did you tell her about the part where Mel kicked the truck and dented it!?”

“Oh guys! Come on, you said you wouldn`t talk about that!”, said Mel.

“Sorry, it’s just too funny. The car got a dent and you broke your toe.”, said Jenna while she laughed.

Mel’s cheeks turned red.

“It sure is odd for someone like her to be embarrassed like that.”, thought Jack. Even Hell Mel was human.

“Anyway, since it’s Saturday we have pretty much a free schedule until lunch unless you want breakfast here.”, said Reina.

“Trust me, you don`t.” Whispered Sarah.

“Well guys, I`m going to hit the weights! See ya at lunch.” And just like that, Hell Mel was dressed and out of the door.

“Cec, Sarah, come on; I’ll show you where the new computer room is.”, said Reina. “Brid, Jenna’s a CIT(counselor in Training) she’ll take you around if you want since Jack told me you probably missed the tour.”

“Okay Reina, I think we can manage.”, said Jenna.

As the other three girls walked out the door, Jenna walked in front of Bridget and helped her off the bed where she was sitting.

“Hey...so is there anything in particular you wanted? I was gonna tell you the pipe story but it looks like Reina beat me to it. If you want, I can tell you a different one another time.”

Bridget quickly scribbled down, “Can I go back to sleep? I really didn`t come here by choice.”

Jenna sighed. “Come on, there must be something you want to do outside. If it’s any help, a lot of hot guys come here.”

Jack felt a bit nauseous. That would most definitely not make him want to come outside.

“Hey, what is it? You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. I wish I wasn`t so tall. At the very least, do you want to watch me play soccer? I told a couple of people I would play today if I had the time, and I think at least right now it would be more fun for you than forcing you to do something.”

Jack quickly scribbled down an angry “Fine”, and Jenna gave a frustrated smile.

“Oh well, we gotta start somewhere I guess. Come on!”

Jenna waved for her to follow, and the two “girls” left the cabin.

Jack followed the tall girl to the large field between the cabins, and noticed several people gathered along the sidelines as well as the field. The place was fairly large, and although not the size of a genuine field, it got the job done while allowing to serve as a field for other sports at times. Jenna sat down Bridget at the sidelines.

“I hope you enjoy the game, even thought I’d rather you play with us.” After firmly shaking his head no, Jack sat down and Jenna ran out to the field.

‘Hey Jenna, glad you could make it.”, said a brown haired boy holding a soccerball.

“Yeah, me too. Anyway, is everybody ready?”

The players got into positions, and the boy went on Jenna’s side of the field. When a counselor threw the ball into the air, the game started and Bridget froze.

Not because of anything having to do with the game, but because it was the very counselor that had found him as a boy.

Continued in chapter 5: Evan and the Soccer ball of Justice!