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TDI-4.

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                                   Dreams Come True, Unfortunately
   "'...and now she was writing to Dear Abby to ask if Abby thought it meant something.'" Cody silently read aloud. He shot a wide-eyed look at his reading partner, Noah, to telepathically get permission to continue to the next chapter. His answer, however, came to him in the form of a pillow thrown at his head.
   "It's 12:30 a.m.!" The radiant Justin snarled. "I need my beauty sleep and we have a challenge in the morning!"
   "Justin's right," Trent yawned from underneath his bunk, only half awake. "None of us can sleep with your little reading lamp on. Besides, we all need to be well-rested for whatever Chris throws at us tomorrow."
   "C'mon, guys," Cody whined like a little boy would to his mother, "just one more chapter? They're not that long."
   If a cloud of weariness had not overcome his body, Noah would have argued alongside Cody. He plopped his worn-out bookmark on chapter 14. "Me, you and Fight Club aren't going anywhere, Cody. I promise we'll read it after the challenge tomorrow."
   Cody smiled a mix between disappointment and anticipation. "All right, you win," he hopped to his bunk below, ripped off his shirt and slithered into bed. "G'night guys! Hehehe."
   Noah flipped off his reading lamp. "Good night," his soft reply was aimed solely, but discreetly at Cody. He sighed blissfully. Noah's lovesick puddle had gradually developed into a pool, and right now, he was swimming laps around it.
                                                         ***
   This was murder. Absolute torture. Noah planned on suing Chris for forcing the campers to run 20 kilometers immediately after waking up. His swift, steady jog he started with quickly withered to the point where Noah could barely pick up his feet. "Halfway...there..." he panted to himself. He took a reluctant step, but his leg jiggled and nearly gave out on him. Noah attempted to gulp, but he couldn't get anything down his dry, clenched throat.
   "What am I doing?" Noah thought aloud. "Noah Zachary Snider, you've found a way to sit out gym class everyday for the past three years," he leaned graciously against a tree. "You can find a way out of this!" He pondered for a moment, trying to discover a method to keep him from running another 10 kilometers.
   A lightbulb went off in Noah's head when he spotted Owen crawling about 20 feet away, gasping for breath. Owen: his gay buddy; his secondary friend. It was real fortunate he befriended someone so sweet and naive, or else he might not pull this off. Noah put his years of lying and faking sick to the test as he dropped to the ground and wheezed dramatically. Unfortunately, he forgot how sluggish Owen was, so he spent a good five minutes unnoticed and wasting his breath until pudgy finally caught up.
   Owen forgot completely of his exhaustion once he caught sight of his supposedly dying friend. "Sweet child o' mine!" he exclaimed. "Noah! Speak to me, buddy!" He snatched Noah up by his shoulders and cradled him in his chubby arms.
   "Asthma..." he gasped theatrically, "forgot...inhaler...can't...breathe," and he pretended to pass out.
   "Don't die, Noah!" Owen sobbed to high heaven. "Stay away from the light! I'll get you some help!" He darted to the messhall as fast as 296 pounds could go. Noah made himself comfortable in the cushiony fat of Owen's arms and kept his breath scarce. He almost felt guilty lying to someone who gave his all for him, but this was a competition, and Noah was simply using his resources.
   Owen burst through the messhall door with Noah draped over his shoulder like a bag of dogfood. "Clear a table, stat!" Noah felt himself being dumped onto a hard, wooden table and prayed Owen wouldn't give him mouth-to-mouth CPR. Instead, Owen pumped heavily on Noah's heart. Noah was thankful he wasn't in any real danger, because Owen obviously didn't know what he was doing.
   There were noises at the door Noah couldn't quite comprehend followed by Gwen declaring, "Hey, wait a minute. If they lost, that means we won the challenge!" At this statement, Noah arose from his fictional unconsciousness to rejoice with the rest of his team.
   At least until Chris said, "Woah there! Hold your horses, guys! That wasn't the challenge."
   Gwen's jaw dropped. "What did he just say?"
   Chris had no intention to clear the campers' confusion. "Who's hungry?" he asked as he opened a red, velvety curtain revealing a bountiful buffet of turkey, baked beans and other such foods. A cheer rang throughout the messhall. Every camper pushed and shoved like savage animals to eat the first real food the received in a week. Now, Noah was not an emotional person, but once he sunk his teeth into a steaming turkey leg, he could barely keep tears of joy from rolling down his cheeks. If he hadn't been deprived of a proper meal for so long, he might have had the common sense to be suspicious of Chris' non-sequitor banquet.
                                                          ***
   The funny thing about turkey is that it's a natural sedative. Turkey is loaded with an amino acid called trytophan. Trytophan helps produce the B-vitamin niacin, which helps produce serotonin. Serotonin is a chemical depressant that calms the body down and is an important asset to the sleeping process. Noah knew this and apparently, so did Chris.
   The real challenge was to see which team could stay awake the longest, so the early 20K run and turkey fest was all part of Chris' diabolical plan to get everyone good and sleepy. Chris was an evil, sadistic, cruel, conniving man. If he wasn't using his plots to Noah's disadvantage, Noah might actually admire him.
   It had been four hours into the awakeathon, and Noah was experiencing severe videogame withdrawals. He closed his eyes, thumbs twitching, and tried to picture himself playing Final Fantasy IV. "Hey, Noah," Noah's eyes snapped open as he was pulled back into reality. The voice came from Cody, who was strewn on the ground by Noah's feet, staring aimlessly at the sky. "Didja bring Fight Club?"
   Noah shook his head in weary frustration. "I asked Chris if I could, but he said we can't have special help staying awake."
   Cody yawned, "That sucks. You got me hooked on the book." He rolled over on his stomach to check the progress of the other team, the Killer Bass, and jerked back around. "Hey! If we can't get help, how come Eva gets to listen to her MP3 player?"
   Noah glanced over at Eva, who now had Harold on the ground, kicking him violently in the stomach for unknown reasons. He shook his head and let his eyelids fall. "No one says no to Eva. Not even Chris."
                                                           ***
   38 hours: that's how long it took Noah to beat Devil May Cry 3. It's also the longest he ever went without sleep. He chuckled to himself. No one else could last that long. They reached their 20-hour mark and Noah spent his time watching the other campers around him drop like flies. Oh yeah. He had this challenge in the bag.
   He rested on his side near the campfire to keep warm. Good God, it felt so nice! The ground was soft and sweet, hugging him in a welcoming embrace. The fire's heat tickled his arms, inviting Noah to come closer so it could keep him toasty like a blanket. A blanket like the fluffy, red one he had at home.
   Home. He closed his eyes to imagine what home might look like right now. Durden would probably be lying in his kennel, gnawing on a tennis ball. His brother Gabriel would be checking his Facebook for the umpteenth time. And his parents would be asleep...in a nice...soft. Bed. Bed...sleeping.......sleeping......
   "Noah, wake up!" Chris shook Noah by his shoulders, rescuing him from his nap.
   "What?" Noah rubbed away sleep form his moist eyes. "Are you helping me?"
   Chris nodded his head furiously until it turned into headbanging. "Of course I am! You're the coolest and most attractive guy on the island! Plus, I kinda wanted to give you something." Noah's heart beat with flattery and eager anticipation as he watched Chris reach for something in his back pocket. "Cloooose your eyes," he purred. Noah clamped his eyes shut and felt Chris wrap something around his neck. "Ok," he whispered seductively, "open them."
   Noah opened his eyes and found a necklace dangling on his chest. On the necklace hung a large, brown lump. Noah gasped in utter amazement. "A nose?"
   Chris patted Noah's shoulder. His eyes sparkled with pride. "Not just any nose, dude," tears of joy streamed down his cheeks. "Chef's nose." Chris couldn't speak anymore. He pounded the ground, trembling, sobs choked his throat.
   Noah could scarcely believe ThE Hon0R. Chef's nose. This was, the best gift he's ever received. Noah ripped off his clothes until he was stark naked and ran up the thousand foot cliff. He could. For he had Chef's toes on his neck. Teeth. Once he reached the top, Noah flung himself off. "Viva la vie Boheme!"
   The water he landed in was warm. So warm. Waa-rmm. The sand at the bottom of the lake was soft. THE SOFTEST. Noah sniffed the water to catch air of its beautiful scent. And it was. It was beautiful. He sniffed. Noah sniffed. He could breathe underwater. There was only one explanation for this: NOAH WAS A MERMAID! Or, he was dreaming. That one made more sense.
   Wait, crap, he was dreaming!? That meant he fell asleep! Which meant he just weakened the Gophers' chance of winning the challenge. Waking himself up wouldn't fix anything. He screwed up and nothing he could do would fix that.
   But... since he was aware that he was in a dream, that meant he could use this opportunity to test his theory on the ability to control dreams. The question was, what should he dream about? What was something he loved? Something he wanted to do so badly, but couldn't in real life. While these questions clouded Noah's head, he felt a hand in his pulling him upwards to the surface.
   As Noah burst through the waters, he was blinded temporarily by the bright sunshine in his face. Once he regained his vision, Noah discovered he was gripping onto Cody's neck for dear life all over again. Just like the first day of camp. Cody, who was shirtless, swam steadily forward in a never-ending sea of red. He cocked his head behind him, smirking at Noah, and batting his eyelashes. "Just hold onto me, Noah," his words puffed out of his mouth like smoke from a chimney, "and don't let go."
   Who was Noah to disobey orders? He grinned mischievously, slid his hands up and down Cody's bare chest, and played with his belly button. Cody began to hum a cheery tune. The sweet sound of his voice was more that Noah could take. He leaned forward and licked his hot, smooth neck. Cody giggled and tilted his head back further, asking for more. Noah showered his shoulder with kisses, working his way up until he reached his ear. His delicate, soft ear. And babe, don't you know it's a pity the days can't be like the nights in the summer, in the city, in the summer, in the city...
   The waters below them evaporated to the sky, leaving behind hard, sturdy dirt. The boys' clothes seeped from their pores and covered their naked bodies. Noah gripped tighter and kissed harder. They flipped over on their left side, maintaining the same position. The scent of smoke and pine needles wafted through the air. The music that faded away was replaced with hushed birdsong. Noah gave Cody one final kiss before he left his precious dream and entered back into the realm of reality.
   He fluttered his eyelids open. He could see his lips had not woken up yet, because they were still gently kissing Cody's ear. Realization struck Noah like a bolt of lightning. He was awake, yet Cody remained beside him. Had he been kissing Cody in his sleep? Noah jerked his head back and confirmed his suspicion. A scream escaped him lips, which must have woken Cody up. Both boys jumped to their feet, yelling in shock of what had just happened. Noah panicked, darted behind a tree and slouched to the ground, blushing in shame and embarrassment.
   He smacked himself on the forehead, much like Owen would. It was bad enough that he made out with Cody's right side. It was worse now, since their shouting definitely caught everyone's attention. But the most horrible part was what he saw out of the corner of his eye as he ran off: a cameraman positioned eight feet away from the sleeping pair, recording everything that occurred in those thirty-or-so seconds. He banged his head against the rough tree. Great. Now his fantasy would be broadcasted on national television.
                                                              ***
   Noah the germophobe spent more time in the shower than any other male at Camp Wawanakwa. "I must've been really tired," he mumbled to himself, "falling asleep on the ground like that." He flipped the lukewarm water off and wrapped a towel around his shivering body. "That dirt was probably teeming with all sorts of germs and bac-" Noah froze immediately when he stepped out of the shower and found Cody leaning into a mirror, popping a zit. He gulped. The last thing he wanted to do right now was talk to Cody, but he knew if he didn't, they might not speak again. "Cody?"
   Cody flipped around in sudden surprise. His face melted into a bright red. His head sunk until he could see nothing but his feet below him. "Oh, hey. What's-what's up?"
   Noah winced. "I just wanted to...a-apologize for the, uh..."
   "No, no," he interrupted, "it's cool, bra. It's cool. We're cool."
   Noah was not convinced they were "cool" one bit, but for now, that would have to do. To prevent another awkward silence, he added a hesitant, "You know, once you're done with your shower, we could...catch up on our reading. I mean, if you want to, that is."
   Cody craned his neck upwards slightly to make eye contact with Noah for a split-second. "Actually, I mean, yeah. I'm kinda tired and wanna take a nap. Like, you understand, right? Hehehe."
   Noah sighed. "Yeah. I understand. You must have been up longer than I have." That night, Fight Club went unread, Cody's spot on the mattress remained cold, and Noah's heart broke. It wasn't the lack of a friend that hurt, but the fact that after his shower, Cody went to go play Frisbee with Tyler.
I've got so much to say. I'll probably forget half of it.
1. The part about Noah being a mermaid was a shoutout to :iconkenzisa-blazestone:
2. I got all my turkey facts here: [link]
3. The lyrics belong to one of my favorite hippie songs Summer in the City by Lovin Spoonful
[link]
4. To you lovers of smut, I'm sorry, but Noah's dream is the dirtiest the whole story's getting >.>
5. Please don't say anything about inconsistencies of time in this. I'm aware of it, but to be honest, the whole "Big Sleep" episode didn't make much sense to me. Why is it that once someone falls asleep, they stay asleep for 3 days?
6. Title's so long, it would fit into the story >.<
© 2009 - 2024 homestar-n00b
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JustCalltWhatYouWant's avatar
the picture scares me.