A Bumpy Team

"Did the princess go to purge her dinner?" Iona O'Hara asked.

With a half-day of school on Friday, the team had taken Thursday off and left late that morning. Now roughly a third of the distance to Wicket Valley, they had stopped their two vehicles at Count Chick-O's. Whitney made her displeasure known about eating fast food but gave in when faced with a lack of better options. Purchasing the smallest meal, the cheerleader captain finished well before the others and headed to the restroom.

Wesley paused with a chicken tender half in his mouth. Not looking up from her phone, Daisy Kirby shook her head slightly at the comment. Sean didn't even acknowledge it. Lost in his troubled thoughts, he barely picked at his food, despite his stomach's hungry rumblings.

"Eww! No, Whitney doesn't do that," Aurora Rusk responded, sticking up for her captain.

"I mean, come on, Rory. There is no way she keeps that skinny figure without doing it," Iona countered.

"How do you keep your skinny figure?"

"I work my ass off. I need to stay in tip-top shape for soccer," Iona explained.

"Whitney does the same for cheerleading," Rory replied.

"Oh, please--"

"I thought that too when I switched from volleyball to cheerleading. Guess what? It's harder than you think," Rory explained. "And Whitney works out. You should see the fitness room in her mansion. It's bigger than this restaurant."

"She's coming back," Daisy announced, not looking up from her phone.

Iona and Aurora shut up in time as Whitney sat back down at the head of their table. Glancing to the seat closest to her on the right, the heiress caught her fellow cheerleader squirming.

"Is something the matter?"

"Matter? What would be the matter? Nope!" Aurora stammered.

In spite of her quality acting as a member of the school's drama club and her hobby of live-action roleplaying, Rory wasn't the best liar off the top of her head. Instead, she needed to be lost deep into a role to work her magic. Rory spent the last several weeks since accepting Sean's invite badgering him about what role she would play during their investigations.

A blonde with a bob hair cut, hazel eyes, medium-sized breasts, and a toned ass. Roy had to be one of the busiest and most creative girls in school. She loved acting in plays and spending one weekend a month immersed in her LARPing adventures. An above-average volleyball player, she let Lacey, her twin brother's girlfriend at the time, convince her to join the cheer squad for senior year. Seeking to piss off her controlling father, she did so while quitting volleyball as a way to reinforce that her other non-athletic activities mattered more than his opinions.

Whitney shrugged off her skepticism of Rory's response, figuring it didn't matter. Then, she shifted her gaze to the person closest to her on the left side of the table. Studying Sean for a few seconds, the queen bee's face scowled.

"Are you still freaking out? It's been over five hours since we left."

"I'm not freaking out! I'm wondering if I'm walking into an ambush," Sean said, revealing his paranoia. "How does my mom wait until the last minute to mention a critical detail? How?"

"Maybe because if she told you before, you'd have spent weeks freaking out," Iona remarked.

"That's a good point," Whitney agreed. "Maybe take the paranoia down a notch, Tarver."

"Paranoia?! My aunt was on the winning team twelve years ago. She earned her scholarship. Yet, a year later, the Hardaways revoked Brandy's scholarship. If that doesn't portray my family and me in a poor light, Grandma got into a massive argument with Rex Hardaway. Not that I blame her. How dare Rex big time my grandparents by acting as if my grandpa wasn't on his level? Grandpa Seamus fought dangerous gangs. He took down The Corner Slasher. He didn't just tail cheating husbands. And who did the Hardaways stop? Dudes in homemade Halloween costumes!"

"Well, this should be an interesting trip," Iona commented.

"So can't wait until you tell these Hardaway people that to their faces," Whitney added.

"Um, maybe Sean has a point. What if they selected him to get payback through humiliation?" Wesley speculated.

"Thank you!" Sean exclaimed.

"You had to go and enable his delusions, didn't you? Thanks a lot," Whitney admonished.

"While your suspicion might have a few merits, you're also missing a mitigating factor," Daisy said, finally speaking during their dinner.

Sweet, smart, and bookish, Daisy had the cute/hot nerd vibe going on with her long, dark-blonde hair, medium-to-large breasts, and firm ass. Sitting shotgun in Mrs. Tarver's SUV while he drove the first leg of the trip, Daisy stayed mostly quiet while playing navigator. Studying her phone, the high school reporter briefly mentioned preparing for the YSC with details about previous challenges that Fawn Graff told her about. Now, Daisy's gray eyes peered through her glasses at Sean.

"You forget to factor in that your sister served as a member of Finn's team during the last challenge. Surely, if the Hardaways held a grudge against your family, Peyton would've noticed," Daisy continued.

"Maybe Peyton's appearance reminded them of why they hate his family," Iona suggested, earning groans and moans from everyone but Sean.

"Maybe..." their team captain trailed off in thought.

Finishing their Count Chick-O's meals, the mystery team hit the bathroom one last time before re-embarking on their journey. The last person out of the restaurant, Sean found Iona with the rear passenger door open to his mom's SUV. Bridget had ordered him to drive her vehicle as she didn't trust his old sedan on such a long trip.

With one leg propped up inside the black SUV, Iona stretched her leg. Sean's gaze briefly flickered over her toned ass, honed from years of soccer. A star player, Iona had a highly competitive and hyperactive personality. Sean knew from JoJo that Iona dealt with a lot of stress over the last year plus as multiple colleges scouted and recruited her. And he heard she burned that stress off with wild bouts of sex. That wasn't hard to believe as Iona loved to tease and harass Sean sexually, giving him mixed feelings. On one hand, she looked sexy with her wavy dark brown bob, light-brown eyes, medium-sized breasts, and toned figure. But, on the hand, the sexual teasing felt more like **** as Sean knew she'd never take it the final mile due to her friendship with JoJo.

"Hey, last chance, Tarver," Whitney called out from her gold SUV. "I can still have my dad set up a private jet to fly us the rest of the way. There's got to be an airport close by."

"Nah, I'm still good," Sean waved off the offer.

It had been his call to drive the roughly sixteen-hour drive. Wesley agreed with his rationale as a shortage of rental cars still existed, and neither wanted to be caught in the middle of nowhere without a trusty vehicle.

"Hey, it's cool if I ride with you guys?" Iona inquired toward Sean. "The cheerleaders drove me nuts. They keep texting the rest of the pep squad about spring break out at Wasp Lake. It got sickening quick."

"Yeah, I guess," Sean said, shrugging his shoulders. "Hey, you still good to drive this part, Daisy?"

"Yep. Uh, you should get a little sleep. Wesley can help navigate," the junior journalist suggested.

"I look that bad?" Sean asked with a bit of humor.

"Looks like you tossed and turned all night."

"I did."

Climbing in behind the driver's seat, Sean glanced as Iona hopped inside at the other end.

---

Sean lounged in the chair next to his family's pool, soaking up the sun rays. Usually not a regular sun tanner, he'd given in to his sister's best friend, Lana Stratton. The busty, playful ginger cajoled him for the better part of the morning until he gave in to her wishes. It'd have been easier to say yes if it wasn't just the two of them and his sister, Peyton. The two coeds often bickered over Lana's teasing of Sean.

Drifting off to sleep, Sean jerked awake with a start. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Sean nearly had a heart attack to find his swim trunks down with Lana jerking him off.

"Oh, Seanie, if I'd known how big you were, I'd have done this years ago," the vixen cooed. "We don't have much time before Pey returns. But I promise we're going to fuck so much this summer. I'm going to wear this dick out."

Sean nodded while moaning at the pleasure from his old crush's rubbing. It felt so good and almost so real. Real? Why wouldn't it feel--

Jolting awake for real this time, Sean blinked the drowsiness away. It took several moments to realize his whereabouts as the SUV drove down the nearly-empty road in the dark now that the sun had set.

Suddenly, Sean heard a moan close by. Looking down, he found Iona's head on his lap. The brunette mumbled in her sleep with an occasional moan as the side of her face rubbed up and down on his hard-on.

Or Iona acted like she slept. Even in the mostly dark vehicle, Sean picked up a thin smile, and moments later, an eye shutting as the headlights from passing cars illuminated the interior for a split second.

"Dammit! You promised, Iona!" Sean exclaimed, using his lower body to shove the teasing girl off his lap.

"Wha--huh...What's going on?" the smirking brunette asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Cut the shit. You weren't sleeping," Sean stated. "Gawd! I should've known you lied to Jo about behaving. I bet you had your fingers crossed when you said it."

"I've behaved. What my subconscious does isn't my fault. The sandman's dream realm works in mysterious ways. Ooh, that's a mystery you can solve," Iona replied, chuckling.

"You, move over against your door," Sean ordered before peering around the front seat toward the dashboard. "What time is it? Anyone ready to stop for the night?"

---

"This is the creepiest-looking motel I've ever seen," Whitney declared, surveying where they planned to stay for the night. "Even the desk clerk had the rat face that killers always have in movies."

"Better than a clean-cut momma's boy named Norman," Wesley mumbled, shivering at the thought.

"I think we should change the four girls in one room and two boys in the other plan," Rory announced. "Whitney and I get Sean in our room."

"No way! Don't stick us with Wiggy," Iona complained. "He'll just slow us down when the psycho chases after...Wait, I'm cool with Wiggy in our room."

"Hey! I'm not killer bait...and don't call me that," Wesley responded.

"Iona, you call him that again, and you're sleeping in the car," Sean vowed.

"Fine! Like any of us are going to sleep tonight."

The next morning the girls changed their tunes after noticing one motel room had a solid night of sleep. Sean got bitched at by Whitney and Rory when they learned about Wesley's ingenious solution for their concerns. Going out to the dumpster, he found several empty beer bottles near the ground. Taking those, Wesley jerry-rigged an alarm system for their motel door.

Heading back onto the road, they sought to finish the final third of the trip with as few stops as possible. Finally, after what seemed like forever, the two SUVs pulled into the one-intersection town of Drygully. Needing to fill up their tanks, Sean and Whitney pulled up to the gas pumps in front of Last Stop General Store.

Happy at the opportunity to stretch their legs, the rest of the occupants tumbled out the car doors. As everyone groaned from stretching their limbs, Sean glanced at the time on his phone. Pleased to see they weren't running late, he realized another detail.

"Hey, Drygully is supposed to be the last cell signal before we enter the valley. So, if anyone wants to make a call or send a message, let's do it now."

Finished pumping the gas, Sean took Whitney's cash and headed inside the general store with Wesley. Walking inside, they noticed how the conversation in the store stopped at their entrance. Smiling awkwardly, Sean nodded before he and Wes went to grab cold drinks for everyone.

With each carrying three bottles, Sean took a moment to study the three men standing around while he walked toward them. One man watched them approach with suspicion. Sean wondered if he worked in a restaurant based on his shirt's grease stains.

The man behind the counter had to be the store's owner. A rugged-looking fella, he wore a cowboy hat with gray hair sticking out at the bottom. Clearly a salesman, he eyed the items in the two teens' hands.

It was the third man that Sean addressed first. Having spent time at Wasp Lake Park since early childhood, Sean recognized the man's uniform.

"Chief," Sean greeted with a nod.

"Afternoon," the chief ranger of the forest service greeted in return. "You kids part of that detective thing?"

"Yes, we are," Sean replied. He started to hand over the money for their items before pausing as Wesley added a newspaper from the largest city in the area. Good idea, Wes! I should've grabbed one.

"Kind of a weird event, isn't it? Who solves fake murders all the way out here?" the man with the stained shirt challenged.

"Nestor," the chief ranger warned.

"Uh, I don't think we only solve fake murders. To be honest, we're not sure what type of mysteries we'll be solving, but I know from past competitors that the people running the event like a variety," Sean explained, not backing down from Nestor's glare.

His steady response pleased the chief ranger, who offered Sean his hand.

"Virgil Rangel, chief ranger of Wicket Valley Park. Where you come from, you a regular park visitor?"

Sean explained about Wasp Lake Park and its two-hour drive from his hometown. Chief Rangel surprised him by revealing that he knew Chief Zeb Colburn. Sean countered by saying that one of his friends outside owned a cabin on Wasp Lake and knew the rangers stationed there quite well.

"Good man. Colburn has a reputation for taking rangers on their last chance and turning around their careers. I've sent him a couple. One worked out," Virgil revealed. "Out here, we tend to be the punishment park for rangers."

Sean chatted for several minutes with the ranger. The general store's owner said barely ten words during the time while Nestor mostly glared.

"Honestly, folks around here don't know what to make of your detective competition. But if you need us, the local ranger station is just down the road," Chief Rangel said, pointing in the direction.

Sean thanked him and left with Wes.

"What the hell took you so long?" Whitney questioned, beating Iona by a hair.

"Chatted with the chief ranger for Wicket Valley Park."

"Really?" Whitney's eyes lit up. She loved most of the rangers near her family's cabin.

"It seems this is the place they send the rangers that caused trouble," Sean revealed.

"Oh, great," Iona grumbled. "Better think twice before running to a ranger for help, princess."

"Shut up," Whitney snapped back. "We ready to go or what?"

"Anything in town?" Wesley inquired, glancing up and down the short line of buildings.

"Oh, right. Last night's motel wasn't the creepiest ever. That place wins," Whitney proclaimed, gesturing across the road and down a couple of buildings.

"Did the general store have a food counter inside? No? Then, it looks like Bandito's might be the only restaurant in town," Daisy guessed.

"And we met the cook or owner, and he didn't appear too thrilled about our presence," Wesley informed the rest.

Climbing into the two vehicles, the teens began the very short trip to the entrance to Wicket Valley. Sean gripped the steering wheel as they entered the narrow pass. The two-lane road barely fit in between the two rocky sides. I bet this is scary if you're towing a camper or boat with cars coming down the other lane simultaneously.

The situation got even hairier as a light fog formed near the end of the pass. Sean breathed a big sigh of relief after exiting into the valley. Immediately, Iona, Wesley, and Daisy plastered their faces to the windows to peer out.

"Ooh, look at that graveyard up on the hill," Iona announced.

"Where?" Wesley asked, his heart dropping in fear.

"The sign on the road says Boothill. That's appropriate for this region," Daisy said from the front passenger seat. Sean nodded in agreement.

Not much further, they reached a fork in the road. Continuing straight would take them to the park's public beach and campground based on the signs. They turned left to head west as that led to Camp Wee Wicket, their destination.

Sitting behind Sean, Wesley pointed out a road that led to several buildings off in the distance. No activity appeared around them.

"I believe that is Lazy Loop Ranch. It's been abandoned since before World War II," Daisy informed the rest of the car.

It wasn't much further before Sean hit the blinker, leading Iona to crack a comment, and turned right. Then, slowing down, he drove north through a forest-lined road that weaved back and forth a little.

Eventually, they reached a small grassy clearing in the forest with buildings scattered amongst the woods. A rugged-looking outdoorsman-type motioned for Sean to drive up to him. Appearing to be in his mid-twenties with mid-length black hair, he caused Iona to coo.

"Damn, I bet he's got some stamina."

Sean thankfully hadn't lowered the window yet. When he did, the man asked for his name.

"Sean Tarver and The Magnifying Bees."

"Alright, pull over to that empty patch by those trees. Your assigned staff member will be with you shortly," the man said. After Sean nodded and rolled the window up, the guy pulled out a walkie-talkie to speak into.

Exiting their vehicles, the six of them surveyed their surroundings. Then, realizing there wasn't much to see, they walked to the back of the SUVs to get their bags.

"Shitting me!" Iona exclaimed, but everyone ignored her. "Hey, Sean, you hiding anything else from us?"

"Huh? I'm not hiding--What the hell?!" Sean sounded once he turned around.

A leggy model-like blonde walked toward them. With blue eyes, medium-sized breasts, and toned ass, Sean knew this blonde quite well. He knew she had a slightly raspy voice, could be uptight and planned to continue her family's legacy by becoming a doctor. How did he know all these details? She was his sister, Peyton Tarver.

"Pey! What the...That's what Fawn meant by a familiar face," Sean realized.

"We thought it would be fun to surprise you guys," Peyton said before hugging Rory and Whitney. She knew them the best based on Rory's volleyball days and Whitney's close friendship with Lacey, her best friend's younger sister.

"We? Finn's here, isn't he?" Sean questioned, connecting the dots.

"He'll catch up later as he's busy," Peyton confirmed. "Okay, grab your bags, so we can put them in your cabin."

The six teens grabbed their stuff, with Peyton carrying a couple as Whitney overpacked. Then, they followed her down the gravel road toward what appeared to be the center of the summer camp. Rory inquired about the other teams.

"Some have arrived, but the Hardaways don't want the teams to meet until the welcome reception in a few hours. They have everything planned to almost the minute," Peyton revealed. "Alright, see that building? That's the dining hall. All meals and meetings will take place there."

The group turned their heads to catch a look at the largest and longest building in sight.

"Camp Wee Wicket's office is that building. We're not using it as the Hardaways are headquartered in the guest cabin, which is right behind it. However, the lone telephone is located inside the office. You'll need to get one of the girls staying there to let you in." Peyton next gestured to the second largest building. "That's the recreation center/lounge. It's where we've relaxed the last two nights. Besides a sitting area, there are pool and ping pong tables, arcade games, and the nurse's office."

"A pool table? Is Lana also going to be another surprise staff member?" Sean queried.

"After her behavior at the last competition? No way!" Peyton stated firmly, leading them down a trail. "Alright, besides several storage sheds, there is also a boathouse down by the lake. Now, Camp Wee Wicket has cabins for the campers and counselors. Most are still shuttered for the winter. Ah, here we go."

Peyton stopped in front of a small cabin, number 7. Climbing a few steps, she opened a screen door. Motioning for the six teens to enter, she followed them inside.

"I am not sleeping in a bunk bed," Whitney declared.

"Can we fit on those beds?" Wesley wondered.

The single-room cabin contained a long bench along the large front screened window, a square table, and four chairs. Further into the room, six single beds filled the center, with three on each side. Behind those lay four bunk beds. In total, the room could sleep fourteen campers.

"No AC? I can't say I'm surprised," Iona grumbled.

"Yeah, who could've expected this spring heatwave? It's been miserable the last two nights," Peyton remarked. "But we at least have fans in the counselor cabins."

Sean glanced over at the lone rotating fan near the window and groaned.

"Oh, hell no! We're heading straight back to that rinky-dink town and buying up all their fans," Whitney announced.

"Sorry, no time for that now. As I said, the Hardaways have your team scheduled for a tour of a few locations," Peyton revealed. "So drop your stuff and follow me."

"Uh, am I missing something," Wesley stammered. "Where is the bathroom?"

"Oh, right. Sorry. I forgot to mention that you need to use one of the two shared bathhouses. We passed one on the way over here. That's where the bathrooms and showers are located," Peyton explained.

"What?!" Whitney and Iona screeched while Daisy shook her head.

"Shared bathhouse? Oh, man, this so turning into Friday the 13th," Wesley whined. "Somebody is going to die."

"Dammit, Wig--Wesley, stop imagining this as a slasher camp! Picture this as a teen camp movie where they pull off crazy high jinks with lots of nudity. Or better yet, nonstop fucking," Iona ordered.

"Gawd, it's scary how much you're like your brother," Peyton commented.

"Don't say that. What the hell did I ever do to you? Well, what?" Iona responded defensively.

"Whatever. Come on, let's go take a tour. Oh, maybe take off the cold weather clothes. It's stifling out there," Peyton suggested.