By Land

The teens followed their older counterparts out of the cabin, the air immediately becoming less stuffy than inside the tiny, packed building. Zack wanted to ask more about how Taylor, Peter, and Hannah ended up hired by the Shrouded Veil, as his surprise got eclipsed by the happiness of seeing them there. They made it clear that the teens shouldn’t worry about that at the moment, as the tour was a more pressing matter.

Taylor and Hannah were wearing what seemed to be an uniform; a white spaghetti top and tan shorts, besides a pair of hiking boots. Peter was wearing a shirt and pants in the same color scheme, but he wasn’t the focus right now. Zack's gaze was fixed on Hannah's fit, athletic legs, while Gavin couldn't take his eyes off Taylor’s lighter, longer ones. The boys' attention snapped back to their faces when they turned around to face the youngsters again.

"So, each team will get a different tour," Taylor started. "Ours is supposed to take you…"

"Heeeey! Hang oooon!“

Everyone turned to a spot where a lanky, brown-haired guy was running toward their group, a camera in his hand as he waved at the staffers. He had to adjust his glasses when he nearly tripped on the stones that dotted the paths that connected the different areas in the camp.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forgot," Peter said. "You guys are gonna have to take some pictures."

"Really?" Heather and Grace queried in unison, though the level of excitement in their tones were quite opposite from each other.

"Hi there, Barney," Hannah teasingly greeted when the other older boy caught up to them, a bit out of breath.

Taylor leaned into her best friend's ear. "Play nice!" She sternly warned, but as always, Hannah only grinned in response.

"The pictures," the boy, Barney, told Peter while lifting up his camera. He looked a bit afraid of Hannah.

"Right," Peter chuckled, bringing his new acquaintance closer to the teens. "Guys, this is Barney Barrie, he's in the staff too as a photographer."

“Hi,” Barney waved at the team with a smile, which they happily reciprocated.

"But, is the whole event getting photographed?" Ashley inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"That's right," Hannah grinned at her little sister. "It was in the waiver forms you all signed. The image rights.”

“Okay, before I forget, a picture with the two Bishops together, please,” Barney said, motioning for Taylor to grab her brother. “Rex and Tish will kill me if I forget to take this photo.”

“Why?” Zack asked while Taylor rolled her eyes, their arms going around each other’s waists. His sister’s body felt warm next to his, the heatwave unforgiving even around Wicket Valley.

“Oh, get this, Zacky,” Hannah gushed, mirth plastered all over her expression. “You and Tay are kinda big celebrities around here.”

The siblings finished posing for that picture and then he turned to the blonde. “Celebrities? Tay, what’s going on here?”

“Dad won the first contest twenty-one years ago, so now the Hardaways have big expectations of you, and by proxy, me. Put your back to mine and cross your arms,” Taylor instructed, so they could pose for one more picture.

“Alright, that should do it,” Barney told them. “Now, let’s take a few with the full team, and then we can break it into groups that you guys think might make sense, okay?”

The teenagers then proceeded to huddle together and pose in several different formations as Barney snapped away with his camera. First, they lined up with Zack in the middle, then Zack and Gavin crouched in front of the four girls, and finally, Zack with his arms crossed in front of the other five. Next, it was time for duos and trios as Zack took pictures with both Gavin and Peter, and even one with the older boy in the middle of them with his arms around their shoulders. The three cheerleaders in the team took a trio photo, and one with Hannah standing behind them. Heather took duo pictures with everyone but Grace. Ashley and Hannah also took a few fun pictures together. Zack took duo photos with every one of the girls, first Heather, then Ashley, Grace, and lastly, Hannah, who teased him mercilessly by pulling his body as close to hers as possible. Their hips were almost glued together as her arm encircled his lower body and he swung his around her shoulders.

“Say cheese now, Zacky,” she provoked in a sing-song tone and he complied. He would always have a crush on the oldest Woodsen sister at some level, that was inevitable, but now he was at a stage where he didn’t feel that intimidated by her anymore, and Zachary wondered where that could lead him. As soon as Barney took the pic, Hannah gave her best friend’s little brother a big kiss on the cheek and walked away.

Yeah, that effect’s still devastating, he mentally laughed as his dick stirred in his pants.

“My turn for a pic with our esteemed leader!” Madison piped in, happily walking over to him as Barney pointed the camera at them.

“Oh, yes, how could I forget my second-in-command?” Zack teased when the beautiful brunette sidled up to him.

“Really?” She asked, wide-eyed, blushing hard at his words while trying to play it cool. Nearby, Grace let a faint frown reach her face as Ashley beamed at them.

“What are you scheming?” Hannah asked, bumping her sister with her hip.

“Nothing!” Ashley innocently replied, a conspiratorial grin on her face.

“Hey, what about me?” Heather inquired, a curious eyebrow raised at her cousin, followed by one of her trademark smirks.

“And me, I guess?” Gavin asked, in a lower volume.

Zack grinned at the two of them. “Guys, I love all of you, but Madison’s like me when it comes to mysteries, she even sent an application for this,” he explained, throwing her a quick smile. “If I get hurt or something and can’t lead the team, I want her in my place.”

Everyone missed the looks Taylor, Peter, and Hannah exchanged with each other.

“Thanks,” Madison softly said, throwing her arms around her crush for a tight embrace. “That won’t happen, but if it does, I’ll do my best to rein these fuckers.”

“Hey!” Grace snapped, while Barney took the opportunity to take a picture of the hugging pair, figuring it was an important moment.

She pulled her head back, and Zack, staring into her hazel eyes and noticing her dark hair shaking with a sudden gust of wind, once again felt an almost unrelenting urge to kiss a teammate. The feeling of that slender, athletic body warming him up, medium-sized breasts pressing up against his chest, didn’t help the situation of his cock in the slightest. The annoying appendage slowly hardened, and before it could brush against her crotch, he pulled back with a big smile.

“Now, I believed there was a photo we needed to take,” he said, forcibly coughing to make that semi-erection go away.

Madison didn’t fully let go of him, though, and the two of them ended up taking several pictures, making all sorts of funny faces and gestures to the camera. Eventually, the others joined them and a new round of funny pictures had to be taken. Inspecting his camera, Barney smiled at his fellow staffers.

“This should be enough,” he told Peter and Taylor. “I see another team is coming in the distance, so that’s my cue. See you guys later!”

“Wait, Barney!” Peter called out to him. “”Have you seen Finn?”

“Oh, yeah, he’s busy with something!” The photographer responded, almost tripping over a tree root that was in his way.

“That guy’s gonna get injured if he keeps tripping like that,” Hannah commented and then turned to her best friends. “What now?”

“Now we do the tour. Guys, c’mon,” Taylor called out to her brother’s team and gestured for them to follow her to the lake. “Let’s continue the tour.”

“Eew, those are the shared bathrooms, girls,” Hannah winced as the group passed by it. It didn’t look bad, but even the girls who were cheerleaders felt kind of uneasy about sharing it with dozens of other girls.

“Don’t listen to her,” Taylor warned. “They’re all clean.”

“Yeah. Focus, Han,” Peter playfully said as they took a path out of the camp and toward the lake.

“Alright, as Pete probably already told you, this is Shimmer Lake,” Taylor announced as the group got closer to a narrow strip of sand on the shore. “It has an ‘L’ shape in case you guys are wondering.”

“Whoa, is that a waterfall in the back?” Ashley queried, pointing at the far side of the lake.

“Yes, but we’re not there yet,” Hannah laughed. “Hold your horses, dammit.”

“This place is bigger than I expected,” Gavin said, looking around as Taylor revealed they were supposed to follow the east side of Shimmer Lake in their tour.

“It might look that way at first,” the tall brunette smiled. “But it has woods and mountains almost everywhere. You’ll need to find the few hidden gems scattered through the valley.”

“And no, she’s not telling you guys that you’re supposed to find literal stones,” Hannah snickered, earning an exasperated look from her best friend.

Zack fell behind with Peter as they walked along the narrow beach. “Hey, I know this seems to be the ‘Keep Zack in the Dark Festival’, but can you at least tell me how you guys ended up here?”

Peter let out a hearty laugh. “Sorry, man, it’s just that the Hardaways are real big on secrecy,” he clarified. “When we sent your application, they must’ve seen Taylor’s name in the envelope and immediately connected it to your dad. Since they were hiring college students to work in the contest, they approached her with an offer, asking her to suggest two more people,” he made a pause, glancing at Zachary to check if he was following. “Tay knew I always wanted to participate in the YSC, so she picked me the moment she read their letter. Han was hovering around at the time and basically **** us to bring her along, if you can believe it.”

Now it was Zack’s turn to laugh hard. “Oh, I can, she never lets you and Taylor out of her sight, and you two are happy with her being here too. You just don’t admit it.”

A grin spread across Peter’s face. “Yeah. You know, you’re getting wiser than you look.”

“Well, I have my moments,” Zack chuckled, accepting the compliment. “So, you guys are doing okay with the rest of the staff? Did you get here earlier?”

“Yeah, it’s been a few fun days. A bit of a grind with the crash course and all, but it was cool meeting everyone,” the older boy explained. “There’s this guy a year older than us, Finn Singer, led a team three years ago. Zack, he knows everything there is to know about the YSC, it’s crazy.”

Zack nodded, listening to everything with a grin. He was about to ask if Taylor made any friends, but it was the exact moment they got near the spot where the lake would turn into a larger beach, so the group stopped.

“Were you guys geeking out again?” Hannah called out from the front with a smirk.

“Let’s wait for Pete and Zack to catch up, guys,” Taylor said in a rare teasing moment that had Heather snickering.

One would think that Taylor, Peter, and Hannah wouldn’t be friends given their different interests, but it always looked like they complemented each other in that friendship. Taylor was the serious one, while Hannah was the wild girl, and Peter stayed in the middle trying to keep arguments from snowballing. All three of them were attending Green Hills College, with Taylor being a pre-med student, Hannah half-heartedly going through the Political Sciences course in order to get into law school, and Peter firmly on his purpose to become an English and Literature teacher.

“Haha, very funny, you two,” Peter pretended to be mad.

“You love it, Petey, just admit it,” Hannah said, playfully waving him off.

“Alright, this is the public beach,” Taylor said, a bit louder than she usually would, so she could stop Hannah from teasing Peter further. “Whenever you guys have the chance, don’t just go diving headfirst in the lake, the water can get really hot a few times a day in this heat.”

“Damn, this must be why I was feeling hotter all of a sudden,” Heather said, inspecting the bigger sandy area.

Even hotter? Gavin mentally asked, his gaze discreetly running along the cheer captain’s perfect body.

Grace reluctantly nodded. “Somehow, the heatwave is even worse here than back home,” she remarked, her feet already hurting from all the walking. At least she wasn't carrying her luggage anymore.

“It’s pretty much deserted right now,” Hannah informed. “But get ready to see a few locals and campers using this, and I’m sure all of us will crash here once or twice when we’ve got some time off.”

“Time off?” Taylor chuckled. “You remember the concept, then?”

“Jeez, what’s going on around here?” Ashley inquired, a bit of suspicion in her tone.

Hannah shrugged. “Nothing much, the Hardaways are a bit sadistic, that’s all.”

The teens all looked at each other with wide eyes, wondering if that hard-working attitude would be expected of them during the challenge as well. At that moment, they noticed a boat touring the lake, with about the same number of teenagers on board, plus an older-looking boy and girl.

“Hey, how come we don’t get the boat tour?” Heather complained and Hannah leaned in to whisper in her ear.

“Another team?” Zack asked, sidling up to his sister and her friends.

“Yeah, that’s Peyton with them,” Taylor answered without thinking and immediately turned her back on the lake. “Alright, let’s get going.”

Zack turned to Peter for an answer, as he detected just a small hint of stiffness in the way Taylor had mentioned the other girl’s name. The older boy just offered a shrug and a small smile in response, it wasn’t his place to out Taylor’s problems.

When the group started walking away from the beach, Zack and Gavin couldn’t help but notice how the girls’ asses looked incredible in their snug denim shorts and pants, or tan shorts in the case of the older girls, the fabric nicely molding to their firm, round cheeks. To escape the potential situation of being caught in the act, Gavin quickened his pace and caught up with Peter, while Zack stayed walking a few ways behind the others. He wasn’t alone for long, though, as Madison slowed down her steps to walk with him.

“Hey,” she grinned at his proximity. “So, looking at this lake, it reminded me of something. Are we doing that codename thing?”

“Well,” Zack chuckled. “It was just something I thought it could be fun. We can talk to the others later or tomorrow and see what they think.”

“It is fun!” She insisted, being a member of their school’s drama club, it was an idea that piqued her interest quite a bit. “Of course, we’re here to solve mysteries, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it in style.”

“The noble way,” Zack nodded, gazing into her intense hazel eyes, causing her to unconsciously lick her lips. She was looking rather good that day, in a black tank top and denim shorts that left her long legs bare. It was awesome to see his old friend coming into her own after living under her father and brother’s oppressive shadow for so long.

She gave him a cute smile in return. “Well, I promised Grace we were winning it, after all.”

Peter then whistled to get everyone’s attention, as the teens seemed to have broken into different chat groups. “Okay, here’s the campground,” he announced. “Campers that don’t rent a cabin will mostly be here, and Drygully locals sometimes show up to just hang out or do nothing,” he chuckled.

“Oh, Mr. Klutz is there with the RV,” Grace said, spotting the driver her father hired near the lake shore. “Be right back, I gotta take the keys from him.” She tried to jog toward the man, but exhaustion quickly shot down that idea, so slow steps ended up as the best choice.

“Shit, I can’t take this heat anymore,” Hannah cursed, and then surprised everyone by reaching down to grab her white tank top and pull it over head, baring her large tits contained by a lacy black bra.

“Hannah!” Taylor and Peter cried out in unison.

“What? It’s just a bra, soon enough people will be traipsing around the lake in even tinier bikinis,” she justified, bunching the top in her hand and wiping off her forehead with the other hand. Zack and Gavin gazed intently at her deep cleavage, a few drops of sweat making their way between the tantalizing valley of her breasts.

“Oh, excellent idea, Hannah,” Heather smirked and then copied the former cheer captain, stripping off her top to reveal her pale cleavage, just as big as the older girl’s, encased in an expensive dark-blue bra.

“Ok, people, this is getting out of hand,” Peter said, even though he couldn’t fully avoid looking at the two large pairs of breasts on display. Zack and Gavin were the same way, though when it came to Heather, Gavin couldn’t stop his dick from hardening, while Zachary tried a bit unsuccessfully not to ogle his cousin’s incredible bust.

“I swear, you two…,” Ashley shook her head.

Heather snickered. “Well, why don’t you take yours off too? It’s really hot here, no one will mind.”

“Yeah, Tay,” Hannah nodded with a teasing grin on her face. “Get rid of that top too, you can’t say it isn’t hot.”

“No way! I’m not flashing my bra!” Ashley complained, her arms immediately covering her chest, even though she hadn’t taken off her top. It wasn’t that she was a prude, but the blonde cheerleader would have preferred to be wearing a bikini instead, if she were to strip off her clothes.

“Tay?” Hannah insisted.

The tall brunette let out a tired sigh. The heat was unbearable anyway, so she could pretend to be annoyed. “If it gets you off my back, then yeah, sure,” she conceded, and then Zack couldn’t look away as his sister stripped off her top, revealing her medium-sized breasts guarded by a black sports bra, as her dark hair fell in soft waves down her back once the top was off. Even though he had seen her in bikinis plenty of times back home, there was something more intimate about underwear, making him understand why Ashley had opted to keep her top on.

Damn, Tay, the younger Bishop thought, his eyes following the freckled patterns on his older sister’s back before landing on the swell at her chest, forcing him to look away. Gavin wasn’t so **** in ogling both his old crush and current one, and even Peter couldn’t help but spare a few curious glances.

“Gavin? Peter?” Heather asked both boys, a predatory look on her face. “Care to offer some eye-candy too?”

The boys spluttered and quickly shook their heads negatively while Madison crossed her arms. “Why not Zack?”

“He’s my cousin,” Heather immediately replied with a grin, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Why the frack is everyone stripping?” Grace fearfully asked as she came back with the key, Mr. Klutz walking by the group and getting on the road back to Drygully.

“Oh, it’s way too hot, Smith,” Heather was the one who replied. “Maybe you…”

“Don’t even think about it, Heather,” Madison playfully interrupted. If there were moments she stood up to her captain, it were the times she felt her closer friends, such as Grace, needed to be protected.

“Let’s keep going, please,” Hannah whined, fanning herself with a hand. It was obvious the older crowd was tired from their training, and the tour taking too long only added to that condition.

The others nodded and Grace shoved the key for the RV into her pocket. “So, I’m supposed to keep the key while Mr. Klutz stays in Drygully. If we need the RV for something, come to me, okay?”

The staffers exchanged another look that the teens missed as they guided their charges northwest of the campground. Zack continued bringing up the rear, and Madison kept accompanying him in the same pace as the others walked a few steps behind.

“Hey, Zack,” she whispered at her crush, and when he turned his attention to her, she gave him a smirk and proceeded to pull her top over her head as well, shaking her long, dark-brown hair as a close view of her medium-sized breasts encased in a blue bikini top was revealed to his astounded eyes.

Somehow Zack knew that she wanted him to look, and that he did, his gaze drinking in the sight of those well-formed breasts. Does she…? He asked himself, eyes lifting up to stare into hers. Madison was so much bolder those days that it was kind of hard to predict what she wanted to say or convey with her actions. Almost as hard as his dick was at that moment.

Madison’s smirk became sexier on her perfect features as she stared into his amazing icy-blue eyes. She knew for sure now that there was some degree of attraction on his part, and she wanted nothing more than to kiss him hard right now, but after gaining her freedom, it also came with clarity. She figured that coming at him with all guns blazing was a bad idea. No, she would drive him insane before dealing the final blow, so Zack would find himself **** to say yes.

“Thought it was too hot,” she told him, their gazes never leaving each other’s.

“Yeah, too hot,” Zack said, returning the smirk that she held on for a few moments before they broke it almost at once. When she turned her back on him, though, his smirk grew devious. “Actually,” he said, halting her progress. “Yeah, it’s too hot.”

That said, Zachary also swiftly pulled his shirt over his head, finally giving Madison a view of her crush’s bare, well-defined chest. She felt her bikini bottoms getting wet in her panties, as her gaze raked over his body. He passed by the slackjawed brunette, trying to hide the grin on his face.

Two can play this game, Maddie, he thought before craning his neck back to look at her. “You coming?”

Zack felt her rejoining him as the duo quickened their paces to catch up with the others. The ground was slowly inclining upwards as they came closer and closer to a few shacks in the distance. Once the group was about halfway there, the staffers made them stop and Taylor took charge.

“Okay, roughly this way into the woods,” she pointed out to the trees. “You’ll find a clearing called Serenity Grove by some of the locals and Seance Grove by others.”

“Reason is, once you’re there, it seems like you can’t hear anything,” Peter added. “There’s this deafening silence that no one can explain. It's quite pleasant to me, though.”

“That’s weird,” Gavin commented.

Hannah snickered. “Oh, you should hear all the outlandish stories the people here tell about that clearing,” she started counting on her fingers. “Haunted burial ground, UFO landing spot,” the second one making Gavin’s ears perk up. “But my favorite one is definitely the witch coven.”

“Witches!” Ashley blurted out, eyes widening in surprise.

Grace groaned. “You guys really believe in that?”

“Well, you know what they say about witches,” Heather said, putting her hands on her hips and jutting out her amazing bust. “I don’t believe them, but they definitely exist.”

Taylor chuckled at the teens’ antics, raising an eyebrow at both her brother and Madison being shirtless as well. “C’mon, you all, we’re almost at the shacks. Leave the local legends to the locals.”

The group kept walking, Grace struggling even more at the soft incline, until they reached a few small wooden shacks and cabins near the shore of Shimmer Lake. Some of them were lined up along the lake, but a few others could be seen scattered in the woods. Peter cleared his throat this time.

“You probably won’t be here much, but those are the fishing shacks, which I don’t believe I need to explain why they’re named that way,” he said, earning a round of laughs and chuckles from the youngsters. “Those cabins, on the other hand, are rented by campers who come to the valley for some peace and quiet and don’t wanna sleep in a tent or a vehicle.”

“Are there people staying here now?” Zack inquired.

“Yeah, I don’t believe so, but that can change any second, so you might end up meeting them,” Taylor responded. “There’s a lodge, way to the east, the Rusty Buckle Lodge, which I’ll already tell you guys, even though it’s privately owned, it will be used in the contest,” she informed them.

“The Hardaways got the Buckle family to graciously lend it to them,” Peter added with a small smile. “You need to be careful in there, don’t wanna break anything.”

“Now, for our last stop, and my favorite on this side of the lake,” Hannah cheerfully said, her big tits wobbling in her bra as she went over to the shore. “The waterfall!” She made a show of presenting the upper portion of the lake, where an imposing stony wall rose off the ground along the entire north and west sides of it. At the north, a big waterfall poured its waters onto Shimmer Lake.

“Way bigger than Zaffre Falls, huh?” Peter inquired both Heather and Grace, who were admiring the view. “That’s a river called Meltwater River, it flows down the mountain.”

“It’s awesome!” Zack grinned, and Madison and Gavin shared the sentiment, flanking him at the shore.

“For Pete’s sake, try not to go there!” Taylor warned, looking each one of the teens in the eye. “Even if you do, for any reason, be very, very careful.”

“Oh, yeah, there’s even an old sunken boat down there,” Hannah teased, causing Taylor to roll her eyes.

“I wasn’t gonna tell them that!” The brunette gritted her teeth.

The voluptuous blonde waved off her friend, though. “Relax, Tay. If they didn’t find out by us, one of the other teams would sure as hell mention it.”

While Taylor and Peter shook their heads and sighed, Grace groaned in pain. “So, it’s over now, right? Can we go back?”

“Yes, but it’s the same walk back, Grace,” Taylor answered in a sympathetic tone. “Can you hold it?”

The green-eyed blonde groaned again and then fell on her butt, sitting on the grassy ground as she tried to massage her feet. “Ugh…, I don’t think so.”

Peter snapped his fingers as an idea came to him. “Okay, uhn, Grace, can you hand me the keys for the RV for a moment? I can bring it here and drive everyone back to the camp.”

“Mmm, always a hero,” Hannah teased.

“Can you?” Grace fished the keys out of her pocket and handed it to Ashley, who was the closest to her. “Thanks, Peter,” she told him as the other blonde tossed it to her sister’s ex-boyfriend. “I’m fracking pooped.”

“I won’t be long,” Peter reassured them and started jogging back to the campground.

“Run, Pete, run!” Hannah called out to him as she jumped a few times, drawing Zack and Gavin’s attention to her bouncing breasts. “Don’t go tripping on a branch before you get there!”