Area 52
By
Gary CurtisPowerpuff Girls created by Craig McCracken and all characters associated with the show are owned by Cartoon Network.
The light from the campfire flickered brightly, casting eerie shadows across the childrens' faces as they sat around it. It was Friday night, the first of the weekend camping trip to the Townsville Forest by Ms. Keane’s kindergarten class; and many of the children had never been away from home and their families, let alone go camping. In fact, a good number of the students weren’t along; their parents believing they were just too young still for something like this. The children who were allowed to make the trip were Mitch Mitchellson, Harry Pitt, the Floyjoydsen twins Lloyd and Floyd, Elmer Sglue, Julie Bean, and the triplets known collectively as the Powerpuff Girls, Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles.
You could hardly even call it camping. Townsville Forest wasn’t exactly what you would call roughing it. Sure, there were some large areas of dense growth where only an experienced hiker should go, but not this part of the forest. It was nicely cleared out and there were dozens of areas, each with small log-style cabins that could be rented. Each area was numbered and was accessed by a footpath that led from a parking area off of the main road that ran through the developed part of the forest. Each cabin sat roughly a hundred yards from the next, so there was plenty of space for the renter to feel ‘away from it all’ during their stay. Smaller areas with single cabins could be had and larger ones, with up to four cabins to accommodate bigger-sized groups, were also available. For this trip, Ms. Keane had gotten two cabins. She and the girls would sleep in one and the boys in the other.
It was almost eight-thirty on this early June evening, near the end of the school year. It was warm, so the campfire was for fun, not heat. It sat in the grassy area belonging to the girls' cabin, centered pretty much between the cabin and the imaginary dividing line between the two, and was about fifty feet away from the woods. At the moment, the children sat around it, not too close, their teacher had warned. Ms.Keane was in her cabin, preparing the fixings for the s’mores that the kids would make. She wasn’t concerned about supervision. Either Blossom or Buttercup would keep them in line, and for certain Bubbles would yell if something were amiss.
Missing from the group around the fire were Buttercup and Harry Pitt. Harry had gone into the heavier growth around the clearing to get some more wood for the fire, and Buttercup had gone in search of some nice, straight sticks for toasting the marshmallows. On one side of the fire sat Blossom, with Bubbles to her right and Julie to Bubbles’ right. To Blossom’s left was the space where Buttercup would sit upon her return. Elmer was sitting in the next spot, and next to him was a space reserved for Ms. Keane. That made Elmer happy, because she would be between him and the twins, who were very big for their ages and could be bullies at times. But they weren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer and often took their cue from Mitch, who was an instigator. He sat next to Lloyd, and completing the circle was the empty spot where Harry would sit.
Buttercup, Blossom and Bubbles sat pretty much facing the boys' cabin and the woods behind it, and the twins and Mitch faced the girls' cabin and woods. Elmer and Ms. Keane sat with the forest to their backs, facing the footpaths to the cabins and the parking lot beyond, and Harry and Julie faced the dark expanse of the deepest part of the forest.
This left Mitch directly opposite Buttercup, just like she wanted. She would alternate between thinking he was cool or a jerk. Most of the time she thought he was pretty cool and liked sitting near him, but tonight she had other ideas. She wanted to see his face when she scared his pants off, because that was her main reason for wanting to come on this trip at all: to tell scary stories around the fire.
It was just after sunset and not dark yet, but getting there. The fire was starting to dwindle already and needed more wood.
"Buttercup! Hurry up, it’s getting dark!" Bubbles yelled.
"What’s taking those two so long?" Blossom wondered aloud.
"Maybe they went to start their own fire!" Mitch said in his gravelly voice and laughed his Popeye laugh. Bubbles giggled. The twins laughed too, with no idea what they were laughing at. Elmer appeared just as clueless. Blossom and Julie looked at each other and just rolled their eyes.
"I heard that!" Buttercup said loudly, suddenly appearing from the edge of the woods with a handful of sticks. "What, are you jealous or something?" she added with a smirk as she floated to her spot and sat, and began to pass the sticks around.
That wiped the smile off his face. Him, jealous of Harry, the human vacuum cleaner bag? That’d be the day. Though ever since the Powerpuffs had overcome their fear of cooties, he’d noticed that Buttercup hadn’t minded Harry at all. Dirt never bothered her, either. He saw Buttercup sneering at him and tried to think of something smart to say back to her, but he drew a blank. Blossom was too goody-goody and Bubbles, well, she was everything he hated about girls. But Buttercup was pretty cool, even if she was a girl. Maybe he was a little jealous. He’d make sure he really impressed her with the story he had cooked up.
His thoughts were interrupted by another yell, this time from Blossom. "Harreee! Hurry uuupp!! It’s gettin’ dark!
"Whynt’cha go get him yourself, Blossom?" Bubbles giggled, giving her sister a playful shove. This time Elmer got it and even Julie laughed.
"Oh, shut up, Bubbles." Blossom said, blushing furiously. Luckily for her, it couldn’t be seen in the gathering dark. Just then, Harry finally came out of the woods, his face hidden by a pile of good-sized sticks. He walked over to the group and plopped the pile down on the ground, then plopped himself down next to Julie, who inched away, not at all thrilled to be stuck next to him.
"It’s about time." Mitch griped. "What were you doin’ in there, rootin’ in the mud?"
Blossom floated from her spot to the woodpile. She thought that Harry really wasn’t that awful in spite of always being covered in grime. Anyone who loved to play with dirt like he did might grow up to be a famous archaeologist someday. Or a janitor, she thought as he wiped a filthy hand across his sweaty forehead, leaving streaks of brown. She grabbed as much wood as she could and started strategically placing pieces around the fire. Naturally, she knew more about the proper way to build a decent campfire than the rest of them, even though it had been Buttercup’s hands rubbing together to create a spark that worked better than anything else. Within minutes, the fire was going great blazes. Blossom flew off to the girls’ cabin.
"Ms. Keane, the fire’s ready! Are you comin’ out?"
Her teacher stepped out onto the porch. "I’m all set, Blossom. Want to carry this for me?" She held out a platter of graham crackers, chocolate pieces, small paper plates and napkins, and Blossom took it. Ms. Keane stepped back inside and came out with a cooler full of sodas and a bag of marshmallows. Blossom floated alongside as Keane walked toward the children.
"This is gonna be so much fun, Ms. Keane! I just hope the Professor doesn’t worry too much." It was their first night away from home without him, and Blossom was more concerned about him than for herself or her sisters. They were excited about it.
No one was more excited than Buttercup. This was a moment she’d waited a LONG time for. Even her sisters didn’t know just how long this had been in the works. They had absolutely no clue of what lay in store for them. No one did. She barely noticed her sister and her teacher taking their seats, but she did see the tray of goodies. She looked up to see the perfect cloudless sky just beginning to twinkle with the evening’s first stars, and the moon hanging in the southeast like a large slice of cheese. Excellent! All was in readiness. While she was normally impatient, now she was calm. She would half-listen to the lame stories the others told, until it came her time.