[CT] A Pleasant Surprise (Tag: Erika)

[Drew Conner]

Cooking

Drew was placed to assist with the supervision of the cooking while on the camping trip.  When he'd first been informed of his placement he almost thought it had been a joke.  He hoped like hell the other person assigned to oversee that area was far more proficient than he as Drew's culinary knowledge was rudimentary at best.  He was usually much too busy to bother with much cooking beyond the basics.  While he could cook to the point where he wouldn't starve if all the take out places in Los Angeles had suddenly gone out of business he wasn't going to be lauding his prowess in the kitchen any time soon.

Nevertheless, there he was.  The twenty seven year old wunderkind of the corporate world helping to unload boxes of supplies and stacking them into the designated kitchen area with nary a complaint.  There wasn't much to do in the early going which left him with more than a little free time.  With nothing else to keep his attention he wandered off in search of anything he could do to help the other supervisors with their tasks.

Quickly finding the team assigned to activities being a little overwhelmed, he offered his help to scout out the site for a scavenger hunt or something along those lines.  Being under strict instructions not to venture away from camp alone, someone needed to tag along with one of the student coordinators while they made the trek to the designated site.  Drew readily volunteered.  It would certainly beat standing around doing nothing until they started working on the night's dinner. 

When the student he was to accompany was pointed out, Drew couldn't help issuing a bit of a chuckle.  Of course Erika Bellefonte would be here.  He nodded and headed to the beginning of the path leading away from the camp where she was standing.  "What a pleasant surprise."  He mused once he was close enough to speak without raising his voice.  "They asked me to tag along."  He explained, waving a hand behind him to where the rest of the activities directors were.  "I hope you know where you're going because I would get us lost."  He admitted freely with a shrug of his shoulders.  "And I'd probably embarrass myself in the process."

[Erika Bellefonte]

Lifting her gaze to the voice, Erika's brows furrowed for a moment before recognition hit her. "Ah," she said, nodding thoughtfully. "You're one of the poor suckers in charge of keeping the student body away from trouble." He didn't exactly strike her as the type who had a whole lot of experience with teenagers, but then again, she could be wrong. "Don't worry," she quickly added, waving a hand in his direction. "I've been here every year since I started at Bellefonte - I'm sure we'll make do."

Gesturing for him to follow her, Erika collected the required equipment and pointed at a small box for him to carry. "What did you get assigned to do anyways?" she asked. She was fairly certain he wasn't on the list of supervisors in her group. 

Maybe his had a lot of hands and too little for them to do?

"The scavenger hunt is all about puzzles and prizes," she continued. "Oh, and of course, finding good hiding spots along a pre-set trail." She looked at him over her shoulder. "You didn't come to these things when you were a student?"

[Drew Conner]

Drew issued a soft chuckle and nodded in response to Erika's question. Even though he wasn't so bad as to have shown up to the camping even in a suit and dress shoes (his jeans and coat served him just fine) it didn't take too sharp an eye to see he was not in his natural element. "I am." He said as if it was an admission of some sort of guilt. "Really it's to help me get an idea of how Bellefonte works on the staff side of things like this, but I won't bore you with all that." After all, he technically wasn't a full member of the Academy staff, rather a third part consultant. Technically.

"The cafet-." He began before abruptly cutting himself and switching course with a far more simple reply. "Food." Came the ultimate answer. "I don't know why, the other guy they got over there doing it hardly needs any help. But I guess it's just a place where I can lend a hand without getting in the way." Drew spoke while nodding and moving to collect the box Erka had pointed out. "There wasn't much for me to do until dinner so I thought I'd see if anyone else needed help." He stepped alongside Erika, box in hand. "So here I am."

Drew listened, nodding a bit as necessary while Erika explained the finer points of their task. It seemed simple enough and he even found it a bit more interesting than the actual group he'd been assigned to. "What? Don't I look like the rugged, outdoorsy type?" He countered his tone shifting to convey mock offense. It only lasted a moment, though, as he shrugged and had to laugh at himself. "No. In my younger years it was a lot of extra homework. When I got a little older I spent these events interning in LA." He couldn't help the laugh that followed. "Am I that obvious?"

[Erika Bellefonte]

"Food," the brunette repeated with a nod. "Didn't really peg you for that kind of thing." Though, it was likely more the fact that, as he said, they didn't really know where else to place him. He didn't strike her as the overly social type who had the personality for running a game or a show. "At least you got one of the calmer jobs that doesn't entail as many teenagers," she suggested. "Though, I think Ellen Banks' is in your program. That might make things a little more interesting for you."

Snorting, the brunette rolled her eyes. She wasn't even going to dignify that with an answer. Besides, she didn't really think he needed one. Was he obvious? Oh, yeah, he was. "It's never too late to change," she mused.

[Drew Conner]

"I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Miss Banks." Drew replied, though he took note of the name. He wouldn't necessarily refer to himself as a chaperone per se, rather he was more an extra set of hands for the time being. Mostly he was there to look at the logistics side of things and get a feel for Academy led events but he doubted he'd manage much of that in a place like this. "I'm not sure how much of an authority figure I'm supposed to be, anyway." He admitted even if he didn't plan on elaborating due to the boring nature of his work.

There was no missing the snort and rolling of eyes. Drew didn't take offense, rather he laughed in response. "Alright, I get it. I'm more at home in boardrooms and offices than I am outdoors." As if he needed to explain that simple fact. "But that's exactly why I'm here. There's nothing wrong with doing something different once in a while. Going in your own direction." He chuckled then. "At least I knew well enough to not wear a fanny pack." He offered. It was the small things that mattered, right?

As the two walked along Drew became startlingly aware of how the girl tended to deflect the conversation away from herself. It was an interesting habit and one that made him all the more curious. "You know." He began, glancing in her direction for a moment. "We haven't formally been introduced. I'm Drew, Drew Conner." He would've extended a hand if he wasn't busy carrying the box.

[Erika Bellefonte]

"Good luck," she simply replied. There was nothing else to really say about the matter. His next part had the brunette chuckling. "Well, you're here as a member of the staff and a not a student, so regardless of your position in the food chain, you're still above most of us." Well, either that or he'd get eaten alive. She had seen people go down for worse, after all, but she wasn't in the business of telling him. One way or another, he'd figure it out.

Giving him a quick once over, the brunette shrugged effortlessly. "I'm not sure the fanny pack would have made much of a difference." He might not have been wearing a suit, but that didn't change the fact that he looked wholly out of place. At least she had grown up in Kalispell and had been here all her life, so she was used to the outdoors. He, on the other hand, didn't fit in. At all.

But she had to give him kudos for trying.

Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she tossed the man a quick sideways glance before chuckling. She always hated it when people introduced themselves with their full names. If life had taught her anything, it was that replying with anything else in turn, would be rude. "Erika," she replied then, eyebrows rising in amusement. "Erika - your devoted and very amused tour guide." That didn't seem suspicious, did it?

[Drew Conner]

Drew issued a light chuckle. He'd been the driving force behind a multi-billion dollar corporate acquisition with assets spread out across four countries. He was no stranger to exerting control over every room he stepped into. Surely the threats of dealing with a bunch of super powered, hormonal, rebellious teenagers while out on a camping trip in the middle of nowhere were completely unfounded. How bad could they be, after all?

Erika's response to the introduction caused an eyebrow to raise. Drew cast her a sideways glance as she stammered out a long winded reply. He hadn't meant to pick up a residual thought from the brunette while she spoke, though in fairness, he'd caught more of an idea or concept than an actual, cognizant thought. It all helped begin painting a very curious painting of his present company, to say the least. "What can I say?" He said with a smirk, casting aside the curiosity that came from the abstract thought his power grabbed hold of. "I'm world renowned for my sense of humor and making people laugh."

[Erika Bellefonte]

"Uh huh," was all the brunette had to say about that matter. He was charming in his own way, sure, but she didn't peg him for the funny kind of guy. If anything, it seemed like he was normally rather serious, though for whatever reason, tried really hard to cover it up with charms. She wasn't really one to judge, though. It wasn't as if she didn't dress herself in several layers of delusions and distractions.

"Hang one of the ribbons there," she said, pointing towards a tree. "We need to create a square field to limit the space of the game," she continued, explaining.

[Drew Conner]

When one had made a living out of presenting themselves along with a healthy dose of misdirection and subterfuge it tended to make others who did the same a bit easier to spot. In spite of Erika's best efforts to hide it, Drew could sense the two of them had much more in common than either would admit. It may not have been an intentional sparring session but he was becoming to quite enjoy the little game they were playing.

"Right." He answered with a nod before moving to follow directions. In spite of his previous professional success, Drew had no issues with taking orders from a student. She knew more about the task at hand than he did anyway and his role wasn't to start telling people what to do just yet. Anyway, they were hanging ribbons for a scavenger hunt, not negotiating a multi-billion dollar merger.

"So." Drew said once the ribbon had been properly secured and they were set to continue on their way. "How often does Bellefonte have these little outings?" He asked, glancing in Erika's direction. "And do you always volunteer to help organize everything?"

[Erika Bellefonte]

"Usually once a year," she replied. "Though, they usually host them in the summer." She looked around; Snow still covered the forest grounds. She wasn't entirely sure why they'd decided to host it in the winter, but she didn't really mind. It offered a whole new array of things to do, that couldn't be done in the summer. "Nah," she shook her head. "Only started that once I started college."

Before that, the brunette had been busy participating as opposed to helping out. Now, though, things were expected of her. She was an adult now. She couldn't very well run around, pretending she was still sixteen, now could she?

[Drew Conner]

Drew offered a short nod at Erika's answer. She may not have realized it but every seemingly innocent question and answer served to fill in just a little more of the puzzle the curious young lady had presented. Perhaps she didn't realize Drew had caught on to her enigmatic behavior and wasn't intentionally attempting to be as such, but every person, in Drew's mind, was a shrouded painting in need of revealing.

"Was that your choice?" He asked, glancing in her direction. Maybe it wasn't so uncommon that a person would reach a certain age before suddenly deciding to volunteer for school events. Perhaps it was simply a sign of maturity and a desire to help out the Academy that offered so much to so many. Or maybe it happened to be a shift brought about by the growing weight of expectations. "Don't you ever want to not worry about anything and just have fun?" Drew studied her a moment. "That is the point of things like this, right?" He smirked. "To have fun?"

[Erika Bellefonte]

"Yeah," she shrugged. "Once you reach a certain age, you realize you're not sixteen anymore," she chuckled. She'd figured she needed a challenge. Something that didn't revolve around running around the forest getting drunk and playing pranks. It felt like ages ago, really. She considered his words for a moment before she replied. "Well," she began, lips pursing. "Who said this isn't fun?" she asked, gesturing towards the field they'd been putting up.

Still, she continued. "I guess it comes down to one's definition of fun." She found some pleasure in being part of hosting games rather than playing them. It was one of the few things in her life that she could control, after all. It was one of those things she could decide for herself.