Ophelia

Orlando was exhausted, but there was no way he was going to give up now. He could easily have swam the 100 laps, but at the furious pace that Brooks had set, he was close to burning out. They had been neck and neck the whole time, sometimes he was in the lead and sometimes she was. They were on the last lap, he tried to muster up all of his strength to pull ahead, but he just didn't have any strength left; he just managed to slap his hand onto the dock first. He slowly climbed out and offered her a hand to help her out. She shoved his hand away and climbed out, it wasn't easy for her, he could she her arms were shaking from exhaustion. Reilly slapped him on the back.

"Good job Bloom, although if you were and inch shorter she would have won." Orlando knew it was his height that had allowed him to win. If he had been her height she would have left him in the dust. But he wasn't going to admit it. He had won fair and square. He looked down at her laying on the dock trying to catch her breath, it was the first time he noticed her body.

'Holy shit.' He though she's built. She was only about 5'2" her legs, were muscular and nice and smooth, she had a tiny waist and a nice sized chest, not too big and not too small. They were heaving up and down because she was breathing heavily. Orlando was unable to drag his eyes off her breasts, she was wearing a plain black one piece suit. Not at all sexy, but on her it looked hot, she caught him looking.

"In your dreams Bloom." She said with disgust as she stood up and started to towell off. Reilly interrupted,

"Well now, look who finally arrived. Brooks and Bloom have already completed the test. So now they get to go up to their cabins and get a shower and a snack to eat." Ophelia felt the hostility of the rest of the group and a couple of the girls gave her dirty looks.

'Oh great, not only will they hate me, I'm stuck with an obnoxious, arrogant pretty boy. This was not a good idea.'

"I'll stay and watch the others." Ophelia said.

"Me too." She heard Bloom say.

"Well its a good time for me to go over the ground rules. Each team will be responsible for their own canoe, their packs, and their tent. As well as you will be obligated to carry some of the gear that the whole company will be using. One tent to a team, one sleeping bag per person. Only the barest of essentials will be brought. No tent poles or tent pegs, we will use paddles and sticks instead, your backs will thank me for it when you have portaged a 40lb pack for an hour. Helen will be in charge of the first aid kit, and the toothpaste as well as any femine things the ladies will need. Each person is allowed to bring the following: one sweater or sweatshirt, one rain jacket, one pair of long pants, one pair of shorts, two t-shirts, four pairs of underwear, five pairs of socks. a bathing suit and one pair of hiking boots. The ladies can also bring a bra, sorry men you'll have to leave your bras at home this trip." Reily joked. Ophelia noticed Mary and Danielle did not look too happy.

"Four pairs of underwear? For three weeks? Thats just gross." Mary said.

"Don't worry, we will stop and have a laundry day, so we can all have clean clothes. Besides, you'll most likely be wearing your bathing suit through the day, and would only need underwear at night." Helen told Mary, who was looking at Helen as if she were insane.

"Okay lets get the rest of you in the water." Joe said to the others. Ophelia sat on a rock. She was going to have to share a tent with Bloom? Oh this was getting worse and worse. Orlando sat down next to her.

"So Brooks where are you from?" He asked trying to make converstion.

"Toronto." She told him without taking her eyes off the swimmers.

"That was a close race we had, could have gone either way." Orlando said.

"Yeah." She answered, bristling at the memory of losing.

"So Opheila is a unique name, how did you get it?" She turned to look at him, staring intently at him, feeling annoyed, and needing to lash out at someone. She asked

"Why are you talking to me? It wasn't my idea to be your team mate. I'm not here to make life long friends. So leave me alone." Ophelia was shocked by herself. She was usually a warm and friendly person, but something about Orlando brought out the bitch in her. It hadn't helped that he had beaten her in the race. She never lost.

"Fine I won't bother you anymore." Orlando said as he got up and started walking towards his cabin. What an incredible bitch. What had he done anyways to make her so cold to him? He was just trying to be friendly. Well that was fine with him, he didn't need her as a friend.

He went to his cabin and began to sort out the clothes he would be bringing on the trip. He pulled out a dry pair of swim trunks, bright yellow ones, and put them with the pile of clothes. He finished packing and looked at his watch, it was almost 5:30, time for dinner. He was actually starving after that swim.

'I hope they remember I'm a vegetarian.' He thought as he climbed the steps. Inside he saw that almost everyone was already there. The other couples looked exhausted, sitting on the chairs surrounding the fireplace. Orlando kept the smile off his face as he walked over to them, not wanting them to see his amusment at their exhaustion. "How was the test?" He asked casually.

"Reilly is trying to kill us." Keith Green muttered, Orlando laughed and stuck out his hand.

"Hi we haven't been properly introduced, I'm Orlando." He said to the group of people. They all gave their names again and he learned that the Waverley' were Tiffany and Noah.

"I really liked Lord of the Rings." Tiffany said.

"Thanks. I had a great time filming it." He said giving the standard answer as he noticed Brooks come in and sit at the table.

"Whats her problem?" Mary asked. "She has barely spoken to anyone here. She seems like such a bitch." Orlando felt the same way but for some unexplainable reason, he wanted to smack Mary in the face for saying that. He looked over at Ophelia and he knew she had heard the bitch comment.

"Bloom you are a sucker for punishment." He said to himself as he started towards her. She looked up at him when he slid the chair out and sat down beside her. He thought he saw tears in her eyes before she looked away. "Uhm Brooks, I don't know what I did to piss you off, but whatever it was I'm sorry." He said to her.

"Thats okay Bloom you didn't even do anything. Sorry I was so rude to you. I'm not normally like that. Truce?" She asked holding out her hand.

"Truce." Orlando said taking her warm hand into his. He realized she was tugging to get him to let go of her hand. "Oops." He said with a small grin. Just then Joe and Helen Reilly walked in.

"Lets eat." Reily said as her sat at the table and a server came out bringing them their food. the server looked around and asked

"Vegetarian meal?"

"Over here." Orlando answered.

'Well no wonder he was so skinny, Ophelia thought to herself. She looked at the plate of God knows what and smirked.

"What's so funny?" He asked

"Nothing." She said taking a huge bite of her steak.

"You'll probably die at the age of 50 from clogged arteries." He said to he, feeling a bit defencive.

"Probably. Mmmmm this is so fucking good." She replied with a look of pure bliss on her face.

"Its food Brooks, not sex." He said to her. He was satisfied to see he choking on her food.

'Score one for Bloom.' He thought to himself. But watching her eat with such enthusiasm, was having a strange effect on him. He pulled his chair in closer to the table so no one would see he was aroused. What the hell was going on here? He didn't even like her, but he wanted to fuck her? How could he go from disliking her to lusting for her? He had to spend three weeks sleeping next to her?

'Oh bloody hell. He thought as he began to shovel his food into his mouth.

After the meal, Reilly led them down to the docks and showed them the canoes. "Now you all have experience with canoing and camping. Thats good, you're going to need it. Bloom and Brooks you're in this canoe here." He said tapping a forest green canoe. Orlando heard Ophelia gasp and she had a look of adoration on her face.

"Whats the big deal?" He asked her.

"Oh look at it Bloom. Its a beautiful peice of art. The gunwhales and the seats, they are perfect. I hate the new modern fiberglass canoes; I prefer the wooden ones. Sure they are easier to tip over, but if you know what you are doing it shouldn't even be a problem." Orlando looked at the canoe, it looked like a regular canoe to him.

"What ever floats your boat, Brooks." He said with laughing at his own joke.

"Lets try it out. I want to see how she handles." She suggested, ignoring his lame joke.

"Okay." They got life jackets from the shed nearby and picked out paddles. Ophelia was impressed to see that Bloom knew the proper way to choose a paddle for his height. Then they picked up the canoe and put it in the water.

"I'll be in stern okay?" She asked, he nodded and held the boat steady while she climbed in. Once she was in, she laid her paddle horizontally across the sides of the boat to stabalized it while Orlando climbed in. It was just a quick little trip around the lake, just to get a feel for the boat.

"She handles like a dream. You want to take a try in stern?" She asked Orlando.

"No I'll try it tomorrow." He said. When they got back to shore, they pulled the canoe back onto shore and put away the paddles and life jackets.

"Come on you two, its getting late time to go to sleep. We have an early start." Riely growled at them.

At the stairs to her cabin Ophelia turned to Orlando and said "Night Bloom, see you in the morning."

"Night Brooks." He went into his cabin but he had a hard time sleeping. Everytime he closed his eyes he saw Brooks, in her bathing suit and eating her dinner. He felt himself getting hard. Oh shit. This was going to be a long three weeks.