Fresh Start

Chapter 4
Preschool Penguins

Chapter Description: The process continues.

Ryan was feeling pretty angry that morning but he was downright pissed when he heard his name called and the fat bastard in charge yelled, “Penguin Cabin.” He was going to be a damned pre-schooler, a kindy kid, too young to play video games or ride in the front seat of the car even. Hell he’d be sitting in booster seats and car seats. The only bright spot was he wasn’t the worst off. There were some being made into complete friggin’ toddlers after all.

Ryan found his way over to his counsellor, a brunette in her twenties named Gwen. The others around him looked pretty upset too. They hadn’t expected to go this far back either. He for one wanted to kill his mum for doing this to him. Of course none of them actually fought back, all of society was against them. Years of propaganda had convinced everyone this was for the best, that these kids were actually lucky to get a lengthy childhood. Hell, it was clear to him that even the guys running this camp actually believe their own crap.

In any case he didn’t have the strength to fight back either and he followed the group down to the cabin marked “Penguin” with the appropriate decals.

Inside there were four rows of single beds. Half of them had soft blue covers decorated with stars and moons. The other half had pink covers with princesses and ballerinas on them. Each had a small trunk at the end. The other half of the room looked like a kindy. There were several Easy Bake ovens stacked in a shelf, a giant toy box at the middle of the room. A pile of rugs in the corner were there to be used for mid-day naps. Several tables surrounded with plastic chairs dominated that part of the room.

They were assigned to beds and Ryan was among the first to get one. He plopped down on the soft blue duvet, feeling wiped out. A boy about his age sat on the one next to him. He faced Ryan, looking particularly pissed off.

“How can you just lie there?” the kid asked.

“What else can I do?” Ryan snapped back, angry the boy was making out like he was enjoying this.

“I don’t know, something!” the kid insisted.

“Oh yeah, then why don’t you do it?”

The kid looked at his feet a moment and admitted, “Cause I’m a wimp.”

Ryan looked over and saw the boy was really down. “Well, so am I,” he admitted.

“I’m Ben,” the boy said. “I’m fifteen, what about you?”

“Ryan and I’m the same age as you.”

“Cool.”

Their exchange was ended as Gwen directed them to change their clothes. Nobody had really expected to be given any privacy but they at least all tried not to look at each other. The girls clearly felt most vulnerable, hiding their boobs as best they could. The boys were a bit less ashamed, but still everyone felt uncomfortable.

Ryan opened his trunk and looked through the contents. There on top were several colourful t-shirts. One was a bright yellow SpongeBob t-shirt with his smiling face on the front. There was a Thomas the Tank Engine shirt and a blue Cookie Monster one. Then there were a couple pairs of elastic waist shorts and below that several sets of shortalls and overalls. They came in varying colours, some blue-jean, others fireman red or pale yellow. Some were corduroy, others denim. At the very bottom were several sets of underoos on the right. They had Toy Story or Cars Disney designs and red piping. On the other side, even more concerning, were several pairs of large pull-ups with big gold stars.

With little choice but to change quickly while everyone else was busy and not looking, Ryan chose the Cookie monster shirt and the blue-jean overalls. Ignoring the pull-ups he grabbed the Toy Story underoos as well and changed quickly into his new outfit. He thought he looked more than a little silly in the clothes but then everyone else looked dumb too. The girls were in their frilly pink skirts, leggings and Barbie shirts while the boys wore many coloured overalls and shortalls, only a couple in the short elastic shorts.

Gwen nodded and carried around a bucket for their other clothes, insisting they also place their shoes and socks in it. Ryan dumped his bulky sneakers in and peeled away his socks too. He had to admit they did look weird with his overalls. Once everyone was barefoot Gwen directed the boys in overalls to lie on their beds for her. Ryan and about five other boys did as they were told and watched as she came around to them one by one and rolled up the legs of their pants neatly, Tom Sawyer style. “We don’t want your nice new overalls getting all dirty quite yet,” she told them.

Finally, just like the older kids they were gathered around the carpet to watch a video presentation. For the most part it was the same as the other one. The difference being that in the Penguin Cabin video the children being shown were becoming younger. When it talked about fun activities during the week the image showed children of about ten to twelve playing dress-up in all kinds of ridiculous outfits. Then they were a bit younger and climbing on the playground outside in their overalls and such. The final scene as it explained they would be ready to return home was also very different. It was a video taken inside the playroom and it showed a dozen or so little boys and girls of four or five hopping up and down each holding a big letter drawn on construction paper. As they held the letters over their heads they spelled out, “We Are Little Now.” They all looked happy and hyper and you could see grown-up hands directing them. A couple little boys were naked and a little girl was topless with only a tutu on.

As bad as things seemed for Ryan though, Chris was having even more trouble.