24 hour YouTube Challenge Pt. 01

Authors note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events and incidents are the products of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

24-hour Challenge

Chapter One:

Enni Jalas stood in the hallway of her parents' home, pulling on her warm jacket. She still needed to put her boots on before joining her father in the driveway but before she did, she took a moment in front of the large rectangular mirror that hung in the hallway to check her hair and makeup.

Her shoulder length blonde hair, thick and wavy, was tied back in a ponytail to make it easier to wear a warm wool beanie, night blue in colour. Her own dark blue eyes flitted over her reflection, checking the state of her make up, her dark khaki fur trimmed winter coat, her night blue scarf and gloves, part of the same set as her hat.

She looked good, which is what she wanted. This next 24 hours was important to her, financially and for her future career, and how she looked had a part to play in that.

Enni was a YouTuber, or rather a social influencer as she preferred to see herself. She had begun her online presence when she was thirteen and in the five and a half years since, she had built up a decent number of subscribers, forty-one thousand three hundred and twenty-two to be precise. Fifty thousand though was the goal. At that point she would see her profile generating money. That was her goal, money towards her college education and an increased profile among international users and not just from the mostly Finnish subscribers who were the bulk of her followers. Enni had hopes of a media career, perhaps here in Finland, perhaps abroad. Either way, a highly successful YouTube channel would be of more use to her than her current moderately successful one.

Pleased with her appearance, Enni headed out into the cold of a January morning.

Her home was in the Helsinki suburbs, her parents' home to be precise. Her father was a mechanic, successful in his trade to the point that he didn't have to work at his garage every day, his employees carrying the bulk of the workload. This left him time to pursue his passion, restoring older cars. As Enni stepped from the front door and into the driveway, her father was giving a last check to his current automotive patient, a VW Camper Van circa 1969.

The mint green van sat solidly in the driveway, snow skirting its tires to a depth of three inches. Her father was currently kicking those same tires as his daughter joined them, sucking his front teeth as he did so.

"Everything okay Papa?" Elli slipped her arm through his, linking them and then stretching on her toes to kiss her fathers stubbled cheek.

"Tires, suspension, engine, I have no doubts in her." Her father pulled open the side door to reveal the inner rear of the van. The previous owner had used it as a work van for his plumbing business, stripping out the guts of the original interior for storage space. Elli's father hadn't yet had the time to restore it. He had replaced the flooring that had been damaged through neglect, wear and tear. Planks of Paulownia wood now covered the entire rear three quarters of the Camper Van. Curtains, dark grey in colour which practically screamed her father's taste in fabrics, had been put in place on the windows lining the van, the only decorative refurbishment he had made so far.

Piled in one corner of the van were boxes of supplies that Elli had organised including batteries for the space heater she had borrowed from her father's workshop. The same batteries would also provide a charging station for other appliances like phones, cameras and laptops. Also, there were some bean bag chairs she had liberated from her parents' attic which had been tossed into the back. Lastly, she saw that three tightly rolled sleeping bags were nestled alongside the supplies.

"I don't know how comfortable you and these friends of yours will find it though," her father said as he indicated the sparse interior.

"It's perfect Papa. Thank you so much for letting me borrow it," Elli protested, kissing his cheek once more. She wasn't lying either; the campervan was ideal for her needs. Aside from space and relative comfort, the value of using an iconic vehicle like this on a platform like YouTube was invaluable, any sort of edge was needed to make an impression. Retro Chic was big, the cyclical nature of style and fashion meaning that this camper van was beyond perfect for her challenge. Her father shut the door and held out the keys of the van to her. When she went to take them from him, he didn't let go at first.

"I don't get this... this whole Internet thing," he said, waving a hand at the van. "Seriously... people doing... what did you call it? Challenges? Putting themselves online to be watched. It's stupid!" He grimaced as he said this, his flailing hand dropping to squeeze her shoulder comfortingly.

"Sorry sweetheart, I don't mean that you are stupid, I just don't get this. I know your mother supports it, hell she has supported you in this YouTube thing from the start. I just don't get it and what I don't understand, I don't like."

"What exactly don't you like Papa?"

"This challenge of yours."

The challenge. There was a trend on most social media platforms for people to undertake challenges, dares and tasks, posting them online for viewers entertainment. Challenges could be anything from eating a mouth meltingly hot pepper, lip syncing to a song or applying makeup in the dark.

The challenge Elli was undertaking was to spend twenty-four hours in the campervan.

By itself, not much of a challenge and certainly not one that would spike her subscriber numbers. That was where Deke and Jay came into things.

"It will be fine Papa. I promise."

"You don't... you don't get it. I don't like you with these strangers. It's a risk you are taking. Can't you see that?" Her father seemed as annoyed by her laid-back attitude as he was by her decision to undertake the adventure.

"Can't she see what?" Elli turned at the sound of her mother's voice. An older version of Elli emerged from the house. Her mother shared Elli's same good looks and thick blonde hair, rather Elli had inherited them from her. From the start it had been her mother who had pushed Elli to succeed on social media, seeing the positives it might bring for her daughter's future, visualising perhaps a pathway to fame and fortune that she herself might once have aspired too.

Her father, a practical man in both his attitude to life and business, glowered at his wife's approach. Elli knew that look well, her father's mood merely a reflection of his understanding that he was once again about to lose the argument to his equally formidable wife. Not wanting to be there to watch the argument, especially if by some miracle her father won it, Elli decided to make herself scarce.

"I have to go. I want to say goodbye to Ahti before I head off." She snatched the keys from her father's hands, delivered another peck to his cheek and hopped into the driver's seat. Her father waved goodbye watching as she reversed out and drove away.

Elli drove towards the hotel where Deke and Jay were staying, Ahti having arranged to meet her outside.

The two young men were tourists from the US, both YouTubers. They had set out on a four-month long tour of Europe, travelling from country to country, meeting up with other YouTube influencers. They had started off online aged thirteen as had Elli, mostly doing video game playthroughs as opposed to Elli's style. Her video's a mish mash of beauty tips, vlogs regarding her life and her connection to the outdoors, also some cooking videos.

Elli had built up her respectable subscriber numbers through her personal appeal, her vibrant, fun personality coming through regardless of the videos subject matter. Deke and Jay's numbers however had been content driven at the outset. As they matured, the two young men had branched out into fitness video's as well, mostly as an excuse to show off their physiques.

Hailing from Atlanta GA, they came from a working-class background, were twenty-one, African American and ambitious to move their account subscription numbers from 90,000 to 200,000+.

Deke had reached out to Elli a week before, wondering if she was interested in partnering with them, a dual upload to YouTube that would allow them to benefit from each other's popularity. Elli had been reticent at first, needing to check them out. She discovered that the two men had started their European odyssey a few months earlier, travelling through The Balkans, Italy, Central Europe, steadily working their way northward. Elli saw how their numbers grew steadily as did the numbers of those European YouTuber's who partnered with them.

Once she saw that she had no hesitation in getting back to Deke and agreeing.

The campervan was in perfect condition, her father's confidence in it well founded. Not that Elli had any doubts, her father was the protective type and there was no way he would let her drive anything that wasn't roadworthy.

She pulled into the hotel car park a few minutes earlier than arranged as her boyfriend Ahti was due to meet her there. Sure enough, as she killed the engine, she saw Ahti climb out if his own car and walk towards her.

Tall and rangy, he was wearing his army battledress which she thought made him look so handsome. They had been dating since the night of her eighteenth birthday six months before although they had known each other for over ten years, Ahti being the older brother of one of her friends from school.

Now twenty-two, the young man had apparently been holding a candle for Elli for a number of years, only finding the courage to ask her out at the party.

To everyone else, his dark eyes and brooding features made him appear sullen and unfriendly but Elli knew there was a deep well of warmth beneath all that, one that he only let show to a small number of people, Elli first and foremost among them.

On cue, his serious face broke into a grin of expectation as she waved excitedly at him through the van's windscreen, the young Finnish soldier practically skipping the last few yards to pull up beside the driver's window that Elli now wound down.

"What do you think?" Elli grinned at him from behind the steering wheel before leaning through the open window to collect a kiss from him.

"I love it, your father... he can bring the dead to life so long as there are four wheels attached to the body," Ahti answered, running a gloved hand over the immaculate body work.

"I know, I know. And I love the colour as well, so retro," Elli said delightedly.

"Well wind up the window, keep the heat in," Ahti said, stepping back so that Elli could close up the van and join him outside. Once she had, he gave her a hug and another kiss, this one lingering.

"Where are your guests then?" Ahti scanned about for the two Americans.

"Probably in the hotel lobby hiding from the cold," Elli smiled. "Let's go find them."

Arm in arm, Elli and Ahti strolled into the hotel lobby to look for Deke and Jay. This would be Elli's first time meeting them in the flesh, all their communication to date had been via text and video calls. Standing in the lobby she looked around, it was busy enough that she couldn't see them at first and Ahti picked up on her nervousness at once, another sign of how well he knew her.

"Wait here, I'll check the hotel bar and then with the reception, you just relax, okay?" Elli smiled gratefully as Ahti moved off to look for the two young Americans. A lurid splash of colour caught her attention and Elli finally spotted Deke and Jay at the far side of the lobby. The two men, now that she'd seen them, did in fact stand out, their winter wardrobe not exactly subtle.

Deke was wearing a canary yellow puffer jacket with a hood, his ski pants the same lurid shade. Beside him Jay had gone for an equally unsubtle electric red puffer jacket, the gaudy colour's effect multiplied by his matching ski pants and boots. Deke's boots at least were black. Both men seemed to spot Elli at the same time, raising their hands in welcome, and giving Elli her first look at the gloves they were wearing, perfect partners to the colour palette of the clothes they were wearing.

"Guy's, guy's, come on over!" Elli called out, waving at them in return. The two men gathered up two bulky rucksacks that had been at their feet, they were plain black bags so they had gone unnoticed alongside the men, and made their way over to Elli, both smiling broadly as they leaned in for a hug.

"So nice to finally meet you, like for real!" she gushed as they stood in a rough circle. The first thing that struck her, aside from their clothes, was the height of the two young black men. She wasn't tall at five feet two inches, Ahti towered about her at five feet eleven. Deke and Jay however both stood a hair under six foot two.

"Damn, it's nice meetin' you an' all," Deke replied, "I didn't know if we'd get something organised so quickly, 'preciate you doin' so much on this Elli."

"My pleasure, I am sure this will be good for us all," she replied, "also it's nice to show someone new a piece of my country."

"Yeah, we did the whole tourist thing yesterday," Jay said grinning, "Jesus but it's cold here, not like home at all. We got these new threads though. You like?"

Elli made a show of examining their clothes. She wasn't sure if the two men had chosen the colours on purpose or if some enterprising sales assistant had found a way of off-loading the bright clothing on two unsuspecting tourists.

"You stand out for sure," Elli said, playing it safe.

"No shit, I haven't seen another brother since we arrived here," Deke agreed. Elli's confused expression caused him to elaborate that he and Jay were the only black men they had spotted so far in Finland.

"Oh, we have a growing number with migration," Elli said, "But yes, I suppose still relatively uncommon." She was saved from having to speak further on this by Ahti's arrival. Deke and Jay looked a bit taken aback by the sight of a soldier embracing Elli, standing beside her somewhat protectively.

"Guys, this is Ahti my boyfriend, Ahti, this is Deke and Jay."

"Welcome," Ahti said giving them a brusque nod.

"Yeah... uhh nice to meet you. You coming along with us?" Jay sounded... reluctant maybe... to Elli's ear and so she clarified Ahti's presence.

"No, Ahti's on duty this weekend, he just came to see me off, to meet you guys. Also, I wanted him to be cameraman. I thought we could make a short video, a prequel to us setting off, something we could upload" she explained.

"Dat's good, I like that," Jay said, high fiving Elli who grinned back pleased with the response to her idea.

Deke and Jay pulled their hoods up, shouldering their bags and heading out to the parked van. Ahti lingered behind for a moment to speak to Elli, switching to Finnish so the two Americans wouldn't understand.

"Do they know they look ridiculous?" Ahti shook his head at the two brightly attired men crossing the car park.

"Sssh, maybe it's supposed to be ironic," Elli chided him.

"It's stupid is what it is. You really want to spend twenty-four hours with these idiots?"

"Come on baby, you know this is important to me. To us. I want to get more out of my channel, I want to make some money from it. Please... you said you'd support me," Elli grabbed her arm, her eyes softening as she looked up into Ahti's face.

"Fuck," he cursed softly. "You know you can twist me round your finger so easily. It's not fair."

"I know," Elli grinned, pulling at the front of his jacket so she could kiss him quickly on the mouth. "That's why you love me though."

"One of the reasons, yeah," Ahti conceded. "Okay, let's get these Americans of yours into the van before they cause a traffic collision wearing those coats."

Once their luggage was loaded into the van, Ahti stood back with Elli's phone, ready to film the three of them, catching the camper van in the background. He counted down from three with his fingers, pointing at Elli on one, the phone now recording.

"Hallo from Helsinki," Elli said in English. Deke and Jay stood either side of her and they leaned their faces close to her as they gave their own greeting.

"What's up guys and girls. Deke and Jay comin' at ya from the frozen north of Europe. Dat's right, we here with our pal Elli Jalas and what can we say, she smart, she funny, she beautiful. Now she gonna tell you what we gots goin' on today."

"The guys and I are taking this van a few hours north of where we are now. We're going to spend twenty-four hours, living, eating and laughing in this van while we are parked in the wilderness beside a frozen lake."

"For real frozen?" Jay interjected.

"Yes, cold as it is here, it's going to be even colder where we are going," Elli confirmed for Jay and the camera.

"That right!" Deke said, covering up for the shocked silent Jay, "We're gonna be filming the fun and posting it on our channel and Elli's. So, make sure to hit the like and subscribe buttons. The links to both our channels are right below."

"And to prove its all real. Every hour from midnight today... that's five in the afternoon in Atlanta, right Deke?"

"Right Elli," he agreed.

"So, every hour, we'll live stream for a couple of minutes so you'll see we are alive, well and still in the van," Elli concluded.

Ahti stopped filming, giving the three of them a thumbs up before handing the phone back to Elli.

"I will keep an eye on the live streams, call you when I can," he promised, giving Elli a final kiss. Ahti then turned to Deke and Jay, nodding before wishing them a curt 'Good luck'.

Deke climbed into the passenger side of the van, Jay hopping into the back, sprawling on one of the bean bags.

"I don't think your boyfriend liked us too much" he said to Elli who was shrugging off her coat as she bucked up in the driver's seat.

"No, he does," Elli replied, "Ahti is just... I don't know if it's the right word in English... intense?"

"Yeah, good word," Jay said from behind. Happy that was settled, Elli started up the van and began the drive northwards.

Chapter Two:

They left the hotel just after two in the afternoon. The drive itself taking over two hours. This meant that the sun had set almost an hour before Elli pulled the van into a small village, parking up near a restaurant.

"I figured we could go in, get something warm to eat, use the bathroom, then after head to where we'll be parking for the day," Elli explained.

"Food and a toilet break sound good to me," Jay agreed, pulling on his coat as did Deke. The three of them entered the restaurant, ordering quickly and taking up a booth at the back as they waited for the food to arrive.

"Probably a bit late askin' but what's the signal gonna be like out here?" Deke leaned back as he asked the question, watching Elli's face closely as she thought through her response in English.

"It's good. There is a picnic area and car park beside the lake. Nobody uses it in winter so it's ideal for us. The communication tower for the locality is near there so actually we will have a good signal" Elli answered.

"How cold it gonna get?" Jay asked, "Cos no one said nuthin' about no frozen lake."

"Uhhh, about minus six, so I guess about twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit," Elli said, "but we won't be on the lake. I have heaters for the van, extra fuel, really good sleeping bags. I promise you; you will be warm inside it."

Mollified, Jay grunted, tucking into the food that was brought over, they ate slowly, Deke and Elli filling in most of the conversation, talking about some of the places the two men had visited in Europe. Elli knew a lot of the YouTuber's that they had come into contact with, not personally but through their uploads. Deke opened up the camera reel on his phone scrolling through pictures he had saved from their trip. Elli did notice that the two men had made a habit of teaming up exclusively with female YouTubers on their holiday in Europe. She supposed it made sense, appealing to a different grouping that they would normally reach, wasn't that why she had agreed to this cross over challenge.