Chapter Text
Preston stared out the bus window, watching the slow transition from city to woods. He never thought he would be making his way back to Camp Campbell, not after how his first year went. And yet here he was, six years later heading back there.
He stretched his legs out on the bus and sighed heavily, he wondered if he would see any familiar faces there, that seemed unlikely. Preston turned his phone screen on and started playing music to drown out the sounds of chatter on the bus. This was going to be a long summer.
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Preston got off the bus looking around the camp slowly. It looked pretty similar to how he remembered it, except it looked a bit better? Someone seemed to be putting a lot of care into this place, which was surprising.
That was when he heard a familiar voice “Welcome Campers! My name is David and I will be your camp counselor this summer!” His voice was still loud and cheerful. “Oh, I almost forgot! This is my co-counselor Gwen!” He hugged her with a large grin on his face. “How about we start with a tour of the camp, and then I will show you all to your tents!”
And with that, the tour began. Preston remembered the layout for the most part but was thankful for the refresher. He was a little glad David didn’t seem to recognize him but disappointed that he didn’t see anyone he knew. That was when he heard a vaguely familiar voice.
“David, Daisy got into the mess hall again,” the grumpy voice grumbled as he approached the group his hands shoved into his hoodie pocket. Max.
Preston gasped as he looked at the boy, so many feelings came flooding back, feelings he thought he had gotten over years ago. Before he knew what he was doing he ran to Max and hugged him happily.
He let out a squawk when he found himself being shoved back, he grabbed onto Max’s hoodie in a hope to stabilize himself. But that just ended up with Preston lying on the ground on his back with Max on top of him.
Preston looked up at him blushing a little, Max glared down at him, but his expression softened a bit when he started to recognize the theatre dweeb. “Preston?” he said in an unsure voice. Blinking a few times as he tried to make sure this was the right person.
“Woah Max! Did you two have a wipeout?” David asked as he ran up to the pair.
“No David, we are fine,” Max grumbled as he quickly got up and dusted himself off a bit, “Did you go check on Daisy at least? I’m sure she has already eaten whatever gross thing you were gonna try feeding to all the campers. Maybe she was doing you a favor..” Kicking some dirt up from the ground, Max muttered to himself while walking back to the mess hall.
David stood there and sighed before looking at Preston. “Are you okay? I hope you didn’t hurt yourself” he spoke his voice full of concern as he helped the young camper up. David stared, focusing hard before speaking again, “You look familiar, have we met before?”
“Yeah, I came to camp here a few years ago. It’s me, Preston,” the boy explained. He knew David could never forget one of his beloved campers.
Preston hoped returning to Camp Campbell wasn’t going to be such a bad thing after all.