Chapter Text
The familiar smell of pine filled Spot’s lungs and he couldn’t help but smile. It was the same sensation every year he went to Camp Mile Away. He heard Jack slam his car door and turned around, looking back at his siblings and his mom.
“Okay,” Medda pushed her hair out of her face after opening the trunk of her car. “We’ve got a bag for Spot, and a sleeping bag for Spot,” she passed the luggage to Jack, who handed the bags to Spot. “A bag and a few blankets for Smalls.” Jack handed those to his sister. “And Jack’s things too,” Medda peered inside to check for any loose items, and pulled out a pair of sneakers. “Whose are these?”
“Oh, mine,” Smalls reached out for them and stuck them in her bag.
“Okay, check in time. Let’s go, people, come on,” Jack all but shoved his family out of the tiny dirt parking lot.
“What’s got you in a rush?” Medda laughed, purposefully walking a little slower.
“It’s been two weeks since he’s seen David and Crutchie,” Spot teased. Jack turned around and stuck his tongue out. “Jackie misses his boooyfriends,” Spot laughed loudly.
“Oh that’s sweet,” Medda smiled and sped up her pace, but Spot and Smalls stayed behind.
“Good luck dealing with those three lovebirds, if they’re in your cabin,” Smalls whispered, pulling her bag up and setting it on her waist.
“Don’t speak so soon,” Spot pointed out. “You definitely have to deal with Katherine and Sarah.”
“Ugh,” Smalls tossed her head back. “That’s right. I forgot how bad they can get sometimes.”
“They ain’t as bad as Jack and Davey and Crutchie, though.”
“No,” she admitted. “They aren’t. But Kath and Sarah are just gonna remind me that I’m the most single person ever. I mean, except you,” she grinned, trying to get on his nerves.
Spot brushed off the insult. “But isn’t Sniper gonna be here?” he reminded her, and she glared. “That’ll be good, right? To have a friend in your cabin. Oh, and she’s another very single girl who likes girls, so you’ll have something to bond over. Huh,” he mused, “maybe somethin’ will happen between you and her. Oh wait!” he feigned surprise. “Smalls, don’t you- don’t you like, really like her?”
She shoved him with her shoulder. “I’m never drinking when you’re around ever again.”
“That’s probably a smart idea.”
When they reached the door of the dining hall, both Spot and Smalls were still bickering, while Medda and Jack chatted.
“Are you two gonna be like this all camp?” Medda asked, but her amusement was obvious.
“No,” Smalls shook her head innocently. “We’ll be in different cabins.”
Medda rolled her eyes, walking up to the desk that the camp had set up. “Hello, Ms. Hannah,” she smiled politely. “Jack Kelly, Spot Conlon, and Smalls Larkin are here.”
“Yes yes,” Hannah smiled back, and Spot was reminded of how she always sounded like a bird. “You’re all signed in! Mr. Kelly, you are on the blue team,” she put a blue sticker on his nametag and handed it to him. Spot thought he saw Jack pump his fist at being placed on the team of his favorite color. “And Mr. Conlon and Miss Larkin, you are on the red team.”
“Thank you, Miss Hannah,” Smalls stuck the nametag to her shirt.
“And you three can go get your camp shirts from Mr. Wiesel,” Hannah pointed them to another desk.
Jack grumbled something indistinguishable. He’d never like Mr. Wiesel very much, which Spot only vaguely understood. He assumed that Jack held a grudge because Wiesel had been the one in charge of giving punishments when Jack was in elementary school. But Spot thought it was petty to keep hating someone because they’d made you wash dishes for a few extra hours after dinner instead of playing. And it was only Mr. Wiesel’s job, to be fair. It wasn’t Wiesel’s fault that Jack was always in trouble.
They walked downhill from the dining hall to the cabins. It was one big block of cabins, really, like a strip mall. Spot looked at each door, reading the lists of names.
Girls Cabin
Smalls
Katherine
Sarah
Sniper
“Hey look!” he called to Smalls, who was next to Jack. “This is your cabin! And Sniper’s here!”
Gender Neutral Cabin
Specs
Buttons
“Guess they finally came to their senses,” Jack chuckled, pointing at the sign.
“Or Specs’s mom called the camp enough that they gave in,” Smalls raised her eyebrows.
“Either way is fine with me.”
Boys Cabin 1
Jack
Romeo
David
Crutchie
Jojo
Morris
Mush
Boys Cabin 2
Spot
Race
Oscar
Henry
Blink
Albert
Elmer
“Oh, that’s for me,” Spot nodded. “Decent group of cabin mates, I guess. It could be worse. Jack could be in my cabin.”
Jack didn’t listen, he set the his bags down. “Bye mom,” he hugged Medda tightly. “Yes I’ll be good, yes I’ll miss you too, yes I’ll have fun and be safe,” he answered before she could open her mouth.
“That’s my boy,” she smiled and hugged him back.
Spot put his bags down too. “Bye mama,” he hugged her. “I promise I’ll act better than Jack does.”
She let him go and looked at his face. “That’s not very reassuring.”
Smalls hugged her last. “I’ll keep them in line, mom.”
“That doesn’t help me much either,” Medda laughed, and looked at Jack. “Is David here yet?”
“Y-yeah, he’s in the cabin,” Jack pointed, and Medda closed her eyes and stuck her head in.
“David Jacobs!” she called.
“Yes?” he answered. She turned her head in the direction of his voice.
“Keep my kids in line, will you?”
“You can open your eyes, Miss Medda, no one’s changing in here,” he laughed as she opened her eyes. “I can only really account for Jack, ma’am, and even that is iffy. But I’ll do my best.”
“Thank you.” She stepped back outside. “Now him, I trust.”
“Mom!” Jack protested, but she laughed and kissed his forehead, then Spot’s, then Smalls’s, and then left.
Spot rolled his eyes and picked his bag up. He’d only made it a few steps into the cabin when he felt himself be tackled. “Spottie!” was the last thing he heard before he fell over.
“Hi, Race, getoffame.” Spot pushed his friend away and stood back up. “Race, it’s only been two weeks since school ended.
“Yeah, and I missed you!”
“You’re a dramatic piece of -”
“Hi Spottie!” a voice called from the top bunk. Spot glared at it instinctively. “Oh, I’m sorry,” Henry grinned at him. “Is only Race allowed to call you that? I wonder why that would be?”
Spot ignored him. “Who else is here?”
“Only Albert, and he’s out walking around,” Race said, sitting down on the bottom bunk. “He’s up on that bed,” he pointed at the top bunk of the bed next to him. “And you’re above me.”
“What if I wanna be somewhere else?” Spot said, but threw his bags on the bed above Race. “Sucks that the Delanceys are back, huh?” he climbed up the ladder.
“Yeah,” Henry moaned. “I wonder when they’ll get that we don’t want them here.”
“It’s just because their parents don’t want them at home, either,” Race explained, as if he knew everything. “Besides. Only one of them is in here. Could you imagine another summer with both of them?”
“They probably split them up so that only one of them is in a cabin with Jack,” Spot reasoned, making himself comfortable on the bed. “Remember a few years ago when he fought both of them?”
“Yeah. He won pretty good too.”
“That’s true, he did,” Race nodded.
“Not the point,” Spot laughed at the memory, and at the prospect of a new summer with his friends.