Chapter Text
Duck duck goose turns into a bad idea when all of the children picked as geese end up slipping more often than not. The grass in the rec field is still a little damp and muddy from the night before and everyone knows that, so it isn’t really a surprise that everyone’s falling. But when Dylan trips onto a rock and ends up bleeding, Ashton decides it’s time for a new, safer game. Perhaps a game that won't require a first-aid kit.
They settle on a game where everyone says something they like that begins with the same letter as their first name — which, in Ashton's opinion, is a great way to get everyone to introduce themselves. The game doesn't go over very well with the kids, it’s kind of dull, but it's all Ashton can think of in a short amount of time.
The rec field is crowded with kids and worried parents, clinging onto their children like they'll never see them again. It's usually like this for the first hour, when the kids are dropped off. All of the counselors are forced to wait in the rec field for their campers to arrive before heading up and claiming bunks in their assigned cabins. With so much time to spare, the counselors have no choice but to preoccupy the kids with games.
When the final fourth camper arrives, Ashton breaks up their game of Extreme I Spy (it's no different than regular I Spy except for the fact that it has the word "extreme" in front of it) and everyone collects their luggage so they can begin trekking up to the cabin. They weave their way up the dirt path through the forest slowly, Dylan complaining every few minutes about how his knee still hurts while Tanner consistently tells him to stop whining.
Dylan (who, according to the game, likes dogs) seems to be the outgoing one in his group, always having something to say. Tanner (who likes tigers) is the kid that never really got past the age of five, asking Ashton questions about every fucking thing in the universe. Ashton doesn't know the answer to a majority of his questions, but that doesn't stop Tanner from asking them. Him and Dylan seem to get on from the start like peanut butter and jelly, which honestly has Ashton worried about what to expect from the two of them. He knows they already have pranks prepared for the girls and he can only hope they’ll forget about them. The last thing he needs is their group ending up in trouble.
Brandon (who likes basketball) is a bit of a flirt (if a 13-year-old can even be described as one). Ashton saw him in the rec field shooting girls glances from across the field, sometimes even daring to greet a few of them. Young love: what a beautiful thing.
Josh (who likes jellyfish) is the quiet one in the group who seems to be captivated by the idea of secluding himself. And there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that Ashton knows it's going to be hard trying to get him involved in activities when the kid would much rather read a book. On the other hand, when Ashton told his campers to gather up their bags, Josh was the only one that heard him the first time, meaning he's keen on paying close attention to instructions. That's a huge relief for Ashton; Dylan and Tanner are plenty of work for him as it is.
It is Ashton’s first year as a counselor and to say that he’s worried is a bit of an understatement. He didn’t truly realize how scared he was of children until the week before camp, and by that point it was far too late to back out. He’d already been assigned a group and designed his nametag (which he was quite proud of) and, though he considered it, it wasn’t like he was going to randomly injure himself to conjure up an excuse. He had more dignity than that.
Ashton has two younger siblings that he takes care of every day, but there’s something entirely different about the situation when the kids aren’t your family. He thinks he should be more prepared for this, but he's not.
The campers don’t even know his real name, though, so he figures that’s a bonus.
This year the counselors' names are Disney themed, so all of the counselors picked names accordingly (Ashton goes as Pascal). The only problem is that sometimes Ashton forgets to call Calum and Michael by their counselor names, because when his brain sees Calum and Michael, it thinks “Calum and Michael”, not “Copper and Olaf”. So now the kids, whom Ashton has known for less than an hour, know that Olaf’s name starts with the letter M and Michael’s probably going to be pestered about it for the next week, courtesy of Ashton. Oh well.
Ashton’s group has the blue cabin, one of the smaller lodges huddled under a cluster of trees and, thankfully, within an average walking distance of the bathrooms. Nothing worse than hiking half a mile in the dark at two in the morning just to use the restroom — Ashton would know.
“Why isn't it blue?” Tanner asks, dropping his sleeping bag onto the gravel to catch his breath.
“Why aren't you tan?” Dylan shoots back, and Ashton almost chokes before scolding Dylan and reminding him that this is a “positive environment”.
Ashton thinks they might be the first group assigned the blue cabin that gets to claim their bunks, but when he makes his way up the steps and opens the door, there's already another group occupying the place, jumping around noisily. And Ashton's fine with that, as long as he gets the bunk he wants.
So, after directing his campers to pick out any remaining bunks, he makes his way down the center of the cabin and to the far wall, freezing when he finds someone sitting on his favorite bunk in the corner, straightening out their sleeping bag. Ashton walks over and stares at the mystery counselor blankly for a few seconds.
“That’s my bunk,” Ashton says bluntly, dropping his bags loudly on the floor to make a point. The stranger turns around, all perfectly-styled blond hair and blue eyes, and fuck, what’s Ashton supposed to do if he ends up sharing the cabin with a cute counselor? He doesn’t remember learning that in training.
“Didn’t see your name on it,” the counselor states, trying to sound intimidating but obviously stepping a bit too far out of his comfort zone for it to make any difference. It's cute, Ashton thinks. He's cute.
Ashton can faintly make out his nametag; can barely read that his counselor name starts with the letter N. It’s weird that Ashton doesn’t already know the guy — everyone was supposed to get to know each other at training.
“Well, I’m older than you, and I’m telling you to get another bunk.” Ashton’s not actually sure if that’s true; he hopes it is.
“I was here first,” the counselor insists. “And, anyway, if you're older, shouldn't you be the bigger person in this situation?” The counselor stands up with a teasing grin, looking down at Ashton pointedly (is he making fun of Ashton’s height?), and he can read his nametag now: Nemo. “Sorry —” Nemo leans forward and squints at Ashton’s nametag “— Pascal. Wait, like the lizard from Tangled?”
“Chameleon,” Ashton corrects, rolling his eyes as he tosses his stuff onto the bunk across from Nemo’s. Nemo laughs quietly and Ashton tries not to get irritated as he unrolls his red sleeping bag.
“Why are you so worked up about a bunk?” Nemo asks.
“That’s the only bunk with a power outlet next to it,” Ashton mumbles with his back turned. Nemo laughs and Ashton rolls his eyes again, despite Nemo not being able to see this time. There's probably going to be a lot of eye-rolling as long as Ashton's sharing the cabin with Nemo.
“You’re in the middle of a forest, miles away from civilization and all you can think about is your electronics?”
Ashton sits on his bunk, the mattress making a squeaking sound below his weight, and Nemo does the same across from him. “Just because I’m in a forest doesn’t mean I'm a savage,” Ashton says.
“It means you can suck it up for a week,” Nemo chimes in, and Ashton glares at him.
“Who are you?” Ashton asks. “You weren’t at training.”
“Nemo,” he replies, holding up his nametag much closer to Ashton’s face than necessary. It’s a colorful nametag, Ashton decides, though the clownfish looks more like a cheeto. “And I was at training,” Nemo says, pulling his nametag back down.
“No — like, what’s your real name?” Ashton asks again, lowering his voice.
Nemo clicks his tongue and smiles. “You don’t get to know that until the end of the week.”
“But I’m another counselor,” Ashton complains. “It’s for emergency purposes.”
“Emergency purposes?” Nemo repeats thoughtfully, a patronizing grin on his face. “Like?”
“Like if you’re dying in the middle of the woods and I need to save you, you probably wouldn’t want me telling the paramedics that your name is Nemo.”
“You probably won’t be saving me,” Nemo says. “If anything, you’re the one that’s going to need saving.”
Ashton snorts. The cocky attitude isn't really playing off very well, and instead of feeling intimidated by the counselor, he's only filled with adoration. “That's really grand coming from someone who named himself after a fish that gets lost easily.”
“It's not like my name actually is Nemo.”
“Then what is your name?”
Nemo smiles and gets up to go help a camper that's been calling him for the past five minutes, leaving Ashton staring at his back with confusion. He thinks that's cruel.
◊
His name's Luke, which Ashton discovers on the way down to the dining hall for dinner. He has no idea how Michael knows that and he doesn't, nor does he have any idea why Luke won't tell him on his own, but he can roll with it because Luke has a fucking nice face.
Ashton claims a round table close to the kitchen (he figures that if they're closer to the kitchen then they're closer to the food, so why not?) and stands by his chair while he waits for the other seats to fill. A few younger girls show up to his table, beaming up at Ashton while they pick their seats, and he tries not to feel uncomfortable about it.
There's still one more open seat at their table and they're about to sit down when suddenly another counselor fills that seat.
“Hey,” Luke grins.
“It's one counselor per table,” Ashton says, ignoring the way his stomach flips at the sight of Luke and taking a seat as the campers copy him. The girls begin filling up their glasses and passing the water pitcher around.
“There's no rule for it,” Luke insists. “And there's no other tables left,” he shrugs, accepting the water pitcher from the small brunette girl next to him. “So I figured I'd join my friend,” he finishes with a smirk as he passes the water pitcher to Ashton.
“Friend?” Ashton repeats, pouring the crystal water carefully into his glass. “No — I don't think we're friends. Definitely not friends. You stole my favorite bunk.”
“Is this a thing you do? Hold grudges on people who steal your favorite bunks?”
“Yes,” Ashton deadpans. “Especially if they're named after animated fish. That part's a deal-breaker. We can never be friends.” Ashton catches Luke smirking out of the corner of his eye.
Ashton reaches over to hand the pitcher off to the camper sitting next to him, but as he moves it over, the bottom of the jug hits his glass of water (that he literally just filled, goddamn it), falling over and spilling out onto the wooden surface. In a blur of one swift movement, he picks his cup back up and grabs the stack of paper towels from the center of the table, dropping it onto the puddle.
He scoots back a little to avoid the water dripping over the edge of the table and onto his lap, but it’s a bit too late. “Shh —” Ashton stops himself and notices Luke widening his eyes as a warning “— amWow.”
“What?” Luke says.
“ShamWow,” Ashton states, this time with a little more confidence. “It would be really nice to have a ShamWow right now.” He can hear some of the campers giggling at him while he courageously tries to soak up the puddle. The thin stack of paper towels isn't really working, but it's a valiant effort on his part.
Luke frowns at him. “ShamWow. Like. The towel?”
Ashton stares dully at Luke for a moment. “Yes, the towel. Speaking of which, why don't you go get a towel?”
Luke nods and looks up at the campers sitting around him. “I'll give a bead to whoever wants to get a towel,” he announces. Almost immediately, two girls jump up and volunteer, heading off to the kitchen quickly.
The beads are a stupid system, in Ashton's opinion. They're the head counselor's idea of motivating the kids (it's actually just weak bribery), and since Ashton's a bit scared of the head counselor, he automatically hates it. Plus, as a camper himself, he was always the kid in his cabin that had the least amount of beads around his nametag. Every fucking year.
“Really?” Ashton groans at Luke. “You couldn't just get one yourself?”
Luke shrugs. “I could,” he says admittedly. “But now I'm teaching the kids all about what it's like to have responsibility.”
“I'm sure you would know all about that,” Ashton remarks; Luke beams at him proudly. Ashton's going to have to explain to him what sarcasm is later.
Ashton sits there awkwardly for the next minute while everyone else at the table begins dishing out their food. He looks back at the kitchen entrance longingly, waiting for the girls to hurry up and return.
“What are you doing?”
Ashton turns around to see Calum hovering behind him with a look of confusion and a basket of breadsticks in hand.
“Um, so, I spilled my water,” Ashton explains. “And I guess I’m, like, trying to clean it up? Sort of?”
“Typical,” Calum sighs, and Ashton kicks him in the ankle before he can leave.
Ashton had no idea that retrieving a towel would be such a time-consuming task. By the time he's cleaned up the mess, returned the towel back to the kitchen staff, and sat down ready to eat, almost all of the food has vanished and dinner's halfway over. He ends up forcing down his food in what few minutes are left of dinner, mentally regretting the stomachache he’ll have later.
Once dinner’s over, the counselors herd their kids over with them to the rec field for group photos. The setting sun is glowing warm colors over the open meadow, framed by the forest around it. The soccer nets are set up on either end of the field and there are picnic benches perched on the sides, crawling with children on them.
While waiting for their pictures, some of the female counselors are doting over their kids like mothers would, braiding the girls’ hair and picking daisies off the field to tuck behind their ears. Though Ashton’s not a girl, he decides to join in on this trend, putting his own little spin on it.
When Michael swings by Ashton’s table and sees that he’s tying bandanas on his campers' heads, he lets out a snort and Ashton elbows him in the ribs.
“They agreed to do this!” Ashton protests, looking over at Tanner and Dylan, who are helping each other tie their bandanas on. Good — teamwork. They can base their week off of something inspiring like that.
“’m surprised that anyone would agree to look like you,” Michael comments. “One of you is more than enough.” Ashton reaches a hand over to mess up Michael’s freshly-dyed green hair, fluffing it up in the wrong direction. Michael lets out a grumble of annoyance and carefully tries to fix it, aiming a kick at Ashton’s ankle and instead hitting the leg of the table behind him.
“Sorry,” Ashton says, though his tone is far from apologetic, “you had some grass in your hair.”
“How many times do we have to go over this?” Michael groans. “The ‘grass in your hair’ jokes aren’t — and never will be — funny.”
“Shouldn’t’ve dyed it green, then,” Ashton shrugs. “Broccoli-head,” he adds in. “Don’t you have your own group to be watching over?”
Michael turns around and points to a group of boys kicking a soccer ball around the field. “Already got our pictures. The head counselor decided to start a soccer match and they decided that was more interesting than hanging out with me, so.” Michael pouts a little bit.
Ashton squints at the campers and brings a hand up to shield his eyes from the sun. “You had a group of nine kids?” he asks. “Wow. Must be pretty chaotic.”
“No, I think Calum —” Michael stops himself quickly and darts his eyes around to make sure no one caught him, “I think Copper’s kids joined them. Copper’s off flirting with Nemo or something. That sounds really inappropriate. Maybe the names shouldn’t have been Disney themed.”
Ashton frowns at the mention of Calum and Luke together. “Are they…?” He waggles his eyebrows, as if that’s supposed to clear things up.
“At camp?” Michael asks incredulously. “God, I hope not. Outside of camp?” Michael shrugs as an answer to his own question and Ashton can’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy in his stomach and he doesn’t know why. He’s known Luke for less than six hours and getting jealous over someone this quickly would be a new record for him. “Why don’t you ask them?” Michael offers, pointing to Calum and Luke who appear to be walking over to join them.
“Oh my god,” Calum gasps when his eyes land on Ashton’s campers, each of them wearing a different-colored bandana. “I didn’t know they made cloning legal.”
“Good thing you didn’t know because we wouldn’t want another one of you, would we?” Ashton teases; Calum scowls at him and Luke tries to cover up his laugh but doesn’t do a very good job of it.
“Hey, I’m surprised Olaf didn’t dye his campers’ hair using that spray-dye junk you get in those convenience stores,” Luke says. “We could have little rainbow heads running around camp.”
“I’m teaching my campers a trick,” Michael suddenly beams, ignoring Luke’s comment. “They’re like little minions; they listen to anything you tell them.”
“Please don’t tell me you’re teaching them how to swear,” Ashton says.
“No — better than that,” Michael promises with a smile. “But it’s a surprise, a work in progress. We’ll have it down by the end of the week. Luke, you're gonna love it.”
Everyone shoots him a worried look (for more than one reason), and, well. Everything Michael says usually results in a worried look, so he isn't even bothered by it. However, Ashton's quite curious to know what Michael has in stock, especially if it has to do with Luke. In fact, there are a lot of things Ashton wants to know about Luke.
So he makes that his mission for the week: make new friends, specifically Luke.