Chapter Text
UMA
“Fuck.”
Uma saw stars, her hands shooting down instinctively to her foot, where the blooming pain was making its way from throughout her left side.
“You alright, Uma?”
Gil was at her side in an instant, his amber eyes wide, his hand gripping at the exposed dark skin of her shoulder, checking Uma over for any damage. As unnecessary as that level of anxiety was, Uma smiled through the pain at Gil’s worry, he was so pure without realisation, and Uma often found herself wondering what she’d done in her previous life to deserve such an innocent soul as her best friend in this one. (Uma was a strong believer in past lives, not to the point where it was all spiritual and shit, but she thought the idea of reincarnation was cool. Her and Gil were convinced she had been something majestic, like a dolphin or a Great White shark. Chad, another counsellor at the camp, laughs when they bring it up and says she’s full of it, and that she probably would have been something ugly and clumsy, like an octopus and a squid. Usually, that’s when Uma tells him where to put it.)
“I’m good,” she breathes through clenched teeth, wiggling her left foot, slowly bringing back the feeling in her limbs.
“I think that was the last kayak, anyway,” Gil rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “Thanks again, Shrimps, for helping me do this. I can’t believe I didn’t check the schedule.”
“What did I say about calling me that-” pain forgotten, Uma grabs Gil into a chokehold, cackling and mussing up his blonde curls into golden waves.
Despite the fact he’s got a good three inches on her height-wise, Uma was strong, her body lean from years of manual work around the camp, as well as teaching water sports to the campers every year. Aqua Springs was her Mom’s summer camp, just off the coast of Pennsylvania, and it was her home – she couldn’t ever remember a time without this place in her life. It was her space, her comfort zone. She spent her infant years running around as a camper with the younger groups, until Ursula appointed her as a camp counsellor once she’d left school. It was a pretty sweet gig, and Uma knew she had it lucky to spend summers at a place like this, and she’d never wanted to leave her Mom to run this place on her own. Uma had become like a second-in-command when things got stressful.
It was times like this, though, when she couldn’t help but question her decision of agreeing to stay this summer. Every year before the campers get here, the counsellors usually all pitch in to carry out any essential repairs, maintenance, and general tasks to regenerate the camp. Usually, they start a couple weeks before everyone gets here; that way it was all done in time, with little to no stress. Their routine was like a well-oiled machine, it had certain timeframes, and it worked smoothly, efficiently. This year however, it was a slightly different story, and as unofficial directing assistant, compliments of being the owner’s daughter, Uma had been stuck fixing it. Gil was a saint, an angel, but efficiency was not his strong suit. Usually, the first week of camp was dedicated to getting the campers comfortable and settled in, with tours, hikes, and activities that eased them into the outdoors lifestyle. It was only after the campers had their confidence and wits about them did the programme venture out into more intense activities, but this year they’d had some renovations over the winter, which meant that this order had been slightly switched up.
Gil hadn’t read the schedule, the schedule that Uma had sent out only about thirty million emails for and hadn’t realised that kayaking had been moved to the first week of camp. Not a big deal, except the fact that the kayaks were stored in the cabins up in the mountains over the winter to prevent decay, and that was where they sat, or were sat, until Uma was stuck helping Gil hoist them down at four in the morning. It was now six. She loved Gil but Uma swore she could’ve killed him when she realised last night, sat by the main camp bonfire with the rest of the counsellors after the last minute preparations, that there was a distinctly empty dock and a noticeable lack of kayaks. She wasn’t usually one to judge, everyone has their shit going on – but when she remembers that she shouldn’t even be awake yet, does she have to stop herself from feeling that tiniest bit pissed. She’d sworn a lot last night. She should be greeting families, giving out baked goods and welcome packs, not lifting fifty-pound kayak boats into the back of a truck at the top of a mountain, only to be rewarded by one dropping on her foot and almost paralysing her.
It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle, though. Harry had a field day when it happened, jumping at the opportunity to sign her up to help in order to take her place as front of house, rather than being on repairs for the day. The asshole. Whereas Gil was the angel of their trio, being the youngest, Harry was the middle child that took the ultimate pleasure in being as annoying as possible when he wanted; and when it came to Uma, he always wanted to be. Gil had come to Springs when he was eighteen – the cut-off age – and then had asked to come back the next year as an employee. He had come back every summer since.
With Harry, it was different, and as much as Uma hated any form of elitism, it probably had a little bit to do with why Harry especially held a special place in her heart. Harry came from a really troubled background that he didn’t really talk about, at least not to anyone that wasn’t Uma – even Gil didn’t know the full extent of it – and he’d come here as a young boy, ordered by the court, as part of a rehabilitation programme. Aqua Springs was a summer camp, but it also had a reputation for taking in ‘problems’; Uma had seen a lot of troubled kids come and go over the years. Springs provided an almost-haven, a healing space. It hadn’t started out that way, but Springs had become a place for kids like Harry to come and work through their trauma. Uma had hated him at first, he was all unprovoked aggression and spiteful attitude like a wounded animal or, in a young Uma’s opinion, a spoiled brat. Uma had always been a tomboy from the get-go, but she remembered wondering what his problem was, why he was so angry all the time. It wasn’t until Harry had gotten into a brawl with some nasty kids in the older groups and was close to getting the shit ripped out of him, did they start seeing eye-to-eye. It had taken Uma stepping in and handing the kid’s asses to them for Harry, for him to start respecting her, and for their newly found friendship to start. With Harry, actions spoke louder than words, and Uma guess it made sense – it took a couple years, but she’d found out that his dad was an esteemed member of The Pirates, a notorious gang on the east coast. As a result, he’d grown up in a violent home, until the state had taken him into their care, and brought him to Springs. Like Gil, he hadn’t left since. This place had that effect on every person that came here; it touched you, stayed with you. It really was a special place.
“It’s alright, hen, you’ll enjoy it. Plus, we can’t let the other counsellors think this camp runs on nepotism. This is a family establishment, after all.” Harry had crooned with a shit-eating grin as he ran off to switch their places on the welcome week rota.
That was how Uma found herself, at now-seven in the morning, driving a camp truck back down the mountain towards camp with Gil, tired before the day was even close to being underway. It was about a forty-five-minute drive from the base of the mountain to the storage cabins, and they drove in silence for the most part, not wanting to disturb the early-morning serenity. The sun was just starting to rise, and it made the drive pleasant. Gil turned on the radio quietly about half-way through, smooth music accompanying them on their way down. He clears his throat, and Uma knows what’s coming. She’s been avoiding this talk.
“What do you think this year is going to be like?” he speaks lightly, eyes trained on the road, almost as if he’s dipping his toes before fully submerging. Uma takes a moment to respond to what she knows is a loaded question, her grip tightening on the wheel.
“Like every year. It’ll be good.”
“Yeah, summers here are always great… It’s just-”
“You don’t have to do this, Gil, I’m fine.”
He shifts in his seat, visibly uncomfortable.
“Of course, you’re Uma, you're a badass.”
“Damn straight.” And she thinks that’s the end of it.
“But- and I’m saying this because I care. You went through a lot this year, Umes, with everything that happened with…” he pauses.
“You can say her name, Gil. Audrey.”
He winces at that, and Uma’s knuckles go white against the worn steering wheel. She loved Gil, but he liked acting up, getting all in his feelings and shit. That wasn’t Uma’s scene – feelings didn’t need to be talked out, they needed to be worked out through intense manual labour and repair work. Old-school style.
She can see Gil out of the corner of her eye, steeling himself up. Uma is unapproachable at the best of times, but even Gil and Harry knew when to err on the line of caution with her, for Uma’s infamous rampages can only be described as storms.
“Are you sure another summer here is what you need? I’ve seen your maps, Uma, there’s so much of the world you want to see. Weren’t you and Audrey planning to go travelling this summer?”
“Yeah, we were. And then she cheated on me. I hope you get to the point soon.” She’s silent for a moment. “Anyway, I couldn’t let Mom down. She needs all the help she can get with running this place.”
Gil sighs. He knows he’s lost this round.
“I just think that…” he sighs, turning round to face her. Uma keeps her eyes trained on the road ahead, her eyes narrow, and jaw tense. “You’re twenty-one this year, you know? There’s a whole world out there, and Ursula’s been meaning to hire an assistant director for years anyway.”
Uma’s response is to turn up the radio for the remainder of the journey down the mountain, which causes Gil to sigh and turn back to face the road. He’s too caring for his own good, Uma thinks to herself, choosing to focus on the soft melody drifting from the radio. It drowns out the incessant voice in her head reminding her that what Gil had just told her, she’d told herself a thousand times before.
~
When they drive back onto the campgrounds and unload the kayaks into the dock, it’s gone nine, and there’s only fifteen minutes left of breakfast. Gil and Uma rush to grab themselves breakfast burritos to eat on the go, along with an extra for Harry and make their way to Springs’ welcome reception, held in the camp’s main hall, where the rest of the counsellors are setting up for the arrival of this year’s campers. The groups are split into groups by age; the youngest being guppies, all the way to the dolphins, the stingrays and the sharks being the oldest campers – every group has a stall at the reception with counsellors that are assigned to that group waiting to meet their assignments. When they enter the main hall, Harry shoots the two a toothy grin, his white teeth glinting against olive skin and dark hair. When he got here, he was pale and sickly, but working here has painted his skin a permanent light olive-tone.
Uma chucks the spare burrito his way, and he rips into it without saying a word, causing Uma to raise an eyebrow.
“Really took advantage of that extra hour in bed, didn’t you? You look like shit.”
Harry flips her off and carries on devouring the food in his hands. They all eat in companionable silence, any residual tension from the morning’s conversation dissipating with every bite of egg, tortilla, and bacon. Aqua Springs was renowned for its food among its other aspects; Ursula only bought the best, and their chef Louis was renowned. Only once they’d finished did Harry wipe down his lap and utter his first sentence of the morning.
“The list looks good this year. The Smee twins are back, they’ve moved up to dolphins. Dizzy’s going to be the leader of the stingrays this year, I think. A few of the sharks are returning too, but the numbers are up even higher this year. We’ve also got a new counsellor coming today, she kinda signed up last minute apparently. It’s gonna be a busy one.”
Uma nods, taking it all in. Springs was one of the most prestigious camps, but by no means the biggest. It was a family operation essentially, which meant that they often had a lot of returners alongside the mass of new faces every year. She didn’t know anything about the new counsellor, though, Ursula must have signed off on that this morning while she was busy with the kayaks. She makes a mental note to catch up with her Mother later today. Families and campers had started to trickle in now, the atmosphere slowly livening up – the counsellors becoming more excited and animated with every greeting they uttered. This year was going to be a good one, Uma was assigned to sharks this year with Harry, and Gil was with the guppies. He was good with kids, Gil was good with everyone, but especially children. He was a stellar human, and while Uma and Harry had been reluctant to adopt him into the fold, they now couldn’t imagine life without their little six-foot ray of sunshine. Harry calls him their golden retriever, and Uma hates to admit it, but it’s entirely too accurate.
~
The afternoon goes by in a blur, the camp abuzz with adrenaline and excitement. Uma got taken away from the reception pretty quickly to tend to things behind the scenes, leaving Harry to man the sharks stall with a few other counsellors. At least Chad wasn’t arriving for a couple days, Harry and Chad did not get along and it made it difficult for Uma to navigate leadership and assignments. They were like children on the playground, they couldn’t be left alone together for too long before they were at each other’s throats. If anyone wanted Uma’s opinion, they just needed to rip each other’s clothes off. She was so close to placing a bet on it to happen by the end of the summer.
Uma was just finishing up sorting out an issue with one of the stingray’s cabins when she felt a small pair of arms wrap around her stomach. Turning round, she’s greeted with a small girl sporting about ten different patterns on her clothes, four different colours in her hair and a huge pair of glasses on a small face.
“Dizzy!” Uma wound her arms around the young camper in an instant. Uma didn’t really have that maternal feelings that other women her age did, but she had a soft spot for Dizzy. She’d been coming since she was a guppy.
“Hey, Uma.” Dizzy looked up at Uma, grinning with a mouth full of gaps. She lets go of Uma, and gestures to another camper next to her.
“This is Celia, my best friend. I convinced her to come with me.”
Uma crouches down and extends her hand to the girl standing next to Dizzy. Celia looks Uma up and down, her dark brown eyes clearly searching for something. She must see it, because she extends out her hand, the hundred bangles and bracelets on it jingling in the wind.
“Yo,” she grins.
Uma smiles back, understanding exactly how these two girls are best friends. Dizzy can only be described as an explosion of colour, and Celia’s accessories and dyed fuchsia afro are fucking badass, Uma muses to herself. She was never that cool at fourteen.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Uma. Are you guys all settled in?”
They both nod enthusiastically, practically vibrating with energy. Dizzy gestures back to the main hall, where the last of the campers are arriving.
“Harry told us to come get you. He said you abandoned him with imbeciles.”
Uma throws her head back, the first genuine laugh she’s had all day. Of course, Harry Hook is lonely and bored doing a duty he threw her under the bus to get. She made a mental note to pick up cookies for him on the way.
“Sounds serious, I better go save him. See you girls later.”
The two girls run off in the direction of their cabin, and Uma follows suit in the direction of the main hall, swinging by the kitchens en-route.
~
If Harry is still annoyed at me after these, I’m gonna kick his ass, Uma thinks to herself, looking down at the peanut butter cookies in her hand as she walks briskly across the lawn in front of the main hall. It had taken a lot of sweet talking to get these from Chef Louis, he was in one of his infamous tempers, and was wielding an insanely sharp knife, and Uma swore she saw herself canned as fish food at one point during the whole exchange.
Uma’s thighs were burning by the time she got to the hall, she’d almost run here in order to avoid a Harry Hook meltdown. When he sees her, Harry launches into a tirade of loyalty and comradery, and practically pounces on the cookies she still had in her hands, inhaling them as if he hadn’t eaten for a week.
“Yo,” she looks up halfway through Harry’s rant, and knits her eyebrows. “Have all the sharks signed in?”
He nods, mid-bite, probably thankful for the interruption. “Yeah, the last one just signed in about five minutes ago. Also, there’s been a change of plans with our assigned cabins.”
Uma’s head whipped to face Harry at an impressive speed. “How big a change of plans? Since when? I haven’t signed off on anything.”
Harry shrugs, attention still focused on the cookies.
“Ask your mom, she signed off on it this morning. Gil’s now on guppies, and you’re on stingrays.”
“What?” Uma was agitated; this was the first she’d heard of it. Where did her Mom get off on making all these last-minute decisions without her? This wasn’t a usual occurrence; everyone knew that Uma had a say in the running of the camp, she was the only other person that knew the camp better than Ursula herself. She was definitely going to confront her mom later, first the counsellor, then the assignments – this was meant to be a good summer, working with her friends, drinking after hours and it was becoming apparent that this wasn’t in her mother’s plans for her.
“Yeah, you’re with the newbie. Apparently, she’s got a bit of an attitude problem, so Ursula probably thought you’d be a good fit. I think her name was… Was it Mel? Melody?”
Uma hums thoughtfully and looks at the registry form. If this girl is going to be her charge and is going to be trouble, Uma needs to know what she’s going to be dealing with, right? Her curiosity is piqued, that’s all. She looks down the list, searching for something that sounds right, until she comes to the last name, sprawled messily across the page in purple ink.
Bertha, Mal.
“Mal,” she reads from the list, quietly. Harry looks up from wiping crumbs from his staff shirt.
“Mal, that’s it. I knew it was something weird. Anyway, she came through here this morning, I think she’s in cabin four. Why don’t you go give her a warm welcome; give her some of your camper spirit, show her the ropes?”
Harry was winding her up, his voice full of fake perkiness. Uma knew he was doing it to get at her, but it didn’t stop her from rolling her eyes and tugging her hands through her aqua-dyed braids out of stress.
“Fine. I’ll go, but only if you agree to convince Gil to come tonight.”
Harry huffs at that. The first night of every summer, the counsellors and staff members have one last party before the hard work kicks in, and until they have to wait until the bonfire blowout at the end of the summer to celebrate another successful year. Uma and Harry never missed it but getting Gil to come was another story. They were determined to persuade him this year.
She leaves him at that, not bothering to listen to his response. This morning had not been the greatest for Uma, and the early start was starting to get her. She had been planning to maybe grab a couple minutes of rest before the welcome activities and party later in the day, but now she had to go and spend the afternoon inducting the newbie into the ‘Springs way’. The other counsellors had already had theirs last week, along with their health and safety training, it was essential every year before the campers arrived. Uma hated doing it every year, she could practically recite it in her sleep, and now she had to do it with this girl, Mal.
Uma isn’t paying attention to the path in front of her, the blueprints of the grounds are practically imprinted on the backs of her eyes, so she’s not paying attention when she collides with something to the entrance of cabin four. Snapping her head up, she locks eyes with deep purple and audibly gasps.
Stood in front of her was a girl, not much younger than herself, with bright violet eyes – could eyes even be purple? Uma also notices her hair that’s dyed to match, albeit a poor job, but it does the trick. Her face has a pixie-like shape to it, small petite features accentuated by huge eyes and pale skin. Uma hadn’t really noticed anyone since the whole Audrey thing went down, but even she could appreciate this girl was gorgeous. Uma finds herself straightening up, embarrassment flushing through her, which is an alien feeling. She plasters on a smile, ready to turn on her tomboyish charm. Instead, she’s left speechless.
“Watch where you’re fucking going,” the girl snarls, proceeding to stalk off in the direction of the beach.
What the hell?
Uma can feel her mouth hanging open, complete and utter shock rendering her rooted to the ground, looking like a complete fool. Her brain fails to even comprehend the fact that someone had just spoken to her like that. She didn’t think anyone had ever spoken to her like that before, no one had ever dared and lived to tell the tale. Somehow, this 5-foot, skinny little fairy, for lack of a better word, had basically hissed curses at her. She probably hadn’t realised Uma was a counsellor, which would be a fun moment to have later if she was a camper. But, as Uma watches the purple nest of curls become smaller as the girl disappears over the sandy horizon, she puts it together. The purple ink, the purple hair. The cabin. The attitude. Uma wanted to scream. At her mother, at her cruel misfortune, at the world, she’d take literally anything.
That was the new counsellor.
This was going to be the longest summer of her life.