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Asami threw her duffle bag over her shoulder, trying to balance the weight of it on her back while holding a pillow and sleeping bag. She checked in at the picnic table where Kya, one of the heads of the camp, sat waiting for new arrivals. They had another four days before the campers arrived, but as she looked around at the sports fields and trees - she hadn't even seen the lake yet - Asami knew she would need every bit of training ahead of her.
She reached down to take one handle of her trunk and pulled. It barely moved, and when she tried to push her hair out of her face, she lost her grip on her sleeping bag.
"Here, I've got it!" A girl about her age - definitely another counselor - grabbed the bag just before it hit the dusty path and held it under one arm. She wore a blue sleeveless top that showed off her toned, brown arms, her dark hair pulled away from her face in a loose ponytail. Her blue eyes met Asami's. "I'm Korra, by the way."
"Asami. Nice to meet you - I would shake your hand, but I'm kind of all tied up here."
The other girl smiled. "Which cabin are you in? I've been here for a few hours, so I can help you if you'd like."
"I'm with the Badgermoles, Cabin 1." Korra reached around and lifted the other half of her trunk with ease. "Thank you so much."
They started ascending the path that led up the hill, past the sports field into the woods. "That's a good age group. A bunch of them are planning on becoming counselors in training in a couple of years, and they're generally pretty easy to handle. I remember thinking of my counselors as friends when I was a Badgermole."
Asami could tell already from her tone, this was a girl who really loved Camp Raava. It made her long for the summer ahead of her, full of memories she would hopefully have the same fondness for. "Yeah, some of these girls'll be fourteen or fifteen, so it seems like they'll hardly need a counselor. What about you?"
"I've got the Fire Ferrets. They're lots of fun, but exhausting. Eight-year-olds have a lot of energy.”
Korra seemed like the perfect camp counselor: confident, enthusiastic, and clearly happy to be there. “So, have you spent a lot of time here?” asked Asami.
“I started coming here for two weeks when I was ten.” She chuckled. “You’re new, right? You’re going to have a great summer.”
Asami felt her nerves easing, the place suddenly seeming warmer. It was easy to believe that she could find a home here for the next few weeks. “Yeah - I found the camp online last fall, and the rest is history, I guess.” She left out the part about wanting to do whatever she could to avoid staying at home for the summer.
“Look, here it is!" They both sighed with relief at the sight of the three cabins arranged around a campfire circle.
Asami's arm had started to go numb, but they somehow made it up the steps to her cabin and set the trunk on the ground. "Wow, thanks! There's no way I could have made it up that hill by myself with all this stuff." She set down her belongings, extending a hand. Korra took it and gave her a firm handshake, then paused.
"You know, you'll have to learn the camp handshakes. Songs too, of course. Your campers won't respect you if you don't know them - some of them have been coming here for years!"
Asami raised an eyebrow. "We've got a while before we need to report for training, right?" They both sat down on the bottom bunk nearest the door.
“Okay, so the most important one is... it’s....” She looked stuck for a moment. “Well, I don’t know that it actually has a name. But it starts like this: Put your hands together to the right, and then you hit mine like this....”
She had strong hands, callused but soft. Asami noticed that she wore several bracelets on her arms, some of which looked homemade. Several had intricate patterns in different shades of blue.
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"Fire ferrets, welcome to the crafts pavilion!" Asami pretended not to find the crowd of dozens of seven-year-olds intimidating, feigning confidence. "My name's Asami, and I'll be here with your unit counselors every morning for crafts time. We'll start with something simple today - who wants to learn how to make friendship bracelets?" She exhaled slowly as thirty hands shot up into the air. "Great! Find a picnic table to sit at, and we'll come around with string for each of you."
The campers began chattering away, eagerly discussing which colors to choose. Asami passed around several rolls of string in a range of different colors, along with kid-friendly scissors. She began her own one to demonstrate, using purple and a deep red. It didn't take long for the kids to catch on.
"Pretty good for a first session," remarked Korra, sliding onto the bench across from her. "I didn't realize you were at the crafts hut."
"Just for the mornings," she replied, looking up briefly from the string in her hands. Most of the counselors spent half the day with their specific group, the other half in charge of a designated activity. "What about you?"
"I teach sports in the afternoon. I'll probably see you there - we're playing soccer today." She had begun a pattern of pink, purple, and blue stripes. Asami noted the colors, wondering if she had chosen them for the reason Asami was thinking of. Of course, it’s not as though those were really unusual colors to wear, particularly at a girls’ summer camp.
"Looking good there," she remarked nonchalantly. "I like the color scheme you've picked." Korra glanced up, their eyes meeting.
Of course, at that moment an argument broke out at one of the tables. Korra rose, running over to her campers. "Hey, hey! What is going on here?" The girls quieted down fairly quickly.
A camper came up to Asami. "Excuse me? Can you help me tie my bracelet?" She produced a braided bracelet of primary colors. "I'm Ikki, by the way. What unit are you with?" She held out her wrist eagerly. Asami tied a loose enough knot so that she could slide out of it when she wanted, but tight enough so that it wouldn't fall off.
"I like your bracelet, Ikki. I'm with the Badgermoles."
"Ooh, my sister's in that one! Her name's Jinora - she's pretty cool, but not as cool as me. Is that one yours? It's really pretty!" She pointed at Korra's abandoned bracelet."
"Jinora's in my cabin, so I'll tell her I met you," Asami told her. "That's actually Korra's bracelet, but it is really nice."
"Korra's the best counselor ever! Well, actually, you seem pretty great too, but Korra's been so nice to me all day and she even told me she liked the stuffed animals on my bed!"
Asami glanced at Korra, who sat in between the two girls who had been arguing before, making animated gestures as she told them some thrilling story. "Here, Ikki, why don't you go bring Korra her bracelet to work on?" Ikki jumped up eagerly, heading off with the bracelet. Asami began walking around, seeing if any of the other campers needed help. She smiled - she had worried that, as someone who had never been to camp, she wouldn't be able to fit in, but it seemed like she would do just fine.