Chapter Text
Four hours.
That was how long Sophie had been in a creaky old van with Biana and Fitz. Two hundred and forty minutes stuck trying to stretch her legs without kicking the back of Fitz’s seat, and probably forty minutes into the drive, one of Biana’s many suitcases had started cutting into Sophie’s side so hard she was sure it was leaving a permanent indent.
It wasn't the worst drive of Sophie’s life, and she was happy to be there with her friends, but this was definitely one of those drives where the destination was better than the journey. Especially since the majority of it was spent on the bland highway.
The only time spent on a scenic route consisted of Biana and Fitz arguing on what turns to make since the GPS turned off due to the lack of civilization.
Letting Biana drive this year was a choice Sophie thinks they all regretted, including a very stressed Biana. She had gotten her license at the perfect time, which lined up with allowing her to drive the rest of them this year, and she wouldn’t let them forget about it.
Something about the white knuckles gripping the steering wheel told Sophie that either Fitz or herself would be making the drive back. Her money was on Fitz, of course, since she would rather sit on top of the car than have to merge into oncoming traffic.
“Okay. I think we are almost there!” Biana squeals out of excitement for either camp or finally being off the road.
“Thank god, I don’t know how much longer I can listen to Sophie’s metal music,” Fitz groans from the passenger's seat.
“Hey! I didn’t complain when you played your playlist titled “For the Gym bod not Baker bod” for an hour,” Sophie shoots back.
“You know that Keefe made that for me!”
“And we all know you added at least half of those songs,” Biana interrupts, “Plus, you two should stop bickering and look out your windows.”
Following instructions, Sophie’s eyes caught the giant wooden sign just before they drove under it.
“Camp Foxfire Welcomes You,”
“Best way to spend the next ten weeks,” Fitz practically whispers.
This will probably be his last year here for a while. The Vacker family has a tradition of spending the first summer of college abroad with a parent, trying to make ‘connections’ for future business deals.
Sophie is sometimes very grateful she didn't get adopted by a super successful family with generations of wealth and expectations. Not that she didn't love the Vackers, hell, she had spent the majority of her free time over at their house since moving in with the Ruewens, and they had helped her countless times, but she saw the increasing pressure on Fitz and Biana as they got older.
“Now we just have to park and we can get out of this sweltering car,” Biana says,
“I don’t think enough words exist to express my excitement to get out of this heap of metal,” Sophie responds,
Parking goes relatively quickly, and Biana avoids the majority of the potholes but still manages to align the car between two lines and not over them, which is great progress from her usual parking jobs.
“And we are free!” Bee squeals as she unbuckles her seatbelt in the same second it takes her to throw open her door and practically launch herself out of the car.
Sophie steps into the fresh air and takes a deep breath, enjoying the smell of fresh cut grass and flowers rather than hot plastic. “I have never truly appreciated the ability to stretch my legs until now.”
“It took you guys long enough to get here!” a very excited Keefe yells as he runs towards them, “you have no idea how boring it is here when you are the first to arrive.”
“He practically trampled me when I got here,” Dex adds, much calmer from behind him.
“You can not blame me, I spent two hours alone with Fork Man since Livvy kicked me out of the infirmary after I kept stealing her gauze.”
“You also stole half of her emergency candy stash,” Dex comments
“I can neither confirm nor deny that statement,” Keefe says with his hands on his hips,
Sophie laughs in response, “Your tongue is blue, bud.”
“Shhh, that will never hold up in court.”
Biana just sighs, “Speaking of other colorful things, why is your camp shirt tie-dyed?”
“Can a man not love a shirt full of whimsy?”
“Of course, he can, but that whimsy is supposed to occur during team building with our co-counselors. How can you tie-dye a staff shirt that is already tie-dyed?”
“I feel insulted that you think I only brought one tie-dye shirt. This one is clearly from when I was bored last week. Do you see these swirls? They are not up to the most Handsome and Funniest Camp Counselor TM code.”
“Ah, yes, the rigorous code for the position that most definitely exists,” Sophie mocks,
“If it exists for him, it exists in some sort of capacity, unfortunately,” Fitz sighs, “at least ten kids made him name tags last year.”
“You see, I am undefeated,” Keefe shoots his arms up to the sky, “Now we should probably leave your bags in the car until we get our cabin assignments, but the Forkinator wants to see all counselors and have us fill out a bunch more of the boring paperwork before all the fun stuff begins,”
“Amazing, I now have a personal hatred for one of Biana’s suitcases, and I think we need some time apart,” Sophie only semi-jokes, pretending that she didn't have a ten-step plan to throw it over a guardrail.
~*~
While this was only Sophie’s second year being a counselor, it was her fifth coming to Camp Foxfire. Most of her friends had been coming since they were in the Sprouts camp, which was a plant-themed camp for kids under ten. However, bouncing around the foster system hadn't left her with great opportunities for summer activities.
Being placed with the Ruewens and becoming friends with her classmate Biana had been a dream come true for a lonely twelve-year-old Sophie. Bee had talked nonstop about Foxfire to the point that Sophie’s parents found their website and signed her up for the chance. Sophie luckily loved it half as much as Biana clearly did.
The plan worked, too. Sophie’s first note home was filled with excitement, and a photo of the two girls by the lake covered in face paint while hanging from a tree, a photo they are now required to recreate every summer.
“And the season officially begins!” Biana says, completely ignoring that this ‘season’ is being kick-started by a mountain of paperwork the size of Sophie’s head.
A chorus of cheers echoes through the room.
“Ok, I understand the safety aspect of these forms, but why are they so long?” Dex asks.
Sophie sighs, “Because the adults in our lives don’t know how to summarize.”
“There is a clause in here to stop us from suing them if we get attacked by a crocodile.” Keefe adds, “We’re in New England, the only crocodiles we have are in zoos.”
“Well, obviously, we have to be prepared for a zoo outbreak. Since we have so many nearby, I mean the closest one is only forty miles away!” Sophie jokes
“This should be the last form, though, then we are free.” Fitz says.
Biana claps as she finishes signing her name, “We can finally move on to getting our cabin assignments.”
“Not yet, Stina still isn't here and Fork ‘n Spoons wants to wait until all the counselors are here,” Keefe informs Biana as he pushes his chair back to the brink of it falling over.
“Oh no, it's so unfortunate that she hasn't decided to grace us with her presence yet,” Sophie scoffs,
“What about her brings out the absolute worst in you?” Fitz asks
“Probably her overall personality,” Sophie responds, “You know, if I had to guess,”
Biana sighs, “You two have been at each other’s throats since the day you met.”
“If the two of you actually spent more than four minutes together without insulting each other, you may realize you guys work better together than you thought.” Fitz says
“We have spent time together before, and it led to me being covered in mud and her laughing at me.”
“You guys were twelve,” Keefe adds, “I would have laughed at you, hell, I would still laugh at you.”
“She pushed me.” Sophie didn’t really care anymore, like Keefe said, it was five years ago. However, as the memory diminished, Sophie and Stina’s feud had only strengthened; hate was too strong a word. Like was also too strong of a word.
The two girls had created a very comfortable, strong dislike of each other. They argued and teased, but kept it civil.
Mostly.
“Anyway, enough about our late arrival.” Sophie says, trying to change the subject, “Keefe, you have been here for hours. Has anything new and interesting happened?”
“Well, we do have a new counselor.”
“Ooo, spill everything you know.” Biana squeals, “New people are as rare as new equipment around here.”
“I don’t know much, other than she is our age, apparently likes people and nature enough, where she wants to work here for some reason. Oh, also her favorite color is purple and she’s an only child, and apparently we have a new funder so we may actually be able to replace the bunkbeds that are falling apart.” Keefe finishes by gulping for air after his winded ramble.
“Wait, when did you learn all of this?” Dex asks, “I was with you almost the entire time.”
“You went to the bathroom, and I got bored.”
Dex looks at him wildly, “I couldn’t have been gone for longer than five minutes.”
“Wait a second, who’s the new funder?” Sophie asks, “We haven't had a new one since I started coming here.”
“That I have not been able to figure out,” Keefe smiles, “but is my number two priority.”
“Number two?” Biana asks,
“Yes, it’s the number that comes after one but before three,”
“Not going to tell us what your top priority is?” Sophie asks,
“Not a chance,” he smirks.
~*~
“You know I can’t preassign cabins, Keefe.” Mr. Forkle says.
“But you know I will only go away when I get the Otter cabin,” Keefe responds.
“Keefe, aren't you a diagnosed genius?” Biana asks,
“Um, yes, I am.”
“It always surprises me since so many of our conversations prove the opposite.” Biana smiles, clearly joking with a poker face that fools no one.
“Working with you kids must have taken some years off my life.” Mr. Forkle interjects.
“I solemnly swear that I will annoy you two percent less this summer if I get Otter cabin,” Keefe says as he is poised like a Boy Scout reciting an oath.
“Fine, but you have to take on two weeks of cafeteria cleaning duties.”
“You, my fine friend, have a deal,” Keefe smiles, shaking Forkle’s hand.
“Okay, can you all go over to the main building and get settled in? We’re going to start our annual welcome speech soon.”
“I thought we were waiting for Stina to show up?” Sophie asks, her face scrunching up in confusion
“We were going to, but I don't want us to fall behind on festivities. Plus, we all know that the majority of this speech is the exact same as last year.” Forkle explains, “Anyway, I thought you two didn't like each other?”
“If she keeps us from a speech, I may change my mind.” Sophie jokes,
“Just go find a seat.” Mr. Forkle responds.
~*~
The main building is actually two buildings in one, the nature center and the lobby with a couple of small offices, including Mr. Forkles’. The yearly welcome speech for the counselors always takes place in the lobby since it’s one of the few rooms that is properly air-conditioned and big enough for everyone.
“On a scale from one to ten, how boring do we think this speech will be?” Keefe turns around, asking the group.
“What did we rate it last year?” Fitz asks,
“A ten, I think,” Biana answers while flipping through a random magazine she found on her chair.
“Then I am going to make an educated guess and say that the speech that never changes will continue to be a ten.” Dex says, only half paying attention to the conversation.
“I agree with our resident genius,” Sophie adds, “But if we get through this, then we have our cabin assignments and can start getting ready for summer fun.”
Mr. Forkle walks to the front of the room, tapping his microphone a couple of times to gather the counselors’ attention, and tries to hide the fact that he is swiping sweat away from his forehead.
“Welcome, everybody to the twenty-ninth annual Foxfire Summer Camp!” Cheers erupt from all over the room. No matter how much they complain about this place, there will never be a moment when they all don’t want to run right back and do it all over again.
“Now I know most of you are returning counselors who are sick of this speech, but you will have to sit through it again because we are nothing if not thorough here. Hopeful you are all prepared for these next ten weeks because you read the information packet that was sent to your residences last month.”
“I don’t know how, but those packets get longer every year.” Fitz whispers, leaning closer to the group.
“I used mine as a door stopper.” Keefe admits, not at all trying to keep his voice down, and earning a death stare from Mr. Bronte.
“As you all should know, the campers will be getting here in two weeks, and during that time you will all be completing trainings and team-building activities, and dear god, is anyone else boiling? I thought we fixed the AC?” Forkle asks, wiping away more sweat and turning to his other head counselors.
“We did, but one of the tubes keeps getting unplugged; it’s creating a whole suction problem thing.” Livvy says, waving her hand.
“Okay well, for the first time in these twenty-nine years that I will speed through the rest of this speech. To my right you will see the rest of management of this camp, Ms. Bronte is in charge of security and takes night checks very seriously, Ms. Oralie runs our camp store and this lovely building that is currently sweltering which includes the nature center, and then Ms. Livvy is our camp nurse but feel free to come to any of use with any questions you have.” Forkle finishes out of breath, “Oh, and one more thing, can one of you very competent counselors go out and fix the AC?”
“I got it.” Sophie says, standing up. Mr. Forkle is not the only one feeling overheated, and a chance to get away from the smell of melting plastic and sizzling skin was not one she was going to pass up.
“Thank you, Counselor Sophie.”
Opening the door lets in a blast of hot air into the room, but at least that means there is some form of a wind front. The path to the back of the building is not well-kept, and Sophie has to consider what part of her body she wants covered in scratches and cuts because of the thorns on all the bushes.
“Well, this is a great week to start the summer.” Sophie mutters to herself, regretting volunteering.
“Wow, have you lost it so much, you’ve started talking to yourself?” A sharp voice comes from behind.
“Just cosplaying as you.” Sophie smirks, turning around to face her unfortunately taller rival.
“Sweetie, there is no chance in hell you could ever pull that off.” Stina practically drawls.
“Someone is quite confident, even though she’s inappropriately late.”
“Call it fashion.” Stina returns Sophie’s smile with her teeth showing like a growling wolf.
“I call it rude. You missed most of Forkle’s speech.”
“Has he gotten to cabin assignments yet?” Stina asks.
“Not yet,” Sophie admits, stepping away from the forgotten trail and towards the brown haired girl.
“Well then, I haven't missed anything.” Stina replies, walking so close to Sophie that their noses would brush if one of them turned their head, “Just admit you were missing me, Foster.”