Chapter Text
“Building on over 50 years of tradition, Camp Everett is a sleepaway summer camp for boys ages 7 - 17 located in the New Jersey countryside, offering an affordable and high-quality experience full of social activities and learning opportunities having to do with nature, groupwork, creativity, sports and recreation, and many more.”
Illi read the crumpled up piece of paper for the fifth time over. She didn't want to go to a summer camp, especially not a “boy's” one, but her persistent arguing with her parents didn't work, so all she could do now was try to make the best of the situation. Or, the more likely option, complain about it.
“It's not even fair! What if I actually had plans already?! I'll just have to go up to my friends all like, hey, I know we were gonna do something now but I'm gonna cancel, like, two days before, because I have to go be in the woods with a bunch of hippies or whatever.”
Mikey sat on the floor, next to Illi's bed which she was sitting on. He held a torn up backpack, which, contrary to his sister's, had a good amount of stuff in it already.
“I dunno. Did you even have plans for the summer, anyway?” he asked.
“..No. But I could've!”
“It's probably not that bad. I think Ray's going, too.”
He was probably right. Maybe. If she wasn't being forced to go by their parents, Illi was probably gonna stay home all day watching horror movies or reading comics and only leaving her room on wednesdays for D&D… Damn it, that sounds good. She threw herself on her bed and sighed.
“Just start packing already, dude!” Mikey nagged, throwing Illi's backpack at her.
*
A few days had passed, and the day Illi was dreading for so long had finally come up. The two were just dropped off in what seemed like the middle of fucking nowhere, with tall trees covering half of the cloudless sky and the only signs of humankind ever being there was a trail going deeper in the woods and a large, clearly handmade banner reading “Welcome, campers!”
“What if we, like, ran away?” Illi asked, only half joking. Two teenagers surviving in the middle of the woods with no food or water, and a handful of comic books and magazines, because of course that was the only thing they had packed. Surely that wouldn't go wrong. “..Eugh. I changed my mind, actually. Let's just go.”
Remembering her role as the older sibling, she looked back at Mikey to make sure he wouldn't trail behind. He just stood there, pigeon toed, maybe regretting his poor choice of wearing a beanie in the summer. Illi snatched it off his head and ran through the trail. “Hey–!” Mikey yelped and gave chase.
She stopped when the path turned to a large clearing, with fewer trees (although still enough to somewhat cover them from the sun) and double the people. Wood cabins stood every corner or so, and while they weren't much, Illi could think of a few worse places to spend her summer. Mikey took his beanie from her hand and scoffed as he put it back on.
Illi stared at the people nearby. They looked like they already knew what they were doing, kinda. “I think we're late.”
“We are late. You took forever to wake up.”
“Oh, yeah.” She could blame the fact she slept at 2am for that.
The two made their way to the center, to a large bulletin board with a bunch of kids expectantly reading off it, hoping that their names will be next to their friends. It seemed like most of them weren't having much luck, though. She found Mikey's, but not hers. His name was under cabin 2, with a bunch of others she didn't recognize.
“Dang.”
Mikey stayed silent, and on cabin 3 Illi found Ray's name and under it a name that she didn't really consider hers anymore.
“Hey! Ray did come, we gotta find him!” she said, grabbing Mikey by the wrist and dragging him somewhere, not bothering to know who any of the other people in her cabin were.
Eventually she spotted her cabin, with a little wooden sign that just had the number three in which she had no idea how she didn't miss. She didn't hesitate at all when she slammed the door open.
“I think it'd be cool if we –”
Ray was interrupted by the sound of the door creaking. He was sitting on the bottom bunk of one of four bunk beds, a ridiculous amount, Illi thought, talking to someone she didn't recognize.
“Boo,” she said, and Ray's face lit up when he saw the two, and so did Mikey's.
She threw her stuff at the only bed available while they were catching up - a bottom bunk right on the back left corner of the cabin. It wasn't the worst spot, it was kinda cozy, but now she did regret getting there a bit late. Picking where you'll be sleeping for the next 4 weeks or so is kind of a big deal.
“I should go to my cabin before they make me sleep on the floor.” Mikey said, hugging Ray with one arm before waving at him and Illi as he headed to the door.
“I hope they're missing a bed, so you have to sleep on the floor anyway.” Illi responded.
“Yeah? Well, I hope your bed breaks and you have to sleep on the floor.” he said perfectly casually.
“I hope a bear breaks into your cabin and ruins everything, so you have to sleep outside.”
“I hope th–”
“Guys, stop!” Ray cut them off. “Clearly you'll both sleep outside.”
“Bye, Mikey. Don't die, love 'ya.” Damn, she was a great sister.
With Mikey gone, she settled next to Ray and looked at the other people in the cabin. They seemed too focused on other stuff to pay attention to her and her brother's conversation, except for one dark haired guy on the bunk above hers who was pretending to not look at her when she turned to face him. He was familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. Maybe it was just because everyone else in that cabin besides him, Ray and herself were the type of people she hated the most - stereotypical, basic, definitely dumb jocks. Or maybe she was just judging their character before getting to know them as people, but she didn't care. She had enough experience with those kinds of guys to know to keep her guard up.
The door creaked again when a tall man with the camp's logo on his shirt came in. He looked at Illi with a friendly smile.
“Hey! I'm counselor Nelly, you must be –”
“Illi.” She interrupted. “..McMillin.”
“Oh - Is that what you'd prefer to be called?”
“Yeah.” She responded drily, turning away before he could ask any more questions. Now it felt like everyone was staring at her. She scooted behind Ray, sitting behind him with their backs touching. She only somewhat listened to the counselor speaking - it was more interesting to stare at the wall.
“As I'm sure most of you know, I'll be your cabin's counselor for this summer! Before we get to the fun stuff, we should go over the ground rules. While I'm sure you'll all make many different friends here, sleeping at a cabin other than your own is strictly forbidden. If this is your first year..” His words started fading as Illi closed her eyes.
It felt as if she had just fallen asleep, but she could already feel someone shaking her awake.
“Illi!” It was Ray. “Boring part's over, let's go.”
She followed him out of the cabin, rubbing her eyes. “Where are we going?” she asked.
“Lunch!”
The dining hall wasn't much. It was a whole lot bigger than the other cabins, but it still felt cramped with all the super long tables and benches - don't forget the hundreds of kids. She spotted Mikey waving at them from the corner.
“Hey, man.” She sat across from her brother after getting a food tray and setting it down. “Make friends with anyone from your cabin?”
“Kinda,” he takes a bite of his food. “This guy named Pete.”
Ray started speaking before she could respond. “How much do you wanna bet Illi's gonna be outside past curfew or something, and become the bad example for the entire camp?”
“Wait, there's a curfew?” she asked.
“Obviously!”
That makes sense, but she hadn't stopped to think about it before. Not that she cared that much, anyway - and she was sure Ray didn't either. He was just trying to poke fun at her, but it was surprising he only said she'd “stay out past curfew” when at school she'd been expelled for a week for beating people up more times that she can be bothered to remember.
“Y'know, maybe if you cause enough trouble they'll send you home or something.” Mikey said.
“Can they even do that?”
“Only one way to find out.”
An idea sparked in her head, but she shook it off. For now. “Nah, not yet, at least. Maybe if I, like, get too tired of it here.”
Lunch wasn't terrible. It was awfully generic, yes, but it wasn't bad, per se. Especially considering the lunch people had to make lunch every day for a billion something kids. After they were done eating, the counselors let everyone go off in groups for a self-governed “tour”, although there was a staff member at every corner, like it was some kind of top tier security prison yard, so even if she tried to cause trouble, they'd stop her beforehand.
Illi, Mikey and Ray were walking through the clearing, talking about nothing particularly important. There was barely anyone else there - most people wanted to go to look at the “cooler” places in the camp, most which likely were on that stupid piece of paper they all got before coming, but Illi couldn't remember what was on it anymore. Something about a creek or a river, maybe; But they had enough time to go check it out another day. It was surprisingly peaceful there, for once, the usual loud voices of the campers now replaced by birdsong.
Until it was cut off by something heavy landing right next to Illi, close enough for her to feel the wind of it as it passed.
A rock. Typical.
She turned around, digging her nails into her palm. She was already expecting to turn around and be greeted by some snobby looking rich kid, or a jock with a cookie-cutter personality and an even more basic appearance - the last person she expected to see was that black haired boy from earlier who she still recognized but couldn't quite name. He looked as if he had made a grave mistake, not the usual reaction people had when they threw shit at her.
“That wasn't meant to hit you, if that's what you're thinking.” he clarified after a few, silent seconds of them staring at each other.
Now that she was seeing him up close, she was sure of who he was. He'd sometimes sit near her during the school lunch, and he probably wasn't lying about not meaning to hit her, considering he also got stuff thrown at him. She nearly didn't recognize him without that (in her opinion, kinda ugly) uniform, but the ridiculous amount of doodles made with a black pen on his arm were still there.
Clearly, she had been staring for too long, as the boy just started talking again after not getting a response from her. “You're, uh.. Lilith, right?”
“Yeah. Just Illi's fine, though.” She smiled without meaning to. It's nice when someone finally gets it right.
“Cool, cool. Sorry if I bothered you.” he quickly fetched the rock from her side, and scurried off back to somewhere else.
“The hell's up with him?” Illi asked, staring at him grabbing another rock in the distance. She swore he looked at her again and tried to make it look like he hadn't done that.
“He's pretty cool. Not sure about the rocks, though.” Mikey responded, not looking away from his phone in his hand.
“..What's his name again?”
“It's Frank, and you have terrible memory.”
“Right. Frank.” Illi responded without looking at Mikey. She wasn't much of a social butterfly - hell, her friend group consisted of her younger brother and a friend who was his first. She didn't particularly like anyone else, nor people in general, but she didn't think she'd mind if Frank talked to her again.
Well, they had 4 more weeks of this shitty camp, anyways.