Chapter Text
It was finally summer time which only meant a whole month of being outside, sleeping on a mattress that felt like bricks, and eating stale food. Summer camp. Ben had a grudge against it, but Donna didn’t mind because she got to see her friends, meet new people, and play games at night with whoever she got in a cabin with. The only thing con was the fact they were both leaders.
For them, being a leader was like being an unpaid babysitter. You’d set up the dining hall, clean the dishes, supervise the young children, take care of trouble, and take care of the new campers. Ben and Donna used to be excited to be leaders one day. USED TO. Sure maybe Donna liked playing with the kids but Ben just wishes they can turn 19 and never have to go again.
Uniforms were another thing. It would be a cream button up, a white blazer, with any black bottoms. If you went to ask Ben his opinion on the clothes he would say “don’t get me started.” The blazer was like nails on a black board, and the shirt felt like sandpaper on skin.
But why did Ben go to camp if he hated it so much? The icecream. Every camp at least two activities you’d get to have ice cream at the end. You’d line up and get a tiny bowl of icecream, definitely the scoop would be pretty tiny but it was like heaven to Ben’s tastebuds.
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The sunlight was streaming through Ben’s windows as he laid in bed with crumbled papers surrounding him. His mind was blank with no ideas. Ben’s room was quite expect for the katseye vinyl playing in the corner of his room.
Unexpectedly his door swing opened with Donna against Ben’s doorframe. “Where my katseye, beautiful chaos vinyl!” Donna shirked, her voice specially high-pitched when she was pissed. Her eyes scanned the eye landed on Ben’s vinyl collection and her stolen katseye vinyls.
Donna rushed towards them as Ben yelled “YOU DONT EVEN HAVE A RECORD PLAYER!” “SO?” Donna reached for her SIS(soft is strong) vinyl before Ben smacked her hand. “GIMME IT BACKKKK,” Donna whined.
Diana voiced carried through the house even from the first floor, “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING GET READY FOR THE SUMMER CAMP,” Donna pouted for her vinyls back for 20 minutes before he gave in. “Fine only if you don’t annoy me the whole camp,” Ben reached his hand out as if they were making a business deal. Donna nodded in agreement smacking her hand into Ben’s, doing a quick shake before letting go.
The bag felt like a brick on his shoulders, but he still managed to get to get downstairs and into the car. The drive was always the same, dead silence. Ben looking out the left window and Donna looking out the right. No chatting, just silence and a hope that camp ends quickly.The road became bumpy as the camp came into view.
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Ben sitting legs crossed applesauce with his sketchbook in his lap. It was increasingly worn with eraser marks. He was staring into the lake, it was quite expect for the birds chirping in the nearby trees.
“BEN!! BENNY!!”
Donna called out, Alerting Ben. Donna ran to his side, “what are you doing? The campers are here! You didn’t forget about the speech right?” Ben rolled his eyes before getting his sketchbook and his Pencil into his grip as he rose.
Ben waited for silence against the crowd before checking over his speech before starting.
“welcome or welcome back to gold love camp, we do daily activities which includes swimming, hiking, night events, volleyball, and many other fun activities, we have dinner at 6:30pm sharp and breakfast at 9 in the morning. There will be 6 people in each dorm, will be quite at night you only get one warning before you get moved to a different cabin. at you are new than we hope you enjoy and come back next year or if your 16 and over hopefully you’ll try for a leadership position,”
“Now get out!” Donna rolled her eyes before slamming his door shut rattling the windows. Clearly pissed that she can’t get her vinyls back until next month. Her loud loud stomps carry throughout the floorboards.
Ben would go though his closet trying to find his bag before he pulled it out. The last time it was used for a soild 3 weeks ago before school hoildays started. It had a hole you couldn’t miss on the bottom and doodles all over it in black sharpie.
Ben pulled at the zipper, it took 10 times before it opened. Ben only shrugged before flinging in the necessities. Extra Uniforms, his sketchbook, toothbrush and toothpaste, only because he didn’t trust the camp’s free toothbrush and toothpaste, books, and lastly his pencil case. It nearly fitted. It took his mom and him to close it.
Ben thanked everyone before stepping off stage to go back sketching. Until a little girl ran up to him tugging on his shirt. Her hair in a messy braid that looked like someone did it blinded, her ocean eyes teary as she repeated the same thing over and over. “I lost my brother!” She was overwhelmed and whining, clearly overstimulating and wasn’t looking like she wasn't going to stop crying anytime soon.
Ben got down to her level using a soft tone, “calm down and tell me everything slowly.” The young girl sniffled before explaining that she had lost her older brother by accident when she saw a kid from school and ran off. “Can you tell me your name and his name?” “I’m Ruth and my brother name is Ricky,” Ben got ahold of her tiny hand slowly taking her up on stage
“Is Ricky in the crowd?” Ben called out on the microphone before heading back down the stairs. And then he appeared.
He had eyeliner that looked like a 3 year old did it, black eyeshadow, a silver lip piercing, black messy hair that made him seem as if he just woke up, and a shit eating grin.
“Ruth, why did you run off?” His voice was laced with a thick Boston accent that dragged some of his words. Ricky rattled Ruth’s hair. Ricky nodded in a “thank you” way as Ben’s heart pinged. It was odd, Ben has a girlfriend, aka Lola, he shouldn’t be feeling his way. Ben Exause himself as he walked back to the lake.
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Ben was seated down, his back against a tree as he thought of what to draw. Every time his mind crawled back to Ricky. He didn’t want to give into the thoughts or else they’d just keep going but he couldn't stop.
His pencil started sketching, it was pretty rough until it was nearly finished. Ricky. Ben ripped the paper off the stables, and crumbled it before tossing it into the lake. The water soaking into the ruined page.