Week 1: Set-up and Staff Introduction

Amy Santiago was enjoying this drive, even though the ever climbing height was making her a little queasy. She liked passing by thousands of trees, she liked singing Vanessa Carlton songs at the top of her lungs, and she liked rolling the windows down and letting the sun dance on her skin. She was so used to New York traffic and concrete jungles that the scenic mountain scape was a welcome change.

"Continue driving for two more miles. The destination is on your right" her GPS said. Amy sighed. She was almost there and she wasn't mentally prepared. She was driving to the campsite of a resident camp called "Camp Safe and Amusing" (worst name ever) where she would have to babysit a bunch of bratty kids for an entire eight weeks. It was more like six though, since the first and last weeks were for set-up and tear-down, but still, it was too long. Amy was pretty sure the kids were going to hate her, especially since everyone in high school hated her. Hate was a strong word. It was more like…they avoided her at all costs because she was an obnoxious nerd who would rather be studying.

The only reason she took this stupid job was so she could save some money before she went to college. Amy was going to St. John's University as a Criminal Justice major and one day, she'd become a great detective, taking down bad guys left and right. Tuition was pretty steep and getting a summer job would at least help her out a bit. She put in dozens of applications, but in the end, this was the only one she was able to land. Amy followed the road as it took a sharp left turn and saw the campsite

"Arriving at your destination" the GPS said. The camp was a huddle of little log cabins and various activities that were meant to engage the children. Amy saw tennis courts, a baseball field, some weird trampoline things with harnesses, and what looked like some hiking trails. She assumed there was more the deeper you went into the camp as well. It looked pretty nice, but she still dreaded it. It wasn't just the inevitable contact with children, but she would have to socialize with the other counselors too. She was sure they would dislike her as much as the kids would. She just wished she could spend her summer reading like she usually did.

She rolled her car into the staff parking lot and took a deep breath.

"Alright, Amy. You can do this. You're super smart. You can handle a bunch of kids and teenagers" She thought, pushing her glasses up and getting out of the car. She went to her trunk to pull out her suitcase and duffle bag, feeling slightly more confident. She shut the trunk door and looked around for any sign that might point her to the orientation meeting. She grabbed the print-out of the orientation e-mail from her pocket and looked for instructions. Her train of thought was interrupted by a gentle chuckle behind her. She turned around and saw a boy her age leaning against a beat-up mustang, laughing at some unheard joke. She briefly thought he was cute, but she had a terrible feeling he was laughing at her so the thought quickly vanished.

"What's so funny?" she asked, hoping he was nice and that his laughter was completely unrelated to her.

"Those glasses big enough for you? They're, like, eating your face" he said, still chuckling to himself. Amy was dumbfounded. She'd been here thirty seconds and already, she was being teased. This guy was going to make her life miserable, wasn't he?

"I-uh-I normally wear contacts, b-but I was driving so-" she said, already flustered and embarrassed. The boy approached her and smiled. She noted that it was a really nice smile.

"Don't be so nervous. Not a big deal, but the kids will definitely tease you and maybe break them if you have those puppies out" he said. Amy wasn't sure if he was being insensitive or kind. Maybe it was both.

"Well, I don't know why that's any of your concern" she said, immediately feeling guilty because it came out crosser than she meant it to.

"Just giving out some friendly advice. My name's Jake Peralta. Want me to help you with your bag? My stuff's inside already, I just came out to get my phone" he said, taking her duffle bag without permission.

"Thanks" Amy said under her breath. They walked on a path that led to a log cabin about three times the size of all the other ones. Amy assumed it was the dining hall.

"You haven't told me your name" Jake Peralta said.

"What?"

"Your name. I still don't know what it is"

"Oh, sorry. Amy. Amy Santiago"

"Santiago? That's a pretty cool name" he said, looking ahead of him. Amy blushed.

"Thank you. Is this your first year here?"

"Yup. You?"

"Yeah. Hey, do you have any idea what's up with the name?" she asked.

"Right?! Like, 'Camp Safe and Amusing'? What the hell is that? It sounds like it's hiding a dirty secret" he said and she laughed.

"It does" she said as they came up to the dining hall. Amy opened the door and was greeted by a lot of loud chattering being made by a dozen or so camp counselors. They took up very little space in the large dining hall yet they still made a lot of ruckus. All of them seemed like the popular type and this made Amy shrink. She suddenly felt self-conscious of her glasses. She and Jake left her bags to the side and he turned to face her.

"So the registration table is at the end. I'll see ya later" he said, darting to a corner of the room with people he already got along well with. His departure made her feel really alone in a room filled with people who had already found their cliques. She tried to ignore the feeling and went up to the registration table. A big, muscular man sat behind it.

"Hi"

"Hey, welcome! I'm Terry, the assistant camp director, what's your name?" he asked with his hand extended for her to shake.

"Amy Santiago. Nice to meet you" she said, shaking his hand. He seemed kind and it made her feel a little better. He looked down at his papers and found her name. He handed her a small packet with the title "Team Leader Guidelines" on it.

"There you go. We're gonna start in about a half-hour, go ahead and introduce yourself to the others" he said, smiling. She smiled back and looked for a place to sit. She thought she would try the group that Jake had joined. There were about five of them huddled in one corner, Jake's back to her.

"Hey, did you know that nerdy girl you walked in with?" one of the boys asked. Amy stopped dead. Was she really already getting made fun of?

"What? No. I just met her when I was grabbing my phone" Jake replied.

"You got the hots for four-eyes, Jake? I saw the way you carried her bag" the boy said. the others laughed.

"N-no! No way, man. I have standards, y'know? I was just helping her out because I'm a gentleman" Jake told the boy. Amy was devastated. She got as far away from the group as she could, hoping to find an area to be by herself. She found an isolated cafeteria bench and sat facing the wall, her back to the entire auditorium.

"That was so mean. Why did he have to say it like that? I thought we were getting along" she thought, hugging her knees to her chest. She told herself it was okay. She was used it.

Orientation went by faster than Amy expected. Camp director Holt seemed entirely unenthused by the prospect of camp, but he had a sort of commanding quality to him that made Amy want to follow him into war. The best part of his welcome speech was when he asked if anyone had questions and Jake raised his hand.

"Yes?"

"Yeah, hey, what's the origin story behind the name? You know, just for context" Jake said and Amy could almost hear him smiling.

"I wanted to assure parents that the camp was both safe and amusing for their children" Holt said, stoic as ever.

"Ah, got it" Jake said, doing his best to contain his laughter.

Next, Terry led them in horrible, embarrassing "get-to-know-you" games that made Amy feel like even more of a freak. It wasn't that she was bad at the games, but her competitive side got the better of her and these weren't exactly competitive games. There was one game where they all stood in a circle and had to associate their name with a gesture and adjective, then everyone had to repeat it. Amy thought everyone's adjectives were really dumb and boring like "Kind Kate" and "Silly Sonny". Amy had a great word in her head and she doubted any one would one-up it. When it got to be her turn Amy took her index fingers and moved up the corners of her lips to make a smile.

"Amiable Amy" she said, confidently.

"Amiable Amy" they all echoed. She was a little disappointed when Terry didn't say how great of a word it was. The game continued until, at last, it hit Peralta, who had been excitedly waiting his turn for since Terry started. Peralta took a huge lunge into the circle and punched the floor like some sort of superhero while shouting:

"JUGGERNAUT JAKE"

Of course, everyone thought this was great and they all echoed him.

"That's great, Jake. Really fun, the kids will love that when you play with them" Terry said. This sent Amy over-the-edge and she couldn't stop her know-it-all tendencies.

"Juggernaut's a noun, not an adjective" she said, upset that his rule-breaking got him praise. This little outburst earned Amy some dirty looks.

"Well, the first word doesn't necessarily have to be an adjective. As long as it's fun, that's what counts" Terry said.

"Yeah Amy, no need to be so anal. Hey, maybe you should change your name to Anal Amy. Anal's an adjective" Peralta said, again winning laughter from the rest of the counselors. Amy glared at him. She was definitely not liking this guy.

Over the next couple of days, Amy was relieved to find that there wasn't a lot of time for socializing. There was a surprising amount of work to be done before the kids arrived. All of the cabins had to be cleaned so meticulously that most counselors had to re-clean three or four times. Holt was relentless in his inspections, but Amy made the record by only having to clean her cabin twice. Holt even gave her a slight nod in approval. Amy had a smug smile on her face for the rest of the day after that.

Every night, Amy went back to her bunk exhausted. She had no idea being a camp counselor would be so laborious. The night before the campers arrived, the directors held a special dinner to congratulate everyone on finishing set-up and to give out partner assignments. Everyone was given a partner of the opposite sex and an age bracket that the partners would look after together. They still had their own set of campers though. During the day, the boy counselor had a set of six to eight co-ed campers, same with the girl counselor. During sleeping hours the female counselor would be in the same cabin as all the girls in both sets, while the male counselor got all the boys. The camp directors did this so that when the two sets compete in team sports, the kids wouldn't harbor any "boys vs. girl" tendencies.

It made sense, but Amy wasn't looking forward to working closely with any of the other guys. All of them were buffoons and she cringed at the thought of working with that Peralta guy. Even his name sounded asshole-y.

Once dinner was over, Terry stood at the director table that vaguely reminded her of the professors' table in Harry Potter, since it over looked the camper tables and was in a similar configuration.

"Alright everyone, it's the moment you've all been waiting for. Now Director Holt and I thought very carefully about where to put you all, so don't think this list is arbitrary," Terry said, looking down at his list, "once we've given out your assignments, we'd like you to meet with your partner and work on your welcome banner and camp badges for your team"

Terry began listing off teams and ages, starting from the youngest. The six-year-olds went to the bubbliest of girls and probably the nicest guy that Amy had met here. She was a little annoyed that he was already taken since he was her first choice. Terry went through the seven-year-olds and the eight-year-olds (both of which had two sets of counselors instead of just one pair), the nine-year-olds, and the ten-year-olds. There were only two age brackets left: the eleven-year-olds and the twelve-year-olds. Amy was nervous because she hadn't heard her name yet, or Peralta's.

"The eleven-year-olds will be led by Gina and Charles, and last but not least, we have Jake and Amy heading up the twelve-year-olds. Alright, guys meet with your partners. We have all sorts of crafts out for you to make your banners and your badges. Have fun!" Terry finished. Amy's heart dropped. Of course, she'd be partnered with Peralta. Why had she ever thought otherwise? She looked over at him and he had a big, stupid grin on his face. Well, at least he was enjoying this. He must have like the idea of picking on her for an entire summer.

He motioned for her to come with him to a corner of the room. She begrudgingly followed him, still sour about this turn of events.

"Twelve-year-olds, huh? Hopefully they're not too emotional and pubescent" he said. Amy sighed.

"Peralta, look-"

"Ooh, we're using last names? That's cool, kind of like secret agents. So, what's up Santiago?"

"Look, we just need to figure out our banner and camp badges so let's cut the chit-chat" she said. Peralta's smile faltered. She mentally slapped herself. Why did she always sound so mean around him, she tried to redeem herself, "Sorry, sorry, that was harsh. I just mean…I want our banner to blow everyone else's out of the water so we should get started"

This tactic must have worked because Peralta immediately perked up.

"Yeah, we have to think of a really good idea. It needs to be something cool. They're not going to be into anything too kiddy like superheroes and princesses"

"Something mature…like political parties?" Amy suggested.

"What? No!"

"Just a thought"

"What about a Die Hard theme? Best movie ever"

"Ugh, no!"

"Well what do you like when you're twelve?" he asked.

"I guess…I liked things that made me feel more adult"

"Yeah, like…it's kinda that age where you pretend you don't like your awesome action figures anymore and you're supposed to only be into girls" Jake said, stroking his chin with his arms crossed.

"Right, so friends and socializing…what about something, like, emojis?"

"Oh! The banner could be like…an iPhone text chat or something" Peralta said.

"Yeah! And then, the badges could be a big emoji with their name on it…"

"What if we have them customize their badges so that they can pick an emoji that fits them best and everyone has a different one?"

"That's a great idea!" Amy said. This was going to leave everyone else in the dust. The two of them ran to the craft table and got their supplies. They worked on the banner first. Amy had better penmanship so she made an outline while Peralta colored. The banner took them a long time, but well worth it because looked great. Terry even came by to check on them and was decidedly impressed. It was the best Amy had felt in days.

The badges went by much faster since the campers would be doing most of the work anyway. They both had to make their own and Amy decided on "Smiley-Face with Halo" emoji, while Jake went for "Smiley-Face with Sunglasses" emoji. They took a step back to look at their work. Jake gave Amy a hard, congratulatory smack to the back.

"Good work, Santiago. Ours is definitely better than the rest of these bozos" he said, motioning to the counselors.

"Yeah, I think the 10-year-old team is going with Under the Sea" Amy said, rolling her eyes.

"Pffft. Lame. Looks like we're going to be a pretty good team" he said as extended his hand for her to shake. She shook his hand, but her smug smile came back.

"Don't get too chummy, Peralta. My kids are totally going to murder your kids when we play capture the flag tomorrow.

"Oh, you wanna bet?" he said, amused and with a glint in his eye.

"Yeah, I think I do"

"Okay, fine. What's on the table?" he asked.

"Hmm…if I win, you wear a speed-o to the pool for a week"

"Wanna see me in a speed-o, Santiago?" Peralta asked, wiggling his eyebrow at her.

"No, I just know that wearing a speed-o will be really embarrassing for you"

"Ha! Alright, fine. Waste it on that. Not like I'd actually care"

"You're bluffing" she said.

"Think what you want. How about we extend this bet and we have to pay the penalties during the last week? Make it a little bit more interesting? Counselor that has the most accumulative wins is the victor" he said, a dangerous tone in his voice.

"Sure, I'm fine with that. Not like it matters, since I'll definitely be winning, but what do you get if you win?"

"I," he said, a massive grin spreading on his face, "get to kiss you. Underneath that huge tree by the hiking trails"

This was the last thing Amy expected of him. Why would he even want that?

"Well, the prospect of that is truly horrifying, but it won't matter because I'm going to beat you by a landslide"

"Oh, we'll see Santiago, we'll see" he said, picking up the rolled up banner and taking it to where the others were.

Amy walked back to her bunk, still confused at how things turned out this way. She cursed her insatiable need to win all the time in everything. She'd never kissed a boy before and if she lost to Peralta…she shivered at the thought. He was probably planning to make it really embarrassing for her and inviting his jerk friends to watch or something gross.

"Or maybe he just kinda wants to kiss you?" she thought. She laughed at herself. There was no way that was the case and just thinking that showed her how naïve she was. She sure did have a vibrant imagination. She told herself it didn't matter, since she was definitely going to win. She put on her pajamas and got under the covers. She fell asleep while trying to wrestle the image of Jake Peralta kissing her out of her head.

AN: God, this is the longest chapter I have ever written. I'm definitely going to make sure these puppies are shorter in the future. Like, half this length.

I have this headcanon that Amy was this super awkward teenager that had a really hard time expressing herself properly and was always saying the wrong the thing. Oh, and she always has cute, giant glasses on. Yeah, they're def not going anywhere, haha.

This fic is going to be all slow-burn and fluff, with maybe an angsty scene or two. I promise it won't be like my last fic.

Thanks so much for reading! I always really appreciate your comments and feedback. I read every single one and treasure them deeply. See you soon, lovelies! I hope this will help you make it until Sunday!