"Well Emily, your resume is definitely impressive, even for only being in your second year of college. You speak six languages and have lived all over the world?"

"My mother is an ambassador. We moved around for her postings. Picking up the languages was almost second nature for me. I love communicating and you can't do that if you don't speak the languages. I actually speak seven though if you also include English and I'm also hoping to pick up another next year in classes."

"At Chesapeake Bay University right?" The woman who introduced herself as Kathleen glances down at her notes.

"Yes." Emily feels as though she really needs to sell herself in this interview. Usually her connections, language skills and background is enough to lang internships but this is something completely different. Her mother can't understand why Emily wants to 'waste' her summer off at summer camp, but it's the challenge of doing something unlike anything she has ever done. Plus with her mother jetting off to a new posting in Bangladesh, she would rather stay stateside for the few months she has off from class.

"What are you studying?"

"I'm currently working on my bachelors in Criminal Justice before I hopefully transfer to Yale to continue onto a Masters in Linguistics."

"And what are you hoping to eventually do with those degrees?"

"My dream job is to work for the FBI. I would love to put my language skills to use and they seem like to best place to be a translator for criminal justice."

"Hmm." The stout brunette in front of her writes something down but makes no more comments on Emily's schooling and career goals. Had she said something wrong? "So if your goal is to become a translator long term, why summer camp?"

"Excuse me? I'm not sure I understand the question."

"Why did you apply? What made you want to be a counselor?"

"I never had the opportunity to go to camp as a child. There were always too many events I had to be at as the daughter of an ambassador. But I always wished I could have gone. Camp seems like such an important place to grow as a person by trying new things as well as having the opportunities to step out of your comfort zone."

"And what made you choose to apply to Camp Silver Springs specifically?"

"My roommate Lily spent the entire fall semester talking about how much she adored being a counselor here last summer."

"Lily was one of the best. We were so sorry to hear she wasn't able to come this summer, but studying abroad in Italy seems like a wonderful opportunity too." The woman across from Emily jotts some notes down on the paper in front of her. "Now we do have some questions we go through in this portion of the interview."

"Completely understandable."

"Most counselors are paired with a specific age group that is their cabin, but with camp activities throughout the weeks at camp there are chances to interact with multiple age groups. Are there any age groups you would prefer to work with? Or are there any you wouldn't feel comfortable with? Our campers range from ages five to seventeen."

"I think there are so many unique instances that can happen at each age that I'm excited to see what I get to learn and experience with all ages. With the younger campers, some of them are experiencing their very first time being away from home while the older ages are really learning not only who they are, but who they want to become. So no, I don't have a preference on the age of the campers I get to be a counselor for."

"And because there will be campers who are only a couple years younger than you, do you see that being able to help you or do you see that being more of an issue with campers who are closer in age to you?"

"Being close in age to the older end of campers will help me connect with them in an older sister esque way, I think. I would use my relatively close age as a way to allow them to come to me in friendship, but also to be there if they need advice or guidance."

"How about if one of them sees you being close in age as a way of letting them get away with things that they normally wouldn't be able to get away with? How would you handle that?" Emily takes a sip of her latte, giving herself a pause to think.

"I definitely would say I'm not the kind of person to let people walk all over me. But especially in a place like Camp Silver Springs, there are rules in place to keep the campers safe. So I wouldn't just allow anyone to skirt the rules especially if it meant the risks they were taking were going to put their lives in danger. So as I said before I can only see the positive side effects of being close in age with some of the campers because I wouldn't and won't let anyone walk over me, especially if it puts children's lives at risk."

"Ok." Kathleen makes a note before looking at the sheet in front of her again. "On a scale of one to ten, how likely would you say you are to try new things?"

"Probably an eight." Emily realizes she should probably elaborate a bit more. "There are few things that I wouldn't try, one being skydiving, but most things I'll try at least once. And I'm pretty open to hearing a new idea out before saying no if it is on my list."

"If you were dealing with a camper who refuses to try a new activity at camp such as the ropes course or horseback riding, how do you think you'd approach getting them to brace trying it?"

"I think I'd try to approach it from a logic standpoint. Figure out with them what about it scares them and see if there is a way to approach the activity without the fear. For example, if they're scared of getting up on a horse then the first step would just be getting them into the arena to pet the horse. Or if they're scared of heights then I would offer to take them on a lower ropes course first to build their confidence." Kathleen nods, acknowledging that she's following Emily's thought process but also that she agrees with how Emily would handle the situation.

"Would you be wanting to get certified to work the ropes course or be a lifeguard?

"Sure. Would that be during camp? Or would I need to do that before I arrive?"

"We can do it during the week of training we do prior to the campers arriving. Lastly, based on some past instances, in order to ensure that our counselors' attention remains fully on the campers and their jobs, we ask that all counselors agree to not get involved romantically with other counselors or with campers. Is this something you can agree to?"

"Of course."

"We then, assuming your background check goes through, we'd like to welcome you to Camp Silver Springs' Staff."

"Really?!" Emily's mind catches up with her mouth a second later. "I mean, thank you. I look forward to working with you and a summer of fun at Camp Silver Springs!"

"Welcome aboard!" Kathleen reaches out to shake the long hand of the girl sitting in front of her before glancing at the clock which makes her realize she needs to wrap up this interview so she can start the next one on time. "Now as much as we could sit here chatting all afternoon, I have some other interviews to finish and you have classes to get to if I'm remembering correctly." Kathleen looks to her list to see who her next interview is as Emily nods in agreement. Oh, a returner interview! "I'll walk you to the door. We will be following up with more information closer to the summer."

"Sounds great!" Emily can barely hold in the excitement about this summer now. Her smile has already broken free.

"I think this summer with be a great one Emily and I'm looking forward to having you on our team." Kathleen opens the door as she says this. There he is, her staffer from last year. "Aaron, why don't you come on in? By the way, this is Emily. She's our newest staff member as we just hired her." Turning to face Emily she continues, "Aaron's one of our returning counselors and he used to be a camper before he aged out."

"Nice to meet you Emily." Aaron's hazel eyes meet Emily's darker ones, but his cooler expression remains.

"The pleasure is all mine." Emily smiles with ease at this other counselor that if all the other guy counselors look as easy on the eyes as he does, it's going to be harder to keep her promise to not get involved with them.

"See you in June Emily." Kathleen closes the door to move on to Aaron's interview, but Emily finds herself unable to close off her mental image of his eyes as she walks away from the office. "It's good to see you again Aaron."

"Good to see you too Kathleen."

"How's your Mom doing?"

"She's doing well. Ready to have the house a bit quieter for the summer I'm sure."

"Sean's all ready for camp I take it?"

"It's all he's been talking about since he left last year. He adored it."

"He's, what, 12 now?"

"Yes and oh so ready to be a teenager officially in six months."

"Since you were in the teen boy cabin last year, do you think you want a different age? Especially since Sean will be in that one this year?"

"As I said last year, I don't mind where I'm placed. I enjoyed the guys in my cabin last year, but I also know that this year there will be new kids no matter what age I'm in so I'm ready for whatever challenges arise. But if I were to end up as Sean's counselor, it wouldn't be a problem. Mom already talked with him and he knows he needs to respect and listen to me if he gets placed in my cabin."

"Glad to hear it Aaron. Now last year you got lifeguard certification and talked about getting certified on the ropes course possibly. Is that still something you wanted to do? You did great with your cabin when they were on it so it was requested that you get certified."

"Sure, I'd be interested in getting certified."

"Ok, perfect! I'll put your name down with Emily's since she's the only other one to say yes so far."

"She's getting certified?" Aaron is a bit surprised. Most girls with her breeding did the camp thing for one of two reasons- to puff up their resumes or to meet boys. Hell that was why Haley kept coming back as a counselor. What a mistake she had been last summer, but still Emily seemed similar in how she was raised from what he had seen. But Haley had never said yes to getting certified to lifeguard or be a ropes course leader in all her times at camp since she had moved from camper to counselor with Aaron all those years ago. Had it really been six years now?

"She's open to getting certified as both a lifeguard and on the ropes course. Didn't even hesitate."

"Wow."

"I know. I think she's really going to bring a breath of fresh air into the camp. I also have a feeling the two of you might become fast friends."

"Why's that?" Aaron feels his eyebrows pull together. Kathleen might have known him since he was ten, but guessing his friends was a bit weird even for their relationship.

"She's studying criminal justice and even wants to work for the FBI one day too. Who knows maybe one day the two of you could be partners at the FBI building or something and to think it all can start here at Silver Springs."

"Huh." The exclamation leaves his mouth before he can think twice about it. If he were to guess, he would have guessed 16th Century English or something to do with Russian Literature or anything down those lines. But maybe this Emily girl is worth more of his time if they were going to work in similar fields one day.

"But I will mention to you like I mentioned to her," Kathleen's voice interrupts his thoughts, "to ensure the counselors attention remains on the campers and their duties as counselors, we're asking that counselors agree to not get romantically involved with other counselors or campers. Is this something you can agree to Aaron?"

"You're saying you don't want another Haley incident?"

"We don't want another Bella incident." Kathleen reminds him of what he spent the past year trying to forget.

"Yeah, I can agree to that. I just want to come to camp and have fun. Be surrounded by nature, great kids, and hopefully no spiders." Aaron jokes quickly, trying to lighten the mood and direct the conversation away from Bella.

Author Note: So I wanted to write a piece about camp since I am going to be spending summer at camp this summer as a counselor. However that means updates on all my stories are going to be sporadic at best and nonexistent at worst between June 2nd and August 2nd. However I will be working on this while I am gone so hopefully I will have a wonderful new story when I get back:) Let me know what you think about Hotchniss going to camp together.

Lizzy