The second the van rolled off the highway, the passenger-side window—upon which Peridot's cheek was leaning—cracked open and began to slide down her face. Peridot's steady mouth-breathing had made the glass sticky, but it wasn't the peeling sensation of the window parting from her skin that woke her up. What woke her up, in fact, was a sharp screech of breaks and Peridot's forehead, pitching forward from the force of the stop, colliding with the dashboard.

"Jasper!" she shouted as she snapped back into her seat. Peridot was so sure she had cracked her skull that her right hand automatically flew to her forehead to keep her brains from spilling out. Peridot's left hand, meanwhile, balled itself into a fist and crashed down onto the thigh of the driver, who chuckled. "Are you trying to kill me?"

The bulky woman sitting beside her flicked her eyesight towards Peridot for a moment before staring again at the red light at which they had stopped. Her teeth were bared in a wide grin. "Maybe you should've kept your seatbelt buckled, huh? You'd think you would've learned by now."

"That's not funny," Peridot said briskly. After determining that not even the skin of her forehead had broken, let alone her skull, she felt her glasses to see if they had suffered from the collision. Figuring that all was well, she proceeded to prop her crossed arms on the ledge of the open window and to turn her face away from her friend—although, not before covertly pulling her seatbelt across her chest and clicking it in place.

She felt her friend stiffen slightly beside her. "Sorry," was all that Jasper managed to say before a thick, awkward silence enveloped them. When the light eventually turned green, Jasper maneuvered the car down a small, paved road to their right. "Smell the air, though. We're here! Finally."

Despite the residual pounding in her forehead, Peridot couldn't help but smile a little. "Yeah. Finally."

The salty wind coming off the ocean spilled onto Peridot's face and she sighed into it, grateful that Jasper had rolled down her window after all. As they drove, a blur of trees whizzed past them to their left. To their right, the ocean and its rocky shoreline was broken only for a moment by a peninsula, upon which rested a small city.

Jasper spoke up again. "Wait. Did I miss the turn?"

"What?" Peridot glanced at her friend, who was studying the rearview mirror. She looked back out the passenger-side window at the city. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," Jasper growled. "Did I miss it or not?"

"Of course you didn't, you clod." Peridot pointed at the collection of houses and boardwalks that were just distinguishable. "It's past Beach City. We've been here every year since we were basically born, how do you not know how to get there?"

"I mean—" Peridot noticed Jasper's grip tighten on the steering wheel. "—our moms drove us here until we were sixteen."

"Yeah, and you've been driving us here since."

"Whatever, I know where I'm going now." While Jasper's face was red, lips pressed tightly together, Peridot was suddenly feeling cheerier.

"Does your girlfriend know that you're a blockhead or have you managed to distract her enough with your—" Peridot rested her hand on Jasper's bicep and made a show of batting her eyelashes. "—rippling physique."

Jasper pushed her hand away with a rough roll of her shoulder, but she was smiling again. "You're not allowed to talk to her, just so you know."

The car bumped along for an extra minute after passing Beach City before a wooden arch appeared at their left. Large white paint spelled out "CAMP HIDDEN GEM" above a dirt road.

"There it is!" Jasper pumped her fist in the air before firmly punching Peridot's shoulder. "Told you I knew where I was going." She turned the car off the main road and through the passage, dodging thick trees as the dirt road wound through the forest.

"Only after I reminded you," Peridot muttered quietly as she rubbed her shoulder. But her grin remained.

Soon enough, the van screeched to a stop. This time, Peridot's seatbelt kept her from flying forward, but she steadied her hands against the dashboard anyway. Both girls turned to look at each other at the same time. Almost instantly, however, Jasper dissolved into raucous laughter.

"What?" Peridot asked, suddenly feeling paranoid. "What's so funny?"

Jasper, unable to speak for laughing, feebly pointed at her forehead. The smaller girl then reeled around to lean her face out her open window and to stare at her reflection in the car's side mirror.

"Oh my stars," she groaned as she watched herself pick up her fingerless-gloved hand to prod at her forehead. It ached, which was understandable considering the large, red, upside-down triangle shape indented upon it.

"Yeah," Jasper wheezed, her own forehead propped on the steering wheel for support. "That's gonna bruise."

Per tradition, Jasper kicked open the cabin door, hollering, "Honey, we're home!" in a thick, false accent before dumping their bags on the moldy floor. The door's hinges protested with loud squeaks, also per tradition. But although the screws shuddered, they managed to hold the hinges to the doorframe—however feebly. Peridot held her tongue. Though normally she would be tempted to sneer about Jasper's brutish behavior, Jasper did carry Peridot's bags all the way up the hill to the site, after all—and also per tradition.

Jasper climbed onto the top bed of the bunk in the back corner, using only her upper arms to pull herself up. The wooden support groaned beneath her weight as she stretched out like a large cat. "Oh man, Per. I'm beat."

Peridot merely grunted in response. She clumsily stooped to swipe her backpack off the ground and brought it to the bunk below Jasper, where she sat on the edge of the mattress and pulled out a handheld gaming system. She looked up briefly before readjusting her glasses and returning her attention to the gadget. "You know, one day you're going to cave in on me. All that'll remain of me will be dust and a few hunks of severely bent metal. This bunking configuration is most unwise."

Jasper snorted and said with drowsiness thick in her voice, "You know you couldn't make it up here anyway. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do."

Peridot just smiled. Got to hand it to her, Jasper was right; there was no way in hell Peridot could manage to scale up a bunk into the top bed. And she, preferring to sit with her elbows on her knees and to become absorbed in the video game, didn't think it was worth mentioning that there were plenty of bottom bunks from which Jasper could choose.

She was so thoroughly immersed in a world of aliens and laser beams that she didn't notice the cabin door creak open again until a voice rang out, stern and clear, "Ah, I thought I'd find both of you in here."

Peridot glanced up and saw a tall, lean girl carrying a clipboard. "Hello, Pearl," she said flatly before returning her attention to her handheld. "Indeed, we are in here."

"Yes, well, that is—" Pearl stopped. "What did you do to your head? Never mind. Could you wake Jasper up, please? She ought to hear this, too."

Peridot also hadn't noticed the steady stream of snoring coming from above either. She leaned behind her to reach between the bed and the wall to pull out a long, thick stick of wood. Peridot wasn't even surprised the stick was still there, since that had been its resting place since the summer before they started middle school. "Hey," she said, positioning the stick between wooden slats to prod sharply at the mattress above her. "Jasper." Prod. "Wake up." Prod. "You sack of refuse." Prod.

"Wha—" Jasper groaned sleepily. Peridot heard the bed creaking above her and knew that her friend must be sitting up. She replaced the stick to its hiding place. "What's going on?" There was a moment of silence before Peridot heard Jasper resignedly sigh. "Oh. Pearl."

"Jasper," Pearl returned as she straightened up and flipped through pages on her clipboard. "Your assignment this summer is the Yellow Cabin. Your campers will arrive tomorrow morning, so please make any necessary preparations before lights out tonight."

"Yeah, Pearl, I know." The bed above Peridot creaked again as Jasper presumably laid back down. "Why do you think I'm in here?"

"See, that's the thing," Pearl said. "I asked you both—" Her eyes flickered to Peridot. "—to meet me at the Temple to discuss your assignments."

"Why bother," Jasper sighed, sleepiness seeping back into her voice.

"We're in Yellow every year," Peridot added as she turned her attention back to her game once again. She pointed her thumb behind her back. "That's why I leave my stick here."

"Yes, well, that's why I wanted you to meet me at the Temple," Pearl huffed. The pages shuffled back into place as she balled up her fists against the plywood of the clipboard. "You're not in here every year anymore."

There was a beat of silence before Peridot heard the wood above her creak violently. "But you just said—"

"You're in here, Jasper." Pearl pointed at her, then moved her finger to indicate Peridot. "You're in the Pink Cabin."

The floor trembled with the force of an earthquake as Jasper jumped down from the bunk, advancing towards the lanky girl. "What?"

"Yeah," Peridot added. Game forgotten on the mattress beside her, she stumbled to her feet as well to join Jasper. "What? Why amI being moved?"

Pearl, to her credit, didn't flinch. She brought her clipboard down to rest in front of her thighs; the movement was relaxed, yet authoritative. "Because it simply doesn't make sense to have two counselors in one cabin and no counselors in another."

"But you're the Pink Cabin counselor!" Peridot almost shouted, gesturing wildly out the window. From her vantage point, she could just see the top of a roof peeking out between trees at the bottom of the hill.

A sly smile spread across Pearl's face as she puffed out her chest. "Ah. I was the Pink counselor." She brought up her clipboard to tap at it. "I have, however, been promoted to junior director, thank you very much." Her long nose was tipped incredibly high as Pearl spun on her feet to pull the cabin door open. "Just get there as soon as you can, Peridot, please. You have campers that will be here tomorrow morning as well. Dinner meeting at eight o'clock, don't forget." A foot was already out the door when Pearl glanced back over her shoulder. "Oh, and Jasper, please, would you move to a bottom bunk this year? If the bed collapses underneath you onto a camper, Hidden Gem can be held liable." The door slammed shut behind her, and silence settled between the two remaining girls.

After a moment, Peridot sighed grumpily. "She hasn't even started law school yet and she thinks she knows everything. Typical." She looked up at her friend, whose expression was unreadable. "Whatever, Jasper, it's okay," she said with an airiness that didn't feel truthful.

Jasper bent forward to swipe at Peridot's lime green duffle bag, hoisting it onto her shoulder effortlessly. She started to open the cabin door before Peridot could even react. The smaller girl then hastened to stuff her handheld system back into her backpack. She began to sling it onto her back as she walked out the door, but Jasper intervened by snatching it and throwing it over her own free shoulder. "Come on, Per," Jasper said, so quiet that Peridot had to strain to hear her. "I got it."

"Thanks," Peridot said back, and the two trumped back down the hill together. As they descended, she threw a last look over her shoulder at the painted yellow diamond on the cabin door. Its color was chipping. Jasper had really ought to stop kicking that thing.

They reached the bottom of the hill quickly and veered left, down a path that led to a cabin constructed with faded red brick. This one's door had a pink star painted on it, which looked as if it had been retouched recently.

Peridot rushed in front of Jasper to clomp up the steps and to push open the door before Jasper could kick it. The hinges gave way smoothly and silently. She held it open for her friend before turning to face the space herself. "Whoa—" Peridot held back a small gasp. "Sweet digs."

The Pink Cabin was, for lack of a kinder description, way better than the Yellow Cabin in every conceivable way. The wood floor was swept clean and looked to have been polished. The windows were complete with untorn screens and sheer curtains. The bunk beds were made out of an attractive dark metal that looked sturdy and safe.

Jasper grunted in response. "Where do you want these?"

Peridot shrugged at first, then pointed to the bunk in the back corner. Jasper hulked over to drop both bags on the bed, then remained standing where she was to look around. Peridot couldn't help thinking that her friend looked too big to exist.

"I've never been in here before," Jasper said, turning back to face Peridot—yet, refusing to look her in the eye.

"Me neither," Peridot replied. "They keep all the riff raff in Yellow where we belong."

This comment managed to force Jasper's face into a wry smile. "Look at you, moving on up. First the fancy school, now the fancy pad."

There was another slightly tense silence before Peridot asked, "Wanna hang out for a bit? Dinner's not for a while."

Jasper grinned wider, more mischievously. "If by 'hang,' you mean sweat up every single one of these cushy beds, then duh."

"You're crude," Peridot said, grimacing. But her grimace fell into a smile as she unzipped her backpack to retrieve her game and as Jasper lumbered up onto the bunk above her. The metal of the bed frame didn't protest at all.

The sun was already setting when Jasper jumped down from the top bunk to examine herself in front of the floor length mirror, which was next to the cabin door. Yellow Cabin never had one of those, Peridot couldn't help but notice as she put away her handheld and watched her friend preen.

Jasper was flexing her biceps and making embarrassing poses that she often referred to as "the gun show." She ran her hand down a dark, reddish stripe of skin that Peridot had forgotten was there. Now that she remembered its presence, however, she couldn't keep herself from seeing the other patches that streaked across Jasper's other arm, hand, and face.

"What time does your girl get here anyway?" Peridot asked, turning her face away to glance out the window. From here, she could see the large fire pit and, beyond that, the lights from other windows that indicated people were already collecting in the Temple.

Jasper glanced up at the analog clock hanging above the cabin door. "Her plane probably just landed, so she'll get on the bus and meet us at the Temple in about forty five minutes." She grabbed at the door handle and pulled it, looking over her shoulder at Peridot with a toothy smirk. "That doesn't mean we can't get started though."

As Peridot got up to follow her, she glanced at her own reflection in the mirror. The dark shape on her forehead was still there, and getting darker. She reached her hand up to flatten her blonde hair over the bruise before she stepped through the door that Jasper was holding open.

"Those are so stupid," Jasper chuckled, waving her hand towards Peridot's own, which were now clutching onto the wooden railing as they descended the few steps to the ground.

"You wouldn't say that if you were pretty much constantly tripping over yourself and falling down." She stretched out her grip after releasing the railing and examined her black, fingerless gloves. "Certainly keeps me from always tearing up my hands."

They walked together towards the Temple, its windows looking even brighter as the sky above them darkened. "You don't fall so much anymore though. I don't see the point."

Jasper bumped hips with her. Although Peridot stumbled a bit, she managed to steady herself before she completely tripped over her own feet. Jasper barked with laughter as Peridot threw her a look of greatest distaste.

"And jeans, too? Isn't it a little hot?"

"It doesn't make that much of a difference, actually," Peridot replied huffily. She could feel Jasper's eyes lingering on her though, so she continued, "But also, I'd prefer to not deal with all that tonight. I'm too tired."

Shrugging, Jasper replied, "Ain't nothing they haven't seen before though."

They were silent then, and walked up the few steps to enter the Temple. Although a majority of the tables were empty, Peridot could tell that they were some of the last people to get there. Pearl sat at the head of a long table, chatting animatedly with other counselors and staff, a mixture of people that Peridot recognized as either being former campers, citizens of the nearby Beach City, or both. Near the middle of the table, at the edge of the group, sat a stoic young woman. Despite the new darkness outside and the fact they were now inside, she wore sunglasses. Jasper nodded her chin at her, muttering, "Garnet," then sat down at the furthest edge of the table from Pearl. Peridot sat across from her, facing the door.

A box of pizza was passed down the table to them. Jasper grabbed four slices and began to eat them stacked on top of each other. Through a mouthful of food, she managed to say, "I'll give you twenty bucks to let me play a prank on the new campers tomorrow, though."

Mouth also full of food, Peridot took the time to chew and swallow before she opened her mouth to respond. Just as she was about to, however, she heard Pearl's voice singsong from down the table, "Peridot? Jasper? Are you listening to this? This applies to you too!" Both girls turned their faces towards her to listen, but not before catching each other's eyes and rolling their own.

Peridot stopped listening almost immediately. She picked at her slice of pizza with her fingers, feeling too lethargic to be hungry. She glanced up at her friend to see that Jasper's eyes had already glazed over, too.

Then a movement over Jasper's shoulder caught Peridot's attention, so she diverted her attention to look towards the door. A girl had just entered the Temple, a duffle bag and backpack thrown over either of her shoulders.

The first thing Peridot really noticed was that this stranger had outrageous hair—chopped short and dyed blue. The second thing she noticed was the girl's stomach, toned and bare under a crop top. The third thing was the girl's eyes, which were so dark they looked black from that distance.

And the fourth thing was that, at some point, those dark eyes had connected with Peridot's and stayed there, unflinching.

Was she staring? Oh no, Peridot was so staring.

She leaned forward to tap on Jasper's hand, successfully breaking eye contact with the blue-haired stranger. She whispered, "Check out the manic pixie dream girl."

Jasper, surprisingly responsive, wheeled around to look at the door. Her face then broke into a humongous smile—not a smirk or an impish grin, but a genuine smile—as she stood up to approach the girl. Peridot watched as Jasper said something she couldn't hear and held out her arms while the stranger dropped both of her bags and launched herself into them. Within a blink of an eye, Jasper and the girl were kissing emphatically.

Peridot was so inexplicably mortified for them that she averted her gaze, but not before she heard someone to the left of her let out a wolf whistle. Upon turning towards the main group, Peridot saw Garnet bringing her fingers down from her mouth and grinning wildly. There was a small ripple of laughter. Once it died out, multiple conversations ensued; Pearl must have been finished saying whatever she had to say.

Jasper approached the table, carrying the girl's bags in one hand and leading the girl herself with the other. "Per," she grunted as she dropped the bags on the ground at her feet. "This is Lapis. Lapis, this is my best friend, Peridot."

The blue-haired girl held out her hand, which Peridot took and gave a single shake before dropping again. "It's so good to meet you, Jasper talks about you all the time!"

"Yeah," Peridot chuckled awkwardly as she realized, now that she was up close, that Lapis's eyes were very dark blue, not black. "Same. You're early."

"That's what I said, too. Pizza?" Jasper asked Lapis, who nodded. "Stay here, I'll get it. The box is at the other end of the table now."

Lapis, who sat herself in the seat Jasper had abandoned, smiled softly at Peridot. "So. You and Jasper have known each other forever, huh?"

"Oh." Peridot, realizing she was still crumbling her pizza between her fingers, wiped her hands stealthily under the table onto her jeans. Her face felt hot. "Um. We met in second grade. That was when her family first moved into our neighborhood."

"I thought it must've been a long time. She was telling me stories about when she first started coming to this camp? And you seemed to be in every single one of them."

"Of course she was," Jasper said, returning to Lapis's side with two slices of pizza on a paper plate, which she handed off to her as she sat. "Per was my right hand up until we graduated and she shipped off to an Ivy League."

"Smith isn't an Ivy League," Peridot cut in. Her insides were squirming uncomfortably for some reason.

"Well it's still better than a state school, isn't it?"

"Which is way better than community college, of course—" Lapis added, hand held in front of her mouth as she chewed her pizza. "—where we are."

"Oh, man," Jasper chuckled, turning her whole body to face Lapis. "I was telling her earlier about that game we went to right before school got out." As Jasper spoke, Peridot noticed Lapis's hand twist around her friend's forearm, stroking the dark red streak there.

She zoned out, consumed in her observation. The sight of this stranger sitting so closely next to Jasper was very—well, for lack of a better word—odd. Of course, she'd known plenty of Jasper's previous girlfriends and could see certain similarities. There was the thin yet athletic stature, the edgy hairstyle and clothes, the classic hotness (which Peridot, obviously, appreciated from an objective standpoint). But something about Lapis was just different. There was a gentleness in her demeanor to which Peridot had never known Jasper to be attracted.

Her thought process was broken as she watched Jasper and Lapis lean towards each other to share a kiss over some comment she'd just missed.

"Ugh, what is this, Camp Pining Hearts?" Peridot said under her breath as she rose from her seat. Both of the girls across from her looked up at the screeching of her chair. "I'm going to bed."

"Oh, cool," Jasper said, getting up too and patting Lapis's shoulder as she did so. "I'm gonna walk her out real fast, I'll be back."

"Okay. Good night!" Lapis added to Peridot, reaching up to lightly touch her forearm as they passed. "It really was great to finally meet you," she said with a warm smile. Her fingertips made Peridot's skin prickle.

"Yeah," Peridot replied.

Jasper accompanied her outside the Temple door, then asked in a low voice and with a waggle of her eyebrows, "So. Manic pixie dream girl?"

"Shut up." Peridot halfheartedly punched her friend in the shoulder. She was grateful for the darkness, which she was hopeful would successfully conceal her blush.

Perhaps it was the strikingly unfamiliar environment that Pink Cabin offered, or perhaps it was the fact that no campers were in there to fill it yet. Either way, sitting alone on the edge of the bed with her back to a pitch black window unsettled Peridot. She kept feeling the need to peek her eyes over her own shoulder, half-convinced she had heard something scratching at the screen from outside.

Turning her attention to the tablet she had placed on her lap, she opened up a word document and began to type.

"Log date 060515. I find myself reverting to my childish hylophobia, from which I haven't suffered since Jasper and I first starting coming to Hidden Gem." Peridot's eyes drifted away from the screen and towards the bunk above her as she wrote. "I am alone, having been reassigned from Yellow to Pink per Pearl's request. Jasper is off gallivanting who-knows-where. She got her girlfriend from school, Lapis, a last-minute job here as instructor for water-related activities. Apparently she's the strongest swimmer Jasper's ever seen, as she insisted to me earlier—accompanied by a lengthy description of Lapis's ass. I'd never met her before tonight. She is most assuredly not what I expected."

A noise from behind Peridot—a breaking of twigs, maybe—shook her out of her concentration, accompanied by an intense shiver down her spine. She certainly hadn't imagined the sound that time.

She quickly pushed her tablet off her lap and, as quietly as she could manage, tiptoed to the cabin door. Here, she switched off the light. The room was thrown into near pitch darkness, interrupted only by the blueish glow of the tablet on the bed. Peridot used this beacon to guide her way back, turning it off too once she had clumsily crawled onto the mattress on her hands and knees. She pulled back the sheer curtain ever so slightly and peered out the window.

The blood pounded in Peridot's ears as she strained her eyes. The moon was large and bright in the sky, though, so the ground glowed where shadows weren't streaking across it. About thirty feet away from the window was a rustle of movement, to which Peridot's gaze jumped instantly. Following the slow-moving shadow to a head of thick, blonde hair, Peridot released the breath she hadn't realized she was holding. It was just Jasper.

Peridot was about to unlatch the window to yell out at her when she saw that her friend wasn't alone. She instead watched Lapis's back move down the path, away from the cabin and towards where Peridot knew the non-counselor staff's lodgings were located. Jasper, so much taller, grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Lapis turned around with a brilliant smile on her face, saying something that Peridot couldn't hear at all. Jasper replied; although Peridot couldn't make out the words, she could recognize her friend's faraway, deep voice from its strength.

Then Lapis was talking again, using her free hand to warm her bare bicep. She turned away once more and tried to leave, stopping only when Jasper actually did release her. Facing her, Lapis's expression remained puzzled as Jasper removed her cargo jacket, and then broke into one of immense tenderness as Jasper helped her shrug the jacket onto her own shoulders.

Jasper leaned down to kiss Lapis gently on the lips, slowly pulling away until the shorter girl grabbed her face and held it fast to her own. The kiss deepened. In a matter of seconds, Jasper had pushed Lapis against a nearby tree, pulling away to say something under her breath as she snaked a hand under the hem of Lapis's shirt.

It was at this point that Peridot, face burning, decided whatever was about to happen next was much too indecent for her to watch. She choppily backed up from the window, sinking to the floor and pressing her back against the bunk frame. Disbelief that she had let herself spy at all, let alone for so long, left Peridot's skin feeling clammy, like she needed a shower.

When a noise like a distant moan was carried to her ears through the window, Peridot decided that a shower—or any excuse to get her out of the cabin, really—was an absolute necessity. Still shrouded in darkness, Peridot fumbled in her duffle bag for her shower caddy and towel and proceeded to book it out the door as quickly as her legs would take her.

She entered the community bathroom—out of breath, but relieved. The light flickered on spookily and illuminated the chilly room. But, graciously, it was at least empty and extraordinarily clean. In fact, Peridot had never seen the bathroom this clean before and quickly realized that, since she'd never been a counselor before either, she'd never been the first person to use the showers. To use them before the walls became slick with grime and the drains became clogged with hair—that was a dream Peridot never realized she'd had before that moment.

She made her way to the end of the line where the handicap stall was located, her shower caddy nestled in the crook of her arm and her towel slung over her shoulder. She glanced at the mirror as she walked. There were no water stains or handprints, a rare sight. But there was Peridot's reflection staring back at her. And that looked quite the mess.

Placing her towel on the counter, Peridot leaned forward to examine herself carefully, thankful that Jasper wasn't there to interrupt her this time. She smoothed back her bangs, which were frizzy, and inspected her forehead. The bruise was mostly unchanged, save for a spot of purple that was forming right in the middle. The fingers that were pulling back her hair had dirt underneath their nails. Peridot pulled her lips back into deprecating sneer. Her teeth still had pizza stuck between them.

"Oh, yeah," she muttered to herself, dropping her hand and patting the countertop. "No idea why you're still single."

Peridot spun on her feet to step into the handicap stall, pulling the curtain behind her and sitting on the bench in the same motion. She placed her caddy next to her and then reached to her other side behind the second, inner curtain that separated the shower from the changing area. The temperature dial was stuck, as it always was, forcing Peridot to give it a mighty tug before it gave way. As the water heated up, she proceeded to peel off her gloves, then her t-shirt, and then her sports bra.

When it came to unbuttoning and ripping down her jeans, the denim hit a familiar snag as soon as it had cleared her bent knee caps. Sighing, Peridot leaned forward to unhinge a plastic knob before finally tugging off her right prosthesis, then repeated the action on her left. Leaving her boots on the fake limbs, Peridot tore both of them out of the legs of her jeans and propped them standing against the bench beside her. Now stripped down to only her glasses and her underwear, she extended her knees and inspected the few inches of leg below them that she had left. The sight, though far from unfamiliar, still had the power to make her skin crawl.

She was already exhausted, and the strength she used to remove the last item of clothing, juggle her shower caddy, and scoot herself onto the side of the bench actually in the shower was the last she had in her. Peridot leaned her back against the wall and groaned. The hot water that was pounding on her chest felt most welcome.

Peridot sat like that for a long while. Her mind was sluggishly becoming clearer than it had been all day. She forced herself to dip her head forward to soak her hair and face, and reached into her caddy to retrieve a bar of soap. As she ran it up and down her arms, her stomach, her back, her legs (which ached the strongest), Peridot let her thoughts wander.

This was a mistake, as they wandered immediately to the scene on the dark path behind the Pink Cabin where Jasper and Lapis were probably still entwined. Despite the hot water, Peridot couldn't suppress a shudder.

She was half-embarrassed for her friend's sake, though it would be difficult for her to deny Jasper's propensity towards physical exposure. It was Jasper, after all, that had led a skinny dipping coup d'état on their last night of camp last year—in commemoration of their final of many years as campers, she had insisted. (Peridot had opted to stay behind under the pretense of acting as lookout and for the actual purpose of remaining clothed.) The other half of Peridot, however, was embarrassed for herself, having just witnessed a level of intimacy that was absolutely foreign to her.

It was at this point that she noted, if she were a character on her favorite T.V. show (or one in her admittedly extensive self-published works of fan fiction), this would be the inciting incident that would evolve her story line into one that followed the concealed-romantic-feelings-for-her-best-friend trope. And Peridot, ever the curious, allowed for a moment of contemplation on this theory, wondering what it might feel like to have her own back pressed against a tree trunk as Jasper's face loomed mere centimeters above her own.

And then she was grateful that she was already in the shower, because the idea made her feel dirty again. She scrubbed her skin over once more, extra hard this time, before reaching for the shampoo and washing her hair.

Peridot realized she must have been in the shower an egregiously long time, because once she'd finished rinsing her hair, scrubbing her face, and polishing her glasses, the water had gone tepid. But just as she reached forward to turn off the tap, she heard a voice that she didn't immediately recognize, causing her to pause.

There was a moment's silence, and then the voice rang out again, louder. Peridot still couldn't make out the words over the shower. "What?" she yelled out in response. When the voice started to speak again, she muttered, "Wait, hold on," and finally turned the water dial down.

The water stopped, but the person on the other side of the curtains hadn't realized this, evidenced by their continuing to yell. "You left your—oh god, sorry." Quieter now, "You left your towel on the sink."

"Oh," Peridot replied, peeking out the curtain just enough to confirm the towel's absence from the bench. "Of course I did."

"Peridot?"

"Uh, yes?"

"It's Lapis."

"Oh," Peridot said again. She could feel the heat returning to her cheeks. Under her breath, she mumbled, "Of course it is."

There was a giggle. "I'm not going to peek, I promise. I'm just going to toss it over the curtain to you, okay?"

"Okay," she returned, resting her back against the tiled wall. Then there was a soft grunt, a plunk, and a subsequent loud clatter.

"Oh, god," Lapis laughed. "I'm sorry. Don't come out yet, I'll get it."

The screech of curtain rings sliding preceded a sharp, tremulous gasp. Peridot pulled back her curtain again just enough—still concealing anything below her chin—to see Lapis staring down at her prosthetic legs, which had apparently fallen on top of each other to the floor. Lapis looked up at her, hand clasped tightly over her mouth. Her face looked as hot and red as Peridot's felt—not, of course, that this was any comfort to Peridot.

"I'm—Peridot, oh my god—I'm so sorry." Lapis's eyes kept moving between the ground and Peridot. "I'm so—Jasper never told…" Her voice drifted off.

Peridot's voice felt tight in her throat as she asked, "Do you mind?"

Lapis immediately turned her face away, pulling the outer curtain shut behind her. Peridot scooted to the changing room bench and swiped her towel off the floor where it had fallen. She quickly patted her knees dry before reaching down to grab her legs, pulling them back over her warm, swollen skin and fastening them with much difficulty. After standing, wrapping her towel around her chest, fixing her glasses onto her face, and smoothing back her wet hair, she pulled the outer curtain open and stared at Lapis, who was leaning against the counter facing her.

Peridot noticed Lapis was still wearing Jasper's jacket. She herself, observed via the mirror behind Lapis's back, was a sight to behold. Red-faced and naked—save for a towel, a pair of combat boots, and (most conspicuously) her fake legs.

Lapis spoke first. "Peridot, I'm so sorry."

"For what," she intoned, any hint of emotion missing from her voice. A creeping feeling of rebellion consumed her as she moved her hands up to rest on her hips.

"For reacting like…" Again, Lapis's voice drifted. "Jasper never told me. I had no idea."

"Well," Peridot huffed, turning around and bending to retrieve her shower caddy and pile of clothes. She straightened up again and took a step towards Lapis, who shrunk even further against the sinks. "I can understand why, seeing as how this—" She glanced pointedly down at her knees. "—is none of your business."

She turned away from Lapis and stormed out of the bathroom. From the sinks, she heard Lapis call out, "Wait, Peridot, please, are you okay? You look like you hit your head and—" before she slammed the bathroom door behind her.

Peridot was just pondering if she could be any more humiliated when she realized that, in her fury, she had walked out wearing only her towel. To make matters worse, a throng of other counselors and instructors exited the Temple at that exact moment and collectively stopped in their tracks at the sight of her. She recognized Garnet's wolf whistle coming from the back of the group.

As she stomped her way back to Pink Cabin, Peridot grumbled under her breath. "'Let's go back next year and be counselors,' she said. 'It'll be fun,' she said."