Thanks for taking an interest in the story! I know isn't the best place for LBD fanfics, but I'm desperately trying to get an ao3 account, so hopefully once I get one, I'll be uploading this there as well. Any comments are always appreciated.

June 3rd 2028

Annie

She'd had to spend what felt like a fortune to her on public transport from the airport to the school bus pickup point on some dusty street corner in the nearest city. She had never travelled anywhere alone before; unsurprising considering she wasn't yet twelve years old. Whilst her aunt Lydia had accompanied her on the flight from LHR to Bangor International (she was keen to see the "shopping highlights" of the city – Annie could tell when she was just being a very protective aunt), Annie had had to go it alone from Bangor to the street corner on Mt Hope Avenue, and then onwards to the camp. Saying goodbye at the airport had been a bizarre experience, though made a little bit easier by the Bennet family's customary "hello/goodbye" dance, which never failed to elicit the biggest smiles from Annie and her aunt Lydia. Handing over the bus fare had also been a bit unnerving; it did seem like a lot of money for one journey, but she was told that it just feels like more because of the exchange rate with the pound. Annie couldn't quite grasp any of that yet, despite the fact that she was in the top maths set last year in school. She'd sat in complete silence on the bus to the camp – everybody else seemed to be familiar with each other, or at least familiar enough with the world around them to try and be familiar with everyone else – and it was only when the bus stopped at the front of the main campsite did Annie dare make a noise.

"Bennet, Annie!" A white-haired woman shouted into a megaphone.

"Here!" She replied, stepping forward with her bags, as a younger woman approached her with a clipboard in hand.

"Annie Bennet, from London, UK?"

"That's me."

"Ok, is this your first time in America?"

"No, but first time in Maine."

"Well, from all of us Mainiacs, welcome to our little state, and welcome to Camp Walden!" The younger lady handed her a folded map. "You'll be in hut 59. It's just along the track and down to the lake, but first," she pointed to the large hut in front of the melee of people and bags and buses, "you need to go register. Won't take long."

"Thanks!" Annie headed off towards the large hut whilst listening to the other names being called out, and wondering if any of them will also be in her hut 59.

Charlie

"We're here!"

Charlie was woken out of her daydream by her aunt's squeal at the sight of the sign displaying the words "Camp Walden" through the windows of the limo. She wasn't entirely sure what she had been thinking about (perhaps only how clear and blue the sky looked when she lowered the tinted windows and let the wind blow through), but it was clear upon awaking from the daydream that aunt Gigi was far more interested in arriving than she was.

"Do you want to take my place instead?" Charlie smiled.

"Are you serious? I mean, I'd love to, but don't you want to go?"

"No! no, I mean that is…yes," she stuttered.

"Ok, you really do sound like your father right now." Gigi smiled.

"I'll be clearer: I do want to go, it's just…you seem more enthusiastic about it than even me. I mean, I'm excited, but camp isn't that exciting!"

"Camp isn't that exciting? Charlie, I haven't been on camp in years and man, have I missed it!" Gigi emphasised her excitement as she got out the limo and walked round to her niece whilst the chauffeur James unloaded the bags. "Now, I know what you're like, Charlie."

"Oh?" She stuck her chin up a bit higher, with a hint of grin.

"Yes. You don't give other people much of a chance before you judge them, or show off your latest top market app. You can't go doing any of that here, because there's going to be people from all over who do not have the same privileges in life that we do, and you can't go attacking them for something beyond their control." By the end of this short lecture, Charlie had rolled her eyes all the way round and had tapped away at some of the dirt with her left shoe.

"Yes aunt Gigi." She muttered, staring at the ground.

"In any case, I'm not so sure that that Samsung is going to be of great use here." Gigi smiled as she brought her niece into a tight hug.

"What do you mean by that?" Charlie spoke into her aunt's waist.

"You'll see!" She crouched down so she was at eye level with her. "If there's anything you need, then just ring, you know. Other than that though, see you in eight weeks, honey." With one last kiss on the head, she stood to full height and got in the limo again. As the chauffeur drove off back down the drive, Charlie picked up her bags and headed towards where the main crowd of people seemed to be milling around.

"Darcy, Charlotte!"

"Present!" She dropped her bags in her left hand and waved.

Annie

Upon entering the large hall, she could see short queues of people lining from one end to another, and at the front of them sat a staff member at an exam desk with letters stuck on it. She assumed the queues were organised by the first letter of surnames, and so Annie joined the back of the "A-C" queue. The lines might not have been filled with many people (probably due to the 26 different letters which one's surname could begin with, she thought to herself), but they certainly weren't moving steadily. It seemed that they had a lot to tell each new camp member. This didn't fill Annie with much confidence, as a taller girl with a dark dirt coloured Game of Thrones t-shirt (she recognised the logo from the favourites list on the family Netflix account) pushed in front of her.

"I'm sorry," she tapped the girl on the shoulder, "but you cut in front of me. You need to go to the back of the queue."

"So what? Doesn't matter. Don't need to do anything."

"No, but I was here before. You can't cut in like that."

"Hey, are you from England?" The corner of the girl's mouth tilted up slightly.

"Yeah." Annie wasn't in the mood to coddle any potential anglophiles by talking about 'living near the royal family' (not that she did), or 'One Direction' (middle-aged 'boy bands' were not her thing).

"Well then I'm sure you're too posh to fight me over it."

Annie's hands clenched into fists. It's true that she had no intention of using these fists on this..this..she wasn't even going to label her anything in her mind. It didn't mean that she couldn't. She may not have exactly grown up on a London estate (hell, her and her mum and aunt had quite a nice terrace house in Lambeth), but she had learnt a few things from the friends she'd made during her first year at the comprehensive secondary school nearby, and they were not to be messed with.

She replied with a short flick of her middle finger, which was not nearly as covert as it should have been.

"Young lady!" The same white-haired lady that had called her name before (though clearly she couldn't remember her name) tapped her on the shoulder. "I don't want to see anything of that sort again at this camp! Is that understood?"

"Yes, Ms." Annie spoke with the same droll monotone voice that every pupil at her school seemed to use in reply whenever a teacher would announce 'Good morningYear Sevens' at the beginning of assembly. This was going to be quite a culture shock. She'd never been in America for a whole eight weeks before (usually only just one over Christmas, when mum and aunt Lydia would visit their parents and sister in California), and she was going to need every bit of ingenuity she had not to cave in and lose her mind.

The queue was moving a lot quicker now, thank god. If it hadn't of been for the girl in front, she would be being attended to right this second. But no matter. She unclenched her fists and relaxed; taking in a bit more of the hall around her.

Charlie

She'd finally made it to the front of the D-F queue and stated her name:

"Charlotte Darcy."

"Darcy…Charlotte," the large woman sat behind the desk said as she scanned down the list for her name, "from San Francisco, CA?"

"That's me!"

"Well, Charlotte – can I call you Charlotte?"

"Charlie, ideally."

"Well Charlie, if nobody's told you yet, you're in hut 60. It's just opposite the lake."

"There's 60 different huts?"

"A lot of those huts are supply huts and staff huts, and there's no hut 13 of course!" Charlie winced at the superstition. "The main things you need to remember is that there is to be no sugary drinks or food consumed in the huts. Breakfast is at 7am, lunch at 12pm, and dinner at 6pm. Any mess or problem with the hut is to be reported immediately to a member of staff, and as I'm sure you're aware, the wifi has been switched off."

"Switched off?" Charlie's could feel the blood rushing from her face. "What the hell?!"

"That's better my dear!" A white-haired lady chattered to her all of a sudden. "Less vulgarity in that!"

Charlie turned to her. "I'm sorry?"

"Well dear, I told you profanity would not be tolerated at this camp, just now, and in my books 'hell' is not a profane word. You're lucky it was me who heard it though." She started to whisper, "Mrs Roderick would've clipped your ear for that!"

Charlie tucked her head into her chin. She didn't want to argue or disagree with a member of staff, but this was not making any sense. "Forgive me Ms, but what did I do just now?"

"You gave the old middle finger to that girl in front of you_" The lady turned round and pointed at the A-C line the other side of her. "Oh, well that's funny. Did you realise you were in the wrong line, my dear? I understand. Not much can get past Mrs Marva Kulp, you know!" The white-haired lady began humming to herself as she strolled off towards the back of the hall.

Charlie turned back to the woman behind the registration desk. "Sorry, but why is the wifi turned off? How am I supposed to survive without knowing what's going on in the outside world? How can I contact my family without paying? How am I meant to keep myself entertained?" She was getting almost frantic in her questions by the time the other woman replied.

"So you don't get distracted by the outside world, of course! Just try and shut off for eight weeks; no worries or stresses from your normal life."

"But what if the markets crash? What if war is declared?!"

The woman smiled. "Then I'm sure you will be duly alerted." She looked back at her list again. "And in any case, I'm sure your mother managed fine without wifi when she went on girl's camp at your age."

"Yeah, if I knew who she was" she muttered as she walked off with her bags, after being handed her welcome pack full of information.