A/N: Damn! Wasn't expecting so much feedback but it sure does keep me motivated to write and update, so thank you for that. I'll probably put out a new chapter once a week if I continue getting support because I'm honestly lazy otherwise.
Also, for the reviewers who asked about things regarding ships: all I know for sure is that there will be Emison. I originally thought of background Spencer x Aria and Hanna x Mona but it may be subject to change. There will be no mutual Paily though, that's for sure. But, as with any love story, there will be obstacles.
Annnd Jenna isn't blind in this.
Finally, as I'm sure you can tell, I'm trying to not include any OC's.
Anyway, on with the chapter.
"Who here knows who Anna Rüling was?"
All twelve girls stood in front of Dr. Sullivan silently, none of them making a move to answer at first. But after a moment, Spencer raised her hand. The counselor acknowledged her with a nod.
"She was one of the first known lesbian activists," Spencer said unsurely as if she knew she was correct but also knew it didn't make sense. The other eleven girls whisper amongst themselves, making the connection between the woman's name and the name of the camp.
Emily looked to Dr. Sullivan in surprise. Their camp was named after a lesbian activist? Why would a conversion camp be named after a lesbian activist?
Dr. Sullivan merely nodded her head to the confusion. "Correct, Spencer. Theodora Anna Sprüngli, also known under the pseudonym, Anna Rüling, was an advocate for lesbian rights as well as women's rights in general. Do you know what she said about how to handle LGBT children?" Twelve heads collectively shook to answer 'no.' Dr. Sullivan smiled kindly at the group. "With love and support."
Tears instantly sprung into Emily's eyes at that, not used to being met with love and support as a response to her sexuality. Her whole outlook on the camp suddenly changed and she felt a weight being lifted off of her chest. She heard Alison clear her throat.
"Most of you must think that we are here to persuade you into believing that you're straight," The woman continued, gesturing to the other three counselors that she'd previously introduced: Jackie Molina, Meredith Sorenson and Talia Sandoval. "But we are only here to help you get comfortable with who you are, whether that's homosexual, bisexual, pansexual or even heterosexual. Many of your families expect you to return home as the latter, but no one can force you to be anything." With a pause, brown eyes swept over the teenagers faces. "Questions?"
As Emily began to raise her hand, she heard Alison speak out beside her. "So we're here to sit in a circle and hold hands while singing Kumbaya?" A perfectly shaped blonde brow arched in annoyance.
"No, Alison," Talia cut in, stepping forward a little with a warm smile. "You are all here because someone in your life expects you to be someone who you're not. And we want you to learn that it's okay to embrace the person you were born as."
Emily's eyes trailed to her newfound friend and she watched as the blonde's jaw clenched and unclenched several times. It made her wonder why she seemed so upset. Wasn't this a good thing?
Alison just curtly nodded though, and refrained from saying anything else.
"Yes, Paige?" Dr. Sullivan asked as Emily turned her head to see the girl who had her hand raised. She was cute and tomboyish.
"My parents aren't going to react well if I go home and I'm still gay," Paige quietly said before gesturing to the rest of the campers. "I don't think any of our parents will," She added, getting a few nods of agreement.
Out of the corner of her eye, Emily saw Alison roll her own. "Who gives a shit what your parents think of you?" She demanded, turning on her heel to look Paige in the face. It was the first thing she'd said in a while and it took Emily by surprise.
Before Paige could respond, a girl who looked strikingly similar to Alison budded in. "Ali is right. Who gives a damn? If any of our parents don't like it then they can go straight to hell." Her nametag read CeCe and if Emily didn't know better, she'd say that she was Alison's twin.
Alison grinned at CeCe while Paige cheeks turned pink. "She wasn't asking you - " Piped in a girl named Jenna in Paige's defense but before could finish, Dr. Sawyer interrupted her.
"Girls," She chided. "You all will have to learn to work together as a family. You need to stick together, not turn against each other." Dr. Sawyer gave Alison a pointed look, to which the blonde just rolled her eyes and muttered a "whatever." The head counselor turned to Paige. "In the beginning of July there will be workshops for your parents. But right now, you need to focus on yourselves and finding inner strength." She paused. "Any other questions?"
The girls remained silent. "Okay, well, I guess that means it's time to appoint a counselor to each of your cabins. Your counselors will assist with activities and provide help where needed. And they will also lead small group discussions every Monday at 6pm. On Thursdays we will all meet as a large group in the activity center, also at 6pm." Dr. Sawyer looked down at the clipboard that Emily just noticed she was holding. "Talia, you will be with cabin A. Jackie with B and Meredith with C."
Emily shifted her eyes to the tall, tanned brunette who would be her cabin's counselor and nearly blushed at the smile she received in return. None of the three counselors seemed to be a whole lot older than the campers, but Talia was definitely the youngest. Emily looked over at Alison, who was shooting daggers at Talia with her eyes.
"Your first task is to give your cabins proper names. You will be given wooden slabs and after you come up with a name, you'll be given wooden letters to decorate. Then your counselors will drill them onto the slab then they will be hung over your cabin doors. Your counselors will also give you the run down of the place."
Lost in her own thoughts, Emily suddenly found herself being whisked away by her cabin mates while Talia led them to a secluded area. She was happy they were going to be staying outside instead of going into the activity center because she could use the fresh air. She couldn't help but think about what Paige had been saying. She knew her parents wouldn't be happy if she returned home gay.
"So," Talia started off, plopping down to sit crisscross in the grass while the other four girls followed suit. Emily was hyper aware of how close Alison was sitting to her. "Breakfast is at 9 o'clock, lunch is at 1 and dinner is at 5. There are also a few vending machines if you get hungry. Sundays at 11am we all go to the chapel for mass. We also do a lot of activities with each other but we don't have a set schedule. And I'm sure you guys saw the bathrooms when you came in."
She paused and the girls nodded. "Good. Doc already told you about our little therapy sessions. It's no big deal; we just talk about whatever you guys want to talk about. Any questions?"
"Why do we have to go to mass? I thought this wasn't a conversion camp?" Aria asked with a creased brow.
Talia smiled. "This isn't a conversion camp. But a little church never hurt anybody. Despite what all of you may have heard, God doesn't hate gays."
Aria, seemingly satisfied with that answer, just nodded in response.
Spencer cleared her throat and leaned forward. "In a pamphlet, I read that there would be some type of nature walk?"
"Yes, sometime during your last week here, you'll be hiking through the woods on a path. This whole place used to be a hiking trail. It's sort of a surprise, but I can tell you that it's really beautiful at the end of the path." Talia's eyes gleamed as she spoke about it, and Emily internally wondered what that was all about.
For the next couple of hours, the group debated a name and how to decorate their sign until they settled on Queen B's that would be painted in black with pink and purple accents. It was Alison's idea, of course. Although Spencer did valiantly fight against it for twenty minutes, Alison won.
Another ten minutes later and there were five giggling girls with paintbrushes in their hands and oversized shirts on, to protect themselves from the paint that was splattering all over the place.
That was when a paint war began. All twelve girls and all three counselors began flicking paint at each other and even Alison wasn't worried about getting paint in her hair as she flung globs of nontoxic purple paint at Jenna and Sydney with a grin.
None of the girls had even had a chance to get to know each other yet, but they were all goofing off together like they'd known each other for years.
When Alison got hit right in the left boob with a huge splotch of yellow paint thanks to Maya, Emily threw her head back while laughing at Ali's startled expression.
It was then that black paint was launched at her. If her head hadn't been tilted back like it was, then it probably would've hit her forehead or grazed the top of her head. But since her head was tilted back, it hit her square in the eye.
"Shit!" Emily exclaimed, hands flying up to cover her eye. The laughter immediately died down and Paige, the perpetrator, immediately rushed to her side.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry Emily, I didn't mean to – " But Paige was cut off by Alison who was pushing her out of the way and taking Emily's arm, quickly leading her away. Talia tried following to offer help but Alison calmly told her that she could take care of it before calling over to Aria and Spencer to go into her bag and bring her the unopened bottle eye drops she kept there. The two brunettes scurried off to their shared cabin without a word.
Emily didn't even know what was happening because she was too focused on the slight burning sensation in her eye.
"Just follow me Em," Alison calmly told her and Emily really didn't have much of a choice but to listen. Soon they were standing in front of one of the bathroom sinks. "Let me see, take your hand away," She gently told her and Emily complied, even though she kept her eye shut. Black paint circled her eye and dripped down her cheek.
"It burns," Emily quietly whined, opening her good eye to look at the surprisingly concerned blonde girl in front of her.
Alison gave her an encouraging smile. "Don't be such a baby," She teased gently, guiding Emily to lean over the sink as she turned on the water. "Try opening your eye a little bit to rinse it out," She added, tying Emily's hair back into a ponytail with the hair elastic she wore around her wrist.
Emily did as she was told and carefully scrubbed the paint off from around her eye before opening it as best she could and splashing warm water into it. Alison stayed by her side and only looked up when Aria and Spencer walked in with the eye drops, followed by Talia who came to check up on them.
The three quickly left once Alison firmly told them that she had the situation under control. Emily could swear that she heard possessiveness in her voice.
Once Emily rinsed out her eye as best she could, she stood up straight, slightly squinting her damaged eye. "I think I got most of it out," She said, turning to face her friend.
"Here," Alison murmured softly, bringing up a hand to cup the swimmer's cheek, thumb resting just below her eye. "Tilt your head back and try to look up, I'm going to give you some eye drops."
Even though Emily was pretty positive that she could give herself the eye drops, she melted into Alison's touch and didn't want to pull away, so she complied. Albeit, she did wonder why the girl was being so nice.
First, Alison took a paper towel from the dispenser and lightly patted that water dripping down Emily's cheek, and then she squeezed a few drops from the bottle into a squinting chocolate brown eye. Emily blinked several times, causing a bit of the solution to trail down her cheek and be caught by a pale thumb.
"There," The blonde smiled, watching as Emily fully opened her injured eye. "It's a little red, but put in a few eye drops twice a day to help with the irritation."
Then just like that, Alison was walking out of the bathroom, leaving a dazed Emily clutching the small bottle of eye drops.
And Emily couldn't help but wonder if it was too soon to already have a crush on the mysterious blonde.
A/N: My tumblr is fate-has-laid-a-hand so if you're a guest who has any questions or comments, you can leave them in my ask box so I can directly reply.
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