I'm so sorry for the long update. I've been so busy with Christmas and New Years, and I was also away on the weekend. I meant to get this chapter out before Christmas so I'm sorry

And thank you so much Guest and Katie and msleahbeah3236 for your reviews and all your kind words. Thank you all so much, you have no idea how much it means to me! I hope you all enjoy this chapter


The lodge was where everything important at camp happened. Well, almost everything important. The lodge was where all the registration took place the first couple of days while all the campers and staff arrived. We ate in the lodge, did activities in the lodge during thunderstorms and slept there if it rained during a campout. The numerous tables that were usually connected for groups to eat at were either folded up to save room or were placed in the large rectangle that had all the stations set up for camper registration. There were usually many of the program staff manning the tables on the day that campers arrived, but I was surprised to see only two people sitting at a single table as my dad and I walked inside, not another soul in sight. I wasn't used to this.

I immediately recognized the two people sitting at the front desk. There was a girl, Anya MacPherson. She was a counselor, and she was super sweet. She was beautiful and almost all of the younger guys had a thing for her. She was never a camper here, but she was a CIT. Anya was one of the best counselors here. She always counseled juniors as she was very patient and good with younger kids. Almost anyone would want Anya as their counselor though. She was pretty amazing. Next to Anya was Dave Turner. I didn't know much about him, but he was pretty goofy and fun to be around. He was a counselor for the first time this year, and I could remember him being a big part of leading some of the games that the CITs organized the past couple of years.

Anya smiled as my dad and I walked up.

"Maya!" She exclaimed, standing up to hug me. I inhaled her sweet, fruity scent as she hugged me. "Is it true that Katie isn't coming up this year?" Anya asked as she released me from her grip. "I didn't see her name on the sign in list!"

"Yeah," I replied, sadness in my voice. "She's has to work full time this summer before she goes off to school."

"Ah," Anya replied, sounding disappointed. She was only a year ahead of Katie, and they were CITs together a couple of years ago so I figured they were friends. Anya knew that camp didn't pay you too much, only about 270 a week, but she also knew why else Katie didn't want to come back this year. "Well, let's get you checked in!" She said, flipping through a bunch of pages, quickly changing the subject. Next to her, Dave pulled out another form and handed it to my dad.

"This is the health form here," he explained. "All the info from last year is still there, so just fill out the changes if there are any," Dave told my father and I presenting the form with a smile.

My dad and I worked together through the forms for the next couple of minutes, filling out all the necessary information. We handed Dave and Anya the forms back a few minutes later.

"You can leave all your bags by the big tree," Dave told us. "If you wanna head down to the field, everyone's there playing some warm up games until everyone gets here."

My dad and I smiled our thanks, and made our way out of the lodge. I sighed. I knew that it was time to say goodbye to my dad. It was a moment that I'd been dreading all day. I was really excited for camp and everything, but I knew that I was going to miss my dad like crazy.

"Maya, you're going to have an amazing summer," my dad told me as we finally reached the car. "I know it's been a rough year, but try and have fun sweetie." My dad picked me up and pulled me into a hug as I forced myself to smile. Even though I wasn't a kid anymore, he would always pick me up and hug me whenever we said goodbye to each other.

"I'll try to, dad," I replied.

"I'm going to try and write to you every week, okay?" My dad told me with a smirk. "Not that I'll expect a response that often!" He joked.

I sighed. It was a running joke with my family. Ever since I was little, I had begged my parents to write me letters over the summer. Letters and email were the only way parents could contact their children, and even after email became the new thing, my parents still chose to write letters. I always promised to reply, but camp had me so busy in the summer that I had almost always forgotten. I would write the odd letter or two, but I promised myself that I would write my dad a lot more than usual. We had grown a lot closer, and replying to his letter seemed so much more important this year than any other year before.

"I love you kiddo," dad said with a smile as he stepped into the car. I kept looking at him as he rolled the window down to wave goodbye, just like I was little again.

"Bye dad," I said, almost whispering as the car started to move and drive away. I saw my dad's hand wave to me out the window as he pulled onto the road. I watched the car as it continued to drive away. I stood frozen in place even after my car was out of sight. I forced myself not to cry, and tried to think about how happy I was to finally be here. It's camp. My favorite place in the world. I kept repeating happy thoughts to myself as I made my way down to the field.

The field was basically the main activity area at camp. All the large group activities happened there, and it was the meeting point before group activities began. The lodge was at the top of the hill. There were stairs that led down to the field in the middle of the short but relatively steep hill. I saw two circles of people in the field quickly break apart as Emma Nelson, the CIT director this year, began to call out who was in which cabin. The program staff began to disperse and head into the Staff House to relax. I felt many eyes on me as I made my way down to the field.

There were many faces that I recognized, yet there were some new CITs every year like there always were. Silver Lake Camp gave you way more than the required amount of volunteer hours needed to graduate high school, and many teenagers who came just for the volunteer hours came back the next summer because they enjoyed camp so much. I smiled at Adam Torres as I walked up to the large group of people. Him and his brother, Drew, had come two years ago for the first time, both as CITs. They came for their volunteer hours more than anything else, but were an example of people enjoying themselves so much that they kept coming back. They were both counselors now.

"Maya," Drew said with a smile as I approached them. "Hey," he added, looking down at the ground awkwardly.

Katie had dated Drew Torres two summers ago when him and Adam had first come to camp. He was a nice guy, but he had fucked up. He was one of the main things that had triggered Katie to start changing. The eating disorder had started shortly after their break up, and Katie blamed Drew for everything. I wasn't particularly fond of the guy, but I wasn't going to hold anything against him for stuff that had happened years ago that had nothing to do with me directly.

"Hey Drew, Adam," I said cheerfully, nodding at Adam who stood beside his brother. "What's going on here?" I asked, trying to make conversation, even though I had it basically figured out already.

"We were just playing one of those stupid name games," Adam explained, rolling his eyes. "We were just in two circles doing the get to know you games. The always do them until a lot of people get here. Now Emma's giving us our cabin cos," the boy added with a smile.

"What about our group cos?" I asked curiously. Finding out your cabin information was fun, but you spent most of your time with your group, so that one always mattered more to most people.

"That's not until the staff meeting later today," Drew replied, looking at me with a smirk, understanding how disappointed I would be. I smiled and nodded in response. I didn't know what else to say to the Torres brothers, so I stood in silence as I waited for Emma to call my name.

Emma Nelson was the new CIT director this year. Emma was previously a counselor, and I had always liked her. She was nice and patient with everyone, and she was well known at camp since her stepfather, Snake, was the head director and had been for as long as I can remember. When I heard that Emma was taking over as the CIT director this year, I was really excited. Rachel, the old CIT director was alright, but I had high hopes for Emma.

"Cabin 4!" Emma exclaimed, interrupting my thoughts. "Counselors will be Anya MacPherson and Jenna Middleton, CITs will be Zoe Rivas and Maya Matlin!" I looked over and saw Jenna Middleton flash me a small smile across the field as we made eye contact. Everyone knew who Jenna was. She was the one who had the baby a while ago. She had the baby in March, so no one really saw her while she was pregnant, but everyone at camp knew about it because she had announced it while she was on some reality TV show.

Zoe Rivas was part of the group of girls I tried to avoid at camp. It wasn't that we were enemies; we were just never friends. I didn't know much about her, but I knew that she was known for trying to start drama with people, and for always being attached to a guy for almost the whole summer.

And then there was Anya. I was so happy that Anya was one of my counselors. I know it sounds corny, but I kind of look up to her. She's just so good and patient, and I was beyond excited to be one of her CITs. Anya just looked like she always had so much fun at camp. She was always smiling.

"Maya, right?" I turned around and saw Zoe standing in front of me, gathering her bags.

"Um, yeah," I stammered, smiling at the pretty brunette. She smiled back at me. I was surprised. I always thought that she was kind of a bitch, but she seemed nice to far.

"Well I guess we'll be cabin cos," she said, smiling again. "Do you want to head up to the cabin?"

"Yeah, sure!" I exclaimed. I ran over to the tree where I had left my stuff. Zoe followed me and we began our walk up to cabin 4 together. I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy this summer, but so far, it seemed pretty promising. And that was good.


Okay so I know Zoe seems a little OOC here, but the way the show portrays her makes her look like a crazy bitch, and the only reason she hates Maya so much is because they liked the same guy. So in this story, Zoe will still be Zoe, her and Maya will just get along a bit better.

And again, sorry for the long update. The next one will not take as long, I promise! And there will be more action, I promise ;P

~Lauren