Wow. I'm just spewing these chapters out.

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When the sun started setting over the trees, I left the cabin and the occupants inside to their own devices -- which, by this point, I didn't care if those devices were murdering each other. So much for bonding, every one of them except the red-haired dude seemed to have malicious intent toward one another.

I shook my head, letting the cool breeze of the evening ghost over my skin. The other counsellors within the camp seemed to be setting up the fire, so I climbed down the wooden steps to join them -- anything to escape that stuffy cabin.

"Hey," I said once standing beside the wooden logs.

"What's up?" one of the older counsellors with silver hair said, smiling behind a black mask which covered his mouth and nose. "You must be the youngster Naiya was telling us about earlier. I'm Kakashi."

"Yeah, that's me," I said, picking up a small twig which had fallen out of the stack of wood. I threw it in the pile.

He laughed. "I could've mistaken you for one of the campers. He wasn't lying when he said you were young."

I sat on one of the logs. "Well, I didn't have much of a choice coming here."

He nodded. "Yes, I heard about your little escapades in Iwa High. You were the only one caught, huh?"

I snorted. "Hmm, and unfortunately grassing isn't my forte."

The pieces of wood in the fire stood and leaned against each other to form a triangle. This obviously wasn't the first time he'd built a fire. He nudged my shoulder, making my body rock slightly. "Hey, chin up. It's not that bad here."

I pushed his hand away. "Yeah, I know that, but it's summer vacation, and I'd rather be spending it back home."

He laughed. "Missing parties?"

"You could say that."

"Don't worry too much about it. I'm sure you'll have a great time here once you've gotten used to it." He sat on the log beside me and stared at the wood as I was.

I shrugged. "I doubt it. The people in my cabin seem to want to spend all their time arguing."

He laughed, rubbing the side of his face. "That's natural, I guess." He sighed. "They probably spend so much time protecting their dignity that they're going to be very defensive. Put a whole group of defensive teenagers together, and that's what you get."

Defensive? What the hell would they have to be defensive about? "Is the same thing happening in your cabin?" I asked.

"The same thing happens every year. Don't worry, it never lasts long. It's the reason Naiya makes them spend the first two days in the cabin together. You know, gives them the chance to get to know each other."

I guessed that made sense.

As the sun completely disappeared behind the trees, happy campers began appearing at cabin doors. I gazed over my shoulder, looking toward cabin four. My Cabin. Saku was sitting on the steps with her knees pointing opposite ways as she rested her forearms on them. She rubbed at the side of her nose before letting her hands hang. Jesus, she really did believe she was a guy. Perhaps I should've told Naiya I had a girl in my cabin. Sai stood on the platform of the cabin, leaning on the railings and filing his nails before lifting them up in the dim light to watch them gleam. Lee emerged from the cabin next, pulling on a green jacket. Poor guy, he was probably the most messed up -- I'd concluded that he had a bad upbringing; perhaps an overbearing mother. That seemed to be the answer to everything.

Someone's gay -- overbearing mother.

Someone killed themselves -- overbearing mother.

I rubbed at my chin, that gave me a good idea. The next time my English teacher asked where my homework was -- you guessed it -- 'sorry, sir. Overbearing mother.' He'd pat my head and nod understandingly.

Naiya appeared at the campfire and blew some sort of horn -- must've been the homo horn, since all the campers began leaving their cabins and seating themselves around on the logs. The fire was lit and the flames began dancing, sending oranges and reds over the faces of the teenagers sitting around it. He wasn't kidding when he said they were a minority. There were only thirteen people sitting around -- I'd heard camps usually held twenty-five to fifty people. But then again, like I'd mentioned before, I wasn't the best person to ask about camps. This was my first time at one, after all.

"Now, campers," Naiya said as he held a flag with rainbow patterns on it. "For those of you who were here last year, you know what we're about to play. For those of you newer members, we're going to pass this around." He held up the flag. "And those with the flag will tell their coming out story." There what story? Someone, God, Budha, Allah, I don't care who, just give me strength. "And we'll start the smorz." Smorz? That I could handle.

The sticky marshmallow clung to my fingers as I popped my fourth smor into my mouth. We'd already passed most the campers. I'd had to sit through some mushy stories about 'first loves' and some more exciting ones about girls kissing other girls in locker rooms. Now, those ones I didn't mind listening to.

The rainbow flag landed in my lap when someone flung it across the fire. I lifted it with smor-y fingers. "Well," I began. "I realized I was into girls when I was about, I dunno, born." I dumped the now sticky flag into the guy's lap who sat beside me. Someone serious had to clean that thing now. If they pulled it out next year with white sticky stuff all over it, wrong conclusions may be made.

The dude beside me with the strange tattoo on his forehead gazed down at the flag in his lap before lifting it with tight fingers. He seemed to be trying to burn holes into it before passing it quickly to the girl sitting next to him.

"Hey," Saku said, pointing a finger at Gaara who stared back at her with a bored expression plastering his face. "You didn't tell your story."

"So?"

"So, everyone else did. Even Naruto told his pathetically straight story."

Gaara crossed his arms, letting his pale fingers slide between his small biceps. "Perhaps I don't want to broadcast my business to everyone here."

"Fine, whatever," Saku said. "It's only a game."

The girl beside Gaara began her story, and I watched as Gaara looked down into his lap. He played with his fingers, twisting and turning them before squeezing them tight and standing.

"Hey, where're you going?" I asked.

"Away from here," he mumbled, stepping over the log and walking back toward the cabin.

Naiya caught my eye when I turned back to the fire, and he nudged his head in the direction of Gaara's retreating back. Oh, that was right. He was my responsibility. I sighed when I realized I'd have to go after him. I stood and excused myself before following the slim figure heading back to cabin four. "Hey, wait up," I called, jogging slightly to stand by his side.

He paused momentarily and looked back over his shoulder at me before carrying on. I caught up to him and stuffed my hands into my pant's pocket. "You okay?" I asked, tilting my head forward so I could peer into his face.

"I'm fine. I just felt tired. You don't have to follow me."

I cupped the back of my head as we strolled back to the cabin. "I'm not." I scrunched my face. "I just didn't want to listen to anymore 'coming out' stories." I laughed. "I just followed your lead in leaving. As a counsellor I couldn't be the first one to escape. This gives me the perfect excuse. So… thanks."

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You're a bit young to be a counsellor here, aren't you? You probably still don't know your ass from your elbow, so what makes you think you'd understand anyone here?"

Jesus, touchy. "Well, to be honest, I didn't really know what I was getting myself into." Perhaps I shouldn't have said that. "Don't get me wrong, it's not like this is the last place on earth I'd be or anything." He raised a light red eyebrow at me. Dropping my shovel now would've been a good idea. "It's just… never mind. I knew Naiya, sort of, so he offered me a counsellor position."

He opened the cabin's door and we both entered into the dark hut. There wasn't any electricity, so when the door shut, Gaara rummaged through a bag to pull out a flashlight. He clicked it on and the beam cut through the dark like a sword. He pointed it toward another one of his bags and pulled out a small box. "You smoke?" he asked, smacking the bottom of the packet. A cancer stick popped up and he pulled it out with his teeth before offering me one.

I waved my hand, and he pulled the packet back to drop it into his bag, shrugging.

"Coach doesn't agree with smoking. He says it disturbes our 'youthfully exciting' performance."

"What?"

"Don't ask. I swear he isn't all there in the head. You're not going to smoke that in here, are you?"

He pointed the flashlight in my face, making me scrunch my eyes. "Do I look like an idiot?" How the fuck would I know? I couldn't see anything with him pointing that damn light in my eyes. He turned it away and left the cabin with me trailing behind him. "What do you want now?"

"I'm your counsellor, I have to stay with you if you're going to be sneaking off to have a crafty smoke."

We circled the cabin and headed off toward the longer grass. "I know where I'm going," he said, climbing over the fence which was the perimeter of the camp. "I've been here before."

"You have?" I placed a hand on the wood to hop over. I didn't think we were supposed to be going this far out, but if he'd done this before then who was I to tell him to get back into camp. He probably wouldn't have listened to me, anyway.

"Should we be going this far out?" I asked when he headed toward the trees. The grass was getting longer, and I waded through it cautiously. The field was probably full of snakes… I hated snakes.

"Smoking is against the rules here since I'm underage. I don't want to get caught."

I looked over my shoulder, back toward the camp, an orange glow lit the area from the fire. "I don't think anyone's going to notice if you smoke it here."

"Having sex with a counsellor is also against the rules, so you should go back," he said bluntly.

"What--"

"I'm joking." This kid had one hell of a sense of humour…

I slowed my pace, trying not to make it too obvious that I didn't want to walk so close to him anymore. When we got into the trees he pulled a lighter out from one of his pockets and sparked the cigarette. He took a toke and breathed it out, letting it fly behind him and land in my face. I held my nose as we walked through the trees.

"Stop following me." His voice disturbed the silence.

The only light I could see was from the moon cutting through the leaves and the ember at the end of his cancer stick. "I'm not following you."

"You just happen to be walking in the exact same direction as me."

"… exactly."

"Whatever," he mumbled.

The trees thinned out and when we stepped out from the last of the canopy, I saw a small pond with grass and a few large boulders around it. The moon was in the water, catching on ripples as they moved across the surface. He climbed up onto one of the large rocks and leaned one arm behind him as he tilted his head up to let more smoke escape his lips.

"Did we really have to go this far out so you could smoke one cigarette?" I asked, sitting down on the grass.

"I thought you said you wasn't following me?" he asked after a moment of silence.

"You're my responsibility."

"You couldn't be responsible for a hamster," he said, looking out toward the water.

Seriously, what was this guy's problem? I was only doing my job. Naiya had basically told me to follow him, after all. If it were my choice I'd be back at home, probably banging some chick. Not sitting on a patch of grass next to a pond beside some faggot.

"I'm a football captain, I'll have you know. I'm responsible for a whole team back at home." There, that should shut him up, I thought as I nodded sagely.

"So you can baby-sit some airheads. Good for you." He took another drag before blowing the smoke toward the sky, letting it split in half as it came back down and blew past him in the light breeze.

"What the hell would you know about football?" We weren't just a bunch of 'airheads'. It took good organisation skills and stamina to be a captain of a football team.

He snorted and stumped the glowing stick out on the rock beside him. "I used to be on a football team. Like I said, all a bunch of airheads."

"You?"

He glared down at me. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. I just didn't think people like you played football. Why'd you quit? Lose interest after you broke a nail?"

His mouth fell open and he narrowed his eyes before shutting it again to answer. "For your information, people like me can enjoy participating in sports. It's not such a big deal."

"So what happened?"

He bunched his knees up and wrapped his arms around them. "Everyone found out, that's what happened. They found out and my coach basically told me he didn't want me contaminating the rest of the team. My so called team-mates agreed and I was dropped like yesterday's rubbish."

"That's harsh," I admitted. Your team-mates were supposed to have your back -- not literally in this case. It shouldn't have mattered what the reason was, even if in this case it would've been hard to see past the facts, your team-mates were your brothers.

He shrugged. "I was stupid to believe I'd be able to carry it on after my secret was busted."

"It still doesn't seem very fair, though."

He sighed and stood up on the rock. "That's how the world works. When you're different, you're not seen as human." He jumped down in front of me. His knees bent when his feet made contact with the ground, and he straightened himself up. "That's why you left, wasn't it?"

"What?" I said, stepping back slightly.

He snorted and turned away. "I saw the look of disgust on your face before you ran away. You had no idea what this place was." His face tilted back in my direction. "Did you? I just want to know, though, why did you come back?"

I was trapped under his gaze. The look in his eyes were keeping me prisoner as he scrutinized me. "That isn't the reason I left. I already said, I forgot something at home."

"Of course it isn't." He clicked his tongue off the roof of his mouth. "We should be getting back." He pulled his cell from his pocket and checked the time. "The campfire will be put out soon, and everyone will have to go to bed."

Woop. Now Gaara's in it properly, I can start having some fun.

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