This chapter is a result of me procrastinating studying. It was actually done a week ago, I just had to edit it. I hope you enjoy and the cabin/group list on my profile is updated as there will be a few unfamiliar names in this chapter :)

Also, a review awhile ago liked how there's characters from both generations. Part of this chapter focuses a bit on the old characters, so enjoy.


Breakfast went by very slowly for me. I tried to focus on my meal and interacting with my campers, but my mind was elsewhere. Before I was beyond thrilled to get out of canoeing, now I was dreading spending part of my afternoon with Campbell. He seemed to feel remorse for his actions so that made me feel slightly better; I just wasn't ready to be spending this afternoon's activity block with him though.

As I walked out of the lodge to get back to the cabin, I walked by the activity board to see what I would be doing with Campbell later on. Right as I reached the board, I heard someone approach me from behind. I breathed a sigh of relief when I discovered that it was only Miles.

"I wasn't going to say anything at the table, but are you okay?" He asked. "You looked a little out of it."

I sighed and shrugged my shoulders in response. I took a quick look around to see if anyone was close by, but everyone seemed to be minding their own business and making their way out of the lodge.

"Just thinking a lot," I replied simply. "Have you heard about our little group swap later today?" I asked.

"Nope," Miles replied, raising an eyebrow. "Jake hasn't mentioned anything. What's going on?"

"Zoe and I are switching places today," I answered. As I mentioned Zoe's name, I noticed Miles' eyes brighten up. "Just for our group activity period, when we're canoeing," I added. "I don't really canoe," I explained.

Before replying, Miles took a moment to scan the schedule for the week. I didn't know what he was looking for but after a few moments of looking at the board, his eyes widened.

"Damn, you're stuck with psycho boy," Miles grumbled. "Do you want me to ask Emma if I can switch with Campbell too, just so you're not stuck with him?" He asked.

"Thanks, but I'll be okay," I replied with a small smile. "I'll have to talk to him eventually."

Miles was about to reply, but before he could I saw Liberty coming up behind us, a less than pleased expression on her face.

"And what conversation is so highly important that it cannot wait until after cabin cleanup?" Liberty demanded, her hands on her hips as she spoke.

Cabin cleanup happened every day after breakfast. It varied in length, but it was a small block of time given to counselors, CITs and campers to get their cabin tidied up for the day. It had no real purpose really except it gave the breakfast group time to do dishes before any other activities began. Once the dishes were done, the bell would ring and the morning activity period that campers had signed up for during breakfast would begin. For us, our CIT meeting would begin.

"We were just discussing a thing on the schedule today, Liberty," Miles replied politely, making sure not to get angry back or raise his voice at all.

"You," Liberty grumbled looking at Miles. "Back to your cabin, now." She then turned to look at me, anger in her eyes. "Maya, meet me in my office. I'm going to call Emma down to have a little chat with us," she said with a glare as she walked away. I stood in place for a moment, terrified. I had no idea how strict Liberty really was. I was too scared to say anything so I nervously followed Liberty to her office. Not knowing what else to do, Miles shot me a sympathetic smile before exiting the lodge, probably too nervous to say anything himself.

As I followed Liberty into her office and sat down, my body was numb. I had no idea what I was in trouble for but after everything that had already happened today, I was scared.

"Do you know why you're here, Maya?" Liberty asked, sitting down at her desk after shutting the door.

"Not really, no," I replied, looking at the ground, not wanting to make eye contact with Liberty.

"Well then," Liberty smirked. "Let me fill in the pieces for you. It's your second day as a CIT and some of the things I have seen are very concerning. From what I've seen, you're spending very little time with your campers and a lot of free time with...others." Liberty trailed off at the end of her sentence.

"What do you mean?" I mumbled.

"Boys, Maya," Liberty replied. "You're always around boys!" She snapped. "I don't need you to be going around all boy crazy like your sister. I was very uncomfortable with hiring you this year due to your sister constantly slacking on her duties-"

"What does this have to do with me?" I snapped, getting angry. "I'm not Katie!"

"There's many similarities between you two and the fact that I've caught you sneaking off twice already really early on in the summer is not good," Liberty yelled. "Hasn't your mother ever taught you two not to flaunt over boys like you do?" Liberty said with sigh, shaking her head. "You have an important job and boys are not to get in the way."

I felt my blood boil inside me. That comment was the last straw. I didn't know how to reply to it without getting myself into more trouble. I wanted to reply before Liberty could continue attacking me but someone beat me to it.

"Her mother's dead, Liberty," I heard a male voice say behind me. I turned around to see a very out of breath Jake standing at the doorway. I'm not sure how he had heard about me being down here, but that was the last thing on my mind right now.

How did he know about my mom?

"What's the problem here, Lib?" Jake asked, speaking again before Liberty had the chance to reply. I turned to see Emma now standing in the doorway as well, eyeing Liberty closely. Liberty looked to see Emma there as well and rolled her eyes before replying.

"My apologies, Maya," she grumbled, not very much sincerity in her voice. She then turned to look at Jake and Emma as she spoke to them. "However, the reason I have Maya here is because I have caught her twice in the past 24 hours chatting and fooling around with boys when she should have been with her campers."

"Define, fooling around," Jake questioned, eyeing Liberty carefully. Emma remained silent as she stood in the doorway but was glancing at Liberty strangely, an unreadable expression on her face.

"Well she hasn't been 'fooling around' per say, but she has been spending tons of unnecessary time with other male CITs. I have caught her talking with the hockey boy and then her co outside of proper time periods and-"

"Liberty, it's been almost 4 years. It's time to move on and let it go," Emma interrupted. Before Liberty could cut her off, Emma continued speaking. "I don't think Maya had anything to do with last night either."

"Last night?" I asked, genuinely confused. I didn't know what had happened last night or what everyone was talking about but I was really curious to know now. I also wondered what this 4 years ago thing Emma was talking about was.

"See Lib, she's got nothing to do with it," Emma told Liberty sternly. Before anyone else had a chance to say anything, Emma turned to look at me. "Maya, you're good to go up to your cabin. You too, Jake," she added, turning to look at him as she spoke. "I'll see you guys later."

As we exited Liberty's office, I was perplexed. I had a thousand questions to ask about what was going on. I had no clue what had happened last night and how that affected me at all. I also didn't know what crazy vendetta Liberty seemed to have against me or why. She was already intimidating enough as it was so all this extra stuff wasn't helping me feel comfortable around her at all.

"What happened last night?" I asked Jake, breaking the silence between us as we exited the lodge to walk up to our respective cabins.

"A couple of CITs wandered into town last night. We're not sure who, but we're trying to figure it out," Jake explained. "I know it's not you though."

I knew that on time off during the days people would head into town the odd time to go to the bank, get ice cream or buy groceries but simply going there at night was unheard of. People who were on night off were given specific instructions not to leave site at night, unless you were walking down the road to have a smoke or were simply accompanying someone who was doing so. I even remember Katie saying that they were super strict on us going into town at night. There was some sort of back story to it. She said she couldn't tell me why but that I'd likely find out when I was older. Apparently it was something they didn't want campers knowing about, I wasn't sure what it was about though.

"Yeah, I was sleeping in my bed last night," I said with a small laugh. I then remembered what I was going to ask him earlier. "Jake, how do you know about my mom?" I asked, biting my lip nervously as I spoke.

"Katie told me," he replied simply, shrugging his shoulders. "As you probably know already, she had a rough time coping with everything so I helped her in whatever way I could," he explained. "Even though we aren't together, I still care a lot about her."

"Why did you cheat on her then, if you care so much?" I demanded. I didn't mean to blurt out the question, but I was curious as to why he could be such an ass to my sister and go on treating me like everything was normal. I made a conscious effort to be cold and unresponsive towards Jake over the past couple of days whenever I could since I didn't owe him the time of day for the pain he put my sister through.

"Maya, what did Katie tell you about us?" Jake asked, a confused expression on his face.

"She didn't need to tell me anything, Jake," I snapped. "I listened to her cry herself to sleep for days and days after you all came back from Vegas in March. You really hurt her, Jake."

Jake quickly sighed before responding.

"She and Marisol had fake ids and they did some gambling," Jake began. "Katie managed to lose basically all of her tuition money and decided to hook up with some millionaire to try and get it back."

I stopped walking for a moment, my mouth agape. I was in shock. All this time, I had been blaming Jake and not being nice for Jake for something he didn't even do. I also couldn't believe that my older sister, who was once beyond organized and perfect in my eyes had done something so stupid. I tried not to put her up on a pedestal or anything but learning about all the mistakes she'd made recently definitely hurt and they were not easy to hear.

"Sorry I've been such a bitch to you," I apologized as I reached my cabin. "I just kind, assumed, I guess," I stammered. "And thank you for being there for her, despite everything."

"If it was my sister I probably would think the same thing," Jake replied with a smile. I instantly thought of his stepsister, Clare, and how protective he was over her at camp. "And people make mistakes, it's part of life. I just hope Katie's in a better place now after everything that's happened," he continued as he walked up the hill. "I'll see you later, Maya."


"So what happened back there with Liberty?" Miles asked as he sat down next to me on one of the couches in the CIT cabin.

After tidying up the cabin a little bit, I had left early to get down to the CIT cabin for our meeting. I wanted some air and some time alone to collect my thoughts before the meeting began. Time alone was also hard to come by at camp. Thankfully, Miles had been the next person to enter the cabin.

"She yelled at me for spending too much time with guys and not enough time with my campers," I said with a shrug, still kind of shaken up by everything that had happened today. "Don't tell anyone though, please. I don't want it going around," I added. "My sister spent a lot of with guys when she was here so I guess she kind of just lumped us together," I sighed.

"You're spending time with your campers though?" Miles said, confused. "Like, has she seen Kate?" He retorted. "She hangs around Shane constantly like a lost puppy," Miles added, rolling his eyes as he talked about his cabin co. "I told Jake about what was happened though and he rushed down to try and help out," Miles continued after a short pause. "I hope he managed to diffuse things," he said with a small smile.

That explained why Jake had come down to the lodge so out of breath and on such short notice. I was thankful for Jake helping me out and I was also thankful for Miles helping me out not only once but twice today.

"Hey guys, how's your day so far?" Tori asked cheerfully as she and Sadie walked into the CIT cabin and sat down on the couch beside us.

I shared a quick glance with Miles before I replied to Tori. It was hard to begin to talk about how my day had been going so far. I didn't even know where to start.

"What did we miss?" Sadie asked as she noticed Miles and I share a look. I looked around to see some more CITs walking into the cabin. Thankfully, Campbell was not one of them yet.

"I'll catch you guys up later when there's less people around," I replied. The last thing I needed was for the whole group of CITs to know what had happened earlier this morning with Campbell as well as how my meeting with Liberty had went.

"No, like seriously...what on earth did we miss?" Tori questioned, her eyes widening as she spoke. "I feel like I'm so out of the loop!"

"I'll catch you up later, I promise!" I said with a grin. "I have a question for you guys though," I continued, changing the topic. "Do any of you know about who went into town last night? I heard some CITs who were on their night off went into town."

"That may have been me," Miles replied quietly, looking at the ground. "Jake knew I went in there but he told me to stay quiet about it. Apparently that's a big rule breaker," he added, rolling his eyes.

"Well, I feel like they forbid you from going into town at night for a reason," Sadie responded. "Jay and Spinner were pretty strict last night when we got the whole lowdown on how nights off worked."

I sat on the couch without saying anything for a few moments, just collecting my thoughts. I was very curious to know why they were so strict on anyone leaving the site at night. I also wondered why Liberty cared so much and why she also seemed to hate me. I didn't know what we were going to talk about in the meeting today but I crossed my fingers, hoping that Emma might have some answers for me.

"Rules are meant to be broken though," Miles smirked. Sadie gave Miles a quick glare and rolled her eyes at him. "Well, some rules," he continued. "I'm not going to burn the place down or anything," Miles chuckled, raising his hands in surrender as a joke.

"Why did you go into town though?" Tori asked curiously.

"Zoe and I got bored," Miles replied. I sighed to myself. Of course he had been with Zoe. I didn't think he would wander into town by himself but I didn't know him and Zoe were that close. That would explain why they wanted the night off together though. "And the local kids there also throw some great parties, might I add," Miles smirked.

"Miles, you could get in huge trouble for that, you know," I told him, concerned. I know that Katie had fun and goofed off as a CIT but she had never told me anything about sneaking into town at night. She didn't tell me everything about being a CIT but I felt like if she had gone into Silver Lake to party, she would have included those details in her stories.

"Maya!"

I gulped and looked up to see Campbell standing in front of me, out of breath. I was surprised to see him talking to me already after this morning. I thought I would be the one to approach him but I wasn't planning on doing it until later today. He had definitely caught me off guard.

"Man, leave her alone," Miles told Cam firmly, glaring at him as he spoke. "You should find somewhere else to sit," he added, before Cam had a chance to sit down.

"Does he run you or something?" Campbell shot back, his words directed at Miles. "Can we talk, please?" Cam pleaded, turning to look at me.

I looked around the room to see some other CITs looking over to see what all the commotion was about. The last thing I wanted was to cause a scene and draw even more attention to our conversation. I saw Tori and Sadie give me curious looks, them too wondering what was going on.

"Maya makes her own decisions," Miles snapped, speaking before I had the chance to. He made sure to keep his voice low. "I think you-"

"If Maya makes her own decisions then let her speak!" Cam interrupted, his voice shaky as he spoke. I turned my head to see Emma walking into the cabin. I also noticed that the majority of the other CITs were now present.

"Campbell, can we do this later, please?" I asked, keeping my voice calm. "I don't want to have this conversation in front of everyone. Let's do this when we have more time," I continued. After I spoke, I saw Campbell start to turn away, looking defeated and dejected. I then moved over closer to Miles, leaving room for Cam on the couch. "Just sit, we'll talk after, okay?" I called back to him with a small smile forming on my lips, trying to ease the mood. He looked nervous and it was clear that something was wrong. The last thing I wanted was to stress him out even more when he seemed shaky already. As Cam gingerly sat down next to me, making sure to avoid touching any part of my body, Miles shot me a questioning look. I smiled at him, letting him know that everything was okay. I was okay.

"Morning guys," Emma said, greeting us with a small smile. "I hope you all had a good first night as CITs. Before we begin the meeting, there's something that happened last night that I'd like to address," she said, her voice not sounding as pleasant as usual.

"Shit," Miles grumbled under his breath, quietly laughing to himself as he shook his head. We made eye contact for a moment and I gave him a small smile.

"As CITs, you are given nights off as a privilege and they are a privilege that can be taken away just as quickly. We put certain rules in place for certain reasons and we expect them to be followed," Emma explained. "Last night, some CITs left the camp premises after being given explicit instructions not to. There's no need to reveal who you are, but we ask that you don't do it again, please."

I knew Miles and Zoe had left camp property, but I wondered if anyone else had taken part in their in town adventures. We were allowed to walk down the road no problem so it was possible for many CITs to run off into town if they had wished to last night. They didn't really monitor what you did on night off, as long as you stayed on site, obviously.

"Why is it such a huge deal if we leave camp property at night?" Zoe demanded. "I mean, we're allowed to during the day so what's wrong with doing it at night?" Zoe made sure to make sure to rephrase her question in a more polite way.

Surprisingly, Emma smiled at Zoe. It seemed like a forced smile and didn't seem very natural.

"I was waiting for this question," Emma replied. "I'm not stupid and believe it or not, I was once a CIT not too long ago and I know why everyone used to sneak into town at night," she continued. "The parties are great and back in my day as a CIT, it wasn't a huge deal if we snuck into town. I mean, it was a rule obviously, but it was a very lenient rule," Emma explained. "Again, believe it or not, but I was actually one of the reasons why the rule was created and enforced to this extent. Manny, Jay and Spinner were as well. Liberty too."

At this point, the whole CIT cabin was silent. Everyone around was listening intently to Emma and what she was telling us. I knew Emma was pretty chill as far as staff members went but I had no idea she was this open about everything. I was curious to see what Emma was going to tell us next and how someone as strict as Liberty was involved in the formation of such a major rule.

"We usually wait to tell this story until this story until we cover some of our other workshops later in the CIT program," Emma told us. "Some of you know this story from last year for those who did the CIT program last year and just like before, we ask that you do not repeat any of this information to any campers. This is a dark part of our history that campers do not need to know about. Do I make myself clear?" Emma emphasized, looking around the room as she spoke.

I looked around the room to see heads nodding up and down and all eyes focussed on Emma. I glanced at Cam next to me and saw him completely focussed on what Emma was saying. Even the rebellious Zoe seemed intrigued to know more about this story.

"If you've been around long enough, some of you may remember Lakehurst Camp. It was a camp a couple of miles down the road and they were our friendly rivals," Emma began. "No harm was ever done and the rivalry was always friendly, until one year when we got a CIT transfer from their camp to ours. Her name was Mia, and yes, the Mia who still works here," Emma continued.

As Mia's name was mentioned, Cassie, the youngest of the two CITs in Mia's cabin looked much more intrigued than before. Even Carter, the other CIT in Mia's group who was usually very quiet and to himself began to focus more on what Emma was saying.

"When Mia came to Silver Lake, she met JT Yorke, our old archery instructor," Emma explained, biting her lip as she spoke, looking down at the ground. "They started dating and it made her ex, a guy from Lakehurst Camp very angry and jealous. This led to a small prank war between the camps which unfortunately, began leading to violence," she continued. "Everything seemed to be under control until a party one night."


"Did I mention that you're like, the best friend ever for having this party?" Manny grinned as we headed up to our cabins to get our toiletries to get ready for bed, even though that was the last place we were going right now. Snake and my mom were out of town and Manny's mind was fixed on throwing a party.

"Only about 1000 times," I replied with a smile.

Our house was in Silver Lake and was extremely close to camp. I had never really thought of throwing a party there before but it was the last night of camp and Liberty's birthday as well, so it was a fairly good reason to celebrate. I was nervous about my parents finding out but as long as we shut it down in the middle of the night and cleaned everything up before heading back to camp, everything would be okay. We'd be very tired and hung over the next day but all the campers were leaving in the morning so it didn't really matter.

"Do you think they're getting back together?" Manny asked with a smirk.

"Who knows with those two?" I giggled, knowing right away that Manny was referring to JT and Liberty. It was JT's idea to have the party in honour of Liberty's birthday. It was hard to convince her due to the fact that this party was breaking basically every rule the counselors have but eventually, she gave in. Mia, JT's girlfriend also had to leave camp earlier this evening so she wouldn't even be there tonight.

"Maybe you'll even get some alone time with Sean," Manny whispered, making sure she kept her voice low. "It's about time you two seal the deal!" She smiled as we parted ways and headed to our own separate cabins.

Sean and I had been on again off again since we were senior campers way back in the day. He had come back unannounced this summer as a counselor and I was ecstatic. We were also cos which made it so much more enjoyable. We had fooled around a lot this summer and had done a lot of stuff but we still hadn't had sex. I was hoping that with my parents gone, tonight would be our night. My original plan was to just sneak back to my house, just the two of us but Manny and JT were very intent on the party idea so that had eventually won.

Once the whole camp was asleep, we began to head over to my house. I began to drink a little and feel tipsy. Before I knew it, my house was crowded. People from camp who didn't even get the invite were here. Danny and Derek, some of the CITs were there. I didn't remember much after that except going upstairs with Sean. The house was incredibly loud and my vision was blurry. I remember throwing up and after that, I must have passed out for a bit.

"Emma..." I heard Sean cooing my name next to me, trying to wake me up. I flipped my body around to face him.

"How long was I out for?" I groaned, closing my eyes as they hit the light.

"Just 20 minutes or so," Sean replied, kissing my forehead. "I know you're tired but I want you to have some water. It'll make you feel better in the morning."

Before I had a chance to grab the cup of water from Sean, I heard someone knocking on my bedroom door. Whoever they were, they didn't stop. It was probably some crazy drunks looking for a place to hook up. My room was not the place.

"Guys, open up!" I heard Manny shouting from the other side of the door. She sounded frantic. Sean quickly rushed up to get the door.

As Manny walked into my room, tears ran down her face. I still felt sick to my stomach so I hoped it wasn't anything to do with her hooking up with some random guy because I was in no shape to give advice.

"It's JT," Manny sobbed. "He's been stabbed and it doesn't look good. Liberty's on the way to the hospital with him."


"He had left the party to go find Liberty," Emma explained, finishing up the story as tears began to fall from her eyes. "A staff member from Lakehurst had stabbed him. They couldn't repair the damage."

I instantly felt tears build in my eyes. No wonder JT had left camp randomly one summer. I remembered him quite clearly. He had been my CIT one year, a long time ago. Liberty wasn't in our group but I remembered them always spending lots of time together that summer. His last year at camp, he was the archery guy. I knew that at the end of that year there was a lockdown due to there being a murder in the down. A bunch of staff were missing during that lockdown so Emma's story really filled in a lot of missing pieces about what had really happened that night.

"JT died in the hospital that night," Emma murmured. "It was hard on everyone. We had both started going to camp here when we were 6 years old and he was one of my best friends." As she spoke, tears ran down Emma's face yet her voice remained firm. "You never know what could happen if you go into town at night, there's crazies everywhere and that's when the camp realized how big of a safety hazard it was, us leaving site at night. Also, this is why Lakehurst Camp was shut down and why many of our staff members used to go to camp or work there at some point or another."

Emma wiped the tears off her face and put on a brave face as she smiled at us.

"I thought I'd be able to get through that without crying this year but I guess not," Emma said with a small laugh. "Just don't leave site, please," she stated, her voice becoming more firm. "We'll continue discussing this later but for now, we're going to end session early. If you have any questions about the incident, please don't be afraid to bring them to session this afternoon. It's not an easy topic and it helps to open up discussion about it," Emma explained. "For now, you're all dismissed to have some time to yourselves. You can join your campers doing activities but if you'd like some time to yourself, I completely understand." With that, Emma smiled at us again before turning to walk out of the CIT cabin.

Once Emma exited the cabin, silence filled the room for a few moments. No one really knew what to say to each other but after a minute or so, different groups began to converse and people began to make their way outside..

"I can't believe he died, that's so sad!" Tori murmured under her breath as tears ran down her face. Zig, the guy who she liked was by her side, rubbing her back comfortingly.

"He was my CIT when I was a camper," I told my friends. "He was one of the most genuine and easygoing people you'd ever meet," I said with a small smile, trying not to get emotional.

No one else really knew what to say and my friends began exiting the CIT cabin to go do their own thing. Tori had left with Zig and Miles had taken off with Zoe. Sadie had left with some of the other girls and soon, Campbell and I were among the last few CITs still in the CIT cabin.

"I never knew something so tragic happened here," Campbell remarked. Unlike before, his voice was calm and his body was relaxed. "Were you in town last night?" He asked, making eye contact with me as he spoke.

I shook my head in response.

"It wasn't even my night off," I replied, looking around to see who was left in the cabin. Kate and Shane were sitting closely together on the couch, not looking like they planned on moving anytime soon. Kate kept glancing in our direction and I couldn't help but feel like those two were anxiously waiting for us to leave the CIT cabin so they could have some time to themselves. "We should go talk somewhere," I added, after pausing for a moment. "I know just the place."


JT is my baby and I'll miss him forever so I had to include that ahaha. If you'd like more details or storylines on the old characters let me know. Maya and Cam will talk next chapter and it will be a long talk so you can look forward to that update in a month or so (:

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear your thoughts in a review ;)

~Lauren