"Aren't you excited to be 'leaf'-ing the city, Haven?" Earnest asked the girl sitting next to him in the backseat. She hummed in response and continued reading Alice Through the Looking Glass.
"Going on a bear hunt," Joy sang from the driver's seat. It didn't take long for Earnest to start singing along. Haven, on the other hand, continued to read silently.
"Haven, do you have a song you want to sing?" Joy asked. Haven just shook her head and turned a page in her book.
"How much longer till we get to camp?" she asked without looking up.
"About half an hour," Joy smiled.
"Right," Haven closed her book and put on a baseball cap.
A tall teenage boy guided a small, auburn-haired pigtailed girl towards the crowd of children surrounding him. He ran a hand through his mahogany-colored hair as he turned to face the group. "I'm Felix," a guy said with a cheerful smile. "I'll be your camp counselor. Let's get along, okay~?"
"Yeah!" Earnest jumped around, along with several of the other campers. Haven just nodded her head.
"So, here's the cabin assignments," Felix started listing off groups of four campers. He finished with, "Looks like Haven and Earnest have their own."
Haven began lugging her stuff to the assigned cabin. Behind her, Earnest was trying to balance his water bottle on his head.
Earnest's surprised voice exclaimed from the forested area nearby.
"I told you it was a bad idea, Earnest," Haven called from her seat on a nearby log.
"How wasp I supposed to know this would happen!" Earnest ran past chased by a swarm of buzzing insects.
"Felix, could you help him?" Haven sighed and went back to reading her book.
Felix was alarmed by what he thought was trumpeting. He was definitely not expecting to see one of his campers being chased around by an entire colony of wasps. He grabbed a can of raid and ran towards the camper.
"NO! Don't spray them!" Earnest protested. "I'll just jump into the lake!"
A tiny pigtailed girl looked from one of her cabin-mates to the window. "Hey, I think a guy out there is in trouble."
The older girl stretched out on her bed and undid the high ponytail holding her wild copper hair. "Let him be. He probably deserved it."
"I-I think I should help…" she protested quietly.
"And what will you do? Just get into more trouble." The girl opened one eye to look at her younger companion, who was still worriedly staring out the window. "You can check on them later and cheer them up," she sighed, "that's what you're good at."
Hesitantly, she nodded and decided to let Felix, who was trying to get the rest of the campers inside their respective cabins as a precaution against the wasps, handle it. Miraculously, it seemed like no one had gotten hurt.
"Could you get Earnest, please?" Felix asked Haven as he worked on repairing some canoes. She nodded and ran off in the direction Earnest had gone earlier. She searched for about ten minutes before finding him.
When she saw Earnest, Haven screeched, "EARNEST, RUN! THE MOTHER'S RIGHT BEHIND YOU!"
"She finds me 'bear'-able," Earnest smiled and continued to play with the cub. Haven grabbed his hand and tried to drag him away. Suddenly, she heard a low rumble and turned to see the mother bear glaring at her.
Haven stopped and dropped to the ground, dumbstruck. "I can't believe it. She thinks you're her cub."
"I'm having a paddle with the water!"
"Right, that's it!" Haven leaned over suddenly, causing the canoe to capsize. "Oops. It was an accident," Haven said in a monotonous voice as she shoved her baseball cap back on her head. Several other campers were laughing.
"I trout that," Earnest splashed her playfully and, after a few more exchanges of splashing water and puns with snarky retorts, the two began sloshing their way towards the shore.
"Are you two okay?" Felix asked as two thoroughly-soaked campers approached him. "I saw the canoe flip." He handed a towel to Haven and waited with the other for Earnest to return.
"We're fine," Haven grumbled as she grabbed the folded towel from him.
"Yeah, it went swimmingly!" Earnest grinned. Haven shoved him back into the lake.
"Is he going to be okay?" Felix sweatdropped.
"He'll make friends with some of the fish and be fine," Haven walked past.
"Hey," Earnest popped up grinning, "I think I just saw a catfish!"
"Told you," Haven called as she continued tromping to the cabins.
"I'll come back to the cabins when I'm fin-ished!" Earnest said as he dived back into the lake.
"Did he just say fin-ished?" A familiar girl approached and giggled quietly as she took Felix's hand. "If you come up with a better pun, you should let minnow…" She mumbled with pink cheeks.
Felix shook his head with a smile and, placing his head gently on the girl's head, guided her to stand in front of him. She looked up at him nervously and he smiled reassuringly. Nodding, the small child turned back to Earnest.
"I-I think that was a very porpoise-ful pun…" she admitted shyly.
Earnest laughed and splashed his way back onto the shore. "I only do it for the halibut!" he grinned. "My s'krill is off the hook! But its net-worth is un-cod-ly! Some people don't always like the sharky comments though." He shot a goofy grin at Haven, who groaned un-appreciatively.
"This is cruel and unusual pun-ishment, Earnest!" Haven shouted from a distance.
The pigtailed girl laughed softly. "They say to keep your friends close and anemones closer…"
Earnest extended his hand towards the girl with a huge smile. "I'm Earnest. You're pretty punny! What's your name?" Large, dark eyes widened as the girl blushed profusely and clung to Felix's leg shyly. He accepted a towel from Felix and started drying his hair. "What? Catfish got your tongue? If so, I'll just have to reel you in, hook, line, and sinker with another high-tide of puns!" He grinned as Haven sighed again.
The girl tried to suppress her laughter but couldn't. "You're o-fish-ally the funniest camper here; I'm shore of it," she giggled. "And quite koi too…"
Felix ruffled the girl's hair and turned to Earnest. "I'm going to check on the other campers. Try not to get into too much trouble," he laughed wryly, knowing it wouldn't be long until Earnest got himself into another mess. Even as he spoke, he could see that Earnest, having discarded his towel, was already heading back to the lake.
"Felix?" the girl asked questioningly. Her grip on him tightened as if she were scared to let go.
He smiled and leaned down to kiss the girl on the forehead, nose, and both cheeks. Whispering, he said, "You have amicos now. You don't need to cling to just me and Felicia, si, sorellina?" He waited for her to nod and let go. "See you at the bonfire then," he said with a soft smile.
"It nearly 'whisk'-ered me away!" Earnest boasted next to the fire. The girl next to Felix continued to laugh. Tears came to her eyes and red pigmented her cheeks as she had to cling to the older camp counselor for support.
"Can I push him into the fire?" Haven grumbled.
"No, it's wrong to kill your brother," Felix sighed.
"He's not my brother," Haven replied.
"It's still not right," Felix began, "And killing someone can take away a lot of opportunities." Felix pulled the pigtailed girl into his arms and smiled regretfully down at her. Laughing too much at Earnest's assault of puns, she didn't notice.
"Blame it on salmon-else!" Earnest suggested.
"I-I'm floundering to keep up with y-you!" the girl exclaimed through gasps for air. "You're cray!"
"Don't get crabby at me! I can't kelp it!" he protested with a grin.
"That's dolphin-ately a load of carp!" she retorted with a giggle.
"There's more where that came from! Good things come to those who bait. Don't understand? I'll let you mullet over!"
Holding her sides, she fell over with a huge outburst of laughter. She laughed so hard that she was reduced to a pile of quiet giggles and gasps.
"Oh, looks like I lobster," Earnest noted. "I better tuna around and look for help!"
"Don't be shellfish!" The girl sat up with a smile. "Stop telling puns, and I'll have ya sleeping with the fishes!" she exclaimed with a sudden sharpening of her slight accent.
Felix sweat-dropped. He hoped she was only making a pun and wasn't referencing something they were supposed to be trying to forget out here in camp. Scooping the girl up in his arms again and tickling her gently to distract her, Felix turned back to Haven.
"What if no one catches me?" Haven asked.
"It isn't a matter of not getting caught," he said softly. "A life is very important and has so many purposes. If you take someone's life, you can never give it back, and you live with the burden of their life and everyone who has ever been affected by them. What about all of the people who love him or will come to rely on him?" Seeing that his words weren't having much effect on his camper, he sighed and hung his head. "Why don't you and Earnest head to your cabins for the night. We'll have a long day ahead of us tomorrow."
The giggling girl waved shyly at her campmates. "Buona - I mean, goodnight!" she called. "Wake up lake and you'll be in an ocean of trouble for shore, Earnest!"
Haven sighed as she grabbed Earnest by the back of his shirt collar and began tugging him towards their cabin. "This is cruel and unusual pun-ishment, you know."
