Camp Sunshine. Thirteen-year-old Elizabeth Sarah Rogers could have gagged as she read the name off the swinging wooden sign their car passed under. The sign was hung crookedly by a pair of chains that each connected to a large beam. Camp Sunshine sounded like exactly the sort of place Steve Rogers would send his only daughter. Betsy continued to stare out the window, looking anywhere but at him. She imagined it was the type of camp that didn't allow junk food or for the campers to be up past seven. The kind of camp that gave out patches for making popsicle stick houses or some other such nonsense.
"Why the long face, Bets?" Her father asked. He maneuvered the car into a turn and waited for her to respond, even though he already knew the answer.
"I don't want to be here." She mumbled to the window.
"I know, Chickadee." He sighed, digging out an old nickname he only used when he was really trying to win his daughter over. "But we've been over this. You're too big to fit in my luggage." He joked, trying to get a laugh out of her. Betsy couldn't help but smirk. Steve Rogers was the king of dad jokes.
"Don't think I can't see that smirk." He commented, still driving down the winding camp road." Listen, Bets I know you don't want to go to camp, but I've gotta help Tony get the new compound set up and you need to be around kids your own age more."
"I don't like kids my own age!" She pouted. "I want to hang out with you and Tony and Natasha!"
"Well, maybe you just haven't found the right ones yet." He suggested.
"Well you should hang out with people your age." She thought it was a very good comeback considering her dad was over ninety years old.
"Ha ha," The captain feigned a laugh. "That's different and you know it. Clint said this camp is nice. It's where he usually sends Lila every summer."
"Yeah, even the Bartons are going on a family vacation this summer." Betsy complained. Steve sighed again.
"It's only four weeks, Bets." He added before driving the rest of the way in silence. The car didn't go much further before stopping just outside of the main cabin. All around the manicured lawn of the main cabin girls were milling about in small groups of two to four. Some eagerly waved good-bye to their parents while others, like Betsy, looked as if they didn't want to be there.
"Well, Chicakdee, this is where we say good-bye." Steve told his daughter regrettably. She finally looked over at him and said the snarky line she'd been saving up in her mind for a full week.
"You mean this is where you ditch me for four weeks." She huffed before opening the car door on her side. Betsy walked to the back of the car and waited for her dad to pop the trunk. When he did she reached in and grabbed her bags. She slung a duffle bag over one shoulder and her backpack over the other before slamming the trunk down. She then tapped on the trunk twice, so he knew she'd gotten everything, just like she'd seen the captain do when one of the Avengers dropped him off at home.
Betsy walked back towards the driver's side and leaned into the window. She had to stand on the tips of her toes to do it, but she managed to kiss her father on the cheek. She then leaned back and offered him a salute.
"Bye, Captain Dad." She said, bringing her arm to her side. "Promise you'll at least write to me?"
"You're going to summer camp, not to war, Bets." He laughed. "But I'll write, I promise. Stay out of trouble alright? I love you!"
"I love you too." You answered back before he rolled up his window. It was a strange ritual that he insisted on for as long as she could remember. You should always tell someone you love them when you mean it because you never know when your last chance to say it might be. He'd told her once and the sentiment always stuck. She waited until his care had turned around and disappeared out of sight before heading inside the main cabin to check in.
"Name dear?" The elderly woman who was checking in campers asked her.
"Betsy or Elizabeth." She added, realizing her father had probably registered her with her full name. "Elizabeth Rogers."
"Ah, Rogers." The woman nodded. She marked something down on the list in front of her. "You'll be in the Cabin Five. You should find it easily enough. Your Counselor's name is Ellie. Next!"
"Okay…" Betsy wandered outside back onto the lawn and hoped that she could find her way to cabin five.
"Ellie! El!" Betsy turned to look for Ellie, the girl who was supposed to be her cabin leader, as it seemed someone had spotted her on the lawn somewhere. But while she squinted against the sunlight a girl approached her talking a mile a minute.
"I heard you were a Cabin Leader this year! That's so amazing! I mean it makes sense, you've been coming here for like ever, but what's with the new look? I mean I'm into it but hiking boots? A denim jacket? Helllooo? Earth to Ellie!" The girl finally stopped for a breath.
"Sorry were you talking to me?" Betsy pointed at herself. "I'm Betsy Rogers and you are?"
"So so so sorry!" The girl exclaimed. "You look just like this other girl, Ellie. Have you met Ellie before?"
"I, ah, no." Betsy shook her head. "But I'm looking for her. I'm supposed to be in Cabin Five with her. Do you think you could…"
"Oh Cabin Five!" The girl remarked excitedly, interrupting Betsy. "I can totally show you the way!" The girl grabbed Betsy by the hand and started leading her across the lawn. "I'm Joss by the way. Nice to meet you Betsy. I can't wait to show you to Ellie! She's gonna freak!"
Eleanor Roosevelt Barnes was in her cabin unpacking as she waited for her new campers to arrive. This would be her seventh summer at Camp Sunshine. She'd been going every summer since she was a little kid and this year, she was finally a Cabin Leader. She would be responsible for a whole cabin of campers. Sure, it would really only be her friend, Joss, and two other girls their age but she was excited anyway. Ellie put her hands on her hips and surveyed her four pieces of matching luggage.
"Maybe I've packed too much this year." She sighed. She did pack an entire bag of just make-up and hair accessories.
"Ellie! Ellie! There's someone you've got to meet!" Eleanor could hear Joss' shouted from inside the cabin before the thin screen door flew open. "Betsy, this is Ellie." Eleanor looked away from her luggage and over at the cabin door. The girl standing between her and her best friend nearly took her breath away.
Betsy was dragged across the camp by Joss, a girl who hardly ever seemed to stop talking. When they finally reached Cabin Five, Joss continued to rattle on while forcing Betsy inside. The cabin's only other occupant at the time was quickly introduced as Ellie.
Ellie was, at least in Betsy's opinion, way too overdressed for camp. Her dark brown hair was curled into perfect ringlets which had to have taken at least forty-five minutes to set. Her make-up was trendy and colorful. The kind you'd see on an Instagram model with perfect eyeliner wings. She wore a hunter green skirt that stopped just above her knees which perfectly coordinated with the camp counselor polo shirt she was wearing. Even her shoes where a pair of keds in the same hunter green.
Betsy, from Ellie's perspective, looked like she'd just crawled out of bed and dressed in the dark. Her dark hair had been twisted into some sort of a knot that barely resembled a bun. She wore a denim jacket over a faded red t-shirt. She had on shorts of a different color denim from her jacket and a pair of brown leather hiking boots.
Despite their differences, both girls noticed that they had the same ocean blue eyes and a nose that was broad and pointed upwards. Their hair was nearly the same color except that Betsy's was streaked with highlights from the sun and Ellie's had the faintest remnants of bleach on the ends from when she thought balayage would be a good look on her. If they didn't know any better, they would have said they looked like twins.
"Sorry, what did you say your name was again?" Ellie asked. She smiled wide so that she was showing as many of her perfectly white teeth as possible.
"Uh, Betsy." She answered quietly. "Like Betsy Ross, my dad kind of has a thing for history."
"Tell me about it." Ellie laughed. It was a light laugh, like a bird's song. It was the same laugh that Betsy had. That's why her dad had called her Chickadee. He said her laugh sounded like a bird's song. "My dad's named after a president. So, he thought it'd be cute to name me after a first lady!" Ellie rolled her eyes. "C'mon in and get settled. We don't have a lot of time to unpack before dinner starts."
"Okay, is no one going to talk about the fact that the two of you look exactly the same?" Joss asked. "Like exactly the same?" Betsy and Ellie looked at each other, neither wanted to admit that Joss was right. "I mean El, you're always saying how you wish you had a sibling! Maybe you and Betsy are related!"
"Not possible." Ellie shook her head. She took a stack of photos out of one of her suitcases and started pinning them to the cabin wall with thumb tacks. "My Dad doesn't have any family. Unless you count Bill and Javier and the other guys from the shop. It's just been me and him for as long as I can remember."
"It's the same with me." Betsy agreed. She tossed her bags on one of the open beds. "My dad told me once that there were only two people he ever loved before me. He lost his first love in a really tragic accident and the second…" Betsy shrugged. "Well, we never really talk about him. It's too hard for my dad, I think. Instead we kind of surrounded ourselves with a ton of found family."
"What about your mom?" Ellie asked looking away from her picture collage on the wall.
"I don't have one." Betsy replied. She sat down on the bed she'd claimed for herself. "At least not the way that most people do. My Dads had me with a surrogate and when they split up I stayed with my Dad, Steve, because he stayed living in New York. My other dad moved away before I was even a year old. I don't even know his name."
"Okay that's weird." Ellie admitted. "Because my Dad had me with a surrogate and he used to live in New York but we live in California now. He said he left the guy that he was with because they were just too different. He said he didn't even take much with him, just me. But there's this picture of a blonde man taped to his toolbox at work. I always wondered if that was my other dad. Do you know what your other dad looked like?"
"I Saw a picture of him once, in a framed photo on my dad's dresser, but when he saw me looking at it, he put it away." Betsy explained.
"Did he look like this?" Ellie riffled through the stack of photos she'd brought with her until she found the one she was looking for. It was a picture of her Dad standing outside of his garage. She'd taken it about two years ago when constructions was completed on the new factory. "Bucky's Motorcycle Co" was what the new sign that stretched across the whole building read. Standing under the sign, smiling proudly was her dad. James Buchan Barnes. He had the same dark hair as Ellie and the same nose, and even, Betsy noticed as she studied the photo, the same ocean blue eyes.
"That's him." Betsy said, not taking her eyes off the photo. "That's the guy I saw in the picture in my Dad's room. Wait your dad's the owner of Bucky's Motorcycles? That's so cool! My Dad has one of those, but he never lets me ride it…"
"Betsy! Focus!" Ellie commented impatiently. "Do you have a picture of your dad?"
"Right!" Betsy nodded. She sent aside the photo of Bucky and reached for her backpack. Inside her wallet she pulled out a small photo of her Dad that she'd taken with her instant camera. He'd just come back from a mission and was still wearing most of his Captain America uniform. He held his helmet in one hand, while his other was pressed to his chest. His head was tossed back on laughter. "It's not the best," She explained handing the photo over to Ellie. "But it's the only one I have with me."
"Wait, your Dad is Captain America?" Ellie asked as she studied the photo Betsy handed her. "My dad told me that my other Dad was in the military. That's how they met."
"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Joss gasped reminding the other two girls that she was even there. "If your if Ellie's Dad looks like your other dad, and Betsy's Dad looks like your other dad, doesn't that make you both like, sisters?"