Swing

"You know, I really want to make this summer count," Carly announced as her, Spencer and Freddie sat in the Shay's living room.

"What do you mean?" Freddie frowned.

"I mean it's the summer before senior year!" Carly said. "It's our last real summer before we all go off to college. We should do something that we'll remember forever!"

"Well, I've already got that covered," Freddie said proudly.

"What are you gonna do?" Spencer asked.

"I got a counselor position at this summer camp run by the community center," Freddie said. "It's a prestigious position; the camp's really selective about who they let work there."

"Wow, that's impressive," Carly said. "Maybe I should find some place to volunteer at…"

"Hey, when I was in high school, I volunteered at the zoo," Spencer said. "It was really fun. I got to feed the animals, learn a little, help the trainers…"

"Huh, that does sound kind of cool," Carly said. "Maybe I'll look into that."

"Well, if you decided to do it, just make sure you don't say you're related to me," Spencer said.

"Why not?" Carly frowned.

"There was, um, an incident with a zebra…"

"Is this why you're banned from the zoo?" Carly asked, rolling her eyes.

"Perhaps…" Spencer said lamely.

Just then the front door opened and Sam stormed in. "Well, this summer's gonna blow!"

"Why?" Carly asked.

"I just met with my parole officer," Sam explained. "You remember a couple months ago when I got in trouble for throwing nachos at that security guard at the mall?"

"How could we forget?" Freddie said, shaking his head.

"Shut it, nub!" Sam snapped. She turned back to Carly. "Anyway, apparently I was supposed to serve forty hours of community service for that. Only I never realized so I never actually did any community service."

"Oh my God, so are they gonna send you to jail?" Carly gasped.

"Nah, don't worry, kid," Sam said quickly. "I just have to do triple the hours this summer. That's like…almost a hundred hours!"

"A hundred twenty, actually," Freddie corrected, earning him a swift kick from Sam.

"Well do you have any idea where you're going to do your community service?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah, actually my parole officer already set me up somewhere," Sam nodded. "It sucks, though. I have to be a camp counselor for a bunch of snot-nosed kids."

"Hey, talk about coincidences," Carly said. "Freddie's a camp counselor this summer too."

"Ugh, I knew this would be a lame gig," Sam groaned.

"Yeah, well, the summer camp I'm volunteering at is anything but lame," Freddie said. "It's the best one in Seattle."

"Which camps are you guys going to be working at?" Carly asked her two friends.

"Seattle Youth Day Camp," Sam and Freddie both replied promptly.

The two stared at each other.

"Wait a minute," Freddie said slowly. "Did you just say-"

"Hey! You two are working at the same camp!" Spencer said.

"Ugh, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse," Sam groaned.

"How-I don't-I had to go through three interviews for this counselor position!" Freddie exclaimed. "And your parole officer just handed it to you?"

"Ha, I guess that part's kind of funny," Sam smirked.

"I can't believe this!" Freddie fumed. "This was supposed to be a great opportunity this summer and now this she-devil is going to ruin it. Ugh, it's gonna be like the Pear Store all over again!"

"Oh get over yourself, Fredwad," Sam snapped. "I didn't ruin the Pear Store for you, and I won't ruin this gig for you either. All I want to do is get my stupid hours so I can be off the hook with my parole officer. Trust me, I wouldn't be doing this if I had any choice."

"Okay, you two," Carly stepped in before Freddie could reply. "Let's not have a huge episode about this. So you'll be working at the same summer camp; big deal! I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"Easy for you to say," Freddie mumbled under his breath. "Mark my words, this summer's going to be the summer I wind up with a stress aneurism!"

"This place is crawling with mosquitos," Freddie commented as him and Sam stood out in the middle of a large field, watching a group of young kids playing kickball. "I knew I should've brought the extra-strength bug repellant."

"Well maybe they're attracted to your annoyingness," Sam suggested, rolling her eyes. "All you've done is complain since we got outside. Why'd you want to be a counselor at an outdoors camp if you can't handle the outdoors?"

"I can handle the outdoors," Freddie said. "Thank you very much. Hey, have you been keeping track of how long they've been playing out here?"

"I dunno, awhile," Sam shrugged. "Why?"

"Why? Because we need to stay on schedule!" Freddie scoffed. "They're supposed to play out here for one hour and then we go inside for a twenty-minute snack break followed by forty-five minutes of arts and crafts and then-"

"Dude, they're having fun out here," Sam said. "Just let them keep playing until they get tired and then they can do that lame arts and crafts thing you planned for them."

"Lanyards are not lame, Sam!" Freddie snapped. "And we need to stick to schedule!"

"Why?" Sam asked.

"B-Because!" Freddie said. "The best way to have fun is in an orderly manner!"

"Jeez, your mom has done more damage than I thought," Sam said, shaking her head. "Kids don't want to have orderly fun."
"Oh what do you know about kids?" Freddie said. "You're terrible with them!"

"I am not!"

"Um, need I remind you of the penny-t incident?" Freddie pointed out. "You were horrible with those kids!"

"That was like, two years ago!" Sam defended. "Besides, I'm much better with kids than you."

"Right," Freddie said, rolling his eyes. "Alright, we'll let them play out here for…fifteen more minutes, then we'll bring them inside. You go in now and start setting up the snacks."

"Fine," Sam said. "But only because I want to make sure I get some juice boxes and pretzels before the kids hog them all."

"Maybe that was a mistake…" Freddie sighed as Sam set off of the nearby cabin. "There might not be any snack left for the actual campers."

"Excuse me?"

Freddie looked behind him and saw one of his campers, a young boy who was about seven, looking up at him.

"Oh, hey there!" Freddie said cheerfully. "What can I do for you?"

"Can I go inside now?" the boy asked.

"Um, don't you want to play kickball a little longer?" Freddie asked. "Oh…I get it. You feel you've already had an adequate amount of outdoors time and you'd like to move on to your next structured activity, right?"

"Um, no," the boy frowned. "I liked kickball. But I don't want to play anymore."

"Why not?" Freddie asked.

"Because," the boy said sadly. "The other kids started picking on me."

"They-They did?" Freddie said.

"Yeah," the boy nodded. "I tripped over the ball and they all started laughing at me and calling me names. So I don't want to play anymore."

"Oh," Freddie nodded understandingly, having experience with being teased by his peers. "I see. Well…I guess it won't do any harm for you to go inside. You might be one of the few kids who manages to get a snack. Here, I'll walk you in."

Freddie walked the child towards the cabin that Sam had retreated into earlier. Inside, Sam was sitting at one of the wooden tables, stuffing pretzel sticks and graham crackers in her mouth.

"Please tell me you didn't eat all the snacks already," Freddie sighed.

"Relax, nub, there's like, six cabinets filled with food in the kitchen," Sam said. She glanced over at the boy standing next to Freddie. "Hey, what are you doing in here, kid?"

Before the boy could answer, Freddie replied, "He wanted to come in. Some of the other kids were picking on him outside, so I figured he could just hang out in here."

"They were picking on you?" Sam frowned, standing up.

"Yeah," the boy nodded. "So I don't want to play kickball anymore."

"But I saw you out there earlier," Sam said. "It looked like you were having a lot of fun. You were one of the best out there!"

"I was having fun, but it's not fun when you get made fun of," the boy explained.

"No, I guess not," Sam agreed. "But by you quitting the game and coming here, you let the kids who were teasing you win."

"I do?" the boy said curiously.

"Uh-huh," Sam nodded. "Plus, it's a lot less fun for you to be stuck inside than to be outside playing kickball."

"But what if they keep teasing me?"

"Just ignore," Sam said simply. "You know, they're only teasing you because they want you to react. But if you pretend what they say doesn't bother you, they'll get bored and drop the whole thing."

"They will?" the boy said.

"Uh-huh," Sam smiled. "So you wanna go back out there?"

"Well…okay!" the boy nodded eagerly. "Thanks, Sam!"

"No problem…oh, what's your name, kid?" Sam asked.

"Jason," the boy replied.

"Jason…Cool name," Sam grinned. "Now go play."

"Whoa, Sam," Freddie said as Jason ran out back to the kickball field. "That…That was actually solid advice."

"Don't sound so shocked," Sam smirked.

"I'm serious," Freddie said. "I guess…I guess you aren't terrible with kids."

"Huh…so that would make what you said earlier…"

"Wrong," Freddie conceded. "I was wrong earlier. I'm sorry I said that."

"Very good," Sam smiled triumphantly. "You can make it up to me later by swinging by the Groovy Smoothie after we leave and buying me some curly fries."

"Fair enough," Freddie agreed. "Hey, if you want, I can finish setting up in here."

"Cool, I'll go make sure none of the other kids are being jerks to anyone else," Sam said, taking one last handful of pretzels. "Later, Fredgut."

As Sam left, Freddie couldn't help but smile.

She never stops surprising you, does she? he thought to himself.