A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

WARNING: ALCOHOL INTAKE

CAMP SILAS - Chapter 2: Then I Saw Her Face

"You've reached Lance Hollis. I cannot take your call right now but I'll call you back as soon as possible. Have a nice day."

Of course her dad would say 'have a nice day' in his phone's voicemail greeting, Laura smiles at the thought of her dad. It took her three hours to travel back to her hometown and being there made her remember who she was before: a dreamer. Laura remembers how much she loved being there, talking about making it big in the publishing industry, and her parents would always encourage her to follow her dreams.

Oh, how she misses them so much.

Laura had been hoping to be able to find her dad home but he's probably going to work the night shift again so she decided to call him. "Hey Dad." Laura starts, trying not to sound so miserable but so far, she's already let out a sob and a sniff. "I hope you're alright over there. Must be busy at the hospital, huh?"

"I called because well, I just wanted you to know that I'm in the house and that I kind of ended it with Danny. Not officially since I just stormed out of there. It's a long story. Please don't send her threats saying you'll dissect her or whatever with an unsterilized scalpel." She vaguely remembers it but her dad did say something about an unsterilized scalpel when Laura introduced Danny to him as her girlfriend. "Also, I got fired today Dad." She feels odd that she's more upset about the job now rather than the fact that she got cheated on.

Slumping down the couch, Laura checks her phone. She already has at least 50 messages from Danny.

Laura please.

Laura I'm sorry.

Babe, talk to me.

I'm really sorry.

Almost everything read like that.

Natalie also sent her a long text about how sorry she was. Laura shrugs. There's nothing to be done now. Her life's just so messed up, she doesn't know what to do. Laura walks over to their fridge and sees that her dad has tons of canned beer in there. I told him to stop drinking, Laura groans.

She grabs one.

Apparently, one isn't enough and Laura tries to count how many she's had. One, two, three, uh, four, five, what comes after five? I see so many cans. They're spinning.

She looked at Danny's facebook profile and she saw who the girl Danny was with earlier. Sarah Jane. Laura groans. It's that girl who never failed to like Danny's posts and whenever she'd ask who she was; Danny always tells Laura that SJ is just a friend back from junior high. Again, Laura starts crying. Sarah Jane looks like a freakin' model! She wipes her tears with the sleeves of her shirt. "I'm no match against you." Laura groans at one particular photo of Sarah Jane in a two piece swimsuit. "L-Look at you! You're tall and fit and you'd be able to do that 69 thing with Danny without looking awkward!" She lets out a huge sigh before grabbing her can of beer which is already empty.

Laura stands up from her seat and wobbles towards the fridge getting another can and opening it. Once she has grabbed one, she walks past the fireplace but this time, she stops at the sight of the old photos there. There's one with her when she was seven. She was with her mom and dad. Laura immediately cries after seeing this. "I miss you, mom." She sobs. Her attention is diverted to the next picture. It is a picture of her and her best friends when they were still at camp. Perry was smiling brightly while LaFontaine was making the weirdest face she'd seen. She, on the other hand, held out her hand in a 'v' sign.

She plops down on her previous spot and scrolls down her facebook again before a notification pops out. Hester tagged her in a picture. It's her batch's group photo. On its caption, it says: 'Found this in some of the camp's files. Glad to see you earlier. You've gone a long way Laura!'

She smiles. Kid Laura looks so dorky there, still with her braces on. She's smiling widely at the camera in between her two best friends, their arms around her shoulders. She's much smaller than the two of them. Out of impulse, Laura digs into her pocket. She wonders if Hester still had the same number. She just wants to know how everyone's doing. After seeing the number, she calls it.

"Hello?"

"Hester! Hi, it's Laura!"

"Laura dear, hello!"

She doesn't know what she's saying. It's as if her mouth is moving on its own. The call lasts for minutes, Laura can't really tell an estimate because she is totally out of it. The last thing she remembers is Hester squealing delightedly on the phone before their call ended.

"Rise and shine, baby girl."

"Mm, five more minutes."

"J.K. Rowling is at our town bookstore."

Laura bolts up and immediately cringes at the pain that surges through her head. She hears her father laughing. "Ow, wow, okay. Not cool, dad." She opens her eyes and darts her sight towards the side of her bed where her Lance chuckles. "Dad?!"

"And here I thought I taught you about responsible drinking." Lance is about to say something else but Laura has launched herself to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and crying. "There, there, Laura. You'll be okay." He pats the back of her head.

She doesn't know what to say to her father. The start would be her best option but how does she begin? Everything that happened yesterday still seems to be a nightmare for Laura. She is actually hoping to see Danny when she wakes up because that might mean that she really was just dreaming. Seeing her father means yesterday was real. But she's relieved that he's here. "I'm so happy you're here Dad." Laura mumbles against her father's chest.

Lance nods, still not letting go of his daughter. "I am too, kiddo." He smiles, pressing a kiss on the side of Laura's head. "Now, why don't you fix yourself and come down to eat breakfast? Mrs. Perry called earlier. Said something about you going to Camp Silas today as one of the new counselors." He says, putting distance between him and Laura who sniffs loudly.

Laura's eyes widen at the mention of that. "Hester called?" She scrambles around her bed to find her phone and checks its logs. She called Hester last night; that she remembers. Agreeing to be a new counselor? When did that happen? "Dad, oh gosh. No, no, no. I don't wanna go to camp. I must've agreed to this when I was drunk last night. No. Dad, I wanna stay here for a bit."

"Laura Hollis." Laura stills at the sound of her name. Something about when her dad says her whole name gives her chills. "What did I say about going back on your words?" He crosses his arms and Laura pouts at the sight.

"Not to."

"There we go. Besides, this is the consequence of you drinking my whole week's supply of beer which I still do not approve of, by the way." He says in a serious tone but Laura detects a small hint of fondness in there. "Now, go fix yourself. You reek of alcohol, kiddo."

For the first time today, Laura smiles. A genuine smile. She watches as Lance stands up and walks over to her door. "Hey Dad?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

Lance looks at his daughter and smiles. It warms Laura's heart. "Love you too, kiddo." And he exits her room. Now that she's alone, Laura can't help but think about yesterday's events again. How could Danny do that to her? She feels so betrayed. Nevermind being her girlfriend; Danny's the closest person to a best friend she had during college and yet, she did this. She did this to her. Laura tries not to think too much about it and decides to make sense of what's happening in her life right now. Due to her incapacity to handle her alcohol last night, she has to go to Camp Silas as a counselor.

How bad can it be?

Yeah, how bad? Facing her supposed best friends whom she never got to contact for the past six years then handling a bunch of noisy kids? Yeah, what can go wrong? Laura sighs. Everything, apparently.

She groans, standing up from her bed and making her way to the bathroom. She brushes her teeth and washes up. It's her usual morning routine, when she actually sleeps and wakes up which she never really got to do the past few days. Great, another reminder of my finished story. Finished, yes, but will never be published.

Breakfast is great. Thank goodness her father didn't make pancakes. She doesn't need more reminders of the events yesterday. She can hear the television from the living room as she and her father eats.

"In today's top showbiz news, rising star Theo Hammett faces heaps of questions and criticisms from his fans after leaked photos of him kissing famous webseries star, Mel Campbell spread all over the internet yesterday."

Lance looks at Laura who stops eating. "You alright there Laura?"

"I did that." She mumbles. "I accidentally uploaded the pictures of this celebrity kissing this other celebrity. It wouldn't be that much of an issue if he's single but, he's supposed to be dating his co-star and it's so messy." She mumbles, poking her mashed potato. "I got fired because of it."

Her father nods in understanding but doesn't say anything. Even she doesn't know what should be said in a situation like this. He simply reaches his hand out to pat hers. "I think it's a blessing in disguise that you called Mrs. Perry. I believe that being in the camp will help you a lot."

"Are you just trying to make me feel better about me phoning Hester and joining the Camp Silas staff?" Laura gives her father a smirk.

He chuckles, shaking his head. "No, no, I really think so."

Laura smiles and resumes eating. "I hope you're right, Dad." She takes a forkful of her mashed potato. "I hope you're right."

According to Hester, a family who lives near her house will pick Laura up to bring her with them to the camp. They've registered their daughter to join summer camp this year. While Laura isn't really a hundred percent willing to go, she figures that maybe she can use her time in the camp for a little timeout.

Lance already left an hour ago to go to work. There has been an urgent call and all the other doctors are already attending to other patients. He advises Laura to go and have fun before he went and left for the hospital.

And so, Laura waits for this 'family' to pick her up. It's really a good thing that she already has all of her things packed (thanks Danny) or else she would have had to sort out her stuff and God knows how long it takes for her to do that.

It's already 9 AM when the family arrives. Laura waves at them and thanks them for the ride. She tries helping to load her bags on the car but Mrs. Johnson tells her husband to do it by himself. It appears that Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, despite their talk about 'wanting their daughter to experience the great outdoors and have fun with friends', are just sending their daughter, Julia, to summer camp just so they could have fun in Prague. Julia just keeps on playing her video games while Mrs. Johnson went on and on about their upcoming vacation.

Laura likes Prague but it's also tied to some of her memories with Danny. They planned to go there together one day. Hearing someone talk about it used to excite her but not right now. She wouldn't want to waste her phone's battery by listening to her playlist of pop songs. She's really thankful when Julia pushes a console towards Laura and asks her mother if she can play Mario Kart with her. She must have noticed the scowl on Laura's face earlier and she tells herself to keep an eye out for this kid on camp.

Finally, Mrs. Johnson stops talking about Prague. She and her husband start having a discussion about bills (if that can even be considered as conversation since Mr. Johnson just gives nonchalant 'hmm's as a reply, agreeing to Mrs. Johnson's every word – someone's whipped).

Laura chooses Toad while Parry chooses Peach. Laura learns that she sucks at Mario Kart because Julia beat her in almost all races. She almost wins one but a red shell hits her causing Toad to tumble. Peach closes in and overtakes her character eventually which causes her to lose.

By the time they reach camp, Laura has won twice against Julia. The blonde little girl smiles at her shyly when she says her thanks and gives back the console to her.

As Mr. Johnson unloads their things, Laura looks around and notices the lack of people there. "Did we miss the drop-off?" She asks.

"Oh, not at all, Laura." Mrs. Johnson walks next to her.

"Uh, well, l remembered drop-off day to be more… noisy and hectic. Chaotic, if you'd prefer the term." Laura explains.

Mrs. Johnson smiles, Laura tries to ignore that she looks like a fox when she smiles because of her eyeliner. "We dropped Julia off a day earlier. She'll need time to adjust. Don't get me wrong. She's a mature and strong six year old girl-"

"Wait, six?" Laura tries to interject because Julia is six and they're just going to drop her off like that? The older woman didn't seem like she'll stop though.

"-and, honestly, I wouldn't want to be here on drop-off day with all those anxious mothers lurking about." Laura looks at her in disbelief. "Oh, come now, I already talked to Lola about this,"

"Lola? You mean Lola Perry?"

"Why yes, Laura, that would be me."

Laura looks to the direction where the voice came from and she sees her friend Perry smiling at her. "Oh my gosh, Perry!" She squeaks and Perry walks to her, welcoming her with a hug. Laura feels at ease because at the very least, Perry doesn't look like she's holding a grudge against her for not being able to contact her for years.

"You haven't changed one bit, Laura."

"Apparently, she hasn't grown as well." Another voice and Laura doesn't have to look to see who it is. Laura lets go of Perry and looks at LaFontaine. They're smiling at her widely and it feels just like back when they were kids. "Look at you, Frosh." They say.

Laura notices that the both of them are wearing the Camp Silas staff shirt. "And you two haven't changed as well." She comments. Perry, she understands why she's here. She's the owner's daughter; of course she'd be here. LaFontaine on the other hand, they never mentioned anything about aiming to be a counselor in Camp Silas but hey, them and Perry had been friends a lot longer than she had been with them so, she's not thatsurprised that they're both here. They're practically joined by the hip back then. Laura kind of longs to have someone like that in her life which is why back then, she envied the bond that LaFontaine and Perry had.

"Sorry to interrupt," Mrs. Johnson says in the middle of our discussion. "I'd like to discuss some things about my child. I'm Annabeth Johnson." She hands out an arm and Perry shakes it with a smile on her face.

"LaFontaine, why don't you accompany Laura to her cabin while I attend to Mrs. Johnson over here." Laura knows as much as Perry does how LaFontaine isn't able to talk to the parents that well since some of them refuse to acknowledge their preferred pronouns. Some things never change. It'll be nice if the parents are as easy to talk to as the little ones, Laura kids can easily be taught but the parents? Some of them are really stubborn. Laura remembers how LaFontaine told them how their parents took the whole gender confession. It took them a while to accept them.

They leave Perry and Mrs. Johnson on their own and walk to the cabins. "How does it feel to be back here in Silas, L?" LaFontaine asks.

Laura tries to think of the answer that doesn't sound like 'Funny story. I'm only here because I called Hester while I was drunk and I'm might not be ready to be a camp counselor because I may need some counseling myself'. "It feels good to be back. It's quite… surreal." Laura drags the last word out because that really feels like the best description. "I'm surprised you're here actually. What, you've never left camp since we were 19?" She jokes.

"Well," LaFontaine chuckles, "I wish. Perry and I run a daycare when camp is closed, being school season and all that. Perry just loves the kids."

"And you just love Perry." Laura teases. She knows how they've been crushing on Perry since her fourth year back as a camper. The three of them were 12 years old by then. "How did that go anyway?" She asks.

LaFontaine rolls their eyes but smiles. "We're already what, 25? And we're still talking about crushes?" They laugh and Laura joins them. "You know, still the 'we're best friends forever'." They admit before stopping in front of a cabin.

Laura looks at the cabin in amazement. It still looks just like how she remembers it. The green walls, the maroon cabin door and the windows that really annoyed Laura back then because it makes the small house look asymmetrical. "Welcome to Cabin number 6." LaFontaine smirks at Laura's reaction. They settle Laura's luggage by the stairs and Laura does the same with her bags. The two of them sit down on the stairs. "Not that I'm questioning why you're here. Trust me; I'm glad to see you but, what brings you back here? I heard from Hester that you're in publishing… uh, writing?" They ask.

There's a flash of everything that happened yesterday in Laura's mind. She got fired from work and her best friend from college who became her girlfriend for the past two years was cheating on her with this beautiful woman. She can't really say that sob story. "Well, yeah." She smiles, hoping LaFontaine wouldn't see how she's just forcing it. "I mean, I just finished writing a book and I'm hoping to have it published. I figured I needed a break and thought of Hester's offer so, while waiting, I thought I should go here." Though that book deal's kinda impossible now.

"L, that's great! I'm happy for you!" They tell her and Laura feels quite bad for not telling them the truth about what happened. "So, I hope you still know your camp songs and their dances." LaFontaine stands up and starts dancing while singing 'Camp It Up'. Laura laughs, feeling like the child in her suddenly stirring. She joins LaFontaine and together they sing and dance.

"Didn't know there's a live performance today." They stop when they hear a voice interrupt them. Laura looks at the pathway leading to the cabins and sees Perry smiling fondly at them. Beside her is a brunette that's probably just a few inches taller than her. She has a much defined jawline; even her cheekbones are, Laura notices. Her eyes are a dark color of brown and her eyebrows are perfection. She's wearing leather pants and a black shirt. She's so… –Laura takes a deep breath – breathtaking. And, Laura's jaw drops when she realizes that this girl, this utterly attractive girl, has been watching her and LaFontaine while they're dancing.

"Hey." The woman says.

"LaF, Laura, this is Carmilla. She's the other counselor that my mother hired yesterday." Perry introduces. "Carmilla, this is LaFontaine. They're also a counselor here." She says, emphasizing the 'they' and Carmilla nods, Laura thinks she's understood what the emphasis meant. LaFontaine smiles. "And this is the Laura I'm talking about."

"Ah." Carmilla eyes her playfully. "I see."

Laura looks at her, confused.

Seeing this, Carmilla smirks and Laura swears that Carmilla smirking at her should be illegal because it just made her heart skip a beat and that's not supposed to happen. That shouldn't happen. "I'm your new roommate, sweetheart."

Her heart skips a beat again.

Damn it.