A/N: Late update because life and thesis got in the way. I'm sorry. Hope you have fun reading this!

CAMP SILAS - Chapter 5: Love? It Sucks! It Doesn't Exist!

"Carmilla?"

"Yes?"

"Do you like red or yellow?"

"Black."

"Carmilla?"

"Yes?"

"How about white or orange?"

"Black."

"Carmilla?"

This must be a joke.

It's only the end of the first week and Carmilla believes she should be given an award for her immaculate patience with the kids.

During her first day, she had to deal with a bunch of teenagers who thinks they're all so lovely, talking about potential boyfriends. After that, the days pass like a blur. She had the worst luck ever, being paired with very talkative counselors who didn't seem to be running out of stories.

And now, she's assigned with toddlers. Carmilla forces a smile at the kid who has been constantly asking her questions about which colors she prefers. They're making flower crowns that early morning and Carmilla wonders if agreeing to this is supposed to be one huge cosmic joke because she swears it's not funny.

"What do you want now?" Carmilla asks, still forcing herself to smile (she might actually look like she's wincing) at the kid, a nine year old girl whose name she can't remember well. Shaira, she tells herself.

"I'm giving this to my best friend!" The little girl smiles widely, holding up the flower crown she just made which cut off by the junction the very second she lifts it up. She scrunches her face and settles it back on the table, trying to connect the ends of her crown again.

Carmilla nods before rolling her eyes. "Right. Good luck on that, kiddo."

She looks around the room and sighs. Perry's handling the activity well enough by herself. Unlike her, Ginger One is actually having fun teaching the kids how to make flower crowns. Carmilla, on the other hand, is just walking around, as if supervising the kids. Truthfully speaking though, she's just walking to keep herself awake. Like she said, waking up so early should be illegal.

When the kids finally got the hang of making the flower crowns, Perry walks over to Carmilla who is standing behind Shaira, watching the bubbly girl laugh as she places the flower crown on her best friend, Sherilyn, or as the girl calls her, Sheh. The crown falls apart again.

Carmilla finally intervenes and secures the flower crown's wire to prevent it from getting detaching then helps the little girl to secure the wire so that the ends of the wire won't puncture whoever wears it.

"So, ah, Carmilla." Perry calls her when she finished helping the little girl. "How are you liking the job so far?"

Who said anything about liking? Carmilla thinks but she manages not to say that out loud. "It's okay, I guess." Splendid if I don't have to wake up at six in the morning.

Perry smiles at her. At least she's not forcing a conversation. "I hope Laura's been an okay roommate." Or not.

At the thought of her roommate, Carmilla tries not to smile. "She's alright. Kind of like a tiny ball of energy." She shrugs.

Carmilla has no idea where Laura stores all that energy. She wakes up immediately at the sound of the annoying trumpet recording from the camp's trompa speakers. You can literally see her bouncy when she walks out of the cabin. She's childlike and bubbly. Seriously, how old is that girl? In Carmilla's 25 years of life, she has never met someone like Laura.

Last night though, she saw the dirty-blonde girl sitting up from her bed, looking lost and lonely. She stayed like that for a while, not moving and looking only at the wall. Carmilla thought she was about to sleep walk but clearly, Laura's awake by that time. Laura probably thought that she's asleep. She lied back down and Carmilla actually heard a sob, she's sure of it.

Come to think of it, whenever Laura thinks she's alone, she seems so distant. It's as if she's lost in her thoughts.

Ginger One is her best friend right? "Say, about Laura." Carmilla begins, catching Perry's attention. "Is she alright? Not that it's my business or anything." She says.

"Laura? Why, I think she is. I mean, why would she not be?" Perry replies, looking at Carmilla curiously.

She doesn't know anything. Carmilla shakes her head. "Ah, nothing. Just, you know, wondering." She shrugs and looks back at the kids.

"Right." Perry nods, still wondering why Carmilla inquired about Laura like that.

"Carmilla?" It's Shaira again. Carmilla turns to her, actually relieved that she cut off her conversation with Perry. "We made you one too!"

The brunette eyes the flower crown in the tiny kid's hand. At least she got to do it right now. She and her best friend are looking at her excitedly and actually, she may not have the heart to say no to them. That, or maybe just because Perry is watching. Carmilla gestures that they hand it over to her but they shake their heads.

"We'll put it on you!" Sherilyn says, smiling.

Oh for the love of all things black, Carmilla groans, crouching down and bowing her head. The two kids place the flower crown on her and smiles when they're done. "Happy?" Carmilla asks them. The two kids giggle and start talking about some sort of anime, if Carmilla heard them correctly.

She stands up and looks at Perry who is smiling at her. "The kids seem to like you, dear."

It takes effort not to roll her eyes. Instead, she lets out another groan which Perry laughs at. Great, now Princess Merida over here thinks she's a softie.

The activity went on about for another 15 minutes. Carmilla completely forgets about the flower crown on her head and walks around the camp wearing it until a girl shouts 'Nice flower crown!' at her. She grunts and walks her way to the cabin, stomping on the ground after giving the girl who shouted at her a glare.

Laura figures that maybe drunk calling Hester isn't such a bad idea. Not that she intended that. Kids are fun to be with especially if they're this cute. She's actually glad that she's assigned to the kids for her first week of duty. She doubts she has the same liking for teenagers.

There are two girls at the end of the classroom who refuses to participate in the mug designing activity and her partner for that period, Betty, isn't really doing a great job with convincing them. She gives up after a few more minutes, letting the two girls – Diane and Gladys – talk to each other while drawing on a paper that Betty has provided. Laura smiles at her as if saying 'you did your best'.

"You'd wonder why they signed up for this if they're not even interested in the first place." Betty sighs when she reaches Laura.

Laura nod and smiles. "Maybe they're just both shy to join everyone else? I remembered how scared I was to talk to other kids when I was still in camp." She chuckles.

Betty smiles fondly at her. "I guess you're right." She nods. "You're the childhood friend LaFontaine and Perry are talking about, right?"

"Yeah."

"Nice," She says, crossing her arms. "I've heard interesting stories about you three from Hester." Betty chuckles. "Like that time Perry fell on the lake and to make sure she doesn't embarrass herself from being the only one going back to camp wet, you and LaFontaine jumped in the lake with her."

Laura smiles fondly at the memory. "I'm pretty sure Perry would do the same if either I or LaFontaine fell in the lake that time." She tells Betty. "Gosh, I hope Hester didn't say anything embarrassing. You know kids - Shenanigans and all that." Laura laughs.

Betty's nice. She's patient with the kids and eventually, Gladys and Diane joined the group activity, thanks to her. Laura is also painting her own mug, actually having fun. Some kids would ask her questions like 'are their mugs pretty' or 'if they can mix colors' but it's a pretty chill activity, in Laura's opinion. First week activities are usually inside the activity cabins so Laura's figures nothing too 'eventful' will happen.

In the midst of Laura looking after the kids, she suddenly thinks about Carmilla. The brunette said before they left the cabins earlier that she's with Perry on her first duty. She wonders how that's going.

Poor kids and Perry, having to deal with Carmilla's snarky remarks, Laura thinks, shaking her head while smiling.

"And what's that smile about, if you don't mind me asking?" Betty asks, sitting down beside her.

"My roommate, probably being Camp Silas' worst counselor in history." She tells Betty who raises an eyebrow. "She hates kids and I really have no idea why she's here. I heard she has a schedule with Perry at this very moment. Her sarcasm should be enough to drive poor Perry crazy."

"Uh-huh… But she's enough to put a smile on your face." The blonde teases.

Laura raises her eyebrow, trying to stop herself from smiling. "What? I'm not smiling."

"Come talk to me when you're done denying, girl." Betty punches her arm gently.

"Oh please, if you knew her, you'd be laughing as well."

"Really, what's she like?"

There's a pause and Laura thinks for a second. "Well, she's rude at times, for one. She takes so long in the shower, it's ridiculous. Her replies are composed of 80% sarcasm. She likes to give people nicknames and somehow, refuses to call people by their real names."

"Oh, wow," Betty muses, looking impressed. "Must be some hell of a roommate huh?"

"You have no idea."

Despite how exasperated Laura's tone was, she is actually glad that Carmilla's her roommate. For some odd reason – a reason that she doesn't really know what – she's the only one Carmilla seems to put up with. During last night's dinner, the brunette immediately sat on her side as soon as she got to the mess hall. She didn't talk to anyone too except Laura who was happy enough that Carmilla agreed to be her friend.

Laura and Betty spend the remaining time left by helping the kids put their mugs someplace where it can dry while talking about practically anything they can think of.

The mess hall is really noisy and LaFontaine can't help but laugh at how Carmilla is looking her mac and cheese, stabbing the macaronis one at a time with her fork. Laura pats Carmilla's head and the brunette rolls her eyes and eats her food.

They're really surprised with the progress that the two had acquired in just a couple of days. The broody girl has a soft spot but only for Laura, it seems. They're not really surprised about that one.

Laura Hollis has that effect on people.

Shaking they're head, LaFontaine walks over to the table where Laura, Kirsch, Perry and Carmilla is sitting, carrying a bowl of mac and cheese. "Seconds?" They ask.

Kirsch lightens up and nods. They sit down next to Perry who smiles at them. Laura looks at them and smiles as well. Carmilla doesn't seem to be paying attention, her focus now diverted to Laura who begins to talk animatedly about the kids who did so well with the mug paintings.

"You really should see that one mug that has a painting of a pug on it. Betty and I were really impressed with that kid." Laura says. "By the way Perry, how was your duty?"

"Quite good actually. The kids are all nice and two girls seem to have developed a liking towards Carmilla." Perry tells them.

LaFontaine grins and looks at Carmilla who sighs. They did hear about Carmilla walking out of the cabin with the flower crown on from Perry. "I heard the two girls were really happy that you liked the crown so much, you didn't bother taking it off."

Carmilla finally raises her head to look at LaFontaine who is chuckling at the brunette's reaction. "Shut it, ginger two." She grumbles.

"I'm actually surprised you made it this far. I thought Perry would kick you out of the camp after one activity." Laura teases, laughing before eating a spoonful of mac and cheese.

"Oh you'd like that, won't you cupcake?"

"Maybe, maybe not."

The exchange between the two girls is quite amusing because it borders from friends casually talking to subtle flirting. The only concern they have about this is that 'didn't Hester mention something about Laura having a girlfriend?' They glance over to Perry who is looking at Laura with concern. Clearly, they're thinking about the same thing.

When LaFontaine was teasing them yesterday, they only meant it as a joke. They never thought that Laura might actually like the girl especially since she had a girlfriend. Clearly she's interested.

"Carmilla,"

"Cupcake,"

"See my point? You never call me by my name."

Carmilla rolls her eyes. "I never call anyone by their name."

Laura gently nudges Carmilla on the side. Carmilla glares at her but for someone on the receiving end of that death glare, the dirty-blonde didn't seem to be fazed by it. Instead, she sticks her tongue out and LaFontaine does not miss the tightening of the brunette's jaw, unmistakably hiding her smile. Looks like Laura's not the only one who is interested. Yikes.

Perry clears her throat causing the two to pay attention to her – mostly Laura because Carmilla only resumes picking on her food before eating. "So, what activity are you assigned to later, Laura?" Perry inquires.

"If I remember right, clay sculpting." Laura mumbles, thinking hard. "Yeah, that's it."

"Well isn't that nice?" Carmilla says; a small smile on her face. "That happens to be mine as well."

LaFontaine swears they can hear Perry practically screaming on the inside. Meanwhile, Kirsch tells the two that they're lucky and starts complaining about how he doesn't have an assignment with any of his bros today or for the whole week, actually.

"Tough luck, man-child." Carmilla drawls out and again, Laura nudges her. "What?"

"You're rude." Laura says.

Kirsch laughs. "S'okay, little hottie."

"See? Not rude if he's okay with it, creampuff." Carmilla chews on her food. "Don't call her hottie, puppy."

Laura shakes her head, giving up on lecturing Carmilla about her habit of calling others by nicknames she decided to give them.

But then again, maybe they're seeing so much into it? Laura and Carmilla does seem really close but maybe, that's all there is to it? LaFontaine looks at Perry and places their hand on hers which is on Perry's thigh. They rubbed small circles on her hand with their thumb. Perry looks at them appreciatively, giving them a warm smile that just made their heart beat faster, ready to jump out of their chest.

(The things Perry do to them…)

Carmilla and Laura make their way to the cabin for the clay sculpting activity. Carmilla absentmindedly picks on a thread from her camp shirt. While Laura counts the kids on the list. They're walking so close to each other that their arms touch and shoulders bump occasionally but neither of them seem to mind.

Groaning, Carmilla lets go of the thread, making a mental note that she needs cut the loose thread later. She hates it when that happens.

"You know, I'm really surprised you got kids to like you when all you do is scowl and groan and brood." Laura starts, putting the list down and looking at her.

She chuckles. "I have that effect on people, sundance. I mean, look at you." Carmilla eyes her, smirking. "You tell me how rude I am and how all I do are those things you just said but here you are, still glued to me like a magnet."

Laura blushes, and she has probably noticed how close to each other they are and moves away slightly. Carmilla chuckles once again and Laura glares at her. "I swear you can be so frustrating." She mumbles.

"Hey, we're friends right? That's part of the package. Take it or leave it."

Laughing, Laura slaps Carmilla's arm softly, shaking her head. "I guess I'll take it."

Of course, Laura's is on her counselor-mode the moment she steps inside the cabin. She starts with a roll call, making sure all the kids are present.

Laura begins explaining what to do to the kids who are pretty excited to play with the clay. Carmilla rolls her eyes when Laura asks her to join her in demonstrating how to sculpt from the clay. No way she'll get her nails dirty.

"I'm beginning to think the other counselors must have been blind if they're not complaining about you doing nothing." Laura says, walking up to her.

Carmilla smirks, as she roams around the cabin, watching the kids. Laura is following her closely behind. "Or, you know, maybe I'm just not doing my job because I'm having fun watching you work." She says, shrugging.

She takes a mental note that Laura would blush at any kind of flirting. Flirting… Carmilla questions herself about that. Why is she flirting? Sure, the girl is fun to be with (though she will never say that out loud) and seems to be really caring and nice; Carmilla just doesn't want to mess around with this girl. She shakes her head and looks at Laura.

The tiny girl is smiling as she watches the kids play with their clays. Carmilla doesn't know why but she feels relief just by seeing the smile on Laura's face. She most definitely does not want to see Laura with the expression she wore last night. While Carmilla didn't entirely see what she looked like, Laura's body language just seemed to be shouting sadness.

"I'm going to regret this." Carmilla starts, heaving out a sigh. "If you ever need to talk to someone, I can lend my ears for a few minutes."

The dirty-blonde's head turns to her in confusion but she shrugs, ignoring the way Laura raises an eyebrow at her. "Are you actually trying to be kind to me?"

"Forget I said anything."

Laura laughs at her reply and Carmilla's heart might have just skipped a beat ('you're not supposed to be doing that, you involuntary muscle'). "I won't." Laura tells her. "Thanks, Carm."

Carmilla stays quiet for a while, just looking at the kids who kept throwing small balls of clay at each other. Carmilla scowls at them when they looked her way. "Actually," Laura suddenly says, taking a deep breath.

The door to the cabin opens and in comes a tall blonde who smiles at Laura. The kids all turn their attention towards the door and Carmilla scoffs. Seriously, the attention span of the new generation is incredibly short that Carmilla finds it ridiculous. "Laura, I'm on the attendance duty today." The blonde says.

"Betty, hi!" Laura excuses herself before walking towards the woman, Betty. The smaller girl hands the attendance sheet to Betty before she says something which seems to embarrass her because she doing that fiddling with her fingers thing that she does when she's embarrassed or nervous. Carmilla groans because since when did she pay attention to people? She frowns when Betty glances at her then back at Laura after the dirty-blonde swats her arm softly. The two of them laugh before Betty bids her farewell. She waves at Carmilla too who nods her way.

"Ah, by the way Laura." Betty stops Laura from closing the cabin's door. "I've got some letters for you. Someone's popular."

Laura rolls her eyes, giggling and shoos Betty away after she hands the letter to her.

Carmilla realizes that rather than watching the kids, she's watching Laura instead. From the exciting look, her face falls immediately after seeing the letters.

She seems exasperated because she sits down with the kids, settling down the letters on the desk. She tries to smile at Carmilla before focusing on the clays that the kids are showing her.

Everything would probably be alright, if only this kid with glasses, Kevin, didn't become curious about the said letters. Carmilla is about to stop him but he is fast with his hands and he got the letters. A few falls on the floor and the other kids picks it up.

Laura looks horrified when she notices that the kids have been reading the letters. "Kids, give it back." Laura says, her tone almost sounding like when she's annoyed with Carmilla.

"Aww, love letters!" One kid coos and Carmilla frowns. Okay, she should butt in and stop the kids already because this is kind of getting out of hand.

"Stop, give those back." Laura warns. "Girls…"

Carmilla walks around the table and gets a few of the letters on the ground. She's so tempted to look at them but hey, since when did she start snooping around other people's businesses? Laura's too busy trying to grab some from the kids to notice her crouching down to get a few more that falls from one of the kids' hand. How many letters did Laura's - whatever that person is to Laura - send?

"Must be nice having someone write you love letters."

"I thought that only happens in fairytales."

"No one uses love letters in fairytales, dummy."

"It says Danny!"

Laura flinches at the sound of the name. That can't be good, Carmilla thinks. The chanting of the ever-so-childish 'Laura and Danny kissing on a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G' starts.

The kids are laughing as Laura frantically tries to get all of the letters. Carmilla groans. This isn't really her business but maybe she should use her usual 'I'll feed you your spleens' line. She opens her mouth to begin talking but Laura slams a hand on the table.

"Love letters?" She snarls. "Fairytales?" Tears are already forming from her eyes and Carmilla takes the opportunity to take the letters, glaring at the kids who held them. "There wasn't any tree! And, yeah, there's definitely the K-I-S-S-I-N-G-ing." She bites her lip for a second. "But not with me!"

Okay, woah. Carmilla walks over to her and holds her by the wrist and placing a hand on her back. How domestic… Carmilla thinks to herself but she shoves the thought at the far end of her mind. "Cupcake…" She tries to calm her down.

"But that's okay because, you know what kids? I'm here to tell you the truth. Love? It sucks! It doesn't exist!" Laura shouts and Carmilla tries to pull her away. "It is a concept made to romanticize flowers and jewelries and chocolates and cruise ships! Because when you think that you found love, it's going to smack you in the face when everything comes tumbling down and you're gonna realize that you've wasted so much time and effort because you've lost to a girl with really nice hair and-"

The door suddenly opens and Perry peaks inside. "Hey, Laura?" She says, looking around the room and raising an eyebrow. "Can I speak to you for a second?"

Laura seems to realize what she's doing and finally calms down. She looks at Carmilla for a second before looking down. Carmilla swears she sees the girl's embarrassment just by looking at her deflating figure. "And that is why I love clay molding. I'll just-" She doesn't even bother finishing her sentence. Laura heads to the door, out of Carmilla's grasp.

The room is quiet as soon as the door closes. Carmilla glares at the kids. "Great job, little minions. You just made someone cry. You all must be happy and proud." Carmilla smirks at the kids' expressions. Yes, wallow yourselves in guilt you, little devils. "Now, anyone who has Counselor Laura's letter, give it here. If anyone keeps a letter, I'll make sure Counselor LaFontaine puts hot sauce on your food later at dinner."

The kids look alarmed at this and they stand up one by one, giving the letters to Carmilla.

She feels bad for Laura and these kids probably are too, especially since they're all looking down on their laps, looking ashamed. Carmilla sighs. "Okay, you horrible minions. Clay sculpting time is over. You wanna make up with Counselor Laura?" They nod. "I'm getting some crayons and papers. You will all be adults and write an apology letter to her." Carmilla walks over to the supply closet at the back of the room and grabs the crayons and papers. She settles it on the table where the kids are working earlier and look at them all with a glare. "Now start writing."

Carmilla watches them as they write whatever they want to say to Laura as an apology. She sighs, looking at a different batch of letters – the one from Laura's lover/ex-lover – and sigh. She doesn't read any of it but only looks at the name of the sender.

Danny.

That's commonly a guy's name, right?

So she's straight then?

Carmilla groans and leans back on the wall. "Damn." She mutters to herself.