Piper takes a long, hot shower, trying to wash away the morning's hangover, then dons the Staff shirt required for greeting the kids and parents today. It's quiet and still outside every time she glances out the window, save for the occasional lone counselor dragging their stuff from one cabin to another.
Piper's lying on her bed in front of a box fan when Alex strolls in with an oversized, unzipped duffel and a lazy grin, clear eyed and energetic like she's just too goddamn cool for a hangover.
"I checked out the campers' room," she says by way of greeting. "No name tags this session? Gotten lazy already?"
"Not lazy," Piper says pointedly, unable to stop a grin from spreading across her face. "Preoccupied."
Alex flashes a self-satisfied grin, throwing her stuff in the corner, then struts out to fetch more bags. She doesn't once confirm that Piper's okay with the switch, doesn't even really acknowledge it, just smiles like a person whose plan is working out exactly she'd intended.
Piper feels bizarrely exposed, meeting the parents and campers with Alex right there, as if every adult leaving their child under Alex and Piper's care will be able to take one look at their child's counselors and know exactly what they did to each other in the lake last night, not to mention what will likely be going on next door to the kids' room for the rest of the summer.
But Alex is charming as hell, of course, and Piper, if a little flustered, at least looks wholesome enough to reassure the few uptight parents side-eyeing Alex's tattoos.
They've got only eight kids this session, twelve year olds again, the age apparently consistent with the cabin. When the parents take off, they have a brief get-to-know-you huddle, then walk to kids to dinner, followed by the opening program that concludes in camp wide recreation, followed by the nightly campfire, and Piper starts to realize this essentially means she and Alex will have eight pre-teen chaperones with them at least 75% of the time.
It means that, in the daylight at least, nothing much has changed. They're still all silent, lingering eye contact, still primarily look, don't touch, although now it feels like they're sharing a secret, instead of Alex just holding one hostage, biding her time for the reveal.
That first night, no one gathers on the grass after Light's Out, the counselors sticking close to their cabins to monitor first night panics from the campers, as well as catch up on the sleep they'd lost the night before. Piper and Alex sit on their front porch, chatting with Nicky and Lorna next door, swapping notes on campers, and then Alex stands, apropos of nothing, and announces she's heading to bed.
Piper follows, her pulse quickening into a nervous tattoo. She isn't sure what to assume here; they haven't kissed all day, haven't done anything but look, and maybe last night was just part of the debauchery, it's not like they're dating now, but surely Alex making sure they were co-counselors means something...
Alex sheds her shorts and swaps out her Staff T-shirt for a black cami. Piper hasn't even changed, is just sitting on her bed staring like an expectant idiot, when Alex gives her a demure smile. "Cool if I turn the lights off?"
Piper nods, overeager, and the room goes dark, but Alex just crawls into the freshly changed sheets of what used to be Nicky's bed. "I'm so fucking exhausted."
"Yeah," Piper echoes dumbly, feeling thrown off and confused as she fumbles around in the dark to quickly change into a tank top and pajama pants. It's entirely untrue, she's suddenly wide awake as she gets into her own bed, her nerves practically vibrating with Alex's tantalizingly close presence.
At least five agonizing minutes crawl by, as Piper lies in bed debating with herself (Is this some sort of test? Is it her turn to initiate things? Had she just been really fucking inept last night and now Alex has no interest?) when Alex's voice floats through the darkness, "How you doing over there?"
"Fine." Piper winces immediately - her voice comes out tiny and strangled - and Alex laughs at her. Piper groans, burying her face in the pillow, and suddenly her bed lurches sideways. "Jesus!"
"Ssssh." Alex, now standing over Piper, clamps a hand over her mouth, eyes dancing with mirth. "The children are sleeping!" She gives the bed another shove, straightening it out, then adjusts it slightly so their twin beds are evenly pushed together. She grins, satisfied, then leans down and kisses Piper deeply, one hand caressing her cheek, the other reaching down to brace against the mattress as she subtly eases Piper down, until she's flat on her back across the two beds, Alex hovering above her, murmuring, "Much better," against her lips.
"You're kind of an ass," Piper whispers in relief, arching into her.
"Sorry," Alex answers, smirking, not looking or sounding like she means it as she slips a hand between Piper's legs.
Camp is built on routines.
And for the second session, Alex and Piper develop their own.
Every morning they slide the twin beds a few perfunctory inches apart, just in case the girls come in.
("It's not the lesbian thing," Alex assures Piper. "It's that they aren't supposed to think of us as people with personal lives and urges." Piper makes a face at that. "Urges?" It earns her a smirk. "Don't pretend you don't have urges, Pipes. I can read your urges like a book.")
At the nightly campfire, Piper sits in the middle of one of the benches, half of their girls flanking her sides, while Alex sits on the ground, leaning back against Piper's legs, similarly surrounded by kids.
(None of them think anything of it when Piper plays absently with Alex's hair, or even lets her fingers draw mindless patterns against the back of Alex's neck. And when Alex turns around with a wicked grin on the first S'mores night to messily shove a marshmallow against the corner of Piper's mouth, the girls are too busy shrieking with laughter to notice the narrow, heated look on Alex's face when she watches Piper lick it off.)
When the counselors gather in their circle on the grass, Alex has taken to stretching out with her head in Piper's lap, eyes closed half the time, like she no longer has a vested in interest in anyone or anything being discussed.
(Sometimes she stands up with no warning, with no regard to what else is going on, mid-conversation or not, and tugs Piper into the cabin early, boo's trailing after them. Sometimes they don't even make it outside.)
They push the beds back together every night and sleep wrapped together in spite of the summer heat and the poor cooling system of portable fans. They wake up in the mornings, either coverless or under a single sheet, all tangled, sweaty limbs and clinging tank tops.
(Breakfast every day comes at an ungodly hour, so it's rare they get up with much time to themselves before they have to wake the campers up, and yet Piper still loves the mornings, loves seeing Alex with her bare legs and sweaty, sleep mussed hair, glasses perched on her head as she stumbles around, muttering darkly about the camp's lack of coffee.)
The fourth of July falls in the first week of session two, and there's a huge, chaotic cookout down by the lake. The rec staff sends extra lifeguards to supervise the swimming areas, which takes some of the pressure off the counselors, and they send their kids into the water as soon as they finish their burgers and hot dogs, giving loud assurances that the wait thirty minutes after eating thing is a myth.
"You're not looking very patriotic," Piper admonishes after they watch their last camper go cannonballing off the pier. She lets her eyes sweep leisurely over Alex's black bathing suit, which seems to be the only kind she brought.
She arches an eyebrow, challenging. "I can put my shirt back on, if you want."
"You better not," Piper counters seriously. "Not very responsible, if one of the kids starts to drown."
Alex smirks. "Right, Pipes, cause I totally wouldn't jump in with my clothes on if someone was drowning."
Piper rolls her eyes. "Just for that I'm not leaving mine on."
"That's too bad."
"And why's that?" Piper taunts.
Alex shoves her off the pier, white tank top and all, then slips gracefully in after her, arrogant smile firmly in place.
When it gets dark, the kids are ordered out the lake, and the counselors are given two boxes of sparklers to distribute. Piper's skeptical about the wisdom of this idea - over a hundred kids running around with wands of fire - but it's a pretty spectacle, the banks of the lake dotted with darting balls of light, the kids drawing words in thin air or shooting pretend Harry Potter spells at each other. Piper handles the grill lighter, while Alex holds the boxes, and when their campers have all run off, Alex holds out her own with an expectant expression. Light explodes between the two of them, the warm, golden glow flickering across Alex's face, two miniature reflections of the sparkler reflected in the lenses of her glasses.
It makes it really, really hard not to kiss her.
Alex seems to notice, or is maybe just having similar feelings, because she reaches out with the hand not holding the sparkler and grabs Piper by the wrist, leading her through the picnic area and beyond the fire pits and into the woods, apparently content to know their campers are somewhere in the massive crowd, where she backs Piper against a tree to kiss her.
She's got one hand on Piper's waist, and it takes a second for the sparkler to burn out so she can lift the other. Her fingers are hot on Piper's cheek, her tongue cool from the dumb red white and blue popsicles they'd handed out earlier. The bark is rough against Piper's spine, and she can feel dirt and leaves clinging to her bare feet and their clinging drops of lake water. It's messy and inelegant and giddy, and it's just enough to sustain them through the next few hours, when they eventually hear Red announce into a megaphone that everyone needs to get with their counselors and they have to sprint back before they're missed. Piper nearly collides with Taystee, who purses her lips with a suppressed smile and says, "You got a leaf in your hair, Chapman."
They find their kids already gathered together on the lake's grassy banks, and a quick headcount confirms everyone's presence. A couple of guys have been assigned firework duty, and they're on the pier on the opposite side of the lake, the one without a swimming area. Everyone else stretches out on the lawn, exhausted and full, ready to watch. Alex and Piper lie down beside each other, a camper snuggled against them on either side, other kids propping their heads on their counselor's thighs or shins or anywhere that could conceivably double as a pillow. They slide glances at each other and smile, and when the first firework explodes above them, raining down purple sparks, Alex slips her fingers between Piper's, their hands hidden on the ground between their thighs.
Assigned to crafts one day, Piper lets a couple of eleven year olds teach her how to braid friendship bracelets out of cloth, yarn like material. She makes one with red and black with the occasional strand of white and presents it to Alex when their cabin meets back up for shower time before dinner.
Alex grins when she sees it, presenting her right arm for Piper to tie it on amidst the cluster of other bracelets, all gifts from the campers. "Were you getting jealous?"
"A little," Piper teases, tying the bracelet snugly in place. "Mostly just wanted to improve my friendship bracelet technique."
"Friendship bracelet, huh?" Alex tilts her head skeptically, and Piper blushes. She's saved having to qualify the term by one of the girls coming up and grabbing her hand, swinging it idly to get her attention.
"Hey, Pipes?"
Before she can respond, Alex rounds on the girl, a freckled redhead named Jenna who'd been the first of this session to beg for a winged eyeliner tutorial. Scowling in mock offense, Alex protests, "Hey, copycat! You can't call her that!"
Jenna gives Alex a challenging look, used to her joke scolding by now. "How come?"
"Cause that's just my nickname for Piper."
"How come you get a special nickname?"
Alex turns to Piper with an innocent, beauty pageant smile. "Because we're such good friends. Aren't we, Pipes?"
Her face almost definitely an embarrassing shade of red, Piper acknowledges that this is true. Jenna asserts that she and Piper are also friends, which Piper also agrees with. The pointless argument goes on for about five minutes before Piper finally figures out what Jenna wants - to collect on an earlier promise to show her and some of the others how to French braid.
Piper agrees and, to get Alex back, tells Jenna casualy, "Yeah, tell everybody who wants to watch to come over...I'll show you on Alex."
Alex twists around instantly, already shaking her head. "Yeah, no, I don't do braids."
Piper shrugs and shoots her an innocent smile. "Al. It's for the children."
"Is Lily alright?" Piper asks as they walk out of the mess hall, five minutes after observing Alex hang back with their shyest camper, who'd shown up for breakfast red eyed and even quieter than usual.
"I guess so. I'd say it's just routine homesickness, nothing to worry about, except she's still not really making friends."
Piper feels a swoop a guilt in her gut, angry at herself for not seeing this as more of a problem.
Lily's a sweet, slightly spacey kid, naturally quiet and has yet to hit puberty particularly hard. None of which would be a fatal detriment, if it wasn't for the fact that she's the only new camper in the cabin, the other seven girls having come up through camp together for the last two years.
"Right. So what can we do?" She's just wondering aloud, not trying to put the whole problem on Alex, but Alex grins knowingly anyway, glancing around before lifting the bill of Piper's olive green baseball hat out of the way to kiss her, fast and soft.
"Don't you worry, kid. I can feel a flash of genius coming."
That night Alex waves Piper and the others ahead when the nightly campfire burns out and the camp begin to disperse. Piper glances back over her shoulder, watching Alex sit down on the bench beside Lily, elbows propped on her knees, a conversational expression on her face.
It's been twenty minutes when they finally get back to the cabin, just in time for the nightly circle, the High/Low game where they share the best and worst moments from the day.
When it gets to Lily, last in the circle, she stares at the floor, speaking soft and fast, "My high point was...probably...I guess...doing slip 'n slide this morning. That was fun. And my low point..." She hesitates, not unusual; Lily always stumbles over her Low answer, as though it's hard to isolate just one moment or problem. But tonight seems different, like she's not unsure, just hesitant. She glances at Alex, who nods subtly. "And my low point was when Nicky and Lorna's cabin beat us at dodge ball."
That had happened tonight, at camp wide rec, and while Piper seriously doubts Lily minded much, a few of the other girls murmur their assent.
"I don't know about you guys," Alex puts in casually. "But I thought they were kinda jerks about it." Piper has to bite back a smile, as she always does when Alex very deliberately doesn't curse.
The girls nod and agree vehemently with this assessment, someone declaring, "They're totally sore winners."
Alex nods solemnly. "They really were." Piper suppresses an eyeroll; Alex is conveniently leaving out that the reason for the trash talk between the two cabins is because of Alex and Nicky's habit of playing up a completely fabricated, but extremely intense, rivalry. "Lily and I were talking about it after campfire, and she had a pretty crazy idea. I don't know if you guys'll go for it."
Intrigued, the others girls look at Lily, who turns a nervous gaze at Alex. Alex keeps her expression blank, refusing to bail her out. Finally, Lily stammers, "I...I don't know, I was just saying...maybe we should play a prank."
This sparks some interest around the circle, and Piper grins and looks at Alex. "Like in The Parent Trap?"
The interest ignites.
"YES!"
"Like put syrup on their cabin!"
"Or put the beds on the roof."
Alex looks completely, genuinely blank at the movie reference. "Uh...sure. Lil, didn't you say you had one?" Lily looks at Alex again, like she's not sure what she means. "A prank idea?"
"Oh. Right." Lily looks slightly overwhelmed with all the attention on her, and Piper's glad this wasn't her plan, because she probably would've swept in to help her out too soon, robbing the girl of the chance to explain. "So when my brother was at, like, boy scout camp, he told me about this thing they did..."
She explains, confidence gaining as she goes. The other girls are hanging on her every word, while Piper tries to catch Alex's eye across the circle, but she's watching Lily with a curious expression as though she's hearing all this for the first time.
By the time the plan's been presented - in shockingly well thought out detail - the girls are practically beside themselves with giggles.
"Piper, are we allowed to do it?" One of the girls asks, and a visible wave of worry ripples across the others' expressions. It makes Piper feel vaguely like the un-fun parent.
"Oh, I don't think we have a choice," she says seriously, provoking immediate, delighted relief.
Alex lifts an eyebrow. "Tomorrow night? All those in favor say aye."
There's a unanimous, gleeful chorus of ayes.
"And the plan doesn't leave this cabin. No telling anybody. All those in favor?"
"Aye!"
"And I move we make Lily prank captain. All in favor?"
There's another resounding round of ayes that leaves Lily practically beaming. There's a tugging in Piper's chest, and she smiles softly at Alex across the circle. Alex winks at her. "Alright, troops, better rest up so everyone's on alert for our attack."
A few minutes later, they step outside the room, closing the door behind them, and Piper immediately seizes the front of Alex's shirt, kissing her until she stumbles back against the door, hard, and they both freeze, waiting for a reaction from the kids. When nothing happens, Alex smiles and winds a strand of Piper's hair around her finger. "What was that for?"
Piper gives her a look. "You know." She kisses her again, gently. "You're kind of amazing."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Pipes. I was just really disappointed a prank war didn't take off during the first session. Had to take matters into my own hands."
"Mmm-hmmm," Piper hums skeptically, leaning in again. They can hear suppressed giggles and the hiss of whispers on the other side of the door, and Piper feels a thrill of illicitness curl around her spine.
"Wanna go outside?" Alex whispers eventually.
Reluctantly, Piper nods. "They'll give us shit if we skip again."
Their girls are hyped up the whole next day, even though the plan can't be put into motion until after dinner. Alex insists on a huddle after breakfast, reminding them in an exaggerated, stern whisper not to breathe a word of the plan to anyone. She puts Lily, as captain, in charge of policing this, and the girl nods seriously, happy to accept the duty.
The planning requires a good deal of coordinating, and a good deal of sneaking under Red and Gloria's radar, but luckily Lily - or, rather, let's be honest, Alex - had thought through every detail.
The night's activity is a movie in the gym and, very subtly, under the guise of a bathroom run, Alex escorts half the cabin out of the gym. They're gone nearly an hour, and then trickle back in one at a time.
Later, the full camp migrates from the gym to the fire pits, and Piper sneaks off with the other half of their cabin to finish the job. They can't join the campfire late without attracting too much attention, so they wait it out in the cabin until the others show up.
The girls huddle together immediately, swapping stories and basking in their triumph. Piper raises her eyebrows at Alex. "Anyone notice?"
"Janae asked where half our cabin went, I said you were mediating a conflict. We stayed away from Nicky and Lorna, doubt they even saw."
Piper grins, caught up in the excitement, and she and Alex high five, then turn and offer their hands to the girls to slap.
By virtue of the plan, they don't change into pajamas, and the nightly circle is essentially useless. No one has a low point, and everyone's high point is yet to come. The girls spend the whole time begging to go on outside, and most gratifying is how Lily's just as much a part of things as everyone else.
"Can we go?" Someone, could be any of them, asks for the hundredth time.
"Guys, if Piper's team did their job right, they aren't gonna notice anything until Light's Out." The accuracy of the statement does nothing to assuage their impatient, and finally, Alex and Piper exchange glances and agree to get going.
They move in a giggly, huddled mass across the lawn. No one else is outside yet, it still being about ten minutes away from Light's Out. They end up hiding in a patch of trees, as far away as they can get from the cabins while still having Nicky and Lorna's in their eye line.
Piper keeps an eye on her watch. When the official Light's Out time hits, she whispers loudly, "Make sure we're ready to run, guys."
"And cheer," Alex adds. "I wanna hear really evil cheering."
It seems to take forever, but when it happens, it's fast, a burst of chaos and activity. Nick, Lorna, and all nine of their thirteen year olds spill onto the porch, looking around wildly. It would almost be funny to see them try to figure out a way forward, but they don't get much chance before Piper and Alex's campers burst into loud, slightly evil, war whoops, and take off in the opposite direction.
"It's them!" Nicky yells. "After 'em, kids!"
Alex leads the group in a mad sprint through the woods, Piper bringing up the back, urging stragglers along. They end up at the top of a hill that leads down to the extra playing fields, where they'd stored several stacks of the mattresses from Nicky and Lorna's cabins.
"Everyone grab one..." Alex orders, distributing mattresses and glancing over her shoulder. "Lily, remember you're telling us when to go, make sure they're all here to see..."
A few of the kids awkwardly stretch their arms to hold the twin plastic mattresses in front of their bodies, while others put them straight on the ground and stand a few feet back, everyone teetering in a horizontal line at the hill's peak.
They hear them before they see them, the crunching of leaves and cracking branches, the massive pounding of footsteps. Alex nudges Lily. "Get a visual, Captain!"
Lily turns awkwardly, her cheek pressed against the back of her mattress, gaze toward the woods. When Nicky and Lorna, campers at their heels, burst out the underbrush, she yells, "GO!"
The girls run and leap, sledding on the mattresses down the hill, letting out high pitched, roller coaster screams. Piper bursts out laughing at the looks of utter confusion on the other campers' face.
Lorna pauses, face scrunched in confusion as she assesses the situation, and then she yells out, not seeming at all certain about the strategy, "After 'em, ladies!"
She leads a group of the kids sprinting down the hill. Piper sets her mattress on the ground, about the take off after them, when she hears Alex yell out from behind her.
Piper turns in time to see Nicky wrench a mattress away from Alex. "Trying to fuckin' start something, Vause. That's a mistake!"
Alex smirks, relinquishing her tentative hold on mattress and taking off toward Piper instead. "Incoming Pipes!"
Piper barely has time to stretch herself across the twin mattress before Alex crashes onto it beside her, the momentum pushing it over the crest of the hill.
She digs her fingers desperately into the corners of the mattress to stay on, letting out an involuntary, scream of a laugh as the wind rushes over her face. Alex is half on top of her, gripping the neck of her shirt, one leg slung over hers, elbow digging painfully into Piper's back.
The ground flattens out and the mattress slows but doesn't stop, and Piper loses her grip and rolls off, pulling Alex with her, and the mattress flips.
She ends up pinned on the grass under Alex, both of them laughing breathlessly, grinning inanely at each other. Alex licks her lips and arches an eyebrow, teasing, and it's almost enough to make Piper forget they're surrounded by screeching, victorious preteens, until suddenly Nicky, having taken flight on her own mattress, crashes against them.
"Hi, platonic professional co-counselors," she says pleasantly. "Hope you're both prepared for the war you just started."
They march back to their cabin in two triumphant, single file lines, leaving Nicky and Lorna's kids to drag their own mattresses back.
The plan had gone off without a hitch. During the movie, Alex and half the kids had stolen the mattresses and, in two trips, dragged them down to the hill to wait. While skipping the campfire, Piper and the others had remade the beds, using propped up kayak paddles or suitcases with sheets pulled over them to simulate, at a cursory glance, the bulk of the mattresses.
As Alex had explained to Piper, it wasn't the best prank she knew, in terms of damage to the targeted party, but the mattress sledding that ended it made it the most appealing.
"It's fun for us," Alex had said. "And kind of a fuck you to them. Win, win."
It takes the girls nearly an hour to calm down, and Piper gives them a serious talking to about being vigilant for retaliation that Alex seems to find very amusing. They eventually go outside to join the other counselors, and the two of them regale the others with their triumph, to a standing ovation from everyone but Nicky and Lorna. Alex fails to mention the motivation behind initiating the prank war, even though Piper fervently believes it's the sort of above and beyond counseloring that they could all learn from. But whatever, she apparently doesn't want to brag.
Everyone begins to drift to bed, and somehow they end up as the last people on the lawn, both stretched out on their backs, Piper's head on Alex's stomach while her hand swims lazily through Piper's hair. It's late, but it's also so nice out, with heat lightning splitting the corner of the sky and the chirp of crickets humming in the background.
"That was really smart of you," Piper murmurs after awhile. "Letting Lily be the one to come up with the plan, putting her in charge."
"Mmmm," Alex mumbles indifferently.
"I think it's really great that you went out of your way to help her. And that you knew just how to do it. Just like you were with Ben."
Alex's hand goes still in Piper's hair. "It's our job, Piper."
There's a razor's edge to the words, the first time Piper's heard that from Alex, and it silences her instantly. She lets a few minutes tick by, until Alex's fingers resume their ministrations, and then asks, "Did you go to camp as a kid?"
Alex makes a snorting sound as though Piper had asked if she spent her childhood summers traveling around Europe. "No." After a moment, Piper feels Alex's chest heave with a sigh. "But if I had, yes, I would have been the kid who couldn't make friends. If that's what you're trying to figure out."
Piper's suddenly glad she doesn't have to look Alex in the eye. It takes her awhile to say, quietly, "I can't even imagine that."
Alex lets out a laugh that just barely nudges against bitterness. "Well trust me. Because that was my life until pretty much the end of high school." She pauses. "If you'd met me at camp, or in third grade, or whenever, anywhere but here...you'd have been one of the kids making fun of my clothes."
"No," Piper says immediately, rolling over to prop her elbow on the ground, looking down at Alex earnestly. "Never." As though proving the point, she worries the material of Alex's shirt, gray with the logo of a band Piper's never heard of and the sleeves cut off, between her thumb and forefinger. "I was never one of the cool kids, anyway. Too much of a goody two shoes."
At that, Alex grins. "Oh, yeah? Maybe I could have corrupted you."
Piper smiles back, relieved she's been forgiven for pushing, that Alex has easily waded out of whatever pool of bad memories Piper forcibly pushed her into. Bracing her forearms on either side of Alex on the grass, Piper kisses her deep and then whispers, "Still time for that."
They make out on the lawn until Poussey walks by and tells them to get a room, and Alex remembers that they have one.
They don't have to wait long for the next battle of the prank war.
Piper had reminded all the kids to keep an eye out that night during the group activities or the campfire, to monitor any moment Nicky or Lorna's campers slip away, but they don't even make it to dinner. They'd clearly snuck some of their kids out of morning activities, because when Alex and Piper and their girls return to the cabin after lunch for the hour of Rest Time before afternoon activities, they find almost every loose item in the cabin, beds included, wrapped tightly in saran wrap. A second wave of unpleasantness comes when some of the girls swap out shoes to suit their afternoon schedule, and find that every pair they'd left behind is full of toothpaste.
"Oh, it is on," Piper declares grimly, staring in distaste at her toothpaste soaked socks.
The girls let out a chorus of high itched ew's, but Alex immediately shushes them, gesturing for everyone to huddle up in the center of the room. "Ssssh, they're probably standing outside trying to hear us. The best part of a prank is getting to see the reactions, and they've set it up so they can't unless we let them."
The girls sober up instantly, and by the time they leave the cabin, they all wear admirably unruffled expressions, satisfied from having spent the whole of Rest Time planning their next move.
It wages over the next week, provoking other wars to break out between other cabins, but everyone knows the original, and the girls wear that knowledge with pride. The hardest part is finding times to sneak away unnoticed, and the kids have to be content with fewer participating on each prank.
They break into Lorna and Nicky's cabin armed with dental floss, and leave with a vast array of personal items dangling from the ceiling. The next day, they're assaulted with water balloons coming out of breakfast. They steal shoes and end up with no socks. Box fans are filled with feathers and shreds of paper, door handles left sticky with syrup. Occasionally there are smaller, more specifically targeted attacks: Lily and two others spray shaving cream on a couple of Nicky and Lorna's girls following a block of swimming they all had together; once, Alex comes back from kayacking looking like a drowned cat, soaking wet in her clothes, and Piper and the girls' raucous laughter immediately fades when they learn a couple of Nicky's campers tipped her kayack during their activity.
Piper's favorite prank means waiting a few days for spaghetti night. They send Lily and Jenna into the mess hall ahead of everyone else, where they collect the plastic silverware already waiting, as usual, at Nicky and Lorna's table. Piper already sweet talked the kitchen staff into insisting they're out of spares, so soon they're encouraging the whole camp to watch at their rival cabin attempts to eat pasta with their hands.
Piper wakes up feeling cooler and less sweaty than usual, which isn't actually a good thing when she registers why: Alex is gone.
She sits up fast, straining instinctually to hear into the next room, assuming she's slept through some sort of emergency with a camper, but quickly relaxes when she hears voices filtering not from the other side of the shared bedroom wall, but through the open screen window leading onto the cabin's porch...accompanied by the slightest whiff of weed.
"...if you guys could be maybe fifteen minutes late getting back from lunch tomorrow, that'd give us time." Nicky's voice. "And I'll help you out on retaliation, yeah?"
"Help us out as in...access to your campfire snacks before you pass them out?" Alex asks in response. Piper grins, rummaging around in her overflowing suitcase for shorts, intending to go outside and partake in the peace summit. It's gotten to the point where the girls are so vigilant and paranoid that the only way to keep the war going is by making certain, covert agreements.
"Christ, what is with you guys and the food?"
"Is that a no?"
"No, no, fine, it's a deal."
"Good. Can't promise more than fifteen minutes, though. And the girl's are talking about setting booby traps for you guys, so be careful of dental floss across the door frames."
"Noted." There's a pause; the smell thickens. "Speaking of being careful, Vause..."
"What?"
"Are you?"
"Am I being careful with what?"
"With Chapman."
Piper freezes with her shorts halfway up her thighs.
Alex makes a faint, sarcastic sound. "Are you asking if we're having safe sex?"
"Ha. Just don't forget the first rule of camp."
"Don't talk about camp?"
"It's a bubble. What happens here stays here."
"It's not Vegas, Nicky."
"But the principle applies."
"And you're telling me this because...?"
"Cause I've seen the way you look at her. And you are so fucking screwed."
"Oh, c'mon, fuck off."
"I'm serious."
"Really? So you and Lorna are, what? Just about sex?"
"Course not. It's more than that. But I aware of the reality of the situation."
"And what reality is that?"
"That this is great, but in a week we all go home. And Morello goes back to being the straight girl planning her perfect future wedding to her perfect future groom."
"Oh, God, she's one of those?"
"She brought bridal magazines to camp. She's also obsessed with Julia Roberts movies."
"Oh, fuck."
"I know, right? But I guess my question is...what reality are you living in? Cause if it's the reality where Chapman takes you home to the 'burbs to introduce her family to her new girlfriend...then I gotta say, that fucking concerns me."
"You don't know her that well."
Nicky snorts. "I know she brought a matching set of Coach luggage to camp, and then's she's got old money debutante written all over her."
For the first time, Alex's voice hardens, syllables sharp but brittle. "So, what? She'd fit in better with you, right?"
"Oh, hey, fuck, come on. You know that's not what I meant. It's not about money."
There's a long silence. Piper doesn't move, barley even allows herself to breathe.
Finally, Alex speaks again, distant. "I'm going to bed."
Quickly, her heart hammering, Piper moves onto the bed, sliding back under the thin sheet as Nicky asks, "Are you pissed?" She doesn't sound particularly bothered either way, more like she's just checking their status.
"I don't know. Mostly no."
"Then I'm mostly not sorry." There's a pause; Piper can just imagine the bitch face Alex is giving Nicky for a comment like that. Nicky just laughs dryly. "Hey, if I can't talk to you like this, who will?"
"Uh-huh. You're a fuckin' hypocrite, Nichols."
"Oh, I most definitely am."
"Goodnight."
"Night."
Alex's footsteps cross the porch, the cabin door opens and closes, and Piper shuts her eyes, trying her best to keep her breathing steady and slow. Soon, on of the mattresses dips as Alex crawls back beside her, easing carefully under the sheet and sliding against Piper. Alex drapes an arm gingerly over Piper's waist, then sidles forward, burrowing her face into the back of Piper's neck. Her breathing sounds sharp. Their hands brush, and Piper can feel the soft, frayed edges of that stupid bracelet she made, the only one Alex doesn't take off.
Just like that Piper's eyes are wet, unexpectedly, and her chest constricted. She'd be hard pressed to say exactly why; she's not so much happy or sad as simply overwhelmed, the moment suddenly thick with intangible significance.
The word for it forms and snarls in her chest, rising in her throat but Piper claws it back because she's supposed to be asleep, because it's way too soon, because in a week they all go home and Piper isn't sure whether or not Nicky's right about her.
She is so fucking screwed.
The next morning is like every other one. Alex groans about the time for a moment before rolling over to kiss Piper on the corner of the mouth. She stands up, grabs her glasses, and says casually, "I went out to smoke with Nicky last night after you were asleep. She wants us to take our time getting back from lunch. If we do it, she'll let us mess with their campfire snacks."
If she suspects Piper was awake, hearing the rest of the conversation, she gives no indication, and Piper follows her lead, nodding easily, "We can live with that, right?"
"Yeah, that's what I thought. Otherwise it's gonna be over soon, and the little dorks are having way too much fun with it. Just can't let on that we've got an alliance."
"They won't suspect it."
"'S it my turn to wake - " Piper cuts her off, lifting up on her knees on the bed and pulling Alex toward her, mouth swallowing whatever she was saying.
Alex pulls away after a moment, making an obligatory morning breath sort of face, but she's smiling. "What was that for?"
Piper shrugs, running her hands the length of Alex's arms, ending up tracing her thumb across the bracelet.
Alex follows her gaze and lifts an eyebrow. "Admiring your craftsmanship?"
Fumbling for a smile, Piper remembers how to do this, the easy, light banter. "Actually I was just thinking that this sort of gift usually provokes reciprocity."
Alex huffs out a laugh. "Maybe I'm just feeling things out, Pipes. Gotta figure out what level of friendship I want the bracelet to reflect." She smirks, winks, and kisses Piper on the bow of her cheekbone before heading off to wake up the campers.
Piper ends up manning an arts and crafts activity that morning, but she's paired with Daya, which mean the actual task - painting birdhouses - is just a distraction as the kids take turns posing for her, everyone wanting a cartoon rendering of themselves like the ones Daya's campers have been wearing instead of nametags on their lanyards.
Piper sits next to her, watching her work. When she waves a little boy back to his birdhouse, saying she'll be finished with his tag in ten minutes, Piper asks, "How's John?"
Daya's smile is sweet and automatic. "He's good. He's running kickball right now, I think." She giggles fondly. "He's really sweet with kids. Such a goof, you know?"
"Hey, that's a good sign. Being good with kids, I mean."
Daya nods, then slides an envious look at Piper. "You're lucky. You know, that you and Alex get to share a room."
"Yeah." No point in denying that; she feels lucky. After a moment, Piper adds, "You were here last year, right?" She's only going off the fact that Daya was originally partnered with Lorna, who, according to Nicky, was a first timer like Piper.
"Mmm-hmm," Daya replies absently, eyes back on her drawing. "John wasn't, though."
"Oh." Piper leans her elbows on the table, giving a perfunctory scan of the kids; no one seems to be flinging paint yet, so far so good. "Were there a lot of, y'know, couples last year?"
"Sorta. A lot of people just, like, hook up. You know. But there are always a few."
"Do they stay together?"
Daya cuts her eyes, giving Piper a slight smirk. "You worried?"
"Are you?"
"Nah, not really. Our high schools play each other in football every year. It's not like it's far." After a moment, she glances over. "What about you guys?"
"I...move into college like two weeks after camp ends. So...I don't know."
The thing is, this job was supposed to just hold Piper over for the summer. She'd been starting to chafe under her parents roof, their oppressive rules and expectations that hadn't let up even once she got her coveted acceptance letter. She'd just wanted to get away for a few months, earn some money, get a taste of being on her own before she made her real escape to school.
Her life wasn't supposed to change yet, but now Alex Vause has barreled into it and shaken up everything.
She leads an afternoon hike with Bennett and Suzanne, and it's kind of a relief, low effort and participation, just walking and keeping a head count. It leaves her mind free to run in circles, worry itself into a state of utter confusion.
At one point, she turns around on autopilot, counting the kids, and comes up with one short. Panic knifes through her for a second, until she realizes Suzanne is missing, too.
Still, she's worried she missed some sort of incident, so Piper yells ahead at John that she's gonna drop back and see what's up. She walks the path in the direction they just came from, and it takes about three minutes before she finds Suzanne, hand in hand with a tiny little ten year old girl, listening with infinite patience to whatever the kid is saying about the patch of flowers they've stopped to admire.
"Everything okay?" Piper asks.
"Oh, we fine, aren't we, Maddy?" Suzanne smiles at the little girl and accepts the dandelion she's being offered. "Just taking our time."
"Okay," Piper smiles at the kid. "Just wanted to check."
Maddy's still handing Suzanne flowers, and she offers one of her fistful to Piper. "Everything goes so fast around here sometimes," she explains. "It's good to let someone else slow it down for a little bit."
Piper nods at that. She should run back up ahead, seeing as she'd left Bennett alone with twelve kids, but instead she falls in with Suzanne and Maddy's halting, leisurely pace. "You've worked here before, right?"
"Fourth summer," Suzanne confirms. "Longer than anyone, I think."
"It shows," Piper tells her. "You're really really good with them."
She flashes a wide, white smile. "Thanks." She's quiet for a moment, then adds, "Your girl? Tall Glasses?" Piper grins at the description and nods a confirmation. "Yeah, yeah, she's good with them, too." For a beat Piper thinks she just means campers in general, and is wondering if she should be offended to be so obviously not complimented, but then Suzanne adds, "The ones a lot of people don't pay attention to."
"Yeah." Pipers got that chest swelling sensation again, like her heart may burst and spill over. "She is."
Light's Out comes, and they walk outside as usual, Piper taking the usual turn toward the center of the cabins where the other counselors have already begun to gather, but Alex tugs her elbow in the other direction, grinning. "We've got other plans, actually." She holds up a paper bag she must've grabbed on their way out and flashes its contents at Piper: a bottle of wine. "Date Night, Pipes."
Piper's smile starts to creep across her face even as she asks confusedly, "Date night?"
"Uh-huh. Nicky and Lorna are gonna stick close by, hang between the cabins. They'll call if anything happens...we gotta return the favor tomorrow, but tonight, we can go wherever the fuck we want...limited to the vast wilderness of these campgrounds, anyway."
Lacing their fingers together, Piper nods in approval of the idea, and they wander off in no particular hurry, passing the bottle between them, trading sips of warm pink wine.
"How do we still have alcohol?" Piper wonders aloud. It's something she's been thinking about, considering the supply at the nightly circle never seems to be depleting. "Did people bring full luggage sets just to hold drinks?"
Alex laughs at her. "Of course not, dumbass. Red's son brings it."
"What?"
"She doesn't know, obviously. Or she pretends not to. Don't ask, don't tell kinda thing. But he drives in from town every couple days to bring anything the camp's running low on. Including alcohol for us." She passes Piper the bottle and smirks. "And we all have to pitch in at the end of the summer, so you may as well drink up so you get your money's worth." They walk on for a few quiet moments, then Alex nudges her shoulder against Piper's. "So where do you wanna go?"
They end up at the far end of the campground, at a small, sand filled playground adjacent to the dirt paved area reserved for campers and tents. It's out of operation during the camp, and they never make use of the playground, it being a oriented toward kids a little younger than ten, but Piper's seen it in the distance when they walk to and from the gym.
Piper kicks off her sandals and takes off toward the swings, the good kind, with rubber bucket seats and long metal chains. She hadn't eaten much at dinner (Sloppy Joes, emphasis on the sloppy), and the wine bottle is already halfway empty from their walk, so Piper's got a light, pleasant hum of a buzz. She plops gracelessly down on one of the swings and kicks herself off, legs pumping, finding that old, familiar rhythm of childhood. Alex sits down in the sand, taking a swig of wine and watching Piper with evident amusement.
"What?" Piper taunts. "You too cool or something?"
"Exactly. Way too fucking cool. You look ridiculous." But she's grinning, eyes bright with affection.
Piper pokes her tongue between her teeth, then tilts her head back, letting the wind rush over her, the sky blurring above. After a few moments, she lets her toes slide against the ground, bringing the swing to an unsteady stop. She walks over to Alex, plucks the wine bottle from her hand, and continues over to the little metal merry go round, the kind of spinning, wobbly circle raised a couple feet off the ground, with metal handrails stretched from the center like spokes of a wheel.
Piper sits between two of the rails, dragging one foot on the ground to set herself spinning, and she's just got it going enough where she can lift her leg up when the the whole thing lurches to an abrupt stop that sends Piper's shoulder jamming against the rail.
"Ow! Jesus, Al."
"Sorry." Alex smirks, still holding onto the rail she'd grabbed to stop the merry go round. She takes the bottle from Piper and drinks, then sets it aside so she can crouch down on her knees, just below eye level with Piper, and pull her into a kiss.
It intensifies quickly, the merry go round rotating a few degrees underneath them, and Alex shifts as she digs her knees firmly into the sand. She catches Piper's lower lip between her teeth then moves away, her mouth hot on Piper's jaw, on her neck, sucking sweaty skin between her teeth, tongue mapping the freckles the sun's scattered there over the past few weeks. Every bite pulls a stuck, whimpering sound from Piper's throat, and she tilts her head back to allow Alex better access, because whatever, she'll tell the kids they're bug bites.
Piper's hands are caught in Alex's hair, but Alex's are sliding up under her shirt, holding her in place, and Piper raises her arms obligingly and the tank top comes off. Alex kisses a trail down Piper's, finger's teasingly tracing the outline of her bra.
Alex lifts her head, reaching back up to crash their lips together, then pulls away just as quickly, lifting her glasses up and setting them carefully aside. She smiles at Piper, this miraculous, beaming smile, then kisses her again, softer.
Just like that, the world slows down. For maybe the first time in her life, Piper can feel her worries seep away, burning up into ash. It feels like she doesn't have to think about what happens next, that as long as this is happening now, everything'll be okay.
Alex's hands move off her, briefly gripping the edges of the merry go round so she can shuffle back, move lower, easily pulling away Piper's athletic shorts. There's a clumsy moment as Piper has to draw her knees up to allow Alex to tug them off without getting in her own way, and fuck it, better go ahead and lose the underwear, too. The metal is cold against her skin, and Alex settles back between her legs, forearms resting on top of Piper's legs for balance, the merry go round swaying back and forth below them anyway. Piper wraps her shins around Alex's waist for balance, sidling back on the merry go round, her back thudding against the pole in the center, neck propped against the triangle where the hand rails meet.
Alex's mouth is back on her skin, Piper's muscles twitching with every touch. Her breaths are coming out in shallow, shuddering gaps, and when Alex drags her tongue teasingly along the tan line from her bathing suit Piper lets out a sharp whine, and she swears she can feel Alex smiling against her skin. She kisses her way up to the juncture of Piper's legs, maddeningly slow, and Piper has to curl her fingers around the guardrails to keep herself steady.
Finally finally finally Alex's mouth comes down on her, and a throaty moan curls out of Piper's throat. Her hips roll and arch into Alex's mouth as best she can in the small space, and she can feel her own pulse thrumming out a drumbeat between her legs, against Alex's tongue.
They've had to be quiet all month, mindful of the preteens sleeping on the other side of their wall; Piper's got a pink arch of bite marks in the curve between her thumb and forefinger, such is the difficulty in stopping herself from crying out. But tonight there's no need for quiet, the two of them a safe distance from the cabins and staff housing, with only the blinking fireflies and humming cicadas for company. Piper takes advantage of that, whimpering, gasping Alex's name, crying out with abandon, and it seems to bring out the tease in Alex: she dips her tongue in the spread of Piper with lapping, generous strokes, leading her right to the edge, and then retreats, pressing sticky, gentle kisses against Piper's inner thigh. She is all flickering licks and pulsing kisses, all rise and fall, making Piper beg for it.
"Alex...Alex, please." She's so tight she might shatter, that she could send the whole merry go round spinning off its axis. "Please." Her thighs start to tremble, her ankles smacking against Alex's back, digging in, and Alex's tongue starts lapping at her clit in shorter, fiercer strokes, yes yes yes, right there, finally, and Piper lets out a shriek that breaks instantly into pieces.
Alex lifts her head, bracing her hands against the edge of the merry go round to pull herself up, lips glistening, eyes bright. She wipes her mouth against the inside of her wrist, then crawls all the way onto the merry go round, knees on either side of Piper's legs as she leans down to kiss her. Without her anchoring them to the ground, the merry go round spins lazily, slowly, only adding to Piper's wobbly dizziness.
"Doing okay?" Alex asks teasingly.
Piper nods emphatically, like she's lost the power of speech. She brushes her fingers pointlessly across Alex's face, then nestles her face briefly into the crook of Alex's neck, mouth rounding gently against salty, damp skin. When she finds slightly more in control, Piper lifts her head and smiles, small and crooked. "Your turn?"
Alex grins, flicking her eyebrows up and down. "If you want...but I kind wanna try on the slide."
The final week events start up as the end of camp gets closer. Once again there will be a dance, but this session, Piper and Alex's campers start preparing early. Namely, using every rest period the final week to practice a coordinated dance they plan to premiere in the gymnasium.
After three days of practice, with Piper and Alex banished to the porch, out of earshot of the music, they're finally invited in to learn the dance themselves.
The girls are lined up in two rows of four, their faces flushed and amusingly intense. Rachel has an iPod nano hooked up to a small portable speaker, and she asks Piper to press play when they give her the signal.
Obligingly, Piper stands with her finger poised over the button as Rachel trots back in line, but before she presses anything, her eyes widen at the song title. "Wait, that's what you've been dancing to?"
They all nod earnestly. "Flaca said she'd play it."
Piper gives Alex a skeptical look, holding out the screen for her to see. Alex laughs, then shrugs. "Hey, if Flaca agreed to play it."
"Fine." Piper presses play, and the music bursts to life on tinny, crackling speakers.
My milkshake brings all the boy's to the yard...
For the next twenty minutes they master the moves (dip, brush left shoulder, then right shoulder, sprinkler, turn, and, well...milkshake). The girls insist on another practice round before bed, to make sure their counselors are worthy of joining in.
The last few days of camp play out with almost startling similarity to the first session's end, the only real exception being the routine to "Milkshake" at the dance, which earns Piper and Alex no end of shit from the rest of the counselors. On the last day, when the kids get ready to leave, Piper can't help but nudge Alex repeatedly as the other campers tearfully hug and make Lily promise to come back next summer, and to make sure to request to be in their cabin again.
Their cabin clears out fairly quickly, and Alex and Piper head down to the gymnasium for their a meeting with Red and Gloria before they take them to dinner. Most of the counselors are there or arriving, everyone milling around, taking photos and comparing the sadness of their departed campers.
Piper ends up in a ten minute conversation with Suzanne about the camper she'd been walking with that day of the hike, and her utter despair to leave the cabin. When it's over, she looks around for Alex and finds her perched alone on the stage next to an open box of loaded craft supplies.
She vaults the stage and sits down on the other side of the plastic crate. "I think those are supposed to be packed up."
Alex grins, not looking up, as she slides a glass bead onto a black leather strap. "I'm doing what you wanted. Reciprocity." She points to the closed lid of another box, where a line of beads has been carefully laid out in order. Most of them are the fancy glass ones the kids had to use very sparingly, but there are five from the more mundane, plastic box, the white circular beads printed with letters and symbols.
An I. A bead with a black heart printed on it. Then Y-O-U.
Alex smiles smugly, obviously pleased with herself. Piper traces her fingers over the beads, pressing the pad of her thumb against the heart. "Youheart me, huh?"
Smile softening, Alex pauses in her work to meet Piper's gaze. "Didn't want to go too serious on a friendship bracelet."
Piper reaches across the box, trailing her fingers across Alex's knuckles. "I heart you, too." She lowers her eyes, still playing with Alex's hand. "Uh...I know this seems late to ask, but...how far are you from Northampton? And how would you feel about...visiting. Both ways, obviously."
An answer doesn't come immediately, but when Piper finally looks up, Alex is giving her this smile that looks like it's made of light. "I am actually," she says slowly. "Not very far from Northampton. And I happen to have a lot of time for visiting."
Piper grins, and it takes her a beat to remember that there are no kids around, that she can lean across the box and kiss Alex all she wants.
Alex is the one to pull away, still smiling. "Hold on. Gotta finish this shit." She slides the rest of the beads onto the leather band. Piper presents her wrist, and Alex ties it securely on. Rotating her wrists, admiring it, she says, "If you heart me so much...we need to make a rule for tonight."
She makes a face. "Rules? That doesn't sound like much fun."
Piper looks at her sternly. "No Spin the Bottle. I'm not fucking watching you kiss Nicky again."
Alex's eyes light up, and she doesn't even bother to hide her smug delight over this bout of jealousy. "I didn't control the bottle, Pipes."
"No but you weren't exactly unenthusiastic," Piper counters, trying to sound light instead of petulant.
Alex laughs. "Because Lorna was so excited about kissing that Christopher asshole that Nicky was pouting about it. And I could tell she wanted to make her jealous. Which I guess worked." Alex smirks. "You being jealous was just a bonus."
Piper shoves the craft box aside and slides directly in front of Alex. "You're kind of an ass." She punctuates the sentence with a hard, forceful kiss. The kind of kiss that makes her point.
Alex barely moves away, and Piper feels the hot breath of her words on her lips as she agrees, "No Spin the Bottle."
They wake up the next morning, stretched beside each other on the gazebo that stretches over the lake, only half clothed, hair damp and tangled, an empty bottle of tequila somehow wedged under Piper's knee, heads pounding with twin hangovers. Alex and Piper look at each other and burst out laughing. The night before, the second dose of traditional debauchery, is a liquor soaked, smoke and fire filled blur of skinny dipping and mattress sledding and dirty, outdoor sex.
"Is this part of camp tradition?"
Alex smirks, letting her head thunk back against the wooden floor. "I think we've started a fuck ton of new ones."
Piper folds herself against Alex's side, content to lay there and not think about driving home in a few hours, about the cabin they still need to pack up and cling out. The sun is barely peaking over the pine trees, the air bathed blue and orange.
She leaves for college in a few weeks. Her life wasn't supposed to change until then.
But the world at this moment feels quiet and warm and blissfully slow. And for once in her life, Piper's fine to just live in it, to not know precisely what's coming.