June 25th

"First I want to welcome you." Christ Hackett announced, "And to those of you who weren't here last year but where here in the past, welcome back."

Dylan knew he was one of those being mentioned. He wasn't here last year and he noticed there were some new faces, and one he'd gone to camp with for years but hardly noticed him, and he also noticed the difference in their camp leader.

He was looking a little rugged and older. His shoes were muddy. Dylan frowned. Probably getting set up for the campers. He was usually a well organized guy and well kept. Something probably went wrong and he was in a hurry. It was probably nothing.

"And I wanted to tell a bit about why we run this camp every year. It isn't easy. You know? I know it's hard to see beyond your own lives. To see the adults in your life aren't just window dressing. They aren't just extras on a movies set, put here to help you or hinder you. So let me tell ya. It's not easy to run this camp every year. But we take time off from our jobs and we give up the little luxuries of life, like our cell phones. Let me tell you about when I was a camper here."

"So you can bore us to death?" Dylan whispered under his breath.

"He's not that bad." The girl next to him said. She was a short brunette with red streaks in her hair. "I'm Abi, by the way."

"Dylan."

"Mr. H can really get into it when he's telling a story." Ryan said. When did he show up? "It's where I get my inspiration. "

"On how to be boring?" He thought he had whispered it, but he guessed not.

Mr. Hackett had stopped speaking, glaring their way, he clears his throat.

"I'm sorry. Wow, that was loud. I...wasn't being be rude." Damn it. Why was he so nervous?

"Don't worry about it. Dylan, right? He'll get to the point eventually." Dylan felt himself flush. At least he remembered his name. Or was it just the heat?

"It was the 70's when I was a camper here. It was required for campers to write a postcard to family back home before the evening meals. Mail call after lunch was a highlight of the day for campers who got a letter from home. Today the campers-seem lost without instant access to all that their smart phone offer to them. Sitting quietly by a lake, or a mountain vista, doesn't seem to hold as much appeal as taking selfies and posting on Instagram.

If you can take the group outside of the range of WiFi, the camp group can begin to understand how nice it can be to focus on listening to the person sitting close to them. Or what quiet sounds like at night under the stars, or in the morning along a lake shore. Without access to social media, maybe the campers can discuss an issue in person with civility. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone could spend a week "unplugged" and rediscover the art of a real conversation? Technology giveth and it taketh.

I look forward to summer all year and this is going to be the best summer yet. We have swimming, sharp-shooting, canoeing, Ryan will be in charge of sailing and Arts and crafts, Abigail will be in charge. We have numerous sports activities available. We have volleyball, badminton, baseball and capture the flag. Jacob and Nick will be in charge of the sports."

"Uh, Mr H. I don't know if I heard you correctly. I wasn't scheduled to do sports. I thought I'd be working in the kitchen...not that I'm complaining." Nick said.

"Ah, I'm afraid two of our counselors didn't show up. Canceled last minute. Some of you will have to share duties. Ok, where was I? We'll have bike rides and hiking unless it's a rainy day, which will be our reading rainy days. " It was met with some groans. Apart from Dylan and Abi who would most likely prefer the solitude of curling up in their bunks with a good book, listening to the rain pound against the window.

Dylan did that at home, with his cat Schrodie, who became extra clingy during storms, and when he wanted attention. He was probably pestering his dad for affection. Poor guy. His cat, not his dad.

Ryan was probably more of an audio book guy. Jacob looked like he never once in his life picked up a book, neither did the blond next to him, casting desperate eyes at Jacob when he wasn't looking.

"And movie nights are on Saturdays. Every week we'll have a bone-fire where we sing camp fire songs and play guitar. I don't know one camper who hadn't had the time of his life..." He pauses and catches himself, "his, hers or their lives."

And don't forget the zip-line on the Island! But I'll stop talking about fun now. Remember you're counselors, you have responsibilities once your campers arrive. But that doesn't mean you still can't have fun. Let's move on to the lodge so I can give you your schedules and assigned bunks. Then once you get settled in, we'll meet up by the cabins to start orientation."

"So this whole unplugged thing...He's not really going to take our phones away, is he? That's some bad ju ju." Dylan said to no one in particular. "What if we need to call for help or something?"

"You're not planning on calling home to mommy, are you?" Jacob teased.

"No." Dylan looked hurt.

"Ignore the asshole." Said the shortest girl, Dylan has ever seen. Even shorter than Abi. Which seemed impossible. She's Asian American and her short dark hair is tucked behind her ears, which were pierced.

It took a second to recognize her. She had been a camper alongside him, Jacob and Ryan. So far none of them seemed to have recognized him.

"Just having a little fun, Kaitlyn."

"Still an asshole."

"Why would we need to call for help?" Abi asked, looking outwardly anxious.

"I don't know. Ghosts, a serial killer in the woods?" Dylan said sarcastically.

"Ha. ha. You're a funny guy." Kaitlyn remarked, genuinely amused.

"I'm so funny." Dylan kicks the dirt with his shoe, hands on his hips. "I try my best. "

"You know that only happens in movies, right?" Ryan asks.

"What no phones? You can't be serious." The blond girl said in disbelief. "What if something happens at home, like an emergency or something?"

"Ah, there's a whole procedure with contacts in place. " Mr H responded. "We have a dedicated number of families to check in with, and of course if anything crucial were to happen, the office will let you know."
=======================

Dylan

He was assigned to bunk with Nick in Cabin 8. Their cabin numbers written on their schedules. The first week was already planned out, so that was one less thing to worry about. He had brought something to help him through. Well more than a little something. A few somethings.

He had hand-stitched them into the seams in his back-pack in case there were bag checks. So far there hadn't been. He went to check if they were still there but drew his hand back when he sensed someone hovering next to him.

"Looks like I'm your co-conselor." The Australian greeted.

"Yeah. Sup, man." He ruffled his hair. It would appear to be an absent minded jester, when in fact he really needed something to do with his hands. I hope you don't mind if I take the top. I'm usually always bottom." The Australian doesn't react to his innuendo. "So about Mr H taking away our phones..that was weird"

"Yeah, that was a dick move but I get it. He wants us to connect with nature, that sort of thing. I don't think it would be fair if the kids saw us on our phones. My dad's the same way when ever he'd take me camping. "

"Oh, do you go camping a lot?"

"Not recently. He's been too busy."

"That I can understand."

And that was probably the end of their conversation. He didn't want to have to bring up his own father.

You can't have fix a relationship with a man, of whom you never had a relationship with in the first place and expects you to screw up at every turn and thinks you're a freak.

He wouldn't be a freak here. The little they knew about him the better.

Kaitlyn

She was assigned her own cabin of campers in bunk seven.

Thanks to one of the counselors not showing up, she was in charge of twelve girls. By herself. And by no means did she consider herself a qualified babysitter.
She could barley handle being in charge of her own brother. She can't believe Jacob had talked her into this. Become a counselor this year. It will be fun. He said.
Yeah. Right.
Now she was responsible for twelve tiny humans.

Or so she thought.

An African American woman, who appeared to be in her thirties entered carrying like three bags.

"Oh, are you lost?"

"No, I don't think so. Mr Hackett, assigned me to cabin seven."

"Here, let me help." Kaitlyn took a few of the bags.

"He figured since you're filling in for that girl that didn't show up, that it would make sense for me to take her place as your bunk-mate. It beats sleeping in the nurses quarters."

"You're in the right place then. Thank God. I felt like tearing my hair out and the kids aren't even here yet."

"Oh, they're not so bad. It's the juniors you have to watch out for." Juniors were eight to twelve year olds. "I'm Diane Kelly. Nurse Kelly when the kids get here."
Diane looked like a black Princess Diana.

"I know what you're probably thinking. My parents named me Diane after Princess Diana. They were obsessed with her. I will never understand why we idolize white folks. But enough of that, you'd think my reason to get away from that is coming all the way out here, you'd be half right. Being stuck in a nowhere job.
I just want to move on, get my degree to become a surgical nurse. While being a camp nurse isn't ideal, it's the little ones that make it worth while. "

Kaitlyn showed a curiosity and interest in the medical field and anatomy (she supposed that's why she was chosen to replace the other girl that didn't show up as nursing assistant, and her father, Arturo who was first generation Chinese immigrant was a successful doctor. ) but her heart was in music. Again hardly qualified.
Everyone else had a valid reason of coming here. She only came because Jacob dragged her along and was too embarrassed to admit it.

"What about you, darlin..."

"Just wanted to have some summer fun, and make a little extra cash." While it wasn't totally a lie. She might as well. Damn it.

"Well, there's no problem with that."

She wasn't the only one who came this year because of Jacob.

Jacob

He was assigned bunk five with Ryan and Caleb. Caleb didn't have to do much work. He was sixteen, one of the CIT's, counselors in training. He didn't really talk much and stayed out of the way.

Jacob had hoped to share a bunk with Nick, as they seemed to have more in common. They both were athletic and liked sports. He guessed sailing was sort of a sport.

Ryan went on about how he got into sailing, his grandfather was big on it before he got sick and it became hard for him to move around. His grandmother was glad that he didn't go out sailing as much anymore. She was nervous around water.

"Water's not that scary, bro, if you know how to swim."

"You take this swimming stuff pretty seriously."

"I'm on the varsity swim team back home. I teach lessons at the Y part time...recently got a job at the country club my dad goes to as a lifeguard. I decided to take the rest of the summer off."

Though he had fun at summer camp being a camper, he took the job as counselor to teach swim lessons, and meet some chicks. Kaitlyn didn't count.
Coincidentally his dad's boss's daughter was a counselor here too. So that was a plus. Rule one of camp is finding someone to hook up with. And they had hung out a few times before.

"Since the other counselors didn't show up, you think we'll have to work twice as much?" Jacob asked.

"No more than usual right? Even as campers, we were assigned chores." Which were done daily.

"You probably enjoyed it." Though Ryan had this brooding, loner vibe Jacob sensed he was a bit of a nerd. Not much as a nerd than Dylan. He knew a Dylan once. Couldn't be the same one.

"Don't act like you didn't either. The cleanest cabin got to go to the dinner line first."

"You got me."

"Since we were allowed to take as much food as we liked. If your cabin was the least clean, there was a good chance that the best food item would be gone by the time you got to the line. There'd always be plenty to eat, but maybe not the thing everyone wanted most. So we actually tried to keep our cabins clean."

"Don't think it was all work, though! There was still plenty of fun."

"Like you're planning on having with Emma this summer?"

"We only met like twice. Our dad's work together. That's it."

"Uh huh."

Nick

Dylan left his bags on his bunk and made no move to un-pack. Nick was already taking out his clothes and putting them in his cubby. Dylan's clothes would be wrinkled if he didn't put them away soon but Dylan didn't really seem to care. Nick liked everything neat and tidy. Everything had it's place.

"Hey how do you pronounce your last name...I want to make sure I'm saying it right."

"La Neve-e."

"People never pronounce mine right. The two L's are silent. My dad's family is from the Philistines.. Mum's families Australian."

"Uh...cool."

Nick thought maybe he was boring him as he headed toward the door. He didn't mean to give him his entire family history.

"Aren't you going to unpack?" Nick asks.

"Uh..Later...I'm just gonna step out for a minute."

"Ok." Nick had sensed the guy was easy to talk to and get along with. Did he misread him? Did he have social anxiety or something? He had seemed a little jumpy. Not everyone likes to talk about family. It could be a sore subject for him.

Or something else. He knew the signs of someone who did drugs. And he seemed pretty jittery and nervous. Could just be socially awkward.

Nick decided to leave it.

Kaitlyn was standing on the porch of cabin ten.

"Hey, you...unpacked already?" She called over to him.

"Not yet. You've been here before, yeah?" Hopefully she doesn't remember me.

"Only for one summer when I was like eleven."

Oh, why would she then? Yet strangely he remembered her. Maybe because she was Jacob's little sidekick that summer but when Jacob's teasing went too far she had put Jacob in line. "Wait, how old are you? The same age as me yeah."

"Yeah. Nineteen."

"Figured as much. Just starting school?"

"NYU in October."

"Cool beans. I didn't get into anywhere good last year. So I took a job at my mom's office...she's in real estate. Why did you wait a year?"

"Oh...uh..."

The blonde, he didn't catch her name yet, exited the cabin, to stand next to Kaitlyn.

"God, it feels so good to be here. Like I can finally breath. My mom and dad were on my ass about college up until the moment I left for camp. I want to go to acting school. All I said was one year. That's all I need to see if I got what it takes to become an actress. And if that fails I have 150,000 followers and counting. Also I already got into USC but deterred for a year."

"Emma here is already a star. A viral sensation."

"I like your unbridled enthusiasm." Emma said with returned sarcasm. "Just think of it. Eight weeks before heading into the real world. One week orientation, no campers..."

"Wait, orientation is one week?" Dylan asked.

"Yeah." Kaitlyn answered. "How did you not know that? Which Emma is not exactly dressed for." Emma is wearing a dress and open-toed shoes.

"It's my orientation outfit. It's not like I'm planning to wear it to the ropes course or anything."

Abi came out of the cabin. "All finished. What's next?"

"tour of the camp, Swim tests, basic first aid and dinner, then bonfire."

"I forgot about the swim tests." Dylan groaned.

"Swimming is the worst." Kaitlyn agreed. She had done everything to get out of swim tests when she was a camper. Not because she wasn't a good swimmer. Her body looked different than the other girls. Developed. While the other girls were not. "But at least it's not in the lake."

The three of them walked down the steps.

"I love swimming." Emma puts her arms out, spinning around. "I bought this one piece with these sophisticated side cut outs. What about you?" She turned to Abi.

"My swimsuit?" Abi sounded surprised.

Ryan, Jacob, and Nick were coming out of their respective cabins. Jacob was bunked with Ryan. At least he wasn't stuck with Jacob. Dylan thought that wouldn't have ended well.

"A two piece I guess. Just a tank top and swim shorts."

"Swim shorts?"

"They're like regular shorts but for water. I wear them sometimes when I'm not swimming."

"What's wrong with that?" Ryan asked. "I'm wearing swim shorts right now." Dylan liked that he was sticking up for Abi.

"Yeah but like, aren't you the swimming instructor?" Emma asked.

Mr H cleared his throat. He went over the rest of the rules, as they all met by the big tree in the center of the surrounding cabins.

"By now, you should have all settled into your cabins. The next few days will be spent getting this place ready for campers. You'll be split into groups of focusing on cleaning, decorating, and fieldwork. Today we're just going to go through the basics. Jacob here has volunteered to show everyone around since he was a former camper here for several years before he became a counselor...first we'll head on over to the pool house."

"Ok, so..." Jacob clapped his hands together. "To the left is the swimming pool. My favorite place here. I teach lessons and we have amazing facilities here."

"A reminder since the latrines and showers are housed in the pool house the girls will take showers in the morning and the boys will take showers in the morning. " Mr H said. "Same goes for counselors."

The rest of orientation week included getting the cabins ready for the campers, more basic first aid training and a game that introduced each counselor to each other. Dylan stammered through his but recovering with quick witted humor seemed to make them all forget about it.