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[indent][indent][color=silver]With the campers having finally arrived after days of anticipation, the Winter session of Second Horizons was officially underway. After gathering the teens at the North Pole in the center of camp to sort them into their bunks for the next two weeks, the groups were released to their cabins in order to get settled and unpack. Snow had begun to fall shortly after they adjourned, but by the evening the sky had cleared its clouds to reveal the gorgeous stars amongst the mountains as a backdrop for the night’s activity.

The cold winter day had rolled into a cold winter’s night, and the campers and counselors alike found themselves huddled by campfires in the annual bonfire tradition. It was customary that on the first night of camp the bunks gathered to play some getting to know you games and roast marshmallows to make smores in order to start the session off on the right foot together. Since numbers were lower this year, each cabin paired up with another to not only encourage friendships in other bunks, but also to save firewood (all of the counselors could agree that chopping wood was their least favorite responsibility, and the less they had to do it, the better). Fetching Fox (Red) and Howling Wolf (Blue) were at one campfire, and Cozy Bear (Green) and Little Hare (Pink) were at the other. 

Gwen was excited for an evening spent by the fire- she was looking forward to gazing up at the starry sky and finding the different constellations and couldn’t wait to get to know her new campers better. The brunette had already begun making connections with the first years and thus found herself sitting on a log next to Mickey braiding her hair. Delicately, she twisted and folded the girl’s hair over itself, forming a plait in little to no time.

While Gwen was busy braiding Mickey’s hair, Nick was sitting on the other side of her, watching over the campers and idly sipping at a cup of hot chocolate as he observed. Gwen was a better counselor than he had figured — and his co-counselor Kim was occupied with some other campers — and Nick was wondering why he was even here. Did they even need his help? The two girls seemed like they had it under control. He shook his head and looked away, while Mickey just turned her head slightly to look back at Gwen and ask a question. [color=#f4bbff]“Hey, how does it look?”[/color]

The brunette smirked, [color=7866B7]“It looks [i]perfect[/i], if I do say so myself.”[/color] She laughed, trying not to seem as though she was bragging about her own handiwork. Braiding and doing hair was one of her many talents after taking care of her younger sister’s hair for so many years when her own mother couldn’t. Grabbing the elastic band that was stored around her wrist, she tied off the end of Mickey’s hair, a job well done. [color=7866B7]“There! Hopefully you like it.”[/color] Gwen took out her phone and snapped a picture from the back so that she could show her.

Mickey was all smiles. She’d never had her hair braided before — at least not by another person, and the end result was great! [color=#f4bbff]“Thank you again. Hey, are there traditions around here like this? Like, the bonfire, I mean.” [/color]She asked, looking around at the other campers, and off to the other firepit on the other side of the camp, by the other cabins. [color=#f4bbff]“How late does this usually go, anyway? I don’t… really stay up late,” [/color]she admitted with a shy smile added on; it was more than a little embarrassing to more or less admit she had a bedtime.

Seeing the girl’s smile made Gwen grin widely in return- she loved nothing more than making people happy and that alone made it obvious why she was a counselor. [color=7866B7]“Of course!”[/color] She replied on instinct before focusing on her question. [color=7866B7]“Hmm, let me think… cabins love pranking each other at least once so expect to see that, on Christmas everyone wears pajamas all day- even on the slopes, and on New Years a few people like to jump into the snow in nothing but their bathing suits and then they end up in the sauna until they can feel their toes again…”[/color] She laughed to herself remembering the events from her first year on staff last Winter. [color=7866B7]“But I won’t spoil them all for you.”[/color] Gwen had opted to focus on the fun and wacky traditions, but there were many more things that happened during the session that made Second Horizons unique and fun. 

In regards to the end time of the evening’s events, the brunette addressed Mickey’s concerns, [color=7866B7]“Don’t even worry about it- I know the first day can be a bit overwhelming especially after traveling to get here. Even though I’d love for you to be here the whole time, feel free to stay as long as you would like, and when you want to head back to the cabin one of the counselors can walk with you.”[/color]

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Meanwhile, at the other campfire, Chloe Chambers sat amongst her cabin-mates from Red as well as the unknown faces from the Blue cabin (if she was being honest, she could barely tell who was in her group and who was in the other since she hadn’t made an effort to remember names). The only people she recognized were that of the counselor who practically fainted earlier when she broke the news that not everyone on the planet watches sitcoms and the boy with the ridiculous accent.

As she mindlessly went through her short program in her head and let her marshmallow set ablaze in the fire (it was sadly not on her training diet so she could not partake in the eating of the smore, only the burning of the ingredients), Chloe glanced at the person sitting next to her out of curiosity. [color=FF6E96]“So… how’d you end up here? Did your parents send you away for the holidays too or are you somehow here by choice?”[/color][/color][/indent][/indent]