Parked in the pick up area of Bellingham International, Kimber Benson leaned back in the driver seat of one of two short buses. Today would be the beginning of an adventure, which was what the
back of her pink camping shirt said. The front of her camping shirt told others she was a
camp counselor, announcing her title to the world. If it wasn’t for this insulated traveling mug filled with hot coffee, she probably would be on the verge of passing out.
Sleep even before the campers arrived was not a thing for counselors because after they were done training, they would all stay up getting to know one another. As the director had told them, they had to make sure they were a ‘family’ and not coworkers. The campers were their children and it was their job to make them feel welcomed and safe.
This past week focused on going over ACA’s standards and accreditation process, plenty of group scenarios, mostly focusing on calming camper conflicts, and other highly acclaimed, practical techniques like CPR. Time went by fast and now here she was picking up some of the campers that would spend their holidays at Second Horizons with her. She wasn’t excited nor was she nervous. Honestly, she didn’t know how she was feeling. This was a new experience for her and she wasn’t sure what to expect and knew for a fact this would be nothing like writing camp. Taking one last sip out of her mug, she placed it down in the cup holder, hopped out of her seat, and exited her bus.
Walking to the second short bus right behind her, she knocked on the glass of the Amtran door and mouthed to her bus-partner-in-crime,
“I’m going to get the kids now, Jackson!”As Jackson sat in the driver’s seat, vibing to
Spose’s “I’m Awesome”, he muttered some words of the chorus and hit the steering wheel in rhythm to it, bopping his head forward. It was only when he heard Kimber smack against the glass did he break himself out of the zone.
“Hold up, Kimmy!” He propped up, exiting the bus.
He was rocking the homemade -- albeit cheaply-made -- red cabin shirt with the fox logo dead center. It was a maroon red and over it he had a simple black zipped down sweatshirt.
“Can’t get them and expect to leave me behind! I’m coming too!” He said with a burst of energy that carried him into a jog as he caught up to Kim.
Seeing his camping shirt made Kim slightly grimace. They were given two shirts, one generic one and one with their ‘team’. Kim did not wear the shirt with a bunny on it. The message it gave was NOT cute. The campers could wear that one all they wanted but she was not going to be called a ‘little snow bunny’. Nope. There was no way in hell. When he charged out of the bus, she rolled her eyes and continued moving forward,
“All that spirit is going to scare the kids. Watch.” Jackson laughed.
“Not my kids! No self-respecting Fox will be afraid of a little team spirit -- they’ll feed off of it!” Jackson stated proudly, pumping his chest as a mild holler left his lips.
“But speaking of kids, you know yours don’t stand a chance this year, right? I’ve come up with a whole new game plan and I just know it’ll fucking rule!”“We will see about that. They have me, after all. I imagine my cabin will be filled with chaotic and unpredictable personalities. Try besting that, dude.” “You’re on, Lola Bunny!”Who would’ve thought she’d meet someone that basically understood her in every way that mattered?! Swaying back and forth on her heel and tiptoes,
Mia Chambers beamed at a rainbow pixie with blue hair. A girl that reminded her of Ramona Flowers, but far more energetic. The small platinum-blondie stood beside her
snoopy dog suitcase, with a matching duffel on top of it, and her pink backpack strapped on her back. Her new friend went by the name ‘Joey’ and she sat beside her and sissy for the WHOLE plane ride. They became super, duper besties because they liked similar things, like sweets and the interwebs, and they hated just as much! She patiently waited for the other girl to grab all her bags.
As she waited, Mia grinned at the other blonde beside her, who was less bubbly, less happy, and less… thrilled to be here. The other Chambers sister, Chloe. Biting the bottom of her lip, she thought quickly about what to ask her sister that didn’t sound annoying. Oh yes!
“So sissy, are you going to skate today? I’d love to go with you if you do!”Chloe Chambers was not enthused in the slightest. She had been dreading this day for upwards of a month; the day that she and her younger sister were being shipped off to god knows where over Christmas, and unfortunately for her it had finally arrived. Optimism was not a word in the blonde’s vocabulary- hell, not even excitement was- but, she did put on a good show at the airport for Mom, citing how much she was “looking forward” to quality time with her sister. Chlo did not need her mother’s tears on her conscience again, so she played along until her parents were out of sight and out of mind. And now, it was back to being unenthusiastic.
As Mia’s perky voice penetrated through the blonde’s headphones, Chloe pulled one ear bud out and raised an eyebrow at her kin.
“Depends on how I feel when we get there. I’m not trying to get altitude sickness on my first day and screw up my training schedule that Coach made for me to follow.” She explained bluntly, the notion of spending time together immediately going right over her head.
“Why don’t you see if your new little friend wants to go with you…” Chloe suggested, nodding over to where the girl called Joey stood not too far from them.
Joey was...not having an ideal time. Oh, why did she insist on bringing everything but the kitchen sink with her? Because she’s extra? Because she couldn’t bear to go anywhere without what she considered the essentials? Yes, both could be the truth, but it was most likely due to Joey being horrible at prioritizing anything related to shopping. Her punishment for this? Having to drag two large suitcases in addition to her fully loaded carry-on bag.
In short? Being a short girl with a lot of baggage was not fun.
“I’m...coming…” Joey said, grunting with each word/step as she dragged her heavy luggage, her back partially turned to Mia and Chloe.
After her sister responded, so indifferently, Mia looked away and pouted to herself. Her sister was the big stupid. All she cared about was herself. This was supposed to be their chance to have sister bonding time. It was always coach this, training that, dad said. She really had a stick up her ass and it was
annoying. FINE! Grabbing her suitcase, Mia marched to Joey, who was more like a sister than her actual sister, and stopped her in her tracks,
“Before you start sweating, let's take a quick selfie!” Chloe sighed as Mia fled towards the new girl, not thinking much of it, and slipped back on her ear bud in order to continue listening to her music. Sometimes she wondered how on earth the two of them could be siblings…
Joey glanced at Chloe for a brief second as if she was partially worried about ...something. Before she could let a single thought form, her attention was literally captured by Mia and her desire for a selfie. Joey couldn’t possibly turn her down and her arm rested on the blonde’s shoulder and neck, cheek pressed against hers, and she smiled widely, pearly whites showing and everything.
Snap! Snap! Snap! Three was Mia’s lucky number, so she usually always took three consecutive selfies and during each shot she changed her facial expression.
“Oh-em-gee. They’re so perfect. I’ll send you them right away!” Yes, these acquaintances had already exchanged digits. At least Joey was fun to be around, UNLIKE SOMEONE. After sending the pictures, Mia gave her sister a quick death glare, before bringing her attention back to what mattered: leaving the airport.
Hark! The herald angels did sing because here came two people with colored shirts that clearly looked like counselors. No, it wasn’t the shirt that said counselor that gave it away!
“Joey, look! Big guy in red. He can totes carry your bags.” She glanced up and eyes immediately widened at his jawline.
“Oh, he’s hot!” She would say louder than she thought she would, immediately blushing for a few seconds.
“I mean, he looks, uh, fit,” she said, biting her lip, sizing him up head to toe.
“You’re right, he is hot. You should totes touch his muscles. I triple dog dare you.” Mia teasingly snickered. The guy in red was definitely cute, but too blonde for her liking.
From a distance, Kim looked at the campers slowly making their way toward them. Lifting up a clipboard, she reviewed all the names of people that should be arriving around this time. They were fortunate enough to be able to coordinate most of the kids around the same time and so far she didn’t get notified that there were any delayed flights. Any special cases would’ve come a day earlier.
“Jackson can you help that one girl over there? She looks like she’s struggling.” Kim pointed to Joey with the pen in her hand.
“Huh?” Jackson clued himself to the two girls with the equally-cutesy bags of luggage. Aside from the hair color, the noticeable difference
was the size of the blue-haired girl’s luggage.
“Yeah, I’m on it!” He took to a jog and without even so much as a word to either of them, though he did give both girls a smile before lifting up one of the large suitcases in both hands.
“Oh, thanks..” Joey said lowly.
“No prob, little blue!” He turned his eyes onto the blonde.
“Do you need any help? That looks pretty big too.” He asked her.
Her friend forgot to touch the muscle! Mia was shooketh. She wasn’t used to someone with such a short attention span. Joey broke the rules of a triple dog dare! One does not simply chicken out on a triple dog dare. Did she have to do everything herself? After taking off one of her gloves, Mia, without any hesitation, reached to touch the counselor’s biceps,
“Hi, I’m Mia. You can help if you want. You got big arms. I like that.” Thinking nothing of it, Jackson flexed for Mia, looking back at a no doubt displeased Kim, mouthing “I’m sorry” at her and met Mia’s gaze almost instantaneously.
“Oh yeah! I work out and shit!” I work out and shit? Talk about lame! Meanwhile, Joey was stuck between uncertainty and mild jealousy that Mia was currently squeezing his bicep. She shook her head, and in the process, shook herself out of it and joined her new friend in admiring his muscles for herself. “I’m Joey! Nice to meat you--meet you! It’s nice to meet you!” She couldn’t help but smile at Jackson while flatly glancing at Mia as she squeezed harder as if trying to compete with Mia.
Was she being serious right now? Mia furrowed her eyebrows and decided to one up her,
“Do you have a pack? Could we… see it?” Batting her eyes, she looked up at Jackson, her hands trailing down his arm in a ticklish manner.
Kim, however, was not going to let this escalate further, knowing Jackson would very well strip naked if they asked,
“Okay! That’s enough.” She separated the girls from the red counselor and then flicked Jackson in the forehead,
“Come on, we need to go.” Chloe, who had been observing all of this from a few feet away just shook her head, not believing that Mia seemed to just pounce on the first guy she laid eyes on. Was she really serious? But thankfully, it seemed the female counselor was the only one to have some glimpse of sanity around here, as she reprimanded her male counterpart and tried to get them all out the door, even going so far as to flick him. The blonde liked her style… straightforward and to the point. Walking toward the older girl, Chloe pulled off her earbuds and nodded.
“I’m with you on that one.”“No one asked you, Chloe!” Mia snapped, irritated that her moment with the hot man came to a close.
“I don’t want to assume, but are you two the Chambers?” Kim looked from Chloe to Mia to Chloe again before going to her attendance list.
The elder of the Chambers sisters nodded curtly, confirming the counselor’s assumption.
“That would be us.” Chloe replied with a lackluster expression, gesturing towards Mia.
“Forgive my sister’s attitude, it seems I’ve come along and ruined her fun like always.” The blonde shot her kin a glance that said it all without saying anything- that she needed to be on her best behavior and not give the counselors- or
her- a hard time for wanting to move things along.
Blah. Blah. Blah. Mia rolled her eyes so hard, one would think her eyes would fall out of their socket. Not enjoying her sister belittling her, Mia pulled her bags and gave a quick ‘hmpf’ before marching toward the exit, without the counselors, her sister, and her new friend.
Checking off their names, Kim looked between the sisters once more and subtly frowned. She and Gage were once estranged, but their situation was different. Two teenagers are forced to live together because their parents got married.
“If this makes you feel better,” She whispered to the blonde that was clearly in a mood and didn’t want to be here,
“There’s others, who had no choice but to come here this winter. I know that isn’t going to help much, but I do hope you make the most of your time. Once lost, you can never get it back.” Chloe sighed, watching as her disgruntled sister stomped towards the automatic doors without a clue as to where she was supposed to go. Young and naive she was. The blonde glanced over at the counselor (who’s name she still didn’t know) and shrugged.
“We’ll see.” The girl stated simply, before gripping her suitcase and wheeling it behind her as she walked off in the direction of Mia and towards whatever awaited them at the end of the bus ride to camp.
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smarty0114
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