After checking to make sure his Game Boy batteries were fresh, Arthur added, “Well, you know what else happens at summer camp? Especially among fifth-graders…”

           “You get your shorts hoisted onto a flagpole and have to salute them?”

           “Maybe, but I’m talkin’ about kisses. This is the place where first ones ‘get got.’”

           “Oh. Gross. Yeah, that’s not on my list of things I want to do.”

           “Arty, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Colin groaned. “This is my third year here, and I’ve never seen anyone smooching.”

           “Duh, because they go hide behind a tree or something first. Don’t make up excuses, Colin. You know you should try to get at least a cheek peck from December.”

           Colin turned red in the face and looked away before repeating, “You really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

           “Ah, I’m just messing with ya,” Arthur said and fell onto his new, but very-used pillow. “I dunno what to expect, but it’s nice to get some time away from Ash.”

           Curious, Jace was the first to ask, “Are you two fighting or something?”

           “Not really, but she’s been real weird lately. Stopped liking some shows we used to watch, and she’s getting more into fashion, less into video games.”

           Wessy replied, “Oh, so… She could leave here being best friends with Spice.”

           “Yeah, maybe,” Arthur said, sounding like he wasn’t in the mood to be sarcastic about it—in fact, he may have actually felt conflicted about any sudden distancing from his twin. Then he suddenly shot up and looked around, asking, “So… who isn’t here?”

           “You mean from Ms. Porter’s?” Colin replied and started a head count. “We got a good chunk of her class, at least on the girl side. I wonder if Marianne had anything to do with that. Let’s see. Well, we got Robby. But no Jared, Wright… Gerald or Carson… No Park, either. I bet he’s trying to avoid dealing with Min.”

           “I didn’t see Willa out there,” Arthur added. “But, I think… All the other girls are around, yeah. Even Spice and Millie. Hey, Reynold! Is this your first year?”

           Reynold answered from a top bunk in his nasally voice, “Nah, second one. Oh, and Park was here last year. He tried selling stuff, but Min kept busting him when she was a junior counselor. He got real mad and swore to not come if she did again, so…”

           “Well, that’s a shame,” Colin replied. “He’s a thoughtful merchant—he brought some good stuff a lot of the kids were missing halfway through camp. Like fruit snacks. But maybe Sherman Miller’s roving shopkeeper is in camp right now.”

           Arthur chuckled. “What makes you think they had one?”

           “I mean, there’s a chance. Would be good to find out before they sell all the nice stuff. Why don’t we visit the Miller boys’ cabin? I’m curious how rowdy it is, anyway.”

           “Our beds are already claimed, so there’s no reason to stick around, right?” Wessy said. “Can we just wander all over, or do we always have to be somewhere?”

           “The camp is pretty free-roaming, Wes. There’s just a schedule of events we need to attend on time. But you should let the counselors know where you’re heading.”

           “Oh. So we have to tell that Larry dude first…” Wessy peered into the small back room of the barracks-like cabin, where the tall twenty-or-so guy was relaxed on his bed and reading an issue of Mad Magazine. “It’s weird. He’s too young to be a teacher, so he’s just, like, this college guy. I can’t relate to that.”

           “Yeah,” Colin said with a laugh. “But they’re usually pretty easy-going.”

           “Just be back in time for the first big event, little dudes,” Larry told the four boys after Colin made sure it was okay to leave the cabin and look around. “You don’t want to miss it. Tie-dye… A camp staple. It was big back when the camp opened, apparently.”

           “Uh-huh. It’s really groovy,” Colin replied flatly, and then led the others out.

           “Colin, you’re like our leader now,” Arthur remarked as they stepped outside. “You’re the only one of us four that’s been here before. How’s that feel?”

           “Weird, when you put it that way. Guys, try to chill, forget all the usual stuff. This is still summer break. Let the pressure that built up over the year just… blow away.”

           “Back off, Marianne!” Delilah shouted angrily a second later, as she stormed out of one of the girls’ cabins. “Don’t even start. No one bosses me around! Not even you!”

           “Delilah, I was just trying to…” Marianne trailed off when she noticed the boys staring at her. She tried to compose herself some before prancing back into the cabin.

           “Hoo, man, I’m glad we don’t have her in our place,” Arthur sighed.

           “Obsessive much?” Wessy added. “Why does she need to win that badly?”

           “Don’t act like you don’t get competitive, Wes,” Colin knocked him.

           On the forty-foot walk to the nearby other boys’ cabin, a glint of light caught Jace’s eye, and he looked up into the pines. High above was Warren, staring back, out of his helmet and suit but wearing his exo-arm, which probably let him climb trees easily. He must have not cared if Jace knew he was about; if he did, he could just travel back in time and hide better. For now, Jace paid him no mind and stuck with the others.

           The Sherman Miller boys’ cabin had more of a party atmosphere. The kids from the younger grades were loud and noisy, while the fifth-graders hung off of the beds or leaned against the walls like the place was their next hideout. Meanwhile, Kyle was all sprawled out on a beat-up old plaid couch from the early 70s, lazily playing Tetris on his Game Boy with a single hand while using his other arm as a pillow.

           “Miller kids act like they got it all figured out,” Arthur observed. “Look—it’s like they all think they’re too cool for school. Maybe they’re just practicing for sixth grade.”

           “Hey, check it out,” one of the boys said from his top bunk. “We got visitors.”

           “Oh, man, DTE kids, huh?” another replied before sizing them up. “Hey, ‘red cap kid’—don’t you know wearin’ ‘em backwards is so out of style? Sideways is what’s in.”

           “Hey,” Wessy retorted. “This is my, y-you know… My look…”

           “Is that Game Boy power adapter hangin’ off your shorts part of your look, too? ‘Always gotta be ready,’ right? What are you gonna do with it? There’s about six power outlets in the whole camp,” the kid prattled, encouraged by his chuckling buddies.

           “Man…” Wessy muttered. “What’s their problem?”

           “Just ignore them,” Colin replied. “If only Jared was here. He’d be firing back…”

           “Ease off the Tree kids,” Kyle said. “Kid wants to plug in his Gee-Bee whenever, so what? Sounds like a cool plan to me. Hey, what brings you guys here, anyway?”

           “Us?” Arthur responded. “Um, we just wanted to see how you hang out.”

           “Nah. You want to get an idea of how easy it’ll be to beat us in this contest thing that one girl’s so serious about.” Kyle yawned. “It’s okay. Judge us all you want.”

           “I mean, I don’t mind winning when there’s something to win,” Wessy stated.

           Colin replied, “Yeah, if this is a whole thing again this year, I’m going to at least try and help my school win, even if…” his eyes locked onto a boy reading a magazine a few bunks away, “whoa, did that kid bring, like, an entire year’s worth of GamePro?”

           “Oh, that’s Norm,” Kyle replied. “Total video game geek. Easy-going guy, too.”

           “Colin!” Wessy said as his best bud walked off towards Norm. “What are…”

           Colin turned around and shrugged. “Sorry, Wes. I only get to subscribe to one magazine and I picked Nintendo Power, like you. I don’t get to see what GamePro puts out that much. I’m just gonna… go see what Norm’s about. Like Millie would say, for intel.”

           “Wes, that kid is adjusting the settings on a Canon EOS 50…” Arthur added. “That’s a nice camera. I think I’m going to see if I can get a good look at it.”

           “Arty, not you too!” Wessy exclaimed as he lost another friend. “Aw, man. Jace, what’s happening around here? Don’t you go running off, as well.”

           Smiling, Kyle said, “It begins. The breakdown of the social construct of ‘rivalry.’”

           “So, the rumors are true,” a boy on the top bunk closest to the entrance said, his arms dangling off the side. “Desert Tree’s schools really are weird and intense.”

           “Wait, are you not from our neighborhood?” Wessy asked. “Like, at all?”

           “Uh, yeah? You guys act like you’re the only two schools in a big city. I mean, I get that this camp is much closer to Desert Tree and its students obsess over it, but, still…”

           “Other local schools are just something we didn’t talk about much.”

           “What a narrow worldview. Hi. Morris Prescott, fourth-grader, Royal Elementary.”

           “Oh.” Wessy looked at Jace, who shrugged. “And where’s that, exactly?”

           Morris looked a little aggravated. He rolled his eyes and sighed, “It’s in the middle of the city—the oldest, biggest school in the valley? Geez, no wonder everyone was telling me not to come to this camp. And now I get to be in the middle of a stupid rivalry.”

           “Them’s the breaks, kid,” Kyle replied. “If you don’t like it, sit on the sidelines.”

           “Or… I could sabotage everything and watch the fireworks instead.”

           Wessy, Jace, and Kyle all looked at him for a moment before Kyle replied, “Nah. There’s no way you’re serious. You’ll pick a team and compete anyway… Right?”

           Before Morris could answer either way, Bailey’s annoyingly upbeat voice erupted over a bullhorn outside, “All right, campers! It’s tie-dye time! Bring those white shirts!”

           There was a large pavilion at the camp with six long wooden tables, designed for non-athletic outdoor activities. The counselors had set up metal tubs of dyed water, and rubber bands were plentiful. Enthusiasm amongst the campers varied greatly when it came to the practice of dipping wads of the shirts they were asked to bring into liquid colors that would give them bright, radial burst patterns. The younger kids, or the more artistic among them, seemed to enjoy it more than Wessy—and definitely Spice.

           “But tie-dye is so ugly and disorderly,” she complained from the end of a table. “Ms. Kate, can I dip my entire shirt into the red, so I just get, like… a red shirt?”

           “Oh, but then there will be less of that color for everyone else,” Kate said with a smile as she walked by. “Just try your best, I’m sure you’ll make something you like!”

           “Try my best?” Spice moaned. “At making bargain-bin rejects from the Hippie days?” She looked up, caught Delilah’s stare, and scowled. “As if you like any of this.”

           Delilah grumbled something under her breath and added more blue to her shirt. She was across from Sadie, Wessy, Colin and Jace, sharing the table’s dye with them.

           “You know, it’s really hard to make a good red, anyway,” Sadie informed them. “You’d need a lot of dye. Spice would just end up with a big pink shirt.”

           “Heh, I bet she’d hate that even more,” Celeste, sitting next to Delilah, replied. “Our school had a fashion princess, too. She complained when she did this last year.”

           “Spice is the worst,” Delilah emphasized. “Bossy, judgmental, and spoiled.”

           “You two seem chummy,” Colin observed.

           Celeste explained, “Oh, Delilah, uh, ‘transferred’ to our cabin. And then another girl went to Sadie’s to be with a friend. I think I might check out Sadie’s cabin, too.”

           “Wait, you can do that?” Wessy replied.

           “Yeah, of course. The counselors are cool with it as long as you ask. There’s not a rule that says you have to stay cooped up with a bunch of your school’s kids.”

           “I tolerated Spice for about five minutes before moving out,” Delilah said. “And that’s not even a speed record for me. Celeste here is tough, like I am. I can tell.”

           Colin spoke up, “I was too… socially awkward last year to have a bed near a bunch of kids I didn’t know. But this time, I’m thinking… I dunno, maybe it’s worth a try.”

           Jace saw Wessy fall back in his seat, maybe contemplating the fact that the camp might break up the gang, if just temporarily. Another thing Jace noticed: a few tables away, Lucy was dipping her shirt into yellow dye near Lex, who was chatting it up with other popular girls. Lucy was keeping quiet, as usual—but she also had a small smile.

           The first competitive activity was a camp-wide game of disc golf, with players tossing Frisbees into milk crates nailed to trees. Most of them were now wearing their new tie-dye shirts—Spice’s a solid pink, as Sadie had foretold. The game was divided across three rounds, with campers of different ages competing together to keep things fair. Lex was a good player, as were Colin and Sadie, all of them senior campers.

           The fifth-graders went last, following one win from the Miller third-graders, and one from the DTE fourthies. As the older kids were the biggest demographic, their game was the longest, lasting nearly an hour but giving everyone a turn to score. After Jace got a birdie that he was rather proud of and earned him some claps, Marianne went up and got a par against a Miller kid who bogeyed after their disc ricocheted off a tree.

           “We’re currently tied with the Millers,” she said as she rejoined the others and Kyle lazily took his shots, while Larry watched and looked bored. She checked the tiny notebook she carried around that she used to keep score. “But we have December.”

           “You are taking this way too seriously,” Sadie muttered next to her.

           December went up after Kyle, her mind still seemingly elsewhere. She tossed her disc sloppily, and it went wild, bouncing off two trees before disappearing in the woods.

           Sadie, Ash, and Delilah eyed Marianne, who grimaced and murmured, “Uh-oh.”