Camp Mayfly. A Girl Scout camp sitting in the middle of the forest in Virginia. People called it their home away from home. A refuge from daily life, a safe space away from school and work and society. 

Rex called it her summer job. Where she spent eight weeks every year getting eaten up by mosquitoes and wrangling hyperactive preteens and teenagers. Where she only got to shower every three days and where a toilet that actually flushed was considered a luxury. Where she didn’t even know half of her co-workers’ real names-just their camp names, the nicknames they assigned themselves.

And yet, against all odds, she kept coming back. It was her fifth year there, and her first time getting assigned to work with the counselors-in-training. She flipped through the paperwork she’d been given, telling her about the counselors she was assigned to work with. They sat around her now, in the unit house of the Pines campsite-where she, her co-counselors, and the CITs would be staying for the next eight weeks.

Koala. Her best friend ever since she’d started working at camp. An unbelievably kind and gentle person, who seemed to see the best in even the most difficult camper and would respond to them with never-ending patience and empathy. Rex didn’t know how she did it. She sat beside Rex, putting stickers onto her pastel pink folder that she’d already labelled with her name and “CIT, 2026”

Sharky. A member of the high adventure team, with a persistent toothy grin and mischievous glint in their gray-blue eyes. The kind of person who all the other counselors talked about behind their back, speculating over whether it was even safe for them to be working this job. Sharky was a raging adrenaline junkie who lived their life experiencing one high to the next, and they constantly had to be reprimanded by leadership. But for some reason, campers adored them, so they barely avoided getting fired. Or maybe they were in some sort of scheme with leadership. Rex didn’t know and frankly didn’t care. Trying to question anything about Sharky never went well.

Zero. They’d been Sharky’s CIT years ago, and didn’t seem all too pleased to be working with them again. There was something distinctly ghost-like about them-they were almost unnaturally pale, with dark under-eye shadows that stood out sharply and made them look like they were on the verge of death. Their hair was blond, so light it looked almost white, shot through with purple streaks, and they had a persistent look of exhaustion in their dull blue eyes. They were frequently discussed among other counselors as well, but with a tone of extreme concern-while they had few if any friends, nobody really disliked them, and the few times they talked, they could be quite funny and insightful. 

And Socks. It was her first year as a counselor-she looked quite young, barely older than the CITs, and she had a kind of nervous excitement about her. Like she was scared, certainly, but ready to learn. She sat chewing on her pen, a deeply curious look in her big brown eyes. Freckles dotted her medium brown skin like constellations, and she wore patched-up jean shorts and the same Camp Mayfly branded t-shirt as the other four counselors, but hers was new, nowhere near as worn out as any of the others. Honestly, she looked like the epitome of a camp counselor-all she needed was a collection of friendship bracelets from years of campers making them for her. 

Rex closed her folder and started talking. “Alright. The CITs will be getting here in about an hour. I’m hoping you guys have read your paperwork.”

Zero turned and gave Sharky a rather pointed look. They shrugged, looking wholly unbothered. “Eh, the paperwork doesn’t matter.”

Rex rubbed her face and sighed. “Do you even know how many CITs there are gonna be?”

Sharky was silent.

“And that’s why leadership makes us have these meetings. There are going to be eight CITs. I’m not even going to ask if you know how old they are. The youngest will turn fifteen halfway through the summer, the oldest is sixteen but she’ll be turning seventeen after she leaves camp.”

Socks seemed to be frantically writing this all down. “Any special considerations?”

“Four get morning meds, one has several medical conditions-check her file, nothing that’s gonna kill her but we should be aware of it, and at least three have been noted as potentially being behavioral concerns.”

“Behavioral concerns, schmavioral concerns. It’s so stupid that they say that. I can handle ‘em.” Sharky said flippantly. 

“First of all, that’s unprofessional, don’t say that. Second of all, you haven’t even read the paperwork. Third, stop interrupting me.” Rex felt one of her eyes begin twitching in frustration. Koala reached out and patted her shoulder comfortingly, and she forced herself to relax a little.

Sharky shrugged again. “Fine. Keep talking, your royal highness. I’m sorry for interrupting your ever-important speech, Madam Tyrannosaurus Rex.” 

Rex continued, ignoring Sharky. “Anyway. All the information you might need is in your paperwork. Personally, I’m not overly concerned. When the kids get to this age, they can usually handle themselves. I’m gonna head out and wait for the bus. Sharky, read your paperwork. Bye!” 

She gave Koala a quick hug and left before Sharky could make any other comments. Crossing the bridge out of Pines, she started mentally mapping out the summer. Five counselors. Eight CITs. Eight weeks to hopefully teach these kids something useful and prove to the other counselors that she could handle herself. As much as she didn’t want to think about it, Rex knew leadership didn’t trust her much. She had a history of being too uptight and impatient, despite how hard she tried to avoid it, and she got the feeling leadership was starting to consider firing her for it. She’d told Koala about that, just wanting to vent her anxieties-and Koala, the absolute angel she was had talked to leadership about it, and while Koala hadn’t shared any exact details from her conversation with the directors, a little while later she’d gotten her assignment to the CIT group, and the way leadership had phrased it, this was her last chance to prove that she could actually handle this job.

And that was…well, it was definitely kind of scary, to basically have it confirmed that she was on the verge of getting fired. For all her gripes about this job, it was fun and rewarding, and she didn’t want to lose it. But what was even scarier was the thought that if she messed up again, she wouldn’t just be disappointing leadership and herself-she’d be letting Koala down, and all her effort to let Rex stay at Camp Mayfly would’ve been in vain. That frankly terrified her. No matter what, Koala had literally always been there for and believed in her. If Rex disappointed her after everything Koala had done for her, she didn’t think she could ever forgive herself. 

So she’d do her best. Try and make something out of the mess she’d been given. For Koala. For these eight kids, who surely deserved better. And hopefully, she’d make something out of herself in the process.