Artemis stretched, her camp mattress squeaking. Flapjack sat already dressed on their bed. They mumbled “morning”, their voice raspy from sleep.

“Good morning!” Artemis began getting dressed. Cricket woke up, sitting up and putting on her glasses. She looked around the tent blearily, nowhere near awake. 

There was a knock on the tent flap. Flapjack opened it with their foot, running a hand through their short brown hair, and Socks stepped in, smiling. “Good morning! Can everyone put their feet on the floor, please?”

Grumbling, Cricket stuck her legs under her bug net and put them on the floor. Avocado was still asleep, sprawled on her bed with an arm sticking out of her bug net. Socks hesitated, but eventually walked over to her bed and tapped the arm that was sticking out. “Avocado?” Artemis felt a bit bad for Socks, but simultaneously, it was pretty funny. Cricket muttered something sarcastic about how of course the one who kept her awake was the heaviest sleeper. Socks continued trying to wake her for several minutes, until she seemed to give up and stepped back. “...could one of you try?”

Before Flapjack or Cricket could volunteer (considering either of their strategies would probably involve whacking Avocado with a pillow), Artemis crouched beside her bed and ran her fingers up her arm. “Avocado, there’s a spider on you, wake up!”

Flapjack, immediately burst out laughing, and if the spider trick hadn’t worked, that certainly would have woken her up. Avocado jerked her arm back into her bug net, smacking herself in the face in the process, and sat up so fast her bug net collapsed around her. She flailed her arms frantically, and at that point, the whole tent was laughing hysterically-even Socks, though she was clearly embarrassed. Seconds later, Rex ran into their tent. “What is going on here?” 

“SPIDER! ON ME!” Avocado shrieked.

“Calm down, there was no spider. Artemis just wanted you to wake up.” Flapjack was still snickering.

“WHAT? You’re evil.” She crossed her arms and huffed.

“Maybe you should’ve woken up faster,” Cricket deadpanned.

Rex facepalmed, unable to come up with a response for the situation, and walked out, taking a flustered Socks with her. 

Avocado got dressed quickly, muttering under her breath. The other CITs were waiting outside. Sprite quirked an eyebrow at them. “What’s all the screaming about?” 

“Artemis said there was a SPIDER on ME!” 

“And there wasn’t?” Sprite was holding back laughter.

“NO! She’s a monster.”

Cricket repeated, “Then you should’ve woken up.” 

Rex clapped her hands to get their attention, standing on the bridge. “Alright, CITs. After breakfast, we’ll just come back here for a lesson. Let’s go!” She started walking promptly, so fast the CITs could barely keep up. They walked into the already crowded dining hall, and Artemis sat and got a glass of water. A few counselors were talking quietly at the table next to her, and she leaned over to listen. 

“Think all that weird stuff is gonna happen again this year?”

“I don’t know-I’m just glad to not be in that unit.”

“Oh, yeah. Who is in it?”

“I think it’s-”

“Artemis, you want pancakes?” She turned around quickly, met with Socks offering a plate of pancakes.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. Thanks!” She got pancakes and passed the plate to the next person, hoping her eavesdropping hadn’t been obvious. What unit were they talking about? What weird stuff? Artemis made a mental note to ask someone about that.

Instead of getting in her own head, she turned to Socks. “How are you doing?”

Socks smiled. “I’m settling into camp, I guess. Trying to distract myself from stressing about college.” 

“Yeah?” Artemis asked.

Socks nodded, her Afro puff bouncing. “This year, I'm studying to be a doctor. It’s exciting but scary, y’know?” 

“That’s cool! I think you’d be a really good doctor, anyone would be lucky to be your patient.”

Smiling, Socks responded, “Thanks! I hope so.”

The two kept chatting for the rest of breakfast-mostly about their shared love of science. Artemis found herself distracted from her earlier concerns, happy to find someone with her interests in common.

As they walked out of the dining hall, Cricket fell in line beside her. “What were those counselors talking about?” Her voice was curious but clipped. 

“Oh…” Should she tell her? Telling someone would probably help her stop thinking about it. “They were saying something about ‘weird stuff’ happening around camp at a certain unit-I didn’t hear which one.”

“Interesting.” Cricket pulled out her journal and started writing. “Have you heard any similar stories?”

“Damn, why are you interrogating her?” Avocado interjected. “It’s not a big deal. I bet the unit just has terrible latrines or wasp nest or something dumb like that.”

Artemis quickly stepped between them. “That’s probably true, but Cricket wasn’t interrogating me, I don’t mind!” That wasn’t entirely true, Cricket was very direct and she probably didn’t realize how intense she was, but Artemis could handle it.

Avocado shrugged. “I just hope it isn’t our unit, I don’t need to be woken up by wasps.”

Flapjack elbowed her. “You wouldn’t wake up either way.”

Returning her attention to Cricket, Artemis said, “I haven’t heard any similar stories. But that makes sense-if this is real, the counselors would probably try to keep it from the campers”

Cricket nodded, spinning her pen between her fingers. “Tell me if you hear more.” She shut her journal and walked faster, her footsteps oddly silent as she crossed the bridge to Pines and sat on the floor of the unit house. The other CITs joined her a moment later. 

Rex stepped in, closing the door behind her. “Leadership will be here soon. Act like you’re paying attention.” 

Sharky lay on one of the benches lining the walls. “Leadership loves CITs.” 

Sprite looked up at them. “Is there a story here?”

Zero sighed. “Leadership refuses to trust Sharky’s CIT groups since they had this one terribly chaotic group a few years ago. It’s not…unwarranted.”

Sitting up and grinning wider, Sharky responded, “And whose CIT group is that?”

“...mine.” Zero sighed again.

Dot burst out laughing. “You? Chaotic? How?” 

Koala spoke up. “They weren’t the problem. The rest of the group was fine, too! It was all-”

“Candy.” Zero, Rex, Koala, and Sharky spoke in unison.

The CITs and Socks looked at each other, confused. Dot spoke up first. “I had her last year-she wasn’t that bad?” 

“She’s gotten better. But as a CIT…” Sharky trailed off.

“What did she do?” Dot asked.

“Put packets of mustard in our stuff, sing the same song over and over, make bad puns with everyone’s camp name…” Zero’s voice remained as monotone as ever.

“That doesn’t seem that bad?” Dot said, confused.

Sharky leaned in like what they had to say was some big secret. “She liked to mess with Zero in particular.”

“I heard that. And she did, because she knew I didn’t-” They sighed and checked their watch. “It’s my time off now.” Without another word, they walked out of the unit house. 

A moment later, the camp director, Magpie, opened the door. All the CITs turned to look at her, as did their counselors, all of whom looked oddly anxious (except Sharky), which Artemis found confusing. Had previous CIT groups made such a bad impression?

Magpie walked to the center of the room, co-directors Onyx and Pasta behind her. “All of you have been coming to camp for a few years now, right?” Magpie had a pleasant way of speaking, authoritative enough to get even the most hyper camper’s attention but never intimidating. The CITs nodded.

“Alright, so you guys know us-but can I get all y’all’s camp names?”

After everyone introduced themselves, Magpie nodded a couple times. “Well, let’s get started! What do y’all think leadership does all day?” 

She got a couple of answers, nodding at each one. “A lot of it is answering emails and phone calls and doing paperwork. But it’s not just boring administrative stuff. We make sure every group is having a good time and talk to campers who are having problems that their counselors can’t solve-it’s actually pretty fun! If that seems like a lot of work for me to do alone, that’s what co-directors are for!” She gestured to Onyx and Pasta.

Onyx stepped forward and began talking but Artemis found herself unable to focus on what they were saying or what Pasta said after them. Her attention had drifted over to Cricket, who’d spent the whole time writing in her journal-probably about the counselors from earlier. 

As Pasta finished talking and sat down, Magpie returned to the center of the room. “Do we have any questions?”

Feeling bad for not paying attention earlier, Artemis raised her hand. “What do you do when camp isn’t in session?” 

Magpie nodded. “Good question! We facilitate activities for troops, manage the camp’s finances, hire and train staff, and plan programs for next summer!” 

After a brief silence, Cricket spoke up, not raising her hand. Her voice was more clipped. “What’s the strangest thing you’ve dealt with?” 

Caught off guard, Magpie froze. Leadership looked between each other and the counselors. Rex avoided their gaze, fiddling with her walkie-talkie. Koala smiled nervously, Socks just seemed confused. Finally, they all looked at Sharky, who shrugged. “What!?”

Well, that’s weird.

Onyx stepped up. “Ah, it seems you’ve heard the camp ghost stories! They’re fun, huh? But don’t worry. The boogie bears aren’t gonna getcha.” While their voice was lighthearted, they kept spinning one of their many rings anxiously. 

Before anyone else could say something, Rex got up and, sounding kind of rushed, said, “Alright, looks like it’s time for leadership to go! Y’all have free time until lunch!” She shooed the CITs out and began whispering frantically to Magpie as soon as they were gone.

In Tent 2, Cricket sat on the floor with her journal.  “They’re clearly hiding something.”

Avocado shrugged. “I wouldn’t go that far. I bet they just think we’re superstitious kids and don’t wanna ruin the camp magic for us.”

Flapjack leaned against the pole holding up the tent. “I dunno, I feel like there’s something going on.” After a pause, they asked, “What’re you writing?”

“Notes.” Cricket didn’t look up.

“On what? We’ve had one lesson!” 

“There’s more to be learned here than what they tell you in the lessons.” Artemis couldn’t tell if she was trying to be poetic or if it was just the way Cricket talked.

“What?” When Cricket didn’t respond, Flapjack looked at Artemis, frantically moving their hands.

Artemis sat next to her on the floor. “What’re you actually writing about?”

Still not looking up, she began talking. “There’s something weird going on here.” Flapjack joined them. “I want to keep track of it all.”

Flapjack lay sprawled out on the floor. “You’ll need a new journal by the end of this week if you keep writing like that.”

“I have more at home.”

Artemis couldn’t help but picture Cricket having a floor-to-ceiling shelf of conspiracy journals.

“Is this normal for you? Do you do this all the time?” Flapjack asked.

“Yes.” Cricket responded simply.

Rex called from the unit house that it was time for lunch. As the CITs walked to lunch, Dot, Sprite, and Lilypad chatted excitedly, seeming to have bonded in the past few minutes. Muffin walked alongside them, silent as always. Artemis wished she’d been put in a tent with people who were so eager to make friends. She hoped she’d make that sort of connection with her tentmates, but part of her doubted it. But she couldn’t just give up. She was never going to make friends if she didn’t try. Thinking over who she had the best chances of befriending, she landed on Flapjack-they at least seemed like they wanted to be here.

“Hey, Flapjack!” They glanced over at her. “I wanna get to know our tentmates better. What do you like to do? Any hobbies?” 

Looking a bit confused, they responded, “I like hiking? And-this is gonna sound nerdy and weird, but I really like watching videos on topics I like.”

Artemis grinned. “I love nerdy and weird! And hiking is fun! What topics do you like?”

“Stuff about missing persons cases and natural disasters, I guess.”

“Cool! I’m a big science person. I want to work at NASA someday-my camp name’s from the Artemis missions. And I read a lot.”

Quirking an eyebrow, Flapjack said sarcastically, “Wow, I had no idea you liked to read.” Their expression became more sincere. “But that’s cool. I wanted to be an astronaut when I was little. I doubt I’d be good at it, though.” The CITs got to the dining hall and sat down, Socks joining Flapjack and Artemis at their table. They kept talking throughout lunch, mostly about science and other (as Flapjack had said earlier) nerdy and weird stuff.

After lunch, the CITs headed to the pool. The water was cold, as usual, but it barely bothered Artemis. The other CITs were not happy with it, though. Artemis laughed at their hesitance to get in. “Wait until it’s hotter, you’ll be grateful it’s cold!” 

Flapjack shot back, “I WILL NEVER BE GRATEFUL FOR THIS!” They’d jumped right into the water, and were now hugging themself and shivering.

Avocado, who lay on the side of the pool drawing with chalk-she’d probably forgotten her swimsuit-snarked, “Flapjack, you look like a drowned rat.”

It wasn’t an inaccurate observation. Flapjack’s usually fluffy hair had been flattened to their head rather unflatteringly. Koala, who was supervising them, called, “Avocado, please be nice.”

While she seemed like she wanted to retaliate, Avocado decided against it, sighing and blowing her hair out of her face. Flapjack threw a beach ball at her, which bounced off her head. Koala rubbed the spot between her eyebrows, looking disappointed, but didn’t say anything.

After their pool time ended and they’d showered, the CITs returned to Pines. Artemis lay on her bed with a book. Avocado was taking yet another nap, Cricket had her journal out as usual, and Flapjack lay on the floor with a sketchbook, drawing the trees outside the tent. They seemed to have a thing for trees. 

The next two hours went by surprisingly fast. That tended to happen when she was reading-not that she minded; it was nice to escape her world into one that was written out, where she didn’t worry about saying the wrong thing or letting someone down. Book characters didn’t make those kinds of mistakes, and when they did, it served the plot. 

Throughout dinner, Artemis was quieter than usual-normally, reading restored enough social energy so she could talk at dinner, but it didn’t work this time. Weird. She chalked it up to needing to adjust to being at camp, intentionally not worrying that she was doing something wrong. It was fine.

Before she knew it, Artemis was back in her uncomfortable camp bed, Flapjack snoring softly. She sighed, watching a spider crawl across the tent and trying not to get down on herself about being quiet all afternoon. It was the first full day of camp, she’d figure it out by tomorrow.