Socks nervously tapped her pen against her folder, sitting on a bench in the Pines unit house. It was Sunday morning and the only thing she had to do was wait for the bus to arrive. It should be an easy day. Emphasis on the should.

Unfortunately, Socks was not good at waiting. She wanted to talk to people, she wanted to see her CITs, she wanted to feel like she was actually doing something. It didn’t help that all her fellow counselors were out doing something. Rex was waiting at the camp entrance for the bus, Koala was meeting with leadership, and Sharky…Sharky was doing who knows what. Oh, wait, Zero existed. Zero was sitting in the unit house with her. However, Socks would honestly rather be alone than be with Zero-not that she had anything against them, very far from it-just that they were…Zero. Not only did they not talk, they seemed so on edge all of the time, and Socks was constantly afraid she was going to make it worse. 

However, as the time dragged on, Socks decided, screw it. She was probably gonna bother Zero either way. Why not use some of the social skills the CITs were supposed to be learning herself?

“Zero, I know we’ve talked about this a bit, but what was your CIT group like? Besides the, uh, experience that was Candy?”

Socks regretted everything the minute those words came out of her mouth. She knew their CIT group was kind of a sensitive topic for Zero and she said it anyway. They’d probably be mad at her and she could not blame them one bit.

Zero just looked up from their book, eyes widening a bit. “Oh. Uh. Hm.” They paused, thinking. “There were five of us. Besides me and Candy, we also had Sputnik, Sunny, and Sparkles. Kind of a theme there with the names. Those three were-the best of friends. I uh-I have a picture of all of us, actually.” After rifling through the binder they carried with them for a moment, they pulled out a slightly beaten-up looking picture of five people, most of them barely recognizable compared to their current selves. Socks took it from Zero, studying it-trying to figure out who everyone was. 

She assumed everyone in the picture was the same age as the current CITs-fifteen or sixteen. Zero had much longer hair, without the purple streaks, but otherwise looked the same, the same slightly haunted expression on their face. From where they sat next to Socks, Zero sighed and pointed out, “Wow, I looked miserable then.”

Sputnik-the arts and crafts director who Socks had never really talked to but had seen around camp-had shoulder-length black hair, round glasses, and a rather shy smile. It contrasted pretty sharply with their current appearance-dark purple hair in space buns, a bunch of piercings and accessories, and this sort of laid-back confidence that radiated off of them. Zero spoke up again. “Sputnik’s always been cool, I like them. We-kind of bonded over being tormented by Candy, I guess.” 

Sparkles, who worked at the health center now, looked pretty similar-the same Afro puffs, the same sparkly pink hearing aids, the same giant smile. “She was a lot like Starburst, honestly. Cheered everyone up, made everyone’s day better, all that,” Zero noted.

Sunny was the least recognizable of them all-she’d actually met him, and so it was almost jarring to see what he’d looked like as a CIT. Zero tapped the picture, saying, “Oh, yeah, Sputnik and I helped Sunny cut his hair short for the first time. His parents wouldn’t let him-real transphobic and all that-so we did it with scissors we stole from the arts and crafts building. That was-that was pretty great, actually.” Yeah, that made sense-Sunny’s hair looked all choppy, and very much like it’d been cut with craft scissors by a couple of teenagers.

And Candy. Candy looked almost unchanged-not just in appearance, but also in her persistent smug expression. Zero didn’t have any commentary on her, but it was wholly unnecessary-while Socks had barely interacted with Candy, everything she’d heard made Candy sound like a distinctly unpleasant person that she wanted nothing to do with. 

“There were just five of you guys?” Socks asked. 

Zero nodded. “Yeah. For a couple years, the camp really struggled to get people to join. Particularly the CIT program. Uh-I don’t know why, though.” As they put the photo back in their binder, another one slipped out of place-one of what was probably another CIT group, full of people Socks didn’t recognize-except one, a person with curly black hair and a slightly manic smile.

“Is that Sharky? Why do you have a picture of their group?” 

Zero’s eyes widened, and they fumbled to shove the photo back where it was. “Uh-yeah-Sharky just, uh, gave it to me one day, and I felt weird getting rid of it, so-yeah-I-uh-forgot it was there.” Socks was instantly suspicious, but tried her best not to show it-it’d probably just make Zero freeze up, and then they wouldn’t tell her anything.

In her most non-threatening voice, Socks asked, “Is anyone else from their group still working here today?”

“Yeah-yeah, Onyx, who’s on leadership now. Everyone else didn’t come back after that summer.” 

“Do you know why?” 

Zero froze, and Socks immediately regretted asking. After a moment, they kept talking, but their voice was even more stilted and tense. “Something happened, I think. Nobody wanted to come back to this place after that except Onyx and Sharky. I think Onyx just-refused to give up on camp, and Sharky-no, that’s their story to tell as to why they’re still here. You should ask them.” They checked their watch and stood up quickly. “Oh, it should be about time for the CITs to get here. We should get ready.”

Socks nodded. “Yeah-yeah, of course. Sorry if I-uh-upset you, I just-get curious.”

Shutting their binder a bit too hard, they said, “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Socks got the distinct feeling that it was in fact not fine and that she probably should be worried about it, but she wasn’t going to push it farther and risk alienating them when she still had to work with them for seven more weeks. She made a mental note to talk to Sharky later about this, though-not only was she insanely curious now, it seemed like information she should probably know if she was going to continue to work with them.

The sound of all the CIT’s voices getting closer became audible, as well as them all walking across the bridge. Socks tried her best to clear her mind and ready herself for another week. There’d be no use in dwelling on all this and letting the CITs find out-she’d almost surely get fired if that happened.