Holly stepped out into the late morning sunshine with Cathy and surveyed the open field in front of her. Taylor was making his way from the dining hall across the way, presumably having been given the ok from Trina, and was met by Madison. The other seniors, Jill and Jorge, were walking down one of the roads that lead to a different part of camp with Bob. Other than that, the kids were nowhere to be seen.

Cathy quelled the instinctive anxiety bubbling up in Holly’s mind, “They’re gonna be fine. Sure, they’re still kids, but they’re kids who are about to be adults.”

Holly sighed, “I know. I just want everyone to get something special out of this.”

Cathy gave Holly a serious look, a first for Cathy in the time Holly had known her, “Everyone will get out of this exactly what they need to. And what they need is gonna be different for every person. For some kids, it’s to appease their parents who want them out of the house for a few weeks. For others, it’s gonna be to find a friend that isn’t a drop in the sea of endless faces they don’t associate with at school. You can’t stress out about what their experience is gonna be. You just gotta let them do them. Whatever happens, will happen. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I believe I’m first on the dining hall post shift. I’ll talk to you later, Holly.” And with that she walked off to where Madison and Taylor were chatting.

Putting her hands on her hips, Holly took a second to recollect herself; it had been a long morning already and it wasn’t even noon, the second shirt she had ran to grab from her suitcase a reminder of the mini crisis of the morning. Everyone seemed none the worse for wear, though, and that’s all that really mattered.

She decided it might be best to go check up on Riley, and while doing so, grab her checklist of the campers, just to make sure she was keeping all the names straight in her head. The cabins were a three-minute walk from the meeting hall, and when she got there, she found Riley fast asleep, with the twins Kayla and Malik chatting quietly on one of the lower bunks.

When Holly walked in, Malik got up as if to leave, and Holly said quietly, “No, no, don’t worry, I just came in here to grab something. You’re fine if you want to stay and talk. You guys are twins right?”

Kayla and Malik nodded, then Malik said, “Yeah, but she’s definitely smarter than me. Retaking sophomore year right now cuz I had a hard time in a few of my subjects. But Kayla’ll probably be a rocket scientist or something.”

Kayla rolled her eyes at her brother, “Astrophysicist, you mean. But you should totally hear Malik’s poetry. He can write like no one’s business.”

Malik looked at his feet, a little embarrassed. Holly laughed, “Well, it’s great to have both of you. Let me know if you need anything, and Malik, if you want, I’m sure we could organize some sort of open mic night.”

“Nah, I’m not the best at like, performing what I write. But thanks, I guess. See you guys around,” Malik hopped off the bed and walked out of the cabin, leaving Kayla and Holly together.

“I wish he was more confident. His poetry really is great. I’ve been trying to get him to enter competitions for a while, but he always says it isn’t good enough to share with strangers. I don’t wanna push him, but, well, I don’t know,” Kayla shrugged.

Holly walked over to her bag and grabbed a clipboard that held her notes, the front page a list of all the campers, “Give him time. If he decides he wants to share, he will. So, an astrophysicist, huh?”

Kayla’s face lit up with the reintroduction of the subject, “Yeah, I’ve always really liked space. Some of my favorite documentaries have been about the Voyager and Apollo missions. I just think it’s so crazy that like, everything we know about stuff is just a fraction of a fraction of everything that exists. I wanna see and know it all!”

Holly checked Kayla, Malik, and Riley off her list and leaned against a bunk, “Well, I’ll tell you what: we’re so far from the city that the stars at night here are pretty spectacular. As a matter of fact, I think there’s an old observatory down the road a ways. Nothing super fancy or scientific, of course, just a tall building with a telescope. If you want sometime, we could go check it out.”

Kayla grinned, “Really? I’d love that, wow!”

Holly nodded, “You bet. I’m gonna go check on Taylor. You’re welcome to come with if you’d like.”

Kayla shook her head, “Nah, I think I’m gonna read for a bit. Thanks though.”

Holly gave her a thumbs up, then walked out of the cabin towards the cafeteria.