Chapter Text
Dylan didn’t think he’d ever been so nervous in his whole life. This was probably the most uncomfortable he’s ever felt, too—crammed in a car with 6 other people all going to the very same place: Hackett’s Quarry Summer Camp. They were all going to be counselors for the next 2 months, sleeping in cabins with snotty children and supervising them for the course of the summer.
Was this a particularly ideal summer for Dylan? Absolutely not. He’d rather be playing video games and planning things out for school in the fall. But he needed some extra pocket money, and he despised his old job, so why not? His mom was always saying he needed to go out and socialize more. So here ya go, Mom, he thought.
He was brought away from his thoughts when the car sped through a pothole, sending his heart to his stomach and a yelp from his mouth in fright. Immediately afterward, he shrunk into himself, embarrassed from the noise he’d let out. It didn’t seem that anyone noticed or even cared, but still, he couldn’t help but let out a meek “Sorry!”
Now that he wasn’t aimlessly scrolling through his phone with his thoughts in another universe, he took a good look at the rest of the counselors in the car with him. They all looked around his age. Something that didn’t really make too much sense, because what was the probability of that happening? But, at least that’d make them easier to talk to, instead of talking to whole-ass adults who didn’t care less about things he had to say. Then again, he wasn’t sure that anyone would care about what came out of his mouth here, either, which is why he hadn’t said much on the car ride so far.
His eyes first landed on the guy in the front passenger seat. Seated there was a built teen wearing a t-shirt that defined his sculpted body quite well. From the back of the car, he couldn’t see too much, but he knew that damn, that guy was jacked. Atop his head, he adorned a backward baseball cap, as well, which indicated to Dylan that he was the sporty type.
Not exactly my type, he thought, but pretty nice to look at.
After that, he looked to the second row of people—a girl with brown hair who also coincidentally was giving a less-than-innocent glance over to the jock, too; a girl with black-to-pink ombre hair; and lastly, a curly-haired brunette wearing a baseball tee. The two girls seemed to be showing each other things on their phones, too, but it didn’t seem that they even acknowledged the guy beside them, who kept his eyes on the scenery outside.
Then, there was the back row—the row Dylan was also on. Next to him sat a girl with a yellow, cropped hoodie and a shirt beneath it. She was lazily scrolling through something on her phone, seemingly uncaring of the world around her, which drew Dylan to her. She seemed like someone cool, maybe. He wasn’t sure, and he didn’t want to bother her. Next to her sat a boy who was also glancing out of the window. He had headphones in, and Dylan was curious to know what he was listening to. With a clear view of the boy’s face, he could see he was good-looking—someone he definitely wouldn’t mind getting to know, if you could catch his drift. He probably spent too much time looking at the boy, but luckily he wasn’t caught staring. Dylan drifted his gaze away upon realization and went back to his phone.
He’d kept his headphones in, but he’d had his music paused for a small while now. Other than the two girls in the second row who were every once in a while giggling, the car was incredibly silent, with everyone minding their own business and all. Dylan decided it’d be best for him to turn on some music, since it didn’t seem they’d be making acquaintances anytime soon. He tapped on the Spotify app icon, which took a moment to load. Damn shitty service, he thought. Luckily for him, he had a shit ton of playlists saved. He looked around for a moment, then decided on a playlist—“dylan’s awesome tunes,” a playlist with a bunch of his favorites. Pressing play, he grinned to himself.
Fittingly, a song titled Summer Is Here started to play. The sound of electric guitar in his ears filled the silence between the counselors, and with that, he was in his own world. It was his turn to shift his gaze out into the wilderness. The sun was in the middle of the sky at this point—it was around noon—which meant a rich green view rushing by. It really was a beautiful sight, just as his mom had been saying it would be. Being from the suburbs, it was kind of a relief to see the stunning greenery that upstate New York had to offer.
Maybe this won’t be so bad, Dylan thought. Maybe it’ll be… fun.
----
It had taken a couple of hours for the counselors to get to their destination, but finally, they had. Because Dylan was in the back seat, he had to wait for every other person to get out, but once he had escaped the uncomfortable leather seats of the car, he shook his arms and legs out. The feeling of pins and needles trickled through his legs. Silently, he shuddered. The two-hour-long silence was finally broken by Mr. Hackett, who had generously driven them all there and was now organizing the 7 teens’ arrival.
“Alrighty, Hacketteers! I know we have got quite the summer ahead of us. I can’t thank you enough for being here this summer to watch over the kids. It is you counselors that make this camp an enjoyable place to be. Thank you.”
A couple of cheers from the good-looking kid and the brunette girl erupted. It was sad, really, how little excitement came from the other counselors.
“With that being said… our first order of business before the campers get here tonight is your phones,” Mr. Hackett began, glancing around the group for just a moment, “Please turn your phones off and hand them to me. I’ll be keeping them safe this summer.”
Instead of cheers, the group now replied with groans. Dylan had to join in himself, too. No phones meant no music, for 2 months. One of the very things that he’d planned on keeping himself sane with. What was he to do, now? A spike of anxiety hit him, adding to the previous bouts he’d had as they had approached the camp. He swallowed spit and kept quiet. There was likely nothing he could do, so he wouldn’t fight it.
Making sure to disconnect his headphones from his phone, he said a mental goodbye to his phone as Mr. Hackett came around the group to collect them all. As the camp leader stopped in front of him, he handed the phone over quite easily, then put the headphones in his pocket.
“Not so fast…” Mr. Hackett paused, waiting for Dylan to respond with his name.
“Dylan,” he responded coolly.
“… Dylan. If you don’t have your phone this summer, you’re not going to need your headphones. You can give those to me for safe keeping.”
Dylan let out a small groan involuntarily. Out of fear that he’d get in trouble for the disrespect, he quickly attempted to even it out with some sort of joke.
“Yeah, alright,” He said, trying to contain his nerves, “But if they aren’t in one piece by the time we’re outta here, I’ll be contacting my lawyers. They’re very powerful people, you know.”
A couple of laughs could be heard from the other counselors. A small surge of happiness came from within him at the sentiment of people liking his sarcasm. Hmm. He handed the headphones over with no additional trouble, a cheeky grin on his face while he did so.
“I’m sure they are,” Mr. H responded sarcastically, lifting a brow at Dylan disapprovingly. He soon moved on to the next counselor, all the way until he had collected all of their devices and placed them aside. Moments later, his voice was booming through the quiet forest once more.
“Secondly! Unfortunately, two of our counselors—Ms. Laura Kearny and Mr. Max Brinly—could not make it to camp this summer. It seems they may have gotten afraid of spending 2 months in the beautiful New York woods. What does this mean for you? It means more responsibilities than normal, which I assume you won’t have trouble with because you’re all hard workers who are ready to take this summer by storm?” Mr. Hackett asked, glancing around at the teens. Dylan joined the chorus of 6 other unsynchronized, unenthusiastic yeses, and with that, they moved on.
It took around an hour for Mr. Hackett to show them around the camp, but after that, they had around an hour and a half to unpack their things before they had a small meeting just before the kids showed up at 8 PM. “Get to know each other!” Mr. Hackett had insisted, but Dylan wasn’t incredibly interested in that unless someone came up to him. They’d all walked up to the cabins with their things in relative silence. He couldn’t tell who would be the first to break the ice, but he knew one thing—it wouldn’t be him.
Luckily, he was right. There was a whole lot of silence as each counselor set up their bunks and put their toiletries in the shared bathrooms, but finally, the girl he’d been sitting beside in the car spoke up.
“Oookay, I’m sick of the silence, so why don’t we introduce ourselves? Names, reasons why we’re here, hobbies, anything. I’ll go first,” The girl said, sitting on her bed. A couple of other teens also sat, including Dylan. He opted for a top bunk, which gave him a pretty good sight of the rest of the room. Maybe they’d forget about him up there, and he could keep quiet the rest of the summer.
“My name’s Kaitlyn… I’m 19, now, and I’m here for a summer job. Used to dance, helped paint sets in high school, the whole fine arts deal. Not exactly sure what I’m gonna do with my life. Maybe camp counseling will be my calling, who knows?” She joked, grinning a little and smacking her hands against her thighs as if to transition to the next person.
“Nice to meet you, Kaitlyn!” Pink-Hair said excitedly, smiling widely.
“Yeah, good to meet you,” Good-Looking echoed.
It was Pink-Hair that decided to go next, so Dylan shifted his gaze to her.
“I’m Abigail! You all can call me Abi, though,” Abigail started, practically beaming, “I used to be a camper here and always loved the counselors that were here then, so I came back for the summer! I like to draw, and I love animals! I’m really excited to create memories for the kids.”
Some more “Nice to meet you”s followed, and it seemed it was Abi’s friend’s turn. Her name was Emma, she had also been a camper, and Abi and her were “besties,” supposedly. She used to play tennis back home and she described herself as “the proud owner of a video blog.” Dylan wasn’t sure why she said “video blog” like they were in 2009 again, but he said nothing on the matter.
After her, an ever-eager Jock-Dude introduced himself as Jacob—Jake for short. He said he used to play football in high school and was going to school on an athletic scholarship, and that he wanted something to do for summer to “keep him in shape.”
Next was the curly-haired boy, named Nick. He had a thick New Zealand accent, which Abi and Emma seemed to be whispering to each other about. Dylan couldn’t deny that the accent was quite charming, either, but he kept it to himself a lot better than the girls. He seemed cool—wasn’t too talkative, but Dylan had no problem with it. Nick explained that he liked to cook and bake, he played a few sports in high school, and that he was excited for camp, too.
It was after Nick that Good-Looking went. He couldn’t help but stay laser-focused on the teen’s words, listening closely to every word he said.
“Uh, so, I’m Ryan… I was a camper here, too. Decided to come back to help Mr. H out. Not really sure what I want to do for college stuff but… Yeah, I’m 19,” Ryan spoke. He didn’t share much, which meant Dylan’s sole goal for the next few days would be to find out as much as he could from the attractive teen. Just the thought made his heart race.
He was so focused on the prospect of talking to Ryan that he’d forgotten where he was for a moment. Jerking his eyes away from the other boy, he swallowed and glanced around the room, who were all looking at him for an introduction.
Just… be cool, or whatever, he thought.
“Oh, yeah. I’m Dylan, Dyls, D… whatever you wanna call me,” He began, internally cringing at the nicknames he made for himself, “Uh, I’m going to school for…”
He trailed off. What he wanted to say was that he was going to school for physics, but what he wanted to say and what he needed to say to keep respect from the other teens were two different things. He had to make up something quick—something that was less… nerdy.
“Sorry. Zoned out. So, yeah. Going to school for, uh. Music. Yeah. Gonna become the next fuckin, like, Elton John or something.”
Elton John? Dylan didn’t even listen to that much 70s. His freaking dad did. He really hoped no one delved more into that topic. As if the stars were listening, no one did. They all just nodded. Kaitlyn, though, spoke up.
“Pretty cool stuff. What kind of music do you make?” She questioned, leaning her head upward to look at Dylan.
“Oh, y’know. Indie stuff, I guess. Sooo wish I could show you, but… no phones. Bummer,” Dylan said, trying to coat the sarcasm in his voice. Even though he was straight-up lying, someone had taken interest in this… this alternate kind of Dylan. The thought of that was interesting to consider. Maybe being cool wouldn’t be so hard.
“I’d love to hear it another time, though,” Kaitlyn grinned, nodding before looking around at the rest of the group. More silence, until Kaitlyn once more took charge and suggested they all go on a small walk around the camp to further get acquainted with the woods and each other. It was a pretty unanimous decision to go through with the idea, so within minutes they were all walking in loose groups, introducing themselves personally to each other as they walked to the firepit. Ryan sagged behind, so Dylan fell in step with him after half-assedly trying to keep small talk with the others.
Ryan noticed Dylan’s presence pretty quickly, silently looking over to acknowledge him.
“Sooo, Ryan, right?” Dylan asked, tilting his head in question.
“Yeah.”
“Well, heyyy, I’m Dylan, in case you don’t remember five minutes ago,” He quipped, chuckling nervously.
“I do, but I appreciate the concern,” Ryan said, not maintaining much eye contact. There was little to go off of to determine if he was joking or not, but Dylan tried his best to not let the conversation stall, wanting to make a positive first impression.
“Yeah, yeah. Anything for a friend,” He said confidently, plastering a smile on his face before holding out his hand to shake. Who was he? Some business major weirdo? Still, he didn’t put his hand down. He had to follow through with it, otherwise, he’d make a fool of himself. Luckily, Ryan took the handshake but rose a brow as he did.
“Are… we friends? We met like, 5 minutes ago,” Ryan asked. Dylan stalled for a second, a bit surprised by the reply, before speaking again.
“Jeez,” He responded, putting a hand to his heart, “I’m kind of offended. How dare you not consider me a friend after one single interaction with me?” Sarcasm dripped in his voice, and it was apparent he was joking.
“Um…” Is all Ryan said, seemingly unsure of what to say.
With that, their interaction was over. Dylan was pretty bummed that it was so short, but he supposed he had 2 whole months to get to know the attractive male.
They arrived at the firepit within a few minutes. Their time there had mostly been spent getting to know each other more. Almost everyone was engaged in the conversation—even himself, occasionally—but there Ryan was, 5 or so feet away, in his own little world.
I will get to know you, Hot, Mysterious Ryan, Dylan thought.
----
Soon, the time had come to learn each of their roles at the camp for the summer. They’d walked from the Firepit back over to the Lodge, where Mr. Hackett waited for them patiently.
Because there were fewer counselors than planned, they’d all have to pick up the slack, which meant, according to Mr. Hackett, that they all might need to “jump out of their comfort zones.” The thought made Dylan nervous. He tried not to show it.
At the pre-camp meeting, they all learned their occupations. Kaitlyn would be the Activities Coordinator; Abi would be an art teacher of sorts; Emma would head Theatre; Jacob would head Sports; Nick would be the Kitchen Supervisor, in charge of feeding the kids; Ryan would be a Sailing Coach; lastly, Dylan would be in charge of scheduling and announcements in the morning. For Dylan, that meant working in the Radio Hut, which was close to the cabins. It would also mean early mornings, which he wasn’t excited for.
After being informed of their roles and how to perform them, Mr. H confirmed the incoming arrival of the camp kids. They’d be arriving in just fifteen minutes. Most everyone showed their excitement, but Dylan was trying his best to remain grounded. Surrounded by new people, new experiences, and his own thoughts, he was beginning to get overwhelmed. Silently, he excused himself to use the bathroom, slipping away quickly after being granted permission.
In the bathroom, he stared at himself in the mirror, trying to give some sort of mental pep talk. He slowed his breathing and kept it rhythmic, keeping his eyes locked on the mirror.
You can do this, Lenivy, he told himself.
He wasn’t sure if he believed it.