how it all started
David watched with tearful eyes, as the last family entered their car and drove off, soon disappearing out of sight. This, this was the one part David had always hated about his job. Watching them leave. Weeks of activity, adventure, fun and rare touching moments that they would never forget ( well, David would certainly won’t ), and it always ended the same.
Parents would come, pick their child up, and leave. If not, quartermaster would drive them off by bus. And David would watch
Never knowing if they would come back, if they would get to have more adventures, if it was the last time he saw them, and they saw him. Would they forget about the camp? How to be kids and grow up to be boring people instead? Stuck in a desk job, 9 to 5. . .
It was a horrifying thought for the male counselor.
With a sigh, David wiped the happy-sad tears away and turned around, walking back to the mess hall. He still had a job to do, which meant less unhappy thoughts, and more working. The place wasn’t going to clean itself!
David pushed open the doors to the mess hall, which was a mess ( he chuckled at his own joke ). They were prepared for this year’s food fight, so in a corner was a few trash bags, waiting to be filled. Ignoring the uncomfortable silence that surrounded the hall, David grabbed a bag, and circled every singe table. The plastic were the first the go, since they were the easiest ones to get rid of. The food was, however, harder.
For some reason, whenever there was a food fight, quartermaster’s mashed potatoes were the first choice of ammunition. He scolded them after, because come on kids, you all know its quartermaster’s special mashed potatoes you know how sad he gets. Not that they listened, of course.
And in the end, they had to scrub off mashed potatoes from walls and tables. David snickered at the memory of today’s food fight. Every year, their numbers increased, so it was more fun than ever this year. Since he was at it, David let his mind wander.
The food fights always reminded him of a group of 10 than used to come to the camp. Offically named the tiny demons of the camp by the one and only Gwen. Not that he would complain about it. Those years with said demons, were the years he had the most fun, adventure. If someone told him that he could trade the kids back for them, he would do it in a heartbeat. It would be worth the abuse his hand would go through from the stabbings it got from Nurf to biting from Nikki. Preston being, in Max’s words (even though he never approved of the language he used), an overdramatic bitch. Daily arguments of who’s magic was real between Nerris and Harrison. Space kid being space kid. Dolph’s art (even though some had some symbols that was wrong, he was a kid. He didn’t even know he was doing it). Ered being ‘cool’, Neil complaining. And lastly,
Max. The Satan himself. Saying he hated every single day he spent in this camp, but David knew. He didn’t really hate it. And to hide it, causing chaos everyday, trying to make David’s life miserable, to get him to snap. Imagination like a bottomless box never ending. The child he saw as a son. It was true what they had was more than just camper-counselor relationship. Max trusted him, cared for him. And David back, of course.
It was the most painful thing he had done in his entire life. Watch as Max got onto that damn bus, eyes never leaving David, begging for him to help. Get him off the bus, don’t let him go. Even if he wanted to, he couldn’t. Max still had a family, which meant he had to send him away.
When the bus drove away, David had cried. For hours, the look on Max’s face behind his eyes whenever he closed them, haunting him. He had never felt so useless.
David only noticed that he was, indeed, done with cleaning and had been staring at his feet with tears in his eyes, barely there but enough to blur his vision, when he felt a gentle tap on this shoulder.
“You okay David? Looked lost there for a second” Gwen spoke, concern visible on her face.
David removed his eyes to look at her face ( it would be rude to not to), opening his mouth to reply with the same words he would use whenever he got lost in thought and someone noticed-
But he didn’t.
Gwen waited for an answer, leaning against the broom that she had picked up to use.
Her worry grew when he didn’t reply. At this point he would have said something similar to ‘ I’m okay’ or ‘yep!’ with a forced cheerful tone. But it never came. He wasn’t even looking at Gwen, which was a red alarm for Gwen.
Instead, he was staring at something. . .
Gwen followed David’s eyes to see what had gotten her partner’s attention, and it all clicked into place.
Behind her was a Cork Board, with the group photos of all the campers that had been in the camp, under Gwen and David’s counseling.
A few summers ago, the kids had requested one so they could hang their photos from the fun activities they participated in, and the photos taken in the first and last day as campers. They were eventually turned down, because it didn’t make sense to get one only for a few pictures. Gwen didn’t like the look on the children’s faces, but there was nothing she could do. They couldn’t waste money for something so big
The next day, they came again. This time, they suggested that not only their own, but the past and future campers’ pictures to be pinned. David had been so excited about it that day.
And Gwen didn’t have to look too closely to know which photo he was staring at. She would catch him looking at them from the corner of his eye every now and then. She knew which one it was.
Tying the back plastic bag full of wasted food and used plastic, David discarded it by the door for quartermaster to get rid of it when he was done dropping off the kids. Once he did, he moved over to the said board, and Gwen followed. Normally Gwen would give another gentle shake when he was like this, give him a distraction like cleaning somewhere. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it. She couldn’t just do it every time.
Gwen focused on the same photo that David was staring at, from 10 years ago. Gwen swore she remembered it like it was yesterday.
David hummed happily behind the camera that he had been trying to set up for the last 10 minutes, insisting that he could do it and no thank you, he did not need help. Gwen didn’t push him, she was in a good mood. So she let him tinker with it.
Instead, she chose the watching over kids job. Surprisingly, they were behaving today which she was happy with.
Split into small groups, pretty much all of them were deep in conversations. Farthest from her were Space kid and Nurf, talking about something that she couldn’t hear. But must be interesting, Nurf wasn’t bullying the young kid.
The closest to the two were Max and Neil. What they were talking about, she could hear even though it was faint.
“-o fucking way! I bet it’s like in the movi-”
“-hat if our roles are swapped-” Max groaned.
“That is literally nightmare fuel Nei-” Gwen chuckled at that. It really was a nightmare fuel. To think Neil as the cool kid, Dolph as the. . .whatever Nikki could be called, and more. Talking about Nikki. . .
Gwen did a double check, and she was right. Nikki wasn’t with Max and Neil. But at this point, she was used to seeing her with someone else. Her eyes searched the particular trio, which was easy to find.
They were talking in a low, hushed voice as if they were talking about a secret. Sure, their whispering was working, but the amount of giggling? It made her wonder if somehow they had gotten their hands on too much amount of candy. Especially Nikki. Gwen noticed a pattern in their giggling. They would whisper, look at one of the campers, and giggle. It was a possibility that they were gossiping.
“DOLPH!” a voice screeched across the room, without a doubt Preston. With an apology to the girls, Dolph practically skipped over to Preston. Any shipper with a sharp eye would see there was something between the two, but she would need more proof. Harrison walked up to Nerris when Dolph left, asking about something something new magic trick. And just like that, the trio seperated, Nikki all but sprinting to Ered, who was listening to music, leaning against one of the walls.
“Okay campers! Line up now, backs to the door! Nurf and Ered please move to-” One by one, everyone in the room were placed into a spot next to each other, creating a rather satisfying sight. Last was Gwen, and she quickly moved to the left side of the group, behind Dolph and Space kid. Months with these little shits taught her to be suspicious of the all ‘behaving’ acts. And the two were the smallest and easiest to get hurt, so.
They all stood in front of the old camera as a big group. Gwen worried that it would fall apart any second, it looked so old. But somehow it took better photos than a phone. David, with a happy nod, turned around to face the camera, only to find quartermaster already behind it, ready. If anyone had questions about how he always did that, they didn’t ask. In fact she was glad he was there, she didn’t want to deal with David bitching about how he wasn’t in the photo.
David ended up in the middle, right behind Max. They waited for the sound of the camera, and the disappearing act of the quartermaster, but it didn’t come. Instead, he pressed a button with his hook, and moved to the other side behind kids which was empty.
“Say ‘dead bodies’” He grumbled, ignoring the shocked look on the campers’ faces. Which, they ignored back in return. Somehow, just before the flash, every single kid moved at once, changing position and posing in speed, too fast for David to stop them. Preston ended up laying on his side with Dolph leaning over him, Nikki somehow on Ered’s back, Harrison and Nerris doing the fusion pose with each other, Neil in a laughing position like some sort of evil villain, Nurf with Space kid in his arms, as high as he can lift the kid up, and lastly Max, with a smile on his face.
And Snap
“I miss them, Gwen.” David whispered, voice cracking. He was already crying, and Gwen wiped hers away before they had a chance to roll down her cheeks too. Gwen didn’t say anything, because she did too, damnit. She missed them too. She kept her mouth shut and let him talk, let it all out.
“10 years. 10 whole years, Gwen. It has been so long since i last saw them and i-” a sniffle “-i know its ridiculous but-” Gwen suddenly cut in
“Its not ridiculous, David. You miss them, you had connected with every single one of the demons, had so much memories with them. Its normal” With another sniffle, David turned around to face her, and she brought a hand up to wipe the tears away.
Seeing David, her boyfriend like this, hurt Gwen. If only she had a way to reach out to the kids. Even if it was just a single call from one of them, she knew it would cheer David up-
Wait a minute. Holy shit why didn’t she ever thought of it before??
“David, do you still have their files?” David frowned, confused. But he nodded anyways.
“Y-Yeah, i do. Wh- Gwen? GWEN??” Before he could finish whatever he was going say, Gwen was out of the mess hall with a kick to the door, running with speed she never knew she would run.
When David finally caught up to her, she was going through cabinets, occasionally stopping to snatch a file and add it into the pile in her arms.
“Gwen! Wh- What’s going on?? What are you doing with those?!” David flinched when she slammed the files down to the table after she swiped everything on it off it with a laugh.
Finally, finally she turned around to face her boyfriend.
“We, David, are going to invite those little shits back to camp camp! Now go get me an empty notebook and bunch of empty paper! We have a lot of planning to do !”
David stood, frozen for a few seconds, eyes wide. Gwen sighed, coming close to him before snapping her fingers right in front of his face
“David, I swear to god go do as I say before I change my mi- HMMPF-” David suddenly tackled her down, peppering her face with kisses, repeating ‘thank you’ over and over again. After a minute, she pushed him away with a huff and a smile
“ Okay, okay! David stop I get it. Now get off me, I wasn’t lying. We have lots of planning, calls to make and letters to write !”