Camp Amon

Eska’s car bounced along the dirt road. The scene would have actually been rather tranquil— if not for the circumstance Korra was in. The trees overhead were the most vibrant shade of green the sixteen year-old had ever seen, and the sky was a perfect shade of blue (not a cloud in sight). Today was the poster-child definition of summer. What a waste.

“If it is any consolation, cousin,” Eska said, interrupting Korra’s thoughts, “I wish to offer you my condolences and deepest sympathies. Father has never been an open-minded individual when it comes to such matters.”

Korra didn’t immediately respond. They turned around another corner— the Satomobile leaving a large cloud of dust behind. A facility was looming in the foreground, looking perfectly in sync with the forest. There were log cabins and volleyball pits and even a large lake with a mossy old dock, lazily floating in the summer heat.

“I don’t blame you,” Korra finally answered. She let out a small sigh, “You’re just the chauffer.”

“Indeed.”

A pothole sent the car jumping a foot in the air. Korra accidentally banged her head on the mirror but her cousin looked unfazed. The Southern Water Tribe suitcase spilled out everywhere (it was rather battered and tattered); shirts and books and anything you might need at a summer camp falling to the floor.

Eska kept driving as Korra hastily stuffed everything back into the suitcase. With just the right amount of strength she managed to snap the damn thing shut in time for the car to pull into the parking lot.

Korra looked up to see an old fashioned looking wooden sign looming above the entrance, like a bad omen:

Camp Amon

Welcome to your new life, free of the evil and sickly homosexual spirit within.

“Here goes,” Korra thought sadly. “At least they’ll let me call Mom and Dad on the weekends. And It’s only for nine weeks.”

Eska parked the car and a cheery looking counselor walked up with a clipboard and pen in hand. Korra tried to avert her eyes— the longer she put off checking-in, the longer she could continue being queer, right?

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t liked a guy before. There was that one boy she kissed at the Glacier Spirits Festival back home. He was really sweet and caring. But he wasn’t quite as good at kissing as Hopah. Korra looked down at the dashboard in shame as she thought of what they had done together in secret— in the lonely hours of the night. She felt herself blush a little and then frown when she thought of her uncle catching them.

You disgusting piece of trash! You dare come to my palace and defile it with such sickness?! …. It’s alright… we can just… I know a place… we can get you healed… I mustn’t abandon family… Camp Amon can take you in… heal you…

She had been living with her uncle, Unalaq, ever since her parents were too poor to be able to take care of her. Korra would have gone to live with Kya, who was like an aunt to her, but Katara had gotten sick right around the same time. Kya needed to focus on taking care of her mother.

“Oh Kya would love this,” Korra thought sarcastically. “I wonder if she knows. Unalaq probably hasn’t told my parents.”

After a moment’s hesitation, she opened the door and stepped out, heaving the suitcase and avoiding eye contact with the overly enthusiastic counselor in a blue Camp Amon t-shirt trying to shake her hand. He looked like he was Water Tribe as well, what with the tanned skin and brown hair and all. Korra wouldn’t admit it to his face, but the dude looked like a seventies rock star with his goofy hairstyle and thin, pointy mustache. He was maybe seven or eight years older than her.

“Helloooo?” he asked her, waving his hand to get her attention. “My name’s Varrick. I’ll be helping you get settled in. Zhu Li! Do the luggage thing!”

A woman the same age as Varrick, but with light skin and straight black hair, walked up to the car. A pair of glasses were perched on her nose, concealing very pretty navy blue eyes. She met Korra with a smile and grabbed her suitcase.

“I can get that by myself, you know.”

“Nonsense,” Varrick said with a sly grin, “You get to have the Grand Tour before we have our first Camp meeting! After that’s dinner and then after that you’ll get to settle in for the night.”

“Great,” Korra said with fake enthusiasm.

Eska signed a clipboard as the official person to be able to pick up Korra when she finished the program. Korra was betting five bucks that Desna would show up instead and they wouldn’t notice.

“I suppose we can skip the meeting with Tarrlok. According to your file, everything’s been paid for and all forms taken care of by your uncle… Unalaq, is it? Isn’t he the chief of…”

“Let’s just go on the tour, man.”

To be perfectly frank, Varrick was the kinda guy you just tuned out during a conversation. He was supposed to be showing her the different facilities at the Camp, but instead he was going on and on about how great it was to go through this program; as if Korra needed to hear how bad being gay was from another person— maybe nine weeks was a bit much.

“Ah, here we are! This is the dock! We have scheduled swim time once a week— all camp activity!”

“Only once a week?”

“What, do you think you’re here to lounge around and goof off? We’re doing serious work here, missy!”

“But I’m Water Tribe. We don’t just go swimming once a week. You know that as much as I do,” Korra complained.

Varrick fiddled with his mustache thoughtfully, “Well I suppose I could talk to the brothers. Tarrlok won’t have a problem with it. I might have to bargain your free time with Noatak.”

Korra shrugged. What was she going to do during free time, anyways? Read a book? Mope about getting caught? It wasn’t as though she could write any letters to Hopah. Not that Hopah would want to talk to her.

“I’d really appreciate it… Varrick,” she said with a fake smile.

The counselor nodded and led her to the dining hall. All in all, there were maybe thirty other kids. It looked like Korra was the last one to check in— and Varrick’s tour probably took longer than normal due to his unnecessary monologue about being straight.

 There were about eight large tables in the dining hall, each sitting six people. Korra quickly weaved through and sat at the table with the least people. Each table had a counselor at it— Korra was fortunate to sit at a table without Varrick. The counselor sitting to her right was maybe four or five years older than her, with a long black braid and a mole on her right cheek.

“Hey there,” she said with a friendly smile, “My name’s Kuvira. And you are?”

“I’m Korra,” the Water Tribe girl said with a shrug.

“Are you excited to be here?”

Korra’s patience broke. Surely this woman knew how stupid of a question that was. Like, who really wanted to be here?

“No.”

Kuvira’s smile faltered, and Korra caught a glimpse of sadness in her eyes before the counselor resumed her act.

“Well, don’t worry. We’re here to help, and we’ll get through this together.”

I wonder if she went through the program— she’s ringing pretty loudly on the Gaydar.

Two boys were sitting to her left. One was a nice, energetic boy who, in Korra’s opinion, was pretty blatantly flamboyant. He looked like he was from the Earth Kingdom, but surely he was only fifteen? He had on a really nice green outfit with a gold trim that must’ve cost a pretty penny.

“Hey there,” he said casually, ruffling his hand through his brown hair. “The name’s Wu.”

“Nice to meet you,” Korra mumbled.

Wu wouldn’t stop chatting to Korra, and it became pretty obvious that he was hella gay.

“Got anyone special back home?” he asked.

Korra didn’t answer.

Wu gave a wink, and it made her feel a little less alone. “I had the best boyfriend in the world, but when my great Aunt found out, well we decided to break things off before it got nasty. I’m not much of a long distance guy, and I wanted my Aunt to leave the poor boy alone. So I’m stuck here… what about you?” he said, turning to the guy across the table.

The other boy was the mysterious, dark, and broody type. How cliché was that? He had spiky black hair and really funky eyebrows (like little sharks), but he was easy enough on the eyes. His fingers kept fiddling with a red scarf draped on his shoulders. Behind the “Edward Cullen act”, he looked a little nervous.

“What’s there to say? I had a thing with a dude, Tahno, and I got caught by my foster dad, Toza.”

“Oh, that sucks, man,” Wu commented casually.

“Yeah, well… shit happens,” he mumbled. “I’m Mako.”

“Quite down, you guys, Noatak is about to start talking,” Kuvira chided.

Korra could have sworn she’d given them a wink, though.

A tall, handsome man with Water Tribe features walked up to the stage. He had a microphone in his right hand and was talking to the crowd with the same kind of enthusiasm that door-to-door salesmen have. Korra didn’t really pay him any attention, except when he got to the part about free time. She craned her neck to hear better.

“You will get two hours in the evening before dinner to relax and reflect on what you have learned for the day. You may do whatever you want with that time, but you will be spending it in groups and with a counselor in sight.”

Nobody booed. Nobody groaned and complained. Korra could feel an aura of fear radiating from these kids.

“Well fuck,” she thought. She let out a huff. “There’s no way he’s gonna let me go swimming unless it’s in a group.”

Mako shot her a glance and raised one of his eyebrows. She waved him off.

“You will each be living in a cabin with another roommate, those of you who are spending your first summer here will be sharing a cabin with a roommate who can ‘show you the ropes’, as they say. Cabins will be inspected every night before light’s out. Wouldn’t want you guys to be snuggling in contraband, no would we?” Noatak said, chuckling at the last sentence.

No one laughed.

Noatak listed off some more rules; no being alone with a member of the same sex away from counselor supervision or the dormitories. Pretty obvious. No drugs, alcohol, or pornography. Also fucking obvious. No cellphones allowed.

“DAMMIT” Korra thought.

She had left her cellphone in the front pocket of her suitcase, and she was certain Zhu Li and the other counselors were searching everyone’s bags for banned paraphernalia. No wonder they wanted to take her luggage when she arrived. Dammit, dammit, dammit! Her cellphone was the only connection she had to her friends in the North. All… one of them. And Hopah probably didn’t want to text Korra back after what happened. She supposed it wouldn’t be much use. Still, it would have been nice to know that the counselors were going to go through her shit.

“All right, everyone. Try to get settled in. We start tomorrow. It’s your brand new life awaiting you!”

No one cheered.

Noatak hopped off the stage and gave another man a nod. He looked a little younger, with three really wacky braids in the back, but they looked related. He must’ve been Tarrlok.

“Man, how many Water Tribe people work here anyways?” Korra thought curiously.

The counselors and older campers, who knew the routine, stood up and beckoned for everyone to follow. Everyone walked up to a buffet-style arrangement of food. There were a handful of cooks standing around, no doubt waiting for praise.

“Hey Mako, how’s the camp treating you?” one of the cooks said jokingly.

“Hey Bolin,” Mako said with a hint of a smile (Korra hadn’t thought that possible).

“Do you know this guy?” Wu asked curiously.

“Yeah, he’s my… he’s a friend,” Mako said, glancing at Kuvira. She was busy chatting with another counselor. “But we probably shouldn’t talk about it here.”

Overall, the quality of the food wasn’t bad. Then again, this place was hella expensive. There’s no way Senna and Tonraq could afford it. Not that they would send Korra here. 

“Nine more weeks, Avatar,” she thought, using her parent’s nickname for her. “You just have to make it through nine more weeks.”

After dinner everyone went outside. Because they were both new to the program, Mako and Wu didn’t get to be roommates (Korra thought she saw a flash of disappointment on Wu’s face). Kuvira pointed the girl in the direction of Tarrlok’s roster, which had cabin assignments on it.

“Ah yes, Korra is it?” he asked, not even bothering to make eye contact. “Your Uncle Unalaq told me all about you. I do hope that you can find yourself on the correct path here.”

Korra rolled her eyes (thankfully he didn’t notice). Tarrlok assigned her to cabin 16B and sent her away.

The cabins were arranged in two rows of eight, and each one was spaced really far away from the rest. Korra was stuck all the way at the very, very, back. Which meant she would have to walk further to get to everything.

“At least he’s giving me privacy.”

Korra strolled past all the other cabins on her way to her new home. Kids were bustling to unpack, while counselors were dictating which decorations were appropriate for boys and which ones were suitable for girls. Korra watched as girls were forced to throw out sports posters and boys discarding inappropriate t-shirts.

“Come on, dude, really? It’s Ellen Degeneres! She’s amazing!” Wu moaned to Kuvira.

The counselor didn’t even hesitate. “I’m sorry Wu, but Tarrlok doesn’t want anything that could confuse you and the other campers on your proper sexuality. It has to go.”

Wu slapped the rolled-up poster into Kuvira’s hand. As she walked out of the cabin, Korra could swear she heard the boy say something along the lines of, “I’m not confused about my fucking sexuality. Fucking bigots.”

Korra walked up the creaking stairs of cabin 16B. It smelled like dust and cobwebs and… jasmine? The door was shut and Korra knocked. Nobody answered, and she carefully peeped inside.

“Um, hello? Anyone home?”

No one answered.

Korra let out a sigh and pushed her way in. Her battered Water Tribe suitcase was laying on the bed. When she opened it, she couldn’t help but let out a snort. All of her clothes, which she had hastily stuffed into it, were neatly folded. Sure enough, Zhu Li and whoever else had searched through her stuff, hoping to find contraband and other goodies.

“Sorry to disappoint.”

 Korra frowned. Her cellphone wasn’t in the front pocket. In its place was a piece of paper. They must’ve given everyone this paper if they had contraband:

We’ve confiscated this item as it was in the list of inappropriate equipment to bring to Camp Amon. The Camp Directors will hold onto it, provided it was an item deemed lawfully legal to remain in your possession. If so, please contact the Camp Directors at the end of the program. Any illegal items, such as drugs, weapons, or alcohol have been properly disposed of without notice to your parent or guardian. We hope that you will see this as a gesture of good faith, and not repeat this offence again. Pornography has also been disposed of. This is your first and only warning.

Korra unrolled her sleeping bag and pillow (which had also been neatly searched and rearranged by Zhu Li). She felt like crashing then and there; it had been a long day. She laid back on the pillow and tried to take a nap.

Someone could be heard coming up the wooden steps, and Korra sat up— rubbing her eyes. The door creeped open, and someone walked inside. The girl sat her luggage down on the bed— geez, who needs that many suitcases?!

The light switch flicked on. Korra hadn’t even seen it before. As the two girls looked at each other Korra’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

Her roommate was the most gorgeous girl she had ever seen.

“Fuck.”