That’s it. Marlene is going to murder Sirius.
He disappeared a half hour ago, saying he was going to get extra paint brushes when Marlene pointed out how they only had five in their storage bin when they had well over 15 campers in their unit.
It is the annual poster making week of camp, where each unit is assigned to create a poster showing their favorite camp activity. The unit with the best voted poster receives squeeze pops Friday evening and gets to have their poster displayed for the rest of the summer at the front of camp. On top of that, the counselors in the winning unit get bragging rights, which of course, Marlene and Sirius agreed they MUST be the winners to rub it in their friends faces. Now, Marlene is stuck trying to entertain all of these eight year old campers along with Pete and Alice, who are brand new to camp this year and are still in the honeymoon phase of being a counselor, and her rage is building under the surface.
Marlene has submitted to all these kids asking her thousands of questions to entertain themselves for the time being. She glances over at the other two counselors, who are being climbed on, so she supposes she has it better than them at least.
She rolls her eyes at them.
Now, don’t get Marlene wrong, she likes her co counselors, but she is missing her dynamic duo. All these campers like Sirius and Marlene together. They have a power dynamic and can bounce fun things off each other. When it’s just one of them, they tend to start to drown under the stress of being in charge of so many little devil children.
Marlene has at least 3 ideas of how she can murder Sirius when he gets back when one of the more devious campers speaks to her.
“Webslinger, when is Padfoot coming back?” Oh, that’s another thing she’s going to murder Sirius over. He forced her to pick the silliest camp name under the sun. She wanted to do something aesthetically pleasing, but no, she had to live with stupid “Webslinger” after all of these years.
“Teddy, I told you to stop asking me that.” Marlene’s patience disappeared 15 minutes ago. She usually prides herself on being good with children, especially at this age as she has been working with Sirius in this specific camp unit for 3 years, but even after so many years, Marlene gets tired. And Teddy has asked her TEN TIMES when her deadbeat partner in crime was returning, and she is sick of it.
“But you never answered me.” Jeez, do third graders have to be that whiny?
“Because I don’t have to answer you. But you have to listen to me.”
“That’s not faaaaaair.”
“I’m the adult here, it doesn’t have to be fair.” She sounds like her mom, and it makes Marlene want to gag.
“You’re boring without Padfoot.”
“YOU’RE boring.” Great, now she sounds like a third grader. She needs to get away for a bit.
She glances over to Pete, camp name Wormy, and Alice, camp name Frog, who are both STILL being used as a jungle gym, somehow with smiles on both of their faces. God, they are also starting to annoy Marlene.
She needs a break.
“Wormy, Frog, I'm going to go find Padfoot, will you be okay to hold down the fort for a few minutes alone?”
Pete looks like he’s going to object, his mouth staying agape for a few minutes like he’s trying to figure out the best way to decline, but Alice quickly beats him to the punch, saying “we got this, go ahead!”
Marlene quickly makes a break for it before that statement can be rethought. Normally she’d feel bad for abandoning sweethearts like Pete and Alice like that, but she really needed to distance herself from this situation.
Also, she has to go murder someone, so she had priorities.
-
As Marlene made her way towards the arts and crafts area on camp, she couldn’t help but get distracted by the rustling of trees.
She looks up, seeing a few squirrels jumping from branches, chasing each other around. Just as she was glancing away, she caught 2 red robins flying by the same trees, flying towards the gap in the branches up to the sky. Not one cloud was in sight, and the two birds were going right into the beautiful sea of blue, where the sun was shining brightly down on the entirety of camp.
It pained Marlene to think about it, but camp really was a beautiful place.
At least, it pained her to think it in this exact moment, while she was trying to plan Sirius’ death.
Speaking of death, suddenly there was the sound of someone else being murdered verbally directly on Marlene’s right. It was a camp unit that was empty this week.
She walked over past the tents obstructing her view to find Lily Evans, camp name Red, doing the verbal murdering at James Potter, camp name Prongs.
“- and the complete lack of CONTROL you and Milk have. I can’t believe I have to have this conversation with you more than halfway through the summer.”
Lily was the supervisor of us counselors. So she was always telling the counselors to be more mature, which is a hard task. James is a star counselor, so this is a rare occurrence to see him being scolded by the camp’s version of a manager.
Lily continues her verbal assault. “Next time either of you do something like that, I’m going to push you both into the pool in front of the entire camp.”
“...You wouldn’t.” James stutters out.
“Try me, Prongs.”
James stands frozen in place, Lily turns to walk away, noticing Marlene standing there. Marlene feels a shiver run down her back as Lily looks at her with glaring eyes.
“Red, you are so scary sometimes.” Marlene says.
Lily scoffs at this. “You don’t receive this position without having a bit of a bite.”
“A ‘bit’? Public humiliation is a ‘bit’ to you?”
Lily shrugs. “Prongs and Milk would deserve it.”
“Cruel and unusual, Red.” Laughs Marlene
Milk, like Prongs, is a fan favorite camp counselor to the campers and staff alike. Milk’s real name is Regulus Black, brother of the estranged camp counselor Sirius, AKA who Marlene is on her way to murder currently. Regulus also hates swimming, so Lily threatening to push him in a pool is pretty mean.
Regulus and James are usually not counselors getting scolded by Lily. Usually those roles are filled by Barty, whose camp name is Rocky, as well as Sirius and Marlene. Now, after this summer, it’s safe to say that James and Regulus can be added to the list of troublemakers.
“I think you mean cruel and USUAL.” James cries. “She’s always doing this to me and Reg this summer.”
“First off, Prongs, please use camp names, we have them for a reason. Second off, I wouldn’t have to be as strict if you and Milk didn’t forget that your main job here is to be counselors and not boyfriends.”
“Can you blame me? I’m a romantic.”
“You’re also in your honeymoon phase, and I need you to NOT be.”
“Lily Evans is a romance killer!” James says a little too loudly.
“PRONGS! CAMP NAMES!”
“FINE. RED IS A ROMANCE KILLER!”
“PRONGS I SWEAR IM GONNA-”
“HEY!” Marlene yells to break up whatever the hell this is about to turn into. “Have either of you seen Padfoot?”
“Padfoot is not in the unit? Who is watching your campers?” Lily turns on manager mode again.
“Wormy and Frog are holding down the fort. And Pads went off to get paint brushes over 30 minutes ago and I am trying to track him down so I can murder him for abandoning me.”
“Have you checked the arts and crafts area?” James asks the way he would talk to a camper, much to Marlene’s annoyance.
“ I haven’t yet, that’s where I was headed when I started to hear your public execution.”
“Ah see that? Marlene was coming to my rescue.”
“Camp names!” Lily, once again, corrects, rubbing her temples.
Realizing neither of them know where Sirius is, and are not going to be helpful, Marlene decides to start walking back in the direction of the arts and crafts unit.
She hears the rustling of leaves coming from behind her, however, and realizes Lily and James are following her. She gives them both a quizzical look.
James shrugs. “I can’t have you murder my best friend.”
“Even if he deserves it?” Marlene counters.
“I believe in ‘innocent until proven guilty’.”
“Oh, he is guilty, I can confirm.”
“I can second that he is guilty.” Lily adds.
“Maybe he has a good reason for disappearing for so long.” James defends.
“Yeah, a defense coming from you, Prongs, is not helping his case.” Marlene chuckles.
“I don’t appreciate getting teamed up by you two.” James complains, pointing skeptical fingers at the two girls. They just laugh and continue walking to the arts and craft unit.
-
The arts and crafts area looks very normal, campers sitting at the spread of picnic tables working on free draw, with their unit counselors casually hanging around the campers to assist when they need help.
The table directly in the middle of the wooden canopy is occupied by the two counselors who run the specialty, who add a bit of chaos no matter what.
Evan, whose camp name is Apollo, is sitting on the bench connected to the table. He had about 10 different colors of paint cans lined up on the table in an almost perfect circle around him, and a sketch on a 18’’ x 24’’ poster board directly in front of him, which he is intently staring at.
Pandora, whose camp name is Artemis, is standing on top of the same table, with 3 books beneath her, which she is balancing on. She has her hands directly above her reaching out towards the ceiling of the canopy, giving her perfect leverage to the mural she is painting.
The twins are currently working on painting a mural on the canopy. They’ve been working since the beginning of the summer, and it took them almost half the summer to even decide what they wanted to make. Pandora wanted to paint a mural around the moon, and Evan wanted to paint a mural around the sun. They finally decided to combine the two ideas, and paint an eclipse mural.
Evan addresses the trio as they walk up to the picnic table.
“Why hello there Red. Prongs, Webslinger, hello hello. How may we assist you today?” He folds his arms over the poster board, which makes Marlene cringe thinking he is getting paint all over his lower arms.
“Happen to see Padfoot around here?” Marlene asks and she swears she sees Evan’s face do something funny at the mention of Sirius’ camp name, but it too quickly went back to normal for her to comment.
“Padfoot? I don’t think so.”
“Really?” Marlene questions. “He hasn’t been around, even just to peek in really fast?”
“Nope, haven’t seen him all day.” Evan concludes.
“He left our unit like 45 minutes ago to go get extra paint brushes from you.”
Evan just shrugs and moves his arms out of the way he has them folded to go back to his focus on the poster, now with streaks of paint smudged on his forearms.
“I’ve seen him.”
The trio glance up at Pandora, who is still staring at the bottom side of the canopy with her hands up holding her in place, but she’s looking down at them.
“You have?” Marlene asks.
“No she hasn’t.” Evan answers, glaring at his sister from below.
“Yes I have.” Pandora fights back, glancing down at him.
“No, you HAVEN’T, Artemis.”
“YES, I-”
“Hey! no fighting in front of campers, you two.” Lily scolds.
Evan and Pandora sheepishly look away from each other, going back to being quiet for a few moments.
Marlene pushes again. “He was here?”
“Well, actually-” The books shake under Pandora’s feet momentarily, getting a gasp from both Lily and James. She starts to fall, almost fully losing her footing, with one foot fully out in the air, and both hands now flailing. Just before she can fall flat on her ass, Lily is on the table, catching Pandora’s flailing arms on her own and cushioning the impact as Lily then falls back onto the table on her back, Pandora on top of her.
Marlene, James, and the rest of the campers and counselors under the canopy are staring at the scene in front of them, eyes wide and mouth agape. The only person who doesn’t seem shocked by these events is Evan, almost like he was expecting this, or just that he was still mad at his sister.
Lily Evans, the put together, hard ass, boss that she is, was now turning as red as her own hair as she stares at Pandora, then quickly glances away. Pandora also starts to blush, giggling awkwardly.
“Um, thanks, Lily.” She quietly speaks as she rolls off her.
“Oh! Yeah. It was nothing. I mean - anyti- I MEAN… You’re welcome”. She sighs as she gets her breathing back to normal. Lily is now looking directly up at the canopy. “The mural is looking great, by the way.”
Pandora, still blushing, was about to respond, when a loud noise came from inside the arts and crafts shed off to the left. The doors and windows are on the opposite side of the shed, facing away from the campers, so it was impossible to peek inside from the angle they were all in.
“Um, what was that?” Marlene asks.
“Oh! What I was saying before we…um.. I fell… was that-”
“Pandora, shush!” Evan interjects.
“Apollo! Camp names!”
“WHAT? You didn’t correct Artemis!”
“That’s…different.”
Evan stares dumbfoundedly at Lily and Pandora. James and Marlene glance at each other, obviously mentally saying the same thing.
“Artemis, what were you saying?” James tries.
“What I was saying was that Padfoot WASN’T here, but he IS here.”
Marlene is frozen. Evan looks guilty. James looks confused. But Lily seems to be able to move. She is running over to the shed and yanking open the doors, before anyone can stop her. Marlene follows her shortly after and glances inside.
Inside the shed, Marlene finds Sirius, her co counselor she has been planning to murder, and Remus Lupin, camp name Moony. They are both standing exactly 2 feet apart from each other, but it was so obviously they were closer to each other just a few seconds ago.
“Are you f-ing kidding me, Sirius?” Marlene exclaimed.
“Listen, I can explain-” He attempts to defend himself.
“I don’t want to hear you flounder trying to find a good enough reason as to why you abandoned me in our unit just to make out with your boyfriend!” Marlene scoffs.
“That wasn’t my plan though! I came here to get the paintbrushes I swear. It’s just that Remus happened to be here when I arrived and…well… It just happened…?”
“This is true, I can confirm.”
“No one asked you, Moony.” Marlene growled.
Remus held his hands up in surrender.
James, Pandora, and Evan came running around the shed to see the commotion. Evan still looks incredibly guilty and a little uncomfortable with the situation happening in front of him. James just shakes his head.
“Oh, my gosh, I should have guessed this is where’d you’d be, Pads.” James chuckles.
“Shut up Prongs.”
There’s a full moment of silence before Lily’s verbal assault on the couple begins.
“How dare the two of you abandon your units to go make out in a gross shed.”
“It’s not THAT gross.” Sirius states.
“AND to make Apollo lie for you? Truly despicable.”
“Don’t go thinking he’s innocent here, it’s not like we are the only couple sneaking away here, why do you think Rocky disappears all the time, hm?” Sirius huffs.
“WHAT?”
This is news to everybody.
“...I’m going to walk away now.” Evan walks back to the canopy.
After Evan is out of view, Remus speaks.
“I didn’t know he had that in him, to be honest.”
“Moony, literally shut up right now.”
There is yet another moment of full silence.
“Well,” Pandora breaks the tension, clapping her hands together as she speaks. “ I think I'll go back to the mural painting. Good luck everyone!”
On her way back around the shed, Pandora bumps a hand against Lily’s. They both glance at each other for a few seconds, blushing again, before Pandora continues walking.
Lily gives a sigh.
“Alright, I am going back to my rounds. You four, please go back to wherever you should be, and for the love of god, no more sneaking away and making out with people.”
As she is about to round the corner of the shed, she looks over her shoulder, adding on,
“Yes Prongs, this includes Milk.”
It takes a minute for Sirius to react, but before he can, James decides to sprint away back to where he should be.
As James sprints away, he bumps into Dorcas Meadowes, whose camp name is MJ.
With Dorcas’ present, Remus’ body language changes and he is a lot more antsy than he had been this entire time.
“Where the HELL have you been, you jerk.” Dorcas speaks directly to Remus.
“Listen, I can explain-” Remus tries the same bullshit Sirius tried on Marlene.
“Don’t give me any of that, just get back to our unit right now or else I swear you’ll find a shit ton of frogs in your backpack by the end of the day.” Dorcas demands.
Remus looks like he’s going to argue back, but instead just leans over to Sirius, gives his shoulder a squeeze, then hangs his head and walks out of the shed and back to where he should be.
This leaves Marlene, Sirius, and Dorcas at the arts and crafts shed.
“Um, hey, Webslinger, I was thinking-”
“Padfoot, if you know what’s best for yourself, you’d just take the paint brushes and go back to our unit. Right now.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Sirius salutes, grabs the paint brush bag from the shelf next to him, and runs away, not even seeing Marlene start to seethe after being referred to as ‘ma’am’.
Once Sirius is fully gone, Marlene lets out a sigh and lets her head rest on Dorcas’ shoulder.
“You okay, babe?” Dorcas asks, knowing they were fully alone now and the arts and crafts area cannot hear them.
“Yeah, just been having a stressful day, that's all.” Dorcas chuckles.
“Our co counselors are going to be the death of us, aren’t they?” Marlene grunts.
“Not if I don’t murder them first.” Dorcas laughs.
“Oh, I’d pay to see that. Let me know when you sell tickets.” Marlene turns to look fully at her girlfriend.
“You’d get front row tickets.” Dorcas leans forward to lean her nose on Marlene’s.
“The perks of dating the best girl ever.”
The two of them stare into each other’s eyes for a few moments, just enjoying being in each other’s presence.
“You know,” Dorcas starts. “Our co counselors probably won’t realize if we get back a little bit later…” She trails off, glancing at the shed in front of them.
Marlene smiles and allows herself to get pulled into the wooden shack, doors shutting behind the two, and accepts Dorcas’ lips touching her own.
It no longer pains Marlene to admit to herself that camp is beautiful.