Camp Wildheart

Shipping, Talent, and the Dreaded Mom-Speech

Sophie

Sophie walked up to the sign up sheet in the dining hall. Their skit was very good. She wrote the title of their mini play under their grove's camper slot, then sat down at the table. 

Later that night, she would celebrate the coming of camp and a new sense of normal. But for now, she was going to enjoy hanging out with a very interesting group of campers who she knew were going to be a lot of fun to explore the national park with.

Annabeth

Annabeth looked at the Counselor Keefe, who had been left in charge while Sophie signed them up for skits, with marching orders to take them to the crafts buffer. He stared after her for just long enough that Annabeth wondered if he had a crush on his co-counselor, then turned to them.

"Ok, so I guess we're going to the crafts buffer... This way!" he hurried off towards the dining hall, but then turned suddenly onto a slightly hidden path. Tucked in the hidden area was a small cabin with a large porch. Scuffling noises came from underneath one of the tables. Keefe walked up to it and knocked on top.

"Hey, Dex! Is that you or a racoon?" There was a muffled thud, then a strawberry blonde boy popped up. His purple t-shirt had a bright green pom pom stuck to it, which he quickly brushed off.

The boy... Dex, spoke suddenly. "Is it your crafts rotation already? And where's Sophie?"

Just then, the cheerful voice of the other counselor called out "Right here, cuz! How's it going so far?" Sophie skidded to a sudden stop in front of them. "Why are we still here? Shouldn't we get going on the first craft now?"

They began sanding, then partially wrapping branches to make their own walking sticks.

Piper and Hazel were working with her in silence, and Annabeth was lost in thought until Piper said suddenly, "Is it just me, or does Keefe have a huge crush on Sophie?"

Annabeth smiled. "I noticed it too. I don't think Sophie realizes though."

Annabeth, Piper and Hazel watched as Keefe accidentally dropped the piece of sandpaper he was using through the cracks of the wood planking on the porch. He reached down, trying to fish it out with no success. Sophie laughed, not necessarily at him and handed him a new piece of sandpaper.

"Yeah." Hazel agreed. "I'm not an expert on crushes or anything, but he definitely likes her."

"Yup." a new voice chimed in. Annabeth spun in surprise. 

Dex had walked up behind them to see if they needed help with their walking sticks and overheard their conversation. "My cousin's really good at a lot of things, but telling when someone has a crush on her is most definitely not one of them." 

He smiled at Annabeth, and continued, "I came over to see if anyone needed help. I know it's just sandpaper, but I had to stop one of the people in the last group from accidentally sanding themselves. Somehow they got the scratchy side and the smooth side mixed up... Anyways, if you need anything, I'll be organizing the supply closets."

He walked off, his hands in his pockets, and Annabeth returned to sanding her walking stick.

Magnus

Magnus was getting slightly frustrated with the knots on his walking stick. It was supposed to become a handle, but it looked more like a tangle of cord. The crafts buffer guy walked up to him and offered to help.

 Magnus thought his name was Dex. Yeah, it was Dex. He was really good at tying knots, even better than Percy maybe.

Magnus was wondering how his friends back at Hotel Valhalla were doing, and he almost missed it when Sophie called out to them "..go! Thanks, Dex!"

Magnus followed the stream of people, and found himself walking next to Alex.

"Do you know what we're doing next?" she asked him.

Sophie overheard them, and called back, "Chores next! We get to clean up the campfire circle for tonight. This way!" 

She veered off the paved path onto a dirt road that snaked away from the buildings, ending at a large clearing with log benches around a stone pit. Keefe walked over to a large cabinet on the ground and began handing out dustbrooms.

"People always walk on the benches. It's fine, but we don't want anyone sitting in mud, so we usually clean the fire pit area before use." They began to work. Luckily, they only had to spend 30 minutes cleaning before they were following Sophie to the dining hall for dinner.

Sadie

It was loud in the dining hall, but not too bad. Dinner was actually not horrible, so that was a relief. Sadie had heard many stories about horrible camp food, but this was even better than cafeteria food.

At the end of dinner, Miss May mentioned the campfire again. It turned out that every single grove had submitted a skit. That revelation made Sadie go cold. If there were eight other skits, surely there would be ones that made theirs look like an ametur play.

She hated making a fool of herself. Carter made a fool of himself almost daily, but Sadie was definitely not eager to look like an idiot. At the end of the meal, they met back up with their counselors.

On the way back to their campsite to prepare, Sophie launched into a speech. "Okay, I know everyone's probably nervous. 

Gods, I'm nervous too. I'm not going to give you that prejudiced mom speech that assures you you'll be the best one there. 

But we practiced for a solid two hours, and we came up with an original skit. That's really hard. 

Most of the skits on the board are the famous ones that everyone knows already, like the invisible bench. At the risk of sounding cliche: We'll be fine!"

She turned and began walking faster. When they got to their 'cabins', they gathered their things and ran through the skit dialog one last time. Sophie had gone ahead to the fire pit to help start the campfire, and about 15 minutes later, they began walking in the same direction. Sadie's nerves were tingling as she imagined being on stage.

Yeah, this one was maybe a little cliche, but I think it's decent?

The raccoon line makes me smile so much TBH

Galaxy, up up and away.