Catradora Summer Camp

Could that be...?

A blond girl paced around her one bedroom apartment, folding washed clothes with one hand as she held her phone against her ear.

"Yeah Glimmer, I'm going to the camp tomorrow, first thing in the morning." Adora looked around her closet, making sure she wasn't forgetting anything.

"Around a month, depends on how the work goes. I wanna do something good for once, you know? Plus, I'll get paid for it. I gotta go now, I'll text you and I'll keep in touch." She hung up the phone and let out an exhausted sigh.

'Hm... I think it's all here.' Adora looked around her suitcase, making sure she had all she needed. She had signed up for a temporary job at a summer camp, where she would be taking care of children and planning activities.

Adora felt nervous, her palms were sweating although she didn't know why. She was excited to take care of the kids, mostly due to the fact that she didn't have a good childhood growing up.

Adora was brought up in the foster system, it was tough but eventually she was adopted. Don't get me wrong, Adora being adopted wasn't a good thing. The couple who took her in only wanted her for the compensation money.

But Adora worked hard, after spending most of her teenage years working in part time jobs, such as packing groceries, walking dogs and working as a mailwoman for three years, she was able to rent an apartment for a while.

She still had to keep working though, if not she would go straight to the streets, Adora had completely lost contact with her adoptive family, but it's not like they would help her anyways.

Adora never got to meet her real parents, nor she knew anything about them. She didn't have many people in her life, other than Glimmer and Bow. Adora had met them when she studied in an elementary school while she was adopted. They were the only people who meant something to her. Well...

Adora did have someone else in her life growing up, but it was long time ago. While she was back at the foster system, she grew up with a smaller girl named Catra.

The two girls were inseparable to the point they would usually sleep in bed together. Catra had the habit of curling up at the bottom of the bed, which looked extremely uncomfortable to Adora but the brunette never seemed to be bothered.

They grew up making promises of leaving the foster system together, Adora realized how much Catra relied on her, she had no other friends, even though Adora had better luck with the other foster kids.

One day, all of that connection came to an end when she was adopted. Adora recalled the last day while she packed her clothes.

'You're leaving me! You promised we would only leave together!'

'Catra, I can't help it! I'll come back for you one day.'

Adora left in horrible terms with her friend, although she tried writing letters, she never received a reply back. Sometimes she wondered if Shadow Weaver (The foster care owner) had ripped her letters to pieces, she was never particularly fond of Catra and their friendship.

When Adora was able to finally leave the adoptive parents' house, she went straight to the place where she grew up, in search for Catra, but she was nowhere to be found.

Adora was currently twenty years old and it had been eight years since she last saw Catra.

'I wonder if they have hot water there.' Adora let her thoughts wander as she laid on the bed. She was somewhat excited for this gig, she always liked playing with children and if she was getting paid for it, even better.

Adora decided to rest, she had to wake up early since summer camp provided the workers with a van pick-up.

~~

It was early in the morning and Adora had successfully packed everything, showered and waited outside to be picked up.

She didn't have to wait long until a white van stopped in front of her apartment. The side door opened up as she got in and found a seat next to a hippie.

"Hello there, you must be Adora, the new summer camp instructor!" A blond long-haired woman spoke while raising her hand, Adora accepted it and shook hands with the flower girl.

"Yes! My name is Adora, this is my first time here." Adora grinned.

"Great! My name is Perfuma, I've been working with Bright Waters Summer Camp for around five years now, if you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer." Perfuma raised her hand showing a peace sign while giving Adora a soft smile.

"That would be great! So is this everyone?" Adora pointed out to a few other people in the van, it was a bit empty, around five people only plus the driver.

"Oh no, we have another van that will pick up the other instructors, but they live on the other side of town." Perfuma reassured Adora, they would never be able to control a bunch of kids if there were just five of them.

"Oh great, what sort of activities will we be doing there?" Adora didn't get too much information from this job, she wanted to prepared for the worst case scenarios.

"Depends on the day, we will have a different schedule every week. We will do things such as yoga, swimming, camping, teaching them how to survive in the forest-" Perfuma was quickly interrupted by Adora, her eyes shining brightly.

"Wow! That's cool- I mean that's great!" Adora couldn't contain her excitement.

"I sense good vibes coming from you, are you excited?" Perfume smiled softly.

"Yes, I never got to do that as a kid, this might be fun for me too." Adora's eyes had a glimpse of sadness when she mentioned her childhood, but it quickly disappeared with the idea of doing all those things in the summer camp.

"That's the mindset I like, if we have fun, it won't feel like we are working anymore. Now I have to do my daily meditation routine so please do not interrupt." Perfume closed her eyes and crossed her legs, making a weird noise while breathing slowly.

"Ahummmmm. Auuummmmm"

"W-Well, okay then." Adora looked out of the window since they had been driving for a little while. They were definitely out of the city, currently moving past a dried up field with hay pallets stacked up.

—-

An hour later they had successfully arrived at the camp. There were wooden cabins and a vast forest nearby.

"Come with me Adora, we have to go to the assembly meeting, one of the managers will talk us through everything. I think it already started!" Perfuma waved catching Adora's attention.

They soon reached a wide room, there was a long wooden table in the middle with a few boxes. Adora struggled to walk into the room considering that it was already filled with people, around sixteen all around the room.

There was a blue haired girl who was giving instructions to everyone around the room. But it didn't seem like she wanted to be there. She kept saying the word 'like' and 'whatever' in every sentence.

"Who is she?" Adora whispered quietly to Perfuma.

"Oh that's Mermista, one of our organizers." Perfuma replied with a soft smile.

Adora let her eyes wander through the room, trying to see all the new faces she had to memorize, until her heart skipped a beat.

For a moment Adora thought she was going to pass out, her palms were sweating, her breath destabilized.

A familiar figured hovered around. Adora could recognize that wild mane from afar.

Could that be... Catra?

—
Artwork cover @/ okokcoool twitter.