butterflies // stenbrough

- Bill -

"Hey B-B-Bev........ you're not Bev." Bill paused after seeing a girl that was objectively not Beverly Marsh in the arts & crafts cabin. Black hair cascaded down her shoulder, not the fiery locks he was used to. This girl was a little bit shorter too, and a little bit more faithful to the camp dress code. Her neon official camp t-shirt contrasted nicely with her dark brown skin.
"No I am not! Why, are you looking for her? She's in our cabin, I'm just cleaning up." The mystery girl said.
"I'm j-j-just here to pick up a b-backpack for one of my kids." Bill told her, spotting said backpack in the corner.
"That's nice! Tell him I like the race cars." She smiled.
"Will do." Bill grabbed the bag "I d-d-don't mean to be rude but I th-thought Bev's cabin partner was G-Greta, right?"
    "It was, but she got some weird stomach bug. Threw up like eight times and turns out that was one too many for camp, she got sent home. I was only supposed to be here for August but they asked me to come in a little bit earlier. I'm June." June extended her hand.
    "Bill." He shook her hand, which was surprisingly very soft. For whatever reason, June didn't let go of his hand. Just continuing to shake his hand with intense eye contact. "Well I s-s-should get this b-back."
    "Of course." She finally dropped his hand "See you around Bill."
    "See you June." He gave her a quick smile before heading back to his cabin with the bag. He thought about June on the walk back, she was quite nice, and really pretty. Definitely an upgrade from Greta. Her handshaking skills could use some work but besides from that, Bill really liked her. He made a mental note to talk to her at the next counsellors meeting.
    "That took a while, did you and Beverly talk about anything interesting?" Stan asked as he returned with the bag.
    "She w-wasn't there."
    "What do you mean?" Stan furrowed his brow.
    "It was her new cabin p-p-partner, June. She's nice, you'd like her." Bill explained.
    "Oh that makes more sense." Stan relaxed "I was worried you had gotten entranced by Greta."
    "That's c-c-completely correct. I'm leaving you for G-G-Greta, we're over." Bill teased.
    "Mean but understandable." Stan sighed.

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"Alright, alright, settle down!" Kyle yelled, overkill for what was really just a few conversations "As your head counsellor, I officially call this meeting of counsellors to order."
"Drama queen." June whispered into Bill's ear, who promptly put his hand over his mouth to stifle his laughter.
"What?" Stan whispered into his other ear.
"N-N-Nothing, just something June s-said." Bill responded quietly.
"Okay we need to talk. Counsellors, you know I love and appreciate all of the work you guys do. You guys are heroes, for real. But some of you are getting sloppy. The main hall is honestly a mess. Now Richie and Eddie, you've been on it for the last few days. It's been pretty messy, but I trust you guys can pick it up? You guys are great so I'm sure you can do it." Kyle said. Bill couldn't help giggling to myself as Kyle spoke, Kyle was probably only about a year older than the rest of them yet he acted like he owned the camp.
"Probably too busy making out to clean anything." Bowers remarked, to scattered laughter from the counsellors.
"Shut up Bowers." Richie rolled his eyes.
"Richie, Henry, we don't need talk like that here. This is a safe space." Kyle sighed.
"He started-"
"Richie, no. Respect here always." Richie rolled his eyes again and sunk back in his seat as Kyle shut him down.
"Now onto some more fun matters, we need to decide what our big event will be this week. The kids leave on Friday, so what is it gonna be? We could do a scavenger hunt again, or capture the flag, or whatever you guys suggest! You guys are real creative so no bad ideas!" Kyle smiled big.
A rough chorus of ideas being yelled out followed. Almost every counsellor had their favorite game. Some ideas weren't terrible, like a race with every camper. Some were terrible, Tommy from cabin two suggested that every kid should "hunt each other" whatever that meant. Bill knew exactly what he wanted to do, it had been his favourite game since he was a child. It probably wouldn't be picked over the dozens of other suggestions but there was no harm in suggesting it. Respectfully, he raised his hand instead of shouting like everyone else what.
    "W-W-W-What is it Billy?" Bowers mocked.
    "Yes Bill?" Kyle said.
    "What if we d-d-did castaways?"
    "Can you explain it?" Kyle asked.
    "Sure. So you s-split people into teams, this could be c-c-cabins, and they make up n-names and group d-d-details etc. Then they compete in s-s-smaller activities: races, archery, things l-l-like that. The team/cabin that wins the m-m-m-most is crowned castaways champions." Bill explained.
    "I really like that idea." Kyle said, underlining it on the whiteboard.
    "Yeah that's a really good idea Bill." June smiled.
    "Thanks." He replied, to her and the chorus of counsellors all agreeing with him.
    "Okay, let's vote. All for castaways?" An almost unanimous amount of hands went up, Bowers being the only one to keep his hand down "Okay then, with a whopping majority, castaways will be our game for Friday! Now let's plan details."
    They spent the next hour planning out the entire night, Bill participated in it more than he expected. He never even thought he would hear his voice at this meeting, definitely not as one of the dominant voices. But they all seemed to like his ideas, and he had so many of them, why keep them to himself? It felt like hours had passed, in a good way, when Kyle declared that they had all the plans and counsellors were free to leave if they so wished. Most people left but Bill decided to stay for a moment, remembering his mental note from earlier.
    "I know I said it earlier but that was a really good idea. I bet the kids will love it." June said.
    "Thank you, I hope so." Bill smiled. "Oh Stan, Stan! B-B-Before you leave, this is J-June."
    "Oh hi!" Stan walked over and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you, I'm Stan."
    "June." She gently shook his hand before letting it go at a perfectly appropriate time. She's learning Bill thought to himself.
    "How's staying with Beverly? I can't tell if it would be incredibly enjoyable or a total disaster." Stan joked.
    "Currently on the incredibly enjoyable part but you never know what will happen." She laughed, light and airy "No, no, it's actually really good. We get along well and she doesn't get mad when I gossip about the kids to her."
    "That's Stan's f-f-f-favourite thing to do."
    "I stand by it." Stan defended "I'm going to head back to our cabin but you guys have a good night."
    "No, I'll go with you. S-S-Should probably turn in." Bill gave one last smile to the girl next to him "Hopefully I'll see you s-s-soon."
    "See you soon." June replied, a twinkle in her eye.
    As they walked back to their cabin, Bill heard Stan let out a slight chuckle.
    "What?" Bill asked.
    "Are you aware that she has a crush on you?"
    "Huh? That's c-crazy! We're just fr-fr-friends, barely! We j-just met." Bill exclaimed. A crush? That's absolutely insane. They barely knew each other.
    "Tell that to her." Stan said, amused.
    "Shut up." Bill said playfully, lightly punching Stan on the arm. June having a crush on him? It was crazy! It made no sense, right? Right......?

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~ looks like a moustache