Blackbirds

welcome to camp nightwing

screech

the students inside of the bus were launched forward as their bus to camp nightwing had skidded to a stop. a girl groans as she got up from her seat, rubbing her nose that had taken most of the impact from the sudden stop. she grumbled as she pushed her hair from her face and got up to get her bags, like the other campers on the bus.

as soon as she had gotten off the bus, rather awkwardly as she tried to avoid the flying elbows reaching for their respective bags. she was greeted with the sight of more campers flocking into camp from their buses. 

the brunette looks around for familiar faces such as thomas slater or nick goode to help her find kurt and joan, the head counselors of sunnyside and shadyside. 

she stops as a scent of strawberries and roses hits her and for a brief second she saw a flash of red hair that had quickly disappeared into the crowd as quickly as it had come. she froze, whipping her head around in feeble attempts to find the owner of the fiery hair before stopping and cursing herself for getting distracted again. shaking her head to regain focus, she strains her ears to listen for any announcements made by the counselors.

finally, the excitement of this summer had come back to her. she was ready for change, to forget, and to make memories with campers in her first year as a camp counselor, actually a counselor in training, but technicalities like that never really mattered to her. the excitement bubbled in her stomach, but then the nervousness weighed in her like a ton of rocks. she turns to go back into the bus out of fear but it is already gone and the campers are chattering with happiness as they walk towards the entrance of the camp.

"attention to all campers, new and old, sunny or shady,  you will be reporting to the mess hall over on the right! counselors! you will be coming to me to get assigned your cabins and roles!" a familiar, and annoying voice had yelled, grabbing the attention of the nervous girl.

letting out a deep breath, she puffs up her chest and walks over to the shouting counselor, head of the sunnyside campers, kurt, and next to him is the ever-so flirtatious joan, head of the shadyside campers. 

as soon as they notice the young girls figure the quickly glance at each other and roll their eyes.

"campers are to report to the mess hall. did you not hear kurt the first ten million times?" joan huffed in annoyance. 

"um, actually, i'm a counselor in training this year." the girl responded quietly.

"it's required you to go to camp two years before becoming a counselor." the older boy said, rolling his eyes once more.

"kurt, i've, uh, been here since i was six, you were my counselor last year. don't you remember me?" the girl got more upset as they talked. kurt squints his eyes, looking down his nose at the cowering girl, before recognizing her.

"uhhh, it's nessie, right?" he said with little care.

"actually, it's vanes-" the tired girl tried to correct him, but was promptly cut off.

"wait hold on, nessie?" joan said with recognition, peering over kurts shoulders with curious animosity, "like vanessa moore? as in the cousin of that psycho girl who kill-"

"thats enough jo-" kurt lamely tried.

"aren't you cursed?"

silence surrounded the three for a brief moment before the laughter of kids and scolding of counselors sounded around them.

"look, i'm just here to be assigned a cabin, okay? It's my first year as a counselor in training" vanessa muttered, looking away to avoid seeing the vicious glare kurt was giving the innocent looking joan. 

"right, you're gonna be training with nick goode in cabin 6, sunnyside, but you'll sleep in cabin 6 with the shadysiders, we don't have enough shadyside counselors to watch over those witches." he said, still glaring at the even more confused joan.

venessa grabbed a name tag off of the table and walked over to cabin 6, shadyside, to drop off her belongings before making her way to the mess hall in search of a certain goode. 

"nessa?" a soft and weak voice called towards vanessa.

"nurse lane?" vanessa says, freezing at the spot.

"sweetheart, I haven't seen you since the funeral." mary lane says in a soft tone.

vanessa wanted to scoff at her aunt, ruby's funeral was barely a funeral at all. all their friends and family refused to attend and nearly all of the grave diggers in sunnyside and shadyside refused to help bury her cousin. they had just barely managed to get an unmarked grave for her, near the garbage dump side of town. ruby never even got a coffin. she was buried in a body bag. 

the memories of her late cousin brought back the pang in her chest. sweet, kind, and talented ruby was gone, but so was that part of vanessa's life. 

"nurse lane, i know you're just being nice, but i don't wish to see you right now. i... i'm starting over, remember? i left shadyside behind years ago. so please, i just don't want to remember that." nessa says, still refusing to look at her aunt.

"oh," nurse lane says with embarrassment, "i understand... i apologize... i'll just be in my office. feel free to stop by whenever. "

nessa only lets out a breath of relief when she hears the nurses fading footsteps. 

after recollecting her composure, she tilts her chin up high and walks, confidently, straight into a wooden pole.

laughter erupts from her side and she can't help but freeze. the scent of strawberries is back, but stronger than ever, and roses that seem to allure her. time slows and the smell is intoxicating. the booming laughter brings excitement into the girl's heart. she turns to see a pale girl, shorter than she is, with fiery red hair and just about the prettiest blue eyes she's ever seen. the pain on her nose goes away and the grinning red head giggles.

"you okay there?" she says

nessa is speechless, but the embarrassment follows soon after.

"y-yea. i'm fine."

the girl lets out one more laugh before she walks off to the mess hall, only leaving a residual, yet still intoxicating scent behind her. 

nessa is left stunned by this girl with only one thing in her mind.

god i hope she's not a camper.