Helpless

2. The Counselors

"Welcome to Sunshine Camp, little fellas!" the red haired man greeted, smiling brightly. "My name is Romeo, and I'll be your camp counselor for the next two weeks."

The group of campers gave their counselor a skeptical look, inspecting him closely. He had crimson hair and a beard, and was wearing a green camp shirt with dark blue jeans and red converse shoes.

"My co-counselor should be here any minute now to give you fellas a tour of the place." Romeo explained, looking around for any sign of his coworker. As if it were magic, a woman with purple hair appeared out of no where. Not literally, but you know. "Ah, there you are Xara. These are the students I told you about."

"Hey kids." Xara greeted in a bored tone, clearly being the least enthusiastic of the two. "Welcome to camp."

"Now Xara, make sure to answer any questions these fellas might have." Romeo instructed. Xara nodded and gestured for the campers to follow her. She showed them the mess hall, activities field, pier, counselors cabin, and finished the tour at the cabins where the students were sleeping.

"This is where you'll be staying. There's three beds in each cabin, so make groups of three, or something." Xara explained. In contrast to her happy and upbeat co-counselor, she seemed rather jaded and unenthusiastic.

"Buuuut, plot twist, we already made groups in the bus!" principal Soren announced. There was a chorus of "No!"'s, "Boo!""s and one "MAN!" from Aiden.

The principal named the groups, and eventually, all the students went to their cabins to unpack their stuff. The teachers decided to give their students some free time until it was time for lunch, and after that they'd do some sort of camp activity. Jess opened the door to cabin 04 and stepped inside, with Maya and Binta following behind.

"This cabin sure looks better on the inside than on the outside." Maya commented, placing her bags down on the bed she claimed and unpacking them.

"I actually think it looks kinda nice." Jess admitted, sitting down on her bed which felt surprisingly soft and comfy.

"Alright ladies, now that we're here we gotta set some ground rules." Binta announced to her roommates. She was a bit of a commander sometimes, but she meant well. "Number one, if you must make a mess, clean it up afterwards. Number two, no fighting and/or bickering. Number three.." she kept rambling on and on.

"Binta, I think you're overreacting." Maya interrupted her. "Besides, rules are meant to be broken. It's what they're for."

"What? Rules are very important!" Binta argued. Which is ironic, because didn't she just say that arguing wasn't allowed?

Jess had just been kinda standing there and decided to change the subject. "Hey guys, when's lunch starting?"

"In a few minutes, actually." Binta said, turning to face Jess.

"Alright, you two continue your bickering. I'm going to go to the mess hall and get something to eat." And with that, Jess was gone.

—

Lunch consisted of fresh fruit and plain bread. It wasn't the most amazing meal, but it was pretty decent. And as long as it was edible, no one seemed to care what they were eating. Everyone was eating their lunch and chatting, meanwhile the teachers were standing at side, discussing random teacher things. Romeo then bursted through the door, with Xara slowly following behind.

"Good afternoon, campers! I hope you're all ready for some Sunshine Funtime activities! Ooh, I wonder if we can trademark that.." Romeo mumbled that last part under his breath. Xara rolled her eyes.

"For today's camp activity you'll be drawing something that makes you happy. I know it's childish, but I have better things to do." Xara sighed and started handing out the art supplies, listening to the chatter of her campers.

"Honestly, how old do these people think we are?" Axel muttered.

"I know right? It's like middle school all over again!" Lukas added.

"What are you guys talking about? I think it's fun!" Jess said, who was happily making a drawing on her paper.

"Jess, have you ever considered that some people maybe aren't as excited about camp as you are?" Jesse asked.

Jess pouted at her brother and crossed her arms. "Well maybe you guys are just boring."

The campers started drawing stuff on their paper, even though the majority of them found it boring and lame. The only ones who actually enjoyed the activity were Jess and Lillie, who were both in the art club. After drawing, the students were allowed to either explore the camp or do something fun. Jesse was hanging out at the pier listening to Lukas talk about how wonderful his girlfriend was. Not that he didn't care, it was just really hard to concentrate when his mind was set elsewhere.

Lukas stopped mid sentence, sighing in frustration. "You're not even listening to me, are you?"

Jesse turned to his best friend and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, I was thinking about something."

Lukas raised an eyebrow. "Is something on your mind?"

Jesse looked down at the lake and shrugged. "Kinda. But it's probably nothing important."

Lukas wanted to say something, but stopped and decided it was probably none of his business. And if it did end up being something important, Jesse would tell him about it. Hopefully. He slightly turned his head and saw Jordan walking up to them.

"Hey guys, we're going to hang around the campfire this evening. Telling spooky stories and stuff. You coming?"

Lukas nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"I don't see why not." Jesse said as he shrugged.

"Awesome!" Jordan exclaimed before leaving, but quickly stopped and said: "Oh, and make sure to prepare your scariest horror stories. It's gonna be a spooky night!"

When Jordan was gone, Jesse made eye contact with Lukas. "I don't think I know any spooky stories, I'm not that into horror."

Lukas shook his head. "Me neither, but I'm sure the others have some good ones."

Jesse started trailing off, and a silence slowly but surely filled the atmosphere around them. He stared off into the distance, searching for even the slightest ounce of motivation.

"Hey, wanna see what the others are up to?" Lukas proposed, placing a hand on Jesse's shoulder. Jesse looked up to him and smiled softly.

"Heck yeah."