SUMMERLAND | shawmila

one.

There was no cell service. Camila hadn't expected anything less, but she didn't think it would hurt to check. She slipped her phone back into her shorts pocket and looked out the window.

They'd been on the dirt road for only a minute now, but everything familiar was slowly coming back to her. The wall of trees on either side, the smell of nature. Even the buzz of a mosquito in through the open windows. She'd been up here for a few days last week for training, but walking the empty paths felt so surreal. She couldn't wait to actually see kids running around.

It had been almost ten years since Camila been to Pine Point Camp as a camper. Nine years, to be exact, but the memories were still fresh. She lightly touched the beaded bracelet on her wrist.

She'd found it in a box of childhood things just weeks ago. Her applying to work as a counselor and actually getting the job all happened so fast, that she only just got the news to her mother, who promptly showed her the box that still had every art project and even her sash.

Camila was shocked that her mother kept those things. Camila herself had packed the box sometime in the school year following her last summer, but she ended up putting it away as she got even older. It wasn't that she wanted to forget, she just needed the room for other things.

Her younger sister didn't want to go to camp, and her parents didn't make her. Camila couldn't help but feel that was unfair. She definitely felt forced her first few years of going, but it was also worth it and she always ended up having fun.

Camila gasped as a foam ball hit her in the shoulder. The kids had been tossing it around the whole bus ride. She'd been willing to give them a pass as long as they didn't hit anyone with it and kept it far away from the front.

"Excuse me." Camila stood up and held up the ball up. "Whose is this?"

An immediate hush fell over the bus and the driver didn't stop. Camila bit back a smirk, noting how weird it felt to be in charge, to even be allowed to raise her voice and stand up.

"Whose is this?" She asked again, this time letting her smile show. She didn't want to intimidate them too much just yet.

"Mine..." A boy in the back raised his hand.

"Here," Camila tossed it back to him. "Put it away and sit still. We're almost there."

"Yes ma'am."

She flashed him a smile of good nature before taking her seat again. The last thing she wanted to do was appear unapproachable and scary.

Camila could already feel the sweat creeping on the back of her neck. She unwound the hair tie from around her wrist and pulled her hair into a ponytail.

The kids started pointing and chattering excitedly when they drove past the log sign at the entrance. Camila switched into her most effective counselor mode as they bus stopped in the parking lot outside the main lodge, the other bus' engine still humming.

"Okay, kids." Camila rose her voice. "Please file out one at a time and line up outside. Boys in one line, girls in another. Don't run—"

She watched them shuffle out of the bus and she followed behind, giving the driver a friendly nod. She stepped off the bus and saw the other pool of kids from the other bus were already forming wobbly lines.

Camila waved eagerly to Gwen, the other counselor her age and the one who'd trained her. Gwen waved back before doing a headcount of the girl's line.

Camila took out her roster. She'd be in charge of eight girls, all thirteen years old. Camila had known the horrors of being that age and silently wished she could get the younger kids who hadn't grown into thinking camp was lame.