Camp Firefly Sisters

Chapter 5
Camp Firefly Sisters, Chapter Five

Chapter Five

The longer I was a ‘camper,’ the more I was convinced this wasn’t some kind of embarrassing hazing that I was being put through as a new counselor.

Honestly, it was probably just denial at this point. Mckenna had blatantly told me that she registered me as a camper. And so far, I had gone through everything that campers went through on their first day. Or so I assumed, considering I wasn’t familiar with the camp experience. As I walked to the amphitheater with Bailey and Rachel, both of whom didn’t seem to doubt in the slightest that I was their age, a million thoughts were racing through my head.

Why did I get on the bus in the first place? I definitely had a chance to put my foot down, even if I was a bit pressured by the fact that my sister had my phone and one of the other counselors was ushering me forward. Or, backing up from there, why did I put on the camper t-shirt? I had somehow justified it to myself back then, but I was now realizing how much of a mistake that was. 

I wasn’t just dwelling on the past, either. Because what would happen now? Yeah, I was pretty small for my age, and I had been mistaken for younger numerous times. Except those embarrassing moments were always resolved quickly, and in situations I could ultimately just walk away from. But camp? I wasn’t about to stay here for two full weeks as a fucking Firefly. 

So, next steps. Find someone in charge, get them to believe me, and then . . . I had no idea. Go back home, ideally, unless they could make me a counselor on the spot. That seemed unlikely, when I was assuming they only had the budget for so many each summer, so many beds in their building, etc.. And, even if they could, this would be the most humiliating first impression. It would take forever to make the other counselors take me seriously.

Ugh. I was going to kill Mckenna. This was so not funny! Putting the embarrassment of it all aside, the thought of yet another 2-3 hour drive was so painful. Since this was a counselor’s fault, I had to imagine Camp Firefly would resolve the situation. Hopefully one of the adults in charge would have to make the round trip back to the city with me, as that would be a major inconvenience to them. Anything to get my sister in trouble at this point, as she totally deserved it.

As I settled on the loose plan, I realized there was one obvious obstacle in my way at the moment–I didn’t have my wallet on me. ‘FUCK.’ I was this close to swearing out loud. Managing to keep myself from exclaiming something like that with zero context, I instead turned to Bailey and said, “Hey, save me a seat? I forgot something back at the cabin.”

“Hmm. You should probably just wait until after Orientation, unless it’s an emergency or something,” Bailey said, “If a counselor sees you heading the wrong way, she’s just going to tell you to turn around.”

I mean- It wasn’t really an emergency. But I got her point about the other part. Pretty much everyone was walking in the direction that we were, and it would be super obvious if one of the girls was doing the opposite. What excuse would I give a counselor if she stopped me? “Umm,” I hesitated. While I didn’t really need to explain myself to Bailey, her response still gave me pause as I tried to figure it out for myself.

“It’s fine, Maddie!” Rachel chimed in, “Dinner is right after Orientation. We’ll have time to swing by our cabin before heading to the mess hall. The line is shorter if you wait a little bit, anyway!”

Okay. That was fine. While I would prefer to get on the road sooner rather than later, it was unlikely I’d be able to get anyone’s attention before whatever Orientation entailed. The counselors would be busy wrangling campers and preparing for whatever, and I could use the time to look for someone who might be able to handle my situation. Normally I’d try the head counselor, except my experience with Gwen earlier didn’t give me much confidence about changing her perception of me.

The amphitheater was packed. At least 150 girls; maybe even 200. For whatever reason, I had pictured this being a smaller camp. Probably because I had only seen a fraction of the campers in the high school parking lot earlier. While this area wasn’t officially divided by year, there were pretty big clumps of girls wearing the same color t-shirt. And, as a ‘camper,’ I was going to have to be part of the chaotic sea of outdoorsy teenagers. 

“Do you know who else is bunking with us?” Rachel asked.

“No idea!” Bailey replied, “It’s going to be impossible to find anybody, anyway. Want to just sit in the back for now? We can move up if we see somebody from last year, or someone still on the way can always join us. Work for you, Maddie?”

‘It’s Madeline.’ The words were on the tip of my tongue. Except she hadn’t said anything when Rachel used the nickname recently, and it was going to start sounding whiny if I insisted on the full name every time. Like Mckenna had told me earlier, campers tended to shorten names for some reason. Since I didn’t plan on sticking around for too much longer, I begrudgingly let the two girls I was with call me ‘Maddie.’ It wasn’t as if I was ever going to see them again.

It took a little while for the rest of the campers to filter in from their circles of cabins. Another girl, named Ally, did end up joining us. She was a returning camper that Bailey knew, rather than a bunkmate, who took the offer of the empty seat in the back rather than roaming one of the more crowded sections. It could have been a good opportunity to introduce myself as Madeline and remind the other two of my preference, except Bailey got there first. She introduced us to each other as Maddie/Ally, and I once again didn’t bother with a correction.

After being as friendly as I could tolerate while being mistaken as a thirteen year old girl, I let the campers beside me catch up while I continued my search. Aside from an authority figure who could sort out this mess, I also needed my phone back from Mckenna. Actually, no. My sister could be compelled to return the phone after I was no longer believed to be a camper. I really just wanted to berate Mckenna for everything, as I had been too flustered and confused before the bus ride to launch into such a tirade.

Apparently I didn’t need to look that hard. As the last of the campers settled into the area, the counselors started making their way towards the stage. Their red polos made them difficult to miss, which was obviously the point. Similar to lifeguards at the pool, it was all about campers being able to spot them for whatever reason.

Gwen stepped forward, microphone in hand, and got everyone’s attention. “Welcome to Camp Firefly, everyone!” she announced. That’s about as far as she got before she had to pause for a few seconds of excited cheers. It was annoyingly shrill to me; while girls my own age could also be enthusiastic about things, we were at least a little more calm about it. Moving right along, she said, “My name is Gwen. I’ll be your head counselor this summer! Now, I know all of you are really looking forward to hearing about some of our camp rules, but you’ll have to be patient. For starters, how many returning campers do we have this year?”

Once again, there was a pretty loud cheer across the amphitheater, as well as a lot of girls who briefly raised their hands as an additional form of response. Gwen posed the same question about new campers, which was actually about just as many girls when taking into account the entirety of the youngest group in orange t-shirts as well as campers who hadn’t been going every year since they were old enough. I didn’t initially participate in the hype, until Bailey gave me a smile and a nudge. Not wanting to be a wet blanket, even if I didn’t have the same energy as those sitting with me, I reluctantly raised my hand and gave a weak smile of my own that was no doubt a little awkward.

Now that the crowd was a little more hyped up, and she had a bit more of their attention, Gwen got into introductions. Starting with herself, talking about how she had been a Firefly all four years and loved it so much she wanted to be a counselor afterwards. How she was willing to bet that one of the older campers present would be head counselor just like her in a few years. She pulled it off in a lighthearted way, and definitely didn’t seem like the type of girl who was full of herself just because she had the title ‘head counselor.’ 

Considering Mckenna had also been a camper who then decided to become a counselor, that was probably the most common way those jobs continued getting new hires as other girls graduated out.

Once Gwen was done, she opened the floor for the other counselors to introduce themselves. There were thirteen total, including Gwen. Three for each year of campers, or something like that. Mckenna would never shut up about camp, especially after doing it as a counselor all summer last year; there were only so many stories I could feign interest about, and I would eventually tune her out at dinner. Even if I had been listening the whole time, I probably wouldn’t have retained the finer details.

Not all of the counselors had the stage presence that Gwen did, though they all seemed really into the first day of camp. What if I was up there, like I was supposed to be? I wasn’t sure I could pull off ‘bubbly.’ Some attitudes were possible to fake, like I sometimes did at school, but that was a familiar setting. The whole camp thing was brand new to me. Not that it mattered, now that I was out in the audience rather than up on the stage.

There were a couple familiar names and faces, like Pixie and Alex. Speaking of not paying attention, I really wasn’t giving my full focus to the counselors. I was thinking about how I was going to explain this to our parents to get Mckenna in as much trouble as possible, if any of my friends might be able to score me a job on short notice, and so on. Oh, and what about Will?! Aside from this being more lucrative than retail, the other draw for Camp Firefly was proximity to my crush. Thankfully, I decided to surprise him and not mention I would be here this summer. Still, there was still the chance he’d hit it off with one of the counselors my age, and I’d lose my shot. 

When Mckenna stepped forward to take her turn, I came back to the present for a minute. It’s not like I cared about her counselor introduction; she was just the only person I actually knew beyond those I had met today, and maybe some small part of me was still clinging to the concept that she was about to announce . . . something. Although if this was an embarrassing prank, I didn’t really want the spotlight and for the whole camp’s first look at me to be while I looked like one of the middle schoolers I was seated with. I’d prefer ‘showing up late’ and being introduced at dinner after changing into the counselor polo, or tomorrow morning, or whatever.

“Hey, everyone!” she confidently greeted the crowd, “I’m Kenna. Second year counselor, and three years as a Firefly before that. I’ll let you get away with almost anything if you bribe me with chocolate, my favorite parts of camp are bonfires and basically every lake activity, and- Oh!” As if she just thought of it, which I highly doubted, Mckenna said, “My little sister is here for the first time, so that’s exciting! Anyway, looking forward to two amazing weeks with all of you.”

I rolled my eyes, bracing myself for a comment from Bailey or Rachel, only to remember they had no idea that Mckenna and I were related. We both had blonde hair, sure, but plenty of girls had blonde hair. If anything, the average assumption would be that I was in the youngest group of campers. Not that anyone would dwell on it, since another counselor took the stage. I was willing to bet the most memorable part of Mckenna’s intro was her teasing bit about chocolate.

When the last counselor was finished, Gwen took the mic back and got into some of the camp rules she had jokingly kept everyone ‘in suspense’ for. “Now, I know the ‘buddy system’ sounds a little immature, especially for some of the older girls, but we don’t want anyone getting into a situation where no one knows where they are or how to find them. If you’re caught going somewhere alone, outside of the flagpole area, there will be consequences. As for meals . . . ” She kept going, managing to walk a fine line of being serious about stuff involving safety while still maintaining a friendly demeanor all the while.

It was all common sense, and I eventually stopped paying attention again. The same could be said for a number of girls around me who already knew all these rules as returning campers. That, and I knew from my own experience of listening to announcements at school with friends that you could only say so much before they started getting antsy. Sitting down, outside, after being stuck on a bus for a few hours? I had different reasons for not wanting to be here, but I could still understand their impatience.

To some degree, Gwen had accounted for that as well. While she had to do her job and get through her head counselor spiel, she didn’t drag things out or try to fit in any extra announcements after covering the important details. And, the moment she was done, she told everyone what was next. Two hours for dinner and for everyone to get settled into their cabins, and then some activities that were specific to each circle of cabins so campers could meet their bunkmates and those nearby. 

My plan really hadn’t changed. We were going right back to the cabin, where I had the proof that I needed. The only adjustment was that I was going to have to rely on Gwen to resolve this, as I hadn’t spotted any non-counselor adults at Orientation. They were probably doing more administrative stuff like the counselors did what they did best. It didn’t really matter; getting a minute with Gwen at the mess hall would be much simpler than anything else.

Even if the buddy system hadn’t been touched on, I’d still have ended up walking back with Bailey and Rachel. We were all going to the same place. Ally tagged along, as she was in our circle but not our cabin. I didn’t mind being the fourth wheel to the other three girls catching up after last year, for obvious reasons.

When we got back to the cabin, I let out a sigh of relief when my backpack and duffel bag were right where I had left them. I wasn’t sure why I expected anything different. Because Mckenna could have stolen my backpack, to make this more of a mess? Turns out, I wasn’t wrong to be worried.

My clutch was nowhere to be seen. At first, I thought it might have slipped down and gotten buried under something. It was a smaller accessory, as I really only brought the basics for a summer where I wouldn’t be seeing much civilization. After a minute or two of searching, however, I got to the point where I was pulling things out of the bag and tossing them onto the bed.

Between my expression and my searching, I was transparent enough for Bailey to ask, “Everything okay, Maddie?”

‘NO. My sister took my fucking wallet!’ Except I wasn’t about to explode on some girl, especially one who had been nothing but friendly since meeting me. A bit too talkative, but still. Instead, I shifted to another pocket of my backpack, on the off chance that I had somehow packed up in a different way than usual. “Everything’s fine,” I muttered, “I just- Is there anywhere that gets service here?” If Mckenna did take my wallet, either before we left the house or right before Orientation, the only other option I could think of at the moment was borrowing Bailey’s phone and calling my parents.

“You might get a bar by the lake?” she said, “Actually, some girls get spotty reception on hikes, but I usually just leave my phone here.”

Right. She had mentioned the lake earlier. Except I had no idea where that was, the tour was tomorrow morning, and I wasn’t sure if I could convince Bailey to take me there and lend me her phone; she seemed like a rule follower, and we were supposed to be heading to the mess hall soon.

“Never mind,” I said. After looking through the last few spots my clutch might be hiding, I stood up with an exasperated sigh. New plan. Well, circling back to the old idea of figuring out where the landline was. An educated guess said it would be close to where we’d be having dinner. “Why don’t we head to the mess hall?” 

I’d probably think more clearly after a meal, anyway. And maybe confront Mckenna if I could do so without causing a scene.

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