Chapter Text
“Oh my god, Robin, these shorts are worse than the ones we had at Scoops. I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”
“It’s not like we had anything else to do this summer. Besides, we only have to wear the uniform for the first week, so suck it up.” She turned towards him and gave him a blinding smile. “For what it’s worth, the green shirt really compliments your eyes. Do you think that the bandana in my hair is too much?”
Steve pouted at himself through the floor-length mirror he and Robin were standing in front of. The shorts were fucking short. Indecent, in his opinion, especially for a camp full of middle and early-highschoolers.
He sighed, then glanced at Robin via her reflection in the mirror. He couldn’t help the smile that appeared when he noticed the pink bandana holding her hair back, making her look all bright and summer-y. “It looks great, Robs.”
“Really? I just don’t want my bangs to get all sweaty and matted against my forehead, but I wasn’t sure how else to tame them.”
“Seriously, it looks really nice. It’s cute.” Steve took a final look at himself in the mirror, grimacing at the uniformed, freshly-twenty-year-old staring back at him. Robin was right, obviously, they didn’t have any summer plans, but the idea of summer camp still sorta rubbed him the wrong way.
Robin had been a camp kid, apparently. She had gone every summer in elementary school once she was old enough, then attended theater and band camps over her middle and highschool summers.
Steve, however, just got left alone at home over the summer, told to busy himself by completing the summer reading for when school started in the Fall. His reading was always done by the third week of summer vacation, and he spent the rest of the weeks swimming laps in his pool, alone , or doing chores around the house, alone , or watching old television reruns, alone. Tommy came over sometimes, even brought Carol with him once they started dating, and things weren’t so bad after that. Still, it always felt like they were using him for his money and his pool, not because they actually wanted to hang out with him.
Suffice to say, Steve doesn’t know the first thing about a summer-long sleepaway camp.
There were a few things that were making the experience a bit less anxiety-inducing. Robin would be there, obviously , and he was put in charge of supervising all water-related play, which was familiar territory. Robin was put in charge of crafts, which would certainly be interesting, given that she could barely even draw a recognizable stick figure. She insisted that camp crafts were just different , and Steve couldn’t exactly argue against that logic, seeing that he doesn’t even know what camp crafts were , so he just went along with her reasoning and hoped for the best.
The gaggle of kids that he’d gotten to know over the past few years would also all be there as campers, which was odd, to say the least- especially considering how overprotective some of the kid’s parents were.
(Joyce Byers came to mind as one such example, but in Steve’s opinion, her protectiveness was pretty justified. You don’t just get over your kid disappearing for a week, a child’s dead body being found in a river dressed in his clothing less than 48 hours later, then your actual son randomly being found at an abandoned cabin in the woods a week later with strange scars and no memory of what had happened.)
It was shocking that the kids convinced their parents to let them go to camp, but Steve was pretty excited. There was even a chance he’d have some of them in his cabin, seeing as he was cabin lead for half of the 9th grade boys, but he also knew there was a greater-than-zero chance that they’d get split up between him and whoever his counterpart was for the other cabin of 9th grade boys.
He didn’t have a list of the other counselors yet, so he wasn’t sure who this ‘counterpart’ would be. Robin said they would distribute packets with that information on arrival at camp. Robin had also said that it was common for past camp kids to become junior counselors when they aged out of the program, then go on to be senior counselors and stick around through college, and seeing as Steve didn’t exactly hang out with that kinda crowd in school, he doubted that he’d know anyone.
Steve ran a hand through his hair, fluffing his bangs in the hopes of at least letting his best feature shine in this job, as opposed to the gig at Scoops with that stupid hat. “Do you remember what time we have to get there today?”
“Uhhh, I think three? Then we’ll have an hour to set up our bed stuff, training and dinner ‘til nine, then training tomorrow and Friday, kids arrive Saturday.” Robin rambled out the information as she applied her mascara in the mirror, shooting a smile at Steve when she was done.
“Three?! Robin, it’s already noon! How far away is this place?”
“Oh, right. It’s uh… about three hours?” Robin’s timid response had Steve groaning and grabbing her arm so that he could pull her away from the mirror, tugging her towards his bed where their bags were lying.
“Alright, c’mon, we gotta go, like, now. I have to stop for gas on the way, so we’re already late, which really isn’t a good look, not for our first day.”
Robin gave an exaggerated sigh, but still complied, opening her gray duffle bag that was lying next to Steve’s green one so that she could shove her makeup and other last-minute things inside. From the corner of his eye, Steve could see various colors of fabric peeking out from underneath her toiletries.
“Are you serious? How many bandanas did you pack? ”
“I need a different color for every day of the week, Steve! If this is gonna be my summer look, I’ve gotta commit , you know?”
“Birdie, I love you, but that’s a little ridiculous.” Steve grabbed his duffle bag from the bed and began walking towards the stairs leading to the front door, smiling to himself as Robin’s indignant squawking began while she trailed behind him.
This was sure to be an interesting summer.
“Well, it’s official. We are stuck in the middle of nowhere for the next six weeks.” Steve dropped his duffle bag onto the dirt path next to his car with a huff, taking in the scenery around them. The last thirty minutes of their drive had been spent on similar winding dirt roads, barely wide enough to fit a single car, let alone be conducive to two-way traffic. The thirty minutes before that were spent driving on a paved road without a building in sight- so they were really, truly, stuck in the wilderness.
“Did you bring bug spray? I just realized that I didn’t pack any, and Steve, I will die of bug bites if I don’t use bug spray, my blood is like, extra delicious to them or something, I don’t know, I just can’t survive out here for so long without bug spray-”
“I packed two bottles, one for each of us.” Steve crouched down to his duffle bag and unzipped it, digging out a bottle of bug spray that he tossed Robin’s way. “Use it sparingly, alright? I’m not giving you any of mine when you inevitably run out.”
“I won’t run out , dingus. Besides, even if I did , you love me too much to see me get eaten by mosquitos, so respectfully, I don’t believe you.” Robin unzipped her backpack and shoved the bug spray inside. She then shouldered the bag and pulled her duffle bag out of the trunk all at once. That was, decidedly, not a good decision, given that the sheer weight of both bags being pulled from the back of the car made Robin’s center of gravity completely shift, sending her flying backwards and falling onto her ass.
Steve didn’t see it happen, rather heard it, and couldn’t help the snort of laughter that peeled out of him in response to her mishap.
“Oh my god, are you okay?!” Steve glanced up at the sound of a new voice joining them. His eyes widened when he saw the speaker.
“ Nancy ?”
“Steve?! What in the hell are you doing here?” Nancy stopped in her tracks, mere feet away from where Robin was still laying in the dirt, her mouth gaping at Steve’s presence. “I- are you- what? ”
“I’m a counselor, 9th grade boy’s cabin and water activity supervisor. Why are you here?”
“I’m a counselor too, 6th grade girls and medical care. Mike didn’t tell you?”
“You know that little shit doesn’t tell me anything-”
“Uh, hello?” Robin interrupted them from her place on the ground, where she was now propped up by her elbows and wearing a confused expression. “Poor, defenseless girl covered in dirt over here?”
“Right! Sorry. Hi, I’m Nancy, nice to meet you.” Nancy turned away from Steve and reached a hand down to Robin, helping her stand. Unfortunately, the backpack on Robin’s back continued to redistribute her weight the wrong way, sending her stumbling into Nancy. They probably would’ve fallen back to the ground if it wasn’t for Steve’s car being parked in just the right position to have them end up leaning against the body of the car instead, with Robin’s arms falling to rest on either side of Nancy’s body, effectively caging her in.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry, I’m such a clutz-”
“Oh, please don’t worry about it, I totally understand-”
“Oh, shit, I totally got dirt all over your pretty khaki skirt, I’m such a mess-”
“It’s fine, we’re camping, I didn’t expect to keep it pristine out here-”
“Yeah, but still , it looked so nice on you-”
Steve watched them with his hands on his hips, smirking at their frankly ridiculous back-and-forth. He had to step in before this conversation lasted for all eternity, or before Robin embarrassed herself further- whichever came first. “Robin, I’ve told you before, you’ve gotta lift the duffle bag with your knees . These things are fuckin’ huge, you can’t just grab them like they weigh nothing.”
“It’s an easy mistake to make, Steve, especially if you’re used to having the duffles handled like the campers do- they just throw them on the ground and wait for the golf cart to distribute them around. No stress… uh, Robin, is it?” Nancy admonished Steve lightly, then turned back to Robin with a shy smile.
“Uh, yeah. Yep. Right. That’s my name. I’ll just, um… lift this with my knees now. Anyways- where am I going with this?”
“Oh! Right, let me look.” Nancy dug a folded-up piece of paper out of her skirt pocket, which she promptly unfolded, smoothed the creases out of, then read. “Let’s see… Robin, you’re with the 9th grade girl’s cabin, right? So you’ll be in… Cabin 14, which is actually right next to Steve, he’ll be in Cabin 15.”
“Perfect! Let’s go Steve, I really want to get settled in before training starts.” Robin picked her duffle bag up and began stumbling down the hill towards the cabins, almost tripping over herself more than a few times.
Steve huffed out a soft laugh and picked up his duffle bag, shooting Nancy a knowing smile. “It’s good to see you, Nance. We should catch up while we’re here. It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, Steve. That’d be nice.” She smiled back at Steve, somewhat sadly, then motioned to the general direction she had appeared from. “I gotta get back to scouting the trails, I’m flagging any poison ivy and marking if there’s been recent signs of wildlife so our hiking instructor knows to avoid those areas. I’ll see you at training though, yeah? Have a good time settling in.”
“Thanks, Nance. See you then.” Steve gave a little wave, then set off to follow Robin down the trail. He ended up catching up to her pretty quickly, finding her sitting on top of her duffle bag on the side of the trail.
When Robin spotted Steve, she crossed her arms and gave him a playful glare. “Nice of you to finally show up. I tripped over a rock trying to drag my bag down to the cabins, I thought I was going to die alone out here.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Robs. You’d probably get found by, like, an owl or something before dying alone on this trail.” Steve snorted and walked past her, ignoring her exaggerated groan of pain as she stood and began to trudge behind him.
“Oh, yeah, who could ever feel alone with an owl by their side? Get it, who? Man, I crack myself up.”
“Yeah, Buckley. You’re hilarious.” Steve’s response was deadpan, though he was thankful to be facing away from Robin, as that prevented her from seeing the amused smile that appeared after her joke.
“Whatever, you love it. Now, I need to know more about Nancy. How do you randomly just know the first girl we run into at this place? And what was that weird energy between you guys?!”
“Oh, uh- I mean, we dated in middle school? But middle school dating isn’t, like, real dating. Anyways, we broke up when I got to highschool, which coincided with her getting accepted to this private, all-girls boarding school. We tried to rekindle things over her winter break that first year when she was back in town, but the feelings weren’t really there anymore. It was before you moved to Hawkins, and she barely comes back to town nowadays, so I guess I never really thought to mention her.” Steve shrugged to himself as he navigated the last turn of the trail. He then huffed and dropped his duffle bag on the ground upon finding that they’d arrived at the cabins.
“Damn. Small world, I guess.” Robin caught up to Steve, dropping her duffle bag next to his with a groan. “Fucking finally . I thought my legs were gonna fall off.”
“For someone who’s camped a lot, you seem wildly unprepared for summer camp, Birdie.”
“I am notoriously uncoordinated and forgetful, cut me some slack.” Robin shoved Steve’s arm in response and rolled her eyes. “Now, I’m going to start unpacking and decorate my cabin a bit. I recommend that you do the same. I’ll see you in a few?”
“Yeah, sounds good Rob.” Steve watched Robin all but drag her duffle bag into Cabin 14, then grabbed his own and entered Cabin 15, the second from the end of the row.
The cabin was sort of musty, but the windows were already open, so Steve figured that it would be aired out in no time. There were seven bunk beds spread around the room, all fitted with a twin bed- save for the bunk bed pushed into the corner, which was fitted with a queen sized bed underneath the bunked twin bed. There were also a few extra twin-sized mattresses strewn around the room.
Oddly enough, the queen bed had three bags piled on top of it, and the wall next to the bed had a few band posters hung up, around the height of the top bunk of the bed. Maybe one of the campers had arrived early? That felt wrong, though- surely the larger bed was meant for the counselor and not for the campers? They were kids , they didn’t need that much space.
Steve set his bags atop the queen sized mattress, next to the others, then placed his hands on his hips and glanced around the building that would be his home for the next month and a half.
Sure, it was kinda messy, and smelled of dust and mildew, but it could be worse.
“Shit, fuck, motherfucker- lift with your knees , dude, don’t drop it.”
“It’s not my fault . Eds, you’re walking too fast- and this thing is fuckin’ heavy. ”
Steve frowned to himself at the sound of new voices approaching the cabin. Why did the second voice sound so familiar?
The door to the cabin swung open suddenly, shuddering with the force of the impact. Steve watched as the two strangers stumbled into the cabin, and rather unceremoniously dropped the mattress in the entryway. The first guy looked sort of familiar, dressed in mostly black clothing with his curly hair piled in a bun on top of his head, curls frizzing out of the hairdo haphazardly.
The other guy, however- that was a face that Steve instantly recognized. “ Gareth?!”
“Steve? What the fuck are you doing here?!” Gareth stood next to the other guy with his mouth agape, eyes widened in shock.
Steve shrugged and began to rub the back of his neck sheepishly. “Uh- I’m a counselor, actually? This is my cabin. My best friend, Robin- she’s one of the 9th grade girl counselors. She thought it’d be a fun summer job, so… here I am.”
“Are you serious?” Gareth let out a small laugh, which was echoed by the guy next to him. Steve couldn’t help but feel a bit offended by their reaction- and apparently his facial expression communicated as much, because Gareth grew quiet fairly quickly. “Sorry, Steve. I just… summer camp doesn’t really seem like your thing.”
Steve crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. “It doesn’t exactly seem like your thing, either. Aren’t you, like, in a rockstar phase or something?”
“For your information, Steve , my parents have sent me to this summer camp every year for the last four years. I was invited to be a junior counselor this year. As for the ‘rockstar’ thing- it’s not a phase, it’s a lifestyle. A future, hopefully. I even brought the band with me. You remember Eddie, our guitarist and lead vocalist, right?”
Steve’s eyes darted to the man next to Gareth, squinting slightly as he worked to manifest recognition of the guy.
He’d gone to maybe one of Gareth’s concerts, a show his band was playing over the holidays. Gareth had invited him because they were both stuck in Gareth’s house for ‘family holiday week’, a concoction of Steve’s mother Marie, and her sister, Gareth’s mother, Susan. They had apparently decided that year that it was time to try and foster family connections, so Steve and Gareth ended up stuck together, trying to act like cousins even though they had only met a handful of times before that week.
Gareth’s family, the Emerson’s, lived in Bloomington, which was about a three hour drive away from Hawkins. His parents used the travel time as justification for why they rarely had family gatherings, but they were also quick to jump on a cross-country flight to meet up with a business associate, so… that excuse really wasn’t all that convincing.
Steve had ended up accepting Gareth’s invitation to see the band perform, then drank throughout the night, eager to take advantage of his opportunity to be out of the house and away from the watchful eyes of his parents. As a result, he didn’t really remember how Corroded Coffin sounded, much less the faces of the band- but he did remember that it was a fun night, so that had to be worth something, right?
The entire ‘family holiday week’ had ended up being a one-time occurrence after Mr. Emerson and Richard Harrington got into it over politics, but it was a nice family memory, which was a rare thing, and became something that Steve held close to his heart despite the awkwardness of it all.
“Uh… yeah? I think I remember you- good to reconnect with you, man.” Steve uncrossed his arms and shoved his hands in his pockets. “So, uh- what are you guys doing in my cabin with a bare mattress?”
“Oh! About that-” Gareth started, but was immediately cut off by a grinning Eddie.
“Well Stevie, I hope that you’re ready to get cozy. We, my friend, are roommates.”
Steve was right about what he thought earlier.
Things could be worse, yeah- and now, they were.