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Chapter Text

Peridot was nervous. She had grown close to Lapizs Lazuli and had started to gain these things called 'feelings'. She didn't handle this well and even confided in Pumpkin.

"I had heard about this on Camp Pining Hearts, but I never thought I would catch it. I wasn't permitted to 'feel things' on homeworld," She made sure to put air quotes around feel things, "and it's difficult to accurately process these...things."

"Bork!"

"I just wish there was someone who had gone through the same thing as me," Peridot sighed, " I mean there are plenty of humans in relationships around here, but it's different for them. I didn't even know love was a word until a few months ago."

"Bork Bork!"

"Pumpkin you genius! I will ask Garnet about Ruby and Saphire. She will understand!" She then hugged Pumpkin before running, as fast as her little legs could take her, to the warp pad.

***

Peridot warped into Stevens house which was under some construction. She could tell they were adding another story because of the gigantic hole in the roof. She noticed that Pearl was leading the operation, and had hired a few gems to help out.

"Oh, Amber could you move that beam over there?" Her voice was higher pitched than normal. Peridot had learned this is what happened when she was excited about something, and Pearl sure could get excited about building things.

"Hey Pearl!" Peridot yelled as she waved her arms around to get her attention.

Pearl turned and had a slightly annoyed look on her face, " Oh Peridot, what is it that you need?"

"I need to find Garnet," Peridot said looking around the work-in-progress house, " Is she anywhere around here?"

Pearl thought for a moment, tapping her finger on her chin as she did so, " I think she is by the beach meditating. Why do you need her again?"

Peridot froze a bit, she wasn't quite ready for that question, "Umm... I just needed to ask her about some stuff for little homeworld." Her voice faltered and she hoped Pearl wouldn't notice.

Luckily for Peridot, Pearl either didn't notice or didn't care, because she just nodded and continued to focus on the building project.

Peridot went to the beach where she saw Garnet staring peacefully into the water. The waves were calm today and their sounds made the perfect background noise for mediation. It was so tranquil that even Peridot knew not to be her usual loud and brash self in this environment.

"Garnet?" She said as she quietly walked up to her towering gem friend.

Garnet turned to her, "You want to talk about Lapis don't you?"

Peridot was shocked for a moment before she remembered Garnets future vision, "Oh did you envision me coming and asking about her?" She tried to laugh it off.

Garnet shook her head and a grin formed on her magenta face, "No I just see the way you act around her."

Peridots face went a darker shade of green from blushing so hard. She didn't think she was that obvious, and what if Lapis knew how she felt. Peridot studdered out the words, "Is it okay if I ask you a couple of questions? I don't quite get all these... feelings."

Garnet nodded and patted the ground next to her, telling Peridot to sit down. Peridot shuffled next to Garnet and plopped down onto the coarse sandy ground.

Garnet just looked into the distance in silence as Peridot waited for her to talk. After a few moments, it dawned onto Peridot that Garnet was just expecting her to fire away, "Why does this feel so weird yet so nice?"

Garnet gave a small chuckle, "It's mostly because this is so new, and soon the nice will be all that's left."

Peridot didn't like that answer. She was all about statistics and timing, so she would much rather be told when this feeling would fade. If she knew one thing about earth though, it was that things like this never had a timer. She tried to focus on finding the solution now, "How do you stop the feeling?"

Garnets smile turned into a frown, "You can't stop it on your own. You either let it fade away over time or let it change into something new."

Peridot was still not a fan of these vague answers so she decided to be upfront about her question, " How do I speed up the process of.." She thought for a moment. Did she want these feelings to fade or to change? " changing these feelings."

"I find that confessing your feelings helps with that."

Peridot wasn't ready for this and apparently Garnet could tell, "You don't have to tell her now but figure out your feelings and then decide what to do."

Peridot nodded, she was about to ask another question but Garnet beat her to the punch, "No, I don't know how you can figure out these feelings."

Peridot had a million more questions but since her previous questions got such vague responses she figured she wasn't going to get the information she wanted. She started to head back to the warp pad when Garnet stopped her, "Peridot, you know you can come to me at any time."

Garnet had put a hand on Peridot's shoulder and it had made the little green gem feel much more comforted. She slowly realized that she came here for comfort, not the questions.

***
Peridot was walking around the new 'Barn' that she and Lapis were living in while they planned out Little Homeworld. She was mulling over how to process her feelings with Lapis. It was times like these she wishes she had her tape recorder. She was debating whether she should just create a machine to process her emotions for her when she noticed her Camp Pining Hearts DVDs.

She suddenly came up with her best idea yet! She always turned to Camp Pining Hearts when she was confused so a rewatch was sure to help her figure things out. Sure they had watched it all before together but Peridot felt like this time was going to be different.

She had her plan now: when Lapis comes home from her meeting with Bismuth about terraforming, then she will ask Lapis if she wants to rewatch the show with her. She will, of course, say yes and then Peridot could figure out her feelings.

As Peridot was fixing the kinks in her plan, Lapis came into the room, "Hey its been a long day and I need to get my mind off somethings. Do you want to watch CPH with me?" She said it in her nonchalant tone but the smile on her face showed she was actually excited for her to say yes.

Peridot felt like a machine that had its programing wiped, all the planning she had done was now out the window because of an unpredictable outside source.

"S-Sure.." Peridot said, "We haven't watched it in a while, so why don't we start at the beginning?"

Lapis nodded, "You grab the DVD and I will grab your notes."

"I actually don't want to take notes this time," Peridot said as she grabbed episode one from their pile of DVDs.

"Peridot doesn't want to take notes?" Lapis giggled a little, "That's a first."

Peridot just nodded and popped the DVD into their old box tv. The static cracked a bit before the production company logo flashed on the screen.

***
The air is clear and the sun is shining. You can hear birds twittering among the trees. The camera reveals a small little camp that is surrounded by a sparkling sky-blue lake. You start to notice a bus full of kids driving up the little dirt road going to camp.

The bus releases a group of chattering campers and some counselors wait for them as they get off. A tall brown-haired young adult with freckles and a sparkling smile steps forward, "Welcome Campers to Camp Pining Hearts!" The man says this in a tone that's almost strangely perky, " I am Ferris and this is Hana!"

A blonde with a ponytail steps forward and waves, "You will all have time to unpack your stuff, but first, we will separate you into your teams! You will do all the competitions with your team and you will live in your team cabin."

Ferris nodded along as he seemed to pull a clipboard out of nowhere, " First off the Yellow Team! We have for the girls, Rachel, Becca, and Nicole! Then we have the guys with Percy, Liam, and Jacob."

Hana started handing them yellow bandanas and hats with a yellow diamond on it. Ferris made sure that Hana had given the sunshine yellow bandanas to everyone before continuing, " And next, the Blue team! We have Paulette, Samantha, and Amanda on the girl's team and Alexander, James, and Mason on the guys."

Hana proceeded to hand them the same hats and bandanas except for blue this time, and Ferris continued on with calling the teams, " For the White team the girls are Priscila, Megan, and Katie, and the guys are Pierre, Ethan, and William. For the Pink team girls it Petra, Heather, and Emily, and guys are Joshua, Pierson, and Noah."

Hana finished handing out bandanas and the kids formed into the teams they were placed into.

Once they got into groups and had a few moments to chat Ferris got their attention yet again, "Alright guys get to your cabins, they will have your colors on them, that way you can unpack and get to know your teammates there."

Hana chimed in at the end, "Also dinner tonight is poutine!"

The whole camp cheered as they started to shuffle towards their Cabins. Percy was picking up his backpack when Paulette bumped into him.

The blonde-haired all-Canadian boy was looking right into a beautiful red headed girl. He quickly stood up and had an awestruck look on his face, "Sorry that was my fault," He took a pause before sticking out his hand, "My name is Percy, and yours is?"

"Paulette," The blue camper smiled as she shook his hand, " Don't sweat it I should have watched where I was going... I will see you around camp." A blushed formed on her cheeks as she ran to catch her other blue teammates.

Percy just stood smiling as he watched the girl walk off. He had a good feeling about her. While he was picking up his things though, Pierre walked up too him.

" I saw you making googly eyes at Paulette," He scoffed as he looked down on Percy, "I wouldn't get your hopes up on that girl. She is on the blue team and you're on the yellow."

Percy looked at the boy with his sun-kissed skin and black hair, "Why would our teams matter?"

Pierre laughed, "I forgot that we had a couple of newbies this year. There is a color war going on, and it's hard enough to keep a friendship but you can forget about a relationship."

Percy just nodded, "Well, if people take it that seriously then why are you talking to me?"

Pierre seemed to take a moment, maybe to wonder why he did help the enemy team, "Just cause there is a color war doesn't mean we can't be civil," He answered his question before walking with Percy to the Cabins, "I'm Pierre and your Percy right?"

Percy just nodded as he looked around the camp, there seemed to be horseshoes, canoeing, and even a foursquare court. They finally got to their cabins, with two for each color, one for the boys and one for the girls. He went into the yellow boy's cabin where the others had already claimed their bunks so Percy was left with the lone bunk in the corner.

He began to unpack his things and get settled in. He had some small talk with his bunkmates before the dinner bell rang. They all made their way to the mess hall for some glorified fries. Percy had just left the Cabin when Paulette had come up to him, "Hey after dinner do you want to go make some friendship bracelets?"

Percy got a blush on his face before he remembered what Pierre had said, "I don't think people would like it if they saw you hanging out with the enemy."

Paulette busted out laughing, "Oh don't tell me you actually take that seriously. There is no rule saying we can't hang out."

Percy felt a wave of relief wash over him and he gave a small nod, " then sure why not?"

Paulette's face went beet red and she skipped off to the mess hall with Percy by her side, "I'm glad you said yes because my cabin mates don't seem really fond of me."

"Why is that?"

"They are both really into the games and competitions, and well, I'm not the most athletic person."

Percy didn't see why that would be a problem but people at this camp seemed to be a bit weird so he didn't think much of it, "If you're not into sports then what are your hobbies?"

"I like arts and crafts. I'm pretty good with a paintbrush," She gave a small giggle when Percy opened the mess hall door for her, "What are your hobbies?"

"I'm on the varsity swim team back home," He quickened his stride when he saw that the line was growing longer. He wanted to make sure he could get a good plate of poutine.

They managed to snag a spot in line and they kept their conversation going, "So you must be really good at water activities." Paulette studied the plates of food for a moment before grabbing one that seemed perfect.

"I guess you could say that," Percy murmured before casually grabbing his own plate.

They both found an unused table and sat down across from one another. the mess hall was filling up with the sound of campers getting their food. The chitter-chatter bouncing off the wooden walls.

"So is this your first year here at Camp Pining Hearts?" Paulette asked before she threw a couple of fries in her mouth.

"Ya, my family thought he would be a cool experience for me," He fudged the truth a bit because his parents really just wanted him out of their hair, but Paulette didn't need to know that.

"Ya I have been going here since middle school, and its a really cool place. My favorite days are the bonfire days when all the high schoolers go to the bonfire by the lake. We roast marshmallows and sing songs, and no one cares about the stupid color war."

Percy nodded along because that did sound like a lot of fun, "When do they have bonfires?"

"They have them every Thursday," Paulette replied before she ate a couple more bites of food.

Percy was about to ask another question when suddenly someone was yelling at Paulette.

"Why are you talking to a yellow?" The voice screamed and then episode one was over.

Chapter Text

Peridot was helping with the building plans for Little Homeworld, "I was thinking about using the first-gen style of gem building mixed with the modern earth style of building."

Bismuth nodded, "I like that! We can sketch out something tonight and meet back up in the morning."

Peridot gave a little grimace when Bismuth said that. She knew the gem would manage to make at least ten sketches and Peridot would be lucky to make one. She was all about working hard but building a city was a bit out of her wheelhouse.

Peridot decided to suck it up and started to pack away her things. She figured that she could make at least two sketches by morning if she started immediately. She started to walk towards the 'Barn', which was maybe a quarter of a mile away.

Peridot got home a few minutes later and saw Lapis reading a book on the couch. Once she stepped inside she immediately sat down next to Lapis and started trying to sketch some building ideas. She could see Lazuli from the corner of her eye, peeking out to look at Peridot. Every time Peridot caught her looking she would pretend like she was deeply involved in her reading. It was like this for an hour and Peridot had only finished 15% of a sketch when Lapis piped up.

"Are you okay?" She asked as she closed her book and slowly put it down.

Peridot didn't look up and continued to try and sketch the building, "I'm fine. Just having a hard time with this building."

Lapis stood up to see the sketch and gave a slight frown, "You erased this room like ten times. Why is that?"

Peridot put her pencil down in defeat and looked up at Lapis, "I'm not good at this."

Lapis looked at it for a few moments more, "Well I like it," She smiled as she sat next to Peridot and picked up the pencil. She noticed the parts of the sketch that Peridot had erased and the rooms she had finished before she erased them again and moved on to another room. Lapis sketched out the rest of the house, using only the faded lines as her guide. In a few minutes, she finished the sketch and looked at Peridot, "Do you see this? This looks great!"

Peridot had stayed surprisingly quiet as Lapis finished the sketches. She was dark green from head to toe and was in shock when Lapis said it looked good, "Well, that's because you fixed it."

Lapis rolled her eyes and pointed at the sketch, "This was you."

Peridot must have stared at the sketch for a while before she finally said, "No. You finished the outlining, so it only looks good because of you."

Lapis started to get aggravated. Her tone sounded snappy as she tried to reason with peridot, "Why can't you admit that you can do this?"

"Cause I wasn't made for this," Peridot said, her voice rising a little to combat the snappy tone in Lapis'.

Lapis was silent. She was baffled that Peridot felt this way. She always felt that Peridot had always held an air of confidence to her. She thought that Peridot was made to think she was good at everything, but apparently, she was wrong, "I wasn't either."

"You were still made for terraforming. You worked side by side with gems like Bismuth. I was just made to work on kindergarten injectors..." She sighed as she started to grab her things, "I have got to finish these plans. If I'm lucky I can finish them by the morning."

Peridot moved her stuff to the loft area of the barn that Lapis used when she felt like sleeping. Peridot used a shaky ladder and carefully made her way up there so she could continue on her work.

Lapis just watched as Peridot sat in the loft to work on the building plans. She sat down on their tore up couch in defeat and tried to think about what went wrong. She didn't know if she should keep trying to talk with Peridot or if she should give her some time alone.

She decided on the latter option and tried to focus on reading her book. She kept glancing at Peridot to make sure she was okay, but every time she looked Peridot was angrily erasing her work. It was hard for Lapis to watch as Peridot doubted herself and restarted her work over and over again.

After what seemed like forever she finally put her book down, grabbed something, and flew up to Peridot, "You can't spend all night working on that."

"Who says I can't?"

"Me," Lapis said as she sat down by Peridot.

Peridot put her pencil down with aggravation, "Look Lazuli, I know what you're going to say but-"

Lapis put a finger over Peridot's mouth, "I'm not saying anything," She pulled out Peridots tablet from behind her back, "You're going to do all the talking."

She pressed play on a file that said Peridots Log and Peridot's voice started to emit from the metal contraption, "This is a brand new log! I'm very excited about it. I have found some very intriguing information about myself. Despite what I have been told Era 2 gems do INFACT have powers. I learned today that I can lift metal with just my mind! Oh if you would have told me this a few months ago I would have told you your gem was crack!"

There was a pause in the recording and Peridot remembered what was coming next, " I am starting to see that I am so much more than I was made to be."

Peridot was silent as Lapis pressed pause on the file. She looked at her rough sketches of the New Homeworld buildings and smiled, "You really think these are good?"

Lapis rolled her eyes, " Peridot, I know these are good and Bismuth will think the same."

Peridot gave a determined nod as she gave a final outline to her multiple rough sketches. She then rolled them up and put them in a bag before looking at Lapis, "Thank you, Lazuli."

Lapis gave a small chuckle, "Don't thank me; thank your past self."

Peridot gave Lapis a giggly grin before she started to make her way down the ladder, "I'm serious Lapis. I would have been there all night if you didn't show me that."

Lapis shook her head, "It was really nothing. "

Peridot just dropped it because she knew Lapis wouldn't admit she helped her. When she made it to the bottom of the ladder Peridot saw a small pile of DVDs by the TV, "Hey now that I have free time tonight, you know what I want to do?"

Lapis gave Peridot a confused look. She had no idea what the small green gem was really thinking and she was a tad bit scared she would suggest something crazy, "What do you want to do?"

Peridot grabbed episode two of CPH and put it into the TV, "We said we would rewatch this like a week ago but we only got through episode one."

Lapis smiled as both she and Peridot got comfortable on the couch and the TV started to play the tune of the CPH intro.

[][][]
The episode started with Amanda standing over Percy and Paulette. She had a disgusted look on her face as she started to drag Paulette away, "The same thing will not happen again this year Paulette! I will not have someone conversing with the enemy."

Percy watched as Paulette was dragged away by her cabin members. He looked around and the whole cafeteria was staring at him, and he made the quick decision to take his poutine elsewhere. The place he decided to sit at was a scenic little bench by the lake. He was quietly eating his poutine when a familiar voice came up to him.

"That was rough back there," Pierre said as he sat down on the bench next to him. He leaned back onto the chair and watch as the Canadian sunset went down on the horizon.

"What are you doing here?" Percy asked as he ate the last of his poutine.

"I just wanted to talk to you," The brunette said in the most nonchalant way possible.

"Aren't you afraid people will yell at you?"

Pierre scoffed, "I don't care what others say," He did glance around though as if he was doing one last check to make sure no one saw, " Besides Paulette has a reputation for 'conversing' with the other colors." He put air quotes around converse.

"What do you mean?" The blonde asked. He was confused by the air quotes.

Pierre rolled his eyes, "She just always seems to start flirting with boys who are on opposing teams."

Percy paused for a moment, "Is that what her friend was talking about? She said that something similar happened last year."

Pierre just nodded, " Ya, some guy named Peter. He was on the White team and then got together with Paulette. Everyone shunned him after that."

Percy had to admit that the thought of getting shunned scared him a bit, I mean, he had just gotten here and he wanted to be liked.

Pierre gave him a light shoulder punch, "Don't worry, you get an excuse since your new. "

Percy nodded, "I just wanna head in and go to bed. This is a lot to think about."

Percy swiftly left Pierre and made it so that the brunette couldn't get another word into the conversation. He walked back to the cabin and when he got there he Liam and Jacob were finishing their unpacking.

"Oh hey its the talk of the town, Percy." Liam chuckled as he put his dark blue sheets onto the bed he claimed before dinner.

"Don't worry you don't know any better," Jacob said as he put the final touches to his area, " We won't hold it against you... this time."

Percy stiffened up a bit at this. He hadn't talked to these people before and he couldn't tell if they were joking or not.

Liam seemed to notice his discomfort and gave a friendly pat on the back, "We are joking. We are your cabinmates! Nothing you do is going to make us abandon you."

Percy gave a little chuckle as he walked over to unpack his area, "I had no idea everyone cared so much about this color war."

"Most don't care as long as you don't date. They believe if you date someone of another cabin then your cabin will be cursed for the rest of the summer." Jacob said.

Liam rolled his eyes, "Only the crazy ones believe that. Most just like the fun of friendly competition."

Percy didn't have much and quickly finished with his bed, "Well that Amanda chick clearly believes in the curse.":

"Ugghh don't get me started on Amanda!" Jacob said while holding his head as if the very thought of Amanda was giving him a headache.

Liam leaned over to whisper to Percy, "He goes to school with her and they used to date but she broke up with him before camp started."

"She said it was because of the curse!" Jacob yelled.

Liam gave a laugh at Jacob's reaction before he walked over to the light in the cabin, "Well Percy it was nice to meet you but its time for lights out. We have a big day of competitions tomorrow "

He flicked the lights and the cabin went dark.