Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The application for camp counseling he had sent in hadn’t been a serious attempt.

Reese was just replying to every offer he could in the newspaper on the bulletin board in the community centers he frequented.

The latest had been a lawn care job where a guy wanted Reese to fix up his wife’s garden for their anniversary.

Only for Reese to find out he didn’t mean PLANTING flowers, the guy wanted him to revive the flowers.

Reese had pointed out the begonias were dead because his wife drowned them and they were pretty much beyond saving and he wasn’t a wizard who can poof them back to life.

The guy had not taken to kindly to that and Reese just left before things got ugly.

Last thing he needed was an disturbing the peace or worse, an assault charge.

The camp counselor job seemed simple enough.

22 kids at a summer camp that opened in a month, from late May to mid-July.

He was qualified but Reese wasn’t very experienced in taking care of kids for long periods of time.

But….he WAS desperate.

So he used a crappy library computer to write his resume, and emailed it to the address on the job advertisement.

Sure enough, a week later he got a response (which was good because the librarian was getting annoyed at him being in the library everyday just for the computer).

He…got the job.

They said they’d train him when he got there since they were desperate for the help.

Well….he could do worse than a summer camp.

At least it would be steady food and shelter and some money in his pocket.

Camp Wawanakwa….here I come.

Chapter Text

Apparently the camp was SO desperate for employees that they hadn’t asked many questions, besides the obvious ones.

He scrounged up enough money to get an identification card and had it express shipped to a friends house that he was crashing at, and that was about all they needed.

He’d be given his pay at the end of the summer and his expenses would be covered.

It had taken three bus changes to get to the pick up destination at the docks, where a boat would pick him up and take him to the campground on an island on Lake Ontario.

Reese was a bit nervous since he really didn’t have much to his name at the moment.

His clothes were big on him, and he only had a couple bags and he was wondering if the boat driver was going to call him out on it, considering he was going to staying in an isolated island for almost three months.

But he didn’t. The gruff muscular driver just confirmed his identity, introducing himself as ‘Chef Hatchet’.

He practically dwarfed Reese in height alone but Reese didn’t feel scared of him.

Chef didn’t have a bad vibe around him, he was gruff but he didn’t seem like he’d murder him for his few meager belongings.

Reese wondered what the other staff would be like.

——-

The camp was WAY worse than what Reese thought it would be.

The dock was practically falling apart.

The grass was overgrown.

The small beach was littered with garbage.

And just about everything looked like it needed a good sanding…

…or a power wash with some heavy duty cleaner.

“You must be Reese,” a man greeted with a grin and a wave “I’m Chris McLean. The Camp Director. You’ve already met Chef, so that’s it for introductions. Anyways-“

“Wait.” Reese held his hands up “it’s just US?”

Chris shrugged “no one else answered the advertisement. I told Chef we should’ve used a better font.”

“And I told you that it was a dumb idea.” Chef retorted, but he didn’t seem too mad.

“ANYWAYS.” Chris continued “that’s the outhouse, it’s pretty much unusable but it’s been cleaned in case you ever need a breather.” Chris pointed to a sad looking building.

“Those are the cabins, one side on each is for the boys and the other for the girls.” Chris pointed to the two identical buildings that definitely needed a fresh coat of paint.

Or an industrial sander.

“That’s the ACTUAL bathrooms, communal of course.” Chris pointed to the building near the top of the hill “we’re installing lights along the path but the kids can’t go there at night without supervision.”

Reese nodded in understanding.

“That’s the mess hall, three meals a day made by my b- Chef!” Chris quickly changed the word but Reese raised a brow.

“Made by Chef!” Chris corrected with a nervous smile “over there is where Chef and I will be staying.” Chris pointed to two camper vans “up that hill is the bonfire, where we have a camp meeting once a week for s’mores and stories.”

“Down there’s the beach.” Chris pointed to the garbage littered sand where a seagull was fighting a soda can “and this,” Chris led Reese to a small cabin, more of a shack really, “is where you’ll be staying.”.

It was bigger on the inside, with a few beds lining the walls, separated by curtains with little trunks by each bed.

“We expected a bigger staff turnout, but that sort of failed…so you get the place to yourself.” Chris waved a hand in the air before finally taking a good look at Reese’s luggage “is…that all you brought?”

Reese tried not to be obvious “uh…yeah. I like to pack light. No sense in making more work for us.”

Chris just hummed “well there is commissary that gets delivered every week by boat. You can pick up what you need, no charge. Consider it thanks for taking up this job.”

Okay, so Chris seemed decent if not just a bit scatterbrained. He definitely had some excess energy, but seemed nice enough.

Reese could handle this.

“Get yourself settled in, we still have tones of work to do. While Chef mows we need to try and get the activities sorted out, get the dock fixed, there’s lightbulbs that need to be changed and the beach has to be cleaned-“

Reese admittedly zoned out a bit as Chris rambled, but he got the gist.

They had two weeks to get this place ready for 22 kids.

What a way to start.

Chapter Text

Reese started small with the beach.

And besides getting occasionally bombarded with a seagull, he managed to get a good chunk of it cleaned by lunch time, and he was STARVING.

He absolutely devoured the BLT sandwich Chef had made followed by the bag of potato chips.

“Geeze kid, slow down before you get sick.” Chris shook his head.

Reese swallowed his last bite “sorry, guess I worked up a bit of an appetite today.” He smiled nervously, a bit embarrassed.

And the fact he hadn’t really eaten much in the past few days probably wasn’t helping with how fast he put it away.

He was still a bit hungry, but it seemed  kind of rude to ask for more so Reese kept quiet.

But Chef was apparently psychic or something because he looked Reese dead in the eye “still hungry?”

Reese felt a bit caught off guard “uh yeah, a bit. Don’t worry about it I can find somethi-“

Chef slid Reese his untouched sandwich “eat.”

“But that’s yours.” Reese protested, he couldn’t just TAKE it from him!

If there was anything his mother had taught him, it was manners were important.…

Chef was working just as hard as he was, probably MORE. Who was he to take his meal away?

“I can make another. Eat.” Chef pushed it closer “you're as skinny as a twig, boy.”.

Reese slowly bit into the sandwich and Chef seemed satisfied by that and went to make himself another.

Chris had just been watching the situation unfold “you’ve got quite the appetite for someone so skinny.”.

Reese felt his face warm up “uh…yeah…I guess so.”

The sandwich suddenly felt heavy in his stomach and the bite he just took felt like it was lodged in his throat.

He must have made an expression because Chris was quick to rectify what he said “I didn’t mean it like that! I’m so sorry I mean’t that I WISH I still had that metabolism.” He said quickly “I didn’t mean to uh…shame you. Sorry.”

Reese forced a smile “it’s fine. I get what you’re saying, really.” He picked the sandwich up again “I guess I am a little on the smaller side. Always have been.”

Chris seemed a bit less mortified by that and they continued eating in silence with Chef rejoining them then a few moments later with a new sandwich.

They parted ways to finish their tasks for the day and by night fall the camp was freshly mowed, the Mess Hall and bathroom had been deep cleaned, and the beach was cleared.

Reese laid in bed, the hot shower had been heavenly after a hot day in the sun, listening to the nature surrounding him.

No one else’s breathing or snoring. No electrical humming of an AC unit. Nothing but the nighttime creatures stirring.

And Reese couldn’t sleep.

Chapter Text

Time flew by fast and before they knew it, Arrival Day was upon them.

Reese had been trained in all walks of counselor-hood, from CPR training to First Aid.

But Reese was kind of panicking about it now because the reality had set in.

What if the kids didn’t like him?

What if they hadn’t prepared enough?!

What if he messed up and dropped the F-bomb in front of them?!

What is one of them got sick?!

What if they ALL got sick?!

What if they had a near fatal allergic reaction?!

What if they HAD a fatal allergic-

“Relax kid.” Chris’ voice jolted him out of his spiral “you’ll do great. What hard could they do? They’re twelve.”

“Eleven.” Chef corrected.

“Semantics.” Chris waved a hand “what matters is they’ll be fine and you’ll DO fine. You passed your training better than the last three guys combined!”

Reese wasn’t so sure…

He really needed this job though.

——

Reese wiped his hands off on his cargo shorts, the camp uniform suddenly felt a bit tight and it wasn’t the fact they had to shrink the shirt in the dryer because even the smallest they had on hand was too big on Reese.

The boat was approaching and with every mile his heart beat faster in nervous anticipation.

When the boat finally docked and set down the loading ramp, a loud horn sounded and a horde of kids excitedly stepped off, laughing and screaming while pushing and shoving each other.

Chef blew a whistle and they all stopped in there tracks.

“Welcome, to Camp Wawanakwa! Your home away from home for the next eight weeks!” Chris held his arms up and gestured around them “I’m Chris the camp director.”

“This is Chef Hatchet, the cook, medic and maintenance guy.” Chris pointed to Chef and a few of the kids visibly shifted backwards to distance themselves.

“And this is the head and only, counselor, Reese.”

“….are you sure he’s not a camper?” A girl with a brunette bob cut asked.

Reese tried not to beam at being addressed as ‘sir’. Most people thought he still looked feminine, kids especially.

So it was definitely euphoric to be addressed like that be a kid. 

Reese laughed “positive. So psyched to meet you guys.”

“Let’s make sure EVERYONE is here. Roll call everyone, line up!” Chris clapped, only for him to be ignored by most of the kids.

“As soon as this is over we can get you guys settled and have some lunch.” Reese informed them “the longer this takes the longer that’ll take.”

They groaned loudly but lined up.

“Let’s see,” Chris looked over his clipboard “Beth?”

A short brunette girl with a two pony tails raised her hand “here!”

“Devon Joseph?”

A timid looking black boy in a too large t-shirt raised his hand nervously “DJ. Please and thank you.”

“Noted.” Chris nodded “Gwen?”

A girl with a short pigtails waved a bit “her-“

“Hi! I’m Geoff!” A tall blonde boy interrupted, practically vibrating in place from what Reese could only guess what excitement.

“Nice to meet you.“ Reese waved with a smile, at least HE seemed excited.

Gwen looked liked she’d rather be anywhere else.

“Let’s see where was I…Lindsay?” Chris called out.

No response.

“Lindsay?” He called again.

Nothing.

The kids turned to a long haired blonde girl who looked like she was zoning out “LINDSAY!” they chorused.

She snapped out of it “huh? Oh! I’m here!”

Chris checked her off with a sighed.

“Heather?”

A girl with her arms crossed in an angry sulk glared at him “here.” She responded icily.

Okay…not all kids were friendly.

“Duncan?”

A boy with pierced ears grunted at them, arms crossed and looking somehow more angry he was there than Heather was.

“Your parents warned us about your behavior issues. Don’t push it kid.” Chris warned.

That just seemed to set the kid off more and and angrily stomped to the other end of the dock.

Reese kind of felt bad, the kid hadn’t even done anything.

“Tyler?”

A sporty looking boy held his hand up high and waved it around “here!”.

“Harold?”

A red haired boy just looked up at them, breathing a bit too heavy for Reese’s liking

Oh god was this an asthma attack?!

“Is this camp really as old as my mom says?” Harold asked.

“Uh…yeah.” Reese nodded “about as old as the founding of Muskoka.”

He nodded slowly “nice.”.

Chris continued “Trent?”

A boy with long shaggy black hair stepped forward “here.”.

He also looked pretty unhappy to be there, only he looked nervous instead of mad.

“Bridgette?”

A blonde girl with a ponytail holding a body board raised her arm “is there a beach here? My mom said there’s a beach.”

“Right down there.” Reese pointed down the stone stairs “but no one is allowed down there without an adult, is that clear?”

Bridgette nodded.

“Noah?” Chris called out.

If anyone could win the award for most pissed eleven year old, Noah would.

The kid looked incredibly pissed he was there.

“I don’t want to BE here!”he grumbled.

“Don’t worry! Homesickness is nor-“

“I’m NOT homesick!” Noah snapped, interrupting Reese.

Okay….

They definitely had to unpack that later.

“Leshawna?”

A black girl with a slick pony tail waved “here!”.

Two identical girls almost knocked over a ginger girl rushing forward “hi!” they chorused.

“I’m Katie!” The taller tan one waved excitedly.

“And I’m Sadie!” The shorter one waved equally as excitedly “we are like, SO happy to be here!”

“Glad to have you.” Reese smiled at them.

Chris bit back a sigh and marked them off the list “Ezekiel?”.

A small boy with shaggy grown hair and wearing a too big hoodie and toque stepped up “I’m here sir.”

“What’s up dude?” Reese smiled at him.

Ezekiel looked up and cocked his head “I think I see a bird?”

Reese choked back a laugh “uh yeah. Good job.”

“Thanks sir!” Ezekiel grinned and joined the others excitedly.

“Cody?” Chris called.

A small boy, at least half a foot shorter than the rest of the boys his age, stepped forward, grinning and revealing a gap tooth smile “here!”.

“Eva?”

A girl with a beauty mark, mono brow and slick black ponytail stepped forward with a  very displeased look on her face “I’m only here because my dad is making me.”

“…noted.” Chris stepped a little back at her as she passed “next up, Owen!”

A chubby blonde boy wan forward and gave Chris a hug “so psyched to be here! This is AWESOME!”

He went to give Chef one, but stepped back at his gruff expression and instead turned to hug Reese.

Really tightly.

Reese gasped for air when the kid finally let go of him “glad…to…meet…you…”

So far this wasn’t so bad.

“Courtney?”

“Present.” A girl raised her hand, the one who asked if he was a camper.

“Justin?”

A really adorable boy with big blue eyes

raised his hand “here.”.

“Izz-“

“HERE!” The ginger girl the two identical girls almost knocked over seemingly popped out of nowhere beside Chris “is there paper-mache here? Is lunch soon?”

“GAH!” Chris jumped, almost tripping back into the water if it hadn’t been for Chef grabbing his wrist and steadying him.

Reese didn’t miss the way their hands lingered together for a few seconds longer than usual and the way Chris smiled softer and said “thanks.”.

Chef nodded and turned his attention back to taking the luggage to shore before one of the kids either tripped or kicked them into the water.

“Oooh! Oooh!” Owen waved his hand.

“Yes Owen?” Reese asked.

“IS lunch soon?”

Reese nodded “right after we get you guys sorted into your cabins.”.

“Which will be in about ten minutes.” Chris nodded “because she was the last camper on the list. All we have left is the group photo.”

The kids all groaned but Reese helped file them into position “I’m sure all of your parents would like a memory of the summer.”.

Reese stepped back to get out of frame while Chris prattled about and fiddled his camera, Reese made a mocking-talk gesture with his hand and the kids were stifling their giggles.

After Chris FINALLY managed to get a good photo after three tries, they had to sort the kids into their cabins.

Two cabins with eleven kids on each.

The kids were chatting about and some were roughhousing while they waited.

“Alright when I call your name come over here, please!” Reese called out “Gwen. Trent. Heather. Cody. Lindsay. Beth. Katie. Owen. Leshawna. Justin. And Noah.”

They all surrounded him “congrats guys, you’re in the Screaming Gopher Cabin.”

“The rest of you will be in the Killer Bass Cabin. Geoff. Bridgette. DJ. Tyler. Sadie. Izzy. Courtney. Ezekiel. Duncan. Eva and Harold!”

Katie and Sadie both started to scream and wail.

“Whoa whoa whoa!” Reese held his hands up “what’s wrong?!”

“I. Have. To. Be. With. SAAAAAADIE!” Katie sniffled.

“I’ll literally DIE!” Sadie cried.

“Whoa whoa. Let’s take a deep breath okay? Why can’t you be separated?”

“We’ve NEVER ever ever EVER been apart!” Sadie wiped her eyes “not ever!”

“Not even when we had chicken pox!” Katie added.

Reese rubbed his face “well…even best friends need some time apart.”

“WHAT?!” The girls sounded incredulous.

“Well…you two are best friends and I’m sure you’re very very close, right?”

“Uh huh….”Katie sniffled “we’re BFFFFLs!”

Reese had no idea what that was but he nodded “but if you’re ALWAYS together you’ll never know how to be apart when you do have to. Think of this as practice.”

The girls didn’t seem too convinced.

“Let me tell you what. If both of you really really really don’t want to be on different teams by the end of the week, then we can see if someone will switch with you. Okay?”

They nodded slowly and a bit glumly before joining their respective teams.

Reese let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Well that could’ve ended way worse.

——-

Reese led them to their cabins so they could unpack, some a bit more excitedly than others.

“I’ll be back in ten minutes to take you guys to lunch, don’t cause too much trouble okay?”

The kids nodded and continued to unpack and get a bit more comfortable.

When Reese returned to a group of screaming children, his first thought was that someone had gotten hurt.

Only to be absolutely relieved when he was it was just a cockroach.

DJ was clinging to a bunk while a few of the boys tried to coax him down, and Lindsay was still screaming and jumping from foot to foot on a stool while the others tried to avoid it.

Only for Duncan to unceremoniously squish it with a stick.

“Nice aim kid. Why don’t you guys go wash up a bit? Lunch is ready.”

Duncan just grunted but he stalked to the bathroom to wash up.

He didn’t seem to happy about being told what to do, but he listened and the others followed him.

——

After the kids got their trays of food, a juice, a sandwich and a bag of chips, Chef stopped on Noah.

Well more like Noah stopped.

“I’m allergic to gluten. And dairy.” Noah crossed his arms.

“Which is why we have a special meal, just for you. Chicken salad.” Reese handed him a bowl “utensils are right over there.”.

Noah just tilted his head as he walked away.

——-

While the kids chatted amongst each other while they ate, Reese sat beside Chris.

“How’s it going?”

“Well no one is dead or injured yet so I found that as a win.” Reese took a swig of water “what’s the first activity again?”

“Swimming lessons.”

“Wonderful.”

Chapter Text

Swimming….

Was not going too well.

Most of the kids got in the water just fine, even if some just stayed in the shallow bit.

Bridgette had been most excited and took to the water so fast Reese would’ve thought she was a dolphin or something with how easily and suredly she moved.

DJ and Noah, on the other hand, were adamantly refusing to get in the water, still standing on the dock all others had jumped off of.

“Uh uh! Mama says there’s SHARKS here!” DJ crossed his arms, which was a bit hard with his arm floaties.

“And I don’t WANT to!” Noah added, arms firmly crossed.

Reese sighed softly “firstly DJ, the sharks don’t come this far to shore, secondly that’s fine. But just so you know there’s a few really fun water games planned this summer, and I really don’t want you to miss out.”

DJ looked a bit intrigued “what kinda games?”

“Well, swimming for one. Canoeing. I think Chris rented a jet-ski or something for later this summer. But you have to pass your swim test first to do any of that.”

Noah’s face pinched but DJ looked less reluctant now.

“It’s fine to be scared. I used to be scared of the water too. But I promise it’ll be okay, I’d never let anything bad happen to you guys.” Reese swam back a bit to give them space to jump in.

DJ looked like he was mulling it over and Noah just looked annoyed and a bit pissed “you can’t MAKE us.”.

Reese nodded “you’re right. I can’t make you swim, the choice is up to you. We can find something else for you guys to do while the others do the water stuff.”.

DJ stood a bit taller “I want to do it!”.

Reese grinned and got out of the way “whenever your ready DJ. I’m here if you need help.”.

DJ took a few steps back, took a deep breath and ran for the edge of the dock, taking off in a flying leap with his eyes shut right.

Landing in the water and splashing a foot away from Reese.

DJ surfaced with a triumphant smile “I did it! I DID IT!”

DJs team and a few that weren’t even on his team cheered DJ on as he slowly shifted through the water.

Reese turned back to Noah “are you sure you don’t want to?”.

Noah’s face turned sour “just leave me alone!” he stormed to the small beach, sitting as far away as he could from the waters edge while still technically being near Reese.

“Alright guys!” Reese called out “why don’t we take a vote on todays game. Raise your hand if you want a race.”

A few kids raised their hands.

“Now raise your hand if you want a jumping contest. See who can make the biggest splash.”

They just looked at him with bored expressions.

Reese sighed with a smile “and the winning team gets a prize.”

That peaked their interest and they all waved their hands around.

Reese looked at Noah out of the corner of his eye, he looked a bit interested at that last part.

Jumping contest it was.

———

A few of them only barely managed to get off the dock but the rest did pretty well for the most part.

Tyler had tripped right as he reached the end and landed harshly in the water, but he was fine when Reese checked on him, just a bruised ego.

They couldn’t jump that far or they couldn’t make a big splash.

Heather had gingerly stepped off the dock so she wouldn’t get her hair wet, not willing to risk it for a prize.

Owen had been the last to go and almost knocked everyone over with the wave he made.

He was just about to declare the winner when he heard Noah’s voice from behind him “can…I try?”.

He probably got bored of just watching.

“Go ahead, guys clear some space for him.”

Noah had a look of renewed determination on his face as he backed up on the dock, and took a run towards the edge.

He definitely went farther than everyone else, but the splash wasn’t very grand.

Reese could SEE the disappointment on Noah’s face, the look of failure when he resurfaced.

“Alright guys that’s the game, congrats Owen! You win!” Reese called out.

“Oooh! Ooooh! What did I win?!” Owen bounced up and down from foot to foot on the sand.

“There’s popsicles waiting for you AND your team in the Mess Hall.”

The Killer Bass looked disappointed as they trudged to change into dry clothes while the Screaming Gophers ran for the Mess Hall.

But Noah had stayed behind and his head was low.

“What’s wrong Noah?” Reese asked.

“I lost.” He grumbled.

Reese nodded “it happens. But you had fun right?”

“I wanted to WIN.” Noah’s voice was low as he looked at the ground.

“You can’t always win and you won’t always lose. What matters is that you tried and had fun-“

“I DID try! And I didn’t win!”

Reese could hear the tears in his voice “that’s fine Noah. You’re allowed to be upset. But if quit you’ll never get better.” He leaned a bit closer “but If you keep trying, you’ll get better. You just need to practice a bit more. Show these guys what you can do.”.

Noahs voice was practically shaking “why are you being so nice? You’re suppose to be mean!”

“Says who?” Reese crossed his arms.

Noah just shrugged.

“Well, I’m not going to be mean to you. What matters is that you tried, okay? That’s all I ask, that you try.”

“I wanted to be the one to win the prize….”

Reese gently patted Noah on the shoulder “I get it, why don’t you go change and I’ll make sure they leave you a few popsicles, huh?”

Noah wiped his eyes with the bald of his hand “is there mango?”

“As a matter of fact, I think there is.”

Noah brightened a little and raced toward the cabins while Reese went to the Mess Hall.

——

At the bonfire that night Reese showed them how HE made s’mores.

Two golden brown marshmallows layered each between two pieces of chocolate, between two graham crackers.

Noah was still a bit bummed, but he was looking like he was feeling better.

“Hey Reese, how about a good old rendition of the Camp Wawanakwa campfire song?” Chris grinned while holding out a old guitar.

“I never agreed to that and now I regret telling you.” Reese sighed.

“You can play guitar!?” Trent beamed “I’m trying to learn! Can you play it please? Please?”

The puppy eyes were hard to ignore.

“Oh alright, fine.” Reese took the guitar from Chris and strummed a bit.

“We are Wawanakwa

An island alone

We are Wawanakwa

It’s a place we call home

If you ever come a knock-a

Make sure that you say

How you love Wawanakwa

and you’re here to stay

From the sky to ocean

To the cliff and the cave

Our dear Wawanakwa

Is the home of the brave

If you ever come a knock-a

Make sure that you say

I love Wawanakwa

And I’m here to stay!”

The song got mostly laughs but a few cheers and claps.

“That was so DUMB!” Duncan laughed.

“I didn’t write it!” Reese laughed as he handed back the guitar to Chris “blame the guy who founded the place.”.

Reese escorted the two groups back to their cabins and Reese made sure to point out his building again “if any of you need anything just knock, okay?”.

That got eye-rolls but a few of them looked relieved that they wouldn’t just be left by themselves on this side of camp.

Reese made sure that EVERYONE got into bed “alright guys lights out, see you in the morning.”.

He shut the doors the the Killer Bass cabin behind him and immediately the whispers started from the now dark cabin.

After making sure the Screaming Gophers were situated, he went to his cabin and let out a sigh as he stripped to change into his pajamas.

First thing on the agenda when he got paid was buying a new binder because this one was fraying and getting a little tight.

He crawled in bed and closed his eyes, and slowly began to drift off to slip.

The first day hadn’t been so bad.

It could’ve been way worse.

Chapter Text

The next morning Reese knocked on the door of the cabin bright and early, just loudly enough to wake the occupants up.

The kids were not pleased at the fact the day started at 8 AM and that Reese was punctual.

“It’s so EAAAAAARLY.” Owen whined as he sat down at his table with his breakfast.

The others seemed to share his sentiment.

Well, except Ezekiel apparently.

The boy was chattering to his table mates, who weren’t even awake yet, with an excited smile.

Chris blew his whistle “alright campers! First on the agenda is a classic! Arts and crafts! Then it’s onto a nature hike and-“

“Do I HAVE to?” Noah raised his hand.

“Yes.” Chris answered “your parents were very specific about you getting outside more.”

Noah slumped in his seat and poked at his eggs with a pinched expression.

“Where was I? Oh! After the nature hike we’ll have lunch-“

“YEAH!”

“-then we’ll play a game of capture the flag. Then some free time for you guys to do whatever. Then we’ll head down to the beach for a bit.“

“AGAIN?” Noah groaned.

Chris ignored the complaint “so finish up breaky and head to the arts and crafts center.”

Arts and crafts.

That Reese could definitely do.

He was pretty artsy and it was hard to screw up a craft.

What could go wrong?

——

Apparently a lot could go wrong.

It had STARTED fine, mostly everyone seemed into the crafts.

They were painting and decorating small letter boxes to store letters from home in.

But there had been a few…snags.

Ezekiel kept trying to eat the paste so Reese had to keep an eye on him at all times.

Izzy kept swiping items from the others so Reese had to move her to the other end of the table.

Heather complained about the paint ruining her nails, but there wasn’t much Reese could do about that so she just grumbled about it.

Lindsay ALMOST accidentally cut her hair because she wasn’t paying attention to where the scissors were.

Luckily Reese had spotted her before she made the cut or else he’s had to comfort a distraught eleven year old girl and explain to two pissed parents why their daughter got an impromptu haircut.

Geoff, Noah and Gwen seemed to be the only ones REALLY focused on the task at hand even if Reese was certain Noah was complaining under his breath.

“Shoot.” Reese looked over the table “we’re out of colored paper, I’ll be right back guys.”

They'd be fine on their own for a little bit.

——

Finding the paper wasn’t hard, but Reese figured he might as well grab some stickers and other items while he was there.

Only to freeze in place at the sight of what he returned to.

It was a MADHOUSE.

The lawn and table were COVERED in glitter and paint, paper was strewn everywhere, and the kids were lobbing fistfuls of whatever they could get their hands on at each other.

DJ and Noah were ducking for cover under the table while the others ran around screaming at each other.

“WHAT HAPPENED?!”

It was like time froze as they all slowly stopped in their places to look at Reese.

“I was gone for ten minutes.” Reese said slowly “how did you manage this in TEN minutes?!”

Some of them at least had the decency to look ashamed.

“Alright. What happened?” Reese set the items down on the table.

Silence as they all shifted.

“Well?”

“SHE started it!” Katie pointed to Heather “she stole the paint I was using!”

“I did NOT!” Heather crossed her arms “It was probably that crazy girl!”

“She’s not crazy!” Owen defended.

“Duncan’s the one who started throwing stuff!” Harold raised his hand.

“That’s cuz you painted ON me!”

“That was an accident!”

The kids all began shouting and pointing at each other, accusing one another of something or the other.

“Alright! Alright!” Reese held his hands up “enough!”.

The arguing didn’t stop.

“I said ENOUGH!”

He didn’t mean for his voice to boom that loudly, but he had to admit it was effective.

“We’re going to tell Chris what happened. Then ALL of you are going to clean this up.”

“But-“

At the look Reese gave him, Duncan trailed off and look away.

——-

Chris took one look at the kids and almost had a heart attack.

“What HAPPENED?!”

Reese crossed his arms “I left them alone for ten minutes to get more supplies. Who wants to tell him what happened?”

The kids suddenly looked anywhere but Chris and Reese.

“We…fought.” Beth admitted “with the paints and stuff.”

“Harold spilled paint on Duncan, so he threw glitter in his face, but it hit Courtney too, and she bumped into Lindsay…”

“Then Lindsay knocked paint over and it messed up Eva’s mailbox…”

“Then Eva started screaming and smacked her with the paint thing.”

It had been a bunch of little things that snowballed into the massive art supply fight.

“But Duncan was the one who threw stuff first.” Courtney pointed to him.

“I did NOT!” Duncan shot back.

“Did too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

That spiraled into another shouting match between the campers and Reese felt his temper start to flare up.

Chris blew his whistle and it cut through the noise and silenced the campers.

“I’ve heard enough. You ALL took part in it so you’re all being punished.” Chris crossed his arms at them “the rest of todays activities are CANCELED so you can clean up your mess.”

He looked around the room at them “You’re all old enough to know better.” Chris continued “you disrespected Reese by not following instructions and you disrespected both Reese AND Chef by making a mess they would have to clean up.”

Even Heather and Duncan were starting to waver a bit under the scolding.

“You’re going to clean it up and THEN you’re going to apologize to Reese and Chef. THEN you’re all having lunch and going back to your cabins for the rest of the day.”

There were whines and groans of protest.

“The only ones I saw that WEREN’T participating were DJ and Noah.” Reese looked at the two of them “were either of you involved?”

“No sir.” DJ shook his head “I hid under the table the entire time.”

“Noah?” Reese asked the boy “did you?”

“No. Acrylic paint gives me hives.” Noah shook his head “and glitter gets everywhere.”.

A few others on their respective teams corroborated that, the two had hidden when it had began.

“Then I don’t think it’s fair for you two to be punished. Consider this a free day.“ Chris nodded at Reese “why don’t you take them on that hike. I can handle this.”.

The others grumbled about it, but Reese motioned for the two boys to follow.

——-

The two boys hadn’t been interested in a hike, and Reese didn’t really see the sense in doing it for just the two of them so they went down to the beach while the others cleaned up.

DJ was still afraid to go in without his water wings, but they’d work on that.

“Sorry about the mess Mr.Reese.” DJ apologized “we should’ve stopped them…”

“You couldn’t have done anything DJ. They’re the ones who did it, not you and you couldn’t have made them stop. You don’t have to be sorry.” Reese smiled slightly “but thank you for the apology.”

“It was dumb.” Noah grumbled as he dragged a stick in the sand “what a waste of paint and paper.”.

Reese hummed in agreement.

——-

Reese was happy to say that swimming had gone better than the arts and crafts had.

Speaking of which the area was almost so clean it was like it never even happened, the only remnants being the paint splatters and tiny shreds of paper and glitter all over the grass.

But the picnic table had been scrubbed clean and everything had been put away.

After they showered Noah and DJ joined their teams at their respective tables.

The kids had cleaned themselves up, but some of their shoes were still colored by paint.

“Reese. These guys have something to say to you.” Chris crossed his arms at the campers.

“We’re sorry.” They chorused.

“For?” Chris asked.

“Wasting the supplies and ruining the activity.” Courtney answered.

“Making a big mess outta everything.”

“Eating paste.”

“Trying to make Harold eat paint.”

Reese looked over the room, they DID look pretty sorry for what they did.

“Let this be a lesson to you guys. Actions have consequences.”

“How come THEY didn’t have to clean?” Heather griped “they were there too!”.

“But THEY didn’t pour paint and glitter on each other.” Reese responded “so it’s not fair for them to be punished. Would you like to be punished for something you didn’t do?”.

Heather didn’t like the answer, but she seemed to accept it because she sat back down.

“You guys are going to eat lunch and then go back to your cabins for the rest of the day. Is that clear?” Chris asked them.

“Yes sir.” They chorused glumly.

——

The rest of the day the campers had actually done what they were told and stayed in their cabins, only being allowed out for the bathroom and for dinner.

Reese had poked his head in that night to call for lights out and they just did what he said so they wouldn’t get in more trouble.

“Do you think he’s mad at us?” Sadie whispered.

“I don’t know.” Bridgette whispered back “he looks okay now.”.

“Are you kidding?” Courtney hissed “he’s furious! This is all Duncan’s fault!”

“…how is it Duncan’s fault again?” Sadie asked.

“He started it!” Courtney crossed her arms as she laid on her back “if he hadn’t thrown that glitter I wouldn’t have knocked the paint over!”

“Would you all shut up!” Eva hissed at them, which they did even if they couldn’t sleep.

The others weren’t doing any better as they lowly argued over who really started the whole thing.

Camp had barely begun and they were already in trouble.

What a way to start their summer.

Chapter Text

The kids were on their best behavior the next morning, slowly filing in behind Reese and sitting quietly at their tables.

“Good morning campers!” Chris announced “hope you guys are ready for todays activity!”

“Is it more cleaning?” Leshawna grumbled.

“No Leshawna,” Chris answered “todays activity is, drumroll please!”

Reese drummed his hands on the table.

“Dodgeball!”

Duncan, Eva and Tyler looked excited at the prospect, but a couple seemed pretty upset at the mention of a sport.

“Bo-ring!” Izzy groaned “can’t we do wrestling? I like wrestling! I can pin anyone in like, ten seconds! Wanna see?”

Reese shook his head “that’s..great Izzy. But no. We’re not doing wrestling.”

“Aw man…”

“Alright guys finish up because after this we’re heading to the court!”

“Yippee.” Gwen muttered under her breath.

———

“First of all, let’s go over the rules. First rule. If you get hit, you’re out.” Reese held up the ball.

“Second rule. No hitting above the shoulders.” Reese looked around at them “any headshots and you’re automatically out and the other team gets an advantage.”

Duncan crossed his arms “I wasn’t going to do anything!”.

“I didn’t say you were. I’m telling everyone.”

Duncan just ‘hmmp’ed and looked away.

“Third rule. You can either catch or block the ball with your own ball, but if you drop it, you’re out. But if you catch it, the thrower is out.”

“Tyler try to hit me.” Reese tossed him a ball.

Tyler wound his arm back and threw the ball as hard as he could, and Reese side stepped it.

It rebounded off the wall and hit Lindsay in the back “OW!”.

“You okay?” Reese walked over to help her up.

“I’m okay…that hurt!” She whined.

“Yes it does.” Reese agreed “so you gotta pay attention so you don’t get hit.”

“Oh…okay!”

“Alright players, on my whistle!” Chris held it up “and GO!”

He blew the whistle and the kids descended onto the red rubber balls on the court, chucking them at each other with wild abandon.

——-

The first few rounds actually went well, but Reese saw Noah in the bleachers with a book.

“Has he been there the entire time?”

“Mhm. Says he doesn’t want to. I couldn’t get him to join in.” Chris sighed “should we call his parents? He obviously doesn’t want to be here.”

Reese bit the inside his cheek “let me talk to him first.”

——

“Hey Noah.” Reese greeted “why aren’t you playing?”.

“I don’t want to.” Noah didn’t even look up from his book.

“Why not? Looks like everyone is having fun.”

“Not me. I hate sports.”

Reese nodded “I get that. They’re not for everyone.”

Noah held his book tightly “what do you want?”

Reese decided to ignore the tone “I’m just checking in. That’s my job right?”

“I guess so.”

“Cmon Noah. Tell me why you don’t want to play?

“It’s just a stupid game. Throwing balls isn’t hard to do!”

“Then why don’t you do it? It’s not exactly mentally stimulating, but it’s fun.”

Noah just scoffed at him.

“Look, I can’t force you to play. But remember the swimming? Once you were doing it you enjoyed it, right?”

Noah didn’t answer.

“I think you’d have fun if you just tried. You don’t have to win, but if you do then that’s just a bonus!”

Reese could see Noah’s resolve wavering.

“Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. You should do what you’re here for- having fun. Look at Cody.”

They looked just in time to see Cody get hit so hard with a ball it knocked him off his feet.

Reese cringed but the kid just got back up, laughing and running to sit out until he got called back in.

“See? Cody got out and no one got mad at him. He’s having fun.”

Noah sighed deeply “fine.”

——

Reese was right.

It WAS fun.

He wasn’t the strongest, but he was the fastest one and he was zipping under the projectiles, only to freeze when he heard people start to scream.

“Noah! DUCK!”

He turned to see a red ball flying towards his face and instinctively put his hands up to block it.

The rebound knocked him off his feet and hard onto his back, the ball bouncing off somewhere.

He sat up and ignored how his hands stung and back ached from the impact, slumping off back to the stands.

Only to be called back onto the court five minutes later, to his surprise and delight.

——-

The Killer Bass ended up winning, and their prize was a trip to the store on the upcoming weekend.

The Gophers were a bit disheartened, especially Noah, but to their shock they ALSO got a prize.

“Because all of you showed team spirit and good teamwork…I think you guys deserve an award. Good job guys, remember to share it!”

Reese handed  bag of candy from the commissary to Justin and smiled at them.

Noah got the message loud and clear.

——

They all passed around the bag of candy with smiles as they chattered to each other about the game.

Noah sucked on a butterscotch as he thought.

He hated losing. That’s why he didn’t try. If you don’t try you can’t lost and then people won’t be mad at you.

But no one really got upset with him for losing, they were more upset he sat out for half the game.

——-

Reese had just logged in the days events into daily log, and leaned back in his chair.

He was slowly making progress with Noah’s attitude, but it didn’t seem like enough.

For every step the kid made, he’d go right back to his old attitude.

But today?

Today Noah actually tried and he tried really hard.

Sure his team lost, but Reese counted this as a win.

At least for him and Noah.

Chapter Text

Reese had been leading the kids through a game of capture the flag when the loudspeaker shrieked to life, the kids stopping to cover their ears from the piercing noise.

“ATTENTION CAMPERS! PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE AMPHITHEATER AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE!”

The loudspeaker shrieked again as Chris ended the transmission.

“What’s going on?” Cody asked.

“Not sure. But knowing Chris it’s going to be a big thing.”

The amphitheater was hardly ever used, and was left over from when the place had been a theatre camp way back in the day.

They had to throw out a bunch of stuff while cleaning it out, mainly moth eaten and mildewed costumes and busted instruments.
——-

“Todays activity is….” Chris held his arms up “a TALENT SHOW!”

Oh dear god.

“Wait I thought that wasn’t until NEXT week?!” Reese was not prepared for this!

“I had Chef switch it, since this is WAY more fun than camping.” Chris smiled.

“Yeah!” Cody cheered “this is going to be way more fun!”

The other kids seemed to echo his sentiments as they excitedly talked to each other about their talents.

“Alright Bass, let’s switch this up. You’re with me today, Gophers you’re with Reese!”

That was new.

While Reese was technically in charge of all of them, that was only when Chris or Chef wasn’t around.

But he was usually with the Killer Bass when they were.

The Bass seemed a bit disappointed that Reese wouldn’t be there to see them practice.

“You guys can surprise me with your amazing talents during the show!”
——

The Gophers stood around when Reese whistled “alright guys let’s see what you got. You can do anything you want!”

Owen raised his hand “I can burp the alphabet!”

The girls made faces and stepped away.

“That’s so cool!” Trent grinned “show us!”

“Yeah!” Cody threw his arms up “show us!”

”Yeah!” Justin joined in on the cheering.

Noah looked a bit disgusted, but also a bit curious.

“Can I?” Owen asked.

Reese shrugged “go for it. Drinks are in the cooler.”

Owen opened up the cooler and cracked open a soda, chugging as fast as he could.

It took a couple seconds but the result was actually pretty cool. Even Reese couldn’t burp the alphabet.

The boys cheered while the girls just seemed grossed out.

“That’s not a talent!” Heather stomped her foot “he can’t do that!”

“No rule against it.” Reese shrugged “and looks like we have our next volunteer. What’s your talent Heather?”

“…ballet.” She crossed her arms.

“That’s good, I used to do ballet when I was your age.”

She seemed a bit shocked by that “YOU did ballet?”

“Yep. Had to wear the leotard and everything.”

That seemed to break her out of her sulking because she started to giggle, which caused a domino effect.

“Yeah yeah, laugh it up.” Reese rolled his eyes playfully with a smile “why don’t you show us?”

Heather seemed a bit excited to show off now, getting into formation and beginning the dance to ‘Swan Lake’.
——-

Reese wrote the kids talents by their names on his clipboard as they went.

Owen could burp the alphabet.

Heather did ballet.

Izzy did something she called “The Dance of the Rattlesnake”.

Reese hesitated on Beth’s talent though.

“Beth, are you sure you can do this?” Reese asked, he didn’t need ‘burning down an island and killing everyone’ on the list of things he’s done.

“Uh huh! I practice all the time at home!” Beth nodded, holding the batons out “pleeeeeease? It’ll look so much cooler if it’s done like this! Please! I’ll be really careful, I promise!”

Reese sighed “okay…okay. Everybody stand back.”

The other kids took a few steps back and Reese carefully lit the ends of the baton on fire.

To Beth’s credit, she did twirl them like she was suppose to, but when it came to the finale, she misjudged the distance and lost control.

“Get back!” Reese yelled.

The kids dove out of the way as the baton landed in the grass, but before the fire could spread it was doused by a fire extinguisher.

Reese looked down and saw Justin.

“Nice hustle Justin.”
——

Reese had been reprimanded for letting Beth do the stunt, but since no one got hurt it was just a warning.

Instead of ACTUAL fire, they tired red, orange and yellow streamers to the ends to simulate fire.

Justin could do the typical stuff a pageant kid could do, which Reese really forced himself not to comment on but the memories of being forced into stuffy outfits and long days and hot lights really made him want to.

Cody could play piano.

Katie got upset she couldn’t do her favorite dance with Sadie, but she could sing pretty well for an eleven year old with no training.

Leshawna could jump rope a hundred times in a row.

Lindsay could do martial arts, which surprised everyone including Reese.

Gwen was going to do a poetry recitation.

“Alright Noah, what can you do?” Reese asked.

Noah just shrugged “not much.”.

“C’mon Noah, there has to be something!”

“ONE HOUR TIL THE SHOW DUDES!” Chris called as he walked by.

“One hour til the show dudes.” Noah mocked once he was out of earshot.

“Well…looks like you do have a talent then.”
——-

The talents were, admittedly, mediocre for most of the kids.

A few sang, some danced.

Tyler did a yo-yo trick that ended with Reese cutting him out of the string.

Then he had to unravel DJ from his dance ribbon.

Bridgette suddenly didn’t look so good during her handstand and ended up getting sick all over the stage, so they had to put it on pause while Chef took her to to the medical tent and so Reese could clean up.

According to the Bass she went pretty heavy on the junk food beforehand, so when she was suddenly upside down it kinda…didn’t STAY down.

The show resumed after they made sure she was going to be okay.

It came down to Noah and Harold.

Noah did a pretty solid impression of Chris, which had the rest of them uproaring in laughter while he crossed his arms in a pouting fashion.

Finally, Harold took the stage and grabbed the microphone.

Reese had heard some pretty good beat boxing in his da, and Harold was pretty much up there with some of the street artists he’s seen.

Mostly everyone was cheering, even the Gophers were, because even they had to admit it was pretty awesome.
——-

The Killer Bass ended up winning, which disheartened the Gophers a bit.

“We keep LOSING.” Heather gripped.

“Yeah, but wasn’t that fun?” Reese handed her a cherry Popsicle.

She didn’t say anything, but began to eat away at it.

“Sorry you didn’t win guys. But you did your best.”

“I don’t think anyone could’ve beaten that.” Trent sighed.

“Don’t be so down on yourself, you guys have great performances. You’ll get em next time.”

That seemed to cheer up the group a bit.

“Yeah!” Owen cheered “we can beat them! Then WE can have cool prizes too!”

“Yeah!” Cody cheered back.

At least they cheered up from their loss that day.

Chapter Text

It was a day or so before the camping trip when both Bridgette and DJ started acting sick.

At first Reese worried it was a stomach bug, he wasn’t ready to deal with 22 sick kids, and Chris got sick easy (and according to Chef he was a big baby).

Then there was the risk of HIM getting sick, which was rare but could still happen.

The two were pulled out of the cabin and put in the mes tent to stop it from spreading, whatever it was.

Chris and Chef were preparing for the camping trip, Chef and Reese were suppose to go but now Reese had to stay back with Bridgette and DJ.

“You guys comfortable?” Reese asked as he set a cup of juice besides DJ.

Neither of them were throwing up, but it was better safe than sorry.

“I’m okay.” DJ closed his eyes.

“Me too.” Bridgette pulled her blanket up.

“I’ll be right over there if you need me okay?” Reese pointed to the table where he’d been working on planning a few activities around the kids selective interests.

“Okay…”.

——-

Reese had left the tent for the bathroom and Bridgette let out a sigh of relief “you trying to get out of going to?”.

DJ nodded “I HATE camping.”

“I hate the woods. They’re so creepy!”

“There could be bears! Or wolves! Or mountain lions!” DJ sat up in bed.

“Or a Sasquatch!” Bridgette added in agreement.

“A…what?” DJ asked.

“My mom told me!” Bridgette twirled her pony tail “there’s something called a Sasquatch it’s an animal that walks like a person and it’s BIG.”

“How big?” DJ asked hesitantly.

“BIG.” Bridgette affirmed “bigger than Chef!”

“Whoa….”

“My brother said there’s one around here!” Bridgette crossed her arms “So I’m happy I’m not going.”

“I’m surprised Noah isn’t faking being sick too.” DJ took a drink of his juice “he hates the outdoors.”.

“I asked Leshawna and she asked Lindsay, who asked Heather, who didn’t say anything so Lindsay asked Owen, and HE said that Noah said that he’s going to try harder to have fun and I guess that means he’s trying to listen to Reese.” Bridgette took a breath as she finished.

DJ shook his head “you couldn’t MAKE me go into the woods.”

“Me either!”

——

Reese stayed with the the rest of the day, brought them a light dinner and even slept on a cot so he’d be nearby if they needed him.

And the guilt was eating away at DJs conscience.

“Reese are you sure you’ll be okay?” Chris asked as he hiked up a bag to his shoulder “we’re going to be gone all day and night.”.

“I’ll be fine, they’re going to be in bed most of the time anyways, and while they do that I can fix that leaky shower head in the bathroom.”

“If you’re sure. You have the walky-talky?”

Reese held it up “Roger that.”

“Chris the kid’ll be fine.” Chef put a hand on his shoulder “and those two are the good ones.”

“HEY!” The other kids chorused.

Chef gave them a look “they’ll be fine. He’ll be fine.”

It was just one day.

——-

The boredom was going to kill her, she was sure of it.

A couple hours had gone by since the others left and Bridgette was bored out of her mind.

DJ seemed to be in the same boat because he was looking through a really boring looking medical textbook.

Just as she thought she was going crazy from being so so so so bored, Reese popped his head in with a box

“Sorry I took so long guys. I guessed you both bored so I went to find something for us to do.”

They both walked over to see what was in the box.

“Let’s see what we have here…” Reese pulled out a box “..’Picture This’? You draw a picture and the other have to guess what it is.”

They shook their heads.

“How about ‘Actin’ Out’? It’s like charades.”

They shook their heads

“How about…’Oligopoly’?” Reese asked “ or maybe ‘Spell It Out’?”.

Bridgette pointed to one “what’s that?”.

“Oh. That’s ‘Live Your Life’.” Reese pulled it out “basically what it says on the cover. You go through a life and make choices.”.

“Can we play a card game?” DJ pulled out a deck of cards.

“That okay with you Bridgette?”

“Yeah that’s okay.” She nodded “what game are playing?”

He damn well couldn’t teach them Blackjack.

“How about Spades?”

They shook their heads.

“Gin Rummy?

“No way! My grandma plays that!” DJ groaned.

“How about…” Reese thought, he couldn’t give them the REAL name of the game.

They were eleven and they’d be shouting it all over camp and then they’d get angry parents asking why their kids are cursing.

“….’No Way!’?” Reese asked.

“What’s that?” Bridgette asked.

“Let’s say I’m holding cards and I put three down and say that it’s a Queen and two threes. If you don’t think I put them down, you say-“

“No way!”

“Exactly!” Reese nodded “ if you’re right I pick them back up, but if you say it and I DID put them down, then you have to pick them up.”

“That sounds fun! Can we play that?”

“You got it Bridgette.”

——-

The kids actually liked the game and by lunch they seemed to be feeling better, so they got actual food.

“Don’t go telling the others.” Reese led them to the kitchen.

“What are we making?” DJ asked.

“Sopa de ajo.” Reese answered “it’s garlic soup.”

“Ew!” Bridgette cringed “garlic?!”

“Garlic is good for when you’re sick.” Reese explained “it’ll make you feel better.”

“Can’t we have pizza?” DJ asked.

“Sorry man, pizza is for not-sick kids.” Reese started pulling out the ingredients.

“But we’re not even sick!”

“DJ!”

“Sorry! But I hate garlic!”

“You guys aren’t sick?” Reese asked.

“No…” Bridgette looked down to the floor, DJ looked similarly ashamed.

“We just didn’t want to go camping.”he muttered.

Reese looked at them and sighed softly “why?”.

The two cracked and began talking over one another and Reese could only make out a few words.

“Woods” “Dark” “Creepy” and….

“Sasquatch?” Reese asked “who said anything about a Sasquatch?”.

“My mom said they’re real!” Bridgette crossed her arms “and my brother said there’s one around here!”

“He was just trying to scare you.” Reese shook his head “if they ARE real, then there’s none around here. Me and Chef had to look over the island.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” Reese nodded “now, who’s hungry?”

“We’re still having that stuff?” Bridgette groaned.

“No…” Reese smiled playfully “we’re making pizza.”.

——-

They went down to the beach after lunch and paddled around for bit, then they played ‘Oligopoly’ and then ‘Sugarland’ for a bit.

After a dinner of left over pizza, they went to bed.

They still slept in the medical tent so they didn’t have to sleep alone, and Reese didn’t blame them.

The cabins were creepy when they were empty at night.

“You guys could’ve just said you didn’t want to go. We could’ve found something for you guys to do here instead.”

“But NOAH went!” Bridgette crossed her arms “and he hates it!”.

“Yeah, but he’s trying to have fun. If you guys had said you didn’t want to go, we could’ve found something else for you to do here with your team.”

“Sorry…”

“Just don’t make a habit of it. Okay?”

“Okay Reese…”

“Good. Get some sleep, you two are going to help me make breakfast tomorrow, I bet everyone’s going to be starving!”

The two kids laughed.

——

Sure enough, a very ragged looking Chris and Chef stepped through the door of the mess hall with the horde of kids running around them.

“I’m going to take a bath. Then I’m going to go to sleep until the summer is over.” Chris muttered under his breath.

“It wasn’t THAT bad.” Chef scoffed.

“They were like ANIMALS! How does Reese do it? How do YOU do it?”

“I don’t know how HE does it, but you can’t let them walk all over you! Kids smell fear and weakness!”

Reese laughed as he met them with a wave as he dishes out eggs and bacon for everyone, who were excitedly talking about their camping trip and how it was so cool.

Bridgette and DJ joined their team and Reese sat next to Chris and Chef, who were sitting just a BIT too close to be friendly.

The kids hadn’t seemed to notice, but Reese knew something was going on between them, they were pretty bad at hiding it.

Slips of the tongue, the touching, the pet names, the ‘subtle’ looks they gave each other.

But it wasn’t really his business, so he didn’t care.

But it was kind of funny watching them scramble whenever they slipped up.

Chapter Text

Later that night when they were cleaning up after the campfire, Chris finally had the energy to tell Reese what had happened during the camping trip.

It had been a disaster from start to finish.

Heather didn’t want to carry anything so one of the boys had to double up.

Lindsay tripped over a root and scraped her knees and hands.

Duncan and Harold argued the entire time and Chef had to desperate them.

They lost Katie and Sadie for twenty minutes because they snuck off together and got left behind.

Beth lost her glasses and they had to stop to look for them.

When they GOT to the campsite Justin didn’t want to get dirty so he wouldn’t help  with pitching the tents or setting up the supplies.

Courtney was bossing her group around and got pelted with marshmallows, which attracted a raccoon Chef had to stop Izzy from wrangling into making her PET.

Then, at the ass crack of dawn, Owen tripped over the tent and broke one of the poles which woke everyone up in their panic to not be trapped in the fabric.

That…explained why they hadn’t been in the best moods.

“How’d YOUR day go?” Chris asked.

“Not too bad. They were pretty well behaved. We had a little talk. They were glad they got sick because they didn’t want to go.”

”Really?”

“Yep.” Reese bit his s’more “both of em are terrified of the woods.”

“Why?”

Reese swallowed “Bridgette’s scared of the woods themselves and DJ doesn’t like the idea of being around so many wild animals.”.

“Interesting.”

“Chris no.”

“No, what?”

“You are NOT exploiting their fears.” Reese brushed the crumbs off his shirt “it’s a shitty thing to do to them.”

“Oh come on, it can help them get over them!”

“No. We are NOT doing that. Tomorrow is a nice RELAXING day of arts and crafts and swimming. We are NOT going ‘Fear Factor’. We are NOT therapists and we are definitely not qualified to do that.”

“Fiiiine…” Chris groaned “for someone who almost let Beth burn the camp down, you are not much fun.”

“That was an accident and you know it!” Reese crossed his arms at him “and I’m plenty of fun!”.

“Fine fine! We won’t do the fear thing. I’ll figure something else out.”

“Good.”

——

Reese woke up to screaming.

Terrified, horrific and bloodcurdling screaming.

He didn’t even put on his shoes as he bolted from his cabin to the source of the screams.

He burst into the Gopher girls cabin and they were still screaming as he, half asleep and confused as hell, looked for what could be making them scream.

“It went under her bunk!” Lindsay pointed under Beth’s bunk.

Which proved to be a mistake because Beth ran screaming out of the cabin, almost taking Reese down as she did.

He slowly lowered himself to the ground and looked, he couldn’t really see though.

“Gwen can you get me a flashlight?”

“No way! It’s under MY bunk!” Gwen shook her head.

“Leshawna?”

“Uh uh!”

Katie was backed into the corner of her bed, eyes locked on Gwen’s bunk and frozen in place.

Heather was just watching it unfold with rapt attention.

Lindsay wasn’t even an option, the poor girl was cowering under her blanket like she just saw a ghost

Reese slowly stood back up and went to the drawer, pulling out a flashlight and getting back down.

He shined it and he saw what had made them scream.

A snake.

He cursed under his breath but kept it shined on it, snake still staring at him.

“Gwen can you hand me your pillowcase?”

She looked confused but did as she was told.

Reese set the flashlight down and took it from her, and Reese held it open, “cmon little fella…Cmere…”

The snake slithered towards him curiously, and when Reese saw it wasn’t a venomous snake and just a harmless grass one, he made his move, furiously swiping at it and grabbing it by the head and quickly dropping in into the pillowcase, where is loudly hissed and wiggled.

Reese held it tightly closed and stood “alright girls it’s fine now, I got it.”.

“You did? Are you sure?” Lindsay asked.

“Sure did. See?” Reese held up the pillowcase “it’s in here. Why don’t you guys get dressed, I’m going to go set it free and try and find Beth.”

He turned to see everyone else in camp standing at the door, and almost dropped the pillowcase in surprise.

——

Everyone had come out of their cabins at the screaming, and when they saw Beth bolting from the Gophers cabin, they all came to see what happened.

“What is that?” Owen pointed to the wiggling pillowcase, the snake had stopped hissing but was still trying to escape.

“Just a harmless grass snake.” Reese answered.

“Cool!” Duncan came closer “can I see?

“It’s pretty ticked, I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” Reese shook his head.

“Oh come on!” Duncan groaned “it won’t bite me!”

“It’s a very very angry snake, I’d rather not take that chance.”

Most of the campers were left behind as a few of the boys and Izzy trailed behind Reese as he went to set it free.

“Please?” Owen asked “I always wanted to see one up close!”

“I wanna see what kind it is!” Harold jumped in.

“The nerd is right! We want to see!” Duncan reached for the bag, only to almost fall at Reese pulling it away and stopping in the middle walking.

“No. I’m not having it bite one of you guys.”

“Please!” Cody begged.

Reese had to admit they were beginning to grate on his nerves and was thankful when he saw Chef walking towards them.

“You caught a snake?” He looked down at the now still pillowcase.

“Yep. Don’t worry it’s harmless, but I don’t want it to bite the kids. I’m going to set it free but they want to see it.”

Chef inhaled deeply “just let them see. They won’t stop pestering you until you do.”

“Yeah, but it can bite them!”

“How about I hold it and they just look? Would that work? I need to make breakfast and those other ones won’t stop whining about this.”

Reese sighed and slowly opened the pillowcase, and Chef looked in, and then reached in.

Pulling out a long green snake.

“That’s so COOL!” Geoff clenched his hands in excitement.

Then Izzy said the dreadful words.

“We can keep it as a pet!” Izzy threw her arms up “please!”.

“Yeah!” Duncan agreed.

“No no no! We can’t keep it! It’s a wild animal!” Reese shook his head at them.

“Come on! Please?” Tyler begged.

The others joined in, and Reese felt his temper start to flare up.

Don’t yell at them. Don’t yell at them. They’re just kids. Don’t yell at them.

“Chef?” Reese slowly inhaled “how would you and Chris feel about a snake for a camp pet.”

“I couldn’t care less.”

——

Chris had been surprisingly on board with the idea, and since Reese was outnumbered, they officially had ‘Hissy the  Snake’ as a pet.

It was going to live in Reese’s cabin in an aquarium they APPARENTLY just had lying around, and filled it with all kinds of stuff for what Duncan called ‘enrichment’.

The kid apparently had a couple snakes of his own, and seemed to be a good caretaker with how careful he was helping put it together.

Reese said they could come visit any time, as long as they knocked first.

“Why do we have to knock?” Owen asked.

“Because it’s polite. Now hurry up and get going before we miss like we did breakfast.”

——-

Reese wasn’t that bothered by his new roommate, the snake was actually pretty quiet and the light from the uv lamp didn’t bother him that much.

Reese had washed and returned Gwen’s pillowcase and now he was laying in bed.

“Why is it always me.”.

Chapter Text

Heather griped about the canoe trip all the way to the beach.

“If you really don’t want to go, you can always stay here with Chef.” Reese said as he helped Cody with his life jacket.

“You stayed back when Bridgette and DJ were sick!” Heather crossed her arms.

“Exactly. They weren’t feeling well, and since Chris has little in the way of medical training, he went on the camping trip instead of me. Remember?”

“But that’s not FAIR!”

“It’s plenty fair. Unless you have a reason you don’t want to go?”

She glared “it’s just stupid. I’m not getting in some stupid boat that could fall over!”

“What?!” DJs head snapped up from where he’d been tying his shoe “fall over?!”

“Or capris!” Lindsay twirled a lock of hair around her finger “my sister says they do it a lot!”

“Capsize.” Reese corrected “capris are pants Lindsay.”

“Oh.”

“And don’t worry DJ, nothing going to happen. But if it DID, then I’ll be right there with you guys. Chris is going too. You’ll all be fine.”

“Is that why we have to wear these?” Lindsay poked her live jacket with a somewhat grossed look “they’re ugly!”

“They’re ugly, but they’ll keep you safe if you fall in. Some of you aren’t that strong of swimmers and these will keep you floating.”

“Oh…”

“They’re not THAT bad.” Noah added, even if he himself didn’t look too enthused about wearing one.

“I guess so…” Lindsay said glumly, not happy about wearing the bright orange flotation device.

“I think it makes you look pretty!” Tyler smiled earnestly.

”Awwww! Thank you!” Lindsay smiled back.

That was so sweet.

“See? It’s not so bad! Look at mine!” Tyler crossed his arms over his chest proudly, and Reese realized something.

“Tyler…” Reese shook his head in exasperation “yours is on backwards.”

“Oops.”

——-

After a bit of a struggle of getting the canoes into the water, it was pretty much smooth sailing.

“Hey Reese?” Trent called “what’s that over there?” He pointed to the island in the distance.

“That’s Boney Island, and it’s absolutely OFF LIMITS.” Reese looked around the lake “that goes for everyone. No one is going to that island.”

“Yes Reese” they chorused, only Ezekiel said “yessir” like he did with Chris and Chef.

Ezekiel kind of worried Reese.

The kid had almost no social skills but was absolutely polite to him, Chris and Chef. Always ‘yessir’ and ‘no sir’. Didn’t seem to get social cues or sarcasm and he wasn’t really getting along with anyone for the most part.

He also seemed to be struggling a bit with his oar and Eva and Tyler were looking pretty bit annoyed at him.

“Zeke!” Reese called “copy what Eva does!”

“But she’s a girl!” Ezekiel shook his head “my dad says-“

“Your dad isn’t here. I’m here and I’m telling you to do what Eva does.”

“….yessir.”

——

They were halfway with their loop around the island and Reese pointed out cool formations as they went.

“Reese?” DJ began “are there sharks here?”

“Well…”Reese hesitated “yeah. But they’re not dangerous if we just leave them be. They don’t usually come this close to land anyways.”

“Are you sure?” DJ asked.

“Positive. Why do you ask?”

“Duncan’s said he was going to feed Harold to the sharks if he keeps talking about magic.”

Reese set his jaw but sighed, Duncan was proving to be a bit of a troublemaker and tended to get others in in whatever scheme he cooked up.

“I’ll talk with him when we get back to camp. Don’t worry about it. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Not even fifteen minutes later the whining started.

“Reeeeeeese!” Owen groaned “I’m tired! And hungry!”

A few of the others chimed in that they were hungry and tired too.

Even Chris was looking a bit run down.

Reese checked his watch “I guess we can stop for a break. Alright everyone, go left!”

It took a while for everyone to figure out how to turn, but it wasn’t long until they reached shore.

Reese pulled out the backpack he brought along “one juice, one bag of chips and sandwich for everyone. Noah, Ezekiel, Yours is in the outside pocket.”

Noah and Ezekiel were allergic to peanuts, so they got turkey.

The kids must of been hungry because lunch was over fast “alright fifteen minutes to stretch before we’re back on the water. Don’t go too far.”

——-

Reese sat on a rock and closed his eyes for a minute.

“You alright kid?”

“Fine. Just thinking, ya know. These guys have a lot of energy.”

Case in point, Tyler was attempting a backflip and landed face down in the sand, which sent Cody, Duncan and Geoff into hysterics.

Noah was sitting with Owen, so at least he was making friends.

Heather was talking with Lindsay who didn’t seem to be listening, and zoning off.

The others were scattered around and doing whatever.

“Yeah. I can see that. Are you still sure you can handle this?”

Reese thought for a good minute about it.

“Yeah. I can. Nothing I can’t handle.”

“If you say so.”

——-

By the time they got back to camp the day was mostly over, and it was almost dinner time.

Which to Chefs absolute shock (and maybe a bit of pride), they devoured the stew he made.

As in the ENTIRE POT.

The kids even went to bed with zero complaint.

The canoe trip had exhausted them and Reese actually had some down time before he would turn in for the night.

Usually he’d clean, and now taking care of a snake was on his to do list, but he had nothing left to do.

So he decided to catch up on his reading and hasn’t even noticed when he fell asleep.

Or when a figure removed the book from his hands and pulled a blanket up to his shoulders before turning out the lantern.

Chapter Text

Reese had been feeding the snake when there was a banging on the door of his cabin, and shouting.

So it begins.

“Come in!” Reese called, dropping the mouse into the tank and closing it back up.

“Reese!” Courtney stomped in, quickly followed by Lindsay, Leshawna and Bridgette “Heathers hogging the bathroom! She won’t come out!”

“She’s been in there for like, FOREVER!” Lindsay added.

“And she yelled at us when we tried to get her to come out.” Leshawna said.

“Alright alright I’m coming.” Reese held up his hands.

——

“Heather?” Reese rapped his knuckles on the door of the bathroom “would you mind letting the others use the bathroom too?”

“GO AWAY!”

Reese blinked at the yell.

“Are you okay in there?”

“I SAID GO AWAY! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Reese looked at the kids that were looking at him expectantly “guys why don’t you go ask to the staff bathroom? There’s triple ply in there and fancy soap. I need to talk to Heather alone.”

The girls groaned but did as instructed.

“Okay Heather, they’re gone. Is everything okay in there?”

“Please just GO AWAY!” Heather yelled.

“I’m not leaving until I make sure you’re okay.” Reese stood firm at the entrance.

He had a sneaking suspicion what was happening, but he needed confirmation before he did anything.

There was a beat of silence “something…happened. It hurts.”

“What hurts?”

“My belly…and I’m bleeding…down there. And I don’t feel good.”

Oh no…

“Oh Heather…I’ll be right back okay? I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

——

He went to the medical tent and dug around the drawers in a slight panic, he KNEW he bought them just incase…

There they were.

He grabbed a unopened pack of underwear, lord knows he’s bled through enough times to know this definitely caught the poor girl of guard.

He rushed back to the bathroom and knocked on the door “Heather? Can I come in I have something that will help.”

“But you’re a BOY! You can’t come in!”

“Heather…I know what happening and Chris and Chef won’t be much help. I promise I can help you, okay?”

Heather didn’t say anything but he heard the lock unlatch.

Reese waited a moment for her to get re-situated and then pushed the door open.

“Heather…what’s happening is completely normal for a girl your age.” Reese began “I know it’s scary and it hurts but it’s normal and you don’t have to be scared.”

“I’m bleeding!” Heather cried “that’s not normal!”

“You’re menstruating.” Reese continued “you’ve just got your period.”

Reese handed her the packages under the stall door “open the blue square and put it in your underwear. It’ll catch the blood.”

“That’s so GROSS!”

“Yeah…it isn’t pleasant. But it’s necessary. I’ll be right here if you need help okay?”

“…okay…”

There was rustling and the empty packages fell to the floor, but Reese didn’t feel this was the time to admonish her for littering.

“…Reese? Are you still there?”

“Right here, what’s wrong?”

“Which way does it go?”

“See the little arrows on the little paper on the adhesive side? It goes that way.”

A few moments later, Heather emerged from the stall, teary faced.

“Why is this happening?” He held her stomach “it hurts…”

Reese gently pat her back “I know. It doesn’t feel good. But this means you’re growing up.”

“How come you know so much?” Heather sniffed as she washed her hands.

“Because when I got MY period, I was really scared and embarrassed. Like you. But I was at school and wearing white pants.”

Heather stopped “but…you’re a boy.”

“I am.” Reese confirmed “But a long time ago, I was born a girl. But being a girl didn’t make me very happy, and I really wanted to be a boy. I KNEW I was a boy. Being a boy makes me happy.”

Reese got eye level with her “you see…sometimes…little girls turn out to be little boys. And sometimes little boys want to be little girls. I was born a girl, but then I realized I didn’t WANT to be a girl. I didn’t know why I didn’t want to, but then I realized that being a boy made me really happy.”

Heather just looked at him.

“I know it’s hard to understand. But just know this okay? I know what you’re going through because I go through it too, okay?”

“…okay.”

“And it’s just for a few days. Five at most.”

“Oh! Then I can go back to normal? It won’t happen again?!”

“Not…exactly.” Reese nervously shook his head “five days a month, once a month for the next forty years.”

Heather looked crestfallen “what?”.

“Yeah. I know…but in time you’ll get the hang of it, okay?”

Heather wiped her eyes on her sleeve “okay….Reese?”

“Yeah?”

Heather hugged him tightly “thank you.”

“No problem. You’re welcome.”

——

Reese let Heather lay down for the day, the first day is always rough.

“Where’s Heather? We’re about to start the paintball game!”

“She’s..not feeling well.” Reese said “she had a little…visitor this morning.”

It took a second for the information to click “oh….is she?”

“She’s fine. Just scared her. I explained it to her. Then I gave her some medicine and let her lay down. Poor kid…Getting it at home or school is one thing, but at camp?”

Chris nodded “okay since that makes us uneven…would you mind taking her place?”

“Sure.”

——

The game hadn’t really had a clear winner since the kids basically just opened fire on each other instead of actually following the rules.

Reese still had bright orange and blue paint in his hair when he went to check on Heather, who was looking much better than before.

“Chef made me some tea and it helped.”

“That’s good. How you feeling?”

“Okay I guess…can I call my mom?” Heather asked “please?”.

Usually that wasn’t allowed….but Reese felt like they could make an exception this time.

He had to look for her file to find the phone number, and when he did find it he wasn’t so sure they’d answer this late in the afternoon.

A woman answered “Kasuga residence, Mrs. Kasuga speaking.”

“Hi ma’am, this is Reese Ortega from Camp Wawanakwa. Your daughter Heather goes to camp here.”

“Is she okay? Is the CAMP okay?”

“Everything is fine. It’s just…I think you better hear it from her.”

He handed the phone to Heather and stepped away for a moment to give them privacy.

“-okay. Bye moomsie. Say hi to Poopsie…love you too.”

Reese patted her head “what did she say?”

“That I’m becoming a lady…it doesn’t FEEL like I am.”

“You will. Eventually.” Reese smiled softly “are you hungry? When I’m on my period I get really nauseous.”

“I’m starving! Is there chocolate? Oh and ice cream? And caramel? And potato chip?”

“Ah, food cravings. Yep. We have all those things. And I’ll ask Chris if I can head to town tomorrow to pick you up a little something special as a congratulations.”

“….thanks Reese.”

“You’re welcome Heather. Welcome to the club.”

Chapter Text

Reese was excited the activity he got to plan. He spent so much time and effort planning it out!

A cooking challenge, a simple meal but enough to teach the kids a few skills. Reese wished he learned how to cook at their age.

Chef was going to take care of the Gophers and Reese would take care of the Bass, the they’d switch halfway through to make things fair.

They’d be there to instruct, but would be hands off for the most part.
——-

“First off, we need a theme. Anyone got any ideas?”

“Japanese!” Harold waved his hand high “we can make sushi!”

There were faces and sounds of disgust but Reese wrote it down anyway.

“Anyone else?”

“Canadian?” Ezekiel asked.

Reese wrote it down.

“Boring!” Duncan groaned.

“Alright, what is your suggestion then Duncan?”

The boy seemed caught off guard by that but quickly recovered “French! French fries, French toast-“

“None of those are French!” Courtney put her hands on her hips “we need to WIN a challenge for once!”

“They have French on the name!” Duncan argued back.

“They aren’t French you idiot!” Courtney raised her voice.

Reese stood between them “hey! Hey! Enough!” He pushed them apart “Duncan. French fries aren’t French. Courtney don’t call people names.”

“Reese?” Geoff piped up “can I suggest something?”

“Huh? Oh yeah go ahead.”

“Italian?”

That was actually a really good suggestion!

“Sounds good to me.” DJ shrugged.

“Fine.” Duncan crossed his arms.

“Oooh! I love Italian!” Izzy nodded “the pasta looks like guts!”

“…thank you Izzy.” Reese patted her head.

“Next step is choosing head chef. Any nominations?”

“What’s a denomination?” Tyler asked.

“that’s a religion thing. NOMINATION is where you suggest someone and we take a vote.”

“Oooooh.”

Courtney stepped up with a proud smile “I nominate myself!”

“I nominate Geoff!” Duncan argued, seemingly just for the sake of arguing against her.

“I second that!” DJ joined in.

“I second Courtney!” Eva stood by her.

They were all pretty split by that, the girls mostly stood by Courtney and the boys Geoff.

“Since this is an obvious tie… I’m going to think of a number between one and seven and whoever is closest gets to be head chef.”

“Three!” Courtney called out.

“Uh…uh….six!”

“The answer was five.” Reese grinned at Geoff “looks like you win dude.”

Geoff pumped the air with his fists.
——

It took a minute for them to decide on what to make, but chose a simple meal.

Antipastos, pasta and cannolis.

It was going to be hard to screw up, even for kids.

It was just boiling noodles and stuff.

“Alright eleven people, thats three on each team. Bridgette, Tyler, DJ you guys are on pasta. Harold, Eva and Izzy you’re are on the antipasto. Duncan, Courtney and Geoff are on dessert.

“What about me?” Zeke asked.

“You and me are on dish detail.”

“But that’s GIRLS work!” Ezekiel whined “can’t we switch?”

“No.” Reese answered simply “Geoff, make sure everyone follows the directions on the recipe card, come get me if you guys need help.”

“Yessir!” Geoff saluted.
——

Ezekiel wasn’t very happy to be doing the dishes, he kept grumbling to himself.

“Zeke? You okay?”

“No! I don’t want to wash dishes and I don’t want to cook! That’s GIRL stuff!”

“Why?”

Ezekiel paused “why?”

“Yeah. Why? Why is it girl stuff?” Reese asked.

“Because! Because…” Ezekiel trailed off “my dad says so. My mom cooks and cleans and he hunts! He said I have to protect the girls here cuz they can’t!”

Reese shook his head “that’s not true. Look at DJ.”

DJ looked to be having the time of his life making pasta sauce with Bridgette and Tyler, the boys were tossing ingredients at each other while Bridgette was trying to work the blender they found.

“And now look at Eva.” Reese pointed tot he girl who was going through the cheese and salami at record speed with the knife while Harold and Izzy tried to keep up.

“Then there’s Chef and me. Are we girly for liking cooking?”

Ezekiel didn’t say anything and just looked at the floor.

Reese got to his level “it doesn’t make you girly if you like cooking or cleaning. I like doing dishes because it’s relaxing.”

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s alright.“ Reese patted his shoulder “I know what it’s like to be told you can’t do something because you’re a girl. Hw would you feel if someone told you you can’t do something you like because it’s ‘girly’?”

Ezekiel toed the worn floorboard with his shoe.

“It’s not very nice is it?”

“No sir…”

“Then don’t listen to anyone when they say that kind of stuff. You can play however you want and do stuff you like, okay?”

“Okay.” Ezekiel nodded.
——

Chef and Reese switched, his team had mostly been ignoring the Gophers and focusing on their own work but the moment the switch happened they were all screaming for his attention.

“One at a time! One at a time!”

“Heather keeps bossing us around!” Katie crossed her arms “and calling us names!”

Leshawna held up her arms tearfully “look what she did!”

“Look at Owen and Trent!” Noah pointed to the two boys “he got stung by bees and HE’S concussed!”

“Only because you’re all idiots who can’t do what they’re told!” Heather argued back “this one can’t even set a timer!” She pointed to Lindsay.

“Oh my god…” Reese looked over Leshawnas arms “first things first. Heather? For bad teammate-ship AND sportsmanship…You’re demoted to dishwasher.”

“WHAT?!”

The scream made Chris poke his head in and he cringed at the scene.

“What are you guys even making?”

“Citrus mango upside down cake.” Cody poked the massacred cake.

“Ribs.” Justin cringed at the spreading rash on Leshawnas arms.

“with Pineapple skewers and mango dip.” Beth finished.

“Okay here’s how this is going to go. Heather is on dishes. Beth and Lindsay? You’re one pineapple skewers. Gwen and Katie are on ribs. Read the card and set the oven. Cody, Justin? You’re going to make the cake. And Noah is head chef. Im going to take Trent, Owen and Leshawna go the medical tent.“

Chris cringed at the sight of the three kids.

Trent was holding his head, Owen was swelled up with bee stings and Leshawnas’s arms were blotchy.
——

Reese got Trent situated in a cot, he wasn’t concussed just severely dazed from smacking his head.

Owen was thankfully not allergic to bees, and Reese rubbed salve all over his arms and face to being down the swelling.

Leshawna wasn’t in anaphylaxis, but she was covered in hives so Reese gave her an allergy pill and had her wash up really good before letting her lay down too.

Then Reese’s walky talks started going crazy.

None of the kids seemed to be on imminent danger, so he ran back and froze at the sight.

It.

Was.

MADNESS.

A full scale food fight. This time all the kids seemed to be involved, hucking globs of whatever they could get their hands on at each other.

Chef was screaming orders and Chris was retaliating.

“WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

Reese’s voice rattled off the walls and everyone froze in place.
——-

“Oh my god. Oh my god. What happened?! I was gone for TWENTY MINUTES! And why were you two joining in?! Oh my god…”

This was going to take forever to clean! It was a complete and total waste of food! It covered the counters and tables and asked the floor and was somehow ON THE CEILING!

“They started it?” Chris tried.

Reese glared at him.

“In all honesty? Things went bad fast. Heather wasn’t happy about being on dishes and Courtney and Duncan started arguing, Justin didn’t want to touch anything with sugar and…it just happened.”

Reese put a hand to his face “you two are just like the kids.”

“Your sixteen.”

“And you’re twenty nine and started a good fight with your…” Reese flicked his eyes between the two knowingly “friend.”

They’re eyes widened.

“I am NOT cleaning this up.” Reese turned on heel and marched out.
——

There was a small knock on his door a few hours later.

“Reese? Can we talk?”

“I’m not in the mood Chris.”

Silence “cmon kid. Please?”.

“What’s there to talk about? The fact there’s three kids in the med tent? The fact the activity was ruined? The fact the KITCHEN is destroyed? That I have to watch twenty two kids on my own and deal with problems I’m not ready to deal with!?!”

Reese covered his mouth.

“Uh…yeah. All of that?”

“Fine.”
———-

It was a bit awkward.

“We’re sorry about today. It really just out of hand. But kids had so much fun!”

“Fun that I have to clean up.” Reese retorted “fun that you get to step away from. I have half a mind to quit!”

Chris looked briefly panicked.

“But I won’t because I need this job and these kids will kill you by the end of the summer.”

“How are they?” Chris asked.

“Fine. They’re resting last I checked on them.”

“Look, we’ll clean it up if that’s the issue okay? All of it, top to bottom, even the corners!”

“That’s not the point! That was such a waste! There’s so many hungry kids in the world and you guys wasted it in one afternoon!”

“And to top it off, half these kids are so fucked up they’re still living in the fifties stereotypes, some don’t know what basic body functions are, some are afraid of their own shadow, some don’t even wanna be here! I like working here. I really do. BUT I’M TIRED. I’m really fucking TIRED.”

Reese had finally cracked under the pressure “there’s just so many…I can’t keep up with all of them!”

Reese couldn’t breathe “they just keep getting hurt because I can’t watch all of them at once and-and-“

“Whoa! Breathe kid! Breathe!”

Reese wheezed as he put his head between his knees.

It took a few minutes to catch his breath fully.

“I think you need a break for a couple days. Take it easy. Me and Chef can handle it!”

“As evidenced by TODAY?” Reese snapped.

Chris didn’t take it to heart, the poor kid was being run ragged in all directions.

“We’ve gotten a couple late calls about counselor positions. Some of the applicants are really good and I think you could use the help.”

“We can’t just bring in random adults!”

“Actually…they’re teenagers. Looking for summer work.”

Reese was so exhausted.

He looked from Chris, to the snake in the tank, to back to Chris.

“Let’s do it.”

Chapter Text

Reese didn’t leave his cabin the rest of the night and when he got to breakfast the kids were actually…behaving.

They were sitting quietly and eating.

Heads turned when he walked in and Reese felt a bit creeped out.

It was like the ‘Kids of the Crops’ movie his uncle Bruno let him watch as a kid.

“Good morning guys.” Reese greeted.

“Morning Reese.” They chorused, sounding a bit sad.

DJ was the first to break “you can’t leave!”

Before Reese knew it the kids were out of their seats and clambering over each other, spouting out apologizes and tears and begging him not to go.

“Whoa whoa! Who said I’m leaving?” Reese asked.

A couple were sobbing to incoherently for Reese to make out what they were saying.

“Chris said we made you cry yesterday….so you had to leave on a break.” Noah was looking at the floor.

“When my mom and dad went on a break I never got to see my dad again!” Katie cried.

It took a second for it to catch up “whoa whoa…” he shushed “calm down. I’m not leaving.”

“Chris…lied?” DJ sniffled.

“No, I AM taking a bit of a break, but only for a couple days. Just until we get-“

“But he aid we have to get someone NEW!” Owen wailed “I don’t want someone new!”

“Someone new to HELP me out a bit. We got some applications the other day and were looking through to find a good fit. I’m still going to be here, but we’re spreading out responsibility a little more.”

“So…you’re not leaving?” Heather asked.

“Not until you guys do. I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

They all looked relieved and Reese was suddenly rushed at all sides by kids trying to hug him in relief.

He was a bit touched they all liked him so much they hated the idea of him leaving. But he was sure if he DID leave, the kids would have fun but nothing of the camp would be left standing.

Duncan was standing off to the side, looking a bit sour, but was yanked in by Courtney to join in.

“He was sad too!” She pointed to him “he just won’t say it!”

Duncan didn’t even argue with her, but he did stick his tongue at her.

”If anything it’s the two ADULTS who should’ve stopped you.” Reese cut his eyes to Chris who at least had the decency to look sheepish “but we’re going have someone else around to help me out a bit.”

——

“Creep. Creep. Weirdo. Creepy weirdo. Weird creep. Jesus Christ where did you GET these applicants?! This one went to PRISON! He looks like a serial killer!”

Chris sighed “we probably should’ve been way more specifics.”

Reese finally found the file he was suppose to be looking for.

“You have GOT to be fucking kidding me.”

—-

Reese had known the Burromuertos since he was a kid.

Jose was his age and Reese had briefly had a crush on his older brother Carlos, who was probably around…twenty something now?

Alejandro was young when Reese first met him, and he hadn’t really hung out with him much.

They’d met at a boring dinner party and Jose had entertained Reese with a definitely-exaggerated story of him riding a wild bronco.

Only to be annoyed when his younger brother came look for him.

Jose didn’t want anything to do with his brother and always brushed him off, and Carlos was always busy mingling with the adults, so Reese did let the kid tag along when he and his cousins hung out. He was the sweetest kid ever and it was a shame his older brother teased him as horribly as he did.

Always teasing him about his name, and sometimes asked if he had a crush on Reese. Which was weird considering Reese was almost six years older than Alejandro.

The kid would be about as old as the other kids, and it had been four years since Reese had last seen any of the Burromuertos.

But out of all the applicants, only a couple really stood out.

He didn’t really LIKE Jose that much, but Reese hated to admit it, but Jose’s application was the best.

Reese just hoped he matured in the few years.

Chapter Text

Reese’s stomach turned with anticipation as he scoured the horizon for the boat.

A boat that had a guy that he hadn’t spoken to in years.

A guy who knew him before Reese was Reese.

Before his transition…

Before everything.

And given how Reese had very clear memories of how strict the Burromuertos were about gender roles…

He wasn’t so sure José was going to react in the most positive way.

But Reese had found a parenting book in the small library they had, he had no clue how it even got there but it was pretty insightful, and it said kids could pick up on bad vibes so he was trying not to think about that too much.

He didn’t need them more amped up, they were already pretty upset he was taking a couple days off to clear his head and now Chris and José were going to watch them.

He didn’t need them knowing he was stressed about this too.

Especially Chris and Chef, since Reese may have neglected to mention he kind of knew José.

But it was fine.

Everything was fine.

It wasn’t like he was ever going to see José again after this summer.

———-

When the boat pulled up and a guy around Reese’s age stepped off, he had to do a double take.

It had to be José, because only José would have the signature Burromuerto smirk.

The one he always had since they were kids.

Chef was helping with his bags, and Chris was welcoming him but Reese felt frozen to his spot it swallowed as he held his hand out.

“I’m Reese.”  Reese tried to steady his voice but it was obvious he was nervous.

José’s eyes looked Reese over, up and down, scanning for any familiarity. Reese was holding his breath a bit.

José was far from dumb, and it wasn’t THAT long ago that they hadn’t seen each other.

José stopped and stared deep into Reese’s eyes.

He was close enough to see it, the flicker of recognition.

José definitely knew.

——

José hadn’t said much on the tour, but he was visibly disgusted by the camps lack of amenities.

“And this is our cabin.” Reese pushed the door open “there’s plenty of beds so have your pick.”

José yet to meet the kids since Chef had taken them out to the woods for what he called “Nature Training”.

From what Reese gathered it was about plants and berries and what was safe to touch and eat, ever since that incident with Katie and Sadie getting poison ivy, he wasn’t taking chances anymore.

José looked at the desk “is that a snake?”

“Yep.” Reese crossed his arms “wild caught, courtesy of the kids. His name’s Hissy.”

“She.”

“Huh?”

José pointed “it’s a she. See the colors and shape of the head? That’s a female.”

Reese looked closer “huh. Wouldn’t ya know.”.

José tossed his bags a couple beds down from Reese and began to unpack.

He sure as hell brought a lot of sunscreen and hair products.

José must have noticed Reese staring because he gave a grin and gesture to the pile “I know this isn’t Spain, but I cannot risk this face and hair being ruined.”

Reese looked down at the pile again, mostly to avoid eye contact.

Better now than never.

“I know that you know. If you have something to say, go ahead and say it.”

José set the bottle of leave in conditioner down “I was that obvious?”

“You stared at me on the dock and now you mention Spain. I’d say you were, but subtly has never been your strong suit.”

“Sharp as ever.” José laughed ‘Na-“

“Reese.” Reese interrupted “it’s my name. Not that. Don’t call me that.”

José didn’t even seem mad about the abrupt cutoff, he just grinned that obnoxious grin of his “I know. That’s not what I was going to say.”.

“What were you going to say then?” Reese asked.

“That it’s nice to see you again. It has been too long.”

“Yeah…it has.”

He knew where this conversation was heading and he didn’t like it but he might as well beat José to the punch.

“It’s not what you think.” Reese sighed “ I tried to get in contact again…But a lot of stuff happened when I left Spain. A lot I really don’t want to get into.”

José hummed and fixed the crease that formed from his suitcase “I see. No use dwelling on the past then huh.”

Reese could hear the edge of bitterness in his tone, but José couldn’t know. Not yet.

They’d just met again and it was already weird and Reese dumping the past few years of trauma on him wasn’t going to help that.

But he would tell him.

Eventually.

——-

The kids were staring at José like he just stepped on a frog.

“Why is his hair weird?” Heathers arms were crossed.

“Heather!” Reese scolded.

“It’s true!” She argued back.

“He looks like a pork pine!” Lindsay agreed.

“Porcupine.” Harold corrected.

“That’s what I said!”

“He looks like the guy from the meat stick commercial.” Eva nodded in agreement.

“Why does he look like one of the guys from that movie my mom watches about the guy dancers?” Cody asked “the one where they don’t have shirts?”

Reese was taken aback by the question, and didn’t know how to respond to the fact Cody had seen ‘Magic Mike’ (or at least enough to know what it was about).

“We’ll come back to that later. Guys this is José, he’s the new counselor. So be nice to him okay? Don’t scare him off just yet.”

The kids didn’t look convinced or very happy about this.

“When I come back from my break, me and him are going to be in charge of one cabin each.”

There were immediate sounds of disgruntlement, and Reese raised his hands,

”Hold it! We’re going to switch off every couple of days or so, and we’ll spend equal time with both of your groups and lots of activities where we’ll be with both of you. Is that okay?”

That seemed to appease them a bit.

“Until then, it’s going to be you guys, José and Chris. Now I have to go help Chef fix some stuff in the mess hall, why don’t you guys head down to the beach?”

The kids didn’t seemed too pleased, but they agreed with him.

——

While Reese and Chef were occupied, Chris and José wrangled the kids to the beach.

Everyone ran towards the water, leaving DJ, Heather and Noah behind.

The two men just looked at them.

“Aren’t you guys going to go play or something?” Chris asked.

“Reese says I don’t have to.” Noah crossed his arms.

“Reese says I can’t swim right now.”

“I only go in when he’s here.” DJ added “he inflates my arm floats!”

“Are you not a bit old for those?” José asked “when I was your age I was a top swimmer! Not even Reese was as good as I!”

“You are a bit old for floats kid.” Chris rubbed his neck.

That had been a swift punch to DJs heart, tears welled up in his eyes and he bolted down the beach away from them.

“Great.” Chris sighed, only to catch sight of something in the water “Duncan stop hitting Harold with Bridgette’s body board!”

He ran off to stop him from concussing the red head, leaving Noah and José behind.

“I’m not getting in.” Noah crossed his arms “Reese says I don’t have to.”

“Come on Nathan, it will be fun!” José lifted Noah off the ground with unsurprising ease, and began walking towards the water.

Heather was trialing behind them, no way this guy was going to do what she thought he was going to do.

“It’s NOAH. And put me down!”

“You’ll have fun, I promise! It is not hard!”

They were getting closer now, and Noah Noah struggled harder to get out of Jose’s grip “I don’t want to! Let me go!”

“Put the nerd boy down!” Heather yelled in agreement.

José didn’t listen, and tossed Noah into the water, the splash wasn’t very big and when Noah surfaced he clawed at the water like a cat and managed to pull himself back onto the shore.

He was on his hands and knees and was soaked to the bone.

José looked a bit proud of himself “see? Was that not fun?”

Noah was shaking and turned his head to look up at José, face wet with not only lake water but tears.

“NO! IT WASN’T!”

He scrambled up to his feet, sand sticking to his wet clothes, and ran off towards the camp.

“You’re a jerk!” Heather glared.

“How was I suppose to know he’d react like that! My brother Al loves it when I do that!”

“He’s not your brother!” Heather stomped her foot “he’s Noah and he didn’t want to swim!”

“And what’s your excuse for not swimming today?” José leaned down to face the ten year old.

The girls face turned red is mix of embarrassment and anger “because I got my period but that’s none of your business and Reese said I can’t swim with it!”

Out of all the answers, José hadn’t expected that, nor the harsh push Heather gave him before storming off, purposefully kicking up sand behind her into his face.

——

Reese had just fixed the squeaky door hinge on the mess hall when a cold wet force ran into him, toppling him over.

Noah?

“Noah!? What a happened? Is everything okay?!”

He didn’t look hurt, but he was crying and soaking wet from head to toe.

He blubbered something Reese couldn’t understand, burying his face in his shoulder.

“Hey hey, it’s okay.” Reese patted his back “I got you. Deep breaths. In…and out….”

Chef poked his head in to see what the noise was about, the swiftly turned around when he saw Noah crying.

What happened?

——-

It had taken Noah fifteen minutes to calm down enough to tell him what happened, and to say Reese was pissed was an understatement.

Who throws a kid into water when they said they didn’t want to?

Who makes fun of kid who still needed water wings?

An asshole Reese remembered all too well, because that’s what José had done to Alejandro when they were kids.

But Reese had ASSUMED José had grown out of it. Looks like he was wrong.

Reese stormed down to the beach with Noah behind him, only to find the kids had decided to mutiny while Noah was gone.

Heather had apparently led the charge and was standing above the chaos as the others buried José and Chris in the sand.

How the hell….

“No one gets to make fun of them ‘cept us!” Duncan dumped a bucketful of wet sand onto Jose’s already buried body.

Looks like he was paying attention when Reese told them wet sand was harder to escape than dry sand a week ago (it had mostly been a warning so they were careful when playing).

Reese knew he shouldn’t feel proud, but he did.

Cody had been the first to notice Reese standing there.

“Reese!” He cheered in excitement “you’re back!”

That had caught the attention of the others, who seemed just as happy to see him as they were to tell on Chris and José.

Who looked relieved to see him.

“Oh thank god. We’re saved.” Chris sighed “give us a hand would you?”

“Oh I really would, but I’m afraid I’m on hiatus.”

Lindsay looked down “but this is sand? Why are you scared of a hay toss?”

“Hiatus. It means on a break, Lindsay.” Reese explained “which means that while I would LOVE to unbury you, I can’t. Sorry!”

Was it wrong to enjoy this?

“You can’t be serious.” Chris laughed nervously only to trail off at the smile Reese was giving them.

“Come on man! Let us out!”

“Consider it a lesson for bullying kids, speaking of which,”

Reese put a bucket on Josés head like a hat.

“I don’t appreciate you making two of my kids cry.” He turned to Chris “You’re an adult,” and then to José “and you’re almost an adult, so act like it. You don’t ge to push them around because you can. Understood?”

“Yes fine, now let us go!”

“No no, I think you two need a bit more time to think about this.” Reese stood up “hey guys would you mind decorating these two while I go get us some snacks?”

The kids smiled at them, almost evilly as they voiced their agreement.

“Reese! Reese get back here an unbury us!” Chris called, nervous and trying to keep the desperation out of his voice.

“REESE!”

The kids descended on them, armed with seashells, starfish, seaweed and now matching bucket hats. Anything they could get their hands on was used for decoration.

It was clear Reese was going to take his sweet time, so they were basically screwed.

Overpowered by preteens and buried in the sand.

What a way to start this job.

——-

They were trapped for another two hours before Reese decided they had learned their lesson.

Mostly because the kids had gotten tired and ready for lunch.

“You are an insane man.” José stretched his back and brushed sand off him “leaving us like that.”.

“You threw Noah into the lake when he didn’t want to go in and made fun of DJ for not being a strong swimmer. I’d say it wasn’t enough.”

“I said I was sorry!”

“Sorry doesn’t mean anything when you do it on purpose. You can’t just push them around and expect them to listen to you.”

José looked to see the kids walking to their cabins to get ready for lunch and raised a brow “why do they listen to you?”

“Because I treat them like people and don’t throw them into lakes. If you’re going to make it here you’re going to have to change that attitude man.” Reese shook his head as he walked ahead of him.

What a way to catch up.

Chapter Text

A few days later and the kids still didn’t like José.

In fact it seemed like they hated the guys guts.

Which Reese honestly couldn’t blame them for.

He had made DJ cry and thrown Noah into the lake.

Undoing a bit of the progress Reese had been working on with them on learning how to swim properly.

Which was why he was a bit apprehensive to leave him alone with the other group.

Today he’d be taking the Bass and Reese had the Gophers.

Todays activity had been chosen by Duncan, surprisingly it wasn’t anything Reese expected from the kid.

Bootcamp.

He seemed genuinely excited for the first time since he got to camp, so Reese had no problem setting up a small course with Chef, all while Duncan excitedly rambled about wanting to join the military when he was older.

Which Chef seemed to respect because he had smiled.

Just a bit.

The course was fairly simple and not too dangerous, but definitely a challenge.

A wall to climb, climbing under ropes, rope swing, the usual stuff.

But 22 kids on the course seemed like a bad idea, so it was decided to make it a relay. Half of each team would wait until their partner looped around to tag them in.

If they managed to beat the course in ten minutes they got extra dessert at dinner.

Simple enough.

Or so he had thought.

Everyone had made it fine through the first time easy enough. Some of the kids were more athletic than Reese had thought.

Eva was tearing through the course with Duncan and, to Reese’s surprise, Ezekiel right at her heels.

All had been fine until Harold misstepped on the top of the wall trying to get over and fell face first into the mud.

Reese cringed as he saw the impact, but didn’t immediately rush over.

It wasn’t far of a drop, and he didn’t want to seem like he was babying the kids.

Until he heard the wailing.

That got him moving.

Harold, now sitting up with his team surrounding him, was caked in mud and sobbing, holding his nose as it gushed blood.

“Okay! Okay! Everyone back it up!” Jose ushered his way through to get to him.

“Let me see, I have to see if it’s broken.” Reese gently nudged Harolds hand down.

“Is’ HUR’S!”

“I know it hurts. That’s why I’m looking at it.”

“I’s blee’in’!”

“I can see that. Hold still, let me see.”

Harold still held his nose with both hands, as if afraid to let Reese see it or touch it.

“Come on kid, stop being a baby and let us see.” Jose groaned “the sooner you do the sooner we can get back to the fun!”

Reese shot him a dirty look and helped Harold to his feet “can you guys behave while I take him to the infirmary?”.

“Yes…” the kids groaned, half exasperated and half genuinely.

“Don’t kill José or maim him. I’ll have a little talk with him later.”

The kids laughed and ‘oooooh’ed, as if it were the worst punishment ever.

Reese put a hand hovering over Harolds back, half to comfort and half to guide him since mud was caking his glasses.

——

After getting him a change of clothes Reese sat him on a cot so he could wash his face off and get a good look at his nose.

“Is it okay if I touch your face?”

“Yeah…it’s okay.”

Reese gently wiped at the mixture of mud, blood and tears with a wet towel.

Slowly revealing the pale freckled skin underneath.

“There we go. That better?”

“Yeah.”

Reese peered at Harold’s nose, the bleeding had somewhat stopped  and it looked a bit bruised “doesn’t look broken. That’s good. Mind if I touch it?”

“No thank you.”

Reese nodded “that’s fine. I was just going to see if it hurt when I touched it. Let’s get you an ice pack. It should bring down the swelling. Okay?”

Harold nodded, but then winced “it hurts when I move.”

“Yeah. That happens. It’ll be okay in a couple days but you’ll be sore for a bit. At least it isn’t broken, those take forever to heal and it hurts to get it reset.”

“You can RESET a nose?”

“Yeah. I mean not like a broken bone, but sort of like that. It hurts a lot. But this just looks bruised. You’ll be okay.”

Harold kicked his legs back and forth “did you break your nose?”

“Nah. But my cousin Roberto has. He got nailed in the face with a fútbol.”

Harold made a face, but then winced and touched his nose again.

“Yeah it wasn’t pretty. Let’s get you that ice pack.”

——-

The kids seemed to actually keep their word, José hadn’t been harmed.

But he WAS hanging by his ankle on the rope ladder with the kids laughing and giggling to each other.

Chef wasn’t doing much help either, he was just standing there with the kids looking just as amused.

“What happened here?”

“Idiot tried to show off.” Chef chuckled “he’ll be fine.”

Reese smiled at José “need a hand?”

José looked relieved and the kids booed.

“That would be much appreciated my friend.”

“Oh I didn’t mean getting down. I meant in showing you how it’s done.”

José’s face dropped and the kids cheered as Reese go to the front of the course.

He took a breath and nodded at Chef who started the timer.

Over the wall was easy enough, he didn’t bother with the rope he just jumped.

Through the suspended tire.

Under the rope net bridge.

On the rope swing over a muddy puddle.

And to the finish line.

The kids were cheering excitedly, running up and laughing.

José just looked shocked. As if he hadn’t expected him to finish the course.

“Alright alright I think the jerk had enough. Which one team won?”

The Bass raised their hands.

“Alright everyone wash up, next on the agenda is arts and crafts. Today we’re doing tie-dying.”

A few kids groaned but they stated the trek to the washrooms with Chef close behind to make sure they actually went there.

Reese leaned over to where José was still hanging “had enough?”

Jose nodded wordlessly.

Reese pulled his pocketknife out of his back pocket and cut the rope holding him up, sending him face first into the mud.

“Good. Why don’t you wash up too. We have to teach these guys how to make brightly colored T-shirts.”

——-

José did seem to learn his lesson about how he was going about teaching the kids.

He was far more patient than he had been since he got there.

“Duncan don’t you think that’s a bit too much red? It’ll get muddy.” Reese asked as the eleven year old douses the white shirt in red dye.

“It’s gonna look super cool! It’s like blood!”

That got Gwen to look over and she began copying him “yeah it’s like that scary movie about the camp murderer!”

“The guy with the hockey mask?”

“Yeah! So scary!” Gwen laughed.

Reese had no clue what movie they were talking about, and he didn’t think he wanted to know.

The other kids seemed to be doing fine, even if Lindsay was just dying hers bright pink.

Reese sat down and began working on his own. Pink white and blue.

Ezekiel looked up and saw what he was doing and looked very alarmed “you can’t wear pink! You’re a boy!”

They chatter stopped and the kids turned to them.

“I can wear whatever I want Zeke. There’s no rule that says I can’t.” Reese picked up the pink bottle of dye.

“But my dad says it’s a girl color!”

“Actually it used to be a boy color!” Harold pointed out “blue was soft and delicate and that’s why it was for girls. Red was soft red and was meant for boys.”

“But my dad says-“

“I do not see your father here, do you?” José asked, gesturing around them “it is just a color. Use which one you like.”

“But-“

“Zeke…it’s okay.” Reese “if you don’t like pink that’s okay. This shirt is for me, not you, okay?”

“…okay.”

José glanced at Reese and gave a smile and Reese nodded at him.

——

While the shirts dried in the sun, they room the kids down to the water.

José had stayed far away from the kids, as if expecting them to turn on him again, and the kids did the same.

They were still mad about what he’d done to Noah and DJ, who were now sitting on the shore by Reese playing in the sand.

“I’m so sorry he hurt you guys. I promise I won’t let it happen again.” Reese assured them.

DJ kept eyeing where the others were bouncing a ball back and forth in the water “can…can I go?”

“Go ahead.” Reese missed “do you want the arm floats?”

“I…I wanna try without them…”

Reese blinked in surprise “oh. Well, okay then. Just stay in the shallow bit okay?”

“Okay Reese!”

And just like that he was off like a rocket, joining the others in the shallows.

Noah made no move to leave, he was just piling sand on the sandcastle he’d been working on.

“I don’t want to swim anymore.” He muttered.

Fuckin’ José.

“That’s fine. You don’t have to.” Reese shifted on the warm sand “I know that must’ve been terrifying. I would’ve been scared too.”

“I’m not scared! I’m MAD! He didn’t listen! I said no and he did it anyway!” Noah angrily slammed down the pail of sand and lifted it, only to have it crumple away.

Reese sighed softly “I know what he did hurt you. But believe me when I say I’m not going to let it happen again, okay? As long as I’m here you don’t have to do anything.”

“Can I go HOME?”

Reese shook his head “unless you have someone who can take care of you, no. I’m afraid you’re stuck here with us until the end of the summer.”

Noah huffed but didn’t say anything.

Not for a good while.

The other kids had begrudgingly allowed José to play with them, and from what Reese could tell it was ‘Keep Away’.

Reese checked his watch “alright guys!” He called to the water “time to head back for dinner! Go wash up!”

The kids laughed as the rushed out of the water, José opting to use the dock to get himself up.

And that’s when Reese got an idea.

“José! Stay there for a sec.” Reese called out before lowering his voice “Noah come with me.”

Noah gave him a look of confusion but followed

They approached José who was waiting at the end of the dock.

Before José could say anything, Reese cut him off with a “push him.”

Noah didn’t even hesitate.

He wasn’t even that strong but the suddenness caught José way off guard and he landed backwards in the water, spluttering as he resurfaced.

“Not so fun, now is it.” Reese snickered.

Noah was holding himself as he laughed but José didn’t look very amused.

“Feeling a bit better now Noah?” Reese asked.

“I’m great! That was hilarious!” He said between laughs.

“Alright then. Go catch up with the others I’ll be right there. Remind Chef about the extra cake for y’all’s prize today.”

Noah chased after his team, laughed still heard as he headed up the small stairs and out of sight.

“Was that really necessary?”José griped.

“Probably not. But it made him feel better. Didn’t feel too nice when someone did it to you now did it?”

José didn’t say anything as he pushed himself back onto the dock and sat down.

“Alejandro didn’t like it either, I’m sure.” Reese sat beside him.

“Of course he did!” José scoffed.

“Did he ever tell you he did?”

“Well no but-“

“No ‘but’ about it. Next time you hear from him ask him. Then apologize. He looks up to you and I don’t want you losing your brother because you won’t say you’re sorry.”

“What do you know about brothers? You’re an only child.”

“My cousins treated me well didn’t they? Sure Roberto and Antonio teased me but they never went too far. They stopped when I said to.”

José couldn’t argue with that.

“Come on. I’ve got to help Chef with dinner and you need to feed Hissy.”

“Why do I get to feed the snake!”

“Consider it more penance.” Reese gave him a light shove.

By the time dinner was over everyone heard what Noah had done to José and found it the funniest thing ever.

But José just smiled good-naturedly and laughed with them.

Which was really a start for him.

Chapter Text

Reese had to do a double take at the itinerary for the day.

Because there was no way in HELL this could be right.

“Chris where the hell did the budget come from for a JET SKI?” Reese slammed it down on his desk “we can’t afford this!”

“Ah. That would be Josés doing.” Chris looked it over “he offered to rent one for the day. Chefs going to take the kids out on the lake.”

That was…nice of him.

The José he knew wouldn’t have ever done something like that, unless it was to humiliate his little brother.

….was he up to something?

He’d JUST started to earn the kids trust and if this was a joke or something it was going to crush them.

This was definitely a luxury they’d love, given the camp activities were pretty boring (no matter how much fun Reese tried to make it seem, there was only so much you could do.)

“Don’t be so suspicious kid. He said it was his way of apologizing.”

Yeah…that part actually made sense.

It was just like him to buy affection.

——

Breakfast had been an ordeal, José had announced they’d be renting a jet ski and that he made the kids too excited to sit and eat.

Until he saw the girls crowded around the trash can and giggling to themselves, a stark contrast to the excitement they’d been showing just moments before.

“Alright guys. Chefs food isn’t that funny, what’s going on?”

“Nothing!” Heather answered quickly.

A bit too quickly.

Bridgette was holding something behind her back and Gwen hand her hands over her mouth to stifle her giggles.

What was so funny?

“Someone wrote a love poem!” Courtney made a face.

“Yeah! It’s all mushy and stuff!” Izzy laughed.

“It’s SO gross.” Eva scrunched her nose.

Oh….one of the kids had a crush.

That was kinda cute.

…and now he was really curious.

“Does it say who it’s from?” Reese asked “or who it’s for?”

Bridgette shook her head “no…but it’s SO sweet and romantic!” She handed it over “see? It’s a cuckoo!”

“Haiku.” Gwen corrected.

Reese read it over a couple times.

It was…corny. But a solid attempt at poetry for someone their age. Amateur but really sweet.

And with some of the most egregious spelling he’d ever seen in his life, which was to be expected given they were eleven.

But what he could make out was something about skin being like cocoa, nice eyes and freckles like…congregations? (Reese was pretty sure the kid meant constellations.)

But he smiled and handed it back “looks like you girls got a mystery on your hands! Let me know if you figure it out.”

——

Noah and DJ seemed the most apprehensive, but Reese had made Chef promise to take it easy on them, the last thing he wanted to do was hose off vomit from a jet ski.

Even José agreed.

He even helped DJ blow up his water wings just in case he fell off.

He seemed to actually be trying now, and any mean comments he could’ve made, he didn’t.

Which made Reese relieved because he was really close to getting Chris to make José leave if he kept teasing the kids.

But now the kids seemed happy to include José in the games they were playing in the shallows and beach while waiting.

The first team up was the Bass, who José was in charge of for the day, and each kid got fifteen minutes on the jet ski.

In the meantime, they were playing Freeze Tag on the beach while they waited.

The kids seemed to find it funny to tag him over and over again, but Reese let them have their fun.

At least they weren’t arguing or causing damage for once.

The Gophers seemed pretty well behaved too (even Noah was getting in on the fun) and Reese could swear some of the Bass were slowing down so Lindsay and Cody could catch up easier every now and then.

Katie seemed to be taking the separation from her BFFFFL (Reese had no idea what it was but it seemed important) Sadie pretty well. Over the past couple weeks, they both started to have fun on their respective teams.

Sadie didn’t even blink when Katie went for her turn on the jet ski.

So far, at least today (and he really hoped he wasn’t jinxing things) everything was going quite smoothly.

——

While Reese was distracted by giving Cody a boost into the jet ski, the group of girls made their move.

But most of them couldn’t even SPELL or pronounce haiku, let alone know what it was.

But they were slowly ruling people out.

All Harold did was give them an infodump about the poems history.

Geoff, as sweet and excitable as he was, had no idea what it was.

Tyler couldn’t even pronounce haiku.

DJ knew what it was, but denied writing the poem since it wasn’t his hand writing.

Justin didn’t like writing, so he was out.

Ezekiel didn’t know anything about poetry or spelling.

They didn’t even bother asking Duncan because he’d just make a mean comment about it and tease them for wanting to know.

Cody was out because he was a pretty good speller, and whoever wrote it wasn’t.

Noah had called the whole situation dumb and left to play with the others, but at least he knew what it was.

Owen didn’t know what a haiku was, but he thought the poem was funny and nice.

And Trent denied writing it, and he was the last guy in camp who was a big writer.

So they were back to square one.

——-

By the time everyone had had a turn on the jet ski, it was well past lunch time the the kids were getting restless so Reese said he’d take them up to the mess hall for lunch while José and Chef got it ready to be picked up by the company.

“Any luck girls?” Reese asked as he passed out sandwiches.

“No.” Bridgette slumped forward glumly “none of the boys would admit it!”

“Are you sure it’s a boy who wrote it? What if it was one of you?”

Gwen nodded “it has to be!  None of us have that handwriting! And only are boys so dumb!”

Reese laughed “they’re not dumb Gwen. Feelings are hard for everyone and maybe who wrote it is just shy, ya know?”

Leshawna crossed her arms “boys are so dumb. If I liked a boy I’d just tell him!”

“Yeah! It’s not that scary!” Beth nodded eagerly.

Reese couldn’t help but smile, he wished it was easy as it sounded.

Heather wrinkled her nose “boys are so gross.” She turned to Reese “not you though.”

Reed rolled his eyes playfully “high praise coming from you.” He handed her a Turkey sandwich and a juice pouch.

“Keep investigating guys, I’m sure you can figure this out.”

——

So they did.

Reese and José were supervising them while both teams did an arts and crafts activity, decorative picture frames to hold their very own poems (sue Reese for using the idea, and he was sure that would get the camp some bonus reviews for helping kids with writing and penmanship).

Reese noticed Duncsn furiously erasing and rewriting something and peeked over his shoulder “oh, it’s spelled c-o-n-s-t-e-l-l-a-t-i-o-n.” Reese pointed out “congregation is something else.”

Duncan nodded, slowly rewriting the word “thanks.”

“No problem kid.” He looked over to Ezekiel and sighed “Ezekiel! What did I say about eating glue?”

Bridgette’s eyes went wide as saucers as she peeked over to see what Duncan was writing, quickly turning to Courtney “Duncan wrote it!” she whispered.

“No way!” Courtney shook her head “he would NEVER write something that nice. He’s so MEAN.”

“Come on! Pretty brown eyes? Freckles like congregations? That was in the note! It HAS to be him and it’s so obviously about you!”

“Oh my GOSH.” Sadie gasped “what if he’s so mean to you because he LIKES you?”

“Well I don’t like him!” Courtney crossed her arms “he’s mean and GROSS.”

She looked to wear Duncan was carefully writing something out on the paper.

“I’m going to let him know!”she stood up quickly “so he leaves me alone!”

“You can’t do that! You’ll hurt his feelings!” Bridgette put her hands on her hips.

“He’s DUNCAN. He doesn’t have feelings!” Courtney shot back.

The shout got everyone’s attention. Including Reese and José who’d been trying to pry Ezekiel’s mouth open to get the glue stick out.

“What is all the yelling for? What’s going on?” Reese asked.

Courtney snatched the poem from Bridgette and waved it over her head “Duncan wrote the poem!”

“No I didn’t!” Duncan denied.

Courtney pulled it out of her pocket “you did so!”

Duncan’s eyes were red and his face was going pink “where did you get that?!”

“Izzy found it in the trash.” Heather shrugged.

“You wrote a poem?” Geoff asked in disbelief.

Everyone was looking at Duncan now.

“No way! That’s girly stuff!” Duncan’s face was beet red “it wasn’t me!”

“It’s your handwriting!” Courtney waved it “and your bad spelling!”

Everyone had abandoned their projects to look at it, pushing each other out of the way to read it while Duncan tried to snatch it back.

“What is happening?” José asked Reese.

“The girls found a poem that got thrown away earlier. They’ve been trying to figure out who wrote it.” Reese explained, feeling guilty for the chaos he’d caused.

The poem was getting passed around faster than Duncan could grab it and before anyone could stop him, Duncan bolted from the table as fast as he could, shoving past Reese and José.

“Dammit.” Reese muttered.

——

He’d been very apprehensive about letting José handle Duncan, but he really needed to sort the rest of the others out.

He ordered everyone back to their seats and kept them in his eyesight as he pulled Courtney to the side.

“Alright. Hand it over.” Reese held his hand out.

“Why? We figured it out!” Courtney clenched it in her hand tighter.

“Because it was in the trash. He didn’t want anyone to see it.” Reese stepped closer “I shouldn’t have pushed you guys to look into it. So I’m sorry about that. But I’m going to give it back to Duncan.”

“That’s not fair!”

“I think it’s plenty fair. Courtney you shouldn’t have done that. You probably embarrassed him.” Reese tried to reason “you really hurt his feelings.”

“He doesn’t have feelings! He’s so MEAN!” Courtney tried to reason, as bad as a reason as it was.

“Courtney.” Reese’s voice was so sharp it made her eyes widen “as mean as he is, he does have feelings. Feelings you really hurt by embarrassing him by announcing this to everyone. How would you feel if he did that to you?”

“Not good….” She mumbled in defeat.

“Exactly. Hand it over, I’m going to give it back to him…and I’m not going to make you..” he looked her in the eye, “but If you’re sorry, then I think you should apologize.”

She did feel bad for doing that.

“Okay.” Courtney looked at her feet as she handed it back.

Reese put it in his pocket and motioning for her to follow him “DJ can you keep an eye on everyone while I’m gone?”

DJ gave him a thumbs up, not looking up from his project.

——

José found Duncan sitting on the stairs to his cabin, arms crossed and eyes puffy and red.

“Ah there you are. I’ve been looking all over for you.” He sat next to the boy.

“Go away.”

“I don’t think Reese would appreciate that. I’m here to talk to you.”

“Don’t wanna talk to you.” Duncan grumbled.

“I know having your crush on Courtney exposed like that wasn’t very nice.”

Duncan looked up, ever so slightly.

“When I was your age I had a big crush on Reese’s prima Lucía.”

“What’s a prime Lucía?” Duncan asked.

“Prima. It is Spanish for cousin. Lucía is her name.” José corrected, surprisingly patiently “I was in love with her and she did not reciprocate. That means she did not return my feelings.”

“What happened?”

“Oh, it hurt so much then. But I got over it. It was just a silly crush.” José leaned back on his hands “you will too. I’m sure everyone will forget about today.”

“Really?” Duncan wiped his face on his sleeve.

“I’m sure of it. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but they will eventually.”

Duncan looked down at the grass “can you keep a secret?”

José froze “is that not usually where Reese helps?”

“I can’t tell him…it’s about him.”

Oh.

“Well…I can do my best. What is it?”

Duncan avoided his eyes “it wasn’t about  her.”

“What isn’t about- oh.”

The poem.

“Promise you won’t tell him!” Duncan’s face was pink “it’s stupid and that’s why I threw it away then Courtney found it and now she thinks it’s about HER and I don’t like her like that!”

“Breathe mi amigo. Breathe!” José put a hand on his shoulder “I promise not to tell a soul.”

Duncan seemed to relax a bit “Is it okay?” His voice was so small José wasn’t sure he heard him “that I like him?”

”Well…” José really didn’t want to crush the kid, but Reese (like himself) were almost seventeen.

But he remembered being eleven and having a crush, and knew that eventually this would fade away (because there was no way Reese would EVER entertain such a notion like that.).

“There is nothing wrong with liking someone…”Jose began “but you do know that Reese can’t?”

Duncan nodded “that’s why I didn’t wanna tell him.”

”Then I see no harm in it.”

——-

Reese found them sitting on the steps of the Bass caning and sighed in relief.

Courtney stepped forward and took a breath

“I’m sorry I laughed and told everyone you wrote the poem. That was mean.” She apologized.

“Yeah.” Duncan grumbled, not looking up at them “it’s whatever.”

“This belongs to you.” Reese pulled the paper out of his pocket “and I’m sorry for encouraging the girls to see who wrote it. It was in the trash and that’s where it should have stayed.”

“It’s fine.” Duncan didn’t look at him, but his eyes flickered to where José was sitting beside him, who just smiled at him.

“You think you’re up for rejoining us?” Reese asked “or do you just wanna sit here for a while.”

“No…I wanna go back.” Duncan nodded decisively (and perhaps a bit trying to escape the situation) “Race you there?” he asked Courtney before taking off.

Courtney let out a squawk, chasing after him and yelling about how he was cheating.

“How is he?” Reese asked José as they followed the pair.

“He will be fine.” Jose reassured “he was just embarrassed someone found it.”

“I would be too. Having your feelings exposed like that isn’t good.”

José looked away for a second “I never did say sorry for that….Did I.”

Reese shook his head “no. But it’s fine. It’s not like anything was going to happen between me and Carlos. He was practically our age when I liked him.”

“I meant Alejandro….But I’m sorry for that too.”

Oh.

“Yeah. You never did say sorry.” Reese affirmed “in fact you laughed at him and made sure EVERYONE knew he liked me. It took the rest of the summer for him to look me in the eye again.”

“I was just teasing. I didn’t think it actually hurt his feelings.”

“Well now you do. You were so damn mean to him.”

”Our parents-“

Reese cut him off “Newsflash, our parents fucking SUCK man. Even I could see they were always pitting you against each other and comparing you both to Carlos.”

“They…just want what is best. Just like yours….” He looked slight less sure than he did a moment ago “How is your family?” José quickly changed the subject

Reese looked to the ground “I haven’t seen them since I was fourteen. They wanted…her. Not me.”

José didn’t say anything for a solid minute.

“Where have you been my friend?”

Reese could feel the answer but bubbling inside him.

Desperate to finally be said out loud.

But he knew that once he said it there was no taking it back.

“I…I want to tell you.” Reese swallowed “but I can’t.” He looked forward and inhaled to stop himself from erupting into word vomit “not yet at least.”

José just nodded his head “I understand. Take your time.”

The old José would’ve demanded answers, pushing and prodding and breaking people open to get what he wanted.

“….thanks.” Reese forced a smile back on his face as they approached the arts and craft tent, where everyone was actually still working on their projects.

Duncan and Courtney had rejoined at their seats and seemed to fine now.

Reese missed the way José gave Duncan a small grin, and the way Duncan gave a small smile back.

Chapter Text

After a couple days pretty much everyone didn’t care about Duncan’s ‘crush’ on Courtney anymore, and José had made good on his word.

He hadn’t told Reese who the letter really was for.

Almost everyone was (mostly) getting along but activities were getting stale, there’s only so much you can do at a run down summer camp.

Today had been a redo of a challenge that had happened before José had even gotten to camp (the one that had been the deciding factor that they needed help.).

José was in charge of the Bass and Reese had the Gophers.

First they were knocking dessert out of the way so they could focus on the main course (and give the kids something to snack on.).

Reese eyed Justin out of the corner of his eye, who was looking at the double chocolate chip cookies like he’d never seen them before in his entire life.

“You can have one if you want.” Reese tapped the spoon of sauce against the pot “everyone else got one too.”

But, just like usual, Justin looked hesitant.

He never ate sugar if it was served, usually trading away the treat on his tray for something else.

Justin’s file had said to try and keep any physical injury to the absolute minimum, (which was hard when you’d be playing outside most of the day) and how Justin wasn’t allowed processed foods.

He was a child model, in catalogues and pageants and such.

Justin looked up at Reese “I can?”.

Reese knew Justin was a cute kid, to anyone he looked damn near flawless. Perfectly symmetrical and cherubic and bright blue eyes that seemed almost unnatural, all framed by short black curly hair.

Perfect in the most unsettling way.

And Reese knew first hand what it was like.

Reese had gone through it too.

Grueling practices. The constant watching of what he ate. All the extra curriculars and practices so he’d impress the judges and having every aspect of yourself scrutinized.

He’d gotten disqualified once for having scraped up legs that were vivible under the dress he’d worn that day.

It was a wonder why Justin was even allowed to come to the camp in the first place if his parents were that strict.

It hurt Reese to see Justin so hesitant about sugar. He was ten. A CHILD. He shouldn’t be worried about that kind of stuff unless there was a legitimate reason.

Reese nodded and slid the plate towards him “go ahead.”.

Justin looked from Reese to the plate, to Reese again then back to the plate, a hand poised over it before quickly pulling away and rushing off without one, Reese barely catching the quiet “no thank you”.

“What’s up with him?” José asked, setting dirty dishes in the sink behind Reese.

“Remember when we were kids and I did all those pageants and stuff?” Reese pushed the plate aside with a shake of his head.

The Burromuertos had had a first witness account to what Reese had gone through, Jose had whined and complained about having to sit through them in ‘support’.

Reese had been in Justins shoes not that long ago, even if Reese hadn’t been the best (to his mothers dismay).

“Justin’s parents doing the same thing mine did.”

José didn’t say anything, but he looked like he wanted to.

——

José had made a quick escape when Reese had gotten distracted by Cody trying to swipe a handful of cookies off the counter.

He remembered Reese doing all those pageants. He’d been forced to go so they could remain in the Ortegas good graces by supporting Reese.

But looking as Justin occasionally looked over to the cookies, a mix of want and hesitance.

He remembered the same look on Reese’s face when they were at parties, and his mother would scold him for having sweets.

He hadn’t noticed at the time…but looking back?

Reese had looked miserable all the time.

Tired and stressed and worn thin by trying to please his mother, much like himself and Carlos.

Just like his own, nothing was or would ever be good enough for his mother.

Carlos would never live up to their father, he’d never live up to Carlos and Alejandro wouldn’t live up to him.

Alejandro.

He was around these kids’ age.

And what Reese had said a couple weeks back kept nagging him.

How Alejandro hung out with him, because José wouldn’t stop teasing him.

No, José realized, that wasn’t quite the right word.

Bullying.

He had bullied Alejandro.

And it was like the cracks that had been forming suddenly shattered further, a tidal wave of memories flooding over him.

Jose hadn’t been very thrilled at the idea of a little brother, but when Alejandro had been born he had to admit the baby was cute.

But babies got more attention, more time and care.

So he’d been a bit jealous at being usurped as the youngest.

That resentment lasted until Alejandro was in elementary school, and had failed a spelling bee, stumbling over the word ‘hippopotamus’.

He’d made fun of Alejandro for it at the time, but José had tried to ignore the tenseness in his chest when he listened to Alejandro sobbing about it that night through the vents. 

——

Jose quietly looked over the group, how Reese always stepped in if teasing went too far beyond playful jabs.

Would he have done the same if someone had teased Alejandro?

Would he be the older brother Alejandro could look up to and want to hang around with?

When was the last time Alejandro had willingly spoke to him outside of family time?

——

The dinner actually went very well, and now they were settling the kids into bed.

Reese closed the door behind them and laid back on his bed while José went to feed Hissy.

For a wild caught snake, she was doing pretty well in captivity and Reese had a suspicion the snake was too spoiled now to be released.

But that’s now that got his attention, it was how José was so…quiet.

Even when they were kids he was the chatterbox of his brothers, even if he was just a show off.

“You good man?” Reese asked, taking his shoes off and tossing them to the side.

José didn’t say anything, but he did pause (Hissy still waiting for him to drop the mouse in the enclosure).

For a minute there was just silence.

So Reese was startled when José spoke.

“Lo siento.”

Reese blinked in surprise “for what?”

Had José done something that needed an apology? He thought the kids were on good terms with him!

“For not seeing it before.”

“Seeing….what?”

“How…unhappy you were when we’re were kids.”

Reese didn’t want to have this conversation, but he guessed it was better to get it out in the open.

“Because we were kids. I don’t even think my family knew how unhappy I was. I didn’t even know how unhappy until later…and we weren’t exactly best friends José. I didn’t think you’d even care.”

That…stung.

A lot.

“You tormented your brother. Why would you care about me when you didn’t care about him?”

“Of course I cared about you idiota!” José threw his arms down “and I care about mi hermanos, you don’t get it. You’re an only child.”

“And I’m glad for that. I wouldn’t want my parents to fuck anyone else up. Mi primos were the closest thing I ever had to siblings…and I lost that. I can’t let you lose your brother because you’re an idiot!”

“Do not turn this around on me! You don’t get to judge my family when you’re the one who left without so much as a goodbye!”

“I didn’t get the chance!“ Reese argued back “I thought you all hated me-“

“As if your family could ever hate you.” José scoffed, cutting Reese off “you were their pequeño angelo precioso. ”

Suddenly…all the anger that had been bubbling just under the surface came rushing forward, the damn broke and there was no stopping the flood.

“If I was so precious why didn’t they fucking look for me.”

José was caught off guard and Reese didn’t stop.

“I tried, Okay?” Reese snapped “I tried and tried and tried but your parents said you never wanted to talk to me again. I thought my mother told my father…and they told you about what happened. I thought you all hated me. We only ever visited around holidays and if my own mother hated me, what was stopping all of you from hating me too?”

Reese had backed José into the wall.

“I’m sorry that you guys never got a goodbye, but it was hard enough trying to figure out how to survive without worrying about all of you too.”

“Survive what?” Josés tone was biting, but even with the visible size difference Reese wasn’t intimidated.

“Being thrown out of my house and how to fend for myself.”

Reese could see the slow realization and the sudden deflation of Josés bravado.

“My own mother hates me because of who I am. Her little wind up doll she could parade around and dress up was gone and she threw me out like I was nothing. Like I didn’t even matter to her.”

The anger and sadness and horrible memories were swirling around him like a dark looming monsterous cloud.

But there it was.

Finally out in the open.

Reese avoided Josés gaze, half because he didn’t know what else to say and half because he didn’t want José to see him cry.

“I…” José looked equally lost for words “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Let’s just…” Reese closed his eyes and swallowed “let’s just forget it, okay? It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Of course it matters! You’re family thinks you’re…gone.”

“What?”

“They think you’re dead. They tried calling and letters but your family never sent anything in response.”

His parents…let them think he was dead?

“That…that bitch …” he turned his ire back to José “and you NEVER thought to tell me that before?”

“Well…I thought there might be a reason you never came back. That maybe you hated US. Especially after that blow out at the last dinner we had.”

The botched matchmaking attempt their mothers set up.

Reese had screamed that he’d rather spend eternity getting dragged across hot coals ass first than marry José, and José had shared the sentiment.

But their opinions meant nothing, and it probably would’ve gone forward if Reese’s grandparents hadn’t stepped in.

They left shortly after Reese 14th birthday and after that…no one had heard from Reese or his family.

“I can’t believe she’d do that...” Reese sat down on his bed, head in his hands.

He felt the bed dip next to him.

“Well…at least we can fix it now.”

Reese chuckled despite himself “you’re shit at comforting. You know that right?”

José chuckled too “I can see that.” his face turned serious, which Reese wasn’t used to seeing on him “but I’m being truthful. I can help you talk to them.”

Reese rubbed his hands on the cotton blanket “….thank you.”.

For the first time in years, the tightness in Reese’s stomach came undone.

Chapter Text

Things were actually calm for a couple days.

Surprisingly little drama since camp started, and the kids seemed to follow Reese’s example and stopped antagonizing José.

But Reese wasn’t going to jinx it by saying it out loud, that was like saying ‘quiet’ in a hospital, just bound to cause chaos.

Unfortunately, Chris didn’t get the memo and had announced at breakfast just how well behaved everyone had been.

Reese had been on edge because after that it was just a matter of time before something crazy went down, he knew he’d had to watch these kids like a hawk or they’d do something dumb and most likely disastrous.

Meanwhile José had began thinking, really thinking, about his and Reese’s conversation.

He had so much to make up for.

So many apologies.

To his family. To his brothers.

To Reese himself.

He’d definitely antagonized him too when they were kids (once even dropping a lizard down the back of his shirt  and made him scream and run around the yard).

His eyes drifted to the calendar pinned to the wall, covered in little notes in Reese’s handwriting.

Mostly little reminders, some about planned activities, who was feeding Hissy the snake.

It was hard to believe it was almost July.

Wait.

July?

Reese birthday was coming up soon! That would be the PERFECT way to truly apologize to him!

Throwing him a big party!

——

Reese cringed as Chris blew the whistle, the kids stopping what they were doing to pay attention for once.

“Alright campers!” Chris held his hands up with a massive grin “today is going to be a little different! Boys against girls!”

Katie and Sadie wasted ZERO time in squealing and rushing to hug each other, already chittering happily at being reunited.

“First thing, breakfast! Then Reese will tell you guys all about today’s challenge!”.

The two groups separated and started whispering conspiratorially with each other.

Yeah not going to look into that, at this point he’d rather deal with the fallout than get involved in whatever they had planned.

“Wait…” Beth looked around “if boys and girls are separated…whose team is Reese going to be on?”

“I shall take the ladies.”

Reese almost jumped out of his skin at Josés voice suddenly behind him.

“Don’t DO THAT!” Reese held a hand to his chest.

“I apologize, I did not think you would be so startled.”

Reese took a breath to calm his still rapid heartbeat “it’s fine. Are you…sure?”

He adored the girls, he really did.

But a couple of them were a couple cents short of a dollar.

Sometimes Izzy just ran off with zero regard for her own safety, and sometimes one of the others got lost and wandered off.

Oh hell it’s not like the boys were any better.

Reese had lost track of the times he’s heard one of them say ‘Hey! Watch this!’ followed by loud crashing and then an ‘I’m okay!’.

“Actually…never mind. Go ahead.” Reese waved him off.

The girls definitely seemed a bit disappointed.

“But you’re more FUN!” Leshawna groaned.

“Yeah he’s a loser!” Heather complained.

Ouch.

Dissed by an eleven year old.

“I will have you know I am plenty of fun!” José scoffed.

“Yeah, sure.” Courtney grumbled.

——-

A relay race was simple enough.

Maybe Chef just wanted to get his times worth out of building that obstacle course.

“Alright team! Who’s ready for some stretches?”

“Boooooo!” They chorused.

“Come on. You wanna beat the girls don’t you? The prize today is suppose to be awesome!”

Ezekiel raised his hand “my dad says I shouldn’t hit girls.”

Reese just gave him a look before clarifying “I mean beat them at the challenge Zeke.”

“…oh. Okay.” He gave a firm nod.

“Do we HAVE to?” Noah groaned.

“I mean if you want to sit out, by all means sit out. You’ll be missing out though.” Reese shrugged “alright boys line up!”.

They all got into a line as quick as they could, Noah dragging his feet the entire time.

Reese led them through a few stretches, arms up, out, down, squat, repeat.

Anything he could think of to get them both excited for the relay and relaxed to where they wouldn’t pull something if they got ambitious.

——

Meanwhile, José was conspiring with the girls.

“Do you ladies like parties?”

“Oooh! Oooh! Me!” Katie waved her arm.

“Me too!” Sadie chimes in.

“Oh my gosh, me too!” Lindsay squealed.

As the chatter began to rise José shushed them.

“Reese’s birthday is coming up and I was thinking we do something special for him!”

“Like what?” Heather crossed her arms “fix his hair?”.

“No. I was thinking maybe we throw him a surprise party!”

“Oooh! Can there be cake?” Izzy bounced on her toes “and ice cream? And chocolate? And more cake? And sprinkles?!”

“Yes yes all of that, but this needs to be a secret or else it isn’t a surprise okay?”

“What does this have to do with a relay race?” Gwen asked.

“If we win this, then I’ll talk to Chris about extending curfew until the party so we have more time to plan! That’s two whole weeks!”

“Make it five weeks.” Courtney crossed her arms.

“Not a chance. Two weeks.”

“Four weeks.”

“Two.”

“Six.”

“Two.”

“Five.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

“Two.”

“Two!”

“Haha! Three!” José pointed at her until realization dawned on his face and a smug one formed on hers.

Dang. She was good.

“Fine. Three weeks extended curfew. In exchange we win this challenge and all of you keep it a secret!”

The two shook hands.

“Can we tell the boys?” Bridgette asked.

“Oh, yes. That might be best. Now…who’s ready to win!”

“We are!” Eva threw her arms in “girls rule boys drool!”

“Even me?” He smiled.

“Yes.”

“Definitely.”

“For sure.”

“Uh huh.”

Why were kids so MEAN.

—-

The challenge itself went off without a hitch.

No injuries or crying or ANYTHING.

Reese wasn’t sure what José had told the girls but they seemed REALLY determined to win this time.

Even Heather ignored the mud and almost body checked Geoff to get to the tire swings.

It would’ve been a tie if it hadn’t been for Izzy’s curly hair getting stuck on something on the climbing wall.

She was fine but pretty embarrassed as she trudged back to the group.

Noah had stuck his tongue out at her as he crossed the finish line and the boy ran to cheer about their victory.

“Alright boys, hit the showers and head to the mess hall. Tonight’s prize is a movie with snacks! Your choice of movie!” He gave Duncan a look when he grinned mischievously “nothing scary. I don’t want any of you having nightmares.”

“Pssssh.” Duncan scoffed “I don’t get nightmares!”.

Reese shook his head at him with a smile.

Kids.

“Awwww.” Lindsay looked defeated “we didn’t win! We don’t get to stay up!”

“Lindsay!” Heather hissed through gritted teeth.

“What’s this about staying up?” Reese asked.

The girls looked at each other “José said if we win he’d extend our curfew for three weeks.” Bridgette answered.

“José!”

“Reese, you remember being eleven! Your family had sleepovers all the time and you stayed up late at their age.”

Reese looked from José to the girls then back to José.

“Alright fine. But in bed by a REASONABLE hour. Nn staying up past eleven.”

“Yessir.” José saluted, and in response Reese shook his head.

“I swear I’m the only adult around here…”he groaned as he walked away.

José have the girls a big grin and Courtney held her and up for a high five.

Chapter Text

Todays challenge was going to end in bloodshed.

Okay so maybe he was exaggerating just a bit, but things were definitely not going to go well.

Chris must’ve raided the props from the theatre camp again because he was dressed like a pirate on the cover of a generic mass produced romance novel Reese definitely didn’t read.

First team to make it back with all their items got to open the treasure chest for a mystery prize.

Reese was with the Gophers today, and José with the Bass.

But that wasn’t what was putting Reese on edge.

It was how…weird the kids were acting.

Like they all knew something he didn’t.

José, Chef and Chris too.

They better not be planning a practical joke on him again, he was one prank away from losing it and burning this place down.

There was not a jury that would convict him after the summer he had.

——

They all agreed to stay together.

Which meant that as soon as he turned his back, the group scattered.

Great.

Now he had to find the lost items AND the lost children.

They had tiny legs so they probably hadn’t gone that far, but there was so many of them it would take a while to track them down.

——-

Reese grumbled to himself as he managed to finally wrangle the last child, at least Owen looked mostly repentant, unlike Heather who looked pretty pleased with herself for managing to acquire an item all on her own.

“For the last time, you guys can’t just run off like that! I mean, what if something happened? What if you guys ran into a bear?” Reese scolded.