Every group of campers was unique to some degree. Some wanted to test the limits of the outdoors, others wanted to bring home an entire bag of crafts and some became hide and seek experts to avoid doing any of it. Phoebe and her cousin had each fallen into one of the first two categories. Every year Phoebe came home with some new collection of cuts and bruises while her cousin became ever more adept at gluing popsicle sticks.

This year's group were all early risers.

Phoebe could hear them whispering to each other at dawn. Their voices were low as if she wouldn't be able to hear them from her bed at the end of the cabin. She'd drawn the short straw and ended up with the teen girls under her watch for the first night. As the phone batteries died one by one, their chatter grew in leaps and bounds.

They were only allowed their phones after dinner and only if there were no group activities planned. Beyond that they were kept safe in the main house where all the chargers were. There were special exceptions, like kids whose parents wanted frequent check-ins or kids who were anxious about being away from home. Forcing them to enjoy camp while they worried about their phone never went well.

Their whispers shifted to quiet indoor voices the higher the sun rose. After a while, Phoebe had no choice but to sit up and reveal her consciousness. "Did you all plan this sunrise special or am I just lucky?" she grumbled.

Some of the girls hid giggles behind their hands. "We wanted to get breakfast before the boys ate everything," one of the girls, Zara, said. "I know what my brother eats at home and I bet another ten of him would be like a swarm of locusts."

Phoebe snorted, not disagreeing with them. "Then you'll want to get to the showers before them too."

The girls didn't need to be prodded into lining up with their toiletries. They filed out and hurried to the set of bathrooms across the way. They did their best to not only limit shower times to under six minutes but to also stagger them to give the water heaters time to recover. This early in the morning the girls would get the best of the hot water.

Phoebe would sneak back later while they were eating breakfast. Cold water didn't bother her nearly as much. She often started preparing for the cold showers a month in advance, both by taking them by choice or jumping into the swimming pool in the early morning. By the time she was at camp, five minute cold showers were just a part of the day.

Lights flicked on and off from the upstairs windows of the main cabin. The counselors lucky enough to sleep without the gremlins snoring the roof off also got the honor of putting meals together for the day. They'd take advantage of the two indoor bathrooms before arguing over what meal was easiest. If they were all lucky, Jenna would do the bulk of the cooking. She claimed to hate it but she always put together the most appetizing combinations.

Now Kelly, that was the one they needed to keep out of the kitchen. Her entire repertoire was hot dogs, rice, and beans, often altogether in a stew of sorts. That was enjoyable once and only once, and even then it took a bottle of hot sauce to take the edge off the canned beans.

The younger girls came trudging across to the bathrooms just as the last teen slipped through the cabin's front door. They'd already taken the time to put their things away and gather up their phones to receive their precious dose of charge for the day. Phoebe could count on a quiet night after the day's activities. Just three days in the teen cabin and she'd be safe for a few days. If she could find a night when her and Linda were free they could take her jeep to their neighbor camp and scope out the eye candy.

Claire marched ahead of the littles looking too awake for someone not on any sort of stimulant. She flashed Phoebe a cautious smile between rousing chants. Not a single one of her cheerleader calls would ever make it to Phoebe's mantra list, but she could see some of the kids starting to respond to it. Two of them even took up the chant. The heavy door muffled their voices.

Breakfast came in waves until every camper was at some stage of finishing. Phoebe and Claire tag teamed corralling the kids so they could take their showers before shoveling a quick meal down their throats. Garrett and Aaron joined them from the boys; cabins. At Aaron's arrival, Claire nearly choked to death on her eggs.

All heads turned towards the front of the room when Sutton clapped his hands together three times. "Listen up Spruce Grove campers, let's get day one started on the right foot." He rattled off the activities, making sure to clarify which were for which ages. There were a few short distance walks planned to gather materials for crafts, a scavenger hunt for the older kids and a few games of dodgeball and volleyball until lunch. Then they'd move onto the first crafts of the summer.

These were the activities that set Phoebe's teeth on edge but they couldn't throw the big stuff at the campers on day one. In a day or two they'd hit the lake and work on swimming and rowing lessons. She'd be the first to volunteer for those, no question. There weren't any trees in the lake.

That day she took the kids who wanted to bash each other with dodgeballs and made sure no one lost any limbs. It would toughen them up and let the counselors know which ones needed the extra attention and care. Plus, it would tire them out for the day and give everyone a good night's sleep. They might not even want their phones that night.

After a few rounds, the ball hit Phoebe square on the hip and she looked up to see Eli smirking with another ball in hand. The kids had taken seats in the dirt nearby. It left the court etched out in the dirt completely empty. Their eyes immediately snapped to the two counselors, backs straightening in their eagerness to get a good look.

"Is that a challenge, Eli?" Phoebe called across the court.

"It is if you think you can take me," he answered. The second ball went out headed straight for Phoebe. His hand had barely moved.

Phoebe dove to the side to avoid it slamming into her stomach. Another ball came rolling towards her from the sidelines. One of the kids was crouched down offering her a wide grin and two thumbs up. Another did the same for Eli. Finally on an even playing field, Phoebe went into a half crouch with the ball between both hands.

Back in high school, Phoebe's sport of choice had been diving, not dodgeball. Her coaches took every opportunity to praise the smooth line she made from the diveboard to the water. It had gotten her a partial scholarship to college where she picked up water polo and rowing and that had eventually gotten her the job as a camp counselor.

In the water, she was lethal.

Land wasn't awful but it absolutely seemed to give Eli an edge over her. His body twisted around each missile of round red rubber like he was boneless. Thankfully his throws were as wild as the insane dance his body was doing. More kids joined the sidelines as they returned from scavenging and hikes and more counselors joined the game.

No matter how many joined, Phoebe could only see Eli. Her entire world narrowed to a pinpoint with the floppy haired brunette at the center. Not even a near collision with Garett took her focus.

Then one of those rubber missiles made a beeline for her head. As she sat on the ground coming out of a daze her world widened again. Everyone that had joined her team now sat on the sidelines with the kids. She'd been the last one standing and now she glared at Eli's hand extended out in front of her face. Jenna was behind him trying to contain a self satisfied smirk.

After a deep sigh, Phoebe took his hand and let him pull her up. "You know, face shots are against the rules," she told him.

"Somehow I don't think the dodgeball police are going to show up and stop me," Eli joked.

"You realize this isn't over, right?" Phoebe waved to shoo the kids towards the cabin. Sutton was there at the top of the steps with a freshly made quesadilla. The smell of warm cheese and tortillas filled the air from the door behind him. Once the kids had all turned away Phoebe poked Eli in the middle of his forehead. "I'm going to make you wish you'd never thrown that ball."

The man, still more a boy than man really, laughed and linked his arm through hers. "I love a good rivalry."

They were the last two in, still laughing as they joined the line of hungry campers.

Chapter WC: 1530
Overall WC: 4321