"Jared, wake up." Evan nudged the sleeping boy. "Jared, you're going to be late for breakfast."

    "I don't care." Jared groaned, curling into a ball and covering himself in his blankets.

    "Jared, it's six, if we don't go soon we'll be late and then we won't get to eat till lunch." Evan sighed. Jared muttered something about the snacks under his bed.

    "Here, I'll get him up." Connor strode across the room to where Jared laid. He lifted up his foot and kicked Jared clean off the bed. Jared landed on the floor with another groan, but otherwise curled himself up more in his blanket and resumed sleep.

    "That didn't work..." Evan frowned.

    "For god's sake, Jared." Connor walked around the bed to the smaller boy. "Get the fuck up." He nudged him with his foot, Jared shied away from Connor, afraid of being kicked again.

    "Let's just go, I don't want to be late." Evan was shifting from foot to foot nervously.

    "Yeah, Jared can catch up later." Connor snickered, grabbing his bag. Jared sat up suddenly, frowning.

    "You cannot ditch THE Jared Kleinman." Jared stood up and began to get ready. "I'm the one that's supposed to ditch you guys, not the other way around." Connor rolled his eyes.

    "It's not ditching if the people were glad you left." He smiled, crossing his arms as he waited for Jared.

    "Fuck off." Jared pulled on his shirt and glanced in the mirror, ruffling his hair so it looked just right. He slipped on his glasses. "Let's go."

    "Aren't you gonna brush your teeth?" Evan asked in disgust.

    "Oh yeah, hold on." Jared snatched up his toothbrush and quickly brushed his teeth.

    "Oh my God, Kleinman." Connor huffed. "I can't believe you weren't gonna brush your teeth."

    "Jesus, why is everyone so judgy this morning?" Jared asked, throwing his toothbrush on the dresser and spitting into a garbage can.

    "Just move it along." Connor shifted impatiently.

    "Okay, okay, let's go."  Jared said. Evan held the door open for the other two as he rushed them out.

After walking for more than Jared would've liked considering he hadn't been awake for too long, they finally arrived at the cafeteria. They were serving what Jared thought was supposed to be an omelette.

Joy.

Jared grabbed a tray and went through the long line of hungry, tired teenagers who looked just as enthused to be here as he did. He got his soggy omelette and threw himself down onto a bench next to Alana and Zoe. Connor and Evan soon joined them.

"Good morning, Jared." Alana chimed cheerfully, cutting into her omelette with her knife.

"I beg to differ." Jared grumbled, not bothering with utensils and instead grabbing his food with his hands, earning a disgusted look from the group.

"Kleinman, you have a perfectly good fork right there." Connor raised an eyebrow at him.

"Fuck that, all food should be finger food." Jared shrugged, shoving a rather large chunk of the omelette into his mouth.

"Jared, there's probably a lot of germs-" Evan began before one of the councilors (Jared thought his name was Greg, maybe?), cleared his throat at the front of the room.

"Ev, keep talking and maybe he'll just never speak." Jared whispered.

"Alright everyone! It's the first day of camp so we're going to get everyone situated!" Greg paced back and forth, hell, his pacing was even making Jared a bit nervous. "So, we're gonna split you folks up into groups for the activities, but remember, these groups are permanent! You're going to have to compete with the other groups and at the end of the summer the winners will each get their very own backpack!"

Jared didn't know how anyone could take this guy seriously.

"This year's group theme will be animals!" Greg flipped a page on his clipboard. "Alright, let's get you split up, group one is called the tigers! This team consists of Katie Anderson, Jade Coleman, Evan Hansen, Dave Johnson, Jenna Lane and Zoe Murphy." Jared watched as his table mates made their way over to meet with their group.

"See you guys at lunch." Evan gave them a small wave before scampering after Zoe.

After ten more minutes, Jared, Connor, and Alana still weren't sorted into a group. Finally, only a handful of kids remained.

"Last but not least, the sponges!" Jared heard Connor mutter something profane under his breath. "This group consists of Alana Beck, Jake Carlson, Tallula Harley, Jared Kleinman, Connor Murphy, and Preston Stone."

The six teenagers awkwardly shuffled together to form a weird, usual group.

"I guess I should introduce myself, I'm Alana Beck." Alana reached out and shook the hands of the other members of the group. "Oh, these are my friends, Connor and Jared." Connor only gave a small grunt while Jared bothered with a head nod.

"Alright, sponges, I'll be your group councilor!" A voice sounded from behind them, but Jared knew that exclamation point anywhere, Greg was their group councilor. Beside him he felt Connor stiffen.

"It looks like our first group activity will be arts and crafts." Greg smiled, leading them out the door. Jared spotted Zoe and Evan in their group, heading towards the woods.

"I can't believe we're the fucking sponges." Connor huffed, taking up the rear of the group with Jared. Alana was up at the front asking Greg questions.

"What kinds of crafts are we doing today?" Alana said from the front. "I hope we get to make bracelets, the one I made at my last camp broke a couple months ago and I haven't had the time to fix it."

"Actually, we are making cards today!" Greg returned her enthusiasm.

"Why are we sending cards home? It's the first day." One of the other campers snorted.

"Well you don't have to send them home, give them to your new camp buddies!" Greg beamed, stopping at a picnic table with multi-colored paper and paints across it. "You're welcome to use all of the materials here, just remember to put it back when you're done and clean up your mess!" Jared flopped down at a spot on the table, Connor sat across from him.

"This is so exciting!" Alana sat down next to Jared. "I'm going to make one for each of you!"

"Do I really have to make a card?" Connor frowned, grabbing a black sheet of paper.

"How the hell do you plan on making a card with black paper?" Jared snorted, grabbing a red piece.

"It's paint, dumbass, it doesn't matter." Connor rolled his eyes. Jared stuck out his tongue before staring down at his sheet of paper. Who should he make one for?

"First I'm going to make a purple one for Zoe, since we're bunkmates." Alana folded the paper in half and grabbed a paint brush.

    Should he make one for Connor? No, Connor would think that was dumb... Wait, what if he gave it to him ironically?

    Jared shrugged to himself, that could work. He folded the paper over and began to paint patterns on the front of the card.

    "Who are you making a card for?" Connor asked, he wasn't even really making a card, he was just splattering paint onto paper.

   "Um, it's my dog's birthday this week and I thought I should send him a card." Jared groaned internally. Seriously, he couldn't come up with a better lie than that?

"That's fucking weird." Connor said nonchalantly as he smeared blue paint with his finger across the paper.

Jared looked down at the card he was making, and realized instantly he couldn't give it to Connor. First off, the card had way too many hearts on it to be considered even remotely platonic. The moment anyone saw this they'd laugh him off the face of the planet. Jared tucked the card away so no one could see it and started making one for his imaginary dog. His parents will be confused when they get this card.

Oh well.

Jared drew a cute little dog on the cover, and the inside said "Happy Birthday Buddy!" with little paw prints around the text. Connor glanced over at his card.

"Your dog's name is Buddy?" He asked, wiping the wet paint from his hands on his pants.

"Yeah, he's a purebred German Shepherd." Jared nodded, suddenly wishing he would've chosen a different lie.

"Big dog." Connor whistled. "How old is he turning?"

"Um, 4." Jared lied, looking down at his card and fiddling with it.

"Jared, you have a German Shepherd?" Alana beamed. "So do I!"

"Oh, that's great." Jared said, avoiding eye contact.

"Where did you get it from?" Alana asked.

"Um," Oh shit, Jared didn't know any breeders. "The, uh, animal shelter."

"Wait, I thought you said he was purebred?" Connor asked.

"Did I?" Jared chuckled nervously, fiddling with his collar. "Well, I guess I misspoke." Connor raised an eyebrow at him, giving Jared a knowing smirk that made him sink down in his seat.

"You're fucking weird, Kleinman." Connor said smugly before continuing to play with the paint on his paper. Alana also resumed her work. Jared let out a small sigh, that was kind of a save.

After finishing their cards and a couple of self portraits Greg made them do so he could hang them up in the lobby area, the group headed to lunch. The moment Jared arrived at the cafeteria he threw away the card, he didn't need anyone finding that on him. Behind him, he heard Evan.

"Why'd you throw away one of your cards?" He asked, stepping towards the garbage can.

"Oh, it was just a mess up, no big deal." Jared lied, trying to inch away.

"I wanna see it." Evan smiled. "Good thing it's still on top." He snatched the card off the top of the garbage, opening it.

"No, don't-" Jared panicked, grabbing at the card. Evan scrunched up his face as he read the card.

"Jared, what is this?"