“I can’t believe it! I am no longer a camper. Big kid status here I come!” Buffy squealed with delight to herself as she walked down the familiar drive.

Buffy Summers had attended Camp Wa-Klo as a camper for 6 years now, and had finally surpassed the camper stage to become a counselor in training. Among the obvious perks, was that she got paid to be at her home away from home for 2 whole months. And she would finally be free of the bitch ditz trio she’d been stuck living with for the last 6 summers in a row. She’d have her own cabin, with her own campers, and she couldn’t be happier to get the summer started…

That was until she met up with her best friend in the whole world, Willow, in front of her new cabin with a somber look on her face. Buffy knew that face, and just knew that she was not going to like whatever was on the other side of that door.

She tentatively pushed opened the door and saw, to her horror, Cordy, flanked by Harmony and Kennedy, unpacking her things to set up her bed. She was going to be stuck for a whole summer sharing a cabin with none other than the leader of the stupid trio Cordelia Chase. Her good mood plummeted and she slowly backed away with Willow in tow.

“I can’t freaking believe this!” Buffy shouted as they walked away from her new cabin, which had now become her personal hell.

“Buffy, it’s ok…” Willow tried to soothe Buffy’s frayed nerves, but clearly Buffy was having none of it right now.

“Ok? Ok?! How is this ok?! This was supposed to be the best summer ever mostly because we were finally rid of those awful excuses for human beings! How is it humanly possible that I am stuck living with Cordelia Chase again after 6 summers of her crap!” Buffy wondered what Miss Jensen, the camp’s head director, could have against her. “She knows how bad they tortured us, while making our lives miserable! Why would she do this to me? Why?!”

Buffy huffed, and puffed, and plopped down on a rock by the lake, wallowing in self-pity. Willow tentatively sat down next to her irate friend and wrapped her arm around her shoulders.

“It’ll be ok, I’m sure Miss Jensen had a good reason for what she did. We’ll just have to talk to her.”

Buffy turned to glare at Willow with a face that said ‘no friggin way,’ and proceeded to have her pity party of one. Buffy and Willow had been best friends forever, and when Willow’s mother decided to send Willow away to camp in New Hampshire, a million miles away from Sunnydale California, she begged for Buffy to go along with her. So the two little California girls at the ripe age of 10 were whisked away from the California sunshine to spend the summer at an all girl sleep away camp in the mountains of New Hampshire. After the first few rocky days the girls ended up really falling in love with the camp: the people, the scenery, and the atmosphere. It wasn’t good old California, but it was a nice reprieve from the parents for two months every summer, and it only brought the girls closer.

The only downside of every summer was living with the bitch ditz trio: Cordelia Chase, Harmony Kendall, and Kennedy Vanderbilt. They were all snobby, private school, spending daddy’s money, vapid whores. Cordelia, the ringleader, was the worst. She was Miss Socialite in New York, and you’d think she’d owned the damned world from the way she talked. Her minion Harmony was a ditzy, brainless, skank from L.A., who couldn’t function without Cordelia telling her what to do. She was just a mindless minion, but it didn’t mean that Buffy liked her any better. Kennedy was cruel. She was a private school brat, also, from Connecticut and thought the sun shone out of her ass. Whatever Kennedy wanted, she got. Her parents had oodles of money, so she came every summer with her designer outfits, regardless if the camp had a uniform or not. Still Kennedy had money which helped Cordelia and her to become fast friends. Their favorite pastime became harping on Buffy and Willow for not being rich, not having the designer clothes, not having the maids and butlers, and having to shop at, god forbid, department stores.

Cordy was always putting Willow and Buffy down just for the sheer fun of it. They were insignificant specks to her, but appearances had to be kept so the trio acknowledged the two California girls with disdain, unless a counselor or director was around, and then they played the fake friends act. It was nauseating.

For 6 summers the trio tortured Willow and Buffy, but Buffy had had enough. This was it. This was her summer to spend with her best friend, possibly break a rule or two, and have the best time of her life. There was no way she was letting the trio get to her and ruin her summer! Buffy abruptly stood up from her reminiscing of past insults and tears, then stormed toward the cabin. This was it. She was going to put Cordy in her place, and make sure that she would get the summer she had been wanting and looking forward to. She got to the door and froze right outside. Willow just looked at Buffy, terrified for her, not knowing what she was gonna do.

“Buffy, what are you doing?” Willow tentatively asked.

“I’m going to put Cordy in her place,” Buffy turned her head to face Willow, “I think?”

At that moment Kennedy walked out the cabin door pushing Buffy out of the way followed by Harmony and Cordy.

Cordy pushed her way to the front and said, “Well look at what we have here girls. It’s the drab fab twins. How nice. Ready for another summer of “fun” girls?” The sarcasm was dripping from her lips like slime.

“Bite me Cordy” Buffy snorted.

“Excuse me?” Cordy asked with all the nonchalance in the world like Buffy’s words had no effect on her.

“I said bite me,” Buffy said with a little more conviction.

Cordy turned around to face Harmony and Kennedy, then mocked, “Aw Harm, Ken, look. Buffy thinks she’s grown a backbone. How cute.” The disdain was oozing out of her as she pushed past Buffy and Willow, not even dignifying her remark with any further comment.

Buffy stormed into the cabin fuming as she threw herself down on the bed, which had yet to be made. Surrounded by all of her bags and belongings, Buffy grabbed Mr. Gordo, her stuffed pig, out of the pile and hugged him close as she began to sulk again. Try as she might to be tough for some reason, Cordy always got to her. She wasn’t like this normally. She was feisty, honest, and usually said what came to mind in her quirky Buffy way. Yet with Cordy she always froze.

After moving some of the unpacked bags around, Willow sat down next to her on the bed and sighed. At a loss for words, Willow decided to try and change the mood and asked, “You wanna go take a walk around the lake? Get some sunshiny goodness?”

“Ya, ok” Buffy mumbled.

She put Mr. Gordo down and slowly got up, dragging her feet behind her. Willow wrapped her arm around Buffy’s shoulder again as they walked out of the cabin. She felt like such a loser for not being able to stand up to Cordy for what must have been the umpteenth time. They slowly started walking around the perimeter of the lake. Lake Thorndike was beautifully set right at the base of Mt. Monadnock, which Buffy and Willow had proudly climbed every summer, which was one of their camp rituals after all. The lake was a beautiful blue surrounded by lots of trees. About a half a mile in was a tiny island called Sage’s Island that the counselors told campers ghost stories about. On the right side of the lake was the all boys’ camp: Camp Kingswood. Other than that, nothing marred Willow and Buffy’s view of the lake and the familiar mountain in the distance.

As they were walking along the path enjoying the sun, they heard noises coming from the swim dock area. It seemed that the new maintenance men were putting up the lane lines and fixing up the dock a little before all the campers showed up the next day. Willow and Buffy looked out into the water at the new maintenance men. The only men allowed on camp grounds did the maintenance work and the girls were not to socialize with them. They were usually foreign and kept to themselves, but the girls couldn’t help but take a peek.

Willow’s eyes traveled to a tall, rugged man with a five o'clock shadow, glasses, and dark brown hair put up the lanes lines. She was getting a little flushed at seeing how attractive this maintenance man was compared to the others she’d seen before. The biggest difference being that he looked young. Before she could be caught staring, she picked up her pace a little.

Buffy eyed a white blond head that was attached to a very muscular body that was crouched down painting the dock. His left side was facing her, so she couldn’t really see his face, but he was shirtless and oh what a yummy sight. He slowly turned his head and looked at her, and that’s when she froze. The most startlingly blue eyes she’d ever seen in her life were staring straight back at her, boring into her soul. She panted heavily for a few moments dumb-struck by this hottie of Hotness Town staring at her, and then she eeped before she started walking again without taking her eyes off of him.

Willow hadn’t noticed Buffy had stopped walking with her, lost in her thoughts of rugged men in glasses, when she turned and saw Buffy about to walk right into a tree, not paying attention.

“Buffy look…!” Willow screamed, but it was too late.

Buffy was so engrossed in staring at Mr. Blue Eyes that she never saw the tree right in front of her.

“OOMPH” was all Buffy got out as she fell smack on her back never having heard Willow’s warning.

She turned beet red, covered her face with her hands for a second, and then mouthed to Willow in silent panic, “Oh my god get me outta here!”

Willow rushed over to help Buffy stand up, and ran away from the docks to get further up the path as fast as their 16 year old limbs would take them, which was pretty far considering the motivation behind Buffy’s mortification.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile back at the docks

Wesley looked up from his work in the water setting up the lines when he heard a loud thud, not knowing that it was Buffy hitting the ground. He turned to Spike and asked, “What was that noise?”

Spike just smirked looking at Wesley, “Crazy chit just walked herself right into a tree.”

Wesley jumped out of the water to see if she was alright, but the girls had already upped and left. Wesley turned stern eyes to Spike and said, “Why didn’t you see if she was alright? Did you see what happened? Do you know why she walked into said tree?”

“Saw something she liked I guess,” Spike answered, completely ignoring the first part of Wesley’s question. It wasn’t his job to care for the girls, just the campgrounds, so if some crazy bint walks into a tree cause she’s too busy ogling him to watch where she’s going well, good riddance. ‘All the girls here are snobby rich bitches, doesn’t matter to me what happens to ‘em’ Spike thought to himself even as he simultaneously thought ‘but what a pretty chit that one was’.

Wesley just rolled his eyes at his friend and got back in the water to finish putting up the lane lines.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

On the other side of the lake

Buffy and Willow were sitting on a large rock in the shade so that they were hidden from view. Buffy relayed her embarrassment to Willow, who hadn’t known what had distracted Buffy enough to make her walk into a tree.

“Oh my god, Willow, I’m so embarrassed. I was staring at the hottest guy I’ve ever seen in my entire life and what do I do? I walk right into a TREE! He probably thinks I’m klutzilla. Oh my god, I’ll never be able to look him in the face again. Oh, but that face. He’s not human, I swear. He’s way too hot for one person to be. It’s not natural.” Even in her embarrassment Buffy couldn’t help but swoon a little. He really was the hottest guy she’d ever seen, and he had the nicest eyes and the sharpest cheekbones, all that just made her all melty.

“Buffy, I’m sure it’s ok. I bet he didn’t even notice,” Willow tried to placate her friend a little, understanding her embarrassment.

“Didn’t notice?! He was staring right at me when it happened!” Buffy threw her head in her hands shaking her head back and forth in misery.

Willow just rubbed her back in a soothing gesture, waiting for her breathing to even out as she collected herself. She felt bad for Buffy. If it’d been her, she’d been just as mortified, so as the dutiful best friend she was she just sat there supporting her best friend with her presence and a comforting hand on her back. The girls sat in comfortable silence after Buffy calmed down some and stared out into the peaceful blue water.

“Some start to the perfect summer, huh?” Buffy asked Willow. She was no longer feeling her chipper mood from earlier when she had first stepped back on the campgrounds.

Willow sighed. “It’s only the first day. It’s bound to only go up from here!”

Buffy smiled at Willow’s optimism. She loved that about her best friend. “Thanks Will,” and she leaned in giving her a hug for her unwavering support, even in the dour mood that she was in so far today.

They got up, and started walking back towards Buffy’s cabin where she still had to unpack all her stuff. Willow being the eager beaver she was, was already set up in her bunk awaiting the arrival of her campers the next day. They avoided the lakefront at all costs walking back to Buffy’s cabin. Cutting through the gymnastics area right by it, they bumped into someone they’d never seen before.

“Hi,” the two girls said simultaneously.

“Hey, I’m Faith.”