“I’m Buffy, and this is Willow,” Buffy pointed to Willow, who smiled while giving a small wave.
“Hey, I’m kinda new around here. Think you could show a girl where the cabin, Sleepy Hollow, is?” Faith asked.
“Oh it’s right over here, you just passed it. I’m staying there too! What room are you in? I’m in room 2-3. It’s the whole downstairs floor, which means I’ll have a lot of campers, and I’m kinda nervous, but really excited…” Willow flushed bright red in all her excitement and obvious embarrassment at babbling, her natural reaction to nervousness.
“Whoa, slow down there. Willow was it?”
Willow nodded still a lovely shade of red, closely matching her hair color.
“No worries, Will. It’s five-by-five. I’m in room 7. You two think you can show me where that is?” Faith asked in a teasing tone hoping to convey to Willow that it was cool she was nervous and got overexcited.
Buffy gave a little laugh, used to Willow’s nervousness and babbling. “Sure, no problem,” she said.
The three girls turned away from the lake and headed towards Sleepy Hollow. Buffy pointed up ahead, “See that big house-looking building?” She saw Faith nod. “That’s Sleepy Hollow. It’s the original camp building which is why it looks different than the other cabins. I’m staying in Cracker Barrel.” She pointed to the right. “It’s the old dining hall. Kinda weird to be sleeping in the old kitchen,” Buffy said with a slanted smile on her face.
“Damn B, you’re like a regular old camp brochure,” Faith said with a laugh.
Buffy shrugged, “I used to give tours as a camper, guess it’s just ingrained in me now to give historical stuff too.” Buffy laughed.
The three girls walked into the cabin and up the stairs to where room 7 was located. Willow and Buffy let Faith walk in first to get a good look around. “Damn. Kinda small, but at least I won’t be having 50 rug rats like Willow over here,” Faith said with laughter in her voice.
Willow smiled, “It’s nice. Cozy. You really get to know your campers since you only get 3.”
Faith staked out the layout a little further, then claimed the single bed by the window, her stuff having already been brought in by the maintenance crew. Buffy and Willow sat down on the other single bed that would eventually be occupied by the counselor.
“So, B, where you two from?”
“We’re both from Sunnydale, California,” Buffy said questioningly. “How did you know we’re from the same place?”
“Oh it’s obvious enough that you and Willow have been buds since diaper land,” Faith said with a smirk.
Willow and Buffy giggled at Faith’s joke. She was right, so who were they to deny her that little quip. Willow asked, “What about you?”
“I’m from Boston. Not far from here. Love the city life, but ‘rents told me to get a job for the summer, so why not get some R&R in the woods, right?”
Willow said, “I don’t know how much ‘R&R’ you’re going to get with helping teach day activities, campers, supervising evening activities and such, but CITs do get some free time to hang out together. And we’re off by 9 so that’s not so bad, I guess.”
“Ugh, except for the part about having to wake up at 6:30 the next morning,” Buffy moaned. She loved camp, she did, but Buffy and mornings were just unmixy things.
“That gives us more than enough time to raise a little hell,” Faith said with a gleam in her eye.
“Hell?” Willow said in panic. “I don’t do hell. I do…you know…non-hell things,” Willow said with a slight grimace at how pathetic that sounded.
Buffy put a comforting hand on Willow’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Wills. We’ll work our way up to raising hell,” Buffy said with a smile, and a slight gleam in her eye, which made Willow nervous.
“What do you mean, work our way up?!” Willow squeaked.
“Come on Willow, it’s our first summer as CITs! We’re no longer campers! We have to break some rules. It’s like a code or something. Like as teenagers or whatever, who are away from their parents for the summer. We can do anything!” Buffy said a little overzealously.
“Yeah, B!” Faith agreed whole-heartedly.
Willow still looked a little nervous, but nodded slowly. Buffy squeezed her with a hug. “You won’t regret this, Wills, I promise! And we won’t do anything you’re not comfortable with.”
Willow felt a little better after that, knowing Buffy wouldn’t push her. Buffy was grateful for her best friend, but she was determined to get her to come out of her shell a little. Buffy planned to have a summer of fun with her best friend at her side. So what if they broke a few rules? It wasn’t like they were going to commit murder, but sneaking out and staying out past curfew did have its appeal. Inside, Buffy smiled an evil little smirk to herself, ‘Nervousness be damned. The best summer ever is about to be had, no matter what!’
After Willow felt better, the three girls talked while unpacking Faith’s stuff. The three eased into a comfortable camaraderie, and had lots to talk about. Faith followed Buffy and Willow back to Cracker Barrel to unpack Buffy’s things. Thankfully, Cordelia hadn’t come back yet, so they had the cabin to themselves.
It took all day to finish unpacking the two girls and setting up the rooms to their liking. By the time they were finished it was time to head to dinner. Since camp wasn’t officially open until the next day, the dining hall consisted of only a few tables for the counselors and CITs. The camp directors sat at their own small table at the head of the dining hall like usual, but otherwise the place was fairly empty without all the campers. The rest of the tables wouldn’t be put out until the following morning.
There were two tables for CITs. Buffy and Willow scrambled to sit on the opened end of the one not being commandeered by the trio. Faith shrugged and followed the two girls not getting their weird behavior about the tables. While sitting down Faith asked, “What’s with the weird name for the mess hall. RoyKit? Someone lose a bet?”
Buffy laughed, “It’s a combination of Miss Jensen’s parents’ names. Weird, I know, but you get used to it,” she finished, shrugging.
Food in the dining hall was served family style, and the three girls were ravenous having not eaten since they got there.
“Damn, that’s some good eating for camp food,” Faith said between mouthfuls.
“Ya, Lorne’s the best. He’s been the cook here for ages. Just wait till taco night. Everyone goes crazy!” Buffy laughed, thinking of antics on past taco nights.
At that moment the dining hall doors opened, and in walked the 5 maintenance men that would be taking care of the camp grounds for the summer. Usually the guys weren’t allowed to eat with the girls, they ate beforehand with the servers, but it being the first night the directors had Okayed it. Being late was usually greatly frowned upon, and an apology usually had to be given to the directors, but not tonight. Tonight everyone got a free pass on lateness.
The first one to walk in was medium height with dark hair. The girls heard him talking and could hear that he had a thick Irish brogue. The guy he was talking to was tall, slender, and dark skinned, with a thin black moustache gracing his top lip. Behind them was a dark skinned man with a baldhead and a big smile. He was currently conversing with the man that had caught Willow’s eye at the docks. Bringing up the rear behind all four of them, walking in with a swagger like he owned the place, was none other than Mr. Blue Eyes himself.
Buffy immediately sank down in her seat and turned a bright shade of red that rivaled the color of Willow’s hair. Willow looked over at her sympathetically, but blushed herself at seeing tall, tan, and rugged. Faith looked inquisitively at the two girls for a moment, but then her eyes set on a much more scrumptious sight.
As Spike sauntered into the room he saw the girl from earlier in the day by the docks, and a huge smirk planted itself on his face. Luckily she was in his path on the way to they guys’ table. As he drew closer to their table, Buffy sunk down even lower. Just as he was passing by her, he slowed down and leaned over to whisper, “How’s tha’ head o’ yours, luv?” When she slunk down to almost non-existence, his smirk grew ever wider as he walked away.
Faith and Willow just stared bug eyed at Buffy, for two completely different reasons. Faith, because she was beyond curious and needed to know what just happened, and Willow because she had honestly thought that maybe he hadn’t seen her hit that tree. Now, she just felt a little sorry for getting her friends’ hopes up.
“Alright, B, come outta there and tell us what’s up?”
Buffy slowly inched her face above the table, and got back into a sitting position, calming down a little when she saw that the object of her extreme uncomfortableness had his back to their table. Then she put her head in her hands saying over and over ‘oh my god, oh my god.’
Willow took pity on Buffy and her inability to speak to tell Faith what had occurred earlier down at the lakefront.
“Damn, B!”
Buffy instantly looked up at Faith, eyes pleading with her not to say anything further. Faith just smirked and leaned over the table to whisper to her, “Good taste, but will someone tell me who talk, dark and chocolate is?” Faith licked her lips and let her eyes travel over to the guys’ table.
Buffy calmed down even further seeing how the conversation had turned away from her embarrassment, but then flushed a little at Faith’s comment.
Buffy whispered back, “Those are the maintenance men, but we aren’t really allowed to talk to them.” Faith looked at Buffy incredulously. Buffy shrugged simply stating, “Camp rule.”
“Oh, that is one rule I definitely plan on breaking,” Faith said with a leer not even looking at Buffy.
Buffy flushed a little, but Willow started spluttering and getting very nervous. “Th-that’s not p-part of the raising h-hell…is it?” she stammered. When Faith didn’t respond, but just turned her head to give Willow a look that clearly said, ‘are you crazy of course that’s what I’m talking about,’ Willow began to panic again and her gaze started drifting away towards the guys’ table in fear.
“Relax, Wills. It’s ok.” Buffy was worried about how much Willow was overreacting, but then she saw where Willow’s look had landed and a big smile graced her face. “I don’t think I’m the only one who gets all nervous and fidgety when I see a certain maintenance man, am I, Willow?
Willow abruptly turned back around to face Buffy slack jawed. She then proceeded to do an excellent impression of a goldfish, opening and closing her mouth at a loss for words. Buffy and Faith leaned back a little smirking and grinning.
“So, we going for it? ‘Cause I know I sure as hell am,” Faith said looking back over at the men eating their dinner and talking, unknowing of the conversation going on between the three girls.
Buffy flushed again and mumbled, “I dunno…” and trailed off not able to finish her thought.
“Come on B, you said you wanted the best summer ever! Going after what you want can only make it better. Besides he’s a total hottie.”
Buffy glared at Faith commenting on her hotness monster.
“Whoa, B. Calm down with the possessiveness. He’s your hottie. I’m just appreciating.” When the glare continued Faith held up her hands in supplication. “He’s all yours. I got my eyes on that luscious chocolate bar over there.” When she saw Buffy smile and then start to giggle, she started to relax.
Willow on the other hand was still panicking and still not comprehending if Buffy just agreed to go after one of the maintenance men. She looked at Buffy pleadingly for an answer to her confusion. Buffy just smiled at her, shrugged, and said, “You only live once.” Willow still looked nervous, although she had calmed down some. Coming up with a plan Buffy conceded to Willow’s shyness a little bit. “Ok Wills, all you gotta do is try to talk to the guy. That’s your goal.”
Faith looked at Buffy a little stunned. “Goal? We have goals now?” She smirked a little when she asked.
“Well, I figured if we’re gonna go for it we’re gonna go for it, right?” Faith just nodded smiling. Willow still looked nervous. “We’ll make a pact to accomplish all our ‘summer fun’ goals in the 8 weeks we have here. Will yours is to at least talk to your guy.” She looked at Willow using Willow’s own patented resolve face against her. She knew she could do nothing but concede to Buffy’s idea when she was in this mood. “My goal is to…um…” thinking hard, Willow interrupted, “get a kiss!” with a smug look on her face. Buffy got to make Willow’s goals so why couldn’t Willow make Buffy’s? Buffy smiled a little nervously, but nevertheless agreed.
Faith added in her two cents by saying, “My goal is for some chocolate covered lovin’.” Buffy and Willow just stared at Faith in shock at her boldness. Faith just laughed and said, “What? I know what I want, and he is definitely it. Want. Take. Have.”
After the initial shock wore off Buffy and Willow just looked at each other shrugging. It was her goal not theirs, so they agreed. They finished eating dinner talking and laughing about more mundane topics than hot maintenance men.
With smiles on their faces, and laughter in their voices, the 3 new friends headed back to their respective cabins to turn in for the night. Even though it was early, it had been a long and interesting day, and tomorrow would only be longer with the arrival of the campers and their parents. Buffy lay down to sleep. She wasn’t even bothered anymore by the presence of Cordy on the other side of the cabin. She closed her eyes, and dreamt of bright blue eyes with a smile on her face.
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!