Morning finally rolled around, anxiously greeted by Kara’s alarm clock. From my bunk, I could hear the groaning of old mattress springs as Kara, Lisa and Christina twisted and turned in their beds. I exited out of what had to be my tenth game of Fruit Ninja—I’d been playing nonstop since Christina finally stopped puking and passed out—and shimmied out of my sleeping bag, down the metallic ladder. I grabbed my shower stuff and stumbled clumsily into the washroom, nearly tripping over my own feet along the way. You’d think for an insomniac, no sleep was “no problem”. If I could stay up for nights at a time, I clearly just had too much energy to be tired right? Wrong.

The cold shower helped perk me up a little, but I was still exhausted.

“Holy Jesus tits…” an extremely hung over Christina brushed past me as I walked back into our room. Her red hair was wild, like a lion’s mane, and her throbbing head was in her hands. She continued grumbling incoherently as she dropped her things on the counter. What a great way to kick off a full day of working with kids, I thought.

“Morning,” Kara yawned, stretching out her arms as I came in. I nodded in her direction, offering a little smile, and continued walking towards my suitcase. I fished out some underwear, a pair of khaki shorts, and my Camp Roanoke staff t-shirt. Then I retreated to the corner, mostly concealed by my shower towel hanging down from my bed, and got dressed. Once I was ready, I headed out to the kitchen and went on a mission to see if there was a secret coffee stash hidden somewhere.

My efforts were fruitless. I gave up and pulled out the box of Cheerios I’d found in the pantry during my search. I grabbed a bowl, a spoon, and some milk. As I slouched over the counter, I thought about what my parents were doing back home. Were they worried about me? Were they even awake?

“Lisa! Get up!” Kara’s shrill voice traveled all the way from the bunk room. I couldn’t even imagine what her face looked like. She seemed like too much of a calm person to have veins shooting out of her neck. “You have, like, 20 minutes to get ready. Get up!”

“Stop shouting!” Christina interjected.

I grinned to myself as I took another bite, amused. In a way it reminded me of home and my brother. He used to wake me up for school or even on weekends when he was trying especially hard to be an ass.

***
There were kids everywhere, all ranging from ages 7 to 14, waiting to be checked in. I’m sure it would have been complete chaos if it weren’t for Mrs. Sullivan, the brunette woman from orientation, and her magical skills of controlling large crowds. I had to hand it to her, holding the attention of tweens was a challenge I wasn’t even sure I was ready to handle it and she was doing it without breaking a dribble of sweat.

“Preston, Jamie!” I heard my name called out. A slender woman in khakis and a Roanoke Staff shirt waved me over. “You will be leading your campers with Alex. You’re in charge of group 1.”

“Alex—?” I began to ask, but was interrupted by a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw The Captain standing there with a grin on his face.

“Looks like we’re working together,” he said.

“Guess so,” I replied. “Let’s go get our group.”

After everyone was sorted out and we’d finally rounded up our campers, Alex and I led them out to their first activity of the day: Boating. The good thing about it was that Alex and I didn’t really have to do anything for the next 45 minutes. We just sat on the man-made beach and let the lifeguards take over for us.

“So you’re in 4B with Chris, Kara, and Lisa right?” Alex asked. I looked over at him, watching as he raked his fingers through his hair and swooped it to the side.

“Yup. I guess you guys have known each other for awhile then?”

“Well we’ve all worked here for two summers so yeah; I guess you could say that. The guys, Kara, Lisa and I all go to school together back in Baltimore,” Alex explained. I suddenly remembered overhearing Lisa and Kara talking about something that happened back home as they were getting ready this morning. Alex's name had come up a few times.

“Are you and Lisa…?” I started to ask, but stopped as soon as Alex began to laugh softly. “What?” I cocked my head to the side and furrowed my brows.

“No, Lisa and I aren’t together. We dated, but…”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to get all personal,” I apologized suddenly feeling stupid. This was the first real conversation I was having with the kid and I was already grilling him.

“No, no!” he shook his head, waving his arms like it was no big deal. “It’s fine.”

I was about to say something else when I saw two lifeguards, one in a pair of Red Cross red swim trunks and the other in a one-piece in the same color, walking towards us. Both of them had whistles hanging from their necks.

“Here we go…” Alex muttered under his breath as they approached.

“Hey Gaskarth, I’m surprised to see you back this summer,” the boy of the pair said.

“And why is that, Brett?” Alex sighed, looking up at the muscular boy. I sensed some tension between them. I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I just sat and watched in silence.

“After that stunt you pulled last year? I was sure you’d be out of here for good. C’mon, what’d you do to get them to let you come back?” Brett snickered, a smug grin plastered to his face.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Alex laughed dryly and looked away towards the area our campers were rowing their boats in. “Shouldn’t you be doing your job?” he asked, bringing his attention back to Brett. Brett scoffed and slid his sunglasses down from the top of his head to cover his eyes before walking off with the girl he’d come over with. When they were out of hearing range, I turned back to Alex hoping for some kind of explanation.

“What was that about?” I asked.

He sighed deeply and said, “That was Brett and his puppet—I mean girlfriend, Sara.”

“I’m guessing you’re not exactly friends…?”

“Wow you’re intuitive,” he replied sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes. “What’s their beef with you?”

“We just don’t get along. Never have. Him and his little lifeguard buddies just like to think they’re superior to everyone else. They also think they’re the best pranksters at Roanoke,” Alex added in an amused tone.

“And you are?”

His lips curled up into a proud half-smile and in a cocky voice he replied, “They don’t call me Captain for nothing.”