"Hiya!" he responds. "I'm Anthony."

"So what do we do here? Someone pointed at you when I asked and I was told you'd teach me stuff and they were very vague."

"We look after kids? – I guess you mean, like, particulars?"

"Yeah. I was told you were gonna show me around, give me the schedule, tell me about activities, meal times, what to do in a medical emergency..."

"Schedules are – in the main hut, I'll show you there first?"

"Sure!"

He starts walking towards it. "Met many of the other people yet?" He looks around. "There are a few people missing still, I think, but those that are here?"

"Just a couple, and they told me to talk to you," she shrugs.

"They're mostly pretty nice," he comments. "So, a lot of the information you'll need is in a starter pack thing – it's with the schedules – and you'll want to read at least the introductory bit of that when you can. Most things are listed somewhere obvious – there are fire protocol signs, that sort of thing, and usually counselors look after groups in pairs or more, so you should be fine for most situations."

They're just walking past some picnic benches where a few of the other counselors have congregated, in a large open area near some of the cabins.

"Oh okay cool. And what kinds of activities are there? I haven't actually ever been to one of these things when I was a kid."

"Oh – it's a lot of outdoor sports? Hiking, canoeing, swimming in the lake. There's also, um, arts and crafts type things, Kate runs a woodshop thing, and we usually have a sort of dance thing on Saturdays."

"Most of those don't happen in the main hut, I expect."

"Right, I – yeah. It's, um, we'll have bits of food and drink and try to encourage them to, y'know, meet and talk to each other? Sit in a circle, go around it and have everyone introduce themselves, explain some of the ground rules and make sure they all know the sorts of things they'll be doing, fire safety stuff, that stuff, then split them off into smaller groups and, like, some will go do ball games and stuff outside, others it'll be cards or, uh, smaller activities like that?"

"Makes sense. And nothing like that for us to meet each other?"

"Well, people are just sort of hanging around at the moment, so you can meet them now anyway – oh, but there's an informal thing a bit later, after dinner."

"Oh cool that sounds like fun."

"It is! So – how'd you choose to come here? Friends go here when you were a kid, or know someone from here before…?"

"My father thinks it's a good character-building exercise."

"– Well, it at least gets you outside in the summer, if you're not really that type otherwise? And it could help with your CV, in the future."

"Yeah, I mean, it's not bad or anything, I'm going to have fun even if only to spite him."

Pause. "Well it should be a good place to do that. I think."

"Yeah, it sounds it, I'm excited."

And then: they at the main hut!

It's a reasonably large building, near a couple other reasonably large buildings and a couple of smaller huts in a small semicircle. Inside are a couple of counselors.

One gives Anthony a timetable and smiles at Kaede – "Hey! I'm Dave."

"Hi! I'm Kaede. Nice to meet you!"

"Did you just get here? – Oh, you probably want the whole folder, just a sec…"

Dave hands Anthony a folder, who takes it and then hands both it and the timetable to Kaede.

"Yeah, thanks!" She accepts those. "I'll read them later."

"Cool! So –" Pause. "The non-talkative one is Shane."

Shane looks up, blinks a little, and then says, "Hi," under his breath.

Wave!

"Anyway," says Anthony, "how about I show you the rest of this central bit, then show you to your campsite and show you where you can drop your stuff, go through a few things and look around a bit more?"

"Sounds good!"

So they go outside.

Anthony points out the other buildings in the semicircle. "So, that's the med hall – a few of the instructors live above it." Point. "That's the cafeteria." Point. "Store cupboards." Point. "Central toilets and showers."

She looks and makes acknowledgment noises!

He looks at her folder. "Oh, seems like we're at the same campsite! That's – kids split off into groups, a few counselors with each, do things in those groups, et cetera?"

"How large's a group?"

"Like, twenty to twenty-five? Ours is twenty-four."

"Cool!"

"Anyway, it's – approximately this way," he says, making a start to head into some forest.

(There is in fact a path marked.)

She follows him.

"Should I be worried that you're taking me to the unknown depths of a mysterious forest without witnesses?"

He raises an eyebrow. "You could be? But there's a path."

"Aww. Well, a girl can dream."

Smirk. "It's not particularly far to the campsite."

"I couldn't have known that!"

"Uh-huh."

"Should I not flirt with you? It's not always you're guided around camp by an adorably cute boy."

"Nah, just seems like it usually takes people longer than this."

"I don't particularly love the usual timeline on these things."

"No? – I mean, I don't either, but I think it's for different reasons."

"Oh?"

"People our age aren't always the most sensible."

"Sensible in what sense?"

"Rush into things, regret them, or alternatively miss really obvious chances, or miscommunicate extremely badly…"

"Oh that," she says, waving a hand dismissively. "Right, communication problems shouldn't be a—well, problem. As you are now seeing evidence of I prefer being extremely clear about everything."

"Usually preferable, that, yeah."

"Yes. So: I am flirting with you, and I will keep doing this until you either decide you don't want me to or you decide to follow up. Sound good?"

"Sounds fine? – I'll probably get back to you on the 'good', if that's okay."

"Sure."

"So, you were probably assigned to this group for a reason, they seem to match interest groups where possible – what sorts of things are you into?"

"Honestly I have no idea what my father would have put there? I like meeting people, I like figuring them out, and figuring out how stuff works, and learning pretty much everything. I hate the damp, and am not much of a fan of hiking, but quoth my father 'It's a character-building experience.'"

"Hiking's fun! And we're in cabins, anyway, so the damp shouldn't be too bad, but – well, maybe they didn't match us together for shared interests." He shrugs. "I mean, I like people too, but I think most people like interacting with kids if they come here, or at least don't hate it."

"I mean something a bit more—like, I don't just like interacting with people, I like understanding them and finding out about them and figuring out how to make them happiest and accomplish their goals."

He tilts his head. "I mean, I think a lot of people like helping others."

"A lot of people think they like helping others," she amends. "Not a lot of people know what that means or actually genuinely make an honest effort at it, especially when it's not their friends."

He raises an eyebrow. "A lot of people don't make an honest effort at things they like anyway."

"I suppose that's true."

"So you like to think you do make an honest effort at it?"

"Yep."

"I enjoy helping people, but it can be hard to help everyone with a large number of things."

"Correct, then you have to prioritize and do it efficiently."

"And can also be hard to achieve a large number of things that any of them want. Which comes under the same issue, I suppose, impossibilities or improbabilities being ranked lower in priority."

"Exactly."

"Also I'm fifteen, which can be a bit of a barrier."

"...to being good at people?"

"To actually being able to help lots of them with things, too."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess."

And then: they are at the campsite! It is small-ish, and has a few cabins (one larger than the rest).

"We're over here," says Anthony, leading her to the larger cabin.

She follows him.

The cabin: is rather nice, for a cabin! They have beds and space to put their stuff and even a bit of privacy! Gosh!

It looks like two of the four beds already have people moved into them. Presumably Anthony has taken one of them.

"Pick a bed."

She points at one randomly.

"Feel free to put your stuff down, make yourself at home or whatever."

"Alright." She puts her bag on the bed. "What next?"

"Next is some emergency stuff –" And then he explains where to go in the event of a fire, who to contact and how to do so. It's reasonably obvious, for being out in the middle of nowhere, and also copied down in the folder and there are convenient signs about exit protocol in most of the buildings. (Which, when there are between one and two doors for each building, plus windows, is not particularly complicated.)

She pays attention but doesn't have any questions—it is reasonably obvious.

He indicates other bits in the folder – other bits of protocol to follow, especially when you're unsure about what to do, like if you encounter a fight or a kid doing something reckless, something that might endanger others, etc.

Then he's done and they can go look around a bit more! "So, I'm thinking show you into one of the kids' huts, then show you where the perimeter of the camp is, then… probably go back so you can meet the other counselors hanging around the central bit?"

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea. By the way, are counselors doing activities with the kids all day every day? What's actual day-to-day life for us?"

"It's… a lot of the day, yeah," he says. "We take breaks if we're not all needed to supervise them for an activity – usually there are at least two counselors supervising a group, like I say – but it's pretty full-on."

"Well, sounds like it'll be fun, then."

"I'm glad you think so!"

Kids' huts?

Are smaller! They do, however, have bedframes onto which the kids can put their sleeping bags.

"Poor kids, living in poverty while we luxuriate."

"Tragic," says Anthony. "Just so sad."

"I'm not sure I'm sad about never having been on the other end of this bargain."

"Yeah, well, parents have to have somewhere to drop their kids."

"...on second thought."

He looks at her, a bit assessingly. "So, should we go take a look at the perimeter?"

"Yeah!"

… It is not actually particularly thrilling! However it is important to know approximately where it goes and what it looks like (it is not particularly hard to miss but there are in fact parts that go through foresty bits, so, be careful).

"So, I'm gonna go out on a limb here… and guess you like books?"

"What gave me away?"

"Nothing major," he says, starting his way back to the central part of camp.

Then he considers. "… It might be the way you flirt."

"The way I flirt?"

"… It was quite direct."

"Yeah?"

"And sounded like you had reasoned it through at least a little."

"That's indeed a thing I do."

"In more detail than most people would do." Pause. "I don't know, it just sounded like you probably like books."

"I'm a very unusual person."

"Not a trait people are usually so proud of."

"I'm unusual like that," she agrees.

"But not particularly unusual in the respect of liking books."

"No, books are a very normal taste of mine."

"Any particular genre you like? Or is it mostly non-fiction…?"

"Pretty eclectic, but I gravitate toward sci-fi and fantasy, and I also like nonfiction about stuff like behavioral economics and maths and physics."

"I can honestly say I don't think I've ever read a book about behavioral economics."

"I'm unusual like that."

"Is that a catchphrase?"

"Now it is!"

He smirks. "Anyway – the archery range is basically the other side of camp, you probably saw the lake on your way in, and otherwise the activities mostly take place inside or around the cabins."

She nodnods.

And then: they are back at the main camp!

There continue to be, as promised, a few other counselors there.

Cool! She can chat with them, then.

Two of them are from the same school and play basketball together! The other one fancies herself a painter.

Keith, Jack and Alice, they introduce themselves.

Hello, Keith, Jack, and Alice! She introduces herself, too.

Hello! … Kaede's an interesting name – where's she from?

New York City.

What does she like to do? Has she been camp counselor before?

Reading! Meeting people! Going out! Running! Singing! She has not ever been camp counselor (or to camp) before.

Huh. Well it's tough but it's pretty good.

Yeah she's been getting this impression.

And soon enough it's time to eat.

Hotdogs! With optional onions and ketchup and mustard and other assorted extras! In the cafeteria!

"Yum."

Eh, they're fine, she guesses.

And then after dinner they have that informal meet-and-greet thing that was mentioned earlier and Kaede gets to meet even more counselors!

Including the two others at their particular campsite: Julia and Kennedy.

The rest of the evening passes without too much ado, the night passes quietly, and the kids start arriving the next day.

When Kaede is a he.

"… You look different today."

"That I do."

"Intentionally?"

"I don't find myself in the habit of unintentionally changing my appearance."

"Is there, uh, any particular reason…?"

"Quirk of psychology and genetics, I expect."

"Right." Nod. "Okay."

"On a scale of one to ten, how much is it this going to be an obstacle to flirting?"

"… To you flirting with me?"

"Yeah."

"… Not a huge one? I'm not going to flip out or anything."

"I strive to better results than an absence of flipping out when I flirt."

"I wasn't sure what you meant by 'obstacle to flirting' and – was trying to provide truthful information in response."

"I meant to ask whether you are strictly heterosexual," he explains.

"… The answer to which is – nnnnno."

"Oh good then I shall continue."

"But I'm not sure if – the fact we'll be around kids all day might be a limitation."

"To flirting? It probably will," he admits.

"Other times, though."

"The kids must go to sleep sometime."

"They do, in fact. And sometimes we take it in turns supervising."

"Good to know, then," he says, smirking. "So, when do the kids arrive?"

Anthony checks his watch. "Should start in about an hour?"

"Oh good so I can keep flirting with you for that hour."

"Barring time when other people are around, presumably…"

"Are you bashful?"

Pause. "I honestly don't know how people would respond to you flirting with me?"

"In that I'm a boy, or in that I was a girl yesterday, or in that there's flirting at all going on?"

"First and second, I was thinking."

"Thing you should know about me: that kinda does the opposite of discouraging me."

"It could make it awkward if they decided to take it upon themselves to stop it, or punish one or both of us for it…?"

"Are they likely to? You know them better than I do."

"… Nothing I've seen has shown them to be particularly caring and tolerant, most of them, sadly."

"Hmm. Well I'm pretty used to it, myself, but if you prefer I can restrict my flirting to when we're alone."

"It would probably make things unnecessarily hard if they were antagonistic…"

"I suppose it would."

"… But they will probably start out with the assumption we won't be flirting…"

"Will they? Even when I'm a girl?"

"… Honestly I have no idea how they will react to that."

"Yeah, well, we'll see. For now we should get whatever ready for the kids."

Anthony nods in agreement, and then they can go do as such.

A lot of it's ensuring the appropriate equipment is ready for the welcoming activities –  some of it's in the form of friendly games of soccer, various other ballgames, and some is just covering who's doing what… Most of it is quite straightforward.

And then the kids should be arriving, yes?

They do! A few at a time. And then they can start doing some of the games while they wait for the others and help unpack and give them little packs of information and start doing some introductions and taking them to the camps and everything!

Whee!

Kaede actually has a way with children, they like him and find his jokes funny and he's rather silly.

Awww that's very cute but Anthony does not actually say anything to that extent just yet.

The kids all seem to adore Kaede, most of them like Anthony quite a lot, and the other counselors don't make any audible remarks about the change to Kaede's appearance in front of the kids.

Are they acting weird, though?

Funny looks, seem like they might later want to ask him 'what the fuck', mostly keep it to a minimum while interacting with the kids.

Anthony tries to ignore them without seeming too obviously like he's doing that.

Kaede won't try to ignore them, and will merely act like there is absolutely nothing the matter.

More weird looks.

Then lunch! Then more games and activities and more weird looks!

Nothing wrong at all. Surely eventually they'll get tired of weird looks, it's a whole day, it'll eventually no longer be news.

The weird looks get less frequent. Ignoring him is a secondary approach.

Anthony sighs. The day continues. They have a Talk about various safety protocols and so on. Snacks.

Snacks! Kaede seems to be compllletely oblivious to the way people are ignoring him and acts as if they were as friendly as yesterday!

A few of the people didn't properly meet Kaede yesterday and seem sort of confused by the hostility! Snacks are had and then the groups split up a bit more and it returns to the occasional weird glance.

"… It's sort of better and worse than I'd expected," comments Anthony to Kaede, at one point.

"How so?"

"I'd expected people would be awful about it because people are but I also don't get the mindset that makes them be awful so kinda… loosely expected it might all be lies."

"...lies?"

"That people were – homophobic etc?"

"Why would you expect that to be lies?"

"… Hoping people were not just abnormally awful? I don't get the mindset and – I was hoping it was rarer."

He shrugs. "I'm used to it."

"Less so," he shrugs. "And it's annoying anyway."

"It is, but pretending it's not there helps tons. If people start being too overtly terrible when you're nothing but sweet tends to turn back on them."

"Seems like a good policy but one that'd be hard to follow."

"It's what I've been doing all day."

"Oh, yeah, I know. … But still."

"Still?"

"Seems like it'll be hard to keep up for days on end."

"Like I said, used to it."

Anthony shrugs.

Activities progress and the day draws on. Soon it's time for dinner.

Dinner! Kaede has a gaggle of children following him to the eating place.

Awwwww.

(Hot dogs. There are hot dogs. They are pretty good.)

Also at dinner: Sasha, another counselor who's curious about the apparent bewilderment and hostility directed nearish Kaede.

She (quietly) declares the people glaring to be dicks, after being told details.

Thank you, Sasha. Kaede likes you.

Eventually they should get the kids to bed.

The kids are mostly good about it! It takes a few minutes, and that's all.

The other two counselors seem mostly content to now ignore the two of them.

Well they'll have to ignore alone because Kaede is not ignoring them; that's part of pretending everything is alright! He is chatty and friendly and fills the silence with cheerful conversation.

Anthony helps out!

The evening wears on and eventually it's probably time to sleep.

That it is! Good night!

Anthony responds likewise and then it is the morning and they can go get the kids up and do Activities!

Activities!

How're the other counselors today?

Chatting to each other amicably, the two others in their group! Some of the other counselors seem a bit tired.

Sasha waves from nearby. Anthony waves back.

At lunchtime he sits next to Anthony while other counselors look after the kids.

"This is fun."

"I like it! For the most part. The kids seem to enjoy it."

"Yeah. Does leave us very busy, though."

"It does. Not much time to chat."

"Or other things."

"I have no idea what you mean."

"Play games, of course. Practice sports. Go swimming."

"Oh. … Pretty tame, really."

"Of course it is! Nice, tame activities to get to know each other, absolutely not influenced at all by the thought of getting you sweaty and then getting all your clothes off."

Anthony laughs a little.

"Something funny?"

"Haven't had anyone say that to me before."

"I do like being unexpected. I also notice you did not object to the idea."

"I did not."

"It's a date, then, as soon as we have the window of time to slip off."

He raises an eyebrow. "I didn't realize a lack of objection meant I'd actually subscribed to it."

"It doesn't," he says, smirking.

"You were just hoping I'd agree?"

"Predicting might be a better description."

"I'm afraid that currently it's still 'probably no, right now', actually."

"Oh, well, guess I'll have to just charm you into liking me for my 'personality,'" he says, doing air quotes.

"It almost sounds like you expect that to be hard."

"Oh I don't, I'm pretty sure it'll work out, it'll just take longer for me to get to kiss you that way."

"Almost sounds like you think that'll be easy."

"Not easy as much as—natural?"

"Natural's a way to put it, when you're – what, fifteen?"

"Yes? I'm also very charming and you actually do like me."

"Most people aren't quite so equipped at flirting by this point, was my point."

"Ah yes, but there isn't really a right way to do it. Flirting is expressing attraction with decreasing amounts of plausible deniability, but I threw that to the winds already so now it's mostly showing you that I'm a cool person and that my intuition about our romantic compatibility is correct. And my social intuitions do tend to be so often correct."

"The confidence definitely helps, that's part of the good flirting."

"Well of course, there's little point in trying to convince you of something I'm not convinced of myself."

"Smart."

"Another of my many qualities, I admit."

Anthony smirks.

"I have several of those! Some even not related to flirting!"

"You do," says Anthony. "Lots of qualities."

Still smirking.

"Something on your mind?"

"You're cute."

"See, I'm already winning you over. You, I believe, ought to know you are also extremely cute, and a couple of other things."

"I'm curious about the couple other things!"

"I'm wondering if I should tell you. We don't want to inflate your ego too much, now, do we?"

"We don't?"

"Noooo, it's bad to have a big ego, don't you know?"

"Only if it's disproportionate."

"To what?"

"How awesome you are?"

He laughs. "That's very hot."

"So?"

"That's one of the things!"

"That I'm hot, or the proportionate ego?"

"That you're hot, naturally."

"Both hot and cute," smirks Anthony.

"Smart, too, catching me on my bullpoop."

Pause. "I was gonna say that I wasn't actually catching you on it but – first I have to ask about 'bullpoop'."

"Oh I don't really swear."

"Do you have objections to other people doing it?"

"No, not particularly."

"… That sounds like you have a bit of an objection?"

"It's more about myself, mom used to say I shouldn't swear unless I really meant it and it—stuck."

"Ah."

He shrugs. "So I don't actually have a moral objection or anything."

"I'd be curious what the moral objection was, if there was one."

Shrug.

Anthony also shrugs, and then gets on with eating his lunch.

Kaede continues to be very popular with the kids and have lots of fun in spite of any lingering transphobia (which he hopes they're not showing around the kids or he'll have words with them).

The counselors in their group, not very much. In the others… there are a couple.

The summer progresses. Anthony seems to enjoy the archery.

Kaede slowly but surely befriends the other counselors. She seems to be good at this. She seems to be rather good at this, actually, and enjoy it more than any particular activity, although she finds it very charming when Anthony archers.

The other counselors seem to warm up to her – some are more readily… nice… than others, and some, near the start at least, seem to be under the impression she has a twin…

Anthony tries to be helpfully charming where possible too.

And will she convince Anthony to go on that skinny dipping adventure before the end of the summer?

Anthony didn't realize that'd been in her plans.

Only subtly.

He… thinks not. Probably.

It might depend on how convincing they are.

They have the whole summer to be subtly convincing.

He…

… One time? At the end?

"Really?"

"We have a week left."

"We do," he agrees.

"So one time is just one time."

"Absolutely."

"So one time can be one time. Is why."

"Indeed."

So later that night, when they're done with the kids for the day… Anthony smirks at Kaede.

Well Anthony will have to lead the way, Kaede doesn't really know this place does he?

Of course not.

There are some trees around the lake, conveniently enough, and it's a rather pleasant night…

Is it now.

Well then.

Kaede, who is completely shameless, starts stripping down. It turns out he is biologically male.

Anthony hesitates a moment, but then does likewise. He only sneaks the one look.

And then he dives into the lake, leaving his clothes among the trees.

Kaede sneaks all the looks. Kaede watches it with fascination.

This has an effect on Kaede but he soon gets into the lake, too.

Anthony rolls his eyes and starts swimming around a bit.

He starts swimming around, too.

"My pride is wounded by that eyeroll."

"That eyeroll was not aimed at your pride."

"What was it aimed at, then, I wonder?"

"The conduct relating to mine."

"You should be feeling flattered!"

"I didn't say I wasn't!"

"Eyerolls tend to not indicate that," he says, deciding to stop swimming for a bit and just float there, looking at the stars.

(Which does make certain things evident again.)

"The smile might have indicated it," is the response, along with another (briefly) raised eyebrow.

He gradually slows his swimming, and then stops, not staring.

"So what did the eyeroll indicate?" he wonders, still floating.

"The fact you were staring at mine."

"Did you expect otherwise? You're very pretty."

"I should've but didn't guess you'd be… so straightforward."

"What in our acquaintance ever gave you the impression I was subtle?"

"This is why I should've guessed."

He grins and continues floating around.

Anthony sneaks a few more looks, then returns to swimming.

Swimming! He still finds Anthony extremely attractive and does not attempt to hide it, but he doesn't show it so obviously anymore, and merely swims around.

"So what are you going back to, next week?"

"I still have a book report to complete."

"Oh, homework, how I love thee. Just school, then?"

"As far as I know I have nothing else planned, yeah. Maybe some people will get together for a thing before we go back, I dunno."

"You could have work or, I don't know, choir club, or something."

He laughs. "I don't really sing."

"That was an extensional question!"

"Nothing like that, no. You?"

"Part-time work, no clubs."

Anthony leans back in the water, a bit.

"I should probably look into getting a job. Sometime."

Kaede does not pretend not to sneak glances whenever the opportunity arises.

"I kinda just want to not be home for as long as I possibly can."

"… So I haven't actually asked you."

"Hm?"

"About your dad."

"My father's a homophobic, transphobic asshole and I hate him," Kaede says cheerfully.

"… And that doesn't sound like a very healthy environment…"

"It's not, that's why I spend as long away from it as I can. When he mentioned summer camp I honestly thought he was sending me to a pray-the-gay-away camp."

"… Which fortunately this actually wasn't." Pause. "Any idea why he didn't?"

"Maybe didn't find any? Maybe thought this one was one of those? Not really." Pause. "Oh it would be amazing if what I got out of summer camp was a boyfriend, he would be so pissed."

"… Got anyone in mind?"

"Gee, no idea actually."

"The distance could be a bit inconvenient."

"I'm not in principle opposed to long distance and emails. Or polyamory. If there's anything my father would hate more than me having a boyfriend is me having multiple partners."

"… You might need to explain that to me."

"Polyamory? It's the thing where we're not monogamous but not just in a regular open relationship where both people can kiss whoever they want, there's also the possibility of multiple actual genderfriends with meaningful romantic relationships et cetera."

He squints a bit. "I thought there were laws against that?"

"There are laws against polyamorous marriages, I don't think they can have laws about how many people I'm in a committed relationship with!"

"… I mean I'm sure they could try, but yeah, okay."

"I'm not married to the idea—pun intended—if you're strictly monogamous. I'm way more into you than the vague notion of dating other people."

"I don't know my opinions on it."

"Mine are 'vaguely positive.' Any way I can help you form yours?"

"… Not sure? Wait for me to puzzle through it?"

"That's fair."

Anthony swims around a bit more.