Quest: 1.12 (Week 2- Early Phase (Pt.4))

--- Jon ---

--- Night ---

(Yeah… no… I can’t do this…)

Taking a shaky breath, he turned and walked away from the campfire.

He’d tried, but he couldn’t just shake the stress of the week. It’d been eating him up for days, and he was finally reaching his breaking point.

He honestly wasn’t used to this kind of stress. Not since his parents’ divorce anyway.

Normally the most stressful thing he ended up dealing with was schoolwork, or his mom’s awkward attempts at being a good parent, but now he had to deal with the fact that the camp was going to close down.

Sure, he wanted to save it, and if he came up with an idea to do that he would. But at the same time, he’d spent enough time thinking about the problem that he was fully aware it was a pipe dream at best. And pretending it wasn’t was just hurting him more than anything else. (After all what can a sixteen-year-old kid really do?)

None of that was helped by the whole mess with the quartermaster, which… (I think Miss Edna already knows about…) or at least that’s what it seemed like, given what the quartermaster said about Miss Edna getting on to him for showing up covered in blood.

(In which case I’m not sure if I should worry about it or not…)

He ran a hand down his face before taking a deep breath and looking around at the camp. His eyes drifting from old cabins where he and the other kids would stay up after hours telling ghost stories, to the mess hall where they’d had dozens of parties and crafts projects, to the forest he’d explored well enough to know like the back of his hand, and even the lake he’d spend day cooling off in.

Camp Bet was his home.

He had more than enough happy memories here to consider it as such.

(It just sucks that I can’t actually do anything to help it…)

He sighed, running a hand through his hair as he threw his head back and looked at the stars dancing above.

As watched the stars, his eyes passively picking out the constellations, he vaguely remembered a lesson his mother tried to teach him as a kid.

(“Life ‘s going to kick you in the teeth son. The trick to beating it is learning how to get back up when it does.”)

(Yeah…) He nodded to himself. (Maybe I can’t actually do anything about the camp, but…)

“That just means I’ve got to get back up and do what I can.”

Spoiler: Spoiler

Scene Consequences

-Max MHP increased by 3.

-Jon regains 5 Mental Health. (Current MHP: 11/12)

---

As he stood from his place at the cabin edge, he started making his way back toward the campfire. He may’ve missed most of the campfire night, but at the very least he could still enjoy the last hour or so.

Around the camp he spotted the various counselors doing their own things. Andy was singing campfire songs to the kids. Jill was scaring them with her ghost stories. And Miss Edna was having an argument with the quarter- (That’s not my business.)

He immediately snapped his head away, because even if he’d calmed down, that didn’t change the fact that any time he looked at the man he still saw him covered in blood.

Suppressing a shiver, he moved away from the two arguing adults, before noticing something a little concerning.

Off to the side, away from the counselors and campers was Ying sitting by herself on one of the logs the camp kept as benches.

(Huh… she looks kind of lonely…)

He’d barely processed that thought before his feet were already moving.

“Did you need something Whitaker?” Ying asked, giving him a look as he approached her.

“No, uh…” He tried to get his thoughts in order, not entirely used to being called by his surname. “I just, um, I noticed how you were sitting here all alone, and I wanted to make sure you were… doing okay?”

Ying watched him for a moment before nodding. “Yeah… I’m doing alright.”

Not wanting the conversation to stall completely, he took a look around the camp to try and find a topic to talk about before spotting Jill surrounded by a crowd of enraptured kids. “Kind of surprised you aren’t helping Jill scare the younger campers.”

Ying gave a snort of amusement. “I was never all that good at telling stories.”

“The trick is changing your voice when you switch characters.” He told her quietly.

“I’ll try to remember that.” Ying laughed.

After a moment another blanket of silence began to fall over them, and he began to notice the almost solemn look on Ying’s face.

“Are you sure you’re doing alright?” He asked, taking a seat next to her.

“Yeah, it’s just…” Ying sighed. “You know how it is, all of our friends from camp have moved on. In fact, I think you and I are the only ones from our year and the year after, who are still coming to camp.”

“Yeah…” He wasn’t going to admit that he’d never really had too much luck making friends in or out of camp, but he did at least know that feeling feeling he got every time he realized there were fewer kids at camp. Or the fact that bitter feeling he got whenever the pre-teen kids pointed out how much older he was than them yet still going to camp. “It’s not a nice feeling is it…?”

Ying gave a bitter laugh. “No, it’s not.”

(It really isn’t…)

“Well… even if we are the last of the old guard, at least we’ve had fun here.” He told her, trying to think of a way to comfort the only other camper over the age of fourteen. “And now… we’re making sure that other kids can have that same kind of fun… That they, that they can enjoy their summer with their friends. Enjoy their childhoods while they can…”

Ying stared at him for a moment, just long enough for him to start feeling embarrassed, before smiling. “That’s a sweet idea Jon.”

Spoiler: Spoiler

Scene Consequences

-Relationship with Ying has improved.

After that, their conversation descended into a companionable sort of silence. One that was much less awkward than any of the previous silences the two had been subjected to together.

In this silence he took a moment to look around the camp. Most of the kids were either nodding off or heading back to their cabins, and the counselors were all cleaning up.

Rolling his shoulders, he caught Ying’s attention and gestured towards the counselors. “We should probably help out with that.”

“Probably.” Ying agreed as they both stood. “I’ll handle getting the campers to their cabins, if you’ll take care of the clean up?”

“Sure, that’s easy enough.” He nodded, seeing no problem with that plan.

Between them and the four adults they managed to get all of the campers to their cabins and clean up the mess from the bonfire relatively quickly, letting them get return to their cabins before midnight at the very least. Though Miss Edna did stop the two CITs before they went to sleep.

“I just wanted to thank you both for all of your help this last week or so and tell you two how much I appreciate you two volunteering to help out this summer.”

“I’m happy to help.” Ying told her.

“Same here.” He agreed.

Miss Edna gave them both a smile. “Good, and I hope you’ve both been getting into the swing of things well enough. I know I talked to both of you last week, but I just want to make sure you’re both holding up alright.”

Ying crossed her arms and nodded. “It’s not all that different from our usual summers, really.”

“Uh, yeah,” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, there’s a bit of adjustment getting used to keeping an eye on the other kids, but I think I’m getting into the swing of things.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Miss Edna told them softly, before shaking her head and putting on a smile. “Either way, I shouldn’t be keeping you two up. It’s late enough as it is, you two go ahead and get to bed.”

They both nodded, and said their good-byes before returning to their cabins.

All in all, it wasn’t the worst night he’s ever had.