Not exactly to his surprise, Joey woke up with Lauren curled into his chest, but it certainly didn't make things any easier. He knew it was just an instinctive reaction to being in bed with him, muscle memory not yet forgotten from nights in Michigan, but his heart raced feeling her warmth against him, her breaths on his neck, her hand on his chest. And his arm over her too, holding her, but he moved it as soon as he realised. He lay there for a few agonising minutes, not wanting to disturb her sleep but feeling an increasing pain in his chest every second that passed with her this close. Then she rolled away in her sleep, and he was able to breathe again, and make his escape to get ready for the day.
When he came back from his shower, Lauren was sitting up in bed with her glasses on, looking at her phone.
"Morning, sleepyhead," he said.
"I'll have you know some of us didn't sleep through the night because someone else was snoring."
"I was snoring?"
She grinned. "Just a little bit. It was kind of cute, actually. I was awake anyway."
Joey felt heat rising to his cheeks and hoped she could put it down to the shower. "Bad night?"
She sighed. "Just a new place, you know?"
He smiled sympathetically, deciding not to tell her about how he had woken up. He didn't want to make things any more awkward. Although he was sure it wouldn't be the last time, so he just had to hope he was always the first to wake up. Then it occurred to him that if she was awake in the middle of the night, she could have woken up the same way. He tried to subtly stare at her for any sign of it, but got nothing.
"You should probably get up, or we'll be late to breakfast," he prompted.
"You could go without me."
"Never."
She rolled her eyes, but smiled at him, and got out of bed. Joey sent a text to his parents while he waited, telling them how things were going so far and how he'd been able to reunite with Lauren - leaving out the part about them sharing a bed.
Then they walked over to the cafeteria together, and ate breakfast as quickly as they could so they could get out to greet the incoming campers. Joey and Lauren were assigned to group 11, each group consisting of two cabins sleeping three campers each. As kids arrived, they went to Victoria, who would direct them over to their group's counselors.
First to arrive was Flynn, a boy of 16 who was almost as tall as Joey, which Lauren laughed at. Then was another kid who apprehensively asked if they would be able to call them Alex.
"No problem, Alex," Joey said, smiling warmly. "Welcome to camp."
In quick succession they met Natalie, a 17 year old just barely taller than Lauren, which Joey tried not to laugh at; Zac, who was polite but so shy he barely said a word to them; and James, who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world than at camp. Finally the youngest, Laila, who was 14, and their group was complete.
"Hi, everybody," Joey said, clapping his hands together and waiting for the kids to huddle around him. "I'm Joey, and this-"
"I'm Lauren," she cut him off, shooting him a look that was almost unimpressed, if it weren't for the amusement there too, and Joey gulped. He turned back to the kids to see a few of them shooting their own amused looks at the pair, and he tried to recover quickly.
"Now we've both met all of you, but you haven't all met each other, so why don't we go around and say names and pronouns? I won't even make you say a fun fact about yourself," he said, glancing at Zac who smiled gratefully at him.
