A/N: hey, humans! it's a long one. sorry not sorry :)
***********
"Yes, my ladies in the honeycomb!" Maddox said as we entered the hexagonal bunk. "Once again, I'm Maddox." I could tell Maddox was grinning, but from the looks of surprise on the other girls' faces, they seemed to be... less than excited.
"I thought your name was Gadget..." my cousin said.
"Ooh! No, yeah, it's also Gadget. Yeah, my camp name. Everyone gets one. It's super fun!" Maddie clarified.
"Wait, so what's yours, then?" my brother's girlfriend asked me.
"Oh. Mine is... well, it was Rocketman Jr. – after a certain individual, but Mads renamed me," I said with a small smile. "So now I'm Hansen. Like Dear Evan Hansen because my first name is Zoe." The aforementioned girlfriend smiled an obviously false smile, so I just dropped the subject, figuring I'd gone on for too long.
"Oh, um, that is actually my bed," Maddie said, pointing to the bottom bunk Kourtney was sitting on. "And the one on top of that is actually Zoe's." Kourtney looked ready to surrender the bed, but Gina and Ashlyn seemed ready to fight. "Yeah, we made some deep memories in that bunk over the years. I actually knocked out my two front teeth in that bulletin board during a massive pillow fight."
"And I had to get stitches because Maddie knocked me into the side of the bed while flailing her arms around and freaking out about how two of her front teeth got knocked out," I cut in.
"I've said I was sorry!" she defended. I just shrugged.
"Just remember that all's fair in love and war." Her cheeks seemed to pinken for just a second, like the "love" part was too close to reality, but it was gone the next moment. I just assumed it was all wishful thinking that I desperately wanted to be real.
"It is all yours. All good. I am out," Kourtney rushed out, getting off the bed.
"Yeah... I think I'm good, too," Gina said. Well, I guess her being mildly squeamish at the thought of blood worked out in my favor.
"Oh," Maddie started.
"Thanks!" I finished.
"So, lot of new faces," Maddie said.
"Couple of non-Wildcats in the corner," I continued, smiling at the girls. They were probably a little nervous that the group would be clique-y, which wasn't, in all honesty, an unfounded fear. At least the two had each other.
"Who's got secrets?" Maddie finished.
After attempting conversation for eleven minutes with a group of people who mostly seemed to not want anything to do with us, I gave up.
"Hey, Maddie, I'm gonna go to the Barn. Wanna come with?" I asked her. She nodded, getting up and taking my hand as we walked out.
As we left, I heard one of the girls, I think Ashlyn, say, "Okay, is there something going on between those two?" under her breath, probably when she thought we couldn't hear her. I fought off my blush, praying Maddox didn't notice.
Once we were out of earshot of the Honeycomb, I said, "Okay, it was so awkward in there."
"Yeah, I'll say." Maddie paused.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Nothing's wrong. Why does something have to be wrong?" she rushed out.
"It doesn't have to be wrong, but I have known you since we were twelve. I can tell when something's bothering you."
"It's just... they don't like me much, do they?" I frowned. I was pretty sure I'd never disliked my brother's group of friends more than I did in that moment. And there were plenty of moments to work with.
"Hey, no. They're just not used to meeting new people. They're a pretty tight group and don't really take to outsiders too well. I mean, like, I'm not very close with them. But they'll warm up eventually." I was seriously trying to comfort her. I don't think there's anything I can't stand more than seeing Maddie upset. She didn't seem too convinced.
"Okay... But, like, I know I'm an 'acquired-'"
"You're not that. Literally everyone loves you. You were just around people with bad taste."
"So they'll like me?"
"Yeah, I'm sure they will." Maddie just nodded. I wrapped an arm around her as we neared the Barn.
"You write anything recently?" I nodded.
"Yeah, actually. You want to hear it?" Maddie nodded eagerly. I just smiled, sitting at the piano, and began to play.
***********
After a couple hours of trading back and forth on the piano and getting dinner, Maddie and I headed out to the amphitheater for the special guest announcement.
"Wait, okay. So do you know who the special guest is?" I asked Maddie. "Because EJ has refused to tell me."
"I... If I did know, I wouldn't be able to tell you," Maddox replied.
"So you know."
"I didn't say that."
"You implied it." Maddox shrugged. "At least, can you tell me if I will like it?"
She seemed to be thinking over her words, planning out what to say. "I think... the wildcats will like him a lot more than you will."
"Ah-ha! So it's a 'him!'" Maddie just groaned. "Are you singing the camp song again?"
She was about to reply when she was interrupted by my cousin asking, "Hey, Maddox. I mean, Gadget." Maddie gave the redhead a little wave. "Do you know where I can mail this?" Ashlyn asked, holding up an envelope.
"Oh, yeah. I'll take it," Maddox said, grabbing the envelope from Ashlyn's hand.
"Oooh! It's, like, a special sealed letter."
"We're going to the office later. That's... where they go," I cut in.
"Great. It says 'Do not bend,' by the way." Ashlyn said, almost glaring at Maddox.
"Don't worry. Your letter will be fine," I said shortly, glaring right back at her and only kind of over this conversation already. I felt Maddie squeeze my hand, and I squeezed hers back.
"Someone special?" she asked.
"Very," Ashlyn said. "We are deeply in love, and I will be writing to him every day."
Call me cynical, but there's no way she's going to write to him every day. I don't know my cousin super well, but what I do know is that the US Postal Service is not especially speedy. If she wrote to him every day, she'd probably only get replies once a week. And she'll get busy! She'll forget to write the guy!
Clearly Maddox had a similar train of thought because she said, "Yeah, okay," with a kind of I-know-something-you-don't smile on her face.
"Is that funny?" Ashlyn said, seeming offended. I stepped slightly ahead of Maddox so that I was ever so slightly between the two of them.
"Oh, no. It's just a camp thing," Maddie said. "You know, a lot of people come in saying that, and then by the end, life has other plans." Ashlyn frowned, scowling slightly.
"That's not me."
"Oh, I didn't say it was."
"Oh, I hear... Gina's calling me. I really... I have to go." With that, my cousin rushed off.
"She doesn't... like me much, does she?" Maddie asked.
"Don't worry about her. She just... doesn't always do well with new people," I said, lying through my teeth. "Come on," I continued, changing the subject. "You gotta grab your guitar for the camp song tonight!"
***********
"What's up, new campers?" Maddie called out from the stage of the amphitheater.
From the crowd, I heard someone shout, "We love you Gadget!"
"Zoe and I thought we'd sing a little song. Maybe one or two of you wanna sing along." With that, the two of us started singing and harmonizing to the camp song, a little tradition the two of us had kept up for the last five summers when the person who used to sing the song graduated high school. Dewey Wood, the camp director, needed someone new to do the song and liked Maddie's and my audition, and ever since, the two of us have sung it together.
As we sang, I could see my brother being a total goofball with his girlfriend and friends around him. I was glad he was having fun. Camp was his second second home, and this was probably his last summer here. At least for a little while.
Before I knew it, the song was over, and Maddie shouted, "Now give it up for the Wood! He loves some noise! Yeah!"
Dewey introduced himself, thus bringing about another camp tradition:
"Dewey Wood?" EJ shouted.
"Yes, he would!" the crowd responded.
"Dewey Wood?"
"Yes, he would!"
The aforementioned Dewey groaned at the bit before saying, "I'm gonna keep this short and sweet. It's another summer. Let's have fun. Friendship is magic. Be careful what you flush. Okay?"
"He's really just throwing all the life lessons out there, isn't he?" I whispered to Maddie. She bit back a laugh.
"Now, I know the reason we have many new faces here is because of the exciting news," Dewey said. "This summer, Camp Shallow Lake has been selected for a very special opportunity, and to tell you all about it, here comes a very familiar face."
"This might be kind of underwhelming for you," Maddie whispered.
"Mr... Corbin... Bleu!" Dewey announced not unlike the commentators at basketball games.
"Oh, I am so excited to be here at Camp Shallow Lake. Wow!" Corbin said. I didn't buy it. The guy's a famous actor. There's no way the thing he's most excited for out of everything in the whole world is to be at Camp. Camp is great. But... I just had this feeling there was something going on. "You guys, I can't wait to tell you about what we've got planned this summer," he continued.
"Oh, God. Here it comes," I whispered to Maddie.
"My pals at the House of Mouse have given us the keys to the Magic Kingdom," he said. "And that means you guys are gonna be the first camp on the planet to premiere a global blockbuster which became a Broadway sensation." Now I was excited. I wasn't a crazy High School Musical fan, which was surprising given the school I go to and who I have as a brother, but that didn't mean I couldn't get excited about the musical announcement. "Does anyone have a jacket? It suddenly got cold in here." Cue the confused murmurs from the crowd. "I suppose. We're gonna put on Frozen!" The whole crowd started cheering wildly.
"Oh my God! I love that musical! Monster is a masterpiece! And the effects!" I rambled to Maddie. She just laughed.
"You liked the surprise much more than I thought you would," she said.
"Oh, Corbin? Nah, I couldn't care less about him. But Frozen! It's gonna be so much fun doing crew this summer!"
"Oh, yeah!"
"And there's more," Corbin said, addressing the crowd. "So, this camp was chosen by Disney Theatrical's licensing agent, MTI, to do the first ever production of this Frozen script in advance of the release of licensing rights to high schools everywhere. Well, that rolled right off the tongue. And this camera is gonna be following us all around because... we're also making a documentary about the show, and it's gonna premiere on Disney+. And it's gonna break the Internet."
"Wait, what?" I asked Maddox. "We're gonna be in a documentary?" She shrugged.
"I didn't know about that part..."
"How... realistic is this 'documentary' gonna be?"
"I... it's a documentary?"
"Yeah, but like, kids putting on a show doesn't make good television. Like, why do you 90% of the footage released from Dance Moms is kids crying and moms yelling? Because that's what people like!"
"Wait. You're saying..."
"Oh, my God. They're gonna make this reality TV. This is bad. No one here is ready for it! No one here signed up for it! What the hell?"
"Hey, it's gonna be okay," Maddie said, pulling me into a hug. "They're big kids. They can handle it." I smiled.
"And hey!" Corbin called out. "I know there are some real-live Wildcats out there. And I look forward to signing head shots for you all later this summer. 'Cause it's all going down at Shallow Lake!" With that, he exited. I groaned.
"Well, this summer's going to be interesting."