5. Tiffany/Erin

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Language, Ms. Liu.”

Tiffany snorted. “Fuck that! And fuck you while you’re at it, this is ridiculous!”

Hana wasn’t terribly tall by any measure, yet that didn’t stop her from easily looking down on Tiffany, who herself was sporting a max height of maybe five feet ... in heels. “It is actually quite UN-ridiculous. Assigned beds are drawn by a lottery. Each person has equal opportunity to be assigned any bed in their designated cabin, it’s a system designed to encourage intermingling so that everyone can-”

“I don’t give a shit about the bed! I want to know why the hell I was assigned to the boy’s cabin!”

To Tiffany’s annoyance, Hana seemed entirely unfazed by her anger. The older woman simply smiled, giving a light laugh. “Oh, is that what this is all about? It’s just camp policy, we do it all the time whenever we receive an unequal number of boy campers and girl campers. This year we have nine girls and only eight beds to a cabin, so naturally we transferred one of the girls over to the boy’s cabin.”

Tiffany grew red in the face. “Naturally?! Are you fucking serious? You can’t have-”

“I assure you, you’ll be perfectly fine. Sylas and myself are just next door if you ever need anything, and you’ll hardly be spending much time in there anyhow, this is camp afterall! Go outside! Have some fun! You can’t be spending all day cooped up in bed.”

“That’s so- just- ugh!” Tiffany stomped off, blood boiling in frustration. This was so stupid, just when she was starting to make friends with the other girls! Did they really expect her to sleep in the same cabin as the boys?! Where the hell was she going to change?! She came here to have a good time only to find out she’d have to spend the whole summer dealing with a bunch of disgusting men. That whole cabin would probably smell like axe body spray and feet, how was she supposed to sleep through that?!

Tiffany stormed into the girl’s cabin. She saw that the others were already getting settled into their own beds. Sara hung her head down from her top bunk, listening to Erin below her chat about local species of ants and their battles with invasive Argentine ants. Sammy reclined on her bunk, still in her shoes and street clothes, while next to her River dug through a bag, an anxious Felicity waiting around and fidgeting uncertainly.

Everyone except Sammy glanced up as she barged through the door. She’d learned long ago that when you have such a small frame you really need to try harder than most to make noise barging through anything, lest your anger go unnoticed.

“That fucking bitch Hana!” Tiffany grabbed her bag furiously off of the bed she had previously claimed.

Erin sat up in her bed. “What’s wrong, Tiffany?”

She thrust her clothes back into her bag as angrily as possible. “I’m not gonna be sleeping in here with you guys! Apparently there are ‘too many girls’!”

Sara cocked her head. “What? Are they sending you to sleep alone at another camp site?”

“That sounds really scary.” Felicity said empathetically.

Tiffany finally looked up at them. “No! Stupid Ms. Hana, or Mr. Bennett, or whoever it was- decided that I’d have to sleep in the boys cabin! I mean what kind of bullshit is that?!”

“Oh God!” Sammy chuckled, not even bothering to sit up. “Those poor boys! What are they gonna do?!”

“Sammy!” River stifled a laugh. “I do have to agree though, they really chose the worst person to send over there.”

“I’m so glad it wasn’t me...” Sara shivered at the thought, clearly excited by the whole situation. “I’m really sorry, Tiffany. What are you gonna do?”

“What CAN I do? I’m not gonna leave, it’s the first night! Besides, I don’t think we’re allowed to use the phone in the Lodge, not without permission. How am I supposed to call my parents to pick me up?”

Erin stood up out of bed. “I’ll talk to Mr. Sylas. I AM the cabin leader after all! He HAS to listen to me. I’ll just tell him you can sleep on a mat on the floor or something.”

“Awww that would be so cute! You’d be like our little angry chihuahua!” Sara giggled, trying to cover her own mouth. “I’m sorry, that was mean, I think talking to Mr. Sylas is a good idea, you can’t sleep in the boy’s cabin.”

“I don’t know, he seems kinda grouchy...” River said.

Erin stifled a frown, “I think he’s more willing to listen than Ms. Hana.”

“You can try, but for now I think maybe Tiffany should start moving her stuff into the boy’s cabin.”

Tiffany sighed with frustration, but started gathering up her luggage. River was right, camp policy is camp policy, despite the ginger girl’s optimism she doubted anything Erin said would change Mr. Sylas’ mind.

“What the hell do I do tonight? We were gonna all go down to the lake together.”

River shrugged. “Just join us when you can, and make sure none of the boys follow you! Speaking of which, we really need all the girls on board, has anyone talked to Keisha and ... oh my god what was her name?”

“Rat girl?” Offered Sammy. “Isn’t that what she introduced herself as?”

“No that’s what Keisha called her, I swear it was something with a P...”

Felicity spoke up quietly. “It’s Natalie.”

“I don’t wanna dead-name her, if Rat Girl is what she’s going as now I’ll respect it.”

“Oh shush!-”

Tiffany left the girls to their banter and laughter, closing the cabin door behind her. She turned to head across the camp ground and immediately ran into Natalie, standing on the porch. Her face was red with embarrassment. An uncomfortable and ... lonely look crossed her face.

“Uhm- ah! I was just-” Natalie stammered.

Tiffany watched in surprise as the blonde girl awkwardly turned around and quickly walked off in the direction of the bathrooms. For a moment she felt sorry for the weird girl, but decided against following her, instead focusing on hauling the cumbersome load of bags and suitcases to the boy’s cabin across the way.

Upon entry Tiffany was greeted by a football slamming into the door as she opened it.

“What the fuck-?” She murmured.

“THAT’S how you throw, gotta line your fingers up with the stitches and give it a good spin.” Travis mimicked a touchdown, chucking an imaginary ball at the floor.

“Yooo that’s sick! Show me how to throw a ... a lamp now, I wanna see a lamp.” Kayden lazed about in his bunk, watching the active Travis pantomime his greatest football achievements.

“Here, I’ll toss it for you again so you can see-” His eyes met Tiffany’s as she pushed her way through the door, the football rolled to the side and under one of the beds. “ ... hold up ... check it out, chick alert!”

Tiffany didn’t bother to acknowledge him. Without a word she made her way to the back of the cabin and set her bag on one of the beds farthest from the door.

“Well hello there, welcome to our little soiree ... make yourself at home.” Kaiden gestured about at the cabin gregariously.

“You lost, love? Or are you planning to uh ... spend the night with us?” Emile chuckled, putting his phone down, sticking his tongue between his teeth as he looked Tiffany over from where he sat on his bed.

“As if I’d want to spend any amount of time with you.” She put as much venom in her words as possible.

“Is that right? Don’t get me wrong sweetheart, I’m right chuffed to see your tiny tits walk through the door, but if you’re not handin’ out gobbies what’s the point of you even being here?”

Tiffany began pulling her clothes out of her pack and stuffing them in the locker below her bed. “Why should I have to explain anything to you idiots?”

Sean sat up, his bed directly opposite Tiffany’s. “Woah, hey! Why are you putting your stuff in there- why is she putting her stuff uh-”

“Stop talking.” Travis interrupted him.

“But is she like sleep-”

“No. Just stop.”

Sean looked as though he was considering retorting but ended up just falling silent instead, letting out a laugh as though trying to convince himself it was a joke.

“What’s she doing here?” Dom entered the cabin wearing clean pajama pants and a tank top, his hair freshly wet from a shower. “Is she supposed to be sleeping here or something?”

“That’s the mystery of the hour! She’s being real confrontational.” Kayden said.

Tiffany snorted, glaring at Dom. “Yeah I’m sleeping here. You don’t like it, take it up with Hana or whatever! This wasn’t MY idea.”

“You see what I mean?” Kayden shook his head as if pondering a deep philosophical query. “How does one fit so much violence into such a tiny woman?”

Dom tossed his toiletries on his bed. “Fuck no, I’m not sleeping in the same cabin as some whiny bitch.”

“Eat shit, bigot. Like I care what you want.”

Tiffany watched as Dom stormed out of the cabin. She already felt exhausted, holding her ground against the guys was draining. The late night trip to the beach could not come soon enough. There she could hang out with the girls and maybe even solidify some friendships. Sneaking out would prove a challenge though. Already she regretted taking a bed so far from the door, but switching now would be embarrassing. It’d show uncertainty and weakness, two things she couldn’t afford to let the boys see. It’d be too much of a concession.

As she unpacked her belongings Tiffany could feel the eyes of the boys glancing in her direction when they thought she wasn’t looking. This was going to be a long summer.

Erin wrapped her robe around herself tightly. It wasn’t really all that cold out, but she and most of the girls had already changed into their swimsuits, and she really didn’t want Mr. Sylas to find out about their planned midnight excursion. Gingerly, she stepped down the creaky wooden steps and started towards the counsellor’s cabins.

From across the camp she noticed Dominic step out of his cabin, seemingly angry. For a moment Erin considered turning around and waiting for him to leave before continuing on to Mr. Sylas’ cabin, but it was getting late and she worried the camp counselor might already be going to sleep. Instead, with a brisk walk she approached the center cabins, a single building divided in two, and did her best to ignore Dom approaching her.

It was only when they both stopped in front of Mr. Sylas’ door that she finally turned and awkwardly acknowledged him. “Do you uh ... need something?”

He looked down at her, confused. “Nah- no, I was gonna talk with that Sylas guy, why are you here?”

“O-oh I was going to see if I could convince him to let Tiffany sleep on our floor or something, at least for the night.”

“The pissy Asian chick?”

Erin frowned. “Well that’s not how I’d describe her.”

Dom raised up his hands. “Well whatever, it sounds like we’re on the same team, let’s just get this over with.”

Erin was surprised at his disposition. When she first saw him exit the boy’s cabin, he seemed furious. She was expecting him to snap at her, or take out his anger on her in some way, but this Dom seemed different from the bully she had met at the initiation. Less boorish and confrontational, and with a slightly softer tone. He reminded her more of an awkward older brother than anything else.

Erin found herself standing behind him as he knocked, suddenly a little nervous at the thought of talking to the camp counselor. She was strangely glad to at least have someone else there on her side.

The two of them stood for a few moments, Erin fidgeting with her robe and Dom rolling around a pebble under his sandal. When no one answered he knocked again. And then a third time.

“For fuck’s sake! He’s not even in.” Dom kicked at the door hard in frustration.