Chapter 1: Monday

It was a nice change unloading the car in the counselor's area rather than with the students/campers. After two years as an "assistant counselor", Neil was finally a fully qualified counselor and that meant more pay, more perks and a room all to himself. He glanced down the shallow hill where schoolbusses full of students were competing with mini vans and station wagons for parking and unloading spots. It was a chaotic storm of tearful goodbyes, exuberant hellos, people milling in all directions and the usual lost luggage and confused campers. Behind him, a car rumbled to a crunching stop, interrupting his inspection. Neil turned and recognized Harriet Enders sitting behind the wheel. She had a look of frustration and impatience on her face, no doubt from the long drive and line of vehicles at the main gate, but as he watched her face was slowly relaxing into relief. Neil knew Harriet fairly well from the previous year. At seventeen, his junior status meant dragging clutches of the younger campers around to classes, which were always led by an older counselor. Later, he would babysit the older campers and work the trails and arena as a assistant, jobs that carried little respect. Harriet had been really nice to him, and he had turned that attention into endless fantasies. Neil started to wave, but she was fidgeting with something in the passenger's seat of her small sedan so he checked out the admin section of the camp for changes.

The area looked the same, six low buildings along a gravel semi-circle atop the hill with the huge flagpole in the middle. The US flag, South Carolina state flag and the green camp flag all lay idle against the pole. The main administration building sat at the top of the circle, the only two story building in the entire camp. Like all the other buildings it was made of huge logs and had a steep blue slate roof. The building was flanked by the two main counselor dorms, which were subdivided into sixteen "cabins", set up just like any typical roadside hotel. The left dorm was called "Equus" and the right "Caballus", which made up the scientific name for horses, but everyone just called them "E" or "C" dorm. For the first time Neil would get to sleep here rather than with the campers down the hill. The biggest benefit to the dorms was having his own private room with a locked door. The second biggest benefit were staff-only bathrooms and showers in the middle of each long log building.

To the left of E-dorm was the supply shack which contained all sorts of toiletries, office supplies and everyday products that the campers always forgot. Their parents would get bills for extra blankets, shirts, riding gear and so on that the campers managed to destroy or forget over the summer. The majority of parents could, of course easily afford it. Most of the kids came from wealthy parents who saw equestrian arts as a means of rounding out their precious kids' college resumes. The rest were from middle class families fighting over the remaining spots and handful of scholarships the camp provided. Either way, few parents who sent their kids to the Silverspire Riding Academy for summer classes would bat an eye at a supply bill.

The last building on the left was the med hut, which had a good sized dorm, emergency service area and standard doctor's office. Kids around horses got hurt now and then as a rule. It was almost always falls, stomped feet and the stock injuries you'd get at any summer camp: poison ivy and scratches. Nobody got kicked and nobody got thrown, though, period. It may not have been engraved in stone in the admin building lobby but it might as well have been. Rich people don't send their kids and money to riding schools to get kicked by huge animals.

On the end of the right row was the counselor's pavilion, called "the Cave" by everyone in camp for reasons that nobody seemed to remember and Neil had never figured out. The left half was enclosed and contained a small kitchen and storage area for food, gear and equipment. The counselors used it to store all their summer food, although with the top-notch food service in the main camp, it was generally a treasure trove of comfort foods and processed desserts that the camp kids were denied. Rich parents apparently don't send their kids to camp to get fat, either. The right side of the Cave was a covered pavilion with long tables and benches. In the middle of the building, built into the wall where the pavilion met the closed-in section was a large television setup used for orientation, movies for the counselors or parent's day. It was pretty top-notch, with speakers hidden in the rafters and big cork boards and whiteboards for presentation material.

Since nothing had seemed to have changed, Neil finished unloading his duffel and suitcase onto one of the big drag-a-longs. They were essentially extra large versions of the little red wagons everybody seems to have as kids, except they had adjustable side rails and massive inflated tires with off-road treads. Neil folded the nearest side back up and dragged the cart away from the entrance road. His mom came over for her big hug, which was still embarrassing at seventeen, but not nearly as bad when he wasn't surrounded by crying campers.

With a thankfully low number of tears and advice his mom hopped back into the brown station wagon and waved. Neil waved dutifully and turned back to his gear. As he did he caught sight of Harriet moving and he turned to look. She was standing with her back to her car, stretching up and back with her arms crossed in the air over her head, arching dramatically and pressing against the passenger side rear door with her shoulders. Neil felt a flush, realizing her arms blocked her view of him while her arch emphasized her figure and outfit. She was about as tall as than Neil, and while she was by no means fat, she had an endless number of pleasant curves. Harriet had long brown hair, currently pulled into a loose ponytail, and was well proportioned in the chest. With her arms up her stomach flattened completely and her breasts strained up and out against the yellow sleeveless cotton gym shirt. Her shirt also gave a slight peek of bra through the arm-holes, and as he watched she shifted left and right, showing a little more skin and lace with each rocking motion. Neil felt a familiar stir and turned quickly. While he was enjoying the view, he was missing an important piece of camp gear.

Neil's first year had been a nightmare of hormones. With an overwhelmingly female population, the camp was a playground for the imagination. The girls wore summer leisure gear all day, mostly swim suits and gym outfits adjusted for their newfound parent-free environment. The best, or worst, however, were the riding outfits. The traditional riding clothing included an endless sea of breeches and jodhpurs, which were worn as tightly as possible, or jeans and chaps. Many of the girls reveled in the tight, revealing outfits, and a male counselor could be "hard"-pressed to maintain order with a tent in his pants. Eventually one of the senior counselors named Jack had taken pity on him, steering him to a sports store in town for padded riding shorts. Jack dragged him past the cheaper stretch cycle shorts, explaining that if he ever wanted to have children, he'd want to avoid "cooking the boys" in the nearly air-tight spandex. Armed with the concealing and flexible padded shorts and a brief, euphemism filled lesson on how to prepare for the shifting spaces inside his new shorts, Neil found he could stand at attention without drawing the eyes of his female students. Now eighteen, he was thankfully past the awkward puberty stage with its sudden erections and lack of coordination and well into enjoying the visual pleasures of his job.

At the moment, Neil was having a difficult time not imagining Harriet and her various stretches. With a struggle, he keyed in on his favorite mood-killer: sitting in the dentist's chair. When his discomfort finished, he steered his cart in the grass and walked up the gravel road to the admin building to get his room key, carefully avoiding looking back. For the last two years he'd been a junior counselor, meaning he had to bunk with the students down in the commons. Junior counselors barely had their own space, sleeping in a small room in the dorms so they could supervise the campers. For the first few weeks the youngest group stayed for a week, meaning homesick criers and bed wetters. The middle and oldest group arrived at the end of the week and you switched to kids sneaking out to swipe food, spy on other campers or make out in the woods. Supervising the boys was easier, mostly because there were barely a quarter the number of girls and they tended to get their scuffles over with pretty quickly. The large dorms formed the "quad" in the commons, standing around the huge central mess where the campers would eat, do arts and crafts or have "labs", which were safety and equipment training sessions. The mess was also used for movie nights, lectures and safety drills, which were blessedly over within the first day or two of camp.

Neil stepped up onto the low admin building and walked into the lobby area, which was pretty much a "wow" area for potential parents to see how refined a horse camp in the Blue Ridge Mountains could be. Rich folks liked to know their expensive camp fees were going toward a level of refinement and comfort, Neil mused. Given his family's vast lack of lands, power or a fortune, he didn't know anything about it firsthand. The foyer stood two floors high and a pair of staircases ran up the left and right walls to a balcony area. There was a huge glass-enclosed conference room at the top that Neil had never been in. It was the "Abbott room", named after some founder or patron. The counselors called it the "sales department" or "Costello Room", depending on their mood. It contained a beautiful cherry conference table, a circle of very plush chairs and a large television. It was also the only room in the building with air conditioning. Perspective parents, investors and patrons would go in and see presentations. Peons like the staff didn't get invited.

Turning left took him into the main admin office waiting room, where he ran into Sarge and April, reclining on the large sofas outside the main office.

"Hey Neil", Sarge said as he walked in. Sarge's real name was "Louis", but he'd earned the nickname "Sarge" from his Marine Corp history and gruff exterior. Most of the kids were somewhat intimidated by the huge, hairy man. Neil had even been a bit frightened of him his first year, but was quickly won over by his relaxed charm and wit. Sarge lived in one of the small cabins behind the admin circle. The cabins were used by year-rounders and VIPs. Sarge ran security and the day to day requirements of building upkeep. Aside from the summer camp, Silverspire ran a year-round series of adult classes and rented out stable space, ran weekly trail rides, and leased the arena for competitions to make money during the off-season. The summer school, however, was the cash cow.

Neil returned Sarge's mock salute and smiled at April, who had been a counselor for several years. April was part of the yearly staff who came up to get the summer camp ready. She'd never been particularly friendly or hostile toward Neil, so he hadn't tried to hard. She was pretty, with thick, curly black hair and deep olive skin. She was thin and fit, but always seemed to be in her own world. Neil had originally thought she didn't like him until he noticed that she really didn't interact personally with any of the counselors.

"Mom's down on the commons, the standard mixups with bunks and bags", Sarge said when Neil started toward the main office. Mom was the nickname for Abbey Chandis, the matriarch of the camp. She was a large, salt and pepper haired older woman who literally mothered everyone in camp, from the youngest camper to Sarge and the old-timer crew.

"She leave the keys?" Neil asked. Sarge nodded and pointed a large key box on a side table. Neil opened it up and grabbed C-16. He'd gotten lucky with an end unit, it meant he only had two neighbors, one behind him and one beside him. Although the log cabin construction of the dorms meant you really had to be loud for anyone to hear you.

As Neil headed out, Sarge yelled to his back "Staff meeting at 1300!".

It took about an hour to unload all his gear into the small cabin. The E-dorm was nicer and larger, but old timers got first choice and there were rarely any openings on that side. Between the admin staff and master counselors, E-dorm was almost always the same from year to year, so much so that several of the cabins sported deck furniture and bug lamps outside. Neil wasn't upset, though, between the privacy and the staff bathrooms, it was heaven compared to the smelly and noisy dorms on the quad. The six by eight room included a tall dresser, basin sink, freestanding wardrobe and bed. A lot of the counselors raised their beds like the top bunk of a bunk bed, so they could shove their dresser under it and actually put a chair or two in the free space. Neil's room wasn't set up like that, and he weighed his interest against having to pick up the heavy bed to set it up. The inside of the log cabin buildings were drywalled and painted, so it was pretty cozy and nothing like camping in the woods. Each cabin had a front door and window. There was a heater under the window and a fan built in to the lower section of the window, but no air conditioning. Up in the mountains it usually wasn't much of a problem. The nights often got pretty chilly, and you would see a lot of sweats and light jackets at breakfast.

All his electronics found a home in his footlocker. His phone wouldn't work worth crap out in the hills and they'd get walkie-talkies for long rides. All stereos and MP3 players were off limits within the camp as well. Neil had laughed when he first saw "MP3s" handwritten on the equipment list he'd gotten in the mail, Mom was at least keeping up with the times. He had left all his games in the car intentionally, and the only TV stations that worked were the big local broadcasts out of Columbia, Charlotte and Spartanburg, which would barely come in anyway. Mom had a satellite dish at the main cabin, but only news and weather channels were unlocked. There would usually be a clutch of counselors up at the admin building or gathered around the small TV at the cave for weather each morning. Neil wondered how hard of a sell even a few working TVs had been.

He loaded up his dresser with uniform shirts, including the 3 new ones for this year, still in their crinkly plastic bags. Every year the staff got 3 new polo shirts with the camp logo on the breast pocket. This year they were a dark green with pale green trim. The staff could wear previous year shirts, and many did as a subtle sign of seniority. Neil had two mustard yellow ones from the year before and his last blue one from the first year he'd come. He only managed to keep one blue because he'd accidentally been issued one large, and it was the only one that still fit. He grabbed it and put on his riding shorts and some denim shorts before checking himself in the small mirror on the back of his cabin door.

Neil's cropped brown hair topped a face he considered round, although he'd managed enough looks to snare a few girlfriends in school. The hair would get buzzed weekly, although it was more out of laziness than style. He'd started shaving every day even though he knew it was more for his ego. The patchy fuzz was barely coming in. His complexion had been blessedly clear this year after battling with problem skin since he'd turned 12. Physically he'd managed to bulk up a little so he wasn't scrawny anymore, but his ever increasing height threatened to stretch him back to skinny if he didn't stop growing soon. He washed his hands in the sink and pulled his window shades back and cranked on the built-in fan. Then he opened the door to let some air in and spotted Harriet walking into the admin building. With a spark of inspiration he decided to help her drag her stuff to her cabin. Thinking about her stretching earlier set his imagination to work again, and after a brief fantasy he decided to see if he couldn't score some points.

Neil was waiting at Harriet's cart when she emerged from the admin building, trying to shuffle a clipboard full of paperwork and still hold onto her keys. Neil noted that her gray gym shorts lacked pockets and grinned at his luck.

"Hey Harriet, need a hand?" he asked casually. His heart was thumping, but he figured it would be worth it to follow her back to her cabin.

Harriet smiled thankfully and nodded, trying to extend a hand without dropping anything. Neil laughed and waved her off. "Thanks Neil." she said, tilting her head slightly and smiling.

Neil gulped a bit at the look and started to blush as she turned and started toward C-dorm. As they made their way over, Neil took the opportunity to watch her walk. With her thin gym shorts, he had a great view of her ass cheeks shifting with each step. The shorts came down just slightly too far, meaning Neil got several far-too-brief glimpses of her upper thighs but nothing more. Regardless, he felt warm and tingly as his erection grew into a familiar spot in his riding shorts.

Neil grinned when they walked up to C-15, right next to his cabin. "Guess we're neighbors" he said with a grin.

Harriet glanced over and smiled. It was friendly at first, but then it slipped into something more wry. "How'd you talk Mom into getting the end cabin?", she asked with a scandalous tone.

Neil started to reply, but his sarcasm failed when he looked at Harriet's face. Her tone had been sarcastic when she asked, but she had a strange, almost lustful expression and he couldn't finish his thoughts. Finally she broke out in laughter and turned to unlock her door.

"You're pretty funny, Neil. I can just picture you and Mom, negotiating a deal for the end cabin!". She opened the door and stepped inside with a slight wiggle, causing Neil to suddenly feel like a fly outside a spiderweb. He shook it off and pulled the drag-around onto the concrete walkway in front of the door.

Neil grabbed a small suitcase and turned to hand it through the door and found himself gazing at Harriet's upturned ass as she knelt on her hands and knees, looking under her bed. Neil thanked the gods of chance silently that her bunk wasn't up on the extensions because it gave him a fantastic view. Her cotton shorts were pulled tight into the cleft between her butt cheeks, revealing the soft underside of each. Between her legs, the cotton was pulled tight across her mound, although not quite reaching "camel toe" status, the dent in the curve of fabric was hypnotic. Neil marveled at the sight, shifting his shorts slightly so the elastic would transfer pressure across his now fully erect penis before finally setting the suitcase down quietly and stepping back outside to avoid getting caught leering.

"Are you staring at my butt, Neil?" Harriet asked from inside, with a hint of laughter.

Neil froze outside and purposefully stepped back into the doorway, adopting a look of innocence. "What?", he asked.

Harriet was sitting sideways on her knees, looking up at him. Neil displayed the second suitcase he was holding and raised his eyebrows in question. A brief look flashed across Harriet's face, but Neil couldn't read it. He thought for a moment it was disappointment, but she brightened at the suitcases and climbed to her feet.

"Oh, nothing. I was looking for the bed lifts, but I think I'll just leave it here on the floor." she said as she picked up the smaller suitcase and walked over to her dresser.

Neil nodded and stepped back out to the wagon, glanced around and shifted his shorts again.

Harriet was full of chatter as Neil carried suitcase after suitcase into the small room. Neil wondered at the mass of luggage, trying to determine why she needed so much stuff and where she planned on putting half of it. He looked up as Harriet was unpacking one of the medium sized suitcases, and immediately blushed. She was holding a pair of pink thong underwear in her hand. Her back was to him, so Neil took the opportunity to examine her rear yet again. When she shifted to reach down into the suitcase, he spied the fold of fabric that hinted at a thong under her shorts. When he looked back up, Harriet was looking back at him with an appraising look on her face.

"Are there any more bags?" she asked with a hint of amusement.

Neil shook his head and blushed, then took a step back toward the door. "That's the last one. I'll... uh, let you get unpacked".

Harriet's smile lifted on one side and she turned, still holding a pair of underwear. "Before you go, could you help me move the bed, I want to slide it back against that wall."

Neil nodded and walked over to the headboard, feeling around for a hand-hold on the heavy wooden frame. When he glanced up, Harriet was doing the same at the footboard, only she was bending at the waist, feeling around on the much lower piece of the bed frame. Her loose shirt had fallen forward, and Neil had a clear view down her cleavage at her modest breasts and the lacy white bra that contained them. He risked only a brief glance, not wanting a repeat of the thong incident, but as he focused on the bed Harriet glanced upward. He didn't think she'd caught him ogling, but he felt his cheeks flush anyway.

As he left, Neil got the distinct impression that Harriet was evaluating him. He wasn't proud of his leering glances at her body, but he didn't get the impression that she was upset. There was a measured look before he chastely shook her hand and another when he turned to say goodbye and shut the door. Neil wasted little time returning to his room and unearthing the small box he kept tucked under his wardrobe. Miss September would be a flat and airbrushed alternative to Harriet, but one he knew wouldn't question how intensely he stared.

Neil arrived early for the staff meeting. The first ones tended to be pretty short, although for some reason Mom felt everybody needed to be reminded of the same rules year after year. Unlike prior years, though, Neil would have to stick around for the main and senior staff parts. Afterwards they'd be free for the rest of the day to set up their rooms and stock their gear.

The main camp rules involved things like safety "all riders must be wearing helmets" and how to treat the campers, which Mom would regularly remind them were "customers". Customers who had paid in advance. Customers who might pay in advance next year and who paid their salaries. Everyone's forms and certs had to be up to date, something that Neil had forgotten to do. He had his latest CPR cert and a First Aid cert, two things that Mom needed on file. He made a mental note to grab them from his cabin after the meeting.

The last part of the meeting involved getting campers into "clicks and classes". Mom had misspelled clique on her presentation, but Neil wasn't about to correct her. Mom running an electronic presentation was remarkable enough. Essentially, the counselors were supposed to steer the younger kids into peer groups for friendship and support. Generally if you grouped less popular kids together, they'd bond and have more fun. It seemed contrived and a bit cynical, but it had worked flawlessly for a decade.

After the last bit of cheerleading and emphasis on safety, the junior counselors headed down to the commons where the kids were eating lunch and Mom set up for the main presentation. While Mom was loading files on the projector, Neil glanced over to where Harriet was sitting. The relief after retreating to his cabin evaporated a bit when he saw her looking back. The tables sat perpendicular to the screen, and she was straddling the bench. Neil had sat in the front part of the pavilion, so he had a great view of her shorts riding up between her splayed legs. She hadn't changed clothes and as he watched she spread her legs further, drawing her cotton shorts taut across her groin, emphasizing the curves of her pussy. It was a surprising and arousing display. When Neil looked back up Harriet was looking back and smiling, then she winked at him. He sat in a daze for a moment, his erection swelling despite his lunchtime release. He finally snapped out of it when he heard Mom start her presentation.

"As usual, fraternization within the main and senior counselors is frowned upon, but you are all adults and so long as I don't see it on the commons, I don't care." she said perfunctorily. Neil chuckled. It seemed like an open invitation with a thin veneer of official restriction. His newfound attention to the content of the meeting allowed him to push Harriet and her display back in his mind a bit.