Rated- PG for now. Hehe… =) I’ll let you know when it get’s NC-17 cause you just know that’s coming! (um, no pun intended)
Summary- This one time, at regular camp, Willow and her friends…
Notes- Absolutely half AU, timeline is all wonky but takes place after the first year of college. Oz and Willow did break up but he didn’t leave. Tara never came to Sunnydale (I know, blasphemy! But wait, you KNOW she’s in this fic, hello this is me writing!) Some characters from Buffyverse are in here but a little different.
Danka- to MC for her feedback editing type of stuff and telling me when something didn’t make sense to her. But I must admit I’ve done revisions without her looking over them again so feedback from everyone very much welcome.
Hope you like my sillyness!
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The one and a half hour ride to Camp Flutie was a miserable experience for Willow Rosenberg. Not only had her best friend Xander thrown up two times in a travel bag right beside her, but also Buffy and Riley decided to suck face the whole trip while sitting in the seat in front of her. Willow knew it was an omen, a bad omen. This summer, camp was going to suck even if this year they were the camp counselors on their way to their three day orientation.
It wasn’t that Willow minded going to camp. She liked getting away from Sunnydale and everything Hellmouth-y in her town. Giles noted how summers were always slow for demons and hence slow for the Scooby gang and their demon slaying. Besides, if anything “end of the world” were to happen they were only a phone call away.
With her two best friends and her best friends’ boyfriend, a couple other people from Sunnydale were also joining in the happening fun. Along with some others from home Oz, Cordelia, Harmony, and Anya were in for the ride.
Willow sighed thinking about her ex boyfriend sitting with his best friend Devon a few rows in front of her. At least things with Oz were good, their split last year having been amicable and all. And the redhead certainly didn’t want to think about the group of girls that constantly chided and taunted her. She just hoped they wouldn’t do it in front of her campers.
She and Buffy were co-counselors for the summer even though everyone else had been given other tasks helping run the camp. Xander, of course, would be working in the kitchen. Riley would run the sports activities with his pal Forrest. Oz and Devon were both in charge of the “radio station” and anything techie for the plays and dances throughout the session. Willow didn’t understand why they were running the station with the loud speaker since that basically meant waking up everyone in the morning and announcing the schedule throughout the day. Back at home the sun had passed its zenith by the time those two ever woke up.
Cordelia was in charge of arts and crafts, Harmony in charge of the theater and choir for some reason, and Anya, well, Willow didn’t know what Anya would be doing just yet. Perhaps staring at Xander all summer and following him around like a love struck puppy as she normally did.
“How you doin’ there, Will?” Xander asked appearing like he was about to throw up again.
“I should be asking you.” She grinned back.
“Buses. Man, I can’t stand this. Would have rather used my skateboard.”
“I’m sure we’re almost there.” She tried to comfort him even though Willow had no clue. All the trees looked alike to her and it’d been the same trees since they left Sunnydale. There had been a couple of hills too but that wasn’t the point.
Not two minutes after Willow spoke, the big yellow bus pulled into a long driveway up to the camp area. Some kids on the bus began to cheer while others burped and did under the arm fart noises. One kid in particular sitting alone near the back exit was very excited. Jonathon was looking forward to the fact that as a counselor he would have kids looking up to him rather than down. Unless they were taller then him, he was a short little guy. Like Willow, he too was always made fun of but unlike Willow he really didn’t have good friends to back him up.
The Scoobs, as they called themselves, were a tight group: Buffy, Willow, Xander were always looking out for each other. Buffy’s whole destiny as the Vampire Slayer, the one girl in all the world with the strength to kill vampires and demons, was shared with the Scoobs ever since moving to Sunnydale four years earlier. Boyfriends and girlfriends came and went but the core three were a threat to be reckoned with. And who could forget Giles, Buffy’s watcher sent by the Slayer’s council from England to watch over the Slayer and teach her. Well, try to teach her since Buffy was not one to follow commands very much.
Willow took in a deep breath as the clearing presented the layout of the camp. Not that bad, Willow thought, everything seemed to be within decent walking distance. Walking was something she really didn’t want to spend her summer doing. She already did that back home patrolling every night with the Scoobs.
She saw the mess hall and the theater, and she already knew there were toilets and sinks in each cabin but the showers were in an adjacent building. As long as there were no Daddy Long Legs crawling about in her cabin she’d be fine. She hated spiders with a passion right below her hatred of frogs.
As the bus unloaded with humans and their luggage, Willow helped walk Xander to a nearby tree where he proceeded to throw up one last time. Last year had been his record, he upchucked seven times. Last summer also had been their last hurrah as campers with, among many other things, the freedom to raid other cabins in the middle of the night. This year they were the ones thwarting raids, and stopping the food fights and catching the underage smoochies behind the cabins.
“Hello, everybody I am Doug Flutie, camp moderator. Welcome to Camp Flutie.” A dorky looking kinda man announced as he walked up to the group of twenty. Next to him stood a detached uppity woman with a load of papers in her hands.
“We know who you are, moron!” someone said loud enough he was heard by all.
Mr. Flutie looked amongst the gathered and knew exactly who it was. After all, the British accent gave him away. “William, I anticipate better behavior from you. This year you are a counselor, a leader, you all are. I expect you to behave in a civilized, adult fashion.”
“Well, my parents are adults and they certainly aren’t civilized.” Another recent arrival retorted.
Mr. Flutie simply sighed. “We are to meet at the cafeteria in exactly one hour. Until then settle in cabins, get to know your neighbors, etc, etc, etc. You all did bring the packets I mailed you, right?”
A loud murmur ran through the crowd and most shook their heads. Mr. Flutie rolled his eyes, “Miss Post here has all your cabins assignments and camp maps. Please don’t lose them. Again. See you at lunch.”
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Willow dreaded the fact that this year Xander would be the one in charge of the kitchen staff. She wasn’t looking forward to finding actual bugs in the bug juice and mystery meat Wednesdays was not her idea of funny. Probably due to the fact that he hadn’t prepared this particular meal, Willow felt comfortable and ate her burger with no worries.
As her eyes scanned the mess hall she tried to block out Buffy’s constant chatter.
“And Riley thinks making out in the forest is so romantic.” The Slayer continued on and on. “Like-”
“Who’s that?” Willow interrupted as her eyes gazed a little too long on a blue eyed blonde girl across the room. She hadn’t been in the bus, Willow would have certainly noticed her then, and she wasn’t a camper from last year. She would have noticed that too.
Buffy took a bite of her burger and replied, “Oh, that’s Karen. Or is it Taryn? I don’t remember. She was out in the forest and accidentally walked in on me and Riley while we were getting it on with the smoochies.”
Willow didn’t answer back, she just kept staring. The blonde was the most breathtaking girl she’d ever seen. It seemed she carried a halo over her head, like an angel. Her lips were… Willow suddenly realized that she’d never had thoughts like these before. Ok, maybe a couple of times before but she was Oz’s girlfriend. Or had been. She went out with Oz and she’d been in love with Xander, like, forever…
Buffy carried on, “I think she said she’s the new riding instructor. Can we say birkenstocks and granola?”
“What the hell does that mean?” Willow turned to her in a little disturbed by Buffy’s flippant remark.
“Uh, nothing. She looks like she’s a hippie. That’s all. Geez.” Buffy took another bite of her burger.
Willow dropped it. “What happened to Donnie?” she asked wondering about last years riding instructor.
“Booted, I bet.”
“Oh.”
Oblivious to Willow’s staring, Buffy continued on with her story, “So then…”
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Willow loved Buffy. She was her best friend, saved her life plenty of times while out on patrol on when she’d get kidnapped by some monster, she shared her pain during times of heartaches but if Buffy did not shut up about her and Riley the redhead was about ready to stand up and walk away. Buffy’s non stop *me* talk was driving the redhead insane and it took a lot to make her annoyed. Actually, Willow did exactly that. Politely she excused herself and went to return her plates and tray.
The redhead made sure to inconspicuously take the long way, the way that would take her past Taryn, or Karen. She hoped to find out her real name soon but till then she looked more like a Taryn than a Karen to her.
The blonde was sitting alone, reading a book, towards the edge of her table. Willow noticed she had hardly touched her lunch. Just an apple was eaten. If Willow had any courage she would have asked her why she hadn’t eaten anything. She also would have asked her what book she was reading. One thing Willow absolutely adored more than her laptop computer were books. Willow was a bookworm and very, very proud of it. Well, unless she was being made fun of because of it. But she was still proud nonetheless.
As she proceeded to walk past the blonde, Willow prayed to all the deities she had memorized during her study of Wicca to not trip and make a fool of herself. Her prayers were soon replaced when her sense of smell overtook her. Vanilla. Vanilla everywhere. The girl smelled like vanilla.
“Willow!” Cordelia said in her typical Cordelia like tone when addressing the redhead. It was one of pure bitch and abject boredom.
She looked over at Cordelia and shook her head slightly. “Oh god no,” Willow moaned under her breath. She didn’t feel like being made fun of yet again by her childhood acquaintance. “Hey, Cordy.”
“Yeah. Whatever. Look, you speak Xander speak, right? Tell the boy that I have my meals sent to me daily and that they *need* to be refrigerated. I will not be subjected to this crap, especially since he’s the one in charge of the kitchen this summer. Got it?”
“Well, did you tell him?” she asked not really caring. She just wanted Cordelia to disappear.
“Well, duh, I told him. I just wanted to you make sure he understands that if he messes with me in any way, shape of form this summer I will sue him.”
Willow rolled her eyes a little and sighed. “Fine.” She waited until Cordelia had walked past her to whisper, “I hope he spits in them.”
A low giggle brought her back to reality. Willow suddenly recognized where she was and what she had been doing. She looked over to her left and saw the shyest yet cutest smile she had ever seen in her life radiating from the mysterious blonde. Their eyes connected for a second and Willow was entranced by how blue they were. Like the ocean, endless.
Even though her heart was palpitating and she was a nervous wreck, she couldn’t help it and managed to twitter out a simple, “Hey.”
“H-hi.” The blonde replied as she nervously drew her lower lip under with her teeth.
The innocent display made Willow’s hear skip a beat and she would berate herself afterwards for what she did next. “I, uh… I gotta go.” With that Willow took off toward the front of the mess hall and loudly dropped her tray and plates into the bin.
As she walked back to Buffy she couldn’t help but think it was always the same with her. Whenever she found someone that intrigued her she’d shy up and words that usually came effortless to her in her mastery of babbling were blocked. Her brain functioned the same exact way every the time. She’d garble, maybe say a few vowel sounds and then run away. Just like she had done right now.
As she sat at the table with Buffy she wanted more than anything to look over to the blonde and see if she was looking at her. Yeah, looking at her like she was a freak, Willow thought. That smile though…
Buffy’s voice interrupted her daydream. “Did I tell you what Riley is planning for the banquet?”
Thoughts of the blonde faded as Willow tried to do the best friend thing again and try to listen this time. It was the longest five minutes of her life until the call for the round robins to begin came.
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TBC....
