The aftermath of Parents' Day was an influx of homesick kids. Maybe that was real reason they had the JCs move into the cabins right before it. Seth was back in tears on a regular basis for the next few days, but by Wednesday, we'd gotten him to snap out of it again. I was so glad to see smiles back on his face. Homesickness is seriously the bane of my existence. That and kids who puke at 2 am. Finn called that my initiation into being a counselor. I could have lived without it.

Blaine's parents' visit seemed to have gone well, but I, for one, was rather glad to have them safely back in Ohio, especially after his mother so astutely deduced our relationship.

Everything was just back into the swing of camp. It was amazing that we were almost though the fifth week with campers. There were only a bit more than two weeks left of the summer, and I knew they'd fly by. In all honesty, I didn't want camp to end, but I'm excited for ending camp events all the same. It's so bittersweet.

Thursday afternoon on my break I decided to go down to the porch behind the dining hall that overlooked the lake with some summer reading I'd been neglecting. 

I paused for a moment when I heard music and soft singing before I couldn't help but smiling when I recognized the voice. I made my way closer as quietly as possible hoping not to be noticed, and to have a bit of time to watch Blaine play. He was leaning over his guitar looking down to a piece of paper in front of him. I recognized quickly the song he was softly singing. On the Loose was one of my favorite slower campfire songs.

I cleared my throat finally, deliberately making noise to try not to startle him too much. It wasn't apparently successful though, as I could see Blaine physically startle. I ignored it, not wanting to make Blaine feel embarrassed by calling attention to it. Instead, I slipped down to sit beside him on the wooden bench. "Working on learning the chords?"

"Wes must have ratted me out. Schue asked me to work on a couple of songs to play at campfire this weekend." Blaine noted, pulling his right hand away from the strings to shake out the tension.

I reached over and pulled his hand into mine, massaging the palm and wrist for him. "Probably take a while to get your strength back, huh?" I asked before glancing down to his lyrics sheet. "That's one of my favorite songs: On the loose to climb a mountain, on the loose where I am free, on the loose to live my life the way I think my life should be." I sang just a couple of lines with a smile. "That kind of sums up how I feel about being here. What else did Wes give you?"

"That's what I've been told. About the arm." Blaine agreed with a blissful sigh for my massage. "Feel free to keep doing that. Anyway, I'd rather have the annoyance of getting my wrist back to where it was than that freaking cast." Blaine glanced down to the pile of music in front of him. "Of course, this Saturday has to be mostly songs I've never played. We're apparently singing Magic and Circle Game as well. I guess we're singing Blackbird and Leaving on a Jet Plane at some point this summer, too, but at least I already know those."

"I bet Schue will come up with more, too. You never should have let anyone find that you play guitar." I teased, but I kept up rubbing his wrist, moving up to the muscles in his forearm. "I love all those songs. I'll be looking forward to campfire this week, then. On the Loose and Magic are my favorite campfire songs, so getting to sing them both in one campfire? Perfect."

"Why those two?" Blaine asked curiously, leaning back into the wooden bench. "I'm starting to get the idea that all of you are secretly hippies. Living in the woods. Singing some very folky songs. Plus, I swear some of the CITs have sworn off both showering and deodorant."

I laughed out loud at that last bit. "Maybe it's the inner hippie coming out in all of us. I'd love to see what happens when you try to tell my friends back in Ohio that I have an inner hippie. They'll probably laugh loudly at you." I paused for a moment to think about the answer to that first question. "First, I just like the way they sound. They're really pretty songs, in a simple 'sitting around the campfire' way. It's also in the words, especially in Magic. It's just a song about having hope for the future and finding the good things in life."

Blaine finally pulled his hand away from mine to find that song in the pile of sheet music. "Maybe you can help me then. I really don't know the tune to this well enough to sing along and make the chords fit, you know? Can you sing it along with me the first couple of times?"

Who needs to actually finish their summer reading, right? Not when I could be singing with Blaine instead. That sounded like a much better use of my time off. "I suppose I could help you with that." I smiled over coyly, sitting up a bit more for better breath support. At Blaine's nod, I started to sing, going slowly to give him time to try chord progressions.

When I was young, I thought the stars were made for wishing on

And every hole deep in a tree must hide a leprechaun

Old houses all had secret rooms if one could find the key

But who believes in magic anymore?

Magic is the sun that makes a rainbow out of rain

And magic keeps the dream alive to try and try again

Magic is the love that stays when good friends have to leave

I do believe in magic, I believe

Growing up the grownups said, one day I'd wake to find

That magic's just a childhood dream I'd have to leave behind

Like clothes that would no longer fit and toys that I'd ignore

I'd not believe in magic anymore

We finished off the rest of the song, and I gave Blaine a chance to wring out his wrist again before I looked down at the music. "You're good, if that was your first time through. It was only the change from the last verse into the chorus differences that threw you. That last verse is what makes it my favorite, I think. That and seeing how true this whole song is as I'm working with the little guys."

Blaine nodded giving me a smile back. "You have a very lovely voice. I know I've said it, but it bears repeating, despite what my feelings on it were after that first dining hall performance I heard." He teased, wrinkling up his nose playfully. "Can we try just that part again?" He asked, working through the chords on the strings with just his left hand.

I stuck my tongue out at Blaine in reply, ever more of a child after almost six weeks at camp. Then I just nodded. "Whenever you're ready." It wasn't long before he nodded back. Like I would have said no to repeating my favorite part of the song.

When I grew I learned again that much to my surprise

That magic did not fade away, it took a new disguise

A child, a friend, a song, a smile, the courage to stand tall

And love's the greatest magic of them all

Magic is the sun that makes a rainbow out of rain

And magic keeps the dream alive to try and try again

Magic is the love that stays when good friends have to leave

I do believe in magic

I will always believe in magic

Love is the greatest magic

I believe

I let the music of the guitar trail away and then smiled over. "You got it that time." I told him letting the pride show through in my voice.

"I did! Thanks to your help." Blaine opened his case to set his guitar gently down into it. "Anymore right now and I think my hand will permanently cramp up. The doctor did say to start out slowly." He paused before he looked up at me with a nervous look I hadn't seen since the time we talked about his parents impending visit. "I think I'm ready."

"Ready for what?" I asked softly, reaching out to pull his hands back into mine as he settled back beside me on the bench.

"Ready to come out to more people here." Blaine admitted, that nervousness showing in his voice.

I simply nodded for a moment, not sure of what to say until I came up with, "How do you want to do this?"

"Campfire's Saturday this week because the oldest groups leave for trips on Sunday, right? The big CIT trip?" Blaine asked, mulling it over.

"Right. The little guys get a day trip. I think the plan is to shove all of them into buses and take over a water park." I watched Blaine carefully. This is a place where I could stick my foot in it fast. "Did you want to wait until after the trip?"

"I was thinking of maybe talking to Jeff and Nick on the trip. Like towards the end? Maybe even when we're all captive for hours on the bus ride back. We're going to Quebec City, so that's probably a few hours ride, right?" Blaine asked, rubbing one hand down over the slick fabric of his shorts.

"It is. Alright. I think that sounds like a good plan. A captive audience at least. Anyone else you want to tell?" I asked.

"Just Mike and Sam for now, maybe? Wes at some point down the road, I guess." Blaine paused for a moment and gulped. "Would it be a total cop out if I just let you talk to Mike and Sam. Maybe at some point while I'm gone?"

"Whatever you feel comfortable with is not a cop out." I pointed out before I grinned. "I'd be more than happy to do that, though. I've been dying to talk to them about it. I think we have a plan then."

Campfire went well. Blaine sounded great on the guitar. All too soon it was time for the CITs to leave on their big trip. I knew I'd miss Blaine, but I also knew that he'd be back on Wednesday evening. I'd survive.

It didn't stop me from pulling him into Cabin 3's counselor room to give him a private goodbye first, though.

Monday all activities were canceled in favor of the big trip to the waterpark for all the 8-12 year olds. A whole day on concrete with the sun beating down seemed like a recipe for disaster for my skin. I was already sporting rather more freckles than I started the summer with, even with my devotion to sunscreen. I made sure to choose one of my long sleeved rash guards, a deep blue along with a longer pair of blue and white plaid board shorts. That was about as much skin coverage as I could manage without resorting to a horribly unfashionable floppy hat or something. I'd just have to stick with the sunscreen, although the crazy tan lines on my feet from the Chaco sandals I wore everywhere demonstrated that I could in fact tan. It was just that my tan is everyone else's pale.

Since we had so many counselors with us, the JCs got most of the day off and were just given instructions not to clump together as a whole group. We were backup if we spread out through the park, and we had a schedule to make sure the counselors in our cabins got at least a few minutes to pee without children.

This was the moment I'd chosen for my talk with Sam and Mike. I honestly wasn't worried about it, beyond keeping Sam from making inappropriate comments in front of other people. These were the first two people I'd come out to, and that had gone better than the younger me had expected.

I lured them over to a deserted set of beach chairs with a basket of French fries. I offered them over after taking two or three myself to keep up the show.

Mike took a few as Sam helped himself to a handful and raised his eyebrows at me. "What's up?" Mike asked curiously. "I know you. French fries aren't your style of food, which means you chose this just to lure us over."

Damn Mike's brains sometimes. I shrugged as Sam looked up curiously just seeming to realize I might have ulterior motives. "There's something I wanted to talk about. I want to point out first that I wish I'd been able to tell you all of this earlier, but I was respecting someone's privacy in keeping it to myself."

"And now you don't need to?" Sam asked curiously, licking salt and grease from his fingers before reaching out to grab more fries.

"Ew, Sam. Your sticking all your germs into the basket doing that." I pointed out, wrinkling my nose.

"It's not like we don't share germs anyway." He pointed out. "Well, maybe less now, but sleeping in such close quarters earlier this summer must have wrapped us all in the same germiness."

"Still. Hygiene is your friend." I shook my head, trying not to laugh at the amusedly frustrated look on Mike's face. "Anyway, yes, now I don't need to. But I do need to ask you to not spread this around camp. He's ready to be more public, but not that public."

"He? Blaine?" Mike asked, curiosity still front and center as he reached out to snag a fry that wasn't from the same part of the basket Sam had been sticking the fingers he'd licked in.

"Yeah. Blaine." I must have had some kind of dreamy look because Mike and Sam were both snickering quietly at me. "Shut up." I insisted before trudging on. "One reason that Blaine and I have bonded is because his problems stemmed from something that I'm intimately familiar with, being bullied because he's gay."

Mike considered that for moment. "That really makes sense. It wouldn't be the first thing I'd think of for Blaine, but it makes everything rather fit."

Sam piped up, "So are you two close or are you close?" He waggled his eyebrows teasingly. Maybe it was best Blaine had me do this without him.

I reached out to whack Sam lightly upside the head, trying to distract from the flush of red on my cheeks. "Shut up. Yes, we're close. It's not like we're in a position to go on dates or anything, but we've been sort of seeing each other."

"Dude. I should have known something was going on when he was all snuggled up on your bed the day we moved." Sam pointed out with a teasing smirk still firmly in place.

Mike rolled his eyes over towards Sam and then gave me a smile. "I suppose congratulations are in order. Your first summer romance. I've got Tina. You've got Blaine. Now we just need to find someone for Sam."

I laughed, both their reactions were about what I would have suspected. "Who would we impose that on?" I teased back. "We need to teach him manners first." I paused just a second before adding more seriously. "You know you need to be careful who hears about this, right? I don't want Blaine outed to the camp before he's ready for that."

Sam stuck his tongue out at both of us before he sighed. "Alright. I'll keep the quips for your ears only."

"Who else knows? So we know who it's safe to talk in front of?" Mike asked, stretching out on the chair to bask in the sunshine.

"At camp? Finn and Rory. I know that Blaine's planning to talk to Jeff and Nick about it on this trip. That's it. Well, out of camp you can add Blaine's mom. She's crazy observant." I reached out to grab one more fry from the part Mike had been eating from before we let Sam demolish the rest. "So, which slides do you want to go on next? We could race on the tall ones." I suggested, letting the conversation move off to a new topic. I might not love the sun and chlorine, but I did love the adrenaline rush of the slides at the park.