That bell was tolling way too early in the morning for my liking. Come on. Who really needs to be woken up by some director ringing a crazy loud bell? It seemed like at least half the JC group agreed with me, what with the amount of groans I could hear and the way I could see Mike in the next bunk over pulling his pillow over his face.

“If I go to breakfast in my PJ’s, can I get five extra minutes?” Mike mumbled into his pillow as I sat up, stretching my arms up over my head before I yanked them quickly back down under my covers.

A look out the window by my bed showed that the sun was indeed shining on the morning, but damn, it was cold in here. “I think never having to come out from under these covers is a better plan.” I darted a hand out of the blankets again to pull the window above my bed closed the inch or so it was open. “What were we thinking leaving that cracked at night?”

“Guess we were forgetting that we’re in New Hampshire. In June. We’re lucky we’re not popsicles right now.” Mike added finally pulling the pillow off his face before he smirked over at me. “At least I don’t have to start lifeguard training in the lake this afternoon. You and Sam are such suckers.” And with that, he was out of bed, darting to his trunk to pull on a warm hoodie.

A quick shot across the room to warm clothes sounded like a plan, since I probably really couldn’t just spend the whole day in my bunk. “Hopefully the water in the lake will warm up by then?” I suggested as I tried crawling down to the end of my bed with my blankets still tucked firmly around me. From there maybe I could lean over the trunk and open it? No go. At least I’d remembered to sleep in socks so my feet weren’t directly on the cold floor.

“How many summers have you spent here? Does the water ever warm up? Even by August?” Mike shoved a hand through his hair looking down at his Star Wars pajama pants. “Think I can get away with these?”

“I have returned! Did you miss me?” Of course Sam had to make a loud, crashing entrance. Of course. Well, maybe it would at least serve to get the last couple of guys out of their beds. I turned, halfway through pulling up a pair of black and grey plaid skinny jeans to stare over at him. There went the conversation with Mike.

“You were gone?” I teased over as I dug quickly in my trunk to pull out a warm, grey henley, pulling the form fitting shirt on. “Running before the wake up bell already? You’ve only been here a day. Plus, there’s no time to shower before breakfast.” I pointed out with a wrinkled nose. Camp only went so far in my book as a no shower excuse. Apparently Sam thought differently.

“I meant to leave even earlier. But hey, it’s camp. I’ll just put on a thicker coat of deodorant. We’ll be jumping in the lake this afternoon anyway. That’s as good as a shower.” Sam noted as he headed over to his own trunk, tucked at the side of the bunk bed he was sharing with Mike. True to his word, he stuck to an extra layer of deodorant before pulling a hoodie on right over his sweaty workout clothes.

“Just don’t expect me to sit next to you at breakfast.” I tossed back before turning my gaze towards the suddenly quieter Mike. “Yeah, those jeans are probably a better decision.” I noted returning to our earlier conversation as I sat to pull my Chacos on my feet after only a moment’s hesitation. I could live with cold feet and comfort this morning. “Wouldn’t want to piss off Schue on your first full day as a junior counselor. Which means we should probably be getting to flag raising. Good impressions and all that. Plus, the sooner the flag is up, the sooner I get coffee.” I noted, grabbing a sweater to tug on over my other layers as I slipped through the wooden door, trusting they’d follow out into the cold mountain morning.

My crack of dawn discussion with Mike had been right. The lake was freezing. Actually, ice wouldn’t be cold enough to describe how this water felt to my sensitive skin. We’d been in the lake for far too long now, and I still wasn’t used to it.

The morning had been given up to JC orientation with Wes. If I had to listen to one more line from that handbook, I think I’d start screaming. I swear that thing is the new love of Wes’s life. The afternoon was given over to training in the areas we’d be teaching. For everyone on the waterfront, that meant lifeguard training. In the freezing cold lake. Where we’d be spending half our day until the end of the first week of camp to finish this stupid certificate. At least some of it would be book learning other days. Mike was lucky enough to miss out on that to get trained in belaying instead. Lucky, lucky man.

Today we started with the swim test. Freaking Sam dove into the water and swam the 300 meters like it was nothing. The California boy even had a tan already, and seriously, why do both my straight best friends here have to have such good abs for high school boys? It’s not fair. Not that anyone is going to see mine, or my lack thereof. Skin cancer will not be in my future. Besides layers of sunscreen, I fully believe in UV protective rash guards. Plus, they have an added benefit of covering the fading green and yellow of healing bruises across my back. I don’t need comments on those from every passing counselor.

I may not have owned my testing the way Sam did, but I passed. There’s something to be said for long hours dancing in Glee club and time on the treadmill.

Back to the present, I really was starting to think my teeth were going to chatter off when Sam swam up alongside me. “David says we’re done. Race you to the towels?” There was a cheeky grin on Sam’s face at that, so of course I had to agree.

I dashed across the sand at the edge of the lake, darting for the bench were we’d left our towels, managing to get a foot ahead of Sam. “Haha!” I called back, grabbing mine first to frantically rub at my hair.

My hair must have been sticking up twelve different ways from the toweling when I heard the voice of Schue, Will Schuester our director, coming closer. “This is the swimming side of the waterfront area. Beyond the beach, we have docks for the use of our swim classes and for free swim periods.” Oh great. Schue’s leading a tour. Maybe I can hide over here, blend in with the trees?

“Kurt! Sam! Good to see you two.” No such luck. I guess wearing blue striped boardshorts with a white rashguard makes one quite unlikely to blend in with trees. I might have to invest in some camo colored ones. I looked up and over towards Schue only to feel my heart drop to my knees. No more crushes on straight boys, I reminded myself. I wasn’t doing that this summer.

But damn, this boy was worthy of it. Dark hair gelled down, boy next door good looks, and a wounded look in a beautiful pair of hazel eyes. But damn it, I wasn’t going to do this again. Especially when I was standing there dripping all over the place like a drowned rat. I’m sure his first impression of me right now was far from fetching.

“…my office after dinner, Kurt.” Mr. Schue finished, bringing me out of my thoughts. Hopefully I hadn’t missed anything too important. The director turned leading the nervous looking kid off towards the sports fields, continuing the tour. It was only as they turned away that I noticed the cast on the teen’s arm, covering it from above his elbow to his hand. How I could have missed it I don’t know, because it was super bright, fire engine red. Maybe it had something to do with the eyes. No. Not thinking about that.

“Who was that?” I asked Sam, going back to applying the towel to my hopefully not blue and frozen body.

“Must be the new CIT.” Sam replied rather too nonchalantly for my taste.

“What do you mean new CIT. There are never new kids in the oldest age groups or leadership cabin. Never.” I shook my head. But really, he was too old to be a middle schooler, and the new kid definitely couldn’t have passed for college age like any new counselors had to be.

“You didn’t hear about it at lunch? It was all the buzz around my table. But then, you were still refusing to sit by me on grounds I stank.” Sam pointed out with a teasing tone, sliding his feet into his flipflops.

I wrapped the towel around me, shoving on my own pair as we headed back to the cabin for dry clothes. “You did. You were still wearing those sweaty running clothes! No way was I letting that ruin my appetite. What did I miss?”

“Apparently new kid’s dad knows Schue. Convinced him to take the guy, B-something, I forget what, for the summer.” Sam leaned in a little closer, as if he was about to convey the world’s greatest secret. “I heard he’s Cooper’s little brother. Remember him? Crazy counselor when we were kids? Wonder why it took this long for the guy to start here.”

Mysteries upon mysteries. Or at least they would be in our isolated little community. These guys were great about so many things, but avoiding gossip wasn’t one of them. I swear that sometimes they resembled a sewing circle of old ladies. “Huh. Well, he looked nice enough. Doubt we’ll be seeing him around the lake anytime soon with that cast.”

“True, true. So, what do you think Schue’s going to want to talk to you about tonight?” I’d almost forgotten about that parting remark. I couldn’t have done anything to get myself in trouble already, could I?