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Monday
Usually,thiswasthe best part of the year. What wasn’t to love? A week away in the mountains, with the entire 6th grade, just to focus on building friendships and celebrating a wonderful year. It was that way for the students most years, except for the previous two where camps were shut down, along with half of the world. Usually, students bounced with nervous energy before this trip - this year, they sulked and complained that this was the worst thing in the world.
For June Lehrer, 6th grade English teacher, this was definitely the culmination of the worst year, so she had a tendency to agree with them.
Actually, to be specific, it was the worst part of the worst year of the worst period of her life. She really had the audacity to think that teaching online in 2020 would have been the most difficult thing she would encounter during her teaching career, but then came the Return to School with all of The Behaviors and The Parents and The Testing. The amount of times that June had opened LinkedIn to update her profile from grad school to find a job was too many to count. Somehow, she always ended up closing that tab and moving back to whatever lesson she was planning or whatever grading she needed to do.
Teaching during the best times was exhausting. Teaching during unprecedented times was, well…unprecedented.
Simply put, she was burned out and had zero desire to spend five days in the mountains with 150 11- and 12-year olds for 14 hours a day. Plus, during the pandemic, she had finally gotten her shit together and bought a really nice mattress (yes, using a podcast discount code, of course) and she missed sleeping in her bed. The prospect of spending four nights on plastic-covered camp mattresses in a sleeping bag with her stomach suffering the effects of Camp Food made her dread it even more.
It hadn’t always been this way. When she was a younger teacher, retreat had been truly a celebration - a chance to connect with students and let her hair down, to laugh and focus on the simple human connection that nature and a no cellphone policy could bring. But June was 34 now, rounding out her first decade of teaching, and the shine had worn off. Her job was, for the most part, just a job these days - one that was underpaid, overworked, and had put her in direct contact with COVID for the past two years.
But, as the song went, what do you do with a BA in English (And a Masters in Teaching and a credential)? You teach - that’s about all there was to do with her education and experience. So June kept teaching.
Sighing to herself and readying her shoulders, June looked over the chatty and excited auditorium. These kids are excited, even if they don't admit it, she reminded herself. They’ve had nothing to look forward to for the past two and a half years. You can do this for them. June nodded to Kevin, her science counterpart, and walked in front of the crowd. Clapping four times - one, two, one-and-two, the students repeated her clap pattern and gradually began to quiet down.
“Alright, friends!” June said, projecting her voice as best she could. “Today’s the day! Off to Camp Peek-N-See to celebrate each other, make our friendships stronger and…,” she paused for dramatic emphasis, “Get you away from your phones for a few days!” The teachers all laughed as the chorus of groans that rolled through the students, though June knew that many kids were inwardly grateful for the distance from social media.
June could probably use some distance from her phone as well, especially the damn dating apps that had plagued her recent pandemic experience. She tried swiping, tried paying, tried answering random questions, tried a bunch of sites, and they were all duds. Truthfully, there was some great sex - and some pretty average sex, but mostly really subpar sex - but nothing that felt like any connection. Social media didn’t help, what with all of her college friends having paired off and married, starting to have kids. June had a really cool apartment and a job that she dreaded going to.
It wasn’t like she minded being single or had some kind of timeline to get married or have a kid (she had 75 of them every day, for chrissake), but she wanted that connection. That partnership. Friendships had become difficult to navigate over the past few years, with people not only focusing on their growing families, but also withdrawing and redefining what relationships looked like a thousand times over with each new recommendation, each new variant or booster shot.
At least her phone was decent for texting her college friends and feminist porn. So that was one thing going for it.
June and her work husband and best friend, Kevin, worked to maneuver through the crowd of students, handing out post-its for each of them to place on their phones, which would be sealed in a locked safe once they arrived at Camp Peek-N-See. Once finished, they navigated to the buses waiting outside, letting kids choose their own seats with their friend groups.
It was just an hour's drive to the camp, but two in a bus, so after taking attendance, June settled into the front seat and took out her Kindle, opening up her most recent read to pass the time. About 30 minutes in, getting a bit carsick, June closed her book and put her headphones in and booted up a podcast. Perhaps it wasn’t the most professional move, but this school year had taught June that it was important to engage in the smallest forms of self-care whenever she could, even if that meant small acts of disobedience.
Arriving at camp and unloading the students and their luggage was a lot like herding cats, but June used her seniority in the grade to let the newer teachers wrangle the group. Since she was the primary point of contact with the camp, she grabbed her backpack and suitcase and headed into the camp office to find Colin Whitford, the new director for the camp.
Colin had been a new name for June when she contacted the camp for scheduling, hired right before the pandemic to replace the old director who was furloughed into retirement. June had imagined that Colin would be the same type of person - a quiet, older pothead who was really into getting kids to care about trees and connection and knew every camp song in the universe.
“Hello?” she called into the small office attached to the dining hall. June had checked in here every year she’d come to camp, noticing that, even while shabby, the camp maintained an air of professionalism and care that warmed her heart. At some points during the past few years, especially after a few too many drinks, she thought about the camp, the way it provided a retreat from the “real world” and hoped it was faring well. If the current state of the office told her anything, it was in spite of the dumpster fire that was the world the past few years. There were piles of manila folders stacked on every surface - desk, shelf, chairs - and the calendar on the wall was filled with the names of schools and dates. Another whiteboard next to the calendar was filled with notes, the handwriting scrunched and difficult to read.
“Hello?” A gravelly voice replied from an office back and to the right. Must be Colin, mentally preparing herself for another boring outdoorsy camp director.
“Colin?” She called, walking through a small hallway, passing boxes full of neatly folded camp t-shirts with “Camp Peek-N-See” in neon letters. “It’s June Lehrer, with Herman Middle? Our bus just arrived early and we wanted to see if it's okay to check in? If we can’t get into cabins yet, or counselors aren’t ready, or something, the teachers can run some games on the field…” she kept rambling, throwing her voice into the back office in search of Colin. Probably hiding his bong or something, she laughed to herself.
June turned the corner into the office, and was suddenly brought face-to-face with the fact that she was wrong about Colin.
Very, very wrong.
Fuck.
Colin was not the elderly hippie camp director that she had been accustomed to working with for the past chunk of years. Colin, in this case, had sandy brown hair that was tied back in a messy bun. Colin was tall and lean and wore a camp t-shirt that stretched over the muscles of his upper body. Colin had tanned skin that showed he loved spending time outside. Colin had lanky forearms, one of which was covered in an eclectic assortment of what looked to be friendship bracelets.
Colin was, in fact, hot as hell.
“Welcome to camp!” he smiled, flashing a grin that shut down June’s senses for a second. “June, right?” Her system rebooted when she heard her name come out of his mouth, a flare of heat rushing over her skin. June managed to nod, dazed. “So glad you’re here, it’s going to be an amazing week.” June continued to stare dumbly. “Let me grab your folder, give me just a second,” he said, turning around and bending over his desk. “Herman Middle,” he mumbled to himself, rifling through a stack of papers. There was another development, June noticed.
Colin also had a fantastic ass.
June mentally smacked herself in the forehead. This was not the reason she was coming to camp, and the last thing she needed when she was trying to rediscover her love for her job - or even figure out if it was the right job for her - was to ogle a guy who she was working alongside.
”Sorry,” Colin said, clearing his throat. “I got lost in some organization projects this morning and, as you said - you arrived early -”
“Sorry about that, there wasn’t traffic on the way up -” June started to explain. Colin waved a hand in the air.
