Hell's Book of Random One-shots

Camp Cupid - Original Characters - Request

"Another year, another lot of ruffians to scrape into upstanding citizens."

I twisted around to look up at Taylor, my eyebrow raised as she grinned down at me from the porch banister she was propped up on, the same one I had my back against.

"It's a summer camp, Tay," I laughed, pulling at the hem of my supplied polo shirt. "We aren't custodians in a prison."

"Sure feels like it sometimes."

"And yet you've volunteered for three years in a row."

"Hey, free vacay!" She smiled wider, a little musical note at the end of her sentence.

"It's not a vacation if you're working!" I sang back while smiling just as merrily.

We watch as the bus rocks its way down the muddy path, bringing in the harbingers of chaos that were to wreak havoc until we sent them back home again.

A door slammed shut behind us to our left and chattering could be heard as footsteps clumped down the wooden steps, one set of adult steps and another set a child's jumping rhythmically down the stairs, sing-song counting accompanying each jump.

Although neither of us needed to look over to know who it was, both Taylor and I instinctively turned towards the invading noise to catch Head Counsellor Spencer step towards the road with his adopted daughter, Pearl, racing behind him, hair bouncing as she bounded along.

It was rare to see Spencer smile, he was known for being a hardass who meant well but came across as too stern for his own good, but he always looked relaxed around Pearl, who he had taken in as his own after a tragedy in the family took her biological dad, Spencer's brother.

They came to a stop at the end of the path and Spencer watched, a wooden clipboard grasped against his chest, as the bus came rattling towards them.

As the bus drove past us, I just barely got a glance of another head counsellor, Dylan, standing up and moving towards the front of the vehicle, likely settling the children down in whatever activity or song he had been leading them in during the trip.

"Seems like the cavalry have arrived," I said, turning away from the scene just as the bus came to a stop.

I looked to Taylor and instantly froze, grimacing.

"Oh no, I know that expression..."

She was smiling coyly, her eyebrow raised suggestively.

"Sooo, I don't suppose you've heard the news."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead.

Of course she would be the one with all the gossip, she was like a walking paparazzi magazine for common people.

"I have not, no."

"Well, Dylan broke up with his girlfriend just after New Year, right?" Taylor leaned closer, unable to contain her excitement as she practically bounced in her place. "And I managed to weasel out of him that he may or may not have a little thing for our resident tight-ass."

"Okay?" I drawled.

"Okay! So it's time for our annual summer dare."

"No," I groaned, dropping my head back. "Come on, do we have to?"

"Yes, we do, it's a tradition, you love my annual dares."

"It's not a tradition, it's something you made up and have made me suffer with since we were thirteen."

"It spices up life," she grinned, resting her head on her hand. "It'll be fun and this year it may even better some lives."

"I feel like I already know where this is going."

"And you're probably right," Taylor chimed, stepping down from the porch of the cabin to meet my level. "I dare you to bring those two together on the path to holy matrimony."

"Bit extreme," I mumbled, looking towards the bus just as Dylan stepped off and greeted Spencer with a hand raised for a high-five that he would never receive.

Watching the two, it did seem like an adorable thought, though I didn't fully understand how it was supposed to work.

Spencer and Dylan as romantic prospects seemed absurd.

Spencer was all rules and organisation, his brown hair perfectly in place and his glasses always impeccably unmarked while Dylan looked like he had always just rolled out of bed, never dirty but always scruffy looking with unruly black hair that fell around his pale face in tousled curls and clothes that looked like they had never been introduced to an iron in their life.

Dylan was the one to take everything in his stride, to smile kindly and be patient and calm as the world fell apart around him.

Spencer would be the world that was falling apart at the smallest thing gone out of line from his pristinely organised plan.

Watching the two could be painfully awkward, mostly because Spencer just didn't understand typical social interaction and clearly found it difficult to keep up with Dylan's groove.

At times he did seem lonely and I wouldn't be wholly surprised to learn that Pearl was his only point of socialising, a thought that needlessly concerned me.

It wasn't any of my business and yet...I did feel a want to help.

If I couldn't set up a romantic date then maybe, just by a small thread, I could aid in a friendship developing.

With a slow nod, I looked to Taylor with a smile.

"Okay, you're on."