This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

This is a work of fiction, any resemblance to real people or places is purely coincidence.

Wednesday:

I again woke up early again, put on the jean skirt I had gotten, and a t-shirt, and then went to sit on the porch, with my script, reading through it another time before Marie came back to the cabin, and Lily came out too

Oh! you’re up Marie said

Yup, decided I wanted to hang out with both of you this morning

Oh? Coming to help clean I asked?

I mean, if thats what you get up to, then yes, or just sit and chat

Hrm… I thought, I mean, the extra bacon was good… but I really should work on memorizing

I’ll help you run lines while you clean?

Split the extra bacon?

Hrm… Lily turned to Marie with pleading puppy dog eyes, could we both get it maybe?

Marie laughed, you are really good at that, sure, that could be arranged

We all headed off to the dining hall, Lily skipping along ahead with her copy of the script

I laughed at the sight of it

What’s funny? Marie asked

I don’t know how to skip I said, so many things I’ve never let myself consider learning

It’s easy! Marie said bursting in to a skip of her own, so I tried… and then promptly hit a small divot, tripped and went down hard

Marie noticed and turned back oh gosh are you ok?

I started to get up, uh, kind of, looks like I scraped my knee

We should get the nurse to check you out

I’m fine

Nope, nurse and she grabbed my hand and helped pull me upright, she took the radio off her belt, Bob, you up yet?

Radio crackled nope, but what’s up?

Camper fell, scraped her knee, should be checked out.

There in 5!

Roger roger

I’m fine I said and started to walk, and was clearly not completely fine, my knee did hurt, ok ok, nurse

That’s the spirit! Marie helped me up to the office door and we went in.

Penny heard us come in, Hello Marie? She called

Oh hey Penny, Cary fell and skinned her knee, already called Bob

Yup, heard the squawk, how you doing Carly?

I’m ok, knee’s just a bit sore

Well let Bob take a look anyways!

Penny went and opened the medical room and had me sit on the table, Lily asked if she could stay and I said that was fine

Lily ran lines with me for more like 10 minutes before Bob burst in, well hello there Carly, how you feeling?

Pretty good, knees a bit sore

Well let’s take a look, what happened by the way?

I tried skipping and failed in the field on the way here from our cabin

Bob laughed, that field is not the smoothest place to learn that particular skill

Lily laughed, I’ve had lots of practice silly

Ok, let’s check you out Bob said, taking a look in my eyes and having me move various bit, the only thing that hurt was my knee.

Well let’s get this cleaned up, and protected against all the germs out there, and then we will see if we can get you something for the pain, and you might want to stay off that knee today as much as possible

Sure, sounds good

Bob cleaned my knee off, warning me when it would hurt, then put a bandage over the knee and then left the office. He came back with a folder, here we are, yup, sign off for me, the nurse, to give over the counter pain meds as needed. Do you prefer Advil or Tylenol?

Advil mostly

Sounds good! He went to a cabinet and pulled out a packet of two Advil and handed it to me

And be sure to see me when it starts to wear off!

Will do!

Lily and I headed out in to the dining hall where Marie and Liz were still setting up

There she is! How are you? Liz asked

Just a bruise and a scrape, Bob wanted me to stay off it today

Oh rats, never fun to get injured at camp

Well, will give me plenty of time to memorize lines I guess

Hrm, that’s the spirit!

I think we have the sailboats today? Could go down and watch kids tip the sunfish over Marie said

Lily, ooh, I want to learn to sail! But I also want to be with Carly

It’s ok, really Lily, go enjoy learning to sail, I’ll be happy watching from the deck of shack

Ok she said, just don’t get too lost in your memorizing

I won’t I laughed

Oh sit here Marie said, and we will bring you some food before we open the line up

Thanks I said sitting down

Oh, and Lily?, Marie said, take your swimsuit, we weren’t joking about the tipping over thing, everyone does it at some point

Eep!

Stop teasing her Marie! Liz said wagging a finger at her, they really don’t tip that often, just listen and learn and if you do tip, the instructors will be there to get you righted and back in the boat, it’s what the life preservers are for

Ok… but the swimsuit still sounds like a good idea

It can be, yes

We’ve just about got everything set up here, Lily, join us by the window and we will make a plate for Carly really quick, then you come right back and get in front of the line before we open the doors

Will do!

I sat there waiting, and the serving window slid open a crack and I caught a glimpse of Marie passing out a stack of waffles and extra sausage, which Lily quickly brought over to me, and then ran back and got me a glass of OJ and then ran off to stand in front of the line as Penny came out of the office and unlocked the door for the rest of the campers and staff

Lily quickly got her own plate and a glass of apple juice and came and sat with me

Billie joined us as did several others, saw you sitting down already, you ok?

Skinned my knee up trying to skip

Billie laughed, Im sorry, but that is pretty great

I smiled, of all the things to go and do at camp

Well I mean at least it wasn’t worse! Millie said, would hate to have to try and replace Juliet now!

I’m sure you would manage somehow

So what are you getting up today Autumn asked?

Im going to watch people learn to sail, and try and memorize lines this morning, not sure about this afternoon

I think Marie is doing a class on sculpture this afternoon! Aurora piped up, I like getting my hands messy in the clay

Huh, that does sound pretty fun, Lily?

Im not big on mess, but maybe I could just make more bracelets? or draw?

Marie was coming by our table as Lily said that, that would be fine Lily, there’s always a table reserved for people who want to do other things

Marie! join us! Millie said, we haven’t gotten to talk much at all this year

Oh, well do you have room for two? Liz came up behind Marie

We can squeeze you in I think Billie said

We scooched around a bit and stole a chair from another table and all fit in

Sooo… have you set a date yet?? Millie asked

Marie laughed, no, not yet

We won’t know the fall schedule for sure here til at least late July, Liz said

And it has to be here, of course, Marie said smiling

Of course it does! Millie said loudly

I was sitting there looking confused, and Lily too

Wait, what date?

Our wedding silly! Liz said

Millie chimed in, they proposed to each other last year on Friday at the beach party picnic! it was so amazing

Wait, you two are engaged?

Liz laughed, and Marie said its ok, we haven’t talked about it much this week, and while we are wearing rings, they are on necklaces because camp is just full of ways to lose them,

Liz pulled her’s out from under her polo, we both proposed actually, word had gotten out to some campers who somehow managed to find out both of us were, without letting either of us know the other was proposing AND convinced us to prepare flash mob proposals, without telling us they would be dueling proposals, they had a LOT of fun with it, it was actually quite hilarious

Im normally against flash mobs, Marie said, its too much pressure, I was just going to do it after the campers left out on the docks or something, I don’t know how they convinced me

With guile Billie laughed winking at us

Lily was making the biggest puppy dog eyes, is there video of this? I want to see it

I believe I have a copy lying around Billie winked at her

She clapped, yay!

Marie groaned and Liz patted her on the shoulder, it will be a hilarious story to tell at the wedding

We finished eating and headed various ways, although sailing was apparently popular.

Billie and Millie helped me walk down to the deck at the water front after retrieving their swimsuits, and I settled in to a nice chair and pulled out my script and started memorizing.

Kids were arriving at the water front, laughing, cheering, some just playing in the water, some listening to George and Rachel explain the basics of sailing the little sunfish.

I was doing pretty well on act one by the time they actually made their first venture out on to the water.

I put it down to watch for awhile, Lily and Millie had wound up paired with each other in a sunfish with a blue sail, and it wasn’t completely smooth, but they at least didn’t tip over almost immediately, which I did see one boat do, while Rachel and George helped them out a bit.

Tentatively they started getting better, tacking in to the wind, closer hauling, and there was just enough wind today to get some good speed without making the lake too choppy

I went back to memorizing act 2, which was kind of combined with the original 2 and 3 in this abridged form, and was getting fairly good at it, when I heard a loud speaker kick off,

Ahoy sailing campers! time to head back in! It’s time for lunch!

I put the script down, and watched as the sailboats came back in, waiting to see the blue sail, and was not disappointed, they apparently had gone farther than most, but they were doing really well at getting it brought in.

A staff member lent me some binoculars and Lily waved and had a huge grin on her face and I waved back.

I got up and my knee was feeling a fair bit better, but I wanted to be careful and went carefully down to the gate to await her arrival, barely remembering my script.

Lily hopped off the boat and came running over to the gate as soon as they were done

Oh Carly! it was so fun! Millie really knows her stuff too

Millie came over, thanks, my family owns a small catamaran and while it goes faster and is more stable than these things, its still a lot of fun going out in a sunfish

She showed me this really cool cove over past the camp fire site

Oh nice! Im really glad you had a good time

And you?

I think I’ve got acts 1 and 2 down, just the third and finale to go

Sounds great! want to do a quick run through of them before lunch? We’ve got a little bit still Millie asked

Sure, I’ll let you go get changed, meet you up at the dining hall porch? Im going to take it a bit slow going up the hill, figure you might still beat me there

Glad you are getting around better! Lily said and they headed off towards the changing rooms, and I started the walk up the hill to the dining hall.

I was doing ok, the path was at least improved, and not that steep. Lily did indeed catch up and pass me on the way back to put her swimsuit out to dry at the cabin, and then still met me right as I was sitting down. Millie had joined me on the walk up, deciding to keep her swim clothes with her as it was farther back to her cabin.

We had already started going through, she wasn’t 100% off book, but, she was only glancing every page or so

Ill get there she said

Lily pulled out her script and went through her own scenes with us before lunch time, which was shredded bbq chicken sandwiches and sweet potato fries that were extremely good

Lily, Millie and I all chatted through lunch, occasionally saying snippets of dialogue

Millie decided she was going to do more archery after lunch, and also take some time to just work on her lines before tonight.

Lily and I sat on the porch after lunch as there was time before we could get in to the crafts cabin

Marie and Liz I said, huh, I didn’t pick up on it at all

Lily said I kind of had an idea, they looked at each other a certain way this morning while finishing prepping for breakfast, although engaged, Lily whistled, that was surprising

You ever think about that kind of stuff?

Some, but I mean, I’m realistic, the number of options in either gender is significantly limited by being trans

Yeah… I never really thought about dating, if someone found out, I figured I would at the least get dumped, and at the worst wind up exposed or dead

Yeah… someday maybe, lots of years for both of us, let’s enjoy them regardless

For the first time in forever, I actually think I might be able to enjoy them… I said my voice trailing off a bit

That’s really good… I sense a but in there

Still worried about my parents and school and other things…

One day at a time, plus schools in our city are really pretty good, there’s an active network of clubs and support. Shall we walk over to handicraft and make a bit of a mess?

I laughed, yes, lets

We got up and walked across the field to Handicraft, we joked along the way, I threatened to start trying to start skipping again and sent Lily in to fits of laughter we had to stop there in the middle of the field

We finally got going again and arrived at the sculpture class

Lily found the table with the others who just wanted to work on other things and set about retrieving some materials, meanwhile Marie addressed the campers who were there, Hello! We are going to be doing some sculpting this afternoon, it can be messy, and although clay usually comes out fairly well out of most things, we have smocks, I do recommend them

We aren’t going to sculpt anything too particular, there will be plenty of clay available for all, and I’m happy to help with learning any techniques, for now Im going to cut some lumps of clay for each of you, and I want you to just pick it up and feel it, squish it around.

I grabbed a smock, not wanting to get these clothes dirty as I had no idea how to clean them and Marie had already begun handing out lumps of clay, and noticed there were bowls with a bit of water around

I picked up the clay, it was surprisingly warm, I started squishing it around, it was a brown lump, I didn’t really know what I wanted to turn it in to

As you work the clay, be sure to put a bit of water on your fingers to keep it from getting too dry. You can also get it waaay too wet, but just experiment with it a bit

I dipped my fingers in the bowl and then started working it in to the clay, it definitely felt pretty soupy on the surface at first but as it worked in it felt easier to move around.

I decided to make it in to a ball, and started fiddling with the shape a bit, Marie showed us a way to connect two bits of clay relatively strongly and I made impressions for eye sockets, and scored the back of them with a pick, and then balled up a couple smaller and scored one side of those, then with a dab of water, pushed them in to the sockets, and then I just went to town. I shaped some hair, and a nose, formed a mouth, fiddled with it but by bit. Ears were surprisingly hard.

To say it was an exact likeness would be a lie, but it bore some minor resemblance to me, beyond just the same number of facial features.

I made a butterfly and attached it to the busts hair, which was longer than mine

Marie came over, that’s really good Carly, is it you?

I nodded, yeah, but with longer hair

You’ll have it in no time she smiled, want to do another?

I nodded, at least to play around, can I keep this one?

Sure! We’ve got a rack outside to dry projects campers want to keep, put it on one of these slated and I’ll set it out there

I grabbed the slate and stuck it on and Marie took it outside.

I spent the rest of the afternoon making various small things that I wasn’t quite happy with, a cat, a guitar, deciding ultimately squish them all.

As I was cleaning my hands at a sink at the back of the room Lily came up behind me, so did you make anything interesting she asked?

I did! It’s out drying on the porch, what did you get up to?

One of the other campers showed me how to use the bead looms! And she held up two beaded trans pride flags made with small sparkly glass beads, One for you! One for me! She said handing me one

Ooh, thank you!

I took my smock off, which had protected my clothes from myself more than once this afternoon and we headed out in to the afternoon sun on the porch, and I showed her mine, in amongst various other camper’s projects

The other kids had mostly filtered out, and Marie shooed the last of them as we were looking and locked the door behind her, that really is a good piece she said, should be plenty air dry by Saturday to go home with you

Thanks Marie, also, I’ve been wondering about something

Yes?

I’m kind of out of fresh clothes for tomorrow and Friday, and I need a swimsuit for the beach party…

After another trip to the closet?

I mean, if that’s ok, and you have any? I remember you said Penny had to run in to town for yours

Marie laughed, she just didn’t happen to have any that would fit me then, we try to keep a wider selection now, and yeah, some clothing for the last few days can be arranged

Thanks, so you need to call Penny?

Should in fact be open already or will be soon, she opens it most afternoons after program before supper, or shortly, want company?

Sure, you had good advice before

We walked from the handicraft cabin to Penny’s Closet and it was indeed open and a few campers were rummaging through the racks, and one had a bag he was donating

Carly! Marie! Penny said when she saw us, and Lily too she said smiling, how can I help?

I uh, need a few more things to wear, and also, I need a swimsuit for Friday.

Well let’s start with the swimsuit because there’s less options there she said smiling and took me to a rack with various one and two piece suits

I uh, I think I’d be more comfortable with a one piece I said and Lily and I started looking, and Lily brought to my attention a cute green suit with an attached short skirt and a flowery pattern that might fit

These can uh, be handy for helping hide, uh, things she said

Ok, I’ll go try it on

Penny whispered in my ear to remind me to leave my underwear on to try it on, and I did a brief take but nodded, made sense

I tried it on and it fit, was maybe a bit tight but Lily and Marie both gave a thumbs up when I showed them, and then I changed back and we walked through the rest of the racks and I came out with a pair of capris a couple more tops, and I figured I could rewear my shorts or jumper another day.

Anything else Marie asked?

… I want a dress… and I want to wear it to meet my parents on Saturday…

Sure sweetie, let’s see what we’ve got!

We looked and found a really nice white sundress, with a sunflower print

I got teary seeing myself in the mirror trying it on, do you think they will like it? Like me?

Sweetie, they absolutely will, are they picking you up here?

I think so?

Penny can you remember if Carly’s parents are coming to pick her up here on Saturday Marie asked?

That’s what their forms said, yeah, and they haven’t called to say otherwise.

It will go fine Carly, Marie said, got what you need now?

I think so? Ready to go Lily?

Yup!

Thank you Marie, thank you Penny I said, and we headed out

You are very welcome they called after us.

Lily and I walked over to our cabin and I dropped my new clothes off

We decided to shove a shower in before supper although we kind of had to rush to make it before the doors opened, and we were pretty far back in the line by the time we arrived.

Billie saw us from up near the front as we were headed to the back, nice of you to join us they laughed

Sometimes a lady needs extra time to get ready Lily huffed and stuck her chin in the air before breaking in to a big laugh and joining me at the back of the line

So run through tonight? Ready? I asked

I think I know my lines, but still kind of nervous

You’ll do great I said smiling at her, and the the line surged forward

Tonight was meatloaf, mashed potatoes and a roll, and I went back for extra, was better than expected and I was hungrier than expected.

After Lily and I finished we went to the theater a bit early and both of us ran our lines really quick before Claire called us and the others who had started arriving to order.

Good evening all! Hope you’ve done some studying on your lines, we will feed lines if you want to try script free or you can have it on hand to look at, but we will be noting who needs a bit of extra work!

Let’s get everyone on stage and let’s get set up for act one scene one! The crew made sure the stage was set for us, and Claire had put some marks in tape on the stage for various things.

The run through wasn’t hitch free, but it was better than I expected, and Millie and I were actually off book, neither of us needed a line fed or to look at our scripts, it went really well overall

Ok everyone! Great job, a few of you that need to do a bit more memorizing but you are all doing really well!

We are doing our dress rehearsal tomorrow afternoon, and our performance for the camp as a whole tomorrow night! Any questions?

Millie raised her hand, is this being recorded?

It will be, and made available to all campers who want a copy! And if you want there’s also a streamed version you can let your parents know about, we don’t tell them in advance because we only offer it to cast and crews families

I raised my hand tentatively, So uh, do I, do we? have to tell them?

Claire smiled at me, absolutely not Carly, and the same goes for any of you, theres no need to let your parents know, for whatever reason, you don’t even have to show them a copy of the play after.

I raised my hand again, would they know who was playing who?

We don’t post the cast list anywhere I don’t think on the streaming page… Claire said… Marie?

Its possible they could recognize you Carly, if you want to think about it, we’ll be passing slips out tomorrow at breakfast to cast members with the info, and you can tell them if you want, and any of us would be happy to discuss it with you as to whether you want to do that.

I nodded, sure, ok

Anyone else have any questions? She waited a few moments… Ok, if thats it, have a great nights, and I will see you tomorrow!

Lily and I started walking up the ramp with everyone else and Marie rushed up to join us, as the group of us dispersed, and spread out walking along, Marie asked, sooo, thinking of telling them Carly?

I uh, I don’t know to be honest. I kind of want them to see it, and live, but also Im nervous

About?

I mean, Im Juliet, Im gonna be pretty recognizable, or at least a lot of opportunities to be recognized

And you aren’t wanting to tell them by text?

Not really? Seems inelegant

Maybe ‘Hey mom and dad, I’ll be in the play at camp tonight, here’s a link, come watch me shine!’, let them know without letting them know what role, a surprise

what if they take it bad?

Take it bad how?

What if they don’t come on Saturday?

Its pretty unlikely, I think amongst discrete brochure kids its never happened in the decade I’ve been around here, we make it pretty clear to those parents the purpose of it…

Lily said, could always laugh it off as being just a play, although I would really hope you don’t have to…

I’ll think about it… I walked mostly in silence and a bit behind them while Marie and Carly talked about various tv shows.

I collapsed in bed, and struggled to get to sleep, but eventually did. I had a terrible nightmare about mom laughing at me, and dad saying “I have no son”

Thursday