Sunburn & Secrets

The orange camp t-shirt glared at me from my bunk bed like radioactive waste. 'TEAM CITRUS' it announced in bold letters. Because nothing says summer camp spirit like being named after juice you can't stand.

'Dude, you coming?' Marcus stood in the doorway, already rocking his TEAM APPLE gear like it was Supreme merch. 'Bear's doing the polar plunge. Everyone's gonna be there.' Marcus was the kind of guy who made everything look easy — hair always perfect, jokes always landing, probably born knowing how to talk to girls without sounding like a malfunctioning AI.

'I'm good.' I gestured vaguely at my backpack. 'Gotta, like, organize my vitamins and stuff.' It was the worst lie ever. My mom had packed enough supplement bottles to stock a pharmacy, and I was honestly terrified of choking on them in front of everyone.

Marcus sighed. 'Bro, it's day one. You can't hide in here all week.' Then he lowered his voice. 'Lily's gonna be there.' He said it like he was revealing state secrets.

And that was the problem. Lily had been my lab partner all sophomore year, and I'd spent eight months perfecting the art of looking busy every time she walked by. Now she was ten cabins away and I was losing my mind.

The swimming lake was basically chaos — a sea of neon shirts and screaming teenagers. Someone had erected a plywood bear mascot that looked like it was having an existential crisis. Bear, the camp counselor, stood on the dock like a golden retriever in human form, wearing a shirt that said 'DO IT FOR THE CONTENT.'

'TWENTY SECONDS!' Bear bellowed. 'WHO'S GOT THE HEART OF A WARRIOR?'

I spotted Lily immediately. She was laughing at something, hair wet from an earlier swim, and my stomach did that thing where it forgot how to organs. Before I could talk myself out of it, I found myself standing at the end of the dock.

'Stimmy!' Marcus yelled. 'Let's goooo!'

Bear's hand clamped onto my shoulder. 'First time? Everyone's scared their first time.' He winked. 'The trick is not overthinking it. You just gotta... bear it.' I groaned, but he continued: 'Like ripping off a band-aid. Except the band-aid is your dignity and the water is fifty degrees.'

I jumped.

The cold hit me like a physical attack. My brain went blank. I surfaced gasping, and the first thing I heard was screaming. My team, going absolutely feral. And there was Lily, clapping and cheering like I'd just won an Olympic gold medal.

Later, wrapped in a towel and shivering uncontrollably, Lily sat beside me on the grass.

'You were actually so brave,' she said. 'I was terrified to do it.' She nudged my shoulder. 'We should hang out more this week. You're cooler than I thought in chem lab.'

My face burned. From the cold. Definitely from the cold. 'Yeah,' I managed. 'That would be... sick.'

Marcus fist-bumped me from behind her back. Team Citrus didn't seem so bad anymore.