* — you're gonna go far !

"oh my god, i never got the top bunk when we were campers," her face breaks into her signature smile (all teeth, a little too wide) for the first time in what feels like forever, maybe it truly was the little things, "so exciting!"

she drops her bags to the floor with a loud thud and doesn't hesitate to start going through the first one. a variety of items (toiletries, multiple cassette tapes, a well-worn dictionary) are pulled out and discarded on the floor before she reaches her sheets. they're the same ones that she'd brought every other summer she'd spent here and she's (not for the first time) thankful that she rarely throws anything away. "so what have you been up to for the last ten years?" she's already up the ladder, army crawling onto the mattress with the fitted sheet, "thought you'd be a, like, rocket scientist or brain surgeon or something by now. you know, genius stuff. not that you're not doing genius stuff, i'm sure you are. just not the genius stuff i was imagining, you know?"

sadie had a headache already.

still, she noted the girl's compliment (genius stuff was a compliment!) and answered her question, leaning against the bedframe so she didn't risk getting her sheets dirty with the grime that came with a hard day's work.

"i got my bachelor's in political science from stanford and now i'm in law school," she replied, her tone matter of fact. so many years of her existence, and yet it could all be summarized so succinctly. what did that say about her?

"my job here at camp sunnyside is deceiving - i hold no lofty ambitions when it comes to being the assistant director of this camp. but i do hold lofty ambitions when it comes to law. keep imagining that i'm doing genius stuff on that front."

with her part of the catchup complete, sadie knew it was her turn to ask about stella's life. but that didn't mean she was going to do so with the same level of enthusiasm that had been extended to her, even with the recent compliment. instead, the words came out begrudgingly as she moved to set stella's dictionary on top of stella's assigned chest of drawers.

when he first got to camp back then, he never imagined he would meet his match intellectually and competitively. he’d never admit it now, but sadie and her need to try to one-up him at literally everything was part of the reason he was able to pull himself out of his grief and get back to some sort of normalcy. harrison thrived when he was trying to be the best, and sadie was the one who indirectly reminded him of that. what she didn’t know wouldn’t boost her ego, right?

the typical pleasantries one used to catch up with someone you haven’t seen in a decade were short lived. but harrison didn’t mind, enjoying the sounds of the woods that he didn’t realize he missed until he was hearing them. which is probably why the question causes him to stumble— both physically and in his words.

“oh, um… med school didn’t happen,” he supplies once he’s steadied himself, “i’m actually a registered nurse instead. hence the job here.” a small pause, waiting for the reaction he always gets when he tells people that no, he did not become a doctor. “what about you?”

but not so, apparently. because one awkward question that made it clear she hadn't been shown his resume later, and all she could do was... blink.

and then blink again.

the third one was the charm, apparently, because her third blink thrust them into a brief period of awkward silence, sadie quickly working to rewire the part of her brain that was refusing to acknowledge the change in harrison's trajectory.

a nurse? the tiny little voice in her head that hated change cried out. but the more rational part of herself was doing its best to silence that voice. it wasn't like harrison wasn't still a medical professional. and nursing was important! change was fine! he surely had his reasons!

"oh," she started a beat later, unable to help the curious what happened? look she gave him before she continued.

her brows rose at sadie's words. oh... "oh." dani breathed out, nodding as she looked sadie over. the girl hadn't changed much since that summer. sure, she grew up, but she still felt similar. "i thought the new owner, jasper? i thought he was in charge." it was the first day, and dani had been in for twenty minutes. she didn't know what everyone's role was yet. but clearly sadie was doing something important enough to be giving out the orders.

"i'm sure you were waiting for me," she explained during her short period of travel. "i think jasper is under the assumption that i'm the welcome paperwork."

there was only a hint of frustration evident in her tone, but still she forced a smile onto her face as she skimmed through her alphabetized system until she found the r's. one quick review of the folder to be sure that it had all of the necessary contents later and her hand was extended to offer out the sunshine-logo-embellished packet.

A small, indiscernible sigh left Greer's mouth as she leaned back further into the chair, letting her head tilt just a hair, tilting it towards her friend. "I'm literally, like, so proud. This is huge for you. Seriously, I might have a disposable somewhere. Might as well document that you like, don't totally burst in the sun," she said, joking in her best way — condescension.

"Did you want a medal, too?" Greer added, lightly, her lips curving into amusement. Then, just a little softer, but not all that nicer, "You're still in my sun. Schmoove, Sadie."

"Does that mean you're about to grace us by being normal this summer?" Nobody probably knew it better than Greer that Sadie always did let loose a little bit during summer. Maybe not by much — Greer was sure there was a perpetual stick up Sadie's ass. But like, not in a bad way! Just in a way that Greer always had to nudge her.

"yes, actually. you know i love awards." she pointed out, ignoring the vampire insinuation in favor of her preferred positive reinforcement.

obviously there would be no medal, but she didn't let that fact stop her from doing what was asked of her. though plopping onto the ground wasn't the most ideal way of getting out of the sun, it was certainly the quickest. and so, her next words were directed up at her friend from below.

　　　　𓆱　　breathing hadn’t been easy since she had pulled up to the camp grounds .  or since she had started driving. gotten the job offer. applied for the job in the first place. she had spent so long breathing in laboured breaths, that she didn’t think she would even notice that tightness in her chest when it inevitably hit. optimistic, naive. the flash of brown hair hit her like an invisible wall. something solid that she slammed into. all the wind in her lungs, fleeting and riddled with smoke, knocked out of her. she felt every moment of it.

of course, camp shady pines ( sorry, sunnyside ! ) would never be kind enough to spare her.

standing in front of her was sadie fan, fifteen and smiling. yet another ghost of the camp grounds. the longer she looked, the more apparent it became that this was not a figment of her imagination but a real person walking towards her. that she had been staring at ! it took a few blinks for the years to catch up. to sever her from the memory of samira frozen in time, forever fifteen.

“ i’m sorry, ” with a shake of her head in an attempt to clear away the image. “ you just look a lot like — ” no matter what she did, her vision never sharpened up. the similarities never settled into place of a familiar yet different face she’d have to avoid all summer.

jasper's reorganization of the cabins had made sure of that, the biggest step sadie had taken to keep some distance between her and the girl she'd once thought of as a sister walked back with one stroke of a red pen. add on the fact that she had to interact with the kitchen staff as a part of her job, and their reunion was inevitable.

but the fact that it was coming so soon...

"bambi," sadie nodded in recognition, their chance run-in in the woods prompting perhaps the most awkward moment of silence to ever pass between the two. but what was sadie meant to say when it looked like bambi had seen a ghost?

for so many years, sadie had shut her thoughts about bambi (and her sister!) into a little box in her mind, one that she knew she'd have to confront at another time. but after a certain point, she'd refused to acknowledge it. the guilt was there, but manageable. she had so much to focus on at college, then in law school. why think about the past when you're sprinting straight towards a bright future?

but now... standing there, seeing all the ways that bambi had both changed and stayed the same over the last ten years, the guilt was rushing back in full force.

"i didn't know you were going to be here this summer," sadie finally spoke up again, the lie slipping from her lips because the truth never could. she had known. for the past 48 hours, at least. and she'd naively thought that they'd eventually have a more casual, amicable reunion. as was obvious in that moment, that would not be the case.

sitting in the admin building was kind of like it's own form of torture. sitting. waiting. with no one to talk to. dani didn't know if that last part was actually a good thing, considering many of the bridges that were once built here at camp were burnt... but at least it would distract her from her sheer boredom. the new camp director had said something about grabbing the information that would be important for her this summer (likely her room assignment, duties, if she was in charge of any campers, etc) but as she sat here and waited, she wondered just how prepared he was to be the new camp director.

he was a little young too. who decides they want to own and run a summer camp in their twenties?

when the door opened, the girl stood up and expected to be on her way shortly. however, it wasn't jasper st. james that entered, it was sadie mei fan. dani hadn't been necessarily close to her when they were campers together, and in this moment she wondered if that was a blessing. "hey." dani greated with a wave, before sitting back down in her seat. "you waiting for your orders too? or did you just get here? my cab left like twenty minutes ago, and honestly i just want to lie down after the flight here." she eventually stopped talking, realizing she was offering up way more information then was needed for this casual conversation.

the last few days had been nonstop - schedules, materials, connecting with the maintenance team to make sure each space was good to go (or not totally trashed), room assignments. in the end, everything had been perfect. and then jasper managed to mess that up too, his grimy little fingerprints appearing on the roommate list that she'd specifically crafted to be most beneficial to her.

by the time actual arrivals rolled around, sadie was already over it. however, she'd been putting on a good front for everyone she didn't yet know, juggling everything needed for the success of the camp with the proficiency of a professional clown.

she might've fumbled a little when she walked into the admin building and saw dani rizzo, but she was quick to recover and offer a nod of recognition. after all, of all of the residual grudges sadie may have had from way back when, the one against dani for her part in the exclusion from a friend group had faded the quickest. they were adults now, and not at all haunted by their actions and interpersonal connections during that summer!

"i'm the one giving the orders, actually. technically," sadie insisted from her spot near the door, a quick glance at the girl's empty hands making it clear that once again jasper was not doing the small task he'd been assigned. "what has jasper told you so far?"

𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄: near the lake

Greer had always liked the lake best when it was quiet and for the next week, she expected no snot nosed interruptions. She was sat in a chair, one leg hooked over the arm and the other swinging, sat like a true queen atop her throne. Although, she had neglected her actual lifeguard chair in the hopes of getting a bit of a sunkissed tan on her skin. She had put SPF on because she wasn't like, trying to be one of those leathery ladies in their fifties, but every girl looked a little better with a tan. That was what Greer thought, anyway. Pale and ghostly were meant for the likes of people that lingered too close to Hot Topic in the mall.

Her eyes were closed and sunglasses were propped on the bridge of her nose, but there was no unmistakably moment that the sun had disappeared in an instant. The forecast didn't call for rain or overcast, so she cracked a singular eye open. "Um, hello? You're like, totally blocking my sun," she stated matter-of-factly, as if she owned the sun itself. She perched the sunglasses further down her nose to peek at the perpetrator. "Is this important?"

jasper's grating voice was still ringing in sadie's ears as she trudged out to the lake that afternoon, a fierce determination to banish her boss and his insane list of tasks for her to complete from her thoughts propelling her forward. even if it was only for a moment, she reasoned, it would be enough.

she was not normally one to take the time to appreciate nature, the beautiful landscape and warm weather of california that she found herself in back in the real world (aka not during her one throwback summer) totally wasted on someone who spent most of her time cooped up inside and buried in law textbooks. however, the lake was just far enough away from the administrative offices to truly reset. a quick walk there, a momentary reprieve, and one more walk back and all would be well.

as she drew closer, however, she realized how unrealistic her plan had been. because sitting there, soaking up the sun, was the one person from her past who she'd actually kept in contact with.

and they were long overdue for a catch up.

"yes," she insisted once her just standing there'd had her desired effect. "i'm actually outside. are you proud of me?"

Elise Jansen as Elle Robinson NEIGHBOURS (1985 - ) Ep. 9322 (2025)