NO COMPLAINTS

　　　　𓆱　　“ a rabid — do you think that makes it better, harrison ? ” faux offence wrapped in her tone. of course, she knew that he meant before. when he had just heard the movement inside the cabin.

“ oh, i was planning to just serve it up as is. you know in the cartoons… when they dump it out and it’s still in that perfect can shape. ” of course, if that were the all preparation going into it, kitchen staff probably wouldn’t be worth paying for. or maybe that kind of unappealing was actually hard to produce. “ back to the drawing board. ”

bambi didn’t spare herself a compliment often, but she could admit her skill in the kitchen. at least, a watered down version that had to be okay with the line cook environment rather than stray too far from the person her sister had once known. if she couldn’t hold onto her, she could hold onto what she knew. her house, her room, her sister. the world, objectively, might have kept spinning after samira went missing. but not bambi’s. not at full speed, at least.

“a little!” harrison exclaims, throwing his hands up in defeat. he really hopes that bambi doesn’t take it personally. he was just… scared of rabies, which is a perfectly reasonable considering the camp has been vacated for years. for all he knew, there could have been a family of rabid raccoons underneath the desk just waiting for him to disturb them so they can attack.

with that thought in mind, harrison steps towards the desk. he picks up what looks like a ruler from up top, totally prepared to play whack-a-mole if he opens this top drawer and finds a wild animal in there.

“you know,” he starts, glancing up a bambi once as his hand grips the handle of the drawer, “even though most cans have a best-by date on them, they’re actually edible up to a few months after that.” harrison pauses, jerking the drawer open with his ruler poised to strike. but it’s empty, except for a few old notebooks. “if we’re set on giving the kids expired pepto, we can probably get away with giving them slightly expired canned food. they’d hardly know the difference, right?”

harrison takes the notebooks out of the drawer one by one, noting the dates on each one. once it’s clear, he closes it before moving onto the bottom drawer.

"thanks, but no thanks. i'll lay down in my cabin," she says, though she still reaches her hand out for the ice pack, "i'm sure someone there remembered to pack pain meds."

when stella reaches for the ice pack, harrison pulls his hand back, holding the pack out of her reach. “absolutely not,” he scolds, using his other hand to point towards the cot, “you are not passing out on your way back to your cabin, not on my watch.”

his voice is firm but gentle as he urges stella towards the cot, blocking off the exit with his body, “lay down.”

"I do have sunscreen, thank you very much. I want supple skin when I'm like, eighty. I'm not an idiot," she spat out, leaning farther into her chair. Despite the lack of sun on her now, she still tilted her head back, chest rising as if she was still getting some sun, closing her eyes and deciding that he was definitively not a problem right now.

Still, it didn't stop her from speaking because asking Greer to not speak was like asking the sun not to rise. "Do you have sunscreen on?" She retorted back, knowing the answer herself. "Otherwise, you're either a hypocrite or highly chivalrous for being a human sun shield."

with a sigh, harrison steps out of greer’s way of the sun and plops down into the chair next to her. “we only have so much aloe stocked in the nurse’s station right now,” he offers, leaning back in his own seat, “and it would be great if we could save it for the kids since they probably won’t wear sunscreen no matter how much we tell them to. i could ask jasper to get some more, but who knows how long that will take. maybe we can just buy some aloe plants instead. i wonder if jasper will spring for those.”

harrison puts an end to his rambling (for now) and peers over at greer. “i take it you’re settled in then?”

if there was one person stella was hoping wouldn't be joining the camp reunion it was harrison. and if there was one person she was hoping would be joining the camp reunion... it was also harrison. for a long time he'd been the person she'd stayed the closest in touch with, frequent letters and weekly phone calls. multiple visits— her prom, the house she'd lived in with the band, his college graduation. it was during the latter trip that everything had blown up. letters stopped showing up, the phone stopped ringing, and two years flew by.

stella's ex-boyfriend had gotten in the way of her reaching out for the first, but the second had been all her. it was her own pride that stood in the way of a reconciliation, embarrassment over being left by the person she'd ended a friendship over defending. god, she was just as bad as dani, wasn't she?

time hadn't been the kindest to her. she's still undeniably stella (curly hair, a big t-shirt over cut off shorts, sparkly lime green polish adorning her fingers and toes), but it's as if someone has dimmed the lights. she's spent the past year being tired and lonely and desperate, quite literally working overtime to keep her head above water with no end in sight and it shows.

a day of working on the music room mixed with forgetting to drink water has left her with a headache. she'd sworn she brought a bottle of asprin with her, but she couldn't find it among her other things, and while she's almost positive ever-prepared sadie had some in their room, she hadn't been around to ask. so, she'd trudged up to the nurse's station, ready to see a decade aged version of the one who had been there when they were children.

harrison was the last person she'd expected.

for someone who could never seem to stop talking, words momentarily escape her. all she can do is stare for a moment, wide eyed and brain whirring. "i um- headache," the words unstick themselves from her throat in a way that's almost as painful as the throbbing in her skull, "painkillers?"

at this point, he’s already divided the supply cabinets and labeled them with what he plans to place there once he gets new stock. he’s also double checked that the tiny fridge is working (thank god it is) to hold anything from juice pouches to insulin for the kids. now, he just needs to make the list for jasper. harrison was about halfway through it when the door swung open.

it was like seeing a ghost. or, at least, that’s what it felt like for harrison. his hand froze midway through whatever word he was writing as his eyes caught on stella. his stella. well, maybe not his, not anymore, not for a long time. after staying in touch for all those years, the cut cord between them still ached on harrison’s end of it. and seeing her now, looking as if nothing has changed in the two years since he’s seen her, only exacerbates that pain. he’s tried really hard to block their last argument from his memory, but it never works. the cruel words he used echo in his head some nights when he’s trying to fall asleep. he tried to apologize so many times, by keeping up with their weekly phone call, but stella never answered. and after that last call, when josh told him that stella didn’t want anything to do with him… he stopped trying. he needed to move on— although the letter currently burning a hole in his wallet would suggest he never did.

“right, um…” he trails off, hopping off the stool he’d been perched on to rummage through what he hadn’t thrown out. “all of the pain meds were expired in here. you know, being ten years old and all. but a cold compress should help too.” he pulls out one of the instant ice packs he’d found. harrison moves around the counter, cracking the ice park as he goes, and gestures for stella to lay down on the cot along the wall. “lay down.”

if there was one thing that sadie had learned since her reintroduction to camp shady pines, it was that reunions could be a mixed bag. ten years of not keeping in touch really had an impact on relationships - for better or worse. and her relationship with harrison?

well... too early to tell.

they had been pleasant enough to each other thus far, her welcome and rules spiel delivered with the fake, bright smile that she'd managed for all of the truly new people. but now that they were wandering through the woods towards his cabin (a weird, 5-star, door to door service that jasper required) and she'd run out of safe conversation topics, perhaps their true dynamic would be revealed.

because way back when, they'd been... competitive. in a friendly way, for the most part. both kids who were going places, they had each strived to be the best, hit the most bullseyes in archery, have the most engaging art pieces during arts and crafts. though she'd never admit it, their rivalry back in the day had propelled her forward, the thing she needed to keep her on track during what was at times a difficult summer.

but that was ten years ago. could that dynamic still exist even after they had both surely found so much success out in the real world?

"so, how have you been for the past... ten years?" sadie tossed out after they'd walked a little too far in silence. "how's med school?"

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?”

　　　　𓆱　　the sigh of relief is equal parts because it was the nurse rather than jason voorhees,  and the fact that it happened to be harrison, specifically. there were very few campers that bambi would be neutral about seeing again ( describing anyone’s reappearance — bar samira — as happy would be a stretch ) but a fondness of stella and enough time for her sister to have moved on before she went missing worked to tip the scales in his favour.

“ oh my god, harry ! ” as if his presence was the anomaly here. “ give a girl some warning before you’re flinging doors open, jesus christ. ” the hand that had shot to her chest instinctively finally relaxing back to her side as he confirmed that the correspondence with jasper. you could probably save a lot if majority of your recruitment process is former campers.

none of which went into the first aid kit. at least, not the one bambi had rummaged through. “ about three boxes, ” pause for an effect somewhere between comedic and dramatic. “ with maybe five bandaids in each box. well… five, five, four. ” punctuated with a smug smile. something that could almost resemble the way she used to tease him ten years ago.

another laugh escapes harrison’s lips at bambi’s exclamation. he really, truly hadn’t meant to scare her, but the after effects were pretty damn funny.

he fumbles with one of the doors of the supply cabinets, cursing at the rusted handle before looking over his shoulder. “i thought you were a rabid animal,” harrison offers as an attempt at an explanation, “here to make off with all the children’s tylenol! how was i supposed to know anyone else would be in here?”

if there was one thing about harrison, it was that he liked his workspace clean and devoid of any distractions— because he would very easily get pulled away from whatever task he was supposed to be doing. just from one glance around the tiny quarters, he could tell that he would be drowning in things that would keep his attention bouncing all over the place if he didn’t get the space in order.

even now, despite her presence not entirely being an unwelcome one, bambi was proving to be a distraction from what he’d set out to do when he opened the door to this place.

he turns away from the cabinet, leaning against it in defeat. “thank god for cold war era canned food, right? that shit was made to survive in bomb shelters and here we are eating it at a summer camp.” bleak. way to go, harrison. “but i’m sure you’ll do some good things with it.” nice save.

if there was one place she would find a first aid kit, it had to be in the nurses station, right? that was the only logical place it would be. she hadn't realized until she had finished unpacking in her cabin, and changed into some much more comfortable and cooler clothing, that she had scraped up her elbow pretty bad when she fell earlier.

as she finally approached the nurse's station, dani was surprised to see said nurse was already there. and when she realized who it was, her day suddenly became brighter. "harrison!" she called, waving excitedly as she came to stand in the doorway of the room. "are you the nurse this summer? i didn't realize you were coming back... or that you were a nurse!" she hadn't spoken to him that much over the years, but that didn't mean she wasn't glad to see him. they had thankfully parted ways on a positive note.

after getting distracted by multiple notebooks filled with different accounts of injuries at camp dating all the way back to the seventies, harrison was nowhere near being finished with taking stock of what had been left over in the nurse’s station. all he had gathered so far was that jasper hadn’t bothered to restock any of the obviously expired medicine that barely took up one shelf of the cabinet where it was stored.

the sound of his name brought him out of the little piece of history he was holding in his hands. a large grin spread across his features when he realized who it was— dani. they may not have kept in touch over the past ten years, but there would always be a soft spot in his heart for the first friend he ever made at camp when he was a grieving and scared fourteen year old.

　　　　𓆱　　it wouldn’t be the first time that bambi had snuck into the camp’s first aid kit . back in the day, if something needed to be done, bambi was the type to just do it. who better to put a bandaid on a cut and dust you off to try again than the older sister that adopted you all summer, every summer you were willing to come back ? thirteen years old, giving the nurse a list of everything she had used at the end of the day.

these kids, right ? she’d chuckle with a shake of her head. like her age ending with teen now made her so far removed.

bambi wasn’t even sure if there was a nurse to hand a list anymore. if jasper were to forget about any profession, she was sure it would be the medical side of things. don’t ask, a warning to herself. if the answer really was no — it would be impossible to just leave things be. someone would have to man the fort and a hazy crystal ball showed her own reflection.

the door swung open and bambi flinched, metaphorical crystal ball shattering. that must be the nurse. except bambi didn’t clarify that quite as smoothly out loud. “ do you work here ? ” yes, considering people that work there were the only ones currently on camp grounds.

had harrison been a little nervous about the state of the nurse’s station since jasper took over? absolutely. but he wasn't going to let that be known as he made his way over to the tiny building to go through the stock of supplies and get a list of things he would need jasper to order before the campers get here for the summer.

even though he knew that the other employees were here, harrison didn't expect to hear the fumbling behind the solid wood door-- which, it was good to know that noise could be heard through the doors, just in case harrison was ever needed. he swung the door open, trying his best to make his presence known on the off chance it was a rabid raccoon looking to make off with a pack of ibuprofen.

what he was not expecting behind the door was to find a full grown human. he has to stifle a laugh at the complete deer-in-headlights look he sees on bambi’s face.

“i do,” he says simply, moving farther into the space to start inspecting one of the supply cabinets, “jasper hired me as the nurse this summer.”

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?"

without any real choice of his own, harrison is making his way towards greer. his brows lift slightly at her question, but he quickly shakes it off.

“that depends,” he offers with a small tilt of his head, “you do realize that the sun is pretty strong right now, right? unless you have a shit ton of sunscreen on, you probably shouldn’t be laying out here like this.”