#will come

“Okay arms out!” One of the little Witches cheered. Despite having heard her name at least four times Virgil had promptly forgotten it. Maybe Madison? The other cabin had at least 17 girls and Virgil couldn’t keep up. Even so he complied with demands and let her take his measurements.

“Why do you need these again?” He asked her.

“I’m gonna draw you and it needs to be super precise.”

Virgil gave a grimace, “Can’t you just draw an apple like everyone else?”

“Nope.”

“Strike a pose!” Remus called out.

A large suggestion of poses met his ears. “Are you all drawing me?”

Virgil wasn’t sure why he asked because he got a chorus of yes in return. Virgil looked to his fellow counselors for help, but the two girls seemed to have checked out- like Virgil wanted to- and left him to deal with the mess.

Over with them Virgil noticed Logan as well.

Unlike the other children which were being a bother in general, he had made himself comfortable beside the other counselors with a book, but he kept sending a glare Virgil’s way.

It’s not like Virgil wanted this. He wanted to be home with a book on his couch.

But no, he gave a deep sigh and gave a stupid pose for the kids to draw.

“Are you going to hang up your portraits?” Dee asked as they walked toward the Cabin.

Virgil looked up from where he was staring at the stack of drawings in his hands. “I haven’t decided.”

“He’s going to throw them out,” Logan stayed plainly.

“I never said that,” Virgil frowned. “I think they’re just gonna go in a bag.”

“You don’t need to pretend to like them.”

Virgil opened his mouth to respond but after a pause he rifled through the pages to find a stick figure version of himself with a cape and crown. “I’m not pretending,” he said turning the page for Logan to see. “I really like this one for example.”

Logan rolled his eyes but didn’t say more.

~~~~

“Logan,” Virgil tried. “Are you actually going to swim or are you going to just sit on the beach the entire time?”

“I sat on the beach yesterday. So I’ll do it today too.”

Virgil gave a sigh, “Everyone else is swimming. You don’t want to join them?”

“You’re not joining them.”

Because today they were the only group swimming so he didn’t need to stay to keep the ratio. Instead the swim instructor could cover it, while he got a well deserved break. “I’ve got to do a couple things in the cabin.”

“Can I just go with you then?”

Virgil opened his mouth to come up with an excuse as to why he couldn’t, but Logan was already standing.

“I need to use the bathroom.”

Virgil held back a groan.

“Shall we head back?” Virgil asked when Logan was done.

Logan shook his head, “You want peace and quiet right? Well so do I. Can we make a deal?”

“...A deal?”

“I go back to the Cabin with you and we both ignore everyone else. I read and you nap.”

Virgil would lie if he said he didn’t consider the idea. But ultimately he shook his head, “It’s too soon for me to lose this job. So we can head back to the lake and just chill on the beach.”

“Fine .”

“Why don't you want to participate with anyone?” Virgil asked as they walked.

“Because I don’t want to be here.”

Virgil had too much in common with this kid, “Well at least you can make the best of it? Um... what kind of things do you like besides reading?”

“I dunno. But why do you care anyway? It’s not like you wanna be here.”

Virgil gave a grimace, because I’m paid to. “I never said I don’t want to be here. I’ve... I’ve just never been a counselor before so I’m kind of nervous.”

The fourth grader didn’t look convinced.

~~~~

“Alright wizards,” Virgil started to get the campers’ attention. “We have officially received our orders for what cabin we are working with for capture the flag. We will be paired with the Queens, and Princes. So get your stuff we are headed to the Prince Cabin for a strategy meeting.”

“Why can’t they come here?” Dee complained.

“Their Cabin looks the biggest,” Patton answered before he raised his hand. “Are we gonna have to be against the big kids too?”

“Middle schoolers, yes. High schoolers no.” Virgil replied. “The high schoolers are doing something else.”

“Are you allowed to be our high schooler?”

“Technically I graduated high school, but no. I’m just supposed to stand around and make sure none of you do anything ridiculous.”

“What do you mean by ridiculous?” Remus asked.

“If you have to ask...”

“Fine.”

“So, can we go to this meeting now?”

Given the meeting of the three cabins. Thomas and Jon had organized everyone behind their cabin in a bit of open grass. Virgil motioned for his campers to join the older boys sitting on the grass as the Queens arrived and sat down beside them.

“Alright first part of our strategy is this,” Valerie started. “To win!”

The girls gave a cheer in response while Virgil gave her a confused look.

“There is an actual strategy though,” Thomas tossed in. “The gist is we want to have the biggest and smallest kids guarding the flag. The bigger ones can hunt down others and smaller kids can hide and pop out. Then we want our fastest runners going for the other two teams. And if you’re small and fast you are going to play hot potato with a flag once we’ve got it. Everyone else is a floater and a decoy. Does that make sense?”

Despite knowing the plan from the start, Virgil felt the urge to say no.

This would be very interesting.

~~~~

“Are you ready, blue team?” Valerie shouted to the crowd of children who cheered in response.

“Everyone remember the plan?” Thomas asked. “Then let’s go!”

After the pep talk, Virgil had taken his post upon the junction between the edge of red and blue zones to dispel any argument the kids got into over which side they were on. Elsewhere other counselors were placed about the zone and watching the three teams and making sure no one went too deep into the area’s forest. But while he understood his role during the game, he didn’t particularly understand why Logan had chosen to stand beside him as the game began.

“You know this is a team game right?” Virgil tried.

Logan gave a shrug but didn’t respond.

The game seemed to be relatively nowhere. The teams seemed to be evenly matched. Virgil gave a yawn as he glanced at his watch, they were only scheduled to be playing for another ten minutes. Would the game end a three-way tie?

“I tagged you!”

“I tagged you! You’re on my side now!”

“Shouldn’t you be doing your job?” Logan asked him.

Virgil resisted the urge to reply and instead he gave a grimace as he moved toward the two arguing campers. Truthfully he hadn’t been watching. “Hey, hey, hey. Look I didn’t see it. So let’s do it this way. Each of you on your own side. No one was tagged at all? Deal?”

They didn’t seem happy as a staring contest began, but Virgil couldn’t bring himself to care. Instead he went back to where he was standing. It wasn’t for a few moments that he realized something was missing.

“Logan?” He called to no response.

He blinked looking at the other kids rushing in and out of the trees in confusion. Where had he gone? Had he snuck back to the Cabin?

Virgil felt a surge of frustration rise, had the little pest really just waited till he turned his back to head back to the Cabin? There were only five minutes left for god sakes! Virgil forced himself to take a deep breath.

This was a camp wide activity.

In other words, if Logan sneaked off it wouldn’t be his fault or responsibility. So what did he care?

“I got it!”

The sound of a child’s voice caused Virgil to look down to find Logan by his side once more- joy. But this time, Logan’s glasses were askew, he looked as if he had been sweaty, and he painted from running quickly. But despite all of it he smiled proudly as he held up something red for Virgil to see.

“I got it.”

Virgil nodded in disbelief, and blew his whistle to signal to everyone else.

~~~~

The campfire which followed the game Virgil had to admit was a fun one. But being on the winning team and getting smores seemed to help. He stuck close to the other counselors grateful to be around people closer to his own age, but he found he kept looking to the campers to find Logan in the middle of bunch of them an embarrassed smile on his face as they undoubtedly praised him.

The celebration continued back to the Cabin afterwards.

“How did you get it?” Patton asked excitedly. “I thought you said you weren’t going to play!”

“I wasn’t,” Logan confirmed pulling out his pajamas. “But I stood watching for a while, and just standing there watching the red team I could see where a bunch of them get kept running from. Meaning the flag had to be there.”

“So that entire time you were just analyzing everything?” Virgil asked in surprise.

Logan shrugged, “What else was I supposed to do? I was bored.”

It was the sound of the Cabin door opening which made Virgil frown. He gave a sigh and set down his phone and climbed out of his bed hoping whomever was up had just ventured to the bathroom.

He neared the Cabin door when the sound of humming met his ears. And upon opening it, he found Logan sitting on the steps humming to himself.

“Can’t sleep?” Virgil asked him, sitting down.

Logan’s humming ceased as he gave a shrug, “I don’t know.”

“Something wrong?”

“I shouldn’t have done that. I shouldn’t have joined the game.”

“Why not?”

Logan paused his gaze falling to his lap as he lightly kicked his legs. “Because I’m not supposed to enjoy it here. I don’t want to be here... I was supposed to be at a music camp.”

“You play an instrument?” Virgil asked.

“Uhuh, violin... But I’m not allowed to go back to music camp.”

“I’m sure your mom just wanted you to do something different for the summer,” Virgil tried but Logan shook his head.

“ The camp said I can’t come back after last summer,” Logan admitted as he kept his gaze fixed to the ground. “I-I  got mad at someone so I took his trumpet and threw it. He deserved it too. He kept saying things about my mom, so I wanted to throw it at him, but he moved... And the trumpet went through a window.”

“Wow,” was all Virgil could muster in response.

Logan nodded, “Then they said I can’t come back. So mom sent me here.”

“Just because you didn’t plan to be here doesn't mean you can’t make the best of it,” Virgil said after a pause. “I don’t think it’s a secret that I didn’t plan this for my summer either. But I’m going to try my best and have fun when I can. Sure I get frustrated at things and people, but I really enjoyed the campfire earlier... so if I can try, will you?”

Logan looked up at him in surprise but finally he nodded, “Okay.”

Virgil gave a slight smile, “Good. Now head back to bed.”

“Fine. Night Virgil.”

“Night Logan.”

~~~~