Her mattress was getting wet. There was a dark spot underneath where she'd been sitting and Evie knew she'd have to change her sheets before dinner and hope her mattress wasn't soaked through.

She sighed, pulling the ribbon out of her hair, the dark strands falling stiffly around her shoulders, waterlogged and disgusting. Her clothes would need to be washed, she didn't even know if the laundry block would be open yet. She knew that the only ones with a key would be the counselors on laundry duty or Nurse Lane.

She knew the longer she sat there, her skirt wrinkled around her thighs, a piece of seaweed hanging off her shoulder, sand in her hair, the worse she'd feel, but Evie didn't want to move. She hated coming to camp. She missed her house, she missed her sister and she missed the woods.

Her house backed right into them, and when she was younger, Evie would spend a lot of time in them with her older sister. Shirley would lift her, carry her on her back, and they would race through the woods.

Trees whizzing by, the whole forest a blur of green, the colour of the leaves, the ribbon in her sister's hair, Shirley's eyes, the brightest and most magical green. Her favourite colour.

She still went out there alone, spending hours after school so deep in the forest it felt easier to keep going than to turn back. Like she could run forever, and maybe then she would find somewhere that she could be as happy as she was with Shirley. She would lie on the dirt, twigs in her hair as she watched the inferno of reds and yellows falling around her. Once, when she was thirteen, she'd fallen asleep out there, and when she woke up, it had started to rain, soggy leaves covering her entire body, weighing her down. She'd closed her eyes, lying there until she heard her mom call for her to come back inside. She'd had to force herself to move.

She fell back on the bed, closing her eyes tightly. If she clenched her fists, digging half moons into her palms, and closed her eyes hard enough, she could pretend she was there. Water dripping down sideways off her cheeks, just like the rain had. Maybe she'd stay there for the rest of the summer.

The door creaked open, and Evie sighed, the tension she'd unknowingly been holding on to seeping out of her as easily as the water had. Cindy had a habit of doing that. "Oh my gosh, Evie!"

She opened an eye weakly, forcing a smile. "Hey,"

The redhead girl rushed over to her. "What happened to you?" she said, aghast as she helped her sit up. She looked over Evie, concern pooling in her eyes. "Is- is everything okay?"

"Your sister happened," she smiled. "Knocked me in the lake,"

Cindy frowned. "Ugh, I'll talk to her about it. I'm sorry Evie," she brushed some of Evie's hair behind her ear.

"It's alright," she smiled softly. "It was an accident,"

"She didn't stop to help you," Cindy pointed out. Cindy held her hands out and Evie took them, standing up off her bed. Cindy winced as she saw the state of the blankets. "That's my bed,"

"Oh, really?" Evie bit her lip. "I'm sorry, that one's normally mine,"

Cindy kicked the sign on the foot of the bed gently, 'Cindy Berman' in neat print. "It's alright, we can wash the sheets, get you some new clothes and I might be able to convince Danny to open up the showers early. He got the key and he's acting like he's the most powerful person here," she rolled her eyes and Evie giggled.

"I got assigned on wake-up," she said. "You better believe he's going to be woken up at 4:30 every morning,"

Cindy fought a smile, but Evie could see it peeking through. "That's mean,"

"You worried that you'll get caught in his bed at 4:30?" the brunette asked teasingly. Cindy and Danny were basically together. The only people that wouldn't admit it where the two of them.

Cindy rolled her eyes again. "Do you want my help?"

"Yes please," Evie said, Cindy pushing her lightly as she started pulling the sheets off the bed. While Cindy got everything off her bed, Evie changed into a new set of clothes.

It was a perk Evie enjoyed, even if it was just for the first day. The campers wore their Nightwing-issued shirts and the counselors wore whatever they wanted. It was silly, she knew. But she still liked it.

Once they'd gathered up all the wet things, the two girls pushed open the door to the cabin and went outside to the laundry block.

Camp Nightwing was usually very busy, with over a hundred campers showing up every summer, but the first day of camp was usually the worst. The first day excitement, paired with a hundred teenagers and their bags usually meant accidents happened. Such as Ziggy Berman accidentally knocking Evie into the lake.

Even the counselors seemed to be acting immature, despite all of them usually being fairly responsible (well... almost all of them). The two girls turned as they heard peals of laughter behind them, smiling to themselves as they saw Scott with a giggling Bonnie tossed over his shoulder.

"Scott!" Bonnie squirmed. "Put me down!"

"I don't think I will," Scott pretended to consider it. "No, I've decided. I don't wanna,"

Bonnie hit him lightly on the back, trying to stifle her laughs. "Can you at least take me to the cabin?"

"I think I can do that for you," Scott took off, Bonnie wriggling in his grip. The two of them had been together for years, and despite being only twenty, they already had two kids together. They'd left Andrew and Maddie with Bonnie's mom over the summer, using the counseling job to get some more money.

Once he'd reached her cabin, Scott places Bonnie down gently on the bed that had her name. Scott plopped down beside his girlfriend, resting his head on hers. "Do you think the kids are okay?"

Bonnie rubbed his arm comfortingly. "I'm sure they're fine. We can call my mom tonight after dinner and check in on them,"

Scott looked down, fiddling with his fingers. "Do you ever worry we're missing out on them?" he asked quietly. "Like, we're gone for the next month and a half, what if Andrew says his first words?"

Bonnie took his hand. "I know. But we need to be able to provide for them while we're in school. We can't live with my mom forever. Once we graduate, we'll be able to get better jobs and then hopefully we can move out,"

Scott nodded. "I know. I just worry that they're growing up too quick,"

Bonnie smiled. "They probably will. But we'll be there for them,"

The door pushed open again, and someone groaned. "Can you guys not canoodle in our cabin please?"

Val dumped her stuff on the bed in the corner, pulling the sign off and swapping it with the one that had her name on it.

"Thanks," Julia rolled her eyes. "I didn't want that bed anyway,"

"Good," Val smiled at her, going to sit on the bed beside hers. "Ew. Why is Berman's bed all wet?"

"No clue," Julia flopped onto her bed, looking at the ceiling. "Maybe she and Danny got together early,"

"What did I do?" Danny stuck his head through the open door.

"Oh great," Julia groaned. "I fucking summoned him,"

"Okay," Bonnie giggled. "Let's take this outside before Kurt has an aneurysm for there being boys in here,"

She forced her boyfriend off her bed as he groaned, a smile on his face. "What time's roll call?"

Danny checked his watch. "We've got half an hour, do we wanna go find Evie and Cindy?"

Scott grinned, ruffling his friend's hair. "Yeah, we can go find your girlfriend, let's go,"

Danny huffed as Bonnie rubbed his arm comfortingly, taking Scott's hand. Val stayed behind but Julia went with them, the four of them deciding to have a piggy back race on the way to the laundry block, where they found Cindy and a freshly showered Evie waiting for the sheets to finish washing.

The boys dropped Bonnie and Julia down in front of the two of them and caught their breath. "Hey," Scott panted. "Fancy seeing you here,"

"I know," Evie mused. "It's been a whole three hours since we last saw each other,"

With the Michaels living right beside the Fosters, Evie saw Bonnie and Scott almost daily, especially since they'd had their second kid. Scott ruffled her hair and hopped onto one of the machines. Bonnie went to stand in front of him and his hands went straight into plaiting her hair, insisting he needed the practice for when Madeline was older.

Danny smiled down at Cindy, his arm falling around her shoulder, and Evie looked away, shuffling her feet. Julia gripped her hand.

"You guys wanna go raid the kitchen?" she spoke up. Scott yelling out in affirmation as he jumped down, grabbing his girlfriend's hand instinctively.

"Hey!" Before they could leave, a voice called out to them, Ziggy jogging up to them. "Hey, Evie. I just wanted to say I'm sorry, about earlier..." she tucked her red hair behind her ear.

Danny's arm fell off Cindy's shoulder and the older Berman used it as an opportunity to step towards her sister. "Come on, Ziggy. You said this summer was going to be better. You promised me,"

Ziggy rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I just wanted to say sorry, are you alright?"

Evie nodded, ignoring the fact that she could feel Cindy's angered breaths on the back of her neck. "Yeah, thanks Ziggy. It's alright,"

Ziggy nodded stiffly, uncomfortable under Cindy's gaze. "Well, I should go, I heard the flag's going up, so I need to get in early. Arson waits for no one,"

"I'll go with you," Danny said. "I'm always up for some arson," Ziggy shrugged and walked away, Danny turning back to Cindy once she was out of ear shot. "I'll go make sure no fires are set,"

Cindy nodded. "Yeah, I think that would be a good idea,"

Julia linked her arm with Evie's, clearing her throat loudly. "Let's go find Val," she said. "Bet she's lonely,"

"I thought we were getting food," Scott groaned as Bonnie pulled him along, complaining the whole way back to their cabin. "I'm starving,"

"You ate an hour ago, Scott," Bonnie reminded him gently.

He groaned again as they swung the door open, and when Val was nowhere to be found, he sighed dramatically. "Oh no. I guess she's not here,"

"You shouldn't be either, Holt,"

Evie groaned, leaning on Julia's shoulder. It was Kurt, coming to bust them for 'congregating in the cabins,' like he wasn't fucking someone in his own cabin. They didn't know who, but they were certain it was happening.

Just when they got ready to have to deal with Kurt, the head counselor and a massive pain in the ass, Tommy popped his head around the corner. "Because we all know guys and girls can't be alone for thirty seconds without stripping,"

"Oh thank fuck," Julia punched him. "I was not about to get stuck babysitting Alice, Val and Arnie for the rest of the week,"

"The fact that that is a punishment seems really mean," Cindy said.

"Do you want to do it?" she raised an eyebrow and eventually Cindy sighed.

"No,"

"Speaking of," Tommy leant against the cabin wall. "Where is Val?"

"Probably hunting for mushrooms or something," Evie rolled her eyes. Cindy nudged her arm gently. "I mean, oh, I don't know Tommy. Maybe we should search for them," she said that last bit flatly, looking at Cindy for approval. The redhead shrugged. Better than nothing.

"We want to go call my mom just to check," Bonnie rolled her eyes, suggesting that they didn't want to do anything, and it was just Scott who was checking on the kids they'd seen less than an hour ago.

"I want a nap," Julia said. "So if you guys could," she did a shooing gesture before putting on a sickly sweet smile. "That'd be great,"

"I should go find Val," Tommy shook his head. "You know, make sure she's doing anything stupid," he cleared his throat.

Evie sat back against the rock wall in front of the cabin, Cindy joining her soon after. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Evie nodded, her drying hair falling in front of her eyes. "Yeah. I'm okay,"

She wasn't, but the way Cindy smiled when she thought Evie was, well it was worth the guilt of lying to her.

────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note
first chapter of 1978!!! honestly, this movie is my least favourite (only just) but i still do love it. evie is honestly just . 🧍‍♀️ she's going through it. i took quite a bit of inspiration from evie in a character i used for my college writing workshop, so watch me get accused of plagiarism or something.

i'm trying to make things longer, but honestly no promises i feel like these chapters really benefit from a 1k-2k word count but personally i just prefer to have longer chapters 😔

i love u, thank u for reading 🫰🫰🫰 mwah