Chapter Text
Peridot couldn’t help but feel that her parents had misunderstood her obsession with Camp Pining Hearts . Otherwise, their reasoning for signing her up for this ridiculous summer-long outdoor endeavour was completely unfounded. Not that that explanation comforted Peridot much on the ride over. For weeks she’d been storming around the house, shouting over and over that she would run away, or find some other loophole to get out of this. She’d begged, pleaded, schmoozed, even attempted a bribe, but no dice. Her parents were adamant that she “go outside” and “make friends” this summer. What utter tripe, Peridot thought, clearly the work of some extraverted capitalist propaganda
Peridot didn’t need to venture the outside world. As she’d explained to her parents countless times, the world was quickly becoming a digital jungle. The internet was a world she knew, and that would only be an asset to her as time went on. As for friends, well, Peridot didn’t see much of a benefit there. People had only served to annoy her at best and antagonize her at worst. What would be the purpose of engaging further with them? Hadn’t her parents heard of the Hunger Games, the people with teams always got screwed over. She estimated only two days before she murdered at least one of her campmates.
“We’re here!” her mother chirped. Peridot declined to respond. The forested trail path that their car had been blazing through suddenly revealed an office cabin with a small dirt parking lot. The lot was full to the brim with cars and the whole area was swarming with parents dropping off their kids and saying their goodbyes. Peridot groaned, she had been procrastinating preparing for this in her mind as long as possible. Her body tensed instinctively, crowds of people. Her mother parked in a small spot at the end of the lot.
Peridot’s father turned in his seat and gave her a big smile, “Looks like these kids are a lot of fun, Peri.”
“Hmph,” Peridot turned to look out the window, “If by ‘fun’ you mean loud, dirty, and senseless then yes, I would say so. Peridot saw her father curl his lip in disappointment, but she was too busy brooding to care at the moment. He should have known better, what fifteen year old wants to spend an entire Summer in a cabin with no wifi? Her mother popped the trunk and went to get Peridot’s suitcase. Peridot sighed, she couldn’t avoid it any longer. She grabbed her backpack and hopped out of the car.
The fresh scent of pine and dirt greeted her. Peridot burst into a coughing fit.
“Oh, Peri, it’s not that bad,” her dad rolled her eyes as he joined her, taking in a deep breath himself, “Come on, let’s go sign you in.”
They entered the office, which was slightly less crowded. At least the tearful goodbyes were left at the doorstep. Once the door shut, a pale, chipper older woman turned to them and smiled. She hustled over with a clipboard, “Well hello there, you must be one of our new campers.”
Peridot somehow successfully bit back a groan. She wasn’t five years old, despite this woman’s tone.
“Yup!” Peridot’s father answered for her, “this is little Peridot.”
Little? Great, now her dad was enabling the behavior.
“Alrighty,” the woman looked down at her clipboard and found Peridot’s name, “So you must be her...father?” she asked unsure. Peridot had to admit, she didn’t look much like her dear old dad. Having fluffy blonde hair and standing only 5 feet flat did not add up to her father’s tall, dark-haired stature. The only trait they shared were the same wide, angular eyes. “Well, Peridot,” the woman beamed brightly at her, “It looks like you’re in the Crystal Gems program, Oh, you’re going to love it there, my little Sadie herself is in that program! It’s just lovely! Sadie loves it there too, she’s just so talented.”
Peridot kept herself from rolling her eyes, this woman was at like a 10 and she wanted her at a 4.
The woman finally stopped rambling on about her daughter to look down at the clipboard,“It says here you’re in the Yellow Cabin.”
Yellow Cabin, Peridot thought, sounds like a disease.
“Well, welcome to camp Miss Peridot, my name’s Barbara but just call me Barb,” the woman went on, putting her clipboard down and looking Peridot in the eye, “once you have your things I’ll lead you over to your cabin where you can meet your counselor.”
Goodie.
Peridot’s mom shortly arrived with Peridot’s suitcase and Barb walked them all out the backdoor of the office. There was a short trail that lead to the main center of the camp, Barb explained, where the mess Hall, Civic Center, First Aid, and other necessities for the camp were. In order to get to Peridot’s “Cluster,” as Barb called it, they walked a little further to a pathway on the right. Sure enough, it opened up to a clearing with four small cabins surrounding a campfire, each with a little colored flag waving on their porches (Yellow, Blue, Pink, and White respectively). The Yellow cabin was the first on the left and to their credit it didn’t look as ramshackle as Peridot was anticipating. It was certainly best kept of the four cabins, its porch was clean and there were no stickers plastered on the windows. As they approached the cabin, Peridot noticed a little whiteboard tacked by the door with a list of names, including Peridot’s, next to a chart for chores like dinner duty and cleaning the bath house, lovely. Whoever her counselor was, she liked things in order.
Barb creaked open the door. The cabin was indeed as small as it looked from the outside, but it only had to hold two sets of bunkbeds and a single at the far wall. At first Peridot thought she was the first one to arrive when she heard a soft THUMP. A huge pair of thick tan arms appeared over the edge of the left top bunk as it bounced a rubber ball against the ceiling.
“Jasper,” Barb warned, “I know Yellow has asked you not to do that.”
A husky voice scoffed as the supposed Jasper sat up in her bunk. Her. That was a bit of a surprise from how muscular her arms looked, fascinating. Quite a lot like Pierre in fact, Peridot noted. Her tan skin was offset by vitiligo stripes of lightness across her face and arms. She had long blonde hair tied in a chunky braid and piercing hazel eyes that were now staring at Peridot, “Perfect,” Jasper smirked, “You’re not Ronaldo, you can sleep in this bunk.”
Peridot blinked, at least she was sleeping on the top, “You don’t want it?” she asked.
“Nah, I’d just bump my head every morning, but I’ll claim bottom and save us both the tragedy of bunking with Ronaldo. Trust me, newbie, you’ll thank me,” Jasper answered. Before Peridot could tell her not to call her Newbie, Jasper hopped over the edge of the bunk without using the ladder and landed with a thud on her feet.
Barb shook her head, “It’s the first day Jasper, don’t make me call your mom and tell her you broke camp property already.”
Jasper rolled her eyes but said nothing.
“Where is Yellow anyway?” Barb asked.
Jasper shrugged, “Probably fighting with Blue somewhere.”
Barb sighed, “I’ll have to contact her, she needs to meet her new camper.”
Jasper looked Peridot up and down, “So what’s your name Newbie.”
“Well if you must know it’s not Newbie it’s Peridot,” Peridot snapped back. Jasper didn’t even flinch, or act surprised at all. She just smirked again, much to Peridot’s annoyance.
“Peri! Don’t be so cranky,” her mom admonished, “Why don’t you ask Jasper to show you around while I put your sheets on.”
Peridot growled, she really didn’t want to listen to her parents at the moment, but the thought of sticking around with them and Barb wasn’t exactly appealing, “Fine, come on Jasper.”
“Already giving orders?” Jasper asked mockingly, but followed Peridot out of the cabin. Jasper lead her towards the campfire and swung her arms wide to gesture to the whole Cluster, “Alright so this is the Crystal Gem cluster, as you have already discerned, no doubt. You’re in Yellow cabin so congratulations, you’ve already won at being in the best, most awesome cabin.”
“Woo,” Peridot muttered dryly.
“We’re the most efficient cabin in the whole camp,” Jasper beamed, “We’ve won the Cluster Cup five years in a-” Jasper suddenly stopped herself and frustration flashed across her face as she grumbled, “well...we WOULD have won five years in a row.”
“Cluster cup?” Peridot arched an eyebrow.
“Heh, yeah. It’s a prize to whichever cabin earns the most badges all summer,” Jasper explained.
“Sounds very mature,” Peridot ran a hand through her hair as the heat began to make her sweat. The outside was horrible, she should check to see if the cabins were air conditioned.
“Yeah, well, allegedly the Diamonds came up with it about twelve years ago when the camp became obsessed with Harry Potter,” Jasper shrugged, “It’s intense.”
“Yeah? Well what happened last year that sullied your reputation so?” Peridot crossed her arms.
Jasper scowled and looked off, “Let’s just say Ronaldo had a little issue with the stargazing badge.”
Peridot rolled her eyes. Badges? She wasn’t a little girl scout, she was closer to a grown woman for crying out loud. This camp had to be a joke. It was nowhere near as cool as Camp Pining Hearts. When she looked back at Jasper, the behemoth-girl was staring at something behind Peridot with a look of utter terror.
“She...she came back this year? She wasn’t supposed to come back,” she heard Jasper whisper. Peridot whipped her head around to see what had horrified her companion. Coming up the trail was a small Filipina girl, even skinnier than Peridot, with short layered blue hair. She had quite a bit of luggage with her, but no parents in sight. She hadn’t looked over yet, and Jasper apparently was not going to give her the chance, as she grabbed Peridot’s hand and sprinted away.
Peridot nearly fell flat on her face trying to keep up. It was like a gazelle had just been warned of a lion’s presence. “Wh-Where the hell are we going?!” Peridot yelped.
“Uh, er,” Jasper stumbled as they ran down another pathway leading away from the cluster, “Th-the lake! Yeah! I have to show you the lake, it’s reaaaaally important.”
Peridot tried tugging her hand out of Jasper’s monster grip, to no avail. Luckily, they stopped before her lungs collapsed. Peridot collapsed to her knees, wheezing on the dirt shore. That was way more physical activity than she was used to, and arguably, more than she was made for. The lake itself was surrounded by a clearing of dirt that lead into the forest. At the far end, Peridot could see a river flowing into it, a good place for tubing and all that. Once she caught her breath a little, Peridot stood up and pointed her finger directly into Jasper’s chest and yelled at her in between gasps, “What...the hell...are you doing?!”
“Um, the lake?” Jasper pointed towards the large body of water as if hoping that would convince Peridot. When it only received a glare, Jasper sighed, “Okay...that girl...Lapis...is my ex, sort of.”
Peridot’s mind went blank for a moment, that wasn’t what she was expecting, “Ex? Is she from your school?”
“What? No, we hooked up last summer,” Jasper clarified.
“You...really?” Peridot asked, dumbfounded, “You dated someone from camp?”
Jasper blushed, “It’s not like it was a decision with a lot of thought behind it,” she defended, “It just sort of...happened, and it wasn’t good...for anyone involved.”
Peridot blinked, maybe this was more like Camp Pining Hearts than she thought, “What happened?”
Jasper rubbed the back of her neck and refused to look Peridot in the eye, “Er...I don’t think it would be right of me to say.”
Alright, well the direct route was a bust.
“Aughhhh,” Jasper groaned loudly, covering her face with her hands, “Just great, this camp is supposed to be away from all the bullshit.”
“Well, that’s probably why it’s frowned upon to hook up at camp.”
“Yeah, hindsight is 20/20, squirt,” Jasper sat down on the dirt. She drew her knees to her chin, making her appear much smaller, “I know it’s mega-weird to be saying all these things when we just met. I promise, most of camp is normal and fun. I didn’t mean to drag you into this mess.”
Peridot wasn’t about to let the only interesting thing going on in this god forsaken woods get away from her. No, she had two choices. Wait out the Summer in a miserable, lonely heap and watch Camp Pining Hearts ad nauseum on her DVD player, or befriend Jasper and see where this goes. She hesitated.
“It’s fine, really,” Peridot shrugged, “But why are you freaking out? Sure it’ll be awkward, but you can just avoid her, be polite but don’t engage.”
“You have no idea what she’s like...what we were like,” Jasper sighed, “I can’t really explain it she just brings out the worst in me, and I guess I must do the same for her. I just know that if we’re around each other this summer we’re going to drive each other crazy.”
Jasper’s resignation was apparent and Peridot felt herself sympathizing. Even if she wasn’t crazy about this bug-infested nuthouse, she could see how much Jasper cared about it. Peridot scratched her head, “I’ll help you stay cool, if you want.”
“What?”
“I mean...I don’t know what’s going to happen when you see her, but if you’re getting all wound up I’ll do my best to distract you, or her, or whatever...I don’t even know what I’m saying,” Peridot gave up, she wasn’t good at comforting, she wouldn’t be surprised if Jasper was embarrassed for her, “Just...if you need help, I can do something...maybe,” after all, this was as close to a real life Camp Pining Hearts double-episode special as she was going to get.
“Wow, under all that complaining and whining, you’re actually a big softie,” Jasper grinned.
Peridot blushed, “I am not! I deny that accusation!”
Jasper chuckled and stood, holding her hands up in mock defense, “Alright, alright, I’ll tell no one.”
“So...uh, what’s so special about this lake?” Peridot asked.
Jasper’s smirk returned to her face, thoughts of Lapis quickly thrown away, “Well, it’s said that if you look deep enough into it, you’ll see the face of your true love.”
“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Peridot scoffed.
Jasper shrugged, “Alright, sure, if you don’t care that’s fine. All I know is Rose looked last summer and said she saw his whole face.”
Peridot knew this was just some made up story. A silly camp tale to pass on to the little kids. She knew that.
...Still, there wasn’t any harm in looking. Peridot walked to the water’s edge and leaned over. It was pretty clear but dark, she couldn’t see a thing...for a moment. At first it was just her reflection, and then another figure began to emerge. Peridot couldn’t believe her eyes! Was this real? Her heartbeat raced. This was just like in her fanfics.
“I-I see them!” she exclaimed, “It’s showing up! It’s, it’s-!”
Peridot felt a hard shove against her back and splashed face first into the water. She wasn’t prepared and ended up swallowing a mouthful of lake water. She sputtered and flailed her arms, eventually coming to the surface. Jasper was laughing so hard she had to actually hold her sides.
“Oh, man,” Jasper wiped away a tear, “Amethyst would’ve loved to have seen that!”
Peridot changed her mind, this Summer was going to suck.
“You clod!” she screamed and hopped out of the water to chase after Jasper, who had already gotten a head start down the path.