A/N: Year 14 – Beca is 14, Chloe and Stacie are 15, Emily is 13, and Aubrey is 17

"Mom, seriously? I mean, I get why I can take my laptop and mixing equipment, but what I'm hearing you say is that I can't take my phone or my iPod? So, I'm going to be music-less for three weeks." Beca was whining as she checked things off her packing list as she tossed them into her trunk.

"Beca, you are connected year-round to technology. Balancing this reality with respect for the natural world will do you good. Besides the counselors will just confiscate whatever you take."

"Can I at least take my headphones so I can feel like I'm listening to music?"

"No."

Beca was frustrated about the camp's no electronics rules, but she was the one who had chosen to go to resident camp. Summers were always boring around her house, and she was starting high school next school year. Her mother wanted her to do something different rather than sitting in her room all summer mixing music (which would have been just fine with her). At least her mother had given her some options to choose from and she chose camp.

Being that horses terrified her because they are so damned tall and she was... not and sailing on a boat on the large, open Gulf waters wasn't her idea of a fun time, she chose a general camp that while there was a small lake with canoeing along with other activities such as archery, crafts, games, dance, hiking, nature exploration, and more.

After camp check-in and dropping the luggage off for delivery, Beca's mom made sure her daughter was fine with being simply dropped off. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay and help you get settled?"

"Moooooooom," Beca whined. "Just go. I know you have to work today and have better things to do than watch me be awkward around new people and unpack my things." They said their goodbyes then Beca headed towards the pool for her swim test. She was glad that her mom had made her read the first day procedures. Otherwise she wouldn't have known to not pack her swim stuff and to keep it with her.

Beca made her way to the pool, changed clothes in the pool house, and went out to take her swim test. She was issued a colored wrist band which determined which parts of the pool she could venture into during free-swim and whether she could swim in the lake. After drying off and redressing, she made her way to her unit where she would meet her unit counselors.

"Hofwyl," Beca muttered under her breath. "What kind of unit name is that? Like Hufflepuff?" She tried saying the unit name several different ways with different inflections in her voice to figure out which way sounded the funniest. She finally decided one where she used a Julia Childs accent was the best.

When she walked into the unit, she met a tall blonde counselor, probably about three or four years older than Beca, emerged from her tent wearing a camp t-shirt and khaki shorts. She extended her hand to Beca. "Hi, I'm Pitch, well that's my camp name. I'm a Junior Counselor here. And you are?"

"Beca Mitchell." She tentatively shook the counselor's hand.

"Well Beca Mitchell, welcome to Hofwyl" The older teen gave a white, toothy smile. "Are your parents with you?"

Beca shoved her hands in her back pants pockets as she scuffed the ground with the toe of her Converse tennis shoe. "Naw, my mom had to get back to work. After she dropped off my trunk and filled out some papers, she took off."

Pitch looked at the clipboard she was holding. "Well Beca, you are in Cabin Three." She primly pointed in the direction of a cabin with perfectly manicured but polish-less nails. "Your stuff should already be in there, and two of your cabin mates are already here. Why don't you go get settled in? Check-in is over at four, and all the girls should be here by five. Dinner is at six, so that will give us time to start getting to know each other as a unit.

Beca trudged her way to Cabin Three, entered, and looked around. While trunks or duffel bags were set at each cot, only one was occupied. A long-legged dark-haired girl lay propped up on a few pillows shaping her nails. A stack of entertainment magazines was on the rickety shelf beside the cot. She stopped filing and looked Beca up and down. "Hi."

"Hi." Beca returned the simple greeting as she looked around the cabin. The corner adjacent to the tall brunette had already been clearly claimed by a girl who had obvious love for the color pink. She had a pink sleeping bag decorated with red ladybugs on her bed. On the bedside shelf, she had a battery-operated florescent lamp covered by a pink bandana. Everything was pink. She motioned to the pink corner. "Ummm that's a little…"

"Over the top? Naw she's sweet. She just likes pink. I'm Stacie."

"Beca." Beca tossed her backpack on the cot furthest away from the pink bed that she could get, diagonal from the offensive color which placed her across from Stacie. "Is this your first year here?"

"Nope," she looked upwards in thought. "This is my third year, I think. It's alright. Better than staying at home all summer."

"Truth! So… I can depend on you to tell me the scoop, right?" Beca asked as she hung her damp swimsuit on the end of her metal cot then continued to unpack her few belongings, placing her flashlight and batteries on her shelf along with her water bottle. She tossed a thick journal on the mattress and stuck some writing utensils in a cup on the top of her cabinet.

"Not much of a scoop, unless you count Pitch. She was my cabin-mate for the last two years. Went through Counselor-In-Training, and now she's our junior counselor. I didn't think they'd assign me to her unit, but that's cool." Stacie leaned over and snagged a magazine from her shelf and began randomly flipping through it.

Beca shoved her toiletries on the bottom shelf of her small piece of furniture. "Sounds like there's some history there. What's up?"

"Meh. She's just an up-tight traditionalist is all. A controlling, rule follower to extreme."

The shorter camper got a sly look on her face. "I might have some ideas to make our time here a bit more fun."

Stacie sat all the way up. "You have my attention."

About that time, the door to the cabin flung open and bounced off the wall and in rushed a tornado of red hair in a yellow tank top. "Staaaacccccciiiiieeeee," the newcomer yowled as she ran towards the tallest camper in the cabin and bounced on her cot. "You made it." Her arms were around the girl's neck in a flash as she chattered a million miles an hour.

"I missed you so much. I talked to Pitch; isn't that the best camp name for her? They had us in cabins across the unit from each other. Can you imagine? Separating us? I persuaded her to let us stay in the same cabin. I even moved your trunk myself. That's how much I love you Stacie Conrad." Beca could barely keep up with the babbling of the redhead.

"I missed you, too, Chloe. Chill." Stacie hugged her friend back. "Hey, meet Beca. Beca meet Chloe Beale. I hope you like hugs because this is officially known as the hug-cabin and Chloe here is our president."

Beca scuttled backwards and held her backpack in front of her as if that would shield her from the fireball sitting on Stacie's bed. "Ummmm no thanks. I'll pass on the hugs."

The redhead camper got up from her friend's cot and sauntered towards her own pink area as Stacie swatted her on the butt with a rolled-up magazine. Chloe grabbed her stuffed ladybug from her pile of pillows and plopped down, crossing her arms over the plushie. "Your loss Beca. I'm the best hug giver at Camp Barden. You'll come around." Stacie just teasingly rolled her eyes and went back to reading her magazine as Chloe picked up her random chattering.

The Hofwyl unit returned to their cabins after dinner and gathered by the unit shelter so the counselors could distribute daily schedules, discuss the kaper chart, and shower rotations. They had gone through rounds of introductions between the campers before dinner, so tonight was more about settling into a routine.

Cabin Three returned to their abode – Beca, Stacie, Chloe and the fourth girl who had arrived late. Apparently, her mother was a Camp Barden alumnus and knew absolutely everybody. Much to her young daughter's dismay, they stopped to talk to everyone her mother knew and her mother paused to tell her the history of everything she passed. Chloe took the bandana off her electric lantern and flipped on the florescent light. Along with Stacie's lantern, light reached into all corners of the cabin. Chloe bounced over to the new girl and plopped down on her cot. "Hi, I'm Chloe. That's Stacie and Beca." She pointed at each of their cabin mates in turn.

The newcomer was young and kind of shy. "Emily." Chloe seemed satisfied with just a name and the redhead's chatter took over the cabin as they packed their caddies with their toiletries and readied for the showers.

After their whirlwind showers, the group returned to their home for the next month. Ten o'clock was lights out so indeed all the lights went out right on schedule. However, getting Chloe to turn off her energy was a bit more difficult. Beca buried her head under her pillow to try to block out the noise.

After a few minutes of listening to the redhead ramble, Beca grabbed one of her smaller pillows and launched it across the cabin. "Can it Beale. Wakeup call comes early." Stacie could be heard laughing under her own stack of pillows as Chloe scrambled to find the offending pillow and throw it back.

"Cabin Three! I hear you." An authoritative voice came from the center of the unit circle. "Lights out means .sleep."

Seven am did indeed come early the next morning, particularly for Beca who had never been much of a morning person. She pulled her sheet and thin blanket over her head to block out the light. "I knew I should have gone to the 'night owls' session," she grumbled.

A fully dressed Chloe came across the cabin and began rocking Beca's shrouded body to try to get her to get up and dressed. "And miss out on being friends with me Mitchell? Nope. You would have regretted it."

"I doubt that." Beca's grumbling continued through the girls' obligatory trip to the latrine to use the restroom and brush their teeth and hair. Somehow Cabin Three was ready to go to breakfast right on time. Stacie let Beca and Emily know that they should take a water bottle and whatever they needed for their morning classes with them because the campers would depart for their activities right after breakfast.

Breakfast was surprisingly good. The campers could choose from pancakes or a variety of cold cereal. And a fresh fruit bar was set up along the side of the lodge. Beca eyed the coffee urn set up for the counselors but campers were restricted from caffeine consumption. She'd never been one for eating breakfast, but she made a small attempt as she pushed fruit around on her tray.

Before the meal started, the counselor at her table had passed around a paper wrapped tin can with a bunch of wooden sticks. The stick she had drawn read scraper and provided no context whatsoever. At the end of the meal, the cheerful counselor asked who the scraper was. Beca tentatively raised her hand. The counselor explained her job then provided oversight to ensure it was done correctly.

Beca turned her head to the side as she scraped left overs from each plate onto one. "And we do this awful task why?"

"All of this," the counselor motioned to the plate, "goes into a slop bucket. Then the kitchen staff dumps the buckets into huge barrels outside. A pig farmer comes by every few days to exchange the full barrels with empty ones. Why should we have a lot of food waste when he can use our leftovers to feed his hogs in the summer?" The tiny camper almost gagged as she finished her chore and made a mental note to try to avoid that stick in future meals.

The girls of Cabin Three split up for their morning activities. Chloe and Stacie were completing Leadership-In-Training (LIT) which would lead to the Counselor-In-Training the next summer. They went to start their basic leadership classes while Emily and Beca went to sports. "Ummm I'm not that coordinated," Emily admitted while they walked to the designated area.

"Me either," Beca admitted. "Maybe they will let us be water girls." The girls laughed together, each knowing that would be the job they were best suited for. Today's sport was archery. While several counselors began setting up the range, Beca and Emily helped each other with sunscreen. "I'm not sure about you Em, but one thing I'm best at… is getting a sunburn."

Once things the targets were in place along with the rest of the gear, the girls huddled around the instruction area. The lead counselor for this activity walked to the front of the group. Pitch. Beca groaned because she already knew, even after being at the camp for less than twenty-four hours that Pitch would be the bane of her existence. Something about the tall blonde just seemed to rub her the wrong way.

Emily was quietly clapping her hands as she stood next to her cabinmate as she leaned over and whispered, "I'm gonna to unleash my inner Katniss." Beca almost snorted with laughter before catching herself. She didn't want to catch the attention of the counselor.

Pitch had her long blonde hair pulled back into a simple pony-tail and held up her bow. "Today girls, we are going to learn about archery using a simple, traditional bow. Let's talk about safety first." The girls were paired up and would be shooting one at a time. "You cannot even have as much as an arrow notched on your bow unless the range master, that's me, calls downrange hot, that means ready for shooting."

Pitch demonstrated how to put on an arm guard and finger tabs. She drew one arrow from her quiver and talked her way through notching the arrow, pulling the string back, aiming, turning the non-dominant arm out of the way, and releasing the arrow. The arrow thwacked into the bullseye to the amazement of the campers as they cheered her accomplishment.

A counselor was assigned to every two pairs of campers and supervised the donning of safety equipment. Emily was terrified so Beca put on a brave front and went first. Once all the campers were geared up and lined up, Pitch called out, "do not advance past the firing line. The range is live." Each counselor then coached their shooters through their first shot.

"Fu… OUCH!" Beca dropped her bow and slapped her hand over the inside of her elbow. Emily covered her eyes fearing what had happened to her new friend. The counselor explained that Beca had forgotten to rotate her non-dominant arm outward, and it had been slapped with the bowstring. She helped Beca readjust the arm guard to cover that piece of skin better and reminded her to rotate her elbow.

Beca became incensed when she glanced at Pitch who seemed to be smirking at her injury. Her second arrow went wide left and third went over the top of the target. While her imagination was probably running in overdrive, she thought Pitch was still mocking her. She went to unsnap her gear before Emily stopped her. "Beca? You still have three arrows."

"She's making fun of me. I don't even know the girl but…" Emily calmed Beca down and assured her that so much was happening on the range that nobody had time to make fun of anyone else. Despite not believing Emily, Beca decide to shoot her last arrows anyway. She blocked out Pitch and everyone else on the range. Her fourth shot hit one of the outer bands and fifth shot, a bit closer in. Then her sixth shot – well her sixth shot landed right inside the bullseye ring.

Emily jumped up and down, shrilling and clapping for her cabinmate. Not many girls had managed to hit more than the outer bands and nobody but Beca came close to the bullseye.

Pitch closed the range while the first set of campers went out to collect their arrows. "Congrats Beca. You learn fast." Despite her kind words, Beca still wasn't impressed with the counselor.

Emily took her turn and also did fairly well for a beginner. Both girls were excited to learn that they would do more archery on another day.

A variety of food was available at lunch. The hot meal was cheese enchiladas with beans and rice. There was also a salad and fruit bar which would be available during each lunch and dinner. Today's dessert was these round coconut candies which were rumored to be delightful. The kitchen staff closely guarded them as people were always trying to sneak extras.

Before eating, the table counselor again passed around the chore can. When she pulled out the scraper stick again, Beca groaned. "Again?" Everyone around the table laughed, apparently feeling the same way about that stick. She turned to the camper sitting next to her. "Trade?"

"What do you have to offer?"

After thinking a moment, Beca pushed her coconut candy forward slightly. If they were as good as everyone said they were, that should do the trick.

The other camper laughed as she opened the outer pocket on her knapsack to reveal about four extra coconut snacks. "Sorry Mitchell." She chuckled as she zipped up her bag and put it back under the table. "I got connections."

When Hofwyl returned to camp, a homemade wooden plaque was hanging on the unit shelter. Many of the campers excitedly ran to the shelter, bouncing up and down until the counselors arrived. Pitch held up the sign and gave a fist pump. "Do you know what this means girls? We received the 'cleanest unit of the day' award." Apparently throughout the morning, inspections had been made and their unit was the best. Pitch read the checklist, pointing out the improvements that were needed to keep the award.

"And, cabin of the day… Cabin Three!" The girls all shouted and clapped those four campers on the back. Pitch then explained Turtle Time which was designated as quiet time when all campers had to be completely on their cots either taking a nap or some quiet activity. This was to help give their lunch time to settle and keep them out of the harshness of the noon sunlight.

"How did we get a clean cabin award?" Beca was especially curious since she knew she had left her cot unmade and clothes haphazardly thrown around her area when she left. When she walked in and saw that their cabin was spotless, including her own corner having a perfectly made bed. She checked her trunk and found her pajamas neatly folded on top.

Stacie had already thrown herself on her bed before she responded. "Don't ask questions Mitchell. Just be glad Chloe likes to be the best. At everything."

That Chloe had even touched her things infuriated Beca. She didn't even know Beca, and she certainly didn't have permission. Beca decided the argument wasn't worth it and laid down on her bed. She put her arms behind her head and gazed up at the ceiling until she drifted off to a light sleep.

After Turtle Time, everyone put on swimwear. Girls with red and yellow wrist bands would go to the pool for swim lessons while the blue bands would go to the lake. The hopes were that before camp was over, at least the yellow bands would advance enough in their skills to move to the lake activities Regardless, by the end of camp, everyone would end up swimming at the lake. Some girls would just have to wear life jackets and be restricted to certain areas.

Chloe and Stacie's leadership lessons were only in the morning, so they would be with the unit for the afternoon activities. However, their wrist bands were blue while Beca and Emily both had yellow bands, so swim time would be separate. Despite taking swim lessons when she was younger, Beca was not as comfortable in the water as she should be at fourteen years old, so she was fine going to take lessons. And thirty minutes of swim lessons were well worth the twenty minutes of free swim they received. Beca figured that life could be worse – red bands weren't even allowed in the deep end of the pool.

Emily was turning out to be a pretty cool buddy for her cabinmate. Being new to Camp Barden, much like Beca, Emily's shy and nervous side almost seemed overwhelming unless she was with the shorter camper who she seemed to already idolize. She stuck next to Beca like glue.

After lessons and free swim, the pool campers headed to the lake where the blue bands were untying canoes from their dock and pulling them on the shore of the lake. Since the girls were already in their swim gear, their next planned activity was using the thin aluminum boats to navigate the smooth surface of the lake.

As with archery, the canoeing activity started with a discussion about safety. Regardless of wrist band color, all girls were required to wear a life vest. Each boat would hold three campers, each with a different band color. One girl with a paddle each would sit fore and aft while the third camper would sit cross-legged in the middle. The counselors demonstrated how to shift places while on the lake before the girls broke into triplets.

Despite Chloe and Beca being similar in stature, Beca begged Stacie to be her third partner. She had already found a red band to be a part of their trio. "Come on Stacie. You know Chloe gets on my nerves. Please?" Stacie tried to explain the buoyancy issue of changing positions out on the water when paddlers were of different sizes, but she relented after deciding that she didn't want to be on the wrong end of Beca-the-Firecracker. This left Emily to pair with Chloe and another younger red band.

Most of the blue bands had attended camp at least a few years and showed the others all around the lake as they paddled around. They pointed out the thirty-foot-high slick slide, the huge air-filled trampoline-like balloon, and along with large wooden submerged platform out in the middle from which girls could jump or dive. Even though many of the activities required PFD's for all girls, Beca was excited to qualify for a blue band so she could come swimming at the lake rather than taking lessons at the pool.

After an exhausting afternoon in the sun and on the water, the Hofwyl unit made their way back to their cabins for a quick rest and to give them time to dress for dinner. When Stacie asked Emily how their morning had gone, her bubbly excitement almost overcame her as she told about their 'Becoming Katniss' adventure. "You two should have seen Beca. She hit the target with her last three arrows, the last one was even a bullseye!"

Beca cringed as she told about their time at the archery range, relaxing only when she realized Emily was not going to share her mishap of the first arrow. "Beca 'Everdeen' Mitchell; that's me." She was trying to joke with her cabin mates, but the praise Emily was giving her still embarrassed her. "This tall drink of water here hit well inside the target with two of her arrows."

Stacie bumped Emily with her shoulder. "Good job kiddo."

Back at the cabin, the girls stripped off their wet suits and put on clean, and more importantly, dry clothes. The day had been long but full of fun for everyone.

After dinner, the girls all filed out to the covered porch out back and sat in huddled groups by unit with their counselors mixed among them. Pitch and a few of the other counselors were in front of the girls and explained that today was the adjustment day and normally after meals was song time "So tonight's activity is song night. How many of you have never been to camp before?" About half of the girls raised their hands. "Well tonight is fun-song-night. We will sing a song for you then teach the song line by line."

"Our first song is to the tune of 'God Bless America'." Knowing immediately what song was coming and that this was for the younger campers, the experienced ones clapped and cheered as they sang along with the counselors who were hamming things up in front of the group.

God bless my underwear, my only pair.
Stand beside them, and guide them,
Through the rips, through the holes, through the tears.
From the washer, to the dryer, to the clothesline in the air.
God bless my underwear, my only pair.

True to their word, the counselors then taught the song one line at a time, singing it and having the kids sing it back. By the time they got to singing the full song, everyone had it perfect. Everyone who was participating though. Beca was leaned back on her hands, humored at everyone around her belting out such a ridiculous song.

The next song seemed to drag on forever. And again, it was a song for the younger girls, but it turned out being hilarious. The counselors up front all lined up and began to kick as they sang the chorus. Each time they sang a verse, they spun around before going back to kick-dancing.

*Chorus*

Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side, keep on the sunny side of life YEE-HAW! You'll suffer no pain as we drive you all insane, so keep on the sunny side of life.

Knock knock
Who's there?
Eather
Easter Who?
Eather Bunny!

HA-HA-HA

*Chorus*

Knock knock
Who's there?
Anada
Anada Who?
Anada Easter Bunny!

HA-HA-HA

*Chorus*

Knock knock
Who's there?
Stella
Stella Who?
Stella Anada Easter Bunny!

HA-HA-HA!

*Chorus*

Knock knock

Who's there?
twuck
twuck who?
Twuck go beep beep and run over ALL the Easter bunnies!

HA-HA-HA

*Chorus*

Knock knock
Who's there?
BOO
BOO Who?
Don't cry there'll be more Easter bunnies next year!

HA-HA-HA

*Chorus*

With this song, the counselors didn't do a sing-a-line-repeat. They had all the girls get on their feet and just be crazy silly as they sang. The new girls didn't take long to catch on.

After a few more songs, the girls were thoroughly exhausted from their activity-filled day. The counselors herded the campers back to their units. Showers seemed to be completed more quickly and soon everyone was tucked into bed.

Pitch hadn't called lights out yet, so Beca was using Stacie's lantern light to write in her journal. Sometimes she wrote thoughts about her day, but in the last year, Beca had found her writing had turned more to putting her experiences into song lyrics. She often got just as lost in her writing as she did when she mixed music at home.

"Sorry Beca. I am going to turn the light out. I'm exhausted." Chloe had already turned hers off and soon Stacie did the same. Beca could hear faint snores coming from Emily's side of the cabin. Soon all three of her cabin mates were fast asleep.

Then… she heard soft singing coming from the center of the unit, next to the shelter. The song wasn't familiar to her but the voice… was clear and, well, beautiful. The counselor sang something about barges, starboard, and port. Now Beca realized why the counselor taught the songs line by line. While the silly songs were easier for everyone to remember, Beca hoped they would be taught some of these more serious songs as well.

Wait. Only one day had passed. Was she beginning to like all this?

A/N: Thanks to Becca for the prompt! And SecretNerd18 for her constant supply of ideas!