Part 3 -- Scene 1: "New Territory"
Title: "Camp Morning light"
Six weeks.
No boys.
No phones.
Just sunshine, structure, and few eighteen-year-old girls raised on virtue, distance learning, and the firm belief that curiosity was a sin.
Emily leaned out the van window as the camp entrance passed by -- white wood archway, blue wildflowers, and a sign that read:
Camp Morning light: For Confidence, Character, and College Readiness.
She turned to Danielle.
"This place smells like church and repressed orgasms."
Danielle popped her gum and laughed.
"And we're the missionaries."
🏕️ Arrival
The cabins were cute.
Rustic. Airy. Shared bunks. Each filled with fresh-faced girls in floral sundresses, braids, and confusion. American Midwest. Rural Ireland. Bavaria. Kentucky. Yorkshire.
Emily scanned the crowd.
They were all smiles and soft skin.
"You see it too?" she whispered to Danielle.
Danielle nodded.
"Half these girls have never touched themselves. The other half don't even know they're allowed."
Emily smirked.
"We're going to have so much fun."
💌 The Orientation
The girls were lined up in a semicircle on the sunlit lawn, notebooks open, pencils poised, all waiting to be told how to become young women worthy of a freshman syllabus.
Emily and Danielle stood in front -- matching counselor T-shirts, sunglasses, and smiles a little too wide.
Ms. Brighton stepped aside.
"Ladies, these two will be your mentors for the next six weeks. Learn from them. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to grow."
Danielle raised a hand.
"What if they're afraid to grow in certain places?"
Ms. Brighton blinked.
Emily swooped in with a saccharine grin.
"She means emotionally."
"Deeply emotionally," Danielle added, trying not to laugh.
A few of the girls giggled. One German girl blushed so hard she looked sunburned.
🗨️ The Icebreakers
After the warden left
"Let's get to know each other," Emily said, pacing in front of them like a tiger pretending to be a tour guide. "Name, where you're from, and what you're most excited about this summer."
"Isla. Wales. Making friends."
"Sophie. Montana. Spiritual growth."
Danielle whispered to Emily, "Spiritual growth? Should we bring her a candle or a vibrator?"
Emily elbowed her lightly. "Let her bloom on her own timeline."
"Agnes. Austria. Making memories."
Emily grinned. "We're excellent at memory-making. Some might say... unforgettable."
Suddenly someone said from round the cabin.
"Maddie. Lending experience"
Emily smirked.
💡 Mentorship, Re imagined
After the round of intros, Danielle addressed the group.
"Okay, so. We're your counselors. But think of us more like... life tutors."
Emily nodded. "Big sisters with benefits."
Danielle turned to her. "Nope. Not that last part."
Emily smirked. "Okay, okay. Big sisters who know things."
"Like how to do laundry, apply to college, and--" Danielle paused. "How to stop apologizing for having feelings."
"Or how to walk into a room like you own it."
"Or how to say 'no' to a boy who only wants your boobs and your Spotify password."
The girls laughed again, more comfortable now. Walls softening.
One girl with thick braids raised her hand.
"What if we've never had a boyfriend? Is that... bad?"
Emily stepped closer.
"Not bad. Just means your story hasn't gotten interesting yet."
Danielle followed with a wink.
"Besides, what makes you think boys are the only interesting option?"
Several girls blinked.
A few giggled nervously.
One, from rural France, wrote something in her notebook and underlined it twice.
🎭 Seeds Planted
After the session, as the girls dispersed for cabin assignments, Emily and Danielle stood under the tree, watching them scatter like lambs across the grass.
"They're soft," Danielle said.
"They're clay," Emily replied. "Waiting to be shaped."
"You mean corrupted."
"I mean liberated."
Danielle smirked. "You pick one. I'll pick the other."
They touched pinkies. A silent vow.
Let the mentorship begin.
☀️ "The Trust Exercise"
The meadow was soaked in dew, the perfect kind of damp that made sitting on the grass feel like you'd peed yourself.
Emily stood on a wooden stump, spinning a whistle and smiling like a TED Talk host with a criminal record.
"Today, ladies, we explore the soul-stirring beauty of trust... and possibly mild embarrassment."
Danielle clutched her thermos like it contained salvation.
"You'll pair up. One leads. One follows. No talking. Only eye contact, hand-holding, and existential dread."
"Touch is optional," Emily added, "but encouraged. Sensually. Or spiritually. Whichever helps you sleep tonight."
A few girls giggled.
Most looked horrified.
One girl clutched her rosary.
🧍♀️🧍♀️ Pairing the Innocent
Isla from Wales was paired with Emily.
She looked like she had just wandered out of a 19th-century novel where feelings are fatal.
Emily leaned in.
"Ever walked with your eyes closed and your heart open?"
Isla blinked. "Should I... answer that?"
"No. Just breathe. And try not to fall for me."
Emily guided her forward, eyes closed, hands trembling. Isla followed like a deer about to become a poem.
Elsewhere, Danielle had Sophie -- earnest, farm-strong, and currently trying not to die of gay panic.
"I'm going to guide your hand to my shoulder," Danielle said. "Not in a sexy way. In a professional mentorship capacity. That happens to involve skin."
Sophie's ears turned red.
"You okay?"
"I'm fine. Just not used to... proximity. With... scented girls."
Danielle nodded. "That's fair. We're a lot. Think of this as survival training."
💡 Reflections in the Confessional Circle
After the exercise, the girls sat in a circle of lawn chairs, faces flushed, minds softly imploding.
Emily passed around water bottles like she hadn't just emotionally rearranged three rural girls and a Dutch exchange student.
"How are we feeling?"
"Connected," said one.
"Disoriented," said another.
Isla quietly asked, "Is it normal to... feel things in your stomach and chest and... lower?"
Danielle raised a brow.
"That's digestion. Or awakening. Possibly both."
Sophie stared at her shoes.
"I think I might be allergic to eye contact."
Emily patted her knee.
"That's called humanity. Or denial. We're here to help."
🎭 Scene Close: The Whisper Begins (Reluctantly)
That night, in the counselor cabin, Emily lay sprawled on her bunk.
"So. Isla wants to know why her knees feel weird when I talk."
Danielle rolled over.
"Sophie accidentally called me 'ma'am' while I fixed her braid. Then asked if I thought God invented girl-crushes as a test."
Emily smirked.
"They're not seducing themselves yet."
Danielle nodded.
"But they're definitely losing their innocence by proximity."
Emily laughed.
"Blessed are the confused... for they shall inherit clarity. Eventually."
🛏️"Whispers in Cabin 3"
Cabin 3 was meant to house peace and friendship bracelets.
Instead, it now vibrated with something far more combustible: confusion in the dark.
The lights were out.
The bunk beds creaked with every restless turn.
Outside, crickets sang hymns to heat and humidity.