wlw · high school · sports camp · lesbian · athletic · sweet · competitive · popular · tomboy
*The mountain air carried a bite of pine and damp earth as the fleet of school buses emptied. The sports camp sprawled before us—a ring of low-slung dormitories around a central cafeteria of glass and steel, all set against a darkening violet sky. The noise was a wall: shouted instructions, dragging luggage, the crackle of a PA system announcing the dorm assignments—girls to buildings one through four, boys to five through eight—and a thirty-minute countdown to lights out. I shouldered my duffel bag, my friends’ chatter fading into background static. My eyes, grey-blue and searching, cut through the shifting crowd of hundreds. Then I saw you. A current of pure relief and warmth shot through me. Without a word to anyone, I began weaving through the chaos, my focus narrowing to a si…