She’d stumbled across mention of Camp Thunderbird last spring, in her increasingly desperate attempt to find anyone with the same strange abilities as her brother. Shifters were careful about what they posted online—and even more wary about responding to messages from strangers—but she’d finally managed to confirm that yes, it really was a summer camp exclusively for kids who turned into animals.
Unfortunately, it also wasn’t cheap. Last summer, Paige and her mom had barely scraped together enough cash to pay the eye-watering fees. They’d warned Archie it would have to be a one-off. But he’d come home so full of tales about his wonderful adventures, and begging to go back again…and as it had turned out, there was one way he could.
Normally, Paige wouldn’t have dreamed of taking a break from her usual office temping to work at a summer camp, let alone one for magical beings. But they didn’t know any other shifters back home. Camp Thunderbird was the only place Archie could meet kids like himself. Even more importantly, it was somewhere he could learn from adult shifters.
And now, more than ever, hehadto get better control over his bear.
“We’re lucky the director is letting me pay your fees by working as a counselor,” she continued. “Promise you won’t waste this opportunity, okay? I know you love all the hiking and outdoor stuff, but you need to spend time working on your shifting as well.”
“I don’t need help with that,” Archie said indignantly. “I’m awesome at being a bear. I can run and climb and dig up all kinds of neat bugs.”
Paige repressed a sigh. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
Archie scowled at his sneakers. “You don’t get it. Being a bear is way better than being human. If you could shift, you’d do it all the time too.”
“Not when I was supposed to be doing other things. Like an algebra test, for example.”
“That was one time!”
“And it was one time too many.” She rubbed at her forehead. “Look, I do want you to have fun this summer. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to hang out with your friends. But you need to spend time learning from your counselors, too. I’m sure they’ll be able to give you advice on controlling your bear.”
“Extra lessons, and my sister at camp,” Archie muttered. “Worst. Summer. Ever.”
I don’t want to be here either, little bro.But she couldn’t say that to Archie. She was his big sister. It was her job to take care of him, no matter what. And she didn’t want him to worry about her. Or anything else, for that matter.
She put on a more upbeat tone.“Hey, it won’t be so bad. It’s not like I’ll be supervising you and your friends. I asked the director to assign me to the older campers. We’ll have completely different schedules and activities, so you don’t need to worry that I’ll cramp your style.”
Archie perked up. “Yeah, I bet we won’t even see each other all summer!”
“Gee, thanks,” Paige said dryly. “And here I was worrying that you were going to miss me.”
“Nah, I’ll be too busy with my friends,” Archie said, demonstrating his usual tact. He sat up straighter, adopting a serious expression. “Okay. If this is our last chance to talk for a while, we’d better go over the rules.”
Paige blinked at him. This was new. Normally she was the one trying to coach Archie on expected behavior, while he wriggled and fidgeted and paid no attention whatsoever.
“I already know the rules, Archie,” she said. “I made you read the camp handbook with me, remember?”
“Notthoserules,” Archie said, his tone making it clear that only losers cared about things like the actual camp regulations. “I mean rules for you, since you’re just a boring ol’ regular person rather than a shifter like everyone else. I don’t want you to embarrass me by doing somethinghuman.”
“Archie, everyone already knows I’m not a shifter. Director Zephyr made a point of discussing that with me during my interview.”
At great length, in fact. From what he’d told her, this was the first year any non-shifter would be working at the camp—at least officially. Apparently, last summer there had been some mix-up with a regular human being hired as a counselor. Paige had no idea howthatcould have happened, but at least it had resulted in a change to the camp’s rules.
“Yeah, but you gotta know about shifter stuff, or you’ll never fit in,” Archie said earnestly, as though there was any chance of her ever ‘fitting in’ with a bunch of magical shapeshifters. “First, don’t ask anyone about their animal. That’s super rude.”
“Really?” Paige hadn’t known that. Maybe Archie actually had useful information for once. “How do you know that?”
“Because I asked Honey about her animal, and Beth overheard and yelled at me.” Archie screwed up his face. “Which I thought was just, you know, Beth being Beth, but then I asked Finley abouthisanimal, and he went all quiet and then said that wasn’t the sort of thing you should ask people. And I thought maybe he was just embarrassed about his animal, because he never shifted—though I still don’t get why, because he’s like, the coolest animal ever, except for a bear. So then I asked Claire what kind of shiftershewas, and she said?—”
“I get the picture,” Paige said, finally managing to jam a word into the usual Archie torrent. “To save time, is there anyone you didn’t ask this super rude question?”
“We’re getting off-topic,” Archie informed her. “Second, don’t stare at people’s butts.”
“Archie, that’s rude anywhere, not just at shifter summer camp.”
“Yeah, but at Camp Thunderbird, you’ll see a ton of naked butts.” Archie sounded distinctly pleased by this. “I mean, we’re supposed to go somewhere private to shift if we can’t transform our clothes, but nobody does that except the counselors. So basically, butts everywhere.”
This did not sound any different to her everyday life. By now, Paige could have picked her little brother’s bare—or bear—rear end out of a police line-up. Even with all the Spandex shorts their mom had made for him, he still managed to misplace his clothes on a daily basis.
