Aspen + Fallon

You wouldn't expect to find your partner in crime at a church summer camp, but their friendship was anything but usual.
Fallon was fifteen and at her wits end. She had been forced to attend Sunflowers Ranch since she was twelve and she loathed every hot, sweaty, bug-infested second of it. She enjoyed nature when she knew she would be able to escape it, but the two weeks hunkering down in a wooden shed didn't make her feel at ease.
Despite it being a camp just for girls, the church didn't feel it was appropriate to let them dress in shorts and tank tops, so the girls were all fashioned in basketball shorts and t-shirts.
Very flattering, Fallon grumbled to herself as she looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. Even with cramming their days with crafts and bible study, the campers were still expected to keep the area clean. And that included a daily cleaning of the public bathrooms.
Fallon was so busy scrubbing a toilet that she didn't hear someone come into the stall behind her.
"Oh, shit," they exclaimed, making Fallon jump and drop the scrubber in the toilet bowl.
"Sorry!"
Fallon turned, tucking her sweaty hair out of her eyes, and realized it was another camper. Fallon had never met her before and was shocked by how freely she chose her words.
"I didn't mean to scare you," the girl said, tucking her own messy blonde hair behind her ears. "Sometimes I forget it's an all girls camp and mistake people for boys."
"You thought I was a boy?" Fallon frowned. The girl laughed.
"I blame the basketball shorts. Lemme show you, I bet I look the same from the back."
She bent over the toilet and stuck out her backside comically, her own blue basketball shorts not doing her any favors either,
Fallon tried to swallow her giggles.
"See? People will think Dirk Nowitzski just showed up."
Fallon let her laugh fly as the girl straightened up. She was tall and slender, as if she grown in height but not width overnight. Her round face and Peter Pan nose were adorable, her dark blue eyes dazzling like headlights on a car.
"I knew Utah was high strung," she huffed, wiping sweat from her brow, "but I didn't expect to be turned into a lesbian this quickly."
Fallon laughed again, trying to hold it back. Other cleaning campers gave them scornful looks, muttering under their breath as they tried to ignore the commotion.
"I didn't think I recognized you," Fallon said.
"Just moved here from California."
"Yeesh, what a downgrade."
"Tell me about it." The blonde girl threw the toilet scrubber over her shoulder like it was a fashionable handbag.
"I'm Aspen Paisley. Fifteen, scorpio, die hard fan of anime." She smiled with pride. Fallon admired how sure of herself she was, even with judgmental eyes all around her.
"I'm Fallon. Fallon Hollow."
"Ooh, what a spooky name!"
"Yeah, I'm basically the anti-christ." Fallon surprised herself by her own words. Maybe it was this stranger's charm or wit, but Fallon felt like she could say anything around her.
The two girls bonded over the next week. They both felt the gnawing urgency to get out of here, but also felt like they had no choice.
Aspen grew up in Orange County with her dad, but when he passed in the spring, she had to come live with her mom in Utah. And her mother was very different compared to her father's hippy lifestyle. She was highly religious and insisted Aspen follow the same rules, but to Aspen, it was as if she was asking her not to be herself. She explained how she agreed to go to this camp only if her mom would let her pick the high school she would attend, but she was still debating if that was a fair deal.
"This is my fourth year at this camp," Fallon sighed as they sat atop a tree overlooking the lake. "And each year, I get a little bit closer to insanity."
"A little bit?"
Fallon tossed some leaves at her.
Fallon had always been a shy girl and felt safest when her mouth was shut, but she didn't feel that way with Aspen. Maybe it was her kindness or how she laughed instead of judged, or maybe because Aspen would say far more outrageous things.
"Do you think they'll let us leave early if all the cabins are burned down?" Aspen asked, lying on her back as she watched the clouds move across the sky.
"Probably not. They'd say sleeping on the ground is what god would want."
"Ha. I wouldn't be surprised."
They sat in silence a moment, listening to the ripples of the water and the wind in the trees. The day was cooling as the sun began to set.
"Ugh," Aspen suddenly burst. "I'm so angry. Promise me we'll never feel this way again, Fallon?"
"I promise." She meant it.
And over the next several years, she kept it.
Aspen ended up going to the same high school as Fallon and the two were inseparable until they graduated. Not wanting the dynamic duo to dissolve, they decided to get an apartment together and try to make life work on their own. All they needed was each other.