Chapter Text
Jesper tumbles out of Kaz’s car and immediately begins to kiss the ground. “Sweet, sweet solid ground, how I missed you!”
Kaz prods Jesper’s back sharply with his cane. It’s not his usual metal one, but a wooden one he carved a few summers ago specifically for this camp. The head of the cane is shaped like a crow’s head, a symbol the trio had adopted from Jesper and Kaz’s cabin name. This cane marks the special memories they’ve made at Ketterdam for years and preserves them in wood. It still hurts like hell. “Owwwww.”
“I’m not that bad of a driver. Right, Inej?” Kaz turns for her support, but she’s already gone, talking to the man at the sign in table close by. To be honest, he’s not sure her answer would have helped his case against Jesper. Sighing, he reaches down to help a now very much dirt-covered Jesper to get up. “Let’s go.”
“Yes boss!” Jesper mocks a salute and together they gather their bags and join Inej at the table.
“Just the three of you this time?” asks the older man, holding onto his clipboard like it’s his life support. Per Haskell’s been running this camp for way longer than the Crows have been attending, and yet his enthusiasm has never seemed to wane. He knows the three of them well through the good memories and the strange ones (although that’s mostly Jesper) that they’ve shared through the years.
Jesper feels a tiny pang at the reminder of his missing friends. “Yeah, Rotty and Specht decided to do their own thing this year, they’re going sailing together as a final hurrah for their final summer of high school.”
“Not you guys?”
“Haskell, this is our final hurrah. Who wouldn’t want to spend their final summer together at Ketterdam with their best friends?” Jesper throws his arms around Kaz and Inej, who both immediately twist his arms to escape his grasp. “Ow fucking dammit.”
Per Haskell raises an eyebrow and shakes his head with a laugh, signing off the bottom of his paper. “Well, I can promise there’s some good things in store for you this year, so make the most of it, yeah?” He flips the page on his clipboard, still gripping that thing like an anchor. “Jesper, Kaz, you’ve got your usual Crow Cabin along with… ooh, some newbies, Wylan Van Eck and Matthias Helvar. You should show them the ropes, make them feel welcome. Inej, you’re in the Wraith Cabin again with the twins and another new girl, Nina Zenik… anything else you need from me?”
Jesper opens his mouth to protest but lets out a small welp instead as Kaz’s cane drives into his foot. “I think we’re good, thanks,” smiles Inej politely. “See you soon!”
As soon as they’re out of earshot Jesper’s mouth starts shooting off. “Randos? We’re rooming with randos? And not just randos, but newbies ? Screw Rotty and Specht for ditching, this is supposed to be our final summer tradition!”
Inej scoffs. “Right… sharing with random people each year, yeah, I wouldn't know what that feels like.”
“Okay but you’re used to that, that’s part of what you do every year,” begins Jesper, trying to save the argument he knows he’s already on the losing side of. “Like, come on, ‘Wylan Van Eck’, what kind of a name is that? He’s probably some snotty rich kid who, who-”
Jesper throws his hands up in defeat. “I don’t know! I can just tell that I won’t like him.” He crosses his arms.
“Stop being a baby Jesper, it’s not that bad. You might get along. You get along with most people.”
“Gets around with most people more like-”
“Kaz.” Inej glares at him. “Not the point.” She forces herself to swallow the smile aching to play across her lips.
They approach one of the girls’ cabins, a dark cottage that looks like it belongs in a Victorian gothic novel. Aptly, it’s called ‘Wraith Cabin’. Inej has been in this cabin for years, like a ghost who haunts its rooms whilst others come and go. It’s the reason Kaz and Jesper call her ‘the Wraith’, a nickname that started as a joke but seems to have stuck. She pretends it annoys her but secretly loves it. It makes her feel like some kind of powerful spirit.
“See ya, Wraith,” chuckles Jesper, seemingly already over his pouting from moments before. She doesn’t turn back to say goodbye, just sticks her hand behind her back and flips him off as she walks through the door.
Kaz stares at the door even after it’s closed, as if Inej’s presence is still there. He snaps out of it when Jesper pokes him in the side with a stick. “See how you like it,” he jibes, before running down the path towards the boy’s cabins. If Kaz could run, Jesper might be dead.
The Crow Cabin is similar to the Wraith Cabin in its dark tones and gothic style. Carved above the doors are the icons that give it its name, six crows in different positions who sit as if standing guard over the threshold. This cabin is the reason that Kaz, Jesper, and Inej call themselves the Crows; an homage to the place they became friends all those years ago.
Jesper practically rams himself through the door in excitement, throwing his bag into a corner and flopping onto his usual bottom bunk on the left side of the room. He realises too late that the cabin isn’t empty when someone cries out from underneath him.
“The fuck are you doing on my bed?” Jesper scrambles to get up, annoyance clear in his voice as squints to get a good look at the bed thief, whose face is shadowed by the lofted bunk above it.
The boy groans and sits up. “An apology would be nice too.”
“Actually, you should be apologising to me for stealing my be-” All thoughts leave Jesper’s brain when the boy finally moves his face into the light. The sun streaming through the window makes his ruddy golden curls glow like an angel, accentuated by his cute blue eyes that seem to go on forever, like an ocean. The freckles dusted along his face only make him even cuter than he already is. Jesper’s mouth falls open.
Wylan quirks his head to the side and looks at Jesper inquisitively. “Your bed?”
Jesper swallows harshly and sputters a word vomit response. “Yeah, I mean, this is the bed I usually sleep in in this cabin, every year me and Kaz and Rotty and Specht it’s always the same so I just assumed…”
“We were here first,” comes a voice from above. Jesper tries not to be startled as he looks up to see another body on the top bunk across the room, a burly blonde boy engrossed in a book. He sighs as he puts his book down, sitting up and jumping down from the bed. The old floorboards give a good, loud shake. He extends his hand to Jesper. “Helvar, Matthias Helvar, by the way.”
“Jesper…” He takes Matthias’s hand and reluctantly shakes it before turning to make a face at Kaz, who’s just made it through the door. “Kaz, this cute little gremlin stole my bed.”
“Not your bed, Jesper, deal with it.”
“But I thought we were going to share a bunk! Final summer, remember?”
“Honestly, Jesper,” sighs Kaz, dropping his things a little more gracefully than Jesper onto the opposite bottom bunk. “I’m glad to not have to deal with you moving and shaking every freaking second of the night. I’m surprised Rotty even got any sleep at all, sharing with you.”
Jesper grips his chest in mock hurt. “Rude!” His tongue rolls on the overexaggerated sounds as he shuffles to grab his bags from where they lie unceremoniously on the floor. Wylan looks up at him as he climbs the ladder to his new bed, grumbling.
“You think I’m cute?” The way Wylan’s eyes look up at him like that makes Jesper’s heart skip a beat, but he’s too pissed to admit that.
“I think you’re a gremlin who steals beds.”
The four boys begin to unpack in complete silence. Kaz, Wylan, and Matthias certainly seem to be enjoying the moments of peace, but a few minutes of it and Jesper feels like he might rip his hair out.
He swings himself over the side of the bunk and plops onto the floor in front of Wylan. His annoyance at the boy seems to have disappeared as quickly as it emerged. “So, gremlin-boy, what brings you to Ketterdam? Haven’t seen you before.”
Wylan chews on his lip ( Fuck, that’s cute , thinks Jesper). “My father hates me and doesn’t want to have to see my face all summer.” His delivery is so blunt it makes Kaz choke across the room, which he tries (fails) to cover with a cough.
“I kinda like your face,” grins Jesper. A red tint dusts Wylan’s cheeks at that, only making Jesper grin wider. He stores how easy it is to make Wylan blush into the back of his brain, poised for him to revisit as much as possible over the next few weeks.
He winks at Wylan before swivelling himself around to see Matthias, who’s sorting through his immaculately neatly folded bag of clothes. “What about you, Helvar? Don’t mind me saying, but you don’t exactly seem like the summer camp type.”
“That’s fair,” admits Matthias. “Usually, my dad makes me attend a Bible Camp each summer. I’m sick of it. It took a lot of debating to get him to give in to this place – I told him this place has an impressive missionary program.” Matthias picks up a Bible from his bag and chucks it under the bed. “What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
Jesper’s head hits the bunk bed frame hard as he falls back against it, laughing. “I can tell you and I are going to get along well, Helvar.” He rubs at the bump forming at the back of his skull and narrowly avoids elbowing Wylan in the nose. “Maybe you as well, little gremlin, we’ll see.”
“See Jesper, it wasn’t that hard.” Jesper rolls his eyes at Kaz’s condescending tone, but says nothing – again, he will never admit to Kaz Brekker that he was right. “So.” Kaz bangs the tip of his cane once against the floor, snapping everyone’s attention to him. “Wylan, Matthias… welcome to the Crows.” Although they don’t quite know what that means, the two boys smile.
They spend the rest of the morning getting to know each other, sharing snippets of home and school life to pass the time. When Wylan mentions his music class, Jesper perks up.
"Are you guys signing up for the camp musical?” He looks between Wylan and Matthias excitedly. “It’s so much fun every single year you have to.”
Matthias nods his head in thought. “I think so, although I don’t know much about most musicals, I like to sing in church. What show is it?”
“They’ll announce it over lunch today, and then auditions are in a few days from now. You definitely have to do it!” Jesper literally starts to bounce in his seat in excitement. “And you, gremlin? You don’t have to be a part of the cast, there are lots of roles for example Kaz he runs tech and Inej helps with lights and you could also-”
“I’ll perform. I love musical theatre. Whatever the show, I’ll love it.” Outside, a bell tolls twice, signalling lunch.
Jesper takes Wylan’s hand and pulls him up, practically dragging him out the door. “Come on.” He gestures to Matthias and Kaz, who are getting up slowly. “Ketterdam awaits us.”