CAST

main characters - canon

David Jacobs
16 years old
David is basically a nerd—he likes to read and write and is socially awkward. His parents, worried that he's just not normal (especially when compared to his two perfectly well adjusted siblings) decided to ship him off to camp for a summer, hoping it would help him come out of his shell.
So now David has to learn to deal with a whole new group of very strange people. Most of the time, Dave is quiet and has a tendency to start every sentence with the word "uh," but when he starts to feel comfortable—or isn't thinking—he's deeply sarcastic. His mouth occasionally gets him into trouble.

Jack "Cowboy" Kelly
17 years old
This is Jack's tenth year at camp, and his first as a counselor. Most people see him as a fairly laid back guy, who enjoys working with the kids (who universally love him), and nearly everyone falls for his charisma. Everyone knows him, and nearly everyone likes him.
While Jack is friends with everyone, he has only a few people he's close to, and even fewer who realize that beneath his charming exterior, he's a deeply screwed up guy with a home life that is, to say the least, less than perfect.

Anthony "Racetrack" Higgins
16 years old
Racetrack doesn't just attend the camp, his family owns and operates it—which puts him in an interesting situation. He isn't a counselor, but might as well be; he basically acts as a counselor but without being paid, a fact that he's slightly bitter about.
Race is always on his best behavior, as his parents are both present every day. He, like everyone else with good sense, goes as far out of his way as he can to avoid angering his mother, and as a result has been labeled as total mama's boy, but that stopped bothering him years ago.
On the outside, Race appears to be a more or less perfect kid (who often acts as the voice of reason for his friends) but the truth is that he's under a lot of stress and worried that he's going to break down any day now.

Mush Meyers
16 years old
Almost no one in the entire camp knows Mush's real name, which is how he prefers it, as it's quite embarrassing. Mush is in his fourth year at camp and is definitely a Theater Person; he's been in every show since his first week. He loves acting, singing and dancing, and as a result has a hard time convincing people that yes, he really is straight.
Girls love Mush. Like, a lot. He has a group of theater girls who tend to follow him around, and while he likes them as people, he'd be a lot more comfortable if they'd give him some breathing room.

Ryan "Kid Blink" Ballatt
16 years old
Blink gets his nickname from the eyepatch he wears all the time, though he rarely discusses why. After six years at camp, it's pretty much just accepted and few people even notice it anymore, though some of the other long-time campers remember that it wasn't there his first year.
Blink spends most of his time on the boating beach, and though he enjoys canoeing, kayaking and crew, his absolute favorite past time is sailing. The only problem is that his arch-nemesis, a female camper nicknamed Smurf, also spends her time sailing, and as a result the boating beach is never, ever peaceful.

Sarah Jacobs
16 years old
Unlike her younger brother, Sarah is a fairly typical high school prep—she spends her free time gossiping with friends, going to the mall, and dating. She's pretty and popular, and absolutely furious about the fact that her parents decided she's too materialistic (even if they didn't put it that way) and exiled her to camp for the summer. Especially because all of her social skills mean nothing to anyone at camp; for the first time, she's an outsider with no idea how to break in, and she desperately wishes she could go home.
Or at least, she does until she meets Jack, who she instantly develops a crush on. And while she'd still rather go home, she figures that if she can snag him by the end of the summer, it'll make up for the fact that she hates most of the people she's surrounded by.

Richard "Specs" Greensmith
20 years old
Specs has been to camp for six of the last ten years; he occasionally takes summers off to stay at home or to vacation with his family, but is now in his second year as a counselor. Though he honestly prefers the theater, the department was already fully staffed for the summer, so he's a lifeguard and swimming counselor instead.
At home and at college (in the fall he'll be starting his junior year at Boston University) Specs is openly gay; at camp he's a lot less open, though certainly not back in the closet. Most of the counselors know, and some of the older campers. He and Dutchy, his long term boyfriend, are a frequent source of gossip, though most of the campers have no idea if any of it is true or not.
He also is the proud owner of a very old, bumper-sticker covered station wagon, which he refers to as his baby. Everyone else calls it the Specsmobile. As Dutchy puts it, "Specs gets a little... strange... about his car."

Robert "Dutchy" Polaski
20 years old
Dutchy is the very put upon sailing counselor who has the fun job of dealing with the ongoing feud between Blink and Smurf. He's been at camp for four years, though not in a row, and attends BU with Specs. He plays guitar and is in a band at school, but at camp frequently gets talked into playing campfire songs, which he secretly enjoys, though he'll probably never admit it.
Dutchy is a lot less comfortable being publicly affectionate with Specs than Specs is with him, especially at camp. He's fairly quiet in groups, but more talkative when there are fewer people around. When he and Specs are alone together (or nearly alone together) they tend to speak to each other almost exclusively in lyrical references, which confuses and irritates most people.

Alec Bumlets
18 years old
Bumlets was unable to think of a decent nickname for himself and missed most of counselor orientation week, so no one had time to come up with one for him, so he goes by his last name. He's been doing dance and gymnastics since he was walking and wins national competitions, but in an attempt to have a normal summer for a change decided to get a job instead of spend the summer training and competing. (His parents were less than thrilled with this decision.)
One of his dance instructors is friends with Medda, who was seeking a dance counselor to work with the theater department at camp, and Bumlets was recommended. He accepted the role happily, though he missed orientation week to finish his last competition for the summer. He's in his first year at camp and finds the whole place rather odd, but has been pulled into the theater group easily, and spends his days off with Specs and Dutchy, who both confuse and entertain him at once.

Oscar and Morris Delancey
25 and 27 years old respectively
Oscar and Morris work with Jack as riding counselors, though they're among the few who really dislike Jack—to the point of actual hatred. They know him from home, as their uncle is a friend of Jack's step-father, and as a result know a lot more about Jack than he's comfortable with them knowing.
Their dislike of Jack has spilled over to most of Jack's friends, and so they're usually causing trouble whenever they can get away with it.

supporting characters - canon

Snitch is hyperactive most of the time, and plays tennis
Skittery loves horses and listens to a lot of disco, much to his bunkmates' dismay
Spot spends most of his time at archery, which helps him work out his violent urges constructively
Medda, nicknamed Lark for camp purposes is the head of the theater department, has impeccable hearing, and a voice like a drill seargent's
Denton is the camp's accountant and head of staff

minor characters - canon

Boots, Crutchy, Jake, Kloppman, Les, Pie Eater, Snipeshooter, Snoddy, Swifty and Ten-Pin are all floating around doing various things.

original characters
(I'm only writing a sentence or two for each because I'm not as comfortable describing other people's characters as I am with the canon ones. Also, I received a lot of great OC submissions and couldn't put them all in main character spots. I appreciate everything that was sent in and will try to at least mention everyone, but it's difficult.)

Murphy One

Smurf is nicknamed for her height (or lack there of) and the blue streaks in her hair drive the smurfy image home. She spends most of her time on the boating beach, trying to figure out the best way to irritate Blink.

Hotshot is best described as overly assertive, to the point of aggressive. She and Sarah hate each other, which is unfortunate, because they share living space and when they start fighting, the rest of the bunk gets pulled in.

Swinger is possibly the most eccentric member of the bunk, if not of the whole camp. She's a hardcore band geek, which isn't so bad, but she also is obsessed with swing music and speaks jive. Exclusively. So far this summer, no one has understood a single sentence she's said.

Polecat is one of the quieter bunkmates. She minds her own business and avoids getting involved in whatever the current camp scuttlebutt is.

Shakespeare loves reading the classics, hence her name, and is one of the few members of the bunk—heck, the whole camp—who actually made friends with Sarah. When not involved with the bunk's fighting, she's a pretty cheerful person.

Dreamer spends most of her time in her own world. She manages to get along with everyone else, regardless of what fights are going on around her, and is one of the many girls who adore Mush.

Chauncey is the counselor who has to deal with the bunk. She's the counselor everyone dreads dealing with, a total stickler about rules and regulations, if not actually mean. She's also an archery counselor, and the head of Senior Girls.

Murphy Two

Elf prefers not to talk to anyone, pretty much every, and when she does speak tends to swear a blue streak. You're much more likely to see her reading a Tolkien novel than socializing, to say the least.

Mouse is the youngest girl in the Senior unit, and in her first year, and almost no one is sure who she is. People tend to pass her over in a crowd. About the only thing people are certain of is that she's got a crush on Mush.

Sparker is cheerful and upbeat most of the time. She jokes with the girls and flirts with the boys, and has a crush on Jack. Despite occasional bouts of paranoia, she knows most of the people at the camp and gets along with most people well.

Smartass, or Smartie when kids are around, is definitely a theater person. She can be quite loud and earned her name through her sense of humor. Like so many of the theater girls, she has a crush on Mush.

Sureshot is fairly soft spoken, though tends towards sarcasm once she's comfortable in a group. She believes that games can help solve conflicts and carries around a deck of cards with her everywhere.

Glitz got her name by being attracted to shiny objects. She's one of the most upbeat and friendly people in Senior Girls and often makes it her job to cheer up people who feel depressed or out of place.

Grammar is just a tad bit anal retentive, particularly about language. She earned her nickname by correcting everyone's grammar, an annoying trait that will doubtlessly give everyone higher SAT scores. She's also quite a perfectionist, but basically a nice person if the obsessive compulsive grammar corrections don't drive everyone around her insane.

Trixie is obsessed with Rocky Horror and is another real theater person; if she's not on stage she's painting flats or sewing costumes. She claims to have a boyfriend who lives in Baltimore, but no one believes her, given that her hobby is stalking Mush.

Paint, aside from being the head counselor of the Arts'n'Crafts unit, is also the counselor who lives in Murphy Two. She's a bit of a hippie and practically engaged to Sneakers, the head Archery counselor.

Other female OCs

Allister, or Ally for short, is in the Junior Girls unit and a budding theater person. Like so many theater girls, she's got a crush on Mush, though she'd be too terrified to act on it.

Artemis is one of the swimming counselors/life guards, and has been coming to camp for eight years now as a means of escaping her sisters. She's very into anime and the internet, and craves Pepsi the whole time she's at camp.

Curly, so named for her curly hair, is Swinger's younger sister. She's a bit bossy and insistent on getting her way.

Fern is getting her master's degree at Cornell, but spends the summer working with kids. In her case, little kids; she specializes in supervising the youngest girls' unit. The kids all love her and she's great with them, though a bit strange.

Giggles is a riding counselor who hopes to be a teacher some day. Camp is a good place for her because she can combine her love of animals with her love of kids.

Irish is one of the other boating counselors, specializing in sailing. She works with Dutchy but teaches the younger kids the basics, where he works with more experienced older campers.

Katie is in the Junior Girls unit and has been at camp every year since she was seven. She's a theater person, but more of a stage manager-in-training than an actress. She has a crush on Spot that has reached ridiculous proportions.

Mrs. Higgins is Racetrack's mother, the camp's owner and director. She's both beloved and feared by the people around her. She and her husband are fairly strictly religious, big on charity, and good with kids, though she tends to be a bit unfairly harsh to Race himself. She's very brisk and efficient.

Rebel is a riding counselor and a bit of a prankster. Though generally friendly, she can be fairly cold to people she dislikes.

Reesie is the youngest archery counselor, and though she's a bit shy she's confident around the campers. It's universally agreed that she's a bit of a dork, but that doesn't seem to bother her at all.

Stage is the youngest counselor in the theater department (technically only an Assistant counselor, but that doesn't really make a difference) but was very much a Theater Person the past few years at camp, so she fits right in. She's always had a crush on Specs, and is oddly obsessed with his relationship with Dutchy, though no one really understands why.

Triage is the camp nurse. She's on of the older members of the camp staff, in her mid-40s, and is almost frighteningly good-natured and cheerful. She plays folk guitar and is wonderful with homesick kids, though she annoys most of the older campers and staff members by constantly reminding everyone to drink eight cups of water a day.

Male OCs

Gunwale (pronounced Gunnel) is one of the few African Americans at camp and is the head of the boating unit. He's a bit intimidating, but knows his stuff very well. So far, no one has come up with a question about any form of boating he can't answer off the top of his head.

Ian is one of the Senior Boys living in Ferguson Bunk. He's almost a stereotypical beach boy from Miami, right down to the spiked blond hair. He tends to injure himself a lot because he's quite gung-ho about everything he does, but not coordinated enough to pull it off.

Maverick is another grown up theater boy, now a counselor in the theater unit, who's been at camp forever, as his parents are friends with the Higginses. He has a bad habit of playing favorites, but people are used to it by now, and is rumored to have a crush on Chanucey, of all people.

Sneakers has been around at camp seemingly forever, as he attended as a camper every year growing up, and has been a counselor five times since then. He's a middle school PE teacher the rest of the year, the head of the Archery unit, and the counselor in Pentland, the cabin where Dave and most of the others live. Though he and Jack get along, they're constantly playing "got you last" and pranking each other.

back