DENISE: (grinning a little)
Ladies…
(The girls lower their heads and walk quietly towards the back row of tables.)
TARA (V.O.):
Ahh, the walk of shame.
(The girls sit, and Denise averts her glance. The staff turns back towards her, attentively)
DENISE: (commanding, but not intimidating)
As I was saying the ….
(Her voice fades off as Tara’s monologue kicks in and overpowers the outside noises. While Tara narrates, the image remains on Denise talking. She is commanding but not scary, and talks with her hands.)
TARA (V.O.):
Denise is the camp owner. Well, technically her father Bob..
(Cameras cuts to an older looking man, Bob, wearing a baseball cap and a camp-labeled tank top in which his gut hangs out of. He really is only about 60 years old, but his gray beard and belly make him appear older. He is slouched over on a table, sleeping lazily. )
TARA (V.O.) (cont.):
is…
(Camera cuts back to Denise talking to the crowd of staff.)
But she’s the one who does all of the leadership stuff. She handles the paperwork, the parents, and of course, her loyal subjects…
(Cut to shot of the pavilion, displaying the sea of green-shirted staff. They are looking forward, some attentively listening, others dazing off.)
TARA (V.O.) (cont.):
The counselors. Of course she doesn’t do it alone…
(Camera pans out and down to show Danielle, a curvy woman in her late thirties with piercing green eyes and styled auburn hair. She wears silver hoop earrings, and is sitting on the edge of the bench underneath where Denise is standing. You can tell by the way she sits that she is a very commanding person, yet has a vibrant personality. While the voiceover overrides the background noise, we see Danielle look up every now and then and chuckle or point to someone, as if to laugh at an inside joke or make flirtatious eye contact with someone. She has an open binder out in front of her and occasionally glances down to answer Denise’s questions or check references, etc.)
TARA (V.O.) (cont.):
That’s Danielle, the assistant director. In the many years that I was a camper here, I have come to know her very well. I wouldn’t quite say that she’s “like a mother to me”, but I guess something close to it. Maybe more like that one aunt you have that never go married and always gets too drunk at Christmas dinner but still sends you the best gifts on your birthday. But as much as I love Danielle, I kind of tiptoe around her. Not only can she be a terrifying human being when angry, she holds a lot of power in this place.
(Tara’s monologue fades out and the camera pans back out and on to Denise again. She is now holding a piece of paper that she picked up off the bench from Danielle’s binder.)
DENISE:
Alright so that’s, that…(She twists around as if to glance at a clock) I want to go over the groups one more time so you all can get familiar with each other a little more before your campers get here.
(Denise begins to list names in groups as Tara’s monologue briefly comes back and overshadows Denise once again.)
TARA (V.O.):
All the campers are divided into groups by age.
(As Tara goes on to describe the age groups, videos of sample campers in these groups are played.)
TARA(V.O.)(cont.):
“A” group is the youngest, ages 3-5…
(We see a crying toddler clinging to his mom’s legs, a small girl standing still with a look of washed-over awe on her face while she picks her nose and wedgie, simultaneously, and another girl chasing a boy in circles enthusiastically…all at once. The scene is meant to look chaotic.)
TARA(V.O.)(cont.):
and “G” group is the oldest, ages 11-13…
(We see a group of awkward-stage looking children, the boys sitting on one corner of the bench playing with action figures and a football, the girls at the other, braiding hair and making friendship bracelets. There is the classic awkward middle-school tension between them)
TARA(V.O.)(cont.):
Then, if you still aren’t “too cool” to keep spending your parents money at summer day camp, you become an “LIT, aka Leader In Training aka teen-angsty-camper” for three years
(We see a group of teens. The girls are in sunglasses, smacking gum while texting and giggling. There are a group of boys in the corner, crowded around something that appears to be a porno-magazine. There is a 14-year old couple flirting.. “no you stop!”..)
TARA(V.O.)(cont.):
Then finally,
(The camera cuts back to real time, with the focus on Tara as she comes out of her monologue/daydream)
TARA(V.O.)(cont.):
Staff. Actually, as far as the whole “too cool for camp” factor goes, I’m kind of surprised that Morgan made it this far.
(Camera pans to Morgan, sitting on the bench next to Tara. She is clearly not paying attention to what Denise is saying, as she types furiously away on her blackberry. As always, she has a faint look of aloofness on her face.)
