Offline/You arrive at camp with Brayden
A few twists and turns later and a cabin makes itself visible through the trees. You've practically driven into the middle of camp by the time you notice it.
The old trail leading in came through thick, dense forest, but the camp itself is on the edge of much thinner brush on rocky land before the river. There's a lot of thin grass and weeds that have taken over the clearings of the camp, but your uncle was prepared for that. Before you can even disembark from the bus, he's pulled out a monstrosity of a weedwacker from his jeep and brings it to life to mow down the offending bits of nature in his way.
It was more recently abandoned when you were here a few years ago. With the forest creeping inward it already seems a lot more run down. The wooden cabins are loosely grouped, and although there doesn't appear to be a reason why some are closer or farther than others, there definitely was some sort of logic to it all at some point. There's one large fire pit near the center along with a couple smaller ones and even a burning barrel in front of particular cabins. There's a pair of outhouses close to some of the cabins and another pair pushed back into the bush. Under the grass and weeds are a few well designed stone walkways and even a decent size patio of sorts between one of the cabins and the main fire pit, a testament to the time and effort someone had put into this place at one point. The gentle sound of the river in the background is in no way discernible over the sound of your uncle's whacking, but you remember it clearly from when you were last here.
It's somewhat surreal to be back again, and equally so to know that you're stuck here for a week, but a part of you is excited. Having your own cabin should be pretty sweet, even if you're sharing.
The moment the doors to the bus open, Brayden ducks and weaves his way past others stepping into the aisle to get to the front of the bus ahead of almost everyone else. Uncle Mike, his dad, forces him to slow down (the little that he can) before eventually helping his son and daughter retrieve their luggage from one of the storage compartments along the side of the bus. They already have backpacks on top of that, so they sure appear to be well packed. Brayden snatches his luggage from his dad and tries to race away frantically but that backfires quickly.
"You know if you needed to pee that bad you could've said something."
"No! We have to go out to a really special cabin to make sure that we get that one before anyone else does!"
You didn't think you'd have to explain this to their dad, but you rarely think of anything. The part that's throwing you is that it isn't Brayden who is the one explaining this, it's his sister.
"What cabin?"
"The one Justice secretly told us about on the bus! It's outside of camp! He said we could go out with him! We can't let anyone else take it so we have to hurry!"
She's plenty excited, bouncing in place, but making this sound weirder than you had intended. Although she's also confused about your invitation.
"Well that's nice of you, Justice. But you want to stay in that rundown little hunting cabin? I'm not sure if that's best."
"Yeah. Uh, well, you see, that's not exactly what I was saying before. See, I sai-"
"Yeah! It's not rundown! It's the best cabin here!" defends Brayden on your behalf. "And he didn't ask you Beth-ah-nee, he invited me!"
"Says who?!"
"Oh, I see now. You're trying to ditch your sister, eh?" Uncle Mike sounds more amused than anything. Beth immediately gets pouty, doubting herself, her shoulders slumping.
"But I was invited! You're just being a jerk!"
"Alright you two, figure it out. No one should have to babysit you," Mike replies, shaking his head. "But if you're going to fight over it, try to do it out there." You thought he might step in for a moment. He clearly 'parents' very loosely. Unlike your mother.
"Now, now, there's no need for anyone to be left out," mom butts in, her usual intrusive self. "Justice, Beth can join you, can't she? Maybe we can all go look at the cabin together and make something work."
"She could go find a girls cabin," huffs Brayden, turning his nose down at his sister who is just as tall as him.
You totally get the dynamic of being forced to deal with your own little sister through various family events; sometimes you just want to do stuff without her weighing you down. Standing with Brayden on this could make him look up to you even more and make it easier to boss him around later. But excluding his sister could create more drama than it's worth. You don't want the hassle of these two arguing over who should or shouldn't come, or the fighting continuing during your stay, or - more importantly - having to deal with any adults coming out and sticking their noses into things at any point.