Welcome to Camp

"Welcome to Camp" is the first episode of the first season of Happy Campers, making it the series premiere. It follows our six main characters, new CITs Max Nelson, Jake Shay, Cindy Fletcher, Jenny Frank, Paige Campbell and Ted Quimby as they learn the ins and outs of looking after the excited campers for the next three months of summer with help from the head counselors at Camp Mooncreek.

It was written by Dani E. Viljoen.

Synopsis
"Welcome to Camp Mooncreek, the most epic summer camp around. Let's meet some of our CITs and see what they're getting up to as they grow into camp counselors. We've got Max, who's out to get the honor of head counselor (he didn't want to be counselor, but if he's gonna be something, he's gotta be the best), which he thinks is a piece of cake. But all that changes when he meets his trainer Conor and sees competition in Jenny. Then we've got Jake, tries to use his adorkable charm to get bookworm Paige out of the books and into the real world with help from Cindy and Ted."

Recap
Children hop out of buses and cars, eager to start their first day at Camp Mooncreek, which calls itself "the best summer camp of all time". It's clear to see that they are excited for the summer vacation. However, Max Nelson, one of the new CITs, is complaining at the registration desk about his room being too small, and it's just as obvious that he's not looking forward to the next three months. Before the lady at the registration desk can say anything, Conor Hayes, one of the camp counselors, pops up and tells Max to grow up and get over himself. Max, annoyed, quickly leaves, and Conor apologizes to the registration lady for his actions.

Max enters his room and slams the door behind him in an angry rage. In voice-over, we hear about how he is upset that he has to be a CIT, but is determined all the same to become head counselor by the end of training, since he always has to be the best. He's sure it'll be a piece of cake.

Ted Quimby is playing the guitar in his bedroom and singing to some awful lyrics. He reaches out to the book in front of him and angrily scratches out words and lets out a yell about what a terrible writer he is. As soon as he says this, a girl pops in, asking if Ted was talking about writing and adding that she is brilliant at writing. Ted grumbles something under his breath about wanting to write a song and the girl sticks out her hand for a handshake, introduces herself as Cindy Fletcher, and tells Ted that she she is extremely willing to help him improve as a songwriter and achieve his goal. She also compliments Ted, telling him that he has both an amazing voice and great hair.

A whistle rings and all the kids are seen rushing into the Main Hall and sitting on the floor in small close-knit groups of friends that they have already made. The kids initially make a lot of noise as they talk and get to know each other, but Jenny Frank walks up and gets them to keep quiet by making them clap in different patterns, and eventually begins a SImon Says game with them. Conor and fellow counselor Eddie Martin walk up and take charge from there, but thank Jenny for calming the kids down. Max, who is sitting on the floor alone in the back of the room, watches this encounter and keeps his eye on Jenny as she sits down amongst the kids.

The camp counselors introduce themselves and then introduce the counselors-in-training for the year, which includes Max, Ted, Cindy, Jenny and two other teenagers, Jake Shay and Paige Campbell. The CITs are then paired up with their summer trainer, the qualified counselor who will instruct and teach the CITs what to do during camp, and who they will assist as that counselor looks after one of the six camp teams. Ted is paired with Eddie, who is in charge of The Blaze; Cindy's trainer is Andy Skinner and she assists for The Wolves; Jake's team is The Blue Tigers, whose counselor is Maggie Jones; and Jenny helps Lucy Marlin look after Electrified. Max, who is placed in the team The Daredevils, is horrified to learn that he is paired up with Conor Hayes, the counselor who called him out earlier on his behaviour, and Conor appears rather annoyed at having Max as his assistant. Paige is made assistant to Nikki Valdez and is meant to assist the group The Daredevils; however, she isn't even at the meeting in the Main Hall, which annoys the counselors. Jake offers to get Paige for them and Nikki tells him she'll most likely be in her room. Cindy, always looking to make new friends, asks if she can go to. Nikki sees no problem with that and sends the two off.

Paige is in her room, reading a book, and is not at all pleased when Jake and Cindy come in. She tells them that she doesn't even like them, but Cindy tells her that she can't judge that quickly. Jake tells Paige that she should enjoy the camp while she's there, and if she can't do that on her own, he'll be there to make sure she enjoys summer. However, Paige brushes them off, calling them anoying. In response, Jake and Cindy tell her to at least pretend she's having a good time this summer. Although Paige believes that this is a near impossible feat, she agrees to try and returns to the Main Hall with them. Paige is scolded by Conor, but simply rolls her eyes at them and goes to sit in the corner opposite the one where Max sat earlier after she's told who her trainer is and which team she's assisting. Max, who's taken an interest in her, stares at her from the front of the stage as Conor tells the CITs to get into a circle and sit down as the campers head out with the counselors for the first few activities. Conor tells the CITs that they need to introduce themselves and get to know one another before heading out with everyone else.

There is silence in the room for a while. Noticing the awkwardness of the situation, Cindy happily introduces herself by saying she is an aspiring journalist, loves making new friends, loves Camp Mooncreek and has been to it every summer since she was eight and met Jake about four years ago at camp. Jake pipes up that they've been really good friends since and that he loves comic books and pop culture. Jenny then introduces herself and says that she's a feminist and a vegetarian who is slowly moving into the path of veganism. Max, hoping to impress Paige, just says his name and asks them to move on. Ted says that he's an aspiring musician who can't write decent lyrics to save his life, although Cindy adds that he's not horrible. Paige states that the whole exercise is crap and says that she doesn't care about anyone in the room and she's not willing to pretend. Cindy says she's a very negative person, but Paige doesn't care. She is "done". She then makes a dramatic exit from the room which Jake compliments.

A little while afterwards, Paige is seen walking through the trees and Max comes after her, asking her why she's being such a bitch. Paige says coolly, "Because I don't see a reason to be anything else." She proceeds to walk away from Max but he catches up with her again and says that he likes her attitude. Paige tells him he's got "an odd way of showing it that I don't quite admire" and continues to walk off.

Later on in the day, Lucy makes her way up to Jenny, who is busy contentedly playing hand games with some of the younger female members of Electrified. Lucy immediately begins complimenting Jenny on her amazing personality and bright bheaviour around the kids. In reality, Jenny's only been with the kids for about three minutes, but Lucy continues to flatter her. Lucy tells Jenny that she needs to head out and make a quick phone call and asks if Lucy would mind kicking off the next activity by the river, promising she won't be long. Although Jenny is uncertain of whether she's ready for this, Lucy continues to plead with her and she eventually agrees to try.

Nothing is going well for Max and Conor, though. They openly hate each other, which they make evident through their spiteful encounters. Even the six-year-olds can see through them. Eventually, Conor gets so annoyed with Max that he calls him an asshole in front lf the campers. Shocked, the campers take a few steps back, refusing to talk to Conor. Max is then forced to lead the group, which he does with a smirk in Conor's direction.

Cindy's having a great time looking after The Wolves with Andy. As the kids learn more about teamwork, Cindy and Andy get to know one another. We learn that Cindy loves surfing and has a talent for sewing, and that Andy trained to be a cop and has six other siblings.

Paige isn't having an easy day, either. She doesn't want to help the kids at all with any of their activities. Nikki tries to get her to be a little more positive and says, "Just act like you're having fun, okay?" This, however, drives Paige out of control. She screams out aout how annoyed she is that everyone wants her to put on a show for them, saying that she never even wanted to come to camp. Nikki fails at calming her down and Paige eventually runs off, sobbing.

There's trouble in paradise for Jenny. As it turns out, she was right: she can't look after all those screaming campers of Electrified by herself. However, Lucy is yet to return and she'll just have to suck it up. She tries to get them quiet through hand games, but none of the kids are willing to listen to her. She eventually yells at them all angrily to stop, which they so, stunned by her fierceness. She tells them to sit down and listen to her, but before she can give further instruction, she collapses. This makes the kids frightened and they all begin screaming and running around, unsure of what to do, and this only gets worse when she starts jerking violently. Ted, who just happens to be walking by with Eddie and The Blaze, notices the kids looking panicked and informs Eddie. Eddie makes The Wolves team up with The Blaze for the day and asks Ted to take Jenny to the nurse and find out what happened to Lucy.

Jake, in the meantime, is just plain bored. Maggie won't let him help her out with any of the activities at all. When Jake points this out, Maggie says he's just not ready yet, but Jake just finds this ridiculous. He's been training to become a counselor for five years now and he just wants to get involved in the kids' lives and be their friend and mentor. Maggie doesn't listen to him however and asks him to sit on a log which he does with a deep and frustrated sigh.

Max has taken on full control of the kids and this results in absolute mayhem. Unfortunately, Max is finding it extremely difficult to deal with the situation on his own, since he can't think of a way to calm them down. Though it pains him to do so, he turns to Conor for help. Conor quickly and easily gets the kids to calm down and pay attention to him and Max, and shoots Max a satisfied look as he begins to instruct the kids on what to do next.

Paige walks into her cabin and shuts the door behind her, sinking to the floor and crying into her hands. When somebody knocks on the door, she yells at them to get out of her life without checking who it is. The person knocks again and says, "It's Cindy." Paige sighs, wipes away her fears and opens the door, allowing Cindy inside. As soon as the door is closed behind her, Cindy receives a huge hug from Paige, who starts crying about how everybody wants her to keep on pretending and she's tired of it. Cindy tells her that everyone has to act sometimes, and reveals she's acted a lot more strict with the kids than she usually is. Paige tells Cindy that she isn't sure she can fake herself all summer, to which Cindy replies, "Just try."

When Jenny wakes up she is in a bed in the nurse's room. She asks where she is, why she's there and why her pants are wet. Ted, who is sitting on the couch across from her, explains that she suffered from an epileptic seizure and that she's only just woken up. He asks her why she didn't take her medication, but Jenny is still too dazed to answer. She is slightly confused about who Ted is, recognizing his face but not remembering his name, so he reintroduces himself by saying his name is Ted and he's an unknown musician who just saved Jenny's life. Instead of marveling at his bravery like Ted hopes she will, Jenny complains about having bit her lip and wonders when she did that. Ted tries to explain the epilepsy thing again but she's still thinking about other things. Eventually, however, she does thank Ted for helping her in her time of need.

To close, we see Ted and Jenny walking, talking and just generally getting along as Cindy and Paige eat ice cream together and socialize with the kids. Jake is busy trying to plead with Maggie about being able to help out the kids with camp activities and she stops him, telling him she'll talk to him about helping the kids when he stops complaining and actually does something about it. She walks away, leaving Jake looking annoyed and frustrated. Max approaches Conor and apologizes for driving him off the wall, and Conor commends him for doing so, saying that he knows it's not easy for someone like Max to apologize. At the end of the episode the kids are cradled around the bofire and Max and Conor lead in campfire songs as the kids, counselors and CITs all prepare smores.