The bus pulled up into the parking lot and caught Soren's eye almost immediately. This was the largest group attending this weekend's activities. A local college baseball team. The bus disgorged about twenty young men between eighteen and twenty-two. It was going to be a rambunctious group, though the camp would likely divide them up.
Soren walked up consulting his clipboard. "Hey guys! Welcome to Camp CritterCreek. You guys will be in cabins one, two, and three." Soren was about to start giving instructions when the last individual got off the bus. Somewhere in his late forties, the team coach had the build of an athlete gone to pot. He still had some muscle, but most of it was covered by a layer of fat, even though he still walked around like a puffed up rooster.
'No,' Soren amended his thinking, 'This one is going to be trouble.' "You must be Coach Patrick." Soren said with a smile to the man who just got a scowl in return.
"And you are?" The coach looked him up and down, clearly not impressed by Soren who was larger than any of the young men on his team and topped the coach by six inches as well.
"Soren. I'm the head counselor here." Soren had learned to deal with this type at his job. The parent who thinks they can come in and throw their weight around. Even if he wasn't a parent of these boys. Though Soren thought that he might as one of the young men was looking particularly embarrassed as the coach spoke.
"You sure you're old enough for that? Didn't think they'd be leaving a kid in charge." He motioned to his team to head into the camp, waiting for them to filter by before speaking up again. "Listen, boy. The dean thought it would be good for the sports teams to do some team building idiocy outside of practice, I don't want to be here, most of my boys don't want to be here. I have a training schedule to keep and luckily you have a ball field."
The coach pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit up. "So we're going to do our thing, and you're going to leave us alone. Capiche?" God, the man even spoke like he thought he was some mob godfather.
Soren, though, wasn't intimidated. "Your dean paid us a lot of money for you to attend. And while there will be free time and some scheduled sports activities there is a full schedule that needs to be followed." Soren also reached out and plucked the cigarette from the coach's mouth. Dropping it to the gravel and crushing it under his boot. "Also, there's no smoking or drinking on camp premises." Sure, Soren knew some of his counselors snuck in cigarettes and booze, but they were to keep that to the cabins and out of sight for deniability.
The coach began to turn red but Soren drew himself up to his full height, a scowl coming to his normally calm expression, letting just a little of the predator in him come out. He knew that freaked out almost everyone smaller than him, which was almost everyone. "Cabins one, two, and three. Have a pleasant stay."
"We'll see about this." Was all the coach managed to say before stomping off into the camp.
Soren let out a long sigh. "Good luck with that one." He muttered towards the tree line with a sideways glance. The way the wind blew through the leaves it almost sounded like the camp was laughing. Soren just turned his attention on to the next group to arrive.