"My name is Marlo, I do track and field, and I'm a homosexual." 

"My name is Sasha, I do a whole bunch of weird crafty things and have strong opinions about Shakespeare, and I'm super gay." 

"Alexander, we'd prefer you go by 'Alexander' or 'Alex' while you're at camp. And the appropriate term is not 'super gay.'"

"I am almost one hundred percent sure that the rules did not say 'you'll have to change your name if we don't like that you're Russian,' but fine. My name is Alexander, I also go by Sasha, I do a whole bunch of weird crafty things, and I'm a homosexual." 

"My name's Lev. I'm on the math team and the robotics team. And I"-- he squeaks and turns bright red-- "Iamahomosexual."

(It's the first time he's ever actually said it.)

"My name is Asher. I'm a dancer and I have good taste in poetry and horrible taste in musicals. And I--"

He hesitates. He's not going to get out of here without saying it. It's a lie, but-- if he spends three months telling the truth, that he's straight, then he'll never get to go to New York.

"I am a homosexual."

Oh no, Lev is cute. 

"All right! Now I'm going to hand out your binders. Take one and pass them along."

When everyone has their binders, Christine says:

"On the first page, you'll see the five steps here at True Directions. First, admitting you're a homosexual, which some of you have finished right now. Round of applause for everyone!"

Yeah, he's been doing that for years. He doesn't clap. 

Neither does he; he's looking ahead in the binder. 

It's hard to clap sarcastically but Asher manages.

"Some of you haven't finished the first step yet, so you'll have extra work. The second step is rediscovering your gender identity. The third step is finding your root-- the thing that made you a homosexual. The fourth step is developing nonsexual intimacy with other men. The fifth step is finding appropriate intimacy with people of the opposite gender."

"Rediscovering his gender identity," at least the way they define it, is going to suck. He smiles over at Asher. 

Asher studiously underlines step four, develop nonsexual intimacy with other men, adds a little heart, and then by sheer coincidence displays his binder so Sasha can see it.

It occurs to Lev that ex-gay camp is going to involve talking about his feelings with hot guys other people, and discussing his sexuality with hot guys other people, and developing nonsexual intimacy with hot guys other people, and why can't ex-gay camp instead involve hiding under a table.

The fact that ex-gay camp is going to involve definitely platonic cuddling is probably the only thing it has going for it, except for the presence of other gay guys and also Asher (maybe. The heart is sort of suspicious. Either way, this ends well for Sasha.) 

He smiles at Lev, who looks like he wants to curl up in a hole and stay there. 

Unaccountably, being smiled at by Sasha does not actually make Lev look any less like he wants to curl up in a hole and stay there.

Christine goes through the rules, the schedule, emergency contact information, and other things you'd expect to find at a summer camp orientation. 

He pays attention and does not at all cuddle up to Asher even though he wants to. 

He pays attention and carefully doesn't look at Alexander. 

Then Christine will show them to their room!

All seven of the campers are sleeping in the same room. They have individual single beds, with a dresser beside them for their things. The walls are painted a soothing blue.

He takes the bed next to the one Asher picks and unpacks his clothes (two thirds of the dresser) and sewing supplies (one drawer) and books (on top of the dresser) and shoves his empty suitcase under the bed. 

He picks the bed nearest the door. 

Lev feels awkward about choosing a bed and ends up with the last one available, which is (of course) next to Sasha.

He unpacks his clothes and his SAT prep books and his well-worn collection of thousand-page poorly written epic fantasy novels. He does his best to try to keep anyone from looking at them.

He doesn't know when he can get alone time. He's already twitchy.   

Asher flops on the bed. It is the most graceful flop in the history of humanity. 

"Why are we all sharing a room?"