Camper(s): Courtney, Gwen, Heather, Jasmine, Zoey, etc.
Prompt: Camper falls for a reader who suffers from Imposter Syndrome (person is successful at things they do but doesn't acknowledge it themselves and think they're unworthy of their achievements or skills due to strong self-doubt and fear of exposure as a fraud which they aren't) with said camper being the only person to realize the self doubt of the reader yet still falls in love with reader. How'd things develop?
Contestants with reader who suffers from imposter syndrome
Tysm for the request, I hope you enjoy :]
Courtney
Everyone knew you were amazing and gifted, everyone.
A fact not gone unnoticed by Courtney. (She’s got an eye for these things, she used to be a CIT after all).
At first she uses you for a little bit of extra leverage during the challenges, but after a bit felt too guilty to continue to do so.
So as a sort of apology she wanted to spend more time getting to know you as a person, rather than just a tool that everyone in the competition had been utilizing.
She sat beside you on the cabin steps one night, after you had absolutely crushed it yet another challenge.
“Really great work today, I’m impressed,” she said, putting a hand on your back.
You couldn’t help but recoil just the slightest bit, but tried to play it off with a smile “uh. Yeah, sure.”
It wasn’t great work, not to you. You saw all your little slip ups, your stress. No less than anyone else’s, you saw it when you fell, or when you tripped. It was an awful effort.
Courtney mistook your self consciousness as humility and so she smiled at you brighter “oh you don’t have to be modest around me you know? You’ve earned a bit of gloating.”
You chuckled a little albeit a bit emptily “do I? Really?” You just couldn’t help that self doubt seeping through a bit.
Courtney’s face changed at that, maybe it was your tone, or something in your eyes. But her expression softened.
“Hey- don’t be like that. Of course you do. You’re great, I mean- you’d have to be stupid to disagree with me on that,” she says with an assured expression.
You chuckled again, this time more amusing dances in your tone “stupid huh?”
She crossed her arms and gave you a pointed glare “I know a worthy competitor when I see one. And I definitely know refined skill when I see it too. You better not be getting cold feet on me now.”
You smiled at her, leaning towards her hand which was planted firmly on your back “no. No, of course not.”
“Well-“ she looks a little flustered, but beyond determined to keep her footing in the conversation “-good then. Better be on your A game again tomorrow.”
You watched her walk back into the cabins. Maybe if she thought you were something great, maybe you were.
Courtney goes out of her way from that conversation on to compliment you (something that is rare, and hard for her to do).
But she really likes you, and she wants you to see yourself the way she sees you.
Gwen
Gwen mainly hangs out with you for your snappy witty sense of humor.
She couldn’t stand to deal with anyone who couldn’t match her social wit.
But it’s not like she hasn’t seen you during challenges, you’re good, too good.
She’ll tease you about it to no end, you could never tell if it’s because she’s actually upset with you for winning challenges for the team, or if she just likes to get on your back about stuff.
“Wooow,” she deadpanned after watching you do one challenge that was particularly physically taxing.
“What?” You said lifting a brow at her.
She scrunches her face a little at you for a moment and then begins “oh nothing, but do you have to make the rest of us look bad while doing the challenges?” She laughs (somewhat evilly from your point of view)
You know she was just teasing you, she always is, but it hurts a little more.
“What?” She asks.
“Nothing.”
“No, seriously. Why do you have that look on?” She presses again, leaning over on her knees to get a good look at you.
“Nothing it’s just- it’s stupid,” you admit.
She snorts a little “from you? I doubt it.”
“It kind of freaks me out when you say stuff like that?”
She makes a face at that “why?”
You shrug “makes me feel like everyone is expecting something great from me that I can’t give.”
She stops chortling at you then, because she can see it plain as day written on your face. You’re not kidding.
You of all people worried about not being great? She could hardly believe her ears, she thought the world and moon of you, you were the only person at this shit hole camp who she could stand.
She punched your side lightly “you better not really believe that you know?”
“What, that I’m a fraud?” You say darkly.
She scoffs “you’re ridiculous you know that. You work harder than anyone else here to compete in these mind numbing challenges, and still you can’t see?!”
“Well I guess-“
“No, you guess nothing. Don’t you dare believe you’re anything less than what you are any longer.”
She said it with such a sense of finality it was hard to argue back with her. Impossible even.
“I knew you had a heart in there,” you smirk at her.
She goes red (which doesn’t take much honestly she’s paler than fresh printer paper) at that, and pushes you a little. “Shut up.”
After that she lays off comments like that, and you don't hear much teasing from her to anyone.
It feels a little weird at first, not getting teased, and even more shockingly getting a few compliments from her.
But the two of you slump into it after a while, and it becomes the new natural for your relationship.
Heather
Heather can read you like a book.
She knows right away that you’re useful, skilled, and have a strong self doubt about yourself.
(Sorry but yk our girl is evil, she definitely manipulates you especially if we’re talking island)
She definitely somehow pulls you into an alliance, and you kind of just float along with her for the most part.
You know it’s wrong the stuff she’s making you do to the other campers sometimes, but you glom onto her praise a little bit.
“You, I need you to go find Lindsay for me. We need to have an alliance meeting,” she demands hands on her hips.
"What for?" Heather seemed to get tripped up sometimes on even the smallest of things, sometimes it seemed like stupid things, but what did you know?
"What for? What for? Excuse me, hello, earth to _______! We totally bombed that last challenge in case you're not paying attention!"
"Right, sorry," you said in response.
That wasn't totally true though, we weren't right, more like they.
Not that you would ever correct anyone to say something that conceded, much less Heather (she'd kill you).
"What's that look for?" She demands.
"What? nothing," you assure.
She scoffs "So then what are you doing still on your butt? Go get Lindsay!"
Lindsay going against Heather in the end makes you turn on her the same, if it's someone Lindsay hates, they must be bad news. Not that you didn't already realize that, I just imagine that to be the final straw.
Oddly enough, after being with Heather makes your self worth increase.
Despite the fact that she verbally assaults you on a daily basis, it's easy to feel good about yourself since in comparison to Heather not only do you look even extra adequate in challenges, but you seem nicer too.
Jasmine
It doesn't take much to warm up to Jasmine, she's wildly easy going, kind, smart, and good at everything she tries.
You two click based on skill alone.
Being in Pahkitew requires a lot of athleticism, and a lot of survival instincts.
Being good with Jasmine is just common sense.
She's always giving you praise and compliments about everything you do, she's always delighted and amazed by your skill.
"Wow! Look at you, you're better than a bear on December first at foraging!" She said over her pile of berries.
"uh... sure," you shrug.
She gives you a look "What's that face for?"
"Nothing," you shrug, not wanting to give yourself away for the fraud you are.
"You should be proud, not everyone is a master forager right out of the gates."
You shrug again "it's just picking berries."
"Not quite, its picking the right berries,"
"...yeah" you say.
She stands up and looks at you with her hands on her hips "what's wrong?"
Jasmine is very good with people's emotions, she can always tell when something has shifted with someone. So there was no real use in hiding it.
"It's just... I feel weird accepting compliments from you sometimes," you admit.
"Why's that?"
"Cause I just feel like they're never really... deserved I guess."
Jasmine frowns down at you, and puts a hand on your shoulder.
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with that. I get it, you know? It can be hard to get to a point where you feel confident enough in yourself to accept that stuff. But you should know by now I'm not a liar, you wouldn't really think I'd say that stuff about just anyone, would you?"
"No... I guess not. But-"
"Right then, we'd better get these back to the team then, huh?"
She said and then pulled you along.
From that point on Jasmine would take extra note of when you were feeling particularly off and would try and nudge you into the right direction.
She'd always give you extra support, but it never sounded forced, or fake, with her things are always very natural I imagine.
With her things truly are a team effort especially after your heart to heart.
Zoey
Zoey always knows you will be there to save her, or help her when she needs help.
She is caring and sweet, and super cute, so of course you would go to great lengths to know and understand you.
I do think (solely based on how long things took with her discovering Mike's system) It would probably take you spelling anything like that out for her.
She's always impressed by your work, be it social, academic, physical, she's just impressed by you, through and through.
It was another night of lengthy praise from her, after you had rescued her from yet another fatal situation (why had you come on this show again?).
You could feel yourself growing more and more uncomfortable as compliment after compliment ticked on, you just couldn't live up to what she thought of you.
How could you? She over and over told you she thought the world of you, how could this pressure do anything but build and fester?
"Zoey! Please," you interrupt, trying not to let your outburst cost you the challenge.
"What?" she asked innocently.
"Nothing, it's just... It's kind of a lot," you admit. And you hate how weak it sounds, but you knew you needed to be direct with her.
"Oh no I'm sorry. The pressure is a lot for you I'd bet..." She said sort of sadly, shaking her head.
"Yeah, a little bit," you nodded.
She rubbed your back comfortingly "I promise I won't do that to you anymore. How about from now on we decide to expect less from each other?"
It sounded a bit strange, expecting less from your teammates should sound like a bad deal, but it's what you needed. On top of the fact that you felt like a big huge liar, you didn't need everyone expecting the world of you on top of that.
Things run a little more smoothly with your team from then on. Zoey finds unique ways to praise you that go unnoticed to you sometimes, and gives you as much support as you give to her.
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