Family + Camp (working title)

Chapter 2: What Went Wrong

Nell wasn't sure when she'd become aware that her dad might lose his job. Maybe it was a year ago, when she'd heard her parents whisper-fighting in the kitchen or in their bedroom, whenever she wasn't in the room with them. Their home had thin walls—it was, after all, a modular house, Camp Fields Creek staff housing that was only a little better than the condos other onsite staff lived in—and all four Hartes had learned to converse quietly, especially when things were getting heated. Boisterous laughter was fine. If folks outside heard them laughing or talking in fun, animated voices, it meant camp was working! The director was happy and so was his family, so all must be well. And for the most part, it was.

That's why the lines on her mom's face, especially around her downturned mouth, gave Nell alarm. The frown on her dad's forehead was not his usual one of concentration, but of worry. Those were the first signs. Next were the stomping footsteps from one room to another.
Their house was one story—three bedrooms, two baths, with a kitchen and dining/living room. Her mom had always kept it neat and clean and looking like a suburban home rather than a cabin, as some of Nell's friends from town expected it to be. As a kid, when she'd invite someone from school over, they'd look around in surprised.

"I thought you lived in a tent!" the idiot kid would exclaim, and Nell would have to count to ten and grind her teeth in order not to harm them with the knives of her words.

"I thought you were semi-intelligent!" she wanted to shoot back. But instead, she said, "Nope. A house. Not a tent."

Maybe this was because she'd been spoiled by her long-ass friendship with Leonardo Rodriguez. Len was a camp kid, too, so he was used to her parents' garden, her swing set, their two-car garage—all part of the camp experience. When campers arrived during the summer, they didn't spend any time in the part of camp that was her home—it was near the gravel parking lot and across from the camp office where her dad worked, close to the camp entrance. "Think of it as a lobby in a hotel," Dad liked to say.

The main part of camp, that was down a little hill about an eighth of a mile away. This was where the cabins and dining hall were, as well as the swimming pool. Other camp features radiated off of this nucleus—the pond, the hiking and biking trails leading up the hills to the pine and fir forests as well as open grassy areas where the horses were corralled and the not-so-secret and extremely mild ceremonies of the Guardians Guild happened.

Nell's house was home; however, she had learned in that last few months, it was nearly unheard of for a camp director to have stayed so long in one position in the GG. It was like the Army, folks said. People were always looking to advance, to become grand Poobah of this or that outpost, whether an outdoor summer camp or an urban clubhouse. They weren't looking for fortune—the GG was a global non-profit after all—but those with ambition wanted to move up in the world. Not so, Morland Harte.

And it was. But there was a reason behind it, a not-so-nice reason that Nell had learned about in the harshest of ways.

Her parents were deceivers.

Her dad was a fucking liar. And maybe even a loser. Definitely a bad example for her delicate, impressionable mind. He was supposed to be her perfect hero!

But no, that was over. The cat was out of the bag. And because of that, they were losing their home, the only place Nell had ever really known. She'd thought she'd have more time here. One more solid gold year. She was going to be a senior in the fall at Collins High! She was going to do all the things seniors did: SATs, ACTs, college applications, sneering at prom but secretly wanting to go, pep rallies she'd heckle but secretly enjoy, lunches with Len and their cohort under the old oak tree. Then, then she'd be off into the big, wide world. Definitely a college outside of Oregon, just like Jamie had done. That she knew she wanted. Maybe in New York where her mom had grown up, definitely not the midwest where he dad had, but perhaps Hawaii or Los Angeles. Something different than the Pacific Northwest where'd she'd been forever and a day. Sure, she wanted to leave, but on her terms. She wanted to leave but she wanted her parents to stay. To be empty nesters who didn't know what to do with themselves when Penelope Annabelle Min-Yi Harte, the awesome center of their goddamn universe (oh, and Jamie, too) flew away to change the world!