Family + Camp (working title)

Chapter 12: Family Camp

Inside the first room of the cabin, she turned a slow circle. Yesterday, map in hand, Nell had explored some of the empty buildings with her parents. She could see signs of life in the place where Fred lived because, like the Hartes, he lived on camp year-round. There was also the cook's quarters. From the outside, both Fred's place and the cook's looked lived in with personal touches such as colorful curtains, potted plants on the porches, and, in the case of the cook, a summer foliage wreath on the door. Fred had an American flag posted outside, as well as an ugly toadstool ceramic Nell told herself not to feel disappointed in.

Rob would only be here for the summer, but soon, this space would be his. It was a two-room cabin with a living room and a bedroom. Both were tiny, and Nell wondered at the point of having two rooms at all. The living room had a couch, coffee table, telephone on a side table, and a very old TV, that looked to be from the 1970s. What? She wondered. Why? Did the TV get reception? Was it even in color?

The bedroom had the standard camp bed and a bureau with a mirror over it. Everything had that dusty feel that camp cabins just could not shed, especially in the summer when everything was so dry. She imagined this place in the winter, hiking boots tracking in mud onto the not so great plywood floors.

"Nice," Nell declared. But it was hard to tell from her tone if she really meant it. Clearly, from the smug look on Rob's face, he was pleased.

"I'm good with it," he said. "For the first time ever, I do not have to share sleeping quarters with kids or other staffers."

Nell nodded. That totally made sense. Being summer camp director had more pay as well as this perk. Rob was top dog. She could see a look of hunger and thirst in his eyes. Did he dream of being in her dad's shoes one of these days?

The five of them left Rob's cabin to see where Jake would be staying—with a roommate in the program staff quarters. As they walked, cutting through some trees, Nell half-listened to her dad and Rob talk about family camp programming, and how it differed here at Morgan from Camp Fields.

To Nell, Camp Morgan was unusual in that it had both a traditional residential summer camp for kids for six weeks, as well as four weeks of family camp—two weeks before res camp, and two weeks after it. Basically, half of June was family camp, and the month of July and half of August belonged to res camp. The last two weeks of August were the last part of family camp, which finished up Labor Day weekend. It was a last hurrah before most California kids went back to school. Camp Fields hosted a similar family camp, but that was only twice a year during Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends.

How would she deal with whole families for an entire week at a time? She was surprised to learn that during family camp, campers were allowed to bring alcohol. According to Cash, the parents got really wasted. That was not something the Guardians Guild would have been okay with.

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Wattpad readers: I remember sitting around staff quarters during my break as a camp counselor watching the oldest of old TV sets. Y'all can't even imagine it! Whatever was on: game shows, old westerns, the news—I'd watch it just to veg out for a while. So fun!