Family + Camp (working title)

Chapter 30 Part 1: Poseurs

The meeting room was more crowded with bodies today than it had been yesterday, just as the dining hall had serviced more hungry people at lunch. Nell imagined what it would be like once campers arrived. Just like Fields Creek, Morgan would be humming, the trees filled with shouts, laughter, and crying. There was always some camper, usually an eight-year-old, who couldn't buckle down and accept homesickness.

Today, the folding-chair circle was wider to accommodate all the residence camp staffers who had arrived. Nell watched as old friends who hadn't seen or been to lunch greeted each other with hugs, high fives, and backslaps. That unwelcome feeling she'd had in the dining hall of being an outsider only increased. Overcome with the absolute certainty that she was a poseur, Nell felt very on the edge of things. An interloper.

And yet...there were other new people like her, people who had never worked at Camp Morgan nor had been a camper there. People who needed a summer job and loved being outdoors or working with kids or both. She could tell because these people were watching the veteran staffers the way she was—eyes wide, tentative smiles that oozed a sense of wanting to belong, to be over this hump of strangeness and be part of the in-crowd. To be hugged and to instantly get the jokes before they were even over.

This time, Rob was to lead the meeting. He was, after all, the boss of summer camp. It was time to settle down, to get everyone's attention. Rob went with an oldie but a goodie: using his normal voice volume, he said, "If you can hear me, clap once."

A few people clapped. Others continued to chat.

"If you can hear me," Rob said. "Clap twice."

More people joined in. The room went quiet. Rob looked pleased.

"Awesome. Camp Morgan staffers, welcome to the summer of 1990!"

Everyone whooped and applauded. Someone ululated.

Rob went on with a little speech: He was humbled to be the summer director of programs and camps (What a bloated title, Nell thought) and to be perhaps the youngest one ever! He knew they were going to have an awesome season and that campers of all ages were going to have an awesome experience because the Morgan staffers were the best! He was psyched to see so many familiar faces, but new ones too, like their new camp director, Morland Harte!

Everyone applauded again, and Nell tried not to notice whether or not they seemed to like her dad. Did they know why he had taken this job? Even if they didn't, did they have opinions? Of course they did. They were human. Nell was probably being paranoid, but did that one kid at ten o'clock (she was, obviously, six o'clock on this circle) look like he did not approve of Morland? Or was that just the kid's face: kind of sour and judgmental?

Nell's dad stood up and waved benevolently at everyone. "Thank you," he said over their applause, and it gradually, politely, died out.

"I am very pleased to be here, very pleased. My family and I have long talked about living in California—" (Bullshit! Nell thought vehemently) "—and when this opportunity to helm the ship that is Camp Morgan opened up—well, I could not have been more pleased. Let's just say...the stars aligned."

For some reason, the group seemed to think this was a joke, and chuckled politely.