Family + Camp (working title)

Chapter 30 Part 2: Poseurs

"A little about me," Morrie went on. "We were up at Guardian's Camp Fields Creek for almost fifteen years. Before that, I was at Guardian's Camp Maple Meadows in Washington—the San Juan Islands to be specific. My wife, Sandra—well, you'll meet her tonight at Reflections. My son Jamie is almost twenty, and he has an internship in New York. My daughter, Nell, she's right over there, and she'll be lifeguarding this summer."

He pointed, and Nell waved automatically. She tried to seem chipper, but it was an act. Smile! she self-commanded, and felt the corner of her mouth lift. "Hi," she said, in a strong voice. Sybil caught her eye and winked. Nell felt the other half of her mouth join in the grin.

"Hey. How's it going?" The room murmured back to her.

"I think that's about it for me right now," Morrie said. "Rob: continue."

"You got it!" Rob had chipper down. "Okay, I want to introduce the staff. Let's start with Res camp."

A young blonde woman, about Rob's age, stood up.

"My name is Delaney, and I'm the resident camp director this summer?"

Everyone hooted and hollered. Delaney was cute with bouncy hair and running shoes, and ended her sentences in a question mark, as was the way of many young women for some reason Nell could not fathom. Just a trend, she guessed, like talking in a "valley girl" voice had been when she was in grade school.

"I want to introduce my staff so you know who to go to if you can't find me?" Delaney waved to a group bunched together, their chair placements ruining the curve of the giant circle. They were the unit directors who would head up the different camper units, which were divided by age groups: Trailblazers for the littles, ages eight to ten; Adventurers for the middle kids, ages eleven to thirteen; and the Innovators, ages fourteen though sixteen. After aging out, you could become a counselor in training, or CIT, unless you had already graduated from high school. If that was the case, you could be a seventeen-year-old counselor, in charge of a cabin of up to twelve kids all by yourself! Cabin counselors would have a CIT assigned to them to give the counselor a break sometimes. But counselors had to be with their campers pretty much 24/7 except for an hour each night which was called Fellowship.

Nell had avoided all that by being a certified lifeguard. She'd gone from camper to program staff, and knew it was the right call. Kids were cute and all, but they were also a pain in the ass, and a counselor's job was kind of brutal.

The Trailblazer unit director was a woman from International Counselors Association named Cora who seemed older, like Seth. Her complexion was ruddy, as if she'd already gotten sunburned. She had an accent Nell immediately adored—Australian? She was also a first year at Camp Morgan. The Adventurer UD was a tall Latino guy who told everyone to call him Strider. And the Innovator UD looked about twelve but promised she was eighteen. She said to call her by her camp name, Oak. The latter two were vets—Oak had been a counselor last year, and Strider had been attending family camp and res camp since he was in diapers, according to him.