Haven't Forgotten My Way Home (Camren)

Chapter One

Lakeview House stood at the end of a long drive through the woods at the end of town. An enormous brick building, from the outside it looked like one of the Higher Academies; but Miami Academy was at the dead center of the town, and the "students" currently at Lakeview House probably were no longer able to survive even a day beyond its walls.

After showing her badge and credentials to the guard, Camila Cabello wound her car through the gate and up to the parking lot that sat to the right of the House. She dug through her front seat until she found the board with its notebook paper and pen, which she always carried on these visits. Also clipped to the board was a list of names, the people that she would need to visit with. She was lucky; today there were only five, which meant she'd be able to get home early, finally kick off those insufferable high heels and relax.

Maybe there would be a rerun of Friends on television.

She knocked on the door that led into Lakeview House, and stepped back when it swung inward. The orderly in his blue uniform looked her up and down, and Camila felt her body tense when his lips crooked into a sneer.

"New resident?" he said, and she rolled her eyes.

She held up her badge. "Inspections." The thin silver band encircling her right wrist glittered in the sunlight. It gave her no amount of satisfaction that the orderly stepped back quickly and ushered her in.

"Of course, inspections, yes Ma'am, sorry, Ma'am."

"Relax," she said to him. "I'm not going to punish you, but you certainly do need to check your attitude; the last thing the residents here need is an orderly with attitude problems."

"Yes Ma'am, thank you, Ma'am."

"Where's your director?"

"Right here." She approached Camila with a smile, and held out her hand. "Emily Fields."

"Camila Cabello," she said easily, taking her hand and shaking it, then holding up her badge. "Society for the Ethical Treatment of Submissives."

SETS had been created years earlier, to do exactly what its name suggested: create an organization whose sole aim was to protect the submissives of Miami society, and ensure their proper treatment. And never was the society more necessary than in visits to places like Lakeview House.

Lakeview House had only been in operation for about ten years, around the time that Camila Cabello was enrolled in Miami Academy and taking her first courses that would set her on her path for life. Dominance for Beginners. The Rights of a Submissive. Praise and Punishment. Of course, there was math and English thrown in there for good measure as well, and she'd enjoyed her extracurricular time with the choir and the debate team. While Camila was growing up and growing into her natural role as Dominant – a role she'd been destined for ever since the silver circlet had been fastened around her wrist at age three – the first bricks were being laid as the foundation for Lakeview House.

Or, as its full name was, Lakeview House for the Care of Orphan Submissives.

Orphan submissives. They held a particularly sad, delicate place in Miami society. The House was for two kinds of submissives: those whose Dominants had died, or those whose Dominants had proven unfit. In Miami, if you were Dominant you could choose your own submissive, or, if you were from a wealthy family, often matches were made before the first blush of new birth had disappeared off the babies. Camila preferred the first, and thanked whatever power there was out there that her parents had left the choice up to her. Nearly all of her visits at Houses similar to Lakeview were to an "OS" whose Dominant had abused him or her, abandoned them. It tore at her heart, and often it was hard to leave her work behind when she went home at night.