She suddenly saw Dylan’s gleaming eyes and heard his quiet voice echoing in her head as he described why Durand utilized the camp to select its executives every year. Then the kids arrive, and the challenge really begins … It’s not enough for counselors to brag about qualities of leadership, planning, intelligence, innovation, salesmanship, compassion, determination, hard work, and courage: they have to demonstrate those skills daily with a group of children, some of whom have been labeled as criminal, uncooperative, manipulative, lazy, or unreachable. It’s a lot harder than it sounds at first blush.
Of course Dylan had been one hundred percent right. Thad recognized that, just like Alice did now, even if she hadn’t at the time Dylan said it. Compassion went through her as she studied Thad’s profile.
“I think they’ll listen to you,” she said quietly. “Because you’ll listen to them. It might take a bit for them to warm up to you, but when they do, they’re going to understand how lucky they are to have gotten you as a counselor.”
Thad gave her a surprised glance. He looked pleased. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice saw movement and a yellow school bus entered her vision.
“They’re here,” she said, her heartbeat giving a flutter.
“Do you really think that? About the kids being lucky?” Thad asked her as the crowd around them started to whoop and clap in excitement.
“Sure I do,” she told him as they began to walk up en masse to greet the kids. A sideways glance told her Thad was still watching her. “You managed to make a fan out of me, didn’t you?” she laughed. “And trust me … that’s no easy feat,” she added, rolling her eyes.
“Alice Reed is a believer?” he murmured. “Okay. Then bring ’em on. I can take anything now,” he said, his gaze beyond warm on Alice’s face.
Alice experienced a sinking feeling. Was she leading Thad on? She genuinely did like him, so maybe not? What sane woman wouldn’t be euphoric over the idea of someone like Thad favoring her?
So why did she feel like something was missing when it came to Thad?
The bizarre, compelling experience at the stable was eclipsing everything, confusing her.
Dylan Fall was.
His very presence was like some kind of powerful magnet on her awareness. On her body.
Something told her that the pull would only grow stronger as the hours of the day passed. By the time their proposed meeting approached, Alice worried she’d be unable to resist him.
SIX
Sebastian Kehoe wanted them to launch into their regular schedule immediately upon the first day in order to get the kids accustomed to it as quickly as possible. Since their mandatory planned activities and workshops all took place in the morning, however, that left lunch and then free time in the afternoon. Free time wasn’t necessarily a free-for-all, though. Every day of the week had several scheduled activities, such as football, baseball, competitive swimming, kayaking, horseback riding, archery, sailboating, gardening, hiking, woodcraft, or an art class. The camp counselors led these activities. The kids could choose to do one activity or several, or just swim and socialize with friends, although they were required to do at least four free time activities every week in order to prevent too much languishing and goofing off on the lovely white shore beach.
Alice learned quickly, however, after spending time with her new charges, that languishing wasn’t much of a threat at Camp Durand. The kids looked forward to the afternoon activities because they were loosely structured and fun. Plus, there was the added benefit of an opportunity to gain points for one’s team by an athletic win, artistic expression, or individual skill in the gardens, in art class, or on horseback. The rumor of the reputation of the team trophy had apparently already spread on the first day. The kids liked the idea of racking up points for their team.
Thankfully, five of her ten charges were “experts,” meaning they were returning to Camp Durand—some of them for third or fourth times. This meant that they usually were more on top of things than Alice. Her experts relished guiding the less experienced kids—and Alice especially. She didn’t mind their eager instruction. She was thankful for their knowledge, because that first day was pretty hectic.
The range of sizes, strengths, and vulnerabilities on the Red Team was huge. The first to diligently seek her out upon arrival was a clean-cut sixteen-year-old boy named Noble Darian, who went by Noble D or “D.” Noble D was as serious as a minister. Later, he solemnly told Alice a minister is exactly what he planned to become following his education at a Baptist college, where he’d already received a basketball scholarship. Alice already knew from reading Noble D’s history that he’d grown up in a Detroit war zone and had responded to the stress of the shooting death of his oldest brother by becoming the male figure of the family at age ten. No psychologist needed to tell Alice what the challenge was with D. It was to give him permission to let go of the responsibility and burden of watching out for everyone else for a short period of time and just be a kid.
Terrance Brown was on a different end of the spectrum, every bit as physically imposing as Noble D, not only in the vertical direction but the horizontal one as well. He wore a perennial grin, because he was always trying to make someone laugh with his bag full of off-color jokes or, even more often, because he’d just pulled a fast one and was waiting for you to find out about it the hard way. Alice knew from his records that the fun-loving fifteen-year-old was dangerously overweight and diabetic. With little parental supervision and a troubled home life, Terrance self-soothed with a diet of fast food, chips, and candy. He observed everything about people and was smart as a whip when it came to social interactions and body language. He possessed a silver tongue and was, at times, as sweet and generous a kid as Alice had ever met. Alice thought that if Terrance could harness some of his charm and social acumen, he would make a fine lawyer, salesman, or politician. She couldn’t help but like Terrance almost immediately, even if she wasn’t fooled for a second by his innocent faces and everready jokester act.
There was Jill Sanchez, a withdrawn, painfully thin thirteen-year-old who reminded Alice of a lost baby deer in headlights when she got off the bus, standing in the parking lot alone and dazed-looking. Jill had hardly spoken since witnessing the shooting of her mother last winter, although she’d previously been a bright and outgoing student at Grover Cleveland Middle School.
And then there was Judith Arnold, a pretty, athletic, but angry seventeen-year-old who was reportedly quite brilliant when she put her mind to things, but was too busy snarling and being uncooperative with the world to ever show it. Unlike many of her fellow campers, Judith came from a comfortable middle-class home—or at least that’s how things stood presently. It hadn’t always been so rosy for Judith. Apparently, Judith’s mother had determinedly struggled against poverty and single-handedly fought to make a better world for her daughter and herself. Mrs. Arnold, who raised Judith alone, had been dead set against her daughter attending Camp Durand. Somehow, Judith had successfully convinced her mother otherwise.
The interesting question for Alice was why Judith had been so determined to come,
given her obvious condescending attitude about the camp. Judith possessed the air of being above her peers … above everyone at Camp Durand, for that matter. The fact that she was pretty, smart, and confident only added to the impression of her loftiness and disdain toward the rest of them. Alice thought Judith might be her biggest personal challenge at Camp Durand. The girl could be a straight-up bitch when she put her mind to it, easily pricking Alice’s own defensiveness, uncertainties, and temper. Unfortunately, Judith seemed to take an instant strong dislike to Alice, which meant that she was doing her sneering-bitch act way too much for Alice’s comfort.
The Red Team was on the roster that first night for dinner duty along with the Blue Team, which meant that Alice and her ten kids helped Mira, the camp cook, prepare and serve all one hundred and fifty-three campers and the Camp Durand staff. It was their first real team effort, because the kids had chosen to do various things that afternoon after lunch as well as settle in at their team cabin.
All in all, Alice thought they’d pulled things off pretty well. There was one anxious moment. Jill Sanchez was scared to tears while serving hamburgers and grilled chicken to a group of boisterous teenagers from the Purple Team who were shouting rude questions at her and then not giving her the time or patience necessary to reply. Before Alice could get on-site to interfere, Judith leapt into the fray, soundly putting the lead instigator in his place. Judith led away a cowering Jill. As a consequence, the older girl acquired a small silent shadow that trailed her everywhere.
Alice was glad she’d observed the episode from a distance. The counselors were expected to choose a student leader for their team after five days of observation, utilizing their best judgment not just for the individual leader but the entire team. Noble D was the obvious choice, and had been the Red Team student leader for the past two years. Alice was taking a wait-and-see attitude, however, to watch how things unfolded. She was hesitant to heap more responsibility on D than was required, no matter how much the kid deserved the position.
By that evening, Alice was exhausted but very satisfied with how her first day with the kids had gone. A few of the kids had warmed up to her. Most were polite but cautious. Alice understood and respected that, though.
She would have been the same way.
The campers had their own team cabin. It was large, with one side housing the girls’ bedrooms, the other with the boys’. In the middle was a large common room, where they’d hold several small group sessions throughout camp and the kids could relax, play games, and watch television after the evening activity. The cabin and individual suites were as large and every bit as luxurious and well-appointed as Alice and Kuvi’s. Alice was a little envious of the campers, to be able to spend a teenage summer in such an idyllic place.