A/N: Large parts of the prologue are taken from straight from the book. I don't claim rights to these. I own what I own.
There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland.
There used to be a town of Green Lake as well. The town shrivelled up and dried along with the lake, and the people who lived there.
During the summer the daytime temperature hovers around ninety-five degrees in the shade-if you can find any shade. There's not much shade in a big dry lake.
The only two trees are two old oaks on the eastern edge of the "lake." A hammock is stretched between the two trees, and a log cabin stands behind that.
The campers are forbidden to lie in the hammock. It belongs to the Warden. The Warden owns the shade.
Out on the lake, rattlesnakes and scorpions find shade under rocks and in the holes dug by the campers.
Here is a good rule to remember about rattlesnakes and scorpions: If you don't bother them, they won't bother you.
Usually.
Being stung by a scorpion, or even bitten by a rattlesnake is not the worst thing that can happen to you. You won't die.
Usually.
Sometimes a camper will try to get stung by a scorpion on even bitten by a small rattlesnake. Then he will get to spend a day or two recovering in his tent, instead of having to dig a hole out on the lake.
But you don't want to be bitten by a yellow spotted lizard. That is the worst thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death.
Always.
If you get bitten by a yellow-spotted lizard, you might as well go into the shade of the oak trees and lay in the hammock.
There is nothing anyone can do to you anymore.
Now why would anyone go to Camp Green Lake?
Most campers weren't given a choice. Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys.
If you take a bad boy and make him dig holes every day out in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.
That is the philosophy of Camp Green Lake.
Eleanor Walker was one of the only two females that inhabited Camp Green Lake. The other female was her mother. Louise Walker, otherwise known as the Warden.
Now the Warden was a stern lady. She didn't put up with much nonsense, but she was still a lady. She was polite and pleasant when it suited her. And that was exactly how she taught her daughter to be.
Eleanor wasn't quite as stern as her mother. She tolerated a lot more than her mother. Eleanor was the good cop and the Warden was the bad cop.
Eleanor didn't live at Camp Green Lake. No she lived with her father up in Oklahoma, but every summer she would come down to the camp to stay with her mom and bring some motivation for the boys.
She didn't mind spending her summers in a hot, dry camp for bad boys. She didn't mind at all. All she cared about was spending time with her mother that she never got to see enough off.
She loved living with her father, he was nice and loving. He helped her with her homework and taught her to play sports. But he wasn't her mom.
While most of the counselors and campers thought the Warden was slightly crazy, Eleanor knew better. Her mother was just ambitious and persistent.
The Warden loved her daughter. Her daughter was the oasis of the Green Lake desert.
She wanted the best for her daughter. Even if that meant having a camp of juvenile delinquents out digging up the lake. She would find that treasure and give her daughter the life that they deserved.
Eleanor knew about the supposed treasure buried out on the lake. She had dreamed of finding it in her younger days, spending all of her free time (when she would visit her mother) out digging holes.
When she grew older, she realised that the treasure was nothing more than a pipe dream. She didn't tell her mother this of course. She just asked to help out around the camp instead of out digging holes.
She helped out in the Mess Hall, making the food slightly more suitable for the campers. She helped do the laundry for the camp. She went out with the cabin leaders and Mr. Sir on water runs. She helped out in the "store" when new campers arrived. She even did inventory for the camp.
The boys of the camp never harmed Eleanor. If they did they would be sent out of camp, and straight into a juvenile facility, but it had never came to that.
Eleanor was nice to the boys. The boys respected Eleanor. When she was at Camp Green Lake, the food got better, the Warden got nicer, and the counselors got more lenient. She even earned a nickname from the boys.
It was Princess, because she was treated like royalty and everyone loved her.
A/N:This is a Warden's daughter story with a slightly nicer view of the Warden. Review please.
XOXO