AN: Thanks to LifeIsTooQuick for pointing out the typo error in this chapter, in which I accidentally typed 'Penny' instead of 'Lucia'. The error has been fixed, and I hope my brain won't malfunction like that again.
Inside the Condo, three duffel bags were positioned side-by-side on the floor, one red, one blue, and the third with a pattern of colorful flowers printed on it. Rodolfo, Zack and Lucia were in the process of getting ready to spend the next four weeks at Adirondack Camp, a summer camp located near the tip of Lake George, along with Rodolfo and Zack's friend, Alvin. At the moment, however, the three of them were taking a break from packing to go over things for the fifteenth time with Mark and Emily. Maureen was also over to help out a bit, although Rodolfo had whispered to Zack his belief that Maureen was only over because Joanne was working all day, and she was bored in their empty apartment.
"Now, I want the three of you to remember to bring bug spray to keep from getting mosquito bites," Emily instructed the children. "And be sure to watch out for poison ivy, and while I know you won't be sharing a cabin with her, I want you boys to keep an eye on Lucia whenever you can."
"Mom, you've told us that same speech a dozen times," Zack pointed out, pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah, but I'm your mother. I have that right," Emily replied. "And since you've called my attention to you, Zack, I'm also going to remind you that your father and I already notified the camp about your peanut allergy. But all the same, it wouldn't hurt to remind them once you arrive."
"Emily, please stop worrying," Mark chucked, sending her a gentle smile. "They'll be fine. Last I checked the death count at Adirondack Camp is very small."
"Oh dear," Emily sighed, covering half her face with a hand with a weak laugh. "I'm becoming one of those worrywart mothers, aren't I? Even after how much I complained about Nana always treating me like I was five-years-old. I can only imagine how much Collins would tease me about that if he was here now." Within moments, both she and Mark were suppressing a laugh at the thought.
"Wow, this brings back so many memories," Maureen suddenly spoke up from her seat on the couch, where she was flipping through the pages that had been printed off the camp's web-page. "I remember when we went there when we were teens."
"You went to Adirondack Camp, too, Auntie Maureen?" Lucia asked, interested.
"Well, sure!" Maureen grinned. "That's where I met your daddy and Uncle Roger for the first time."
"Dad went there?" Rodolfo had been throwing in some last-minute items into his red duffel bag, but he looked up at the mention of his father.
"Yes, he did," Mark confirmed. "He and I spent four weeks up there ourselves when we were your age. I gotta say, it took almost two months for me to convince my parents to let me go there with Roger. They were pretty set on sending me to this Jewish camp, Camp Lakeland, like they did with Cindy." For a brief moment, Mark smiled at the memory of the summer he'd spent at the camp with Roger.
"So, what's the plan for tomorrow?" Maureen asked Mark and Emily.
"Benny's gonna be stopping by later to drop off Alvin, who will spend the night here," Emily explained. "In the morning, we'll be taking them down to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the bus will pick them up at nine to drive them up to the camp."
"And what are you guys planning to do there?" Maureen turned her attention over to the children.
"There is this one thing that was listed under the Special Adventures on the website, called 'Caving at Crane Mountain'," Zack began. "Rodolfo, Alvin and I all wanted to give that a try. There's also rock climbing, and a whole lotta other stuff we wanted to try out.
"And I wanna go canoing, and make masks, and necklaces with hemp!" Lucia threw in her intended activities. "And I think I saw something about learning how to use stilts!"
As Zack and Lucia continued talking with Maureen about what they were looking forward to at camp and Emily started to look into what she should serve for the 'good luck at camp' dinner, Mark happened to glance over at Rodolfo, who was standing quietly in front of the wall-mounted shelf that was always filled with photographs of Roger and Mimi.
"Rodolfo?" Mark spoke gently as he stepped up to his side. "Are you okay?" It took a moment before Rodolfo tore his eyes away from one particular photograph, which featured Roger and Mark as fifteen-year-old boys, sitting side-by-side in front of the old blue bike Mark still owned. Both boys were grinning at the person who had taken the picture, and even back then, Roger's grin was unable to hide his mischievous, self-proclaimed 'tough guy' nature.
"Yeah," Rodolfo nodded when he finally looked away from the picture. "Yeah, Uncle Mark. I'm fine." Mark didn't seem to be all that convinced, but he didn't say anything more about it. Rodolfo gave one last glance at the old picture before joining his 'cousins' over by the couch, unable to stop thinking about how he was going to the same summer camp his father had gone to at his age.
AN: Gaaa, you have no idea how much trouble I had in deciding what Roger and Mark would be doing in the picture Rodolfo looks at. I was going to have them in a homemade fort or something,but then I was like "wait,do fifteen-year-old boys even play 'fort'?" I did multiple Google searches to figure out what typical teen boys would normally do, since it's been a while since I've been that age, but I kept getting totally useless things, like news articles involving some delinquent teens and whatnot. (At one point, I actually I got a link for some photo gallery of nude teen boys! Ack! Total nightmare!)
Anyway, Adirondack Camp is a real summer camp. I seriously recommend checking out their web-page; it looks like a really cool summer camp: Makes me wish I was still in the 7-16 age range, so I could go there myself.