Thank you all for the reviews, alerts, favorites, etc. I will keep this story going as long as you want it…also until it ends ;-) Enjoy Chapter 2!
Chapter 2: What 'A' Friend We Have In Jesus
My first day at True North and it sucks…no it blows, it 400 blows. I might lose my entire mind here. I seem to be the only one that feels this way though. For the second time this year I'm "the new girl" and very anti about the program. Also, they told my parents this wasn't a religious camp, but I…see..Jesus..everywhere. In the front office, Jesus. In the bathroom, poster of Jesus holding a teenager nursing them back to health. That aside, they took away my iPod. My camp leader/drill sergeant said that the wrong kind of music can be influential and paramount to a youth's relapse. They call us all "youths." Hi, I'm Youth Maya St. Germaine and I'd like to get the fuck out of dodge, please and thanks!
My dad drove me to the camp. After we had met with my drill sergeant and toured the grounds it was time to say goodbye. He gave me a sympathetic look and said, "Maya, you can do this with your eyes closed. Keep your head down, follow the rules; you'll be home in no time." "Dad," I said, "I've never been one to follow the rules but I promise to keep my eyes closed." He laughed a deep laugh. I was going to miss his laugh. I knew my mom would visit or call more than my dad. It's nice when I have him around. Before he left I asked him a favor. I said that if Emily ever called the house to tell her that they had spoken to me and I said I was missing her like crazy. My dad smiled and said, "So this is serious huh? Justin is completely off the team?" I said to him, "Emily is the team. The whole damn team." We laughed together and said our goodbyes.
The very first thing I had to do was unpack. I was given a cabin name, a hall name, and a room number. So, I'm staying in "Purity" cabin, "Courage" hall, and room number 1A. Are they serious? Like, are they actually serious? I walked down a long hall passing smiling teenagers and posters that read slogans like, "You Can Do This!" and "Would You Kindly Say Nope to Dope?" As the vomit in my mouth reaches the back of my teeth, I finally make it to my room I stopped before knocking because I heard some scuffling inside. I was going to lightly knock on the door, but I wasn't in a good mood so why should my new roommate be? I banged on the door and all the noises instantly stopped.
A girl opened the door whom I assumed wasn't my roommate since there was another chick sitting on a bunk with her eyes trained to the floor. The girl in front of me looked kind of familiar but I couldn't place it. Shoulder length hair, bangs, turned up nose. She smiled and walked down the hall leaving the girl on the bed with no choice but to greet me. She stood up, straightened her clothes and reached out her hand. "You must be Youth Maya. I'm your roommate Youth Veronica. Nice to meet you." I shook her hand but didn't let it go. I said, "I refuse to give you back your hand until you promise me, I mean pinky swear, that you will never again call me Youth Maya." Laughing she said, "Okay, St. Germain. Get inside! I'll help you unpack."
We got my things situated and she walked me through the daily routine. It seemed in about an hour there was a camp fire sharing circle we both had to attend. I didn't care about the schedule; I didn't care the flashing though of mosquito bites. This place was like a prison and I just had to know… "So Youth Veronica. What are you in for?"
"Okay if I can't call you a Youth, you've got to spare me as well," she said laughing.
"Fine. V, what are you here for? And don't tell me it's complicated because it never is."
"Well, I had a bit of a meth problem."
I tried, I really did, I tried not to be rude, but sometimes I really just don't know when to stop talking…
"A bit of a meth problem," I said, "those problems usually don't come in small doses…no pun intended. No offense, but shouldn't you be somewhere more serious for that? Not camping in the woods singing hymns and doing jumping jack drills?"
Veronica stayed silent and her eyes went back to the floor.
"I'm sorry. I jumped over the line…"
"It's okay," she said, "I got lucky. My parent's caught my problem early. They sent me here and I've slowly been getting better. This place has really helped me Maya. It can really help you kick those joints too."
After a few conversations about school and our hopeless love lives, we got dressed and headed to the campfire. On the way to the campfire I made a mental note. At some point I'd have to ask Veronica how she knew about the reason I was sent to True North. I'm not usually so skeptical and judgmental, but there was something about her I didn't trust.
At the campfire, during our second round of "What A Friend We Have in Jesus" I kept looking around for Bangs, the girl who left my room and Veronica earlier that day. She wasn't in any of the groups as far as I could see. She must have been visiting Veronica from home. I tried to listen to the drill sergeant, I did, but my mind kept wandering. I had Emily on the brain. Her smile, her touch, her laugh, and the goofy way she doesn't always get my jokes at first. Mostly I missed her voice. They are keeping our cell phones locked in an office, but we periodically get to make phone calls to our parents. I'll be calling Emily.
At sharing time a few kids explained their "healing process" and how they went from zeros to heroes. At this point I feel like I need a cigarette. Which is crazy because I never smoke cigarettes! Those things can kill you. Funny how you don't get sent away to drugie camp for smoking something that can kill you…but I digress. As Youth Jonathon goes on about how his friends were his enablers I start to wonder if I am in fact bad for Emily. I mean is Pam's beef with me really that I'm a girl dating her daughter, or that she found my stash? Would another fly-right girl be good enough for her precious Emily? Am I really corrupting her as I joked before? I tried really hard to impress Pam. I wore pearls for fuck sake! I can only hope that Emily sees things another way. Our way.
Last night I lay in bed, starring at the ceiling trying to get "What A Friend We Have..." out of my head. I looked over at Veronica. She was sound asleep, snoring lightly. How could she be so comfortable so far away from home? So out of her element? I went to sleep with a headache and woke up with a bigger one this morning.
Veronica was up blasting music from the small radio in our bathroom. See, I'm quite the genius so when I heard the water running I knew she was in the shower. I rolled over on my side and tried to go back to sleep, but as I rolled over I heard a crunching sound. I rolled a few more times back and forth and heard the same sound. I picked my pillow up and found the source of the noise: The infamous photo strip of Emily and I when we had our first kiss. Hannah gave me a copy of my own a while ago and I brought them along with me but I know I didn't put it under my pillow. I open up my sock drawer to make sure it's still there. Took some searching but I found it and in much better condition than the one now in my hand. This one is a little beat up and torn on the edges. Sort of like someone had a fight with it before they put it under my pillow.
I go to our door. It's locked. I check our windows. They are closed and locked. I start to bank on asking V about this when she gets out of the shower when I noticed red ink on the other side of the photo strip. I turn the strip over and find a note written on the back: "You may have gotten more than you bargained for. Is she worth it? – A"
Who the hell is 'A'?