For once in her life, Morgan was up before the alarm from her phone started blaring "Ooooh, barracuda!" She silenced it with a bit more pep in her step than usual. Today was her ticket to summertime freedom. Freedom from her harpy of a mother, under whom she had suffered a whole week and a half now since the school term had ended. In that week and a half, her mother had already pestered her about which college she thought she'd attend and how she should be spending her free time preparing for college entrance exams no less than a dozen times. Her father was away on business again, which left her to take the brunt of the housewife's nagging. Honestly, she couldn't blame him for being gone again. Her mother was a special kind of pleasant to be around.

Her mom had once been on the path to a successful career, but quit to raise Morgan. And while it was never said out loud, Morgan knew her mother blamed her for ruining her life. Being the only child also meant Morgan shouldered all the weight of her mother's high expectations for how her life should turn out. Morgan couldn't leave soon enough.

In approximately two hours, her chariot would arrive, and she'd blow this popsicle stand and be on her way to her summer sanctuary: Camp Elysian. Her parents had sent her there every summer since she could remember. It was a relatively expensive camp, with more activities than your run of the mill summer experience. Her mom never let her forget how much it cost to let her go spend the summers with her cousin, Serena. So when the opportunity arose to go from mere camper to tuition-reduced volunteer camp counselor a few years back, Morgan jumped on the opportunity. If not for the additional freedom and privileges, definitely to get her mom to stop guilting her on the regular.

She'd been a peer counselor a few years now, and last year she'd added her lifeguard certification to her repertoire. Her older cousin had roped both her and his younger sister into the program the year before that. Some of their lifeguards had moved on from the camp, and they needed bodies, but Morgan liked to think he was looking out for them. Being a lifeguard made Morgan feel like she'd gone up a few rungs of the hierarchy ladder. So much better than just being a glorified babysitter or dishwasher.

Once she'd done a thorough once-over in the mirror, and checked her bag for the tenth time, Morgan glanced over at her clock. 9:15

She still had forty-five minutes to go. Stomach growling, she decided to go face her mother one more time and grab something to eat. As she grabbed her duffle to go drop it by the front door, something rubbed up against her ankle. Morgan smiled and bent over to scratch the chin of her fluffy white cat, who responded with a purr and quiet meow.

"Oh, Arty, I know. I'm going to miss you, too. You'll be fine. I'll be back before you know it. Take all the naps you want on my bed. And hey, at least she likes you." With a bitter smile, she stroked the feline a few times before heading down the hall into the main area of their quaint 1970s three-bedroom ranch.

She was greeted by her mother in the eat-in kitchen, sipping on a cup of coffee, face buried in her laptop, a pile of paper and envelopes strewn on the counter next to her. "Finally getting a move on? Your cousins will be here soon." Her tone wasn't quite accusatory, but it wasn't pleasant, either.

"I know," Morgan responded cheerfully, yet strained, as she grabbed a random box of sugary cereal from the cabinet. "I just needed to check my bag a few more times. I don't want to bother you because I forgot something."

"I'm sure Serena would share if you forgot something. You two could be twins."

Morgan genuinely smiled, thinking of her dear cousin. Serena was her most favorite person in the entire world. Cereal in hand, she moved to the table behind her mother and pulled out her phone.

A few short moments passed before her mother let out an exasperated sigh. "Really, Morgan? We have like 30 minutes before you're gone for two months. You have to play on your phone?"

Morgan bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from saying anything back, exhaled through her nose, and reminded herself that very soon, she'd be free of this interrogation.

"I don't think that having a conversation with your mother is too hard of an ask, Morgan. I'm the only mother you've got, and it'd be nice if we could have a relationship."

"Mom," she began to plead.

"But, instead, you avoid me every chance you get."

"Mo-om."

"You know, one of these days, I'm not going to be around, and you're going to wish we'd spent more time together. My mom and I were so close. I don't understand what went wrong with us. I do everything for you, and you can't even spend an afternoon with me. Am I so horrible?"

Just when this guilt trip was about to reach its crescendo, the sweet sound of a car horn reached Morgan's ears. Her mother sighed angrily and tossed a stack of folded up papers onto the table in front of her. "Don't forget these," she ordered before returning to her makeshift office space on the counter.

Morgan glared at the admission forms, gathered them up, along with her bag, and hastily made her way out the door, down the front steps, and across the lawn. A blonde girl with a cheery smile greeted her while hanging out the side of the car.

"Momo!"

Morgan tossed her duffle at her doppleganger and quickly dumped the papers in the trash can by the curb, before pushing the other girl in and joining her in the backseat.

"Someone's sure ready to get out of here," the driver, her cousin Jayden, teased as she slammed the door to his cherry red Toyota Corolla. Jayden was two years older than them, but the three were thick as thieves growing up. There wasn't a weekend or summer's day they weren't running around the neighborhood together getting in and out of trouble. They had moved away when the girls were both around 8, but that's when their parents had decided to send them to camp each summer so they could still see each other.

"Yeah, well, you guys don't live with the spawn of Satan, so, yeah. Drive."