Enjoy.

By the time Edith made it back to the actual camp from The Warden's home, the calls of 'fresh meat' were over but now everyone realized that this fresh meat was a girl. New sounds of whistles and hollers erupted from the small groups of boys. The Doctor, or "Mom" as the kids like to call him, was no good hiding his nervousness; it was no secret that Edith was the first and only girl in Camp Green Lake. Mom stuttered on nearly every word and said nothing to Edith's defense when whistles and hoots shot out from the boys. Not that sky minded or anything, she understood that most of the boys hadn't even seen a girl in months (unless, of course you counted the warden). But escorting the girl through a camp of juvenile boys wasn't what Mom was worried about, it was F tent. There were stories about that bunch.

Horror stories.

There were almost constant fights. If they didn't fight with the authority figures in the camp, then with each other. It didn't matter what time it was -- three in the afternoon two in the morning – there could be a fight. The smallest case they had with f tent was when two of the boys went at it. One had a shovel and didn't turn out do bad the other only ended up with a broken arm and a few minor cuts, but the man who was foolish enough to try and break it up… poor, poor, stupid fellow … he had two broken ribs, a broken nose, and a broken arm and hand, and had lost a few teeth by the time they were through with him not to mention the cuts and bruises. That was the smallest problem. Mom shuddered. The last thing he wanted to do was be the counselor of F tent.

~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~

There were two bunks open in F tent, the other five were filled with the bodies of the boys known collectively as F tent. None even got up when Edith and Mom arrived.

"Who's your girlfriend?" a dark-skinned boy commented. There were the remnants of a white bandana wrapped around his head, holding back the dark locks of his hair. Pendanski seemed like he didn't even hear the boy.

'eh, you're our new counselor?" another boy who seemed to be pale peach under the layers of dust and dirt said. Dr. Pendanski swallowed.

"Yes." He said in the toughest voice he could muster; it wasn't very intimating. "I'm Dr. Pendanski and will be filling in for Mr. White until he gets out of the hospital." Some of the boys snickered at the news that their former counselor was still in the hospital.

"Hey! I know you!" a boy all the way in the back said. Edith couldn't see what he looked like but he looked much shorter than the others. "your Mom!"

"Yah! That's right!" the first dark-skinned boy said.

"My reputation precedes me" Pendanski said pretending that he didn't mind being called mom and that he didn't care that F tent heard of him before. "Boys," he said finally after a long pause. "This is Edith Ackerman. Edith, this is Nikko, Franklin, Mitchell, Michael, and Brian."

"Yo, man, who's that?" one of the boys called and other voices followed in protest. Nikko, the boy with the bandana, shook his head. "no, man, all those boys are dead." He stood up and walked over to Edith. He was tall but not much taller her. "I'm Bandit." He turned to, a boy with skin like the night sky. "That's Black Light." He gestured to each kid as Pendanski had addressed them, "Spit, 47, and Jason." Edith let a smile creep across her face at the sound of Brian's nickname. Brian saw this and stood up,

"Eh! You find my name funny!"

"Yah, I do." She challenged "From Brian to Jason? Hardly worth it, isn't it?" she laughed. Jason reached behind his head and pulled a white hockey mask over his pale face.

"Watch it, girlie, or you'll find my shovel in your neck!"

"Hey now," mom finally interjected "play nice or I'll bring The Warden down here." Pendanski knew he wasn't intimidating, but if there was one thing in this whole goddamned camp that was, it was The Warden. That shut Jason up. Mom put a hand on Edith's shoulder. "Welcome to Camp Green Lake, Miss Edith."