"I found your guy," Mimi muttered to Badou and Naoto a week later as she carefully spilled a stack of half-empty cocoa cups all over Badou.

"Holy shit, ow!" Badou screamed, while Heine put his head down on the table and snickered.

Naoto stared at all three of them, a faint smile on her face. "What guy?" she asked Mimi once she could be heard over Badou's swearing.

"The punk loser with bad hair," Mimi said. "You didn't mention that he had a nice bod though. Sure, he looks like he rolled in a dumpster till some clothes stuck to him, but he wears a lot of midriff shirts and his arms—"

"What does he say his name is?" Naoto asked. Heine, Badou, and Mimi all stared at her. She was stiff in her seat, voice dead and eyes focused intently on Mimi.

"Uhh, I, I don't know," Mimi stuttered, ducking her head to help Badou clean cocoa off his jeans. "I just know he works Tuesdays in the back, and Thursdays on garbage. I, uh, how do you know him?"

Naoto shook her head and turned to glare on the door to the kitchens. "Today's Sunday."

Her normally chatty tablemates were surprisingly silent.

"Thank you," she said abruptly. She turned back to her food, finished it within a minute, and left with a whisper of skirts and a clunk of combat boots. The three left at the table stared after her. Once the door to the cafeteria had slammed shut, all of them moved their heads in close.

"Okay, is that dude like her creepy old boyfriend or what?" Mimi hissed. "Seriously, he looks like a member of some horrendous death metal band."

"What, really? Hey, maybe Heine has a chance with her after all!" Badou sniggered.

Heine slammed his fist on Badou's narrow fingers, which were splayed out on the table. "Is it suspicious that you're whispering with us when you're supposed to just be a lowly cafeteria employee, Mimi?" Heine asked, ignoring Badou's whimpers.

Mimi straightened up immediately. "Shit. I'll see you boys later." She carried off the ruined cocoa cups.

"Dick," Badou muttered, still massaging his fingers.

"You're bony," Heine said. "It hurt me more than it hurt you."

"You're still a dick."

"I'd stop if you— Never mind. Let's go. I wanna see Nill before lights out."

"You're just surrounded by the ladies this summer, aintcha Heine?" Badou sang as he gathered his clean plate.

"Sorry, who's being a dick?"

Badou stuck his tongue out and snagged the last of Heine's pudding before Heine could drop it in the composting bin. "You're getting over some shit, man. That's a good thing! You can suddenly talk to half the world's population for the first time since I met you! Well, one person who's in the category of half the world's population. Now we just need to work on you and Naoto…"

Heine was shaking his head when a huge hand dropped onto his shoulder. "Heine? Badou?"

Both boys looked up. Mihai was frowning down at them.

"Hello?" Badou offered after a moment.

"Would you mind working on the train tracks this week?" Mihai finally said after a moment of obvious internal struggle.

"What train tracks?" Heine asked.

"The ones at the west end of camp. The train's a… It's a… Well, I'm not actually sure what it's for but the board of directors wants it kept tidy. Can you do that? It needs a fresh coat of paint, and the tracks need to be cleared off."

"What if we say we don't want to do it?" Badou asked.

Mihai took his hands off the boys' shoulders and straightened his glasses. "Well, then I tell you it was an order all along."

"Okay," Badou shrugged. "The semblance of personal autonomy. I can live with that."

"Thanks, boys. I'll ask Naoto at the cabin tonight. Unless you know where she is?"

Badou and Heine both shook their heads in unison.

Mihai looked out over the sea of fucked up teenagers. "All right then. Well, I have counseling hours this week so I'll be back at lights out."

"How come we don't have counseling?" Badou asked. Heine's elbow shot into his ribs but Badou ignored it.

Mihai looked down at him. "Do you want counseling?"

"Oh no no no no," Badou said, raising his hands quickly. "I just wondered why it's not necessary."

"It's voluntary," Mihai sighed. He looked peeved, then shook his head as if dispelling a bad thought. "Well, I won't say it's a bad idea to leave it up to the kids, because at least we know we're helping the ones who want to be helped, but… Money-grubbing board of directors" was the last phrase that Badou and Heine could understand before the deepness of Mihai's voice and the quietness of his grumbling rendered him impossible to understand. The boys stood there for a moment, watching Mihai glower at nothing and move his lips, making sounds like a clothes dryer.

"I'm going to go for a walk," Heine finally said, backing away.

"Hm? Oh yes," Mihai said waving a hand. "Back at the cabin before dark for lights out though."

"Will do!" Badou called cheerfully. They headed out into a clear-skied sunset.