Camp Payback Read Online Free Page A

near the registration table.
    “I’ll have it sent over to you later.” Helena turned me toward the door. “It’s my fault I kept you here talking when Mr. Woodrow asked you to get to the cabin.”
    I had a real problem with other people touching my stuff. Maybe it came from leaving behind a lot of my things when I went into the foster system.
    “It’ll only take a sec—”
    “Please go before anything else happens.” She gave me another nudge. “Mr. Woodrow is about to leave, and I don’t want to miss my chance to talk to him.”
    She hurried after the camp director. I didn’t want to upset her for a second time today, so I trudged outside and hoped she wouldn’t let anyone mess with my bag. It was all I had. All I could call my own. Home for me was a duffle bag I carried one-handed.
    “Javier?” A muscular dude in a fishing hat and camouflage cut-offs called the second I stepped outside. Had to be a counselor.
    “Yeah?” I stuffed my hands in my pockets.
    “I can show you where the cabins are,” he offered.
    I could figure it out by the sea of kids streaming away from the administration building with their suitcases, but I figured this was just the guy’s polite way of giving me a warning or some advice that wouldn’t help.
    I shrugged.
    “I’m Bruce. They call me Bam-Bam.” He offered his hand, and I shook it. “I’m the counselor for the Wander Inn, but you’re not on my list.”
    “I’m sleeping in the Warriors’ Warden.” I had no idea if that was bad or good, but this Bam-Bam guy seemed all right. “Guess they didn’t think I was old enough to sleep in the staff cabin.”
    “Right. One of the campers cancelled last minute, and Mr. Woodrow thought if you took his bunk, you’d have some camp experience when you’re not working. My cabin’s right next door.” He pointed out a baseball field and a few other kinds of athletic fields nearby. I could see the Nantahala River in the distance, shimmering in the bright afternoon sun.
    If I didn’t have to be here, maybe I wouldn’t mind this place so much. But I could almost write the script for the rest of my time at Camp Juniper Point now that I’d been branded as the staffer accused of kissing one of their precious girls. What the hell had she done that for? Whatever her reasons, I wasn’t planning on getting too comfortable.
    After taking the scenic route, we arrived at the boys’ cabins. Apparently, the girls bunked on the far side of camp. The log cabins were different shapes and sizes, as if they’d added on as the camp grew. For the most part, they were in a circle, with the kiddie campers separated by the boys’ showers. Now, kids hung out the windows and aired out the buildings. Every now and then a pair of sneakers flew out of a door or guys wrestled in the common area between the buildings.
    “You’re over there.” Bam-Bam pointed out the Warriors’ Warden. “Rob’s the counselor in charge. He’s a good guy, but if you need anything…” He shrugged. “Let me know.”
    My guess? Bam-Bam was former military. You could tell by the way he carried himself. And while that was cool and all for him, I wasn’t going to be the kid that got recruited out of poverty to earn fame and glory in the service.
    I just wanted to keep my head down and get through camp without getting booted. If I could keep my nose clean until Mom got out of jail this fall, then I could get out of the foster system, get a year-round job, and help her go back to college. She’d put off that dream long enough for my sake. But that’d be hard to do if my record showed I’d been fired and sent to a group home—or worse—for discipline reasons.
    “Sure.” I nodded. “Thanks.”
    I wanted to get my bag and make sure no one messed with it. Seeing all those sneakers fly out of the cabins made me suspect my bunkmates could be doing the same to my stuff.
    When I walked in, a couple of bunks were already made up—claimed by early arrivals. Three guys