and especially us counselors, feel the burden of having to deal with the effect all this has on the kids.”
“Amen!” Jayden agreed, and drizzled honey over her sopaipilla.
“Why do you think that is?” Henry asked.
“Because in all the fussin’ about what should be done, each of those adults wants their way. They spend more time fighting among themselves about who is right than they do paying attention to the kid,” Jayden answered.
When they finished eating, Mary passed around sheets of paper. “These are the specifics on your summer-session girls. Y’all need to know all of them. We’ll start with the Daydream Cabin that belongs to Jayden. Tiffany Jordan struggles with bulimia and was caught shoplifting. She also has two priors for cyberbullying—taking pictures of overweight girls and posting them on the internet with hateful messages. Carmella Ruiz has been before the judge three times for shoplifting. Ashlyn Causey was caught for the third time driving while under the influence.”
Ashlyn, Tiffany, and Carmella, Jayden repeated the names silently.
“Novalene, you have Moonbeam Cabin as usual, and your girls are Lauren Fielding, who has anger issues combined with drug issues. She’s been in rehab more than once. Bailey Morse, who’s been caught cooking meth for distribution for the third time. And last is Keelan Johnson, who sells cocaine to her fellow high school students and also to the vo-tech kids she went to classes with there.”
Sounds like a Tuesday in my school, Jayden thought.
“Diana, you get Rita Standish. She was beaten so many times by her stepfather that she acted out by trying to burn down the house. Next is Quinley McAdams. She’s had assault charges brought against her for fighting with other girls. And last is Violet O’Hare. Her boyfriend got her on drugs and then abused her. She got tired of it and put him in the hospital. He filed assault charges on her.”
“Looks like we’ve all got our work cut out for us,” Diana said.
Jayden felt a little better now that she knew what she was dealing with. She enjoyed counseling the kids in her school, and she felt confident that she could be a help to these girls.
These girls will be with you twenty-four hours every day, seven days a week, for two months. You don’t get to counsel with them an hour or two and then go home at the end of the day. Her mother’s voice was in her head and Jayden couldn’t argue with her.
“Dammit!” she muttered under her breath.
“You just realized what you bit off, didn’t you?” Novalene asked.
“I’m afraid I did,” she said.
Elijah started for the door.
“Where are you going?” Henry asked.
“To get the keys out of the van. We might have a runner,” Elijah teased.
Novalene laid a hand on Jayden’s shoulder. “I’ve been doin’ this for ten years, honey. You just give them my little speech when they first arrive, and that will set the mood for the whole time.”
Jayden was warming up to Novalene. “And what speech is that?”
Novalene pushed back her chair and slowly stood up, squared her shoulders, and narrowed her eyes. Her expression sent chills down Jayden’s back. “Listen up, girls, because I only intend to say this once. You may think you are going to drive me up the walls, and you might do just that. Remember this, though. I can only climb up that wall so far”—she turned around and pointed behind her—“and then I’m going to fall, and when I do, it will be right on top of you.” She whipped around and pointed her finger right at Jayden.
Elijah chuckled and came back to the table. “That’s a pretty good speech.”
“It sets the mood very well. We have to be tough at first and lighten up as they earn it.” Novalene smiled and sat back down in her chair. “I’m going to go over the book, and then take a nap. Today will be the last time I get to have one for the next eight weeks.”
“And now for the crowning glory.” Elijah brought out three baseball caps in different colors and explained the reasoning behind each as he passed them out. “Dark blue for Novalene with a moon on the front for the Moonbeam Cabin. Yellow with a bright sun for Diana for the Sunshine Cabin. Clouds on a pink hat for Jayden.”
“Why do I get clouds when my cabin is called Daydream?” she asked.
“Daydreams are like clouds, ever changing and bringing much-needed rain to the parched earth,” Mary answered. “When you read the handbook,