regimen that they’ll hate, but they’ll like going home to their cabins, to that one bright spot, at the end of every day. Henry has been working hard to make the flowers grow, but tomorrow the girls will take over. Their flower beds will become a matter of pride for them. We hope their other jobs will, too. The girls tend to get competitive in their jobs after they get settled in. None of them will want to listen to the girls in the other cabins razz them if they can’t even grow a petunia,” Mary answered, following behind her.
“We are a private camp, and their parents’ money will buy them eight weeks here, but it is their last chance before juvenile detention. For most of them, it’s their third strike at anything from car theft to shoplifting, drug problems, abuse issues, hot checks, cyberbullying, driving under the influence, or anything else you can name short of murder. We do our best to put them on the right track in the eight weeks they are here, through schedule, physical training, discipline, and counseling. They hate us at first, but by the end of their time, we usually turn out a batch of happier, healthier girls. We don’t depend on state financing, but we do have guidelines.”
“How long have you been doing this?” Jayden sat down.
“Twenty years,” Mary answered. “When Henry retired from the army, we wanted to do something to help others. Henry’s father left us this property. Back fifty years ago, it was a little hideaway for the snowbirds, but we decided to put it to better use. We could never have children of our own, and Henry had seen the service turn many a young person around. So, we put our heads together and came up with this place.”
“Why just girls?” Jayden bit into an enchilada and rolled her eyes. “This is delicious. You should have a restaurant.”
Mary laughed down deep in her chest. “Honey, no one would drive out here for tacos, not when they can drive up to a window in just about any town and pick some up. To answer your question, we thought about having camps for boys, too, but we just don’t have the time and space. It’s really sad how little support some of these girls have gotten with their struggles.”
By then everyone had filled their trays and taken places at the table. “In that twenty years, have you ever had less than a full house?” Jayden asked between bites.
“Nope,” Elijah answered for Mary. “We’re a pretty exclusive private camp, and our success record is well known. Therapists and judges alike recommend us.”
Novalene joined in the conversation. “These girls know when they get here that this isn’t a party.”
“If they don’t, it doesn’t take them long to figure it out,” Diana added.
“Yep.” Mary nodded. “It’s tougher on the ones who think that they’re coming to a summer camp to lay out in the sun and work on their tans.”
Henry passed out booklets from the end of the table. “They change every year according to state regulations, so y’all will all need to go over them.”
Jayden opened the small notebook to the first page and almost groaned when she read that every single day, Sunday included, everyone would be up and ready for exercise at five thirty in the morning. If she could have gotten her hands around her sister’s throat right then, there would have been one fewer person on that airplane leaving for Europe on Monday. She was used to getting up early and going to the gym, even in the summertime, but not on weekends.
“When your girls arrive, you will give them each a handbook,” Henry said. “And then you will take some time to go over the rules with them. Y’all would do well to highlight each and every one of these rules and the disciplinary action that will be taken if they break one of them. We don’t take kindly to the I-didn’t-know excuse, and you can put money on it that one of them will use it before the first week is out.”
“Why would they do that if this is their last chance?” Jayden asked. “Forget I said that. We deal with all kinds of problems in my school, too . . . and just as many excuses for why they did what they did.”
“Honey, that’s in all schools now,” Novalene said. “Family structures and the constantly changing world around us make it tough to navigate. Teachers,