“All of your new clothing is marked with your name and cabin. You have one set on your table, and the other two are in the footlocker at the end of your cot in your bedroom. For the next eight weeks, this is what you will wear, and if you are caught outside without your cap on, it will be one demerit,” Mary said. “Now get dressed, ladies, so we can have some lunch, and then your counselors will go over the handbook this afternoon.”

When she was fifteen or sixteen, Jayden sure wouldn’t have wanted to strip down to her bare skin in front of complete strangers, even if some of them were also teens. Looking back, she was glad that her folks and the police never knew about that pair of sunglasses she shoplifted when she was thirteen, or that drunken weekend binge she’d had in college. She had felt so guilty, she took the sunglasses back the next day and put them back on the rack. Then there was the time she went joyriding with her two best friends in a car one of them boosted from a parking lot. She had lived in fear for weeks that Skyler would find out and tattle on her.

Not a single girl said a word, but their groans left no doubt that they hated the white cotton granny panties and the generic white bras. When they picked up the tan elastic-waist pants with wide legs and the matching shirts that buttoned down the front, Jayden almost felt sorry for them. A few wiped away tears as they traded expensive sandals for lace-up boots and white tube socks that came halfway to their knees.

Jayden was glad she could wear her own clothing, and she appreciated Skyler a little for telling her to take along hiking boots. She’d read a list of her responsibilities and, although she didn’t have to join them in a mile-long walk before breakfast, she planned to do so. She would have been miserable in sandals or flip-flops.

The last thing they did was put their caps on. When they did that, Novalene nodded at Jayden and Diana and they all three removed theirs from their hip pockets and crammed them down on their heads. Jayden scanned the room for the Daydream Cabin girls and found Carmella, Tiffany, and Ashlyn—wearing hats embroidered with clouds above the words Daydream Cabin. Ashlyn was about five and a half feet tall, had platinum hair with a pink streak on one side, and green eyes outlined with heavy black liner. Carmella looked to be the toughest of the three. Her jet-black ponytail stuck out the back of her cap, and her jaw worked like she was chewing bubblegum. Jayden knew that gesture well. If she could spew out what was on her mind, it would blister the paint right off the stucco. Tiffany dropped gold and diamond earrings and a sparkling diamond pendant into the sack like they were nothing more than dime-store jewelry. She was almost as tall as Jayden, with red hair that flowed to her shoulders and big blue eyes. Freckles shone across her nose in the places where she’d already sweated off a ton of makeup.

Mary crossed the room, opened the door, and motioned for Elijah and Henry to come back into the dining room. “Elijah will take all your belongings to storage. Henry will help me serve dinner. That is what we call the noon meal here. Get a tray and line up. You have an hour to eat, and then you will report to your cabin, where your counselor will explain the rules in your handbook and assign your individual work schedules.”

No matter how Jayden played out the scenarios in her head, she could not imagine Skyler, in all her prissiness, tackling this job. Maybe they made a habit of giving her the girls who weren’t as tough as Jayden expected Carmella, Ashlyn, and Tiffany to be.

Elijah took his place at the end of the buffet and dished up the salad and spaghetti that Mary had made for dinner. Henry worked the far end and gave them each a couple of hot yeast rolls and a glass of either sweet tea or water, whichever they preferred. When the girls had all been served, then the counselors came through the line.

“So, what do y’all think of your girls?” Henry asked when the adults were all seated at the table set to the side for them.

“Looks like I’ve got a couple of tough ones,” Jayden answered, “but not one of the three can compare to some of the kids I’ve had in class. I didn’t see any of them pulling guns or knives from their pockets and putting those into their paper bags.”

“No, but it’s a good thing that looks don’t kill,” Novalene said.

“If they did, we’d all be dead,” Diana chuckled. “I doubt they’d even bury us. They’d probably just throw our dead carcasses out for the coyotes to feast upon.”

“They don’t seem any better or worse than what we’ve started with before,” Novalene said as she bit into her bread. “It’s not what we get today that matters anyway. It’s what we send home in eight weeks that tells the tale of our success or failure.”

“Amen.” Mary nodded.

Elijah leaned over slightly and asked Jayden, “Do I need to keep the keys to the vans under lock and key?”

“Not for me, but you should keep them in a fireproof safe for a while. If two of mine were to team up and talk the platinum blonde with the pink streak into making a break for it, you might lose a van,” she said.

“The pink streak has to go. I’ve got some color remover to take care of it, or she can cut it off,” Mary said. “That kind of thing is against the rules.”

“She’s a natural brunette. You can tell by her eyebrows and that tiny little bit of root beginning to show in her part,” Novalene said. “She’s going to have a hissy fit when she looks like a reverse skunk.”

“Will she cut it or dye it? I’m taking bets.” Jayden grinned.

“My money is on cutting it,” Elijah said. “She’ll do it with fire in her eyes just to show how tough she is.”

“Don’t y’all feel just a little bit sorry for them?” Henry asked. “They’re all just craving attention and walls.”

“Walls?” Jayden asked.

“They’ve been acting out, most likely to get some kind of attention,” Henry answered. “All kids need walls that let them know where their boundaries are. If they go too far, they hit the wall, get into trouble, and readjust their thinking. Chances are these girls haven’t had any walls in their lives, so now they have to be taught responsibility, respect, and teamwork all in a crash course.”

“Boot camp taught me,” Elijah said. “And when I began to forget it, Henry came to teach me all over again.”

“You needed it just as bad as these girls do.” Henry chuckled.

“Yep, I did.” Elijah grinned. “I just hope these girls come out with a different attitude at the end of their stay, like I did after my first session here at the camp.” He nodded toward the first girl to stand up and walk away from the table. “I get to say I told you so, Mary.”

“What for?” Mary asked.

“I told you to just use those frozen lasagnas today rather than making spaghetti from scratch. I knew this first day that they would all test us,” he said. “That girl is about to create a mess. I can see it in her eyes.”

Jayden looked up to see Tiffany, one of her girls, give the adults at the table a go-to-hell look. Jayden pushed her chair back, stood, and caught up to Tiffany about halfway across the floor. “You won’t get a demerit since I haven’t gone over the rules with you yet, but you will bus your own spot. You don’t have to eat what you are served, but you do have to scrape it into the trash can to feed to the hogs later. So, turn around, go back, and take care of your tray.”