Postcard blue skies, lavender mountains embracing a mirror glass lake, the shore curved languid, lazy, and inviting. Rosie looked from the brochure in her hand then back at the view before her.

Sparse hard tack clay punctuated by spiky scrub pine stretched before her. To call the water a lake was a gift. The baby shit body of water was clearly an industrial runoff pool. The carcass of an abandoned factory stood stark against the jagged, steel gray mountains. In her yoga tights and peach teeshirt clutching her backpack tight to her chest, Rosie swallowed hard.

On the Camp Lion’s Den brochure two modern Adirondack chairs lounged on a deck. Desperation rising in the back of throat, Rosie searched the landscape. There were the three boys about her age climbing from the SUV and another girl, a little older, standing besides her weeping silently. Soon the “camp counselors” Seth, Chet, and Summer were screaming the rules for this five day hike. No whining, no talking, no breaks, and no excuses were the only words Rosie remembered over the drumming of her heart.

The teens scrambled for the heavy jugs of water they would carry for drinking, cooking, and bathing. Things had been rocky at home. She wanted to have a little fun. Then the whole thing with Marcus tainted everything. Rosie’s parents had promised her the camp would be hard but worth it. They promised this experience would leave her stronger. They promised there would zip lines and a hot tub.

“Wait where’s the food?” The blonde haired boy asked.

Chet answered him with an open handed slap across the mouth. A spray of blood landed on Rosie’s cheek. Suddenly they were jogging through the woods to their camp site. During the endless run, Rosie stumbled rolling her ankle. The camp brochure fell to the uneven ground. The hot pink jet ski on the brochure cover mocked her. Furtively the older girl grabbed Rosie before she fell as well. Rosie saw the angry pink scars on the other girl’s arms. The older girl’s eyes pleaded with Rosie not to cry out. Together hand in hand they ran into woods.