Planning Your Future

We'll Go Camping (Part 5)

June 26, 1992

Veronica's POV

Just like she did last year, Hannah sits beside me on the pier. I plan on pushing her to get a little more social, but it's fine for right now. Especially since she's really good company. "How is everything at home?" I ask out of both curiosity and concern. "It's not great. My mom is starting to get really angry all of a sudden. But she isn't violent so I just hide out in my room until she calms down. My sister Lex usually takes me to work with her on the weekends so I'm not home alone with my mom." Poor girl. My mom is terrible but she wasn't like that. "I'm sorry to hear that." She shrugs, "I'm okay. Lex makes sure I'm not with her for too long."

I tell her I'll be right back. I walk over to Natalie and Alyssa who are talking by where the boats are kept. "Hey, so I just found out that Hannah's mom has gotten worse. Now she's lashing out at Hannah and yelling at her. I'm really concerned for her. The only problem is that if we got social services involved, Hannah won't be able to stay with her sister. And it seems like that's really important to both of them." I don't know what to do here. I don't want to take her away from her sister but I don't think she should be with her mom. "I think you should bring this up with George. He'd be able to help. He's a social worker when he's not here." Natalie suggests. "Yeah, you should talk to him tonight during campfire. We'll keep an eye on your girls while you talk to him." Alyssa says.

On the hike, Brooke and Chloe are at the very front with Jeremy and Shane, giggling about something they said. Annabeth and Percy are talking about something very intensely. Hope is talking with a boy from JD's cabin named Tyler. Michael and Hannah are next to each other but aren't really talking. Nichole is just silently walking. JD and a kid named Gabe are having a conversation about music since I guess Gabe is also a musician. So I'm just walking alone. Chloe notices that JD and I aren't talking so she gets Brooke and comes over to me. "Are you two not dating anymore?" Chloe whispers. These girls are why I don't miss being fourteen. They're both what Heather Mac was like in middle school: love to gossip and be in everyone's business. "We're not." I don't give them more than that so they walk back to Shane and Jeremy.

We take our uncomfortably cold showers, get ready, and go to lunch. Hannah sits with Michael and Nichole. "Don't worry, George will be able to help her." Alyssa whispers in my ear. She must have seen me watching her. "I know." I stop looking at her and focus on my food.

I keep an eye on Hannah for the rest of the day until we go to the campfire. I walk them down there and check in with Alyssa. "Don't worry, we've got them. Go talk to George." I look at Hannah before I go. "She's fine, V. Just go." She pushes me the other way. "Okay. I'm going."

JD's POV

When we get to the campfire, I notice that Veronica isn't there. But I can see her girls. "Hey Alyssa, do you know where Veronica is?" I whisper to Alyssa. "She had to talk to George about something. She'll be back later." What could she need to talk to George about? Was something wrong? "About what?" But maybe it's something personal. "She wanted to talk to him about one of her girls. It's nothing big." All of her girls looked fine to me.

Veronica's POV

I knock on George's office door. "Come in!" He calls out. I walk inside and shut the door behind me. "Hi Veronica. What is it?" He's clearly surprised to see me. I guess he doesn't have a lot of the counselors come in here. "I wanted to talk to you about one of the girls in my cabin. Hannah?" I sit in the chair that sits in front of his desk. He pulls a file from his file cabinet. "Hannah Foster? What seems to be the issue? She isn't causing problems, is she?" He asks. "No she's great. It's just... Hannah opened up to me that her home life isn't great. I already knew that her mother drank and her sister was the one that took care of her. But today she told me that her mother has started to get verbally abusive to the point that she'd hide in her room. But I'm just worried that if she gets taken away from her mother, her sister would also lose her." He thinks for a moment. "How about I talk to her and her sister when she comes to pick Hannah up. That way I see what they think. But I appreciate you letting me know this is going on." I don't know if that makes me feel better but at least it's something.

After he dismisses me, I go back to the campfire. "So what did he say?" Natalie asks me. "He said that he would talk to Hannah and her sister on the last day." I quietly let them know. "That's something," Alyssa shrugs. "Yeah, hopefully things get figured out." I don't want anything to happen to Hannah. "Just relax. There's not much we can do for right now." She's right. I just hope George can do something.

The girls are all pretty tired so I don't have to get them to go to sleep. I step outside for a minute. All the counselors decided to go straight to bed. All except JD. I see him sitting on the swing of his cabin, playing the guitar. I walk over, "You couldn't sleep either?" He looks up, "I just wanted to sit out here for a little bit." He leans back. "So what did you talk to George about?" He sets the guitar beside him. "I just needed to talk to him about one of the girls. It's nothing." I don't want to tell more people than I have to. Luckily, JD lets it go.

"I didn't know you played guitar." I take a seat next to him. "I didn't know you played piano." I roll my eyes, "Touché." He laughs. "I thought the whole 'become a duo' thing wasn't a bad idea, you know. I just figured you wouldn't want to work with me." I bite my lip. "I figured you wouldn't want to work with me." He responds. "You have a good voice. I think it would be fun." I look at him, "I heard about the song you wrote for your mom. I think you should sing it at her wedding." I think Jill would love it. "I don't know. I don't think I'd feel comfortable singing in front of all those people." I never would've pegged as having stage fright. "What if someone sang it with you?" I suggest. "Like you?" I shrug, "I'd do it with you if that's what it takes to get you to do it at all." He's quiet for a little. "Sounds fun. I'll show you the song tomorrow."

The next morning, I get the girls awake. We do our morning activities after breakfast. JD and I sit on a bench while the kids play a free for all game of ga-ga ball. He plays me the song, then writes down where I should join in. "That's a really nice song. Jill is going to love it." Alyssa grabs my shoulders from behind. "What're you guys doing?" She asks. "JD was playing me a song he wrote for his mom." I tell her. "Cool." She sits on the arm rest of the bench. "So how has Hannah seemed today?" She whispers. I look over at her. She's leaning on the edge of the ga-ga pit fence, watching everyone play. But she has a slight smile on her face. "She's been good. She seems much happier today." I think getting to vent about the situation she was going through really helped.

I hope you enjoyed! And thank you to those that left kind comments about my friend Ryan. Bye guys!