Family + Camp (working title)

Chapter 15: Mom = Badass

Nell's mom was her hero—and yes, so was her dad, when he wasn't disappointing her. Nell's mom, though, she was the strongest person Nell knew, and Nell was pretty sure her mom was stronger than most people in the world. She was in the fifty-first percentile of the strong. She didn't let people push her around. Once at an arcade in Portland, when Nell was about six years old, a teenage boy had pushed Nell away from the pinball machine she was playing. It had lots of colors and lights—it was the prettiest machine in the place. She had waited her turn to play it with pretty damn fine patience for a first-grader. Because this pinball was the best. The best—and the teenager hadn't thought a child, a girl, should get to play it, never mind she'd paid her quarter and now he was playing it.

Nell's mom had gotten in his face, yelling and pushing his arms as he took over the buttons for the paddles where Nell's clumsy fingers had just been.

"She's just a kid! What are you doing?"

He ignored her, brushing her aside, this five-foot-three woman with bones like a strong bird. The boy was a feral animal, a punk, a bully, maybe a worse. Despite that, Sandy grabbed him by the balls and twisted—just a little—until he let go of the game in order to clutch at his nether regions.

"Finish your game, Nelly," Sandy said, glaring at the boy bent over in pain and surprise.
Nell doesn't remember if she touched the pinball machine again. She does remember the boy panting heavily, glaring up at them like he was going to go after them once he could. Sandy never took her eyes off of him. She also pulled out a pair of brass knuckles from her purse. The boy stood up, still hunched over, and hobbled away.

Nell's mom was no fool, though. She knew her limits, and called Morrie from a pay phone to come pick them up. Morrie was a little over six feet tall and he glared at the punk, who had gone back to his posse of teen friends near the entrance.

The Harte family did not return to that arcade. Even Jamie was not allowed to set foot there with his friends. Sandy wrote a stern letter to the manager though, retelling the entire story of the incident and threatening to send the letter to The Oregonian if the manager didn't step up security measures. She even went by in a disguise—big floppy hat and aviator sunglasses—to make sure he actually had hired more muscle.

Okay, maybe Sandra Wu was a little over the top. But that just made her more of a badass.

That, Nell thought, is part of being a feminist. Having to be brave when the results could be dangerous or at the very least, uncomfortable. Nell was an idealist, yet she was also a pragmatist. This meant she knew without a doubt that the world wasn't ready to meet her where she was.

So yes, if her takeaway about Family Camp was that there was a danger some of the dads would, if not grope her, at least ogle, her, she was prepared to face it.

And maybe, on top of that, the moms would be snarky. Maybe the kids would be whiny.

What was with the maybe? Of course they'd be all those things!

"Looks like a lot is going on in there."

Nell started. She blinked up at Cash Tilney, who was looking down at her with a bemused quirk of his lips.

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Wattpad Fam: I have a sinking feeling the pinball machine I remember was not what a third wave feminist would consider "feminist", but maybe a fourth waver would? Probably depicted Playboy bunnies or buxom damsels riding dragons (exploitation vs. sex positivity, etc.). So...I'm going with Star Trek because Uhura looks like the feminist badass Sandra Wu would give a chin nod to.