3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

The music in the mess hall was all over the place, from country, that had Harry tapping his toe to hip hop that had several of the counselors, including Silvio and Anton, dancing crazily. Toby and his shadow, Fabian, were nowhere to be found, which is probably a contributor to the night being so great.

The music, dancing and laughter were something Prince wasn't used to. He'd been to parties in high school and college, sure, but he'd always been anxious to get back to his computer. He was in the process of not only developing new software, but he also loved to hack.

Not that he pushed the boundaries too badly. He couldn't risk getting caught, but new firewalls and improved protections came out all the time, presenting challenges he couldn't resist. It was his life's wish to do nothing but sit in a room with the best and most powerful computers known to man, doing what he did best.

His father had different ideas for him. Of course, he wasn't alone in that. Most kids were burdened with expectations from their parents, but no more so than rich kids. Those with money and power expected their children to follow in their footsteps and become rich and powerful, too. Even if they had to inherit it, as long as they kept the family fortune an actual fortune, it was all good.

Being unplugged for the first time in his life, he thought for sure he'd lose his mind, but that wasn't the case. He was finding things that weren't reflected on a computer screen.

He really hated that Gadsden had known that. He might buy him a boat or car in thanks, however.

They all poured themselves into bed just before midnight. Prince's hand ached to hold his phone, what he always did before he fell asleep, looking through his social media, keeping up on articles about new computer systems and what software was making the rounds of beta testers.

He found the beer, which had been awful, was sedation enough for him to drift off, and all he could remember of the dream was the man who'd been in the trees the previous night. His face was never seen, only glimpses. But that body…

Prince woke up smiling, and he couldn't remember ever doing that. Most mornings, he got out of his big, comfortable bed, scowling at the day that stretched out before him. People, classes, or even his father and the cold home he visited on breaks. How he could smile so brightly after sleeping on a stiff bed with scratchy blankets, he'd never know.

"Prince, why didn't you stop me? I have a hangover and my mouth tastes like I've been eating dirty ass."

He cracked up, but soon his head was pounding enough to force him to stop the laughter. "Ugh, that is nasty, Sil."

"Yeah, but true."

The other men in their cabin were Royse Cole and Trevor Bonham. Both were quiet and Prince thought nice, but they were there for the money so they could save for college. Royse had been there three summers in a row to help pay for the school he hadn't gotten to attend yet. It was Trevor's first year at the camp, too. Silvio had suggested to Prince not to flaunt the fact he was rich. Royse and Trevor might resent him.

Story of his life.

Trevor asked Silvio, "It's gonna rain today. Does that mean the outside assignments are axed? Sabrina told me I was helping repaint the main sign and the boathouse."

"Yeah, painting is out. I'd bet you'll be painting inside, though. Harry's been saying the mess hall needs paint for three years."

"He'll say it for another three," Royse said, laughing.

"True," Silvio conceded. "It's never in the budget. It's only gotta look good on the outside."

Hearing that, Prince had to bite his lips. He was too close to offering to have the entire place updated. All he had to do was call his father. Sure, the old man wasn't much for love and affection, but he'd throw money at nearly anything.

That wouldn't be how to make friends at the camp, however. Having his ultra-rich father save the day would make him an outcast.

Silvio asked him about it later, when they were walking to breakfast together. "You almost swallowed your tongue back there. What's up?"

"Almost put my gold-plated foot in my mouth."

"Ah, offering the funds, right?"

"You got it."

Silvio chuckled and said, "Yeah, don't do that. Keep your funds on the quiet. Thankfully, your electronics are stashed in the office safe too. I'm sure you don't have some pawnshop clearance laptop."

"Pawnshop," he laughed, then saw Silvio's smile fading. "Shit. Sorry. There's that foot in my mouth."

"Don't worry about it. We do what we gotta do, right?"

"Yeah, but…you know I never want to offend you, right? I don't always know what to say around…around people that…"

"Poor people? Yeah, I get it, Prince. Stop stressing. Right now, you get to see how the other half lives, right? We should all be able to do that sometime in our lives. It's called growth."

"Why are you so nice? I mean, well, you really don't have to be."

Silvio turned to him, stopping them both before they arrived at the dining hall. "You have done nothing to make me dislike you, Prince. That could change, but I see you. You…are floundering in life. You don't have an agenda that I can see, other than getting through these couple months and getting back to the life you're used to."

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And…well, you piss off Toby. That means you are the greatest thing to happen to this camp since toilet paper in the latrines."

"Gross! Comparing me to toilet paper?"

"Hey, I get you've always had money, but when you don't, and you run out of toilet paper, you would understand what a compliment that was."

We walked in laughing to the dining hall, and Anton met us in the food line. "Toby was up half the night talking to someone on a contraband phone. I heard little, but from what I gathered, he was asking about the Rose family."

Prince's head turned to see Toby at the long table at the north end of the dining hall. He was eating but wasn't talking to the others around him. They were all laughing and enjoying themselves, but not Toby, who was gazing at the table intently.

"He's after me, isn't he?"

"I'd say watch your back, but with him? Watch your back front and both sides. Still, you know, you can hire bodyguards or something, right?"

Silvio sighed as his eyes rolled. "Anton, shit."

"I don't know what rich people do!"

"We have bodyguards," I teased. "In fact, one is watching over me now, disguised as one of the counselors."

Anton's eyes were locked on him as his jaw dropped. "Are you kidding?"

Silvio got Anton into a headlock and laughed as he knocked on the top of Anton's head. "He's messing with you, damn!"

Another breakfast that he wasn't thrilled to eat, very thin pancakes and a scoop of pitifully tiny, diced fruit in some kind of liquid. Once we sat at the same table as we had the previous day, Prince leaned in to ask, "What is wrong with this fruit?"

"Fruit cocktail?" Silvio asked.

"This is supposed to be a cocktail?"

"Not like a drink. It's fruit canned in syrup. Or juice, but I'm pretty sure this is the syrup kind."

Anton was shoveling it into his mouth. "Shurup," he said with his mouth full.

"See?"

"Do you put it on the pancakes?"

Anton lifted his hand and pointed a finger at a miniature plastic pitcher in the center of the table. "That's the pancake syrup."

"Oh!"

Silvio laughed and promised, "I'll get you through the pitfalls of the average person. No worries."

"Thanks. I never thought I'd need it."

"You've never lived on your own?" Anton asked between bites.

"Dorm now. My father was going to get me an apartment, but I thought I'd like it in the dorms. I don't, but I doubt I'd like an apartment better. I don't know. I'm at home as long as my computer is in front of me."

"Cool," Anton said and continued to eat.

"That good or that bad, or maybe that addicted?"

Prince smiled at Silvio for the question. "All?"

"You can't be really good and really bad."

"I'm really good, I guess. Not as good as my mom. She's the one that invented Double Zap software."

They both stared at him, but Anton whispered, "The goddess, Marylyn Beaufort? That's your mom?"

Prince nodded a little before cutting into his pancakes after applying the strange thin syrup.

"You are my new idol. To have her as a mother? You must be a genius."

"Shh, please? I don't need anyone knowing about her. She's more famous than my dad, and it will not help me around here."

"Sure, sure. Wow, the goddess's little spawn, right here among us unclean peasants."

"God, Anton," Prince laughed.

Silvio winked at him. "He's a pain in the ass, right? It's why I've taken pity on him and made him my buddy."

"Aw," Anton said, laying his head over on Silvio's shoulder and quickly got shaken off it almost as quickly.

After breakfast, the thunder clapped loudly as the three were leaving the dining hall, sending them back inside as others gathered at all the windows. Sabrina and Harry were there with stacks of umbrellas in their arms.

Sabrina had to yell over the sudden sound of rain hitting the tin roofs around the camp. "Everyone, grab an umbrella! If you have an inside job this morning, go once the thunder stops for a bit, and if not, stay here and help clean the kitchen, checking safety features in here!"

Silvio and Prince were supposed to work in the boathouse. "Let's make a run for it," Prince yelled to Silvio.

Silvio nodded as he stepped out before he opened his umbrella and Prince followed him. They ran like hell all the way to the boathouse, which was the building that was farthest from the dining hall.

Despite the umbrella, they were soaked by the time they got there, but what was worse, the rain stopped the minute they got inside the boathouse. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"We could have waited five minutes," Prince said, but then they were happy when the rain began again. "Never mind."

Silvio laughed and got working. "Check the boats for holes and cracks. Can't have the little ones sinking to the bottom of the lake."

Prince got busy on that, looking over the three small fishing boats and three canoes in the building. "Are the outside boats checked?"

"Sure are. That was yesterday's job for someone."

Silvio kept talking, but Prince wasn't listening. He'd walked by the window that faced down the shore, and when he glanced out of it, he did a double take.

The fisherman was out again but didn't have his gear. No, he was walking, slowly walking, toward the lake like the rain wasn't coming down in buckets. Once he got to the shore, lightning lit somewhere in front of him, showing brightly on him as he stripped off his shirt and tipped his handsome head back so his open mouth could catch some rain.

"What's so interesting?" Silvio asked as he started over to the window. Suddenly terrified he'd be seen as some lurker, he pulled away and said, "Just…the storm."

"Sure," he said, and went to the window, anyway. Prince braced for his laughter, but Silvio only said, "Oh, the guy renting that one cabin."

"What cabin?" he asked a little too quickly.

Silvio turned to him, grinning knowingly. "Oh, I get it. Well, the camp only takes up half this lake. The other side has private cabins. A few own, most rent. Like twelve or so. They stopped building them years ago, after this camp was built. Who wants to spend the summer around poor kids, you know? No…no offense!"

"None taken. My father would sooner build a cabin in the middle of a desert than across from poor people. Don't even get me started on my stepmother."

"That bad, huh?"

Leaving the window, Prince sat on one of the three benches that were near the worktables. Silvio joined him. "I can't judge them because I've been raised that way. I thought this place was beneath me, too."

"Yeah, I could tell. Right after you got here, Anton named you Pinch Face."

"What?"

He was on the verge of laughter and was just as ready to cry. Silvio said, "Sorry. You've seen how he is. He pretends not to take much seriously, but he does. He was worried we had another Toby around here."

"If that is how I acted, then I will take the name and wear it on my shirt. I'm spoiled, and I've been raised with money and things and trips all over the world, but my comfort place is in a room, any room, alone with my computer. And now? I'm glad they unplugged us."

Silvio slapped him on the back and said, "You're okay, vato . Anton likes you, and he isn't easy to bring to your side, even if it seems like it."

"I know this is stupid, admitting this, but I've never had a lot of friends. Even the prospect of making a couple, it means a lot."

"Sappy too? Never pictured you for sappy!"

Prince playfully pushed him. "Shut up."

"Let's check the ropes. Anything frayed, and it gets tossed."

"They tie the boat to something. Why can't it be frayed?"

"Think three kids are in it and before the camp counselor can get in, it breaks off and floats away."

"Ah," he said, smiling in embarrassment."

"Listen, it's hard for everyone at first. You have to put the present away and think about what could happen. Anything you imagine, likely it could happen, so we prepare for the worst. The insurance on places like this is really high, and only gets higher when someone gets hurt. If it gets higher, it'll likely shut down this place, and take from all those kids that really need it."

"Think about what could happen. Got it. Let's check the ropes."