Camp Nano Update

Project: The Moon

Cover:

Goal: 25,000

Words Written: 8,360

Words Left: 16,640

Notes: I AM LOVING THIS SO MUCH.

Character of the Week: JACK HARRIS

17 ½  years old. His birthday is August 17th. His brother is Christopher Harris. He’s a junior. Their parents are divorced. Mrs. Harris (who also works for the I.N.) has Jack while his father has Christopher. Is the quarterback for the Mockingbirds varsity football team.

Snippet:

“Hey, Mom?” Jack came down the stairs two at a time.

“Yes?” Mrs. Harris looked up from where she had been furiously typing on her laptop.

“Emilie is coming over. For the briefing.”

It then occurred to Jack that he hadn’t told his mom about Emilie.

“M.G. called this morning,” he explained, “He told me that we had a new member, Emilie Stanton. I met her today and she’s coming over for the briefing.”

“I know already, Jack,” his mom chuckled.

“You do?”

“I do work with the I.N., of course I know.”

Jack blushed and then shrugged. Then the doorbell rang and he jumped.

“That must be her,” he said, as he sprinted towards the door.

When he opened it, the person standing there shocked him so much that he slammed the door.

“Jack!” Mrs. Harris poked her head around the corner, concern etched on her face, “Please don’t tell me that you slammed the door in Emilie’s face.”

“It was - It was,” Jack groaned, leaned his head on the door, then opened it, revealing Christopher’s face, an eyebrow raised quizzically.

“What are you doing here?” Jack couldn’t help but cringe when he heard how pathetic his own voice sounded, even to him.

“Um, it’s the second day of school?” Christopher widened his eyes, as if Jack should know where this was going.

“And?”
“And I always spend the night here on the second day of school.”

Unlike Jack, who never wanted to see his father, Christopher still occasionally spent the night with his mother and brother.

“Right,” Jack plastered a too-wide smile on his face, “Of course. I forgot.”

“Obviously,” Christopher pushed past him and went up to where his room was.

As soon as his brother got out of sight, Jack whipped out his phone and texted Emilie, praying with all his might that she was nowhere near his house.

Jack Harris: Hey, where are you?

Emilie Stanton: I’m just pulled up to your driveway

Jack looked out the window and, sure enough, there was a blue Subaru parked in the driveway, a girl with familiar hair sitting in the driver's seat.

Jack Harris: Don’t come in yet

Emilie Stanton: Why not?

Jack Harris: So my brother is here, and he doesn’t know about the I.T.

Emilie Stanton: You have a brother?

Jack Harris: Christopher Harris. Blonde hair. I saw you two talking yesterday.

From his position in the window, Jack could see Emilie's face shoot up and lock eyes with him.

Emilie Stanton: Well, I’m coming down. We can just tell your brother that I’m here to pick up some books or to study or something.

And, before Jack could text back, she opened the car door and walked up the pathway. She smiled at him through the window and pointed at the door, mouthing, “Are you going to open the door?”

Facepalming, Jack opened it.

“Sorry,” he gave a sheepish grin, “I’m still in shock at having Chris turn up on my doorstep.”

Emilie’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but all she said was, “you can explain later. But we have to do, um, college planning.”

Jack smiled at their inside joke. Then there was a creak from the stairs and he was annoyed all over again.

“Emilie?” Christopher was clearly shocked. “What are you doing here?”

Although he had said “here”, Jack knew that he really meant, “Why are you here with my brother?”

“We’re doing math homework together,” Jack said, “this Algebra 2 is killer.”

“Yep,” Emilie picked up on his lead, “all those formulas.”

“I did Algebra 2 last year, do you guys need me to help you?” Christopher’s voice was eager.

“No!” Jack and Emilie said at the same time.

“You probably have a lot of your own homework,” Emilie smoothed over the burn Christopher must have been feeling. “Being a senior and all. A lot more work than a junior has.”

“Anyways,” Jack began pulling Emilie away from the door, “we really have to get started on that homework. See ya!”
Emilie gave Christopher (who still looked extremely confused) a small wave as she followed Jack up the stairs.

“That,” Jack said as he shut the door to his room, “was a close call.”

“It was. So, what exactly is ‘the briefing’?” Emilie sat on the floor, leaning against the door.

“Oh,” he pulled a box out from under his bed and took a brochure and small book out of it.

Handing it to Emilie, he said, “The briefing is basically an explanation of the I.T., but what I just handed you should cover it.”

“And you couldn’t just give these to me at school?”

“Well, that’s not all a briefing is. The briefing is also about to getting to know the rest of the members in your team. Initiation will be coming up, but I have to explain how our team works.”

Emilie nodded, setting the things Jack had just handed her next to her. Her mismatching eyes giving him an intense look. “That makes sense. Why else would you have me over unless you have to explain something important to me.”

“Yeah. Plus, it isn’t safe to hand out things about the I.T. in public.”

“Not safe?”

“The I.T. is a secret. Only the members and their parents know about it.”

Emilie nodded, indicating that she understood.

“So, let’s begin with naming the other members,” Jack said, “Gerald Markings and his sister Joanna were the next two people to join. Gerald is a senior and Joanna is a junior, you’ll get a kick out of her. Next comes Chelsea Kent, she’s pretty cool. Then Mark Leah, Leah Hartfield, and Olaf Jennings.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes,” Jack ran a hand through his hair, “and we’re the only chapter. Not that many members.”

“Have you guys been on any missions.”

“No.”

“That stinks,” she wrinkled her nose. Then her phone pinged and she looked down.

“Ah,” Emilie shoved the phone back in her pocket and collected the brochure and book, “I gotta run. My aunt needs me.”

“Is that where you’re staying?” Jack asked, “With your aunt?”

“Yeah,” she smiled.

“Cool. How’re you liking Mississippi so far?”

“It’s a lot hotter than Delaware.”

They laughed. By this time, they had reached the door, and Christopher had poked his head around the corner, narrowing his eyes.

“Well,” Emilie opened the door, “I’ll see you tomorrow. See you tomorrow, Christopher!” she gave him a small wave and he brightened and he waved back.

“Well that wasn’t a lot of studying,” Christopher said suspiciously.

“Eh,” Jack shrugged, “turns out that she had the subject down pretty well.”

“Hm,” Christopher didn’t take his eyes off his brother as Jack went back up the stairs.