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about? Was this some kind of real date?
    Noah slept quietly for the rest of the night. In the morning, Darren walked the halls and announced, “Rise and shine, campers. You don’t want to miss this one. This is the first day of the rest of your life.” I could see that Mr. Sunshine could get on your nerves after a while. But as I stumbled into the kitchen and saw him scrambling eggs and frying bacon, I decided I could forgive him for his annoying cheerfulness, and apparently the others did too. We all ate like we hadn’t seen any food in a month. Even Noah, who seemed to have survived his nightmares.
    Darren had a little garden in the backyard, but he was the only one who worked on it that morning. I wasn’t in the mood for any more of his advice, so I stayed clear of him. When the afternoon rolled around, I tried on Noah’s pants and shirt and shoes. The shoes were a bit tight, but the rest seemed to fit. I looked in the mirror and Noah watched as I tried to tie the tie but failed miserably. I didn’t think I had ever worn a tie. Finally, Noah helped me out. “Where are you going, anyway?”
    “I don’t really know.”
    “But there’s a girl involved, right?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Lucky you,” he said, offering me some kind of gel to put in my hair.
    “Yeah, lucky me.”
    I met up with Lindsey as planned, in the coffee shop of the new downtown library. She saw me walking toward her and stood up. She had on a dress and makeup and carried a large, expensive-looking handbag. She looked beautiful. I suddenly felt nervous and not at all like myself in my new look.
    “You clean up real nice,” she said in a fake Southern accent.
    “So do you,” I said. As we stood there sizing each other up, I noticed that some adults were looking at us and smiling. The perfect young couple. Ha.
    “Now what?” I asked.
    Lindsey checked her watch. “At two o’clock we’re going to go somewhere.”
    “Where?”
    “To a wedding,” she said, giving me a mysterious smile. “Well, we’ll go to the wedding at the church, and then we won’t look out of place when we get to the wedding party.”
    “Friends of yours?”
    “Not really.”
    “What’s this all about?”
    “What, you don’t like weddings?”
    “I’ve never been to one.”
    “You have a long list of things you’ve never done?” she asked and gave me a funny look.
    That was just like Lindsey, to put it that way. It made me feel even more embarrassed.
    So for the second time in less than a week, the second time in my life, I found myself sitting in a church. With a pretty girl. The service was like something out of a movie. People smiling, crying, a young couple walking down an aisle strewn with rose petals. The whole thing had nothing to do with the world I had come from. It was like I had landed on another planet.
    When it was over, we followed the other people outside. “And now for the good part,” Lindsey said. As the couple was being photographed, we walked with the others to a nearby church hall. Inside, people milled around and chatted with each other. Lindsey held my arm and walked me into the center of the room. Three separate bars were set up, and people were getting drinks. Lindsey walked over to the closest one and asked for two glasses of wine. The man behind the bar didn’t question her, but he did give me a wink as he handed her the glasses.
    “Isn’t this great?” she said, giving me one of the glasses and taking a sip.
    “Another first,” I said as I sipped the wine. I’d had beer before and even sneaked some whiskey once, but I’d never had wine. Lindsey drained her glass quickly, and, like a fool, I did the same. She went back for seconds.
    Lindsey led me on a tour around the hall and stopped in front of a table piled with gifts and envelopes for the newlyweds. “Must be nice,” she said, pointing at the wedding booty.
    Suddenly it struck me as very odd that we were part of this scene. “What are we doing here anyway?” I