Rogue River Academy (eBook)

Pamela Martineau (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
250 Seiten
Fall Brook Publications (Verlag)
979-8-218-31533-7 (ISBN)

Infos

When a 16-year-old girl is sent to an abusive therapeutic boarding school in the Oregon wilderness, she must face her deepest fear - wildfire - and channel her rage and grief over the climate crisis and her dad's death to lead her campmates to safety as a wildfire looms in the distance

Textauszug

Chapter 6

Sage sits alone at the small table in the intake office. Johnny left her there over three hours ago and no one has come to check on her. It’s almost 4 p.m. She’s cold. Exhausted. Hungry. Scared. And the office door is locked. She's tried the knob several times.

"This is bullshit," she thinks as she looks out the window. Students are pushing the spring mud off the sidewalks with shovels. They barely speak to each other. The haze of the fires lingers over the campus and Sage can smell the smoke inside the admin building. She feels a panic rise inside her.

You are strong. You can take care of yourself. Your fear is your strength.

Sage is sure her mother would have visited the school before sending her here, so she would have known that she was sending her into a place Sage would dread, no matter how good the school might be. Rogue River Academy sits in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest in southern Oregon. Large swaths of the forest encircle the small towns and villages near there. The wildlands have burned more than ever in the last few years causing some of the worst wildfires in U.S. history. Sage’s mom knows she fears wildfires. Is she trying to keep her in a perpetual state of anxiety? Does she think this will somehow help her? Sage thinks of her dad and their bike rides along the creek back home. His voice. His calm way of explaining fires, their origins, their risks, their containment.

“Sometimes only fire can kill fire,” he would say, as he explained back fires, back drafts, suppression fires. Fire warning signals. He was fascinated by fire since he was a young boy and made the study of them his life’s work. Until they ended his life.

The smoke smells more acrid than back in Oak Grove and Sage wonders what the Air Quality Index reading is. She tracks it daily back home. Sometimes hourly. But of course, they’ve taken her phone.

I miss Jake.

Sage turns away from the window and sees a flyer on the desk across the room. Pictures of smiling teens talking at tables or shoveling snow beam out from the outer flap. She picks the flyer up.

 

ROGUE RIVER ACADEMY

Rogue River Academy – A Safe Haven for Troubled Teens

Our Emotional Growth Program Helps Teens Build Self-Esteem

What We Do

We know you love your child and want only the best for them. We also know how scary it is to raise teens in today’s troubled world amid drugs, promiscuity, social media harassment, and open defiance. Kids struggle and parents are at a loss. Those smiling families you see on social media certainly don’t look like your family these days. You fear for your teen’s safety when she walks out the door. She is defiant, shut down, and no longer following basic family rules. Your home life has become a daily battle over curfews, drugs, alcohol, homework, friends, and clothes.

We can help.

At Rogue River Academy our team of trained professionals understand troubled teens and meet them exactly where they are – whether steeped in anger and resentment or fallen into a state of disobedience in which they no longer follow parental or school rules. Our trademarked Transcendence Steps lead your teen on a journey of self-discovery where they dig deep into their fears and past wounds and sort through deep anger. We help them walk a new path of courage and self-esteem.

Our structured environment on our beautiful campus nestled in the Rogue River - Siskiyou National Forest provides a safe haven for your teen to grow and study. Our mentors are trained in active listening. Our emotional growth steps embrace a phased approach that leads teens to accept greater responsibility for their actions and recognize their part in the path that led them here. And our academics are rigorous and often lead to acceptance at top colleges. After graduation, our students leave our program less defiant and more aware of their strengths – ready to stand tall and face the future.

Parenting is hard, but we’re here for you and your troubled teen. It takes a village.

Email or call us for more information.

[e-mail]

1-800-673-5555

Sage intuits that a school is seriously effed up if it allows someone like Johnny to get up into her face like he did, hold her against a wall, then knock her down. Worse, they write B.S. like this in some sales brochure.

I can’t believe my mom fell for this shit.

A key jangles in the lock and Sage throws the flyer back onto the desk and sits down. The door opens and a woman walks in. She looks like she's stepped out of an outdoor gear catalogue. The outdoorsy look with a tinge of Rastafarian. Down vest. Tan hiking pants. Dreadlocks beneath a slouchy beanie. Pierced nose. Inked shoulder peeking out of a cut sweatshirt.

"Yo! Sage Lawrence, right?" the woman says. "I'm Jaime and I'm going to be your mentor here for your first three months. I bet you don't know what a mentor is, but I'm going to tell you all of that. I'll show you the ropes. What to do, what not to do. Whose ass to kiss, whose ass not to kiss. My ass, you kiss."

Fake cool and fake mellow.

"We're going to go over the schedule, some rules, and I'll take you to your bunk house," says Jaime. "You signed the contract agreeing to the big three – 'No Running Away. No Sex. No Violence.' Here’s the Daily Schedule..."

Jaime takes a seat across from Sage at the table and hands her a sheet of paper.

"It describes in general terms what we do each day," says Jaime. "We have three phases of the journey here and you are in phase one. You'll learn more about that later."

Sage skims the schedule.

 

ROGUE RIVER ACADEMY – Phase One Schedule

7 a.m. – Out of bed - Make Bed, Get Dressed

7:30 – Formation in the Quad – Roll Call

7:45 – 8:30 – Breakfast

8:40 – noon – Education Classes

Noon – 1 – Lunch

1- 2:30 – Classes

2:30 – 4 – Exercise Drills, Chores

4-5:30 – "Free Time" in Bunk for Homework and Journey Step Assignments

5:30 – 6:30 – Dinner

7- 8:30 – Journey Step Meetings

8:30 – 9:30 – Free Bunk Time

9:30 pm – Lights Out

Sage finishes reading the sheet and slides it across the table to Jaime.

"You good with that?" asks Jaime.

Sage doesn’t answer.

"I asked if you are good with that?"

Sage nods a yes.

"I can't hear you, Sage."

"Yes."

"That's better. Thank you."

"Not every day is the same," continues Jaime. "Sometimes you may be pulled out of class for groundwork, or counseling, or more Step Work. But the schedule is the general outline. Our students here move through three stages in their 13-month journey. You have to complete solid work in group sessions and with your mentor to advance to the next stage. Each stage comes with more privileges. And solid work means you look at your shit, write about your shit, and share your shit. To make it here you gotta follow the rules and dig deep into your fears and behaviors to see how you ended up here...Do you understand?"

It is after four o'clock and Sage can barely concentrate from the fatigue and the hangover. It feels surreal and she expects to wake up from it all.

"I asked you a question, little girl," Jaime says, leaning closer to Sage, getting up in her face. "Do. You. Understand?"

"Yes," says Sage, staring into Jaime's eyes without wavering.

"Good. By the way, are you hungry?"

"Yes," answers Sage.

"Well, you can eat soon. But before you eat and before you go to your bunk, you need to fill out this questionnaire and write a short essay on why you think you were sent here. This is always a good thing to re-read after you finish the program."

Jaime hands Sage a paper and pen.

"I'm going to leave you to it. You've got thirty minutes. I'll be back."

Jaime stands up from the table and walks out the door. Sage hears the lock click.

########################################################

 

Rogue River Academy

Your Inner Journey: Starts Here

Transcendence Steps tm

Name – Sage Lawrence

Age – 16

Do You Drink Alcohol? Yes

If so, how much? 2x a week,

What do you drink? Beer, wine, hard seltzer, Jack Daniels

Do you do drugs? Yes

If so, how often? Twice a week

What drugs do you do? Weed

Do you have sex? Yes

If so, how often? Three times a week

How many sexual partners have you has? One

Do you use birth control? Yes

Have you been expelled from school? No, not formally.

Have you been arrested? No

Have you ever hit someone? No

What is your biggest asset? My brain

What is your biggest defect? My brain

What is your biggest fear?

What about you needs changing? My brain

Short essay: 350 words.

What do you hope to get out of this program? Are you fucking kidding me? I just want to get out of this program. Now.

Short essay: 350 words.

Why do you think your parents sent you to this school? My parents didn’t send me here, my mom did. And she did it because I didn't want to go along with her rules and expectations...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.12.2023
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch
• ISBN-13: 979-8-218-31533-7 / 9798218315337