A/N: Here I am again stuck in the nineties. All credit for this idea goes to Magenta's nightmare, my ff bff. She gave me the idea and I ran with it. She wrote the beginning to this and then gave it to me. Also, to my wonderful friends who give me prompts, because I beg for them. I start each and every one and work on them as I am inspired to do. I haven't forgotten any of them. You will see yours I promise.

Gratuitous song lyrics, you know me by now.

A stranger's light comes on slowly,

A stranger's heart without a home.

Fade Into You-by Mazzy Star

The room over the garage was her haven. She cranked up the music and let her long, red hair hang down nodding her head to the song. There was nothing music couldn't cure or inspire.

She was angry as hell these days but that was probably typical of any 17 year old at times. Spending the summer working was not her idea of a good time but her mom had pushed her into it promising her extra money for a better car if she agreed.

Summer camp with children...joy.

She was supposed to be packing but she was sitting on the floor of her bedroom having a smoke and playing Nirvana as loud as it would go.

"Hey!"

She jumped out of her skin and put out the smoke, waving her hand around as if it would make a difference now.

"Get packing! And I thought you said you had stopped that, Carol."

"I did but then I got cheated on and now I don't care."

"You'll care when you're lugging around an oxygen tank and turn that down, you'll go deaf too!"

She got up and turned it down sulking and annoyed.

"Hurry up, Carol. I'm driving you to camp in one hour...move it!"

She flopped on her bed and sighed. She was so heartbroken it would do her good not to have to see his face all summer but all those rug rats? She dreaded it more than a little.

Garrett was supposed to be spending their last summer in town with her but now she wanted him dead. They had dated all through grade 10 and 11 and then she caught him with another girl at a grad party.

/

That was never happening to her again, she would never trust another boy again.

Carol threw her suitcase and backpack in the back of her mother's car and grumbled as she got in the passenger side. She had her hair up in two buns on her head like Sailor Moon, as her older brother used to say, but it kept it out of her face. She didn't care if she looked like that anime cartoon character, her hair was out of her face for once.

She couldn't be bothered right now and she was in a foul mood.

She did not want this job, she wanted to spend the summer hanging out with her friends. None of them were working for the summer and she wanted to be doing the same. But she also wanted a car, the life of a teenager was always full of decisions. In the end the thought of a car won on every level.

Still laying around on a lounge chair all summer working on her tan would have been nice.

But her parents were going through a divorce and she was getting sent to be a camp counselor. Her brother Abe was away at college, and he was just staying on campus for the summer doing orientations for the freshman.

Both Ford children were being dispatched so that their parents could divide up their lives and split the difference.

After what she went through with her ex, and saw of her parents' marriage she made a vow. She was never going to fall in love.

And this summer was going to suck.

"Could you at least try to act like you want to be there Carol Ann.?" He mother said as she started the car.

"I don't, two months in the woods with a bunch of ten year olds does not sound like anything I want to do." Carol replied. "You got me bug spray right?"

"Yes, it's in your suitcase love. And some Oreos for my favorite girl." She rubbed Carol's arm and Carol smiled a little because she loved Oreos and didn't know if they even had them at this camp.

She figured probably not, it was out in east jabib somewhere and probably they didn't even have running water. It was going to be gross.

"Maybe you'll make some friends, if your attitude changes." Her mother said. "Maybe there will be boys there."

"Boys!" Carol snapped. "I am done with boys."

Her mother nodded. Knowing full well that no seventeen year old girl is done with boys, no matter how much they say they are. She hoped she would make some new friends, the kids she hung with now were going nowhere fast in life.

Carol was smart and she needed to be going somewhere, college and beyond if she wanted. Jane hoped a new experience would prepare her in some way.

Carol's mother was secretly happy that Garett cheated on her daughter, horrible as that sounded. She did not trust that boy and now that he was gone, maybe Carol would make some new friends.

Garett said that he cheated because Carol wouldn't sleep with him, Carol had told her mother. Secretly, Jane was happy that Carol didn't let him talk her into something she wasn't ready for.

She was only seventeen, too young for any of that. Jane knew times were different now, but she and Carol had one of those relationships that was unique. Carol told her about what Garett said and also told her mother she was waiting for true love or until she was twenty, whichever came first.

Jane had done alright with her children, each of them confided in her in a way that none of their peers did with their parents. It made her heart sing. She was a good mother with good kids. She would never regret that part of the marriage that was now breathing its last breath this summer.

Good mothers did things for their kids own good, put their needs first.

That was the reason Carol's mother was removing her from the house this summer. She would be busy packing and moving and she didn't want Carol getting into trouble while she was distracted.

And Carol just plain needed some fresh air.

"Abe has a new girlfriend." Her mother was saying. "Rosita or Renata, something like that."

"Yeah, I know he called the other day while you were at work. Her name is Rosita and she's from Delaware. He's in love, the dumbass." Carol said.

"Honey, I know that you feel hurt right now, and God knows, your father moving out, doesn't help matters. But I'm happy for your brother, she's his first serious girlfriend."

Carol side eyed her mother. She knew what was coming, some sort of new age babble about sunshine and sunflowers. Her mother was such a hippie.

"Someday you'll understand honey, I'm not giving up on love and neither should you."

Carol was sure her mother was taking too many Xanax or something, she was taking this divorce way too well. Weren't women supposed to be crying and wailing over a divorce? Her mother actually seemed happy. She seemed relieved, like she was looking forward to being single.

Her father too, she had seen him the night before and he was smiling. He had said she should call him if she needed anything and that his new job out of state was starting in a week. He said he would come see her often and she knew he would keep his word.

But this was still a shock to both Abe and Carol.

They had just decided to separate when he got the job offer and Carol didn't get it at all. It hurt though, somewhere deep inside, her family was breaking up and things would never be the same again.

"Do me a favor and try and have an open mind for this job, I want you to have a good summer."

"Then let me stay home."

Her mother shook her head.

"No dice cookie, you need to do something different for a change, this will be good for you."

Carol really doubted that, but she didn't want to fight with her mother all the way to the mountains where this godforsaken place was. She loved her mother and they were best friends. She would try, so that things would be easier on her mother.

The first person to make a crack about Friday the 13th and camp Crystal Lake was getting punched in the face though.

Carol turned on the radio and smiled just a bit. "Alive" by Pearl Jam was on. That Eddie Vedder was one hot looking guy. Maybe she could get tickets to see Pearl Jam when they toured now that she was going to be making some money. Maybe a job wasn't such a bad idea after all.

A/N: Let me know what you think. This one is almost all done, a first for me. Ha