The Fort

Ricky feels depressed about being an outsider. Everyone resents his intelligence. “They hate it that I’m at their school, taking classes with them. But when I try to get out of their school, I’m a snob who thinks he’s too smart for Canaan Middle” (78).

Late one evening, Ricky is studying upstairs in his bedroom when Jaeger and Luke drive up. They call him to come down and talk. Fearing that Jaeger will break a window if he doesn’t, Ricky agrees but tells his father that the two teens are outside. Ricky refuses to leave the porch, knowing the others are up to no good. Jaeger wants to know where the boys are getting their extra money. He suspects that something is going on in the woods and demands that Ricky tell him. By this time, Ricky’s father comes out, and the older boys leave. Ricky knows that he and his friends must protect their secret.

Evan isn’t surprised to hear that his brother and Jaeger are watching the younger boys. Ricky devises a plan, and the fort crew springs into action to create a communication network among themselves. Evan installs an app on his brother’s phone so he will know if Luke is anywhere near the fort.

The boys designate a nearby tree as a lookout tower to scan the woods in case anybody is lurking around when they enter the bunker. They also make up the code name “Peru” whenever they text one another about the fort. Then, they camouflage the entrance and set up a dummy fort in another location by using a large stone slab and some tree stumps to make it look like their gathering place. Even though Ricky is calling the shots, Evan doesn’t mind. He feels that Jaeger is a bigger threat than Ricky.

Content Warning: The next chapter describes incidents of domestic violence and child abuse.

C.J.’s mom, Evelyn, tries to restore family harmony by getting hockey tickets to attend a game in Raleigh. C.J. is dubious about the plan, but Marcus initially seems in a good mood. At the game, it doesn’t take long for Marcus to lose his temper when a vendor gets his hotdog order wrong. Evelyn distracts her husband, and the danger subsides.

Later, the Sciuttos have trouble finding their car, and Marcus grabs his wife by the hair, lifting her off the ground. C.J. takes a tire iron from the trunk and tells Marcus to back down. After the altercation, Marcus gets even: “Marcus, deadly calm, reaches out and slaps me so hard across the face that I see stars. I stagger into the side mirror, opening a cut in front of my ear” (94). Evelyn doesn’t notice this fresh evidence of abuse until later but immediately goes into denial about it. Marcus starts blubbering about what an awful person he is while his wife consoles him, much to C.J.’s disgust.

On Saturday morning, Mitchell is hanging out alone at the decoy fort. He is surprised when Jason appears with Janelle because they intend to have a picnic breakfast there. Janelle invites Mitchell to stay. He does so even though he is annoyed with Jason for allowing Janelle to visit the fake location.

After breakfast, Mitchell is about to leave when Jaeger and Luke arrive. Jaeger studies the false hideout. He is about to bully Mitchell for more information when he learns that Janelle is the daughter of a cop: “‘She’s Officer Jaworski’s daughter,’ Luke supplies in a strangled voice. Jaeger straightens up like he’s been burned” (99). The thugs make a hasty exit after that. Janelle offers to report them to her father, but Jason and Mitchell don’t want any outside intervention.

Mitchell leaves to spend the rest of the day at the real fort, watching old movies and playing video games with the guys. By dinner time, Mitchell is ready to leave. As he walks home with Ricky, he announces that he needs to go water his plants. After dark, Mitchell sneaks into the prized herb garden of his former therapist, Dr. Breckinridge. He urinates on all the plants as payback for the doctor’s unwillingness to continue his sessions after Mitchell’s mother lost her health insurance.

C.J. starts sleeping overnight at the fort because he doesn’t want to be anywhere near Marcus. Despite the frantic texts from his family, he refuses to stay home at night. He knows his parents won’t report his absence to the police because they might have to answer questions about his injuries. In the morning, C.J. goes home after the adults leave for work. He showers and changes clothes for school. As he is about to leave, he encounters Marcus, who returned to get his work ID badge. Marcus offers to drive him to school, and C.J. unwillingly agrees, narrating: “As he goes on and on about a fun family reunion, all I can see is Mom’s pancake makeup on the hall table. If you hit my mother … If you hit my mother … I know that I’ve got to get out of this car before my head explodes” (108). When the car slows near the school, C.J. jumps out while the vehicle is still going 15 miles per hour. He tucks and rolls, colliding with Ricky in the process. Ricky is suspicious about C.J.’s behavior and notices that he has makeup covering a bruise. C.J. still refuses to tell anyone his secret.

Evan’s older brother, Luke, now picks up the narrative. He complains about how his grandmother treats him. She reserves all her sympathy for Evan even though Luke was also abandoned by his drug-addicted parents. Luke concludes that the only way to survive is to become tough. Jaeger is teaching him how to do this: “He’s the perfect friend for a guy like me. I’m lucky to have him” (111). One night, as Luke and Jaeger are casing the local dollar store, they see Mitchell walking to the prosperous end of town. They follow him and spy as he “waters” Dr. Breckinridge’s garden.

Afterward, Jaeger nabs the boy and tries to get him to confess where all the extra cash is hidden. Mitchell won’t tell, and Jaeger cracks his new phone, knowing he can’t afford to get it fixed. Luke then adds that they will report Mitchell’s activities at the Breckinridge house to the police if he doesn’t reveal the secret location where the spare money is stashed. They give Mitchell a few days to think it over.

Jason talks about his parents and their messy divorce. They have divided all their possessions, including him, except for a prized night-blooming cereus cactus that both have claimed. It only blossoms on a single night each year. “Both Mom and Dad told their lawyers there can be no agreement unless they get to keep the night-blooming cereus” (116). To end the dispute, Jason steals the cactus and takes it to the fort. Unfortunately, each of his parents is now accusing the other of stealing the plant. His friends are also overwatering it, and now it’s dying.

The latest topic of concern to the group is Mitchell’s absence. He says that he’s sick at home, but nobody believes that. Jason wants to cheer the invalid up by pawning a small shrimp fork so that Mitchell can buy his mother a gift. Jason sticks the fork in his back pocket and goes to visit Janelle. While there, he sits down, and the fork stabs his buttock. When Janelle investigates the cause of the injury, she notes the pattern on the tarnished silver. Apparently, her father is working on a case involving similar silverware turning up at a local pawn shop. “My dad says it’s all part of a set that was lost when Bennett Delamere died back in the eighties. They don’t know why it’s turning up now, but they believe it might have been stolen” (119). As Janelle continues to press for information, Jason breaks down and tells her the entire story about the fort.

C.J. has now taken up residence at the fort. He feels guilty that he doesn’t want to go home: “I also hate that me being here means that Mom is all alone with that big jerk. Not that I’m strong enough to protect her from a six-foot-three maniac. But at least when Marcus is focused on me, he usually leaves her alone” (121). C.J. must lie to his friends to explain why he’s always the first one at the fort before they all meet there.

One day, when the boys have assembled, minus Mitchell, Jason arrives with Janelle. This throws everyone into an uproar, but Janelle says she won’t betray their secret. However, she points out that the bunker could use a good cleaning and that someone has been overwatering the cactus. At school that day, C.J. is called into a conference room where his mother is waiting for him. She pleads with him to come home, but he refuses. C.J. realizes that his mother can only cope with her domestic situation by pretending that Marcus is getting better. C.J. knows that this isn’t so and tells Evelyn that he’s through covering up for his stepfather.

Mitchell has been keeping his distance for more than a week because he doesn’t want Jaeger and Luke following him. “How can I tell the guys that Luke and Jaeger are blackmailing me? I don’t want to drag my friends into this mess!” (130). Mitchell also fears that Jaeger and Luke will report him to the police for public urination if he doesn’t cooperate with them, and his mother can’t afford a good lawyer. When the boys come to visit him, he doesn’t let them inside, but he misses the fort. So, Mitchell sneaks out at 2am to visit it briefly. Not realizing that C.J. stays there overnight, he is alarmed to find all the lights out. When he hears someone moving in the dark, he assumes it’s an intruder and flees.

C.J. finds multiple hysterical texts the following morning from everyone about a break-in at the fort. He doesn’t want to reveal that he’s been sleeping in the bunker but tells the others that he went by early and found nothing had been disturbed. After school, the boys arrive to find Jason and Janelle already there with cleaning supplies. C.J. grudgingly admits that the place does smell like a locker room and could use a good tidying. Afterward, the only remaining odor seems to be coming from C.J.’s unwashed clothes.