Growing Up

Pages 152-201

Summary- Riley's characters has grown up a lot in this part of the story. She still has a lot of growing up to do, but she has to become more mature. Riley is still thinking about going to the party at home which means that she still wants to run away. She was waiting for Dylan to come back from the pharmacy but he took too long, so she chose to run away without saying good-bye. As Riley walked away from camp she saw Trevor (Neville's boyfriend) driving by her with Dylan. It turns out that Dylan had tried to escape and he said he was going to the pharmacy to buy things for the campers as an excuse for getting out of camp. Riley and Dylan were driven back to camp.
          Riley and Dylan were not sent home under the condition that they would help clean out a thee-room cottage in the camp. They were able to get to know each other better and joke around while cleaning up the cottage. Riley is starting to feel more comfortable around Dylan and he is also okay with talking to her about his wheelchair. He even opens up to he about the accident that got him in the wheel chair. Dylan also opens up about the relationship he once had with Fleur.
         Towards the end of this section of the story Riley find outs that there is a salt lake near Spirit Ranch that supposedly has healing powers. She decides to make a petition to get Neville to take the camper to salt lake. She hopes that the lake will heal Dylan and enable him to walk again. Riley ends up getting everyone to sign the petition, but Neville already has field trips planned out for the campers. Riley does not give up so she went to Neville's office to call Chloe to tell her sorry for not running away. At the same time Riley sees Neville's car keys, which gave her an idea. I am assuming she is going to take Bird's dune buggy and leave without permission.

Quote- "Roslyn said that to be a good person you had to believe in God, and to believe in God you have to be open as a child. You had to believe in anything. I wasn't open. I was tight as a trap. I smoothed my hand over the notebook's dusty cover. Five minutes ago "healing"was just a word in Norma's New Age Lexicon. Now it seemed like a good prospect." (Howell 188)

Reactions- I really like this part of the book, because Riley's character is changing. She doesn't swear as much and she tries to help other camp member like Bird,Sarita, and Dylan. It seems like it is hard for her to open up. The quote above is a good description of Riley's personality. The quote shows that she isn't "open", because she never really shows others how she feels. She acts like she is tough, but she does have feelings. One person she can relate to is Dylan, who acts strong but is always trying to escape. He tries to escape from his wheelchair and live the life he once had, but he can't. This is a story of a girl who is going through problems that many teenagers go through. She has body-image problems and you can even say trust issue. There is a part in the story where she says that she has slept with boys just to feel loved even though she doesn't like the boys she slept with.
            Riley's character will probably continue to mature into a wiser person and she will be more confident. She is starting to change by opening herself up and actually having a "prospect". She is starting to change by having a goal which is to heal Dylan. Riley is starting to believe in healing, but before she believed in nothing. This shows she may belief in God.