[h1][center][color=e52525][b]Emily Nutter[/b][/color][/center][/h1]


	Emily nodded in agreement as Debra laid out her plan of dealing with adults. She might have found Deb's reverential nature towards official authority incredibly lame, but overall she had the right idea.
	
	[b][color=e52525]"No adults needed, I agree. Trust me, I'm all the protection you need guys"[/color][/b], she said. She leaned towards Danny, looking at him with narrowed eyes: [b][color=e52525]"And Danny, you better listen to Debra, cause otherwise you will have to deal with [i]me[/i]"[/color][/b].

	If you asked Emily, getting the permission of the adults and the dangers of unsupervised camping were not nearly the biggest problems here. For her, it was listening to Phoebe's musical abominations and Danny's jokes. She was sure Deb would scoff at her if she heaped too much abuse on that annoying boy, so she made a resolution to keep herself in check.

	It had to be said that the person whom Emily really wanted to smack on his head extra hard was Cecile. It was not because she hated him, as in her estimation he was, if not cool, then at least slightly less lame than other boys. He was tall, lanky and he had a funny accent, but most importantly he had something that most of the kids lacked - he had [i]character[/i]. She did not mind his dirt and his bruises, as they showed that he roamed the city on his own and got into scrapes and she that thought the way he talked with a cigarette in the gap between his teeth was kind of gross, but also kind of cool.

	Too bad he seemed completely oblivious to all of this. When she elbowed him slightly, smiling with a corner of her mouth, his eyebrow rose quizzically and his jaw went slack so that the gap in his teeth revealed itself in all its ignomy, encouraging her to try to get rid of all of his teeth. She visited him once when he was fumbling with his boat, and while he was happy to bum bootleg cigs from her, he barely looked at her as he excitedly told her the plot of the last Western he watched on TV while looking over his only real love, [i]the motherf***in' Quantum Leap[/i].

	Whatever. It's not like she really cared. And hanging with Cecile would probably mean hanging with that little pest Danny, and that could be too much for her.

	[b][color=e52525]"I think Madcat has been kidnapped by the government, he just knew too much. They are probably torturing him in an underground lab."[/color][/b] Halfway through the statement, she realized that it would not exactly improve the group's morale, but by then it was too late.

	Emily enjoyed Madcat’s broadcasts quite a bit. The astronomy stuff was interesting to Jessie, while for her it quite literally went over her head, but the conspiracy theories were right up her alley. Her dad’s younger brother Ted was drafted to Vietnam and came back a political protester, and she listened to enough of his drunken rants to develop a healthy dislike for the government.

	She might get kidnapped by the shady government guys herself, but that was no reason to chicken out.




[hr]
	The Big Rock with the surrounding park was quite an important spot for the Nutter family; Eddie used to wander around there with Jenny and their little fella was quite possibly conceived there. Emily herself loved to go there on  winter afternoons, staring at the stars while listening to Metallica’s Call of Cthullu, the smoke from her cigarette darting through the lamplight. 

	Emily was always a bit of a free-range kid, so she had no problems with getting her dad's permission for the trip. Jessie grumbled when their dad told him that he will be the one looking after Robbie for the next two days aided by Aunt Edna who agreed to visit them on afternoons; he thought that because he was primed to become the first Nutter boy to go to college, he was exempt from such mundane tasks. Their dad was quite firm on this as he appreciated Emily's babysitting efforts and he thought that she deserved to have some summer fun. 

	Emily arrived at The Big Rock as early as possible, her posture even more hunched than usual as she carried an enormous backpack containing a raincoat and tons of canned food. Also a pack of cigarettes, but she would not let Cecile bum a single one.

	When everyone arrived, she spoke to the crowd:

	[b][color=e52525]"If you feel your backpacks are getting too heavy, you can give some of it to me to carry. I can be your mule guys.”[/color][/b] She looked at Cecile.[b] [color=e52525]“What’s up? Your boat hadn’t sunk yet?”[/color][/b]