my mother hollered from the living room. “We’re leaving in ten minutes!” I rolled my eyes as I stuffed another outfit into my overstuffed suitcase. We were going camping for a week, but I was taking enough to last me a month. It was my first independent foray into the wilderness and I wanted to be prepared. I didn’t want to get caught literally with my pants down in the middle of BFE, with no one but the Moms and Dylan Fenn to witness it. Since we both were leaving home in the fall, me, to UC Fullerton to pursue a business degree and he to NYC to study drama, our mothers, whom we had long ago affectionately dubbed ‘The Moms,’ had decided we all needed to get nice and cozy our last summer together as a family unit. It was a fitting farewell to our twelve-year living arrangement. We didn’t look like other families, but we had long been operating as one. Dylan and I divided the chores between us, and generally fought over the bathroom and the TV in the den just like actual siblings.
