It turned out the whole peaceful sleep thing was just a cruel attempt by life to lower my guard. As if to make up for lost time, my sleep was tortured by a bellyache that threatened a roaring headache on the horizon. Eventually, after hours of restlessness, I dozed off, but it was anything but peaceful.

My dreams - or rather nightmares, were tormented by a past I wished I could forget. They involved the guest of honor today.

My mother.

One-half of the nightmares anyway. Take a wild guess at who the other intruder was.

Think unkempt wavy hair that almost covered his blue eyes which always look dilated to match his breath stinkin' of alcohol and broken promises. My ever-responsible father who I hadn't seen in about a year now, give or take.

I was trying my best to ignore the knot in my stomach at the thought of a family session but it was kind of hard with so many people asking if my mother would be coming today.

I swear it felt like Atlas and Indigo were the only ones who didn't care about my mother coming. Was it really so uncommon for an A-list celebrity to visit a sobriety camp in the middle of the woods?

Either way, I prepared my fork in a threatening position to stab the next stray person to walk up and ask.

"Someone's popular," Atlas joked as I unsuccessfully deterred the millionth querier on our walk out of the Pub.

"It's quite disgusting - this obsession with famous people. Just because the masses like them they base their initial opinion on how they are generally viewed instead of waiting to make their own judgment," Indigo said, walking along beside us.

Thor and Nellie had stayed behind chatting about some book or the other. I had learned to ignore them once they went off on their little nerding sprees.

"It's pretty annoying to be in the middle of," I replied to Indigo. "You think your parents are going to be here, already?" I asked, noticing some early parents reuniting with their charges.

Most of the reunions were one-sided on the excitement scale, with the parent tending to be much more enthusiastic; which was expected considering they had exiled their charges to the woods.

Atlas smiled absentmindedly. "Nah, my parents are always late."

I glanced at Indigo who had gone silent.

She stopped walking and simply stared ahead, an unfamiliar glint in her eyes. I followed her gaze and saw a tall woman approaching.

She wore a black suit that contained not a single wrinkle, with matching dress pants and shoes that carried not even a speck of mud, as if the mud itself didn't dare to ruin her attire. Her hair was tied back in a business-like ponytail and her movements were meticulous as she approached - mechanical even. As she reached us, crude emotionless eyes latched onto mine and then Atlas' before focusing on Indigo.

I don't think she blinked once.

"These are your companions then?" she asked in a disinterested manner.

Indigo nodded, her body noticeably tensing up.

"Well, let's be off. I'd rather not spend too much time in this unpleasant pit of despair." She turned on her heel and walked off without a glance back to see if she was obeyed.

Heck, I had to stop myself from instinctively following along behind her at the command.

Indigo obediently followed her without a glance back. We watched them walk toward the main building in hushed silence.

Atlas turned to me with a raised eyebrow as they entered the building and became out of view. "I see why she doesn't have piercings now!" He said, with excitement at having answered a question that had clearly nagged him.

"No kidding."

Me and Atlas idly laundered around as we waited for our own dreaded reunions. We observed the stream of newcomers and played a game, guessing if the parent was an addict themselves or not.

At one point we saw the girl Atlas had clearly been avoiding and unwilling to talk about next to a normal-looking woman who had too much makeup, much like her charge. I figured Atlas wouldn't want to talk about her but he surprised me by speaking.

"Current addict," Atlas said softly, referring to the woman beside her.

"Damn, she hides it well."

He nodded. "It's why they wear so much makeup. She fed Gloria her first set of pills when she was just eight." His face had grown dark as if he was reciting bad memories.

I didn't interrupt, letting him choose to continue or not.

"She's the only girlfriend I ever had, you know?" he continued, watching Gloria and her mother ascend the stairs. "And it was a complete waste of my first experience." He paused as if collecting himself. "I wonder if all girls are as manipulative as her."

He seemed like he wanted to say more but he didn't, closing himself off once more. He'd confirmed my suspicions so I didn't feel the need to pry further.

"Hey, that one's definitely a current addict too," I said, motioning toward a new female arrival that looked like she had done meth right before coming here. Her eyes looked more sunken in than the Titanic for christ's sake.

Atlas had turned to find the butt of my joke and turned back stiffly toward me with a surprisingly hard glare. "That's...my mother dude."

I froze.

Atlas looked like he was preparing to jump on me and considering all the athletic feats I had seen from him in such a short time, it would not be a battle I enjoyed.. So, like the brave and capable decision maker I was - I prepared to turn on the jets and hope Tarzan couldn't climb the nearest tree faster than me.

A solid plan right?

Atlas' scowl suddenly morphed into his signature dopey grin. "Nah, I'm just messing with you."

I only realized how tense I had become when I relaxed at his words and literally felt like Mount Everest had just been lifted off my shoulders.

"Not cool."

Atlas was laughing so hard that I half expected him to start rolling around in the mud. "You should've seen your face man. You looked like you were auditioning for a horror movie or something."

"Ha-ha," I mocked, fighting the urge to laugh along.

As time went by, I noticed that a lot of staring was happening. My 'peers' were pointing me out to their parents, likely bragging about a celeb's son being among them. Most of the parents' faces looked worried and flat-out disgusted which was no surprise considering my last TMZ video made me public enemy number one...well two behind Kanye West but it'll take blowing up the world to overthrow him, so he didn't really count.

Either way, it was pretty ironic when their kid ended up in the same place as me. Maybe my destiny was to be a wake-up call to negligent parents so their kids wouldn't turn out like me. Personally, I could get on board with that idea since it meant I didn't need to change anything.

Speaking of negligent parents, I could sense my mother's arrival before I laid eyes on her. It was a series of gasps and cries of awe that I had become far too familiar with. All that was missing was the stampeding of feet, but as I said before, my kind wasn't the most social of creatures.

So, they were fine with watching from afar with barely concealed reverence as my mother trudged through the dirt path with unsure steps and Ben in tow.

"Hey dear, I've missed you so much," she exclaimed, wrapping her hands around me in a bear hug. Me and my mother didn't hug much in private, or at all really, she was putting on a show as usual and perhaps through habit I played along, hugging her back lightly.

I didn't say I missed her though, it was pretty hard to miss something you had grown accustomed to being gone after all.

"Are you doing okay? Eating well? Is this too hard on you?" She asked at rapid-fire speed, not giving me time to respond even if I wanted to. She paused sharply, leaning in closer, "are you sober?"

I shrugged. "Don't got much of a choice here."

She nodded to herself and then caught Atlas standing next to me. "And who's this? You're making friends here already?"

"His name is Atlas."

Atlas did a small wave. "Hey, nice to meet you, Ms. Higgins."

She smiled back pleasantly but I could see in her eyes it was another act. My mother had a bad history with addicts, especially teenage ones (which may or may not be my fault), and she had clearly associated Atlas as being one.

"Likewise. It's rare for my son to make friends at all, so for him to have made one so fast must mean you're special." She replied.

"Naw, I wouldn't say all of that."

"Good evening, madam," a creepily energetic voice called from behind us. The security guard I had dubbed Winnie the Pooh stood waiting expectantly behind us, "I'm here to escort you inside."

The other parents hadn't been escorted so this was clearly the full celebrity treatment. I found it funny he thought he could do a better job escorting her than Ben but my mother humored him with a nod and followed along behind him.

"You're not waiting for your parents anymore?" I asked Atlas, noticing he was following along behind us.

"They'll catch up when...if they come," He said with a shrug.

He tried to play it off but I could tell his usual carefree demeanor was more forced than before.

Winnie the Pooh led us inside to the room we had our first meeting in, the crowd of caretakers and their charges being ushered in as we did.

For the second time, all eyes turned as we entered, but this time hardly any were focused on me. They stared at my mother like they were watching royalty, and understandably so considering this would probably be the closest they would get to meeting one.

My mother, accustomed to the attention, walked like a model showcasing some eloquent brand, and judging by her attire, it probably was.

We were seated at the front and within moments everyone was more or less settled down, awaiting Amir's address.

Amir walked to the front of the stage and it was clear he considered this an important occasion as he looked straight out of a James Bond cosplay, doffing his usual T-shirt and jeans combo for a full suit get-up.

"Good morning parents and guardians. It's been a week now since you've put your charges in our care and I'm sure some of you are already expecting some progress in all departments. However, let me remind you this can be a slow, meticulous progress that may take much more than a week to start bearing fruit. Despite this, I'm pleased overall with the efforts I have seen and hope that you too will acknowledge the effort it takes for your cubs to fight through their various situations."

He continued on with his speech but I figured all the parents had already signed off on the disclaimers like; if your child is eaten by a wolf it's not our fault, it's just natural selection, so I figured there wasn't much to be said here, but of course, Amir went on for a good twenty minutes.

My mother also hated long speeches and I could see her zoning in and out, probably thinking about her next big movie offer or whatever the hell went on in her brain.

Finally, we were released and instructed to go up to our floor. Amir greeted us outside the Delta room door before calling out the order in which we would enter from a sheet of paper. With Lady Luck's blessing, my name was called last.

"So, tell me how it's been," my mother said from her seat on my bed.

We had decided to wait in my room, away from the staring onlookers. I had insisted Atlas join us as neither of his parents still hadn't shown up. I could tell it bothered him. And my mother would bother me much less if she was distracted pretending to get to know and like him.

"It's been ok. I guess it beats being thrown in a loony bin," I replied.

"You're not mentally ill, honey. You just need some proper guidance."

Ben chose that moment to cough and I burst out laughing.

Good ol' Ben.

My mother frowned, changing the subject. "Atlas, was it? I'm really glad you're keeping my son's company in this hard period of his life. He acts like he doesn't need it but friendship is important."

I raised an eyebrow.

"It's my pleasure. Did he tell you that our team won the first competition?"

"No, actually," she replied, sparing me a look like if we ever texted in the first place, "what was the competition?"

"Track and field."

Ben looked at me incredulously. "Are you saying Mateo participated in track and field while sober?"

Atlas nodded.

My mother shared Ben's expression. "And won?"

Atlas nodded again.

"If that impresses you guys, you should've seen me on the highway two weeks ago," I joked.

My mother gave me a hard glare.

"Too soon?"

We continued chatting about the camp - mostly Atlas, until Nellie popped her head in and announced it was our turn a good half-hour later.

"It was nice to meet you, Atlas," my mom said, offering her hand. It actually seemed genuine. I know she had been searching to find faults in Atlas but it was really hard to hate such a blinding ray of sunshine.

"I'll stay here and keep Atlas' company," Ben suggested.

I gave Ben a quick hug. "I missed you."

"I missed you too, kiddo."