Mary’s Refrain Church of England School was smack in rural Abbeytown. Once an old church, it had been turned into a beautiful, historied, and mostly stuffy-smelling school that could barely cram enough desks inside to seat all its students (though there weren’t all that many of those).

Nowadays, it was still stuffy-smelling and historied, and even still a little bit beautiful. It was also, however, disastrously rundown, and the steepled roof groaned with the exhaustion of housing ninety stifled teenagers. Legendarily, it was called “Mary’s Refrain” because its students were the sort of behavioral nightmares that might make even the immaculate virgin hang up her immaculate halo for a night to brood over hard drinks and a full ashtray.

I have thus far survived the first week of Camp Nano, with minimal disaster. I am Proud Of Myself (TM). Congratulations and love to other intrepid ‘Wrimos–only a few more weeks to go!