Flamer

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of anti-gay language and bullying.

It is 1995, and Aiden Navarro is a 14-year-old Filipino American teenager spending the last weeks of summer vacation at camp with his Boy Scouts troop. Aiden is feeling a lot of anxiety and dreading starting high school in a couple of weeks. He hated middle school because he was relentlessly bullied about his weight, appearance, and being gay. He has decided to switch from Catholic school to public school, hoping this will give him a fresh start. However, it also comes with a lot of unknowns that make him nervous.

Aiden enjoys being at summer camp because he is more able to be himself. Some of the other boys do tease him, but less frequently and severely than at school. He also enjoys the peace and quiet of the outdoors compared to home, where his parents are constantly fighting. His patrol group is called the Flaming Arrows, and he is the assistant to patrol leader, Rob Niccolo. There are five other boys that make up the patrol: Bobby McGuire, Mark Jones, Ryan Polowski, Elias Schaefer, and