The Fort

Ricky is the new kid in town. He skipped a grade because of his intelligence level, so he is a year younger than the rest of the group. The other kids resent his intelligence. A second source of antagonism is the fact that Ricky also previously attended a magnet school for gifted children. Despite these setbacks, Ricky becomes a part of the pack, mainly because he discovers the hatch to Bennett Delamere’s bomb shelter.

Ricky is also the one who comes up with most of the bright ideas that the boys will need to keep their fort secret. He arranges the communication system to keep them all in touch and the lookout protocol to make sure nobody else is spying on them. Despite his newness to the group, Ricky is also the first to notice that C.J.’s stepfather is abusive, and he immediately alerts the others to the problem. Ricky is an outsider, and he often observes what the rest of the boys fail to see. By the end of the story, he is accepted into the tight-knit group of lifelong friends who initially resented him. When he gets a chance to go to a different school, he prefers to remain among his fort buddies.

Evan is Ricky’s initial contact at school. Although Evan resents the newcomer, he soon comes to value Ricky’s ideas and his help. Evan is facing a difficult home situation. His parents are drug addicts who abandoned their two sons. Now, Evan and his older brother, Luke, must live with their grandparents.

Like C.J., Evan is ashamed of his troubled home life and tries to keep these matters private. He is particularly concerned about Luke’s association with Jaeger. Evan feels that Jaeger has stolen his brother away. Without the support of his sibling, Evan turns to the fort and his other friends for consolation. During a pivotal scene at the end of the novel, Jaeger threatens to stab Evan, who is saved by Luke. With Jaeger safely locked away in jail, Evan feels that his brother has been restored to him.

Mitchell struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). As a result, he often annoys the other boys with his insistence on avoiding the number 13 and various other quirky rules. Mitchell was previously receiving therapy from a psychiatrist named Dr. Breckinridge, but his sessions ended when his mother lost her insurance coverage. She was laid off at DelaCraft Auto Parts and now holds down three part-time jobs to make ends meet.

Due to Mrs. Worth’s financial struggles, Mitchell is the poorest member of the fort group. When his phone screen cracks, he can’t afford to fix it. He struggles with his schoolwork and is particularly annoyed that Ricky attended a magnet school because he’s so smart. Mitchell resents Dr. Breckinridge for canceling his therapy and takes revenge by urinating over the doctor’s herb garden. By the end of the novel, Mitchell apologizes, and the doctor agrees to treat him for free if Mitchell will properly tend his garden.

Jason’s parents are in the midst of a bitter divorce when the novel begins. As a result of their shared custody arrangement, Jason spends half his time in town with his mother and half his time at his father’s apartment, three miles away. His parents’ dispute over a cactus plant causes Jason to steal the plant and install it at the fort to stop his parents from bickering about it.

The only source of stability in his life is his girlfriend, Janelle. Jason would do anything to please her and finds his loyalties divided when the boys insist that he can’t tell his girlfriend about the fort. Jason eventually caves under pressure and confesses his secret to her. This proves to be a wise decision because Janelle and her father end up saving the day. At the end of the novel, C.J. and his mother move to an apartment near the one Jason’s dad occupies. This means that Jason will have a friend nearby at all times.

Janelle is Jason’s girlfriend. She is in the seventh grade. Janelle is also the daughter of a policeman, so she isn’t easily intimidated, even when Jaeger bullies her. Although initially excluded from the fort group, Janelle forces the truth out of Jason. To her credit, she doesn’t tell her father about the bunker but instead becomes a member of the crew. Her suggestion to clean the fort makes for a welcome change in the atmosphere there. Janelle’s presence in the group proves to be a lifesaver. After Marcus, Jaeger, and Luke breach the sanctuary’s defenses, she calls the police and saves the day.

Jaeger is a 16-year-old high school dropout who cruises around town in a red Mustang, looking for trouble. He has adopted Luke as his sidekick. While Luke looks up to Jaeger, the latter is only interested in people he can exploit. He frequently bullies the younger boys, especially when he realizes they are getting money from some unknown source. Jaeger is determined to find out what they are hiding in the woods. When he and Luke finally stumble on the fort, Jaeger gets into a physical fight with Marcus and stabs him. When Jaeger turns on Evan, Luke intervenes, and the boys tackle him. He’s then arrested for assault and sent to jail.

Luke is Evan’s 16-year-old brother. After being abandoned by his parents, Luke feels cast adrift. He has concluded that the only way to survive in life is to be tough. He believes he can learn this skill from Jaeger and looks up to him but also fears him. Luke’s friendship with Jaeger alienates him from Evan and his grandparents. At the end of the novel, Luke must decide between his loyalty to Jaeger and his love for his brother. He chooses his brother and helps put his former friend behind bars. The story concludes with Luke back on good terms with his family.

Marcus is Evelyn Sciutto’s second husband and C.J.’s stepfather. He is six-foot-three and was once a semiprofessional wrestler. Marcus’s bad temper results in fits of violence that strike without warning. He has abused both his wife and stepson. Whenever he injures C.J., Marcus buys the boy an expensive game or piece of sporting equipment. All of C.J.’s friends think that Marcus is the perfect father because he wears that mask most of the time. After Evelyn and C.J. leave him, Marcus tracks them down to the bunker. In a violent confrontation with Jaeger, Marcus is stabbed. After he recovers, he receives a restraining order and is no longer allowed any contact with Evelyn or C.J.

Evelyn is C.J.’s mother and Marcus’s wife. Even though she sees her son’s injuries, she refuses to acknowledge the reason for them. Likewise, when Marcus hits her, she convinces herself that he’s working on his anger issues and is improving. After C.J. refuses to live at home anymore, Evelyn decides to leave Marcus. She takes refuge at the fort while she figures out an escape plan. Although Marcus finds her there, the police arrive in time to prevent him from injuring his wife or stepson. At the end of the novel, Evelyn proves her determination to make a better life for C.J. by getting a restraining order against Marcus and moving out of their house.