Chapter One

Squid lay on his cot, staring into total darkness. He wondered why he had even done such a thing. He knew he would get busted for it, though. But what could he do? He was nothing but a worthless kid just waiting to either be picked up or thrown away.

He looked over to his side where darkness slept next to him. As he stared into darkness, he drifted into a horrible place.

"What are you doing!" I exclaimed. I saw my mom with an upside-down bottle of Whiskey in her right hand. She unsteadily swung the bottle across my face. "It's all your fault you stupid bastard!" she screamed at me. "We hate you, so just get away from us!" I felt a pang of sadness and guilt. Why was my mom always like this? Whenever something went wrong, she always blamed it on me. I wasn't cursed. My dad blamed things on me too. I was sick of it, so just ran to my room. On the way up the stairs, my mom threw the bottle at me, but just barely missed. When I got to my room, I buried my face in my pillow. I had a small cut on my lip and another smaller one on my left temple. I raised my head and looked out my fogged window. I could just make out a some kind of black bird, staring at my through the fog. I opened the window.

Squid shot up like a bullet in cold sweat. Something about that bird creeped him out. He didn't plan on telling anybody else about it. They would probably make fun of him for being afraid of a bird in a dream. They weren't that mean. He just wanted to be sure. After all, he was one of the toughest guys in D-tent. Not one of the most scary dreams. He had had worse, but never any with that bird. "Hey man," someone said. "You okay?" Squid's head jerked around. He could see nothing but black. "Yeah, I'm all right. Just.leave me alone." "Sorry." He sighed. "Who are you anyway?" "Ummm.It's me. Zero." "Oh, okay. What are you doing up anyway?" "I'm always up at night. I'm not sure if I sleep that much. If I don't, then it's probably because--" "Whatever," interrupted Squid. "I don't care. Just go to sleep man." "I'll see what I can do."

The bird stared at me with beady black eyes. It was like it was looking right through me. I jumped off the windowsill. The weather wasn't foggy. My brain was foggy. Whey I looked up, I saw a bright light. It was blurred, but it was no doubt the sun. I walked over to the bird. It was nothing more than a small black blur. "What are you?" I asked. My voice was a little raspy. "I'm the raven who never sleeps. I am in charge of all he keeps," the raven answered. "In charge of--" But the raven had disappeared and I was beginning to fall.

"He always wakes up like that." "Man, does he got a fever or something?" "Hey X, what if he was dreaming about yellow-spotted lizards chasing him?" "Then he would probably have that dream for the rest of his life." "Hang on guys. I got it." Squid felt the soothing feeling of water on his face. But the not-so- soothing part was that it was really cold. Now, where would cold water be at Camp Green Lake? Duh, Magnet must have somehow stolen some from the Warden's cabin. A few seconds later, his eyes opened. "Hey Mom," Caveman called. "I think he's going to be all right." "That's good," Mom replied. Squid slowly got up and stretched. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a covered in sweat a little too early." His eyes fell on Zero who was standing off somewhere on the side. Zero reminded him of something, but he didn't know what. He decided to just drop it and begin their daily routine. When he got up everyone filed out of the tent. Squid followed them and noticed that someone was following him. He turned sharply around, but saw nothing but the tent. He must be hearing things. As they ate breakfast, Squid's head fell into the mystery food. He was still awake, but tired. He heard Zigzag snigger. "Hey man," he heard Magnet said. "It's not that funny. He's just worn out. Right man?" He elbowed Squid on side and Squid nodded his head. He brought his head up. Half of his face was covered with black gooey stuff. It smelled pretty bad. He needed to throw up. But he didn't. "Hey," Caveman said. "You all right? You look kinda' sick." Squid wiped the food off of his face and said, "I'm fine. Just tired."

"All right you Girl Scouts," grumbled Mr. Sir. "Hurry up and get your shovels." Now, half of the D-tent boys were quickly grabbing their shovels and running a few feet away to make room for the other guys. The half consisted of Caveman, Armpit, Zigzag and Magnet. Magnet had really only rushed so that he couldn't be caught taking Mr. Sir's keys to the water truck. As they followed Mr. Sir, Squid and Zigzag noticed Magnet smirking. He noticed them looking at him and lifted them out of his pocket enough just so that the ring was revealed. Zigzag sniggered and looked at Squid who was just staring at the keys.

Ten minutes after Mr. Sir had left, Zigzag asked Squid what was wrong. He said that it was nothing. He said that he wasn't really feeling good. Zigzag left him alone and resumed digging three holes away from Squid. Then Squid started to wonder why he didn't laugh. He remembered something that his dad had told him. He wasn't sure if it was from a dream or not.

"If something miserable ever happens in your life, then never laugh again. When you laugh, then that means you're okay with that one miserable thing. You can't be okay with it. People tell you to get over it. Don't listen to them. Listen to someone who understands you and has been through what you have been through."

He wasn't sure if that was all he said, but it was close enough for him. He looked around him, wondering if anybody had been through what he had been through.

At around 2:30, Squid walked back to the camp. He was looking forward to a shower. He could be alone. After Caveman returned from the shower room, Mom announced a meeting in their tent, only for D-tent boys. It was 20 minutes after dinner. When everybody was sitting on their cot, Mom said, "I know that we all have problems. We all have reasons to why we're here. You're all guilty whether you like it or not. So, I called this meeting so that we could all share how we got sent here. "You mean you want us to blame somebody else for what we did?" Zigzag asked. "No stupid," said Magnet. "He wants us to tell about why we got here." There was a long "Oh" from Zigzag that sounded kind of stupid. But nobody ever laughed at Zigzag. He was one of the most dangerous kind of guys at Camp Green Lake. "So, I guess we'll start with--" but Mom was cut off by Armpit shouting, "Mom!" "You want to know why I'm here?" Magnet, Squid, Armpit and Zigzag nodded their heads excitedly. "Well, it all started out when," he stopped. "Wait! You guys aren't fooling me again." "Damn," muttered Magnet. He had tricked Mom before into telling them why Mr. Sir was so fat. "Now, as I was saying," Mom continued, "We'll start off with Ricky." Zigzag had been watching the sun go down while they were talking. It took exactly 468 seconds to go down. But that really wasn't true. "Hey, Ziggy," said X-Ray. "Huh?" was all he said. "Man what are you doing?" asked Squid. "Oh. I was just watching the sun set. Doesn't it look cool?" Magnet walked over to a hole it one of the tent corners. "Dude! The sun ain't even touching the horizon." The other guys came over and laughed at Zigzag. Except for Squid and Zero that is. "Man, what are you guys laughing at? It's close enough to look like one," Zigzag said. The rest of D-tent had to agree. "Anyway," Mom started, "Why don't you tell us how you got here Ricky?" "Umm.well.I set fire to a bunch of styrofoam at an elementary school. The fire got out of control and burnt a portable classroom. It was really cool though." "Ricky, it isn't okay to set fire to things." Zigzag turned to Mom. "Damn, I know that. I just like to watch things burn." "Ricky," Mom started, "That isn't an excuse. You could have killed someone." "So? The fire looked pretty." "Pretty? Fire is violent, and not pretty. It could have killed you." The rest of D-tent eyed each other, feeling a lecture coming. "I'm sorry boys," Mom said. Though they knew that he wasn't sorry at all. "Why don't we go on with Magnet?" Magnet sighed. "I already told you guys why I was sent here, but I might as well tell you again. I tried to free a puppy from a cage. I walked out of the pet shop casually. I didn't get caught. That is, until my pocket started barking." "Very interesting," said Mom. "So do I get the day off?" asked Magnet. "What for?" "You know. The thing I did was interesting." "Sure. You get it off until 4:30." "Fine with me," Magnet said. "Next, why don't we have Squid tell us why he's here?" Squid was afraid this was going to happen. What could he tell them? What should he tell them? "Well, I got sent here because I was always breaking into houses and stealing stuff. It wasn't much. Just lose change and cans of soda. But one night a little girl saw me and had her parents call 9-1-1. I would've gotten away, but this 23-year-old had me by the arms. I was stuck. The worst part about that night was that I was trying to steal something expensive. Can't remember what it was, but I got busted real bad." "You mean someone beat you up?" asked Zigzag. He was still watching the sun set. "No stupid," Magnet said again. "It means that the police probably sent him here for a long time." He turned to Squid. "Right Squid?" Squid shrugged and laid down on his cot. He didn't listen to what the other guys had to say. He really didn't care. But when he was asleep, he had no idea what was going to happen to him next.

Squid jumped out of bed, Mom's horn annoying him. As he got up he felt a hand on his shoulder. It was Zero. "You okay?" he asked. Squid looked puzzled. "Y-yeah. I'm fine. Why?" Zero didn't answer. Instead, he turned and walked out of the tent leaving Squid alone. He sighed and walked to the canvas flap. He pushed it to the side and looked up at the stars. He was sure he could make out a picture of a mermaid. "Hey Squid," X-Ray called. "You comin'?" He looked up at X-Ray. "Yeah."

Squid got up out of his hole. As he got in line he saw Armpit flip Mr. Sir off. He didn't know why, but couldn't help but smirk a little. Poor Armpit got yelled at by Mr. Sir because apparently he saw him. As Squid waited in line Magnet and Zigzag had gotten into a fight. He guessed it was because Magnet said that he would steal Zigzag's TV Guide even though he was just joking, but Zig took it seriously so they got into a fight. "Man," said Magnet, "I was just joking!" "Yeah, right. Just leave me and my TV Guide alone!" At that moment Mr. Sir and Armpit returned. "What's goin' on here?" "N-nothing," said X-Ray. "They was just fooling around. Right guys?" "Yeah," said Zigzag. "It's nothing. We're good. Right Magnet?" Magnet sighed and said, "Yeah, that's it. It's nothing. We're cool." Mr. Sir grumbled and turned, Armpit's canteen still in his hand. When Squid stepped up, he su'nly asked, "Why are you such a pig?" Mr. Sir turned around and towered over him. "What'd you say?" Squid was speechless. "Did anybody hear what this boy said?" he called. Everybody was silent. The only thing that could be heard were the calls of the birds. Mr. Sir turned back to Squid. "So, what did you say?" He couldn't answer. Who would? Who could? "Well, you'll go off easy today. Give me your canteen." "H-huh?" stammered Squid. "You heard me. Give me the plastic thing in your hand!" Squid quickly handed Mr. Sir his canteen. He was saved. But why? What had stopped Mr. Sir from killing him? And why in the hell were there crows flying all over the place? Nobody seemed to notice the awkwardness of the sky. Or what was in the sky. How could there be life in the sky? As Squid resumed digging Zero walked over to his hole. He heard a crow caw. "You done yet?" Zero asked. "Not really," replied Squid. "Measure it." "Why?" Zero just stared at him with a serious look. This made Squid nervous, so he measured his hole. "Just a foot and a half deeper and two feet wider," said Squid. "I can finish it." "What?" Zero didn't say anything. "Why?" Zero didn't say anything. "Sure. I guess." Zero jumped in his hole. "Why?" Squid repeated. Zero said nothing. As the minutes passed X-Ray got more and more irritated with Squid. Sometime at 12:20, he walked over to Squid. "Man, what are you doing?" he asked. Squid looked at him and shrugged. "Nothing, I guess." "Well, get to work." "Don't gotta. I got someone doin' it for me." He pointed down in his hole. X-Ray saw Zero digging. This was starting to get old. "Man, I'm tired of guys working for other guys. Just dig your own hole okay? What's so hard about that?" "Hey man, you don't know what I've been through," said Squid, getting up so that X-Ray was 8 inches below his face. "So what? What have you been through?" he hit Squid on the shoulder. "C'mon. You can tell us." "Maybe I can't," Squid said. Zero pulled himself out of Squid's hole. "C'mon. Spill it. We know you were lying about how you got here and crap like that. So let's see what you've been through. Squid looked down at him. Obviously, he wasn't going to say anything about his past life. X-Ray laughed a little. "Man, you ain't got a past. Even if you do, it's probably you being all spoiled and livin' in a mansion and crap like that. Know what? I ain't gonna take no more of that bullshit. You ain't gotta tell us nothing. Just dig your hole, and I won't bother you." "But he can't."