Chapter One

It's a Girl

It was hot.

So. Ridiculously. Hot.

Heat was something that had never bothered me before, having lived in Arizona all my life, but here it was even worse. I think it was because of the drought people say had been cursed upon this land. It's a known fact that it hasn't rained in almost a century around here. It must be the reason why it's so hot.

There's no reason for it to be this hot.

Of course, there's no humidity around here because there's no water. It's like a dry hot, the kind of hot that makes your mouth thirst for water even after you've just had a sip. It's the kind of hot that makes you crave water more than ever.

Thank God, the window above me was halfway open or else I'd probably suffocate on this bus. It was just a regular old yellow school bus. The only difference was that I was the only passenger, except for the armed guard up front, talking to the bus driver. We were headed toward Camp Green Lake, a detention facility for boys where they force them to dig holes to "build character."

The only problem was that I was not a boy. I was a sixteen-year-old girl. I was arrested for having beaten up a couple of snobby girls for threatening me. I cornered each of them separately until I had them alone to pass on my own, much more terrifying threats. After being caught punching the third girl, it was proven that I had beaten up the two others and I was immediately arrested and given a set date for a trial. The reason I ended up here is because they thought that being in a girls' facility would make me even more hostile because it was only other girls that I had singled out and it was proven throughout the very short trial that I had no female friends. After all of this information was made know, the judge believed that I would be better off in a boys' facility.

Camp Green Lake was my only option after that considering it wasn't jail.

Looking out the window, I began to notice several buildings close together in the near distance. We just recently began passing tons of holes and I even saw a few boys walking back toward the buildings. They were all wearing orange jumpsuits.

Great, I thought, orange jumpsuits. How perfect. Good to know that even though it's not jail, I'll still feel like I'm in it.

My dark hair kept falling in my face and I kept shaking it back, since my hands were cuffed together in my lap and useless. My backpack was on my back, as I didn't have the ability to take it off, having been handcuffed before I even got on the bus. Needless to say this very long ride was a very uncomfortable one with the heat, handcuffs, and my journal shoved into the spine of my back.

I'd only brought a few things with me: enough clothes to last me a week, a black baseball cap and a couple bandanas, my hairbrush, a mirror, sunglasses, a pack of tampons (to get me through my first time-of-the-month here, but I was told I would be provided for), my iPod, my journal, and enough pens to last me the eighteen months I'd been sentenced here for.

Finally, the bus stopped.

We have officially arrived at Camp Green Lake.

The guard on duty walked back toward me and quickly pulled me out of my seat and pushed me forward, to walk in front of him out of the bus. I saw that his left hand rested on his gun in its holster, ready to pull it out in case I tried to do something stupid. But it was too late to try, I was already here. I might as well try my best to get through the next year and a half alive.

As I walked off the bus and out into the blinding sunlight, I saw quite a few boys standing around or walking into or out of the surrounding buildings.

"Yo! Fresh meat!" One of them yelled out.

Then I'm sure they all did a double take as I then heard, "Dude, it's a girl!"

Yeah, that's right, prick. I'm a girl. Get over it.

"Damn, look at her!" Another one called out.

Ugh. Great, I'll be surrounded by pigs my entire time here. I guess I should have expected that.

The guard quickly pushed me through the doorway into the closest building, where I immediately felt the cool breeze of air conditioning. Having gotten adjusted to the heat, the cold air made me shiver. But I knew it wouldn't last long. I highly doubt they'd bother to have air conditioning where the boys were sleeping.

"Nicola Giordani?" A harsh voice called my name. I looked up to see a middle-aged man, who looked more like a woman with sideburns, wearing a light pink buttoned-down shirt and a huge silver belt buckle. He was sitting at a desk, eating sunflowers seeds from a brown sack, with a manila folder in his hands. I assumed it must be my file. "Sit down."

The guard quickly removed the handcuffs from my wrists and pushed me down into the chair in front of the desk.

"So, they put you in here because they thought the boys would keep you in line, eh?"

I didn't answer. I doubt he even expected me to give one. To him, my sentencing to Camp Green Lake was probably just highly amusing.

After looking over the file for another minute, he put it down and looked straight at me. "My name is Mr. Sir, and you will call me by my name when you speak to me, do you understand?"

From the hard look in his eyes I think he was expecting me to smirk or laugh at his name, that way he could yell at me. But I wasn't going to do either of those things. It wasn't that funny, just stupid. Mr. Sir was probably the biggest moron out here for all I knew. "Yes, Mr. Sir," I answered, showing absolutely no emotion in my tone or expression.

"This isn't a Girl Scout camp, girl," he said as he led me out of the building. Once outside, he continued to speak, "Look around, girl, do you see any guard towers? Any electric fences?"

I looked around, seeing absolutely nothing but dirt and the blue sky, a couple mountains in the far distance. "No, Mr. Sir."

"Exactly! We have the only water around here for a hundred miles. If you wanna run away, go ahead and run. I won't stop you. But you can bet that in three days time you'll be buzzard food."

Gee, Mr. Sir, thanks for informing me of common knowledge.

We walked into another building full of supplies. Mr. Sir went over to a shelf full of fresh orange jumpsuits. He handed me two jumpsuits and a hat, "You get two sets of clothing; one for digging holes and one for relaxation. After every three days, your work clothes will be washed and your relaxation clothes will become your work clothes. Any questions?"

"No, Mr. Sir," I calmly repeated.

He then preceded to hand me a pair of boots, gloves, and a large plastic jug. "You will dig one hole every day; five feet deep and five feet in diameter. Your shovel is your measuring stick."

He took my backpack from me, "You will change in here."

He then turned around to check my bag. I really hoped he wouldn't take anything. My only possible weapons would be my pens, and I needed those to keep me from going insane while I'm here.

Realizing he could turn around any moment, I quickly started to change. I took off my sneakers and jeans and put on the hideous jumpsuit over my underwear and black tank top. Then I quickly started putting on my boots. I must have been given one of the smallest jumpsuits; I was relatively thin and only five foot five and the jumpsuit was only just a little baggier than necessary. The boots were maybe half a size too big but they would work.

A few moments later Mr. Sir turned around and handed my bag back to me, I quickly took it and gathered up my regular clothing, my second jumpsuit, gloves, and hat into it and zipped it back up. I left out the plastic jug, knowing I'd just have to carry it, but it did have a rope tied to it, so I could where it like a sash around me.

"Now, you may be a girl, but here you will be treated just like everyone else. You will receive no special treatment, do you understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Sir," I nodded. "But I am going to need a box of tampons every month, unless you expect me to bleed all over the place. I may be treated like a boy, but that doesn't mean I don't still have a uterus."

His face went red. Good to know the man could be embarrassed. "The Warden will arrange for your, um, needs," he finally coughed out.

"Thank you, Mr. Sir," I smiled coldly.

After that, another man walked into the building. He was about my height and way too happy looking for this place. I immediately disliked him. But the moment he opened his mouth I realized that he was a bigger moron than Mr. Sir by far.

"Nicola Giordani?" I turned to face him slowly, "I just want you to know that you may have done some bad things, but that does not make you a bad person."

I wanted to laugh, but I refrained. Shows what he knows, I thought as I rolled my eyes.

"I respect you, Nicola. Welcome to Camp Green Lake. I am Dr. Pendanski and I'll be your counselor." His straw hat and sunscreen-covered nose made his speech even more comical.

Dr. Pendanski quickly led me out of the building. He gave me showers tokens and told me about the cold water. Then he made sure I knew the number one rule here at Camp Green Lake: "Do not to upset the Warden."

Like I would bother to try and upset the Warden.

"You'll be in D-tent, Nicola. D stands for Diligence."

D also stands for Deranged, I thought, following him. Deranged he obviously was.

"Now, don't worry, Nicola. I know these boys and they are very respectable."

I was pretty positive that this man was a nutcase. If these boys were so freaking respectable then please tell me how in the world they ended up here?

"Hey, Mom!" I heard a boy yell. "Don't tell me the girl's gonna be with us?"

I looked over to see three boys walking toward us. The one who spoke was black, muscular but thin, with these huge black rimmed glasses clouded with dirt on his face. The taller one was white with brown eyes, and what I suspected was brown hair under the white t-shirt wrapped around his head. The third boy was black, very large and rotund. He had this dumb look about him, but he definitely wasn't someone you would want to mess with, considering his size. They were all still covered in dirt from their long day of digging holes out on the lake.

"Rex, this is Nicola, she'll be in D-tent with you," Dr. Pendanski answered the first boy. He looked like he might be the leader. "You boys better behave, too. Treat her like one of the guys," he warned.

Turning to me, Mr. Pendanski introduced me to the three boys, "Nicola, this is Rex, Alan, and Theodore."

"Yo, my name is X-Ray," Rex stated angrily, "That's Squid and that's Armpit," he said, nodding to Alan, the white boy, and then Theodore, the huge one.

"And that's Mom," Squid said nodding toward Dr. Pendanski.

Dr. Pendanski chuckled, "They all have their little nicknames, but I prefer to call them by the names their parents gave them; the names society will recognize them by."

"Yeah, whatever, Mom," X-Ray dismissed him. Dr. Pendanski's opinion obviously did not matter.

I didn't respond to any of them, just looked the boys over as they were each looking me over. I was pretty sure none of them had seen a girl in months.

"Alan, you will be her mentor. You can show her where to fill her canteen and which cot is hers."

Alan, or Squid, just nodded, not taking his eyes off of me. Then Dr. Pandenski left me alone with them. I didn't bother to see where he was going to, I didn't really care.