They were there to pay their debt to society, but what they got, was something else. Each there for a different reason, a different amount of time, and with a different view on life. But when they leave, will it all be worth it?


"Are we there yet?" asked Fixit from her seat at the front of the bus.

"Aw, shut it will ya? Some of us are trying to get in some sleep here!" Yelled Cocoa from the back of the bus where she had sprawled herself out over a few seats who's color was a mix in between barf green and mustard yellow.

"Fixit, I'm going to give you a little advice," said Bendy from her spot next to Fixit. "You better shut up, because everyone on this bus, especially Cocoa is getting really cranky. So unless you want someone to shove their foot up your ass I suggest you shut your trap for a while."

"Good idea," said Fixit thinking about Cocoa's horrible temper. She turned towards the dirty window of the bus and pulled a screwdriver out of her pocket. She used it to begin to tinker with the handheld radio in her pocket. It had been broken when Ice chucked against the wall of their tent after Tequila thought it would be a good idea to listen to country music for three straight hours. That was about 2 weeks ago, before 'the accident'. Their tent had been blamed for the accident by the other tents, but everyone knew that they couldn't have stopped it even if they wanted to. The accident was the reason why they were on this bus in the first place.

It had all started when Flame joined their tent. She was a bit of a weird one. Sure, there were a lot of people at camp Fern Creek who were weird, take Ice for example, but Flame was the weirdest of them all. Most of the girls in their tent avoided her. She was trouble waiting to be started and no one wanted any trouble. It happened one day when they were going out to dig and Flame said she needed to use the bathroom so she headed back to camp for a piss. None of the girls gave it a second thought, people went to the bathroom every day, besides she was only going to be gone for a couple of minutes. But soon a couple of minutes turned into a lot of minutes, and some of the girls got worried about her so they sent Ice and Bendy back to get her. Before Ice and Bendy got halfway back to the camp everyone in the camp knew what happened. There was black smoke rising from the spot where camp was. They found Flame a couple of hundred feet away from the scene admiring her work. They found out later that she had been planning this for months. She had collected highly flammable materials from the desert for months and set them up so they would set the whole camp on fire. The only thing left was the showers. They sent Flame off to a mental institution, and the girls from camp stayed in a crappy motel for a couple of weeks while they prepared a different place for us to stay. They were now going to bunk with some boys from a different criminal camp, camp Green Lake.


"I still can't believe it man! Girls, real girls!" said Twitch.

"What kind of girls were you expecting, plastic girls?" said Squid sarcastically from his bed.

"You gotta admit, this is gonna rock," commented X-ray from his spot on the floor. He examined the room with disgust and said, "We should clean this place up man. It's disgusting, and the girls are coming today."

"Since when are you a neat freak?" said Squid rolling onto hit stomach so he could get a better view of the room.

"Since it might be a determining factor on me getting laid," said X-ray with and air of cockiness in his voice.

"Who says your going to get laid?" said Twitch pulling at the sheets of his bead trying to pull them apart.

"Well," he started. " Seeing as I am the hottest guy at this camp and there going to be a couple of hundred very hot girls coming to this camp who probably haven't seen a guy in a few years. I'd say my chances are pretty good." He finished smiling.

"You're full of crap," said Squid throwing his pillow at X-ray's head. It bounced off lightly and the whole tent broke out into laughter. Things had been looking up at camp Green Lake ever since the announcement of the girls coming.

Just then the tent flap opened and in walked Magnet and Zigzag. "You guys should check out the new additions. This camp may actually become pleasant someday!" said Zigzag with a smile.

"I'm not sure about that Zig, but it is pretty nice," said Magnet. When it was announced that there would be girls joining camp Green Lake, it was noted that there would be some changes made for them. The camp had added six more tents; now with twelve in all there would be a male and female tent for each letter. Because there would be more people, the board decided to give the camp money to expand the rec room and get some more shovels. There was a little money left over, so instead of fixing the leaky showers or getting better food. The warden decided to have them build a basketball court, because it would look nicer for the man who checked over the heath and happiness of the campers.


"Hey I think were almost there!" cried Pip almost tumbling out of her seat in excitement. All the girls were exited for a permanent home.

"Yeah, I think that's the buildings down there," exclaimed Tequila pointing out of the dusty window.

"More holes big whoop," said Ice sarcastically. She was never one to be happy, but ever since camp burned down, she was even more sarcastic.

"Come on Ice, at least pretend to be happy," said Tiger messing with the compact mirror in her hand. Ice paused for a moment and gave a weak smile and then went back to pouting.

"Happy now?" she asked darkly.

"Yes," said Tiger in a satisfied tone.

"I think were here!" cried Fixit as she beamed at all the girls. Each of them (although they might not be showing it) was giddy with excitement.


"Come on you guys! Armpit and Zero are already out there!" cried Twitch in excitement as he twitched some more. He was practically pushing the boys out the door. They all went willingly, accept for Squid who was still on his bead staring at the ceiling.

"You coming?" asked Zigzag halfway out the door.

"Nah you guys go ahead. I've got some stuff on my mind," replied Squid moodily as he watch Zigzag slink out with the others. All the boys of camp Green Lake were outside of the Cafeteria waiting for the buses to arrive. Six bright yellow buses pulled up next to them, one for each tent.

"I hope we get some hot girls," said Magnet licking his lips.

"Can you see any of them?" asked X-ray standing on his tiptoes.

"Nah, the windows are too grimy," replied Zigzag who was a good couple of inches taller than X-ray.

"Well were gonna find out soon enough," said Armpit hopefully as the girls began to file out of their buses and get assigned to tents.


"I'm so nervous," said Fixit fiddling nervously with the screwdriver that was in her pocket.

"Don't worry we'll be fine," said Cocoa coolly. She was always calm in situations like this. The girls from other buses already had gotten assigned their rooms. Their girls of the D bus waited impatiently by the door of their bus, awaiting what were on the other side.

"Can you see anything?" asked Tequila trying to peer through her window.

"Nothing," replied Bendy rubbing the window with the sleeve of her shirt. "It's all this damn grime," she complained.

"What if we get a crappy tent? Or crappy boys? Or both?" asked Pip nervously as she hopped from foot to foot.

"Don't worry about it you guys. We'll be fine. We always are. If we get anything crappy we'll just ask them to trade, that's all," replied Cocoa calmly. It was her job as the leader to calm everyone down. Just then the doors of their bus opened and a tall skinny man with brown hair motioned for them to come out of the bus. So the slowly marched forward following his commands.

"When I call your name you will get off the bus," said Mr. Pendanski holding a dusty brown clipboard in his hands. "The girls of D tent are . . ."

"Here we go," said Magnet.

"Tamara Rice." The first person off the bus was a small girl only about 5'2. For what she lacked in height she made up for in muscle and curve, because this girl was defiantly no stick figure. She held herself up high and with dignity, as if she were a queen. She wore no smile, but no scowl either. Her dark skin gleamed in the afternoon sun. Her large chocolate brown eyes looked as if they were sizing up the competition. After she had finished surveying the camp she gave and approving nod and flipped her wavy dark brown hair out onto her shoulders. She then moved along with pride to let the others out of the bus.

"Are they all that short?" asked Zigzag.

"No!" replied the boys in unison as they watched for the next girl.

"Lily McFarland." A pair of long pale legs followed by a long torso followed came out of the bus next. She had a head full of thick blond hair with black undertones that was layered to fall around her face. She held herself up tall making her self seem about 5'6 or so. At one time her body may have been athletic, but it looked like the camp food had her body wasting away and she was now quite skinny. One of the most noticeable things about her were a pair of bright green eyes that barley moved, but seemed to be taking everything in.

"Eva Small." And small was right. Eva was the tiniest of the group probably only standing at 5'1; her body was quite petite with only a small amount of curve to her. Her hair was probably once brown, but the many days in the sun had bleached it out to a blonder hue. Unlike her hair, the sun had made her dark skin darker, so that it was now a deep chocolate brown. She flashed a small grin with her white teeth while almond shaped brown eyes looked nervously at her friends.

"Maria Sanchez. "The next girl practically tripped off the bus. She had an hourglass shape to her body, but it seemed as if she had lost a large amount of weight in a short amount of time, which added to her awkwardness. She steadied herself out by placing her hands on her hips; it was then that you could see that she reached about 5'4. From her tanned skin and big lips you could obviously tell she was of Spanish heritage. She reached up to her head to tame the mass of soft caramel curls that had fallen all over when she tripped. After successfully pushing them out of her face, you could see her deep-set hazel eyes that gleamed in the sun. Her face had a bit of a confused look on it, but it seemed as if she were generally happy.

"Emily Gray." The next girl off the bus was obviously giddy with excitement. Her round green eyes seemed to have a particular gleam in them, they looked as if they were scanning the camp with joy, but only Twitch could tell that she was looking for something. Her fair skin was dotted with freckles and there was large amount of them sprinkled across her nose. Her straight brown hair was held in a high a ponytail atop her head. She had an athletic build, but was only about 5'4. She followed the other girls to the spot where they were standing and began to chew on her already short nails.

"Alya Amad."

"Wow," was what a few of the boys whispered as this girl walked off the bus. She had the most beautiful eyes any of them had ever seen. They were small, but looked as if they were both tiger-eye gems, silted in the center. They were both lined in heavy black eye liner that winged out at the ends, making them seem even more intense than before. Her eyes matched her beautiful golden skin that came from her obviously Arabic heritage. Also from her heritage came a mess of black curls that feel beautifully around her round face. You could tell that she was only a little taller than Maria, but not much. She waved flirtatiously to the boys before being shoved to the side, by the next girl off the bus.

"Elizabeth Blake." Unlike the others, this girl showed no happiness in being at camp Green Lake. She slowly walked off the bus hunched over with her head to the ground, as if she was trying to slip by unnoticed. Unfortunately for her, she was very hard not to miss for a couple of reasons. The first was that she was about 5'7, and very skinny, making herself seem even taller. The second reason was because of her flaming red hair. It was the color of copper and was choppily layered around her face. It shined brightly in the sun. When she looked up to see where she was going, you could see that she had a pair of luminous blue eyes. With all of the girls of Tent D off the bus Mr. Pendanksi made a motion with his hand and said, "Please flow me and I'll show you to you tent," in his most polite voice. The boys followed then eagerly and with the help of a few short cuts they were back at camp before the girls.

"And this is where you'll be staying," said Mr. Pendanski showing the girls their tent. It was a lot like the boys, there were seven cots that lined the walls. Under each of them were two crates both bright orange. The girls poked at them for a bit and began to unload their stuff into them.

"One crate is for clothing and one is for personal belongs." He said pointing to the crates. The girls finished unloading their things and them seemed to have a mutual agreement about the beds. Cocoa, Tiger, Tequila, and Pip on one side, Bendy, Fixit and Ice on the other. "Why don't I introduce you to the boys you'll be digging with. They can answer anymore you your questions," said Mr. Pendanski eagerly as he ushered the girls out of the room. The girls quietly followed him willingly, some more than others. As soon as the flap of tent D opened the entire room went silent.

"Girls, this is Hector, Theodore, Rex, Ricky, Jose, Brian and . . ." started Mr. Pendanski

"Allan," Ice finished for him. Everyone in the tent turned to her and stared in awe. Squid flopped off his bead when he heard his name called and turned to Ice. Their eyes met in an instant. They stood there staring at each other for what seemed like hours. Each with their eyes fixed on the others. The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Finally Squid uttered a barely audible word. "Elizabeth," he said not breaking eye contact with her. Satisfied Ice turned away and continued staring at the floor although she snuck an occasional glance at Squid. The girls were shocked. Ice never spoke unless she had to. She never complained or rejoiced or cried. She was as cold as stone.

"So you two know each other? That's great, starting off camp with friends!" said Mr. Pendanski clearly oblivious to what had just take place. "We'll I'll leave you guys and girls to get to know each other." And with that Mr. Pendanski left.

"Do you guys want to be alone?" asked X-ray, trying to figure out what was going on.

"NO!" they said in unison with slightly raised voices.

"Okay then," said X-ray, not wanting to get on anyone's bad side." We'll start out with introductions. Mom likes to use our real names, the ones. . ."

"Society will recognize us by," chimed in the others.

"But at camp we go by our nick names. I'm X-ray, that's Zigzag over there with the hair. This is Twitch and Magnet. That's Armpit and Zero over in that corner. And I guess some of you already know Squid," he said pointing them all out.

"We have nick names too, and they're not Babe, so get them right," said Cocoa with her hands on her hips. "I'm Cocoa. That's Tiger, Tequila, Pip, Fixit, Ice and Bendy." She said pointing them all out.

"Why do they call you Bendy?" asked Magnet with one eyebrow raised.

"Ugh, do you know how many people have asked me that?" said Bendy grumbling as she pulled off her orange jump suit, revealing a pair of short shorts and a tank top. "Watch," she said slowly as she slid down on the floor going into the splits. She paused for a moment, just to let it sink in that she could bend in ways most humans couldn't."That's why," she said pulling herself back up.

"Interesting," said Zigzag.

"Why do they call you Twitch?" asked Bendy shooting a question back at the boys. She didn't want to be out done.

"Why do you think? He twitches that's why, especially around cars," said Magnet crossing his arms over his chest, trying to seem bigger.

"Why do they call you Tequila?" asked Zigzag, but before she could answer a long bell sounded.

"What the hell is that?" asked Tiger holding her hands over her ears.

"That's lunch," said Armpit. "It's about time too. I'm starving." The 14 teenagers filed out to lunch each eyeing each other suspiciously. Could they trust each other? They followed the other campers through the lunch line, each getting their food. They retreated back to the D tent table where they picked up their conversations.

"So, why do they call you Tequila?" asked Magnet, leaning in so he could hear.

" For two reasons. Reason number one, it's because I have a little trouble standing upright. I'm always stumbling around like a drunk. Reason number two, I got busted stealing liquor. That's why I'm here." She stated it plainly, as if it were a fact.

" I'm guessing they call you Zigzag because of the hair right?" asked Tiger twisting one of his blond locks around her fingers. "Yep," said Zigzag happily.

"That was a hard one. Wasn't it Tiger? Did you take a long time to figure it out?" asked Fixit giggling.

"Shut it Fixit, just because we all aren't brainiacs like you, doesn't mean were stupid," grumbled Tiger sticking her tongue out at Fixit.

"I am not a braniac!" cried Fixit in defense. "I'm just smarter than you!" she said sticking her tongue out at Tiger.

"Zero, that's an interesting one," said Pip, all the way down at the other side of the table. "Why do they call you that?" she asked shyly, with a small smile forming on her lips.

"It's because I'm nothing. I know nothing, but how to dig holes. I have no records. I'm just a big fat zero," he stated pushing the unidentifiable food around on his plate.

"Oh come on, that's not true. I bet you are much more interesting than that. Zero is an interesting number, and you are named Zero, so there must be something interesting about you," said Pip sweetly, trying to get Zero to go along with her reasoning.

"You are just saying that because you don't know me. Trust me, if you knew me you'd be calling me Zero too," he said staring at the table.

"Well, we'll just see about that," said Pip with spunk.

"Oh yeah," said Zero lifting his head.

"Yeah," said Pip looking him in the eye.

"How are you going to do that?'

"I don't know anything about you," said Pip grinning. "So you're just going to have to tell me everything about you, so I can find something interesting. I'll start you off," she said widening her already large grin. "My name is Zero and I go to camp Green Lake. I like . . ." she trailed off. "Now you fill in the rest," she said simply.

"Do I have too?" asked Zero pleading with his eyes.

"Yes, now fill in the rest of the sentence," demanded Pip.

"Okay," said Zero as he drew a breath to tell Pip about himself.


"I'm guessing you're the leader of this group," said X-ray nodding his head in the direction of the girls from his seat at the far end of the table.

"I guess you could say that," said Cocoa, eyeing X-ray suspiciously.

"Why are looking at me like that?" asked X-ray trying to see through the pout Cocoa had had on ever since she took her first step off the bus and onto camp Green Lake soil.

"Like what?" asked Cocoa nonchalantly.

"Like I'm going to pull a knife on you," said X-ray bluntly, he wasn't very good a beating around the bush.

"I'm not looking at you like that," denied Cocoa.

"Yes you are. You keep looking at me as if I was going to hurt you. I promise I won't swear to god," he said pulling his hands out from under the table to show he wasn't hiding anything.

"I guess that's why they call you X-ray," said Cocoa softly, still not losing the suspicion in her eyes.

"You could say that." He smiled and although his glasses were so dirty you couldn't tell what was on the other side, Cocoa knew he was looking at her.

"Are you gonna tell me why your so suspicious?" he asked persuasively giving her another small smile.

"Oh, I'm not that stupid Romeo," she said roughly, but not meanly. "But how about this, instead I'll tell you why I'm at this god for saken camp," she said sticking out her hand for him to shake.

"Okay you got yourself a deal," he said, shaking her soft brown hand. "So why are you here?"

"Kick boxing," she said plainly.

"Come one babe, I mean Cocoa. I need a better answer than that," he complained.

"Shut up already I wasn't finished yet!" she yelled.

"Anyway, I used to be, and still am, the best friggen kick boxer in the east side of Houston. I used to pull in a lot of cash from bets and matches. I would compete in underground matches, that my manager and ex-boyfriend Max entered me in. Well a few nights after I had broken up with Max."

With those words X-ray fiddled with his fork excitedly. "I competed in the GT, or grand tournament. The pot was one hundred thousand dollars for first place, not to mention 15 percent of all bets. It was the night of the championship fight between me and a girl named Amelia. I was a sure fire to win, and with all that cash I could . . ." she trailed off for a moment as if distracted by something, but soon regained her focus. "I could, I could do a lot of things. We entered the building where it was going to be played and began to get ready for the fight. As we stepped into the ring a man with a megaphone began to speak. He said 'Do not move. We are the police. Please stay calm and follow my directions. You are all under arrest.' It was complete chaos. While the man had been announcing the things over the megaphone two policemen came up behind me, and before I knew it they had me cuffed. About a thousand people got arrested that night. Most of the fans got off easy, but the managers and fighters got it the worst. It was either 2 yeas in jail or Cam Fern Creek for me, so I came here."

"That's horrible," said X-ray trying to be sympathetic.

"And that's not even the worst of it," said Cocoa continuing. "A few weeks later I found out that Amelia had sold out the whole event. Three weeks before hand she went to the cops with the whole story. She knew she wouldn't win, so she sold us all out in order to maintain her honor. The cops agreed to not have her charged for all the information she had given them," she said finishing with a sigh.

"Man that blows," said X-ray picking at the dirt beneath his fingernails. "I'm sorry for you."

"Don't be," she said sharply. "I don't need anyone feeling sorry for me. I can take care of myself."

"Sorry I didn't mean to," said X-ray.

"Well next times don't say anything, okay! You got your little story. Come on girls let's go," she said motioning for them to follow her. The girls got up (some more willingly than others) and followed her out the door.

"Man, what are we gonna do with these girls?" sighed X-ray.