"Clean this up," Mr. Sir ordered in a calm voice to no one in particular. Stella didn't look up from the vat of 'string beans' until they all heard Mr. Sir in a right rage behind the blinds of his office. She turned and grasped Alan's arm. He was still frowning, though with wide eyes and an open mouth. There was something haunted in his eyes.

"Now I think we all just learned a valuable lesson," Dr. Pendanski said, as Stella moved Squid's tray down the line for him. "We're all people, and Mr. Sir is a very sensitive man, just like all of us."

At the table, each of the boys turned to stare unblinkingly at Stella for an answer. She didn't give one. The atmosphere in the mess hall, which was usually filled with loud conversation and tired laughter, was colder than the Warden's air-conditioning. There was silence.

"Um…" Magnet tried to start a conversation. No one picked up.

"I know," Ricky said brightly. "Hey Stella, I got a question for you."

"Mm," Stella grunted, tearing the crusts off her bread to eat separately. The entire hall was quiet except for Mr. Sir in the other room with his radio on loud.

"Just how big are your boobs now?" Ricky asked, and Stella dropped her crust in disgust, a bit of bread sticking out of her mouth. Zero giggled.

"Ricky, you don't ask a lady that," Doc corrected, but the boys all hushed him for her answer. In truth, Stella hadn't fit into her bra for so long she didn't even know. She was smaller than her troublesome DD, that was for sure.

"Well just how big are your boobs?" Stella asked.

"I'd reckon he was about a…38AA," Squid frowned, sizing Zigzag up. The rest of the boys all smirked and laughed, and gradually the hall began to fill with noise again.

"Wait, wait, AA is bigger," Magnet shook his head. "He's only an A. Or a negative A."

"What are you talking about?" Ricky pretended to be insulted. "Don't go insulting my double-J breasts." Stella giggled into her bread. "I mean, they're like the size of basketballs."

Stella had left the mess hall alone in search of her book. It wasn't the wisest thing to do when Mr. Sir was angry and his pride was hurt, but Mr. Sir didn't come out of his office for some time. She did, however, run into Zane outside the back door of the kitchen. He had taken the black hairnet off, required when he served 'food'.

"Hey, uh, can we take a walk?" he asked, and Stella thought he might be nervous. Stella nodded. What the hell, she sighed. Zane walked off to the tents, though he didn't stop at C. They continued walking until they were past the councillors' RVs.

"Um, are you gonna try to kill me or something? Should I try and fight back?" Stella asked, folding her arms across her chest once Zane stopped walking. He looked around, not really looking for anything, just taking it all in.

"We put them back," he said, and Stella just raised an eyebrow in confusion. He sighed as if he didn't actually want to voice what he said next. "The food we stole from the supply truck. The candy and bread and sunflower seeds. We put them back. The guys got cold feet when they saw you walking in."

"You do it often?" Stella asked. Zane's answer wasn't direct.

"I've been here for over three years," he sighed, and Stella stared. "You get to know how things work. And the way people work. The Warden didn't like Mr. Sir taking you to her this morning, did she?" The question was rhetorical. "That's why he had those gashes in his face." Stella didn't make eye contact. "Don't feel guilty about it Stella. Mr. Sir's known the Warden long enough; he should have known she wouldn't care about a bag of sunflower seeds."

"How did you-?" Zane laughed softly.

"You don't think we can hear you?" he chuckled. "Man, you guys talk so loud. All we ever hear about is global warming, and Chinese kids digging to nowhere- and don't think I didn't see you kissing those boys." Stella's eyebrows rose, this time in amusement. He was smiling, pointing a finger at her.

"Whatever! I was just saying thank you for them helping dig my hole," she shrugged. "It didn't have to mean anything. I wasn't gonna kiss them on the lips, but Alan moved, and Ricky-"

"Likes you," Zane sighed, amused. They started walking back to the tents now that their secret conference was over. Stella stared at him. He laughed. "Oh come on. That guy has been mad-dogging you since you got here."

"And you haven't!" Stella laughed loudly. Zane stared at her but nodded as if to say 'Yeah, true!'

"I was just looking out for you," Zane said. "You remember that fight you broke up between me and Mick."

"Yeah," Stella shrugged. He poked her chest.

"It was over you," he said, shaking his head as he squinted over at the barn. Stella frowned as she remembered something.

"I thought you told me he'd be gone in a few days," she frowned.

"A few days turned into a couple of weeks," Zane sighed, glancing at her with sad eyes. "They have to wait for room at the local penitentiary for him before they'll release him here." Great. Zane must have seen her thoughts mirrored in her expression.

"Hey, don't worry about it," he said, comfortingly brushing her arm. "I didn't mean to scare you." He sat down on the porch opposite the basketball hoop and bounced the ball between his legs, stretched out luxuriously. "You and your three boyfriends-"

"Three?"

"Yeah," Zane grinned. "Well, four if you count me. But you haven't kissed me, so don't! Zigzag, Squid, Zero and me.

"My god, I'm a slut," Stella sighed, and Zane laughed softly.

"Trust me, you're anything but," he said. "If you were a slut, you'd have done every guy here."

"Well that's true," Stella nodded.

"Yeah, I mean, just making out with them doesn't count," Zane shrugged, and Stella hit his arm playfully. It didn't have much effect on the hardened muscle.

"So you've really been here three years," she shook her head, wondering what he could have done wrong.

"Yeah," Zane sighed. "I'm a Ward of the State. I have been since I was thirteen. When I came here for assault, I just…I liked it. There was no way to get in trouble, nobody to make you feel inferior, though Pendanski does his best, and as long as you dig one hole each day, there aren't any other boundaries."

"You like it here!"

"You don't?" Zane said pointedly, raising an eyebrow. Stella frowned at him.

"Yeah, I do," she sighed, finally coming to the realization that she had had more fun in one month at Camp Green Lake than she had ever had before. She had friends. They were also like her brothers. She had always wanted siblings. Her parents couldn't afford to have another child after she was born and her grandmother moved in with them after her health began to decline. The food was bad, the showers were cold, the tent was smelly, her cot was scratchy (although it had softened considerably with her tossing and turning) and her skin was now a healthy (although the probability of getting skin cancer had heightened for it) bronze instead of pale and pasty as she had arrived. She was in great shape; toned and not one bit of fat, all muscle. Her only regret was not seeing her family.

"You know, I think my Grandma could take over being the Warden and no one would ever notice the difference," Stella said, laughing softly.

"Why?" Zane asked, scratching his ear.

"Well, my grandmother had my mother out of wedlock. So she was a single mother from the sixties; she had to work, be a mother, and a father-figure at the same time. She had to teach my mother how to behave and hold her own against boys, and she was a public defender in the DA for several years before she became a teacher, consequently in one of the worst schools in the state. You know, not the nice schools I went to; these ones had metal detectors and bars on the windows, and someone still managed to get a knife past the guards."

"She sounds tough," Zane smiled. "She helped raise you, I'm sure."

"Yeah," Stella sighed. "My Daddy died just before I turned ten, and my grandma had already moved in with us because she fell and hurt herself, so when Daddy died, she became the second parent."

"It must be tough on your mom," Zane sighed. "Being without you." Stella sighed.

"At this point, how would I even know?" They sat in silence for a while, soaking up rays, until they heard the all-too familiar commotion in the mess hall that meant the boys had finished eating.

"You wanna help me straighten out the supply shed?" Zane asked, and Stella thought he didn't like to be around so many people, which was ironic, seeing as he was the silent tyrant of the camp.

"Uh, yeah, sure," Stella shrugged. He hauled her off the floor with one strong arm and they walked over to the shed.

"So what about you?" Stella prompted, once inside the cool. Zane glanced up, surprised. "Why are you here?" Zane shrugged.

"Several counts of assault and theft," he sighed. "I don't think it really matters why we were sent here; once we're here, everyone's equal."

"Yeah, except the adults," Stella said bitterly.

"Right," Zane sighed. "The point is we're here, and we all have to work hard before they'll release us."

"When do you leave?" Stella asked. Zane laughed.

"I don't know."

"You don't know!"

"I've been here so long I've lost count. I can't remember how long my sentence was," Zane shrugged. Stella frowned. She was to be at Camp Green Lake for half the time Zane had already been here, and almost a month later she didn't even know the date.

"How old are you?" Stella asked.

"Sixteen," Zane said, frowning at her question. Stella's jaw dropped.

"I thought you were way older than that," she exclaimed. "When's your birthday?" Zane frowned.

"July," he said finally.

"Well, I came in March, so it's now April," Stella sighed. "You've still got a ways to go yet."

"When's your birthday?" Zane asked.

"June," Stella smiled.

"You'll be seventeen too?" Stella nodded.