Fitting In and Connecting Dots

A month had passed since Stanley's arrival. Sunshine watched how he slowly had made his way into their close knit group. Originally, she felt uneasy about having a brand new member in her tent squad. At Camp Green Lake, there was a wait list of offenders who were waiting for a chance to get out of juvie and gain a little more freedom at the camp. With the camp staffed the way it was, and a limited number of beds, they had little room for more offenders. When a camper was released from the camp's care, a bed opened up and a new offender was allowed in. Barfbag's absence had allowed for one more male camper into the camp. It was hard to say if another girl would take Beauty's place or not.

But as Stanley became more accustomed to the rules and how things were done at camp, he gained a little more respect from D-tent. He was still bugged quite a bit though, since his meek and quiet appearance made him an easy target.

Sunshine still held a slight grudge against X-ray. While her and the girls sat with the boys most days, they still opted to sit by themselves for the rest.

Sunshine was walking past the boys table one day when she overheard a conversation.

"Hey Stanley," Zigzag jabbed him in the ribs, "You know uh, Nova's a Wiccan eh?"

Stanley raised his head. "Really?"

"Oh yeah, she was telling me about it the other day. She doesn't want the whole camp to know, but she just went through her initiation before she came here."

"What did she have to do?"

Zigzag paused before grinning, "She had to strip naked, cover herself in goat's blood and dance around a campfire chanting. Pretty hot eh?" Stanley looked bewildered. He turned his head to the direction of the table the girls were at. Nova was gesturing to her hand, where a few new blisters had developed. "Oh you're going to hell for sure," Zigzag told him as he reached across and slapped Stanley on his cheek. As the boys laughed, Sunshine could see that Stanley was realizing that he had been tricked. He returned to his food as the boys snickered and chatted.

Sunshine pouted her lips as she went to discard her tray. X-ray eyed her. She whispered "Neanderthals" before briskly walking out of the hall and towards the showers.

Stanley's treatment continued on. One day, when Sunshine and Song were walking back from the main office, they saw Stanley book out of the tent opposite theirs. He was holding a notepad and pencil. He looked spooked.

"S-scorpion," he pointed behind him.

When the boys all arrived to see him standing there, too afraid to go into the tent, Zigzag went inside to see that nothing was on his bed.

"Don't worry man, the little baby scorpion is gone." Stanley was teased about it for a week.

The week after, Stanley was finishing a letter to whom Sunshine assumed was his parents in the Rec. She saw Squid take away his letter.

"Who you writing too? Aw, do you miss your mommy and daddy?"

"I don't want them to worry," Stanley tried to steal his letter back.

"They don't care."

"Give me the letter-!"

"Believe me, they don't care, they'd be glad to get rid of you."

Squid walked away in a huff after tossing the letter in the bin. Sunshine was aware that Squid's parents had three children each between them and Squid was the oldest. With a troubling economy, his step-father's gambling habits and his mother's ever depressing alcoholism, money was tight. His parents saw his criminal behavior as a way to get rid of one more mouth they'd have to feed. Squid was still bitter about the whole ordeal, but more so about the fact that his mother said nothing to him before Squid left, other then, "Don't come home when you're done. I won't take you back."

Sunshine sighed at Squid's retreating back. She observed Stanley reaching into the trash, unfolding his letter and trying to make it as straight and neat as possible. He kissed the letter before putting it into the mailbox. He then went back to Zero and asked if he could watch him practice playing pool.

When Sunshine looked over to her side, she saw Song had finished reading her one letter that she had finally gotten from her family. Song said that her family was well, though her father was still mad, her mother still in denial, and her sister had only just given up trying to get Song's room. There was very little else in the letter, but Song was glad.

"You should write back to them."

"I will. I'm just glad the letter finally came through."

Song said goodbye as she went back to the tent to write her letter. A loud clang meant that Rocky and his partner Stone were still hassling others for their "rent" tokens by threatening them with the weights. Stone didn't mind letting others use his stereo to listen to ball games or music, but he demanded four tokens for every hour listened.

Rocky caught Sunshine's eye, glaring at her in the process. When Sunshine stared back at him, he smiled grimly before returning to his hassling. Sunshine shivered as she walked out of the hall.

I get a bad feeling from him, but I have no idea why...

X-ray was sitting around Armpit's hole when he noticed Stanley had a rock in his hand. He was showing it to Dr. Pendanski.

"Do I get a day off?" X-ray heard Stanley ask as he approached the two.

"What?"

"That's what Mr. Sir said, if we found something interesting, I got the day off." By then, the rest of the group had gathered around the councilor.

"Stanley, the Warden isn't interested in fossils." Taking Stanley's jug, Pendanski went to fill it with water.

"Let me see that," Squid grabbed at the fossil.

"What is it?" Magnet asked.

"See look, look at the little fishies," Armpit cooed. Squid lowered the rock as everyone turned to stare at him. "I mean, know what I'm saying, they look like those cave pictures".

"A fossil? I think Stanley belongs in a cave," Zigzag said as the group walked back to their holes.

"I told you he was a Neanderthal," X-ray countered.

"Excuse you," Sunshine spoke up.

"I said he was a Neanderthal, but you're the one who gave me the idea," X-ray spoke honestly. He watched Sunshine give him a questioning look. He nearly missed the little smile she had on her lips when she jumped back down into her hole. She was about three quarters of the way done her hole already. X-ray had come to realize that she was a fast digger, unlike himself. She was almost always on her way back when he had another two feet to dig, even with his shorter shovel. He had not had a chance to talk with her one on one since their chat last month. Whenever she returned to the camp, she was always in the company of the entire group or of the girls. He needed a way to try and get her alone to speak with her.

When the water truck left again, X-ray walked nonchalantly to Stanley's hole and stood over it.

"That was some lame crap you pulled."

"What?" Stanley asked as he blindly looked upwards towards the leader.

"Yo man, you ever find anything, you give it to me, you understand? I've been here for over six months , and I've never found anything. No one has. Why should you get a day off when you just got here? You know what I'm saying? It's only fair. Right? Right?"

"Right."

"So that's what I call an informed decision dog." The deal was sealed when X-ray lightly tapped Stanley's cheek. He returned to his own hole, glancing at Sunshine before he struck his shovel into the sand.

Song was gathered with the rest of D-tent by the time X-ray wandered into the hall. Squid and Zero were playing a game of billiards, Zigzag, Nova and Armpit were arguing over the TV—Zigzag was slumped in a wooden chair and Nova sat beside him on the ground, her legs pulled right against her middle—and Sunshine and Song were chatting on a couch. X-ray had gathered everyone to discuss Stanley's new nickname.

"Since we all agree that Stanley's pretty dense and should belong in a cave, it's kinda obvious what his new name should be. I elect we name him Neanderthal."

"That seems a little too wordy," Sunshine injected, "I like Caveman better."

X-ray stared at her before nodding. "Anyone object?" When no one said anything, X-ray announced, "That settles it, Stanley is now renamed Caveman." The group dispersed, satisfied with their decision.

Song noticed that the Rec Hall was busier because today was everyone's off day from their chores. Most boys were playing games, others were roughhousing in order to get some testosterone and anger out of them. Song noticed Stanley was trying to walk towards the D-tent crew, but had gotten in between B-tent members. Four members had been playing Foosball, while Stone and Rocky were listening to Stone's radio. When a camper moved backwards to move his rod, he backed into Stanley, knocking him into Stone.

"Hey, watch it!" Stone yelled, shoving Stanley to his feet.

"You watch it," Stanley fired back.

Oh shit, wrong time to grow a backbone, Song thought with a look of shock on her face.

"What did you say to me?" Stone shouted, kicking Stanley to the ground. Everyone in the hall turned towards the disturbance. Rocky had a very pissed off expression on his face. He went to stand up.

Realizing his error, Stanley tried to backtrack. "Sorry man, I didn't mean to hit you..."

When Stanley reached for something to help steady himself, Stanley accidentally knocked over Stone's stereo, sending it crashing to the ground. Stanley ended up tripping and went flying into Stone again. Stone stood and shoved Stanley off him. Rocky rose, taking a threatening step forward. Stone held onto Stanley's suit, "You're a dead man."

Everyone in the hall rushed to break up the fight before it could even start. X-ray took charge.

"Hey man, aight look, we start a fight now, the Warden will come down hard on us. Relax". The other D-Tent member muttered in agreement.

"Well keep that punk away from me," Stone puffed out his chest.

"It's cool, it's all good," X-ray hushed. The tension very quickly faltered as the boys went back to their spots.

"Here's your tunes man," Armpit lifted up the stereo as an act of peace before turning back towards the other D-tent members. Song and Sunshine remained by themselves in the corner, while Nova moved closer to them. Squid had taken Stanley by the shoulder.

"Don't look at him man, he's crazy."

Song glanced over at Zero, who had just rolled the green 3 onto the table, before he moved over to let the other D-tent members huddle around the table.

"Hey man,"Magnet said, "Nobody messes with the Caveman, nobody".

"Did you see the Caveman back there?" X-ray moved his hands along the borders of the table.

"Nobody," Squid echoed.

Stanley looked a little anxious, "Hey-y I don't wanna mess with nobody-"

Just then, a whistle rang out from outside the Rec Hall. The boys stood up and started filing out. Zigzag tapped Stanley, "Hey you coming Caveman?"

"Come on, Caveman!" was a chorus that the D-tent members repeated as they nudged Stanley. He was a little stunned.

"So I'm Caveman?" Song heard Stanley/Caveman ask Zero.

"Better than Barfbag."

Song smirked as the tent left the hall.

The next day burned like hell. Every piece of metal in the camp was hot to the touch, the air was dry yet sweltering, and as soon as the sun came up sweat clung to everyone's jumpsuits. No one was happy about digging holes on a day like today.

"What are the chances of me getting a sick day?" Armpit asked aloud.

"You puking?" Zigzag asked.

"I might."

"You fainting?"

"I might."

"You gonna die?"

"Oh you bet your ass I might!"

"Still won't get you a sick day here, idiot."

The group chuckled as they retrieved their shovels and trekked on. Their spot was a little closer in at a 15 minute walk, just slightly to the east. It didn't make it any easier to walk under the early morning sun.

"What do you suppose the chances are that one of us are going to die today?" Squid asked.

"Pretty damn high, I'd say," Nova raised her head to the sky, her hand protecting her eyes. Song had divided her hair elastic between the three girls when the days were getting hotter to keep sweaty hair from their faces. Nova's one hair tie had snapped due to wear and tear, leaving here with a rubber band she bummed from one of the offices, to keep what little hair she had away from her eyes.

"No one has ever died of heat stroke, not while I was here," Zigzag shrugged as he threw his shovel over the spot he claimed to be his future hole.

"How long have you been here?" Caveman asked.

It took Zigzag a minute. "Eleven months, I'd say next month. I've been here longer than X-Ray. I used to be part of C-tent before X-ray, Squid and Armpit came. They created our own tent, just for ourselves."

Caveman nodded. The D-tent members had been slowly filling him in on what the other members had done, mostly the girl's stories. Caveman still couldn't say much to the girls at this point, and the other members had known the girls long enough to know their back stories. Facts like how someone ended up in such a dry piece of hell didn't stay hidden long, even if they were simple statements of "I robbed blank" or "I assaulted somebody" or "I stole a puppy".

Zigzag started on his hole. He didn't mind the digging after being here so long. It became a part of his routine like anything else. He was used to routines. He grew up in a military family, after all. His father was a high ranking officer, his uncle fought in 'Nam, his grandfather in World War II, and so forth. He was used to routine, and taking orders, and keeping his hair short , and do this do that don't do that sit up straight boy—until one day he stopped listening to orders. He couldn't say anything significant happened to change him, he had always been a little mischievous, a little paranoid. He just decided, hey, today is a nice day, I want to go sit on the roof of the cadet hall. I want to sit outside, enjoy the sunshine, miss out on the badge ceremony, and relax for a little while. So he did. He even looked into the window up above from time to time to see how it was going. It wasn't like he was getting a badge or anything, he was to be there for a respect thing, or whatever. His dad was presenting the medals, and he noticed his mom quietly excuse herself to go look for him at one point. He would find some sort of excuse come the end of it. For now, he was free though.

Until there was the one minute where the sun had to be directly behind him. Maybe Zigzag had not been too observant, but he had noticed that his father has been squinting his eyes to block out the sun from blurring his vision. That one moment where the sun was behind Zigzag, was enough for his father to widen his eyes, nod at the officer, glance at the window above, and stare at his son.

"RICKEY!"

Zigzag was jolted by the yell. He looked down to see his father was livid, his mother shocked to see her son was up on the roof. Zigzag ran to the fire escape and climbed down it. There was no getting out of this one. And he didn't. He was pushed through drills by his father day in and day out as punishment.

But Zigzag didn't stop there and return to his routine. He began slacking off more and more. He let his hair grow out and started ignoring strict military dress codes. His parents grew more and more disappointed in his actions as time went on. The catalyst was the day the cops called Zigzag's mom to say her son was in jail for buying weed from a NARC. His mom never smiled after that day. She had a permanent ring around her eyes from crying. Zigzag's dad never once looked him in the eye, for the rest of his time in civilization. The truth was is that it wasn't even for Zigzag. He was doing it as a favour to an old Cadet buddy of his who wanted it for a party they were both going to go to. He took the rap only because his buddy said he would get booze from someone else. If only Zigzag had offered to get the booze, what then?

Because Zigzag was underage and was only caught intending to buy weed, not possessing it, he was given either juvie or Green Lake. He chose the latter. He knew his dad would have wanted the opposite, but Zigzag was tired of the strict regiment. It was a hard thing to break from, even when he arrived at the camp. He appreciated it when X-ray joined the crew. At least the guy had leadership skills to give him direction, but not strict enough to boss Zigzag around.

So that's what lead him to this moment, digging a hole in hotter than balls weather. But hey, anything was better than the military. And now, he could choose to do something else with his life. He had fun here at the camp, even if it was an alternative juvie. He bonded well with Magnet when he arrived, and with Nova as well.

Glancing over to her, Nova was about a foot deep into her hole already. She was small, and the digging was murder on her hands, but she was pretty consistent with her digging. Her downfall was that she often drank too much water, and was done or almost done her jug by the time the water truck came around. She took many a pee break in her hole.

Nova wiped the sweat from her brow, looking up from her hole. She was staring up at the sky again. She glanced at Zigzag, stuck out her tongue, smirked, and went back to digging. That's how the whole dynamic between them worked. They allowed themselves to be silly around each other, when in their past lives, they wouldn't have been able too. Zigzag and Nova sometimes traded stories when they were off doing whatever on their own. They both agreed the strict life wasn't for them, never had been. They bonded over their shared disdain for their parents. The pair bonded over a lot actually. Movies, books, conspiracy theories, stories, humor, goals; you name it. Zigzag found comfort and fun in Nova's company.

He was sometimes teased by the guys as to whether or not they were seeing each other yet. Zig was quick to throw something in the questioner's direction. The truth was, he wasn't too sure if they were more than friends. He hadn't made a move on Nova since the night Sunshine slapped his hand. And Nova always seemed more content to make a face at him and punch him, than to flirt with him. He liked what was going on, he didn't want to screw with it. He just figured that if Nova ever wanted to, he could get together with her. But for now, he would leave it.

He kept at his hole. Stab, crunch, lift, throw, repeat.

The water truck came soon enough to refill water jugs. Song was drenched in sweat by the time the truck came by. Mr Sir had to make yet another joke about how he was delivering lake water to them. The jokes got old the second time around.

Song had been told the story of how the lake dried up. It used to be a booming, lush town before the school house burned down, the rain stopped coming, and the towns people left. Now all the was left was the town, and miles and mile of dust and holes. It was strange how the lake dried up, the area beyond the mountains was very green. Song shrugged, making her way to the line.

She noticed that X-ray had bumped Caveman ahead of Zero in the line. Though simple, it was a significant change. It meant that Caveman was now a somebody, something that was beyond just getting a new nickname. The rest of the crew filed in.

"Hey man, when are you gonna move me ahead," Magnet asked aloud. He caught Song's eyes and gave a quick smile. Song hadn't talked much with Magnet over the last while, at least one on one. It seemed like every time there was an opportunity, Magnet went off by himself.

She wondered if she had done something wrong. It was irrational, but she couldn't help thinking that something she did or said had caused Magnet to shy away from her.

Song felt Sunshine lean up against her. "Girl, this heat is is atrocious."

"I hear you," Song echoed as she leaned against Sunshine.

"An iced tea would be nice with some lemon".

"Oh, don't you make me think of that. You make my mouth water, I'll sock you".

"We've been around testosterone too much".

"Just maybe", Song shrugged. "What do you think we should do, faint and swoon a little to regain our femininity?"

Sunshine snorted. She raised her hand to her brow, did a longing sigh, and fell into Song's waiting arms. The girls giggled in response.

Armpit noticed the movement, and nudged Squid. The boy gave his partner a look.

"Oh save me!" Armpit mocked as he went to lean into Squid. Squid, who had gotten a whiff of "O du Armpit", scrunched up his face, and moved just at the right second. Armpit fell flat on his face. The boys laughed, and the girls raised their heads. Armpit was promptly yelled at by Mr. Sir to get his ass up and get in line.

"Boys," the girls sighed in unison. Nova gave the boys a glance and rolled her eyes. At least the girls were united under one thing. Nova walked towards the girls after they had gotten their water.

"Hey, I'm thinking of using that dye I got."

"Really," Sunshine scrunched up her eyes. "I thought you hated being blonde".

"I do, but pretty soon the black is going to completely run from my hair, and the last thing I want is for the boys to tease me about it. If anything, I could argue that mom and dad should keep sending it so by time I'm out I'm completely blonde again".

"Okay, when do you wanna do it?" Song asked.

"Maybe tomorrow after the meeting?" The girls met once a week on Saturdays with Pendanski and the Warden. The Warden mostly took charge of the discussions, but lacked the close personal touch that Pendanski had. Not to say that there were any deep emotions with the talks, the girls mostly co-operated, but remained pretty quiet about the whole ordeal. The meetings didn't last as long as any of the others did, so at least they were let out early.

"Sure", Sunshine shrugged, "We'll keep a look out".

"I'm sure that the higher ups are bound to notice, but even if I can get the black out of it in one go, that'd be enough, right?"

"Oh honey," Song cooed, "You're gonna need more than one go to get all the black out. If anything, it'll be like a dark blonde with some black in it". Song took a piece of Nova's short hair and held it in her fingers. Nova shook her head.

"We're agreed then?"

All the girls nodded.

"Hey ladies!" Mr. Sir yelled from the water truck, "Get your asses back into your holes. This aint gossip time, girlies."

Sunshine scrunched her nose and marched straight to her hole. Nova and Song followed suit.

And so the day trudged on.

The night was only just cooler than the day had been. The girls waited on the railing of the Rec Hall for the D-tent boys to be done their meeting. Sunshine was sitting on the railing, her back against a post. Song stood beside her, her arms folded on the wood. Nova stood below, kicking dust as she paced. A guard would walk by and acknowledge them every once in a while, but otherwise, the girls were left to their own devices.

"Hey Song, you haven't talked much with Magnet lately, have you?"

Song glanced up at Nova and shook her head.

"Why's that?"

"I wish I could tell you. I feel like I did something wrong," Song admitted. Nova stopped her pacing and Sunshine looked up at her friend.

"I doubt you could do anything to make any of the guy's stop talking to you. Even though you're in a shitty place like this, I haven't seen you be mean to anyone. You're not a bitch, Song," Sunshine stood up.

"It's amazing any of us girl's haven't needed to be bitches," Nova huffed.

Nova made a good point. Nova was in for assault, and yet she hadn't been challenged by any of the other guys to prove her place. None of the girls had gotten any trouble from other tent members, not since the incident Song had with Rocky. Song thought back to the incident, and then again to what had happened between Stone and Caveman.

"Maybe it's because we're part of a crew. D-tent members look out for each other".

Nova paused, then slowly began to nod. Sunshine just gave Song a neutral stare.

"If that's the case, maybe we should make more of an effort to talk to the guys," Nova rolled her hand in the air before she pointed at her friends, "And by we I mean you two".

Sunshine went to say something, but then the girls heard the D-tent boys were coming back. X-ray lead the pack like usual, with Armpit, Squid and Zigzag laughing behind him. Magnet kept nudging Caveman, and Zero silently followed in behind.

"How'd it go?" Sunshine asked.

"As good as it can get when Mom is trying to get us to talk about our feelings," Squid made a face in response. The boys laughed.

"We basically went around and retold our stories again,"Zigzag shrugged. "Nothing special".

"Such a waste of time man,"Armpit groaned, "I could be relaxing in my bunk right now."

"Or getting your ass kicked in a game of poker?" Squid raised his eyebrows suggestively.

"Squid man, you gotta let Pit have some of his shower tokens. Dude's starting to reek". Zigzag waved his hand in front of his nose and made a face.

"When doesn't he reek?" Magnet prodded.

Armpit took both Magnet and Zigzag by the shoulders. Before they could stop him, Armpit shoved both their faces under his arms. Both boys struggled before getting thrown on the ground.

"Pit why?" Zigzag moaned. The group gathered around to lift up their fallen friends, laughing at their misfortune. Song went to grab Magnet's hand, but Squid beat her to it. Magnet caught her eye and blushed ever so slightly.

"Okay guys, how about I beat Zigzag and Nova in a round of poker," Squid suggested. "You have to have a big pot at this rate, Nova".

Nova grinned, "Oh wouldn't you like to know?"

"Game on!" Zigzag cheered.

Almost all of the group made their way inside the Rec Hall. Zero went in the direction of the tent. Song caught Sunshine's eye. The girl winked before following the gang inside. Magnet was just about to climb up the stairs when Song caught his sleeve. He turned slightly.

"Hi".

"Hi?"

"Di-did you maybe want to stay out here for a second?"

Magnet turned to face her, his face stiffening with nervousness. "S-sure. What's up, chica?"

Song tried to say something, but she found no sound was coming out. She tried to mouth something, anything, but words were failing her.

"Cat got your tongue?" Magnet smirked. Seeing his smile broke whatever was holding Song back. She smiled.

"Maybe."

"You can talk to me, you know that right?" He urged her sit down on the steps of the hall. She complied.

"I know I can. But I haven't felt like I could approach you. Y-you always seem to be somewhere else. I thought...I thought I did something wrong". Song suddenly felt very bashful; she turned her face into the sleeve of her jumper, and shifted her eyes to the ground. Magnet was taken aback.

"No, no, Felicity. You haven't done anything wrong." Song turned at the sound of her name, her real name. She had not heard it since she received her new nickname. "I...I just have been dealing with my own shit lately. I didn't want to get you involved. I'm sorry if I made it feel like you were the issue, cause you're not". Magnet rubbed the back of his head. Song studied his face. He was blushing. Judging by the heat she could feel rising to her cheeks, so was she. She noticed his hand has resting in between them. Song was about to reach out for it, when an eruption of cheering came from in the hall. Squid ran outside, "Oh man, you should see the hand Nova just pulled". It did not occur to Squid that he was interrupting something as he ran back inside. The two thieves looked at one another.

"Maybe we should join them inside?" Song rose to her feet.

"Yeah. But hey, we're good, right?" Magnet looked nervous.

Song smiled, "Of course". Magnet rose with a grin on his face. Together, they walked in to join their tent mates and friends. A small smile stayed on both their lips for the rest of the night.

Last call to return to tents rang out throughout the camp. D-tent was leaving the hall and walking towards their respective tents. They were talking, joking, and laughing with one another. Nova did fairly well in a few rounds of poker, but Zigzag managed to win some of his coins back. Even Armpit won a round or two, much to his luck.

Sunshine walked beside Song on the way back. The girls were talking about the next day, when Sunshine's shoe got caught on a large rock. Before she could stop herself, Sunshine tripped forward, just in front of another building. Her head smacked on the ground hard.

"Sunshine!" X-ray and Song shouted. Sunshine was momentarily blindsided by the fall, but was quick to push herself up with her hands.

"Whoa, whoa, slowly now," Song grabbed Sunshine by the shoulders and slowly brought her to her feet. "Are you okay? Do you need someone to look at you?"

"I-I think I'm okay. Just a little woozy, no need to worry".

The gang looked relieved. Most continued on ahead as to not get in trouble with one of the guards. Song walked beside Sunshine to steady her. X-ray and Magnet stayed close behind to keep an eye out. As they approached the rest of the tents, Sunshine happened to glance inside the entrance of one of the tents. What she didn't expect was to look into B-tent and see Rocky's face. He had just changed into a night shirt when he looked up. It took him a second to register who he was looking at, but something came over him when his eyes met Sunshine's. There was a smirk on his face, but there was a slight look of fear in his eyes too. Sunshine couldn't pin point it, but she sensed there was something deeper about the look in his eyes, something that went beyond what had happened the day she stood up for Song. X-ray came up beside her.

"Sunshine?"

She lightly shook her head, breaking eye contact from Rocky. "I'm good, just woozy still. It's getting better, thankfully".

X-ray stared at her with concern, but continued on. They all reached their respective tents, and said goodnight to one another. Sunshine changed into her pajamas and crawled into her bunk. Sleep did not come easy to her, but eventually she did fall asleep to the sounds of Nova and Song sleeping.

Later on, Sunshine woke up in the middle of the night, sweat covering her face and chest. It took but a moment to forget exactly what her nightmare was about. As she sat up in her bunk, she took deep, slow breaths. She tried her hardest not to wake up her bunk mates. She came to her again, and she was woken up by the sound of the trumpet. As Nova and Song got ready around her, Sunshine paused while putting on a clean shirt. She thought back to the dream she had, and tried to remember something, anything about it. It wasn't until she was grabbing breakfast that Sunshine remembered something. She remembered that she had been drinking. She was dizzy. There was a great big bonfire. And then screaming. And finally, silence.

I promised a chapter, and I have delivered. I hope you guys are satisfied with it. I'd love to hear from you guys, constructive reviews are always appreciated and welcomed. Please don't review with just "please update soon", I do this story in my spare time, and time is becoming sparse as I grow older. I heard you guys wanted to hear more from Song's POV, so I hope this works well. As much as I love Song, I also love Sunshine and Nova too, and I want to make sure they get fair development.

Feel free to drop by and review, I love love love hearing from you guys. If there was a story I would like to finish, it would be this one. I'm not sure how many more chapters are needed to finish this, but I can't see it being any more than 8. Luckily, all my research is heavily based on the movie from here out, so it should be a breeze.

BTW: I own the characters Song, Sunshine, Nova, and Rocky (a character of my own creation who is not based off a side character in Holes). Stone's canon name is actually Lump, but I don't see him getting much more relevant to the story than he already is. The story "Sweeter than Sugar" by FireSmiley is still up on here and has blatant plagiarism from this story, right down to direct phrasing. I have tried to communicate with the author that this wasn't okay, but they have not taken the story down, and there is still major story lines in the story that are pulled from "My Little Song Bird". Thankfully, they have not updated their story since I went on my last hiatus in 2014, but that doesn't mean having the story still up is okay, and that won't stop them from updating after I have posted this. Please report the story for plagiarism. And thank you for reading my story. You guys are the reason I keep writing.

Have a great day/or night wherever you are. Hope to hear from you soon!

~Riddle.