I am determined to be a much better updater from now on, so here's the next chapter for you Hope you enjoy and let me know how you find it.

Chapter 21

Once Mr Pendanski had left and the boys had arranged themselves in a less systematic and more casual manner around the room, Sophie made her way to sit next to Zero on his cot. After Mr Pendanski's comments, Zero had returned to his cot and sat glumly down, looking at his feet and he remained in this position even when Sophie sat down beside him. He didn't react, didn't even look at her. Sophie looked sideways at him and delicately placed her hand on his shoulder, in attempt to be either comforting or reassuring.

"If it makes you feel any better, I saw Mr Pendanski fall down one of the holes the other day. It was really funny. He was running after Mr Sir because he had forgotten to put the lunches in the truck and just fell straight into one of the holes. I laughed so hard. But he's been complaining about a sore ankle ever since, maybe it's made him grumpy?" Sophie shrugged, hoping to offer an explanation.

Zero lifted his head slightly, suggesting that he was listening to her. His brown eyes lifted slightly too as he raised them to look at her. It took him a few moments before he said, "No. He's always like that to me."

"Well he's a jerk," Sophie concluded. She took her hand off of his shoulder, unsure whether it made him uncomfortable.

Their conversation was interrupted by the boys suddenly gathering around both her and Zero.

"What?" Sophie said, rather nervously. She didn't like the many eyes on her.

The boys all looked a bit sheepish and didn't initially speak. Sophie wondered why they made her come here if they were all going to be so quiet and shy.

"Well?" Sophie repeated herself.

X ray decided to speak, "Um, what would you like to do?" He was behaving strangely submissive for such a leader.

"I don't know. You were the one that made me come here," Sophie wasn't in the mood to entertain them.

The boys continued to look rather sheepish and shy so X ray spoke again, "Well… it's been a long time since we've had the company of a girl. We don't know what to do," He flushed red as he said this.

"Oh," Sophie replied, giggling inwardly at their nervousness. It was kind of cute, actually. Who would have thought all these 'tough' juvenile delinquents would be so worried about how to act around girls.

Sophie stood up abruptly, making the boys all suddenly jump backwards in surprise at her sudden moment.

Her inward giggling erupted into actual giggles at this. The power she suddenly had was…interesting. They seemed to be watching her every mood. She walked around the room, slowly, eyeing up her surroundings. The cots were messy and unmade, as to be expected from a group of teenage boys. Socks and, disgustingly for Sophie, boxers lay randomly across the cots and the floor. Sophie couldn't tell if they were washed or not, in fact, she didn't really want to know.

Beside each bed was a wooden box where the boys appeared to keep all their belongings. These boxes all seemed to be equally as untidy and disorganised.

Sophie spotted something in one of them and quickly grabbed it. It was a catcher's mitt. She used to play catch and a bit of baseball with her cousins. She lifted it up, "Do you guys play?"

The boys still seemed to look uncomfortable.

"No. We're too tired after digging," Zigzag said truthfully.

"That's mine," Armpit said, taking the catcher's mitt off of her.

"Oh?"

Armpit nodded slowly, but didn't explain.

Stanley, instead, took the lead. "We all have things from home. Special things. I have a photograph of my family." Stanley picked the photograph out of his box and showed it quickly to Sophie.

"Oh right," Sophie didn't realise they would be so sentimental. She sat down absentmindedly on the cot nearest her, but then realised it was Armpits, "Ew! It smells," she teased, brushing herself down as she pretended to make herself clean again.

Armpit laughed, "Hey! I've had a shower, I'm not that smelly at the moment," He sniffed his own armpit as if to check, "Besides, I didn't even get the nickname coz I smell."

"You didn't?" Sophie asked confused.

"No it was because he got stung on the arm by a scorpion and kept complaining for days about how his armpit hurt," Magnet butt in.

Sophie laughed, but then added nervously, "Are there many scorpions around here?"

"Are you kidding me? There's loads!" X ray exclaimed.

"But they're not what you've got to be worrying about. Sure it hurts like hell, but you probably won't die," Armpit said.

"It's the yellow spotted lizards you gotta watch out for," Zigzag was suddenly stood next to Sophie as he said that, looking at her wild-eyed, as if a yellow spotted lizard was in the room this very minute.

"I saw one, on one of my first days. Mr Sir dealt with it," Sophie wanted to prove that she wasn't completely naïve when it came to CGL's wildlife.

"Yeah, well, they are the ones you have got to keep an eye out for. But alongside them, there's also rattlesnakes and tarantulas," Magnet said.

"Tarantulas?!" Sophie exclaimed, a shiver running down her spine.

"Don't worry, Mr Sir says their bark is worse than their bite," Stanley reassured her, "I think he means they look scarier than the damage they actually do."

"I've actually heard one bark before!" Zigzag blurted out, still maintaining his wild-eyed look.

All the boys laughed at this. Sophie shook her head disbelievingly, wondering what Zigzag would come out with next.

"No you didn't," Armpit sniggered, punching Zigzag playfully on his arm.

Zigzag rubbed his arm, scowling slightly, "yes I did!" he insisted.

Sophie ignored his insistence and continued her nosiness about the boy's tent. She had been in here before, when she had been searching for the pen knife, but had never really looked closely at what the boys had. She hadn't known before that their objects were so personalised and really meant something to them. She thought it had just been a bunch of random stuff.

She grabbed another item out of a box. One she had spotted when she had been on her pen-knife investigation and had been rather curious about. It was a toy rubber octopus.

"And whose is this?" she teased, waving it in the air.

The sniggers of the boys subsided suddenly and they all went quiet.

Squid, who had been lying down gloomily upon his cot and had been ignoring all that had been occurring, leapt up suddenly. His eyes grew dark, "That's mine! Give it back!"

"Oh? You want it? Come and get it?" Sophie said playfully, jumping on a nearby cot, expecting him to give chase.

Squid's face, however, was one of absolute fury. He lunged at her aggressively and Armpit and Zigzag had to hold him back.

"Squid! She's only a girl and she's only teasing you. What are you doing?" X ray chastised him.

Sophie, quite shaken by Squid's sudden aggressive behaviour, dropped the toy, "Only a girl?" she was slightly annoyed at X ray's reasoning. She could handle herself….she hoped.

"It's not hers to touch! She shouldn't be going through my things!" Squid snarled, struggling against the two boys hold upon him.

"I'm only gonna let go of you if you calm down, dawg," Armpit insisted.

Sophie swore she could see tears springing to Squid's eyes.

"Okay, I'm calm," Squid said through gritted teeth.

The boys released their grip. Squid shrugged them off and stormed out of the tent, leaving awkward silence behind him.

Thank you for reading!