Chapter 17

Squid's Girl

It took just under 3 days for the group to catch on. Squid and Bambi never openly displayed their newfound closeness in front of any of their compatriots- hell, they were hardly all that affectionate in private. Time alone together was difficult to come by, and Squid was hardly the doting type to begin with. It was little things that clued them in, lingering touches and looks, but it was enough that there was no surprise. On the third day, when they were making-out on his bed after dinner and X-Ray walked in leading the group, the self-proclaimed leader only stopped and raised a single eyebrow. Bambi had pulled away instantly, and she credited Squid with not looking too smug and smirking in that devil-may-care way of his. It was oddly quiet as the rest of the group filtered in, and X-Ray strode over to his cot.

"This better not mess up our dynamic, Bambi." He warned her simply, and she nodded deferentially.

"Man, shut-up; it ain't none'a y'all's business." Squid grumbled, yanking off his shirt and balling it up at the foot of his bed. Even with X-Ray glowering at them, Bambi still took a moment to admire the view. He was not as big or defined as some of the boys she had known back home, but he was still damn handsome… He also may have held in the smirk, but he still gave Magnet the high-five he was reaching for. But she decided to overlook that. At least he wasn't gloating.

And he did, she supposed, have a reason to gloat. Not that she was any special catch or anything; she was a fine person to date on any regular given day, she guessed, but here she was the only option. Other guys might have tried to fuck her, but Squid was the only one who was actually getting to date her consensually. In a primitive form, he owned her and made her off-limits to everyone else, a forbidden fruit. And fuck, it made sense that gave him some clout. It was probably impressive that he moved fast, too- or maybe she moved fast. Less than six weeks into a penitentiary camp seemed awfully fast to be shacking up, but time had a way of moving at Camp Green Lake that made it feel as though it had been closer to six months.

The boys broke into their usual card groups, and she sketched them again. The eyes she drew never seemed to quite match, though, giving every face that was not in profile as stilted look like Sloth from the Goonies. She recalled her solid B average in all her art classes and sighed; it was good to know some things never changed, she supposed. Zigzag must have been out of shower tokens, because he was laying back on his cot and tossing balled-up dirty socks in the air like they were an actual baseball. It made it easy to draw his profile, at least, though the hands and arms at that angle were tricky.

Bambi gave up on trying when Squid won a hand on strong bluff, and while the others groaned and complained, he shot her a wink that made her chest feel hot. Maybe Camp Green Lake sucked a giant donkey dick, but she realized this was actually the happiest she had been in a while, even leading up to coming here. If cooking and cleaning for delinquents under desert heat was as bad as it got, she figured maybe she could manage that. At least she had the stability of D-Tent.

But the next morning found Squid and Zigzag in front of her waiting for their assignments over disciplinary dinner duty, so clearly that thought had been a jinx.

"Fightin' in the water line." Pendanski had explained with a shake of his head. From what Bambi gathered, Zigzag had tried to cut in front of Squid at the water line and picked a fight. Her boyfriend (shit, could she call him that?) was not one to back down from a fight. Still, from the way Zigzag was glowering, he seemed to still feel some great sense of unrighteousness in the world.

"Ok," she instructed nervously while handing out the hairnets, "one of you needs to scoop the sloppy joe. The other will keep the bread and apple baskets stocked and clean out empty serving trays."

"I'll scoop." Zigzag stated grumpily, all but snatching the ladle. Squid literally snarled in response.

"Hey man, screw you! I'll scoop, y'all can clean since you started this mess."

The taller snorted, "Guess it don't fuckin' matter. Bambi's in charge of assigning it n' she's gonna give you the easier job anyway." She shifted uncomfortably at that, dreading having to choose who got the simpler task. Squid eyed her from the side and growled.

"Y'know what? Fuck it, whatever. Serve whatever the fuck you want. Imma go fill up the goddamn apples. Whoever serves has to dry anyway, so you can get stuck here late while we go back." There was emphasis on the "we." He stalked off rather than pick the fight, but Bambi could not help feeling as though she was missing something important, as Zigzag somehow looked even more pissed off and stalked off to load the serving tray into the water warmer.

Their dinner assignment meant she was free to get in line with the rest of D-Tent, who watched Squid pass her the nicest apple (well, second nicest- he knew what X-Ray would do if he was not granted the appropriate level of respect) and Zigzag carelessly sling sloppy joe on top of it with enough force to splatter her a bit. She made her way to the table like a kicked puppy but the others simply laughed it off.

"Don't worry 'bout Zigzag." Magnet told her, "He's just a little sore cuz he had a bit of a thing for you, but he'll get over it. He always knew he couldn't move in on Squid's territory anyway, so he never really was gonna try n' make it happen."

She blushed, "Yeah, being the only girl has that effect, I guess."

"No, girl, I mean like, everyone's gonna try for the only option, but he actually liked you. He just didn't say anything cuz of Squid bein' higher on the food chain and already stakin' a claim."

"Staking a claim is a strong way to put it. I mean, I made the first move…" That earned her raucous, dismissive laughter.

"No, no you didn't."

"Yes I did… Squid was just being a gentleman after what Ranger said. That was the only reason he gave me these in the first place." She fingered the wrappings on her left wrist delicately. "Then I… well, I was the one who turned it into something. He was just doing this as a precaution before."

"Naw, don't worry 'bout it." Magnet grinned, "I'm thinkin' maybe Ranger was just bluffin' anyway, seein' what he could get away with."

"What do you mean- I don't understand."

Armpit rolled his eyes, "You didn't need nobody to officially claim you none; everyone already knew you was Squid's girl. At least, I think it was obvious."

"He was already makin' you his, chica." Magnet added, "You just went along with it." She blushed at that and shrugged.

"Well, I guess it's a win-win for me. I like, Squid, and now the guys here'll leave me alone." X-Ray snorted and shook his head at her with a serious look.

"Don't count on that," he warned. "Some, sure, but Squid's hardly the king around here- no one is. You still gotta watch your back real close, girl." Armpit nodded and gestured his head to where some guy at C-Tent was blatantly staring at her, and she shivered despite the heat.

When Squid came to walk with them back to the tent while Zigzag cleaned up, she had to make herself not hold his hand.

Part of the problem, Bambi later understood, was that some of the guys either did not know Squid had "claimed" her, so to speak, or simply did not believe it. She overheard Magnet explaining to Diesel, from C-Tent, that yes, really, Squid and Bambi were an item. That no, it was not a simple symbolic gesture and yes, he did think they were fooling around in the tent when none of the others were around. She blushed at that, wondering if she should defend herself and insist that after only a few days she had obviously not gone any further than kissing. But Magnet took care of that himself, when he went on to communicate rather intimidatingly that the subsequent implication she had truly been "asking for it" all this time would not be tolerated.

By the end of that first week, however, the entire camp knew.

They had all been lounging in the Wreck Room surrounded by the usual scene of poker games where the guys tried to make it obvious to Bambi how many shower tokens they had won, billiards games where boys tried to make trick shots when they thought she was looking, and meat-heads lifting too much weight shirtless while trying to catch her eye. It was exhausting being in there, to be honest, and on days she was, it made Squid all pouty and extra cranky later that evening. He was, unsurprisingly, the jealous type. He 'accidentally' elbowed one of the guys leaving their pool game as he slammed down a shower token as an ante and grabbed a pool stick. She should not have found it cute. In her real life, she would never have. But at Camp Green Lake? Super hot.

She found an empty corner to sit down in and opened a book her family had sent her, a YA novel. It seemed fairly typical- girl gets thrust into magical/unusual/dangerous situation and must simultaneously save her family/town/world while choosing between the nice guy with an easy life and the bad boy with a heart of gold.

She was supposed to root for the nice guy. She knew that. And in fact, she always had in the past. While her friends swooned over the fantasy of the bad-boy, Kat wanted someone attainable, someone like the boys she dated. It made sense, she argued, that you would actually want the guy who was going to be nice to you and support you. She wanted a guy she would actually date in real life, not some unrealistic fantasy. From the beginning, she was Team Edward, Team Peeta, Team Cal. But now suddenly, she kind of understood where her friends were coming from when they gushed over Jacob and Gale and Maven. They seemed more tangible somehow, like they could stroll into the Wreck Room at any moment. And though she still felt they would be absolute shit to date in the real world, difficult and distant boyfriends who never answered your texts within a reasonable amount of time, she felt like she had some experience working with them here.

"Hey, come here often?" Her reading was interrupted by Ranger, his burly form slanted against the wall. He leaned on things a lot, she mused idly, realizing she had only seen him standing upright once or twice. He had a laissez-faire aura about him that made everything seem effortless. She wondered if he had that same look while digging.

"Just from time to time, Ranger. What's up?" She placed the book down beside her and looked up at his looming form. For all his posturing, Bambi actually felt pretty safe around Ranger. F-Tent in general was fairly vanilla, as far as inmates go, and true to his word, he had never tried to force anything on her. He kept his hands to himself, and the lewdest thing he had ever said to her was that first night they met, when he was posturing.

He shrugged, "Got nothing better to do, saw you sittin' here all by your lonesome. Besides," he added with a grin, "I hear you're the one in charge of food now, gotta stay on your good side." She laughed despite herself. He had a certain amount of charm to him, she would give him that. She definitely would have flirted under different circumstances. He offered out a hand to help her stand, and she took it. As she stood, Squid caught her eye and she offered a brief nod to show she was alright. He did not approach, but he still looked none too pleased.

"The only requests I can cater to are more or less salt, I'm afraid."

"Shame. I could really go for a steak."

"Well," she brushed a strand of hair behind her left ear, "that makes two of us."

"N' now what's that, Bambi?" He reached out to finger the makeshift jewelry on her wrist, but she pulled her hand away. Letting other people touch the worn leather and scratchy twine just felt wrong, somehow. The boys continued to play and observe the game, but both Ranger and she could feel them watching from the corners of their eyes, ready to step in.

He raised an eyebrow. "Look, I told you before- I'm not gonna force nothin'. You don't wanna pick me, that's fine. I can respect that. But y'all can't think for a second that just wearin' a piece of string from one of your D-Tent boys is gonna get anyone off your back, especially not with everythin' goin' on. Ain't no one who won't see through that. Squid's just protectin', you like always. This isn't no permanent fix, not like bein' with me would be."

As Ranger finished his little warning, Squid's face contorted. He had, he decided, had enough of the F-Tent boy and his ideas. Yeah, they knew their little deer was in trouble. They were handling it. He was handling it, because she was fucking his now and no one came near what was his. And realizing the boys in camp thought she was still a winnable prize made him grit his teeth. Without hesitation, he threw down his pool stick on the table and marched past Zero, who was standing at his elbow. Stepping between Ranger and her, he grabbed Bambi's face in his hands and laid a hard, possessive kiss on her lips. One hand sunk back into her hair and the other looped around her waist as he deepened the contact, pulling her against him to make a show of it. Nearly the entire camp watched him mark his territory with feral anger, as he kept her locked in his tight but gentle grip. Shocked, her hands rested on his chest, body stiff but not poised to flee. He pulled away roughly afterward, leaving them both panting. Keeping his arm looped around her, he spun to fix Ranger with a glare. Behind them, D-Tent rolled eyes and gave bitter snorts at their tentmate's little display.

"You even think about propositioning my girl again, we're gonna have a real fuckin' problem, Ranger. Don't touch what's mine. N' that goes for everybody." She bit her lip at his phrasing but said nothing. Out in the real world, she might have been somewhat upset with this archaic posturing (despite the fact that, if she was being completely honest, it had been pretty damn hott), but here it had served its purpose and made her feel infinitely safer.

And it not only made her feel safer; it seemed she truly was safer. After his little show laying claim to her, virtually none of the other campers spoke to her anymore. They still stared, watching her soft, feminine form every time it made its way across or even anywhere near their path, but gone were the lewd comments and 'accidental' touches. They were not missed. The boys had seen what happened when someone messed with Bambi before Squid and she were together. The prospect of how ape shit insane the rest of D-Tent and he would go now that she was claimed was understandably intimidating.

An unforeseen benefit was the camp's reaction to Squid. He had anticipated a loss of manhood, accusations of being whipped. What he actually got was quite the opposite. Guys he never spoke to were high-fiving him, impressed with the way he not only claimed the girl over all the other forty-some-odd males vying for her attention but flaunted his conquest in their faces. One night, Zigzag told the tent how he heard Stretch from E-Tent talking about how, if he had her, he would not have stopped at one display. He would be pushing her up against every inch of camp, just to make sure every guy watched him have her. Squid, he claimed, could rule that camp. The story only made Bambi blush and pissed X-Ray off, not liking how popular one of his underlings was getting. Just because his boy was set up to be next leader of D-Tent when he left did not mean he wanted any question about who was in charge now. Squid was enjoying the perks of being the big man on campus, perhaps a little too much, but his loyalty to X-Ray and affection for Bambi kept it from going too much to his head.

"What's been goin' on with you boys lately?" Pendanski asked one night in group therapy, lounging in a hard chair in the meal hall as he fixed Squid with a shrewd look. "You been gamblin' shower tokens again, boy, winnin' big? Is that why you're so popular?"

"Me, Mom? Never." He grinned, switching the small stick to the other side of his mouth. Rather than humor him, Pendanski snapped at the boy cleaning up behind the serving line.

"Gabriel!" He barked, causing the kid to almost drop the pot he was loading into the sink to soak overnight (Bambi would so enjoy scraping off the crust the next morning). "You wanna tell me what's been goin' on with Alan and you boys lately?" Gabriel, or Pretty Boy, was in F-Tent and nicknamed for his pretty name that went with his pretty looks. He had soft golden hair that framed a delicate face with full lips. He was, Squid thought passingly, the kind of guy who could have easily caught Bambi's eye. With blue eyes widening uncertainly, Pretty Boy's gaze flickered between the boys and the counselor. After a moment, a grin broke out on his handsome face, showing off a perfect line of straight, white teeth.

"Everyone just noticed what a swell guy Squid is; that's all, Ma." The boys all burst out laughing, but Pendanski took the opportunity to lecture them all about appropriate role models. Squid, he seemed to think, was not one.

The only limits to the boys' gossip were the efforts to keep the news from the counselor staff. None of them wanted to be known as a narc, so they respected the fact that, no matter who had gotten to Bambi first, they would all have to keep their mouths shut. There was no way a relationship, romantic or sexual, was going to be permitted at Camp Green Lake. They would have been afforded the same rights had they bagged the elusive female, and out of some strange criminal code of respect, they did the same. It was better to be loyal to your brothers in chains than to bow to the man keeping them down, they reasoned.

For her part, Katrina was none too amused by the sudden spike in Squid's popularity and the objectification of her person. That had been the initial point, she knew, and not all that different than what they expected when he first suggested laying claim to her. But some naïve sense of girlish whimsy had thought that it would change when they became real, that he would not stand for such disrespect of her character. Now, though, she felt like she played the part of the fool, like she fell right into his hands and gave him what he had secretly wanted. They kissed little in those first weeks, and she hardly spent any time alone with him. Soon she could feel the agitation rolling off him in waves, but she avoided the confrontation. She was successful for a while until one poorly timed day just before dinner. She went to the tent to rest before preparing the evening meal, and unbeknownst to her, he followed while the rest of the boys remained in the Wreck Room.

She heard him enter behind her as she was just about to slip off her jumpsuit to get in the cot, so she paused. The curtain was open in anticipation of being alone and would have left her exposed. She turned to him with big eyes, and he crept carefully forward, like approaching a wounded animal. Seeing his reticence somehow made her sadder, and she dropped down onto the bed.

"What's been goin' on, Bambi?" He asked her in lieu of greeting. She just shrugged noncommittally in response, so he pushed. "Was it somethin' I did?"

"No," she answered softly and honestly, "it's nothing you did."

"Then what is it? You been walkin' around like a kicked puppy since we started… started whatever this is. I thought you wanted it. I wouldn't'a done anythin' if you hadn't kissed me… you regret me already?" Something in his tone hurt her and somehow left her feeling guilty, even though she was the one being disrespected.

"No- I know. I did- I do, I mean. Want you."

"Then what's this issue, cuz I got nothin', girl."

It took her a few moments of searching for the words. "It's not… I'm… thank you for taking care of me." She said finally, "I really appreciate it. But I guess I just kinda thought… I dunno, never mind- it's stupid. I'm sorry I've been weird."

"Jesus," Squid threw up his hands, "I don't know what you want from me? What, did ya think we were gonna have fancy dates n' hold hands sharin' a milkshake or some nineteen-fifties bullshit?"

She snorted, trying to keep her anger in check- it wouldn't do any good for them to both have a short fuse, "Honestly? Yeah, kind of. Maybe it's stupid, but I still want to feel like I'm not a chore or just something to use or- or- I dunno, whatever. I just want this to feel normal."

"God dam- look, Bambi, I like you, ok? Seriously, I do. But I don't know what you want me to do about it! We ain't out there where I can show it without getting' my ass kicked; we're here. N' you gotta stop being so high maintenance n' make the best of this."

"Excuse you," she scowled, "but everyone makes it sound like you absolutely can do that. Could 'rule' this camp, I believe was the wording."

He threw up his hands, "Not if I'm holding your hand and shit! Yeah, I'd look real fuckin' cool if I was making out with you or grabbin' your ass in the Wreck Room, but I haven't! I didn't think you'd want that. I've been trying to be respectful." There was a long pause as she took in his words. She licked her lips, which felt dry with her nervousness over the conversation.

"You're right. I don't want that. I like that you know I don't want that and haven't tried." She dropped her gaze, and to her surprise, he knelt I front of her.

"Bambi… I'm not going to. I want you, like a lot." He tilted up her chin and brush his lips against the curve of her jaw. "But a lot of shit's gone down. You gotta set this pace and tell me what the deal is. And fuck, I'm not good at this shit."

She smiled ruefully at that, "Neither am I, apparently." He kept kissing her jaw and chuckled against it, so she looped her arms around his neck. "But I can think of something I know you're good at that we can do for a while."

"That was way too cheesy. I'm almost tempted to say no."

"Fine, I'll take a nap th-"

"I said almost." And his form settled on top of hers, laying her back on the cot as a clumsy hand pulled shut the curtain for privacy.

End of Chapter