^_^ Thanks to sixstars for the idea of writing about Alan's nickname. @_@ I have no idea HOW Alan got nicked Squid, but I'm just writing something completely dumb and stupid about it. Heh. ^_^

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Alan, after digging his first hole, sat in silence at the mess hall table D tent had. He had actually found a pen. That's right FOUND, not STOLEN a pen. Which was weird.
He had finished his gross and was twirling the pen round and round in his fingers.
What's that? Magnet asked.
Alan stopped playing with the pen and shoved it in a pocket.
No, really, Magnet insisted. What was it?
Doesn't matter, Alan growled.
Look guys, he actually has emotions! Magnet said happily to the others. Everyone but that odd silent kid no one talked to, turned to look at him.
His eyes narrowed.
Oh, look at the way he squints, Zigzag laughed, copying Alan.
What were you just playing with? Magnet asked.
I said it doesn't matter! Alan said.
No need to get angry, X-Ray said.
Alan just got up and dumped his tray on the tray pile and walked out. When he was alone outside, walking to the D tent, he took the pen out again. It looked like a pretty good pen. Maybe it had belonged to the Warden or somebody.
Finders keepers, loser weepers, he said.
Tell me, Magnet said, what is it?
Alan jumped and turned around. At the same moment the pen, somehow, exploded into Magnet's face. The other boys, not including the weird kid no one talked to, had just walked out of the mess hall too, and saw the whole thing.
Man, that's just like a octopus I saw on TV once! Zigzag laughed. He did the same old thing.
I seen an octopus on TV do that, too, Armpit said. Got scared and sprayed out a jet of ink.
X-Ray smiled. Just get back to the tent, he said.
The three hurried away.
Magnet was kneeling on the ground, trying to get the ink out of his eyes. It hurts! he cried.
Alan, totally unsure of what to do, just stood there, the pen in his hand. Quickly he tossed it away. Be right back, he said and hurried back into the mess hall. He looked around, then snatched two juice cartons off a table, and ran out again. The people he'd taken the juice from didn't even notice.
Alan placed one juice on the ground and opened the other one, pouring it over Magnet's face. Now get over it.
He stalked away, angry at losing that neat pen.

The next morning he got up, dressed, ate a nasty breakfast, and, of course, grabbed a shovel and went to dig his new hole.
When the truck came by for lunch Alan warily climbed out of his hole. He took his place at the end of the line, behind the odd kid that never talked to anyone and who everyone ignored. Before he could even begin to relax his sore muscles, X-Ray pulled Alan up a place in line. He was now in front of the weirdo kid and behind Magnet. Wonderful. Like it mattered.
He took his lunch and sat down on the edge of his hole to eat it.
Zigzag said from his own hole. That was great yesterday. You know, spraying ink in Magnet's face.
Magnet rolled his eyes. He still had a few stains of ink on his face that the cheap soap wouldn't wash out. Not if it had been you.
Alan laughed. I wasted my ink on you, he said.
Magnet suddenly yelled after several moments of wonderful silence.
Alan, totally ignoring the call, was hit in the head with something. He jumped up and went after Magnet, since he knew who had tossed it. You're in for it!
Yo, Squid, chill it! Armpit said, stopping from attacking Magnet. He was just givin' you some juice.
Alan looked back at where he had been. A small juice carton lay there. It almost made him laugh.
Yeah, man, Magnet said, starting to dig his hole again. I was repaying you for helping me out yesterday, after you had the pen explode in my face.
Alan laughed.
He was Squid.
He had a name.
Good? Or bad?
What did it matter, he was part of the team now.
But Squid? Really now. Did they HAVE to choose that?
Magnet gave him a salute and a click of his tongue. Welcome to your new home, Squiddy.
Alan glared at him then went back to his own hole.


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It wasn't hard, as always, to get his camp mates to accept Alan as part of their tent. Leaving something out to help it did the trick. We haven't done anything like that before, but it worked this first time. As far as I've gathered, Alan's now been nicknamed Squid by his fellow campers.

She laughed at the letter, then tore it up.
You're such a bitch, she said out loud.
Zipping up her jacket and pulling up her hood, the girl stepped out into the rain from under the porch she'd read the letter on. Looking around and not seeing anyone, she quickly hurried across the street and into the store next door. Keeping her jacket zipped and her hood up, the girl hurried to buy a bunch of envelopes and stamps and a packet of pencils. After paying she hurried out into the rain again.
The girl looked around for a place to sit and write. Not seeing one she hurried on her way. After a few minutes of walking she came upon a restaurant. Feeling kind of hungry she walked in and waited to be seated. While the girl waited she took off her soaked coat and hung it on a hook specially made for the guests. She checked to see all the pockets were empty.
They were.
Once she was seated and had ordered what sounded like a wonderful meal, the girl pulled out a worn piece of paper and starting writing.
Before the waitress came back with her food, the girl had finished and folded the letter up in a envelope and stamped it.
With the letter lay a small pink flower, carefully picked from a bunch of flowers in a vase nearby.
As the waitress came, she was already working on a second letter. She was glad she was only writing two, since she hadn't helped anyone else in D tent get into Green Lake.
The girl ate her food quickly, hardly taking the time to taste it. She shoved some of the rolls and butter packets into her vest's pockets. Then, like many times before, she was simply gone.
No one saw her leave, and when the story reached the news, the girl stood in front of a store selling TV's and watched.

A young woman came into the restaurant, Jane, and ordered a large meal. Big enough for two. We're told here that she came in with a jacket, which she left on the restaurant's privet coat rack. No one really got a good look at her in the building's dim light, but the waitress who served her and later reported her gone without paying, says she has-- The man looked down at a paper. Brown hair and dark colored eyes. She also adds that she was wearing a dark, maybe black, vest with a lime green inside netting. Back to you.

The girl laughed.
People are so stupid sometimes. It's really very, uh, sad? she said to herself. And I mean, brown hair? She must have been blind, or else the light in that place was really bad. Ha. Dumbasses.
She sighed at the rain and kept walking. She had to go check something out.