The counselor led Nixie and Effie through the camp, to a tent marked D. Nixie saw two guys inside, and both seemed shocked by the girls.

"Rex, Ricky," Pendanski said, "here are the two new members of D-Tent, Nixie and Effie." Nixie smiled and gave a little wave. Pendanski ignored the silence, and went on. "I'll let you two introduce them to everyone else." With that, Pendanski turned away, probably to rub more sunscreen on his face.

No one moved for a moment. Finally, the boy that Pendanski had called Rex stood up. He was African-American, and wore extremely dirty glasses. The other boy, who was tall with frizzy blonde hair, followed suit.

"Nice to meet you," he said, shaking Nixie's, and then Effie's, hands, "I'm X-Ray, and this is Zigzag." He noticed Nixie's confused look and went on. "Around here, we all go by nicknames." Nixie nodded. Zigzag stared at the two for a moment.

"They didn't say girls were coming," he said after a bit.

"Are we the only girls here?" Nixie asked, hoping that her observations had been wrong.

"Other than the Warden, yeah." X-Ray said. Nixie and Effie exchanged worried glances. Two years in a camp full of guys. This would definitely be fun.

Two more guys walked into the tent, and both stopped dead when they saw the girls. One, a Hispanic boy, let out a triumphant shout.

"Yes! D-Tent gets the girls!"

"Dang, Magnet, settle down," the other boy, another African-American, said.

"Hey guys," X-Ray said casually, "these two ladies are Nixie and Effie. Girls, this is Armpit, and here is Magnet." Both boys nodded their heads to acknowledge the girls.

After that, Nixie tuned out the rest of the conversation, lost deep in thought. She was dimly aware of Effie talking to the guys, and to the mention of a rec room. Still off in her own world, Nixie followed everyone else out of the tent and back out into the sun.

* * * * * * * * * *

Even though Effie wasn't exactly thrilled about being around all guys for the next two years of her young life, she had to admit it wasn't too bad. Especially since she was a huge flirt, which drove most of the girls back home crazy. And she had her best friend with her too. Aside from the part about digging holes, she thought this might actually be kind of fun.

She followed X-Ray into the rec room. Her cheery smile immediately sagged when she saw the state of the place. It wasn't a rec room; it was a wreck room. Everything in there was broken; one of the walls even had a small crack. Suddenly emerging from her thoughts, she noticed everyone in there had stopped what they were doing to stare at the two newest campers.

Three more guys walked up to the group at the door, breaking the deafening silence. Two white boys and a small black one. "Right," said X-Ray, "this is Squid, Caveman, and Zero. Boys, this is Nixie, and this is Effie."

"Hey!" Squid said, eagerly extending a hand to each of the girls. As Effie shook his hand, she couldn't help notice that his hands were extremely rough and callused. She looked at Nixie, and by her look of concealed disgust, she could tell that she had noticed as well.

"Hello," said Caveman with a shy smile. He shook Nixie's hand first, then Effie's. His hands were warm, and though they were tough too, they were not nearly as tough as the other boys' had been.

"Hi," Effie said, offering her hand to Zero after waiting a couple seconds for him to speak. He looked at her hand warily but never offered his.

"Zero don't say much," Squid put in, and Effie slowly lowered her hand, but smiled at the small boy. Effie wasn't sure, but she thought she saw the corner of his mouth lift a little.

Since they had met all the boys, X-Ray took them on the grand tour. The library, the showers, the warden's cabin, the dining room, the wreck room, and the tents were all that the camp consisted of. As their tour concluded, Effie desperately wished that she had brought her own shampoo and conditioner... along with body wash. Oh well, she was a criminal after all and as bad as this place was, she was sure that it was the Ritz compared to the alternative.