Robyn's P.O.V.

"Rhythm!!" X-Ray shouted. I gave Em...Thorne a strange look. She grinned.

X-Ray walked up to us. "Hey, Rhythm, that was cool. Ya know, last night?" He smiled. I gave him a strange look.

"Last night?" I asked.

"Yeah," he answered. "Ya know, you got rhythm girl."

"Rhythm?" I asked. He grinned and patted me on the back, then walked away.

Thorne grinned. "You have a nickname now." I grinned back.

"Finally." We followed the boys to get breakfast.

Thorne gave me a barbie doll smile. "Yay, we get tortillas with honey AGAIN," she sarcasically intoned.

Mr. Pendanski, missing the sarcasm, smiled. "I'm glad someone is enthusiastic!" He walked off and patted some boy on the back. Thorne winked and the boys laughed. She took a tortilla and threw it on the ground. She stomped on it and sighed.

"Too bad I can't get REAL FOOD here too," she said. The boys started chewing on their tortillas as if the plasticy texture didn't bother them. I put mine on top of Thorne's and sighed disgustedly. I grabbed a shovel and followed Zigzag and Thorne who were walking ahead of me. They were lost in a conversation I couldn't hear. I sighed. X-Ray was right. I had enjoyed hanging out with everyone else too. Thorne was a good person to be chummy with while at Camp Green Lake but you would also need someone else to hang out with. Thorne was practically ALWAYS busy. Sometimes I wondered about that girl...well...she couldn't be that bad. Zigzag seemed to like her well enough and nobody else detested her. Squid walked past me quickly and didn't even look towards me. I frowned.

Magnet noticed and smiled at me, "Squid'll warm up to you later." I bit my lip.

"Why DOESN'T he like me?" I asked quietly.

He shrugged. "Maybe he's afraid of you!!" Magnet joked. I shoved him lightly. Zero walked by me too.

"Zero won't speak to me either," I confided in Magnet. He laughed.

"Zero doesn't talk to ANYBODY," he said. Soon enough we were digging. When the water truck came I walked up and stood behind Zero while Thorne cut in between Zigzag and Squid. The boys had already decided to let her have a break since she was "a girl" and all. I was a girl too, but they seemed to have overlooked that. I had to say I was a little ticked. I mean, she digs a 3 by 3 hole instead of 5 by 5 and she gets to get way up in line? But, she seemed to be pretty good friends with Zigzag and she was cutting in front of him...so...

Thorne's POV

Rhythm walked past me quickly and fell in step with Squid. I smiled to myself. X-Ray caught up with me and slung his un-shovel-holding arm around my neck. "Hey Thorne, wassup with you Zigzag?" he asked. I frowned. "Don't deny it either. I heard Zig and Squid talking about it."

I sighed. "X, give me a break."

He shook his head. "Ya'll can be getting all lovey- dovey!" he told me. I grinned and shoved him a little.

"X-Ray, seriously! What, you jealous or something?" I asked.

"NO CHANCE!" he looked at me in a way that almost said 'oh, but don't kids say the darndest things?'. "But Mr. Sir ain't gonna like to see ya'll kissing," he said.

I grinned. "Well, he doesn't have to know, does he?"

X-Ray sighed. "I don't know why you LIKE Zig." I frowned at him.

"X--" I began to protest.

"He isn't all there. That's all I'm sayin'," X-Ray turned towards the tent and I turned towards mine. I grabbed my extra clothes and a towel. I headed towards the girls showers. So far Rhythm and I were the only girls here so we had the showers to ourselves. Girls didn't actually have showers but that's what we calle them. In reality we just had stalls and 2 buckets of water apiece. I took my time and washed my hair. I could hear Rhythm in the next stall. When I came out she was waiting for me.

"Hey," I said.

"X-Ray told me about you and Zigzag," she said.

I grinned. "Word spreads fast around here." Then I noticed a bus pulling up in front of Mr. Sir's office. I pulled the towel off of my head and shook it out. It was soaked and my hair was still drenched as well. "Another kid condemned," I told Rhythm, nodding towards the bus. She bit her lip. Zigzag came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my neck. I put my hands on his arms and stopped walking, leaning back against his chest and just relaxing with his warm arms on me.

Rhythm smiled. "If word didn't spread fast before, it would've by now."

Ziggy moved to stand by my side. He draped his arm around my shoulders. I looked up at him and smiled. His hair was wet and hanging in strands. I grinned and reached up to play with it.

"Looks like dreadlocks," I giggled. He grinned and touched my hair gingerly, brushing a couple of wet strands off of my lips and forehead with his fingertips. The cold shower made his hands cool, heaven in the late afternoon in a desert.

"Speak for yourself," Rhythm laughed, eyeing my hair. Then I noticed that the bus had left and its prisoner was already inside.

I sighed, "Lets go to D-2 and watch some TV, there aren't any places for boys so its gotta be a gal, and chances are she'll be in it with us." Zigzag followed us into the tent and we plopped onto the nearest cots.