Summary: Madeline Harris is sent to Camp Green Lake, numb from her experiences of the past three years. When she finds the only person there who can understand her feelings, she learns more than one lesson about life and what you shouldn't take for granted. Please R&R!

Broken: Prologue

It wasn't like she had wanted to keep the car. She just needed some kind of distraction... something to make everything seem like it wasn't happening.

And somehow the thrill of the wind in her face and the adrenaline rush was just enough to make her forget the world.

It wasn't like she could actually forget what had happened. The huge ball of guilt in the pit of her stomach constantly made its presence known. The reminder of the month's past events was enough to make anyone want to steal a too-rich-for-words car and just drive; drive until her heart couldn't hold everything anymore.

But speeding at 80 miles per hour wasn't really the cop on the midnight shift's idea of legally "getting away" from it all. Not that she had told him why she had the car. Now that she thought about it, he never even asked.

There wasn't any need to these days. The police was convinced that every teen has a hidden reason, usually illegal and dangerous, to why they did the things they did.

So here she was, nearly sixteen years of age and in a courtroom, numb as she had been for the past three years when her world had collapsed around her like a pyramid of cards.

"Madeline Harris, you have been charged and found guilty with grand theft auto. Now, your past record with the Dallas Police Department has clearly shown that you can handle... a tougher surrounding for your punishment than most girls your age. There is currently a spot open at a boys detention camp, Camp Green Lake. Now because I'm feeling generous today, I will give you a choice. Camp Green Lake... or prison. It's your decision."

She blinked. A choice. She couldn't remember the last time she had been given a choice before. Someone always made the choice for her. Mainly because she didn't really care which way she ended up.

"Camp Green Lake," she said without a drop of emotion.

"Alright. Twenty months, Camp Green Lake," the judge said, slamming down his gavel.

***

The bus bumped along the dirt road towards its destination... wherever it was. The humid air was making her shoulder length brown hair stick to her neck. She once again rearranged her cuffed hands on the back of the ugly brown bus seat in front of her, shifting her backpack and letting it fall to the ground.

The guard stared intently at her. He was used to always having to escort boys to the camp. But this was a girl and she was very different then any of the juvenile delinquents he had seen over the years. She looked so numb and blank, like she could really care where she went, as long as she had food to eat and a bed to sleep in.

Another hour passed and the bus finally reached the beginning of the long series of holes. Madeline's deep green eyes were drawn away from the hole on the seat adjacent to her and to the holes in the desert dirt.

The holes seemed to stretch on out forever. Every once in awhile a human figure could be seen through the dusty windows of the old bus. Each one had a shovel in their hand.

At last, the bus came to a screeching halt in the middle of a cluster of tents and wood buildings. The guard stood up and stretched, then coming over to the brunette and unlocked her handcuffs. She rubbed the sensitive skin where the metal had once been and grabbed her backpack, following the guard off the bus.

As soon as she stepped off the old vehicle, all the boys who had been standing or sitting around looked up from what they were doing, sizing up the new boy. But they were in for a huge shock when they discovered it was a girl, not a boy, who had just been sentenced to the detention camp.