Chapter 12: The New Arrival
"I'd like that," she said quietly, still smiling. His brown eyes broke contact with her's and glanced down at her lips. Before they knew it, their lips connected. Zero's hand moved to her cheek and one of her's to his chest.
Suddenly, a voice broke through the silence.
"Holy f*ckin' HELL!"
Madeline jumped back and looked at the person who had interrupted them. If Zero hadn't recognized ZigZag's voice, the expression on her face would've said it all.
"Well now isn't this just a nice little thing you two got going on here...," he taunted, obviously thinking of ways he could use this against them, or more her.
"Go to hell, ZigZag. No one ever said I can't kiss anyone without your permission," she spat. He laughed at her.
"Oh wait 'till the guys hear this...," he mused. She laughed sarcastically.
"Very funny, go tell them for all I care. They can't do a thing about it," she said angrily. Adding a finishing touch to her statement, she flipped him off and stuck her tongue out at him. He glared at her and stomped out of the tent.
"Sorry if I sounded kinda... ehhh," she said to Zero, who was still sitting silently beside her, her cheeks growing red. He smiled.
"Nah it's okay. What you said was true though, they can't do anything."
She smiled back.
***
By the next morning, half the camp knew about the Firecracker/Zero pairing. Madeline could care less that she was getting weird stares from the other guys and Zero never did care anyway.
"You'd think they'd never seen a guy and a girl together before," she thought outloud as she sat on the edge of Zero's hole as they ate their lunches that day. His mouth full of bologna sandwich, he nodded.
"I think being here in the middle of nowhere for so long is getting to them," he said after he swallowed. She laughed.
Suddenly Madeline realized something. She was laughing so much more now that she was here. Or more like here with Zero.
***
Anna groaned as they went over bump on the dirt road. They had been traveling for over six hours and she was starting to get a skin rash from the handcuffs that she was in. She looked outside the dirt-encrusted window. So far all she could see was sand and dirt and rocks. And holes.
Wait! Back it up a second, HOLES?! She tried to look over the bar that separated the sides of the window. It too was covered in a sickening amount of sand and dirt.
"I'd better not be digging no f*cking holes," she thought.
***
Everyone was in the tent talking when Pendanski came in.
"Yo Mom, what's shakin'?" Armpit asked. The counselor rolled his eyes.
"This tent is getting a new cot is what's shakin'," he said.
"We're getting another guy in here?" X-Ray asked. Pendanski nodded.
"Only it's not a guy. It's a girl."
***
At last, the dirty bus screeched to halt in the middle of a cluster of cabins. Anna muttered a 'thank God' under her breath as the guard removed her handcuffs. She grabbed her backpack and followed the guard off the bus and into the harsh afternoon sunlight.
***
"A girl?"
"Another one?"
"Jesu Cristo, Firecracker's enough!" Magnet said loudly amongst all the other whispering in the tent. Madeline too seemed angry. Zero found this a little amusing that she was feeling threatened by another girl arriving. He smiled at her.
"What's so funny?" she asked, seeing him smirk.
"You," he replied. "You don't want another girl here - I can tell."
She rolled her eyes.
"So what if I don't?" she asked, running her hand through her wet hair. She had just gotten a shower an hour earlier.
"Come on," Zero said, getting up and walking out of the tent. She got up and followed him outside.
They walked around the camp in silence for a few minutes before Madeline broke the silence.
"Why don't you ever call me Firecracker like everyone else?" she asked. He shrugged.
"I dunno. I guess because I called you that before they gave you that nickname."
She laughed.
"You barely even talked to me before they gave me my nickname," she said. He smiled.
"Yeah not really. I'm still not used to talking to someone this much," he said quietly. She nodded.
They walked around to the front of the camp again. This time D-tent were all hanging outside Mr. Sir's office. The brunette snorted.
"They didn't make this big a deal when I came," she said with a wry smile.
"I would have."
She smiled at him and kissed him quickly on the lips.
"Come on, let's go meet whoever this chick is," Madeline sighed.
***
Anna walked out of Mr. Sir's office, disgusted that her earlier prediction was right - they were digging holes in this junkyard.
"Yo Mom! The new girl's here!" a boy with a du rag on his head shouted. Suddenly a man with white crap on his nose appeared.
"Hello Anneliese! I'm Dr. Pendanski..."
***
The girl was facing with her back towards Zero and Madeline but they could tell she was blonde. And that all the guys were already drooling over her.
As they walked closer, Armpit saw them.
"It's about time you lovebirds showed up! The new girl's here!" he yelled. The blonde girl turned around.
Madeline's non-interested face suddenly turned to one of surprise and complete rage. The other girl's face also switched. Zero's eyebrow rose.
"Madeline, Zero, this is-"
"Anneliese Rebecca Harris of San Antonio, Texas, born on September 18, 1989 in New Orleans, Louisiana, age thirteen," Madeline spat angrily. Zero stared quizzically at her.
Wait a minute... she said that this girl's last name was Harris...
"Shut the f*ck up, Madeline. You obviously haven't changed any since the last time I saw you," the blonde shot back.
"What the heck?" ZigZag yelled. Both girls shot him death glares.
"Watch your back, Anna. Mommy dearest ain't here to protect you anymore," the brunette said angrily. She turned on her heel and walked back towards the tent.
***
"She's your sister... isn't she?" Zero asked her quietly. It was later that night and everyone was in bed. That is, except for Zero and Madeline who were sitting outside the tent like they had so many times before.
"Yeah...," she whispered. He looked up at her to see her face shining in tears.
"Madeline...," he said, placing his hand over her's. She looked into his deep brown eyes and sighed.
"I haven't seen my half-sister in three years. Three years, Hector. She's learned to hate me. I ruined her life when I ran away. She hates me for that. I was the one person who...," she stopped. He nodded at her to go on.
"I was the one person who 'protected' her. It wasn't really from anything in particular... I just... was there. When my mom was out buying drugs or getting high or doing God knows what, I was her guardian angel... and now she hates me," she said quietly, looking at the ground. Zero reached up and touched her face, silently urging her to look at him.
"Madeline, no matter what your sister thinks, you can't keep saying that. I don't believe it's true because when you first saw her today, you were to angry to really look at her. I saw the look on her face, in her eyes. I saw pain but I also saw hope. I don't think she hates you as much as you think," he said, wiping away her tears with his thumb. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath and looked back at him.
"There's just too much that time cannot erase," she whispered. Madeline stood up and walked back into the tent. A couple minutes later, Zero followed her.
Before he crawled into his cot, he looked over at her. The brunette's words echoed in his head... There's just too much that time cannot erase. He wasn't sure what that meant, and he wasn't even certain he wanted to.
