Chapter 1-Squid's Lost Love and Zero's Insecurities

The D-tent boys had just come in from eating, after digging their holes, all sleepy and exhausted. They walked into the tent one-by-one, and noticed that something was different. There were 16 cots instead of 8.

They each laid on their own cots, talking about it, until Mr. Pendanski walked in.

"Yo, Mom!" X-ray yelled. "Why are there more cots in here?!"

Mom looked at the D-tent boys, and his usual peppy smile was gone. He now wore a look of disappointment. "The Warden said that girls are coming." At first, all the boys didn't believe him. Then, after the words had sunk in, their mouths dropped and eyes grew wide.

"For real?" Caveman asked, excitedly.

"Yeah," he said, resenting that he had to be a counselor of 16 juveniles.

"Why?" Zig-Zag asked slowly, as his usual paranoid self.

"The Warden thinks that some girls are just as bad, if not worse, than some boys. She feels that it would be safe enough here for most of them." He shook his head, and walked back out. All the guys were excited about it. All except two. Squid laid on his cot, feeling upset. He turned over, shut his eyes, and thought about a lost someone.

--Flashback--

He was running the blaring sirens in the distance. 'Damn cops,' he thought. They never caught him, but always came pretty close. He had stolen about $50 from a house in a neighborhood about 12 blocks from his house.

He looked back to see if anyone was outside, when he bumped into something and flew to the ground. He jumped up and looked at the person. It was a girl.

"Watch where you're walking!" he shouted at her. She glared at him.

"You were the one who wasn't watching!" she yelled back. He turned around and saw the police car lights were getting closer. Panicking, he grabbed her hand and pulled her into the closest set of bushes.

"What do you think you're doing?!" she screamed, looking at him as if he were insane.

"I kinda stole something. I don't want to get busted!" She looked at him in surprise, and quickly jumped up. "No!" he said, pulling her back down. He saw the cop cars pass and turn to the street opposite of his. "I have to, if I want to live," he hissed at her, standing up, and offering his hand to help her up.

"Whatever," she said, tossing her brown hair with natural red highlights over her shoulder. She had big, chocolate brown eyes and brown freckles on her nose and cheeks. She had a tiny beauty mole above the left side of her mouth. "I'm leaving."

He grabbed her wrist. "Please don't tell anyone about this."

"Why would I?" she asked, pulling her hand away and turning around.

The next week when school had started after summer break, it had been 3 weeks since the incident. In his very first class, he noticed familiar hair in the front row talking to a blonde-haired girl. He quietly took a seat in the back of the class and tried to think of who it was.

The teacher came in and asked everyone to share about their summer vacation. The girl was quick to raise her hand. "Yes, Rachel. Why don't you come and share with the class."

"Thank you, Uncle Ted." The girl stood up and turned around. Squid instantly knew where he met her.

"Okay, I'm Rachel Selby. My family moved here as soon as summer break started from Colorado. I had a really interesting experience here. I was doing my daily jog, when suddenly I ran into this hot guy. And get this: he was running from the COPS! He had stolen something, and said that it was the only way he could survive! I felt so sorry for him, but I never got his name, which I really regret, because he was..." she stopped short. She spotted Squid. She quickly finished her vacation story, then sat down, her face beet red.

He had introduced himself as soon as class was over. They hit it off great, and soon started dating. During the winter, though, everything went down hill.

After winter break, when everyone had returned, Rachel wasn't at school. Squid figured that she hadn't got back yet from her vacation in Colorado where she was visiting her family, so didn't think anything about it. The first week of school had passed, and he was really getting worried. He went by her house later that day, and found out that she had been missing for 2 and a ½ weeks. The cops decided that she had been kidnaped, because they found bits and pieces of her clothes everywhere. Squid still had hope.

He looked everywhere in that city, including people's basements and attics, stormhouses, and sheds. He hadn't found one shred of evidence. Except for a necklace he found on the sidewalk. After a month of searching, every hope in the world was gone for him. He cried himself to sleep, rocking back and forth. He would often wake up crying or saying her name.

A couple of months before school let out, he had gotten caught by the police. He didn't care. He didn't care about anything

--End of Flashback--

Zero also laid on his cot, upset. He thought about all the girls he ever met. Girls who made fun of him for not talking. Girls who picked on him for always being by himself. Girls who pulled his on his curly hair and called him a 'dumb boy'. He hated girls. He always had.

He turned over and closed his eyes. 'Just some more people to make fun of me and talk about me. What's the use of being around people? They never give you a shot.' Only one person ever made him feel excepted. And that was Caveman. But 14 people was way more than 1.

About 10 minutes later, Mom had come back in for their meeting. Everyone gathered in a circle, and talked about their feelings of girls coming to the camp.

"I think it'll be tight," X-ray said. "Now we'll have tons of fun!" He laughed and Magnet, Armpit, and Zig-Zag followed suit.

"Yeah. I'll get at least 3 of them in bed by the second week is over," Zig-Zag said, smiling.

"Now, Ricky. We are to treat these girls like human beings. Remember they're big and bad, too. This is a juveniles camp, and they wouldn't have gotten in here unless they did something horrible. Only the worst girls will be in this camp. Not any nice, pushovers."

"Fine," Zig-Zag replied, linking his fingers and putting his hands behind his head. He still grinned at the thought of it, though.

"Man, I wonder if any of 'em know how to hot-wire a car," Twitch said, lost in thought.

"I wonder if they'll like animals," Magnet said, playing with his hands.

"I wonder if they like BIG men," Armpit said, laughing.

They continued this discussion until time for bed, not noticing how unusually quiet Squid was. Any kind of quiet is quiet for him.

They all found it hard to sleep that night. 6 of the boys because they wondered what the girls were like, 1 of the boy because he kept thinking about a lost love in his life, and 1 lonely boy because his stomach was in a knot, wondering how the new girls would treat him.