It wasn't until about two months later that anything... interesting happened again. And man, was it ever crazy.

"Uh, Squid? Are you having fun?" I asked as I walked into the tent after beating X-ray at pool... again. Squid was looking through my sketchbook and giggling like a little girl... funny stuff.

He immediately shut the book and sobered up, looking embarrassed. "Ummm..."

I grinned at him. "It's okay, man. I don't care. What were you looking at?" I asked, sitting next to him. He showed me a sketch I'd done of Ricky and I eating ice cream at the corner shop one hot summer day. I smiled. "Yeah... what was so funny about it?" I asked.

"Well, it wasn't that it was funny. But you can see that you love each other in that freaky brother-sister way. Y'all are close." His eyes glazed over a little. "I don't think I was ever close to anyone... not until here anyhow." He suddenly snapped back to the tough-guy Squid and shut the book. "Anyway. How are you and X? Everything okay in paradise?"

I laughed and punched his arm. "Shut up, Squid."

"I see y'all makin' out once in a while."

"Squid!" I laughed. "That's none of your business!!"

"So? I'll make it my business!" He declared.

I smiled devilishly and started tickling his ribs until he had tears running down his cheeks and was hysterical with laughter. "What the..." Armpit started to ask when he walked in the tent. He shook his head. "Never mind. I don't even wanna know. Cola, can I borrow your cards?"

"No. If Pendanski catches you, they get taken away. You know that. If they're gonna be used anywhere, it's in here." I was still doing my best to make Squid say uncle while I said this.

"OKAY! MERCY! PLEASE, COLA!" he cried.

"Fine. I'm gonna have to draw you like that. It was kinda cool looking." Ricky stormed in, angrier than I'd ever seen him. "Ricky? Are you all right, chico?"

He snarled. "There's a new kid. And it's a girl."

I grinned and stared to sing. "Hallelujah, hallelujah! Finally! I seriously can't wait to meet her. Not that I don't love you guys to death or anything, but, you know."

Squid laughed. "Cola, trust me. We'll be happy to have more than one girl around."

I grinned as Pendanski led a girl into the tent. She looked to be Afro-American and Hispanic. "Astrid, Ricky, Alan, Theodore, this is Naomi."

I snarled at Pendanski. "The name is Cola. That's my brother, Zigzag. No one else calls him Ricky. That's Squid, that's Armpit." I smiled at Naomi. She looked to be about my age. Unlike me, she was curvy and voluptuous with black eyes and very long, straight, black hair. We actually looked like a picture and its negative. She smiled back, revealing perfect white teeth. "Nice to meet you."

Pendanski rolled his eyes and left as X-ray, Caveman, Zero, and Magnet walked in. "Who's this?" X-ray asked, obviously interested.

"Naomi. This is X-ray, Magnet, Caveman, and Zero." I glared at X-ray, but he didn't notice. He was too busy looking at the chest I didn't have. "X-ray." I pulled him out of the tent. "What the heck?!"

He shrugged. "I'm a guy, Cola."

I set my mouth in a thin line. "Well I'm your girlfriend." He looked blankly at me. I rolled my eyes. "X-ray! You are such a... a jerk! Get a life!" I yelled, storming away. I heard Squid running after me. Sad, I know, but I knew what they all sounded like when they ran by then.

"Cola! Get back here and tell me what the heck's going on!" he yelled. I jumped into a hole not full of lizards and he followed, grabbing me in a hug. "what is it?"

I couldn't help leaning into him. "X-ray's a jerk. All he wants is to get some. Did you see the way he was staring at her chest?" I started to cry.

He held me close to him, letting me know he was there for me. "Shhh... Come on, Cola. You'll be fine. I'll be the first to admit, guys are stupid."(AN: this is true) "It's in our nature to be stupid. Some of us are more stupid than others, but we all have a certain degree of stupidity." (Also true) "Hey, Candy broke up with me in her last letter because of something stupid I said." He sighed and stroked my hair. "He's just a guy, Astrid. You'll get over it with time, I promise."

I looked up at him. "What'd you say?"

He laughed. "She didn't say, and I honestly couldn't tell you. But it's fine. She's not nearly as sweet as you." I raised my eyebrows. "I didn't mean it like that! Besides, I think we make better friends than friends if you know what I mean."

I smiled and hugged him. "Thanks Squid." His eyes got wide and his skin grew pale. He looked scared out of his mind. "Squid?"

He backed up against the wall, eyes darting everywhere. "Let me out! Ma! Please let me out!" He screamed, starting to cry. "Please! I promise I'll be good! Please Ma! I swear!" He wailed, curling up in a ball on the ground and rocking back and forth.

Somehow, I kept my cool and stroked his hair. "Squid... Squid, It's me, Astrid."

He looked at me and started freaking out more. "Please don't hurt me!" He sobbed, looking less like himself and more like a scared little boy by the second.

I climbed out of the hole. "MAGNET! CAVEMAN!" I screamed. They came running.

"What is it?" they asked in unison.

"Get Squid out of the hole. He's having flashbacks."

They jumped down and after a lot of dust flew, got him out. "Come on Cola. I think you scare him less than we do," Caveman told me. "You gotta bring him out of it."

I knelt beside him and wrapped him in a hug, stroking his hair. "Squid, it's me, Cola. Come on. You know me. I taught you to play King Mao, remember? I beat you in pool all the time. We talk while we dig. Come on, Squid. You're safe here."

He finally focused on me and breathed a sigh of relief. "Astrid," he whispered, holding on to me tightly. Caveman and Magnet left us alone. I swung my hair out before I sat next to him so I wouldn't sit on it. "I was so scared."

"I know. I'm glad you're back. You scared me, Squid," I told him. He wiped the tears from his eyes and tried to look tough again. I shook my head. "Squid, don't bother."

He chuckled. "I know." He refused to let go. "Thanks Astrid. I owe you."

"No, you don't. That's what friends are for. You don't owe me anything."

"Yeah, I do." He kissed me softly on the lips.

My jaw dropped to the ground. "What was that?" Not that I didn't like it. I did. A lot. And that scared me for some reason.

"A kiss."

"I'm not that stupid! What was that for?"

He looked at me, then looked away. "In case you haven't noticed, Astrid, I've liked you since that first night." I must have looked completely dumbfounded. "So it wasn't obvious. But the thing is, Astrid..." He shook his head. "Screw it. You obviously don't care." He got up and left, probably to the wreck room.

I just sat there, shocked, until Magnet came over and sat by me and stayed silent for once, waiting for me to talk first. "Did you know he liked me?"

He smiled and shook his head. "Everyone but you could see it, hermosa."(Beautiful) "Even X saw it." He looked closely at me. "He may not seem like it, but he likes girls like you. You know, sweet girls. Girls that wear decent clothes and don't try to show off to the world what they have, or don't have, or whatever... you know, stuff like that."

"How come he never said anything?" I asked after a pause.

"He's got the tact not to. He knew you were in a relationship." I put my head down and groaned. I'd told Squid everything, too. "Hey, don't worry about it. Let it blow over, it'll all be fine in about three or four days. Don't tear yourself up, chica."

"No... Iman," (Magnet) "I told him everything about our relationship... I feel so terrible about that..." I just started to cry. I was finally losing it, either that or I was about to start my period. Oh joy, oh bliss. He tucked something in my hand, patted my back hesitantly, and left. When I'd finally calmed myself down, I looked and saw the piece of paper in my hand was a letter from, guess who, Squid. I sighed and for a fleeting moment, thought of tearing it up, but curiosity got to me too quickly and I opened it.

Dear Astrid, I know you probably think I'm a complete idiot, and I don't blame you. If anything at all though, could we still be friends? I value your friendship a lot. I don't want to lose that. I'll see you at dinner.

Squid, a.k.a. Alan.

I folded the note and walked to the tent and stood outside so I could see in, but they couldn't really see me. Squid was in the circle with the rest, but he wasn't talking. I think that scared me the most. I took a deep breath and walked silently inside.

"And this is Cola. She's the first girl here, so she broke the ice for you. You got lucky, trust me. She'll tell you what you need to know, right?" X-ray asked me. I smiled at Naomi and nodded curtly at X-ray, glaring at him icily. He glared right back.

I lay back on my cot and sighed, looking at Zero. "Did you know?" I asked him. He nodded sheepishly. I sighed. "Why didn't you say anything?" He shrugged and looked away. Angry and losing my mind, I began to sing. "I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this is how it goes..." Over and over and over until everyone was either yelling at me to shut up or singing with me. That's about when the dinner bell rang.

I shut up and got my so-called "food", then sat down on the end of the bench across from Squid. I ate it mechanically, not able to taste anything anymore. "Cola?" Naomi asked quietly from her spot next to me. I looked at her. "Are you and X-ray..." I shook my head.

"No. He doesn't like girls with scrawny bodies like mine, apparently," I told her. She sighed and went back to talking with him. Squid tapped my hand. "What?" I asked quietly, trying to show that I was open with being friends with him again.

"Come with me." I shook my head. "Please, Cola. I swear to you, I just wanna talk," He said quietly. I sighed and left the table with him, following him to behind the tent. "Look, can we be friends... like we were before?"

"When did that change?" I asked. He smiled widely at me. I couldn't help but smile back. I mean, really. He's a charmer when he wants to be, even out in the heat of the sun, he always has time to smile at me. How can I not like the guy... even if it is just as a friend.

"About that kiss..."

I bit my lower lip. "Yeah?"

"Uh, should we say it never happened? Or should we say that it did happen and we hated it? Or should we say, it happened, we liked it, but we both freaked out and decided to ignore it."

"Um, the last one," I said softly, totally unlike myself at all.

His eyes grew. "Really? You... So it wasn't... You really didn't..." he said more to himself than to me. Without thinking, I kissed him lightly on the cheek, a friendly gesture that Magnet and I exchanged occasionally. He looked surprised for a minute, then returned the same light kiss and hugged me. "Cola, you're awesome."

I flipped my hair. "Duh. Are you just noticing this now?" I joked. He rolled his eyes at me. I snatched his hat of his head and took off running around the tent, just in time to crash into Pendanski. "Sorry Mom!" I laughed, clutching the hat. He just gave me a letter and walked away, muttering something about craziness running in the family. It was from mom.

"Gimmie my hat!" Squid laughed as he ran into me. I wordlessly handed it back as I read the letter. "You okay?"

Dear Astrid, I just thought I'd tell you that I had to sell the house. I got all of our things packed up and we're moving to Amboy, about 200 or so miles away. Dave was picked up by the police after one of the neighbors heard him hitting me. I'm sure you're delighted about that.

Love, Mom.

A huge smile spread across my face. "Squid. Dave's gone. He's never gonna hurt us again! Where's Zigzag?" I asked excitedly. I was ready to kiss him (Squid) out of sheer joy.

"Right there. Mind if I read it?" he asked, motioning for the letter. I handed it over and waved at Ricky. "Amboy? I live just outside Amboy!"

"You're kidding me."

"Well, yeah, I am, but I don't live too far."

"What?" Ricky asked, jogging toward me. I gave him the letter. He read it quickly and started to grin. "Yes! He's gone!"

"I'll have to come see you guys sometime," Squid said as we walked to the wreck room.

"You better," I laughed. He smiled and put his arm around me in a quick hug. I smiled up at him, then reached up and stole his hat and took off into the wreck room. I ran around with Squid chasing me, jumping over people on the floor and then quickly ducking under arms as I ran out the door, Squid still on my heels, just a few steps behind. "Don't you ever give up?" I yelled back to him.

"NO!" he yelled, grabbing the back of my shirt before I ran straight into a hole. I smacked into him, knocking both of us off our feet. We sat there a minute, breathing hard and grinning, too tired to laugh at ourselves. I put the hat on my head and he made no move to take it back, too busy staring at my leg... or rather, the tarantula crawling on it.

I screamed bloody murder and kicked it off my leg and into the hole. "That was a big spider," I whispered, calming down and picking up Squid's hat. It had fallen off in the process of me being scared out of my wits and I was surprised he hadn't picked it up.

"Yeah. I got that impression."

"Shut up, muchacho loco." He raised an eyebrow at me. "It means crazy boy. Didn't you ever pay attention in Spanish class?"

"I took French."

I smiled. "I'OH, je vois. Bien, you're un gentil type."(oh, I see. well, you're a nice guy)

He grinned back. "Merci," he laughed, standing. He held out his hand to me. I took it and he pulled me up so I was barely an inch away from him. I blushed and stepped away slightly, my hand still in his. We stood there, staring at each other, until lights out.