Disclaimer: I do not own Holes or any of the characters.
Recap: "Let go of me!" I said and shook him off. He let go, but he still followed me. I tried my best to ignore him, only when I entered the kitchen and saw J.D., Smoke, and Farmer standing around, I knew I made the mistake of running off.
"Squid, go away," I said quietly, but he didn't even blink. He was staring down J.D., who was staring right back.
"Guys, just stop it already!" I yelled, and they all looked at me. I felt myself go red. "Before it was all a misunderstanding. J.D., Smoke, Farmer, this is Squid, he's one of my tent mates. Squid, that's J.D., Smoke, and Farmer, they do kitchen work too." I said quietly. I looked up at J.D. "Squid wasn't doing anything to me before, we were just going back to the tent. I'm glad that you were…worried…about me, but it's ok. I could take care of myself." I turned to Squid. "You don't have to baby sit me or anything. I appreciate it and all, but I'm okay on my own."
"Fine, whatever," Squid mumbled, then stalked out of the tent. The other three just nodded.
"Sorry about hurting you before," Smoke said.
"Yea, we just thought that guy was trying to do something to you. He looks like the kind of guy who would," J.D. said.
With that Squid shot into the tent so fast I didn't know what was happening. He had his hands around J.D.'s throat. I guess he was eavesdropping.
"Squid let go of him!" I yelled while Smoke and Farmer tried to pry them apart. J.D. started turning blue. I ran up and jumped on Squids back. I didn't know what else to do. I wrapped my arms around his neck until he let go. Then Smoke had to pry me off Squid's back and he held me back. I was all shaken up and crying. "Just go away," my voice was shaking. Squid left.
Okay, so what I did was totally…out of character. But it just seemed like once I set foot on the desert of Camp Green Lake, I changed. I went from being all shy and quiet to yelling at boys and choking them. I don't know if this was lucky or what. I suppose it was. I had to stand up for myself at CGL. And if it meant having to yell and scream at boys, then fine. I wasn't going to let myself get weak in the knees whenever a cute boy comes by. And believe me, there were a lot of cute boys there. And my little personality went from shy and nice to…troubled as I tried to keep peace. I was changing, and there was nothing, good luck, bad luck, anything, that could stop it.
After Squid left I had to peek out the kitchen to make sure he wasn't eavesdropping. I also wanted to see if he was ok. Yea, I was changing, but I still felt bad for what I did. I saw Squid trudging back towards the tent. He must have felt my stare, because he glanced behind at me. He looked at me apologetically, then turned around and went into the tent.
J.D., Smoke, and Farmer were setting up the dinner in that metal tray thing. They talked amongst themselves, and every once in a while they would talk to me, but not usually. I noticed that Smoke didn't talk as much, and the conversation was usually between J.D. and Farmer. I also noticed that out of all three of them, Smoke was the better looking one. Then I started wondering to myself why they all had these nicknames.
"Why do you all have nicknames?" I asked.
"J.D. stands for Just Don't," J.D. said, smiling. "I did a lot of things before, and my friends would always say, 'just don't.'" I laughed.
"And they call me Farmer because I'm from Kansas," Farmer said. I nodded, then looked at Smoke. He looked back at me.
"The reason I'm here is because I would start fires," he said. "Also because of my eyes, people say they look smoky."
'They do,' I thought to myself. I was going to say it, but I couldn't find my voice, because Smoke smiled at me, and I just about melted once again. 'I can't fall in with these boys,' I thought, then averted my eyes. They resumed fixing up the food and all.
"Everybody get to the kitchen, dinner's ready," I heard Pendanski yell to the tents. J.D., Smoke, and Farmer, put on plastic gloves, then got behind the metal thing. I went over to them
"Could I help with anything?" I asked quietly, trying to ignore the boys who were entering and their stares. Smoke must have felt my discomfort.
"Yea," he said, "here, put these on," he handed me a pair of plastic gloves, "and you could pour the drinks," He pointed to the table right next to the metal thing with the pitchers and plastic cups. He stood next to me and put a slice of bread on each boy's tray. I tried not to make eye contact with any of the boys, but it was hard. I looked down the line and saw Squid sliding his tray across the metal thing. He was glaring at J.D. the whole time, but J.D. just ignored it.
He didn't say anything to me when I put a cup on his tray, and I watched him head back to a table with the other D-Tent boys. I heaved a sigh, then glanced over at Smoke, who must have been staring at me because he looked away.
Things were going pretty smoothly, I'd pour the drinks then put them on the trays. I got a lot of odd looks from the boys, but no one said anything. Until someone was right in front of me and whistled. I looked up at him and he was smiling down at me, all smug. I glanced over his shoulder and saw Squid staring at the back of the kids head. X-Ray's hand was holding down Squid's shoulder. It was like everything went frozen for a minute, I even felt Smoke stiffen beside me.
"You're lookin' fine," he said. I glared at him.
"Get lost, asshole," J.D. said. The boy glared at him, then took one look at me, picked his tray up and left.
"You okay?" Smoke asked quietly.
I smiled up at him. "Yea," I said quietly, and he smiled down at me.
"C'mon you two lovers, I want my food!" this kid yelled rather loudly. Loud enough so that Squid heard. I saw his head shoot up. I felt myself go red as I poured the kid his freakin' whatever this stuff was. After all the kids got their food, I poured 4 more cups of stuff and put them on the trays J.D. handed me. I took my tray and watched J.D. and Farmer head off to sit at different tables. I didn't know where to go.
"See ya," Smoke said quietly then went off to sit at a table. I noticed that he sat at the end, away from everyone else at his table. I looked over to the table where Squid was sitting and figured I had to sit there, since it was D-Tent.
I sat all the way at the end, as far away from everyone as I could. I didn't eat much, I just drank my orange juice. I noticed Zero, the little kid with the cute hair, didn't talk much either. I also noticed that he was eating like it was going out of style. He was sitting across from me, and he must have noticed I was staring, because he glanced up at me.
"Do you want any of my food?" I asked him quietly. I noticed that Squid was looking at me, and I glanced at him once, but tried to ignore him.
Zero looked questioningly at me. "Are you sure you don't want it?" he said quietly, barely over a whisper. The whole table stopped talking though.
"Whoa, Zero only talks to Caveman!"
"Wow, Zero talked to the new kid!"
"Her name's Claire." I heard Squid mumble.
I just looked around at them curiously. "I'm sure," I said to Zero, and pushed my tray so that it was in front of him. He just took the slice of bread though, and I shrugged. The boys went back to eating and talking, and I glanced around the cafeteria. I noticed that a lot of the boys were sneaking glances at me, but no body said anything, so I didn't care. I saw Smoke back up at the metal thing cleaning it up. 'He sure eats fast,' I thought to myself. I decided to go up and help him. He seemed nice enough. I took my tray and went up to the metal thing.
"Hey," he said, glancing at me.
"Hey…need any help?" I asked.
"Nah, I got it. It's my turn to clean up anyway," he said.
"Oh…well, is it okay if I just watch? I'm gonna have to clean it up too sometime," I said, and he laughed.
"Sure."
We didn't talk at all, he mostly cleaned up and I watched. The boys were starting to leave already, and I noticed that all of D-Tent had left except for Squid and X-Ray. They were talking quietly, and Squid occasionally looked my way. I was about to go over and talk to Squid, to apologize, when that boy went up to Smoke. That boy who whistled at me.
"So you serving seconds? 'Cause I would love to have a piece of that," he said, looking at me. Once again I saw X-Ray hold down Squid's shoulder, but it didn't work. He got up and came over to us. I sighed.
"Squid, don't," I said, but Squid wasn't looking at me. He went up to that boy and swung him around, and he started talking all quietly. I saw his fist clench up, and I knew what was going to happen.
"Guys stop!" I ran up and wedged myself between them and tried to push Squid back. By now all the other boys left, even X-Ray, and it was just me, Squid, this boy, and Smoke. It didn't really work though, I was just stuck between them, and since they were both taller than me they just went on in each other's faces. "Smoke, help!"
He went behind Squid and tried to pull him back, but Squid elbowed him in the stomach, and he fell back.
"Oh my god, you asshole!" Ok, so that was me who said it. I don't usually swear, but I was mad. I guess they didn't think a girl would swear, so they just kind of stopped.
Smoke was on the ground holding his stomach, and I got out from between them and went to help him.
"I'm okay," he gasped. I rolled my eyes. Boys would rather die than admit to not being okay.
"No your not, just…just wait a minute." I got up and turned to Squid and the kid.
"Get lost," I said to the kid. He looked at Squid, then looked at me and licked his lips, which caused Squid to lurch forward, but I held him back barely by the arm. Then he left. I turned to Squid. "Look what you did," I told him quietly, pointing to Smoke. "You hurt him, and he was trying to help you. I told you to leave me alone. Why do you keep trying to come to my rescue? You just make things worse."
"Look, I don't know okay?" he said angrily. "I'm sorry I hurt your stupid little boyfriend, I'm sorry I tried to help you from that pervert, and I'm sorry for trying to get you to like me, okay?" He turned around and went to leave, but I was pissed. I grabbed his arm and swung him around.
"First of all, he," I said, pointing to Smoke, "is not my boyfriend. Second, he is not stupid. And third, I like you Squid, but I wish you would stop trying to baby-sit me already." Then I turned around and went to help Smoke.
"I'm okay, I just got the wind knocked out of me is all." He said, getting up. Then I remembered.
"Don't you have asthma or something?"
"Yea, but I'm okay now."
"Okay…"
"Look dude, sorry." Squid said. I smiled.
"It's okay man," Smoke replied. My smile grew. Then Smoke left and went back towards his tent, and I was left standing there with Squid.
"I really am sorry," he said quietly, looking at me.
"I know."
"You want to go to the wreck room or something?"
"Nah, I don't think I could stand another encounter with that kid…I think I'll just get back to the tent."
"Okay, I'll go with you then."
"It's okay, I could walk on my own." Squid looked at me. "I could." He shrugged.
"Whatever," he said, then left. I headed back to the tent, making sure it was the right one, and went on my cot. Since the boys were gone I decided to change quickly, and put on a pair of gym shorts and a white tee, the clothes I decided to use as pajamas. I also took out my diary and my pen.
'Day 1 at CGL,' I wrote.
It's so crazy here. My first day and already three fights broke out because of me. I'm in D-Tent, and my tent mates are all pretty nice. There's X-Ray, Caveman, Armpit, Squid, Zero, Zigzag, and Magnet. They all dig holes, while I have to do kitchen work with J.D., Smoke, and Farmer. I have such mixed up feelings though. I think I kind of like Smoke, but I don't know, there's something about Squid that I really like also. Plus, Squid keeps trying to "rescue" me, and it's like he's over protective or something. Well, my hand is hurting from having to pour a million drinks, so I'm out now.
I tucked away my diary and pen, and just sat on my cot, thinking. I thought about my parents, Heather, Squid, Smoke, just about anything.
Meanwhile…
In the wreck room, things were getting out of hand. I should have gone with Squid, or else another fight wouldn't have broken out. It was between Squid and another boy, and it was getting pretty violent.
Back to D-Tent
I kind of dozed off on my cot, but I woke up when I heard D-Tent returning. I watched each one come in, looking upset. I was about to ask what was up, when I saw Squid. His eye was black, he had a cut on his forehead, and he was holding his nose with a tissue.
"Ohmygod, what happened to you?" I jumped off my cot and ran up to him.
"Sorry," he said, not meeting my eyes.
"You were fighting about me again?" I looked around and the other boys nodded. "Whatever, come on, let's go clean your cut."
"No, I'm okay." Squid said, sitting on his cot.
"Fine."
I sat on my cot and turned so that I was facing Zigzag, whose cot was on the other side of me. He looked back at me and smiled.
"Everybody's fighting over you, you're more popular than me," he said, and he was dead serious.
"….Thanks…I think." The other's laughed, except Squid. I didn't turn to look at him, but I knew he was staring at me.
"Well, I'm going to sleep," X-Ray said. The others also laid down, and they shut off the oil lamps and fall asleep. I tried to sleep, but I couldn't. I kept tossing and turning. After a long while of shifting around, I finally fell into a restless sleep.
