I was dreaming. I was dreaming that I was back home. I was walking down the road, and down an alley. Suddenly, I saw a black shadow move around the corner. I ran after it, but, as soon as I turned the corner, no one was there. Then...I heard something behind me. I slowly turned around to see the black shadow. Glowing eyes were staring back at me. The shadow was an outline, like a person in your dreams that you don't know what they look like. I screamed and fell backward, falling onto some trash bags. The black shadow was nearing, and I closed my eyes in fear.

"Ma petite," I heard. I opened my eyes to see that the black shadow was gone, and...Jean-Claude was standing there.

Okay. I think I might need to lay off the Anita Blake books.

"Ma petite, are you alright?" Jean-Claude started to say, but then his voice started to fade out. Instead I heard an annoying horn. I opened my eyes to see a white tent canvas.

Oh, I was awake. I heard movement beside me and saw all the guys getting up. I sighed. The feeling of night was still heavy in the air. Wow, I don't think I've ever been up this early.

I wanted to fall back asleep. Maybe it was Jean-Claude. Maybe I was wishing Richard would join Jean-Claude. I don't know, maybe I'm just being too out there today. I tried to sit up, but fell back on the cot, too tired to get up. I knew I shouldn't have stayed up snooping last night.

I slowly got up, and waited until the guys left for breakfast. I didn't want to get ready with them around.

About half an hour later, I made my way to the mess hall, or dining hall, or whatever they call it. I don't really care. I walked into the room, with only fifteen minutes of breakfast left. Oh well. I can starve myself for all I care. I quickly grabbed some fruit, and left without sitting down at the table. I didn't really feel like talking to anyone this morning.

I didn't want to go back to the tent, so I just wandered around for the next fifteen minutes until breakfast finally ended. I saw the guys leaving and ran up to them, following behind. They finally turned around and noticed me. Oh no.

"So, if it isn't the Clay Aiken freak," "he" said.

Freak? Yeah right.

"You mean Claymate," I muttered. I didn't feel like arguing today either. I didn't want to do anything. But I was being forced to dig a hole today, so, might as well grin and bare it.

There was a minute of silence as we walked up to the 'Library'. I bet you anything it's not really a library.

"What? No yelling?" "he" turned around. For once, I wish that one of the other guys would just speak up.

"Not in the mood," I answered.

"Not a morning person, huh?"

I didn't respond. No need for fighting. At least not for now. I sighed once again, and stopped in front of the "Library". And...the library is a library of shovels. I win the bet. Yay.

I took the shovel someone handed me. It was one of the days where I didn't pay attention to small details, like who handed me the shovel. Today is definitely gonna be a "zoning out day".

And out onto the "lake". Mr. Sir told us where to dig, and then left. I stared at the ground, looking at the spot Mr. Sir told me to dig at. Sure, it didn't seem like that big of a deal, but, it wasn't that. I was thinking of something different. The question was always in the back of my head, but I never really thought about it.

Why did we have to dig holes? To build character didn't seem right. Maybe there was another reason. I'll just have to wait to find out later.

I stuck the question in the back of my mind, and pressed my shovel into the hard dirt. It made a crunching sound, like a sun-baked crust is supposed to sound like. I wonder how freakin' long this is gonna take to dig a stupid hole.

I stood on the shovel and it only sank down about an inch. I glared at the shovel, yelling at it silently. This was gonna take forever. I wanted to take the shovel and furiously hit the ground with it, but I knew that wouldn't dig a hole. Instead, I might get some lovely dent marks in the ground. Big improvement.

You know the feeling you get when you know someone is staring at you? Well, right now, I could tell the whole tent was staring at me. Watching my suffering. Losers.

"STOP STARING!" I yelled out of nowhere. There was movement again, as they all started to dig. I stepped on my shovel again, and picked up a whole clod of dirt. Great.

A song came to mind, as I started to hum it, to get my mind off this stupid digging. When I had a small hole of about the size of a football, I began to sing the lyrics to myself, so softly that I bet no one could hear.

"Without you, where do I belong? Without you, how can I go on? No love but your's will ever do. Tell me, how am I supposed to live my life without you?"

By the end line, I was singing loud enough that "he" spoke up. "I'm betting that's a Clay Aiken song."

You know, after you say you like Clay Aiken, everyone thinks that everything you do has to do with Clay Aiken.

"Actually, it's Kimberley Locke," I answered. That wasn't a lie, but not the truth either. It was a Kimberley Locke/Clay Aiken duet.

"Kimberley Locke? Who the heck...?"

"Stop badgering me!" I said, trying to dig, and maybe get finished in the next twenty-four hours. Didn't seem possible at the rate I was going. Of course, getting questioned didn't help either.

"I'm sorry," "he" muttered, sounding a bit sarcastic. I raised an eyebrow. When did he ever say "sorry" to me? Well, this was new...and a bit alarming. God, I'm reciting lines from 'Beauty and the Beast'. I must be going insane.

By now, I had a hole large enough to fit both of my feet in. Making some progress. By this rate, I see I might be done, in maybe about, the time when pigs fly. All the other guys' holes were at least two or three times larger than mine.

I went back to digging, singing random songs in my head to pass the time. When I was about one-sixth done with my hole, and the sun was already in the sky, making the heat unbearable, I saw a truck pulling up.

Maybe it was lunch...or just a sandwich and an apple.

About two hours later, Zero was actually done with his hole. I looked at his hole in awe, wishing it was mine. I had about one and a half more feet to go. Yeah, I was definitely gonna be the last one done with my hole.

An hour or so later, I was done. With my first hole. After digging one hole, I realized something.

I realized that I never wanted to dig a hole again.

I slowly trudged back to the Wreck Room, after dropping off my shovel, and walked inside to see everyone having a good time without me. Yep, definitely the last one done with my hole.

I sat down in an empty chair, and relaxed, or at least tried to with all the talking. Actually, digging that hole was much better than talking or more, arguing with the guys. That's pretty pathetic.

Mr. Pendanski suddenly came skipping in.

I believe that this guy has some issues. Some real issues. No one could ever be that happy, all the time.

"Hello happy campers!" the happy-go-lucky guy said. No one even paid attention to him. He looked around, and then shouted, "I have a letter here for...a...Kristina Charon."

And my name caused all the guys in D-Tent to turn around and notice. Oh great. I rolled my eyes and got up, walking over to Mr. Pendanski. He smiled at me when I walked over.

"Hello Kristina. How was your first real day here?"

I didn't answer his question, instead, I asked him, "Can I have my letter?"

"Sure, sure." He handed me an envelope with sparkles and stuff all over it. I could see the multiple colored handwriting on the envelope. I knew who sent me the letter right away. This was Alexa's work.

I went back over to the chair and sat back down, slowly opening the envelope. In some way, I was happy I got a letter. It connected me with the outside life. Outside this camp full of guys. Finally, someone the same gender. But, on the other hand, it made me miss my life outside this place. My actual real life. I shook my head of these thoughts, and took out the letter.

Oh wow, she even had designed writing paper. I quickly read the letter.

Hey K,

So, sent to a bad camp. You, of all people. Sent to a camp of bad guys. Bad guys...now I wish I was you. Damn. Well, you can't yell at me for going off topic cause you're like a million miles away, so...have you seen a guy with his shirt off? Was he hot? I would die. Wait, the whole camp is full of guys...so...do they walk around without shirts, all the time? Are they all hot? Do you wanna switch places? ...Because I really want to be you right now...oh, btw, I planned ahead...so...check your bag...I snuck a camera in there. Now, I have instructions for you. Take the camera out, and take pictures of all guys there...preferably without their shirts on. Then send all the pictures to me. See, I have my ways around things. Now I can "be there". And I can have a scrapbook full of hot guys.

Oh, you're gonna kill me, for taking up that much space talking about guys, aren't you? Well, guess what, you can't cause you're all the way in Texas! Okay, um...how has the Texas heat been so far? I bet it's especially hot there because of the guys. Oops...did I just write that? Well, I'm probably correct anyway. WAIT! Do you actually get to socialize with the guys all day? I mean, they're there all day, aren't they? I wish I was you. I think I might go out and steal something. Maybe I'll be sent there.

Back to the letter now. Having a great time there? (HOT GUYS!) Or...are the guys there really ugly? I hope not. Because I want GOOD pictures. Anyway, hope you're doing fine, and write back. Or have the guys write back to me. I'd enjoy that. I bet you're getting mad at me, so I'll end this letter. Oh, and we're having a great time here without you. ...seriously...

Just kidding.

The Friend Who Wants You to Take Pictures of Hot Guys,

Alexa

P.S. I still can't believe that out of all of my friends, Goody-Two-Shoes Kristina gets sent to a juvenile camp. Maybe I will never believe it.

Yep, this letter showed exactly how Alexa was in real life. I wonder if she did sneak in a camera. I hope not.

None of my friends knew the real reason I was sent here. They thought I did something "bad" and was sent here. I told them to write me the day before I left. I didn't really expect they would.

I felt someone move behind me. I turned around to find all the guys standing there, trying to read the letter over my shoulder. I quickly folded the letter in half, to hide the writing.

"What do you guys think you're doing?" I asked, with a sigh.

"Umm...nothing..." ZigZag said.

While listening to ZigZag's answer, "he" came around and, in my hands, opened the letter a fraction of an inch. I hastily tore it away from him, and moved it out of his reach.

"Wait," "he" said, "Did I just see 'I still can't believe that Goody-Two-Shoes Kristina got sent there' or something like that?"

No. I couldn't let them know that. "No, no, you didn't."

"I did. I swear, that's what I read."

All the other guys looked interested. They 'oooo'ed like it was a show or something. What's so bad about finding out a person is good?

"Well, you're wrong," I said, but I knew he wasn't gonna believe me.

"You're a goody-two-shoes, aren't you? You just got sent here because of a bad decision or something. Am I right?" "he" exclaimed.

Oh god no. I didn't want the guys to think I was a wimp. "No, you're wrong!" I think I said it with too much emotion in my voice, because I knew they knew right then.

They all smirked, and from that moment, I knew I was dead.

"So, I bet you don't have a gang, do you?" Magnet asked.

This cannot be happening. "Actually, I do. This letter is from a person in my gang."

"Really? For some reason, I don't believe that," someone else said. I was too busy freaking out to know who.

"Just forget it. Think what you want. Just don't bring it up out loud," I said.

I was hoping that would work. And to my surprise, they all shrugged and went back to what they were doing before.

Alexa's dead when I get home.

I went to dinner sometime after that. I looked around and noticed that "he" wasn't sitting at the table with the other guys. I looked around the whole mess hall, and discovered that he was nowhere to be found.

But did I care? No. Once again, I avoided the guys and took my food outside. Oh wait, not food. This wasn't food. I took my "food" outside. Yes, that's more appropriate.

I wish I wasn't ever assigned to this. This was a nightmare. Why couldn't they have gotten a guy to do this assignment? That would have made much more sense.

I was about to walk inside the tent, and then I noticed that "he" was sitting in there. His back was facing away from me, like he was doing something he wasn't supposed to be.

Then I heard something. Lyrics, I think. I stepped closer to the entrance, until I could make out what he was saying, or more singing.

"As soon as you get that feeling you can start to live again. As soon as the worst is over you can make it all make sense. Right now I can't give you what you need. As soon as you get that feeling, run to me."

Oh my god. I can't believe it. It was almost too perfect. I smirked to myself, and then calmly stepped into the tent.

I think he was listening for outside sounds because he noticed right away. I saw him look at me out of the corner of his eye, and then quickly hide something.

"What are you doing?" I asked innocently.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

I walked over to the cot he was sitting on, and grabbed whatever it was he was hiding. He tried to stop me, but I was too fast.

It was a CD player. Exactly what I thought. I looked up at him. He was looking at me, almost fearfully. He knew I was going to figure out his secret. What could be sweeter than this?

I gave him a confused look, and then opened the CD player. Ha, I was right!

"So...you stole this from me?" I asked, coolly.

"I was...just...making fun of it."

"Really?" I took it out and looked at the blue and white CD. "You stole my Clay Aiken CD...to make fun of him? I don't think so."

"Seriously! I hate him! I was making fun of that loser."

"Well..." I smiled to myself. "I don't think the other guys would buy that."

"What would you do? I don't think you have the guts to do anything."

"Alright. Then I'm sure the guys would want to know you stole my Clay Aiken CD, listened to it, and were even singing along."

"He" sighed. "What do you want?"

I put on my best shocked face. "You're giving that easy? I thought you were stronger than that. I guess bad boys even have their weaknesses."

"Just shut up."

He looked so defeated. It was almost sad to watch. "Listen. I won't tell the guys if you don't make fun of Clay anymore. Or anything like that."

"Fine."

"And try to be a bit nicer," I added.

"Nicer?" "he" asked, "You're the one that's mean to me."

"Yeah right. Do you remember our first conversation? You're the one that was calling me all those nicknames!" I was becoming defensive.

"Sorry," "he" said, almost sarcastically. I hate that.

"So, do we have an agreement here?" I asked.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever."

I nodded. This was almost like an intelligent conversation. Wow, an intelligent conversation with him.

Maybe things will get better between us.

Doubt it.