A confused look crossed Lucie's face. She leaned in a little closer to better hear her aunt and Mr. Sir's voices.
"How do I know you will promise after I make the arrangements?" Mr. Sir asked.
"Well, Marion, you'll just have to trust me."
"Marion?" Lucie whispered, suppressing a giggle.
"Lou, I told you. Don't call me Marion." Mr. Sir's angry voice echoed through the house.
"Don't raise your voice at me or you can forget it. I can just keep bringing in boys to do the work if you won't arrange it. I don't need you."
"But this would ensure that you'd find it. Sooner than the boys will find it."
"I know that. Just make the arrangements and don't get on my nerves and I'll promise."
Lucie stepped back and stepped on a creaky board in the floor.
"What was that?" The warden asked.
"Somebody's in here." Mr. Sir said, starting toward the foyer.
"Lucie?" The warden's face appeared around the corner. "What in the world are you doing snooping around like that?"
"I-I'm sorry, Aunt Lou."
"I thought you were out there with the boys."
"I was, but I decided to come back in. I didn't mean to interrupt."
The warden looked at her suspiciously and then glanced back at Mr. Sir before turning back to Lucie. "What did you hear?"
"Oh, uh not much. I didn't really understand what you were saying anyway."
Her aunt looked her up and down as if trying to decide if she was telling the truth. "Just don't repeat anything you heard. I don't want you running off and telling Squid or Caveman our business."
"That won't be a problem." Lucie said, looking down at her feet.
"Run along to your room now. And no more eavesdropping."
Mr. Sir grunted at her when she went by and narrowed his eyes.
"What was that about?" she asked herself when she went in her room. She shrugged her shoulders and fell backwards onto her bed, taking a deep breath. "Okay," she said aloud. "Should I start my exciting evening with eating an entire bucket of cookie dough ice cream, counting the planks of wood on the walls, or watching the Three's Company Marathon?" She laughed a disgusted laugh. "You are pathetic, Lucie."
At ten o'clock, the warden knocked on Lucie's door. Without waiting for an answer, she opened the door and said, "Lights out. Early morning tomorrow."
Lucie tossed and turned for over an hour. She thought about what she had told Squid and what he had said to her. She thought about what she and Caveman had talked about and his face after she and Squid had a fight. She never meant to hurt him, but somehow she had managed too.
Lucie's alarm went off very early the next morning, before she sun was up. She groaned and put her pillow over her head, trying to drown the sound out. The loud, annoying beeping sounds filled the cabin and within minutes, the warden came stomping in the room in her pajamas and turned it off. She roughly pulled the pillow away from Lucie's face and tossed it on the floor. "Get up." She said, and walked back out of the room.
Mr. Sir handed Lucie another pop tart as she was getting her shovel. "Here." He said grumpily. She took it and looked at the pile of tortillas and honey. She watched Squid take his breakfast and glance longingly at Lucie's pop tart, but she quickly bit into it, not willing to give it up this time. She selected a shovel and followed the boys slowly at the back of the group. Her shovel clinked and banged on the rocks as she dragged it across the dirt. Squid looked back and shot her an annoyed look.
"Can you pick that thing up?" He asked.
Lucie slung the shovel over her shoulder and kept walking. When they reached the digging spot, everyone chose a place and dug into the hard dirt. Lucie chose a place between Squid and Caveman, hoping she would have a chance to talk to both of them before the day was over. She wasn't sure what she was going to say, but she knew she had to say something. She began digging and quickly remembered just how tough it was. She struggled to get the shovel into the ground and had to work very hard to scoop up any dirt. She could feel the blisters from last week already starting to open back up.
Suddenly, a pile of dirt landed right where she was digging. Then another was slung, this time covering her with lumps of dirt. She looked over at Squid. He didn't look up, but scooped up some more dirt and without looking, slung toward Lucie, once again covering her with it.
"Can you not throw that over here, please?" Lucie said, picking a clump of dirt out of her hair.
Squid just looked up at her and continued tossing the dirt in her direction.
"Alan, stop it now!" She yelled.
"Oooh, she called you Alan." X-Ray laughed. "Must be serious."
Zig Zag and Magnet laughed. Armpit added, "You better watch it, man. I bet she could kick your butt."
Squid shook his head and said, "It's not my fault. She's right in my way."
"You hear that, Hot Lips? You better move. Alan says you're in the way." Zig Zag said.
"Come on, guys." Zero spoke up. "Leave her alone."
The guys all shook their heads and went back to digging. Lucie smiled appreciatively at Zero and went back to work on her hole, shoveling away the dirt Squid had added.
When the water truck came for the first time, Lucie had drained her canteen and hurried over to the line. X-Ray stepped in front of her and nodded for her to go to the back of the line. She sighed and started walking back. Caveman stopped her.
"You can get in front of me." He insisted, stepping back.
"No, that's okay. I'm fine back here." She shook her head and got behind Zero, who turned around to look at her.
"Don't let those guys bother you. They're jerks."
Lucie smiled at him again. "Thanks."
He nodded. "If you need help with your hole again, I'd be glad to help." Zero had helped her with her first hole, making the work go a lot faster and she had gotten done at the same time as everyone else.
"We'll see how it's going when you get finished." She told him. He nodded and turned back around.
After Squid got his water, he walked by her going back to his hole. She smiled at him a little and he just pulled his cap down lower over his eyes and kept walking.
"Stanley, can we talk please?" Lucie asked, after they all had their water and Mr. Sir was getting back in his truck.
Caveman looked at her with those puppy eyes and shrugged. "Okay."
"Look, I'm really sorry about everything that has been going on. I know I…" She looked around and then lowered her voice, "kissed you and told you I liked you and everything and then…well, kissed Squid again." She stopped and swallowed, checking again to see if anyone was listening. "But that doesn't mean I don't like you. I mean, I'll admit I have feelings for Squid, but I really like you too. When I talk to you, I feel like you're really listening and I feel like you care what I'm saying. I feel like I can talk to you about anything."
Caveman nodded.
"I've decided it's best if I don't get into a relationship with anyone here because of the problems that causes, but I still really want to be friends with you. And I hope you can forgive me for what I did."
He waited to see if she was finished talking, and then nodded again. "I was never mad at you. I was just a little disappointed, because I…well, I really like you and I was hoping you felt the same about me." His face turned a light shade of pink when he said this.
"Stanley, I do like you. Trust me, I do. That's why this whole thing is so hard. I've never had feelings for two guys at once. I just don't know how to handle it."
"Well, I would love to be friends with you." Caveman said, smiling.
Lucie breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad to hear you say that. I need a friend right now." She gestured toward the other guys, laughing while they dug their holes. "Everyone else hates me."
"No they don't." Caveman shook his head.
"Yes, they do. And I don't blame them. All I've done is cause problems since I've been here."
"That's not true. It's Squid and me that have caused the problems. We both decided we wanted you, and we both went for you and that's why all this has happened."
"No, it's not your fault at all, or Squid's." She looked over her shoulder at Squid. "It's mine. And I'm really sorry."
Caveman reached out and took her hand in his. He smiled and said, "Don't blame yourself. We're all teenagers and what's happening here is typical teenage behavior."
Lucie laughed and hugged Caveman. "Thanks, Stanley." She started back to her hole and saw Squid, who was waist deep in his hole, glaring at her. She looked at her own knee-deep hole and sighed loudly.
There was silent digging for the next half hour and then X-Ray and Armpit started arguing about something. Soon, Magnet and Zig Zag joined in and Lucie took the opportunity to speak to Squid.
"Please don't be mad at me." She said in a barely audible voice so hopefully only Squid would hear her. If he heard her, he didn't acknowledge it.
"Alan, please don't ignore me."
No response.
"I'm really sorry, Alan. Please just talk to me."
"What do you want?" He finally asked, roughly jabbing his shovel into the dirt.
"I don't want you to be mad at me anymore." Lucie said shaking her head.
Squid shook his head, too. "You should have thought about that before."