A/N: Finally typing this up.
Disclaimer: Holes is not mine. Duh. Do you think Louis Sachar writes fanfiction? Nooooooo.
Chapter 1: What the HECK is going on here?
You know, I've been in some pretty bad places. Lots of those foster homes were really crappy places with all sorts of infestations. And lots of those places either didn't give me food most of the time, or gave me the scraps. And lots of those places had leaky roofs, broken windows, doors that didn't close and no running water. But whatever I was expecting of Camp Green Lake, I sure wasn't expecting it to be such a DUMP.
And maybe I was expecting a lake. Okay, so if I'd have thought about it, I probably would've realized that the chances of a lake surviving out in the middle of a desert were about nil. But I wasn't thinking about it. And maybe I was expecting some nice wooden cabins or something. But what I found was some dingy buildings, and tents. Tents. Those big, military-looking ones. I saw some boys in orange jumpsuits milling around the buildings and the tents, and some of them were taking showers. That's when I started panicking. There was absolutely no way on earth that I was taking a shower in a stall where the wall only came to the boys' waists.
I must've stared for a while, because pretty soon the guard who had ridden over with me was tapping me on my shoulder and motioning for me to follow him. I followed, shifting my backpack to my other shoulder. The guard led me into one of the dingy buildings, and I was glad to find it was air-conditioned. My gaze roved around the room for a while before resting on the man at the desk. He was talking with the guard, but he was looking straight at me, occasionally spitting sunflower seed shells into a jar. He seemed stern. A little bit scary and intimidating too. But I've been around a lot of people like that. I'm just used to them.
"You want her to stay here?" He asked, spitting another shell. "She has to stay here," the guard replied, digging a paper out of the folder he had been carrying. "Court order."
The man with the sunflower seeds didn't glance at the paper. "We don't have any vacancies. There isn't room for her." Great. So nobody had told them I was coming.
"You'd better make room for her." the guard growled. "I'm getting paid extra for taking her out here, and I am not taking her back."
This time the man at the desk looked at the paper, then held out his hand for the file the guard was holding.
"They know that this is a boys camp?"
"Yeah."
"How long am I supposed to keep her?"
"Until the judge says he's found her another place, I guess." The guard replied. The man at the desk nodded. "She supposed to dig?" He asked. The guard shrugged. "Guess so." What the heck? Dig? As in holes? Maybe that explained all those holes scattered across the desert that had started appearing as we got closer to camp.
"I am Mr. Sir," the man with the seeds said as he perused over my file. "Aurora Jacobson.That right?"
"Yes, sir. People call me Rory, though." I replied. The words came out raspy. My mouth felt cottony and dry.
"Wait here." Mr. Sir got up from his seat and walked out of the room. The guard followed him. I walked around a little, stretching my legs after my long ride.
Soon I heard footsteps outside and turned. I could see Mr. Sir and the guard standing outside, talking. Mr. Sir signed a paper, which the guard took, then Mr. Sir came back into the room as the guard walked back to the bus.
He stared at me a moment, then motioned me to follow him. Within a minute we were in another dimly lit room, and Mr. Sir retrieved something from a shelf. He handed an orange jumpsuit, t-shirt, and an orange cap to me and motioned to a closet. "You can change in there." I must've been staring at them like, I have to wear these? because Mr. Sir looked a little less stern and shrugged. "Everybody has to wear them. I'll find you some boots."
I went into the closet and changed into the scratchy, ill-fitting jumpsuit, then stuffed my jeans and t-shirt into my backpack. I went back out and found Mr. Sir waiting, a pair of boots in hand. While I tied the laces, he explained how the camp was run. "Holes need to be five feet deep and five feet across in every direction. We're working on setting up your own shower, since you can't use the same ones as the boys." Thank God. "We're putting another cot in D tent. That's where you'll be staying." Great. I was going to be stuck in a tent full of boys. Things just do not swing my way. It's just like I'm up to bat, and I swing a strike every time.
Soon another man entered the room. I had this sudden impulse to scream and run away. He was wearing shorts, knee socks, and this straw hat. He looked insane, especially with his big black beard and huge ears. He was almost shorter than me, and I'm pretty short as it is. "Welcome to Camp Green Lake, Rory!" Oh, gag. He was a cheerful person. I hate cheerful people. "I'm Dr. Pendanski, the D tent counselor. Things are going to be a little tight in D tent, but I'm sure you'll have a good time during your stay here." Sure. Digging holes is going to be great fun. At least it'll be something to do.
"Follow me, I'll take you to the tent." I grabbed my backpack off the ground and slung it over my shoulder. The minute we got outside, everything seemed to go quiet. It was like one of those times where you are in this crowded place and everyone is talking, and then suddenly no one is talking. And no one was talking because they were all staring. At me. Straight at me. Then it dawned on me that these guys probably hadn't seen in a girl in a long time. All those nervous feelings I had had before about coming to a boy's camp came back full-force. Then it really hit me: I was going to be sleeping in a tent full of guys. Full of juvenile delinquents. Full of criminals. And normally, that wouldn't freak me out, because I used to hang out with people like that at school. But usually I was only around those people for a couple of hours. I was going to be living with these people.
So I followed Dr. Pendanski, who was chattering away about something, looking around self-consciously. As we passed the showers, I noticed some men rigging up a curtain around one of the stalls.
Pretty soon we were inside the tent, making our way over to a cot that had been jammed into a corner. A crate was squeezed between it and the cot right beside it, and I caught a glimpse of soap, a canteen and some clean sheets. "You can put your stuff there." I tossed my backpack in. "Now, come on out and meet some of the boys!" I cringed, but followed him back out of the tent. On the way out, I noticed a small black boy laying on his cot, his back to me.
I was glad of the cap, as it shielded my eyes from the sun, and partially from the stares. Things seemed to have gone almost normal again. Lots of the boys were in groups talking. Dr. Pendanski motioned a few boys over.
"Boys, this is Rory, and she'll be staying in your tent for a while, until the state can find her another place." He said this so cheerily it could've been disguised as good news. "Rory, this is Stanley, Alan, Theodore and Rex." They all looked at me uncertainly, except for the last one, Rex, the one who wore thick glasses. "Those ain't our names, Mom. That's Caveman, Squid, Armpit, and I'm X-Ray." He pointed to each of the boys in turn. I was still trying to figure out why he was calling Dr. Pendanski 'Mom'.
"Rory, they do all have their nicknames, but I hope you will choose to call them by their real names as I have." I gave Dr. 'Mom' Pendanski a long look, then turned my gaze to the boots on my feet. When I looked back up, a tall, blonde boy with a long neck had joined us, as well as a shorter, Hispanic-looking guy. "This is Ricky," Dr Pendanski said, motioning to the tall one, "and Jose."
"Wrong, man. Zigzag and Magnet." X-Ray replied with a smug look.
I just stood there, silent, looking at all of them, Dr. Pendanski, and the ground in turn, trying to figure out what kind of place this was going to be to live in. Instinct told me it wasn't going to be pretty.