"You aight, Princess?" X-Ray sat down across from her, on Armpit's cot. "Digging a hole is the hardest thing I've ever done. Ever." Chanele sniffled, holding out her tiny, bloodied hands. X-Ray gasped a little, then picked up a shirt off the floor, ripped it in two, and tied both halves around Chanele's injured hands. She looked up at him gratefully, and then Magnet spoke. "Hey, muchacha, let's go to the Wreck Room. We have about an hour till dinner. She stood up, the boys taking this as an invitation to scan her body. Then Squid chuckled a little and picked up the second half of her bikini, which was lying under ZigZag's pillow. "Man, Princess, you're lucky I found this. ZigZag might have thought there was a bomb on it." He grinned stupidly, and she snatched the bikini bottoms from him. "Where's the other half?" Magnet smiled sheepishly and pulled the triangle top out of the back pocket of his pants. "Hey, a guy has to get excited around here somehow." Chanele looked disgusted, and then tugged the top from him. She decided to tell him it wasn't ok to steal her stuff for their "business." "Ugh, stay away from my stuff, perv. You never know when I have pepper spray with me." All the guys looked at their feet, obviously embarrassed.
Chanele took this as a chance to lead the way to the Wreck Room. They followed after her, laughing. She entered the Wreck Room in a huff, thinking that they were laughing about her. She sunk into the couch, suddenly realizing how good it felt to her frail, tired frame. She opened her eyes a few minutes later, to see X-Ray and Magnet playing pool with Squid and Armpit. X-Ray's team was obviously winning. She looked in the corner, where Caveman was showing Zero a book his mom had sent him. Then she turned to her side, seeing ZigZag in his usual spot. Staring at the TV. He was twiddling with his fingers though, and looked disinterested.
A group of A-Tent boys were pointing at him and chuckling to each other, sitting on the overused weight bench. They threw something past ZigZag's head, and he instantly started to look around wildly, trying to find where the flying object came from. The boys laughed hysterically, but then stopped when they saw ZigZag stand up. Zig walked over to them briskly and stood, at least 4 inches taller than all of them. He crossed his arms like a police officer and asked in a low, grumbly voice, "What's goin' on, guys?" One of the guys, who obviously thought he was the shit, mumbled, "Wouldn't you like to know," and grinned meanly at ZigZag. "Really, ZigZag, don't get all crazy on me." With that, just the way he said crazy, ZigZag picked him up by his orange collar and slammed the kid against the wall until the imprint of the TV plug made the boy wince. "What did you say to me? What was that? You said crazy?" The boy nodded, looking like a scared bunny. D-tent stood up and turned their attention to ZigZag, but didn't move. A-tent did the same. "That's what I thought." Zigzag growled before he threw the boy onto the ground and jumped on top of him, socking his stomach and face repeatedly, whilst the boy attempting to scream for help. Armpit and Squid ran to Zig, grabbing him around the waist and by the shoulders, pinning his arms to his sides. Squid breathed heavily as he tried to calm his friend. "He doesn't know what he's talking about, man. He's just tryin' to get to you. Don't let him get to you, Ziggy." Squid put a hand on ZigZag's chest and pushed back as ZigZag lunged at the scared boy in the corner again. The boy quickly stood up, and wiped a disgusting amount of blood from his face. He scowled at Zig, but didn't dare say anything else. He then ran out of the Wreck Room, determined to clean up before a counselor saw him. The A-Tent boys followed him, and they all gave D-Tent death stares.
"HOLY CRAP ZIGZAG!" Chanele rose from her seat on the couch and looked at him wildly. "You could have killed that kid! What in the hell are you thinking!" She stared at him, bewildered, and he stared at her blankly. He wiped the kid's blood on his jumpsuit off his hands. "He should've thought about who he was talking to first." ZigZag's eyes flashed angrily and he pushed some of the sweat off of his forehead. Chanele's eyes got wide and unbelieving, then settled that ZigZag was impossible, and turned to the guys. "You just let him beat the poor kid up! Why didn't you do anything? Why didn't you stop him before the kid's face was smashed in?" ZigZag interrupted her angrily. "Hey, Princess, I think you've forgotten who you live with." X-Ray nodded his head; the look on his face was cold. "Look, Princess, Ziggy here is right. We ain't your best friends. We ain't good people. We were sent here for a reason. Were delinquents, we all are. And I think it's about time you realized that, no matter how innocent you act, you are a delinquent too. People don't get sent to Camp Green Lake for nothin'." All the boys behind him nodded, either looking at her angrily or sternly, except Caveman. His head nodded, but he was looking at the floor.
Chanele was stunned at their reaction. Not so much with the delinquent speech, even though she never thought of herself as a delinquent. It was the second and third statement that made her so upset. "We ain't your best friends. We ain't good people." She thought they were good people. Maybe not ZigZag, but the rest of them were friendly. But the one that hurt the most was "We ain't your best friends." She knew that they weren't her best friends, but she certainly hoped that they were her friends. What if they didn't feel the same? What if they just thought of her by what they named her? They thought she was a Princess. A shallow, ungrateful, spoiled, rich and naïve Princess. Chanele suddenly felt the tears swelling in her eyes. She blinked once, only to have her eyes turn glassy and for two tiny tears to stream down her face. The boys certainly were surprised at this, especially ZigZag. He looked at her like he had never seen tears in his life. She heaved in a sharp, high pitched sob, and D-tent's faces instantly softened. Chanele looked at each of them in sorrowful anger, then ran out of the Wreck Room.
Caveman instantly turned to ZigZag. "Man, why the hell did you have to make her cry?" ZigZag stared at him wildly, but spoke calmly. "X-Ray is the one who told her we aren't her friends." Heads whipped towards X-Ray, who stared up at ZigZag. "I just said what you were too stubborn to say, Zigs. You're the only one out of all of us who really can't stand her. This is over your head, man." ZigZag wrinkled his nose. He couldn't comfort a girl, much less suck up to her. Caveman stared at him angrily and hissed, "You have to apologize to her." ZigZag raised his eyebrows. "For what? I'm not the one who said mean things to her. I'm not the one who told her to get off my bed. I haven't done anything to her, directly." He thought for a second, then smirked. "And don't say the water thing. I didn't tell her to sleep in her underwear." The boy's faces either blushed or lit up. But Caveman's still looked angry. "X said mean things to her to get her off YOUR back. Squid told her to get off your bed because YOU didn't want her there. She thought you would be nice. When you helped her get her shovel into the ground, she told me she thought it was like a truce. ZigZag, she isn't one of the guys. Yeah, she's in the group, but she's a girl. She's sensitive and innocent and you treat her like it's her fault those guys made fun of you." Caveman instantly backed off, remembering that ZigZag had just finished beating the pulp of a guy about his size. But Zig just stared at him, with that wild look being replaced with his usual bewildered one, which slowly softened into just a normal stare. He nodded, repeatedly, and mumbled "Fine. I'll talk to her. After dinner." With that, the dinner bell rang.
Chanele wiped her eyes and stood up, grabbing one of her orange jumpsuits, took off her skirt, slipped into the suit, and pulled her henley off, having only a white, plain cami on. She tied the arms around her waist and separated her hair into two sections, sans bangs. She loosely secured each long pigtail behind the bottom of her ear. She swept her bangs over, and put on a tiny bit of mascara to hide the fact that she had cried the rest of her makeup off. She was still extremely sore from the first hole, so she sat up very, very slowly and it took her almost 10 minutes to walk across the campsite, when she heard the dinner bell. 'Lucky.' She thought sarcastically, and pushed open the door of the mess hall. After getting some terrible-smelling beans and super stale bread, she took her seat at D-tent's table, and hung her head. She wondered if they would tell her she had to sit somewhere else. But when D-tent walked in, they seemed happy to see that she wasn't crying. Caveman sat on one side of her, Magnet on the other. Magnet smiled happily at her and told her that him, Squid, Caveman, Armpit and X-Ray were very sorry for what had been said earlier. He said that they asked Zero what he thought about it, but he just looked past them, so they figured he didn't know. Chanele cringed slightly when he failed to mention one name, and asked quietly, "What about ZigZag?" Magnet looked at her with sorry eyes, but they had a small glint behind them. "Zig will cool off sooner or later. I think ya just caught him at the wrong moment. No worries, right chica?" She wanted to tell Magnet she wasn't okay until ZigZag apologized, but his happy-go-lucky smile made her change her mind. "Right, Magnet." She smiled a small, but real smile.
ZigZag sat at dinner, acting as if nothing was wrong, but he was nervous as hell. Yea, Princess, erm, Chanele, was prissy, stuck-up and naïve, but she was also the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He didn't tell the guys why he was really suspicious though. He thought that Princess was way too pretty and innocent to be a juvenile delinquent. Plus, she was super tiny, she could barely hold up a shovel! ZigZag thought about her story earlier, and decided that she was either framed or under cover. There was no way a girl that small could hurt a grown man. If she was under cover, it was probably for the warden, who was probably watching him for some new medicine or something. He didn't like the idea of being watched, therefore, he didn't like her. But even if she was undercover, she still had feelings….she wouldn't have cried if she didn't have them.
Chanele's POV
The guys and I were sitting in the tent, getting ready to go to the wreck room. Well, more like I was getting ready, and they were waiting for me. They must've felt like they owed me something after what happened before dinner. To be truthful, they did. They needed to prove to me that they wanted to be my friend. But one of them obviously didn't- seeing how he had already left-ZigZag. He told the guys that he would save them the pool table. I twirled my hair around my finger from inside its pigtails. Squid, Magnet, and Caveman had told me they liked the pigtails, even though I said I thought they made me look like a little kid. X-Ray told me that I already looked like a little kid, so it didn't matter.
I knew he didn't mean it.
I ran my hands over my lacy white tank dress, and decided on my outfit. Hiding under my blanket, I slipped out of my cami and jumpsuit, slipped a white strapless bra on, and pulled on the pretty, Delias(not mine) lacy white tank dress. It stopped right above my knees. Then I pulled on my patterned cowboy boots and pulled a thick brown leather belt around my hips. After 2 wooden bangles were around my left wrist, I said we could leave. The boys nodded, but as if on cue, Magnet reminded the boys that Mr. Sir had to see him, Squid, Armpit, and X-Ray. They agreed, saying they'd meet the rest of us in the Wreck Room later. Caveman looked apologetically at me and told me that he was teaching Zero how to read that night, so he couldn't come with. He told me he was sure the other guys would be in the Wreck Room when I got there though, so I headed off without them.
Normal POV
Chanele stuck her head inside the Wreck Room, followed by her body. She took a seat on the couch, but not before noticing that ZigZag wasn't sitting there. She turned to see him arguing with a B-tenter, who was trying to take the pool table from him. When Zig saw her though, he stopped arguing with the kid and went to sit on the couch. Chanele instantly got up to walk away when he sat down, but he grabbed her by the arm and gently pulled her back down. She pulled away, his touch frightening her. "Listen." He ordered her. Normally, Chanele would protest, but she wanted to hear what he would say. "Look, Princess, I know I've been a jerk about you lately. Not to you, directly, but about you. The thing is, I think you're lying. About what happened to you, I mean. At first I thought you made it up, because you were undercover for the warden, but when you cried, I decided that you were really stuck here." He paused for a second, and looked at her. So far, she looked stunned and confused, no crying. Good. He took a breath and went on. "I think you were framed. I don't think you assaulted the mayor. And I don't think he was coming on to you either. I think he had already done that, and he was in the midst of…erm…..hurting you…and you hit him with something and ran." He looked at her eyes, they were starting to swell. "You didn't attack him because he was trying to take advantage of you. He was attacking you and you…hit and ran." ZigZag wasn't expecting what happened next.
Chanele collapsed in tears, straight into his arms. Well, this was awkward. But she did manage to say something through muffled sobs into his chest. "He…was…pulling down my pants….pinned against the wall…metal railing marks on my back….I…took…my stiletto off while he was uhm, readying himself….and smacked the heel into his face….he was only hurt for a second…and he started to chase me. I ran for 2 miles until I realized he had passed out about ½ a mile back, from all the booze." ZigZag pulled her off his chest, slightly shaken and angered. Without thinking of what he was doing, he reached up and wiped her tears away. "It's ok, Chanele, you're here now. D-tent boys won't let you get hurt. And neither will I." His low, Southern voice soothed her, and she looked up at him with excited, surprised eyes. "What?" Zig asked, wondering what he had said. "You…..you called me Chanele." She smiled such a big smile that he blushed a little. "Uhh…sorry.." ZigZag started, but she shushed him. "I loved it." She smiled widely. He smirked nervously. "Ok well uh….I guess I'll go move your cot in, see you at Lights Out Prin…I mean Chanele." Her smile was now so big it took up half of her face. He smiled at his feet, then walked out. Chanele sat their with a goofy grin on her face until it was time for bed.
A/N: AWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Now don't worry, it isn't ganna be all mushy gushy from now on. I'm going to experiment with Squid and her, nothing permanent. Keep Reading ;)