Chapter 3

The water was refreshingly cool, a safe haven pumping in a stream to shield her from the heat. If only it didn't overpower her, if only it didn't drench her and turn against her, making her feel as if she were drowning. It flowed up her nose, blocked her throat, choked off her air. Mickey's eyes flew open as she coughed and spluttered beneath the swift moving water falling out of the faucet she lay under. Holding her hands up, the steady flow splattered out on all sides. The dry dirt sucked up the water as soon as it landed, drinking it down in big hearty gulps.

Mickey scrambled to her feet, her sleeping bag wrapped around her legs. Once she managed to free herself she stumbled forward only to crash headfirst into the wall of the showers. Among the loud noise of boys' laughter she fell to the ground, holding onto her throbbing forehead.

"What the hell…?" she mumbled, rolling onto her hands and knees.

"See? I told you she looked like a drowned rat," Squid's voice stuck out against the rest as the boys continued hooting with laughter over her expense.

She would have fought against that assessment if she didn't feel like a drowned rat. Her waterlogged hair hung in her face and her shirt clung to her body like a second skin. She was glad that she wasn't wearing a white shirt or else she'd have a bunch of boys staring at her for a completely different reason than she wanted.

"Aw man, that was perfect!" Magnet laughed, holding out his hand. Squid gleefully slapped his palm against Magnet's and they finished off their handshake with a snap of their fingers. Mickey's cheeks burned beneath the piercing eyes of the boys of D-Tent. She noticed none of them bothered to get her a towel or help her out. Not even Stanley who she thought was the nicest of the bunch, but maybe she was wrong.

Maybe she shouldn't have even begin to think that she could trust any of the boys or get along with them. Maybe she should just keep to herself like she had planned at the beginning. She didn't know how long she was going to be there. What was the point in befriending someone or trying to befriend someone when she could be leaving the next day?

They all looked out for themselves, it seems, she may as well do the same.

She was like that back at school as well. She got along with people for the most part but otherwise she was by herself. During lunch she would be sitting with others she called friends but she would listen more than she would speak. It didn't help that the topic of conversation was usually about which boy was the cutest, which was the hottest, which country club party was coming up, what pageant they were entering. Nothing that she had any sort of comment on.

And they knew it too. By the time the past summer came around she knew things had shifted. Alexis, whom she considered her best friend up until that point, had every excuse under the book to not want to come over and play in the pool or make homemade popsicles.

"I have to wash the dog" or "I need to watch Bailey" or "I can't, I already have plans. You know how it is" were her most common excuses. They would leave Mickey suspicious as much as she wanted to believe that Alexis was telling the truth. She never had a reason to lie to Mickey before. In fact, she had a horrible habit of not mincing her words. Everything about her was criticized from her hair style down to the shoes she wore. But Mickey took it all in stride because that was Alexis; that was what she liked about the girl. That she wasn't afraid to speak up and let people know what she was thinking.

The problem was she let people know what she was thinking. And the last time Mickey was around that was when Alexis was screaming at her and calling her a backstabber and a whore in the middle of Travis Reed's Summer Party.

The party that Mickey didn't even want to go to but she went to try and fix their friendship.

The party that cemented her fate and caused a permanent rift between herself and Alan.

The party that ruined everything.

Mickey squeezed out the hem of her shirt while glancing down at her now waterlogged sleeping bag as, one by one, the boys turned and left her in their wake. That was okay with her. The less people she had to interact with the better.

It'd help her forget that she had to share close quarters with Squid, as much as she possible could forget anyway.

# # #

The sound of the bugle came all too soon for Mickey. She wasn't sure if she had ever gotten back to sleep after the prank played on her or if she had just blocked out the passing hours from that point on. Either way her eyes burned and dread sat like lead in her legs, making her movements that morning very slow. And she hadn't even dug yet. Something that X-Ray and the others caught onto.

"Look at her, already actin' as if she feelin' the effects of diggin' a hole," X-Ray commented as he tugged on his gloves.

"Told ya she wouldn't last," Zigzag said, tugging his shirt down over his head. "She'll be lizard food for sure." He paused, his eyes widening, and then added in a bit of a whisper, "What if she's lizard bait? She could be luring them all here."

"Shut up, man, it's too early for this," Magnet mumbled in his half-asleep stupor.

"'Sides, even she can't lure in something like lizards," Squid added, continuing the unspoken agreement to talk about her instead of to her. "She's too ugly for that." Mickey sniffed and brushed her hand across her nose. The dirt burned in the back of her nose but she didn't have enough saliva yet to spit. Instead she imagined hocking a loogie at the back of his head.

After the horrible water prank she had to change into her second set of work clothes, which was a challenge in itself having to find a way to do it without dealing with a peeper. It was either dirty up her clothes faster than suggested or sleep in something that was going to cake on dirt and sweat. She may have to dress like a boy and do activities that the other boys did but that didn't mean she was going to roll around in dirt like one if she could help it. Apparently the other boys didn't agree.

She trudged behind the rest of D-Tent and joined the mass of other worn orange clad bodies that headed over to the shed marked LIBRARY. It was a cruel joke. Mickey was sure that they wouldn't trust them with a set of books, especially if the Wreck Room was of any indication of how they handled their privileges.

Mr. Sir stood by the Library, barking at them to wake up and to get their shovels while Dr. Pendanski was offering up smiles to the sleepy campers and pointing them towards breakfast for the day: honey tortillas. Mickey's heart sank when she saw the breakfast, the sudden realization that she should have been up to prepare it had slammed into her brain. Would she get in trouble for that? Get punished? Stoned? Thankfully her mind couldn't come up with something worse when Eagle walked by and muttered "Got you covered" and disappeared as quickly as he appeared.

She stopped in her tracks and stared at his back. This boy was going out of his way to make sure she was settled in and for what? What was he getting out of it? Or what did he want? She wasn't naïve. After one short day she knew people worked on a deal where favors were done only if the return value was stated upfront or worth equal value. X-Ray was the best example of that. So why was Eagle any different?

Shaking her head to dislodge the question, she tried to put her mind on the thought of needing to dig holes for the next however long it would take her to do it. The shovel was a little shorter than her and had a distinct weight to it. She bit her lip and sighed. The gravity of the situation fell onto her shoulders. This was really happening. She was stuck in a camp where she had to dig holes in the hot sun.

"Open them eyes, girlie," Mr. Sir barked as she passed by him. "This aint the Girl Scouts."

# # #

They say that sweat was the human body's natural way of cooling itself down. The sweat dripping down her body didn't feel like it was cooling her down, it felt like it was trapping the heat against her skin. Tying her hair back into a ponytail released the heat on her neck, but it was only a momentary relief. The sun was merciless, it didn't matter who stood beneath it, and they were all feeling its wrath.

Conditions were favorable before the sun came up. But as the sun steadily rose, temperatures soared. She wore her jumpsuit as long as she could and by that point her modesty didn't matter any longer. They were all trapped in an inferno, hell on earth, and it didn't care who it took down.

Shoving the tip of her shovel through the Earth's crust was harder than she expected. She knew it was be a struggle but it barely made a scratch. She tried slamming the tip into the dirt, she tried scraping the tip in from side to side, she even tried jumping on it to get it in but her weight didn't add much to the tool. By the time she finally got her first clump of dirt out of the ground she was pouring with sweat and the other boys guffawed at her attempts, save for Stanley and Zero.

By the time Pendanski came around with the water truck for lunch Stanley was a little less than half down with his hole, the other boys were on their way and Mickey had barely gotten a quarter of the way done. Her arms ached, her back ached, her palms had been rubbed raw, salty sweat ran into her eyes and her skin had already taken on a light red hue, the making of an awful sunburn.

"Come on." Mickey looks up right as the person's shadow blocked the sun. Turning around she squinted to see Stanley standing over her. "It's lunch time," he continued.

Nodding, Mickey dropped her shovel, thankful not to have to hold it any longer. She managed to lift her leg—boy was it heavy!—and prop it on the edge of her hole to step out of it. Her strides were long and slow, as if her very own muscles were revolting against her. By the time she got there an order had formed: X-Ray, Armpit, Squid, Zigzag, Magnet, Zero, Stanley, and then herself. She brushed her arm across her forehead, collecting the sweat, and felt it smear across her skin.

"Find anymore fossils, Caveman?" Magnet called. Mickey wasn't sure who he was referring to for a moment but then figured it was Stanley when he lowered his head. That was the first she heard of the nickname. "Seaweed this time?"

"Man, there aint no seaweed all the way out here," Armpit replied, accepting his lunch. "Sharks maybe."

"Sharks but no seaweed? You're crazy!"

"They wouldn't survive out here anyway. Water's too shallow," X-Ray explained, hovering by the truck door to wait for the others to catch up with him.

"Fish but no sharks?" Magnet demanded, sounding as if he didn't believe X-Ray.

"He's right, man," Squid replied. "It was a lake. Sharks can't live in lakes. No saltwater."

"Squid would know," X-Ray laughed, elbowing Squid in the side. He shoved X-Ray's arm away and rolled his eyes.

"How's your first hole, Mickey?" Dr. Pendanski asked with his usual shit-eating grin. She didn't even have enough energy to ask him to turn it down. She could only grunt a response and force her arm up to grab onto the bag he was holding out to her. "Well, I'm sure you'll get through it in no time. You can do it." He patted her arm and she winced. If he noticed he didn't let on that he did. He just flashed a thumbs up sign, climbed back into his truck, and drove onto the next location of holes.

Coughing as the cloud of dust enveloped her; Mickey walked back over to her hole and sat down next to it. She ate her sandwich first, despite it tasting like cardboard between bread. Then she moved onto her 'cookie', which was essentially a graham cracker but she didn't complain. She washed the dry snack down with her water, not wanting to touch her orange juice yet.

She was just about to take a bite of her apple when, out of the corner of her eye, arm reached out and took her carton of juice. Quick as a flash, she was on her feet, grabbing the wrist of the thief.

"You gotta problem?" Squid asked, his voice dropping to a dangerously low level.

"Give that back!" Mickey snapped. Well, she thought she snapped. Her voice came out more as a squeak than the commanding tone she wanted to use. Either way she still didn't let go of his wrist.

His eyebrow lifted and then he laughed. He pushed her arm away, shaking his head, and started to walk back over to where his friends were waiting. She didn't know what possessed her to do it, the heat, being tired of being treated like shit, general frustration, whatever it was powered up her arm to throw her apple at the back of his head.

It hit him with a thunk and silenced all noise in the general vicinity. Mickey's jaw hurt from her clenched teeth. The pressure eased off when he turned around and she saw the look in his eye. A jolt shot through her; she'd seen that look before. It had never been directed at her, it was directed towards others that had pissed him off and it scared her then. Now, though, it downright terrified her. But she wasn't going to let him push her around, not this time.

"You wanna apologize?" he asked.

"No," she replied. Her voice shook and her hands trembled but still she held up her chin, holding his gaze.

"Are you sure?"

She shrugged, displaying a nonchalance her knocking knees refuted. "Pretty sure."

He stepped closer. She could trace the path the golden lines made in his brown eyes. "Last try."

Mickey jumped and wrapped her arm around his neck, squeezing the bulging muscle with as much strength as she could muster. She had the advantage of a surprise attack for a few seconds until Squid broke her grip with ease and tackled her to the ground. The blow combined with his weight atop her made air rush out her lungs all at once. She heard shouting from the other boys but it was far away, like trying to pierce water. Squid overpowered her, pinning her body down with a push to her shoulders, holding her in place with a straddle to her waist.

A flash of panic hit her at once. Clarity flooded in, like the swift removal of a blindfold allowing light to poke holes in her bad decision. No, no, not again! She strained against his weight, hips lifting and knees bending in an effort to knock Squid off. He held steady, weighing her down, pressing her into the firm, dry shell of the lake.

Muffled rock music squeezed her head, her limbs lay heavy and useless. The blankets cocooned around her. Her heart stuttered an uneven beat. His alcohol-soaked breath sucked all the air from her lungs—

"That's enough, man," X-Ray said, somewhere above them.

She blinked open her eyes, gasping; a red-faced Squid was pulled off her by Armpit and Zigzag. Stanley stared, eyes wide, looking as if he were about to dip into a lunge, frozen between wanting to act and staying put; she knew it well. Her and freeze were on a first name basis.

Groaning, Mickey managed to roll over and spit on the ground. A reddened blob stared back at her and she was finally able to pull air into her lungs. Her heart throbbed in time with her head. She coughed and breathed back in, inhaling particles of dirt that clung to the insides of her cheeks. They scraped and bumped along her tongue as she collected it on the tip, using her teeth to slide enough off to spit out. Slowly, she got to her feet. It was dead silent. Their eyes on her burned; leaving marks that blended in with the others flung at her from her high school hallway. She took a swig of water and spat it out. The water stung where it met the split in her lip. Running her tongue over the split, soothing the sting, she forced herself to pick up her shovel.

No one else was going to dig for her.

Now, without the adrenaline rushing through her and the anger taking hold of her, her entire body shook. She leaned up against her the shaft of her shovel, urging herself to calm down. That she was safe. That she was away from him. She pressed the side of her head against the smooth shaft. A thick lump bobbed in her throat when she swallowed down the nausea rushing through her. You're safe, you're safe, you're safe. Chanting the mantra in her head, she tapped her fingers against the shaft, concentrating on the dull vibrations in the wood. She imagined the vibrations moving through her, stretching, trailing down to her feet and arcing outwards like thick tree roots, grounding her.

No one said a word and they all went back to digging. Slowly, but surely, they started to leave when their holes were complete. Zero first, then Armpit, followed by X-Ray and Zigzag; Magnet and Squid left at the same time, and then Caveman. Mickey still dug her hole by the time the sun began to set. Only when it was a pinkish-orange ball in the distance did she finally finish.

She used the shovel for leverage when exiting her hole. Once standing at level surface, she stared off in the distance, taking in the sunset; the stark streaks of gold and the pink melting into purple with the faint blues chasing after them. Was her father watching the same sunset, she wondered, as he rolled his way down the highways in his large truck? Was he thinking of her like she thought of him? His face flashed into her mind: his blooming, goofy smile, the crinkle to his mischievous blue eyes, the mid-laugh scrunching of his nose. Loneliness pitted in her stomach and it was only after a few moments of painful breathing did she manage to ease the sucker punch and quell tears that had threatened to fall. Clearing her throat she, like the other boys, spat in her hole, grabbed her shovel, and began her long walk back to camp.

By the time she reached the tent she almost ran right into Dr. Pendanski who came barging out of the tent, a flashlight in hand. Night had fallen and the stars came out fifteen minutes ago.

"Mickey! There are you are! We thought you were hurt!" he exclaimed, resembling a jack-o-lantern behind the light. At the sound of his shout some of the boys rushed to the opening. X-Ray's eyebrows lifted and Magnet whistled. She wanted to laugh. She had been hurt, he hit the nail on the head; the thing is, it'd hurt a lot more if she didn't already feel nothing.

"Not all of us," Squid's grunt came from inside the tent.

"What happened to your face?" Dr. Pendanski asked.

Mickey rolled her head to the side as she thought. She wanted Squid to pay, she really did. He got away with too much so far. But what would she gain from it? Having to watch over her shoulder to make sure he didn't jump her again? Granted, she did start the fight but still, she knew him. He would make sure he finished it, one way or the other.

Her eyes shifted over to Magnet who was miming something. Mickey's eyebrows lowered and she squinted slightly, trying to figure out what he was doing. He had his hand out, palm flat, and looked as if he was…pushing something?

"Uh…I…" Mickey stalled, glancing back and forth between Dr. Pendanski and Magnet. X-Ray grabbed onto the tent flap and shook it. Magnet pointed at it. "I…hit…"

Magnet threw his arms into the air and disappeared into the tent. A few seconds later he came back holding up a piece of paper. X-Ray jabbed his finger at the words written on it.

"I…walked into the tent door," she finally replied, carefully reading the words. Her voice was stilted, unnatural, certainly Pendanski wouldn't believe her.

Dr. Pendanski stared at her for a few moments, blinking, and then patted her shoulder. "Okay then. Be more careful next time. Don't want that to happen again." He then descended the stairs and stepped into the darkness that surrounded the camp.

She stared, gaping at his retreat, still feeling the burning pat of his hand to her shoulder. "Yeah, don't want that to happen again," she muttered under her breath.

9/21/20 edit - When I originally wrote this (back in 2014), I had a different scene of Squid and Mickey's fight where, after she attacked him, he attacked her back and beat her up. At the time I went with this controversial decision as a way to show that she's just like everyone else in the camp and that she wouldn't have special treatment and to bring up the topic of debate that, if in the situation that a man was being attacked by a woman, he could use equal force for self-defense. However, as I read over it again recently it made me uncomfortable, especially with learning more of Mickey's background later, so I've edited the scene to scale it back.