Chapter Two

They looked at the two girls in shock and then recovered, smiling to each other. One boy was white, and the other black. They were so dirty, Michaela didn't even realise this until they had gotten closer.

"This is Rex," Mr Pendanski said, pointing at the black kid, who had glasses, though there was no way he could see out of them. "And this is Alan."

"Hey, I'm X-Ray," Rex said, smiling and shaking their hands. "And this is Squid."

Becky shook his hand cautiously. "X-Ray? Squid?"

"That's right," X-Ray nodded, "It ain't just a nickname, ya know."

Squid held his hand out for Michaela, though she didn't really know what he actually looks like under that dirt. She took his hand.

"It's a pleasure," Squid said in a cute Southern twang.

"Likewise," she replied, smiling and dropping his tightening hand. They both turned to X-Ray and Becky, who were studying each other in interest. Michaela had a theory that they both found each other attractive, but couldn't figure out if that was a threat or not. This would definitely be a dilemma in the weeks to come.

"Right, erm, Squid, go and get the others from please, before you take a shower," Mr Pendanski said.

"You don't smell too pleasant," Becky retorted to X-Ray, who frowned. Michaela smiled at her friend in amusement, and Squid chuckled as he headed toward the Rec Room. He had a mellow, deep sounding laugh, Michaela noticed.

"Neither will you, come tomorrow," X-Ray hit back, folding his arms over his dirty orange jumpsuit.

Before Becky could retort their counsellor said, "Right, girls, go and drop your stuff off in F Tent. Get used to it, as it'll be your home for the next eighteen months."

X-Ray watched as they retreated to F Tent. Two very different girls. One was quieter than what you'd expect, as she obviously must have done something bad to get into Camp Green Lake. She had wavy brown hair and bright blue eyes. The other, Becky, had the same colour skin as X-Ray himself. To match, she had bushy brown hair tied up and sharp brown eyes. She seemed strong, but definitely hiding something. Hiding something that was causing her pain. He looked at Mom.

"So it's D Tent's turn to have girls join us now?"

"It sure is, Rex. And then E Tent will have two girls eventually. The Warden will assess how it's going, and take it from there."

X-Ray raised his eyebrows. "I have to admit, the other girls have handled this alright so far."

Mr Pendanski smiled. "I'm glad you think so Rex."

Squid then returned, followed by the other boys of D Tent.

Michaela threw her bag and canteen onto the cot, and looked around her new home. A tent which smelt kind of like horses. There were 2 cots, with sheets on the bottom and one on the top and two pillows. There were two crates by each cot. The open end of the crates faced outward.

"Eighteen months of this," Michaela sighed, undoing the top half of her jumpsuit, and tying it round her waist, so her under top was showing. It was too hot to have it all done up.

Becky yanked at her collar, which was sticking to her skin through sweat due to the stifling heat. "And we have to dig a hole everyday in this.I mean, why?This should be training for a body builder or something, not a camp for bad kids."

"Amen to that."

"Michaela! Becky! Come and meet everyone," Mr Pendanski called from outside. Indeed, a line of boys awaited them. One of the boys said to Squid, "Wow, you weren't joking!" Michaela had no idea what he meant by that, but Squid kicked him to shut the boy up.

"Now, you already know Rex and Alan. Meet José, Theodore, Ricky, Lewis and Zero."

X-Ray sighed. "No, Mom. It's Magnet, Armpit, Zigzag and Barfbag."

Michaela looked at Becky, who was staring at them in disbelief.

"Of course, as you may have noticed, they have their own little nicknames but I prefer to use their real names. The names societywill recognise them by," Mr Pendanski said sternly.

"What about Zero?" Michaela asked, pointing to the smallest of them.

"Nope, that's his name," Squid answered, before anyone else could. Michaela nodded, but still confused.

"We call him Zero because there's nothing going on in his stupid little head!" Mr Pendanski playfully shook his afro.

Michaela was shocked at his coldness towards Zero, wasn't he meant to be his counsellor?

"Isn't that nice, Michaela?" Becky said sarcastically.

"Oh, what, and you are?" X-Ray hit back. "Yeah you must be real nice to have ended up here."

"I don't go judging people based on the fact they don't want to have conversations with morons," she almost shouted back. Michaela sighed.

Zero looked at her in surprise while everyone else stood around in an awkward silence.

Squid broke it, while Michaela clenched her hand around Becky's arm to calm her down. "And we call Pendanski Mom."

He chuckled. "You girls can also call me that if it makes you feel better."

Squid scoffed. Somebody farted.

Everyone turned their heads to one of the boys, Barfbag, who grinned goofily. Now Michaela understood his nickname. "Better here than in the tent, right?"

"Right, I am in need of a shower!" a dirty Armpit declared. Mr Pendanski chuckled as he himself headed to Mr. Sir's office.

"No shit," Squid muttered, causing a ripple of laughter. He seemed pleased to have made Michaela laugh.

"Nice meeting you girls," Armpit said happily, winking at Michaela and turning. Michaela smiled uncertainly after him.

The rest of the boys left too, shouting bye, very merrily, to the girls. One of the boys was Hispanic, Magnet, Michaela learnt as he shouted bye and waved with a cheeky grin on his face.

Squid lingered as X-Ray and Becky glared at each other.

"Erm...Becky?" Michaela asked timidly. "You wanna...go? Like, right now?"

"You go," she replied, "I got this."

Squid swerved his head, gesturing for Michaela to join him. X-Ray and Becky ignited their argument about petty things, the other eager to win. They seemed to really clash.

"After I've had a shower, I'll give you a proper tour of the place. If you want?"

Michaela nodded eagerly. "That'd be cool."

Squid smiled widely. "I won't be long." Pulling out a sort of token from his pocket, he moved away to the shower stalls. Michaela quickly turned away in amusement when realising that a lot of boys were actually showering now. The last thing she needed was a reputation for spying on the boys showering.

"—You're not gonna last five minutes out there!"

"Really? Who says? Read the future, can you?"

"Science says! Men are physically stronger than women, and we barely get through it!"

"Aah, but you're a boy, not a man—"

Michaela strolled past the argument, and entered her tent, picking up her empty canteen. She needed to drink before she passed out.

Returning to the heat, she sat on the steps to her tent, enjoying the shade, and finding entertainment in the form of Becky and X-Ray. She decided she'll wait for Squid here, too.

Soon, she was glad to see Squid strolling back over, clean from dust and dirt and sweat. Michaela was surprised at how good looking he was underneath. He had shapely black hair, dark eyebrows and soft dark eyes. Were delinquents meant to be this good-looking?

"Ready for the tour, then?" he asked, now chewing on a tooth pick or something similar.

"First though, could you go fill up this for me? I think I'm going to die," Michaela asked, holding up her canteen. She had spotted the water spigot; it was by the showers. Where the boys were showering.

Squid turned to look at the spigot, confused on why he had to do it for her. Seeing the boys stripping in the shower, he understood and laughed slightly.

"Yeah course, though the boys will be disappointed," he grinned.

When he came back, Michaela stood with her hands on her face, trying to concentrate.

"Here..." Squid handed her the full canteen, watching as she swayed slightly. "Are you all right?"

She felt the coolness of the water trickle down her body, and sighed in relief. "Yeah, I'm much better. Thanks for that."

"Good. Right, let's go."

Michaela followed him into the building named 'Mess Hall'.

"This is the Mess Hall, where we have dinner every night—I'll warn you, it's not great."

Michaela giggled as the man with a long brown beard behind the counter looked very offended. But Squid was right—they were serving the food now, and Michaela looked at it nervously.

"It won't kill me, will it?" she asked Squid, in half amusement, half seriousness.

Squid just laughed in response.

"Come on, the next stop on the big tour—our tent."

Back out into the heat, Squid stopped. "That's our tent over there—D Tent. If you ever want to, you know, hang out or whatever, then I'm sure they'll be more than happy to let you in. But, we mainly hang out in the Rec Room."

"Cool, that'd be nice."

"And you know Mr. Sir's office, the Warden's place, the holes—"

"Who is the Warden exactly?" Michaela asked, staring at a kid washing the mysterious person's car.

Squid, though, shrugged. "I dunno. Never seen him."

They entered the last building, which fell a little quieter as they entered. Michaela tried to remain cool and collected as all eyes fell on her, when inside she just wanted to run away.

Squid cleared his throat, and the boys went back to whatever they were doing, with big grins on their faces.

"Anyway, this is the Rec Room; it's kind of like a games room, where we relax after digging."

Michaela could certainly see why it was called the Rec Room. Everything was broken: the furniture, skittles, pinball machine and the busted TV. Even half the chairs had stuffing coming out of it or a leg snapped off. But she welcomed the cheap air conditioning that was a fan in the corner.

"Hey, where are the other girls?" Michaela asked, seeing only boys.

"Probably in their tent," Squid replied. "They don't come in here very much."

"Oh," Michaela said, slightly disappointed. It was then she realised that she was still being stared at. Some of them were even whispering, quite blatantly about her. "Er—well, I'm going to head back to my tent, then..."

He nodded. "I'm sorry about these guys...it's been a long time since some of them have seen an attractive girl—"

He stopped suddenly, realising what he had intended not to say, he ended up saying. Michaela broke out in a grin. "Thanks," she said, looking down and back up, "I'll catch you later, Squid."

Her cheeks turning slightly red, she turned and joined Becky in their tent.

"Are you alright Becky?" she asked.

"Fine," Becky said. But after a moment's pause she suddenly said, "But don't some people really just get under your skin? They annoy you so much that you just don't know why?"

Michaela suppressed a grin at her new friend who seemed completely oblivious to finding X-Ray attractive. Or she was trying to deny it. "So, the other girls haven't been in then?" She looked at the six other cots, with some personal possessions scattered about the place, showing signs of life.

"Nope."

An alarm sounded throughout the camp.

"What the hell is that for?" Becky asked, as they poked their heads out of the tent. A surge of boys were heading towards the Mess Hall.

"Dinner, I guess," Michaela shrugged, and joined them. As they were served their food, no, their mush, Michaela looked for a table that just the two of them could sit. She found one, in the corner of the room, away from everyone. It was where the other girls sat. Finally. The mystery girls do exist.

They sat down on the end of the table, as the group of six very tired-looking girls greeted them with a grunt. Dinner was a sort of stew and vegetables. The only thing decent was the piece of bread.

They met their fellow girl campers, who were so tired that they could barely get their words out. And Michaela and Becky could hardly blame them, after the day they had endured. Riley, a big-boned scary looking girl, and Bryony, a small, shy girl, were assigned to A Tent. Anna, the girly-girl, and Jade, the Emo, were counselling with B Tent and finally Natalie, who had a British accent, and her older sister by one year Nina were with C Tent.

All in all, a diverse bunch. Michaela was determined to try and get to know them tomorrow when they're hopefully less tired. They certainly didn't seem to be too bothered by Michaela and Becky's arrival.

After dinner, it was getting dark, and Michaela and Becky were very tired, so they followed their follow girls to F Tent, who were finally talking a little now that they'd had some food.

"Goodnight," sounded a voice behind Michaela as she was about to walk up the steps to her tent. She turned to see Squid.

"Night Squid," she said, watching as his outline moved forward.

"I'll be helping you tomorrow," he said, as the din of boys voices got quieter around camp. "I've been assigned as your mentor. X-Ray is Becky's, but that's gotta' be Mom's idea as a joke."

Michaela laughed. "Cool, thanks. I'll see you tomorrow." She watched as Squid moved away towards his own tent. With a feeling of excitement for tomorrow, and also anticipation of the day ahead, Michaela smiled as she got into her cot and fell asleep against the scratchy and smelly pillow.