I was fighting in my dream, but I don't know who. The shadowy figures darted around me and I could feel my strength sapping. I swung for them, but they always shimmered out of my range, and a strange song began to play. I didn't try to listen to it, if I stopped, they would beat me down. It got louder, and got vaguely familiar, what was the name? Something with an 'R'. Rough hands grabbed my shoulders and shook, "Lacey, wake up."

Waking up with a jolt, my left hand lashed out in the direction of the voice, and I heard the satisfying collision of my fist and someone's face. There was a cry of pain and my eyes finally cracked open to early morning darkness. The boys were in various stages of undress, and were zipping their jumpsuits. Magnet was standing next to me, rubbing his jaw roughly, "Girl, you got a mean left hook."

"I've been told, remember: no touching." I rolled out of bed, and pulled the blanked up over the mattress. I may have been the only girl in a group of boys, but I had standards. Next I sat down on my bed and zipped my jumpsuit down to reveal my white tank top. I pulled that off next, and proceeded to tighten my bindings, until a yelp from Zig Zag interrupted me.

"Guys! I thought I told you that if she started stripping, you needed to wake me up."

I glanced over my shoulder and glared at him. Catching my look he fell silent, "If you can't handle it, you can get out." X-Ray put in. "She's a D- Tenter; we're not going to gape at her."

I nodded to X and pulled my tank top back on. When I was all zipped up and ready to go, I fastened a bandanna over my head, tying it much like Squid's. When everyone was all ready to go, the boys exited, and everyone in the camp was already streaming towards the mess hall. There looked to be close to seventy boys, well, sixty nine and me, all decked out in the same orange jumpsuit. They formed a huge crowd in front of the mess hall, and a couple boys from our tent broke off to join others, chatting aimlessly. Soon, though it took longer than I'd expected, glances began to hit me from all sides. Whispers radiated out from me and I rolled my eyes, praying that the door to the mess hall would open soon. And soon it did, and the boys crowded on in, their stomachs more important than getting a visual on me. Armpit led me in, and Squid followed me in, while Zero walked in next to me. I realized they were trying to shield me, and smiled on the inside. I actually got in line close to the end, and by the looks of it, I wasn't missing much. The food looked gross, completely repulsive, and downright disgusting. I took my share though, knowing I'd need food for energy to dig. As I was sliding my tray along the counter, a boy approached me from behind. His proximity made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Trying to keep my calm, I turned, leaving my tray on the counter. Turning to face him was a mistake, because this dude was huge. And smelly, but that wasn't what flooded adrenaline into my bloodstream. My muscles tightened, and my fists clenched. I knew the skin was stretched tight over my knuckles, revealing the scars there. Unconsciously I puffed myself up to my full height and let loose a death glare in his face, "can I help you?"

His face was sly, like he thought he was being charming, "Yeah, actually. You see, I haven't gotten any action in a long time, and I was wondering," he pulled my hips to his, "wanna go?"

I nearly hissed with my fury, and he leaned forward to try and kiss me. Summoning all of my strength, I let loose a knee to his groin. He howled in pain and bent over, and when he did I slammed my knee into his face. Blood streamed from his broken nose now, and he looked up, big dumb eyes squinted against the pain. I took a step forward, and I felt my tent boys crowd in beside. The hostility emanating from our group was tangible, and the entire room was silent now.

Without dialogue this time, the ogre lunged for me, but I sidestepped, my hands coming up and my body slipping into my fighting stance. Zero stepped forward, perhaps to help, but X held him back. The adrenaline flowed through my system, scalding my insides, and I felt light, fast, strong. My body was practically bouncing with all of the energy, and the idiot lunged again. This time I ducked under his arms, and behind him. Fiercely, I gripped his jumpsuit at his shoulders, and let fly a knee into his tailbone. As his body arched from the pain, I slammed him to the ground, and stood above his head, out of the way. The room was silent, dead silent. I quickly scanned the stunned faces of the room, trying to decide if any of them was a threat. What broke the silence was the fallen giant's moan of pain from the ground as he slipped into unconsciousness. My group cheered in victory, and crowded around me, pumping their fists and all of that, but only X dared touch me. He held out his hand and I grabbed it, and he pulled me into a man hug, slapping me on the back, "Ya did good Bee."

I punched him in the gut, even though I was reveling in the pure joy that my quickly changing redhead mood brought me. "No touching X"

A gunshot split the air, and the hall fell quiet, though it wasn't silent. I realized with a thrill that my tent hadn't been the only one celebrating. Mr. Sir stood just inside the threshold of the door, gun pointed at the ceiling. "What is going on?"

His voice was dangerously quiet, and I felt my tent's good mood disappear in a hurry. Three of my boys stepped in front of me, X suddenly at the front. He lied smoothly, "Thlump here tripped on his way up for a word with Butterfly. You should probably get mom to look at him, his nose looks broken."

Mr. Sir's eyes were open different widths as he surveyed my tent, who were staring back pokerfaced. He met my eyes, but I stared back, wide-eyed and innocent. "Fine. Nothing to see here, keep eating."

Quickly, we shuffled to our table, taking our food with us. When I sat, I had X on one side, and Zero on the other, and we ate in silence until Mr. Sir left the room. As soon as the door had swung closed behind him, the conversation started.

"Whoa." Said a stunned Zig Zag.

The rest of the table shoved more food into their mouths, nodding. There was a silence, broken by Squid, "Where'd you learn how to fight?"

I shrugged, eating calmly.

"You're pretty good for a girl," conceded X.

For a girl? Was he saying girls couldn't fight? I raised an eyebrow and opened my mouth, but someone beat me to it.

"Pretty good for anyone."

We all stared at Zero, though he went on eating as if nothing had happened. The praise, as well as the reverent silence, warmed me inside.

"Where did that come from guys? Bee? Butterfly? Which one is it?"

Armpit took initiative with this one, "You know, it's like Muhammad Ali's saying 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee' we just figured it fit.

I nearly smiled, but then I realized what was on my plate, and that whim disappeared. Of course, I was part of the group, and when we left to go to the library, I felt relaxed, like I could enjoy this a little now.

--

As the sun began to rise, we were just breaking ground into our holes for the day. I watched some of the guys start their holes by wedging their shovels into cracks in the ground, and did the same. Like any workout, I enjoyed it. The lifting and the shoveling weren't too bad, thanks to my regimen of training back home. The heat left my muscles warm and springy, and I was humming unconsciously. I couldn't understand why it bugged the guys so much, digging. I guess doing it every day was monotonous, but it couldn't still be hard for them after all this time. When the water truck came around halfway through the morning, I climbed out of my hole without much effort, and drained the last of my water. A line formed, and I could see the hierarchy laid out before me, X first, then Armpit, Squid, Magnet, Zig Zag, and Zero. Almost smiling, I went to take my place in the back, but X motioned me to the front, "Ladies first."

Pendanski was filling my canteen, and talking, at the same time, "Now this is what I like to see. You boys are getting along just fine, and Lacey is fine too. I like to see you boys treating her like a lady; I think it shows that you're getting back on track with your lives, making a fresh start. You're building character is what it is."

The boys were grumbling, and I could tell they'd heard this talk before. Relaxed, but with sore hands, I went back to my hole and laid down on my dirt pile. Gradually, as their canteens were filled, the boys each sat on their dirt piles, engulfed in a comfortable silence. Squid walked past me to get to his hole, and did a comical double take when he saw my hole, "Man, look at this!"

The boys that had their canteens filled walked over, and whistled at my hole. Magnet came over to see what we were talking about and he shook his head at my hole, "Where'd you learn to dig?"

I shrugged, and they all turned to hear my answer, Zig Zag finished up and came over, "I gotta bury the guys that touch me." They all laughed, and I just took a long sip from my canteen.

"Well, at the rate you're going, you'll be done just after lunch. You're almost matched with Zero." X was incredulous.

I glanced at Zero's hole, and saw that he was at most six inches ahead of me. Resigned, I took another swig of water, "Okay, get outta here, I'm gonna try and beat lunch."

We all went back to our digging then, and all was quiet save for the shoveling, and my humming. An hour or so later I was sitting in my hole when Armpit looked over the side, "Hey Butterfly, are you a singer?"

"Why?"

"Well," he sank down to sit next to me, "Zig Zag heard you humming, and wanted to know if you're a singer. He doesn't want to come over here, because he's afraid you'll smack him for asking."

I rolled my eyes, "Paranoid."

"More than you know. So are you?"

I hesitated, able to figure out where this was going, but I liked Armpit enough to give him a straight answer "Well, yeah, but not with a group or anything. I sing in the shower."

It was then I noticed the conspicuous lack of digging noise. The boys were all resting their elbows on the ground, watching me, and waiting. Armpit asked the question that was on everyone's mine, "Will you sing something?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

Zig Zag crawled out of his hole and scrambled over, "Please?"

I sighed, knowing that there would be no rest for me if I refused, "No. And forget it unless you want to wake up tomorrow in a hole with a yellow spotted lizard."

They dropped it, and let me dig in peace.

Hello!

First off, I want to apologize for the lack of romance thus far. I need to put in background information, and build her relationship with the camp first, but be patient, it's a virtue! Other than that I just wanted to say hey, and thank all of my beautiful reviewers, of which there are three (most notably childhood disruption). Seriously guys? Only three people can take fourty five seconds out of their day and click that little button that says 'go', to send me words of praise, encouragement, criticism, or just to get the virtual cookies? REVIEW!

Looooove,

Emmy

Ps: if you have anything you want to see in the plot, let me know, and I'll see what I can do!