Disclaimer: Enough of this rubbish! huff Obviously I don't own Holes! And I don't falsely claim to own Holes! The plot and additional original characters are the creation of my own twisted mind.

Uncovered Holes

Chapter 2: Of Which Carmen Arrives and becomes 'Pyro'

POV – Carmen Soledad AKA Pyro

I stepped off the bus and my flowy brown ankle length skirt immediately whipped around my legs. I had the sudden urge to run as fast as I dared, but I didn't. I hate this place already. Some people call me paranoid. I'm not, really, I swear. You don't believe me, do you?! Well I'm not. I'M NOT PARANOID! They told me there was another girl here. Only one. The rest were boys. Useless, good-for-nothing, kniving criminal boys. I'm sixteen, but you probably couldn't tell at a glance. I'm curvy and 6'2, a very odd combination if you ask me. Or like my friend Diego, looking up at me in all his 5'3 glory(also a pyro, like me), used to say, 'just plain strange.' The top half of my chin length dark brown hair was pulled into a ponytail. No matter how hard I tried it would not all go up, so I settled for putting my black bandana around my forehead. The cop roughly yanked me into a tiny cramped excuse for an office. Then he left. He left me stranded in the desert with nothing.

I'll admit, I really didn't believe the yellow spotted lizard jazz the dorky 'counselor'(I had doubts about his title) shoved at me until we saw one and he started screaming like a girl. It was a lizard! Big deal. I went to kick it when the old prune of a guy from inside the registration area came bolting wildly out of the office waving a gun around over his head. In mere seconds, where my foot had rested just seconds earlier, the lizard began screeching and spluttering before the contents of it's blood stream was splattered across the hard sandy ground. I practically jumped backward onto the little man.

"Well - " He squeaked – "Let's go see if we can find Caden, she'll show you around and introduce you to the boys."

Idiots. They were all blithering idiots. Caden was awesome, but all the guys were drooling like rabid hounds faced with a giant steak. I mean, I'm wearing a skirt, but damn. It's down to the freaking ground. It literally felt like they were undressing me with their eyes. I wanted to kill them. Even the cute ones. They were all little sexist pigs. No, not pigs. Pigs are clean, gentle, intelligent creatures. Sexist arses was more like it.

"Ignore them, it's what they're used to. Y'all quit starin' at her! Hi. I'm Caden. You can call me Fighter if you like, or just Caden. I don't care which. And these buffoons – "

She motioned toward the group of scattered boys –

"Are my D-Tent bitches. Everyone say hi." She commanded.

I liked her already. We were going to get along just fine.

"Carmen Soledad." I turned to the rest of the tent, flashing my warning stare.

"Lets get a few things straight. DO NOT call me Meme, or Carmel, or Car, or Carma. Carmen and Carmen only. I'm a pyromaniac. Basically, you get between Carmen and fire, Carmen attacks. Nice and simple for you unicellular beings. I AM NOT PARANOID. My psychiatrist says I have a vivid imagination and I suffer from moderate to severe paranoia. It's all lies. So don't call me paranoid. Ever. Lastly, I don't like guys. I just don't… so if you value the ability to create children in your future, don't touch me. Just… Don't. You all got that? Good."

And so my hell began.

"I don't believe it. I can't believe it. We, you and I, the only girls ever to grace Camp Green Lake with our presence, are getting our own tent. I don't believe it." Caden announced to me two days later.

I was attempting to braid Zig-Zag's crazy hair (yes, odd I know, but HE asked) when she burst into the tent (the old one) around 8:00 in the evening.

"Cay, you're not thinking rationally. Stop. Breathe. Think. Why on earth would we get our own tent? There are two of us." I asked, pulling her down onto an adjacent cot by her elbow, and yanking on Zig's hair rougher than I had intended.

"Ow, Pyro be careful you oaf!" He shouted.

"Oh, sorry, did that hurt?" I mocked, pulling his head back purposefully by the hair. He began spluttering.

"Now who's the oaf?" I let go of his head and gave up on my pointless braiding.

"Sorry man, your hair's too wild." I pushed him away playfully.

"There're more girls coming. Five of 'em. That's why we're getting the tent. They want to make this into a co-ed camp… It'll never work, of course." Caden added.

"Why?!" Zig-Zag shouted indignantly. "Don't they trust us?!"

"Um, no. We're criminals, why would they trust us, hmmm? It won't work for more than six months. You'll see. Just watch what happens."

I hate digging. I hate it." I complained.

"Now then Carmen, I guess you should have thought of that before you decided to go and burn your school down." Pendanski explained in his fake psychologist mindset one night at 'group' meeting #4.

"Chica, you burned your school down? Man, I wish this chick went to my school." Magnet cut in.

"It needed to be remodeled – " I began, only to be cut off by Caden.

"Pendanski, that makes no sense. How could she possibly have known that if she burned down her school she'd be sent to an ALL-BOYS CAMP? How is that logical? You're insane."

Pendanski shot back, "Now wait a minute. We are slowly becoming a well-rounded, co-ed detention facility. You girls just don't seem to see that. You're getting your own showers, bathroom, and tent. Everything will be fantastic."

"Oh quit your preaching, you stupid imbecile. You know that once your little single-tent experiment is through, you'll get rid of all of us girls and go right back to being a 'boys only' camp. It's inevitable with your type of funding." I argued.

"Look, I'm not going to sit here with you and bicker about the future of this camp. It's dinner time. Go on." He instructed, now completely avoiding the subject.

"Yeah whatever, man." Armpit said, marching out of the tent first.

Splat. Splat. Splat. The sound of 'food' hitting trays sickens me. Is this stuff gonna be digestible? I ask myself in my own head. I'm craving chocolate, I have been for the past three hours. What Caden said started an internal argument. They really didn't want us here. They only wanted the money they were getting because of us, and the extra digging help. The funding was unreasonable to begin with. I ran around in circles, or rather, the opposing sides in my head ran around in circles well into the night.

I was blasted out of my dream where I'm dating Orlando Bloom this morning at three A.M., and almost strangled the nearest innocent pillow in the process. I slipped on an over-large black t-shirt and jeans underneath my jumpsuit, ignoring the fact that we were stranded in the middle of the desert, working under the hot sun all day. I tied a neon green (it's hard to see in the dark you know) bandana around my forehead.

"Caden. Wakey-wakey." I say, nudging her still sleeping form in the side with my toe.

"How can she sleep through that?" I ask Armpit in disbelief, the closest person.

"Dude, her name's Fighter. How do you think she sleeps through it? She's a stubborn-ass chick. Kinda like a rock, only with a personality." He responded dazedly.

"I heard that." She groaned, chucking her pillow at him.

"Ooh, don't bug her, 'Pit, she might, ya know, knock you down and sleep on top of you or somethin'." Magnet joked, and was answered by a roll of socks coming into contact with his face.

After dragging Caden from her cot by her feet, wrestling her down and tickling her until she woke up completely, Zig-Zag was very bruised and cross, and my stomach was growling like there was no tomorrow. It lurched to a screeching halt when I spotted our 'breakfast'. Was that edible? I wondered as I stared at the tortillas smothered with honey. Pendanski handed me a little green pill and paper cup filled with water.

"I don't take pills." I protested, lying through my teeth to avoid taking my dreaded meds.

"Carmen, now, don't be silly. You know you have to take pills for your ADHD every morning. Doctor's orders. You have to take them, or you'll have to dig two holes for a week instead of one." He bribed, or rather, threatened.

"Fine." I huffed, popping the pill into my mouth.

"Let's see." He prodded.

I opened my mouth and stuck my tongue out.

"Okay, you can go now." He said, satisfied, as Mr. Sir ( I still sniggered at the name) led us to the place where we'd dig today.

"Dig." He commanded, going away.

I spit the pill into the nearest hole, kicking the side in a bit with my boot.

"Naughty, naughty. Would you look at that, Magnet? Our friend Pyro over here isn't taking her meds. I wonder how long it'll take before she's bouncing off the sides of her hole?" Squid taunted.

"Shut your face or my fist will be bouncing off your stomach." That shut him up.

The food had looked even nastier than it sounded. I refused to eat it.

"You'll be regretting it by 6:00 this mornin'." Ziz-Zag teased.

"I don't care. Being hungry will be much healthier than eating something that looks like a baby spit up all over it." I retorted disgustedly.

And after standing under the hot sun for three hours after sunrise I did regret it, horribly.