A/N: Well, it hasn't been long, but I decided to put up the next chapter anyways. D Hope you guys like it, and I forgot to put this up last time but REVIEW please! Thank you very much.

Disclaimer: I don't own holes. Only the plot and Vanessa.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your Guardian Angel
Chapter 2: Of Nightmares and Interrogations

Nightmares were something that I had grown accustomed to over the past year. Almost every night for the past 365 days, I would dream about being lost in a forest with cuts all over my arms, each one gushing out blood. As I ran, trying to find my way and calling, in desperate need of help, waves of terror and hopelessness would wash over me and as soon as I realized that I would never find my way out and that no one would come looking for me, I would just fall to the ground, crying as the pain of my cuts took over me.

I would wake up from this horrible dream in a terrible sweat, pale and screaming bloody murder. The first few weeks this happened, someone would come up to check on me, making sure there was nothing wrong. But after a while, everyone in my house had gotten used to it, even blocking out the sounds of my screaming so they could have a peaceful night's sleep.

I hoped that I could escape these nightmares when I went to Camp Green Lake. At least give me this one break, I thought when I had agreed to go here. Of course, there was no such luck. It's me we're talking about, after all. The clumsy, average-looking girl.

When I woke up, six guys were all around my cot. Each and every one of them had worried looks on their faces. And why shouldn't they, when the only girl they've seen for the past few months just randomly started to go in hysterics during her sleep, I thought. I was surprised no one tried to slap me to wake me up.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I reassured them before they could say anything. Using my elbows for support, I propped up on my cot. "Just a bad dream."

Most of them looked at me disbelievingly. Oh, what a great nuisance I will be to them during the nights, I thought grimly. Taking in the looks on their faces, I realized that I only knew 3 of the 6 boys that surrounded me. Being more confident than when I first arrived, I stared at the 3 new faces that were looking at me.

Two of them were black, one with unusually large glasses and the other a bit overweight with a bad stench radiating off of him. The third boy was tall with blonde hair that stuck out in every which way. I felt a bit bothered when I realized that he was not looking at me with concern like the others, but with fear etched all over his face.

The boy with the glasses seemed to notice my staring. He cleared his throat and straightened up, introducing himself as X-Ray. He gestured to the boy with the bad odour and said his name was Armpit while the boy with the blonde crazy hair was ZigZag. I let my confusion show as I wondered why everyone insisted on being called such weird names.

X-Ray took one look at my face and carried on with explaining. "Our nicknames may sound weird, but here, it's a sign of acceptance. You'll get one as soon as we feel that you are truly one of us."

Actually, I was hoping I would never become fully one of them, seeing as these boys were all juvenile delinquents and I was only here because of a big misunderstanding. But of course, that's probably what everyone says, right? Even so, I tried to look as hopeful as I could that someday, I would be lucky enough to get a nickname also.

"Well, we should go to the Mess Hall," the boy I remembered as Magnet said. "The bell sounded 5 minutes ago."

I got up from my cot as everyone started to head outside. I couldn't help but notice that ZigZag was still giving me uneasy looks, like I would attack him at any second. My self-consciousness kicked in again and I was afraid that I was giving him some kinds of dirty looks or something that triggered some kind of fear in him.

Squid noticed my worried glances at ZigZag and laughed, making his way to walk next to me. "Don't worry about him," he said. "I read his file. He suffers from acute paranoia. He probably thinks you're from some alien planet trying to brainwash us. But that's ok, he'll come around."

I smiled lightly. "What, do I look that bad that someone would think I'm not even from this Earth?" I joked. It was the first time in a while that I had used my sense of humour. It was a bit enlightening.

Squid smiled back. "Yeah, you are. Too bad, really. First girl we've seen in months and she has to be butt-ugly."

I feigned shock, anger, and disappointment. I gave him a cold look, stuck my tongue out, and turned to walk with Magnet instead. As I did, I turned back to see what his reaction was but all he did was stare for a second, then he rolled his eyes and began to walk with X-Ray.

By that time, we had reached the place called the Mess Hall. Well, it certainly did look like a mess. When we entered, all eyes turned to me. And of course, since we were late, every guy was in there already. Oh great. Here comes the tomato face. And somehow, my stupid 'ol clumsy self managed to trip over smooth ground at that very second. Luckily, Magnet was there to catch me before I did a face plant. But too late, everyone had seen, since they had been scrutinizing my every move since I got here, and now everyone knows how much of a klutz I am. Joy.

"You okay?" Magnet asked as I straightened up.

"Yeah I'm fine. But I should warn you, be ready to catch me at any time of the day. I'm very prone to anything klutz-worthy," I said.

He laughed. "Yeah, I kinda figured that when you fell from your cot today."

I blushed even harder. I had forgotten about that.

We rushed in line with the others for food and that's when I realized how hungry I was. I hadn't eaten anything since morning. And when I saw the shlop that they called 'food' that was being served, I figured that I wouldn't be eating anything until the next morning. Or ever.

We all sat down at a table and I eyed my so-called food suspiciously. Did they really suspect us to eat this? I glanced at everyone and came to a conclusion that they did since everyone else was eating all their food heartily.

Armpit noticed my disgusted expression and tried to smile comfortingly. "You get used to it after a while. Besides, if you've been diggin all day, you'd take any food ya get."

Oh great. Soon I would be chugging this down like the rest of 'em. Appetizing.

"Say," X-Ray said, eyeing my bread. It was the only piece of food I had that seemed edible. "Since you didn't dig today, mind if I eat your bread?"

I glanced down uncertainly. I noticed that he seemed to be the leader of the tent because of the way he carried himself, with an air of authority, but I wasn't willing to give up the only piece of food that I was planning to eat.

"Uhm, how about I keep the bread and you can have everything else?" I offered.

Everyone at the table howled with laughter. Clearly they thought I was joking. I stared at them, contemplating how I would ever fit in at this place. The guys stopped laughing as soon as they noticed my serious gaze.

"Oh. She wasn't kidding," ZigZag said, stating the obvious.

"Well, since you're a girl," X-Ray agreed. But he made no move to take the rest of the food away. "But you can have the rest, too."

So, I'm being treated differently since I was the girl. Some part of me wanted to jump up and protest feminin equality rights and what-not but hey, I got to keep my bread didn't I?

"So, Nessa," Squid started. I was surprised he remembered my request to be called Nessa instead of Vanessa. "What were you dreaming about?"

Oh great. I was beginning to hope that they wouldn't ask me about that. It took me almost a whole year to forget the event that caused those nightmares and all that pain. Well, forget as much as I could. I didn't want all that effort to come crashing down just because of a bunch of boys. Not knowing how to explain, I immediately went back from joking around to shy mode.

"Umm, well it was nothing really. Nothing to worry about. I have no idea what the dream even means anyways." All this was said as if I was talking to my food instead of the boys. Which was totally fine since I had a suspicious feeling that the food could understand what I was saying anyways. Surely something that could move on its own had to be alive, right?

The guys didn't believe me. I could see it in their faces when I finally did look up. Thank god they didn't bother me anymore about it, though. Instead, they asked another trivial question.

"So why are you here?"

Ugh. From one uncomfortable question to the next. Only for this one, I had absolutely nothing to say. Well, what could I? I'm sure the whole 'I'm innocent' thing has been done before. No one's going to believe it, but sadly, that was the truth. Well, most of the truth.

"I never meant to hurt anyone," I tried to explain. "It was out of self-defense." Well, all least that was true. And thank god that was all the boys needed to know. I guess they all just pictured in their mind how I had hurt this person and that was enough for them. I knew that at least one of them pictured me killing the person. Oh well. Let their imaginations run wild.

"Umm, Nessa? One more question." I let out an exasperated sigh.

"Mhmm?"

"Why aren't you wearing your jumpsuit?"

Oh. Woops.

"I guess I just forgot," I said, shrugging it off. I turned back to my food. Deciding I didn't want to die of poison, I ate the bread, which was as rock hard as bread could get, and just left everything else alone. Afterwards, I looked around the boys once more and remembered that I knew absolutely nothing about them.

Time for the interrogations, I thought to myself with a smile.

"So," I started. "I don't really think it's fair when you guys know oh-so much about me and I don't even know some of your real names." Granted, the little tidbits of information they knew about me was a bit edited, but oh well.

"Oh yeah. Oh-so much," X-ray said, shaking his head. "Well, my real name is Rex." I waited for him to say more, but he was done with talking. Great. Now that I know his real name, I feel like he's my brother! Note the sarcasm.

"I tried to steal a puppy," Magnet's unmistakable voice offered. "I woulda made it outta the store if the dog didn't start barking."

Everyone at the table laughed. I was beginning to feel that these boys aren't really hardened criminals.

"Breaking and entering. Stealing," Squid said when everyone had stopped with the hysterics. I nodded and turned towards Zero, who was sitting beside him. He looked right back at me, but didn't say a thing. I guess he was just the shy type. But that's not what everyone else thought.

"Awh, don't even try with Zero," Armpit said.

"Yeah," Magnet agreed. "He's probably too dumb to even understand what you're saying."

I felt s surge of sympathy towards Zero. I had a feeling he wasn't as dumb as everyone made him out to be. He probably just didn't want to be acquainted with these boys, just like I was when I first arrived.

"Awh, don't be so mean," I said, standing up for him. "He's probably just shy. Or maybe he prefers not to associate with you guys so as not to stoop to your levels of idiocy."

The guys stared at me with dumbfounded expressions. Yeah, I had just burned them all with one sentence, using someone that was probably their usual object of ridicule. Hah. I stuck my tongue out. They all rolled their eyes.

"Ya know, you have a lot of mood swings," ZigZag said.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I know. I guess it's going to be a lot less when I get more comfortable around you guys."

That was when we all decided to head back to the tent. It was nearing lights out, so everyone decided to get changed. My face turned unnaturally red again as they all took off their shirts without even noticing that I was just standing there, staring at them. Squid was the first to notice me when he was just to pull off his jumpsuit.

He turned a slight pink, too. "Uhm, guys, I think we should give Nessa a bit of privacy."

"Such the gentleman," I mumbled. He wasn't actually supposed to hear, but he did, and he grinned.

Everyone turned and looked completely shocked when they saw me standing there. Geez, was I that forgettable? Oh well, they were all probably pretty used to changing without having to consider a lady being in the room. Old habits die hard, don't they? They all mumbled their apologies and headed out to give me a chance to change in peace.

Feeling bad for having pretty much kicked out all of my tent mates, I tried to change quickly, pulling off my tank top and jeans and getting into my pink cami and one of the short-shorts that I brought strictly for sleeping in. I didn't want to be considered a slut but I figured I'd die of heat if I wore anything that covered my legs or arms in bed.

"Mmkay, I'm decent!" I called out the guys. One by one they all entered the tent again, glancing at my attire for just a fraction of a second before turning away, a light pink creeping on their cheeks. Well at least they had the decency to respect me. I had the feeling that if I was in any other tent, they'd be all over me in a second. I was suddenly grateful to have been put in D-Tent.

"So what exactly do you guys do around here before lights out? Or for any kind of fun, actually?" I asked. I couldn't expect them to just sit there talking until they had to go to sleep. Sure, they weren't hardened criminals but they were boys, after all. And as far as I knew, boys didn't sit there for hours gossiping.

"Well, usually we play cards before lights out," Armpit said.

"Yeah, chica. Wanna play poker with us?" Magnet asked.

I would have. But I had no idea how to play. "Uhm, no thanks," I said. "I'll just watch you guys."

They seemed fine with that so I turned to sit down on my cot while I watched them play. As I did, I quickly gave each boy the once-over.

X-Ray was clearly the leader. Even as I watched them play, he gave out orders and surprisingly, everyone followed them. But even so, he seemed like an ok guy. Someone who would be really easy to talk to and be friends with once we got to know each other more, I concluded.

ZigZag was beside him. Even though he did have a slight case of acute paranoia and, as Squid said, was afraid that I was trying to brain-wash him, I could easily see us becoming friends. You know, once he finally figured out that I wasn't an alien and I wasn't planning on doing any harm to him. Plus he was cute, in his own weird and wacky way. The wild hair suited him.

And then there was Armpit. He was nice. I could easily picture him as a kind of big brother. If only he didn't have that particular odour. Did this guy ever consider taking a bath once in a while?

Magnet was probably the one I was most comfortable with, along with Squid. I had embarrassed myself a ton of times around him lately and even if I did turn as red as a tomato, I didn't mind making a fool of myself around him all that much. Plus his accent was a bonus. I love guys with any type of accent pretty much.

Squid was the one I felt the most comfortable to joke around with, even if I only did so once so far. He was just an easy going kind of guy, even though he did try to act tough around the other guys. And with that toothpick always in his mouth and that lop-sided smile, he was what you would call cute.

Zero didn't play cards with them. He just lay down on his cot and stared at the ceiling, not talking to anyone, as usual. I wondered why he was like that. Something was surely bothering him. Whether it was the other boys or if it was something that happened before he came here to Camp Green Lake, I didn't know. But I so desperately wanted to find out. I should remember to try to talk to him when the other guys aren't around.

I wasn't sure how long a lay there before I actually fell asleep. Even with the little nap I took earlier, I was still really tired. Hoping that the nightmare wouldn't come back, I closed my eyes and soon, the lull of the boys' chatter soon faded away as I fell into a deep slumber.