The mess hall is well…messy. It is hot, too and a little awkward. A few boys spare me a quick confused glance. I try my best to ignore it. It was different when I was little. Surprisingly when I came here when I was five, a lot of the boys were nice to me.
Or so I remember.
One kid particular. I forget his name, but I use to 'help' him dig a hole, but I was probably just making things worse for him. He didn't seem to mind, though.
I move along and nearly jump when I hear a high pitch whistle. I turn over and a boy with blond slicked hair winks at me. I purse my lips and sigh.
"Hey, baby, don't ignore me," he says, catcalling. I move along. "Aw, don't be stuck up and shit." The whole table roars with laughter until I hear a familiar voice.
"Excuse me?" I turn to see my Aunt Lou standing in her normal position wearing her sun hat and big sunglasses. She takes them off with attitude. The boy looks at her a little nervous.
"Sorry, Miss," he says, looking back down at his food. She sighs and turns around glaring.
"Dumb, dumber," she shouts and two older men turn around looking at her. "What the hell are you doing?"
"Eating," the older man says.
"Excuse me?" Shaking her head, she points at me and everyone stops whatever their doing.
Starting to feel shameful I look down at my dirty converse.
"That's my niece, Penelope," she starts. "She's a lady! You treat her like a lady!" She shouts. "I don't want catcalling, I don't want touching, and I don't want you even thinking about it," she tells them through greeted teeth. "When you see her, you treat her with respect and if I hear anything different, I don't think you want to know the punishment! You open doors for her and if you see her carrying stuff, you carry it like young gentlemen. Am I clear?"
They all mumble a low yes.
"Am I clear?" She asks, again. They all respond and she nods at me before leaving.
I look over at that boy and he still stares at me. He must be a real tough guy because he isn't showing any shame or embarrassment. Instead he winks at me and sticks his tongue out at me. He wiggles it in a crude way.
"Ignore him," I mumble to myself and walk to, who I remember as Mr. Sir. "Hi, . I'm gonna eat with you if it isn't much of a problem." He grumbles and twirls his fork in the gooey mess.
I pick at my bread looking over at the boy who catcalled to me. He looks as if he is the head of the group. Each tent has one of them. You know, the ones who were probably there the longest and thought they had some sort of throne attached to their ass.
You can always tell which one thought they owned the tent. They picked at the other campers food and no one would dare to argue. Or they always led the conversation. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Shrugging, I go back to playing with my food. I had the feeling of being hungry, but not wanting to eat. Dr. Pendanski watched my utensils twirl. If I don't eat, he'd be sure to tell my Aunt Lou.
Over the next ten minutes I force down the food and threw away my tray. The first day is always the hardest, they say. Of course I don't have to dig today or tomorrow or even the next day, but being here is bad enough.
"I could just send you to one of those homes," I could hear Aunty Lou saying in the back of my head. The voice is right.
Walking out of the tent I saw that kid again and was contemplating on just walking passed him or back into the mess hall until he went into his own tent.
"Don't worry about him, he aint gonna do a damn thing," Aunty Lou says from behind me. I turn to her and smile.
"I thought you were in the cabin?" She fixed her sunglasses and we walked side by side.
"There's things to do and them things aint gonna get done on their own," she muses. "You know in a few days you won't even have to set foot into that mess hall. I'll have food by then, but-"
"Aunt Lou," I interrupt her. "It's fine. It was kind enough for you to take me in and I really hate to be a burden." She grinned at me. "I'm just going to go back to the cabin and read a book."
As I begin to walk away, I can hear my Aunt say, "You really are your mother's child, you know?" I look over my shoulder and force a smile after hearing your mother.
