yes, I do write my chapters two or three at a time because they are so short.
ENJOY!
Well, the name stuck. Edith Ackerman was now Ratchet. Bandit still called her Edith every once and a while just to spite her, but she didn't seem to mind. And because their "leader" still didn't like Ratchet, she still wasn't really part of the boys. She didn't go the wreck room with them, she didn't hang with them and of course she didn't finish her holes with them.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Ratchet was alone. Everyone else had long gone finished her hole. She was close to being done, though, only about a foot and a half left. She sat at the bottom of her hole and poured what was left of her canteen over her head.
"Ahh." She sighed, refreshed. It was in the middle of November now, and it was still as hot as hell. Ratchet sat in the pile of mud, examining her forearms. Small freckles began to sprout from underneath her skin. She wasn't given any sunscreen or long-sleeve t-shirts to cover her pale arms. But my legs are safe, though she thought as she pulled up one of her pant legs. She leaned back and ran a hand through her blue hair. At least she thought it was still blue. There wasn't a mirror around. She imagined that her flaming red hair began to peak through and the blue began to fade away. She wiped the mud that was on her hands on her hair, she was going to take a shower soon anyway. She manages to save five shower tokens so she could take as long of a shower she wanted. Well….as long as it doesn't accede twenty five minutes. She would need more tokens for that.
Ratchet looked up at the sky but something blocked her view of the soon-to-be-setting sun. it was tall, thin and dark. Ratchet squinted to see what it was.
"Opted for a mud bath rather than a shower tonight, hmm?" the thing said. It had a funny accent.
"What are you doing here?" She asked
"What? No hello?"
"Hello, Black Light, what are you doing here?" Black Light sat on the edge of Ratchet's hole.
"Just seeing how you were doing."
"So, you're checking up on me? Making sure the new girl gets her hole dug."
"No, not like that."
"Sure." Ratchet said getting up. She was covered in mud, but right now she didn't care. She was sure Bandit put him up to it. To offer help then make fun of her when she accepted the help. Well she wasn't going to fall for it. She would finish her hole with no help. No matter how much her hands bled.
"Well if you are going to be like that, then I'll just leave." He stood back up again.
"Wait." Ratchet said and Black Light stopped. "Uh…um…I'm almost done my hole. If you want, do you want to walk back to camp with me?" Black Light smiled.
"sure." He said and sat back down at the edge of Ratchet's hole.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
Black Light walked ratchet back to camp and Ratchet got a much needed shower. The stalls were wood and nearly rotted through. The water was freezing. Ratchet decided to only use three of her five tokens, too long in these freezing temperatures would surely give her hypothermia! Besides, she could start collecting them again. Maybe even sell them. Five bucks a piece. She thought Oh, damn. No one here has any money. Maybe – her thought was cut short by a gunshot.
"Holy hell!" she shouted and peered out of her stall to see Mr. Sir shooting at some lizards. She remembered that he does this on a regular basis and decided to go back to her shower, but the water had cut off. Well, I was done anyway. She grabbed her towel and began to dry off when she heard a sort of hissing sound. At first she thought it was the pipes form the shower but then realized that it came from to her left, away from the showers. Ratchet turned towards the sound and saw a little spotted lizard sitting on her clothes. She gasped and it hissed a response. She reached for her cloths and hoped that it would just run away, but it hissed at her again before she got her hand even close. Aw, man she thought. She knew she had to make a decision. Either (1) try to grab her cloths and hope that the lizard wasn't one of those infamous yellow-spotted lizards, (2) wait for it to go away, or (3) try to cover as much as she could with her towel and call Mr. Sir for help. She decided option two to be the best option. She waited. And waited. And waited. The lizard didn't move. It didn't even blink that damned thing.
"Shoo!" she yelled and waved her hands at it. Not even a flinch. She mumbled to herself and wrapped herself in the itchy Camp Green Lake towels. "Um…Mr. Sir?" she called. He hoped he didn't leave, but she could still hear the sound of him cursing the yellow spotted lizards, so he couldn't be too far away. "Mr. Sir!" she called again. And this time the mumbling stopped and she heard footsteps.
"What?" the man mumbled.
"Mr. Sir, um, there is a lizard on my pile of clothes and I was wondering if, uh, if you could get it."
"Get it?" he repeated and shuffled his feet a little bit.
"Yes, sir." She stepped out of the stall so he could get in. He kept his eye glued permanently to the ground, avoiding even looking in the direction of Miss Ratchet.
There was some more mumbling form Mr. Sir from inside the stall and a gunshot and that was it. Mr. Sir emerged from the stall, still not looking at Ratchet.
"It's gone." He mumbled and walked away. Ratchet returned to her stall to see her pile of cloths like a bed for the headless lizard that lie in its eternal sleep. She sighed. Her clothes were covered in blood and a large scorch-mark the size of a quarter where the bullet had stuck it. she picked up the pile of cloths, the lizard and its little pieces falling off, and a small bullet rolled out. And these were only clothes.