****Another chapter up!! I'm gonna attempt to start following the storyline in some way eventually and get some Gabby's POV up R&R!

Chapter 3

Emily's POV

I followed after Squid when he stormed out of the tent, I knew that he was trying to keep his cool but I followed him anyway.

"What's wrong," I grabbed his arm and he stopped walking.

"Calming down," he stared into the long never ending desert spotted with the holes for miles.

I sighed, "He was just kidding."

"I don't care," he muttered.

I touched his arm tenderly, "Don't be mad."

He glanced down at me daringly, "Why do you care?"

"Because…" I trailed off.

"Because why?" he turned to face me.

I looked down and he put a finger under my chin, making me look at him. "Well?"

"I don't want you to be mad," I felt my stomach get a rush inside of it like a pile of leaves being blown through a gusty falls day. I let my eyes wander down to his bottom lip that had that infamous toothpick resting on and I swallowed a little, wanting nothing more than to let my finger trace across it. His russet eyes stared down into mine, they seemed to glisten in the blaring sunlight. He leaned in faintly, brushing his thumb over my lower lip, pulling down so softly if someone were watching they wouldn't have noticed.

He leaned in a little more and just when his lips were nearly a centimeter from mine the alarm went off for dinner and everyone rushed out of the wreck room and into the cafeteria.

He didn't even acknowledge me at that point, he just sighed and followed the rest of the crowd.

In the lunch room Gabby and I sat at the D-tent boy's table. Gabby was next to Caveman and had Zig-zag on her other side and then me in between Squid and X-Ray.

"So," X-ray leaned in. "You two kiss and make up?"

I lowered my eyebrows slightly when I looked over at him and he didn't seem to notice, either that or he just ignored it.

"Well?" he pushed.

"No," I said, drawing out the word as if it were a question.

We had been eating dinner (which if I may add looked like elephant turd) for about ten minutes so far and Squid hadn't even looked in my direction.

"They aint even talkin X," Armpit said from the other side of the table.

I poked at my elephant turd and glanced up at Gabby who was being blatantly stared at by both Caveman and Zig-Zag and she seemed extremely uncomfortable.

"Well," X-ray took a bite of his 'food'. "I still think Fox wants me."

I stifled a laugh and ended up giving out one of those breaths that sound like you're trying to not laugh.

"That's funny now?" X asked, leaning in slightly.

My eyes flickered to him for a brief moment before going to the other side of the room.

"I'm gonna go watch TV," I mumbled quickly before getting up to go to the wreck room.

All of the boys except for about ten or so were still eating so it was pretty empty in the wreck room when I got there. I noticed that one of the guys, who had somewhat long hair, was staring at me as I walked past him sitting on an armchair. Ignoring him, I sat down on the couch and stared at the fuzzy screen that showed faint images of what looked like an old western film.

Before I knew it, the boy sat down next to me and was sitting dangerously close.

"Hey there," he said, playing with a piece of my hair. I swatted his hand away and stood up quickly.

He grabbed my arm and pulled me back down, "Don't be like that."

He whispered into my ear, giving me slight chills from his cold breath. After another attempt to pull away from him he pushed my back to the arm of the couch, leaning on me slightly.

"Come on," he held my flailing arms down as I screamed for him to get off. "My name is Lump. What's yours?"

"Fuck you," I snapped as I went to knee him in the stomach. It didn't do anything at all, instead I hit rock hard abs which just ended up hurting my knee. He pressed all of his body weight down on me and tried pushing his face to mine. I attempted to wrestle with him but he overpowered me and began kissing at my neck in my weak attempts to get him off.

There were only about three other guys in the room and they were on the other side playing an intense game of pool and didn't seem to notice anything outside of that. Not that they would help me anyway.

Just when I thought I was going to break down and cry, Lump was pulled off of me and onto the ground. Immediately X-Ray was by my side with Magnet, pulling me up so I was sitting, asking if I was alright.

Magnet and X-Ray were attemting to calm me down but I was more concentrated on watching Squid attack Lump, showing no mercy.

I took in a deep breath and leaned back in the couch, "Thanks."

"It's ok Fox," X soothed. "You alright?"

"Fine," I managed to choke out.

Lump got up and sprinted out of the room, a bloody nose sputtering everywhere. Squid stood there for a moment and without thinking, I stood up and grabbed his arm like I did earlier.

He turned violently, then his facial expressions changed when he saw it was me. "What?"

"Thanks," I mumbled, starting away from him.

"Yeah," he said, beginning to walk away towards the rest of his friends who were now playing Poker with a bunch of dirty torn cards.

"Can you," I hesitated and he stopped walking.

"Can I what?" he turned around.

"Take me back to my tent," I still couldn't look straight at him.

"Fine," he said, walking out of the door with me, catching a few glares from other guys on the way out who I presumed were Lump's friends.

We walked in complete silence, him chewing on that damn toothpick and me just playing with the arms of the jumpsuit around my waist. Once we reached my tent he stood near the door and I lingered for a moment.

"Are you gonna go in?" he asked, looking out at the now setting sun.

"D-do you wanna come in?" I asked, nervous he would shoot me down and walk away.

He waited for a second before shrugging and following after me inside. I sat on my bed and he stood near one of the dressers, staring at a picture that was set up.

"Who are they?" he asked, poking at the red frame.

"Me, my mom, and my grandma," I walked over to him.

"Oh," he mumbled. "You got a dad?"

"That's a personal question," I took the picture from him and stared at it.

"Which requires a simple answer, ain't it?"

"No."

"No?"

"No, I don't have one."

"Oh."

We stood in a thick stillness for a epigrammatic second which felt as if it were a million years.

"Me neither," his voice broke through the blanket of quiet that laid over us.

"What about your mom?" I asked, putting the picture back down.

"She's too drunk to know what's goin on half the time," he wandered away from me and sat down on the bed, staring at the dirty plastic wall.

I followed him cautiously and sat down next to him. He looked over at me, "You and your mom close?"

"We argue sometimes. But that's just because I do stupid stuff. But she's upset a lot, her fiancé is never home because he travels for work so she kind of lets out that anger on me which makes me pissed off at her most of the time."

"Is he cheating?"

"I don't know." I mumbled. "But it can be really good sometimes."

"Yeah," he sat up a little more. "It used to be good sometimes, but not for a while."

I put a hand on his knee, "You should help her."

"How the hell could I do that?" he barked slightly.

"Have you tried talking to her?" I said matter-of-factly.

He slouched back down, "No."

"You should."

"Maybe."

I wasn't sure what to say at that point so I took my hand back and he looked up.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothin."

"I don't get you," I laughed a little.

"I think you get me more than anyone else here," he stated, sitting up again.

I cocked my head to the side, "I don't know about that. One second you seem to like me, helping me with my hole and with Lump. Then you go and ignore me the next second."

"I've known you for a day but it's like you've been here forever. It just freaks me out."

"You're scared?"

"I said freaked out. Not scared."

My lip twitched a little, "Oh."

His did the same, "What do you mean oh?"

"Nothin!" I mocked, realizing how often we used that word with each other.

"Somethin!" his rare smile seemed to be forming a spigot more.

I was about to make some kind of a joke but then I glanced down to see a spider the size of a baseball mitt on the ground, I leapt up onto the bed.

"KILL IT!" I screamed.

He jumped up next to me, "Hell no!"

We held onto each others arms, screaming for the other to kill the beast and jumped around on the bed. Then Gabby walked into the tent with Caveman and Zero behind her, and they all stared at us for a second before looking down and seeing that the glove sized spider was walking around. Gabby was the first to wail out and jump up on her cot with Caveman and Zero following right after.

"Be a man!" I pushed Squid slightly.

"It's gonna kill me!"

"No it won't!"

"So you do it then!"

"It's nasty!" I pushed him a little more and he nearly fell off the bed.

To our rescue, Mr. Sir and his awkward bow-legged stance appeared in the entry way to our tent. Baring a gun, he held it out and shot at the spider, missing once and hitting the dirt, causing it to scurry and making Zero scream like a little girl. He shot the spider, making its foot long legs curl up underneath its body.

"There! Now will y'all calm the hell down?!" he asked, storming out of the room.

Gabby was in between Caveman and Zero, both boys hugging her. They let go quickly and fell to a sitting position on the bed. Squid and I were still holding onto each other and let go just as quickly, slowly sitting down.

I began laughing slightly and then Gabby joined in. Her laugh (which sounded a lot like Marge Simpson mixed with Ryland Blackinton's laugh) made Zero start to giggle which set off Caveman and finally Squid joined in and we were all cracking up.

"What do we do with the body?" Gabby asked.

I glanced at Squid, "Maybe we can give it to the cafeteria ladies and they can cook it for tomorrow."

"Food wouldn't taste no different," he stared down at the spiders dead beady eyes.

"I think we should get it out of here," Caveman said, eyeing the carcass.

"Maybe we could put it in a box and give it to Mom," Zero chimed in.

"I think we should," I agreed.

"Where we gonna get a box?" Squid asked.

"We will do no such thing!" Gabby ordered.

"Why not!?" I whined.

"Because! We're gonna get in trouble!"

I snorted, "And? What are they gonna do? Send us to a detention camp?"

She sighed, "Please don't?"

"Fine," I sighed and laid back.

"We should go back now," Zero chirped.

"Take that thing," Gabby pointed. "With you."

"Fine," Caveman stood up and took a shoe off, leading the spider out of the tent with it.

I looked at Squid who was laying next to me, "You gonna go?"

"Do I have to?" he asked, surprising me.

I smiled, "Yeah, I think Mr. Sir may have to come in and shoot you if you stay here."

He rolled over onto his stomach, "What are you gonna do if another spider comes in though?"

"Because you were such a big help the first time!" Gabby exclaimed from her cot where she was crawled under the blankets, attempting to sleep. I moved so I had my head on the small pillow and my feet were hanging slightly off the bed because it was too short. I had my legs bent so they were over Squids.

I looked over at the candle that illuminated the tent, "I'll just call for my knight in shining armor when that happens."

"Shush!" Gabby commanded, getting cranky.

"Me?" he whispered, crawling closer, laying next to me.

"No, Mr. Sir." I looked over at him and he broke into a massive smirk.

"Goodnight," he said.

"Night," I muttered back. He leaned over, kissed my forehead and left the tent.

I turned the knob on the candle, making it go out and allowing the night to consume out tent.