Chapter Eighteen

The next day was probably the hottest day of my stay at Camp Green Lake yet. I woke up and it was hotter inside my tent than it was outside. I dragged everyone else out of their slumber so we could get the day over with as soon as possible. I walked out of tent and barely made it to the Library to grab my shovel. I knew one thing at least, I wasn't as half as tired as Caveman. I remember my second day; I wanted to take something to numb all the pain.

"How are ya Caveman?" TC asked him walking over to where he was.

"Not that bad, I mean today won't be as bad as yesterday," he replied.

"If only that were true. You're already sore, it's going to be a lot harder today," TC said back.

I hadn't divulged my suspensions to Hype yet; but, I was pretty confident that Caveman liked TC. I see the way he looks at her. He's always smiling like an idiot, and trying to act cool. Actually, I have suspensions of everybody. I think Princess likes ZigZag; she is constantly trying to get his attention. We all know that Dutchess likes Magnet though, she won't shut up about how sexy he is when he speaks Spanish. The cutest crush that has developed in my mind is Zero and Stranger. They're both totally quiet and cute. Of course, though, the only relationship I should even be thinking about is mine and Squid's, I mean, he knows I like him. Or maybe he doesn't, he is after all male. But, if he doesn't do anything by the end of the week, I will have to take matters into my own hands. I was thinking about all of this when Squid himself pops up beside me while walking to the site.

"Hey Twist," he said. That's it. A measly 'Hey Twist.' I am going to go insane.

"Hey," I answered back. See how he likes it.

"What's been up lately?" he asked.

"Well, I've been getting up at early hours of the morning, digging holes that are cruel to get out of, eating food that is by definition rank, and I go to bed and start all over again. How about you? How do you like your new position in the tent?" I said.

"Same. It's cool, but I miss X," he said.

"Aw, is Squiddy getting sentimental on me," I said jokingly.

"No, I do not get sentimental," he said 'toughly' pushing me lightly.

"Never. You're a manly man. You laugh at emotions," I said pushing back.

"And don't you forget it," he said.

We walked in silence for a while.

"What do you think of Caveman and TC?" I asked putting my shovel into the spot where Mr. Sir told me to.

"What's there to think about?" he asked puzzled.

"Hello it is so obvious. He so totally like her," I said as though he was an idiot. Which he is.

"How can you tell? Do you observe people?" he said as though I were insane. Which I might be.

"Maybe I do. He smiles all the time when she's around and he is always trying to act cool," I said calmly.

"You really have nothing better to do, do you?" he asked.

"Well, if you hadn't noticed this desert doesn't really have anything entertaining. I make do with what I have," I said getting back to digging.

After a while, Mom came with the water truck and we all lined up. Caveman learned quickly that there was a certain order. We all got our canteens filled and went back to our holes. Everyone that is, but Caveman. He seemed to be spending a while longer talking to Mom. Now, no sane person starts a conversation with Mom; so, we all got up and went to go see what it was about.

"I found something," Caveman said, taking something out of his pocket.

Mom reached for Stanley's canteen, but Caveman handed him some kind of flat rock instead.

"What's this?" Mom asked.

"It's a fossil," said Caveman. "See the fish?"

Mom looked at it again.

"See, you can even see all of its little bones," said Caveman.

"Interesting," said Mom. "Let me have you canteen."

Caveman handed it to him. Mom filled it, then returned it.

"So do I get the rest of the day off?" Caveman asked.

"What for?" Mom asked back surprised.

"You know, you said if I found something interesting, the Warden would give me the day off."

Mom laughed as he gave the fossil back to Caveman. "Sorry, Stanley. The Warden isn't interested in fossils."

"Let me see that," said Magnet, taking the rock from Caveman.

Caveman continued to stared at Mom.

"Hey, Zig, dig this rock."

"Cool," said Ziggy.

Caveman watched all of us pass the fossil around.

"I don't see nothing," said Squid.

"See, look at the little fishy," said Armpit.

We all rolled our eyes and went back to digging, leaving a discouraged Caveman. We watched as Caveman walked slowly back to his hole. Squid suddenly went over to Caveman's hole, and started talking to him. After a while, he came back to dig his hole.

"What was that about?" I asked him.

"Nothing," he answered.

"It didn't look like nothing. I thought you didn't like Caveman," I told him.

"Just drop it, Twist," he said starting to sound annoyed.

"Fine," I said starting to get pissed off.

Again, we all left Caveman to be the last one digging. We all showered and headed towards the guys tent to relax. Sadly, Mom was there. I had forgotten that today was 'Group Day.' We just got settled when Caveman came in.

"Welcome, Stanley," said Mom.

"Hey, Caveman. You get your hole dug?" TC asked.

Caveman nodded.

"You spit in it?" Squid asked.

He nodded again. "You're right," he said to TC. "Today was a lot harder than yesterday."

TC shook her head. "The third hole's the hardest," she said.

"Come join our circle," said Mom.

Caveman sat down between Squid and Magnet.

"We're going to discuss what we want to do with our lives," said Mom. "We're not going to be at Camp Green Lake forever. We need to prepare for the day we leave here and join the rest of society."

"Hey, that's great, Mom!" said Hype. "They're going to finally let you out of here?"

We all laughed.

"Okay, Victoria. Have your laugh," said Mom. "We are going to start with Jose tonight. What do you want to do with you life?"

"I don't know," said Magnet.

"You need to think about that," said Mom. "It's important to have goals. Otherwise you're going to end up right back in jail. What do you like to do?"

"I don't know," said Magnet.

"You must like something," said Mom.

"I like animals," said Magnet. Gosh, like we didn't know that already.

"Good," said Mom. "Does anyone know of any jobs that involve animals?"

"Veterinarian," said Stranger in her usual barely above whisper talk.

"That's right," said Mom.

"He could work in a zoo," said ZigZag.

"He belongs in the zoo," said Squid.

"How about you, Stanley? Any ideas for Jose?"

Caveman sighed. "Animal trainer," he finally said. "Like for the circus, or movies, or something like that."

"Any of those jobs sound good to you, Jose?" asked Mom.

"Yeah, I like what Caveman said. About training animals for movies. I think it would be fun to train monkeys."

Squid laughed.

"Don't laugh, Alan," said Mom. "We don't laugh at peoples dreams. Someone is going to have to train monkeys for the movies."

"Who are you kidding, Mom?" asked Squid. "Magnet's never going to be a monkey trainer."

I looked at him as though he were a nightmare. I had never seen Squid so discouraging.

"You don't know that," I said. "Magnet can do what ever he wants. He can accomplish anything if he sets his mind to it. After all, you only have one life, so you should try to make the most of it."

"Twist, you don't know anything about life. And stop protecting people, you aren't going to be a peace maker," Squid said coldly.

"So far you've all done a pretty good job at messing up your lives," said Mom loudly, trying to stop a huge argument that was going to happen anyways. "I know you think you're cool." He looked at Caveman. "So, you're Caveman, now, huh? You like digging holes, Caveman?"

Caveman just looked at Mom.

"Well, let me tell you something, Caveman. You are here on account of one person. If it wasn't for that person, you wouldn't be here digging holes in the hot sun. you know who that person its?"

"My no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather."

We all howled with laughter. Even Zero and Stranger smiled. It was the first time anyone us had ever seen Stranger smile. She usually had such an angry expression on her face.

"No, said Mom. "That person is you, Stanley. You're that reason you are here. You're responsible for yourself. You messed up your life, and it's up to you to fix it. No one else is going to do it for you-for any of you."

Mom looked at each person. "You're al special in you own way," he said. "You've all got something to offer. You have to think about what you want to do, then do it. Ever you, Zero. You're not completely worthless."

The smile was now gone from Zero's face. I noticed Stranger looked even more angry than usual.

"What do you want to do with your life?" Mom asked him.

Zero's mouth was shut tight. As he glared at Mom, his dark eyes seems to expand.

"What about it, Zero?" asked Mom. "What do you like to do?"

"I like to dig holes."

Everything after that was all stupid, and Mom left.

"Come on, girls. Let's go to bed," I said getting up.

"Why are you always bossing them around? Don't you think they can function without your instructions?" Squid asked standing up to.

"Of course they can function without me. Besides, you boss the guys around too, so stop being hypocritical," I said getting mad. I didn't want to get into a fight with Squid. But ever since this afternoon after he snapped at me, he seems like he wants to pick a fight with me. I just walked out of the tent heading to mine.

"So, I've been here the longest now that X has left. I'm the leader of D-Tent now, and that means the girls portion of it too. So, stop acting like you're in charge of them!" Squid said running after me.

"NO! And stop yelling at me. I don't know what crawled up your ass lately, but please remove it as quickly as possible," I yelled back turning around.

"You are so annoying! You think you know the solution to everything, but you don't! You don't now what has gone on in my life to make me like this, if you hadn't noticed I've been like this the whole time!"

"No you have not. You used to be nice and sweet. Now, you're putting everyone down, just so they feel as shitty as you do. And no, I don't know what made you like this because you don't talk about anything in your personal life! Now, JUST GO AWAY!" I said running into my tent. I was waiting for him to come in after me to start yelling again, but he never did. I just cried myself to sleep wondering what was wrong with him.