Chapter Two
A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, shows the way.
The sound of a trumpet over loud speakers woke up the camp before the sun came up. Weary boys tiredly rubbed their eyes to get out all the sleep as they prepared themselves for the days worth of digging ahead of them. The boys of D-Tent were no different than the others. "Come on ya idiots, get yer asses up and at 'im," a voice boomed, kicking the cots as Stutter, owner of the voice, walked past all the beds in his tent. "The earlier we get out the sooner we get done." Rex really didn't want to get up but the others were starting to get out of bed so he knew he had to soon too.
Stutter left the tent with Sidewinder. They walked to the 'Library' and collected their shovels and then made their way over to the table with breakfast. After grabbing the sticky honey covered tortilla, Stutter walked over to where Rex was standing, looking quite lost. "You go an' get a shovel an' then go an' get a tortilla. More edible than dinner" Stutter explained walking up behind him, making him jump slightly. Stutter pointed to where he was talking about and then shoed him on his way. No time to dawdle before the sun came up.
A few minutes later every camper was standing with its tent-mates. Mr Sir drove out in his truck with them and showed them the area that they'd be digging in today. He gave Rex the 'details' to digging his hole and then drove away in his air-conditioned truck. Everyone had started digging there holes before Rex had even started. "Ya gotta start eventually, ya know" Nevada called from his spot, two holes away. Rex just nodded and attempted to shove his shovel into the sun baked dirt. His shovel just bounced off the top. "You have to do better than that," Sidewinder said from his hole, looking up at him, "Find a crack and work from there." Rex found a crack in the dirt, placed his shovel on top of it and jumped on the shovel, successfully starting his first hole.
Lunch truck came around many hours later. Rex looked like he was about to die in the heat, his glasses were filthy and he was completely drenched in sweat. They all lined up in the same order that they always do. Nevada first the Sidewinder, Gorge, Stutter, Claustro and Tigger. Rex got in line behind Tigger and waited till he got his lunch. Stutter had already gotten his lunch and walked over to him. "Hands please," he demanded, holding out his hand to take him. He looked at his palms and grinned. "Aren't they beauts?" Rex looked confused. What was there to be good on his hands? They were covered in nasty blisters and they hurt like hell. It killed to hold his shovel. Rex just gave him a half not there look which he didn't respond to. They walked over to Nevada's hole where the others were sitting around eating lunch. "He's g-got awesome bli-blisters," stuttered Stutter. "But the-the first holes the har-hardest." "No way!" Gorge argued. "Second holes the hardest, cause your already sore and tired and blistery from the day before, so the second hole is the hardest." They kept arguing this fact even after lunch and while they were digging their holes. Everyone just ignored it, they were very used to it by now.
Two hours later everyone was starting to finish their holes. Stutter and Gorge were now not talking to each other, something else the rest of the tent was used to, and were avoiding all eye-contact with each other. Sidewinder and Nevada were done their hole first and headed back to camp. Gorge finished next and stuck his tongue out at Stutter after he spat in his hole as he turned around to leave. Stutter flipped him off when he had his back turned and muttered something about him burning in hell. Stutter finished next, spat in his hole and went to go check on Rex. He still had about a foot to go but was doing pretty good for a first timer with blisters. "Just remember, when you're done, spit in your hole, its tradition." Stutter told him before shouldering his shovel and walking back to camp.
Rex was walked back to camp, tired, sore and alone. He was the last one out digging. He saw a pile of shovels outside where he got his so he put his on top of the pile before walking to the tent. Everyone in the camp paused what they were doing when they heard an ear splitting shriek. "GORGE!!" The Gorge in question came running past Rex, looking like he feared his life. He was carrying a black sports bra and towel while Stutter was chasing after him looking particularly murderous. Various others watching the scene hooted and hollered, some cheering on Gorge, others yelling lewd comments at Stutter.
Rex stood there in confusion. Why would Stutter have a bra? He wouldn't unless... No way, this was an all boys camp, right? Well it seemed obvious that Stutter was a girl, but why she was here? Rex shrugged his shoulders and continued walking. So what if she was a girl, she didn't act like on and he gave her respect.
Stutter cornered Gorge against his cot until he gave her back her stuff. Stutter grabbed it from him and punched him in the stomach. "Too far man," she hissed as she walked away. Gorge clutched his stomach as she walked away. He knew that he took it too far, but it was just so fun to see her angry! Sighing cause his fun was over, he got up and walked to the wreck room where everyone else was and sat down on the couch beside Nevada. They were watching tv which was fuzzy but still in good enough condition to watch.
"What day is it Stut?" Sidewinder asked at dinner. Stutter thought for a moment, counting days off on her fingers. "Thursday." Everyone groaned loudly and started complaining. "What's so bad about Thursdays?" Rex questioned. Claustro grimaced and solemnly said, "Tonight is group counselling with Mom." A shudder ran through the table when he said that. Sidewinder laughed, "And to think, you'll all have to do this when I don't have to." "What do you mean?" Rex asked, confused. Stutter looked thoughtful for a moment, counting off her fingers again. "You're leaving in a couple weeks aren't you?! You are so lucky man."
Rex was sitting on his cot with the others in their tent when Tigger starting fretting about someone stealing his hat. Rex rolled his eyes at the red haired boy and pointed to his crate. "It's in your crate, jeez." Tigger got up and walked over to his crate, sure enough the hat was in it, right on the top. "Woah, how'd you see that?!" Gorge yelled, jumping over to Rex. "I bet it's the glasses, that has to be it," he mumbled to himself. He jumped up onto his cot. "Guys. Rex here got's a pair of X-Ray glasses!" Nevada looked thoughtful for a moment. "Thanks Gorge." he muttered while thinking. A call came across the camp for them to come to group session. "Come on X-Ray, time to go," he said to Rex, walking out of the tent. Stutter beamed at Rex, "Nice name there X-Ray." She skipped out of the tent to walk with Sidewinder.
Sidewinder smiled to himself as they all walked out to the mess hall a couple hours after dinner to their counselling session. He was going home in a couple weeks and he couldn't wait. He had changed so much since he got here he doubted that his parents would even recognize him or even his girlfriend... if she still loved him after all this. His personality took a complete one-eighty turn around after diggin' all those holes. When he first arrived at Camp Green Lake he was cold and violent but now he was way more open with others and couldn't see himself hurting anyone unless it was to help his tent.
Mom had the mess hall tables pushed to the side and had chairs set up in a circle for them. Mom was sitting on one of the chairs with some files and a clipboard, their files on why they were here, and the clipboard to take behaviour notes. D-Tent slowly filed into the room and took up the chairs. Mom beamed happily at them. "So boys, how was your week? Anything new or exciting happen?" Everyone avoided eye contact with him.
Mom looked over his clipboard and then scanned the group before him. His eyes landed on Sidewinder. "So Ethan, say's here that you're going home soon." Mom ignored the hiss from others that his name was Sidewinder. "How do you feel about that? Excited?" Sidewinder shrugged his shoulders. "Nonchalant I guess," he mumbled. The others smirked at him. They knew that he was extremely smart and could use his words to infuriate Mom, if he wasn't to lazy to do it. Mom was unfazed by this answer. "So what do you plan on doing once you get home?" Sidewinder shrugged again. "Don't know, at the moment, I'm not really giving an thought on that, just out here to dig holes you know."
At this point Mom figured out that he wasn't going to get a real answer out of him. "Well, just start thinking on it then Ethan" Sidewinder didn't even look at him. Mom scanned over the group again. This time his eyes landed on X-Ray. New target. "So there Rex, would you like to tell us all what you're in here for?" "His names X-Ray Mom," Stutter interrupted. "I wasn't asking for you input Kennedy," Mom barked at her and then turned to X-Ray for his answer. "It's in your file, you know what I'm in for, I know what I'm in for, and they know what I'm in for. I think that's good enough Mom," Gorge, sitting beside him, gave him a high five. X-Ray was fitting in good.
Mom glared at Gorge and Rex for a moment before moving on. "So Sean, what do you want to do when you grow up?" Claustro shrank back in his chair a bit and looked thoughtful. "I don't know, I've always wanted to be in a band, play the drums, have hot girls screaming my name whenever I walk by cause they know that I'm famous." He grinned at the last part. Other snickered at him. "Well that's a lofty dream. Do you have what it takes to do that?" Mom asked, putting down his dream. "Do you really think that it's reasonable to base your goals to be that?" Claustro shrank further into his chair. The other felt bad for him. They knew about his dream to be in a band. He'd had it since he was little. Some, like Stutter weren't going to let him give up on it either.
"Thanks for the put down Mom,"Stutter spat. "I think he can be a drummer with hot girls screaming his name if he wants to." Mom gave Stutter a really hard look. "Fine then, he can be a drummer if he wants to. What is it that you want to do when get out of here?" Stutter looked him right in the eye. "I am going to be a singer," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Mom looked very sceptical. "Kennedy, you have to be able to sing to be a singer." Stutter jumped out of her chair and glared at him. "What are you talking about?! You've never even heard me sing! How can you say something like that if you don't even know what you are talking about?"
The tension between Mom and Stutter was so thick you could cut it with safety scissors. Mom lost his composure for a moment but quickly regained it. "Well then," he said smugly. "If you can sing so well, why don't you give us all a show. Sing us a song Kennedy." Stutter walked up to him until she was right up in his face, "No," she simply stated before turning around and stalking back to her seat. "Kennedy, take off your hat," Mom told her. Stutter took off her hat and threw it on the floor in the middle of the circle. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him. "Kennedy, take of the rag," he demanded. Stutter didn't move. "Kennedy, take off the rag or do you want the warden to come in here and make you?" "Don't care," Stutter mumbled. "What was that?" "I don't care!" she yelled. Mom radioed the warden to come down to the mess hall. Told her that there was a problem.
They all sat in silence for a minute before the door slammed open and the warden marched into the mess hall. Mom stood up and started talking immediately, pointing and gesturing at Stutter. The warden nodded her head while looking in her direction. Stutter looked calm as the warden walked over to her. The rest of the tent held its breath. "Why didn't you take off your rag, Stutter?" the warden asked calmly. "Because there was no reason too. It was just out of the blue. He told me that I couldn't be a singer when I grow up so I refused to sing for him when he asked me to. Then he just demanded that I take off my hat, which I did," Stutter pointed to the hat on the floor to prove her point. "Then, cause that obviously wasn't enough, he demanded that I take off my rag too. He just hates me cause I'm a girl and more masculine than he'll ever be!"
The warden narrowed her eyes and glared and Mom before sweeping her eyes across the rest of the group. Mom made an attempt to save himself but a look from the warden stopped him before he could get a sound out. "Next time you have a stupid argument, don't make me waste my time." And after saying that, she turned on her heel and walking walked out of the building.
With the warden going back to her cabin and Mom called the session so they all went back to the tent. Stutter walked back to the tent with her hair still down. A few guys from other tents gave a cat call when she walked by. She whirled around and stalked over to them, the rest of D-Tent right behind her. "What the hell was that?" she demanded. "Just a call to attract girls," a stupid guy from B tent said. Stutter shook her head and unexpectedly punched the guy in the head. "Don't let me start on the rest of you," she warned as she walked away. When she got back to the tent she didn't even bother changing, she just fell on her cot and fell asleep.