she sighed as she heard the boys walk into the tent. she kept the curtain closed and kept her back to where everyone would be. they all stopped when they saw her curtain closed and sat on their cots, trying to be quiet so they didn't wake her up. she pretended to be asleep when the dinner bell went off and the boys all went silent.
"whose wakin'er up?" magnite asked from the other side of the curtain. everyone was saying their own version of no until the curtain was pulled open by zero.
"hey mairi, its time to wake up" he said lightly shaking her. the boys were anxious that she was going to sucker punch poor zero. but instead she pretended to wake up and swung her legs over the side of her bed. she stretched and yawned. the boys looked around at each other then ack to zero suspiciously.
"before you ask, i trust him so he can touch me" she said standing and the boys seemed sour at that. zero kept his hand on the small of her back, making sure she didn't fall over. since the incident she hasn't felt the best and she seemed drained. maybe from the crying, maybe from the burden of the first hole, but whatever the case, she didn't look to good. the boys noticed her and she knew they did but pushed it off. she sat between magnite and zero again but this time she didn't have any food. she was afraid that if she ate any she would surely upchuck it in seconds flat.
"mairi, you gotta eat girl" zigzag said and she looked up at him with un amused eyes. zigzag got a shiver down his back at how utterly horrible she looked compared to normal. squid tossed his bread in front of her on the table and nodded his head at it as she stared in between it and him
"go on, eat it." he said and she sighed before eating the bread that he gave to her. it seemed like after she finished the bread the tension at the table dissipated as the boys began talking again and messing around. she felt the smallest bit normal at that and began to feel a little bit better.
"right rose thorn?" x-ray said to her and she didn't know he was talking to her.
"rose thorn?" magnite said next to her. she looked up and noticed the rest of the boys looking at her.
"oh- OH IM ROSE THORN?!" she asked and they all looked at each other and nodded. she smiled widely at the name. she finally felt like she was supposed to be there. like she was finally apart of the d-tent and not someone who they had to keep tabs on. "why rose thorn?" she asked.
"because, your pretty like a rose" squid said to her and she felt that in her soul a bit.
"but it hurts when you touch the thorns" zigzag said and she chuckled. the boys smiled as they saw how happy she was now and that she wasn't being all mopey.
"what was your question?" she asked x-ray who thought for a second.
"oh yeah, sometimes those cold showers feel good after digging in the hot sun all day right?" he asked and she nodded vigorously.
"absolutely, it just feels good to cool down" she said and a few of the boys agreed with her.
"hey, whats with that little mask thing you were wearing earlier?" zigzag asked.
"keeps me from inhaling the dust that the truck stirs up. while you guys are coughing, im still digging. happily and comfortably" she said and some of the boys laughed. zigzag thought it was a good idea, but it blocked his view of her face. ever since she got there he took a liking to her face, he assumes its because shes the first girl hes seen in a while. in 5 months or so at least.
"can i get one of those?" zero whispered to her and she nodded. she remembered her letters to her mom and dad as she saw mom with a box that said 'mail' on it. she quickly got up and ran to the tent and quickly looked for the letters. when she found them she quite literally stood up, jumped and yelled "EUREKA!" then continued to run back to the mess hall and hand it to mom and walk back to the table.
Mairi Luke's relationship with her mom is complicated, they have their ups and downs. recently her mom has become more distant and is constantly leaving her with her little brother and sister constantly. when she gets back shes more focused on the kids than she is of mairi. her mom does love her, and mairi knows that. she does a bad job showing it. her mom will support her when she can but any other time she scolds her. she thinks shes protecting her but it just makes mairi feel like a burden or too much sometimes.
her relationship with her father is better, but probably because they dont hang out much and he cant punish her and rarely has a reason to scold her. other than when shes running on the beach in the U.K and is pushing kids over with her brother. even then she isn't alone when shes getting scolded. she has her big brother. who's ALWAYS there, no matter what. even when shes at their moms he always makes a point to be on a call or text her while their mom is telling her all the things she did wrong. he numbs the pain for her. when shes at her moms shes the oldest and when shes at her dads shes the youngest. its like she takes breaks. she sat back down at the table and they all looked at her expectantly.
"letters to my mom and dad" she said and they all nodded and kept eating and talking.
"hey rose thorn, whats your full name?" armpit asked and she groaned then sighed.
"mairi, Katheryn, Luke" she said reluctantly and magnite laughed at her. she punched his shoulder. "i know, its a curse i swear" she said resting her head in her hand. zero agreed with her and she gasped."your supposed to be on my side zero" she said chuckling and he shrugged. the boys began to laugh as well and she sighed as they all finished eating. after they finished they all went to the wreck room. zigzag was sitting 'watching' his show, if you could even call it that. the TV was on the fritz and all you could see was black and white along with a bunch of static. squid was gambling his shower tokens as he played a game of cards, somehow he won more than half the time. magnite and z-ray were playing pool 1v1, zero informed rose thorn that no ones ever beat them in a game of pool. armpit bullied the smaller boys into giving up their snacks and tokens. she chuckled at how middle school the boys acted. she sat next to zigzag quietly and watched everyone quietly. zigzag would look at her every now and then, he wanted to talk to her but he just didn't know what to say. she noticed him and would look at him and wave then go back to looking around.
"so, how was your day zigzag?" she finally asked and he jumped a little. she chuckled at him and he nervously laughed.
"it was good, aside from the diggin' holes" he said and she nodded along.
"yeah i finally know what you guys meant by the first day sucks." he said and he laughed.
"yeah, my first day absolutely blew up in my face" he said and that intrigued her. she tilted her head expecting more, she looked like a puppy and zigzag laughed as his face heated up.
"so my first day, i was tired out of my mind for some reason so i was overly grumpy, i was walking 'round lookin' like a zombie. some reason the world was against me and we used to have a boy named barfbag here, as you can guess from the name, he threw up a lot. he wasn't feeling good and threw up all over my front side." he said and she gagged at the thought. he chuckled at her and continued on with her story. "i got mad and started a fight with him. didn't end well, i lost my shower tokens and had to dig his hole the next day" he finished and she shook her head.
"i would probably die if i had to do that. today hole was enough to put me into a coma" she said and he nodded.
"it gets better after a while, you start to do it without thinking after a while" he said zoning out. she chuckled at him zoning out and snapped and his eyes darted and met her. she smiled and he looked back to the TV. she chuckled at his random flash of embarrassment. he began to laugh with her. both of their faces tinted in the slightest. squid looked at the two and scowled. he didn't know why but seeing her laughing with someone else so easily when all she did was scowl and get mad at him made him angry. he never did anything to deserve it in his mind. But to her he was always calling her 'girl' and he was always annoyed with something she was doing, she never took the time to talk to her unless he was helping her with something and even then it wasn't really much other than an insult and a direction on how to do something. she liked that she could talk to the others outside of just asking them for something and they wouldn't get mad. an exception for x-ray though, her and him had more of a boss and their worker relationship and she didn't mind it all that much.
"hey rose thorn, you play pool?" magnite said and she whipped her head in their direction. she's only played it a few times.
"like once when i was just a kiddo" she said standing up before walking over there. x-ray waved her over to his side and she stood next to him.
"you win this game against armpit ill give you squids bread tomorrow" he said and squid looked up from his game.
"ey, i didn't agree to this!" squid said crossing his arms. rose thorn looked at him and laughed.
"im down" she said as magnite set up the pool table. squid scoffed and went back to his game and she laughed even more. armpit allowed her to break first and she ended up being stripes. after a while of playing she lost sadly. they all laughed as she crossed her arms and whined. they all began to walk back to the tent as she complained the whole time. when she got in there she noticed her canteen was almost empty. she lifted it up and shook it and the boys looked at her.
"one of you can either fill it for me or walk me to the spigot, quite frankly I don't feel safe out there at night anymore" she said and she boys shrugged knowing why.
"alright, lets go rose thorn" squid said as he stood up and walked to the enterace of the tent. she looked flabbergasted at him then around the room as her jaw basically touched the ground and she pointed at him. she was surprised he wasn't being rude. the boys held back snickers. "you coming?" he asked and she closed her jaw before jogging out of the tent. she walked to the spigot and filled her canteen. she looked back to see squid flinching at anyone who walked by as they stared at her. she smiled at the fact that he did that for her. even if it was because he had to or else he would get introuble. at least she knew she would always have someone looking out for her in d-tent. even if they didn't want to. she wanted to see how long it would take him to notice she was dont so she just stood a little bit behind him but next to him and looked around. after like five minutes of not hearing anything he turned around and jumped when he saw her. she laughed and patted his shoulder.
"ive been done for a while" she said walking to the tent again. she walked over to her bed where zero was sprawled out on her bed, passed out. she sighed and chuckled as she walked over to her bed. she bent down and picked him up and moved him to his own bed. she layed him down and pulled his covers over him. she kissed his forehead before walking back to her own bed.
"i gotta try that sometime" squid said and she blushed lightly.
"as if i could lift you, IM A TWIG" she said and they all laughed.
"that was our second name, but someone in b-tent already has that name" x-ray said and they all laughed. she rolled her eyes and sat down on her cot as she fiddled with her braid.
i could get used to this she thought to herself before she noticed, the boys are used to it.
how long have they been here? how long do they still have to go? she thought more intently. she was about to ask the boys the question but as if the universe said no, the lights all went out. she grumbled as she went to lay down. she fell back onto the bed and rolled over. squid had noticed how she layed down as if she were angry, and truely. she was. being interrupted was one of her main things she hated. other than being touched by the wrong person obviously. she had fallen asleep a few minutes later but it was a light sleep. so light that even the quietest foot steps could wake her. and they did. she heard the foot steps of someone entering the tent. she looked over her shoulder to see a tall lanky figure walking over to her bed. she slowly sat up as the figure got closer.
"ssshhh, i just want a little taste." she boy said, she couldnt recognize the voice and she knew it wasnt one of the police officers that hang around in the DAY. she got off her cot as the boy tried to grab her. she quickly threw a punch and it connected with what she assumed was his face. he fell to the ground with a thud that woke the whole tent up seemingly simultaniously. she slipped on her boots and kicked him in the side. he groaned and she pinned him down and punched him, relentlessly. he yelled as he tried to get her off. the boys quickly got out of their cots but they coudnt see what was going on. x-ray quickly ran out of the tent and hit their tents emergency power. as the lights turned on they saw that the boy was now ontop of her pinning her down as he kissed her aggresivelly. the blood from his swollen lip getting in her mouth. it tasted horrible, putrid. she tried to slip her hands away as the boy slipped his hand under her shirt and he made his way to her bra.
"EY, LET'ER GO" one of her tent mates yelled. she couldnt tell who, she didnt really care in that moment. the boy on top of her allowed himself to get distracted and she took that moment to slip her foot out and knee him in the side. he let his grip loosen. she rolled over on top of him and began punching him more as she screamed more curses than anyones heard at camp green lake since the warden got pissed at pendanski. the boys stood there surprised by how strong she was when she was truely angry. the boy under her slowly began to loose concience but she persisted, and spersisted, and persisted with the punches. not giving him any mercy. when the boys noticed how much blood was pooling and they noticed she wasnt planning on stopping anytime soon they went to grab her. as they got closer they noticed her tears forming in her eyes. they hesitated but when they heard shuffling armpit quickly grabbed her and tried to haul her off of him. she had a bunch of bloody cloth clenched in her hands as she was lifted off the ground. she kept flailing her limbs as the boys pulled the knocked out boy from her reach. her fists were bloody but they couldnt tell from who. was it her hands of the blood from the boys face. she finally stopped and her arms and legs went limp. she didnt say anything. she just, stopped. she began screaming. they couldnt tell what she was screaming. they could only tell that she needed to do it. armpit looked around in pain and in concern. he slowly let her feet touch the ground and she stood up by herself. she stopped screaming and opened her eyes to see the d-tent boys, , and all standing there in a mix of concern and amazement. her face stung red by her screaming and her eyes puffy from her enraged crying. she took deep breaths, in, and out. she steadied her breathing. she looked among their faces and wipped her face and pushed her stray hairs back.
"are y-" magnite began to ask but she put up her hand to stop him.
"you say that sentance and ill shove my foot up your ass" she said in a angry but also civilized way. the boys looked around squid remembered something his mom used to say to him when he was little and his mom wasnt a drunk rotten bitch.
"what can we do to help?" he asked and she looked at him great full. she looked to the bloody boy that they put in the corner.
"get him away from me." she said and x-ray and zigzag quickly grabbed him and threw him outside, literally. not caring for his well being what-so-ever. they turned back to her and she looked around the room. "wait to ask me questions till tomorrow" she said and and mom looked at each other and nodded before leaving. she looked back to the boys then thought for a second. did she really want a hug? she did. but from who? the boys here were either horrified or disgusted by her at this point. whats the point in asking for a hug?
"want a hug?" she heard one of the boys ask as if they read her mind. she couldnt tell who said it. she nodded softly and slowly. she looked to her feet and one of the boys walked over. she felt the arms wrap around her body. she wrapped her arms around his back. "can we agree to never bring this up?" she heard the voice of squid right in her ear. she nodded her head as she got chills down her spine. her face began to get warm and she turned her head towards his neck and leaned her head in the crook of his neck. she let out a shaky sigh and let him go. he held her for a milisecond longer but let her go after he noticed what he was doing. the boys began cooing at the two and he began pushing the boys as she flipped them off. the boys began to laugh and so did she. the lights went out and she jumped a bit. the boys looked around.
"rose, are you okay?" she heard zigzag ask and she nodded before noticing they couldnt see her.
"yeah. im fine" she said and the tention seemed to mellow down. they all walked to their respective beds. they all said goodnight again and began to fall asleep again.