Chapter 10

The morning routine was the same as yesterdays. The same gooey mess of a breakfast, the same dirty shovel line, the same walk to the digging site. After the sun was up and boiling me from the inside out I was done. Zero, Squid, Magnet and Stanley were all finished before me. This morning I was just too tired to dig fast.

“Do you know where Squid and Magnet went off too?” I asked Zigzag.

“They probably went to the Wreck Room, I’ll see you there when I’m done. Watch out for lizards…” I trudged over to the cabin witch was clearly labeled ‘Wreck Room’. A lot of noise and crashes came from inside.

The Wreck Room was literally a wreck. There was a sofa spewing fluff around it every time someone lounged on it. The old fashioned TV flashed blurred black and white lines probably since the antenna was bent. A rickety wooded bookshelf held dusty books that looked like they were from medieval times. It stunk. There were boys everywhere. They were either messing around with each other or beating each other up. As I walked further in I was greeted with wolf whistles. I blushed and searched in the crowded area for Squid or Magnet. They were playing a game of pool on discolored pool table that also looked like it had been torn to shreds. I bit my lip and walked swiftly towards them. I felt someone squeeze my butt. I whipped around and threw a punch instinctively.

“What the hell you bitch!” A greasy haired tall guy rubbed his face.

“What the hell you bitch!” I retorted back snarling. A crowd gathered around us. I saw the black haired boy stand beside my opponent. A different guy with curly blonde hair stood on the other. They were both snickering. Squid and Magnet looked up from their pool game.

“What did you just call me?” He growled and advanced towards me.  I have to admit this guy was scary; he was at least two heads taller than me. But I wasn’t going to let him see my fear. I stood my ground as he came closer.

“You heard me, I called you a bitch.”

“Why you little” he raised his fist in the air. I winced and prepared myself for the impact. But it never came. I opened my eyes and two pool cues were stabbing him in the chest, pushing him back. It was Magnet and Squid. X-Ray stepped in front of me shoving me behind him.

“Hey just chill man, nobody wants The Warden to come down on all of us.”

“Oh come on! I was just tryin’ to have a little fun with her.” He grinned at me. I spat at his feet. Some oohs came from the crowd. His grin disappeared and he pushed the cues away and stepped forward. Squid and Magnet joined X-Ray in defending me.

“Buck, Sam why don’t you control your pet?” Squid said.

“Nah, we’d rather have a good show.” Said Buck. Sam sniggered. The greasy haired guy lunged at us again. Squid and Magnet shoved him back.

“Dude lets not start a fight, Ember’s just a little feisty that’s all. You don’t want to harm a girl, it’s bad luck and I don’t think you need any more bad luck in your life.” X-Ray stated. That seemed to calm the freak down.

“Fine.” He turned away and went back to slouching in his chair.

“Come on chica, come over here with us.” Said Magnet as he pulled me by the hand over to the messed up pool table. I glanced behind me to see that the freak was still staring at me.

“Don’t look at him, he’s crazy.” Said Squid as we got to the pool table.

“Thanks guys.”  I smiled at X-Ray. He grinned back.

“No one hurts a D-Tent.” He said then he whispered something to me. “Don’t get involved with them, they’re pathetic B-Tents but their probably the worst of the bunch… Just be careful when you’re alone. ThLump is not a good person to be around alone.” I smiled at that too. These guys really are my friends.      

"Can I play?" I asked Squid as he prepared to knock a ball with his cue.

"I don't know, can you?" Squid asked, coming up behind me.

"Nope." He laughed.

"Well, I'll help you." Squid stepped towards me and held my arms the way you're supposed to. By the time we finished, I was playing Magnet in my first pool game. And… I lost, horribly. But, it was okay because, unlike usual, I didn't bet money. If we were playing Poker, it would be quite a different story.

"Good game." Magnet said, smirking slightly and trying to stifle a laugh.

"Alright, shut the hell up before I go all Canadian on your ass." I said, cracking my knuckles.

"I'd like to see you try." Magnet joked. "I didn't know you were from Canada. I mean, you kind of have an accent, but, yeah."

"Nobody does. I'm a proud juvenile delinquent from the great city of Toronto." I smirked, giving them a bow, which made them laugh. "Oh yeah, but I’m not totally from there just born, I lived in London most of my life before I moved to Houston where my family originates from."

“England? You don’t sound British.” Magnet pointed out.

“Well duh, doofus. Yeah England, it’s quite a nice place really. I kinda like the musicals there and this British rap group.” They all looked puzzled. “I know right! Hard core…”

"Nah not that…You and musicals? Yeah, I don't think so." Squid laughed, smirking at the fact that I liked musicals.

"Hey, don't make fun of what I like… I may be a juvenile delinquent, but I can like musicals. Surely you have to know some." They shrugged and shook their heads. “Oh come on guys! You have to know at least one!” They stared at me blankly. “Haven’t you heard of Wicked?” No sign of recognition. “Les Miserables? We Will Rock You? Grease? Mamma Mia?” Nothing. I sighed. “You have to know Phantom of the Opera?”

“Is that the one with the crazy masked guy?” asked X-Ray.

“Yeah it does have a crazy masked guy but he’s a ghost looking for love so he tortures living until he falls in love with an actress at the opera and tries to steal her away!” I looked at them all. They probably thought I was talking gibberish.

“That must be something different cus it doesn’t ring a bell.” X-Ray stated.

“Ugh! I must teach you the ways of the musicals!” They all laughed at me.

"Hey, what's everyone laughing about?" Stanley and Zigzag walked in and joined us.

"Nothing, just how ugly and annoying you are.” I joked, getting a laugh from the guys.

"Hey, I'm not ugly and annoying."

"Oh, that's right! You're stupid, ugly and annoying."

"I'm not stupid, ugly, or annoying."

"Yeah, right, let's keep it at just annoying and someone who blames everything on everyone else. It's your stupid-rotten-mouse stealing-great-uncles fault you're here, right?" The guys were still laughing, because they knew I was joking around. Well, I was mostly. Stanley seemed to take it seriously.

"At least I'm not a slut with a drunk of a mom, a dead sister, and a dad that left me when I was young." I stared startled. How did he know about my life?

"What. Did. You. Just. Say?" I walked right up to him and grabbed the front of his shirt and glared into that stupid face of his.

"You heard me." He said, fear slightly evident on his face. I was extremely pissed.

"Alright, well let's see if your senses are working correctly." I punched him in the face and kicked him right where light doesn’t shine. He collapsed to the ground and writhed in pain. "How does feeling work, Stanley?" I was about to kick him again, but I felt hands holding me back. "Well, let's see if you hear this correctly. I'm not a slut, or any of the other bad things that you could possibly think of. My mother is, in fact, a drunk, and my father did leave when I was younger. My sister is dead. Does that make you feel any better, you stupid son of a bitch? Just because you have a perfect little life and everything in your life is great, sure as hell doesn't mean everyone's is." The room was silent. I felt the eyes of everyone staring at me as I tried to break free of the people holding me back from pounding the shit out of Stanley.

"Alright, let me go!" I said through clenched teeth.

"Not until you calm down." I heard X-Ray say, "The Warden doesn't like when fights start… she gets angry."

"Well, let her!" I got one of the people holding me back off of my right arm; I took a swing at Stanley. He shuffled away. I leapt at him but I didn’t go anywhere. The grip was too tight.

“Kat, stop…” I heard Zigzag from behind me.

"Ok, ok. I'm calm. Let go of me!" I screamed.

"No. We're taking you back to the tent right now." I heard Squid say, his voice as little bit of a comfort. The others let go, and I was dragged, pushed, whatever the hell you want to call it, forward and towards D-Tent by Squid and Zigzag. They let go of me as I stormed into the tent. I started pacing up and down the row between the cots. They watched me from Zigzag’s bed.

"Look, he probably didn't mean it." Squid said.

"Yeah right. And pigs fly!” I threw my hands in the air, “Look, Squid, I know you really don't believe it. Hand me my lighter, would  you?" I told him as I sat on my cot. "I hate that stupid son of a bitch."

"This wouldn't have happened if you weren't provoking him." He responded, throwing my lighter at me. At first I wanted to respond with a "this isn't my fault." And turn into Stanley myself but, he was right.

“How did he know?”  I asked Zigzag. He looked guilty. “Do you know?”

“Yes.” He whispered.

“Who else knows?”

“Um, all of D-Tent…”

“How?”

“When we were walking back we h-heard you and Squid talking. I’m so s-sorry, we should have told y-you…” I sighed and walked over and sat between them.

“I forgive you, but I still hate Stanley. What time is it now?”

"6:00. Dinners probably almost starting…" said Squid and a bell rang.

"What are you, a psychic?"

"No I’m not but let’s get moving. Dinner's ready." They both got up to leave.

"I'm not hungry." I slouched on the cot.

"Sure you are. I'm going to force you to eat." Zigzag lightly grabbed my arm and pulled me up to my feet.

“Fine, but I’m letting you spoon feed me.”

And we walked out. When we got to the Mess Hall, everyone was staring at me with a little more respect. I glared at them and got my mush and sat down between Zigzag and Squid. I didn’t want to be near Stanley at all. Then, the normal noise picked up again.

"Hello." I said to everyone. They still stared at me as the loud conversations continued.

“Um, X and I have done the Water Duty…” Armpit stated. I shrugged my shoulders and started playing with the mush. It was meant to be chili surprise.

"Well, are you still going to kill Caveman or what?" Magnet asked.

"Well if I was going to don't you think I would've done it already?"

"Ok, good." X-Ray said, relaxing along with everyone else at our table. I noticed Stanley had a nice shiner black eye. He tried to glared at me but his blacked eye was obviously too painful to glare with so he only squinted with one eye. I almost laughed at it; he was so pathetic. I ate the surprise mush as we all talked, like nothing had happened. We were in a topic of favorite movies.

"What's your favorite movie, Ember?" Magnet asked me.

"Um… well, I guess it would be… Oh I don’t know really I have lots."

"Just give us one?"

"Well there is this chain of movies I like called Saw.” 

“Ain’t that a horror movie? It’s meant to be the goriest movie ever! Why do you like to watch it?” Armpit said horrified.

“Well, I don’t mind a bit of gore but it’s the story line I’m interested in. You know like how the serial killer Jigsaw became who he was and how he ends up tricking the people he traps in his ‘games’ into killing each other instead of thinking logically…” They all stared up at me as if I was crazy.

“Aren’t they like rated R movies?” asked Squid.

“Yes. But that doesn’t stop me from using the Internet!”

"Well, that's different." X-ray said as we all stood up. I tripped Stanley as he was walking over to dump his empty tray. He fell face first into the garbage. The room exploded into laughter. We got to our tent and we all put on our sleeping clothes.

"Night guys." I said as we all drifted to sleep.