Love Me or Hate Me

“I can’t believe they decided to send me to some stupid camp for two years,” I mumbled as I scribbled the words into my journal like book, which wasn’t easy considering the fact that I was handcuffed. I sighed angrily to myself as I sat on the ripped, broken down seat with my bag sitting in my lap, trying to comfortable. I looked out of the window of the bus I was currently riding before sighing again and returning to writing in my book. “It’s not like I purposely pushed her down that flight of stairs. It just... happened.”I let out another sigh before turning my gaze back to the window as I remembered the day of my court date...

“Stacy Sodamore almost died because if you!” Stacy’s lawyer yelled in my face.

“I didn’t mean to push her down the stairs, so shut up!” I yelled back. “I didn’t realize the steps were there until it was too late. It was her fault anyway. I told her to stop teasing me. I warned her. And does she do? She completely ignores me and continues doing it, so I turned around and pushed her. The stairs just happened to be there, so she stumbled back a bit and fell down them.” I turned to look at Stacy. She was sitting in a wheel chair next to her mom. She had a cast on both her arms and her right leg. She also had a neck brace around her neck. I smirked at her. “I guess the next time someone says ‘leave me alone’ you’ll back off!” I snapped.

“That is no way to behave in court!” the judge reprimanded me.

“So,” I said a little too loudly. Damn it, I thought to myself knowing the judge wasn’t going to be too happy about my comment.

“Samuel Colloca Jr.!” she yelled before taking a deep breath and calming herself down. “I could send you to jail and not lose one bit of sleep over it... but seeing as your too young, I am forced to send you to a juvenile correctional facility known as Camp Greenlake. They help troubled youth develop and build character-”

“I’m not going to juvie?” I questioned interrupting again. “Righteous!”

“Samuel Colloca Jr. I am sentencing you to two years at Camp Greenlake,” she said while banging her gavel.

I let out another long sigh before continuing to write in my book. “I guess it was kinda my fault too that I ended up here. I really should learn how to keep my mouth shut. My sentence probably would’ve been shorter if I had.” I rolled my eyes and looked back at the barren deserted plain.

“Who the hell builds a camp in the middle of the desert?” I thought aloud. “And what the hell is with these holes?” I glanced at the guard officer that was sitting towards the front of the bus near the driver. He was carrying a shot gun and was starring at me through dark sunglasses. Ha! He could’ve been sleeping for all I knew.

The bus suddenly turned off the road and into the sand. There were holes everywhere, and they seemed to go on for miles. I turned my attention away from the window I was looking out of, to the front window of the bus. I could see two small buildings on the right side and a big pavilion on the left in the distance. Behind the buildings I could see some tents. I really didn’t care about the tents and the “building”. The only interesting thing I did see- or didn’t see- were girls. On the way here I saw at least twenty or so boys, all wearing an orange looking jumpsuit, and not one girl in sight. I let out a sigh, and as the bus came to a stop, I put my book back in my bag.

“We’re here,” I heard the officer say.

He stood up and instructed me to get off the bus. I did. As we were walking off the bus, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the rearview mirror. I had on no make up, like usual. I never really was one of those girly girls. I had traces of dirt all along my face and stains on my shirt and jeans, which were at least two sizes too big. I always wore baggy clothes.

“Hurry up!” said the guard pushing me roughly off the bus.

“Aren’t you just a fucking ray of sunshine?” I asked under my breath as I suppressed the urge to punch him in his face.

Once we had gotten off the bus he had took off my handcuffs. He began walking towards one of the small buildings. When he realized I wasn’t following him, he came back to where I was and pushed me in the direction of the building he was walking in. I bit the inside of my mouth as I tried not to turn around and hit him. I hung my head low, and continued to walk in the direction of the small building. As I was walking I heard someone in the distance shout “Yo, fresh meat!” I was compelled to go chase that person down, but since the guard had somehow gotten a good grip on my shoulder, I was a little constricted, and I couldn’t move.

The guard had escorted me into the building. Once I got into the building the first thing I did was look around. It was a normal office building... somewhat. It had a few certificates and things adorning the walls, shelves that held books, a little refrigerator on top of a table in the corner, a coffee maker on top of the fridge, what looked like a safe on the wall adjacent to it, and a window. It also had a desk. The desk held a few books, a coffee mug, a lamp, and had some random papers and files thrown here and there. Sitting at the desk was a man. He had what looked like a mullet, and a peach fuzz moustache. He had on, or what I could see, a button up white collard shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was eating sunflower seeds from a little glass bowl, that was also on his desk, and was spitting the shells into a jar. He glanced up at me as the officer and I entered his office.

“Sit down,” he said while gesturing to the seat that was across from his. The officer, who had come in before me, was also pointing at the seat. It took all I had not to say something to this officer, who was clearly getting on my nerves, but nevertheless I did as I was told and took my seat. I watched as the man spat a sunflower seed shell in the jar before taking out a file... my file.

“What’s with the sunflower seeds man?” asked the officer.

“I gave up smoking,” he said simply before turning to me with my file in his hands. “Samuel Colloca Jr.?” he questioned.

“Yeah, that’s my name.”

“My name is Mr. Sir. Whenever you speak to me you will call me by my name. Is that clear?”

“Yes Mr. Sir,” I said while stifling a laugh, but doing an awful job of it.

“You think my name’s funny boy?” he asked while standing up.

“Actually, yes Mr. Sir,” I answered honestly.

He grimaced at me before continuing. “This isn’t a girl scout camp. You understand?”
I watched as he walked over to his fridge, opened it and took out two cokes. “Here,” he said and acted like he was handing it to me, but me being who I am, and having pulled that trick on numerous of people, I wasn’t fooled. I naturally assumed it was for the guard, so I didn’t move, and just like suspected, he handed it to the officer. I held back a laugh once I saw the look I his face when he saw I didn’t reach for the bottle, which obviously wasn’t for me.

“I’m judging by the look on your face, that I’m the only one who didn’t fall for you little soda trick, eh Mr. Sir?” I asked mockingly.

“You think you’re smart don’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah.” I answered taking all of 2 seconds to think about it.

“You thirsty Samuel?”

“Come to think about it, yes Mr. Sir,” I answered.

“Well you better get used to it, you’re gonna be thirsty for the next two years.”

“Whatever,” I mumbled rolling my eyes.

“Roll your eyes at me again and you’ll lose two weeks of shower tokens.”

“Whatever,” I repeated and rolled my eyes again so he could see.

“What was that?!” he yelled.

I smirked before saying “Nothing Mr. Sir,” in a monotonous voice

“Good, now follow me,” he said before walking past me and out of the building. I followed him outside.

“Look around you Colloca, what do you see?”

“Dirt,” I answered.

“You see any guard towers? How ‘bout an electric fence?”

“No Mr. Sir.”

“You wanna run away? Go ahead, start running. I ain’t gonna stop you.”

“What’s with the gun?” I asked as I noticed the gun in his right hip.

“Don’t worry; this here is for yellow spotted lizards. I wouldn’t waste a bullet on you.”

“Thank you? Anyway, I’m not gonna run away Mr. Sir.”

“Good thinking Colloca. Doesn’t nobody run away from here, you know why?”

“I got a pretty good fell you about to tell me,” I replied.

“We got the only water for a hundred miles, our own little oasis. You wanna run away? Them buzzards’ll pick you clean by the end of the third day,” he said as he continued walking. “C’mon here boy,” he called to me when he saw I wasn’t following. I let out a heavy sigh before following behind Mr. Sir.

I followed him another little building, only to see a boy walking out. I walked in behind Mr. Sir, and saw that this place was full of canteens, boots, and orange jumpsuits. In the background, behind a desk was boy. He was white, with brown hair, which was slicked back. He had on a white tee shirt, and his orange jumper was tied around his waist. He was cute too, but not my type.

Mr. Sir walked over towards the boots, got a pair, and threw them on the floor before me saying one simple command: “Get undressed.”

I looked at him like he was stupid, or like I didn’t hear him correctly before saying “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Get undressed,” he said in a very serious tone.

I let out a frustrated sigh, I sigh a lot, and commenced to taking off my outer layer of clothes. As I began taking off my clothes, Mr. Sir began walking around the room. I watched as he took two orange jumpsuits off the shelf.

“You get two sets of clothes, one for work, and one for relaxation. After three days your work clothes will be washed and your second set becomes your work clothes, is that clear,” he said while tossing them both to me.

“Yes Mr. Sir,” I said as I took of my shirt and my jeans, which left me in a tank top two sizes too big and a pair of boxers that I bought, before putting on one of the ugly orange suits.

“You are to dig one hole each day. Five foot deep, five foot in diameter,” he said as the boy in the background passed him a shovel. “Your shovel is your measuring stick. The longer it takes you to dig, the longer you’ll be out in the hot sun. You need too keep alert for lizards and rattlesnakes.”

“Rattlesnakes?!” I repeated.

“You don’t bother them; they won’t bother you... usually. Being bit by a rattler ain’t the worst thing that can happen to you. You won’t die... usually. But you don’t wanna get bit by a yellow spotted lizard. That is the worst thing that can happen to you. You will die a slow and painful death... always.”

“Well, on that happy note,” I began, but I was cut short when a dude who was wearing a hat with a string around his neck, a blue button up collard shirt, and a pair of shorts, with sandals and socks had come in. This dude also had way too much sunscreen on his nose.

“Samuel Colloca?” he questioned, interrupting me.

“Yeah,” I answered a little apprehensively. I could already tell that I wasn’t gonna like this guy.

“I just want you to know, that you may have done some bad things, but that does not make you a bad kid. I respect you Samuel. Welcome to camp green lake. I’m Dr. Pendanski, your counselor--”

“Start that touchy feely crap, I’m outta here,” said Mr. Sir. “Give him some tokens, some towels, send him home.”

“Here,” said the boy handing me some towels, a toothbrush, and other necessary things.

“Okay, now if you’ll follow me,” I turned my attention back to Dr. Pendanski and followed him as he walked out the door. “You’ll be in ‘D’ tent. ‘D’ stands for ‘diligence’. There’s the mess hall, that’s the rec. room, and them’s the showers. There’s only one knob, cause there’s only one temperature... cold. And that’s the wardens cabin over there.” He was pointing out sights as we walked. “That’s the number one rule here. ‘Do not upset the warden.’ Just so you know, Mr. Sir is not the warden.”

“Yo mom, who’s the fresh meat?”

I looked over at the person who called me ‘fresh meat’. I saw three guys approach me and Pendanski.

“This is Samuel. Samuel, meet Rex, Alan and Theodore.”

“Yo my name is X-Ray,” said Rex. “That’s Squid and that’s Armpit.”

“Him?” said Squid. “He’s Mom.”

Dr. Pendanski turned to me. “They all have their little nicknames, but I prefer to use the names their parents gave them. The names society will recognize them by.”

Rex, or X-Ray, was a tall black guy with towels wrapped around his head, but I could barely make out a fro, and very thick glasses, so I couldn’t see his eyes. The guy next to him, Alan, or Squid, was the same height, white with black hair and brown eyes and had a toothpick in his mouth. The last guy, Theodore, Armpit, was a black short, dude who was slightly over weight. I just stared at all of them, not saying anything.

“Alan, why don’t we show Samuel his cot?”

Alan looked at X-Ray, as if waiting permission.

“Go ahead Squid,” X-Ray replied.

“Welcome to your home Samuel,” said Pendanski as we entered the tent. “Now, you can sleep on Mikhail’s bed.” Pendanski was pointing to the bed as he said the name.

I walked over and looked at the bed. It looked relatively clean. There weren’t any mysterious stains on it or anything, so I let out a sigh as I threw my bag on it. I looked over towards the door as everyone else walked in.

“Hey, I’m Magnet. That’s Zig-Zag and Barf bag. ” said one of the three boys who had just come in.

Magnet was a Hispanic boy with, what I could tell was tan skin but it was hard considering he was covered in dirt. He had big brown eyes, and I couldn’t see his hair because he had a scarf on. He was fine too, and cute. Zig-Zag was a tall, white, boy with brown curly hair and dark brown eyes. Barf bag had a round shaped face and deep blue eyes. I couldn’t see his hair because he had on a blue hat. I just gave them a slight head nod in place of a greeting.

“And this is Zero,” said Pendanski referring to a boy lying on a cot whom I hadn’t noticed before. “You want to know why they call him Zero? Cause there’s nothing going on in is stupid little head.” I had to say something then. I couldn’t let that go unchecked. Zero was a short black boy with curly brown hair; he looked to be the youngest of all in this tent.

“What the hell kind of camp counselor are you?! Callin’ kids stupid. You’re stupid. Trust me, if I could, I would punch you in your face right now,” I went off.

“Very well,” said Pendanski. “Samuel, if you have any questions, fell free to ask Alan. He’ll be your mentor. Got that Alan?”

“Yeah, okay mom.”

“Good, I’m depending on you. It should be no labor, be nice to your neighbor,” he said walking out.

I sighed before sitting everything on my new “bed” and getting settled. “I do not like him,” I said to myself as I watched Pendanski walk out of the tent. I started taking stuff out of my bag, and I came across a long blanket. I hooked up a long rope over by my bed and draped the blanket over it. I made sure it touched the floor as all the boys left out of the tent... all but Zero. I walked over to him to talk, but he saw me coming, and rolled over so he was facing the wall. I just stared at the back of his head for a few seconds before following the boys out of the tent.

I found the boys a few feet from the tent and approached them. “Hey Magnet!” I called as I walked up to him. “Is there a place where I can fill my canteen up with water?”

“Over there,” he said with a slight Spanish accent as he pointed in the direction of a white fountain thing were there were a lot of boys lined up.

“Thanks,” I said as I made my way over there. After I filled my canteen, I went to the mess hall because they were serving dinner. I got in line and looked over the food as they were putting it on my tray. It looked like a bunch of pig slop. The only recognizable thing was two slices of white bread. I sighed as went to find a seat. As I was looking around, I saw Zig-Zag wave me over towards his table. I reluctantly walked over there.

“Hey Samuel, this is where you sit,” he said scooting down. “Sit down,” he instructed me.

I sat down in what previously was his seat, beside Magnet, and across from Squid. As soon as I sat down I heard X-Rays voice.

“Hey, yo new kid. Hey, yo!”

I glared at him.

“I see you didn’t dig today, so you won’t mind giving up your bread to somebody who did now would you?” he said while reaching over the table to my plate. Before he reached my plate, however, I grabbed my fork and in one quick motion, pinned his hand to the table with it and said in a low venomous tone of voice “Do not reach in my plate!”

He let out a scream of agony and surprise when he realized what happened, then he quickly went back in controlling mode. “Give me your bread,” he said.

“No, I want my bread; it’s the only thing I can recognize on this tray.” I said while picking up my bread with my other hand, the one that wasn’t holding the fork. “But you can have the rest of that slop. I don’t know what that is,” and with that I stuffed the bread in my mouth, chewed it and swallowed. X-Ray had withdrawn his hand back and was now glaring at me. His stare could make anyone normal person turn away, but I’m not normal, and I certainly wasn’t about to back down.

“So, Samuel,” said Squid. “What they get you for?”

I turned away from X-Ray and turned to face Squid. “For pushing a girl down the steps,” I said simply.

“Did she die?” asked Barf Bag.

“Almost,” I said simply. “She broke both her arms and her right leg. Her neck too. That was the last and major thing, that and setting the school on fire, I’m a pyromaniac, then there’s street fighting, thievery and ten different counts of ‘defacing pubic property’.”

“Meaning?” asked Magnet.

“Meaning, I painted murals on the walls,” I said sarcastically. “What do you think it means fool? Graffiti! But it was real works of art.”

I ate the rest of my dinner in silence, and watched as they all got up from the table one by one. I was the last one up. I walked over to the trashcan, and threw the food I didn’t eat away, before walking outside. As soon as I stepped one foot outside I was thrown onto the floor and the air was knocked out my lungs. I managed to turn on my back and face the person who had knocked me on the ground. X-Ray was towering over me in a dominating position.

“The next time I say do something, you better do it,” he said while bending down to punch me again, but before he could I took the liberty to kick him in his face, sending him flying backwards. I then jumped up to my feet and made my way over to him.

“Now I’ll show you what five years of football practice, three years of wrestling, and ten years of tae-kwon do can do.”

I advanced on him and jump on him, and began punching his sides. He threw me off of him. I landed on my stomach. I felt him get on my back and he started banging my head on the ground. I somehow managed to turn around and throw him off of me, but he didn’t stay down long. I ran and tackled him after he got up. I sat on his chest and began pummeling his face with my fist. He kicked me off and then dragged me to a wall. On the wall, like right beside my hand, I felt a piece of glass. I picked it up, and slashed the side of his stomach before kicking him in the nuts. He keeled over and fell to the floor writhe with pain. I smirked contently with myself before walking away towards the tent. Half way there, I had gotten a conscience. I sighed to myself and walked back to where X-Ray still lay, unconscious on the ground. I bent down and picked him up, draping one of his arms on my shoulders. I used my arm, the one closest to him, to wrap around his waist. I began to drag him back to the tent. I entered the tent to see all the boys sitting down on their beds sitting and talking, but stopped when I entered the tent.

“Damn!!” they all exclaimed when they saw my face and saw X-Ray in my arms unconscious.

“What happened to you man?” asked Magnet.

I looked at the mirror that was nailed to a pillar in the tent; I had blood all over my face. “I fell,” I lied.

“And X-Ray,” asked Squid.

“I don’t know. I found him like this.”

I walked over to my cot and got my bag from under it. I pulled my first aid kit from out of my bag and set it on the bed. I took out a rag from it, and got water from my canteen. I dampened the rag and began wiping the blood from my face. When I got all the blood off I turned to the boys.

“Get him undressed by the time I come back,” I said while walking behind my changing corner. I stripped off my outer layer of clothes until I was only in my tank top, and my boxers. I came back out to see all the eyes of the boys on me, and X-Ray, still had his clothes on.

“I thought I told you to take off his clothes,” I said walking over to him.

“Hey man, we weren’t gonna take off X’s clothes,” said Magnet.

“Fools,” I muttered under my breath, before ripping open his black shirt. I couldn’t help but let my eyes linger on his abs for a while, and then I saw the long gash that was right next to them. I walked over, got the first aid kit from off my bed and came back to X-Ray. I had gotten another rag from out of it, and soaked it in some water, before putting it on his wound. I cleaned up the blood before pulling some peroxide on the wound to clean it. I then rubbed it down in some ointment, and patched it up. I took off his glasses and cleaned off all the blood and dirt from his face. I took notice of how cute he looked without them. I then traced my fingers down his chest and found some bruises. I put some ointment on them too. After X-Ray was all cleaned and patched up, I threw the bloody water away, before turning to go back to my cot. It was then that I realized all of the boys, even Zero, were staring me down hard.

“Y’all got an eye problem?” I asked getting into bed.

They didn’t answer but just kept staring at me. I sighed, not wanting to go to sleep just yet, so I asked where all the girls were.

“Girls,” said Zig-Zag.

“I guess no one told you man, this is an all boys camp,” said Magnet.

“All... boys... camp...?” I growled and said “go to sleep,” before turning out the light.