Love Me or Hate Me

I woke up the next day to the sound of a trumpet playing. Having only gotten about thirty minutes of sleep, I was a little nervous about sleeping a tent full of boys, I sighed and got out of bed. I put on my orange suit and walked out of the tent. I followed Mr. Sir to this shabby shack, where all the boys were lining up. I noticed the shack had the word library scribbled across it.

“Okay everybody come and get it. Shovels on the left tortillas on the right! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

I sighed to myself, completely irritated and grabbed a random shovel, and began walking back with the other ‘D’ tent members. As I was walking X-Ray came up to me and tried to snatch the shovel out of my hand, but I had a good grip on it.

“Give me my shovel,” he said menacingly.

“Your shovel huh? Funny, I don’t see your name on it.”

“Give me my shovel,” he said again and reached for it.

“Do you want me to kick your ass like I did last night?” I asked so only he could hear.

He looked taken aback, and I smirked. “That’s what I thought... here take the shovel,” I said throwing at his feet and snatching the one he had from his hands. I glared at him as he walked away.

“Hey, man, you picked up X-Ray’s shovel,” said Magnet approaching me. “It’s smaller than the rest of them.”

“Smaller shovel, smaller hole,” said Squid as he ate a tortilla.

We all walked on the lake.

“Dig here,” Mr. Sir instructed me. “Now, if you find something interesting show to me or Pendanski. If the warden likes what you find, you get the rest of the day off.”

“What are we supposed to be looking for?”

“You aren’t looking for anything, you’re building character. You take a bad boy make him dig holes all day in the hot sun, he becomes a good boy. That our philosophy here at camp green lake.”

“Interesting philosophy,” I said.

“Shut up and start digging.”

I sighed and put the shovel in the dirt. I couldn’t get in the ground good enough, so when I tried to dig, I fell.

“One down,” said Mr. Sir. “One million to go.”

As the day went on, my hole was coming along nicely. It was hard at first but I got the hang of it. I was at least half-way done by the time the water truck came around.

“Come get your water dawg,” said X-Ray.

“Here comes the water truck,” said Armpit.

Magnet came and helped me out of my hole, and he saw all the blisters I had on my hands. He sucked in air between his and said “Oh my god. First holes the hardest right?”

“Yeah I guess,” I said getting towards the back of the line for the water truck while Magnet tried to get in the front. Squid wasn’t having that.

“What you doin’ man? Don’t forget your place in line Magnet!” said Squid pulling him towards the back.

“Keep your hands off of me man!”

“So how’d go your first day, Colloca?” asked Mr. Sir. “You got some blisters on ya?”

“Yeah,”

“Big fat blisters,” answered Magnet.

“Well, don’t worry. Everything turns to callus eventually. That’s life. Next,” Mr. Sir said as he filled up the next person’s canteen. After he finished with mine, I went back to my hole, and finished digging. I was one of the first ones done. Number three to be exact. Zero was the first one. Then it was X-Ray, about twenty minutes later, then me, fifteen minutes after X-Ray. I went back to camp and went directly to the tent, I figured since X-Ray would most likely be in the rec. room and all the other boys were out on the lake, now would be the best time for me to get some sleep. I entered the tent expecting it to be empty, I didn’t count on Zero being there. That’s why he startled me a little when I came in.

“Oh, hello Zero,” I said as I made my way over to my bed, but when he didn’t say anything I stopped dead in my tracks and walked back over to him. “You know it’s rude to ignore people when they’re talking to you.”

Still he said nothing.

“Excuse me? Zero? Wait, I don’t like the name Zero, it sound like an insult to me. You don’t mind if I call you ‘Curly’ instead do you?”

Silence.

“I’ll take that as a no. Okay, Curly.” I said walking back to my cot. I immediately took out my sketch book and start started drawing. I didn’t really know what I was drawing; I just picked up my pencil and put it on the paper. I was so involved with my drawing, that I didn’t notice that when I was half way done, Curly had gotten up from his bed and was now standing over my shoulder. I didn’t notice until he spoke.

“What’re you doing?” he asked.

“I’m drawing,” I said simply.

“Drawing what?”

“I don’t really know. I’ll let you see when I get finished...” then I realized something. “Hey, you spoke to me.”

“Yeah, that’s really good,” he said referring to my drawing.

I smiled at him. “Thanks,”

“Hey, yo man!” said Magnet coming in. “What you doing in here?”

“Having a conversation with Curly,” I said.

“X’ wants to see you in the rec. room.”

“Well, tell him, I’m busy right now, or I’m sleep or something,” I said yawning.

Magnet shrugged and walked out of the tent. I went back to my drawing and when I finished I saw what- who it was.

“Hey Curly!” I called to him. “I finished my drawing. Wanna see it?” I walked over and handed it to him. When he saw it his eyes went wide.

“That’s me,” he said.

I looked at it. “Yeah, it is you. What you think?”

“I like it.”

“Thanks, that means a lot.”

“So how was your first day?”

“Tiresome, but the worst is over right?”

“What?”

“‘The first hole’s the hardest’?” I said mimicking Magnet’s word to me earlier.

“No, the second hole’s the hardest. C’mon, let’s go to dinner,” he said while walking towards the exit of the tent.

“Wait, what does that mean?” I called after him.

“You’ll see.”