As Days Go By…

Summary: Jaden has lived a difficult life. Her mother disguising her as a boy to keep her from her father's wrath, her father still abusing their family, and the eventual loss of her mother. Now, after a final attempt to protect the last bit of family she has, Jaden finds herself trapped in a misunderstanding. Now sent to Camp Green Lake, can Jaden keep her disguise up? Or will she find that she really wants to be the girl she never got to be?

Disclaimer: I only own Jaden, Tyler, Jennifer and Hank. Everything else belongs to the author of Holes, Louis Sachar.

Chapter 1: Condemned

The sun beat relentlessly on the yellow bus driving through the empty desert. The driver, the guard and the passenger all shifted uncomfortably in the hot vehicle. The guard and driver at least had something to drink on them for most of the ride, much to the passenger's dismay.

'I can't believe I'm stuck here,' the passenger, Jaden Miller, thought as she stared out the window. (A/N: I will refer to Jaden as 'she' and 'her' in the narrator perspective. When other people address her it'll be with 'him' and 'he')

It'd been just a week ago that Jaden and her little brother Tyler thought to escape their personal hell…

"Jaden," Tyler whispered, gently shaking his sister awake, "Jaden wake up…"

Green eyes slowly opened and focused on the form before her before she sat up, a gasp escaping her lips. Tyler had a black eye and bruises on his arms.

"Tyler! How did this? Don't tell me Hank did this to you!" Jaden whispered viciously, her anger radiating off her body in waves.

Tyler nodded, his eyes watering with his unshed tears. Tyler was a 13 year old boy and a small one at that. Tyler was a premature baby and his body was short and petite.

"Jaden, let's get out of here! I'm tired of watching him beat you! I'm tired of being beaten! Please!" Tyler pleaded with his sister.

Jaden looked at her alarm clock; 3:12 AM. If they left now, they could get far enough away to be safe before Hank woke up from his self induced alcohol coma.

"Get your stuff, but only things you need like clothing!" Jaden nodded, grabbing her own knapsack and shoving some clean clothes inside.

A large bump stirred Jaden from her memories and she glanced outside. The bus drove past an obscene amount of holes, eventually reaching a camp at the center.

"We're here," the guard pointed out. The guard had been informed of Jaden's situation, as had the adults at Camp Green Lake, and he treated her with a slight amount of pity.

Jaden nodded and moved to the steps to get off the bus behind the guard when the driver tapped her shoulder, "Be careful there young miss. These boys haven't seen a girl in a while and should they discover your secret, you might end up worse for wear."

Jaden smiled, "Thank you. I'll be careful. Oh, and, thanks for the ride!"

The bus driver nodded and Jaden hopped out of the old bus. The guard guided her to a man's office where she sat down, her green eyes curious as she stared at the man before her.

"Jaden Miller, 17…female," the man blew out some smoke, his fingers holding his cigarette in a surprisingly delicate manner.

"Let's get one thing straight, Mr. Miller," the man placed the cigarette back in his mouth, "this is not a Girl Scout Camp. Jaden had to wonder how often he'd used that line, but decided to just sit attentively.

"It says here you're here because you kidnapped and beat your younger brother, now that's interesting. The judge may think they were being merciful sending you here, but you'll soon find out how wrong they were."

Jaden cringed at her 'crime.' 'If it wasn't my word against Hanks, I wouldn't be here!' Jaden thought angrily.

"My name is Mr. Sir. You will refer to me as such during your time here," Mr. Sir was so nonchalant about it, it almost seemed as though it were a vacation for her, "Understand?"

"Yes, Mr. Sir," Jaden nodded.

"Because of your unusual circumstances, you'll be accompanied by one of your tent-mates most of the places. You'll get to take showers later at night with the supervision of a counselor or myself. Don't worry, we won't look at ya," Mr. Sir was rather sincere as he explained some small differences she'd face. It wasn't close to special treatment, but more like a safety hazard.

Mr. Sir escorted Jaden to a small cabin where a boy was folding some clothing. He looked up and nodded to Mr. Sir who took Jaden's bag and tossed it to the boy.

"You get two sets of clothing, one for work and one for relaxation. After a few days, your work clothes will be washed and your relaxation cloths become your work clothes," Mr. Sir handed the jade eyed girl the clothing and the boy tossed him her bag, clearing everything inside.

"Go wait outside, I need to give this one a talking to," Mr. Sir glared at the boy who obeyed him without a word.

When the boy was outside Mr. Sir pulled out a box of birth control patches, "Courtesy of the Warden. She doesn't want your 'lady time' to interfere with your time here and it's a last defense against the guys should they find out. I'm going to turn around to let ya change."

Jaden was surprised. Despite knowing she wasn't supposed to get special treatment, Mr. Sir seemed pretty adamant on being respectful to the girl side of her.

"Don't get used to this," Mr. Sir pointed out, staring at the door while the young girl changed, "I'm only being nice right now because you'll soon be faced with your personal hell. After today, you'll be treated like one of the boys."

Jaden glanced back, pulling the jumpsuit over her black wife beater and leaving it unbuttoned, "Thank you for today, then. I'm done changing."

Mr. Sir turned around and eyed Jaden up and down, "You're a bit petite, but with that baggy jumpsuit you look about right. You've got the girls strapped down well, which is good."

Jaden felt slightly disturbed by that comment, but she ignored it, keeping her face calm.

A man suddenly entered the room, his shorts going to his knees, as did his socks, "Jaden Miller?"

Said person nodded, the bangs of her wig bouncing in her face slightly, "You may have done something wrong, Jaden, but you have a chance to repent! I believe in you, Jaden!"

"This is your counselor, Dr. Pendanski," Mr. Sir nodded to the man.

Jaden reached out and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you."

Dr. Pendanski raised an eyebrow. The girl before him was charged with kidnapping and abuse and yet she had manners? Well, he wasn't about to question the decision to send her here and they needed diggers.

"Show her to her tent and introduce her to some of the boys," Mr. Sir ordered, heading out the door ahead of them.

Dr. Pendanski led Jaden out of the room and back into the burning sun. It was a short walk to the tent where two boys stood outside talking to each other.

"Hello boys," Dr. Pendanski greeted with a smile.

The boys looked up, one was a rather tall, attractive boy with black hair and the other was a boy of average height with blonde hair and an ill complexion about him.

"This is your new roommate, Jaden Miller," Dr. Pendanski introduced Jaden, "Jaden, this is Alan and Lewis."

"Man, I told ya to call me Squid and he's Barf Bag," the taller boy pointed out.

"They all have nicknames, but I prefer the names society will recognize them by. Alan, I need you to watch out for Jaden."

The boy eyed Jaden up and down, slowly chewing the toothpick in his mouth, "He is rather girly ain't he?"

Barf Bag chuckled and nodded, "I think he's as petite as Zero, just taller than him."

Squid laughed, "Don't worry, Mom, I'll watch out for him."

Dr. Pendanski gave Squid a look before patting Jaden's shoulder and walking away. After he was gone, Squid eyed Jaden again, "Man, of course we get the girly-guy."

Jaden rolled her eyes, "Sorry?"

Squid sighed and led her into the tent, "You can sleep here. That's Zigzag and that's Zero."

Zigzag was the tallest boy in their tent, with crazy blonde hair. Zero, on the other hand, was the smallest boy she'd seen in the entire camp. He glanced at her before rolling over, his back to her.

Zigzag got up and eyed Jaden as Squid had, "Well he's quite the pretty boy isn't he?"

"Yeah, man, Barf Bag and I just talked about that," Squid smirked, "I'm supposed to watch his back while he adjusts."

Zigzag laughed, "Good luck with that one. He's so dainty, it'll take him forever to finish a hole."

Jaden set her stuff down next to her bed and sat down, the boys had changed their topic from her to something that had happened at camp the other day. Barf Bag sat across from her on his bed and smiled, "Don't take what anyone says here too seriously. We're all just a bunch of tired guys with nothing better to do."

Jaden smiled, "Thanks, man."

Three boys walked into the tent and paused when they spotted the new 'guy.'

The boy with glasses, though Jaden reasoned they couldn't actually help his vision, stared at her, "Who's this guy?'

"This is Jaden, new guy," Squid summed up her existence in so few words, "Jaden, this is X-Ray, Armpit and Magnet."

X-Ray crossed his arms across his chest, "Huh, so we get the weak, girly guy? Figures, Mom would push him on us."

The other boys laughed and went about their business. Jaden sighed and glanced at Barf Bag who shrugged.

Her emerald eyes scoped out the boys and she had to admit, they didn't seem like such bad guys. Barf Bag already proven himself friendly enough and Squid wasn't so bad either. Actually, Jaden couldn't deny that she found Squid rather attractive. He was taller than she was and had rather beautiful chocolate brown eyes. Zigzag was also attractive to her as well.

However, she knew she could never even consider being attracted to anyone in the camp, what with her hiding her gender and all. No, this was a ship that'd sailed before and she always stood at the docks watching it sail away.

Armpit was the boy Jaden was most wary of, not only because she was rather confident that if he fell on her he'd crush her, but because she was fast to learn why he was called Armpit.

It didn't matter that she'd lived a guy's life her whole life, smells just crossed a certain boundary for her.

"Let's go get some dinner," Squid pulled Jaden out of her thought when he hit her with his hat.

"Right," Jaden got up and followed him, her eyes keeping off of his face.

The mess hall was a rather large room and each table was occupied by a specific tent. Jaden followed Squid obediently, keeping her eyes low and mouth shut. The less she had to lower the tone of her voice the more her throat would thank her. Jaden used to scream to keep her voice hoarse, but she doubted she'd get such a chance in this camp.

The food that was slopped onto her tray made her eye twitch. Whatever it was, it surprised her that it didn't move or try to escape her tray.

"You sit here," Zigzag scooted over and let her set her tray down between him and Barf Bag.

X-Ray eyed her and smirked, "Well, since you just got to lounge around all day, you mind giving me your bread would you?"

Jaden instantly slapped his hand away, "You want me to be strong enough to dig tomorrow, don't ya?"

The other D-Tent boys stared at her, agape as she just looked at X-Ray calmly. Said boy laughed and nodded, "Alright, I get that. You're pretty smart, for such a girly-guy."

Jaden smirked, "What I lack in looks, and all that jazz."

The boys laughed, pleased that their new roommate had a sense of humor. The dinner went okay as Jaden quickly realized the food actually had no taste. It was still disturbing in texture, but tolerable.

The dinner consisted of the group discussing the 'horrors of digging' with Jaden who'd shrug their comments away. Though, she was terrified on the inside as the heat made her tired without any labor, much less digging a five foot deep by five foot wide hole all day.

"So what'd they get you here for anyways, Jaden?" X-Ray finally asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

Jaden physically paused and he eyes narrowed into a glare as she thought back to her day at court.

"Jaden Miller, please stand," the judge, a family friend, called.

Jaden stood and took a deep breath as the Judge commenced the hearing. Jaden's father was on the opposing side as Jaden had blamed him for the beatings and the need to run away.

"Jaden," the attorney paced in front of her, "you have accused your father, Hank Miller, as the true offender here. Would you like to explain the details one more time?"

"That man has always been a heavy drinker, even my mother knew that. It was only a matter of time before he started hitting us after Tyler and my mother died. The night we ran away, Hank had beaten Tyler. My brother came to me at 3AM asking me to run away with him, to get us out of there," Jaden explained, hoping the attorney would hear the truth in her voice.

"Mmhmm," the attorney paced a bit more, "Now, you claim your father beat both you and Tyler, yet you have no injuries present on your body."

"He hasn't hit me in a while. Tyler's younger, an easier target. I started resisting, so Hank moved on to beating Tyler when I couldn't defend him."

The attorney allowed Jaden to sit and called Hank to the stand. The man smirked smugly and glared at Jaden.

"Mr. Miller, please give us your side of the story."

Hank took a deep breath, "It's true that I've been drinking a good bit ever since my wife died. Bless her soul; she was a beautiful woman, inside and out. I wasn't the only one affected by the death, of course. Tyler just stopped talking around the house and at school and Jaden got violent. He started threatening anything that spoke up against him, sometimes it didn't take any provoking. When his mother died, something snapped in him! I didn't know what to do! So, the night he took Tyler away, I was in a deep sleep, exhausted from my day at work. When I woke up, Tyler's bed was empty and so was Jaden's. I panic, called the police immediately and waited, hoping young Tyler was okay."

The attorney nodded, "Where did Tyler's injuries originate from, then, Mr. Miller?"

Mr. Miller sighed, "I don't have any proof, but I have to believe Jaden is the cause. With Tyler being so silent, it'd be easy for Jaden to get angry at him."

Jaden's mouth hung open as Hank smirked, a look of cold hate in his eyes.

"That's all…" The attorney passed the judge a look and returned to his table.

"Yo, earth to Jaden?" Squid snapped his fingers in front of her face.

"Sorry, ummmm, I was accused of beating and kidnapping my younger brother," Jaden finally stated, moving the 'food' around her tray.

"What?" the boys exclaimed, surprised that the skinny boy in front of them was here for abuse and kidnapping.

"No way, come on, you seem more like the 'five finger discount' type," Magnet pointed out.

"Yeah, I mean, you can't really expect us to believe that's what happened right?" X-Ray asked, his eyes analyzing Jaden's every movement.

"Believe it or not, but don't forget I also said 'accused.' I never owned up to actually do anything," Jaden stood up and placed her tray where the other kids were putting their after they'd finished.

She returned to the tent first and sighed, picking up a book she'd brought; Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

Her only escape being her romance novel. While she couldn't experience love with her current situation, Jaden found some joy in imagining herself as the female lead in some books. It was her only peace in the world. Her only time where she was herself…

A/N: So… I watched "Holes" for the past few days before I went to sleep (I don't know why but it sounded like a good idea.) and I realized how much I loved some of the characters! I haven't read the book in a long time, so most of my details are based on the movie version (which is rather close to the book). Anyways, reviews are greatly appreciated!