Chapter Three: The First Hole

"What about you, Jose? What do you like?" Mr. Pendanski asks Jose, as we are all sitting down to our 'counseling'.

"I like animals." He says with a grin.

"Yeah, that's what got Magnet here in the first place." Squid mumbles with a smile.

"Man, its criminal the way they kept those puppies all locked up in cages." Magnet says defensively.

"No, Jose, what you did was criminal." Mr. Pendanski corrected.

"Tell him, Magnet, they wanted a thousand bucks, for just one puppy." Squid threw in.

"I would have gotten away with it too, if my pocket hadn't start barking'." Everyone laughed at his remark, and I gave a little giggle.

"Well, you bo- young people are here for a reason, you were caught, sentenced, and I would hope that you wont do it again. Though I enjoy your smiling faces every morning," the guys grumbled at this, Peppy and I just sit there, " I would still hope not to see you again here. And you are all here for bad decisions. And we all make them, you young people are living proof of that."

"Thanks, Mom, we know that's comin' from the heart." X-Ray pretended to be touched, then looked over at me and smiled, while everyone else smirked at his sarcasm. I turned my head away, and pretend to be busy with the hair tie on my wrist.

"So, Roxy. Roxy, Roxy, Roxy." Mr. Pendanski faces me.

"Uh, I would have responded the first time you said my name." I say. I hear a couple people laugh.

"Okay, well has everyone heard your story yet? You know, why you're the second girl here? Making history?" He says, with a sarcastic tone. I lower my head, and fiddle with my hair tie again, as the memory of dinner rushes back to fill my head.

"Well, I must say, I really don't want to be making history here, but if I must…" I say, as if I have no other options, which I don't. Everyone laughs again. He stares back at me, and starts to talk again about the way we can avoid making bad decisions and, instead, make good ones. After what seems like hours, (really, it was only forty- five minuets.), Mr. Pendanski sends us back to our tent, and we all get ready to go to bed.

"Sooo, what time do we get up in the morning?" I ask everybody, as the guys start to play cards and such.

"4:30. Get your beauty sleep, Roxy." Zigzag says. I have to laugh at that.

"Greeeat, I feel a whole lot better now." I say. The guys and Peppy laugh at my 'sincere' thanks.

"Roxy, you know how to play Texas Hold 'Em?" Armpit asks.

"Yeeeah, why do you want to know?" I say slowly, already knowing the answer.

"Oh you know, just want to beat you your first night here." He replies.

"Over my dead body," I challenge, "What do y'all play for?"

"Shower tokens. But since you shower at the Warden's cabin, you can just play for fun."

"I don't think so, I've got some tokens, I'll use them to beat all of y'all." I say, knowing full and well I will win.

We start to play, we as in Squid, Armpit, Zigzag, Magnet, and X-Ray. Peppy wouldn't play, she said that gambling was just luck with no skill. I proved her theory wrong. I won every single round, except two. And I ended up with all the shower tokens, except for seven, which Magnet and Zigzag managed to hang onto in their winning rounds.

"Girl, you don't joke around when it comes to poker." Armpit says, as we clean up the mat. "What are you going to do with al those tokens, if you cant use them?"

"Give them back to you guys so I don't have to live with stinky boys for the next eighteen months." I laugh. I split them up evenly, so they all get 8 each. " G'night guys, see y'all in the morning." I say, as I get under the thin sheet on my cot. D tent mumbles their good nights, and we all fall asleep, almost automatically.

The sound of shoes hitting hard ground echoes through my head. I look down and realize that they are my feet. I'm running towards a shape in the distance, but I cant quite make it out. It looks like a person, but I can't really tell. Then, the figure starts to call my name.

"Roxy! Roxy! It's me, John! Please, help me! I'm dying. Call someone, anyone!" His voce is filled with agony. But this cant be, he died ages ago, and not here at Green Lake. But I better help him anyways, if only it will bring him back to me…

"Don't worry, ill call someone, just hang on, okay? I can't lose you again!" I say desperately. I try to run somewhere to call for help, but I cant move, I'm falling into a hole, it seems to go on forever, just black, stretching farther and farther.

"No! I need to help John, I need to help him!" I scream over and over again, suddenly, a horn blasts through the darkness…

I bolt awake, sweaty, and tangled in the sheet. The horn is just the wake up call.

"Oh my God, oh my God." I whisper to myself.

"You coming Roxy?" A groggy voice breaks my thought of the nightmare I had just had. I turn around, its Magnet, offering his hand to me.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good. Just a weird dream…" I drift, as I grab his hand and he pulls me out of my bed. I put on some socks, and pull on the boots that were given to me the day before.

We all head down to get out shovels and breakfast, when Peppy holds me back.

"Hey, Hun, I heard you last night saying your brothers name, is everything all right?" She says, with concern filling her voice, again.

"Oh, yeah, everything is cool. I was just, uh, thinking about him…you know? Yeah, yeah…" I quickly make up an excuse, to make sure that no one over hears me about me having a bad dream. How pathetic would that look?

"Okay, just making sure that everything is all right." She says, though I know she isn't buying my excuse. "Lets go dig our holes, okay sweetie?"

"Uhhm, could you not call me names like that…err please? Makes me feel kind of weird." I confided.

"Oh yeah, sure sure." She says distracted. I follow her gaze, and it leads to Zigzag.

"Hey, do you like him?" I ask, in a low tone, to make sure that no eavesdroppers hear what we're talking about.

"Oh, I don't know. He's cute and all, but a little fuzzy in the noggin, if you know what I mean." She says, as though his mental ness affects her as well. I nod my head, and mouth the word 'oh' to show that I comprehend, even though it makes no sense, what so ever. We grab our shovels; grab 'breakfast', (personally, I think that it was just left over bread from yesterdays meals with honey slapped onto it.), and fill our canteens with water, and head out to out dig site. The groups are lead away from each other, probably not wanting to cause distractions to one another, and are showed where to dig. I hear boots behind me, and turn around, only to face Mr. Sir in his usual cowboy get up.

"You dig here." He says through puffs of smoke, as he marks a spot with his boot. "This aint a girl scout camp, even if you were one, doesn't mean we are gonna stop digging so you can carry on, and earn your patches."

"Uh, actually, I was never a Girl Scout. I really didn't like the color coordination of the vests and stuff, so I didn't do it." I confide truthfully. Mr. Sir rolls his eyes and turns away, leaving me to dig my 5 by 5 hole. "Well all righty then." I say sarcastically to myself. I dig up the first shovel full of dirt. "One down, one million more to go." I think aloud.

"Hey Roxy, you keep talking to your self, we are gonna think your as crazy as Zigzag!" X-Ray says jokingly. I look up at him, and he smiling back at me.

"Okay, you do that." I call back to him. I keep on digging, and then the sun starts to rise. I don't take time to watch the sunrise. What's the point? I'm going to be here for eighteen months, Ill be able to watch any time I want. At about, or what seems to be, eleven o'clock in the morning, I am about two thirds done with my hole, and sweating bucket loads. I feel so gross. It's so hot; I think that I might faint. "No," I think to myself, "I am not going to seem like some helpless damsel. I can do this!" So I press on, despite the heat.

For the third time today, the water truck comes, this time with lunch, and we all get in line. First it's X-Ray, then Armpit, Squid, Zigzag, Magnet, Peppy, and I'm last. After I get my water, I go over and get a sandwich, apple, and graham cracker. I take it back to my hole, sit down and start to eat. Squid and Zigzag come over and sit on either side of me.

"Well, you're a pretty fast digger." Zigzag comments, looking down at my hole from where he's sitting.

"I wasn't lying when I said that I dug for fun with my brother." I answer back, looking out at the heat waves and faint blurred shapes of other kids digging in the distance. We sit in silence, eating our lunches for a little while. Until I break the silence.

"Do ya'll want to split my cookie? I don't want it." I said, looking form Squid to Zigzag. They nod their heads, and I break it in half, so each is even. I give them each their piece, and they munch on it happily. Soon they stand up, and go to their holes, but Squid turns around and smiles at me.

"Thanks for the cookie, Roxy." He says. It gives me shivers, but I don't know why. He kind of tips his hat, and smiles again, then walks back to his hole before I can say anything. We all get back to digging, and the sun starts to sink little by little. By about two or three, (I could never tell time with the sun.), I finish my first hole at Camp Green Lake. I try to get out, but I cant. I run to the side and try to jump, but I fall.

"Wah!" I say. You know how people say things like, ah, or gaaak, or their own made up word? Well, mine is wah. So get used to it.  "Okay, uh, anybody want to help me out of my hole?" I say. Being 5'2 was never really an advantage. I hear some guys cracking up. "Okay, you know what, this isn't funny!" I say. "Fine, I guess I'm just going to have to die in my hole. Oh, the heat!" I say, trying to sound dramatic, and also quoting a line form Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Mans Chest. (I reeeeally love that movie!)

"Don't worry, we'll help you." X-Ray manages to gasp between his laughter. He comes over with Squid, and they pull me out. I thank them, and start to walk away.

"Hey, your suppose to spit!" Magnet shouts over to me.

"What's that suppose to mean?" I shout back.

"Spit in your hole when you're done. That's what you do." He explains.

"Oh, got it!" I say, as I give him a thumbs up. I walk back to my freshly dug pit, and spit. Or, what I have left to muster out of my mouth. I start walking back again, when I step into a hole, and fall.

"I'm okay!" I shout from the hole. I hear them all laughing at me. I dig two foot holes in the side, and manage to climb out. When I get out, they are howling with laughter. I walk back to our dig site, and sit down where they all can see me.

"You know what, I think I'll just wait here, and wait for Peppy to be done, so we can walk back with each other." I say, as though it's the most logical reason that I would be sitting there.

"Yeah, yeah you do that babe." X-Ray says, still trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard. I lie back onto the hard, hot ground, close my eyes, and breathe in the smell of the desert in the after noon.