Socialite [HOLES]

SIX

Chapter Six

"You have one life and so far you kids have done a pretty good job of screwing it up...and you only have yourselves to blame for that" Dr Pendanski said through his sickly sweet almost patronising smile. It was D-Tents weekly group therapy in the mess hall where only moments before Squid and Carmen had finished washing away the remnants of their so called dinner from the stacks upon stacks of heavy metal trays. They now sat scattered across the room joined by the rest of their bunk, half heartedly listening to Pendanski drone on about the conciquences of the actions that led them here.

Carmen sat on the floor nestled between Barfbag's legs her chin resting on his knee as he ran his fingers through her hair, twisting it into lazy and loose braids, something he had fallen into the habit of doing not long after Carmen had arrived at the hellish camp. She was completely at peace in the moment, without a ridiculous amount of luxury surrounding her for what felt like the first time in her life. As the night went on the pair mumbled jokes and sarcastic quips to one another after every fake heartfelt speeches that Pendanski seemed to repeat and rephrase every week.

"Lewis! You seem to have a lot to say. So tell me, what do you like to do?"

"I like racing...you know...fast cars"

Carmen smirked speaking up to say "Isn't that what got you sent here in the first place"

Barfbag playfully shoved her as the rest of the boys laughed.

But it was true, Barfbag had been sent to Camp Green Lake for a driving offence. He had taken his dads car out after a night of partying promising his friends he was okay to drive, it was then and only then he had decided to partake in a drag-race with some kids from his school. He didn't last too long, in fact he only made it halfway down the street before skidding in the rain and wrapping his dads vintage trans am around a lamp post injuring himself and two of his friends in the process. He was yet to fully comprehend the incident let alone forgive himself.

"It wasn't entirely my fault. The roads were slippery"

"Irregardless! You made a stupid choice and now you have to face the conciquences" Pendanski uttered, his arms folded across his chest "This is the real world Lewis. You have to deal with it"

Carmen rolled her eyes. She was all too familiar with people like Pendanski and the type of mind games that they liked to play. She refused to allow herself to open up and fall into the trap of over sharing to a pathetic excuse of an authority figure that was simply pretending to be her friend. This was something her father had taught her and her brothers as soon as they could talk. Always keep alert, keep your guard up and never let them get into your head.

"You have a lot more opportunities to better yourselves and I want to see you take them. You're lucky we didn't have these types of opportunities for anyone back in my day" Dr Pendanski said.

Squid who had been sitting not far from the Brunette Italian flipped his toothpick around his tongue, his deep brown eyes scanned the room before falling upon Carmen, as a sigh of exhaustion passed through his body. He'd been at camp green lake for almost five and a half months, he was growing weary of hearing the same shit day in and day out. He didn't exactly see the point in attending group therapy if by the end of their sentence, they were just going to the thrown out and forced back into the real world without a sense of purpose or direction.

Armpit was next to speak up and in a mocking tone attempted to counter act Dr Pendanski's argument   "Yeah but you had stuff we don't have" he said.

"Like what?"

"Like Jesus...and dinosaurs" Magnet laughed. D tent laughed along too whilst Pendanski's face became a deep shade of red, his embarrassment practically camouflaging in with his badly sun burnt skin.

"O-Okay, very funny. But I think that'll be enough for this week. Everyone back to your bunks...lights out in thirty minutes" Without speaking any other words and filled entirely with defeated embarrassment Pendanski left, slamming the heavy wooden doors of the mess hall behind him.

The children of D-tent began shuffling around the room, cleaning up after themselves and relocating the chairs and tables which they had been occupying for the past hour and a half. Heavy splintered wood dug into their bruised aching hands, but they wouldn't dare to complain, you never complained at Camp Green Lake unless you wanted to be perceived as weak, pathetic or even simply annoying, at least that's whatArmpit and X-ray had said, and after all Armpit knew the consequences of nonstop complaining better than anyone. According to Squid on Armpit's first week at camp he had been bitten on the hand by a rattlesnake when he attempting to lift himself out of his hole, the pain travelled up his hand to his arm rendering him completely useless where manual labour was concerned. So he was left sitting and overthinking and complaining about the pain as it continued to rise, all the way to his armpit which he would not shut up about. Thus he was christened Armpit by the boys of B-tent.

Eventually everyone had filed out, and began loitering around the doors or the shower cubicles chattering amongst themselves. Which left Carmen and Squid by themselves to carry either end of one of the heavier tables to the back of the mess hall where the councillors would often sit at dinner time. The room was quiet, dusty and strangely cold considering it was located in the middle of a desert. 

Squid began to speak, his hands folded in his lap as he leaned up against the wall. "How you feeling Pix'?"

"Alright I suppose. I kinda feel bad for BarfBag, must suck having Pendanski pry like that"

"You get used to it. Don't be afraid to let your guard down, we ain't gonna you...at least I won't"

"Yeah...Thanks" Carmen wasn't too convinced, these boys made jokes out of everything they were bound to find something to make fun of if she opened up or maybe she had hair been keeping up a front for so many years that she couldn't really remember what it was like to be open or genuine. "Do we have to do this every week? We can't skip or anything?"

"Not unless you want private meetings with mom as a replacement"

"Fuck that"

"Well you and I can always have a private meet. If you fancy it?"

The pair laughed getting lost once again in each other's company, completely blocking out the world around and for a moment forgetting where they were or rather where they were stuck. For that short period of time it was just Squid and it was Carmen making rather unfortunate small talk but enjoying it non the less. And Carmen hoped it could only stay that way forever, but it was the door bursting open again that pulled them away as there stood BarfBag arms folded and already in his pyjamas.

"Let's go lovebirds" He droned in a singsong voice "I'm tired and you're keeping the tent awake by lolly-gagging"

Carmen blushed, glancing back at Squid once more as a smirked twisted onto his lips and he offered her a small wink before making for the exit to end yet another with the dark haired Italian girl on his mind.

((sorry that it's so short. for now this is just a filler until we get back into the main plot. hope you enjoyed))