//Warning: This chapter is SUPER cheesy!//
"Water's the most precious commodity on the face of the planet. All life begins with water." Mr. Sir says as he fills up Stanley's water and I stand behind him, waiting to get my water.
I looked over my shoulder at Zig who was waiting. When I looked at him he was already looking at me and I gave him a tight closed smile before I looked back at Mr. Sir.
"So think of it this way, I'm giving you life. Say "thank you"."
"Thank you, Mr. Sir." Stanley replied.
"Next!"
I gave Mr. Sir my water jug. He began to fill it when we heard a rumble in the distance. We all looked over and saw clouds by the mountains.
"Don't get your hopes up. Them storms never make it past the mountains."
"Maybe this time they will." Stanley says as Mr. Sir hands me my jug.
"I got a story for you Girl Scouts." Mr. Sir starts as he looks at all of us. He spat near my feet and I backed away slightly in disgust. "Once upon a time, there was a magical place where it never rained. The end." Mr. Sir finished with a chuckle. I looked down and Zero as we shared confused expressions. Zero shook his head and walked over to his hole. Mr. Sir opened the door to his truck, but before he got in he looked back at us.
"Have a nice day." And with that he got into his truck chuckling to himself.
I turned to Zig and Squid.
"I never get anything he says." I say as I roll my eyes and we walk back to our holes.
I hopped back into my hole and took a drink of my water.
"Hey, guys." Magnet calls as Mr. Sir drives away.
"What?" X asks as Magnet reaches to the ground and picks up a brown sack.
"Anybody want some sunflower seeds?" Magnet laughs.
I scoffed with a small smile while everyone laughed.
"I can't help it man, my hands are like magnets."
Everyone started grabbing from the bag.
"Hey, pass me that." Zig called Armpit and he tossed it to him.
Zig grabbed a handle full of seeds from the bag. He looked over to me and gestured to the bag.
"Want some?"
"No, I'm fine, thanks." I chuckled. The boys were going to get in so much trouble.
I looked out to the distance and saw Mr. Sir coming back.
"He's coming back." Magnet yelled, getting everyone's attention as I watched Mr. Sir's truck takes a sharp turn.
Zig tossed it over to Stanley and he missed the catch, causing the seeds to spill everywhere in his hole as my eyes widened.
"Ricky!" I exclaimed, using Zig's real name as my head turned to him.
"What? He's the one that didn't catch it." Zig said as he raised his hands in surrender. I scoffed as I rolled my eyes.
I looked back over at Stanley as he quickly tried desperately to bury the seeds. I wanted to help but Mr. Sir's truck was getting close. I grabbed my shovel and started digging my hole and acted natural as Mr. Sir's truck stopped by our group's holes.
My Sir got out of his truck and I glanced up a couple times as I continued to dig.
"Well, well. How did this get here?" Mr. Sir asks Stanley sarcastically as he gestures to a piece of the brown sack sticking up from the dirt.
"What?" Stanley asks.
"How did that get there?" Mr. Sir asks more seriously. "Did it fall from the sky, huh?"
"No." Stanley says in a defeated tone as he grabs the bag. "I stole that out of your truck." Stanley lies.
"I think maybe the Warden would like to see what you found. Let's go."
Stanley and Mr. Sir got into the truck and drove away.
"Idiots." I said under my breath as I went back to digging my hole.
***
After I got done digging, I went and found Zero in the tent.
Today I was going to show him the difference between vowels and consonants.
I quite enjoyed teaching Zero, it made me want to actually teach a class one day.
I sat next to Zero as he gripped his pencil and stared down at the piece of paper in front of him.
"So," I sighed as I got ready to explain vowels to him. "You remember the alphabet, right?" I asked and Zero nodded. "Do you remember which letters are vowels?"
"A, E, I, O...and U." Zero nodded.
"Great. So...most of the time when vowels are in a word, for example...dare. The 'a' in dare makes the sound 'a' instead of 'uh'. But sometimes in words like...love, you don't say the 'o' as 'oh' like you would because it's a vowel, you say it normally as "uh". Does that make sense?" I ask as I take a deep breath. Zero nods.
"What does love mean?" Zero suddenly asks as I was about to say something.
"Um..." I trail off as I blink at Zero. "It's uh...I guess it's a deep feeling of affection or fondness. There's different types of love, like family love, like how you love your mom. Or there's friend love, when you care deeply about a friend and are very fond of them."
"Do you love me?" Zero asks.
"Well..." I thought for a second. "Yeah, yeah I guess I do." Zero smiles.
"I love you too."
I smiled down at Zero as I side hugged him.
"Are there any other types?"
"Uh, yes. There's r-romantic love." I answer as I feel the back of my neck get slightly hot.
"Like what you feel towards Zigzag?" Zero asks, which catches me off guard.
"I don't love Zigzag. I don't think I do. I don't know." I shake my head as I rub my arm. I don't know if I love Zig that way. I guess I never thought about it.
"How do you not know? You knew about me."
"Cause sometimes, you just don't know." I answered wanting to stop talking about this.
***
I walked through the lunch line behind Squid as my mind wandered.
I was pulled back to reality as Squid was grabbed roughly by Mr. Sir. I looked up and saw two claw marks on Mr. Sir's face and my eyes widened.
"Something the matter with my face? Huh?" Mr. Sir asked.
"No. No, Mr. Sir." Squid answered fearfully.
"You got that right." Mr. Sir grumbled before he pushed Squid to the ground and I jumped slightly. "Anybody see anything wrong with my face? Huh?! I think I'm kind of purty, don't you?"
"Yes, sir." Everyone chorused.
"Clean this up." Mr. Sir grumbled before he walked away and I went and helped Squid off the ground.
"I think we just learned a valuable lesson. We're all people, and Mr. Sir is a very sensitive man, just like all of us." Pandenksi told everyone.
***
The next day I was digging my hole and my mind wandered to Zero's question from yesterday.
Do I love Zigzag that way?
I mean...I care for Zigzag deeply, I like him, he's attractive. He watches the stars with me almost every night. I feel comfortable talking to him about anything and everything. Well...I guess not everything.
I thought back to every moment I had with Zig sense I came to camp green lake.
Yeah...I love Zigzag. Huh, I never thought that in a million years that when I was sent to Camp Green lake for beating the crap out of my stepdad that I would fall in love with someone.
"Earth to Y/n!" Zig yelled as he waved his hand in front of my face. I shook out of my daze and blinked at Zig, who was crouched down next to my hole.
"What's on your mind that's got you so far out? Jeez, I've been trying to talk to you for five minutes. You okay?" Zig asks as concern crosses his features as he stands up. I was silent for a moment as I looked at him.
"Never better." I said as I smiled up at him.