Mr. Sir sat with his daughter in his office. She was twiddling her thumbs, bored, with her feet up on the desk. They had been sitting in silence for a while, not knowing how to start a normal conversation with each other. Mr. Sir chewed another handful of sunflower seeds and spat them into the waste paper basket at the side of him. He turned around, took a can of soda out of the mini fridge. Miss Ashley looked up suddenly, slightly startled by the sound of it being slammed on the desk in front of her. He nodded at her, so she picked it up and opened it. She took a sip while her father watched with his eyebrows raised.
"Not gonna say thank you?" he asked.
She tried her best not to glare at him as she held it in her lap. "Thank you."
He leaned forward, took his hat off and put his hands together. "How's your face?" he asked her. His daughter took no notice of him. "Ashley?"
"Fine," she said, glancing at him with a stoic expression.
He sighed. "Are you still mad at me?"
Miss Ashley shrugged.
"Well, don't be," he carried on. "I'm only doing what's best for you. That boy's a criminal. You can't trust criminals, believe me."
"But I can trust you?" she questioned, getting annoyed.
"I'm your father. There's a difference. You know nothing about that boy. He's trouble."
"No, daddy, you know nothing about him."
Mr. Sir shook his head in dismay. "What d'you see in him, Ashley?"
She took a long drink of her soda, slammed it down on the desk. "I don't know," she said, tutting, although she didn't know whether she was doing it at him or herself. She was torn between her own feelings and the thought that her father might actually know best. "Maybe it's because he's nice to me, even though you torture him for it, or maybe it's because he's like me."
Mr. Sir laughed. "Like you?"
"He doesn't have a dad, like I don't have a mom."
Now, Mr. Sir felt bad for laughing, but he kept his guard up. "Did he tell you that?"
Miss Ashley nodded. "I don't understand why you're so mean to him. He ain't done nothing wrong to me. So what if he's a criminal?"
Mr. Sir sighed again, louder this time. "You wanna know why I don't want you getting involved with him, or anyone for that matter?"
His daughter nodded cautiously, not really sure if she wanted to know the real reason behind her father's overprotective and unreasonable behaviour.
"Because, Ashley, when his sentence is up, you're gonna be left heartbroken and he's not gonna think twice about you. He'll be so happy to be getting outta here, that he'll forget to say goodbye."
Miss Ashley sat back in her chair, staring at the floor. She heard his words repeating in her mind. He was probably right, she thought, but what if he was just trying to get in her head to keep her away from Squid. "How do you know that?"
He held his hands up. "Love never lasts. It's gonna end one way or another."
She giggled. "Who said we're in love?"
"Well, clearly you feel something for him, if you're going through all this trouble. If you don't love him, what's the point?"
Miss Ashley bit her lip and her heart started thumping faster. She felt like he had discovered her deepest, darkest secrets. She thought it was kind of strange, talking to her father about such things, but he was the only one she had for guidance. Somehow, he was able to see inside her.
"You don't even know, do you?" he asked, but he already knew the truth. "Trust me. If it didn't work out between me and your mother, or his parents, how can you expect it to work for you two?"
She shook her head, confused.
Her father stared at her, feeling sorry for his naive little girl. "Kiss him, if you want... Then kiss him goodbye."
A few days later, Miss Ashley sat alone on the steps outside the wreck room. She had taken Squid's state file out of the cabinet in her father's office and was reading it carefully. She dragged her finger along the page, making sure she didn't miss a single word. Her father had told her she couldn't trust him, but she thought if Squid's file matched what he had said to her, it would mean he was telling her the truth and that he felt comfortable enough to tell her those unpleasant things about his life back home. She assumed if he could tell her those sort of things, that he must feel somewhat close to her. She hoped her father was wrong about him.
After he had finished lecturing her that night, she had lay in bed unable to get to sleep, replaying their conversation over and over. Failing to get it out of her mind, she had gotten up and went outside, then sat in the dark and tried to think about the whole situation differently. She contemplated running away to be with Squid when his sentence finally came to an end, and even devised an escape plan: she would take the camero she had arrived in all those years ago, and drive behind the leaving bus to wherever it was going, which now as she read Squid's file, she realized would be Missouri. But she decided it would be too hard for her to leave her father behind forever, and that she didn't know enough about the real world to survive away from camp.
She was completely flustered.
Suddenly, she noticed a shadow had been cast over her. She looked up to see Mr. Sir eyeing the clipboard on her lap with his hands on his hips. She stood up.
"What you got there, honey?" he asked her. Before she could reply, he took the file out of her hands and began to read it himself. He glanced at her, then back at the piece of paper, then her again. "Alan Johnson?"
Miss Ashley nodded. "That's Squid, right? I remember his name from when he first got here. Look." She pointed at the words on the page and read it out loud, then said, "Everything he told me was true. He can't be that untrustworthy."
Mr. Sir squinted at it. "Says here he's almost nineteen years old. Did he tell you that too?" he questioned.
"No, but it's barely two years difference, daddy," she said. "You were way older than mom."
"You're not as dumb as I thought," her father muttered, unable to put up a good argument.
He saw the D-tent boys coming round the corner, as they had finished digging, then noticed Miss Ashley staring blankly at Squid, with an expression that was neither happy nor sad - she didn't know what to feel anymore. He handed back the file in an attempt to distract her.
"Go put that back where you found it. It'll be time for dinner soon."
She clutched it to her chest, but didn't take her eyes off the boy, who was now only a few feet away from them. He and his friends were laughing about something, jumping and playing, as if digging a five foot hole hadn't tired them out at all, like careless children. Mr. Sir said his daughter's name loudly, breaking the trance she was so obviously in. He pointed to the door of his office and she started walking towards it, turning around when she was halfway there to take another look at Squid. He had looked at her when she looked away, after hearing Mr. Sir say her name from where he was, and now their eyes met. He smiled at her. It was quite a big smile, because he was already grinning at something one of the other boys had said. He meant this one just for her though. She smiled back, but only slightly.
Soon after, in the mess hall, Squid sat eating his dinner with his tent mates, who were still hyper. They had not long showered and changed clothes, but the fun hadn't died down during their short separation.
"Nah, listen," Zigzag said, a twisted smile on his face. "I'll hide behind the biggest dirt pile I can find, then when the delivery truck comes back around, I'll jump straight on the back of it. I'll be outta here in no time and while ya'll are digging holes, I'll be chilling on the beach, a babe on each side."
The others howled with laughter.
"Man, I haven't seen a girl in forever," Armpit moaned. "Well, except Miss Ashley, but after seeing what happens when you get too close to her..." He wiggled his finger as if to say 'no way' and raised his eyebrows, making fun of the unfortunate consequences Squid had endured.
Twitch chuckled, tapping his foot under the table. "I sure would love to get into bed with her."
Squid shot him a rather annoyed look. Zigzag shushed the fidgeting camper, warning him to keep it down in case Mr. Sir heard him from across the hall.
"She's too old for you," Magnet told the thirteen year old. "Plus, if she's gonna get into bed with any of us, it'll be Squid. Right, Squidly?" He nudged his friend.
Now, Squid smiled. He kept his eyes on Miss Ashley, who had her back to him, as he joked, "If only," causing the rest of the group to break out laughing again. Then, in a more serious tone, he said, "It's not about that anyway."
X-ray furrowed his eyebrows, confused. "Well, then what's it about?"
"Yeah, Squidly," Zigzag tormented. "Don't tell me you never thought about it."
Squid tapped his nose. "I know things about her that you guys don't. Sure, she's pretty, but have you ever really talked to her?"
"Of course, we talk to her all the time," said Magnet. "Like when she comes out with the water truck--"
"No, not just 'please and thank you'," Squid sneered, shaking his head. "I mean really talked to her. That's where her real beauty lies."
"Man, what's the difference?" asked Armpit.
Squid tutted, bewildered by their lack of interest in the girl. "I bet you've never had a conversation with her long enough to notice that her accent is even more southern than her dad's. And her voice is so sexy, it's impossible to say no to her."
Zigzag was staring at him like he was crazy. "No, dude, you can't say no to her because she's the boss. We don't have a choice."
The others sniggered, but Squid ignored them.
"I'm serious," he said firmly. "And have you ever accidently touched her hand while grabbing your canteens? Or caught the smell of her perfume when she flips her hair? It sends shivers down your spine."
Twitch nodded in agreement. "She does smell pretty good."
"He's obsessed," stated X-ray.
Magnet came to his defence. "He can't help it. Just look at her."
They all turned their heads in Miss Ashley's direction. They watched as she stood up and tucked her shirt in, then picked up hers and her father's plates and walked over to the counter to put them in the dirty pile. She went back to the table and waited with her arms folded for Mr. Sir to get up, then followed him out the door. The boys looked back at Squid. X-ray pouted his lips and made an O shape with his fingers. They all laughed at his gesture, pretending to not be able to see what the big deal was.