Kissin Kate Barlow

Ouch! Ouch! X-Ray's definitely right. The second hole is surely the hardest. The morning of my second hole I could hardly lift a spoon. That hole sure was hard but I learned from my mistakes. I held the shovel with my thumb on the back shaft and not my fingers to reduce pain and I put the dirt farther away from my hole so when I dug deeper, I wouldn't have to work a lot harder.
I made a mistake that day. I found a fossil of a fish and I thought that's what Mr.Sir meant when he said if you find something interesting and the Warden likes it ,you'll get the rest of the day off. When I showed the fossil to Mr.Pendaski, he just ignored me. With that I learned that that isn't what they meant by "something interesting". I would never make that mistake again.
After that X-ray said something that shocked me. He actually asked me if he could have anything special I dug up to get the day off. I agreed but deep down I was pulsing with anger. Here was a guy who thinks he can take whatever he wants for personal gain while not thinking that this effects the ones he takes from! If he wasn't so important I would have taken him then and there. Of course I never would but it makes me feel better about myself.
Again, being the slowest digger I was the last back to the compound. When I got back, I found Mr.Pendaski sitting in a circle on the floor. At first I thought it was some group therapy session or something. I sat down and Mr.Pendaski asked us what we want to do with our lives. All the guys made jokes about it but I got me thinking. What do I want to do? Everything Mr.Pendaski said was made fun of but he was trying to get through to us. Deep down, I understood that he was doing this for our own good but I couldn't resist the fun. First there was this thing about Magnet becoming a monkey trainer but the fun soon came crashing down. Mr. Pendaski struck me by asking me who was responsible for me being here. I answered naturally by saying it was the fault of my no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. Everyone got a good laugh out of that. Even Zero cracked a smile. Mr.Pendaski said it was us to blame and that we were all special. He asked Zero what he likes to do and he answered, "I like to dig holes.
The next day when I was digging, I saw something glisten in my dirt pile. When I looked, it was a gold tube with the initials KB engraved in it. I didn't want to but I later gave it to X-Ray. It hurt me to give it up but later when the water truck came, I moved up one place in line. The next day when in line for water X-ray pretended to find the tube in his hole. Mr. Pendaski seemed to like this and took off towards the Warden's cabin. When he returned he had the Waden with him. She was a tall, red-head woman but she radiated power. She asked where X-ray supposably found the gold tube. When X-ray showed her the spot she congratulated him and told him he would be rewarded. She then told Mr. Pendaski to fill everyones canteens. When he replied that he filled them a little while ago she replied with a very quick series of remarks that seem to fill Mr. Pendaski with fear. He then filled the canteens.
After that the Warden gave us a series of instructions on how to dig X-ray's hole and the holes around it. She was obviously looking for something. The warden stood there with Mr. Pendaski and Mr.Sir the entire day watching us like hawks. The Warden was restless the entire day offering us advice on how to dig. Much later she decided that we had had enough digging and decided to go back to her cabin. We were all left to wonder how she knew our names. Some of the guys thought she had tiny cameras in all the rooms of the camp, even the bathrooms.
Later in the Wreck room (the rec room) X-ray was all buddy-buddy with me. He was cracking jokes and talking loud. What a guy!
The next day was the same story as the first accept X-ray was there and I was mostly carting dirt away instead of digging. At lunch the Warden was very impatient threatening to make Mr. Sir dig with us. I liked the thought of that happening. We didn't stop until every single group in the camp was finished digging.
Later in the wreck room, Mr. Pendaski gave me a letter from my mom. Everyone wanted me to open it but I wanted some peace to read it. It was a nice letter and had a funny joke about my dad's work but as I finished it Zero startled me. He asked me what was so funny that made me laugh. I explained the joke to Zero but he still didn't get it. I felt kinda sorry for him.
For the next eek we were digging that godforsaken hole. It felt like I was digging my own grave. The Warden kept getting nastier an nastier. Once she got so angry that she jabbed Armpit with a pitchfork. At that moment she looked like the devil with red hair, evil eyes and a pitchfork.
Later that day Zigzag hit me over the head with a shovel for not shovelling a certain pile of dirt. Mr. Sir made me a bandage out of a sack of dirt and then told me to get get back to work. When I got back to the hole, Zigzag told me to clean up the dirt where I had dropped my shovel. After I did that he went back to digging. I didn't know what to think.
The next day everything went back to normal except for the huge swollen part along my neck. It hurt a lot. After I finished digging I started writing a letter to my parents. As I was writing Zero came in and started to look over my shoulder. I told him that I didn't like people watching what I write. He told me that he didn't know how to write. He asked me to teach him. It told him that I didn't know how to teach. I finished my letter and left. I felt uncanny. What kind of person doesn't know how to write?
I can't remember specifically what night it was but one night I woke up to hear a strange noise. It was Squid crying. I asked if he was okay but he toold me to shut up. In the morning I asked if he was better abd he told me he had allergies and said if I said anything to anyone, he'd break my jaw. I sure won;t be asking him any questions for a while. I usually keep my mouth shut around the guys. It's the best way not to get clobbered I figured.
That day whike we were out on the lake, Magnet shouted to us. He had stolen the sunflower seeds out from Mr. Sir from the water truck that just left. He threw the sack to X-Ray after eating some. When some of the guys asked how he got them he just said that his hands are like little magnets. The sack was thrown from person to person but when they were tossed to me, they spilled into my hole. We could see the truck turn around in the distance and started coming back towards us. I was histerical with fear. I tried to bury the seeds the best I could but was to late. The next thing I knew, I heard my group talking to Mr.Sir. All of the sudden he was above me. My heart raced. My head pounded. Was this the end? He spoke calmly. he said, "Well Caveman, it seems you found something". He said to dig it out and then he'd bee taking me to the Warden. He asked how I got them and if I ate them all myself. For some reason I took all the blame. Then he put me in the truck with the sack and we started to drive to the Warden's cabin. Even in this much trouble I was able to appreciate the air blowing in through the window.

Camp Green Lake

Another day of misery. Aching pain, horrible nutrition and extreme sun. I guess I'm getting ahead of myself so I'll start by saying hello. Hi, my name is Stanley Yelnats. I come from a poor family who lives in a tiny apartment but my biggest problem is that I'm always in the wrong place at the wrong time. I guess this is because of my no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. At least that's what my dad says. You see, he's an inventor but not a very successful one. Although he tries his hardest, he to has no luck. Whenever he fails you can always hear him cursing my no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. It's always good to have someone to blame. Although I'm never lucky and come from a poor family, I'm a good kid although I'm a bit overweight but that doesn't really matter, does it? Some people would see it as kind of funny but I'm bullied by a small kid that I'm three times the weight of. Actually the last unpleasant encounter I had with this boy was on the day I was arrested. Later I would find out that this encounter proved my innocence.
When I was walking home with my notebook that was wet because the bully threw it in the toilet at school, these shoes flew from the overpass above and hit me on the head. I took the shoes and started home when I was pulled over by a policeman who somehow recognized the shoes and put me under arrest. Later I would find that these shoes were the famed "Sweet Feet" that belonged to the famous baseball player Clyde Livingston. These shoes were donated by Clyde to the shelter he grew up in and were going to be auctioned of at the shelter auction to raise the shelter some money. The shoes were estimated to be sold for thousands.
The next few months flew by me in a flash. First there was an investigation and then an announcement for a trial. Then the trial was post-poned for the longest time but one day I found myself in a court room given the choice to go to jail or be sent to Camp Green Lake. At first I thought it would be fun like the camps in my childhood fantasies but reality eventually set in. I found myself on a smoldering hot bus, handcuffed to a seat with a guard in front of me. We were diving through a wasteland of desert.
After the eight hour drive we suddenly stopped. When I stepped off and looked around, I was in a desert surrounded by cabins, tents and various buildings. There was no lake at Camp Green Lake or there hadn't been for a hundred and ten years. I was taken into a cabin and was confronted by a man chewing on sunflower seeds and had his feet up on his desk. He introduced himself himself gruffly as Mr.Sir and told me all about Camp Green Lake. Afterwards he opened up a hidden fridge, took out two bottles of cola and handed them to the guard who then left. Until now I was unaware of my own thirst but then it finally set in. After I was told the rules and expectations of the camp. I was told to start digging a hole five feet deep by five feet wide every day and then I was stripped down, searched and given orange clothes. I was then taken to my tent, introduced to my councillor and was shown to my cot and storage box. After a confrontation with my fellow inmates I was then given a semi beat down for calling a boy by his real name. I thought that this was very weird. After a dinner of food that was pretty gross I went and layed down in my cot which was previously inhabited by a boy named Barf Bag. The cot smelled horrible but I eventually fell into a heavy sleep. The next thing I knew I was woken up by Mr.Sir's yells to wake up. We trotted to breakfast which was as gross as dinner except for the orange juice. After that we grabbed our shovels and were told to walk out into the desert. We had only our shovels and a canteen full of water. We were told that we must dig the hole to the required measurements and then walk back but if we found anything of interest and the Warden liked it, we would get the rest of the day off. I was told by some of the guys like X-Ray (he unofficial leader) that the first hole would be the hardest and it was. Long after everyone else left I was still there digging. When I finally finished I spit in my hole and walked back. I was sore, exhausted and the blisters on my hands were massive. After another dinner of slop I went to sleep, tired and exhausted. Man that was a hard day.