Broken Hands and Weathered Souls: a Holes Fanfiction

The New Guy

Squid and I had to stand up eventually

It was so hard.

After we got dressed, we walked hand-in-hand to the digging site. He was quiet the whole time, and almost looked as if he refused to look at the holes in front of us.

Too many bad memories.

"How're you feeling?" I asked, taking his arm.

He just smiled. "I'm alright. You doin' okay?"

"I miss him."

"I do, too." He exhaled a cleansing breath. "But we gotta lighten up. Barfbag's rid of this place, and he's not comin' back. I think we should be at least a little bit happy for him." He gave me a small smile, and wrapped an arm around me. I put my arm around his waist as we walked.

That was the hardest hole I ever had to dig. We had all finished by 2:00, the earliest ever. I think we were just eager to get out of there. By the time we all walked back to the tent, all of Barfbag's things had been removed, leaving an empty cot staring back at us.

"Ay, we're gonna go meet the new guy." X-Ray called to me as he left, taking Squid and Armpit with him. I plunked down on my cot, and put my iPod on. I laid down and closed my eyes. I felt the mattress sink further down, somewhere near my legs, and looked up to see Zigzag sitting down next to me.

"What're you listening to?" He asked. I passed him an earbud. "Panic! At the Disco." Brendon Urie's deep, melodic voice poured out in "Golden Days," a personal favorite of mine.

Zig and I leaned back on my cot, just listening. It wasn't long before Mom poked his head in. "Kids, you have a new tent mate." He pushed a tall, lanky, curly haired kid into the tent. His eyes were wide as he took in everything. Mom, Armpit, X-Ray, and Squid followed him in. "This is Stanley."

Here we go. Zigzag got up, and Squid joined me on my cot, putting in the other earbud Zigzag had just taken out.

"Stanley this is Ricky, José, Nellie, and Zero."

"I'm Zigzag, this is Magnet, and Sugar." Zigzag re-introduced us. Stanley looked at me with even wider eyes. "Did you tell him about the lizards?" He asked Mom. A devious grin overtook his face.

"Now, Ricky," Mom's disapproving tone felt odd to hear outside of his usual cheeriness. "Let's not scare Stanley."

"His name's not Ricky. It's Zigzag, alright?" X-Ray reminded him.

Pendanski ignored him. "Well, I'll leave you here to get settled, Stanley." Mom smiled his annoyingly optimistic smile and left us with our new tent-mate. "It should be no labor to be nice to your neighbor," he added on the way out.

"You sleep here," Magnet patted Barfbag's old cot. Stanley just nodded, set his stuff down near it, and sat on the scratchy, thin mattress. He was so quiet. We all pretended not to pay attention to him for another twenty minutes or so. After a while, Stanley finally looked up at me. "You're a girl," he stated.

"So, he speaks?" I asked. "You know, you're not gonna make any friends by keeping to yourself." I took my earbud out, and raised an eyebrow. "Agreed?"

Stanley just nodded, the smallest of smiles appearing on his face. "Why are you here?"

"I broke the law." I shrugged. "Same as you."