Elyar and I

Chapter 19 - The second hole's the hardest

Nikki POV

4am.

"Hey, yo! Feists! Richie! Wake up!" Squid shouted as he tried to pull the blanket off of Richie.

"No! Fuck off!" Richie mumbled as she tried to pull the blanket back.

"No. You've got to get up or the warden'l come down hard on all of us. You need to get up too feists." Squid said pulling the blanket off of Richie again.

"Okay, okay. Just give me a minute" I said as I sat up, rubbing my eyes. "Richie! Up!" I said as I got a packet of Lay's crisps out of my bag and threw them at her.

"OKAY, OKAY! I'M UP! JEEZ! I'm keeping the crisps though." Richie said as she sat up and ripped open the packet of cheese and onion crisps. I picked out a packet for myself as everyone turned around. I pulled on my everyday clothes for this shit hole. A t-shirt with some sort of band logo on it, an orange jumpsuit, and some black combat boots. Richie was lucky. She had two pairs (her own, and the ones the camp gave her.) I decided to put my hair in a fishtail braid so that it wouldn't get in my face. Richie just let her hair fall half way down her back.

"Come on." I said to Richie as she grabbed some cigarettes and a lighter out of her bag and put them in her pocket. We all walked out of the tent, lined up to get our shovels, then got our honey tortilla. I saw Mr. Sir walk towards her, he was probably telling her exactly what he told me yesterday as she dawdled behind him. He pointed her to an empty space and she began to dig. I watched her push the shovel into the ground for the first time; it was quite funny as she almost fell over. As soon as Mr. Sir was gone, she pulled a cigarette out of her jumpsuit pocket and lit it.

My hands began to burn as the blisters rubbed against each other again. I hadn't even started digging. Every minute I dug got harder and harder as the day passed by and pain rushed through me.

"You having fun over there, chicas?" Magnet shouted over.

"Fun? You think this is fun?" Richie replied.

"Every kid dreams of digging a hole to China." X-ray added.

"Yeah, but where those chinese kids dig to?" Squid asked as he threw the dirt out of his hole. Everyone laughed. Except Zero. Zero never talked nevermind laughed.

I could see the water truck in the distance. 'I guess its time for fun-time with Mr. P' I thought as I began to make indentations in my hole again. But when I looked up, I saw a hand. Zigzag's hand.

"You need some help?" He extended his arm towards me and helped me out of my hole.

"Thanks." I smiled up at him, although I could barely see him because of the sun. I got in the line just in front of Ziggy this time and Richie was in front of me. It got to Richie's turn.

"Hey, Mr. P! Looks like you've got the two of us to deal with now." She said as she gave Mr. Pendanski her canteen.

"What do you mean? Did you two already know each other?" He asked as he filled up Richie's canteen.

"Pfft! Please, she's like my Pikachu!" I smiled at Richie

"Oh god!" Mr. Pendanski said as he looked at us with mercy. He gave Richie her canteen and she walked back off to her hole.

"I still don't see that white coat and stethoscope Mr. P." I said as I gave him my canteen. He looked at me as if he was planning my death or something. Talk about overreacting!

"Jeez! I'm only joking!" I said as I grabbed my canteen off of him and walked back to my hole. Once again, wearing a smirk. As soon as I got to my hole, I realized that I wasn't even half way done. Even Richie was almost done and it was only her first day! A few hours passed by and I felt my tiredness wash over me. As usual, Zero got out of his hole way before everyone else, but by this time yesterday, I was almost done. Whereas, today, I was only half way done. I felt sleep deprived. Every part of me ached, I was hungry, and I felt like I was sat on the sun. About 30 minutes later, the truck came back - this time, with food. Mr. Sir got out of the truck and we all lined up to get our food. And again, I stood in front of Ziggy and Richie stood in front of me.

"You got some blisters on yah, girls?" Mr. Sir said as we all began to get our sandwich, apple, and graham cracker. Richie and I both looked up at Mr. Sir. I grunted as I walked past him and walked over to Zigzag's hole as it was the deepest and it had the most shade.

"Can I sit?" Ziggy nodded. I jumped down into the four and a half foot hole and sat next to Zigzag.

"So, you okay?" He asked as he shoved the graham cracker into his mouth.

"Yeah, i'm fine. Why'd you ask?" I took a bite of my tiny apple.

"Just because of when you stormed out yesterday. You seemed pretty pissed off." I turned to look at him.

"I'm just easilly annoyed. Thats all." I looked into his sea blue eyes again as he gazed back into mine.

"I have to tell you something" Ziggy said, still not breaking the gaze.

"What?" I asked as I realized how blue and perfect his eyes were. I had never realized just how much his eyes caught the beauty of deep oceans glittering in the light of the moon. Before I knew it, he pulled me towards him and our lips collided. I wrapped my hands around his neck and his hands found my waist. The hands of time stopped as our lips moved together as one. His lips were so soft and urgent on mine, trying to express all that he felt for me. His mouth tasted so minty and i was so happy he was mine. His lips smiled against mine, then he pulled away from the kiss. I gazed into his beautifully blue eyes and he uttered three words to me "I love you."

"I love you too." I whispered back after I realized what had just happened. I heard laughing coming from above. I tilted my head, looking up only to see Mr. Sir and everyone else from D tent gazing down at us. Mr. Sir just smiled at us, it was weird.

"Looks like Magnet was right. Feists does have a crush!" Squid said as I got to my feet.

"Oh, fuck off" I said as I climbed out of Ziggy's hole and walked over to my own. I heard Mr. Sir's truck drive back to camp. 30 minutes passed and one by one, everyone got out of their five foot holes and walked back to the tent or wherever they were going to go.

"You want me to wait for you?" I looked up to see Zigzag stood at my hole.

"You don't have to, but you can if you want." Ziggy sat down next to my hole as I got a drink of water out of my canteen and began to dig again. I was almost finished now.

"So, wanna play twenty questions?" Zigzag said as I shoveled away.

"Okay."

"Err... what's your favourite colour?"

"Blue, you? I said as I used my shovel to try to make some indentations in the side of the hole again and climbed out.

"Green." He smiled as I picked up my shovel and we walked back to camp answering eachothers questions on our travels. Our fingers wrapping around eachother as the sun began to go down