Episode Two - Part One

"I got you something."

The cautioned, questioning look on Squid's face had become quite a common sight at Camp Green Lake, and Addison loved it. It happened every time she poked him, or asked for another piggyback ride, or – like now – when she burst into the Wreck Room and interrupted a poker game.

"Whatever it is, I don't want it," said Squid, going back to his cards. The rest of the table – Magnet, Armpit and X-Ray, followed suit.

Addison pouted. "But it's our two-day anniversary of Best Friendship."

Beside Squid, Magnet grinned. "Yeah, man! God!" but with one look, Magnet shut up quickly.

"There's no such thing as two-day anniversaries," said Squid.

"They are if you make them a thing," said Addison. She grabbed a chair from a near-by table, and pulled it up next to Squid, kneeling on it so she could tower over him – which was hard considering she usually came up to his shoulders. She pulled out her new find.

"Sweet," said Magnet, nodding at the harmonica Addison spun in her hands. The others just glanced at it, before dealing a new round of cards, shaking their heads slightly. Magnet didn't notice them, and reached for Addison's find. "How'd you get a harmonica?"

"You know that dumpster behind the mess hall?"

Magnet's hand stopped just before grabbing the harmonica, and he quickly wrenched back.

Addison gripped her new toy. "No! It's not like that – it wasn't even gross. Like, yeah, it was in the dumpster-"

X-Ray grimaced. "Nasty."

"It's not nasty! The dumpster was empty. I promise." She flashed the harmonica. "'Cept for this. Can you believe someone would throw away a perfectly good harmonica?"

No one said anything. Addison watched as Armpit tossed away a card he didn't want, and X-Ray reconsidered his own cards, tossing in an extra token. Magnet still gave her a weak smile, but cautiously glanced at the harmonica. The noise from the rest of the Wreck Room filled in the tension of their table.

"Anyways," said Addison, even though no one asked. "I was thinkin' that I could use all this time I have to learn how to play. I could get really good in a year. Like, who doesn't want to be serenaded by a harmonica?"

"On the top of my head," said X-Ray, "everyone in the entire fucking world."

Armpit laughed, while Squid screwed his nose up. "You're putting that thing in your mouth?"

"Why not?" she said, shrugging. "Not the worst thing that's been in there."

The questioning look came back again. Addison met Squid with her best poker face, blinking slowly as if she didn't get her own joke. He had to furrow his eyebrows even more as Armpit and Magnet started to tremble, stifling their laughter. They looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Squid's jaw tensed up, and he raised his arms to lean his elbows on the table, almost to block Addison away from the rest.

"Besides," Addison went on, wiping the harmonica over her arm again. "I cleaned it. It's fine."

Squid looked at his cards again, before sighing and throwing them into the middle. "I fold."

"Great," Addison said, gripping his shoulder to readjust her position on the seat. When she was sitting perked up, cross legged with the harmonica at the ready, she smiled around at her tentmates. "What are your favourite songs?"

"Silence," said Squid.

"Sweet! Who's it by?"

"You, hopefully."

Addison pretended not to hear X-Ray laugh at that. "Did I hear someone say Billy Joel's Piano Man?"

"No," X-Ray grunted.

"I'm sure I did."

"Literally no one-"

She played anyway. Instantly, sour notes began to ooze out of the harmonica, and Addison frowned, moving the instrument from left to right to experiment with the notes. But that only seemed to be doing worse. She didn't get much further than what she was hoping sounded like the chorus – Squid yanked the harmonica from her mouth.

"Hey!"

"Trust me," said Squid, pinning the harmonica to the table. "It's better this way." And Magnet and Armpit continued alternating between laughing and wheezing.

"I'll practice," she said, tugging the instrument out from under Squid's fist. Armpit and Magnet joked about how Jax and the other girls would love that.

And soon, conversation dried up between them, and the poker game played on. Addison wasn't exactly sure how it worked. She watched as cards were placed down, or discarded, and shuffled and dealt. She was thankful that none of them asked her to leave – yet, at least. She wouldn't know what to do. Frizz from C-Tent had been staring at her for the past two days, during duties and time off. Why? Addison didn't know. Maybe it still had something to do with the little kitchen incident on her second day at camp. Maybe it was something else that Addison had no idea of. At least surrounded by the boys, there was some semblance of safety.

After a few rounds, when the boys once again threw their cards in for Armpit to sweep up, Addison perked up again.

"Can I play?"

X-Ray drummed his fingers near his token pile. "Got anything to wager?"

Addison frowned to herself. Her tokens were used up – when you're only given two minutes of shower time, you take it and run. She also didn't have any juice boxes up her sleeve – or anything else for that matter. Finally, she pulled out her harmonica again.

X-Ray shook his head.

Squid clamped his hand over the instrument, and he and Addison struggled as they both tugged at it. "No one wants your nasty ass harmonica," he said.

"You slobber on the same toothpick every day, and I don't call you nasty."

Said toothpick spun in Squid's mouth, as he tried to think of a comeback. Apparently, he couldn't. All that came out was: "Shut up."

A fool. An absolute fool. He almost made it too easy for her. She tipped her head, so her braids would curl over her shoulders, and the light pouring in from the windows caught her eyes as she bit her lip. "Make me."

It was the perfect set-up, the perfect invitation for him to lean forward and press his lips to hers – obviously, taking the toothpick out first. Be kinda weird if he kept it in. And, to be honest, it'd also be kinda weird if X-Ray and the boys were still at the table, just watching them. In her head everything else blurred out or faded to black, but that just wasn't realistic. But apparently the entire image in head was unrealistic, because Squid just looked at her numbly and uttered a deadpanned: "What?"

With a squeak from the chair dragging against the wooden floor, X-Ray got up and swept the rest of his token into his hands. He muttered something about girls always ruining things. Armpit got up to follow, and just as Squid did too, X glared him down.

"Nah, you stay here."

"Man! I don't wanna be with her!"

"Whatever." X-Ray and Armpit stalked off. And because Magnet had that wannabe twinkle in his eye – something he and Addison shared – he followed the other away from the table, deeper into the crowd of orange.

"Nice one," Squid grumbled.

"I didn't-"

Squid hit the pile of cards, and Addison watched as they scattered on the floor. She didn't need the face of a counsellor staring down at her for her to know to pick them up. That was pretty much the girls' job here – clean up after the boys. Also, just from the intensity of Squid's face, she knew he wouldn't clean it up. And anything she said wouldn't calm him down. So, she got down on her knees and started sweeping them into a new pile. Halfway through, as she twisted to get one underneath Squid's chair, she watched as what she presumed to be the legs of guys from another tent walk past.

"Squidly!" one cheered as he walked past, and the other wolf-whistled.

Addison only made it worse by peeking out to see what was happening. The two guys saw her, guffawed louder and clapped a smirking Squid on the shoulder. A smirking Squid. She didn't even know if it was possible for Squid to do anything other than his trademark scowl.

"You're the right height there," one of the guys joked to Addison.

"My man," the other said to Squid, just before they moved off towards the pool table.

Addison thought about crawling out the opposite side, putting the cards down and leaving Squid alone. But that caused its own problems – somewhere in the Wreck Room was Frizz. Addison didn't know where Lawless was, and Jax hardly acknowledged her existence. The other D-Tent boys weren't all that fond of her, so Squid was her best bet. He was her best friend, after all.

She decided that she could put the cards back and laugh it off. It was always easier to laugh things off. She could make it out like she made the connection before the boys did, and it was her sole reason for being down there. Squid wouldn't bat an eye at it – she'd made plenty of sexual jokes in the two days they were best friends. It was almost like second nature to twist things into dirtier versions. In fact, maybe he kind of liked it. Secretly, though, so it wouldn't shatter his cool guy image.

"So," she said, shuffling out from under the table beside Squid, and leaning an arm on his knee. She held the cards up for him. "Wanna play a round?"

Apparently, poker with only two people sucked. It took Addison only a second to scan the room, and find the weights station abandoned. Everyone else in the Wreck Room either seemed too tired to use any of the equipment, or were too engrossed with other things like the pool table or the bowling set.

The weights station. It was probably sweaty and gross, and she saw a guy being beaten up on there a day or two ago. But it was all she had.

"That," she said, pointing at it.

Squid sneered at it. "I ain't doing that."

Addison moved from her spot on the floor, and onto Squid's knee. "Come on, it'll be fun!"

Squid leant back; arms still crossed.

"What? You don't wanna see me lift a hundred pounds?"

"You?"

"Hell yeah. I'm swole as fuck." And to prove it, she lifted and flexed her left arm. Which was probably stupid seeing as her right was her dominant. Literally nothing happened as she flexed her noodle arm, but she still patted it as if it was a bicep worthy of Pop-Eye.

A glow of amusement passed over Squid's face. "Yeah, whatever."

She led him through the crowd of orange-clad guys, almost bopping as she walked, and Squid slinking behind her with his hands shoved into his pockets. As she approached the weights station, she flopped down on the bench press and punched the air for a warm-up. "Spot me," she told Squid, as he stationed himself at the head of the bench press.

"You'll want to down a couple pounds," he said, checking the weights.

"Nah, it'll be fine."

"Really-"

"I got this." Addison moved into place, and gripped the bar above, squaring her shoulders until it felt stable enough. "The safe word is butternut."

This, with Squid standing above her, caught the attention of some nearby campers. Squid sighed, but still helped Addison lift the barbell off its perch. Once he let go, Addison squealed as the weight of what seemed like an entire truck dropped down on her chest.

"Butternut!" she squeaked, straining against the bar. "Butternutbutternutbutternut!"

Squid, only using one hand, helped the weight off Addison and back on it perch. And as Addison sat up and groaned at the aching on her chest, he snickered. "You know what? That was fun."

. . .

Addison coaxed Squid into pool next.

"What you gonna do?" he asked, as they lingered around, waiting for the current game to finish. "Stab yourself with the cue?"

Fortunately for Addison, no.

Unfortunately for Squid, and some of the more sympathetic guys who began to crowd around to watch, the minute Addison got her hand on a cue it spelled disaster. She leant against the table, and as she prepared to break the set of balls, she wrenched the cue back and it hit the wrong set of balls.

. . .

"Bowling," said Addison, hands on her hips. "I can't fuck this one up."

Squid, still limping, grumbled. "I'm sure you'll find a way."

"I said I was sorry."

A guy from A handed Addison the bowling ball, a smirk tugging at his lips. He was the guy who told her she was the right height, and also managed to see Squid's little injury. Before he could say it – Addison got in first. "Maybe I can kiss it better." Which seemed to put a pep in Squid's step. Or maybe that was still just the limp. Whatever – he still hadn't stormed out in anger, and that meant good news for her.

"Wait," said Squid, just as Addison went to do her walk up.

She stopped and watched as he stepped back two, maybe three, feet. Their spectators, probably wishing to see the ball fly towards Squid, chuckled.

"It's at least a 60/60 chance," said one guy.

Lawless, who joined in, looked up at the guy from B. "60/60?"

"Yeah. Y'know, math."

Lawless stared at him. "You're a prodigy."

. . .

Squid finally gave up the moment the bowling ball ran over his foot, leaving Addison alone with Lawless at D-Tent's usual poker table.

"I dunno, Law," said Addison, cradling her head in her hands. "Whatever I do, he hates. I'm nice to him, and he hates it. And then I see he's being clapped on the back whenever I make an innuendo, so I play into that, and it still ends in him storming off."

"You hit him in the nuts."

"By accident!"

Lawless held her hands up. "Hey, you don't need to sell it to me. Shit was funny as fuck."

Addison groaned and planted her face on the table. It was sticky, and Addison didn't want to know why. She tried to do what she did whenever she developed a crush on some guy, and needed it to go away. Squid was probably just some loser who had nothing better to do than to steal things and wind up here… but that was her too. And at least Squid was strong – the kind of strong no one wanted to mess with. The kind of strong that kept some people – Frizz from C-Tent, for example – away from her.

"What I need," she said, voice muffled by the table, "is something that will keep him interested."

"He owes you," said Lawless, "that's interest enough."

"But I want him to like me."

"Why?"

Addison straightened and cupped her face in her hands. "He's-"

"Ew. Please don't tell me you think he's hot or something."

"Well, he is."

Lawless made a puking sound.

"He is!"

"You see, you do something cool like hitting a guy in the nuts, and then you turn around and say some shit like that."

Addison frowned. "You don't like Squid, do you?"

"The guy has something stuck up his butt. And it's probably sideways." Lawless sat up. "Look, girl, just keep doing what you're doing. You'll be fine."

Addison didn't feel it. In fact, she felt Frizz staring at her again. She tried talking some more to Lawless, but Lawless had curled up in her seat for a nap. All Addison could do was watch helplessly as Frizz got up from her seat and crossed the Wreck Room. And as the C-Tent girl walked, more joined her, fanning out either side. They stopped in front of Addison, staring down.

Frizz reached down and tugged on one of Addison's pink braids. "We got a proposition for you, pinkie."


Okay, let's see if this works. I had a couple issues the last time I tried. Sorry to those who might've gotten a notif and saw there was no new chapter. Or saw that it was "updated" but wasn't.

Anyways, I love this chapter so much lmaoo. Also forgot to add last chapter, but the front cover is my own artwork :)