Another Zeronie

Welcome to Canp Green Lake

"Henry Zeroni please rise" I stood up, breathing shakily "You have been charged with arson, multiple charges of assault and larceny!" Now son, I could send you to jail for 18 months but really what good would that do? Huh?" I remained silent "So instead you'll be going somewhere to build character and think about what you've done and there's nowhere better then Camp Green Lake!" with that he slammed down his gavel and ordered the case close, just as he was about to leave I thought about Hector maybe the judge knew what happened to him "Excuse me sir" I said clearing my throat the judge turned around "Do you by any chance know what happened to my little brother Hector Zeroni?" the judge ignored me and continued on leaving his seat. "Zeroni!" an office yelled from the doorway and gestured me to follow him, before hopping onto the old yellow school bus which would be taking me to hell for the next 18 months I unwrapped some gum and threw it into my mouth blowing a bubble and popping it in the polices face. He grabs me by my backpack and shoves me onto the bus, its completely empty apart from a western police officer and the bus driver. Wisely I chose a seat at the back of the bus away from the driver and the officer will the rifle, I soon as I sat I was placed into handcuffs so there was no chance of me escaping.

I suppose you're wondering how I ended up in this predicament, it all has to do with my little brother, no I'm not saying its his fault it just involves him. Ever since I can remember I've always been looking out for him, we moved around a lot and our mum was always working so even though we were both young our mum couldn't afford a sitter so we'd always be left home alone. At 7 I felt like I had my mothers job at the time she was still grieving the fact that her husband was gone so whenever she was home she was completely wasted, she was selfish and I still loved her because no matter what she was still my mum but a seven year old should not be left with the duty of taking care of herself, her own mother and 2 year old brother. I learnt to cook, clean and even sew, dad leaving was hard on all of us especially me as I couldn't attend school because I was always looking after hector, I was the head of the house and had no support what so ever. Don't get me wrong it wasn't all fun and games having no parents around and hector wasn't always the easiest although I loved him to bits, by the time I was 12 were living out on the streets. Mum was wasting any spare money on alcohol, even the money hector and I had earned just to feed ourselves. One day when I was 13 and hector was 8 our mother left to the shops but she never came back, it was that moment where I couldn't take it anymore, we both knew from that day forth we only had each other and I knew it was up to me to protect us, up to me to be there for hector and up to me to make sure we didn't starve to death. I started getting into fights with the thugs on the streets, I stole from bakery's, farmers markets and clothing stores, I occasionally got caught and taken back to the police station although they'd let me off with a warning and just added the next offence to my file. I would dress like a boy with baggy pants and an oversized jumper pulling my long curly locks into a cap to attract less attention from people and well I guess it worked because most people would call me a boy, most nights I wouldn't eat because I wanted to make sure Hector was full which meant I didn't grow to be as tall as everyone and my body form was quite small and petite.

My name is Henry Zeroni and I'm 15, well technically its Henrietta May Zeroni but its too formal and girly for my liking, yes I'm a tomboy but I kinda think it was from living on the streets that caused me to be like this because I know that's who I have to be. We were about halfway to the camp when I felt my wrists burning, the handcuffs were leaving red marks on my wrists and they really hurt I decided to try and ignore which only led me to thinking about my brother hoping to god that he'd be ok. It had been over a week and a half since i'd last seen him, it was early morning on a Saturday when hector told me he was going to the homeless shelter to see their auction, i'd offered to go with him but he'd insisted that I just waited under the bridge where we were currently living at that point in time. By late afternoon he still wasn't back and I was getting worried, I had thought to go looking from him but at that point in time I didn't want him to come back to no one but now looking back I should've gone looking because he never returned that night. I was brought out of my thoughts when I heard loud chattering people well correction boys saying things like "Fresh meat" "Hey, baby" "Oh" "another one" "wonder what they did" we drove past boys digging holes and then we pulled into a little town looking thing with a bunch of tents and a few old buildings. The bus came to a halt then the officer undid my cuffs and stepped off of the bus, I followed him pulling my hat further down my face to avoid peoples stares I could definitely tell there was no lake and obviously the building charter part was digging holes.