Mr. Sir's Daughter: The Only Girl At Camp Green Lake (Holes fanfic)

Chapter 5

     The boys stumbled out of bed with half open eyes. The alarm was still blasting through the camp when they got out of the tent, unlike usual. As they walked over to get in line for breakfast, they saw Mr. Pendanski standing underneath the speakers, reaching up with a long pole to try to turn it off. The other campers were wandering around with their hands over their ears.

"Hey, Mom!" X-ray said loudly, barely able to hear his own voice because of the noise. He waited for Mr. Pendanski to turn around, then asked, "Where's Miss Ashley? Ain't that her job?"

Mr. Pendanski stretched his arms as high as he could reach. He was a short, skinny man. When he was finally able to turn the alarm off, he grumpily threw the pole on the ground, then replied, "Yes, Rex," referring to X-ray's real name. "I'm afraid Miss Ashley was having some trouble getting out of bed this morning."

The boys all looked at Zigzag, remembering what he had said the night before.

Mr. Sir had sent his daughter to bed covered in bruises. He had pounced on her and beat down on her until she was begging him to stop. It was his way of punishing her for disrespecting him. He wasn't used to her disobeying him, or talking back when he tried to lecture her, and he would always punish the campers this way when they did something wrong toward him, so it was the only way he knew how. He felt guilty for it after, but refused to apologise. If he apologised, it would mean she had won. At least that's what he thought. He had to show her that he was the one in charge.

"Oh," said Mr. Pendanski, pointing at tent F. "There she is now."

He smiled at them, then went to make sure the others were in order. The boys watched as Miss Ashley walked down the steps from her tent. It was still dark out, so they couldn't see much from where they were standing, but they could tell she was limping slightly. The limp wasn't that bad. If they hadn't been looking so closely, they probably wouldn't have noticed. She acted as normal, helping the counsellors rangle the rest of the boys like she did every morning. After watching her for a little while, the D-tent boys collected their shovels. They ate breakfast, then waited to be marched out to dig.

Miss Ashley was the first to come out with the water truck today. She went around the groups in alphabetical order, instead of doing D-tent first like she usually did. Squid didn't notice that she had done it differently, because he was too busy digging. He was trying hard to keep his mind on his hole. When the time came for Miss Ashley to fill D-tent's canteens, he couldn't bring himself to look at her, worried of what he might see. He felt that whatever Mr. Sir had done to her, he was to blame.

His tent mates pretended they didn't see the cut on her lip, or her black eye, or the several bruises on her arms, when they took their canteens back after she had refilled them. They said hello to her and she said it back, just like normal.

When it was Squid's turn, Miss Ashley didn't say anything. She took his canteen from him without looking up. Squid kept opening his mouth with the intention of speaking, then closing it again when he couldn't think of anything to say. He wanted to ask if she was alright, but he knew there was no point. Secretly, Miss Ashley wanted to talk to Squid too, but she had been ordered not to by her father before she left the compound. It was too soon to go against him a second time. Right now, she was deathly afraid of her father. She knew that if she pushed him too far, she would have to put up with another beating and that the next one would undoubtedly be more brutal. She had simply took the first as a warning.

"Thank you," Squid said lowly when Miss Ashley gave him back his canteen.

She didn't reply. He slowly walked back to his hole, feeling sick after seeing the marks on her. He was ashamed of himself for causing her so much trouble.

At dinner time, Squid didn't feel like eating. He sat at the table, poking his food with his fork. His mind was somewhere else. His friends were talking on either side of him, but all he could hear were distant mumbles. What had happened the night before played on a continuous loop in his head.

Suddenly, he sat up straight, hearing Miss Ashley's name. Mr. Sir was speaking into a walkie-talkie: "Ashley, come get your supper while you have the chance."

Squid heard the muffled sound of Miss Ashley's voice on the other end of the device.

"I'm not hungry," she answered.

Mr. Sir put his mouth closer to the microphone. Quietly but firmly, he said, "Don't make me come get you. I don't care how mad I am, you're still gonna sit at that table with me and eat. Now get in here."

Squid stared at the double doors at the other end of the mess hall, waiting. It took a few minutes, but Miss Ashley eventually appeared, still wearing the same stoic expression from earlier. She sat down on the bench beside Mr. Sir, who had taken the liberty of fetching a meal for her. She didn't mind what he had got for her, having learned to not be a picky eater growing up at the camp, where food was scarce. At the moment however, she lacked an appetite.

She flinched as her father lifted up his hand and gently rubbed the bruise near her eye. When he felt how swollen her face was, he looked at her with sad eyes, feeling even more guilty than he had before.

"Man, I feel sorry for her," claimed Zigzag.

The boys had also been watching when Miss Ashley came in. They shook their heads upon seeing the state she was in again.

"I wonder what he did to her," Magnet said.

X-ray tutted. "It takes a lot for someone to end up looking like that."

Squid was biting his lip as he listened, wishing they would just shut up.

"Just like I said," Zigzag replied, staring at her with his hands pressed together. He rested his chin on them. "He beat the hell out of her."