Disclaimers: Uh…Right. Some swearing, some grrl on grrl action, some other stuff. Meh.

Sour Jelly Belly Jelly Beans rock. Yeehaw Junction is a real town in Central Florida. Ticks are horrible little buggers to remove. Super Wal-Mart is where all the cool kids hang out. And Tamara is freaking awesome. Thanks for everything Tamara.

Any questions, comments, or concerns can be directed to uncagedamazon@thesandbox101.com.
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I am a fucking genius. I mean who else can be given a map and compass, be told not to enter the areas highlighted in red, and still manage to camp in the forbidden fields? Right beside the signs that say Warning: Infested Tick Fields, Keep Out…

It was a glorious day to be naked with a group of strangers. All of us standing and staring up at the circling buzzards while the "counselors" sprayed us down with something that smelled frighteningly like lighter fluid. I'm sure that the ticks just fell off because of the smell. Some of the other girls looked like they were going to follow the ticks. Those who weren't buzzed from the spray were bitching and making some rather interesting suggestions about what they'd like to do to me. A few of them were anatomical impossibilities. But interesting. I just pretended I didn't hear them.

The counselor plucking imbedded ticks off my back moved around to face me. You could tell she was trying not to laugh. I choked down a growl and resisted the urge to cross my arms in front of my chest. It amazed me how modest I could still be after a few days here. Think community bathrooms. A metal pole with a few spigots attached to it served as a shower while the toilets were on a long bench that ran down the center of a room. Fucking hell. You sat back to back with another person if the bathroom was full. God. Gotta pay careful attention to whose ass you're wiping. Nasty visual, I know. I apologize. Welcome to my world. But back to that counselor…

She was pretty cute in a pseudo Crocodile Hunter kind of way. Short black hair, long tanned legs, well muscled arms, and swampy green eyes made up the package dressed in a khaki outfit. Her shorts were tight and cut high enough to make me wanna go…crikey! I'm not sure how a girl like her got stuck in a place like this; it's no secret that the counselors are as much criminals as the rest of us.

Except for me that is. I was no criminal. I was barely a juvenile delinquent. I just had this giftfor getting myself into weird ass situations. Kinda like when I was fired from Disney because of an ice-cream bar. But that's another story.

This time I was just minding my own business, making out in the darkened corner of a Wal-Mart parking lot. Whadda ya mean that's not the place for such things? I'm from a small town and Wal-Mart is the place to be for all your late night needs. Like I was saying, it was dark and we were well away from the flow of traffic. I'd managed to get into her seat-only smashed myself on the gearshift once- and was happily working my way towards second base when some asshole banged on the window. I looked up to see an older guy and was contemplating grabbing the shot gun hanging from the rack behind the truck's seats, when she started screaming and pulling away from me. This wouldn't have been a problem if her hair hadn't somehow gotten wrapped around my nipple piercing. She kept yanking on it and under other circumstances it would have been a very nice thing but right then...it just hurt. And not a good hurt mind you.

I held her still long enough to rip her off of my poor abused little nipple and fell into the next seat. The man had stopped banging on the window and was just glaring at us. It took me a second while I was fumbling with my shirt to recognize her father. Who also happened to be the father of Jim, the boy I was kinda sorta dating. What? It's not like they're my cousins. Which could have been the situation if I was originally from Yeehaw Junction. Heh. Did I mention that Jim was the mayor's son? Which would make his sister the mayor's daughter. Which of course points out the fact that the very angry man was the Mayor.

To make a short story...shorter, the mayor pulled a few strings with the local judges and sent me off to bad girl camp. Now this is where a normal person --I've never been accused of being that-- would argue and try to get out of being sent off to a delinquent camp. But well…I've seen all those episodes of Sally Jesse Raphael where parents send their wild teens to boot camp, and I thought it looked like a blast. So I went. Silly me. Okay, back to my story....

The counselor checked my front for more cursed little bugs. Her tweezers zeroed in on a black spot on my chest and…

"FUCK! Ow, that hurt." I rubbed the bleeding spot on my chest.

"Oh! That was a birthmark. Sorry." She didn't look sorry. Wench.

"Well I've made sure everything's tick free...except for umm..down..uh." Heh. She was blushing. But then I realized what she was trying to say and it was my turn to blush.

"You don't mean you want to check me...there…now?" My voice squeaked dammit. No, that didn't make me sound like a prepubescent boy. And of course everyone else had stopped doing whatever and was watching us. Shit.

"Well yeah, but you can do it yourself if it's gonna be a problem."

"But…here...with them?" I glared at the other girls who looked way too happy at my discomfort. "I don't even know your first name, usually I get that before letting someone into my pants."

"It's Charsi, you're not wearing pants, and don't worry I'm just messing with you." Charsi. What kind of a name was Charsi? She looked pissed, did I say that out loud?...eep. Time to turn on the charm. If I had charm. Let's see.

"What if I'd said I wanted you to finish it?" Aha. Brilliant.

"Prolly woulda thrown you to the floor and ravished you." My jaw dropped as she smirked and walked away. So, yeah I totally lost that encounter…
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The weeks that passed were eventful. Days, and the catastrophes they brought, just bled together. Nothing as bad as my foray into the tick fields, though things got shaky when one of the girls snapped. She stripped off all her clothes and danced around singing you are my sunshine. It took three counselors and a security guard to drag her out of the shower room. She giggled the whole way. Those of us left in the barracks just shivered as we watched each other, wondering who'd be next.

I heard some of them cry at night, the cots we slept on were close enough to kick the person next to you. Charsi had the cot on my right. She hadn't had a peaceful night since I got here and it took a lot for me not to reach over and wake her. We became friendly, she and I.

After the first orientation week, and the camping incident, the counselors picked their delinquents of choice and shadowed them. The nut ball and I were Charsi's "battle buddies." We were forced to do everything together. But since the other girl was gone, I ended up pulling double duty to make up for it. But it wasn't so bad. I enjoyed the physical labor and it made the days go by quicker. Plus it was always fun to get all sweaty and flushed while someone else watched. And I know she watched. What's that on the floor? A piece of paper? Let me just bend over and pick it up…

The novelty of being at camp was wearing off though and I was more than ready to go home. I'd never make fun of the crying teenagers on talk shows again. I knew how they felt. But I wouldn't cry.

I'd been given fire duty two nights in a row now, so it had been 48 hours since I'd had any sleep. I think they were just trying to get me so exhausted that I couldn't really do anything come daytime activities. It wasn't my fault that Trisha fell into that alligator nest! And maybe if someone had given me proper directions we wouldn't have been circling the swamp for three hours.

Nothing was moving outside; no fires. The mosquitoes were vicious as usual. Everyone was asleep inside the barrack and the bathrooms were empty. I wandered into the cold shower room and slid down the wall to sit on the floor. God. I was so tired. I rested my head back against the tiles with my eyes closed 'til I sensed someone come into the room.

It was just Charsi…and she had the strangest expression on her face as she looked me over. I wasn't in the mood for drama though so I just closed my eyes again until she sat down next to me. And I mean right next to me. She was just a line of heat from my shoulders to my hips that I could feel even through my clothes. I didn't move when she reached over to tug on my shoelace. I didn't move when her hand traveled farther up my leg. I didn't move until she stopped touching me and grabbed my hair, making me look at her.

I leaned back when she moved in to kiss me because I had this horrible urge to say are you sure?A perverse homage to all the fanfic I used to read. But I didn't think she'd get it. She'd probably answer seriously and then I'd be forced to fall over laughing. And I read somewhere that you aren't supposed to laugh at anyone willing to share their body with you. Not the first time anyway. Besides, I already made that mistake the first time I had sex. I started giggling the instant our clothes came off, all the way until the end. He wasn't happy. Maybe I shoulda said to keep the lights off. Ah well.

Speaking of unhappy, she wasn't looking too pleased at that moment. Guess she wasn't used to being rejected, which isn't surprising. She was damn foine. I pulled my legs underneath me and pounced on her. Surprised, she fell back and smacked her head on the tile. I winced.

"I am sooo sorry." I smiled. I was going to start laughing soon, I just knew it.

"You are so smooth." Was that sarcasm? She glared at me. Hello sarcasm.

I made myself more comfortable on top of her until she stopped looking at me all mean. She was...squishy. Her camp uniform made her look like a bad ass bushwhacker with her hard muscles and tanned skin. But right then she was just soft and warm and I couldn't resist scratching my nails down her arm. And just like that she wasn't mad anymore. Heh.

When she reached up to kiss me again, I didn't resist. It was wonderful. Laying there on the floor and kissing my battle buddy, her cold fingers sneaking under my shirt. It was wonderful. Bells were ringing even. It took me a good 30 seconds to realize the bells were real and not just passion induced. Fire alarm. And I was on fire duty. Dammit. Dammit. Dammit. We got up off the floor to make ourselves presentable for whatever was going on outside.

"And here I was hoping I'd get to check you for ticks."

She shook her head and scowled at me before rushing out. I sighed. Nobody appreciated my sense of humor.