Page 4 of Freak Camp
Jake frowned.“I’m not sir.Sir’s my dad.You can call me Jake.”
The monster boy raised his eyes, blinking at him.“Jake,” he said, and then ducked his head.Jake wasn’t sure, but he might have caught the edge of a smile.“Yes, s—Jake.”
Jake felt like the kid didn’t quite get it.Like he thought that Jake was just another substitute forsir.“Jake,” he persisted.“It’s my name.What’s your name?”
The monster took a quick breath and held his hands straight at his sides.“Eighty-nine U I six seven zero three,” he said, rapid and flat.
Jake scoffed.“That can’t be your name.That’s a number.What do people call you?”
His eyes flickered up again, and he hesitated before answering, “Tobias.Becca calls me Toby.”
If Jake didn’t know better, he’d have thought that the monster boy was shy.It was weird even thinking of him as “monster boy,” because he seemed like any other kid.Nicer than any other kid, actually.Other kids usually didn’t stick around this long just talking to him.They wanted to know how he fit in the food chain of whatever new school or town he was in, and that was it.Jake spent half of every first week—and sometimes there wasn’t a second week, if Dad managed to piss someone off, or the hunt wrapped up—proving that he was at the top, untouchable, in whatever social order already existed.
But it looked like Tobias didn’t mind sticking around, even after figuring out where they stood.
“Toby,” Jake repeated.It was a strange name for a monster.“So you’re unidentified?What does that mean?”He reminded himself that he wasn’t talking to a kid.He was talking to a monster.Toby had probably done something awful, like eaten someone’s dog or something.They didn’t just lock little kids up in Freak Camp because someone pointed at them and said they were a monster.
“They don’t know what kind of monster I am yet.”
“But what did youdo?”Jake leaned forward.“All monsters do something, have some kind of power.”
Tobias shrugged his small shoulders, eyes back on the ground.“I don’t remember.”
It must’ve been really horrible if Tobias couldn’t even remember what it was.Maybe he had woken covered in blood and screaming.Maybe every stuffed animal in an arcade had caught fire all at once when he was around, or he’d stabbed someone, or something.
But every time Jake tried to picture Tobias in those scenes, it didn’t work.It was impossible to imagine this shy, jumpy kid doing anything monsterlike.It didn’t help that the longer Jake thought about it and didn’t say anything else, the smaller and more dejected Tobias looked, like the conversation had been as cool and unusual for him as it had been for Jake and he didn’t want it to be over.
“Don’t worry about it,” Jake said at last.“It’s fine if you don’t remember.Do you have a lot of friends?I mean, monster friends?”
Tobias shook his head.“I have Becca.But a lot of the others ...We’re all freaks, but I’mreally...”He trailed off and shrugged.“Becca says they don’t know what to make of me.Are you a hunter?”
Jake puffed out his chest and put his hand on his knife.Tobias cringed back, ducking his head lower.“Of course I ...hey, wait, it’s okay, I ain’t gonna hurt you.I mean, you’re a contained monster, right?”
Tobias nodded.
“And you don’t want to hurt anyone, right?”
Tobias nodded again, so hard and fast that Jake could see the collar around his throat rubbing over his ear.
“So we’re good.”There he went again, saying something totally ordinary that filled Tobias’s face with surprise and a hint of wonder.
Jake was used to thinking that he was a pretty cool kid, but that was an opinion shared mainly by himself and no one else.But every time he said something that was even moderately nice, he got one of those looks that made him want to keep being friendly.Jake glanced back at the guard, but Victor wasn’t paying attention to him, focused instead on a few monsters in a corner standing close together.
“Let’s sit down,” Jake said, and that smile on Tobias’s face caused some pretty awesome feelings.
“What do you do here all day?”Jake asked when they were settled against a wall, still in sight of the guard but far enough away that Victor couldn’t listen in on their conversation.“Do you have to learn and stuff, or do you just walk around all day and, like, play cards?”
“I learn!”Tobias sounded almost defensive, if someone could be defensive without raising their voice.“I can read anything.”
“Whoa, really?”Jake wasn’t a big reader.Hecouldread, he wasn’t an idiot, but this kid might’ve been in first grade if he wasn’t a monster, and Jake had a feeling that reading hadn’t been his strong suit when he was that age.“What kinds of stuff do you read?”
Everything, apparently.Biology, geography, and folklore.General history, as well as specifics on monster attacks leading up to the Liberty Wolf Massacre.Tobias even had some knowledge of non-supernatural animals.Tobias had started cautiously, listing off books and subjects in a monotone, but as Jake sat and listened, he talked more rapidly, more eagerly.
“Do all the monster kids learn this stuff?”Jake asked.
Tobias shook his head.“I help Becca in the library.That’s where we’re assigned.She used to be a librarian before she got caught and came here, so they tell her to do research for the scientists.She’s really good at it, and she’s teaching me too.”He glanced at Jake, who could almost see the proud smile in Tobias’s eyes, though it hadn’t quite made it onto his face yet.“The library’s where they keep all the books,” he whispered, as though that was a secret that shouldn’t be passed around to just anyone.
Jake laughed.Tobias looked nervous for a second, then relaxed.Jake wasn’t laughing at him,but in amazement that he was hanging out with a six-year-old monster boy who was explaining libraries, and he wasn’t actually bored out of his skull.Talking to Tobias made him almost want to go check out a library himself.
