Title: Spinning

Author: Ripki

Fandom: Flight 29 Down

Rating: T

Pairing: Melissa/Jackson, hints of Daley/Nathan

Genre: Drama/Angst/Romance

Authors note: I really, really shouldn't be doing this, since I haven't finished my other fic yet. However, this is something I wrote a year ago, but never posted. If people want, I am willing to continue writing it.

o

Chapter I: Where there is too much thinking and a vote is held

o

Three weeks - three whole weeks - they had been on the island. Strange how adaptable human nature was, already Melissa had begun to think it as home. Which was just wrong on so many levels. It was just a place where they had been thrown out of bad (or good) luck. No matter how many nice shelters they built, the camp could not be anything but a temporary place while they waited to be rescued - to HOME. Home as in LA, California, USA. Home as in 7390 Rodeo Drive. Home as in her very own bedroom, walls pastel green, painted just a few months ago.

God, how she missed her own room, her dog, dad and mom -Mom! - She had cried over them the first four nights, smothering the tears to her sleeping bag so no one would notice. Had she actually fooled anyone, she didn't know. She suspected that pretty much everyone had shed tears in those first nights, when everything seemed impossible to overcome. But they had survived - 21 days and nights! - and now when the question wasn't anymore about surviving on the island, it had became about the rescue once more. When were they going to be rescued? How long they had to wait? What if no one was looking for them? What if they were never going to be rescued? But stuck on the island, the seven of them for years and years until they would die off one by one…

"Melissa! I think the water is boiled already." Daley was looking at her from across the fireplace, a question in her eyes. Melissa realised that she had probably been staring at the boiling water kettle for some time now.

"Sorry." She took the battered kettle carefully from its self-made hanging place above the precious fire. The life on the island seemed so much simpler. One ate, slept and worked. No hard choices, like what one would have for breakfast. There were only fruit and fish and coconuts. No deciding what to do after the work either. Movies? Hanging out with friends? Shopping? School clubs? Family night? There wasn't any of that bliss here. Well, expect hanging out with friends, but even that was not really spending time together for the sheer fun of it, but living together 24/7 and making each other crazy and frustrated and bored.

There was too much time to think. Melissa had never examined herself and others around her this intensively, never thought about the choices she and her family had made. Never thought why others saw her in a certain way, never contemplated change. She was sixteen for God's sake, she was supposed to be upset over school and boys, not to think how best to survive in a deserted island. And okay, maybe she was also antagonizing herself over a boy, so that just showed how some things were disgustingly same no matter where she was…

"Melissa?" She became once more aware of Daley's stare. "Did you hear anything I just said?"

"Sorry. I was thinking. What did you say?"

"Nothing important. You just seem to be doing it a lot lately."

"Doing what?" Melissa became aware of footsteps coming behind her. Jackson trudged back to camp with a load of firewood. Melissa felt her muscles tensing despite herself.

"Thinking." Daley had that carefully constructed I-am-not-really-worried-voice. Funny, back home Melissa would have been fooled by it, but here she had become to know when her friend was feeling concerned.

"There isn't much else to do here." She tried to sound careless, and wondered if Daley could tell the difference in her tone. All the while she was painfully aware of Jackson, who dumped his load to their "wood-shelter" and came to sit by the fire, silent and next to impossible to read. Melissa sighed. She couldn't tell the differences in his voice. From the day he came to her school, she had tried to get to know him, almost desperately, but had run into a courteous brick wall. Here at last, on this island, it seemed she had finally gotten to see the real Jackson. Or so she had thought before.

"True, but too much thinking doesn't really lead to anywhere." Daley was saying. "We need some action."

"Like more work?" Taylor's tone of voice said clearly what she thought of that idea. She would not do more work. No way. Taylor positioned herself next to Jackson and ignored Daley's frown.

"I take thinking over working any day." Eric pressed his hat further into his head and closed his eyes.

"Yes, we know that Eric." Nathan sounded tired, and briefly Melissa wondered what he really thought in that moment. Is he wishing us all into hell?

"I was thinking some activity other than work. Like weaving…"

"Work." Taylor interrupted their leader, but Daley ignored her and continued, "Or decorating the campsite…"

"Work again." Taylor sounded annoyed.

"Well, do you have any suggestions?" Daley all but snapped. Every fault they found in each other seemed to become so much more annoying as the days went by.

Melissa had followed the conversation with absent mind. She was more involved in studying Jackson, curious as to how he would react to the ongoing talk. He seemed to be also deep in his own thoughts, but Melissa could detect a ghost of a smirk in his lips. Taylor had made him smile a few times lately. A lot more than she ever had. Too much thinking Melissa! Daley was right. She really needed to stop wallowing in her own thoughts. Nothing good could come from them.

"…and so we would get to know each other better, believe me, a lot more fun than doing some weaving or whatever." Taylor was exited by her own idea. What was the idea again? Melissa looked at Daley to get her reaction, determined not to ask again what they were talking about. Daley looked doubtful, but not set against whatever idea Taylor had presented.

"It could be nice, but I don't think that everyone would want to participate." As Daley said this she looked at Jackson, whose face held no information of his thoughts about the idea.

"Well lets vote! Anyone in favour, raise their hands!" Taylor emphasised her point by eagerly thrusting her hand in the air. Eric seemed to be as thrilled about the idea as Taylor was, and raised his arm quickly. Daley's hand rose slower, but rose it did. Jackson, Nathan and Lex didn't move. Trusting herself to fate, Melissa raised her hand.

"Great! So, let's play spin the bottle!" Eric's voice held a gleeful note, promising trouble.

Melissa groaned. Oh great.

o

So does anyone want more? Is it worth continuing? As always, reviews are welcomed and cherished :)