Chapter 1 - Hey Sis
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Everyone was sitting at the fire, eating breakfast. Taylor was grumbling about a broken nail, Eric was trying to convince Jackson to give his water job to someone else, and Daley was telling Lex to not scarf his food. He protested, saying he was almost done fixing the radio.
A cry rang through the jungle. "Hello? Is anybody there?"
Everyone looked up, mid-argument.
"Uh, over here." Melissa stuttered.
A girl crashed through the trees. She looked around at the group, then did a double take, her eyes stopping on Jackson.
"J-Jackson?" Her voice rattled.
He stared disbelievingly at her. "Amber?"
She began to cry, and ran to Jackson. He hugged her, and she hugged back, and soon he was crying as well.
"I missed you." Amber said, clutching him as if her life depended on it.
"I missed you too." He let her hang onto him. A couple minutes later, she had calmed down and was perched on the log next to Jackson. "Um, everybody, this is my sister Amber." He said.
"Um, no offence or anything, but we haven't been gone that long. The hysterics are a little extreme." Taylor stated.
"We haven't seen each other for two years." Jackson said, going back to his closed up personality.
"We were separated into two different foster homes." Amber explained, but she didn't go into detail.
"Well, are you hungry Amber?" Daley said.
"Yes, very!" She smiled at Daley. He smile was bright, she looked about thirteen. Now that they looked closer, she and Jackson had identical blue eyes. (A/N: He really does have blue eyes!) She was also fingering a cross necklace like Jackson's. The only difference was her shoulder length dirty blond hair.
Daley handed Amber some food. "Thanks, uh…"
"Daley. And this is my brother Lex, Melissa, Nathan, Taylor, and Eric."
"Nice to meet you, Daley and Lex and Melissa and Nathan and Taylor and Eric." She laughed. "I'm guessing you're just as stuck here as I am." She said.
"Yeah, how'd you get here anyway?" Jackson replied.
"Believe it or not, our school managed to afford a trip to Micronesia. We crashed here yesterday, and I got lost. I spent the night under some trees, then kept wandering until I found you guys." Amber said.
"Well, I'm off to work on the radio." Lex jumped up.
"I'll go sit on the beach!" Taylor skipped off.
"Eric, get to work." Melissa said.
"Since when do you order me around?" He retorted.
"Well, I can't do my job until you do yours." She smirked. He walked off with the jugs.
"I've got food to ration!" Daley said, and followed Lex to the plane.
"Is there anything I can do?" Amber asked Jackson.
"You rest, crashing around in the jungle for a day." He ruffled her hair and walked away.
"I hate it when he does that." Amber said to Melissa. She laughed.
"At least he notices you." Melissa slapped her forehead. "Did I say that out loud?"
"You like my brother?" Amber's face broke out in a grin, but Melissa saw no traces of teasing.
"Yeah. Unfortunately, he knows. Taylor and Eric broadcast my tape to the whole beach when I burned her shirt on accident." Melissa rolled her eyes.
"He hasn't had any friends his age for as long as I can remember. We've always been outsiders, moving from foster home to foster home." Amber blinked back tears.
"How did you get separated?" Melissa asked.
"Well, there was a family that really wanted a girl my age, but the didn't have room for Jackson too. The organizers (A/N: I don't know much about foster kids and how it works, so deal.) told me and Jackson we were going to be separated, and gave us no say in where we were going. They sent us off, and that was that." Amber got up and walked away before Melissa could see her cry.
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"How can you stand to just play with that radio all day? I mean, doesn't it get boring?" Taylor was so bored, she was bugging Lex.
"Well, I'm a little more serious about our situation that you and Eric are!" Lex was trying hard to keep his cool, but Taylor kept pestering.
"I mean, all day, listening to kkkkkkkkkkssssssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, kkkkkkkkkkkrrrrrrrrrrrrsssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh-"
"Taylor! Just leave me alone!" Lex stormed off, grabbing the video camera.
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LEX -
God, she's annoying! Taylor, and Eric, don't realize how bad our situation is, and I think everybody else is starting to forget too, especially with Amber here and all.
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Taylor went on to find Eric.
"Gosh, Lex just flipped out on me! I mean, I was just asking how he could stand to listen to that radio all day." Taylor complained.
"If you're going to bug me, could you at least help carry?" Eric offered her a jug. Taylor looked at it as if it were a big, slimy, caterpillar.
"I'll pass, thanks."
Next Taylor went to bug Jackson. He interrupted her mid-sentence.
"You can be really annoying sometimes, you realize that, right?" He tried to keep his voice level.
Taylor looked taken aback. "Fine. I'll go…ask Melissa if I can borrow a book." Taylor flounced off.
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"Jackson, you know I can't sleep when the sun's up, just give me something to do! I'm dying of boredom here!" Amber pleaded.
"Fine, go help Mel boil water." Jackson said.
"Ooh, nicknaming her, are you?" Amber teased.
"What's that supposed to mean?" He raised his eyebrows.
"You like her, you like her!" Amber said in a sing-song voice.
"Go, help Melissa or whatever." He turned away.
"I see you blushing, you like her, don't you?"
"Maybe." Amber had been his best friend for forever, and she new that meant yes. He interrupted her scheming brain. "If you tell her, your dead meat."
"Uh! I was thinking up a good scheme too!" She thwacked his shoulder, seeing as she couldn't reach his head, and walked off.
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Amber was sitting on the wing of the plane, holding her guitar, a notebook next to her.
"Sitting here, wondering why," She sang softly.
"Whatcha doing?" Amber jumped a foot in the air, and turned around. Jackson was standing behind her.
"Writing. Why?"
"If you play me a song, I'll play you a song." Jackson said.
"Okay. But it's not one I wrote." She said. Jackson ran for his guitar.
Amber started.
When you're on a holiday You can't find the words to say All the things that come to you And I wanna feel it too On an island in the sun We'll be playing and having fun And it makes me feel so fine I can't control my brain
When you're on a golden sea You don't need no memory Just a place to call your own As we drift into the zone On an island in the sun We'll be playing and having fun And it makes me feel so fine I can't control my brain We'll run away together We'll spend some time forever We'll never feel bad anymore
On an island in the sun We'll be playing and having fun And it makes me feel so fine I can't control my brain We'll run away together We'll spend some time forever We'll never feel bad any more
A couple more strums, and she was done.
"Your voice sound so much better than when you were five." Jackson teased. Amber knew that was his way of saying he loved it.
"Well, what have you got, Mr. Sixteen?"
He began to take his guitar out of the case when Melissa ran up. He stuffed it back in and hid it under the plane wing before she could see it.
"Have you seen Taylor? She asked me for a book, but when I came back to give it to her, she was gone."
"Well, Jackson will come with you to look for her!" Amber smiled. Jackson shook his head ever so slightly. Amber nodded ever so slightly. "Bye!" She grinned teasingly. "Ah, I love this." She said to herself, then busied herself putting away the guitars.
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A/N: Wow, that was long. Okay, this would be the day of Mazethon. Explaining Lex's disappearance. Hint hint. I do not own the song Island In the Sun, but it occurred to me the other day that they are on an island in the sun, so I thought, perfect! Anyways, I'm posting this cause I have the day off from school so I'll have lots of time to write. I bet all of you are bombarded with emails about my new chapters. So, please review. It makes me happy, and when I'm happy, I write. So review! Please.
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