Usual disclaimer applies
Friendship and Problems
The humidity from the previous day was now lost and forgotten; cold took its place. The few sloppily made shelters were filled with shivering girls. Not a single noise was heard except for the occasional scream from the younger girls. The only other sounds anyone heard were the many chirps from the hundreds of crickets.
A quiet sigh escaped one the older girl's mouth. She rolled onto her side, away from everyone else so she was facing the "wall" of the shelter. Both her arms were covered in rough goose bumps. The only warmth she got was from the remains of her filthy clothing and from her beautiful red hair.
She dreamt, earlier that night, of home. The dream was the same one she had the night before, and the night before that. Beautiful dreamt of home, her home, her bed, her family.
She sighed once more, realizing that she would not be able to fall back asleep. With a few quick and swift movements she carefully rose from her spot, and walked outside. Beautiful was hit with a strong burst of wind, making her wrap her arms around her petite body. She looked up to the sky and smiled at the lovely appearance which greeted her. An array of purples, pinks, and blues filled the sky, awaiting the arrival of the sun, and the departure of the moon. A few dim stars lingered out, more late than usual.
"Hi!" A perky voice spoke quickly to Beautiful.
"Why are you up so early?" she asked the familiar figure.
"I always am... Veronique?" The girl addressed Beautiful rather uneasily.
"Huh?"
"Can you hear them scream, like I do? They scream so much, but no one cares. They're too involved with themselves." The person from whose mouth the words were coming from, stood behind Veronique. She appeared a shadow, though anyone having enough courage to talk to her would be able to tell otherwise after mere seconds.
"Hear who scream?"
"The kids. They're scared."
"Starre?"
"What?"
"Are you scared?" Veronique slid to the sand, then sat, fingering it uneasily.
Starre sat next to her "friend," giving her a thoughtful look that lasted a few minutes. She hugged her knees to her body. Slowly she rocked, trying to pick out the exact words to use.
"Yes, I'm scared. I'm afraid that the food might run out, that the kids might get too hard to handle, that we may never get rescued and may be stranded here forever." A single tear streaked down Starre's cheek. A white smudge remained on her face, even after the droplet of salty water fell from her face and hit the sand.
Veronique watched with interest, silently drawing with a stick in the sand. When she was sure Starre was finished speaking, it was Veronique's turn to look thoughtfully at her companion. The remains of a pair of a black baggy pants and a black tank top covered Starre's body, were torn and dirty. Her small glasses, with a thin black rim, were at the bridge of her nose. The black hair which was supposed to be evenly cut to the ends of her ears, was now tied in knots, and fell to her shoulders.
"Why do you dress like that?" Veronique paused before she spoke again, "Why did you dress like that?"
Starre's eyebrows rose at the comment, "I like the way I dressed."
"But it's not like your personality."
"Yes, it is." Starre rose after she spoke the words, then brushed the sand off her body. "Don't make assumptions about people you know nothing about." Silence fell between the girls as Veronique stared at the water, laying only meters before them. Starre continued to brush the sand from her clothes. "You should prepare your speech for later today. Say something to make the kids feel safe again. I fear they will be forgotten about soon."
With that Starre left, saying nothing to Veronique about where she was going. Honestly, Starre did not even know where she was going. She kept walking farther and farther into the forest until she reached a tall willow tree. A satisfied smile slid onto her lips. She closed her eyes, imagining how nice it would feel to sit under the tree, in its shadows, and to read.
Starre sighed, knowing that it was an impossible task. She got onto her hands and knees and crawled underneath the trees low branches, until she reached its trunk. Then she sat up, leaning her back against the trees thick trunk. Again she had a satisfied, childish grin on her face.
"Ronnie?" A small child, about eight years old, approached Veronique cautiously. The child's voice was quiet and shaky, as if afraid that someone would hear her speak.
"Huh?"
"I'm hungry."
"Go eat some fruit."
"I want some real food."
"Well, what do you want me to do. I'm not mom and I can't cook. Even if I could, there's nothing to cook." The words came out more fiercely than they were meant to be said, but she could not help it. There was too much to worry about and a little sister nagging her, was not what she needed.
The child smirked, giving Veronique a dirty look. Then she sharply turned her back and walked into the opposite direction.
Veronique sighed, even more irritated with her sister than before. The feeling subsided within minutes, loneliness took its place. She now missed her family and friends more than ever.
The comfort of a bed, pillow and sheets was lost in each and every single girls' mind. They were losing touch with civilization as each day passed. They were forgetting what life was like before the island, they were forgetting who they were. The only thing any of them knew was the island.
Veronique looked around her, giving each person she looked at a long and thoughtful glance. She tried to put a personality with each name she thought of. It was hard, since many of the girls were either too young to say anything useful to, or they were just bratty.
She closed her eyes after she was finished, trying to think of the speech she would be saying in the evening. I should tell them we're going to get rescued soon, that would make them happy. There aren't any monsters or anything, they should know that. We, older girls are going to protect them, either way. Then they'll be happy.
Veronique's thoughts were interrupted by a loud shriek. She sharply turned her head towards the shelters, where the sound had come from. Her eyes widened at what she saw. Two of the older girls seemed to be ready to jump onto each other, any onlooker could tell that a fight was on the verge breaking.
Xandra, who screamed, now stood with her arms crossed, only feet before the other girl, Teresa.
"What happened? Why did you scream?" Veronique asked as she ran up to the girls. Already a semicircle was forming around them.
"She hit me!" Xandra's voice was sharp with accusation and anger. She squinted her eyes, her forehead creased.
"Why?"
"How am I supposed to know?" Xandra snapped, rolling her eyes at Veronique.
"Why?!"
"Because..." Teresa's voice trailed off and for the first time since they had landed on the island, Teresa sounded weak. The strength with which she carried herself seemed to disappear. "She was starting to annoy me. She was being mean."
"I was not!" Xandra turned her back to the two girls and headed towards the slowly diminishing opening of the circle of girls. She pushed and shoved her way rudely through the crowd, afterwards only to be enveloped by the green of the forest's trees.
"That was..." Veronique paused, thinking carefully of the word to use. "It was interesting." She smiled uncomfortable afterwards, realizing that many of the girls, mainly the younger ones, flatly missed her sarcasm. "I call a meeting!"
"But Starre and Xandra aren't here." A small child uttered the words, but she could not be seen because of the large amount of older and other younger girls, standing in front of her.
"Xandra needs to cool off. She needs to be alone. Starre, well..." Again Veronique had to pause, thinking of the what to say. "Where's the shell?"
"Conch?"
"Whatever. Where is it?"
"Here." A girl with blond hair, blue eyes, and orange freckles, cautiously approached Veronique. She appeared about ten. The way she seemed to be vigilantly walking made Veronique wonder why everyone was afraid of her, or at least why they all looked afraid of her.
Veronique smiled at the girl, then took the shell carefully into her hands. She looked at it for a few moments, examining its texture and color. It was amazing that something like that, something that looked so delicate and precious could produce such a loud and forceful sound when blown into.
"I'm worried." A gentle voice said. "Maybe someone should go look for Xandra and Starre." The girl who spoke was thirteen with light brown hair that was now filled with blond high lights. Her green eyes were filled with happiness, even with the current problem. The girl's name was Melody, Mel for short.
"Yea, and then that someone will get lost too."
"No one said they're lost. Starre probably fell asleep somewhere, she's too smart to get lost," Veronique supposed. She tried to make her words come out reassuringly, but instead she sounded as if she was trying to prove the words to herself more than the others. "Anyway, most of us are already here. We can start the meeting. When Starre and Xandra get back I'll talk to them. You shouldn't be worried anyway because plenty of people have gone into the forest and didn't return until the next day."
"How do you know they will come back?"
"Even if we did leave, we said where we were going and we'd go with other people!"
"Calm down, maybe Xandra and Starre are together," Veronique almost yelled over the voices of panic. "I want to start the meeting," she spoke again, still serene, "Now!" she yelled out the word, hoping to get the attention of all the remaining girls. Silence now took the place of the loud voices, for no one ever heard Veronique yell before.
"Thank you. Many of you always jump to conclusions before any are needed. I want you to remain calm, as I have said many times before. If we want to be organized we need to find out the truth first. The fire has been going well; you are doing a very good job of making sure that it stays lit. That's good; it's very good. What we need to work on is food. We need other food besides fruit. Personally, I'm tired of eating fruit, so we need hunters. Anyone up to it?" Veronique finally took a breath after she spoke the last few words, now waiting for hands to rise.
"I'll take some people out to hunt," Kassie, a short, dark skinned girl with black hair and brown eyes replied. Her hand shot up as soon as the word "hunt" was uttered.
"Ew. What will we hunt? Even if we do hunt..." Mel paused in the middle of her sentence, took a deep breath, then began again, " I'm a vegetarian."
"We'd hunt pigs. There are plenty of them," Veronique paused as well. "You should try eating the meat, if we get any, Mel. There's no other food and I know for a fact that you're just as tired of fruit as I am."
Mel shrugged, trying to make it seem that she was not opposing the idea. The thought of eating a live animal tormented her with disgust, making her bright and cheery eyes turn dark and unhappy.
"Mel, it's okay, you could-" Veronique was cut off by a shrill scream. "Let's go see who else got into a fight." She dragged the words from her tongue, saying them with sarcasm and annoyance.
Veronique waited for the other girls to pass, shaking her head at the way they ran toward the sound, as if the event would give them great pleasure beyond human capacity. Mel did the same, then joined Veronique, behind the other girls.
Once everyone reached the site, Veronique and Mel walked slowly to the front of the group, looking around themselves, trying to figure out who screamed. They were surrounded by water on their right and forest on all other sides.
"There! Someone's in the water," Mel pointed her index finger towards the water where a dark figure seemed to be swimming back to the shore. She was only a few meters out, where the water still was not very deep.
The girls all waited patiently for the figure to reach the shore and exit the water. Starre stepped onto the sand, her face flushed and her skin covered in goose bumps.
"What's the matter?" Mel asked almost as soon as Starre's foot hit the first grain of sand.
"Xandra..." Starre gasped for breath before she spoke again. "Xandra, she... She... drowned."
"How?" Veronique inquired, her voice shrill, yet frightened.
"She swam too far out. I guess she couldn't swim back. I tried to help, really I did, but I couldn't make it in time. You've got to believe me."
"I do."
"It's okay, Starre. It wasn't your fault." Mel tried to smile sympathetically at best friend.
"Do you think it was my fault?" Starre whispered to Mel.
"No." She turned onto her side, now facing Starre, laying only inches away from her.
Starre smiled. "Thank you." She was now more thankful than ever that Veronique had everyone build so many shelters. The privacy of sharing a shelter with only three other people was very comforting. The two other girls in the shelter slept like logs.
Starre and Mel both looked up, through the gaps in the ceiling, at the sky. It was filled with large, bright, glowing stars.
"I wish I was home," Mel whispered to her friend.
"Me too."
"I'm glad you decided to come on this trip. It would be horrible without you." Mel placed her hand over Starre's, afterwards smiling, smiling through the tears in her eyes.
"I wish I talked you out of this. Then we wouldn't be here."
"We'll be home soon," Mel smiled even wider now and squeezed her friend's hand.
"Promise?"
"Yes."
"Promise?" Starre asked again, now just to make sure that she had heard her friend say "yes."
"Have I ever lied to you?"
"No."
"I promise."
The words were used to reassure both girls, not only Starre. Both girls knew well enough that they would not be going home soon. It would probably be a while before either saw their homes again.
"Ronnie?" Now the small child stood in the doorway of her sister's shelter, waiting for a kind response or gentle touch.
"What?" Veronique moaned, now drifting out of sleep.
"Can I sleep in your shelter?"
"Fine."
The small girl smiled lightly, crawled into the straw house, and cuddled close beside her sister. The warmth from the other person was appreciated by both girls.
"I love you Ronnie."
"Hmmm?" Veronique's sleep was again disrupted.
"I love you sis."
"Yea, yea, I love you too, Karimah." Veronique squirmed out the words, rather uncomfortably, having never said them before.
"I miss Mom and Daddy." Karimah whispered. She ran her fingers through her long, red hair. She was disgusted with its many knots and tangles. "I want a brush."
Veronique let out a small giggle at her sister's last sentence. "So do I."
"I want to go home."
"Me too."
"When will we go home?" Karimah choked out the words. A terrible longing for home surrounded her heart.
"Soon, I promise. We'll be home soon." Veronique's eye lids began to close, as sleep began to retake control of her body.
"Really?"
"Yes, soon we'll be sleeping in our beds, with our warm, fluffy comforters, watching tv in our rooms, and stuffing ourselves with as much ice cream as we possibly can." Veronique enjoyed the thoughts, closing her eyes and imaging everything as she said the words. "Now go to sleep."
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Definition of Names
Melody- Melody (Greek)
(Mel- Sweet as honey (Portuguese, Spanish))
Kassie- Another form of Kassidy (American)
(Kassidy- Clever)
Starre- Star (English)
Karimah-Generous (Arabic)
Veronique- True image (Latin)
Xandra- A short form of Alexandra (Spanish)
(Alexandra- Defender of mankind (Greek))
Teresa- Reaper (Greek)