Me: Hello, my beautiful readers, I'm finally updating!
Danny: Fuck you and everything you stand for.
Me: You're still pissed I haven't updated in a year?
Danny: Dishonor on you, dishonor on your cow-
Me: I'll be better, I promise.
(Spoiler alert from 2017: I don't get better)
Previously:
Everyone wakes up and Sam, Danny, and Tucker decide to keep what they know about the ghost that put them here a secret. Danny says he can feel a ghost shield around the island, and although Tucker's PDA functions normally, he can't contact anyone off the island. Mr. Lancer sends his students into the forest to find food and water while the trio stays behind to actually do something productive.
First Signs of Trouble
Stranded Day 1 part 3 (final)
Believing this group of alienated teens could no longer surprise them, the audience relaxed as the tension of possible death drifted away and brought an eerie calm upon the world. Clutched fingers unraveled themselves and content sighs escaped relieved mouths.
The children were safe.
Trying to quell the urge to jump up and shout "In your face!" at Twist, people settled for running their fingers through their hair and committing other nervous habits while watching the three kids head towards the forest.
They had questions, but the kids were safe and that was all that mattered.
Back on the screen, Danny smiled and paused at the first tree where the forest met the sand. Not even bothering to look at it too closely, he leaned his palm against the bark and closed his eyes. Seconds turned into minutes but the young teen did not move.
The audience watched the situation with growing confusion.
Skipping over a passive Danny and setting her spider bag down in the sand, Sam latched onto a low hanging branch and hoisted herself up. Using agility that students from Casper High recognized from fitness week, the goth shot up the trunk of the tree, steel-toed boots propelling her to enormous heights, before coming to rest a few yards near the tip. Her small hands gripped the thinned trunk towards the top, shaking it back and forth.
With a satisfied nod, she shouted "good!" then hooked her legs around a branch and sat down.
Hearing Sam shout, Tucker moved to the tree opposite of Danny's, while still following the sand line, and began to scale the towering Palm. A few jaws dropped when the techno-geek only slipped once and managed to reach the top in record time. Who knew he was that athletic?
Mirroring Sam's actions, Tucker shook the tip of the tree, shouted downwards, and settled into a comfortable position facing Sam. With his friends both giving him the "okay," Danny's eyes shot open and he pressed both hands against the base of the tree. At first nothing happened, but then, to the surprise of the audience, the arbor holding Sam began to bend.
No ounce of struggling was evident on the raven-haired boy's face as he effortlessly moved a tree 10 times his size. As the trunk swayed to the right, the tip of the tree holding Sam began to lean towards Tucker and when the top brushed past the techno geek, he reached out and grabbed hold of it. Sam in return seized the trunk of Tucker's tree, a little way below where he was resting, and pulled the palm close.
Two shouts directed at the child on the ground and suddenly Danny backed away from the bark. Sam and Tuck, still holding onto each other's trees, were launched towards the left and swung side-to-side before coming to a complete stop. They both grunted under the weight.
Getting right to work, the two adolescents began wrapping branches and tying knots with palm-fronds and potato vines, successfully creating a triangle with the two bent trunks. Once they were sure the structure would stay, both carefully slid down the trees and fell into the sand next to Danny who stood admiring their creation.
"Tucker is athletic, Sam is agile, and Danny can bend a tree with his bare hands. What's next? They can fly and shoot lasers out of their hands?" Thoughts along those lines formed in everyone's minds as eads spun around the world.
"Perfect," Danny approved.
Sam snorted. "We did all the hard work."
The Fenton child crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, like moving a tree isn't difficult at all," he proclaimed.
"For you it isn't," Tucker teased.
Rolling his eyes, Danny walked forward and positioned himself on the tree behind the first one he had leaned on. Scaling the Palm yet again, Sam did the exact same thing as before and her and Tucker tied the trees together before moving down the line. After connecting about eight to ten solid Palm trees, Sam ripped potato vines off the sides of the surrounding bushes and shrubs and began to knot them all into one long line of 'rope'. At the same time, Danny tore large green pon-fronds encircling the canopy and tossed them to Tucker who placed them carefully on the dome they had created. Once Sam chained together enough vines, she weaved them through, under and over the green fronds the boys collected and the wall/roof of the hut was born. Many finishing touches were placed on the tree-cave once it was solid, and Sam suggested that they shove sand inside to use as a floor and set leaves around the corners.
Within the span of an hour, these three teens had created a stable, protective dome that was large enough for everyone stranded to fit comfortably in. Experts in construction and survival were baffled and everyone else watching was astonished.
Being Tucker, the lazy teen shoved some sand into a corner and then plopped down on the ground. "I am exhausted," he complained.
"Oh, no you don't," Sam said, throwing a pile of dirt into the techno geek's eyes. While Tucker screamed in exaggerated pain, she continued picking up her purple bag as she spoke, "We're not done yet and we've run out of leaves-"
"-and guess who has to go get more?" finished a very smug looking Danny.
All the trees within the vicinity had been picked clean of any susceptible pon-fronds to use so in order to get more the African-American teen would have to travel deeper into the forest. Realizing this, Tucker gulped. "Y-You wouldn't make me go in there all by myself, would you?" he stammered, fixing his glasses.
Exchanging an evil look with Danny, Sam snickered, "Aw, is the big bad techno geek scared of a little forest?" Towering over the poor boy who was still laying on the floor, the black and purple loving girl looked very intimidating. The audience almost felt sorry for the kid.
"No!" protested Tucker, trying to salvage his pride. "I just think we'd have a better chance if we went together. Yeah! I could get attacked and not be able to move or touch something poisonous if we don't!"
...
"You big baby."
"Shut up, Sam."
Danny's laugh echoed throughout the forest as the three teens walked side by side into the unknown in search of more plentiful trees and leaves. Bewildering the audience, everyone was surprised to discover that the camera did not follow the mystery trio. Instead, it zoomed in past the dome they made and gave the spectators a lovely view of rows of trees. Why was Twist showing them the forest? As if the creepy ghost could read their minds, a rustling came from the direction of the focus of the camera and a mess of blonde hair peeked out between a shrub.
Dash Baxter was not a happy person.
When Mr. Lancer had instructed everyone to split off and search for food and water, he stayed with his best friend, Kwan, and Paulina and Star tagged along with the two of them. Dash was determined to be the group that brought back the most food, but Paulina and Star kept complaining and refused to touch anything while Kwan touched everything and was fascinated by every single creature they came in contact with. Squirrels, birds, lizards, even ants!
Frustrated beyond belief and believing that he could handle things by himself, the football jock abandoned his group and decided to search on his own. It had been almost forty-five minutes since he had gone off alone and he still hadn't found anything edible. Not only that but Casper High's biggest bully had forgotten where he was and ended up lost, wondering around the endless woods aimlessly.
Stumbling through the brush, Dash squinted up at the sky through the tips of trees. It was getting dark fast so the groups were supposed to be heading back by now. Bitterly, the blonde kicked the nearest tree out of anger and shouted from the pain it brought. Everyone else was probably already back by now and they were all laughing at him for getting lost.
"No!" cried Dash, racing in a random direction. "It won't become like that again."
Confused by what the jock meant, some of the audience couldn't help but let out startled laughs when the out-of-breath teen tumbled over the forest line and face planted into the sand. Screaming angrily into the ground, Dash jumped to his feet and shook the dirt from his ripped clothes and hair, but stopped when he realized what he had landed in. Sand meant that he was back at the beach, back where they started, and where he was supposed to be.
"Ha-ha, yes! Nothing stands in the way of the great Dash Bax...ter..."
Finally turning around, the teen trailed off at the sight of the huge cave resting in the sand. "What the? That wasn't there before," he observed, gingerly circling the hut that had 'magically appeared.' Scratching his head like an ape, the blonde poked the structure. When it didn't poof out of existence or fall over, he walked inside.
Immediately after Dash disappeared into the cave, the camera swooped down the forest line–a good mile away from the trio and the jock's general location–and sneaked up on a group of teens making their way back to where they started. A tall, handsome boy in ragged clothes, a beautiful girl with messed up amber hair, a Hispanic Latino with once perfect skin, a girl who strangely resembled the Hispanic child, a muscly Korean boy in a ripped football jersey, and an attractive blonde girl with frizzed hair and scraped skin all trekked through the sand.
Zooming in on them, the camera finally picked up their audio.
"I would kill for some bobby pins right now," Paulina groaned, annoyed when yet another piece of her hair well into her eyes. The blonde walking next to her nodded in distress as she eyed the rats nest upon her own head.
"Me too. We have the absolute worst luck getting stranded. It's like everything bad always happens to us," Star grumbled, scratching at the makeshift bandages wrapped around her knee.
"Not to mention the fact Dash left," muttered Kwan, still upset at his best friend.
Paulina nodded. "But we got lucky finding those guys," she replied tilting her head backwards towards the other children. "Thanks to them we got lots of um... food?" Looking down at the strange colored objects bundled in each of their arms, the three of them frowned.
"I was expecting to find some coconuts or something so this is just pathetic," Paulina muttered.
"Not our fault," Kwan pointed out, "these weird mushroom things were the only edible food within a ten-mile radius of the beach. There were so many of them so we can keep going back for more when we run out."
Paulina nodded with a smirk, adjusting the bandages on her head. "I bet we found the most food out of the other groups," she snickered, shifting her arms to hold onto the mini shrooms easier. "Dash will definitely regret leaving us when he sees what we got."
"Personally, I hope Dash fell into a hole. That'll teach him," Star added, bitterly.
Kwan fidgeted, very uncomfortable with the two girls talking about his closest friend in such a manner. "I'm sure he had a good reason for abandoning us," he defended.
"Ha!" laughed Paulina. She glanced back at the kids also carrying large quantities of mushrooms in their arms. "Come on, you guys. Hurry up!" she yelled to them.
Following Paulina's line of sight, the camera zoomed over to the handsome boy, the Paulina clone, and the gorgeous girl shadowing Star, Kwan, and Paulina. The teenager with amber hair looked bored, the boy looked indifferent, staring off at the clouds, and the last girl had a silly smile on her face.
"So," began Megan, the girl holding up the end of the group. "What are your guys' names? I mean, I see you both all the time around school, but I never really talk to you! Which is kind of weird since we're all cool and stuff-"
"Do you ever shut up?" Amber groaned.
Meagan's smile slipped for a moment but she quickly recovered and grinned at the beautiful girl next to her. "Oh, um, I guess I do talk a lot, but this is sort of the first time I've spoken to you since we all met up at the mushroom... field..." she trailed off when Amber turned to glare at her through dark brown eyes.
"Get this through your thick skull right now: I don't like you, okay?" the taller female said, bluntly. "It's nothing personal, I just find you annoying."
The shuffling of Meagan's feet came to a halt as her face looked downcast. The audience was not happy with this treatment. The poor kid was just trying to be friendly!
Racing to catch up with Chris and Amber again, Meagan grinned at the girl. "Okay, I guess you're not the talking type. Don't worry, I'll be so quiet you won't even notice I'm here," she replied cheerfully, still willing to at least attempt to be friends with the older girl.
"Hmmm," Amber hummed as she continued following Star, Kwan, and Paulina.
Chris sighed and muttered, "Women."
Panning out, the camera took in the whole group as they stopped to gape at the large structure on the forest line. Even the silent Chris and stoic Amber seemed surprised when they stood next to the three children in front who had frozen at the sight.
Paulina took a hesitant step forward. Green eyes smeared with a bit of mascara openly gaped at the well-built tree fort dominating the landscape. Questions burned in the back of the six teens minds but none of them seemed brave enough to voice them out loud.
Meanwhile, everyone's least favorite blonde, who was previously poking around the trio's dome, emerged from the entrance and caught sight of his mesmerized 'friends'. Zoning in on the piles of weirdly colored mushrooms bundled in their arms, Dash began to sweat uncontrollably.
"Shit," he muttered, "they found food and I have nothing."
Acknowledging the fact that there was no escaping the inevitable, Dash cringed and prepared for Paulina's taunting. Silence drifted through the air and the jock shifted in the sand uncomfortably. Opening one eye, he yelped in surprise. The six teens were a lot closer to him than before and kept whipping their heads back and forth between Dash and the house looming over him. Why were they giving him such astonished looks?
"Jeez," the Hispanic beauty said, shaking her head, "and here I thought you left us to go off by yourself and hog all the food, but this is amazing!"
Paulina brushed past the stunned jock and raced into the cave. Dash eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "What?" he asked.
Star raced in after Paulina and threw her arms into the air, dropping the mushrooms in the process. "This cave! I mean, I always knew you were strong, but to bend trees in order to make shelter? That's pretty neat," the blonde girl squealed, running her hands over the soft sand laid out across the ground. Chris nodded at the well sown walls while Meagan, Amber, and Kwan surveyed the roof, leaving Dash to stand awkwardly at the entrance.
The audience did not like where this was going.
Dash finally seemed to catch on to what they were implying and gasped, "Oh." He bit his lip, almost as if he was considering lying or not, but one look at the impressed expressions on the other kids' faces had Dash pushing out his chest in confidence. "That's right, I did all this. Me. Dash Baxter!" he announced.
The Hispanic girl jumped into the Jocks unsuspecting arms. "I like a man who can pull his own weight," she swooned.
"Uh y-yeah," was Dash's intelligent response.
A slight ripping sound gathered the teen's attention. Chris tore a rather large leaf off of the wall near the ground and flattened in onto a pile of sand in the corner. He then began to smooth out any wrinkles, and placed the mushrooms in his arms and the ones discarded on the floor on the handmade table.
Meagan grinned enthusiastically. "Oooooooo! What a great idea!" she said, following his example. Soon Amber followed and casually tossed hers, causing many to miss their intended target and hit the sand for Meagan to clean up. One by one, the children piled their findings into a leaf basket that began to round out and sink into the sand. Not all that protective, but it was the best they had at the moment.
Nearly a few seconds before Meagan had finished gathering the fallen mushrooms, more teens and a slightly worn out teacher arrived. Gasps of awe and wonder came from outside at the sight of the cave.
"Great Gatsby, who did this?!" Lancer voiced, standing amongst more shocked students outside the cave.
Paulina turned to the crowd at the door. Upon noticing that the only food anyone had found were the same mushrooms her group brought back, she grimaced. Smiling, the teenager then remembered the edge her group had above everybody else.
Paulina latched onto Dash's arm. "Our brave, strong leader, Dashie, sent us off to collect food while he came back here to make shelter for everyone. It was hard work and took forever, but he eventually finished a decent looking house and we came back to help with the finishing touches!" she explained.
Lancer looked astounded. "Mr. Baxter, you did all of this?" he asked.
Hesitating for only a single second, Dash nodded.
"When we get back, I'm adding ten points extra to your end of the year exam grade."
Dash's mouth dropped open after Lancer's statement and many classmates cheered in congratulations, obviously agreeing with the teacher's decision. Much to audience's disgust, the blonde jock looked perfectly content and grinned wildly at all the praise he was receiving.
As the curious teens searched the cave and dropped mushrooms into the little hole in the corner, a few children stood in a small group near the entrance.
Kim was the first to speak. "That jerk couldn't have made this," she growled, teeth clenched. "He's completely incapable of doing anything on his own and wouldn't be smart enough, or strong enough, to make something like this."
The other kids nodded in agreement. "There is no way some stuck-up, skinnyfied boy bent those trees. He may be muscular, but that man needs some serious meat on his bones if he expects us to believe him," observed a rather chubby looking boy with wild blonde hair.
The last two kids shifted to push their glasses higher up their nose. Both were redheads, but the girl had an injured hand while the boy seemed unharmed.
"I agree with Devon," inquired Mikey, speaking with confidence that only a few selective people had ever heard. "Dash may be strong, but it is physically impossible for him to have bent such a large object."
Alicia looked shyly over at her brother. "B-but if Dash didn't, then who did?" she whispered.
The innocent statement made them pause. According to their knowledge, Dash was the strongest person here. Unless someone was hiding something big, he was the only one who could have done this. The four teens relented, having no proof that Dash was lying, and walked inside to place their mushrooms on the pile.
A shuffle was suddenly heard from the bushes to the left and the camera quickly focused on the eyes watching from the corner. Tucker, Sam, and Danny had come back from their supply trip into the forest, hands full with fresh vines and palm leaves, only to discover that one of their classmates had found the masterpiece they made and took complete credit for it.
Sam was livid. Her expression was one of pure rage that promised oh-so-sweet revenge and a painful death. The devil himself twitched from her massive aura of murder and killing intent.
Tucker's eyes were wide. He looked nothing but surprised. "I just can't believe he would actually do something like this," he marveled.
"Really?" Sam laughed, "because I can!" Her nails dug deep into her palms.
Danny looked distraught. He sighed, running his fingers through his hair. "I honestly expected more from Dash," he stated. "I'm disappointed."
Sam's rage seemed to distinguish after Danny's statement and she looked at her feet. "Yeah, me too," she sighed, crossing her arms.
"Same here," Tucker agreed.
"So, what are we going to do?" Sam asked.
Danny shrugged. "It's not like we were planning on taking credit anyways."
"It would have given too much away," Tucker said, nodding.
"Exactly."
The goth growled and turned to look at the cave. From their viewpoint, the three of them couldn't see inside, but the shuffling and laughter was enough for them to know that everyone was still there. "So, we're just supposed to go in there and act like we didn't make it and praise Dash for his wonderful contribution to the classes survival?" Sam summarized, bitterly.
"I know you like fairness, Sam, but these are the battles we have to lose to win the war."
Sam rolled her eyes and responded with, "I hate you and your stupid maturity. You sound like Jazz. Can we please go back to when the two of you would make fart jokes and drool over girls?"
Tucker and Danny shared a grin. "Do you want us to make a fart joke?"
Sam blanked. "If one of you lets one loose right now, I'm sending you over a cliff."
Danny laughed, gazing at her with a fond expression. Tucker smirked and opened his mouth.
"One word about us being 'lovebirds' and I will personally see to it that you lose the ability to reproduce," Sam deadpanned. Tucker's mouth snapped shut so fast you could hear his teeth rub against each other.
The trio got up and came to a stop at the entrance of the cave they made. It was getting dark, but the moon was also coming out so there was still enough light to illuminate the beach. Mr. Lancer paused his role-call when he noticed the last three teens in his class heading this way.
"Pushing it a little late there, aren't we?" he drawled, raising an eyebrow at the three.
Danny rubbed the back of his head in fake guilt and turned to glance at the faint glow in the sky. "Sorry, Mr. Lancer. We got lost," he explained.
Lancer turned an exasperated look upon the children. "You three are hopeless" he muttered, slightly joking but still managing to frustrate the three kids he had addressed.
Danny brushed past the English teacher, Sam and Tuck following close behind. Inside, teens were thrown about everywhere within the medium sized shelter. Groups of kids huddled into corners near the walls and as far away from the entrance as they could go. No one really noticed the new arrivals at first, but when Paulina looked up by chance and noticed that they didn't have any food with them, she frowned.
Danny was leading his friends to a secluded sand spot in the back when a Hispanic beauty suddenly blocked their way. Annoyed, Danny put his hands in his pockets. "What do you want, Paulina?" he asked.
The young girl in question frowned deeper. She used to have everyone in the whole school of Casper High wrapped around her finger. Hearing Danny's nonchalant tone seemed to upset her dearly. Who does he think he is?
"Well, where's your food?" she questioned, loudly.
All talking ceased when the students heard Paulina's accusing voice.
Danny bit his lip and clenched the fists that were in his pockets. "We didn't find any," he replied.
Paulina gasped dramatically waving her cut arms around the cave. "You didn't bring anything back for the group at all!? If I recall, Mr. Lancer asked us to split up and find food or water so we could store it away in order to survive, but you three didn't do anything to ensure that we live until rescue comes?"
The look on Danny's face made the audience believe that he wanted so badly to snap some sarcastic remark back at the smug brat, but he just stood his ground. "No."
Paulina shook her head while clicking her tongue, "Tsk tsk tsk. Now that just won't do. You see, Dash worked sooooo hard to put together this amazing home for us, but only people who brought back food are allowed to stay in it."
Hearing his name, the jock stood up next to Paulina and smirked.
"Why you little–" hissed Sam.
Tucker kicked her in the shin to shut her up, realizing their place in this matter and preventing Sam from saying something she might regret.
Danny turned his eyes upon Dash who shuddered. Why did Fenton look so disappointed in him? And why did that look make Dash want to crawl in a hole? "We have just as much right to be here as you," Danny replied, looking Dash straight in the eyes.
The students watching remained quiet. A few frowned at the fact the trio didn't bring back anything–everyone else had found at least a handful of mushrooms–but they still didn't think they deserved such rough treatment.
In the background, a teen stood up. She had dark skin and was very beautiful with lots of curves and wavy hair. Valerie Grey looked furiously upon Paulina and Dash and began to walk towards the blue-eyed boy she used to have a crush on in order to defend him. Suddenly, she caught sight of something behind the trio and hesitantly sat down again.
Paulina gritted her teeth at the lack of reaction from the smaller teen. "No, actually since Dash made this–" she began.
"Paulina stop this nonsense right now," Mr. Lancer interrupted, having heard enough of the petty argument.
Lancer calmly stepped over the heap of students sprawled out on the floor and rested a large hand on Danny's shoulder. "It doesn't matter if they didn't find anything. It's dark, it's late, and we already have enough food for tomorrow," he smiled motioning towards the hole in the ground that seemed to contain some weird sort of vegetable as far as the trio could tell. "What were you implying? That we should throw them out and let Daniel, Samantha, and Tucker sleep unprotected on the beach?"
Sam's grunt of "It's Sam" was ignored
Paulina crossed her arms. "We all would have been sleeping outside unprotected if Dash hadn't been smart enough to make shelter," she snapped.
The English teacher winced, knowing that it would have been his fault because he suggested they search for food first. "Yes, I realize that, Miss Sanchez. Dash's quick thinking and incredible strength allowed all of us to be able to sleep soundly tonight, but that doesn't mean that we should punish people who were unable to find food," he tried to reason with his senior student.
Paulina grumbled, but backed down respectively and dragged Dash back to the A-list group they had formed in a corner. Mr. Lancer nodded and shook Danny's shoulders. "Don't be disappointed, Daniel. I'm sure you'll find some way to contribute to everyone tomorrow," he reassured.
Forcing a grimace down and letting his bangs shadow his face, the Fenton child nodded and continued walking to a secluded corner. The three relaxed into the cool sand of the house they built, and laid down next to each other: Tucker in the middle–since he was the largest–with Danny's face pressed against his chest and Sam using his stomach as a pillow.
Mentally and physically exhausted, the mystery trio of the world didn't even hear Mr. Lancer's loud announcement for everyone to "quiet down and get some rest."
They were already asleep.
A/N: Yikes.
Q & A:
Danny is OOC!
He's a senior and almost eighteen. I don't know about you guys, but I went through the biggest 180 during my junior year personality wise. Basically, he grew up. (Sam and Tucker did too as Sam is no longer weirdly sexist towards girls who like dressing up and wearing pink and Tucker isn't a misogynist.)
Edited: December 27, 2015
Edited: September 11, 2017 (Still in a hurricane. I don't have power. Fuck you, Irma)
