Disclaimer: All the usual disclaimers apply here. I don't own the characters. Never have, never will, and have never claimed to. I am just borrowing some great characters for my own twisted enjoyment.
Author's note: I am looking for someone that is very knowledgeable about Higher Ground and willing to check my fanfics for facts as well as someone I can bounce ideas off of for future fan fics. If you are interested, please email me at SwtMelodie@aol.com.
And without any further adieu, here is the latest installment. Enjoy and please leave a review, either positive or negative. I know you felt something when you read it.
"Hey Soph," Peter called when he finally found her in the main lodge cleaning up. He then snuck up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "How are things going?"
"Not too bad, how about you?" She responded before turning around to face her mountain man.
"Scott's having a difficult time. Has he or any of the other Cliffhangers said anything to you about his return?"
"Nope, but I did get the impression from Juliet that things weren't going too well."
"What did she say," he wondered hoping to find that one piece of information that would prove useful in reuniting this group.
"It's not what she said as much as the way she said it, or rather the way she was acting. She alluded to the fact that certain members of the group were dealing with trust issues as far as Scott is concerned."
"I think this is going to be more difficult then I first imagined," he said sitting on the edge of the couch and pulling her close.
"I've never known you to give up on a challenge Peter. You have conquered things far bigger then this and if anyone can get them all back on the same page it's going to be you."
"Thanks for that vote of confidence. So what do you say we get out of this place early? Jeff can hold down the fort for us."
Glancing down at her watch and then back up at him, she said, "Peter. It's only six o'clock and I was hoping to get in a group session tonight to discuss Scott's return."
"Maybe it would be best if we wait till morning though." He suggested.
"But Peter, we always have group the night a new student joins the group. Why are we treating this any differently?"
"Because it is different Soph. Scott has a history with these people and vice versa. They are all on the edge emotionally because of this return and I don't want them to say things they might regret. Scott has already expressed an interest in changing groups and I don't want them to feed that incentive to leave just yet. I think that if we give them the night to sleep on things we will get a more accurate reading on where everyone stands and perhaps their reactions will change."
"Whatever you say. You're the boss." She said before leaning in to kiss him. "So, is it your place or mine?"
"Speaking of that. When are you going to give up your trailer?"
"I just like to have a place I can call my own, that's all."
"Come on Soph. Make the commitment. Move in with me. We spend almost every night at my place, which is really our place and we are getting married after all."
"Can we go now?"
"Fine, but this conversation isn't over."
"OK," she said kissing him once again.
Before Peter and Sophie left for the evening they decided to check out the dining hall to make sure everyone was still alive. When they arrived they found the Cliffhangers scattered all over the cafeteria, but what disturbed them more then anything was that Shelby was nowhere to be found again and Scott was sitting by himself still being shut out by the Cliffhangers. Walking over to the table where Juliet and Daisy were sitting, Peter asked about Shelby's whereabouts only to find that she stayed back in the dorms again. He had now officially become fed up with her thinking that she could operate on her schedule and not deal with the consequences of how it affected others in the group and turned towards the girls one last time and said, "OK ladies. You know how it works around here. If one of you stays down, you are all down. Now get your dinner and head back to the bunks." He said before turning and heading towards the other end of the cafeteria to speak to the boys. "Oh, and ladies, get something for Shelby."
"You didn't make us do this the other day when she refused to come for dinner. Why do we have to this time?"
"Because Juliet. I made the exception last time because Shelby was hit hard by the news that Scott was coming back. She needed to be alone. Now she needs you guys, so go!" He said and this time he continued walking not giving either girl another moment to protest. While he heard mumbling and groaning behind him he continued with the next item on his agenda: assigning the Cliffhangers boys kitchens before sending them to the dorms for the rest of the evening as well. "Gentlemen," Peter said when he found himself in the middle of where they had all split up, "I want you to finish up dinner and evening chores and then it is to the dorms for the rest of the night for you as well. You've got an hour and Jeff will be checking in on you to make sure you are there so no funny business. If one of you isn't in the dorm in one hour then you will all be spending the next week on room restrictions." Peter was gone before anyone could protest.
"This bites," Daisy said as she and Juliet walked up the front steps to the dorm. "You just want to sit out here for awhile instead?"
"Yeah, but let's wait until after Peter and Sophie come and do a cabin check as you know they will. It's like they don't trust us to make it back on our own."
"I know. When did we ever give them the impression we were untrustworthy?" Daisy said with a giggle before pulling open the door and walking in. She then walked within five feet of Shelby's bed and tossed a brown paper bag at her. "Dinner is served."
"Thanks. Now why don't you get lost?"
"No can do. Peter seems to think we don't get enough quality time as it is so we are stuck here with you as long as you continue this poor me pity party of yours. But we really should thank you because at least we got out of kitchens tonight."
"Whatever," Shelby said from her position on the bed.
"Suck it up Shelby. Scott's back. Deal with it." Juliet said, finally having enough.
"I don't remember asking for your opinion on anything, princess."
"Yeah, well I'm offering it anyway. Your actions are now starting to effect the rest of us. If I am stuck here all day tomorrow because of you, I am going to be so mad."
"And just what are you going to do to me princess?" Shelby asked in her usual sarcastic tone. It took a confrontation from Juliet to get Shelby to temporarily snap out of her funk. "Besides, we both know you aren't looking forward to tomorrow. You hate to sweat."
"Yeah, but it's a nature hike with Jeff and we don't get many opportunities like this. It's always Peter and Sophie watching us like hawks so Auggie and I have been planning this for days."
"Little Miss Goody To-Shoes is planning to sneak off? I'm impressed."
"Yeah? Then don't go and ruin it by being your typical mean self."
"Come on Jules," Daisy said pulling her by the arm and leading her outside. "Don't get yourself all worked up."
Back in the dining hall, Auggie was moping the floor as quickly as he could. He knew their hour deadline was fast approaching and tomorrow was far too important to him to jeopardize by not meeting Peter's deadline and being back in the dorms when he said so. The thought of leaving everyone back here in order for him to make it back had crossed his mind numerous times, but the words of Peter rang through his head. If you aren't all back then you are all on room restriction. All of us. "You guys almost done?" He called back into the kitchen.
"Yeah," he heard in a chorus of replies.
"Good. We have eight minutes to finish up and get back to the dorms. Hurry up."
"What's the rush man?" David asked coming out from the kitchen.
"We can't be late tonight and run the risk of Peter being mad. Jeff will tell on us in an instant and I can't be on room restriction tomorrow. I got plans with Juliet tomorrow during the hike and being stuck in the dorm with you guys isn't part of them."
"What kind of plans?" Ezra asked joining David and Auggie in the main dining hall.
"It's mine and Jules anniversary tomorrow and we were going to have some alone time during Jeff's nature hike."
"You the man, Augg." Ezra said. "I think this place is clean enough that you could eat off the floor. Let's get out of here."
Hearing Auggie and Juliet's plans made Scott angry. He wanted to be planning secret rendezvous with Shelby. He wanted to have anniversaries with her. He wanted to hold her hand and tell her how much he loved her. For once he wanted what Auggie has. He was so consumed by these thoughts on the walk back to the dorm that he did not see when the others took off running towards the dorms. As he got closer he heard them hollering at him to run and he looked up to see Jeff standing there with a watch. "Ten seconds Scott."
"Run Meat," Auggie encouraged and before he knew it, something inside of him kicked in gear and he starting running faster then he thought he could ever go. When he made it up the steps he was out of breath and panting hard.
"I hope that this is the last I see of you gentlemen tonight." Jeff said before heading down the steps.
"Did I make it?" Scott asked in between breaths.
Jeff continued walking not letting them in on whether he made it or not.
The next morning found Shelby back in the same bad mood that had plagued her the previous few days. As a result Juliet and Daisy were none too happy. Across the way, the male Cliffhangers were in an equally bad mood towards Scott when the go up and found a note informing them that they were cabin bound today based on the fact that they were out past curfew last night. The cabin restrictions lasted until late afternoon when Peter decided it was time for everyone to hash out their feelings for one another and have the group session that he had talked Sophie out of last night. Peter allowed Sophie to run group as she would have any other time, but he also insisted on sitting in.
By four o'clock, the Cliffhangers began to drift in. First came Auggie and David, closely followed by Scott and Ezra. The girls came in shortly thereafter and took the remaining seats in the circle. Shelby, being the last one to enter the lodge was left with one of the seats by Scott. She sat herself in the seat but positioned herself so that she was sitting as far away from him as possible. "Glad we could all make it," Sophie said even though she know not one of these people sitting in front of her right now had the guts to skip group. They were all well aware that their presence was mandatory. "As I know you are well aware by now, Scott has rejoined our group, but I can see that we have not all welcomed him back with open arms. How has his return made you guys feel?" Everyone just sat there, silently fidgeting in his or her seats. "If no one is going to volunteer to start, I am just going to start picking on people. We will all have an opportunity to say something. There is no hiding here." Sophie said trying to inspire someone to go first.
"I'll go first," Juliet said raising her hand.
"Thank you Juliet. When I first heard Scott was coming back, I felt…"
Taking her cue from Sophie, Juliet said, "when I first heard Scott was coming back I felt scared."
"Would you care to elaborate on that," Sophie asked. "And please direct your feeling towards Scott.
Shifting in her seat so that she was now facing Scott, Juliet started again. "I was scared when I heard you were coming back. Scared for you. Scared for us. Scared for me. I was scared at what might have happened to you when you got back home. I know for you to decide to come back, it had to be something pretty bad. Did your stepmom do something to you again? Did you turn towards drugs again? Was the pressure to succeed too much? I had all these questions that still have no answers so I was scared. I was scared at what it meant for this group. How would your coming back effect the group dynamics again. What I was most scared of though was that your coming back meant that there was something out there in the real world that you could not handle and what hope does that give the rest of us? You were always the strongest and if you could not make it, then how am I supposed to?" Juliet then broke down in tears. What no one really knew though was that was her greatest fear in life, that she would never be able to handle the pressures in the real world again. She was always going to need help. To rely on someone to help her get through the day. Auggie reached his hand over to where Juliet was sitting and gave her hand a squeeze as a sign of support.
"Auggie, it's you turn." Sophie said trying to bring order back to the group.
"I think he already knows how I feel about his return," Auggie said before turning his attention back to Juliet who was finally starting to regain her composure.
"That's good, but now you need to share it with the group."
"I was shocked, then I was mad. Are you happy, I shared."
"Is that all?"
"Yeah!"
A simple look in Daisy's direction let her know that she was next in line. "I have to agree with Juliet in that I was scared, but not so much for him or myself," she started before being cut off by Sophie.
"Please direct this towards Scott. Speak to him directly."
"OK," she said turning towards Scott. "I wasn't scared for you or me as such as I was scared for Shelby because I didn't know how she was going to handle your return. I remember how she was when you left last time. I was the one that had to pick up the pieces and I didn't think she could take that kind of pain again if you decided to pick up and leave again just like that."
"Thank you Daisy. David, would you care to go next?"
"Sure. When I first heard you were coming back, I was relieved."
"Relieved?" Scott asked shocked by that reaction.
"Yeah man. I was relieved. Odds are only one out of four of us is going to be able to readjust to life on the outside again and when you came back, my odds instantly got so much better, so thanks man for being a failure."
"That's enough David," Peter said from his position in the back of the lodge. "Reactions like that will not be tolerated."
"But that's how I feel and isn't that what this place is all about, feeling?"
"Not at someone else's expense it's not."
"Just what's wrong with him sharing his feelings Peter?"
"Because Auggie, that's not a productive way to go about things and you should know that by now. Besides, I don't remember you sharing too much so you aren't in a position to be talking about other people and what they share," Peter said in an effort to push Auggie into revealing where his anger lied.
"You want me to talk about my feeling, fine, I'll talk about my feelings. Life around here was finally starting to get back to normal and he comes back to mess things up again. Nobody is happy to see him back."
"I am," David piped in.
"Shut your mouth fool," Auggie responded, "or I'll shut it for you."
"You don't have to be so mean to him, or to Scott, Auggie." Juliet said trying to calm him down.
"Don't defend them Jules."
"Don't yell at me!"
"Then stay out of this." This led Auggie to start yelling at Juliet and before Peter and Sophie could say anything, there was full-fledged yelling going on behind them. Emotions that had been built up for the past few days boiled over and everyone was yelling at each other, but Peter and Sophie were unable to pinpoint the exact cause.
Walking over to where Peter was still sitting, Sophie asked, "what are we going to do with them?" as the screaming continued to escalate behind them.
Putting two fingers in his mouth, Peter blew as loud as he could and successfully got everyone to be quiet and had their attention. The shouting that had been going on moments earlier was proceeded by a deafening silence. "OK Cliffhangers, now that I have your attention I want you all packed and in the lodge in 20 minutes."
"Where are we going?" Juliet whines.
"On an overnight. Now those that aren't in the lodge and ready to go will go without their packs and will be on shuns for the next month, no talking to anyone, chores, and isolation from everything. Got it?" Peter demanded no longer able to control his frustration with the group.
Everyone stood there silently looking at each other, unable to find the words.
"What are we all still standing around for? GO!"
As they began walking away there was a chorus of "This isn't fair," and "This is all your fault."
"So, just what do you have in mind for them?" Sophie asked.
"I'm not too sure yet, but this fighting has got to stop. You know I could sure use your help. Are you up for an overnight?"
"You know me, I'm always up for an adventure."