Disclaimer: I do not own anything Higher Ground-related (not the show or characters). Only Janey is my creation.
Janey huddled under a tree in the forest. She couldn't do it. She just couldn't. She felt her tears coming. Blinking angrily, she leaned against the tree, hating herself. She had promised herself that she would be able to handle this school. She'd handled her life before, right? But this school was something altogether different: more confrontational. She took a deep, shaky breath.
"Janey!" Peter's voice. She stood up and stumbled away from the transparent safety of the tree.
He heard her running through the forest and picked up speed. She couldn't get too far.
Janey hadn't paced herself. She ran at a breakneck speed for too long, feeling her muscles ache, before growing almost numb. Concentrating on running, not hitting things in the dark, and not tripping grew harder and harder. Her breathing became ragged and forced. Her toe hit a tree root and she toppled, landing hard on the ground.
She was silent, controlling her breathing, choking back her tears. They couldn't find her. She couldn't go back and face the people at the school. She just couldn't. It was too hard. Too much.
Thinking those thoughts propelled her up to her feet and gave her enough fuel to start running again. But her momentary physical lapse had given Peter some headway, and within fifteen seconds, he tackled her, bringing her back down to the ground, forcing her hands behind her back.
Peter had tackled very few students in his career, and only when the occasion demanded it for the safety of a student. Janey could be violent, angry, or even high. She was definitely desperate. It still made him feel sick to his stomach as he helped Janey up, holding her arms behind her back. Looking at her downcast face, he saw that his tackle had knocked not only the wind out of her, but also tears.
"Janey…"
She looked up, her eyes flashing furiously. "Just let me go. I don't belong here."
"You're here because your life spun out of control," Peter said soothingly. "We just wanna put you on the right track."
"I don't need your help. I don't want your help."
"Come on," Peter said, lifting her up.
"No," Janey insisted stubbornly. She pulled away from him, and Peter quickly caught her arm tightly.
"You don't have a choice. The courts did a good thing when they sent you here. Please make the best out of it. The sooner you let us help you, the sooner you can leave."
She shook her head in denial, but did not put up too much resistance as he started walking back toward the campus, toting her by the arm.
Halfway back, she started pulling backwards, unwilling to go forward. Peter stopped, exasperated.
"Janey, you have two choices. Pick up the pace, or I'll carry you. We're going back."
"Peter." This was said pleadingly, and had Peter not been so enraged with her, he would have frozen. "Please."
But Peter was fuming. By all rights, he could have this kid kicked out of Horizon. She had kicked his wife, as well as another student, gotten in a physical fight, and verbally abused several people. Still, the knowledge that juvenal hall was the only other option kept him from deciding to do that right then and there. Instead, he lifted Janey up into the fireman's carry, and walked swiftly to the campus, ignoring her cries of protest.
Sophie had heard them approaching and stood at the edge of campus. Peter crossed the grass to where she stood and put Janey down onto her own feet.
She gave him an indignant look and glared at Sophie.
"You got something to say to Soph?" Peter asked, his face dark.
"Sorry I kicked you," Janey spat out.
"Now," Peter said, ignoring her tone. "You gonna walk to your cabin, or you need some help?"
Janey did not want to face the embarrassment of walking into her cabin, seeing the looks the other girls were sure to met out. The one and only thing that would make it worse would be if she had to be dragged in by Peter.
"Peter…" Sophie said, and he looked at her, his face slowly relaxing. She had that effect on him. He nodded. Janey kicked at the ground.
"Come on, then, Janey," Peter said in a more controlled voice. He took her arm firmly, not quite trusting her, and led her toward the Cliffhanger girls' dorm.
It took them all of three or four minutes to get over there, and they did not even look at each other, much less talk. At the door, Peter knocked, not wanting to barge in on a room of changing girls.
"We're decent!" he heard Daisy yell. He shook his head. Only Daisy.
Inside, all three girls were wearing their pajamas. Shelby and Juliette were sprawled out on their beds, Juliette writing a letter and Shelby reading The Scarlet Letter for English class. Daisy was sitting cross-legged on her bed with her tarot cards, rescued from the trash by Ezra, and was reading them.
"Ah, it's you," Daisy said, looking up at Janey, whose arm was still held securely by Peter. "I was just reading your cards."
Peter let go of Janey, who slipped away and sat on her bed, her knees drawn up to her chest, looking fearfully at Peter.
"Dais', this might not be the time," Peter said quietly.
Daisy blundered on. "It might be important, Peter. The cards say she has a secret. One of great importance."
"Confiscate the cards," Shelby groaned teasingly to Peter. "She's done nothing but read them all night."
It was only then that Peter realized how late it was. It had taken some time to find Janey, and then to get her back.
"Lights out, girls," he said. "Let me just talk to Janey for a second."
The other three seemed to have something greatly important to do in the bathroom, and disappeared. Peter went to Janey's bed and sat on the edge.
"You gonna be okay, kiddo?"
She didn't answer for a second. Then she looked at his worried face. "Please don't leave me here. Not with them. Not with her."
"With who, Janey?" Peter's forehead creased.
"Her…please, Peter." She searched his face pleadingly.
"Janey, look, we can talk in the morning. We'll get this figured out. I'll help you, I promise. But in the morning, when we can all think straight."
"I can't sleep here. Not with all them."
"Janey—" He sighed. "—why not?
"I can't."
Peter turned away, rubbing his face tiredly. "Go to bed now, Janey. Nobody in this cabin will hurt you, because they know that if they did, they'd feel the wrath of both me and Sophie. We'll talk in the morning."
She nodded distractedly. Peter started to leave, catching hold of Juliette as she came out of the bathroom.
"Keep an eye on here, eh, Jules?"
Juliette nodded. Peter smiled gratefully at her and left.
The morning came with clouds, typical of the northwest autumn weather. The Cliffhangers sat down to breakfast, minus Scott, Juliette, and Janey, and began to eat.
Juliette approached Janey's table, and sat down, not giving the younger girl a chance to dismiss her.
"Good morning, Janey," Juliette said carefully. Janey was silent. The events of the night before had caught up to her, and she was embarrassed about flipping out, running to the woods, and crying to Peter about her roommate situation.
Pushing the food around on her plate, not really wanting to eat, Juliette tried another tactic.
"Pretty nasty food, huh?" She gestured at her oatmeal with her spoon.
"Nastier after it's been barfed up," Janey said in a tight, controlled voice, not looking up. That one hurt Juliette, who struggled to keep a smile on her face. How could Janey have figured out her one weakness? Her secret problem?
"I guess," Juliette said softly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Scott join the other Cliffhangers, finished with his stint of K.P. for the meal. He frowned in their general direction, then turned his back on them. Juliette looked back at Janey, who was watching the Cliffhanger table.
"Want to go sit with them?" Juliette asked. Janey shook her head vehemently. "Why not?" A shrug. "Okay." There was a long pause. Juliette forced herself to eat a few bites of oatmeal. "You run last night?"
Janey stared at her suspiciously. "Why do you care? Don't you all want me gone?"
Glancing back at the other Cliffhangers, Juliette sighed. "Maybe it feels that way right now, but they're really a nice group of people once you get to know them."
"All sunshine," Janey agreed sarcastically.
Juliette sighed again and force-fed herself three bites of oatmeal. She wished she had just sat with her friends. Then she got a hold of herself. Janey was new. She was scared. Of course Juliette should be there to help her through it.
Across the room, the rest of the Cliffhangers ate their oatmeal. David's bowl contained more raisons than oatmeal however, and Daisy was teasing him about it.
"Have some oatmeal with your raisons," she said, straight faced. David took some of the raisons out and dumped them into her bowl. She made a face. "Gross. They look like dead bugs."
"Rodent excrement," Ezra offered, not about to be left out of a conversation involving Daisy.
"Sick, E-Z," Auggie exclaimed.
Scott and Shelby had their chairs pushed back a bit from the group and were talking quietly. Shelby had picked at her oatmeal slightly more successfully than Juliette, and Scott had finished his bowl completely as well as part of Shelby's. No one could hear what they were saying, but Shelby was smiling coyly and brushing Scott's arm lightly with her fingertips.
"Somebody get them a room!" Auggie said loudly, causing them both to jump, and the rest of the Cliffhangers to laugh. Shelby swept the room with her eyes, and upon seeing no counselors, leaned her head against Scott's shoulder.
Daisy half-smiled at them thoughtfully. "True love. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Shelby smiled back at her best friend and gently touched Scott on the nose. Then she sat up and choked down what Scott had left of her oatmeal. Feeling the eyes of David, Ezra, and Auggie on her, she looked up, arching an eyebrow. "What?"