Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Higher Ground. However, I did make up Janey and Keith. Thank you for reading this story, and thank you for your reviews. You guys make the writing more fun.
Note: Also, thank you so much for all of your reviews of Non-Denominational Secret Santas. It was a fun story to write indeed. And sorry I put this story off for so long...I'm kind of overwhelmed with schoolwork, so I'll update as often as I can, but no promises.
At dinnertime, the Cliffhangers congregated at their usual table. Shelby saved the seat next to her for Scott. Daisy and David were chatting about the obstacle course that the Cliffhangers were to do the next day. Ezra and Auggie were arguing about the dimensions of a basketball court. Janey, Juliette, Scott, and Keith were not at the table.
Juliette finally came over with her food tray. She plunked down between Ezra and Auggie, terminating their argument.
"Aren't you supposed to be Keith's buddy?" she asked Auggie.
"If he showed up, maybe," Auggie said, defending himself.
Keith walked in just then, and Auggie sighed, dropping his fork onto his half-emptied dinner plate. "Be right back," he promised, getting up and going over to help Keith figure out the dining hall.
Juliette began a conversation with Ezra, and in a few minutes, Auggie and Keith came over. Auggie sat back down, but Keith hesitated at the nearly full table until Shelby finally pulled back the chair she had been saving for Scott.
"You can sit here, I guess," she said, slightly irked that Scott had not told her that he would be late. "If Scott shows up, he can drag over his own chair."
Keith nervously sat down next to Shelby, his heart pounding. To his other side was Daisy, who was next to David.
"Where's Janey?" Daisy asked.
"I don't think she feels too good," Auggie said quickly. "I saw her a while ago in Peter's office. She looked kinda sick or something."
"I hope she's okay!" Juliette exclaimed worriedly.
"Jeez," Shelby said. "Where the heck is Scott?"
"Scott's not coming!" David said cheerfully, looking up from his plate, having constructed a Grand Canyon model out of lasagna, peas, and milk. "He got shuns!"
"What!?" Shelby asked. Everyone else looked up. "What for?"
"Fighting!" David announced loudly enough for the High Liners to hear as well. They looked almost as interested as the Cliffhangers. Keith bowed his head. "Him and Keith had this huge fight." He paused for dramatic effect, grinning wickedly. "There was even blood."
Keith got up and left the dining hall. He heard Auggie call after him, then get up and jog to catch up. Directly outside of the dining hall, Auggie caught up.
"Hey man," Auggie said. "What's that all about?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Keith said angrily. Auggie was startled to see this side of the seemingly calm new boy.
"Take it easy," Auggie said. He paused. "Look, just come sit back down and finish eating. You don't gotta talk about it."
"Don't have to," Keith corrected under his breath. He usually wasn't picky about grammar, but anything got on his nerves if he was feeling on edge.
"What?" Auggie asked.
"Nothing. I'm not hungry," Keith said. Just what he needed, a second fight. "I'm going back to the dorm."
"Okay," Auggie replied.
Right then, Sophie came over. "Quick group after dinner," Sophie said. "In the main lodge."
Auggie nodded, and Sophie moved past them into the building.
"Group's kinda mandatory," Auggie explained. "Do whatever, but make sure that you're in the main lodge at six forty-five, when dinner ends, or both our butts'll fry."
Auggie reentered the dining hall, not giving Keith a chance to talk his way out of anything. Keith sat despondently on the steps to the dining hall, leaning against a nearby wooden pillar. Several minutes later, Ezra came out.
"Hey, Keith," Ezra said, his face splitting into a gregarious smile. "Ezra, remember?"
"Yeah," Keith said.
"I'm heading over to the lodge now, wanna come?"
"Sure," Keith agreed, standing up and walking there with Ezra.
Inside, Ezra sat down on a couch and Keith flopped into an armchair, folding his lengthy legs over one of the chair's arms.
"You okay?" Ezra asked. He didn't mention Scott's name. "I know first days are tough, and you've had a whammy of a first day. Any questions? Jeez, I sound like a tour guide."
Ezra laughed, but Keith didn't. "What's shuns?" he asked. Scott had seemed mad when Peter said he had it.
"Horizon's ultimate punishment," Ezra explained. "Kind of like being grounded, but worse. You can't talk to your peers, only counselors and only when absolutely necessary. You can't eat with your friends or sleep in the dorm. You have to spend all your time writing in this journal that gets turned into Peter at the end of your 'sentence.' Everyone dreads it, but not many people actually get it." He paused, trying to read Keith's face. "Why were you fighting?"
Keith shrugged as if it didn't matter or he didn't remember. But he did remember. He kept playing their conversation over and over in his head.
"Yo. He's not a retard."
"Don't you ever say that!"
"What? Retard? Why? Are you one? I saw you lookin' at Shelby. Don't even think about it, retard."
"Shut up!" And then he hit him.
Ezra watched him interestedly. Keith immediately relaxed his face, making it bland and indifferent, a trick he often found useful against his parents and teachers.
David, Juliette, and Auggie entered, followed at a short distance by Shelby and Daisy, who had their heads together, talking quietly. David, Auggie, and Juliette squeezed onto the couch around Ezra, who made sure that Auggie and Juliette both sat between David and him. Daisy and Shelby stopped a short distance away from the group, still whispering.
"Hey," Auggie said suddenly. "Never introduced you to David. David, this is Keith; Keith, this is David."
David grinned wickedly at Keith, who turned slightly away.
"We've met," Keith said curtly.
Sophie came over, putting a gentle hand on the shoulders of Shelby and Daisy. "You two want to join up?"
They moved in, and Sophie directed everyone to stand up in a circle. Keith found himself beside Ezra and Shelby, the latter of who he couldn't bring himself to look at. He knew that she must be furious with him for getting Scott into so much trouble.
"All right, gang—" Sophie began.
"Wait a sec!" Peter called, coming in with his arm around a very tired, downcast Janey. "Sorry she's late."
Janey gave Peter a pleading look, wanting to be anywhere but under the scrutinizing looks of her group mates. He shook his head faintly, and she looked down. Keith studied her, recognizing her as the sleeping girl in Peter's office. Peter left, and Sophie drew Janey into the group, putting her between Auggie and Juliette. Then she put herself between Daisy and David. She didn't trust the secretive looks that David was shooting Daisy. Daisy gave him a confused glare and then turned back to Shelby.
"First of all," Sophie said. "Does everyone know everyone?"
Janey didn't even seem to notice that there was a newbie, and Keith wanted to speak up, felt like he should greet the sad girl he had seen earlier, but his shyness factor rocketed, and he pressed his lips together. Fortunately, Juliette was anything but shy.
"I don't think Janey and Keith have met," she announced.
Janey looked up slowly, seeing the new boy next to Ezra. She was silent though, almost boding.
"Well?" Sophie said. "Introduce yourselves."
"Uh," Keith stammered. "I'm, uh, Keith Morgan."
"Janey Higgins," Janey said tersely.
Several Cliffhangers looked taken aback by Janey's falling back into her old habits of snapping at everyone. They were also surprised when Sophie didn't ask if Janey had something she wanted to talk about.
"I know that this has been an incredibly stressful time," Sophie said, meeting the eyes of everyone but Janey, whose eyes only met the floor. "For the new people, and for the old hats. I know that some of you are trying very hard to keep that stress inside, hidden. And I know that others have been venting it inappropriately. So we're going to find an alternative to hiding and inappropriate ventilation."
"Tribal call, man, yeah!" David yelled. It was his favorite method of therapy.
"Yes, David," Sophie said, hiding a smile. "Those of you that don't know what this is, listen up. I'm going to count to three, then we all yell. You can yell as loud as you like, but when I put my hand up in the air, stop. Got it?"
"I can provide a demo," David offered.
"That's all right," Sophie said, shuddering inwardly. "Everyone got it?"
There were several mumbled yeses and one enthusiastic yes. Sophie squared her shoulders resignedly.
"One…two…three—"
The room erupted into yells. Keith and Janey both looked slightly startled, but Janey, without taking her eyes off of her shoes, screamed along with the rest. Keith looked around nervously.
"Hey!" Ezra jammed a gentle elbow into Keith's stomach. Keith took it as a hint and hollered once, feeling stupid. But maybe his grade depended on this, he thought.
David beat on his chest like Tarzan, yelling above the rest. Everyone else looked almost as excited, their cheeks flushed and eyes bright. Janey got into it more, forcing her chin to rise to permit herself a look around the circle. And she fell silent.
When Sophie finally lifted her hand to signal for silence, most of the group was out of breath, but smiling. Sophie smiled too, glad that tensions were somewhat lifted.
"Okay, gang. One last thing. Finish the sentence: I am…" She grabbed a staff and tossed it to Daisy.
"I am one speck of dust in a million." She tossed it to Ezra.
"I am here." He tossed it to Shelby.
"I am me, nothing more." She tossed it to David.
"I am me, nothing less!" He tossed it to Juliette.
"I am not what she wanted, maybe, but I am who I am anyway." She tossed it to Auggie.
"I am okay." He tossed it to Keith.
"I am…confused." He held the staff for a minute.
"You finish the sentence," Sophie explained. "With whatever you feel."
"That's what I feel," Keith said firmly. "I am confused." He tossed the staff to Janey.
"I am…I am not her. Or him." This she said quietly. Sophie watched her carefully, knowing that she was talking about Scott and Elaine. Janey tossed the staff back to Sophie. "Where is he?"
"He's on shuns," Sophie said slowly.
Janey nodded, and, to everyone's surprise, did not ask questions.
On that note, Sophie dismissed them all, and watched as they walked back to their dorms. The tension temporarily relieved by the tribal call was back on their shoulders with the mention of Scott.
"Where were you today?" Juliette asked Janey as the girls changed for bed. "Were you with Peter?"
"Uh huh," Janey replied. She steeled herself against the coming question.
"What issue was he harassing you over?" Daisy asked, her mind still processing the fact that her father was coming for a visit.
"Donwanatok," Janey mumbled.
"Huh?" Juliette asked.
"Don't want to talk about it," Janey said more clearly.
"Was it—" Juliette began.
"Hey, queenie," Shelby snapped. "She said she didn't want to talk about it."
"I was just wondering—" Juliette tried again.
"No," Shelby interrupted, and Juliette fell silent. Janey shot Shelby a grateful glance, which the older girl acknowledged with a knowing look.
"Anyone know what we're doing tomorrow?" Juliette asked after a moment of uncomfortable silence.
"Short buddy hike-back," Daisy responded, leaning back with a book about Eastern mysticism.
At Janey's confused look, Juliette explained, somehow hoping to redeem herself in the girl's eyes. "That's where you and another person are tied together at the ankles, and Peter drops you off somewhere and you have to hike back together."
"He's really into this tying stuff, isn't he?" Janey asked, rubbing her wrist in remembrance.
The others laughed, even Daisy, and they all got comfortable for the night. In a short time, Janey could hear the slow deep breathing of sleep from three other beds, but she felt too concerned and jumpy to sleep. Her thoughts raced around until she got a pounding headache.
Scott had shuns? For what? Did she even really want to know? Maybe it was better; maybe it was good that he wasn't around when she handed over the tape. He would be so mad when he found out… She bit her lip, anxious, but at the same time, she could feel a great weight being lifted off of her shoulders.
Shutting her eyes, she willed sleep to come, but it wouldn't. Instead, her thoughts drifted to the new boy. What was his name? Oh, yes, Keith. At least, she was pretty sure that that was what he had mumbled during group. She wondered why he was at Horizon. He had said he was confused. Janey almost laughed. Everyone was confused. She was confused herself, especially with all matters pertaining to Scott. Sighing, the laughter gone from her mind, she almost wished that her mother had never married Scott's father, thus saving everyone from this mess.
But such a thing was not possible. She could not go back in time and prevent the marriage. No, she had to live with the past and all of its ramifications. There was nothing else to do but live with it and try to make it better.
And if Scott had shuns, it probably meant that he did not know about Janey's tape and what she had told Peter.
Was that good or bad? Janey rubbed her forehead confusedly. She didn't know anymore. There was too much and it was all happening too fast. Too fast.