Author's Note: Oooh, and the melodrama continues! This is one craaazy chapter. I hope y'all enjoy it! Thanks for consistent reviewing, luv y'all. =) This chapter might not be very realistic (I'm not really sure about some of the facts I throw around in it), but it's very soap-opera-esque. And very long! Enjoy.. -jazz
Adrian heard her footsteps approaching, knew who it would be. He turned to find Erika, standing beside him, an envelope in her hands.
"You've got to stop sending me this shit," Erika told him, chucking the letter at his feet.
He was seated on the grass floor, leaning against an oak, sketchbook in hand. He glanced up to meet her gaze. "I can't."
Erika threw her hands up in the air, exasperated. "Why, Adrian? Why do you bother?"
"I think you know the answer," he replied, knowing full well that he'd answered that particular question more than enough times.
"Adrian.." Erika began again, and she opened her mouth to speak, but as if deciding against it, she merely turned away, and began striding away.
Adrian picked up the letter at his feet. He could only be rejected so many times. His resolve growing weaker, his patience diminishing. He removed his artwork from the envelope, and stared at it as absently as Erika walked away, without a glimpse back at him. Was he truly wasting his time on her? He couldn't help but wonder.
Amber waited. Waited until her prey came to her. She knew that he would. He had no choice in the matter.
She heard his footsteps approaching nearer, and he came into view, holding a clipboard and pen.
And it will begin, Amber thought evilly. Oh, it will begin.
She was in the infirmary still, still holding an ice pack to her bruised cheek. Her bruised cheek that would not go unjustified, she decided.
"Amber.." Peter began, and pulled up a chair across from Amber.
"Peter," Amber returned.
Peter glanced at his clipboard. "So.. you want to tell me in your own words what happened?"
Amber took a deep breath, and repressed a smile. As dramatically as she could manage, she recounted a tale. "It was Erika. It was all Erika. The crazy bitch. I didn't even say anything to her and the next thing I know, I'm thrown against the wall, and I didn't even do anything." Amber demonstrated with the fluid movements of her hands, almost theatrical in her animation. "She starts punching me like I'm some kind of punching bag! Then, I'm thrown against the ground, and she's tackling me, and the next thing I know, she has me in a headlock. All the while, no one even offers me help. And then I hear her cackling, like the frigging wicked witch of the west. She's evil, I swear. And then.." Amber continued, conjuring fake crocodile tears, "her fingers are around my neck. I thought I was going to die, I swear."
Peter kept an impassive face as he listened. "Okay.. Anything else?"
Fake tears continued to stream down her cheeks. "And then she says, next time, don't expect any mercy. She's going to kill me, Peter!"
Peter looked down at his clipboard, and released an inaudible sigh. "I see," he said.
Erika wasn't surprised to hear that Peter wanted her in his office pronto. She made her way down, striding thoroughly unconcerned.
She opened the door to his office, not bothering to knock before she entered. In the room, Peter was behind his desk, clipboard in hand. "Erika," he announced as she entered.
She knew the routine. She took the chair before his desk, and slumped into it. "Un huh?" she responded.
Peter rested his hands on his desk, meeting her eye level. "You want to tell me your side of the incident this morning?"
"What the hell does it matter?"
"Erika," he warned.
"Not really," she admitted.
"And why is that?" he questioned.
"What is there to it? Amber made a smart ass comment.." Seeing the look Peter was giving her, she continued. "What?"
"Did juvie do nothing for you?" Anger, and exasperation inflected his voice.
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not in juvie anymore."
"Erika, are you going to tell me your side or not? Because if you don't, I'm going to have to take Amber's account of things."
Erika raised her eyes, intrigued. "And what was 'her account'?"
"She claims that you were trying to kill her."
Erika couldn't help but laugh aloud. "That bitch.. I so was not trying to kill her. Just shake up her a little bit, that's fucking all."
"Watch your language," he warned, and subsequently glanced down at his clipboard. "And is it true that she was thrown against the wall? That you vowed, next time to have 'no mercy'?"
Erika found that she couldn't stop laughing, Peter watching her, unimpressed.
"Erika, this is not looking good for you."
Realizing that she was treading in hot water, Erika composed herself, and decided she had to do something to defend herself. "I didn't even start the fight. Amber swung at me, but it never actually hit me, pathetic really. And.. she made a really smart ass comment."
"So did you, I hear."
"Yeah, well what can you do."
Peter sat back in his chair, as he continued down the listed description on his clipboard. "And is it true that you had your fingers around her neck?"
"Now that is fiction. My fingers were not *around* her neck. I did no such fucking thing."
"Language, Erika. That just earned you a week of dishwashing duty."
Erika gave him a look. "Wonderful," she replied sarcastically.
Peter set down his clipboard. "Erika.. What am I going to do with you? Do you want to go back to juvie?"
"Like I care."
"Well, think about it, will you? And you'll have plenty of time to do so, because as of now, I've placed you on shuns for two weeks."
Erika shrugged. "Screw it."
"You're lucky it's not for a month," Peter continued. "Or you would have missed the morp."
"Like I care."
The Cliffhanger boys were lounging in their respective dorm, when an intruder burst the door open.
It proved to be Amber, wearing a mischievous smile, swinging her hips as she made her way towards... Ezra.
All eyes were on Amber as she stood before Ezra and grinned at him. "Hi Ezra."
Ezra realized she was talking to him. Was he dreaming? "Hiiiii." he managed. Amber tossed the book in his hands aside, and grabbed his hand. "Let's go have some fun," she asserted, dragging him off his bunk, with Ezra barely having time to assess what exactly was going on.
Auggie couldn't help but laugh as he called after them, "Whew! Have fun E-Z!"
Amber dragged Ezra out of the dorm, shutting the door behind them. "Where are we going?" he asked her.
She flashed a flirtatious smile. "The janitor's shed."
"Whoa.. What's going on?"
Amber shoved him through the door to the janitor's shed. "Well I need to fuck somebody, don't I?"
"Oh.. Alright."
Amber shut the door behind them. Flashing a seductive smile at him, Amber aggressively pressed him up against the wall to the confined space, and began kissing him.
She ran her hands through his hair, and subsequently whispered in his ear.
"You can also tell me something."
"I can?"
"Yeah," Amber continued. "I need you to tell me how I can get the janitor's closet open."
"Oh, easy," Ezra replied. "I can show you later, though."
"Now is fine for me."
Ezra furrowed his brows. "Ooohkay," he responded, and once she removed his hands from him, they made their way towards the closet.
"See, look," said Ezra, demonstrating how to pick the lock.
The closet sprung open. Amber's face alighted with a mischievous smile.
"Fabulous," she responded, turning back to Ezra. She pulled him closer by his shirt. "Can we resume later, Ezzie boy? I have some business to attend to."
-------------
Auggie could barely suppress his laughter as Ezra re-entered the dorm room, looking both dazed and dishevelled. "What was that about, E-Z?" he asked.
"I have no idea," Ezra replied simply.
"Probably just Amber rebounding from Adrian here," Auggie continued.
Ezra blinked. Was that all it was? "I'd like to think it was more than that."
"C'mon, like what."
"I don't know.." Ezra admitted. "But I sure as hell ain't complaining."
"It's about time you got a girl.. Even if it is Amber."
Adrian though he'd never been more relieved. "Glad she's over me, finally. I was beginning to think she was stuck on tormenting me forever."
With complete access to the janitor's closet, all of the chemicals, all of the supplies she'd need, Amber cackled evilly.
Seducing Ezra was indeed a good idea, a voice in her head informed her.
The pitiful creature.. He was bound to fall for it.
Amber held her precious materials in her hands. Revenge is mine, she thought maliciously. Revenge is all mine for the taking.
Adrian thinks he can dump me? Wrong. I warned him.. Oh did I warn him. He didn't listen. His loss.
And now he will suffer the consequences.
Amber cackled evilly again. Oh, she thought, will he ever suffer the consequences.
Erika sat among one of the desks in the detention room. It was a room familiar to her, she'd been there enough times to know it intimately.
There was only one other person occupying the room, aside from the surveilling counsellor who watched them intently.
The other occupant sat somewhere behind her, and she could hear every stroke of his pencil scratching the paper on which he wrote.
Peter wanted her to think, she mused. About what?
She, herself was supposed to be writing. Supposed to be writing some kind of essay or another, she couldn't be sure, she hadn't paid all that much attention when they'd assigned her work.
Unconsciously, she started doodling on the edge of the lined paper. She thought of Adrian.
Unruly raven hair, dark eyes. Chiselled features. Amazing talent.
Erika slumped back in her chair as she pondered, with naught else to do.
She couldn't decide how she felt towards Adrian. He was good-looking, talented, and for some unfathomable reason, was taken by her. She didn't understand it. She pushed him away, hadn't stopped pushing him away. And still he didn't give up when she told him to fuck off.
He was relentless.
Why?
Erika shook her head as she pondered it. She didn't know.
Should I? she wondered to herself, tapping the pencil entwined in her fingers absently on her desk. Should I give him a chance?
She thought of all the drawings he'd sent her, his version of poetry, she decided.
Erika replayed one of their recent conversations in her head.
'Did it ever occur to you, ever, that maybe I like you for you?
..That for some strange reason I'm drawn to you for who you are.
I just- I can feel it in my gut.'
She suppressed tears as she reminisced. She knew that she was being unfair to him. And sitting in the detention room with nothing to do but think, she suddenly realized that she couldn't deny her emotions forever.
Jeff glanced around the room.
His students were seated at the tables, some yawning, some drumming their fingers, waiting as he took attendance.
Shelby glanced at her watch, bored. Juliette was studying her nails for imperfections, and would every couple seconds remove her nail file from her pocket.
He took another long look around the room.
"Where's Amber?" he asked the students.
They, too, looked around. His only response was a wave of shrugs.
No one could have guessed where Amber truly was. Rubbing alcohol, a set of matches in tow, that she had retrieved from the janitor's closet, she made her way towards the Cliffhanger boys dorm.
Amber looked around as she walked, as she opened the door, assuring no one would see her.
The boys dorm was empty. So far, so good.
She knew which bunk was Adrian's. Unfortunately for him, she thought evilly.
She set down her things, and tossed the lid of the rubbing alcohol. She poured it over his bunk, and removed a portfolio beside it.
She opened it, and spread it out on his bunk.
Inside lay his artwork, oh his precious artwork. She poured it over his drawings, over his many sketchbooks. Over the portrait of Erika that he'd drawn for her long ago.
I will watch that burst into flame, she decided. Oh, will that be a miraculous sight.
Say goodbye, Adrian. Say goodbye to your things forever.
She spread the rubbing alcohol to the rest of the cabin, cackling evilly.
Oh, Ezra, she thought, your gullibility cost you your dorm.
Once the bottle was empty, there was only one thing left to do.
She reached for the matches, removed one, and lit it.
Sayonara, boys dorm, she thought as she tossed it onto Adrian's portfolio of art, and it ignited into flame.
Amber left the empty bottle there, but kept the matches.
Satisfied as she watched the fire rapidly spread, Amber quietly exited, closing the door behind her, a smug smile on her face.
It burned. The boys dorm burned incessantly. The fire ate at everything.
It burned until nothing remained.
Some time later...
Shelby thought she'd die from boredom, sitting in class, half-listening to Jeff blabbing on about something or other. Was he talking about the second world war? The American Revolution? She couldn't be sure. The only thing she was sure of now, the only thing occupying her mind was that in mere minutes, the class would be over and she'd be able to phone Scott.
Suddenly, she wrinkled her nose, and furrowed her brows in confusion when she registered what smell it was that crossed her nose.
Shelby nudged Daisy, who was seated beside her. "Do you smell smoke?" she asked quietly.
Daisy sniffed the air, and subsequently turned to Shelby. "Yeah."
Sitting beside the two, Ezra happened to overhear. "So do I," he added.
Determined that she was not crazy, Shelby rose from her seat, and despite Jeff's calling her to sit back down, Shelby made her way to the window, and forced the closed curtains open.
Her jaw dropped, her mouth agape.
"Look!!" she shouted, pointed towards the window.
The students crowded around the window, and gasped in horror.
The window overlooked many of the dorms, and one of them was in flames.
"Oh my god!"
Chaos overturned the room. The students darted out of the classroom, much to Jeff's disapproval, rushing outside.
"Erika."
Erika lifted her eyes to the detention teacher. "Yes?"
"Aren't you supposed to be working?"
Erika's eyes drifted disinterestedly. She really didn't give a damn.
Her gaze travelled to the windows. She watched as the students were crowded outside, enjoying fresh air, doing whatever.. But then she caught sight of it, and her heart nearly stopped.
The boys dorm was in flames.
"Oh my god," she thought aloud, and rose from her assigned desk, and rushed out of the detention room, not in the least caring that the detention teacher was running after her, protesting her exit.
Erika's heart was racing.
There was already a crowd of students gathered when Erika, and the Cliffhangers reached the flaming dorm.
Smoke was everywhere, and tainted the air.
Erika watched in helplessness as it burned, and it was so destructed already, so damaged that nothing could possibly be done to salvage it. It was gone.
But nothing could have prepared her for the next moment, as she watched in absolute horror as she watched Adrian dart inside.
Impulsively, she darted in after him.
Once inside, her vision was clouded by the smoke.
"Adrian!" she called into the smoke.
"Erika?"
His voice was not too far away.
"What the hell are you doing, get out of here!" she shouted, searching in the smoke for him.
She caught sight of him, beside what was, she presumed, once his bunk. It was now all flame.
"My artwork.." he lamented.
"Adrian," she asserted, and grabbed his arm. He looked at her, surprised.
Erika led him outside, in a fit of coughs.
Once in an area of clear breathing, Adrian collapsed onto the grassy floor of the field, a pained expression on his visage.
Erika sat down beside him. "It's alright."
He shook his head, holding her gaze. "It's not. Do you know what I lost? Do you *know* what I lost? The only picture I had of my parents. Not to mention my artwork, all of it. The artwork makes the artist. Now I'm.. nothing."
"Not to me," Erika told him, and clasped his hands in hers.
Adrian watched her, silent, observing, his eyes never leaving hers. He didn't know what had fuelled her change of heart, but there was genuine compassion in her eyes.
And to his utmost surprise, Erika placed her hands on his face and kissed him.
later..
The students had watched as the fire fighters had come to Horizon and eventually extinguished the ball of flame that was the Cliffhanger boys dorm.
All that remained now, were unanswered questions.
"Dude, what just happened?" Auggie wondered aloud.
"We don't know," Sophie replied, as much mystified as everyone else.
"It had to have been intentionally set," said Shelby. "There's no way it could have just set fire without some kind of trigger."
"But it couldn't have been one of the students," Kat figured, "we were all in class when it was started."
"Unless one of us was missing," Daisy corrected her.
"But why would anyone set fire to the boys dorm?" Juliette questioned.
"That's a good question," said Sophie.
"Go back to your schedules, guys," Peter asserted. "Sophie and I are going to try and sort this out."
Shelby was in the main office, the telephone to her ear, the telephone cord wrapped around her fingers, she anxiously waiting.
"Hello?"
Shelby smiled when she heard his voice on the other end. "Hey, Scott. You're not going to believe this."
"Believe what?"
Shelby smiled again, wondering what his reaction might be to Horizon's latest development.
Sophie and Peter sat across from each other in the serenity of his office.
"I don't know. I just don't know, Soph."
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Sophie acknowledged, nodding in agreement.
Peter's gaze was vacant. "The only thing that's bothering me, is that this bears a striking similarity to Amber's pre-Horizon days."
Sophie met Peter's gaze, "Oh, that's right," she recalled. "Didn't she land here for trying to set her neighbour's house on fire when their son ignored her?"
"Yeah," said Peter. "That's exactly it. It just, doesn't make sense though. Why would she want to burn down the Cliffhanger boys dorm? And how would she get the materials to do it? It doesn't make sense to me Soph."
Sophie took Peter's hand in her own. "Me neither."
later..
Peter gathered the Cliffhangers in the main lodge, believing it to be a good time for a group session.
"As you all know," Peter began, "the Cliffhanger boys dorm was burned, with irreparable damage."
"Where are we gonna stay?" Auggie questioned immediately.
"In the main lodge.." Sophie responded.
"In any case," Peter continued, "we have reason to believe it wasn't accidental."
Juliette's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"
Amber among them, she suddenly burst into a fit of laughing, and cackled uncontrollably. "Oh no, it wasn't accidental," she reaffirmed them.
Peter turned to Amber. "Amber?"
Amber's only response was her cackling evilly.
Kat, who was seated beside Amber in group, slowly shifted her chair away from the cackling Amber, a side of her she'd never seen, and was sure she didn't want to see again.
"If you know anything," said Peter, "we'd advise you to tell us."
Amber consumed the Cliffhangers' full attention, as she rose from her chair, cackling uncontrollably, and suddenly passed out onto the floor.
"Ummm Peter," Ezra announced.
"Yes, Ezra?"
"I think it was her," he said, indicating Amber, lying on the room floor, unmoving. "And why is that?" Peter questioned.
"I kind of.." Ezra began hesitantly, "..helped her into the janitor's closet yesterday. I didn't know that she was going to do anything.."
"You did what?!" said Sophie incredulously.
Peter sighed. As far as he was concerned, the mystery was solved, the revelation had come. "Okay, it's alright. We'll talk with her.. when she wakes up."