"The Dividing Line" (Chapter Four)
by Ennon.
Disclaimer: I still don't own this and claiming no cash whatsoever from all this.
While climbing down the steep trail of the volcano, Manny couldn't stop squealing.
" Did you see how the moonlight just shined through the crater's clouds right at the moment I hit that note? And how everyone else couldn't stop cheering? This is the most intense moment of my life!"Manny gushed as she gripped Craig's hand.
"Manny, get a clue!" Emma boiled as they kept walking.
"A clue for what? Isn't this the most wonderful spot in the world? It's just so unreal!" Manny beamed.
"That's exactly what I mean!" Emma fumed as she squeezed past Manny on the trail then bolted ahead.
"Manny, J.T, Toby! We're getting out of here first thing in the morning!" Emma snapped.
"We're sick of you bossing us around, Miss Dicator," Manny seethed.
"Yeah!"J.T. and Toby agreed.
"What?! You're not seriously thinking of staying here?" Emma boiled.
"I like being where my talents are appreciated," Manny beamed while giving Craig's hand another squeeze.
"What?! You're going to become a . .volcano vamp?"Emma asked incredously.
"Hey, we're Sacrifice Squad Ladies!"Paige boiled.
"You're just jealous," Manny insisted.
"I didn't spend two weeks quizzing you for your Catechism when we were seven to have you throw it all away for this!" Emma fumed.
"It's always been all about you!" Manny exploded.
"You tell her, hun!" Paige cheered.
"Yeah!" Hazel cheered.
" You're one to talk, Miss Paige Puppet!" Emma snapped.
"Did you hear what that snip called me?" Hazel sneered.
" What's with everyone?" Emma snorted as she stormed ahead of everyone else
"Emma! Wait!" Sean pleaded.
"For what? "Emma asked.
"I've got to talk to you! I'm sorry about not leveling with you about the ceremony- and everything," Sean insisted as he caught up to her.
"Go away, Sean! Leave me alone!" Emma insisted.
"Wait! You'd be great to have around here. You're needed!" Sean pleaded.
" The only thing this place needs is some teachers and parents. God, I can't believe I just said that," Emma shuddered.
"It's true. Though they can't live here," Sean sighed.
"Did all of you survive some schoolwide sightseeing tour? Why is everyone here adamant about never leaving this place or even contacting outsiders? Is this some kind of cult?" Emma asked as she grasped Sean's extended hand.
"No, it's none of those things and I'd really like you to stay but you'd better decide fast or else there won't be a life for you to return to," Sean gulped as he hugged her then abruptly broke his embrace before ran off into the trackless forest- leaving Emma even more confused than before.
Meantime the other Degrassi Islanders quickly set up the party in the Village Plaza and dancing to the tinny radio's cutting edge dance station while drinking freshly squeezed orange juice from a punchbowl poured into carved wooden cups and eating kettle fried potato chips in banana leaf bags.
J.T. took the plastic vodka bottle that he'd had stolen from the airline beverage cart on the flight to Bermuda and had secreted the entire trip out of his cargo shorts' pocket and decided to make his move. He poured the bottle's contents into two cups then quickly filled the remainder with orange juice but before he could fulfill his scheme, fate happened.
"Ash, you and the Squad really were great tonight," Jimmy enthused while gripping his sullen companion's hand as they were approaching the Plaza after everyone else.
"I guess. What does it matter?" Ashley groaned.
"Ash, you've hardly smiled once in ages," Jimmy groaned.
"Can't our subjects stand it if I skip this one party?" Ashley asked.
"Just go in, say hello then complain of a headache, excuse yourself then you can turn in. I'll do the hobnobbing by myself," Jimmy insisted.
"Alright but then it's my boudoir for me after that!" Ashley insisted.
"You're the queen of this Island. What more can you ask for?" Jimmy asked.
"Freedom," Ashley groaned under her breath too faint for Jimmy to hear and almost too faint for her to believe in.
"Oh. . uh, Paige?" J.T. asked as he approached her with a cup in his hand.
"What is it, little man?" Paige sneered.
"You want something to soothe your tonsils?" J.T asked.
"Hey! I'm the only one who serves her drinks!" Spinner snarled.
"It's just a little handful and. .." J.T. started to explain but Spinner stopped him from saying anything more when he grabbed the wooden cup out of J.T's hand, threw the orange vodka out of it- then shoved the carved wooden cup over J.T.'s right hand so tightly that J.T. couldn't budge it.
"Uh, could someone pull this off my hand?" J.T. gulped.
"After the party," Spinner growled while J.T. tried to pry it off from between his knees while everyone but Liberty laughed at him.
"Presenting Their Majesties Kahuna Jimmy and Queen Ashley, dudes!" Spinner proclaimed a few minutes later.
Emma came to the Plaza a few minutes later hoping everyone would be too preoccupied with the party to say anything to her.
"Thanks for coming everyone! Ashley would like to give a small speech detailing everyone's duties and. .." Jimmy pronounced.
"Jimmy, I said I'd say hello then leave!" Ashley gasped in astonishment.
"But our subjects expect us to enjoy the bounty with them. ."Jimmy insisted.
"Fine!"Ashley snapped- then grabbed a cup of orange juice she happened to see on the serving table and drank it all at once.
J.T. shuddered- for he alone knew that this was the other cup with the orange juice/vodka combo that he'd made intending to get drunk on while getting Paige drunk on the other.
"I had a great time at the party but now I'm leaving. Goodnight, subjects!" Ashley sneered and stomped out of the room.
"Oh, it's so good that our queen's so dedicated to her duties," Paige snidely and sarcastically beamed.
"Ash! Wait! Fine! Go off and sulk somewhere. I'm staying here with my subjects!" Jimmy fumed.
"Let me talk to her," Terri insisted.
"A lot of good that will do her," Jimmy sneered but didn't try to stop Terri from leaving.
"Ashley, wait!" Terri pleaded as she saw erratically weave Ashley through the village to the edge of darkness just past the lit tiki torches bordering the village fields.
"That's what we've always done. I'm so sick of waiting," Ashley sobbed- starting to feel the effects of the vodka.
"Terri, go away! I just want to be left alone,"Ashley sobbed.
Terri slowly walked back to the Plaza party- hoping Ashley would change her mind.
"Have you seen Emma?" Sean begged as he stumbled in the darkness towards the fence.
"You really like her, don't you?" Ashley beamed a bit more loudly than usual.
"Yeah, but she hates me! Why couldn't I have told her the whole truth?" Sean groaned.
"You know what a catastrophe it would cause if outsiders knew," Ashley insisted-slurring her words.
"Part of me wants her to stay here but the other part wants her to live a real life- away from here. God, why can't any of us do that?" Sean sobbed.
"Don't cry! I don't see how she can resist you," Ashley slurred as she started hugging him.
"If only we weren't who we are," Sean groaned as he hugged her while she kissed him.
"Terri, hun, why did you leave Ashley alone like that?" Paige asked.
"Maybe she just needs time to herself to collect her thoughts and. .."Terri explained.
"SEAN!" Emma called out as she peaked out into the compound and saw him with Ashley.
"Emma! I didn't mean to. .." Sean gulped.
Suddenly, the entire village ran outside to the fence to see what was happening- with J.T. lagging behind the others trying in vain to tug the solid wood cup off his right hand.
Jimmy immediately pulled Sean off of Ashley and started to slug him. Sean slugged him back.
"Please! Don't hurt each other!" Emma pleaded.
"Shut up, Emma! I've been waiting for this for a long time! I've got nothing to lose!" Sean snarled as he and Jimmy duked it out.
"That's enough! You'll both have to beat me up to get to the other!" Craig insisted as he came between the two brawlers.
"Alright, Craig! You're with me on this coup," Sean cheered.
"No! But I'm not having Manny magic she brought tonight spoiled by bloodshed," Craig shouted.
"&(*))*" Kendra shouted to Spinner.
"(&&( ? You're right, sis! &*&. We can't do it, Jimmy," Spinner replied.
"Spin, you know the penalty for treason's. .." Jimmy insisted.
"Not this night, Jimmy! It's an ancient Chinese belief that when the moonlight dances on the clouds then shines through to the valley floor like it did when we at the crater that any bloodshed could visit us tenfold- and you know you can't pull it off without me," Spinner said in a voice of stone.
"So, this is what your moodiness was all about tonight! You couldn't let the rest of us have one fun time without spoiling it," Jimmy boiled.
"But it was the drink. .." Ashley cried.
"You couldn't have hugged and kissed him if you didn't want to," Jimmy seethed.
"For shame carrying on like some desperate hag,"Paige sneered.
"You're the hag, Paige! Sometimes, when the light's just right I swear you like you're. .."Ashley cruelly laughed.
"Spinner, can't you get those 10 thousand dead Chinese ancestors off your back and like off these two?" Paige boiled.
"Alright then, you two are exiled to the other side of the Island,"Jimmy insisted.
"Where the hermit lives?"Ashley gulped.
"And where the trash gets dumped!" Paige taunted.
"Wait, I swear it's just the drink that did this," Ashley pleaded.
"Who fouled the Island with it?"Jimmy demanded.
J.T. started to go back inside.
"Oh, Cupper Hand! Get over here!" Spinner snarled as he ran after then dragged J.T. to where Ashley and Sean were- by the cup covering J.T.'s hand.
"What makes you think. ..?" J.T. gulped.
"Well, you ain't packin a pistol and I'm NOT glad to see ya, little man!" Paige sneered as she pointed at the bulge in J.T's cargo shorts pocket where Spinner extracted the empty vodka airline cart bottle.
"Please, can't we work this out without having to exile them? I've always felt sorry for the hermit. He's so alone and it wouldn't be fair. ." Terri pleaded.
"They've threatened the village's safety," Jimmy insisted.
"Terri, it's like this. You pleaded with me for ages to let you join the Sacrifice Squad- and I've let you do so these past 75. ..days. Now do you want to give up all the privileges and rank like Trashy Ash here or," Paige sneered.
"I'm sorry, Ashley but. .." Terri burst into tears and tried to hug Ashley but Ashley brushed her off.
"Don't worry, Ashley! You've always been willing to be friends with me even when everyone else has turned up their noses. I'll go with you, Sean, the hermit and. .. what's your name again?" Ellie asked.
"J.T." J.T. groaned while still struggling with the solid wood cup on his right hand.
"Craig, you coming with us?" Sean asked.
"We've looked out for each other forever but. .I want to stay with Manny," Craig insisted.
"Smart move, pal!" Spinner insisted as he banged Craig's back.
"Emma?" Sean asked.
" After what I saw you and Ashley do with my own eyes?" Emma cried.
"Yo, Tobes. We've been brothers since camp and. ." J.T. pleaded.
" I'm sorry but I'm not leaving until I can work things out with Kendra," Toby insisted.
"You mean that?" Kendra beamed.
"You do?" Spinner snarled.
"Yeah! I'm through running!" Toby insisted as he looked Spinner in the eye.
"Emma, why aren't you protesting this like everything else?" J.T. asked as he, Sean, Ashley and Ellie were being tied up by Spinner.
" Because this whole thing's your fault! The boat 'joy ride', the shipwreck. Now that vodka bottle's ruined everything! " Emma boiled.
"Okay! Okay!" J.T. groaned.
Spinner untied Ellie from the group and pointed her towards her hut where she quickly packed a few Goth outfits into a bag(all she could carry in one trip), then he tied her back with the others, then the process was repeated with Sean and Ashley. Before tying them back together then leading them to the other side of the island-occasionally prodding them on the point of his long spear.
"I've escorted you to the other side of the island so that means you'll have to fend for yourselves there! Watch out for the hermit," Spinner taunted.
"Any more info about the hermit?" J.T. gulped.
" His name's Marco. That's all you need to know," Spinner sneered-as he finally pulled the wooden cup off of J.T's sore right hand before turning around.