Author's Note-I want to thank Sachi for Robyn's POV and Nikki for Rachel's POV cuz I couldn't have done this without you! (You know I'm not good at portraying YOUR characters, and plus I was having a temporary writers block!!)
Rachel's POV
After the fight with Rhythm I was feeling extremely guilty. 'Guilty for what though?' I asked myself over and over again. That night, after taking a shower, I found 7 bruises, 3 cuts, and a black eye. Plus, I was limping a little on my right ankle. I was getting weird looks from everyone, and all I did was look at my feet for the rest of the night. At lights out I just lay there staring at the tent roof. "Emi-Thorne?" I called a little too loudly.
"What?" Thorne gruffly replied.
"Thank you so much for helping me out," I said.
"I DIDN'T help you OUT Rachel. I saved your butt," Thorne stated, sitting up on her cot and pulling her hair on her left shoulder.
"Well, thanks, though, I..." I couldn't speak, my throat was forming a knot and I stifled my sobs.
"If I was going to help someone, by choice, it would be this girl," Thorne said pointing to Rhythm who was breathing lightly, coughing now and then from the dust she inhaled. I had that problem now too. "In fact," she added "you're lucky Zigzag had a good grip on me, or you wouldn't be here now," she said. I gulped. "You should thank him," She said flipping her hair around with her fingers. I nodded, wiping a tear that was escaping from my eyes.
"Thorne, I am so...so...s-sorry for being s-such a j-jerk to you," I stammered. I started to cry again.
"Well, you should, you had no reason to hate me, even though I didn't exactly admire my tent mates when I first came either," I looked up.
"Emily. Thorne, please forgive me for being so mean" I said, and stopped crying. Thorne just stared at me.
"I can't believe you are doing this, after I saved your butt," Emily stated.
"Well, I am. Thorne, I just...I don't know, I'm not used to this. I've always been a goody-goody, but now, I just feel out of place." I sighed, lying back on my cot. "Let's start over. Hi, I'm Rachel Bilson, what's your name?" I asked smiling. Emily looked over at me like I had grown another head.
"Uh...I'm Thorne," she said, thrusting her hand out to me. I took it and we shook.
"G'nite Emil--Thorne" I murmured.
"Yeah, goodnight Di." That morning I woke up very early, like 15 minutes before the alarm. I got dressed and when I was leaving I heard Thorne getting up. I was standing there by the shovel library when the alarm sounded. Em- Thorne was behind me. "Hey" she muttered, scratching her nose. I smiled. Slowly, everyone came and then I saw Rhythm. I shrunk down in embarrassment and shame. She gave me an angry look and grabbed Squid by the arm, pulling him further away from me. He looked back at her, miffed, and then realized he had been standing right next to me. I caught Magnet's eye (For once he had them open) and he looked away. I was mortified. I gobbled down my tortilla, grabbed my shovel, and walked ahead of everyone with Zero.
"Please tell me you're not mad at me too?" I asked. Zero looked up at me and shook his head. I sighed, and then waited for Mr. Sir to pick me a spot to dig at. I started digging furiously the moment his foot had left the X he had marked for me. My hands were blistered, (even though I was wearing the gloves Thorne gave me) and my muscles were sore, but I was digging manically. Then I started to slow down. My hole was already about 2 feet deep. "WHAT?" I cried out really loudly. I measured it about three times.
"What's wrong?" a heavily accented voice asked. I looked up to see Magnet standing over me.
"N-nothing" I stated. For a second he smiled but then he walked away. By lunchtime I was already done with my hole. I spat in it and started to eat my sandwich.
"S-so, I saw ya beating Rhythm up yesterday" Twitch said from beside me, in his high southern voice.
"Yeah, what else is new?" I asked. Twitch moved his fingers up and down the shaft of his shovel.
"So, what kinda car you got?" he asked me. I looked over to see what the others were doing. Everyone else was over by X-Ray's hole talking except Caveman and Zero who were sitting a little ways off from the group. Thorne wasn't saying anything and she was handing her fruit (which was supposed to be pineapple...I think) to Zigzag.
"Well, at home, I have a 2000 Honda Civic and before that," I gulped, "I had a BMW straight from Germany, where it's a lot cheaper. But then I wrecked it because some little kid ran out in front of me. Ugh. I loathe that child," I groaned. Twitch stared at me.
"Well, that's nice to hear," he said quietly, sounding shocked and terrified by the state of my poor BMW. "I can't believe you're done! Zero hasn't got anything on you! Thorne isn't even done yet!" Twitch squealed. I smiled.
"I try," I said. After lunch, I walked back and took a shower and then I got out my sketchpad. I went into the 'Wreck Room' and started to draw the very torn-up couch. Then the door opened about then minutes later and it was Zero. I looked back down since I knew I would waste my breath if I said something to him. He casually plopped down beside me. He looked over at my sketchpad and I felt my face turning red.
"That's good," he murmured. I turned towards him in shock.
"You think so?" I asked, giving him the drawing. He nodded truthfully.
"You're a fast digger, Rachel," He mentioned.
"I am?" I asked trying to sound like I didn't care.
"You beat Thorne. I haven't been able to do that yet. You know, because she has to dig a 3 foot hole instead of five foot." I gave him a strange look.
"But you're back and she isn't," I said.
"Tent," he muttered. I took that to mean she was in the tent. Zero smiled. 'He's pretty sweet,' I thought. When we were sitting in the Mess Hall eating supper I saw Rhythm...
In the meantime...
Rhythm's POV
The day of the fight I just finished my hole and sat there in it. I hadn't moved for hours. I looked at my watch. 6:00 p.m. I stared at the starlit sky. Suddenly I heard a noise behind me. I didn't move. Then I heard someone jump into my hole. "Leave me alone," I said.
"I just wanted to make sure that a yellow spotted lizard didn't get ya," Squid said to me.
I smiled to myself and we sat there in silence for a few more minutes then I mumbled. "I can't believe I lost."
"It's OK," Squid whispered, pushing the ever-present bangs out of my eyes.
"NO, it's not ok! I just got beat up by an 80 pound, superficial, drag queen, b-i-t-c-h! Now I'm sitting here trying to control the urge not to kill her in her sleep!" Squid just stared at me. "I feel better" I announced. We both started laughing and he helped me out of my hole. As we walked back to camp I reailzized that I didn't feel better. In fact, I felt worse. Squid walked me to my tent and gave me a quick goodnight kiss. I gave him a weak smile and watched him become part of the shadows. When I went inside, Diamond wasn't there. I didn't know where she was but I didn't care. I must've been really tired because it seemed like as soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep. The next morning when I woke up, I didn't feel any better. The next day it was still worse. When I went into the mess hall for supper I saw HER. She was getting up to put her tray away when our eyes connected.
She pushed past me and said, "I hope your eyes are OK." I couldn't take anymore. I dropped my tray and hit her as hard as I could in the nose. Only after that did it occur to me that maybe she had meant to be nice. I waited for a few seconds and she didn't move. Everyone stared at me in silence and then I saw Thorne getting up. The counselors were coming to see what was wrong. I took one last look at the mess hall and ran to the tent. I sat down on my cot and tried to pretend like nothing happened.
