A/N: Oh. Man. Sorry... sorry... I've neglected to post for forever, as always.

---A plug to ROONEY for their new album that kicks much in the way of ass!! I also got to see them in Charlotte on May 17th and that was awesome as well, although I left earlier than when Robert and Ned came out of their bus and talked to people, so that sucked... but whatever. (I refuse to be called a groupie!)---

Well, it's summer and hopefully I'll get this (and my Hey Arnold! story, Marshmallows and Irony-- GO VISIT IT!!) thing done SOON. Or... at least by August... or something. Whatever. Here's your Chapter 4:

The Island Diaries

Chapter 4: The Trio Splits

Michael's Mental Journal--

June 16, 2002

Why I never tried to get closer to Mia, I don't know. I guess I had no idea that she felt the same way as I did. It's amazing now that I'm thinking about it… we're together, finally, and it's better than I ever imagined. Well, to tell the truth I don't even know if we're officially "together," but I really love to be around her… I love everything, and Mia seems to like me a lot too. (Well she stuck her tongue in my mouth, didn't she? I mean, you just don't do that to someone who's only you're friend, right? ---A/N: a taste of PD #4, I do say---)

When we kissed there, in the middle of the uncharted (as far as we know) island's forest, it was like nothing I'd ever experienced. I'll just cut it there, because there aren't words for how I feel right now. Okay... so maybe there are: amazing, remarkable, wonderful, ecstatic, incredible, marvelous, astounding, euphoric, splendid, peachy keen...

Peachy keen?!?!! How stupid is that? I sound like a total moron. But now I know for sure that it's not island dementia. It's Mia that's doing strange things to me.

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Mia's Diary--

June 16, 2002

We looked for food and water yesterday. Michael was pointing everything edible out, totally Han Solo of him to take charge in an emergency, even though we all know Lars is probably the more capable in this type of situation. I've only realized, about now, that he was really trying to impress me (Imagine that!) with all the Eagle Scout business the whole time. How do I know this?

Michael wasn't afraid of comforting me after I went insane there in the woods because of the arguing. I can't believe I wasn't answering him, I feel horrible for not responding right away, but because of that, I had the pleasure of experiencing what may as well have been the defining moment in my life. Oh, it was an incredible kiss. What did I expect? I mean, Michael is an incredible kisser. Even when he wasn't kissing me back during that slightly embarrassing moment with the prospect of getting off this island, it was still great.

Michael likes me... or at least I'm pretty sure. After all, he put his tongue in my mouth, did he not? That's a valid indicator of someone liking you, no? Or maybe he just needed someone to mess around with while he's away from Judith Gershner. Oh, this is depressing. Must talk to Lily. Must tell her about troubles. Yes, she must know that I am in love with her brother even though said brother may not be in love with me. I'm going to die on this island already, so what could it hurt?

Despite me being a complete wreck right now, sitting up here in some dumb tree with ants crawling up my leg, I am eternally grateful to both Lars and Michael for finding oranges, bananas, coffee beans, and a mustard plant, even though I abhor mustard and its odor. I am also grateful to myself, for finding a waterfall.

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Mia jumped out of the tree and ran to the plane wreckage, where Lars sat inside studying a map that pictured a few small islands. With her scope of it, Mia could just barely see Tiago in bold letters.

"Hey Lars!" she greeted. Lars spun around, surprised by her sudden entrance, and quickly folded the map up in what could be called a rather conspicuous way.

"Princess!" he managed to sound casual. "How do you do?"

"Oh fine...I'm fine," she replied, raising an eyebrow at his evasive behavior. "What about you?"

"Great!... as usual." Lars forced a smile.

"Well, that's nice," she said, smiling in return. "You wouldn't happen to know where Lily and Michael are, would you?"

"I believe they went a bit farther down the beach. They said something about building a raft," Lars offered, secretly deeming them idiots for attempting to construct a vessel without his guidance. But he really didn't care if they made it off the island or not, at least not after he got what he wanted. "I offered to help them, but Miss Moscovitz declined my assistance, saying that she'd like better to escape the island by her own means."

"Okay, thank you, Lars." Mia replied, not helping but notice that something was probably up with him. Maybe Lily and Michael had noticed.

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Farther down the beach, Lily sat in the sand, examining a seashell, while Michael stood perched in a tree, squinting out into the endless expanse of sparkling ocean. Sand was dusted on his now partially tanned/burnt skin, and as Mia approached the two; she noticed that he had ripped his Nirvana t-shirt off to create some sort of bandage on his leg. Oh God, what happened to his leg? Mia rushed over now, in a daze of concern, to Lily, who she figured must know of the cause of Michael's injury.

"Oh, my God! Lily, what happened to your brother's leg? Is he okay?" her face was panic-stricken.

"Ha! Of course he is!" Lily snorted. "The moron jumped off of a tiny precipice into the ocean and landed on a small rock." Michael jumped out of his lookout to interrupt Lily's belittling accusations.

"It was a cliff, Lil," he said matter-of-factly. "And that rock was sharp!" Lily punched his wound and he groaned, clutching it.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Mia asked, looking up into Michael's eyes as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Yes, of course." he replied, covering the hand on his shoulder. His eyes couldn't help but smile back at hers.

"Gag!" Lily snapped at the two of them. "Tell me when you're normal again! And in case either of you need me, which I highly doubt, as I suppose you'll just be standing in this same spot, staring at each other forever, I'll be over here." Lily pointed to a boulder near the edge of the forest as she walked to it. Mia and Michael continued to gaze into each other's eyes for seemed to be forever. Michael felt terrific in this moment, until Mia finally broke it with...

"Do you think Lars has been acting strange lately?"

Michael's daze snapped as he focused in on her question. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked, shaking his head.

"Do you think Lars has been acting weird?" she repeated.

"Um, no." he blinked, searching his thoughts. "Why?..."

"Well," Mia started, sitting down in the sand and tugging on Michael's cut off jeans for him to sit down too. She hugged her knees to her chest. "Uh, maybe Lily should be around to hear this too. She's great at analyzing situations, right?"

"Don't I know it," he laughed, as he sprang up and ran over to where Lily was sitting, carving HELP!, SAVE US, and EQUAL RIGHTS TO ALL RACES in a tree trunk. "Lily!" he called.

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"So you think that Lars might already know where we are, but he's hiding it from us..." Michael tried to put Mia's tiny bits of information together into something that seemed logical.

"Well, that would probably make the most sense, wouldn't it?" Mia's face stretched to show her exasperation.

"Actually," started Lily. "Yesterday I found a Frisbee in the forest. It looked pretty crappy though, like it had been there a while, but, I mean, it was still a Frisbee, so now we can conclude that other people have been here."

"Hey!" Mia stood up with saying this. "Maybe the people could still be here. I completely doubt it, but at least it would be something to do- y'know, search for them."

"That would make awesome material for my show!" Lily said in mock excitement. "I want my camcorder!" she wailed.

"Well, you know, we could always look for your camera, Lil." Michael offered; Lily looked up at him. "...Along with all the other stuff we lost out there. It's all still in the ocean."

"But what about my idea, guys?!" Mia interrupted.

"Mia, no offence," Lily gave her a consolation smile. "But whatever people that were here are probably... uh, I dunno... dead."

"Yeah, well," Mia sneered as her walked back to her rock. "The chances of getting your camera back are zero!" Lily stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her. "Don't you know that by now it's probably fifty feet, or more, under water?" Lily's face turned into an angry, menacing snarl. Mia couldn't help but notice that she looked like the Grinch. "Don't you know about rip tides... and currents... and, uh... stuff like that?"

"Are you trying to undermine my genius, Mia? Because, if so, I highly recommend that you pay more attention in science class." Lily growled back at her as she stepped closer, intimidating her.

Michael felt her had to break up the cat fight that was about to happen. "Actually," he said nervously, holding his arms between them like a traffic cop. "Mia's probably right." Lily stared at him in disbelief. "Really, do you essentially want to try and dive down that far when we don't have scuba equipment or even goggles?"

"Hell yes I do!" Lily responded. "Do you know how much I paid for that camera?"

"Fine! Go get it!" Mia yelled back at her. "I hope you drown!" She collapsed down in the sand, tears streaming out of her eyes.

Lily started walking back to her boulder. "Y'know, Mike," she hissed. "You don't have to defend her just because she's your..." Lily paused for effect, then rang out in a sing-songy voice, "Girl-friend." Michael just glared angrily at her, then turned around and sat by Mia in the sand.

"She's right, you know," Mia sniffled. "You don't have to agree with me just because I'm your-" she sniffled and looked up at Michael, deciding to change her wording. "-we're together."

"No, Mia," he said softly into her ear, hugging her. "But I do agree with you. I mean, really... I was probably going to be the one that ended up diving for all that stuff anyway." Mia laughed, sniffed, and looked up into his comforting, brown eyes. He smiled down at her.

"What would I do with you..." she whispered, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

A/N: That was chapter 4! Hope you liked it! Thanks for the reviews!!! 3 3