Author's Note: Alrighty, I just wanna thank Mandy for her reviews. Dude, you rock so much!!! Your reviews really brighten my day; you have no idea! Thanks so much! So, thanks for that, girl. Oh, and I'm so sorry for the length of time it took me to post. I swear, I'll try to get these up fast from now on.
"Guys, come on! Get up!" Kat yells, getting out of bed and shaking Juliette awake. I've been up for about half an hour by now, but no one has a clue. It's the only time I ever get time to think peacefully. Then again, Juliette's random talking in her sleep is just a little disconcerting.
I turn to look at Daisy, who's also lying down on her bed, looking at the ceiling.
"Don't you think it's weird that Queenie didn't wake us up today?" I grumble. Daisy cracks a smile.
"I think this is just one of her days for being in a sulky mood…" Daisy's gone nuts! Absolutely crazy, that one.
"Sulky? Princess?" Now this might be good for a laugh.
"Or as close as she gets to it," she adds. I smirk.
"Right," I sigh, lifting myself out of bed. This is gonna be a long day. I'm just getting my stuff together for a shower when I hear the door open and Hannah comes in. Beautiful, early morning group! Please, don't let it be that!
"Guys, pay attention. We're going on a day hike today, so get your stuff together."
"Where are we going?" Kat asks.
"You'll see," Hannah replies, leaving. I hate surprises.
"I always hated Mondays," I sigh, going into the bathroom.
"So did Garfield," Daisy adds. I roll my eyes and close the door. Wonderful! Time to myself. I don't get this one often. I walk to the shower and look at it disgustedly. Not even this can get me clean. I hate this feeling. It's like, no matter what I do, I'm always gonna be dirty and disgusting and awful. Why couldn't Walt keep his hands to himself? Why?
Whatever, I have to shower at some point and it ain't getting any easier. I strip down and step in. I turn the dial to make it as hot as possible. The water's stinging my skin. Even boiling hot water won't do it for me! The worst time is when I'm around any guys. Any guys at all. Peter even! They all remind me of those horrible men on the streets. The ones who would pay for… man, I can't even think it! What's the matter with me! Just what the hell is wrong with me?
"Shelby! Come on! Some of us want showers too, you know?" Kat yells in.
"Fine, I'll be out in a sec," I yell back. Why can't she just be patient? It's only been a minute. Wonder what got up her ass and died… on second thought… it probably didn't die. Okay, enough for now!
I step out of the shower, dry off, and get my clothes on. I do this as quickly as possible, every day. Just get it done. That's all.
After having brushed my teeth, and my hair, I walk out. "All yours," I say. Kat jumps in. "Calm down. It's not going anywhere." She smirks at me and closes the door. The other girls are getting all their stuff packed for the hike. Maybe I should do that too. I sigh and take my pack out from under my bed and pack in what I'll need, mostly water and a change of clothes, you know, in case.
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"This is a day hike, guys. Just up and back. Unless you want to be coming down in the dark, I'd keep up pace," Hannah calls out to us. We're climbing up this mountain. We're nearly at the top and it's about 1 o'clock or so. Man, this was the most boring waste of my time ever! The best thing that came out of it was getting out of classes. Fun, fun! Oh, and I get to spend time thinking… which is, as we all know, my favourite passtime.
"Don't look at me, talk to her," I say, spotting Juliette who's is actually not walking… what a surprise!
"I don't think I can do this today," she whines. God! Give me a break! She fakes it so much, I can't believe people keep falling for it over and over again.
"Juliette, you were fine five minutes ago," Hannah tells her.
"Well, I'm not fine now!" she whines again. Why don't you get over yourself?
"Did you eat breakfast?" Hannah asks. Oh yeah! Maybe that's it! She just needs her daily barf.
"Yes, everything." Hannah gives her this look. At least she's questioning her act this time. "I did! I ate!" she protests.
"She's not lying, I saw her," Scott says. He came up right behind me and was looking at Juliette as if he actually cared. Juliette's trying to walk it off. as she passes Scott he looks at her closely. "You look kinda pale," he practically whispers.
"Stomach cramps?" Hannah asks. Juliette nods. "Hey, this is for real, right?" God, you don't know her at all, do you, Hannah? She always fakes this shit. And I totally know why.
"Maybe she just needs her daily barf," I say. Hannah gives me a look that clearly tells me not to go there. But I do so enjoy "there." Can you tell I'm bored?
"I'm not faking," Juliette says in a little voice. Aw come on! Even I can do better than that!
"Okay. Katherine, I want you to take Juliette back down to campus, get her to Dr. Gibbs," Hannah says. No! You're letting her win? That's so not fair. I would never, not in a million years, get away with that. Watch.
"You know, I have this shooting pain," I say, rubbing my neck. Hannah and Juliette both look at me as if to say shut up. Fine whatever, point proven anyway. I turn around and see Katherine walking up to get Princess. Oh, she does not look like she's in the mood for Queenie's games either.
I just follow down where Daisy and Ezra went. Might as well contribute to the finishing up of this stupid day hike as the daylight's still around.
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So, we got to the top, and then started down again with nothing happening. Hannah tried to get us to sing, but none of us were in the mood… shocker! Ezra started complaining about having to climb. That's when we all started shutting ourselves off into our own worlds. Daisy tried to talk to Ezra… a little. She was just playing with his mind. I think that's a hobby of hers.
Oh, hey! This is the spot where Juliette put on her little act. Ah! Just looking around here makes me mad that she got to go back, and we all got stuck up on this stupid mountain! Hey, maybe this mountain's some sort of metaphor for something… no wait! That would be too logical and too useful. This is just pointless climbing. They're trying to wear us out so that we'll crack easily. They don't realize that a street life will toughen someone up, up and beyond mountains.
As we turn a corner, Ezra starts moaning about pains in his legs again.
"Please, just stop moaning about it," Hannah says, shutting him up. Thank you! I forgive you for the little believing-Juliette's-crazy-story incident. You're my hero!
We come around the bend and… wait a second! Peter, Katherine and… Sheriff Curtis? They're all there, standing there, looking around. Okay so what's happened?
"What's happened?" Hannah asks, spotting them and realizing that something's horribly wrong.
"We can't find Juliette," Kat says.
"Peter," Hannah says. Yes, Hannah, maybe he'll tell us that Kat's lying and that this is all a joke!
"You're kidding, right? Wha--what do you mean you can't find her?" Scott protests.
"She just vanished?" Ezra asked. Wow, you are one smart cookie!
"Come on, she's got to be around here somewhere," Auggie says. Well, yeah, somewhere on this earth, as opposed to what Ezra was suggesting… but something tells me she's not around here.
"Alright! Settle. Wherever she is, she couldn't have gone far," Peter says, grabbing their attention and preventing the boys from panicking. God! They're so predictable. "Okay. Sun's going down. We can't keep searching for her in the dark, it's too dangerous. We've gotta get off this mountain," he instructs. Sounds good to me. I've been looking forward to getting off ever since I woke up.
"I'm staying," Hannah says. Of course you are.
"Okay," Peter acknowledges.
"Me too," Scott pitches in. Oh, come on! This is ridiculous! Say it with me: R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S! "I'm not leaving without her." Need I say more?
"Yeah, me too," Auggie pitches in. Well, that one was obvious, I mean, he totally loves her.
"Yeah, I'll hang out," Ezra adds. This is too funny.
"No. We're all going down together. Juliette knows to stay close. If she wanders back, Hannah will be here," Peter assures. Well, that's all fine and dandy, but she so didn't just wander off. Come on, how stupid do you have to get?
"I'm staying. Alright? She's gonna freak out there. She won't remember a thing," Scott says. This is actually just hitting me now how funny it is. This whole time, he hardly gives a rat's ass about her, but the second Queenie's in trouble, boom, he's right there, ready to be the hero.
"No, we're all going down, now come on," Peter says, but I don't even see him. I just keep watching Scott. Man, as pathetic as it is, I really wish he cared about me that way. I've never had anyone care about me that much… man! I need some heavy-duty help. I love how quickly I can switch opinions on this guy… it's chemical, it's got to be!
Suddenly he looks at me. I don't even blink; I keep my eye contact as if my life depended on it. That's one thing I can do: keep eye contact really well. He looks almost disgusted with me. What is it with this boy? Have I ever given him even the slightest hint of what I used to be? Where does he get this from? Is it a vibe or something? "What are you looking at?" he asks.
"Just observing," I reply coolly. Good job, Shelby. now he really doesn't think you're stalkerish at all!
He walks off, following Peter, Daisy follows, and then me. Peter goes off to the side to comfort Hannah.
"Juliette!" I hear her scream, and I slightly jump. Man, that woman can yell loudly. And I know, I've been on the receiving end of it before… not often, but I have.
We follow Sheriff Curtis down the rest of the way.
"Well, this was fun," I say sarcastically. Everyone gives me looks that plainly tell me to shut up. Scott looks absolutely raging mad. "Okay, I'll be good," I say slowly. Everyone goes off to the lodge to hang around and wait for news. I go off to the dorm.
I need some alone time. They are just too hung up on her. She's such a drama queen and if you ask me, it's all an act. The whole bloody thing. It's her way of getting her attention. Stupid girl.
What if she actually got lost though? I seriously doubt it, but still. It's starting to get dark. That wouldn't be any fun at all: stuck up in the mountains… still. Eww, gross!
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Alright, well, it's been what? An hour? Maybe they've gotten to doing something fun. Probably not. Okay, maybe they've started talking or something. You never know. Might as well see.
I go over to the lodge. Hey, anything's better than sitting around an empty dorm, twiddling your thumbs and thinking of ways of getting Scott… wow, we really need more hot guys at this school.
I walk into the lodge and I see them all sitting around, except for Auggie who's standing in front of the fireplace. Wonder what they were saying.
"Home: where the heart wasn't," Ezra says. Wow, that's so poetic of you!
"Well, look who's here," Daisy says. Let's just ignore that one, shall we?
I stop and look at them all. I clasp my hands and take a breath.
"Hey, how 'bout we cut the gloom and doom, campers?" I say, ultra-sarcastically, with my little arm movements. Auggie turns around to just look at me, then back into the fire. Okay… "Look," I say, sighing, "we all know Juliette's a drama queen who loves lapping up attention. My guess is that she's gone into seclusion until it's time for her to make her grand re-entrance." Scott gets up and leaves. Alrighty then. I take a seat where he was sitting, my legs propped up over the arm. Katherine follows him out. Soon, Daisy and Ezra get up and Auggie leads the way out. "What?" I ask Daisy before she actually leaves. Ezra looks at me and shrugs. "What'd I say?" I ask. He just turns and goes. Okay… that made sense. I know they're all tense, but it's so true! All of it.
I sigh and sit up straight in the chair, propping my arms up behind my head. Wow, that was a long Monday, if you ask me.
After about ten minutes of just staring at the hypnotizing flames, I get up, and go back to the dorm.
No one talks to me, but I don't really push it either, as I get ready for bed. Whatever, I've dealt with silence before. I'll deal with it again. Although I hate the silence. A storm always follows.
With that thought in mind, I drift off to sleep.
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"Come on, get up!" Jeff calls in the dorm.
"Since when does Jeff wake us up?" Kat asks. Obviously she's not thinking properly.
"Let's see, since Hannah's off on that mountain, waiting for Juliette," I point out.
"And Peter's up there with her," Daisy says.
"Huh?" Kat asks.
"Well, did you really think he'd let Hannah stay up there alone?"
"Guess not."
"Well, might as well get up," I sigh, pulling myself out of bed and walking into the bathroom.
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A fifteen minutes later after we left the dorm, Frank came to tell us that search and rescue was coming, so we gathered outside the admin building.
"So, what's taking search and rescue so long?" Auggie asks, as he returns from the bathroom. We're all sitting on the steps. And I've got the prime position: right in behind Scott.
"They're professionals," Daisy says sarcastically.
"Give me a double pepperoni pizza and a barf bag and I'll have Juliette back in an hour," I say. Funny thing is I'm not sarcastic at all.
"Shelby, how 'bout you shut your pie hole, huh?" Auggie asks. Fine whatever. Just calm down. Her boyfriend's right there, and you're being a tad obvious about this crush of yours.
"Don't say I didn't tell you," I reply, as I see Auggie sit down on the other side of Daisy.
"What makes you so sure?" Scott asks almost bitterly. Does he know Juliette at all?
"She's psychically charged," Daisy said. Geez, give me a break!
"Yeah, right," Ezra says disbelievingly. I agree with him, but they don't need to know that. I lean forward to look at him closer.
"How'd you like me to turn you into a dung heap?" I ask him. This is fun!
We all look over at the road as the sound we've been waiting for approaches. A dirty, dark green pick-up truck pulls up right in front of us. Through the glare, I can faintly make out two people inside. Two guys. I get up one clean, smooth move, dust myself off, and walk down the steps towards them. This older one gets out of the driver's seat. But my oh my, the guy who's in the passenger seat is fine! They're both natives, with black, short hair. The younger one looks just about 20, not a day older. Bonus: they're both in uniform.
"Which one of you is search, and which one's rescue?" I ask in my uber-sexy voice, checking out the younger one.
"I'm Aaron Reifel. This is Hank Farris," the older one says. Oh, so young guy's got a name. Hank gives me a curt nod. I lift my eyebrows.
"Aren't you a little young for a smoky suit, Hank?" I ask, making him slightly uncomfortable. My god, I can flirt, but this is ridiculous. Hank looks at Aaron, confused.
"Where's Sheriff Swan?" Aaron asks, cutting in. Kat pops up beside me.
"He's inside, I'll show you," she says, taking over, and leading them away. Thanks, Kat. I get one last glance at Hank as he walks off.
Ezra clears his throat to get my attention. "Uh, you're drooling."
Without changing my expression, I reply, "and you could be bleeding."
"Right, well, let's go off for breakfast," Daisy says. As we walk off she adds, "you could be a little less obvious, you know."
"But there's no fun in that," I reply. She rolls her eyes and they all go off. I kind of hang back and as Scott walks by me he gives me this disgusted look. You don't know me, so don't judge!
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"Guys, you still have to go to class, you know," Frank says, coming up to us, as breakfast is finishing.
"Wait, two people from our group are missing," I point out. Kate left with the search and rescue guys… shocker. "We should wait for them."
"There's nothing you can do, just waiting," he points out.
"Besides, I doubt you really care," Scott points out. I roll my eyes and chose to ignore him.
Just as we're all getting up, and the bell's ringing, we see Juliette, Kat, Peter, and Hannah walk in the caf, so we all sit back down.
"Hey," Scott says, giving her a hug. I raise my eyebrows at this, but Peter's getting her some food, and Hannah's talking to one of the kids cleaning up. The others have all gone to their afternoon classes.
"Here, sit down, Juliette," Peter says, setting down some food for her. "Try to eat."
"What happened?" Scott asks, as we all sit down around the table, Ezra's still standing.
"Where were you?" Auggie asks.
"We found her in this underground cave, down the mountain," Peter says. "She fell in."
"Wow, that's harsh," Ezra says.
"What happened?" Scott repeats.
"Yeah, I found you screaming and crying. What did happen?" Peter asks. I think it's odd he's letting her tell us all this.
"I was afraid. I mean… I was lost down there, and it was getting dark," Juliette starts.
"Never fear the dark," Daisy says cryptically. Alrighty then… I roll my eyes.
"Then, my mother… my mother, and all her attacks on me… it started… it started coming back down there. I saw her down there," she says, trying desperately to make people believe her. Peter doesn't look convinced. Yep, Juliette's finally lost it. She was seeing her mother? "I did."
"Your… mother…" I say slowly, making sure. Hey, I know we're all screwed up, but this is ridiculous. She nods. Okay, so I was just trying not to make assumptions.
"Juliette, we're all really proud of you," Hannah says, bringing her away from the hallucination topic.
"Yeah. You did exactly what we taught you," Peter adds. No, not all… she didn't keep her sanity. "Now I want you to eat, and spend the rest of the day recuperating in your dorm." What? She gets the day off because she fell in a hole, and we have to go to class?
"Where is she?" Queenie asks anxiously. Who? Your mother?
"Where's who?" Peter asks carefully.
"The girl with the shawl." Oh my, so it wasn't only your mother? Good to know.
"You mean the bones?" Peter clarifies. There was a skeleton, and Juliette imagined a girl from them? How sad. She nods to Peter's question. "Dr. Gibbs is taking a look at them. Coroner's off the mountain, so he's kin of pinch-hitting," he explains. Happy thoughts.
"Those bones must've really spooked you out, huh, Jule?" Ezra asks.
"No," she replies simply. Maybe we should go over the basics once more. Bones: dead people. Dead people: scary shit. "She was with me. She helped me. She stood up for me." Holy fuck, this girl is crazy. She's really off the map!
"Alright, let's let Juliette finish eating and the rest of you," he snaps his fingers, "off to class," Peter says, looking a little uncomfortable with Princess's state of mind.
"No way," Auggie sighs. I totally agree.
"Way," Peter replies.
"I do think we've already put in a full day," I say, trying to push for a free morning. Hey! More sleep.
"Entitles us to some free time," Scott says. Sounds right to me.
"At least till…" Ezra starts.
"Lunch," Daisy finishes. Peter chuckles. I think we're getting a 'no.'
"Grumble, grumble. Go to class now," he says. Thought so. Damn it! I sigh and get up. As I'm leaving the caf, I hear Kate say "Glad you're back, Jules." Could she be any more of a cheerleader? I swear, in a past life, she had to have been one.
I follow the others off to math. Fun, fun. Twirly finger. Sometimes my sarcasm blows my mind.
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Alright, so after an hour and fifteen minutes of math, my mind is buzzing. I leave the class slowly, getting all my books together. This is such a slow day. And the one thing I despise more than math is biology. Oh, god! Who made up my timetable? Anyway, I have ten minutes before class starts, so I drop my books off in my class… I think I'll go down to the main common area to see if I can find something to do… or someone to look at. No, I'm not going to do someone! I can't, either way… okay, enough with the dirtiness. Need soap!
I walk down the spiral staircase and see Kat talking to Hank. I pause to watch. Hank looks like he likes Kate, and she looks a little uncomfortable, like she doesn't know what to do.
"Are we having a moment?" I ask sarcastically, breaking it if there was one. I walk down the rest of the staircase. As I come towards the pair, I say, "By the way, I'm Shelby," and hold out my hand. As I shake it, not letting go, I add, "And if I fall in a hole, you promise to come after me?" man, this is shameless!
"Well, I can't make any promises," he says with a chuckle. Not willing to play along? Fine. I see him look at Kat, and she gives a little smile. Oh, promises to me. I see.
"Not the promising type," I state. I give Kat a rather hard nudge with my elbow. "Careful, Kat." With that, I walk between them, and off to get a glass of water before bio.
As I sit in bio, I can't help but hate this subject. It's so dull. So many notes. So academic. Geez, why does school have to remain boring no matter where we go? When I was back home, it was boring… then again, I could never concentrate, because I had Walt on my mind. All the time. All the fucking time. Even now, thousands of miles away, he's still on my mind. God! Get off my mind! Get away!
I have to concentrate on bio. That's the only way to go.
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Alright, so I survived bio and lunch without a breakdown. Now, I just have to get through kitchens. But this whole morning was really stressful. I'm so not into doing this right now.
I fill a big pot with water from one of the many faucets and bring the pot over to the kitchen table.
"I hate kitchen cleanup," I say through gritted teeth. Daisy pops up beside me and hands me a scrubber. "Gee, thanks." I look at her nicely. "I don't suppose you'd be interested in…"
"In your dreams, dreamer," she replies creepily and goes off to sweeping. I start scrubbing. I hate that Daisy gets to sweep, and I have to scrub. I feel like Cinderella.
Hannah comes in the kitchen and walks up to the table.
"How's Juliette?" Kat asks quickly.
"Resting," Hannah replies, putting her mug down with the dirty dishes.
"Oh, yeah, she was pretty toasted around the edges. It was uh--it was scary," Ezra says. No kidding. Toasted, what a euphemism.
"Is she going to be okay?" Scott asks. Nope. No one recovers from that sort of shit.
"She just needs a little time to recover," Hannah replies. More like a long time.
"Can I see her?" he asks hopefully.
"Not right now," Hannah says, crushing his hopes. Ha, ha, sucker.
"Is there anything we can do?" Kat asks.
"Yeah, stick to your duties," she replies. Oh, give me a break.
"In hell they must have pots and pans," I say. I look over and see Daisy sweeping. "Ugh. She even sweeps creepy." With that she looks at me, trying to scare me. I roll my eyes and look back into the pot.
"I need to talk to you," Hannah says. I knew it was coming.
"Look, if this is about my attitude, I'd really prefer not to talk about it right now," I say, getting angrier. "If you don't mind," I add, raising my eyebrows.
"It's not about your attitude," she says calmly. Wow, after that display, I'm quite shocked. She walks towards the door. What the heck, I get out of some work at least.
So I sigh and throw my sponge into the pot I was cleaning. I go meet her at the door. We're each resting on one side of the frame when she tells me what it is.
"It's about Juliette," she says. I let out a short, exasperated sigh. What? What now? Has she lost more weight or something?
"Her?" I ask. I take a second to breath and look at the others in the kitchen. They're not listening… "How is she?" I ask, genuinely concerned. Though I have a rep to keep up, I still do care about a person's mental well-being.
"Needing a friend," Hannah states as though I ought to understand it.
"If she needs a shoulder to cry on, I volunteer Kate," I say truthfully. I've never been the type of girl that Juliette needs in a friend.
"Actually, I think the call on this one is for tough love. Done with real sensitivity," she says, shrugging. You've got to be kidding me!
I snort softly. "That you know I don't do," I reply.
"You do it in group all the time, Shelby. You seem to have a talent for pushing all the right buttons," she shoots back, not buying what I say. She smiles then leaves me to make up my decision.
I look over to the others doing kitchen clean-up. So, it is Queenie. But then again, it's kitchens… and I'd be in major shit if I didn't do it. Hannah would be disappointed with me. Whatever. I'll do it… I get out of kitchens, right?
I smirk as I start to take off my gloves ostentatiously.
"I," I say, catching their attention, "am out of here," I finish up, throwing my gloves at them. They all look at the gloves, then at me.
"No, uh, this is called group clean-up," Auggie points out, actually pointing at the dishes. Dude, I know what clean-up encompasses.
"You can't leave," Scott says challengingly. Want to challenge Hannah on that one, hun?
"Not till we're done," Ezra adds. See? That's where you're wrong.
I grab the edges of my apron and bring them to the front. "Hmmm, guys, guys, guys," I sigh. "I'm on a rescue mission." I start to take off the apron. "You may resume whining once I'm out of sight. Oh, and save me some ice cream. I'll be back," I add with a smile. I put the apron on the counter and watch them all look disappointed.
Auggie grabs a rag from the counter and throws it at me. I recoil as it hits my arms. "Geez," I say, shaking the cold, dirty water off my arm. With that, I walk out of the cafeteria, then out of the lodge and am on my way to the girls' dorm.
As I reach the door, I see Hannah. Oh, god, what now? Pointers? "Now, be nice, and try to get her out of this funk. Oh, and I'll make sure you guys remain alone, but if I hear screaming or anything wrong, I'll come in immediately," she warns.
"I'll be good," I say sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I walk in. It's quiet. This is weird, the dorm is never quiet. I see Princess in her bed, lying sideways, with her back turned to me. I lean on the frame of the divider and cross my arms. Here we go. I clear my throat, but she doesn't move. "Cut the act, you're not sleeping," I say confidently. Really, it would be quite funny if she was, but under the circumstance, I somehow doubt it immensely. "I said you're not sleeping," I say a little louder, walking towards her bed. I reach into my breast pocket and pull out a cigarette. "Want a smoke?" I ask casually, sticking my cigarette in my mouth.
"No," she answers. Damn, she is awake. Now I have to fix her.
"Good. They're bad for you." I sit down on her bed, looking in the direction of her feet. I sigh and pull out my lighter. "So what's this all about, anyway?" I ask. "Finally met your match in the 'be thin to win' competition," I ask, smiling the whole time. Luckily she can't see me, or she'd have a fit.
"I don't want to talk about it," she says, getting slightly angry. God! I have to help you out until you do, so you will talk about it.
"Two words," I say exasperatedly, taking the cigarette out of my mouth. I turn to her, "Get a grip!" I look up at the ceiling. Get. A. Grip… "Okay, make that three." My bad. I put the cigarette back in my mouth.
"You don't understand," she replies, as I try to light my cigarette. Damn, why won't this work?
"So enlighten me," I say, with it still in my mouth.
"Something happened to me," she finally says. I give up on getting the lighter to work and pull the cigarette out of my mouth.
"Was it a good thing or a bad thing?" I ask slowly and mockingly.
"A life-altering thing," she corrects.
"Great, so your life's altered," I state. Wonderful. "Like I can really see some improvement here. You're acting like the same old 'poor me' twig you always do," I say harshly, giving the cigarette another chance. I really need this nicotine right now.
"They're going to take her away," she says. I roll my eyes, sit up and turn around on the bed to face her, grabbing the cigarette out of my mouth.
"They who? She who?" I ask, though I think I know the answers to these.
"The girl I found. My friend," she says. Oh. My. God.
"Your… friend," I say, confirming, but smiling all along. "Listen Jule, I've seen the dead. Trust me, once they're dead, they're no longer your friend," I say, sharing my bit of knowledge with her, images of Patty rushing back to me.
"You don't understand," she says impatiently. More than you know, hunny. More than you know. "Just go away and leave me alone," she whines. Oh, a reaction. Fun!
"Uh huh. There it is: the new, life-altered Juliette," I state mockingly. She turns so she's lying on her back, looking at me angrily. However, the whole effect at intimidation is ruined by the fact that she's holding a stuffed bear, making her look like the scared little girl she really is… we both are.
"Why are you in my face?" she asks.
"Because I take joy in provoking people," I practically whisper, my eyes narrowing considerably. She sits up, as I add, "Call it a vice. Call it a virtue," I add, while she's sitting up and looking at me. Then my face falls as I see that she's really scared.
"I'm a mess," she simply states. Then her face contorts and she looks like she's about to cry. "Why am I a mess?" she asks, verging on hysteria.
I half-smile. "Good question," I say softly. "That's why we're here." Wow, I'm surprising myself with the sensitivity. "Things could always get worse," I say, seeing an opportunity to brighten the mood. "Like turning into a size 14!" I say mockingly. She gives me a smile and a little laugh. Well at least she thinks I'm funny. "Okay, I gotta go. Kitchen clean-up," I say, as I get up.
She nods and lies back down. "Thanks."
I open the door to leave and am confronted with Hannah and Peter. I'm startled to see Peter there, but recover quickly, closing the door behind me. I walk right up to them, smile, shrug, and walk off, back to the lodge.
"Well?" they both say at the same time once I'm about five feet away from them.
I turn around to face them. "I got a glare out of her… and a smile," I add with a smile of my own. "I've had worse therapy sessions," I say with a smirk and a raise of the eyebrow. They both give me a look I can't quite decipher so I turn and go back to the lodge.
When I walk in the cafeteria, my group is sitting at one of the tables eating ice cream. I walk up to them, eager to get some of my own. I stay standing, leaning on the back of one of the chairs.
"How'd it go?" Kat asks. I shrug.
"She's cool." I look down at the ice cream. "Mmm, I'm just way too good for you guys," I say, sitting down. I pick up my spoon, but put it down two seconds later. Looking around at them, I say sarcastically, "Oh, gee, sorry, guys. I guess I missed cleanup, huh?" I look down at the bowl and pick up my spoon. "Ah, is this chocolate sauce?" I ask.
"Chocolate," Auggie confirms, as I take a bite. Scott snorts, as this disgusting taste hits me.
"Chocolate-soy sauce," Scott corrects, laughing. As everyone else joins in on the laughter, I bend over to try and swallow this shit.
"Not bad," Daisy says, taking some more. "I've never tried it with soy sauce before," she adds, taking some of mine.
"That's disgusting," Auggie says, as everyone sits back, pushing that crap away from them.
"So, whose brilliant idea was it?" I ask curiously.
"Mine!" Scott says proudly.
"Go figure," I say, punching him on the arm.
"Come on, guys. We have class," Kat says.
"Party pooper," Daisy says, as we all get up to go get our books.
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"The tradition of smudging goes back many, many generations. Let the fragrant smoke of the four sacred herbs -- sage, sweetgrass, cedar, and tobacco -- wash over you and cleanse you physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually so that your thoughts are pure and your hearts are free," Aaron explains.
We're all gathered at the totem pole. It's a funeral ceremony for the bones that Queenie found in the woods. He's passing this smoking bowl around, and we're to fan the smoke over our heads and onto our chests. This is ridiculous if you ask me, but I go along with it, out of respect. Daisy's really into it, it's kind of funny.
We all separate as Juliette comes through the crowd, and goes up to the front where Peter and the other counselors are.
"Chief Seattle believed that the dead spirits would remain among the living watching over them, protecting them. This girl, be she ancestor or friend, is one of those protectors. We have returned her to her resting place and we bless her," Aaron continues.
"We also remember that she was someone's child, lost to her mother and to her father. I'm sure they looked for her and mourned for her. Their loved one gone but not forgotten. Today we remember her and them and the continuation of life's mystery," Peter says. Wow, life's a mystery, what an understatement.
Peter looks at Princess, she smiles and moves up, in front of us.
"Hannah found this for me. It's from Mark Twain. He wrote it for his daughter when she died.
Warm summer sun,
shine kindly here.
Warm southern wind, blow softly here.
Green sod above, lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart, good night."
