Chapter Six: I'll be the One to Burn You

Dawn "Did you think you were going to win something with me by pulling that?" I confronted Jasper, who was a typical white male—pretending to be nice to little minority girls like myself so that he could get a piece of the pie, just to say he "hit that." And then he lied. Lying was like the worst thing to do. EVER. How can you trust people that lie to your face?

"No, I thought I was saving your ass from extra chores, but with your bitchy attitude, you'll have extra clean up in say ... oh—two days. Tops." He responded, without missing a beat.

"You are such a liar. And I hate liars. I hate them and I hate you, so stay out of my life! Stop pretending like we're friends and I like you." I added.

"Friends? How could I stand to be around someone who has serious anger issues and would kill me the moment they got their hands on a weapon? Think about it." Jasper began. "And look what you did to my face. You should be apologizing for that."

"Did I do that? Ooops. I'm sorry." I uttered, sarcastically, not trying to hide the smile on my face. "If you weren't such a little sissy, you could've taken it like a man, but I'm afraid that that might involve too much testosterone, which you so don't have."

"Yeah, you've got enough for the both of us." Jasper spat back, as I flicked him off. I didn't have all day to argue with someone who just didn't get it.

Katherine

"Dawn, I don't know if you know this, but everyone is getting really fed up with you." I told her straight-forwardly, which was unlike me. I guess you could say that she was rubbing off on me. Augie had opted not to sit with us today, and it was just us and Minku aka Mini.

"And who is everyone exactly?" Dawn shot back. "You? Juliette? Scott? I don't care what they say or think because they're nothing to me. If anyone has beef with me, let them be the man and tell me to my face, and not talk to you about it." She finished, taking a bite of her baked potato.

"But that's just it. They don't know how to approach you or what to say to you. You're like a time-bomb. Everyone here is scared to talk to you. And I'm beginning to think that you hate almost everyone, don't you?"

"Not Mini, Augie, or even you ... though you're working my nerves." Dawn joked, finishing the rest of her food.

"Do you hate white people, don't you?"

"White people, racists, people devoid of melanin ... I guess so." She admitted, as if it weren't a big deal.

"That's your reason?" I shook my head in disbelief. "Do you know that my family is white? I was adopted when I was ten years old?"

"And? The entire continent is run by old racist white men that do whatever they can to destroy Black, Native American, and Latino communities. They've even inflicted enough Asians ... making them think that they are white. Which makes me wonder, what box do you check?"

"I know who I am." I answered simply. "But, I can't stand to be around someone who could be so much better, but is drowning in their hate."

"So, I'm just making it up then?"

"No." Mini joined in. "Some of it is true, but ... hate causes more hate."

"And we're not about that here." I added, as Mini and I left the table simultaneously.

Jasper

"Today we're doing an Adventure-Bound Scavenger Hunt. There will be five teams of ten. We'll draw names to find out who is with who." Peter explained. I stole a glance at Dawn, who wasn't surrounded by her usual crowd. Katherine and Augie. I heard that Katherine had blasted her out a couple of hours ago, but I couldn't believe it.

"Jasper ... you're with Dawn." Sophie informed me as Scott hid a smile. This was going to be an adventure.

"Don't kill each other." He added.

"We won't." I answered, walking over to her. "So, you ready?" I asked, doing the gentlemanly thing and carrying our bag of survival gear.

"Whatever." Dawn headed down the path opposite of everyone else. I didn't complain, but followed her because she never listened to anyone else anyway.

"You think you've won some sort of prize, don't you?" She asked, after we had been walking for over an hour.

"No, I'm stuck with you." I joked as she flicked me off. "You must be really into that sort of thing but--" I stopped talking as Dawn knocked me up against a tree.

"Just because you're carrying our stuff, doesn't mean shit. You're worth nothing to me. You're gonna follow my lead." She ran off as I hurried to keep up.

"I think we're lost." I commented after another hour had passed.

"No we aren't."

"We haven't found anything." I explained, dropping the bags. "I need a break."

"You are such a baby. Give me the compass." She demanded, as I took a water break. "We're just west instead of east, that's all."

"Oh, that's all." I chuckled. "I hope you learned wilderness skills on your reservation, because otherwise, we're lost and it's all your fault." Dawn scowled at me, kicking at a rock. I guess I hit a nerve. Oh well. They would come looking for us soon ... but then a thought hit me. This was a two day thing ... we could be lost here for a very long time ....

(A/N: Hey, what do you say? Review and let me know, k? NL)