June 11th, 2006

When I came to I realized that I had left the fire going when Axel left; so I rushed out only to see a huge pile of smoke going in the air, I was surprised that no one else saw it.

"Oh snap! Who forgot to put the fire out!" I said to myself.

Jason didn't seem to be bothered by it; he was still knocked out on his bed. I could hear him saying, "Ronaldo goes to the net…and goal!"

I shook my head in disbelief and ran out to the water calling for help when I realized that no one else was coming.

Then out of the clearing I saw two figured running my way with some sort of hose like object.

"Stand aside!" they shouted.

I backed up tripping on a tree branch that had fallen during the night. Not feeling the pain, I watched them streaking towards the fire.

The two girls worked simultaneously to put the fire out, one putting the hose in the ocean, the other spraying at the fire. As the fire went down I looked at my foot that was cut a little and took a piece of palm and wrapped it around the foot so it wouldn't spread the infection.

The girls came over to me, "What were you thinking starting a fire like that!" one of them asked.

"I had no idea it would get like this, you see I accidentally forgot to put it out last night."

"Yea right this was no accident! And it certainly wasn't a mistake, you trying to burn down the island son?"

And that's when axel crawled up from the ocean and said, "Yes ladies I see I forgot to put out the fire, it was my fault."

The girls looked at each other and laughed, "Oh man you're killing me! A talking alligator, what will they think of next!"

Axel scratched his head and replied, "Don't be mistaken for my knowledge, I have seen you people since you landed here, scurrying about your life trying to make it better for us when in fact you're making it worse!"

The girls had no clue that Jason and I were part of the group that had landed on the island.

"So how long have you guys been here alone?"

I took a guess, "About three weeks."

They nodded in agreement, "Well let us introduce ourselves!"

The taller one announced, "I'm Tara!"

And the shorter one perked up, "I'm Cree!"

All together they said, "And we're the Double Duo!"

I slowly started laughing to myself and soon it grew into a hysterical laugh.

Axel only looked at me in confusion, "Well Brian what's so funny this time?"

I looked at him, "You know how many times I've heard something as stupid as that! You've got to be kidding me!"

Tara didn't seem the least bit amused, "Well next time you're caught in a jam don't look for us to save you! Where's your friend, didn't you say there was someone else here?"

I pointed towards the hut, "Yes Jason is still sleeping"

And just as I said that he came out scratching his back, "Hey Brian I heard an explosion what's…" His voice trailed off as he saw Cree standing there.

I didn't blame him for not finishing up the sentence, all and all Cree was as attractive as you'd hope to find in a girl. Her water blue eyes sparkled like his and her golden blond hair blew around in the breeze that could be felt on the island.

I waved my hand several times in front of Jason's face hoping to not embarrass him at all.

By the time he had come to she started laughing a bit. She whispered something in my ear that I couldn't quite make out. I just shrugged and went back inside.

Meanwhile Jason and Cree stood outside talking for a bit. Tara, however, felt the need to come inside and continue bothering me about the fire.

"You should be at my knees praising me for putting out that thing! Never in all my life have I seen such incompetents!"

I didn't respond to anything she said knowing she'd only argue it. Soon I stopped and turned around facing her.

"Look I have a lot of work to do around here, if you aren't going to help then please leave."

She stood about the same height as me nearly 5'11 as well and looked at me, "Oh don't worry about me I can do whatever you need me to, and just tell me what sir!"

I clenched my fists ready to pounce on her but I knew that wouldn't help at all.

I poked my head outside to see what Cree and Jason were up to. They were in the water and Jason was trying to teach her how to spear a fish. All and all they were quite the same in most ways, very shy, the antisocial of our group, and both had an excellent understanding of soccer.

Also they both never took seriously to anything, only when it became a challenge did they speak their mind.

Tara and I however, took everything seriously. At the rate I saw this going between us I knew I wouldn't have a chance with anyone else.

It was about 3:45 in the afternoon by now even though we didn't have watches we could tell by how high the sun was. I decided to take a break by the time the sun was starting to go down.

The four of us agreed to stay in the hut that Jason and I had almost finished. The sleeping arrangements were something else.

"Hey, hey I get the bed!" Tara yelled.

"Oh me too, I want that warm blanket!" Cree yelled after her.

Jason and I looked at each other and broke in between them, "If anyone is getting the beds it's going to be us two!"

The girls looked confused, "We've always had the beds though. It's not fair for you to get everything you want."

I nearly fell down laughing when Tara said that. "You've got to be kidding me; we've been working on this thing since we got here...well I started it actually."

Jason as smart as he was finally came up with a solution, "I know let's just add on to the hut."

Tara didn't seem thrilled about the whole idea of working. Instead she just stomped off outside and sat by the water. Still being seventeen she had a lot to learn about working with others. I had found that out the hard way. She was more like me as Cree was to Jason. Tara tended to be difficult to work with as well as…a big mouth. No offense, but she had a lot to figure out before she could fit in.

Cree, however, was content with each decision that Jason had made, they could agree on anything. Though she was eighteen, she acted more mature then Tara did.

Bud rolled his body up to me a few moments later and asked how things were coming. His Jamaican accent fooled no one.

"So man, how is the hut building project coming along?"

I shook my head, "I suppose it could be better, we're not the only ones on this island anymore."

I pointed over to Tara and Cree who were sitting by the edge of the water, Tara still seemed bothered by something, though I didn't want to ask.

"It looks as though you may have hurt her feelings man." He said concerned.

"What are you talking about? She was all in my face since she got here."

Bud couldn't help but laugh, "Right, but now that you aren't the only ones on this island. You're going to have to think about Tara as well and not just yourself."

I tilted my head, "I have Jason here."

Again he countered me, "That's not what I mean; I think she's taken an interest in you."

At this point I was pretty much fed up with talking about her, "How do you figure?"

"Brian…it looks like you need to think about this before making any hasty conclusions. I've been keeping an eye on her since she was here as well as you. She needs someone to talk to and not only her friend Cree."

I laughed harder then ever this time, "I can't believe I'm the only one on this island who's thinking reasonably! You can't be serious about me being with her!"

His face turned solid, "Well Brian it's your decision, I'm only telling you what is best right now."

It wasn't that I didn't want to be with her, once you get past her talking she can really be a sweetheart, but right now I had other things to take care of. It was things to help me survive.

That night I started to feel bad for the way I acted at Tara. When I asked Axel to get us some food I asked him to ask Tara how she was doing.

When he came back I could tell by his face that she was still down.

"I take it she's not better?"

"Brian, go over there now and have a serious talk with her. Don't worry about dinner I already have that taken care of!"

I looked at him with confusion, "Please tell me you didn't get Jason."

He pointed over, "Not just him, but Cree as well, they seem to be bonding quite well. We just have to work on you two now."

I took in a deep breath and walked slowly over to her thinking of what I would say. As I approached her she looked up at me, "What do you want? This had better be good considering you don't want me around!"

"Hey, I'm sorry if I seemed short tempered earlier. I do want you around; you know that, I'm just doing my best to help us get off the island."

She didn't respond.

"Look this is the deal, now that Jason and I aren't the only ones on the island anymore we have to think about each other now. No more of this going off by yourself, if you have something to say then say it. We aren't playing games, this is real! I know I can be hard to talk to at times, but I guess now that you're here I'm going to have to put that aside and start thinking about other people." I took a big breath before saying this; "If you want you can have the…bed" I nearly passed out from saying it.

"Oh Brian that doesn't matter, I know when I've gone too far. You've worked hard for that, I don't want to take it away from you. All this time I've had no one close to talk to. Cree and I have been best friends so I know we won't be leaving each other anytime soon. You however are something else, when I first saw you I wanted to impress you but I couldn't think of doing it in a good way. I know you think I'm a loud mouth who still has a lot to learn."

I turned red when she said that, "I did think that at first, and I'll be honest. I'm somewhat intimated by you, not that it matters to me, but we have a lot of things in common as well. I don't want to argue with you on little things like we were doing before. So this is what is going to happen with the bed situation. You and Cree will have Jason's room. Jason and I will sleep in my room. We'll work on getting everyone a bed so that we won't have to switch every night."

When I said switching she whispered in my ear, "If it's ok with you I'd like to sleep in your room. Not for anything sexual…yet. Just for protection. Cree can sleep in Jason's room with him."

We ended the conversation with an agreement on what we could and couldn't do for the time.

By then axel had food ready by the fire. We all had a big feast and sang some songs that we knew of, no country though. As you'd expect I let Tara sit by me, well it was actually more of her decision.

"Hey Brian, do you really want to sit by me that bad? I didn't think I was that popular around here! Well in your case I'll make an exception, come on over here and sit your big butt down!"

I tried having a good sense of humor about it and laughed. It didn't sound right though.

Axel unveiled his feast for us. No one said so much as "thank you" or "wow this looks great". Instead they dove right in getting everything they could.

Axel just watched in awe beside me as we watched them eat, I didn't have much of an appetite after they were done.

"Hey look Brian; if you look close enough to the plate I saved you a leg!" Jason joked.

I leaned forward looking at a piece of leg no bigger then my pinky. "Gee guys you shouldn't have…" I gave it to Axel instead and ended up with nothing.

"So what are we doing after dinner?" Tara asked.

Jason and I looked each other then the sky, "I think we had better turn in right now."

The moon glowed brightly onto the island.

"Oh come now we got to dance at least!" She pleaded.

I sighed and went to whisper something into Jason's ear that they wouldn't hear.

"Brian is you really serious?"

I nodded my head and pointed at Cree.

He nodded his head and asked Cree if she wanted to go talk some more on the other side of the hut.

Axel slowly made his way to the water.

"Turning in for the night?" I asked him.

He looked back and belched, "Yes you could say that, sweet dreams you two."

I nodded my head and watched him swim deeper into the ocean. So now Tara and I were alone.

"I wish we had some music to play right now." I said quietly.

She looked at me with a gentle smile and was curious as to what I was saying. "Fortunately for you I have a boom box!"

I swung my head towards her, "Are you serious? Does it still work!"

She laughed, "Well of course it does silly, why what are you getting at?"

I ran inside the hut quickly and grabbed my iPod and came back out. I came out with the extension that would let us tune the iPod into the radio so we could listen to the songs on it. "All we need to do is find a clear station and set it to the right tuning."

Soon we had Cold Play playing in the background. Jason and Cree heard the music and both shouted back, "Hey what's with all the noise, turn it down damn it!"

We both laughed and turned the volume down a bit. I found a song that we could slowly dance to.

I reached for her hand asking, "May I have this dance?"

She thought about it for a moment then replied, "Why Brian, you asking me to dance with you?"

Without hesitation I replied, "And only slow dancing, I'm not into that whole thing off getting up on the stage and going crazy!"

She perfectly understood, "Most people would think I'm the kind of girl who would do that, but in reality I'm just as quiet as you are."

She looked at me like she never had before, "I really do feel like we have something special between us Brian. I just know we do even though we just met earlier, and even if we don't realize it right away there will always be that connection between us."

I put my arms down by her waist and gave her a big hug, "Don't worry Tara; I'll be here to protect you. You'll never have to worry about being alone again."

She rested her head on my shoulder as we danced a lot in the sand, "Oh Brian isn't the stars lovely!"

I looked up at the sky, "Indeed, but not as lovely as you though."

She stopped at looked at me, "Do you really mean that? Oh Brian that's one of the nicest things anyone has ever said about me!"

As we started up the iPod began to beep and I knew that the battery would be dead soon.

"Hey we have a wireless input that you can use to recharge your iPod thingy."

My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when I heard that. "What? Why didn't you say so sooner! ; are you serious! Wow I thought once it went dead that I would go crazy from no music, I guess things will turn out alright."

The moon was high in the sky as we decided to head in. Before Jason could go in I told him what Tara and I discussed earlier.

"Brian is you sure this is a good idea?"

"Well seeing as though Tara's the one who decided it I don't have much of a say in it."

He groaned and went into his room while I went into Tara's. She was still outside talking to Cree.

When she did come in her red eyes glowed in the dark.

"I'm glad we got to do this Brian, we're going to be very happy together."

I tucked myself into bed, "I'm glad you're happy Tara. Let's get some rest right now."

"Actually Brian I'd like to talk some more before we go to sleep."

I sighed and leaned up against the wall of the hut. "Well what should we talk about?"

"How about we do twenty questions?" she asked.

I agreed and started out first. This lasted longer than I thought it would. Soon I could feel that we were the only ones up.

"Ok, I'm officially exhausted. It's time for bed Tara."

She didn't argue and made herself comfy on the floor, but for some reason she still squirmed a lot.

"Tara…I suppose if you want we can share the bed instead."

I was hoping she'd say no considering we just met.

"Are you sure Brian? Wouldn't this be against our rules?"

"No I just want you to feel comfortable is all."

She smiled and climbed in with me, "Thank you Brian, you really are a nice guy after all."

I smiled and closed my eyes with hers looking into mine.