Chapter 3

Shannon Rutherford was like most of the girls that Emily had met while in various boarding schools. Wealthy. Confident. Worldly but Clueless. And most of all, completely oblivious to everyone around her. But for some reason, Emily had been sitting there for the past hour talking with her as she sunbathed. Mostly because she wanted sunscreen, and Shannon was the only one on the island who seemed to have any. She'd already asked the pregnant girl, Claire, who seemed nice enough, and she didn't have anything.

Claire had since joined Emily and Shannon, which consisted of watching Shannon sunbathe and listening to her talk about herself.

"So anyway, co-ed isn't all that great. I would have rather been in an all girl's academy. Sure, you can get away with having a good time with the guys there, but who wants to have sex with a guy who gets a hard on from playing a computer game? The merchandise was just plain sad. At least in London it was. Usually English guys are hot property. Just not at St. Catherine's." Shannon rambles, turning onto her stomach.

Claire looks over at the guy who keeps staring at Shannon. He was going through clothes in luggage. "Is that guy your boyfriend? The one who keeps looking over here?"

Emily looks over at him, sheilding the sun from her eyes. She hadn't even noticed him before now. Go figure. "He's kind of cute in an Abercrombie and Fitch sort of way."

Shannon pushes her sunglasses onto her head, "God no. That's Boone. My brother. God's freakin' gift to humanity. Technically he's my stepbrother. His mother married my father.
She's a nightmare. I hate her like poison. Total bitch. I'm sure you know the type."

"Pushy, rich socialite who cares more about her charity schedule than her own kids?" inquires Emily.

Shannon lies back down, "There you go. So, how old did you say you were?"

"Sixteen. Seventeen in January." answers Emily, applying more sunscreen to her shoulders.

Shannon laughs, "I was so crazy when I was sixteen. It was a blast. I miss it. Being a grown up isn't all it's cracked up to be. Having to face the realities of the real world sucks. You spend all of this time when you're younger wishing you were older. But when it happens, you regret wanting it so bad."

Claire touches her stomach, "Tell me about it." she says sadly.

"What do you guys think that noise in the jungle was last night? It sounded like some kind of an animal." Emily says.

"I don't even want to know. Let's just hope it doesn't find it's way to the beach." Claire says.

Boone walks towards the three girls, holding two shirts in his hand. "We're going through some of the luggage. I see you found your bag. We could use some help."

"I'm busy, Boone. Go back to being the boy scout. You're wasting your time anyway. They're coming." Shannon says, without looking at him.

Emily looks over at her, "You don't know that. Who says they even know where they are. We don't even know who they are."

"Shan, you've been sitting on your ass for the past two hours." says Boone.

Emily stands up, not wanting to get in the middle of a brother/sister brawl and had had enough of Shannon for one day. She dusts herself off and turns to Boone. "I'll help. It's too hot out here for me anyway."

"What do I call you?" asks Boone.

She extends her hand, "Emily."

"I'm Boone. The brother of 'Selfish Bitch Who Won't Contribute' over there." he says, loudly.

"Fuck you." Shannon mumbles, turning onto her stomach.

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The next day Jack, Kate, and Charlie (the English guy from some band Emily had never heard of) had gone off to find the tranciever in the cockpit of the plane. Supposedly, they could call for help from an oncoming plane or an airport. Emily had asked to go (she has nothing better to do), but was shotdown by both Jack and Kate because of the strange noises from the jungle that everyone heard the night before. They said it was too dangerous and that she'd be safer at the camp with the others. So she'd been spending most of her time watching Boone treat the injured survivors. He seemed to be the only person actually doing something useful. She did what she could to help him, gathering towels and various things from medical kits that Jack had thrown together on the first day, but he was doing most of the work. All of this waiting was starting to make her nuts. Waiting to be rescued. Waiting to be eaten alive by whatever was in the jungle. Waiting for anything.

And it seemed like everytime that Emily made camp somewhere on the beach, or simply sat down to rest because of the heat, Sayid wasn't far away. Even at night when she'd lie down to go to sleep, he'd always set up camp for himself within watching distance of her, and when she'd wake up, he'd still be there. Though, he'd never spoken more than two words to her. At first, she thought he was following her for some reason or another. But after much confusion and frustration, she broke down and asked Hurley what Sayid's deal was.

Hurley stared at her blankly, "Dude, Jack didn't tell you?"

"If he told me anything why would I be asking you?" she asks, arms crossed over her chest.

Hurley explained that Sayid had been enlisted by Jack to keep an eye out for her while he and Kate were away. She found it a little insulting. He'd known her for two days and had already come to the conclusion that she couldn't take care of herself? Typical. Most of the adults in her life came to that conclusion quickly about her. But they'd always been wrong. Emily had been taking care of herself for most of her life.

But, at least now she knew who to ask when she wanted to know something. Hurley was quite the talker and seemed to know everything that was going on with everybody on the island. He was also a card player, which worked to Emily's advantage. Poker was her only source of steady income in school. She made over a thousand dollars at each school she was sent to. She'd already beaten Hurley nine times until his pride got to him and he called it quits. He owed her over seven hundred dollars, which she would probably never see.

Out of boredom, she'd asked Sawyer if he wanted to play her one afternoon. He pulled the cigarette from his mouth, looking up at her from the piece of paper he was holding. "I'd love nothing more Princess, but I'm busy. Maybe later. Go ask the other kid. I think his name's Will.. or Walt.. something like that." She'd seen him reading that piece of paper constantly since the crash. It looked like some kind of a letter. But she knew better than to ask him about it. It wasn't any of her business anyway.

When Jack, Kate, and Charlie returned, a fight broke out between Sawyer and Sayid. Walt had found a pair of handcuffs in the jungle and showed them to Michael, who in turn showed them to everyone else, and things got out of hand quickly. To make a long story short, Sawyer was convinced that Sayid was the one who was wearing the handcuffs on the plane, and that he was responsible for the plane crashing. Emily thought that that was stretching. Aside from Sayid's race (which he couldn't help), there was no evidence that he was the reason for the crash or the one wearing the handcuffs. Emily stood on the sidelines next to Shannon and Boone watching the fight. She of course couldn't do anything about this seeing as though she'd probably get pummelled herself if she were to step in. No one else seemed to be doing anything. Per usual. It wasn't until Jack showed up and he and Michael pulled them off of eachother that they stopped.

At least the tranciever was found, and Sayid may be able to fix it so they could call someone for help. But that seemed a bit too easy.