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If you haven't already done it, you should review. You know you want to be a part of ^this elite group^. I still have more than a few chapters to go!

Also, to everyone who has been following this one (as there are actually people who have followed this!): I'm sorry that this update has taken so long. I've been extraordinarily busy lately, especially with the end of my senior year of football. Thank you so much for your patience and your enthusiasm! Here's a relatively long chapter, with more to come!

IMPORTANTE!

A/N: This chapter takes place BEFORE the rescue of Felix and Mia.

Tundra

Chapter 9: Misuse and Mistakes

"Garet!" exclaimed Sheba. "Be quiet! Isaac is still sleeping."

"Heh heh, sorry," Garet snorted, as he sat back down on the bed opposite Sheba's.

Sheba, Ivan, and Garet had congregated in her and Jenna's room, at Sheba's request. She would rather not have the boys in her room, but she knew better than to set foot in the disaster area that they called their quarters. Garet made for more than his share of the groups' dank laundry, but Ivan was surprisingly sweaty too. And, being boys, they often left their clothes on the floor, which gave them time to fester and stink up the whole floor. That place was disease waiting to happen. Sheba found herself disgusted with boys in general.

"I'm starting to regret letting you in here," she threatened.

"Ok, ok, let's get to work then," said Ivan hastily. "What I want to know is if this Jenna and Isaac thing is going to happen at all. They're moving so slowly, and with everybody trying to help them along, too!"

"They couldn't be any more timid," Sheba agreed.

"Was that their first date?" Garet asked.

"I don't think so," said Ivan. "I don't think it counts because she didn't ask him if he wanted to actually 'do something.'"

"It could be–" faltered Sheba. "Actually… I don't know – maybe?"

She scowled.

"We could just lock them in a room together and see how long it takes for them to start doing something," suggested Garet.

"Because that wouldn't be obvious at all," said Sheba, with dripping amounts of sarcasm.

"You aren't disagreeing with him," countered Ivan.

"Shut it," glowered Sheba. "I am now. I do not think that we should lock them in a room to see if they do anything, for the record."

"I don't have anything else, then," said Garet.

"Come on, somebody has to have something," begged Ivan.

Everyone was silent for a moment, dedicated to their mission to bring their two friends together. It was silent for at least a minute, when Sheba finally spoke up.

"I think… I might have a plan. But we need everybody in on it."

About an hour later, Jenna walked into her room, where Sheba sat on her bed, writing in a small journal. The blond girl smiled brightly as Jenna entered.

"Hey you!" said Sheba.

"Have you ever talked to Piers before?" Jenna asked excitedly. "He told me some stories about Lemuria! It's so amazing, the stuff they've done there! He was telling me about how they make the ships and stuff and how there's like fifty people who use Psynergy to make the little black orbs and…"

She took a breath.

"Hi," she finally said.

Sheba giggled.

"Someone's excited."

"But it's so-"

Jenna sniffed the air.

"Why does it smell so bad in here?" she asked. "It smells like old socks. Like Garet."

Sheba grimaced inwardly. She hadn't actually been writing before Jenna came down the steps. She had been trying to discreetly get rid of the smell of Garet's horrible, unwashed clothing by shoveling it out of the small hatch in her and Jenna's room with her Psynergy. Apparently, it hadn't worked quite as well as she had hoped. Sheba improvised quickly.

"I think they must have snuck in here sometime and put something in here. It's not like we've let them in."

"Yeah, you're probably right. … That's so rude! Why would they do that?" exclaimed Jenna.

She sniffed furiously.

"Boys," she growled.

Sheba's relationship alarms wailed like so many screaming toddlers. If Jenna kept up on the "I hate boys" angle, she would take it out on Isaac too.

"Not all boys are bad, Jenna," she said, feeling quite hypocritical, as she knew that she had used that exact same curse several times in the past couple days. She wondered how she was going to get out of this mess.

Jenna looked at Sheba fiercely.

"Oh yeah? I don't think so. No boy is ever nice. Ever."

"Felix is," said Sheba.

She didn't think that Jenna would group Isaac with Felix, but it was worth a shot.

"Hmph," was Jenna's only reply.

I'll give her a little bit to get over it... thought Sheba. It's all my fault, too, I let the boys in here. If she ever finds out, she's gonna hate me for it. Maybe I should just tell her the truth...

But, before she could say anything, Jenna left the room, slamming the door behind her. Sheba followed her fleetly, though less boisterously. Jenna made her way to the boys' rooms very quickly, and pounded through the door before Sheba could stop her.

"Why… were you in… my room…" said Jenna menacingly, her chin shivering as she finished her sentence.

Sheba could only watch the scene before her unfold. She was too far behind to stop it. Ivan and Garet stopped what they were doing immediately. Sheba cringed and looked away as Garet, who had ironically been cleaning up his room, glanced at Ivan, saying, "Busted…"

Sheba didn't stick around for the verbal (and, if bruises were anything to judge by, physical) abuse that followed. Instead, she scurried out on to the deck where Piers steered the boat, patient and content as always.

"So, Piers, I don't think I've…" she began.

"Don't ask me how old I am, please," said Piers with a grin.

"…told you about Jenna yet," she finished.

"You were most certainly about to ask how old I am. Again."

Sheba tried to act hurt, but she couldn't be too upset; it was partially true. It happened in just about every conversation she had with Piers. It was like a small inside joke, and she loved that.

"Don't mess around with me like that, please," said Piers, still being very patient. "But what's this about Jenna now?"

"Oh, nothing really- it's just… nothing really… but- anyway, Piers, did you ever have, well, uh- a girlfriend back in Lemuria?"

"That seems unconnected," Piers replied quizzically, "but no, I did not, for two reasons. First, my service to King Hydros would not allow me the luxury of taking a relationship. Second, and more importantly, there were very few women around who were even within a generation of my own age."

"Within your generation?"

"Yes, my mother was one of the few parents to have a child at that time."

"But you were already pretty grown up when Donpa and Babi arrived, right?"

"Stop it, Sheba," Piers warned.

Sheba felt a small little pain growing inside her chest. She was trying very hard with everyone, but she was making all of her relationships worse, and those of everyone around her. None of her small little goals, as pointless as she knew they sometimes were, had been accomplished. She stomped her foot in an angry, childish outburst.

"PLEASE, PIERS! Just tell me how old you are! Jenna and Isaac won't ever get together, we don't know where Felix and Mia are, and Jenna's about to get angry at me for trying to help her! I can't win at anything today…"

"I am very sorry that your attempts to manipulate your friends are going badly, Sheba," said Piers coolly, "but you will not discover my age today, and if I were you, I would apologize to Jenna before she has a chance to get angry at you."

He turned around and looked out past the edge of the boat. Though there was a slight fog, the edge of the ice flow Kraden had mapped out for them was finally visible.

"We'll be there in fifteen minutes," said Piers curtly, without turning around. "Be ready, please."

Sheba stared at Piers for a moment, bewildered. She didn't know what she had done to warrant such sharp rebukes from the most patient member of the group. Sheba roused Isaac, asking him to tell everyone else to get ready, and then followed the example of Jenna, maintaining the status quo until she arrived in her room. There, silent tears dripped from her green eyes as she prepared herself for the cold wastelands.

She looked into the mirror as she tied up the last of her clothing, sizing herself up. Could she really be… manipulative? She had always pictured herself as a person who wanted to make love happen, to bring the happiness of a relationship to someone else. Was what she was doing the opposite? Maybe she deserved the title Jenna had labeled herself with more than Jenna did. Perhaps, after all, it was Sheba who was truly "not very nice."

But Sheba had always prided herself on being "nice." She considered herself a kindhearted person, and as someone who always wanted the best for her friends. Maybe she wasn't as consistent as she had believed.

She made sure that the streaks of the salty tears were gone before she ventured out to the deck. Piers had stopped the boat as close to the edge of the ice flow as he could, but they would still have to levitate the ship for a little while to reach the inland. As the rest of the group made their way on deck, Sheba could feel the strangest tension among the people in their group, a web of anger and deception and… mistrust? At this point in their quest, mistrust?

These thoughts occupied Sheba as she robotically pooled her Psynergy to help levitate the ship. They drifted forward slowly, keeping the ship carefully under control. Then, when Piers saw a small growth of trees—signifying solid ground beneath them—he signaled to his friends to release. The ship floated slowly to the ground, and they prepared to disembark.

Isaac, who had missed most of the drama in his sleep, was very confused. Being the empathetic person as he was, he noticed the hurt feelings—and in Ivan and Garet's cases, bodies—that seemed to permeate the group. He decided, though, that it was worry for Mia and Felix that made them upset, and that Ivan and Garet had been roughhousing (it had happened before), and, as it became rationalized, moved to the back of his mind.

His body had finally recovered from the ordeal of the past few days, and though his hands still remained a little bit blistered, he was anxious and eager to move.

"We ready to go?" he asked, looking around.

Nobody disagreed.

"All right, then," he said.

They all got off the boat, walking carefully down the steep ramp. On more than one occasion, someone had fallen off of the wet plank and hit the ground from high up. It should be noted, however, that "someone" was usually Garet.

Isaac led, followed by Jenna, then Piers. Ivan and Garet came down after him, and Sheba came last, well behind the others. They came to a halt near a small group of pine trees.

Ivan looked off in to the distance. His A.D.D. had him looking all over the place, and he was unable to focus on the conversation. It registered somewhere in his brain that they were deciding on a direction. It didn't really matter to Ivan, though. He was enjoying himself. It was harder than it seemed to catch snowflakes in your mouth without moving. Wait. How long had it been snowing?

"Ugh, I can't believe it's snowing AGAIN!" roared Jenna angrily. "We won't be able to see anything!"

The group erupted into a furious shouting match. Ivan offhandedly wondered why Felix wasn't telling them to calm down.

Right… he thought glumly. There's no one to tell us to…

"ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE SHUT UP!"

Isaac exhaled once, and closed his mouth tightly.

"What has gotten into all of you today? You're all fighting with each other; Garet and Ivan look like they got in a fist fight; Sheba looks like she killed someone. What in the world is going on? This can't be only about Felix and Mia."

Nobody said anything. Sheba looked at the ground, Jenna at her fingernails. Ivan and Garet avoided each other's eyes at all costs.

"Fine with me," said Isaac. "I'll lead today. We'll talk when we get back to the boat, with or without Mia and Felix. Let's go, this way."

They headed northeast, looking anywhere for signs of a shelter. The snow, while not impermeable, made it impossible for them to split up and search. They made slow progress, and no one felt like speaking. As the sun went down, the cold began to creep into their boots and gloves, making everyone cranky and irritable. Isaac, unperturbed, continued to search. However, as the red sun kissed the horizon, they still had not found any traces of a campsite.

"Let's head back," he said with authority.

By the time they reached the boat again, every single piece of clothing was soaking wet and frosty. The group quickly made their way up the deck, and they began to shed their wet clothes on the way up. Isaac stepped his way to the front of the line and put himself in front of the door.

"No one is going in until we talk things out. I'm not cold yet. Everyone, sit down."

Jenna dropped her boot, from which she was currently shaking snow.

"You're kidding."

"No, I'm not. Sit down."

Piers immediately sat down by the benches near the wheel, and then so did Jenna. The others followed suit with some level of reluctance. It was going to be a long night, Isaac thought to himself, but they needed it.