Day Four

The atmosphere enveloping the once deserted island was consolidated and oppressive, painting the light blue sky an ominous gray in the early morning and causing a small drift in the wind that coursed toward the west. It was light and humane as opposed to the boisterous rainstorm the night before, that had resulted in two lost bags; a pack full of collected fruit and another full of medicine, or more commonly, small orange bottles of capsule pills of three distinctive colors that belonged to one person and one person alone. The gang of sixteen (one seventeen year old) and eighteen year olds were left that morning with only one banana to spare, in which they had split amongst themselves to the best of their ability, before Andre, Beck and Jade left for the forest to gather some more fruit and whatever types of food they could find.

Robbie and Trina (the eldest girl sulking the entire time, but nonetheless refusing to settle down and lounge about much to everyone's shock) were scooping up saturated rain water from the buckets they had left near the tree line that night, into the empty water bottles, and Cat and Tori were currently working on washing everyone's stray clothes beneath the complicated shower in which Beck had successfully managed to build, or rather complete, within a secluded area in the forest. It had looked, to the unknowing eye, like it was some sort of bathroom stall; the walls made of leaves and vines in all ways possible that Cat couldn't fathom he had built out of such little resources, to provide privacy.

Although she hadn't let it show so fully yet, the young redhead, now fresh and clean, was beginning to feel the same way she had felt whenever she neglected taking her medicine and she was starting to feel the strain of it all. She hadn't felt this way in a long time; numb, uninterested and so out of it that everything Tori was saying was going through one ear and straight out of the other, and she wasn't content with it whatsoever. She was perfectly at ease with taking those pills, in fact she needed them, being as she adored her persona much more when she was downing them every night and morning.

Now that they had been washed away mercilessly by the gigantic, reoccurring waves of the night before, Cat found herself more and more needing of a smoke she didn't have, an addiction she regretted even starting in the first place. And she just knew that until they were rescued, which the outcome was looking extremely dim as of right now, she was going to have a hard time.

"Cat!"

Dropping the shirt she had clutched within her hands at the sudden outburst of her companion, she looked up with doe brown eyes slightly wide in astonishment and confusion.

"Were you even listening to a word I was saying?" Tori asked exaggeratedly as she hung up a pair of pants upon one of the lower branches, something Cat herself couldn't even reach if she stood on her tippy toes. The tall, stick thin Latina placed her hands firmly on her hips, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed in aggravation.

"Oh, sorry Tori! I was just…" She began, however stopped short when her close friend held up a hand to cut her off.

"Save it. I was just wondering when you and Brent were heading out for the water today and you seem kind of off ever since last night anyways. What was in that bag you were chasing? Dre says you almost drowned yourself." The other girl asked slowly, pronouncing and choosing her words rather carefully, as to not offend the volatile redhead in beside her. Cat, on the other hand, blinked and kneeled down to pick up the article of clothing she had promptly dropped only moments ago, fingers picking at her one sleeved, baggy shirt she was wearing shortly afterwards, merely for some sort of distraction.

"Ummm…." She drawled on with her lips pursed, long crimson hair lightly flicking in her face the moment the wind whisked gently passed. "Just some pills!"

"Pills?" Tori pressed on, eyebrows both simultaneously shooting upwards as she spoke.

"Yep, that's right. Pills! They're like tiny little submarines!" Cat exclaimed with a light smile gracing her face, but her eyes soon dimming of any known, quirky emotion she always plastered on, something she had gripped ever since she was just a little girl and something she wasn't ready to let go of quite yet. When the taller girl had said nothing in return and instead displayed a curious and flabbergasted expression marred upon her face, high cheekbones tan but flushed a dim red, she herself returned to washing the item of cloth within her tiny, sunburned hands gently.

With a bright smile, seven year old Cat Valentine hopped lightly within the blue seat within her second grade classroom, feet just barely missing the floor and swinging back and forth whilst she grasped the worn down crayon tightly in a small, pudgy hand. It was free day today and alone with a coloring book and clad in the brightest clothes probable, she was striking the material of the crayon across the page to color in a tiger messily over the lines as if she hadn't a care in the world.

The tiger was pretty, large and smiling strangely as it took up a portion of the white page and strangely, purple. She had just moment before, shown her teacher (Mrs. Cooper) her half-finished masterpiece, but had been told straight away that in nature, tigers were not purple and rather orange. But Cat didn't listen to her and colored on regardless because really, she thought the pigment of orange was disgusting and made her think of her least favorite fruit. What joy would that be, to embellish something a shade she didn't like? And purple was a pretty, pretty color and it matched the color of the stretchy bands that held together each one of her piggy-tails.

She loved coloring, especially in the book currently flattened upon the table that was too high for such a short girl to reach even in a cerulean blue plastic chair. It was so special because her daddy gave it to her for her birthday last year (which was today!) and told her that it was from her birth country, Russia, which would explain the words decorating the front page and everywhere else. The other kids in her class said it was gibberish and weird words from a different world, but to Cat, they were words she couldn't read but she knew that she could understand if they were read to her.

Because of course, she had to speak Russian to her mother, with the help of her big brother Mouse. But his name wasn't really Mouse because that name was silly; it was just like her name wasn't Cat. It was Caterina, and his was Frankie. It was Cat&Mouse when the two of them were together. They were quite close; both apparently, special children. But she didn't treat him the way the others treated him, she talked to him like he was her best friend. In reality and figuratively speaking, he really was.

All of the sudden, everything begun to happen all at once. The principal had announced on the loud speaker that all teachers must check the news channel immediately and then kids were being picked up left and right. Cat glanced up from her text book, still beaming ear to ear and giggling to herself (as evidently, she had no one that would have liked to be her friend, for rude reasons she'd rather not repeat) to glance around her. Parents were rushing into the classroom and scooping up their children, rushing from the school with others hot on their heels and little by little the room began to empty. Loud sirens emitted from ambulances and fire trucks outside, cascading down the streets in blurs of blinking lights.

Mrs. Cooper was in tears when she approached the lone second grader, and gripped both of her thin and scrawny with her smooth hands. "Caterina darling, do you know your parents phone number?"

"What's going on? I'm scared!" Cat cried to her teacher, now frowning and tears dropping from her wide brown eyes. Her mood had changed drastically, and the panic around the building and from what she could vaguely hear outside was not helping her part whatsoever.

"It's going to be alright sweetheart, you're mommy and daddy are going to come pick you up soon, alright? They'll be here…" The young teacher was cut off by the sound of another entering the room, and Cat tore her gaze from the tear streaked, heart shaped face and ran straight into her mommy's arms without a second of hesitation, scuttling as quickly as her tiny legs could carry her. She felt safer in the arms of her loving parental guardian, though she really had no reason to be scared or in danger; at least, that's what she had thought at the time.

But it wasn't until she had arrived home with her mother and Mouse when she had realized the trauma occurring. Of course she had not understood it, but she knew that, from her apartment window, the smoke and flames coming from the building in which her daddy worked in was not at all normal nor was it anywhere close to being alright. And so she gripped her pig with a mustache, Mr. Porkstache, tightly to her chest and curled up on a ball upon her living room couch as her mother cried, her innocent gaze lingering on the terrors right outside of her window.

She jumped up when the phone rang and dashed to it, knowing full well that it had to be their father – no one else but the school called their house phone, regarding to the simple fact that well…the Valentine's had just moved here and barely spoke English at all.

"Papà?" She squeaked through the receiver as she pressed it to her ear, holding the phone tightly to her ear.

"Kitty, меда (honey)" Came the response moments later, through so much commotion and static that she could barely hear him. "Where is your mommy? And Frankie?" Her father's thick Russian accent made it slightly hard to understand. He barely spoke English to his family, and it only made her wonder why he was doing so now.

"Momma's right here, so is Mousey." She replied instantly, tumbling over to her mommy, who snatched the phone quickly from her daughter and pressed speaker.

"Isabel it's me, just wanted to, a…to let you know that I love you and the kids 'cause I don't think I'll be uh, alright." Her father's voice said hesitation in his words. "Buildings on fire and I can't breathe…Frankie, мой сын, take care of your momma and Cat, understand? Никогда не забывайте, что я люблю ..." (Never forget that I love…)

The South tower collapsed before Mr. Valentine was able to finish the phone call.

Their conversation began as steadily as it always had when the two ventured out into the great unknown cluster of vines and bare, red barked and moss infested trees and sticks of bamboo. Tori had mentioned earlier that she was, as well as Andre, going to show about with Cat and Brent whilst they searched; notwithstanding, the former was exhausted from gathering the packs of fruit they had carried back, and the Latina had bailed at the very last minute for whatever unknown reason – she suspected that it was because Andre wasn't going to tag along like he had told her he would.

And then all of the sudden, as the two plundered miles into the umbrage with high hopes and impoverished throats, simple statements and exclamations punctually escalated into an interrogation about the milestone formerly.

Cat didn't, coincidentally, feel all the comfortable sharing her life story with the handsome boy wandering ahead of her, leading her farther away from the shore and down an unfamiliar path with lightly red raw skin from the beating sun, but she had to some extent told him key points so he wasn't left in the dark. She figured he at least deserved to know being as they were gradually becoming great friends and she felt like she could trust him – fancying the pants off of him was quite the helpful reminder when she thought about limiting her words, which in the end her "Serious Conscious" promptly won.

"But I like thinking happy thoughts because well, they're happy!" She attempted to explain as she plundered behind him, stepping over various objects carefully and ducking (an extremely rare problem on her part) when she needed too, the grass, leaves and twigs brushing up against her smooth legs. "I don't like feeling sad all the time."

"I don't believe anybody does, Cat." Brent replied almost instantly, wild hair mottled upon his head like sweat drenched tendrils, rather than their former disheveled and wild locks of bronze.

"Damien does!" She chirped lightly as she struggled to keep up the fast pace at which he was swaggering, her black and pink spotted backpack slouching heavily upon her shoulders, filled with water bottles and containers should they find any source of crystalline lakes or rivers amongst the strange island.

"So you take these pills for a legitimate reason, correct?" He looked over a lean shoulder, and pressed on when she gave a short nod of her head. "What happens when you don't take them? Like now. You have none left."

"Well I get all sad and distant and stuff and according to Jade I don't talk much…Man, what's it called?" Cat murmured, snapping her fingers and brushing locks of thin red velvet colored hair behind her ear as she pondered the word. Her hair was gradually getting darker and darker each time it had gotten wet, partially from the ocean water, and within the sunlight one could easily see brown beginning to gently peek through and prod from the roots.

"You mean, depressed?"

"No…"

"Either way" Brent carried on, sounding partially astonished at her answer for whatever reason she didn't know, "I'll do my very best to keep you as happy as I can, Cat."

Cat was completely and utterly helpless as an abrupt rush of sudden color rushed to her creamy skinned cheeks and when an involuntary high pitched squeal escaped her parted smooth lips – she would have sworn to her great grandfather's grave should she not be religious, that her face was about as bright red as her hair, and she could only be thankful that the one who had caused it had his back, smooth and bare, turned to her as he walked ahead. The smile gracing her lips, though not quite ear to ear, was shy and humble and quite the surprise because evidently, while off of her medication, Cat had not once smiled as bright as such and to say she was amazed that just one person could do that to her, as well as send butterflies fluttering wildly within her stomach simultaneously, was clearly the litotes of the century.

"I'm being serious; I'm going to keep you smiling and happy so you won't have to take those pills. Naturally." He looked over his shoulder and smirked at her, dark emerald eyes filled with something she couldn't quite catch. The eighteen year old raised an arm and wiped his brow upon his bicep, abruptly stopping in his tracks and causing her, who had averted her gaze hastily to the ground in fear the he would see her blush, rammed straight into his muscular back and almost toppled to the ground. "Do you hear that? That…kind of, rushing noise?"

"Rushing has a noise?" She asked quietly, her eyebrows pulled together and confusion marring her smooth features. Before she could talk any further the former grasped her hand tightly in his and took off toward the right, completely disregarding her naïve and oblivious question as if she hadn't spoken at all. Shoed feet slapping the grass and stumbling over various objects in her way, Cat attempted to keep up with the fast speed at which Brent was running, squealing and unaware of what was happening.

And then, so abruptly they had stopped into an open clearing not far off from where they had just previously been her panting and out of breath. Remaining hand in hand they stared open mouthed at their surroundings and Cat, feeling suddenly overwhelmingly light headed, staggered backwards with her breath caught in her throat. All she wanted to do from that moment on was to drop everything she was carrying and well, evidently, jump – and she could tell that her companion staring blankly at the scenery was thinking precisely, the same exact thing that she was just by noticing how blatantly relaxed he had gotten.

"Oh wow…" Cat breathed, the strap of her bag slowly sliding from her creamy skinned shoulder and down her arm uncomfortably as she composed herself and slackened her grip so her hand had fallen to her thigh.

"I believe we finally went in the right direction" Brent murmured breathlessly beside her, dropping his own pack to the soft grass and grit beneath his shoes. "How we've never managed to find this I can't answer…but now…" The two teenagers, exhausted and now deluged with diversion, shared a look of equal excitement and dashed from their spots simultaneously. She hobbled as she tossed her barren converse sneakers and her colorful heel socks from her feet but had quickly got back into balance, breaking out into a full speed run and kicking off the ground just as Brent had.

Though such an overpowering sensation of frigidness washed over her the moment her skin had make contact with the surface of water within the oasis they had stumbled upon, Cat could not help but feel the unexplainable way that she had. She gasped for breath as she resurfaced, subconsciously laughing aloud as she treaded the deep water, partially out of relief because they had been looking for so long and partially because the two of them had equal ideas of what to spend their time doing (principally, relaxing and cooling off from a long trail within the forest from the safety and seclusion of the shore).

Admittedly though, she could not help but feel a tinge bad for taking advantage of the situation without the others, regardless if they had the ocean to swim in or not, however she wasn't exactly sure why she couldn't bring herself to return back to the land about them. Brent, who was by now resurfaced and swimming near the small waterfall thundering from the rocky mountain, shouted over to her. "Well come on then! Let's go!"

"Go where?" She called back to him with a light giggle, taking deep breaths as she paddled quickly over to where he had hauled himself up, shirtless and his jeans clinging to his skin. When she had reached him, in quite little time, she grabbed hold of his outstretched hand and pushed herself onto the rocky, dry ledge and immediately fell upon her bottom by his side.

"Right here. It looks…so much larger up here than it had down there." He told her, running a hand through his own soaked hair while Cat bunched up her shirt and squeezed the trapped water from the soft fabric. "Look"

She obediently glanced up from her blouse and allowed for her hands to grip the side of the small ledge they were sitting upon, feet still lingering within the chilly lakebed. The oasis they had discovered, or rather Brent had heard the waterfall, was nothing short of outstanding. It was an open clearing with scattered trees and bushes, emerald clean grass blanketing the vast region toward the edge of the lake – which was undoubtedly, the bluest water she's seen. The waterfall was small and nothing entirely special, fountains of liquid hurtling over the small rocky foundation beside the platform in which they were sitting and if Cat had wanted, she was sure she could stand behind the rushing water as if it was a cave, or secured passageway.

"It's beautiful" She mused with a light smile, large brown eyes scoping the area in awe – truthfully, it was the best scenery she had seen since the accident, regardless if she loved beaches and the ocean or not. "I'd take this over the shore any day."

"What?" He asked suddenly, eyes alight and wide.

"What?"

"What did you just say?"

Confused, Cat blinked and cleared her throat. "I just said what…" She repeated herself, finely painted fingers tapping the edge of the hard surface beneath her as she fidgeted uncomfortably under his piercing gaze and quite unsure of the reason.

"No" Brent rubbed his face with the palm of his hand, short strands of wild hair clinging to his forehead and dripping upon his creamy, yet sun kissed skin. "About how you'd take this place rather than take the beach. Do you realize you're absolutely bloody brilliant, Cat? We could stay here instead!"

Her attention averted to the various trees the moment he had stopped speaking and immediately she began to abuse her bottom lip. She knew absolutely nothing about botany or what botanists would do, but she had a substantial knowledge of which plants could be gnawed or chewed for moisture and which ones provided some measure of caloric sustenance. If she was remotely close enough to the trees within the clearing at the time, she would have reached up (or in one case, jumped or climbed) to examine a leaf with her own eyes close up she could be sure that even the stunning surfeit and discrepancy of the meals provided – fruits – moving here wouldn't rob their ability to survive any less than it had at the beach.

And, she figured, the clearing accommodated a large supply of water they simply did not have at the beach, and taking one single glance at her empty water bottle in her hand, and the various canteens and others in her and Brent's bags, her decision was made. "I think…" she began promptly, an eyebrow raising in approval. "I think that could actually work! Yay!"

"Now all we have left to do is tell the others and see if they agree with us." He commented, rising to his feet and pulling her up along with him.

"If they don't?" She asked him whilst picking at her short denims uncomfortably cleaving to her thighs with a small frown.

"We pack water and make a trail just in case."

"No."

The pair of them had arrived back at the shore just short of sunset, only a prompt two hours from where they had previously been, both damp and utterly exhausted. Brent had said to her earlier that it might have taken less time for them to report back should they not have had to plot out a trail and haul loads of water upon their backs, but regardless, Cat had found the idea of staying at the clearing better and better each step she took toward the beach. And now that they had came to their destination, both teens immediately falling to beach chairs, they were shot down almost the second they informed Tori of the plan.

She normally would not like to think that Tori was being ridiculous because evidently, Cat never thought bad things about her friends – but this had given her no choice. The gang was given the perfect opportunity for a more secure camp site, one that would offer them water and a more partial key to survival, and she had not wanted to take it.

"Are you barking mad, Tori?" Brent asked as he subtly took a large swig of his water. "How can you refuse? Look, Cat and I have seen this place for our own eyes. It's much better there than it is here."

"Well obviously she's stupid, I've told you all this before." Jade grunted from her spot next to her from underneath Beck's arm – which, unsurprisingly, rolled his eyes and huffed in what appeared to be annoyance at his girlfriend's brusque comment.

"Listen, I get that it's a good idea!" Tori threw her arms up and placed her hands upon her skinny hips defiantly. "But if we stay where we are now, we could miss the perfect opportunity to get rescued. Beck said it himself while you two were gone. He said that if a boat passes by they have a chance at seeing the plane and if we're not at the beach then…bam. We miss it."

"So what you're saying is…we sit here and wait?" Asked Robbie.

"I know it's not the best thing to do, but I kind of think we have no other choice." Replied Tori with a sigh. "We're just going to have to take turns carrying the water back and forth then."

"Tori, that took two hours." Cat commented, frown gracing her lips once more though she had found very little energy to keep it well placed.

"Personally I think it should be Vega's job to do that if she insists that we stay." Jade retorted with a sneer. Cat sighed and looked over at her (best) friend, but upon seeing how pale the much taller girl was in comparison to the usual, her disapproving expression battled with one of concern and worry.

"Hey, maybe it should be your job because you're so mean all the time. Gank." Trina shot as she approached the gang from where she had been standing near the body of the plane and halted at her younger sister's side.

"Excuse me?" The former snarled, standing up with a threatening glower – each member of the group of teenagers exchanged worried glances. It was highly unlikely that Trina stood up for Tori, especially against one of the scariest girls to walk the hallways of Hollywood Arts, and needless to say everyone, including herself, seemed stunned by the sudden outburst. "Maybe, you should shut that mouth of yours."

"I'm just saying that you don't have to be such a bitch to my sister!" The older girl said with a slight tremor to her voice, appearing hesitant and frightened that she was actually challenging Jade West.

"And I'm just saying that you shouldn't have even been accepted into Hollywood Arts…but you don't see me complaining about it. Oh wait," Jade chuckled humorlessly to herself, "you do."

"Um, guys?" Said Andre in a slightly bewildered, yet loud tone so the two bickering girls (who were yelling vigorously at each other from the last statement made), would hear him and stop. "We'll take turns, like Tori said, okay? No need to yell now, all right?"

"Yeah, come on girls it's not worth arguing." Beck agreed immediately, seizing the opportunity to steer a fuming Jade away from the eldest Vega sister whilst he had the chance, in which the former reluctantly allowed for.

"Let's just forget this happened." Andre commented in simulation with Robbie, and the two boys exchanged glances with one another. The rest of the gang, with furrowed brows, nodded – in exception to Jade, who had simply sneered:

"Gladly."

Phew…longest chapter in this story I've written, I think. It wasn't so bad, I hope – but if it is, I apologize; I'm not feeling too well and I don't think there's really more of an explanation. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up in the next couple of days. By the way, thank you all for your reviews, favorites, and story alerts! I've got a couple suggestions via review: just know I'm taking them into consideration but it might be a couple more chapters before something happens! Key word: "might."

Oh, and did you see tonight's episode yet? I was kind of suspecting it to be Sinjin or even Cat (people you'd least suspect) who cut the cord or whatever it was, but I really didn't see the ending coming. Ah well…

Anyway, review and tell me what you think! Happy reading (: