Chapter 7: Overboard

"Thank you Joanna," Kirk said as she set the plate down in front of him.

"You're welcome," Joanna replied, smiling. She had been getting more attention this morning from the men, and she was really enjoying it.

"You look different. I like it," Elliot stated as she handed him his plate.

"I agree. You seem a tad slimmer and a little fresher," Larry added from across the table.

Stephanie smiled over to Joanna. "See Joanna? A little work can pay off," she told her.

Joanna smiled back to her as she finally took her seat at the table. She really was grateful to Stephanie for helping her out and giving her a few tips. Even though she wasn't interested in any of the men that she was with right now, she was gaining some confidence that would help her with the man that she liked at work.

"So when did everyone wanna have that first session of the day?" Bob asked. He too thought that Joanna looked nice today, but after the remark that Michael made yesterday, he was a little hesitant to say anything.

"Right after breakfast. I have something to share," Elliot flatly answered.

"I think you've already shared enough this weekend," Stephanie remarked, disgusted.

As soon as he caught on to what Stephanie was talking about, Michael looked up to Elliot with concern. "You know, you can get more ticks doing that," he mentioned. Since last night, that was the main thing on his mind.

"Nothing can take away that feeling of becoming one with yourself out there," Elliot defended himself.

"There's gotta be a better way," Kirk responded. He himself had seen Elliot a couple of times on past marathons, and he was getting a little tired of it.

"Don't knock it till you try it," Elliot argued.

"Fine, I will try it," Kirk sighed in defeat. He was getting curious now, if someone could get offended, get yelled at, and still fully desire to keep doing the same thing, there must be something to it.

"Ew," Stephanie moaned.

Kirk looked over to her and smirked. Yes, she could be annoying, but he decided that if he couldn't stop he might as well have some fun and see how far he could push her. "And I will definitely try it if she tries it too," he said, looking back to Elliot and motioning to Stephanie.

"Yeah, that's gonna happen," Stephanie scoffed, wishing that they could just move on and change the subject already.

"Does that mean you're not going to now?" Elliot implored. He was kind of looking forward to having someone else try it. He didn't want Kirk right there with him, but he thought it would be nice to know that he wasn't the only person streaking the camp.

"No, I'll do it I just have to make sure that we're in two completely different parts of the camp," Kirk stated.

"I don't believe you," Elliot told him.

"Most people don't," Kirk remarked. "This time though, you can," he assured him.

Stephanie lowered her head and looked down to her plate. "I'm bound to be screwed up by the terrible images I must carry with me for the rest of my life," she announced more to herself, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"That hurt," Elliot dryly replied.

"Especially considering you haven't even seen me yet," Kirk added, again trying to see how worked up he could get her.

Bob sighed. He too was starting to get tired of this conversation. "Why, why don't we save this conversation for later on. Like when we're not all eating," he insisted.

"I for one agree," Michael firmly announced.

Elliot turned and glared to Michael. He knew completely, what he was doing. Just like Kirk was having fun playing games with little miss blondie, he liked to see how quickly he could get Michael to contradict himself. It was easy to do and it happened often enough.

Michael, who was currently eating, froze as soon as he saw Elliot out of the corner of his eye. Cautiously, he turned his head and looked over to him. "Of course, it is a free country and I do stand up for free speech," he added, trying to get back on Elliot's, almost decent side.

Kirk softly laughed as he shook his head. "You don't actually have an opinion on anything do you?" he inquired.

"He does. It just depends on who he's currently sucking up to," Elliot explained for him.

Michael was angry about the comment, and was about to argue and stand up for himself, but Elliot offered him the same glare and it forced him to just sit back and finish his breakfast without saying anything at all.

As Bob sat back and observed all of this, he started wondering how these people all got along and stuck together in a group.

ooo

"And then all I remember after that is trying my hardest to find that fork that he buried out in the back yard," Elliot explained. He sat on the seat in the window and looked around after he finished.

"That certainly is an interesting story," Bob replied. "Would you say that you were obsessed with finding this fork?" he questioned.

"Sounds like it," Kirk sighed, getting bored. He leaned his head back over the back of the couch and stared up to the ceiling.

"I was," Elliot agreed with him.

"One time Darryl, Darren, and I found a whole bunch of silverware buried out on the beach. Now we use it on a daily basis," Larry added, hoping to liven up the room a little.

"Ew," Stephanie squealed. "You might as well be using plastic."

Joanna looked over in disgust. She agreed with Stephanie. "I could never use anything I found like that," she informed them. Although, they already knew that.

"One time I was obsessed with finding this money that my cousin told me about. He told me that it was buried at the school. I went there early in the morning everyday that next week and started digging. Eventually I got caught and was suspended," Michael told them, his eyes down towards the ground as he thought back to the event. He then looked up to everyone. "All I heard from my cousin after that was, 'I've been waiting for it. What took you so long?"

"That's horrible," Joanna replied, looking to him with sympathy. As annoying as she could find him at times, he could definitely make her feel sorry for him at times.

Elliot looked around the room and then shrugged. "Did we just forget about my fork?" he implored. "I still go back sometimes just to see if I can find it," he added, hoping to get the attention back to him.

Bob decided to go ahead and go along with him. "Doesn't someone else own that house now?" he asked, a little concerned.

"Yes. So?" Elliot flatly responded.

"That's, that's trespassing Mr. Carlin. That's against the law," Bob explained to him.

"I go at night while they're sleeping. They think the neighbor's dog is the one sneaking over and digging the holes," Elliot told him.

Kirk decided that if he had to listen to this story, that he might as well be a part of it. "I'll be the one to ask the obvious. Why do you care so much about a stupid fork?" he questioned.

"It was stolen," Elliot answered.

"I know that feeling," Stephanie softly mentioned.

Joanna looked over to Stephanie. No one else seemed to catch the comment like she had, but then again, she was the only one that knew about Renee. That was when she noticed, she forgot to ask her the question that she was going to ask last night. She was side tracked by the offer of a make over, and she completely forgot about it. Maybe when this was over she could try asking her.

"So do we. We put our chair outside on the balcony of our apartment to dry after we painted it and the next morning it was gone," Larry informed him.

"I used to get boyfriends stolen away from me," Joanna confessed. She looked around the room and saw the others looking to her and then smiled as she thought back to this morning. "I have to mention though, getting noticed by you guys this morning was nice for a change," she stated.

"You're welcome," Stephanie said. Joanna softly laughed and returned the smile.

"You do look pretty today," Michael acknowledged.

It was that instant that something clicked in Stephanie. Even though they weren't dating, they had just met and were just friends, but she didn't like him making that comment to another woman. "Of course, she never could have done that without me," she snobbishly announced. Her jealousy showing quite clearly.

Joanna quickly turned and glared to her. "What was that?" she snapped. She had been so happy about how she looked, and she had gained some confidence, and now, her taking all the credit made her feel as if she really couldn't be beautiful on her own, that she really shouldn't be feeling confident at all.

Stephanie did feel a small amount of remorse over her comment, but she couldn't back down now. Not with everyone around and Michael right there. She couldn't have them figure out that she got jealous over one remark. "Oh come on Joanna, you know that you needed me to show you what you were doing. Without me here to fix you up, they never would have even thought to notice you," she argued.

"Girls! This is a session for us to talk as a group. Not, not for you two to start fighting," Bob explained, getting irritated. He had the sense to let the fight take its course for a little bit, but now he could see that it was just going to keep lasting until someone said something.

Kirk leaned over to Elliot. "Two bucks it get physical," he whispered.

"Deal," Elliot accepted.

Joanna stood up from her seat and turned to face Stephanie. "I can get attention from any man I want without you here acting like you're so much better than the rest of us and teaching me how to use make up like I'm some young teenager who doesn't know any better!" she firmly argued, crossing her arms.

"Believe me, I could never seriously treat you like a teenager," Stephanie scoffed, remaining calm in her chair as if she weren't at all affected by Joanna's words. She knew that she was getting her more and more irritated by acting like she didn't care.

"Ms. Vanderkellan! And Ms. Richardson! Stop fighting before one of you says or does something you're going to regret," Bob warned, although, he could tell that neither of them were listening.

Joanna placed her hands on her hips, smirking as she looked over her. "You really do think your'e perfect don't you? Better than all of us here," she bitterly inquired.

"You're being serious right now?" Stephanie laughed as if she should have known the answer all along.

That was the final straw with Joanna. Right now, all she wanted to do was slap that smug little smile off her face, but she couldn't. She was better than that, at least, she liked to think so. "Well if you're so damn perfect then why couldn't you hold onto your daughter?" she spat, not really thinking through what she was saying, just blurting out something to finally get to her. As soon as she realized what she had said though, she regretted it. Her face dropped and she looked to her with sympathy.

Stephanie's smile quickly faded. Joanna had found her weak spot. She tried to say something, but her lips just quivered with no sound being produced. The tears started to form in the rims of her eyes. Her eyes were locked on Joanna's wishing deeply that she could have brought up anything else, anything at all, just not that. At the same time though, she started thinking, that she was right, it was her fault.

Slightly turning away from everyone, Stephanie got up and hurried out of the room. Joanna just lowered her head, mentally kicking herself for what she had said.

"And you just crossed the line," Bob pointed out the obvious. He wasn't meaning to be mean by it, he just wanted Joanna to think about something to make up for it right now.

Kirk softly laughed, looking to Joanna with surprise. "Damn Joanna, I thought you might tame her, but I never thought you'd actually slay her," he stated.

Elliot looked over to Michael who was dumbly staring in the direction of where Stephanie had been sitting. "Aren't you supposed to run after her?" he implored.

"I-I don't, I don't know now," Michael nervously admitted. That last bit of information was a bit much to just take in right then and there. He then looked to Joanna. "Does she really have a daughter?" he asked. He heard it pretty clearly, as did everyone else, but there was a small chance that he had misheard her.

"Yes," Joanna absently answered. She was distracted by her own thoughts, wondering what felt worse, having Stephanie make her feel like she was nothing on her own, or being the one to completely tear someone down in front of everyone.

Bob sighed, he knew that this session was done. The only thing left to do now was to make sure that Stephanie was all right. He himself though, was a bit surprised with the fact that she had a daughter. He just had a hard time seeing her as a mother. "Well, I'm gonna go talk to her," he announced, excusing himself from the room.

"Wait!" Joanna called out to him. "I said it, I'll go talk to her," she insisted. She felt bad now and wanted to get things worked out as soon as possible.

"All right," Bob replied, thinking that that was the better choice. That way she could apologize to her.

Joanna nodded and then headed out the door.

After she left, the room fell silent and Elliot turned to Kirk. "You owe me two dollars," he said, keeping his voice hushed.

"I don't have it this second," Kirk sighed.

"Don't make me become obsessed with you," Elliot warned, causing Kirk to nervously look to him.

"Did he steal from you too?" Larry asked, looking over to Elliot and Kirk.

"Of course," Kirk quickly answered.

Elliot looked to him, and by instinct was about to call him out on his lie, but this time made sure to keep quiet.

Bob suspiciously looked to them. "I, I don't believe that. Mr. Carlin would be more upset and you wouldn't just steal," he stated.

"I leant it to him. He needed it before we got here for the cab that he took to your office," Elliot explained. "I told him I would stop correcting him if he stopped lying all the time. It didn't work."

"I see," Bob replied, still not believing it. The fact though, was that he was sure that was the closest to the truth that he was going to get out of them right now.

"Doctor Hartley? Am I a bad person to be upset with Stephanie for not telling me about her daughter?" Michael implored.

"Mr. Harris, you can't, you can't help how you feel," Bob responded. "But, you also can't seriously expect her to apologize for not telling you. You two just met a couple days ago. I'm sure that you uh, have things that you haven't told her yet."

"I guess," he reasoned with himself.

"I'd be more concerned about the father," Kirk said.

Michael's eyes widened. That, to him was a brand new thought. "But, but Doctor Hartley calls her Ms. Vanderkellan. Miss!" he argued, starting to panic.

"I thought you said you two had nothing," Elliot replied.

"This is news to me too!" Michael announced. He himself wasn't quite sure of his feelings until he had just heard about Stephanie's daughter.

"Mr. Harris, I uh, I think maybe you had better talk to her after Ms. Richardson gets back," he suggested, trying to get Michael to relax. "From what I know, she isn't married," he added, again trying to get him to remain calm.

"Wouldn't it be funny if she was married to a football player and she told him about you?" Elliot remarked.

"No!" Michael answered, his voice starting to get more high pitched.

"I didn't see a wedding ring," Larry informed him.

"That doesn't mean anything. People take their rings off for a a lot of reasons. My dad took his off when ever he traveled away from home so that he wouldn't lose it," Kirk argued.

"And a football player could certainly afford to get her a nice one," Elliot mentioned.

"But she told me that she was kicked out of her parent's house. Why would she be kicked out and looking for a job if she as married to someone rich?" Michael questioned, gaining back some of his ability to think as some of the shock was wearing off.

"I've told people I was kicked out," Kirk mentioned, completely putting Michael back on edge.

"Liar," Elliot accused him.

"So no one else can be one?" Kirk asked, getting his point across.

Michael just sat there and nervously sighed.

Wrote this in my notebook today during my four hour break. Hope this chapter turned out good enough. Let me know what you think.