A/N I just wanted to quickly apologize for the schedules. The formatting got butchered again when I uploaded because FanFiction sucks at formatting, and when I changed it and then hit save all the spacing I put in got deleted so it ended up this way again. Sorry, I hope it isn't too confusing. Sorry!
The Brotherhood of Ieoseph Cavan
ChAptEr 4
.~***~.
Blackthorne Institute for Boys
Cameron A. Morgan
Student ID
GG107
Block Term Course Teacher Room
1 YR Advanced Russian III S. Sanders 101
2 SM1 Chemical Warfare 01 A. Ivanovski Lab 2
2 SM2 Metal Shop 01 G. Arnett Lab 4
Lunch
3 YR Covert Operations III J. Solomon -103
Ass. B. Travers
4 SM1 Islamic Religion Study C. Hamilton 115
4 SM2 CIA, the History of T. Glass 106
5 YR Physical Activity K. Olson Gym
Blackthorne Institute for Boys
Zachary Goode
Student ID
BB305
Block Term Course Teacher Room
1 YR Norwegian Dialects II R. Rose 113
2 SM1 Chemical Warfare 01 A. Ivanovski Lab 2
2 SM2 Gun Making for Beginners S. Sanders Lab 5
Lunch
3 YR Covert Operations III J. Solomon -103
Ass. B. Travers
4 SM2 Psychology of Soviet A. Everell 104
Society
4 SM1 CIA, the History of T. Glass 106
5 YR Physical Activity K. Olsen Gym
Blackthorne Institute for Boys
Rebecca Baxter
Student ID
GG103
Block Term Course Teacher Room
1 YR Accents of the World IV C. Hamilton 115
2 SM1 Chemical Warfare 01 A. Ivanovski Lab 2
2 SM2 Bombs 101 E. Hailey Lab 2
Lunch
3 YR Covert Operations III J. Solomon -103
Ass. B. Travers
4 SM1 Advanced Cultures of S. Sanders 101
the World
4 SM2 CIA, the History of T. Glass 106
5 YR Physical Activity K. Olsen Gym
Blackthorne Institute for Boys
Elizabeth Sutton
Student ID
GG109
Block Term Course Teacher Room
1 YR Advanced Quantum G. Walsh Lab 1
Physics I
2 YR Advanced Chemistry G. Walsh Lab 1
III
2 YR Mechanics I E. Hailey Lab 3
Lunch
3 YR Calculus II G. Walsh Lab 1
4 SM1 Advanced Cultures of S. Sanders 101
the World
4 SM2 Inside NASA C. Hamilton 115
5 YR Physical Activity K. Olsen Gym
.~***~.
"Well done girls," Dr. Steve leaned in and whispered with a wink. "Excellent job!" He shuffled sideways past the girls to the podium.
"Many thank yous, Professor Buckingham—and ladies, of course! For such wonderful introductions!" He chuckled and pat his large stomach. "Take a bow, girls!" Awkwardly, with looks shot between them, the girls gave small curtsies, at which the boys hooted.
"Settle down, gentlemen!" Dr. Steve said with a wink. "There's plenty of time for that later!" Cammie was worried about what exactly Dr. Steve meant by that. "Now if you girls would please," he scuffled down off the stage, "come with me…down here…" The boys' eyes followed the girls as they obediently trailed behind the bumbling man through the tables of hormone-infested males.
The tables were arranged, looking at them from the podium and microphone (which was in front of the teacher's table), in three rows. Each row had two long tables. Cammie guessed, judging by the appearances of the boys, that each table was for a different grade level. The seventh, eight and freshman tables were closest to the podium, being the first table in each row accordingly. Following that logic, Cammie assumed behind the seventh graders were the sophomores, behind the eighth graders were the juniors and behind the freshmen were the seniors. Dr. Steve led them to the isle in between the eighth grade and junior tables (Cammie could have lifted her hand from her side and touched the boys on either side of her) and indicated the latter. "This is the table designated to our juniors where you will eat you meals." Dr. Steve's cheeks were slightly flushed and his eyes twinkled. "But more importantly, these are the boys you will be sharing your lives with for the next year." Talk about pressure, eh? The green-eyed boy Cammie had been looking at earlier was sitting at the table, she noticed, blushing slightly. She subtly refused to make eye contact again, even though she knew he was trying to.
There were fifteen or so boys at each table, but another table had been added onto the end of the junior table to make room for the girls. The boys had spread out by all sitting on one side of the table, down the entire length, though, so Cammie knew there was no way of avoiding them tonight by hiding at one end of the table, behind her sisters. The boys must have planned it so they would all have a girl to talk to. "Have a seat, ladies!" Dr. Steve insisted, eyes bright. He waved a hand at the half-empty table.
Cammie glanced over her shoulder at Bex, (she was standing at the front of the line the girls had been forced to assemble in order to fit through the isles without tripping over large, booted feet) who shrugged. "Er—Yes, sir." Cammie mumbled. She colored slightly from embarrassment when her voice came out a little higher under than usual. Once again, she noticed all the boys were looking at her (she made a mental note to make Bex stand at the front next time).
Cammie sat down across from the mildest, quietest looking boy she could find, and Bex and Jessica took the seats on either side of her (Liz sat on Bex's other side). The rest of the girls spread out along the table; giggling and squealing flirtatiously (Cammie wondered how that was even possible. Pigs squeal, but is it attractive on them? No! This was one of those times Cammie really missed Macey).
Cammie smiled shyly at the boy across from her, and he smiled back just as shyly. "Hi," he said quietly. "I'm Tyler."
"Cammie," she said.
"I know." Then he ducked his head and stuck a fry in his mouth. Cammie sighed in relief. Well Tyler, she thought, I think you're my favorite new friend. If you don't talk to me, I won't talk to you. Then maybe we'll both make it through tonight.
Quickly, all the girls but Cammie relaxed and fell into conversation with the boys. Bex was talking to the large Adonis sitting across from her, batting her eyelashes frequently. His skin was goldened to a crisp, and his dark blonde-brown hair was bleached from the sun. "How much did you say you lift, Grant?" Grant puffed up and grinned.
Cammie tried not to look, but one of the boys sitting next to Grant was the green-eyed boy from before. Up close his eyes were even more vivid, his hair was a extremely dark brown, like rich chocolate, and his fair skin was completely smooth and clean of blemishes. Cammie thought he was extremely handsome. Go figure, huh?
The green-eyed boy (Zach, she thought someone called him) was laughing at Liz and his curly-black haired friend, who seemed to be getting along exceptionally. The two were hunched over the table, their food forgotten, with a metal device in between them. They each held tweezers and were poking away at it, talking quietly between them. She watched as he laughed, his teeth sparkling. She huffed. Who said spies were allowed to be good-looking? 'Good-looking spies' should be an oxymoron, and a dangerous one at that. Someone should write somewhere that all spy babies have to be ugly. How are you supposed to sneak when everyone is looking at you because you're so darned beautiful? Gorgeous people suck.
Cammie was so wrapped up in watching the boy that she almost didn't notice when he looked up at her. She jumped in her seat when she realized he had caught her staring. He smirked slowly. "See something you like?" he mouthed. Cammie's eyes widened and she flushed. She quickly spun away and refused to look back, but she could hear him laughing from her seat. Cammie resigned herself to picking at her burger and fries for most of the meal.
Bex tried to include her in the conversation she was having with the Adonis ("Hey Cam, what was the name of that wrestling move you showed me?" "Did you know Grant can bench twice my weight in potatoes, Cammie?" "Hey, I think Liz and Jonas could use some help on their machine, Cam."), but every time Cammie would open her mouth to join in the entire table would fall silent and stare. So she'd snap her mouth shut and pretend her plate was the most fascinating thing in the world. She would never admit it, but the rejection was really hurting Cammie's feelings. The boys had no qualms with her sisters, so what made her different? She was starting to wish she was home with Macey.
"Just ignore them, Cam," Bex whispered. "Show them you aren't afraid of them." Bex squeezed her hand underneath the table and sent her a small smile. But it wasn't that simple—Bex didn't understand. Bex was a girl—a beautiful girl— who loved attention and had spent her whole life making sure she got it. But Cammie wasn't like that; Cammie was a pavement artist. She'd spent her whole life not being seen. Only now she wasn't just being seen…she was being watched, and looked for and noticed and all the worst things a pavement artist—a spy, really—can be. How was she supposed to deal with that? When you've been invisible to everyone your entire life sometimes you forget how to react to the idea that you're a solid, visible mass to everyone around you, and that you can't always just blend into the wall.
"So, Cammie, what do you do for fun?" Cammie's head shot up. Tyler was chewing on a piece of carrot, wearing a silly half-smile. "Personally," he said, "I like to take long walks on the beach, watch the sunset," his voice lowered to an intimate level, "cuddle by the fire." He winked, and that's when she got that he was joking. He grinned. "What can I say? I'm a hopeless, romantic fool." Cammie got over her surprise—what happened to the quiet, shy boy? Ugh, boys are so confusing—and smiled back.
Her eyes sparkled with humor, and Tyler thought she was extremely pretty without her face glued to her plate. "Me? Oh, I like to destroy villages, set fire to crops, and steal candy from defenseless children—you know, the usual," she said with a shrug and a snort. Tyler blinked and then laughed loudly.
"Sounds exciting. You'll have to take me with you one day," he said when he had stopped laughing.
She laughed. "Good, we'll make it a date! We can pillage the villages we burn and use the valuables we find to pay for dinner at the Marriott."
"Pick me up at eight." He said in an imitation-suave voice. He grinned (Cammie noticed he had an adorable smile, but in an almost-a-man-but-still-cutely-boyish way, with a line of stubble running along his jaw), and Cammie felt a little bit more welcomed.
"Cammie!" Cammie looked at Bex, who had elbowed her in the ribs. Bex was grinning like a maniac and bouncing in her seat. Her eyes were shifting all over the place and Cammie thought she either had a bad twitch or she was trying to tell her something via retina.
"Ow! Bex!" Cammie rubbed her ribs. "What was that for?"
Bex cleared her throat. "Who's this, Cammie?" Bex said like she was talking to a child, with extreme emphasis on the 'friend' part.
Cammie gave her a look that said 'What drug are you on and when are you getting off it?' "This is Tyler. Tyler, this is Bex, one of my best friends."
Tyler smiled charmingly, "Hey."
'Hello," Bex said and reached over to shake his hand. "Pleasure to meet you. And that's Liz," Bex pointed over her shoulder. Liz raised her blonde head at the sound of her name, and waved to Tyler.
"Hello," she said.
"Nice to meet you." Cammie figured Tyler was the type of guy who was silly, and polite when you brought him home to meet your parents, who played Wii with your little brother as long as the kid wanted and who opened the car door for you every single time—almost the best-friend type. Basically an all around nice guy (Macey had gone over the different 'types' their last light at Gallagher, just in case). Not to mention he was extremely easy to talk to, and pretty easy on the eyes, if she did say so herself.
"Hey Tyler, can you pass the ketchup, please?" Cammie's head snapped to the Zach, and was surprised when he was looking directly at her, not Tyler. Cammie blushed, but didn't break eye contact. Zach smiled. Not smirked, smiled.
"Sure man," Tyler said. He handed the bottle to Grant who held it out for Zach to take, but the dark-haired boy made no move for it. He was still looking at Cammie. Neither of them noticed the glances Bex and Grant sent each other, or Tyler's raised brow.
"Zach?" Grant tapped Zach's arm with the ketchup and Zach's head snapped to Grant. Cammie blinked when Zach broke eye contact.
"Thanks man," Zach mumbled, and turned back to his dinner, his expression carefully blank.
When she made to turn back to Tyler, Cammie spotted at least three buzzed heads swivel away from them, at their table alone. Cammie rolled her eyes. Eavesdroppers.
Tyler was looking at her with small smirk. "What?" she asked with a suspicious frown.
"What was that?"
"What was what?"
"That! The thing with Zach."
"What thing with Zach? There's no thing with Zach."
"Oh come on, Cammie, I'm not dumb. I saw the looks you two were giving each other."
"Oh, and what looks were those?"
"The looks that said 'I want to rip your clothes off and fornicate right now with you on this table.'"
Cammie's eyes widened and her jaw slackened. "I-what-I-no! There were no looks!"
"There most certainly were looks, Cameron Ann Morgan!"
"There were not!" Cammie said frantically.
Tyler rolled his eyes. "Oh please!"
"Tyler!" she said.
"Fornicator!"
"Tyler!"
"Cammie!" he mimicked.
"Ugh! Boys!" Cammie viciously speared a veggie with her fork and Tyler laughed. "There were no looks," she mumbled. Luckily for Cammie, she was so distracted that she was blissfully unaware that the entire table was listening keenly. And no one missed that Zach's cheeks were suspiciously tinged with pink, though his expression remained stoic.
Jessica soon joined Tyler and Cammie's conversation, albeit quietly. Occasionally she would ask a question or give a comment, but otherwise she mostly listened.
"Okay, so you know Grant and Zach are there, and then on Zach's other side is Jonas. Those three usually run together. Next to Jonas is Nick, and next to Nick is Chris. Then there's Mario—the short, dark guy—and next to him is Justin and Michael. Michael's the blonde one." Tyler was pointing out and naming all the guys at the table, per Cammie's request. "Alright, on the end over here is Dmitri, and he's next to Logan and Austin. Logan has grey eyes and Austin has green. Watch out for them," he said, lowering his voice. "Nasty tempers. Yikes! Okay and that's Daniel, the Asian one—" Daniel inclined his head in acknowledgment. Tyler clapped the boy sitting next to him on the shoulder. "And lastly, this is Matt."
Cammie blinked and swallowed hard. Matt? Matt smiled hello and Cammie forced herself to smile tightly back. Tyler noticed and quickly changed the subject. Cammie stayed quiet while Tyler and Jessica tried to distract her.
Zach frowned. There was no doubt about it, then. She was His daughter for sure.
Zach had been openly watching their conversation for a few minutes now, once he had realized, about ten minutes in, that she was refusing to look at him, probably because of what Tyler had said earlier. That suited Zach just fine. He could look all he liked and not have to pretend he wasn't interested when he clearly was.
As Zach studied her he noticed certain things, things like she smiled with her teeth, she bit her lip, and she rested her head in her hands when she was deep in thought. Zach found the more he watched her the more he wanted to know her story.
Dinner was coming to a close when suddenly, the microphone screeched to life. Cammie grimaced at the terrible sound. She looked up at the podium to see Dr. Steve fumbling with the thing.
He cleared his throat and smiled. "I'd just like to make a few last minute announcements, before you are dismissed for bed. First of all, curfew is ten o'clock, no later, ladies and gentlemen." He fixed them with s stern look, but broke into a smile immediately after, ruining any affect it might have had. "Next, for the ladies, classes start tomorrow morning. Your schedules will be passed out at breakfast. And finally, you ladies may be wondering where you'll be sleeping for the next year." He chuckled and that was when Cammie got a little worried. She exchanged apprehensive glances with Bex. "You will be sleeping with the boys in the junior bunker! Isn't that exciting?"
Silence.
"What fun! Well, goodnight, ladies and gentlemen!" Dr. Steve said, chuckling. He stepped down from the podium and left the cafeteria, humming a tune to himself. The other teachers got up and left as well, Professor Buckingham following. Only the Blackthorne Boys were left in the canteen with the shell-shocked girls.
"We're sleeping with…the boys?" Courtney asked in a horrified voice turning to stare at her sisters. Eva squeaked.
"We—but we can't! We're girls!" Tina wailed.
"Well, spotted," said Bex sarcastically. Grant snickered, which he covered up with a cough when Tina sent him a death glare.
"How are we going to do our make-up in the morning—" "Make-up?" someone muttered. "—and—and our hair? How are we going to get dressed?" Eva rattled of hysterically. Mick was wide-eyed and silent.
"Wait! Are we supposed to shower with them too? I can't share a bathroom with boys!" Kim gasped, and Anna squeaked, looking faint.
"Cammie!" Liz whispered desperately. Cammie leaned over to look at the blonde waif. "They can't do this, can they? It isn't right!" Everyone turned to stare at Cammie. Of course. Sigh. She grimaced.
"I don't think there's anything we can do, Liz…"
"But it's entirely unethical!" she insisted.
"I know, Liz, and I totally agree, but I don't know what we can do. We can talk to Dr. Steve, but other than that—"
"Cammie!" Mick exclaimed suddenly. "Ask your mom to help us!"
Cammie's eyes widened. "What?"
"Yeah Cam! Ask your mom to get Dr. Steve to change his mind!" Tina agreed excitedly.
The boys looked extremely confused, so Bex said, "Cammie's mom is Headmistress at Gallagher." Their eyes widened and they nodded in understanding.
Cammie started shaking her head. "No, no, no! Guys, I don't think—"
"What? You don't think what?" Tina's voice and eyes were hard. "Jeez Cammie, it's the least you could do!"
Cammie's expression turned annoyed. "You know I don't have any pull with her Tina!"
"Oh please!" Tina scoffed. "We all know that's a load of crap, Cammie!"
"I don't!" Cammie insisted furiously.
"She doesn't Tina, just let it go!" Bex said angrily, and Liz nodded frantically.
Tine rolled her eyes. "Right, and all those times you've been in trouble you've just coincidentally been let off without any punishment! None of us are that naïve, Cammie!"
Cammie stood up abruptly, her fists clenched. Her eyes narrowed heatedly when Tina stood up just as quickly.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down girls!" Tyler said hastily, also standing. He grabbed Cammie's arm to hold her back, but she just shook it off and crossed her arms instead.
"I don't know how many times I'm going to have to say it before it gets through your thick head, Tina, but my mom doesn't tell me everything, and I have no control over what she does or doesn't do!"
"She's your mom! Of course she'll listen to you before she listens to any of us!" Tina spat. "Why is it so hard for you to just try? All you have to do is convince her to get us our own room! Or is that to much for the great Cammie Morgan?" Tina's eyes narrowed spitefully.
"You're seriously disillusioned! You know my mom puts Gallagher before me!"
"Yeah right! She's always pulling strings for you!" The other girls and boys watched in horror as the argument started turning into something beyond sleeping arrangements.
"Who do you think you are? I don't go running back to my mom for everything, Tina!"
"Who do I think I am?" Tina laughed mirthlessly. "Who do you think you are Cameron Morgan? You think you can just get away with anything because you have your mom to back you up! But when it comes to doing something for the rest of us," she circled her arm in indication of the girls, "instead of just for yourself you back out!"
"Whoa!" Bex stood up too and made a move towards Tina, but Grant rapidly lunged over the table and grabbed hold of her.
Cammie rage took on a whole new level. "Let me make something extremely clear to you, Tina," Cammie stepped forward dangerously and Tina's hard look faltered. "My mom has always punished me when I deserved it! She has always supported Gallagher over me, and she never pulls strings for me. I'm as much a Gallagher Girl as the rest of you, on every single level! I don't understand why you can't just accept the truth when I've been telling it to you for years!"
Tina made no reply. Cammie let out an angry breath.
"My mother isn't someone I fall back on whenever I need a favor. Dr. Steve chose these sleeping arrangement because he thought they were… for the best," Cammie grimaced, "so we're just going to have to suck it up and deal with them. Just because we don't like them doesn't mean we need to complain and hide behind my mom. Gallagher Girls aren't whiny wusses, they fight their own battles. So don't you dare call me ungrateful or selfish!" Cammie finished.
Tina glared at Cammie. She turned around and sat down again, her nose held high in the air. Cammie snorted and sat down as well.
"Er…how about we just… show you to the bunker, now." Tyler said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.
.~***~.
"Well this is…cozy," said Bex tightly. The bunker was basically a small trailer with a low ceiling and lots of beds. The beds were built with the headboards against the walls on both sides of the room, with a narrow isle in between. They had all been pushed closer together to make room for ten more beds at the end, so there was only about a foot and a half in between them. At the foot of each bed there was a trunk, presumably containing the boys' belongings. In between all the beds there was a small table with a reading lamp and a drawer.
Grant laughed embarrassedly. "Er, yeah. It's not a lot."
"No, it's great," Bex said encouragingly.
"Where's the bathroom?" Mick asked.
"Around the corner," Chris answered. "They're communal with the seniors. Their bunker is next door. Sophomores and freshmen are about two blocks over, and eighth and seventh are on the other side of campus."
"Are there certain times we aren't supposed to use them? You know, designated times." Eva asked.
"Nah, they're pretty much open 24/7. We all just come and go as we please," Mario said shrugging. Eva's eyes widened.
"She meant she doesn't want anyone walking in on her showering, dumb ass," Austin said with a roll of his eyes, kicking the foot of the bed Mario was sitting on. Mario swatted him away with the back of his hand. "Don't worry, the showering stalls are separate from the toilets, and completely private. There's no way any peeping toms would see you." Eva nodded in relief.
"So which beds are ours?" Bex asked, peering down the isle.
"Pretty much any of the ones down at the end." Zach said. "If there's an unlocked trunk at the end of the bed it's all yours."
"Are those trunks all we get for storage?" Courtney asked worriedly.
"What more could you possibly need?" asked Justin in disbelief. Psh, boys.
Courtney looked like she had taken offense to that. "I always pack for any situation," she said harshly. "I like to be prepared." Justin raised his hands in defeat, and sat back on his bed.
"I call the bed closest to the window!" Kim said, starting down the isle.
"No way, that one's mine!" Tina called.
"Too bad, I got here first!" Kim replied haughtily throwing her bag onto the mattress.
"Ugh," Tina shouldered her way past the boys and stalked down the bunker to an available bed. Cammie and Bex rolled their eyes simultaneously and followed after, with Liz at their heels. The boys exchanged amused looks behind their backs.
Cammie ended up in one of the two beds that were next to the boys' beds, because Bex had insisted on it, since she was taking the other one. The bed next to Cammie turned out to be Tyler's (Cammie couldn't believe her luck) and Liz was on Cammie's other side. Grant was across from Tyler (next to Bex), and next to him was Zach (Cammie tried not to stare). Jonas was next to Zach.
Cammie unpacked her clothes as quickly as she could, taking great care that none of the boys saw any panties or bras. Luckily for her, all of her stuff easily fit into the trunk, with the exception of her books, which she piled underneath her bed. She made sure her trunk was locked and secured (with her diary safely inside) before she turned to look at the pajamas lying on her bed. How the heck was she supposed to get changed in a room full of boys? "Er..."
Tyler looked up and saw her dilemma. He laughed and pointed to a door at the front of the bunker (through the boy's beds, ugh). "Bathroom," he said. At her questioning glance he said, "There's only a sink and mirror in there. No toilet or shower. Mostly we use it as a changing room. Or, we will now. Didn't really have to before." He shrugged.
"Thanks," she said, picking up her clothes. He smiled at her and returned to his book. She noticed he was already in his pjs, and with a quick scan of the room she noted all the boys were. Talk about silent and deadly, eh? Cammie tried not to blush when she realized Zach slept in his boxers. Only his –look at those abs! Dang, does he work—no! Bathroom! Right! She made her way quickly to the bathroom, ignoring the stares she got on the way.
As quickly as she could she shrugged out of her clothes and into her Dad's old maroon sweatshirt ('MORGAN' printed on the back in cracked white print) and black sweats. She slipped on a pair of oversized socks.
"Cammie, hurry up!" Cammie nearly jumped out of her skin at the pounding on the door. With a hand on her racing heart she swung the door open. Bex was standing in front of her, examining her nails and pretending she didn't notice Grant staring at her butt. She grinned when she saw the door open. "Great, thanks Cam," she said, pushing her way in. Cammie laughed at her friend and picked up her clothes off the floor.
She laughed with a shake of her head and bent over to grab her dirty clothes off the ground. When she stood up and turned around she froze.
Everyone in the bunker (sans Tyler) was staring at her again. Jeez. Her eyes widened slightly and she fought to keep her expression carefully blank. She smiled uncomfortably. Then she noticed she was the only girl left in the bunker. "Where did they—"
"Bathroom," called Tyler from his bed without looking up from his book. Cammie nodded and took a deep breath.
Awkwardly she walked back to her bed, forcing herself not to freak out. She could feel their eyes on her back as she passed by. They really weren't subtle, were they? Jeez.
Fourteen boys staring at one girl alone in a bunker = creepy.
Cammie lay down on her bed and stared at the ceiling. Quickly, her eyes started to drift shut from pure exhaustion, but she forced herself to stay awake because, well, she didn't exactly trust the boys not to try something while she was the only one in here with them. What was taking Bex so long, anyways?
"Hey Cam," Tyler asked quietly. She turned on her side to look at him and rested her head on her hand.
"Yeah?" she whispered. She realized the other boys were probably listening as well even though most of them appeared to be sleeping or talking quietly to each other. A few of the boys had their lamps switched on, bathing the bunker in a soft yellow glow. The peaceful quiet was making it incredibly hard for Cammie to stay awake.
"Are you okay?" he asked her. His brow was furrowed.
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
"What happened with Tina…are you okay?"
Cammie looked down at her arm for a long time before she answered. "That stuff with Tina… it's been building up for years, you know? And it was about more than the bunker." Cammie frowned. "I doubt all the tensions resolved now anyways. Tina and I have never, and probably will never, like each other much." She smiled sheepishly. "I'm just sorry we were so rude. We shouldn't have exploded at each other, especially on our first night, and in front of the entire school. Talk about embarrassing, huh?"
Tyler smiled and lay down on his side, facing her. "Nah," he brushed it off. "Stuff like that happens here all the time, anyways. A lot of us have terrible tempers." He grinned mischievously. "If anything, it was super hot. And it earned you a fair bit of respect."
Cammie laughed cruelly. "Yeah, right. They hate me!"
Tyler frowned. "No they don't Cammie. It's complicated, but I swear they don't hate you."
"Then why do they stare at me like I'm gum on the bottom of their shoes? You're the only one who's been remotely nice to me. What did I do to make them reject me?" Her voice was stained with desperate frustration.
"It isn't like that Cammie. They… it isn't my secret to tell," he sighed. "But I promise you, it isn't your fault." His expression was fierce as he defended his brothers.
She sighed. She wasn't nearly satisfied, but she smiled at Tyler anyways. "Thanks, Tyler."
He met her gaze and held it intensely with his own. "Anytime." Then his gaze softened. "Go to sleep Cammie. You look like shit," he laughed quietly.
She reached over and hit him, but he grabbed he hand and gave it a squeeze. "Night," he said gently. Then he released her hand and turned over.
"Goodnight, Tyler," she whispered back. Cammie rolled over and finally succumbed to sleep.
.~***~.
A/N
I hope you guys liked this chapter. Longest chapter EVER!
I also hope you like Tyler. Just remember, this is feinitely a Zammie story. Zammie forever! I just thought Cammie needed a friend, and if you remember from the boy's descriptions, Tyler is a pavement artist like her, so he understands her more than the other boys. There's nothing romantic on either of their sides. In fact, I'm thinking I'm going to make him a closeted gay, just to mix it up a little.
And I just wanted to remind some people that, like I said at the beginning in the first chapter or so I think, this story isn't a priority of mine. I have another one that takes precedence over this one. I almost gave this one up and one point, and I don't even have much of a plan for where the story will go. So please don't expect constant updates, and please, please, don't tell me to update because you want to know what happens next. I don't mind people asking for updates, but when someone comes right out and says 'I think you should update because I want to know what happens next. I want you to update now," (no joke, this happened) it's really off putting to me as an author. It makes me not want to update at all, really. Oh, and FYI, everyone wants to know what happens next. It's a common affliction I hear.
I will admit to you all though, I'm liking writing this story a lot. The other one is a lot more serious. It's like that one is work and this one is a hobby, so I keep coming back to this one. And I'm finding it a lot easier to write longer chapters now, too. So I'm thinking maybe the other one will be on temporary hiatus in favor of this one, since it's good practice and I think, with a little work, I could have it done by the end of July. I'm moving again around then and my new school starts in August (so I get a shorter summer, ugh) so I'm thinking the more serious fic ('Counter Clockwise') might be a 'during the school year' thing.
I hope you all liked the schedules; I had a lot of fun doing them. I'm thinking a teacher profile document at the beginning of the next chapter? Tell me what you think
I hate feeling like I kept saying 'girls', 'boys' and 'Dr. Steve' in this chapter, But I mean, what other words can I use?
Next Chapter: Teacher profiles, night drills (eek!), the girls get adjusted to getting ready in the morning in a dorm filled with boys, the guards that came with the girls from Gallagher are introduced at breakfast, and schedules are passed out. Classes start too, I think. I keep saying they'll start next chapter but then the chapters end up super long and I haven't gotten to that part yet. Yikes.
Preview:
"Pst!" Something small hit the back of Cammie's head. "Pst!" Cammie turned around and fixed the boy leaning across the isle talk to her with a glare. She put a hand to her hair and her face morphed in bewildered disgust.
"Did you just throw egg at my head?"
He laughed. "Hey baby," the boy said with a wink. His eyes raked Cammie body and she suddenly felt dirty. "My name's—"
"Going to end up on a gravestone if you don't turn around and mind your own business," said and angry voice.
"Julien!"
IMPORTANT: What would you guys say to Madame Dabney making a surprise visit sometime in the story? Just an idea I had. And do you guys think Cam's dad should be dead or alive? Major decision I can't make. Help me!
And don't forget, I'm taking suggestions for this story.
I love writing authors notes.
Love,
Katie
P.S. Yes, I'm starting the sign off thing again. I actually missed it a lot.