Erin layed in her bed. The sunlight shown through the cracks in the used blinds above her, and, of course, were shining straight in her face. She groaned, covered her eyes with one arm, and layed there for a while.

"Wake up, sleepyhead," Mandy said to her from across the room. Erin peeked out from under her arm.

"What are you doing up so early?" she asked her, surprised.
"I'm leaving today," Mandy reminded her.

"Oh yeah..." Erin trailed off. Being with Mandy since she left the boys' cabin had been basically a God-send to her, despite how much Mandy annoyed her. She'd kept Erin from going to the brink of desolation and depression.

And now she was leaving. Lovely.
"I'm almost done," Mandy informed her carefully, as thought she almost didn't want to say the words.

Erin sighed and pulled herself up into a sitting position. "You going back to your old cabin?" she asked Mandy, who nodded in reply.
"Yeah," she sighed. "Unfortunately, they're all full up, and they can't just kick someone else out of another cabin to make way for me." she announced. "So that means that I'll probably be back here in no time," she added, and shot Erin a smile.

Erin returned the pretty girl's grin. "I don't doubt that," she replied.

Mandy tilted her head. "You know, it's really a shame I'm leaving now," she said to Erin, studying her.

"Why's that?" Erin asked, genuinley interested.

"Because." Mandy said, as if that was her only answer. But after a moment, she continued, shaking her head, and going back to her packing.
"These last few days you've been actually fun to be around." she said. "Not that you're not fun in the first place," she added quickly to avoid an insult. "But it's like you've let loose a little bit."

Erin shrugged. "Maybe I'm just tired of being a shellfish." she suggested with a shrug, and kicked her legs up onto the window ledge, laying back onto her bed.

Mandy finished her packing, and the two girls spotted the counselor making his way up the gravel path to their cabin to escort Mandy away to her old cabin.

Mandy stood up and pulled Erin into a hug. "I'm going to miss you," she said to Erin, squeezing her tightly.
Erin patted Mandy's back. "Come say hi to me when I actually decide to go to lunch, okay?" she asked with a laugh.

"Sure," Mandy replied, and went to pick up her bag.
The counselor knocked on the wood frame of the screen door. "Amanda Thatcher?" he called.
Mandy almost cringed at her full name. "Yeah," she said grudgingly. "That's me," she added. "I'm ready, don't harp me,"

Mandy lugged her suitcase out the door, gave Erin a fleeting last look of farewell, and followed the counselor to his golf cart at the bottom of the hill.

Erin watched them go, wondering if she was losing her only friend-figure at camp.

When the golf cart peeled away, Erin went back to her bed and sat on it.

It was a simple cabin, nothing like the one she'd previously been in. There was two beds on either side of the room, a small closet designated for each bed at the foot of the bed, a night stand to share between them, and a bathroom located right in between the two closets. Nothing like the old cabin, but Erin almost preferred it this way.

There was no 'thump thump thump' of people stomping down the stairs, and no one could snuggle on the couch before everyone else was up in the morning. Erin could see anyone that approached her cabin, and the nearest cabin that belonged to a group of people was a mile or so down the road.

Erin looked out the window. The day was cooler than usual, running around 72 degrees, and breezy. Two birds flitted past the window singing and chirping, and a grasshopper was stuck to the pole outside.

'It's too nice to stay inside,' Erin thought.
But what was she going to do? Swimming was hardly an option. Who wants to go to the pool alone?

Sports weren't really in the equation either because they'd pick her last for teams, or she'd be completely ignored.

She could go and learn to quilt, but seriously, she hadn't sunked that low yet.

'The Art Hall.' Something told her in her brain and before she knew it, Erin was putting on her shoes and was out the door before she could think twice about it.

Of course, the Art Hall was two miles down the road, and she didn't have a golf cart.

She stopped at the bottom of her hill, and looked back up to her cabin. It wasn't remotely locked, but she wasn't worried about anyone breaking in. Who would go a mile out of their way just to ransack her little cabin?

An idea struck Erin and she went back up the hill, changed into running shorts and a regular t-shirt, and grabbed her ipod. Once she hit the bottom of the hill, Erin started jogging.

She passed squirrels and girls in bikinis giggling amongst themselves. She passed campfires (which as an isolation cabin resident, she wasn't allowed to attend) and the gym where a bunch of guys in shirts and skins were playing basketball, shining from sweat.

She passed the trades center and the Games Hall and the Pool until finally she reached civilization, but she kept going. In order for her to get to the Art Hall, she'd have to pass her old cabin, D-13 in the males side of the camp.
Determined not to look as she past she pretended to look for a new song while she passed. When she looked up, she found Brandon walking toward her, staring straight at her. He flagged her down, waving sparatically, and smiling at her.

Erin frowned, but stopped, and pulled an earphone out of her ear.

"What?" she asked him, her breathing fairly regulated, but definitely not what it used to be.

"I just wanted to say hey," Brandon said to her.

You wanted to say hey. He stopped me because he wanted to say hey. Erin thought bitterly.

"Well, that's nice, but I gotta go." she announced, and went to go around around him Brandon sidestepped her, and was in front of her again.

"Okay, actually, I wanted to apologize for everything that happened last month." he announced.

Has it already been a month? Erin asked herself. The days in the cabin passed much slower than when she was in D-13.

"I wasn't on my medication and I'm a bit bipolar." Brandon admitted.

"A bit." Erin snapped, and immediately regretted it. She hadn't meant to say it; it just slipped out.

"Yeah." Brandon replied, looking honestly remorseful. "I kind of got out of hand. And I'm sorry for that." he said.

Erin nodded, slightly touched by his sincerity, although she didn't want to admit it.

"And I hope you'll forgive me for going so wack." he added.

Erin nodded. "Yeah. It's cool," she said.

Honestly, she was having mixed feelings about the whole thing in general.

"Alright, well, I'll let you go back to your running," he said.

Erin nodded, and put her earphone back in, not bothering to say goodbye.

So he was remorseful? But seriously? He was a complete psycho a month ago. He ran around screaming at everyone to leave me alone because he thought we were dating. Oh, I should have never gone to that party with him. If I hadn't none of this would've ever happened, and maybe Connor and I would still...

She thought about him. Over the past few weeks, Erin had trained herself not to think about Connor and their oddly-ended friendship. It was like an open wound that, when left alone, started to scab over and heal into an ugly scar. But when he ever came into her thoughts, the wound was reopened and fesetered and ached.
Erin felt so bad for hurting him the way she did, and she still didn't know what really went wrong between them. It was confusing. Brandon was so prominent in her life then and she was constantly on the lookout for the creey-stalker-dude so she could hide from him, and Chris was at war with Connor, and Ben was like Old Father trying to make everyone play fair, but Connor was totally and outright flirting with Erin and she liked it, and then she tried to kiss him, but was completely embarrassed by the Texas-twang girl whose name she couldn't remember in the Art Hall, and then of course she went into defense mode.

Erin ran around a pothole in the ground, her eyes plastered to it, her breathing coming faster and faster as she picked up speed unconsciously. Her mood was fueling her running, anger ripping through her like electrical currents. Truthfully, since she left D-13, Erin hadn't had a proper moment to just be angry about everything. Going away to camp was supposed to be relaxing, a getaway. She was supposed to be smiling and laughing like the kids in the pictures in the main office. She was suppossed to be happy.

But she wasn't. And that made her mad.

By the time Erin reached the Art Hall, she was practically sprinting. She stopped at the stairs, panting for breath, watching everything throb in and out of her vision before her until she caught her breath. She bent over to stretch her hamstrings, her calves, and her groin muscles, then went inside.

The cool blast of air slapped her in the face, but Erin liked it. She looked at the Texas-twang girl, her name instantly coming back to her. "Theresa, can I have a drink of water?" she asked.

Theresa looked up, surprised to see her there. "Oh, yes darlin', of course you can." she replied, standing up and going to the mini-fridge in the corner, pulling out a chilled bottle of water and tossed it to her.

"How have you been?" Theresa asked.
"I've been better, as have we all. Yourself?" Erin replied, and plunged into her bottle of water, savoring the cold liquid that splashed against her teeth and soaked her tongue.

"Oh, I'm alright. Just coming here everyday. It's been getting a little boring. Honestly, after you left, people stopped coming as much. Maybe that's because they've just started a new swim class. Speaking of which, where have you been?" Theresa asked.

"You haven't heard?" Erin asked, using the last of her air to force the words out before taking a deep gasp of delicious artificial air. Panting slightly still, Erin went to sit at Theresa's work station.

"No," Theresa replied. "Well, I've heard rumors, but those are silly." she added, waving her hand in the air.

Erin smiled at Theresa's downhome twang. In person, it didn't sound so bad. "I asked to be put in the isolation cabin." she replied.

Theresa's face remained calm. "Oh," she replied. "I was told that you were put there. And since Connor left, I could only assume that it had something to do with him."

Erin shrugged. Thinking about him twice in one day. I'm going on a record, she thought.
"It was about him, but not because of him." she said indifferently. "I mean...I like the isolation cabin more. I was in there with Mandy, who just moved out today, but still. I needed some estrogen." she said with a small laugh.

Theresa giggled. "Yeah, I suppose I see where you're coming from. Connor's just recently started coming back, you know." she said, suddenly revered.

Erin looked at her with a look that said, 'please.'

"I saw what you did to his picture, too." Theresa continued.

Erin closed her eyes and swallowed hard. Three times was getting to be far too many.

"Erin...why? Was it because I yelled at you two? I felt so bad after I did that because it was so cute, but you're really not supposed to have any PDA here at Camp Harvey!, so I was only doing my job."

Erin faked a smile. "Yeah. We..uhm...he...well..." How could she explain it without seeming like a heartless snob?

"I uhm...don't really know why I did it," Erin started to explain. Theresa didn't make any move to judge her, but she listened intently. "He kind of hurt me...but I didn't really know how to deal with everything that was going on at the time. I mean...I divulged a lot to him about my personal life, and then...things just went sour for no apparent reason. And I didn't want to think of him, but I couldn't tell him to his face. So I guess I ripped it so that maybe in a way, he'd stop thinking about me too, and we both could stop hurting." she said, trying to explained her crazy way of thinking.

"I don't get it," Theresa said carefully.

Erin made a face. "I really wasn't at all sane at that time. Everyone was mad at me and everyone wanted me to be with them, and I couldn't justify being with one person and hurting another. So...I was basically ripped into a couple different pieces at the time of that incident." she explained.

"Oh," said Theresa.
"I understand."

But Theresa wasn't the one who said it. Behind her, the curtain moved, and Connor stepped out from behind it, looking at her darkly.