Metamorphosis

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: I do hope the thought that this could be a romance isn't turning potential readers away, there is still a lot happening. It is about personal growth, not romance

Chapter 7 (Which Label is True)

"Lindsay?" Trina put her hand to the doorknob and set her left hand on the frame, listening to the sound coming from inside. It was very subtle, but she could hear somebody sobbing. It came upon her heavily and she pushed the door open slowly.

Lindsay was laying sideways on her bed with a tissue firmly clutched to her chest. Tears had left streaks on the girl's face and her nose was as red as her puffy eyes. "Trina, I..." She pushed herself up and blew her nose into the tissue. "Sorry I didn't show up for lunch."

"Its fine, I'm not upset about that." She'd never seen Lindsay this messed up since the day her mother died. Even then, Lindsay was the strong one-she was the rock.

Trina sat down next to Lindsay and moved her hand to Lindsay's knee. "What's the matter?" One thing was certain: Lindsay was still the same hard-pressed and tough girl she knew from before, so if she were upset about something, it was serious. "If there's anything I remember about you, you're tough. You don't get like this unless there's something really serious."

Maybe there was something more to Lindsay actively seeking to be rooming with an old friend. Plus, with her grandmother's health failing, it didn't make sense for Lindsay to up and leave for a camp.

As the realization dawned on her, she moved her hand up over her mouth and felt her breath latch itself in the back of her throat. "I lied to you-that's not what's upsetting me. Saying it makes it real, that's the problem." Lindsay's hand dropped to her lap and she moved her head to Trina's shoulder. "You know my eighteenth birthday is coming up, right?"

"Yeah. In May."

"I'll be a legal adult then. I can move to California, go to the university there. If I can get a job and afford it." She rubbed Lindsay's back and turned her eyes to the window. Her stomach tightened as a great sorrow struck her heart. "My grandma. I said her health was failing. It's already done its damage-she died last month."

Trina hugged her friend and closed her eyes. "Lindsay. I'm sorry." She took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. "You don't want to stay with your dad? I know It'you said things are tense…"

"He's a criminal, Trina." Last night, Lindsay said her dad was trying to get better and had his compulsive urges under control. "Yeah he's getting help for kleptomania, but he's a criminal. We haven't gotten along at all since the last time we spoke, and that was when he went to prison last."

"So the reason you wanted to come on this trip was so you could ride through your eighteenth?"

"Yes." Lindsay grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes. "Then I saw you were here and-I had to be near someone familiar." The girl sniffed once and tensed. Lindsay's gaze fell on the floor and her hand clenched around the tissue. "I'm losing everyone I ever cared about. My mom, my grandma, and I…I can't take any more losses. I can't do this anymore." The knots in her stomach grew worse as a more sinister and depressing feeling overtook her.

"It's going to be okay, Linds…"

"No. No it's not." Lindsay tossed the used tissue into the wastebucket and shook her head. "You know my favorite aunt died a year ago." Trina furrowed her brow and glanced at the black wristbands around Lindsay's wrist. "She took her life when she lost Uncle Tim to the car accident. Mom's sister."

Trina started to reach for the wristband, and time seemed to slow as she did so. Her heart was beating heavily and her eyes focused on the star that was in the middle of the band.

Suddenly Lindsay's hand blocked her fingers and she pulled away. "Lindsay?" She breathed out as her friend glanced into her eyes. "No…" The girl's body began to tremble and she fell into Trina's chest. Trina hugged her tight and closed her eyes, letting the tears welling up in her eyes flow. Her heart began to crumble as everything that surrounded them faded from existence. "How long?"

Lindsay's answer was muffled by Trina's uniform and her sobs, but she could just make out that it had been around a month. She felt a presence nearby, but when she looked to the doorway, there was no one there.

Lindsay lifted her head and frowned at the moist spots on Trina's uniform. "I can't." She gasped out and saliva seemed to pop from her mouth. "I can't be the strong one anymore."

Trina frowned as her memories of Lindsay spun around her mind like a tornado, each tearing apart with each tremble in the girl's voice.

"Just one more!" Lindsay called to Trina. Trina was standing on the center rock in the middle of a rushing river that headed straight for a waterfall. They'd gone off to a high end of the town park where their mothers forbade them from exploring. "Make the jump."

Her foot shook over the water while her eyes studied the rock in between her and the shore. "I might die." Lindsay was on the rock, holding her hand out. If they fell into the water, the current would sweep them to the waterfall.

"Come on Trina, it'll be fine. Run and jump!"

She took a deep breath and reached out for Lindsay's hand, then ran for her friend. Just as she neared the edge, her foot slipped and she started headfirst for the water. Her pupils dilated and she began to scream.

A strong hand grabbed hers and pulled her up. When she recovered, she found herself in her friend's arms. "Told you it would be okay."

As the memory faded, Trina pulled her friend into a tighter embrace. She didn't know how to be the strong one, but she would try. She wasn't going to judge her, nor was she going to try to tell her what to do, but she would be there for her.

"I'm here for you Lindsay. I'm here."

"We're going to be late to the first group assignments, Trina. They're going to be mad."

"It'll be okay." She would try to explain the tardiness to Jason, though it would be difficult. Hopefully he would understand the little bit of information she could give; she had to support Lindsay with something.

She stood from bed and walked into the restroom to grab a rag from the basket on the counter beside the sink. After wetting it under the faucet, she returned to Lindsay and the girl let her wipe away the stains on her cheeks.

"We'll get ready and head on over. I'll tell Jason we had to talk." Lindsay nodded and peered down at her left wrist. The girl's right hand was gripping it so tightly that her knuckles lost their color. "He and I had a fairly decent talk today during lunch."

"What happened?"

"Some girl in our group tried to attack me today."

"What?" Lindsay's voice started to rise and her eyebrows pressed down in the center of her forehead. "Who was she? I'll-"

"Let me worry about that." Lindsay smiled and hugged Trina's waist. Trina held her close and gently rubbed her back, waiting as the tremors in her friend's body slowly faded. "It's great seeing you again, Lindsay. I really missed you over the years."

"I missed you too." The girl pulled away and sniffled. "Let's go. I don't want to get into any further trouble."

The groups were meeting in the center of the courtyard, not yet having divided up into separate factions, but one of the counselors was explaining what was about to happen. Trina and Lindsay moved to the crowd of people. "I wonder what today's activity is going to be." Trina squeezed her friend's hand and looked around for Jason. When she saw him, he was standing off to the side a bit, leaning up against a tree. "I see Jason."

Lindsay followed her glance. "Do you think he's going to be mad that we are late?"

"I don't know." She returned her attention to the counselor in front of the group. He was saying they would leave the compound and go to the field out back where the ten groups would be divided into one on one teams playing a game of flag football.

"So it's a camp-wide activity." She was pleased with the activity as well, because this was a good time to show her athletic prowess. "I can run, so it'll be a good chance to show that I'm not just a girl that likes to dress nice once in a while."

She preferred regular football as opposed to flag football, and even then, rugby was more her style. "Have you ever played in any sports?" Lindsay inquired. "At least, since I moved-and sports aside from martial arts."

"Other than being on the cross-country team, not professionally or on any high school sports teams." She did play before, since the athletes at the school were just about the only people who gave her the time of day. "I get along with the athletes at school, mainly the people from Sherwood that knew us before I started going to Hollywood Arts."

Lindsay put her hands to her waist and lifted an eyebrow at her. "Why did you ever go there, anyway?" She attended Hollywood Arts part time because of their martial arts teacher-but once Tori started going, she started attending at a more full time basis. "If I remember right, we used to joke about the students there."

While students at Hollywood Arts claimed Northridge students were stuck up snobs, the students that Hollywood Arts thought they were better than everyone else because they were 'musically talented'.

"Even my sister's friends say I'm not talented because I can't sing or act as well as them."

"And you believe that?"

"I don't know anymore." She looked back to Jason and thought on what he told her. She barely knew him, but when he said she had talent somewhere, it meant more to her than anything Tori's friends ever said to her. "Jason and I were talking about it earlier, he says I might have some talent, just not as a singer or an actor."

"You're an athlete, Trina, not a singer. Not an actor. An athlete."

Trina laughed once and pulled her gaze away from Jason. "Is it that simple?" Lindsay glanced at her wrist and slowly moved her hand over the band.

"I don't know if anything is ever easy, Trina."

She heard a shuffling noise and turned her head to see Jenny approaching. Her stomach sank and she mentally braced herself from an onslaught from this woman. Part of her thought Jenny was being jealous, much like Jade was whenever Beck went around other girls.

The only problems Jenny had was that Jason's relationship with her ended a long time ago, and Trina didn't find herself to be a threat. It wasn't as if she were dating the man, or even contemplating such a thing.

"What do you want, Jenny?"

"I'm just wondering." Jenny crossed her arms and turned her smile up into a smug looking grin. "Well you showed up late, so I guess it's just not that important to you, and then I have to let you know…you may end up breaking a nail."

` She closed her lips and turned away, choosing to ignore the girl the best she could. Her blood began to boil as anger started to rise from within. Lindsay turned around and sneered at the girl. "Hold up, this is Jenny?" Jenny glanced at Lindsay and raised a brow. "This is the bitch that went attacked you this morning?"

"Lindsay, leave it alone please." In her experience, it was better to ignore people that only wanted to start something.

Lindsay raised her voice and stepped towards Jenny. "No. If you're not going to stick up for yourself, someone has to." She started to poke Jenny in the chest, and the girl's response was to wipe her shirt as if she got dirt on it. "No one talks down to my friend."

Jenny's fingertips graced her chest and she gasped as though she were in shock that someone would accuse her of doing something heartless. "I'm not talking down." She turned her eyes to Trina and smirked. "I am just trying to get her to see that someone as prissy as her has no business being here."

"No. A bitch like you has no business being here." Jenny stepped back and Lindsay started growling venomously. Trina saw Jason turning to see what the commotion was and she reached out to Lindsay, not wanting the girl to get in trouble for starting a fight. "How dare you talk to her like some sort of-"

Trina did agree with Lindsay; Jenny had no real business being here. All the girl wanted was Jason's attention, and he didn't seem to be biting. "Lindsay seriously, don't start a fight out of class." Jason was walking over now, but the girls didn't notice him.

"No, I will not back down while she treats you like shit." The right side of Jenny's upper lift bounced up as the sides of her nose folded and her eyebrows sank in the middle. "You don't know Trina. I know her, or I knew her."

"Oh I don't?" Jenny scoffed and pointed at the girl. "She's a poser." Trina's anger was reaching a level that it hadn't been in some time, and some people nearby were beginning to take notice as Jenny's voice rose into the air. "She's a fake, a fraud. She parades around like a queen, demanding everyone pays attention to her-she's a diva and has no business being at a camp for people like us."

"People like you? Athletes treat her with respect." Lindsay leaned forward and pointed at Trina. Jason stopped behind the girls and crossed is arms, raising an eyebrow while Trina gave him an apologetic look. "This girl is an athlete-even when we were in seventh grade we would play soccer in the back of the school or go rock climbing at the park. I remember that about her, about my best friend."

"Rock climbing?" Jason put arms behind his back and raised himself up on his toes for a second. Jenny gasped and spun around as Lindsay froze. He looked past them and at Trina. His eyebrows were arched high and his lips were curling into a broad smile. "That is a surprise."

Her cheeks burned bright red and she cleared her throat. "It was mostly Lindsay leading me into situations like that. I just got better at outdoor activity because I had to be if I was going to be spending time with her."

"So you're an athlete, then?"

"Well…I don't know. I play a lot of sports with some old friends from an old school, but other than that I'm no longer on any high school teams other than my martial arts class."

The truth of the matter was, before attending fully at Hollywood Arts, she spent a lot of time with other athletes at Sherwood. Some of the football players, some women on the basketball team, and other sports involved, she would practice with them when they weren't at an official practice session for an upcoming game.

"It was mainly just street play. Like I said, I'm no longer on cross-country or any high school teams."

"You did mention graduating earlier." She was astounded that he remembered such a small detail in their conversation. Trina smiled back at him and kept her eyes on the man as he turned to Jenny and Lindsay. "Now. I think the two of you need to calm down. I only see one person here that is trying to draw attention to herself, Jenny." He put emphasis on her name and she threw her hand to her chest while gasping loudly.

"I'm only trying to point out-"

"You've done enough, and we're already getting a late start on the group activity as it is." Jenny threw her hands into the air and walked away, leaving a trail of anger behind her. Trina felt a note of pleasure pulling at her heart and moved her hand up to cover a smile while watching the girl.

She closed her eyes and draped an arm around Lindsay's shoulders, calming the girl. Jason turned towards them and looked from Trina towards Lindsay. There was a knowing look in his eyes, mixed with a note of understanding and compassion. "Now is everything okay, you two?"

"Yeah." Trina started to reach forward as a gesture. "Jason, about our tardiness-" He brought up his hand and Trina lowered her arm. She breathed out slowly and smiled as he responded with a respectful nod.

"Don't worry about it. Just don't make a habit of it, okay?"

"We won't." Her mind drifted back to the sound she heard while consoling Lindsay earlier and she wondered if Jason had stopped by because they were late. If so, he would have seen Lindsay upset about something and opted not to interrupt.

Her heart started to pound as she thought on this action of his, and this time she couldn't hide the pleased smile. His eyes moved to her lips and she caught a flicker of a smile on his own

She heard Jenny call out from nearby, screaming at Jason for not scolding her. Her smile faded away and Jason rolled his eyes.

"Jason?" She took a slow step forward and glanced at the rest of her own classmates. "I'm looking forward to playing some flag football. I'd like for it to be regular football or even rugby." His lips separated and his eyes lit up with surprise.

"Rugby? Really? Next thing I know, you'll say you like boxing."

"Oh I do." She liked real wrestling, but the fabricated stuff was entertaining regardless. She watched a lot of boxing with David when he was taking a break from all his work. "I watch with Dad from time to time, but that's another thing entirely."

"I…see." He ran his hand over his neck and let out an impressed chuckle. "What was your question?"

"I want to be running back, or even quarterback. I figure you'll have people volunteer for positions, so I'm requesting up front what I want." What she wanted to do was wipe the smugness off the faces of the people at this camp and earn a little bit of respect from her classmates.

He rolled his head against his hand, then pulled it away with a sigh. "If you're certain about that, I will let it happen. We're late enough for this game as it is." He turned away and walked towards the group, then stopped partway and turned back to her with a smirk. "If you and your friend say you're athletic, I believe it. You don't need to prove anything to anybody."

"I need to do it." For herself, she wanted this. Lindsay labeled her an 'athlete', Jenny labeled her a 'diva', but she didn't know what she labeled herself as. She never focused on the things she enjoyed, and this was the type of activity she enjoyed. "If people judge me a little less because of it, that's fine. I want to do this for myself."

"Respectable." He turned back and cleared his throat before raising his voice to speak out to the rest of the campers in wait. "There is nothing more to see here, nothing more to say. Let's move out!" He hesitated and turned to speak to Trina, lowering his voice for her. "You want me to send Jenny back to her room? Her view of you isn't going to change because of a game…"

"Let her play. It's not like she can tackle me if she's on my team, but if she does, is it okay to let her know how much I love wrestling?" Jason shook his head with laughter, then continued to address the campers.

This was going to be a fun couple of hours.

Well, I'd say Jason's definitely impressed with her. A lot happened here in this chapter. We saw a vulnerable side to Lindsay, we've learned a little more about Trina-though there's still quite a bit to come. Tell me your thoughts of this, and I hope you've enjoyed