Metamorphosis

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N:

Chapter 13 (Making a Trade)

"Details." Trina opened her eyes suddenly and gasped out when the morning sun stabbed her eyes. Lindsay's tone was sharp and curious. "I demand details."

She rubbed her eyes and moaned at the girl; she expected to be able to sleep later on weekend mornings. "There are no details, Lindsay." Her eyes adjusted slowly and she turned her head up to see her friend standing with her hands at her hips and her right eyebrow pushing high into her brow. "What time is it?"

"Eight on Saturday." With how early they had been waking up, their bodies were naturally waking. Since Saturday and Sunday were free days, campers could sleep in if they wanted to, and Trina intended to take full advantage of that. Although she woke up at six, and then seven, and tried miserably to fall back asleep.

"Leave me alone, Lindsay." She grabbed her pillow and fell face forward on the mattress while swinging the pillow on the top of her head. She knew what it was Lindsay was fishing for, but she wasn't going to be biting.

All of a sudden the pillow flew away from her head. She lifted up her head and groaned at the girl. "You came in late last night and went straight to bed. Word is you and Jason went on a walk outside camp." Lindsay smirked and Trina rolled her eyes. Clearly, people took notice when the group leader left the campsite, but she hadn't expected the rumor mill to begin.

"Word is? Don't tell me people have been creating rumors."

"No one has, it's just a matter of 'look, Jason's heading out with a girl that looks like Trina.'" She dropped her arm off the bed and shrugged. Jason had her out most of the night, hiking through the wooded area and climbing up various other rock formations. Even now, her entire body was so sore that she could hardly move. "Was this the training session with Jason?"

"Part of it was. Basically, I felt like shit yesterday, and Jason made me feel better. Nothing happened." Lindsay sat beside her, glaring with suspicion. A sly grin spread across the girl's face and Trina let out a defeated groan. "Stop prying."

"Stop playing it off like you're only friends."

She stretched her arms out and furrowed her brow. "We are only friends." Jason's friend was doing this same thing, and she didn't understand it. "Whatever chemistry you think you're seeing, I can almost assure you, it doesn't exist."

"Maybe the two of you think that, but I guarantee there are people that see something more."

"Yeah. Jenny thinks that."

"She's a bitch."

"I'm trying to think who's worse between her and Jade. Jenny's winning at the moment." She watched Lindsay smirk and started to chuckle herself; it was amusing to see her friend's reaction when she didn't know Jade enough to make the comparison.

"Let's see what I understand about this Jade girl." Lindsay stood up and walked to the center of the room. Her hands spread apart and her eyebrows rose sharply. "You said she got into it with your sister because she thought your sister was hitting on her boyfriend." Trina grasped the edge of the bed and leaned her upper body forward.

"Yeah."

"Jenny's upset with you because she thinks that you're into her ex-boyfriend, and she wants him back." Trina pushed off the bed and started to the bedroom door, listening to Lindsay with slight interest. "Jade has more reason to be upset with Tori. Unless of course, you do plan on dating Jason."

"I don't." She grabbed her toothpaste off the counter and studied herself in the mirror. She had dark circles under her eyes and her shoulders were slouching. She let out a long yawn and shook her head. "God I didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"You don't say." She rolled her eyes once more and turned to the shower as Lindsay approached her. "So what do you want to do today? I guess you don't want to talk about Jason right now." It was good of Lindsay to finally give up, but then, she had a feeling her friend wouldn't forget this subject. "Friends now, right, you and he?"

Trina turned on the hot water and watched as the water fell from the head like rain. "Yes." Her eyes closed over and she inhaled slowly. "Oh, and Lindsay?"

Her lips curved into a smirk and her eyes opened to view Lindsay in the mirror. Lindsay was busy making the beds and seemed to be focused on straightening the pillow case. "What?"

"I hope you're okay with hanging out with him at lunch, because I suggested we get together." The pillow fell from Lindsay's hands and landed with a small bounce on the ground.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, it's simple." Trina removed her nightgown and hung it on the hanger attached to the door. "He's considering a few requests to transfer the horror-"

"Jenny?"

"Yep." She reached around the latch on the back of her bra, then turned her eyes to the steam rising from the shower. "He is transferring her to another group, but he has to exchange with someone else." Lindsay was a candidate since Trina asked, but she wanted Jason to actually have some time to talk to the girl.

"She won't be happy with that."

Trina turned her back to the mirror and looked over her shoulder for a better view of the latch on her bra. "Nope." She removed the bra with a sigh and tossed it out the door. "Toss this on my bed, would you?" She extended her hand into the shower and dropped her shoulders as Lindsay cried out suddenly.

"Thirty-four B! What the hell?" Her eyebrow rose and her cheeks grew red. It didn't seem so long ago that they often talked about things that a lot of preteen girls talked about, and those things were so trivial now. Evidently, it still mattered to Lindsay. "I knew I was flatter than you, but I didn't think you were that much larger."

Trina cleared her throat and tried to ignore the uncomfortable sensation this gave her. "I um, eat a lot of meat? Does that make a difference?" Normally this would be just a typical conversation between the two of them, but not after all this time.

"Estrogen affects the hips and curves." She looked down at her hips and responded with a nonchalant shrug and grunt. "Whatever. It's not important. Clean up and let's do lunch…" She listened to her friend's muttering, smiled, then stepped into the scorching water with a content sigh.

After finishing with their morning routine they met up with Jason and Travis in the back of the cafeteria. While Jason was wearing a white shirt tucked into his denim jeans, Travis was wearing a more western style outfit; a red button-up shirt, khaki pants, and a brown cowboy hat.

"Who's that guy?" Lindsay asked before making her approach. Trina's lips slid into a smile and let her eyes drift to the two men. Jason waved at her and Travis seemed to focus his attention on Lindsay. The man's eyebrows rose up beneath his hat, and his hands slid over his knees.

"That would be Jason's friend, Travis."

"Why is he here? I thought you just wanted me to talk to Jason."

"Yeah." Her expression grew smug and she walked ahead of her friend. "That's what we want." She and Jason had some time to talk about Travis and Lindsay during their adventure the night before, and they felt their friends had several things in common.

This included family in California that both friends were considering moving to. Travis would have to move his little brother to live with an uncle of theirs so that he could attend a college nearby. He also wanted to spend more time with his friend.

Lindsay, of course, had her father. It was a struggle getting Lindsay to come to terms with giving the man a chance, but maybe she'd feel more comfortable if she struck up a friendship with this guy.

Trina sat on Jason's right, leaving Lindsay forced to sit on Travis's left. "You're late," Jason smirked, "We've been sitting here for about fifteen minutes now." She smacked him on the shoulder and he brought his hand up to the contact point with a laugh.

"Deal with it. We take pride in looking good even during off days." Her eyes met his, then she averted her gaze upon feeling a flicker in her heart. She stared down at her nails, tapping them slowly on the table. "So you've met Lindsay, briefly."

Jason sat upright and waved once while mustering up a polite smile. "We've met." Lindsay folded her hands together on the table and smiled back at him, with recognition glinting in her eyes. "Which reminds me, are you still talking in your sleep?"

Trina's smile dropped to a scowl and she felt an insatiable urge to smack the smugness off his face. "It's a nervous habit." She straightened her posture in an attempt to maintain her grace. "You should be happy I didn't kick your ass for trying to carry me to the shower." She flipped her hair over her shoulder and Jason laughed.

"I'm fairly acquainted with danger. I can defend myself, hence I had no need to worry." She raised an eyebrow at him and curled up the corner of her lip. His right hand curled a bit and his eyes appeared to float over to Lindsay. "Down to business. Would you be willing to transfer to our group in exchange for Jenny?"

"You waste no time," Lindsay chuckled. It was a nice trait to see in someone; bluntness and directness was something that attracted Trina to a person. "But Jenny's a bitch. I'd hate to subject my group to her, but I don't like that Trina's dealing with her."

"Me either." Trina parted her lips and watched him look briskly at her. She drew in and held her breath as his gaze sank. "She seems adamant against the idea of moving Jenny for her sake."

Travis removed his hat and dropped it to his lap with a heavy sigh. "Too many people want her out after that last class." She leaned sideways a bit and cast a concerned look onto the man. Travis turned his eyes up to her and shrugged. "When you left, some of the others in the group started complaining about how Jenny was causing all this trouble and keeping them from being able to do anything in the class."

Jason slid his hand slowly through his hair and closed his eyes. "I want her gone myself." Trina reached over and gently ran her hand in a circular motion on his shoulder. His eyelids opened partially and he pulled his hand back slightly while making contact with her gaze. She smiled at him, hoping to comfort him.

She was delighted to see a smile appear on his face. "Then if you don't want her in the group, you shouldn't force yourself."

"You don't understand," Travis interrupted. The man smirked at his friend and smacked Jason on the shoulder, causing him to flinch. "Jason is too proud to force his ex on other people when he can deal with ignoring her on his own." Trina pulled her hand from her perch and shrugged.

"Maybe putting your own concerns first at some times is okay." She hunched forward and clasped her hands together on the table. "Sometimes thinking about others is important, and sometimes putting yourself first is best." He leaned back and crossed his arms. His nostrils opened and his shoulders lowered an inch. "If your ex-girlfriend is causing you too much stress, be done with her."

"I'd send her home if I could." Jason's eyes darted to the door and his mouth twisted into a scowl. "But that would be abusing my power by sending someone home that technically hasn't broken any of the camp regulations-and of course she won't."

He grabbed his drinking glass and brought it to his lips with a grunt. "Every year she shows up and all she does is obsess over me." He lowered as his glass and took a prolonged look at the lip. "This may be the last camp trip I do."

"You're just going to let Jenny ruin something that you enjoy?" She pursed her lips at him and glanced over when Travis scoffed.

"It's not just Jenny that's making him decide that." Jason nodded and Travis path the man's shoulder. "It's been a long time coming." Her head reclined and she raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Jason raised up his hand and furrowed his brow. "It isn't that I don't enjoy it anymore, it's that I just don't have the time to give. Plus, I'd like to help look after my mother and my uncle." She scrunched her nose. It was hard to imagine Mr. Sikowitz needing someone to look after him, but she didn't know what the situation was back home, and she wasn't going to ask.

"Anyway." He cleared his throat and motioned at Lindsay. "Are you willing to switch groups?" She mouthed for her friend to say yes, but mostly out of an eagerness to have the girl in her group. Lindsay smiled back and shrugged.

"I suppose I could. I've become so close to my group." Trina's jaw dropped at the playful tone in Lindsay's response. She watched Jason's eyebrow rise and quickly shut her mouth when he looked at her. "Of course I will."

"Well, we're happy to have you," Travis replied. Lindsay bent her arms on the table and nodded in his direction. When Trina glanced at him, she could see him focusing on Lindsay's wrist; his brow was furrowed and the corners of his mouth were pushing beneath his cheeks.

When she looked, Lindsay's wristband had slipped down a little to reveal the scar beneath it. Her heart stopped and her hand moved over her mouth. She wanted to point it out, but was afraid of embarrassing the girl.

Instead, Travis reached forward and pointed out the symbol on the bracelet by tugging it up and back. "You like the Dallas Cowboys, Lindsay?" He smiled at her and Lindsay's eyes shot down to her wristband. She pulled her arm back a bit and glanced back to Travis.

"Yeah, I do." The only thing that changed in Lindsay was her lips curving to a smile; she did not notice the obvious attempt to recover the scar. The gesture was relief to Trina, who thought for sure Lindsay would be horrified that someone could have seen the scar. "You watch them?"

"Yep. Tony Romo's my guy." Travis stood from the seat and pointed at Jason. "Jason gets annoyed talking about the Cowboys, would you like to grab another table? It's nice to find someone who likes them as much as I do." Lindsay's smile grew and she looked at Trina as if searching for approval.

She nodded to her friend and watched Lindsay get up and leave with Travis. They took a seat at an empty table across the cafeteria, and immediately began talking. Lindsay was pointing at her wristband and laughing about something, and Travis was smiling at her and every few seconds he would chuckle at something she was saying.

"That's so nice." Trina blew out sharply and cleared away the roughness in her throat. Her eyes flow over to Jason and she started to smile as he took another drink from his glass. "You don't like the Dallas Cowboys?" Her fingers curled and pressed into her palms. "Are you into football at all?"

Football was a big thing at the Vega home, and while Trina wasn't a fan of the Dallas Cowboys, she still thought they did a decent job.

Jason lowered his glass and shrugged. "Of course. The Cowboys haven't done well in ages." She uncurled her hands, hummed for a second, then furrowed her brow at him.

"You grew up in Texas. No love for your home team?"

Jason slung his right elbow over the top of his chair and twisted towards her. "My father was from Texas." Her smile faded as she watched the tension that overtook his body. "Not me. My mother and my uncle grew up in California, and as far as I'm concerned, California is my home."

His voice was heavy and had fallen to a degree of deepness that struck her with great concern. "Jason, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"What?" She paused and a smile flickered on his face. "You didn't do anything wrong." As his muscles relaxed, Trina exhaled slowly and looked down at the table. There was a streak of anger in his eyes, but they weren't directed at her. She recognized the look he had, though, because it was one she'd seen staring back at her in the mirror every day for the last few years.

Trina turned her gaze into his and waited as the skin around his eyes loosened back into a more relaxed state. "You don't have a good relationship with your dad?" His chest started to expand, then sank when his nostrils spread apart. "If I brought something up you don't want to talk about, you don't have to."

"No. You're fine." His forehead creased and he dropped his arm from the chair. "He was a drunk." He put his hand on the table and let his shoulders fall into steep slopes. "There's really not much more to say than that, much more I don't feel like going into."

"I understand." She swept her hair over her ear and bit down on her lower lip while struggling to think of a response. "You know…I don't have a very good relationship with my dad either."

"Really?" His eyebrows rose, then slid together like two long trains colliding. "You talk about him like you have a good relationship."

"Well, we had one before he got promoted. After that, he just stopped doing things with us." She quieted herself and closed her eyes as the memory of her formerly good relationship plagued her mind.

The tension in her chest grew with each second of silence that passed, finally subsiding when Jason spoke again. "What does he do for a living?" Her eyes flew open and she turned her head to him.

"He's a detective. He works homicide."

"Wow. That takes up a lot of his time?" It meant David needed to be on call both day and night. If he got a call at three in the morning, he would have to go down to some crime scene.

"It does. I can't imagine that means he doesn't need to try and spend time with his family, though."

"He should try to. My uncle knows some people in that line of work, they all make time for their families." Jason reached over and pat her on the back. His smile soothed the ache in her chest and drew a smile back to her face. "Give him some time. If he cares about his family, he'll come to his senses. I can't imagine someone that cares about their family would just stay away from them—I'm sure he has his reasons."

"Yeah, stress maybe." Whatever the case may be, Tori's letters gave her some hope that her dad was beginning to come around. "Anyway…" She inhaled slowly and looked at Lindsay and Travis with an eager heart. "We've got Lindsay, but Jenny won't be happy."

"Too damn bad." Trina laughed and looked over to see a smirk on his face. "I still need to talk to her group leader about the change, but I doubt that will be an issue."

"Right, and I'm happy with the turnout." She laced her fingers together and held them up as a flat perch for her chin. She watched with pride as Lindsay and Travis continued their conversation. "Lindsay looks happy too. I wonder what they're talking about; I've never seen her so entertained."

"Travis is an interesting guy, he could make a story about grass growing entertaining." Jason leaned back slowly and pat her arm. "Hey, what do you say we get out of here?" In an instant the air was swept away from her and she held onto the last breath of air in her lungs.

"You mean?"

"Just a friendly hike through the woods out there." Her heart leapt up and she could feel a pleasant sensation swelling within. Her lips curved excitedly and her body leaned slightly towards him. "I've got a little bit of downtime, and besides, you're right about one thing."

She moved back a bit and raised an eyebrow at him. "Right about what?"

"Something you said the other day: I should take some time to stop working once in a while." This was true, and it felt nice to be acknowledged once in a while as having been right about anything at all.

"Okay." Her smile grew and she stood from the chair. "It's nice to get out and away from all this once in a while." Spending some time with him was an added bonus as well, since his was a friendship she valued.

Friendship, sure, one that appears to be evolving. What are your thoughts on the chapter? Looks like we have the secondary couple in formation as well. Jenny won't be happy about being switched over, and such, she'll still pose an issue. She is the antagonistic force, after all. Trina seems to be doing better though, she's definitely growing into herself as someone once said.l