Understanding Each Other

It was late at night, with the moonlight shining through the clouds and the raindrops pouring down. Despite the weather conditions, five children, ages ranging from 10 to 4 years old were running, with the youngest child, a 4 year-old-girl, crying out for her mother. One of the older boys put a hand over her mouth, looked around them to see if they were being followed, and hid away in an alleyway with the other children.

As the children could hear someone screaming in Spanish over the storm, the 4 year-old-girl began crying, her wailing being muffled by the boy's hand over her mouth.

"Cálmate, Axel. No quieres que nos escuchen," the boy behind her whispered, petting her on the head. Axel took a few deep breaths, finally able to stop herself from crying, but the voices and footsteps became louder and louder. Axel wanted to know where her Mom and Dad were and when they were going to come and save them. The oldest boy, the 10-year-old, looked outside of the alleyway for anyone but was suddenly shot in the forehead, killing him instantly. The children jumped and attempted to run further down the alley, but the two men with guns had caught up with them and were running after them.

"¡Vamos! ¡Tenemos que salir de aquí!" one of the boys said before the kids ran into a chain link fence. The kids looked up and around, trying to find a way out, but the men had caught up with them, and they both had their handguns. Axel closed her eyes as tears began spilling out just as a shot rang out.

Axel De La Renta shot out of sleep, breathing in and out heavily while looking around at her surroundings. It was dark, but she could make out the top bunk of the bed she was sleeping in. As Axel continued looking around, her breathing calmed considerably as she saw the other beds and campers around her, breathing a sigh of relief that she was still on the Reboot of Total Drama Island. Axel plopped her head back down onto her pillow, but after tossing and turning for ten minutes, she realized that she wasn't going back to sleep anytime soon. Axel ran her sweaty palms through her brown hair, put on some pants, jumped down from her top bunk, and left the cabin without a word. The other campers didn't need to know why the survivalist wasn't sleeping.

Axel walked a short distance to a tree that had a mattress tied to it, in other words, it was Axel's makeshift heavy bag. Axel took a couple more deep breaths before she began punching and kicking the mattress, trying to let out all the stress and panic that she was feeling. However, while she was in the zone, the 16-year-old Latina heard footsteps and immediately put herself in a fighting stance. However, Axel calmed down when she saw that it was only one of her fellow campers, Millie O'Shea walking up to her.

"Oh, hey, Axel, what're you doing up so late?" Millie asked with a raised eyebrow. Axel glared at the aspiring journalist before going back to her makeshift heavy bag, punching the mattress harder than she had before.

"I should be asking you the same thing, Marshmallow," Axel grunted out, with Millie sighing at hearing Axel's demeaning nickname for her. Axel and Millie were polar opposites of each other. Millie was a homebody who didn't like to go outside much and wasn't much of a fighter. Axel loved being out in nature, exploring and could beat up men three times her size. Millie was gentle and sensitive, while Axel was rough and had a temper that some people said was under a hair trigger. Needless to say, the two weren't exactly best friends, but for a reason that Millie couldn't understand, Axel had a lot of ire towards her.

"I was just coming back from the bathroom," Millie responded, rubbing some of the sleep out of her eye before letting out a yawn. "So what about you? Did you have a nightmare? Sometimes, when I have a nightmare, I can't sleep either, and I usually stay up late so that I can forget about-" Axel was beginning to grow more and more annoyed at Millie the more she talked. Axel stopped punching the mattress and stomped over to Millie, who immediately shut up when she saw the glare on Axel's face.

"You really think I'd be scared by some nightmare!? I'm not some marshmallow like you! It takes a lot more than some bad dream to scare Axel De La Renta!" Axel yelled at Millie, jamming her pointer finger in Millie's chest. Despite the volume of Axel's voice, nobody in the other cabins seemed to notice due to being exhausted from the day's challenge. Millie looked frightened at the fury on Axel's face and tried to back away.

"I didn't mean-"

"Shut up! God, you're so fucking annoying! You have the life experience of a baby and you think you can give me advice!? I don't need your advice! I've seen more things in one year than you have in your entire life!" Axel continued yelling, not even noticing or caring that tears were beginning to pool around Millie's eyes, or that her hands were beginning to shake with nervousness.

"I'm sorry."

"Genuinely I don't understand how you had everything in life that me and my brothers never had! Your parents have these amazing and high-paying jobs while my Papa was forced to spend every day selling fruit on the streets to make some money for us! You live in a big house, while me, my Mama, my Papa, and my four brothers all had to cram ourselves in a two-room apartment! You never had to worry about ANYTHING in your life, while I learned what death was WHEN I WAS FOUR FUCKING YEARS OLD!" Axel screamed out. Millie's sadness and fear were turning to anger the more that she continued yelling, and her anger reached a boiling point where she pushed Axel away from her with both of her hands.

"SHUT UP! Don't you act like you're the only one who ever had to deal with shit! Yeah, maybe I do live in a big house, and maybe my parents do have good jobs, but that doesn't mean my life is perfect! Do you know what it's like to have constant anxiety about EVERYTHING you're doing, and that you could be doing it all wrong!? I can't be in places with loud noises without my sensory headphones! I suffer from panic attacks! I never had a single friend in my life before I met Priya! The only people I could ever rely on were my parents, and they couldn't even stop me from hurting myself!" Millie yelled out, her tears were now rolling down her cheeks as she breathed heavily through her teeth. Axel was left in a state of shocked silence, really taking in what Millie had just told her. The Latina survivalist always saw Millie with a big and goofy smile on her face and wasn't usually one to be sad and angry. Axel actually kind of felt guilty after hearing what Millie said, and while Millie was breathing heavily, Axel sighed before walking over to the stairs of the cabin and sat down on the top stair.

"Yeah…I did have a nightmare," Axel confessed, her hands resting on her knees. Millie, while still mad, had calmed down enough to walk over and sit down next to Axel.

"What was it about? You don't normally freak out about stuff like that," Millie asked while slightly extending her arm. Millie was thinking of whether or not she should give Axel a supportive pat on the back, especially since Axel wasn't exactly a fan of unprompted physical contact.

"Well…it was…kind of a flashback to the worst day of my life. Remember how I said I learned what death was when I was 4? Well…that's because when I was 4, I watched my parents get murdered," Axel confessed, her voice cracking slightly as the visions of seeing her parents in a pool of blood began flooding her mind. Millie gasped in shock before taking a deep breath and patting Axel on the back for support. Axel was surprised at the physical display of affection, and Millie was fully prepared to take her hand away and apologize for touching her, but Axel looked at her and gave her a small smile, silently thanking her for the support.

"I don't know the details, but the people who killed my parents thought my Papa was a drug dealer who screwed them out of money. So when we were walking back home, these two guys came out and started shouting at Papa. Mama told us to hide while Papa tried to talk these guys down, but it didn't work, and…and…and they got shot. Both of them," Axel said, trying to wipe her eyes to prevent the tears forming from being noticeable. Millie looked away while continuing to supportively rub Axel's back, wondering what she could possibly say after hearing that Axel's parents were murdered in a shootout. Millie took a deep breath before looking at her arm and then back at Axel.

"You remember how I told you I hurt myself? Well…I did that in middle school. Middle school was the worst time of my life. I was bullied every day, was having panic attacks more regularly, and was also questioning my…interests in partners, which didn't help with the bullying. One day, Julia-"

"Wait? Julia? Our Julia?"

"…yeah, the Julia Eckert that's here with us. Anyway, Julia pushed me down a flight of stairs and spilled a cup of coffee over me. She ruined my clothes, my journal, and my homework and everyone was laughing at me. My leg was hurting so much, but I…I just ran out of school while I was crying. I ran home, locked himself into the bathroom, grabbed one of my Dad's razors, and…well…," Millie didn't finish, and rather showed Axel her arms, revealing multiple long and vertical scars running across her arms, a couple of those scars were over her veins. "I was lucky. If Dad hadn't broken down the bathroom door, I would've probably died, and I never would've seen my parents again, gone to high school, found a job with my town's newspaper, or met Priya," Millie continued, her cheeks turning a bright red at the mention of her somehow-still-sleeping girlfriend. Axel, meanwhile, hadn't taken her eyes off the scars on Millie's arms, her gut twisting in knots with guilt. Axel had said that Millie didn't know anything about worrying about life, and here Millie was telling her that she had come so close to ending it. Axel was also furious with Julia. She knew that Julia wasn't exactly a saint, but the fact that she had done all of that to Millie made her want to go over to the other team's cabin and break every bone in Julia's body. However, Axel decided to hold back on that as she turned back to Millie, who was rocking back and forth while waiting to see whether or not the conversation was going to continue.

"Hey…I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I…I never knew what you were going through," Axel said softly, scratching the back of her head while trying to maintain eye contact with Millie. The Latina survivalist wasn't used to apologizing, so she couldn't help but cringe at how awkward her breaking voice was while she was apologizing.

"It's OK, you didn't know. And I'm sorry for yelling at you."

"No, you don't have to apologize. I shouldn't have assumed that you never had any trouble in your life. That wasn't right of me."

"Thanks, I appreciate the apology. And hey, I know we haven't gotten along until now, but maybe…maybe we can be friends?" Millie asked, her hands shaking in front of her chest as her nervousness grew. Axel looked at Millie with her eyes widened in surprise, but her shocked expression quickly turned into a happy one before she nodded, and much to Millie's surprise, hugged her.

"I'd like that a lot…Millie," Axel responded, with Millie's surprise increasing when she heard the Latina survivalist actually call her by her name. Millie hugged her back, and the two spent the next minute like that, trying to calm down before they headed back to bed, with both of them sleeping a lot sounder than they had earlier.

The Next Morning…

"Good morning, Millie," Priya said with a smile on her face, kissing Millie on the cheek while the two walked over to the dining hall for breakfast.

"Morning, Priya," Millie responded with a kiss of her own on Priya's forehead. The two continued talking with each other while trekking to the dining hall. When they got there, the two went to get the food, but all of a sudden, Millie tripped and face-planted right into the hardwood floor. While Millie was hissing in pain and holding her nose, Priya leaned down next to the aspiring journalist, glaring when she heard the familiar laugh of Julia Eckert.

"Awww…sorry about that, Mildred. You should really watch where you're going," Julia chided with a chuckle, her voice dripping with honey while her eyes lit up at the inconvenience she had levied on Millie. Priya opened her mouth, about to yell at Julia for trying to hurt Millie, but, much to her astonishment, Axel walked up to Julia with a glare, and before Julia could say anything, Axel dumped her bowl of oatmeal all over Julia's head, pressing the bowl on the top of Julia's head as well.

"Oops...sorry, I thought you were the trash can for a sec there," Axel said with a smirk on her face before walking over to Millie and helping her back up to her feet. "Are you alright, Millie?"

"Yeah, I'm OK. My nose just hurts a little. Thanks for the help, Axel."

"No prob. Now, let's get some breakfast. We're gonna need all the energy we can for whatever the challenge is today," Axel responded, the two walking off to get breakfast together. They left Julia having a conniption fit over her hair and clothes getting messed up by the oatmeal, and Priya completely stupefied at the scene that had just unfolded in front of her. Just yesterday, Axel was yelling at Millie to stay out of the team's way and calling her 'Marshmallow'. And now, Axel was calling Millie by her name and even helping her with Julia's bullying. Priya shook her head to get her mind off the shocking revelation and decided to follow her girlfriend, and her girlfriend's apparent new friend, hoping that she could get an explanation for this sometime soon.