𝖎𝖓𝖈𝖔𝖓𝖈𝖊𝖎𝖛𝖆𝖇𝖑𝖊 - [LORD OF THE FLIES]

2

"Hey, Stevie"
The fair-haired boy took a seat next to her on a fallen palm tree. A certain confident smile was plastered across his face, one she surely recognized and she rolled her eyes at him. "Blondie" she greeted. The nickname caught him off guard, causing his cheeks to turn crimson and he looked down.

She wasn't particularly fond of the boy, he was too loud and aggressive for her liking, but he couldn't crave her attention more. Every chance he got he tried his hardest to impress the girl, carrying the largest logs to the fire and singing the best when she was around, but she remained indifferent to him. He didn't understand. All the girls at home would do anything to get a wink and a grin from the infamous Jack Merridew, but she only payed attention to the littluns and Simon.
God how his sour feelings grew for the younger boy every time he spotted them together. What was so interesting about him? He was clumsy and quiet and often stuttered over his words. But still, the two were inseparable. Unbeknownst to him, Stevie shared no romantic feelings for the boy at all. Their bond was strong, but they shared a love similar to that between siblings. 

An awkward silence fell over the pair and Jack looked to the girl next to him once more.

Her thoughts were elsewhere.
How long had they been stranded here? It couldn't have been more than a week but she hadn't stopped to think about it until now. They hadn't accomplished much since crashing. On his first day as chief Ralph had ordered the group to start a signal fire at the top of the large mountain near the north side of the island. Within 30 minutes, half of the mountain's foliage was burned to the ground. Then he insisted that building shelters was their main priority, next to being rescued of course, but the other boys couldn't be bothered enough to help Ralph, Simon, and Stevie with the assembly of the shelters.

Stevie looked at Jack, unaware that he had been studying her face this entire time. She noticed for the first time that he was quite beautiful, especially with his features illuminated by the moonlight. He looked vulnerable, something that she was not used to seeing as he normally had an aggressive demeanor. She contemplated Jack's behavior towards her and finally concluded that Jack... liked her? She didn't understand, Jack was a complete pain in the ass to just about everyone else on the island, and she wasn't exactly pleasant to him so what was responsible for his infatuation?

Stevie would've never even considered hanging out with a boy like Jack if she was back home. She would've steered clear of most of the boys she was stranded with- she couldn't stand the type of people that were rich enough to ship their kids off to military school and said kids were even more privileged and bratty than their parents.
She laughed quietly at her situation, catching Jacks' attention once again. How likely was it that her flight would crash land on an uninhabited island in the first place, not to mention a plane full of rowdy rich kids?

"Stevie's a weird name" Jack teased playfully, pulling her from her thoughts.
"Oh yeah? Jacks a basic ass name"
"What do you mean?"
"I know like 6 other guys named jack, It's not very memorable" Jack frowned, he couldn't tell if she was playing around like he was. In fact, Jack found himself wondering if she was joking around or just being mean after nearly every interaction they had.
"Stevie sounds like a guys name or something"
"My mom named me after Stevie Nicks, dickweed" She shoved his shoulder playfully, earning a dramatic "Ouch" from the boy through giggles. Stevie spoke again, trying to avoid more awkward silence
"Is Jack short for anything?"
"Nope"- he popped the 'p' -"Just jack... Is Stevie short for anything?" The girl nodded, holding back a smile "Steven" He looked at her, confused. "Really?" She nodded once more, watching his reaction closely. After a few seconds of watching him process the information slowly, she let out a laugh "No dumbass, I just told you I was named after Stevie Nicks, why would that be short for steven?" She laughed loudly as his cheeks grew red. He tried to think of a snarky reply as his normal self would but his mind was blank. Why was he acting so strange? Normally he would be the one teasing but all he could do was blush and laugh at her jokes.

As he was about to reply, a familiar voice interrupted them. "Stevie! I was looking all over for you" Jack felt his jaw tighten as Ralph made his way down the beach. "Ah man I should've found a better hiding place" She smiled at the brunette as he stopped in front of them. Jack felt jealousy flood his thoughts and he stared Ralph down, but he was distracted by the girl in front of him. She hopped to her feet "What do you want Cadet" she continued to joke, mocking a military officer similar to the ones that commanded the boys at school.
"I was gonna go for a walk... you should come"
"How dare you talk to an officer like a peer, that'll be 10 lashings... do you get lashings in military school?" Her impression was interrupted as she glanced between the two boys.
"Jack does, he's always getting in some kind of trouble" Ralph laughed as the blonde boy stood up and shoved him "Hey, shut up man"
Stevie and the brunette laughed harder as Jack walked- no, stormed away- toward the treeline muttering curses. Why did Stevie seem so happy around Ralph? Couldn't she treat him the same and be happy whenever he was around?
"Whats his problem?"
"No idea"
The two looked at one another and shrugged.

They started down the beach, in the direction Ralph had come, joking and shoving each other around.

A/N- This is honestly just a filler chapter to show the type of relationships among the group.