SUBJECT NINE | KIRIN O'CONNOR

ONE

"YOU'RE A GIRL." The detective, Daniel Faber, leant forward on his desk. He was curious as to how she slipped past their fingers and onto the island with the boys.

"What a keen observation from you." Frances laughed, she crossed her arms and began to anxiously chew on her bottom lip.

The other detective, Dean Young, laughed at the quick response from the girl, earning a disapproving look from Daniel.

"I mean, how did you end up on an island with 8 other boys? There wasn't another girl in sight." Daniel panicked about how to ask the right questions without giving too much away.

"There was 9 originally." Frances began to pull on the ends of her sleeves. She wondered if she should even be telling them this.

Everything that happened on the island, it changed them all. Nothing would be the same again.

"So, why don't we start with that first day?" Dean questioned curiously.

D A Y    O N E

"Oh this is fucking fabulous." Frances muttered to herself as she made her way onto the beach. She was grumbling to herself, completely oblivious to everything else that was going on around her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Seth questioned, pulling the girl to a stop. His eyes flickered down her body and almost instantly, realisation clicked. "You're a girl."

Frances just sarcastically clapped in response. She let go of a scoff as she went to pull off the soaking wet hoodie. But before she got a chance, Seth placed his hand on her bicep.

"I wouldn't." He whispered, stepping closer to the girl. Instantly, Frances took a step back, not liking how close the boy was to her. "Not trying to scare you or anything, but, they're all boys."

Frances turned to look at the boys that were all sat by one another. Each of them muttering something to themselves or looking out to sea.

The girl quickly caught onto what he was saying and pulled the hood up to cover her hair and face once again. She ran her tongue over her bottom lip and then extended her hand before saying,

"My names Frances, but I guess you should call me Phineas Dalling." She paused. "Or Phin." The girl then deepened her voice.

The whole plane journey Frances had kept her hood up and head down. She kept herself to herself and only spoke when she was spoken too. She didn't want to draw too much attention to herself incase anyone figure out she was a girl before she got to Hawaii. She didn't want to be sent back and get Phineas into trouble.

Seth let go of a chuckle, to say he was impressed with how low her voice went was an understatement. If he hadn't seen her face and hair or how the clothes hugged her body so tightly, he wouldn't have guessed that she was a girl.

"Seth Novak." He shook the girls hand. "You must have desperately wanted to go on this retreat."

"It's just that my brother didn't want too." Frances looked around and chuckled. She slowly made her way towards the others, wondering how they were all coping with their new situation.

"Good one, Mother. Great idea." DJ seethed as he pointed to thin air, almost as if he was imagining his mother stood in front of him. "How about...how about we ship me off to some wilderness fucking circle jerk?" He paused. "'Maybe it'll be fun.' She said. Yeah. 'Maybe you'll learn something.' Okay. Sure. Yeah. Maybe I'll learn what it's like to almost basically drown."