Teenage Castaways

Chapter Eleven || Killian

It would be nice to cut my hair. I was beginning to look less manly with it growing toward my shoulders like a girl.

"RED LIGHTS! STOP SIGNS! I STILL HEAR YOUR VOICE IN THE TRAFFIC!" Ruby shrieked at the top of her lungs. She had been the only person who had even spoken intelligible words daily since the island incident. Everyone else had just scoffed and thanked Chad for the fish he caught. Sometimes I would try to drum up a conversation, but it is useless.

"DOO, DOO, DOO! SOMETHING ABOUT LOVING YOUUUUUUUUUUU!"

"SHUT UP!" Lexie roared out of nowhere.

I rolled my eyes. What a weirdo! The whole group. Weirdos!

"FIGHT ME!" Ruby snarled. I was convinced she had gone insane.

"What song are you even singing?" Chad asked dully. He lost his gusto a while back. The seas had broken him. No more "blonde baddies" for him.

"A song from years ago. The twenties, I think. My grandma's mom was alive when it came out," Ruby said, stepping down from the bench. She sat down and soaked in the sun, not that her blood-red skin could handle anymore.

I looked down at my own red skin. Gross.

Gross. Gross. Gross.

"Hey, is that another island?" Jovie's voice said, snapping me out of my daze. The was a shuffle to look over the edge of the boat

I scoffed, not even lifting a finger. "Yeah, right. That went so well last time..." I sighed. Jovie was probably hallucinating. Even if there was an island, I would not step foot on it.

"Shut up, Killian," Ruby snapped. Then, in a much more jovial tone, "there is fire on the island!"

"People are there! Wait, I recognize them!" Jovie cried happily.

Now I knew for a fact that she was hallucinating. "Whatever," I murmured, looking up to the sun high in the sky.

"Killian," Chad called. "Come look."

"No! Stop bothering me."

"Hey!"

That voice. It wasn't a hallucination.

I shot up and rushed to the side of the boat. My legs burned from the little movement. But, sure enough, an island lay only a few meters away. A girl with brown shoulder-length hair waved to us from the island. Behind her, was one dark-skinned girl in a dress, who looked gentle, and some other girl too with light red-ish brown hair and paler skin, who looked tough as nails.

"Hey!" I shouted back, jumping into the water. My feet hit the sand under the water and I could have sobbed for hours. Land!

Taking up one of the lifelines, I slowly tugged the boat to shore with my good arm. Chad got in the water and Jovie did as well to help. We docked the boat beside an identical one.

"This island sure is filling up," one girl said. I thought her name was Addison at first, but then remembered it was Adeline.

"I can't believe we're meeting up again," Pierre beamed. "You guys will have to meet Mateo and Elijah, they live on the east side of the island."

"Where will we live?" I asked.

A thoughtful look crossed Pierre's face, but it was Adeline who spoke.

"We took the south side, so that leaves the center, north, and west. Unless you'd want to stay with us or the boys," she said. She didn't seem to want to live with us though.

"The center is more dense with trees, so you might not like it," she continued, "but there's a stream. The south shore is full of rocks... Uh, maybe try the west?"

"Sounds good to me!" Jovie smiled.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. Turning around, I found Lexie.

"Come with me," she said.

Raising my brow, I followed her to the uncrowded side of the shore.

"I don't want to live with everyone else," Lexie said. "We should have our own place." Her blue eyes were conflicted.

"Really?" I was skeptical.

"Yes." Her voice sounded strained.

"Alright..." Pushing down my gut feeling, I regrouped and asked if Lexie and I could possibly have our own little plot of land to live on.

"Maybe in between the south and the east? Go southeast and see if you find somewhere you'd like to build," Pierre said.

"I could... could build your home... if you have... have things to trade," the girl in the dress, Fawn, offered.

"You?" I tried to hide my surprise. "Well, uh, sure. Not sure what I have to trade except maybe I could help with my big muscles." I smirked.

"Just... just remember the favor..." Fawn said. I couldn't detect her tone, so I just nodded.

"Alright," Pierre clapped her hands together. She was clearly in a good mood. "So Fawn will help Lexie and Killian build their home, which will be located in the southeast. And the rest of you will live to the west?"

"Yeah! Sounds amazing," Jovie beamed.

"Great! You can start making your home, you still have a good deal of daylight. But if you need anything, feel free to swing by," Pierre offered. "Our little camp is open twenty-four hours a day, thanks to Emma." She put air quotes around the word open.

I nodded and led Lexie past Pierre's camp and toward the patch of smushed land that formed a trail to the east. The final words that reached my ears were a short interaction between Chad, Jovie, and someone else that didn't speak.

"Hey, little saucy," Chad said to someone.

"Chad!" Jovie scolded and then sighed. "C'mon, let's go build our camp..."

I snorted but didn't stop walking. "We need to find the perfect place for our home," I said, scanning the forest. There was another tug at my shoulder.

"Do we have bedding? We might need some," Lexie said.

She was like a dependent puppy! Weirdo! I could have sobbed. "No, the bees ripped it all up. But I'm sure one of those girls has some extra stuff." The plan was simple: find a place and get dress-girl... Fawn... to build us a nice home and fire.

"Okay." Lexie nodded and we kept to the search. Once we finally found it, the sun was around an hour away from setting.

"At least our spot is good," Lexie said.

Stomping on the plants to create a trail, I smiled. "It's GREAT!"

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With Lexie and my help to gather materials, Fawn worked miracles in the hour she was given. By sundown, we had a fully covered round lodge with a bough bed inside.

"Thanks again," Lexie said to Fawn.

"Anytime. You can... can trade if you want new clothes from our storage hut. We have... have a ton of extra men's clothes," Fawn said.

I nodded. Getting a shirt and pants that weren't terribly frayed would be nice. "Just tell me what you need and I'll trade," I said. Providing for Lexie was now my top priority.

Fawn nodded and said a farewell.

"Goodnight."