THE OTHER LANE GIRL, camp nightwing

𝟎𝟎𝟑

               𝟎𝟎𝟑. 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

▌ 𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐏𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄 sat on her bed in the cabin. She just sat there in silence as she thought about a memory she had with Ruby from when she was four.

"𝑆𝑖𝑠𝑠𝑦!" 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑑. "𝐻𝑖, 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ!" 𝑅𝑢𝑏𝑦 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑙𝑎𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 ℎ𝑢𝑔 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟.

"𝐼 𝑚𝑎𝑑𝑒 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑦𝑜𝑢!" 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑑. "𝑅𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦?" 𝑅𝑢𝑏𝑦 𝑞𝑢𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑎 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑒.

𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒 𝑛𝑜𝑑𝑑𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔. "𝐴𝑤, 𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑡!" 𝑅𝑢𝑏𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑎𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑒𝑟, 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑚.

"𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜?" 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑. "𝑂𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝐼 𝑑𝑜, 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ!" 𝑅𝑢𝑏𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑. 𝑅𝑢𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑔𝑎𝑣𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑎 ℎ𝑢𝑔.

"𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢, 𝑅𝑢𝑏𝑦!" 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑. "𝐼 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜𝑜, 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ." 𝑅𝑢𝑏𝑦 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑 𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑆𝑡𝑒𝑝ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑒'𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑥 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟.

Stephanie smiled at the memory. She might have been only four when her sister died, but she still loved her.

Stephanie decided to get some fresh air and go outside. When she walked out of the door, she saw Tommy Slater.

"Hey, Tommy!" Stephanie exclaimed as she walked over to the boy. "Hey, Stephanie!" Tommy replied back.

"Are you ready for color war?" Stephanie asked. "Yeah! I'm ready." Tommy replied. "Great! I'll see you later!" Stephanie said.

"See you later!" The blonde boy said. Stephanie waved goodbye and walked away.

- - -

Stephanie walks into the infirmary to go see her mother. "Mom!" Stephanie calls out.

"What is it, sweetie?" Mary asked. "I need to talk to you." Stephanie said. "Okay, follow me." Mary says. Then, she leads her daughter over to a bed.

"What is it you wanna talk about?" Mary asks. "About earlier. Mom, you need to stop doing that. I get it, I miss Ruby too, but you need to stop." Stephanie says.

Her mother doesn't answer. Stephanie sighs. "Mom... I'm worried about you." Stephanie says.

"You don't need to be." Mary replies. "You don't need to worry about me." Stephanie looks down at her feet.

"Yes, I do. None of this is normal." Stephanie says as she grabs her mother's hand.

Mary didn't look at her when she said that. Stephanie then just got up and left the infirmary.

- - -

Stephanie was minding her own business in the cabin. She just wished her mother would be normal again.

All of a sudden, someone knocked on the door. "Who is it?" Stephanie called out from her bed. "It's Kurt." The person on the other side said.

"What do you need?" Stephanie asked. "It's your mom." Kurt said. Stephanie tensed up at that.

"What happened?" The girl asked in concern. "She's being taken into an ambulance in a stretcher." Kurt said.

Stephanie instantly got up and ran out the door, running past Kurt. Stephanie runs over to where the ambulance is.

"Is that her? Her daughter?" The police officer asks Cindy and Tommy. They both nod. The officer walks up to Stephanie.

Stephanie is just standing there, watching the medics put her mother into the ambulance. Tears were starting to form in her eyes.

"Hey, uh... are you Stephanie Lane?" The officer asks. Stephanie nods. "We would like to inform you that your mother tried stabbing another counselor. To be exact, she tried stabbing Mr. Slater over there." He said.

Stephanie just closed her eyes and shook her head. "I just have a few questions for you. First, has she ever tried to do this before?" The officer asks.

"I don't think so." Stephanie replied. The officer asked two more questions before saying, "Sorry about your mother." Stephanie just nodded at those words. Then, the officer walked off.