Fish Out Of Water

Sisters

Jasmine and Penn were kissing under a tree. I was running my fingers through my hair, having a small panic session, because we were STRANDED ON AN ISLAND with no food. And I was hungry, and the minty toothpaste (which I had an extra two tubes of in my bag, courtesy of my mother) taste in my mouth was killing me. It was also blisteringly hot outside, even in shorts and a bikini top. "Don't you two think it's kind of a bad time to be making out?" I asked them.

Penn glanced up and shrugged. "What else is there to do?" he asked. 

"Are you guys dating?" Mav asked bluntly, and I snorted. 

"Naw," Jasmine said, while Penn said yes. They looked at each other and I walked away, leaving them to sort that out. I prefer food over another person's saliva. Mav followed, apparently he agreed. 

"I have a question," I told Mav, as we walked along the shore. At least they dropped us on a pretty island, all rich jewel tones of green and blue, and the ocean was clear.

"Shoot," he replied. 

"Why did you tell me the thing about that girl?" I asked. He looked out into the calm sea. He smiled, brown eyes sparkling. 

"You know when you meet someone, and you can tell if you'll hate them, or you fall in love with them?" he asked. I nodded. I knew that feeling.

"Well, when I met you, I thought you were going to be my best friend. I've never had one of those," he told me, and I smiled at him. 

"I think the same way about you… I think," I told him. He laughed a little. 

We walked a little bit in silence, and I realized I wasn't really looking for food. I tried to think about where they would hide food. Not anywhere too obvious, but not anywhere that hard either. I grabbed a few leaves off a tree with a huge hole in it, and munched on them to try to forget how hungry I was. 

This wasn't the Hunger Games, for god's sake! I froze. I totally had to think like Katniss. I looked under a bush to no avail, and then paused for a moment, thinking like I was, like I had to think on spot. 

It still didn't work. I groaned in frustration. I couldn't think like this, with no food, and I grabbed some more leaves off a tree with another hole. Was I literally just walking in circles? I looked around, trying to make sense of where I was, which was pretty hard considering I was surrounded by trees that all looked the same… they all had matching holes in them. I took a deep breath, and prayed, while walking towards one of the holes. I glanced inside. 

"Please please please," I begged under my breath, and I guess it worked, because there was food in the hole! I screamed a little, and shoved my hand inside, realizing the hole was big. And filled to the brim with food and water and a little fridge and holy crap. 

Penn and Blake came running, and both looked panicked. 

"Look!" I squealed, pulling out food. Their faces had matching looks of curiosity, and I beamed at them. Penn ran to another tree, and there was food in there, too, and the next and the next. 

"Thank you," Blake said, as if I had put food in the trees, and Penn smiled. 

"I'll run and get the others," he said, giving me a smile that made my hear flutter up a little bit. I pulled and apple out of the tree and ate happily. 

Claire threw her arms around me when I got there, as did Jas, which was the weird part. 

"Everything is in here!" Claire said, pulling out some matches and smiling at us. Blake snorted at her exuberance, and everything felt so right, just because there was so much food, and food makes things good. 

I glanced up at a little camera poorly concealed in the tree and smiled a little at it. Penn's phone rang in his pocket, and we all froze. Did we have service? 

He answered, not looking at the caller ID, and putting it on speaker. A girl's voice came crackly through the speaker, and he shut his phone. "Probably my sister," he told us all, and we sighed. I narrowed my eyes at him, though. 

Penn didn't have a sister. 

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I sat next to Penn. I had been inching over for over an hour as we gorged ourselves, and finally we sat next to each other. 

"So, it's sad you didn't get to talk to your sister," I said. Penn paused eating his burger for a moment. 

"It's a friend, but despite trying to stay light, Jas is kinda… well, possessive. So…" he trailed off. 

"Oh… yeah, I'm sorry," I said, and he smiled, glancing down and laughing at my tomato- red face. 

I inched back to sitting with Mav, and he smiled and handed me a marshmallow. 

"Oh, are we on to dessert now?" I teased. 

"Yes, everyone needs a little dessert." I smiled at him, and bit into the perfectly browned marshmallow. 

"You make a mean marshmallow," I said. 

"I'm trying to be a cook," Mav said. I widened my eyes in surprise.

"Well, uh… I watch Top Chef!" I said. He laughed. 

"That doesn't qualify, I'm afraid," Mav told me. I nodded, and sighed. 

"Let's go for a walk," I told him, offering my hand. He pulled himself up, and I realized how tall he was. "Jeez, you have some long legs," I told him, and he smiled.

"That is true," he replied, and we walked down to the water. Something dark was bobbing inside, and I felt a faint flash of panic before I realized it was a bottle. 

"Cool!" I squealed, running towards the water, which was quite the feat considering how deep the sand is. I tumbled into the water, reaching for the slowly retreating bottle, and grabbing onto it. I clambered out of the cold, and onto the sand, where I flopped down next to Maverick and opened the bottle. Inside there was a note. I untwirled it, and out came a slip of paper. It read as follows: You are probably from the reality show taking place on this island, and I hope you aren't, but if you are, be prepared to be exploited like crazy. Don't let them see you at your worst, or they will put together all clips of you like this, and create a terrible character. Much love, I worked with this company. 

This apparently was her or his signature, and I sighed. 

"I'm always at my worst," I told Mav, "and it might be easy for someone like you, but what if something happens, and I get seen as the weak link or the overactive temper?" I panicked. Mav shushed me and we jogged back to the cottage. 

"Now talk, cameras are there," he said. I gave him a grateful smile, but shook my head. I would be fine, right? 

Nothing that terrible could happen. 

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Hey, well, um, please comment if your reading (I don't really care about voting) only so I know you are and have ambition to keep it on this site (: