Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“Wake up!”

“Come on Cassy, it’s almost 10 already!”

“Get away from me!”  Cassy buried her head under the pillow,  “It’s too early!”

“Dude, even Starr is up,”  Alana tugged at the blanket, “We’re hungry!”

“Eat without me,”  Cassy moaned.

“We’ll let you pick where we go,”  Kristine said, “Ice Cream shop, general store, or get really daring and drive out to McDonalds.”

“Ice cream?”  Cassy lifted up her head. 

“Oh lord,”  Starr turned slightly green, “Jedia, do you have any apples left?  I don’t think I can eat anymore ice cream.  We’ve had it every morning for the past week.”

“Mmm, I feel like a chocolate sundae!”  Cassy quickly climbed out of bed and pulled on shorts and a fresh tank top. 

Jedia opened up the refrigerator and pulled out the last two apples, tossing one to Starr and sinking her teeth into the other.  “We need to go back to the general store today,” she said between bites, “We’re out of bagels, milk, juice, and fruit.”

“We’ll just put it on the tab and have Mom and Dad take care of it when they get back tomorrow,”  Alana knelt down to search for her other sandal under her bed. 

“If it doesn’t bother you guys, I think I’ll skip the ice cream this morning and just go swimming for awhile,”  Starr picking up her beach towel and jammed her CD player and smaller CD case into a tote bag. 

“We’ll meet you over there when we’re done eating,”  Kristine offered.  Starr smiled and nodded before heading out the door.  The other girls went back to putting themselves together for the day as Kristine looked after her.  Starr had been getting quieter since they had started their vacation.  She needed her time alone to sort through her thoughts every once in awhile and she wasn’t getting her alone time with all five girls being together almost all day long.  Kristine doubted the other girls remembered the times when Starr had been just as happy with life as the rest of them.  Mr. Monroe had run out on the family after Starr’s younger sister, Amber, was born.  Her family life had gone downhill from there.  Mrs. Monroe was a firm believer that discipline and control were the keys to any healthy relationship.  Starr was fiercely independent and fought her mother every inch of the way. 

Kristine could understand her anger about losing a father to an extent, she had lost her own to cancer but she couldn’t remember him anymore.  She had been four when he died and although she understood that Daddy had gone to heaven, the concept of death had taken several more years to sink in completely. 

She smiled to herself as she made her way down the main trail to the center of Wanakena.  Her mother had kept their family together after her father’s death.  They had sold their big house and moved to a smaller one right outside of Copenhagen when Kristine was just starting school.  After another year or so, her mother had met a man at work and remarried, throwing her three older brothers into a fit, threatening to leave home.  Carl had his work cut out for him, trying to charm three stubborn boys, all in their late teens.  Kristine has taken to him right away, she was too young to judge him for more then what he was.  It took nearly three more years before they were all able to laugh around the dinner table again.  Kristine had taken on his last name when she was 10, when her memories of her own father started to fade. 

He had been a great man.  Everyone who knew him still passed stories of his successes in surgery around the area.  Thomas, David, and Jon all looked more like their tall, strong, father while Kristine was a combination of the two.  She went through her general education requirements at the community college with Starr, and was getting ready to transfer in the fall.  Cancer research had been her goal for years and she was finally going to start working towards it. 

“You’re quiet this morning,”  Jedia remarked, “Something wrong?”

“Why would you say that?”  Kristine asked.

Alana laughed, “You’ve been stirring your sundae for the past fifteen minutes and it’s just soup now.”

Kristine looked down into her plastic bowl and started laughing with them, “I guess I’m just worried about Starr.  She’s been getting moody again.”

“She’ll snap herself out of it in a few days,”  Cassy scrapped the last of the chocolate sauce out of her sundae bowl,  “She always does.”

“I’m not really hungry either,”  Jedia dumped her fruit pop in the trash, “Do you want me to go look for her?”

“She’ll be down at the bridge,”  Alana shrugged, “If you want to go check up on her go ahead."

Starr shut her eyes, soaking in the sun rays on the large rock she had made her bed on.  She had turned her CD player volume up, tuning out the world around her.  She sang softly, rolling onto her back and watching the clouds. 

She sat straight up when she felt the water hit her legs.  A group of college aged guys had hopped off the small bridge and started shouting and splashing each other.  She tugged her shorts back on and moved herself further back into the shade of the trees, out of their immediate sight.  Guys never looked at her the way they did her friends and although she was used to it, it still left a longing inside her. 

She took out the CD she was listening to and searched through her book for something harder.  “That one is kinda cute,”  Jedia plopped down behind her,  “Are you okay?

“I’m fine, I just didn’t need them staring at my fat,”  Starr reluctantly removed her headphones. 

“You’re not fat,”  Jedia protested, “Did you try and talk to them?”

“What’s the point?”  Starr slipped on her tank top, covering the black spandex of her bathing suit,  “It always ends up exactly the same.”

“You’re not that bad,”  Jedia nudged her, “When you’re not in super bitch mode at least.”

Starr’s lips turned up slightly as she gazed out over the swimming boys, “Thanks Jedia,” she said finally. 

“Don’t get all mushy now,”  Jedia shook her finger at Starr, “Actually, never mind, go ahead and gush away.  It’s good for my ego.”

“What ego?”  Starr quipped, standing up with a grin on her face, “Are we doing anything else today?”

“Alana mentioned hiking up one of the north trails we haven’t looked at yet.  There’s supposed to be a really pretty view from a ledge up there.”

“Sounds good,”  Starr grabbed her CDs and player and jammed them back in her bag.  She draped her arm around Jedia’s shoulders, squeezing slightly.  Out of the five girls, they had the most unpredictable bond.  Their feelings ran hot and cold in irregular cycles all through high school, driving the other girls crazy trying to keep up. 

They were complete opposites in almost every way; Jedia was as motivated, upbeat, and kind hearted as Starr was independent, indecisive, and pessimistic.  Jedia couldn’t bring herself around to see the shadows in Starr’s world, while Starr couldn’t find any reason to see the glass as half full. 

Jedia went to college with a full semester of classes under her belt, courtesy of a program for advanced students in high school.  By the time everyone else was nervously waiting the letters from the colleges that would determine their future; Jedia had been offered full scholarship from three prestigious universities throughout the northeast.  She didn’t want to wander too far from home so she entered the honors program at Syracuse University with a major in psychology.  She threw herself into her classes, attempting her first research experiment before the end of the year. 

Starr could barely make the effort to go to her classes, let alone finish the homework.  She didn’t care about it, college was just something she had to do when they stopped letting her go to high school, at least if she didn’t want to work at Burger King for the rest of her life.  She was a liberal arts major, mostly because she didn’t have a clue about what she really wanted out of her life.  She had graduated with Kristine and was planning on attending a state school in the fall but she wasn’t any closer to a life goal than she had been in high school.  

Starr could never deny her affection for her friend, but at the same time she resented almost everything about her.  Jedia was so goddamned perfect at everything she did, there was no point for Starr trying to compete.  Starr couldn’t even win her own mother’s affection and admiration over the other girl.  Mrs. Monroe was always comparing the two of them, asking Starr why she couldn’t be more like Jedia, why she couldn’t get Jedia’s grades, why she didn’t apply herself to activities like Jedia did, why she wasn’t as devout a Christian as Jedia was and on and on.

Starr tried to please her mother for awhile before she gave up on pushing for the top grades, on most of the clubs she had joined, on God, and focused on herself and the small things that made her happy.   She was still insecure about her appearance but had developed a strength that came with her independence and stubborn conviction of her opinions.  Oddly enough, it was at this point in time where their friendship became stronger.  When Starr stopped trying to compete with Jedia, she stopped losing to her and was able to focus more on making herself stronger. 

“Look who decided to rejoin humanity,”  Alana tossed a bottle of water to each of them,  “What took you so long?” 

“Boy watching,”  Starr replied dryly, “Too bad you missed it.” 

“Nice looking ones too,” Jedia grinned, “Dripping wet in the sunlight.  How long has it been, Alana?”

“The rate I’m going, I’ll be a born again virgin,”  Alana grumbled, “Not like anyone else here can say otherwise.  Jedia’s an ice princess, Starr’s the queen of third base, Kristine hasn’t gotten laid in about four years, and Cassy...”

“Don’t bother bringing me into it,”  Cassy worked her hair into a ponytail with a smile, “Matt came over the night before we left to say goodbye.”

“I though you two broke up,”  Kristine started up the trail.

“We did,”  Cassy shrugged, “We’re not getting it from anyone else so why bother going without?”

“You don’t love him,”  Jedia protested.

“I love sex,”  Cassy retorted, “He’s just really good at it.” 

“Scott and I tried that but it didn’t work out,"  Alana said, "He figured that if I was coming back to him at night that it meant I wanted to get back together which I definitely didn’t.  He went crying to his father about it and the next thing you know, I’m living back at home with the reputation of the village whore.  My father loved going into work and hearing about that one.”

“How old is he?”  Jedia asked in disbelief.

“Twenty-eight if you can believe it,”  Alana snickered, “I swear to God that when we had a fight instead of sleeping out on the sofa like any normal guy his age, he went home to mommy and daddy until it was over.” 

“Pansy,”  Starr muttered, “You wouldn’t let me castrate him, why?”

“It’s more fun to see his face every time I go into the pizza place,”  Alana swatted a mosquito on her arm,  “It’s not like JR was any better.” 

“Who’s JR?”  Jedia asked.

“Her most recent,”  Starr replied, “It only lasted a month or so while you were at school.”

Jedia looked over at her; Alana was getting better at wearing her masks every day.  She loved her party-girl reputation, doing almost anything to have a good time that would help her forget the bad ones.  If Starr had always been jealous of her mother’s admiration of Jedia, Alana was always envious of the friendly relationship Starr had with Mrs. Johns. 

Alana’s parents expected a lot from their oldest daughter; academically, socially, and career wise, but instead of making any attempt to be what they expected, Alana did exactly the opposite.  She chose to please herself instead of making an effort to make them happy.   She loved being in the center of attention, having men fall over her and other girls envy her and in order to do that, she would compromise a lot of herself.  Her passion was music and the theater and while she had all then talent, she lacked the discipline. 

“Thirsty?”  Alana asked Cassy with a grin. 

“Depends on what you have.” 

Alana pulled two full Pepsi bottles out of her bag.  "No thanks,"  Cassy replied.

"Just try it,” Alana shoved the bottle into her hands before taking a long drink out of her own. 

"Where did you get the rum from?"  Cassy asked after the first sip.

"I picked up a bottle from Dad's cupboard at the house.  He doesn't drink the stuff often and probably won't even notice it's missing,"  Alana held up the two other full bottles, "Anyone else want some?"

“You were going to cut down,”  Jedia put in.

“I am!”  Alana argued, “I’m just enjoying my vacation.”

“I thought the four of us up here with you would be enough to allow you to do that,”  Starr glared at her, “I’m so thrilled to be replaced with a bottle.”

“You’re not one to talk,”  Cassy put in, “You were drinking just as much as we were a few years ago.”

“The main difference being that I stopped.  It doesn’t even taste good,”  Starr shook her head and lengthened her stride. 

Cassy and Alana shrugged at each other, downing the last of their bottles and leaving them on the ground.  “I don’t see what the big deal is,”  Cassy glared ahead to where Starr was making her way down the trail. 

Jedia kept silent.  She doubted Alana and Cassy even remembered the night Starr swore she’d never drink again.  They were still partying when Starr called her in tears, sobbing about a guy and not really wanting it after all.  Jedia finally calmed her down enough to realize what had happened and drove over to Cassy’s at three in the morning to grab Starr and take her to the hospital. 

It turned out she had gotten away from the guy before she was raped but was still shaken up.  Jedia had chewed Cassy out for opening up her house to complete strangers and putting her friends in danger.  Starr seemed to get over it quickly enough but Jedia was never completely sure she had put it behind her.  She hadn’t dated a boy since that night, not that she had dated many before that. 

Alana wasn’t right when she called Jedia an ice princess.  It wasn’t that she thought she was too good for the guys she met; it was just that she didn’t have the time in her life for a serious relationship.  There had been times that she found someone at college she wanted to get involved with but they always made it clear that they wanted her to spend her time with them and not with the books.  She knew what she wanted to do with her life and she wasn’t about to put it on hold for a college fling. 

Her parents had always supported her, scrimping and pinching for a year in order to get her a used car so she could start working and saving up money to get into a really good college.  What she didn’t use for food and gas, she saved away, eventually paying them back for her car and insurance. 

Her cousin was born severely disabled and had to be put in a home at a very young age.  Her aunt and uncle had two other children who demanded their time and they weren’t capable of giving Grace the care she needed.  Jedia wasn’t impressed with the care she saw her cousin receiving in the home and wanted to help improve things.  She took a job there but the doctors and house managers weren’t interested in what a student had to say about their methods. 

She hated it when people wouldn’t take her seriously just because she didn’t have her doctorate yet.  They cared about their paychecks; she was the one who actually cared about the patients.  When she graduated college, she was going to get a job there if it killed her and there were going to be some major changes made.  Grace had her entire life ahead of her and it wasn’t too late to fix things for her or for the other patients who would come in after her. 

“Oh wow!”  She heard Starr exclaim, “You were right, Alana!”

The other four girls hurried up to find her standing in a small clearing on a mountain ledge looking down at the river.  “This is so pretty!”  Jedia breathed.  “Look at the sailboats, you can barely see them from this high up.” 

“I’ll drink to that,”  Cassy shot Alana a grin,  “Got anymore?”

“Always do.”  Alana tossed her another bottle.  Out of all the girls, Cassy was the one she could count on for a good time.  Mr. Johns owned a pharmacy and a used car lot, both of which had been in the family for a few generations.  Cassy was an only child and her parents let her have whatever she wanted as long as it wasn’t too excessive.  She always had money to do whatever they felt like at the moment and didn’t care about anything that might get in their way.  Sure Cassy was more spoiled than the rest of them but she had the right to be.  Alana smiled to herself, if she had the kind of money Cassy’s family did, she’d make sure she spoiled herself. 

She smirked, remembering the year she and Cassy had ended up in the same gym class.  Every stupid friendly game had ended up as a blow to someone’s pride.  Cassy had all the athletic gifts Alana lacked, but what Alana lacked in skill she more then made up for in the desire to win.  They were able to laugh about it now, but it was anything but funny back in high school.  Alana hated losing, she hated it when someone stole her spotlight. 

Her place was up on stage in front of an applauding audience.  That was her home, she didn’t care if she had to act, sing, or dance her way up there.  Her parents thought it was a hobby, they didn’t realize it was her passion.  If she couldn’t live on the stage, she didn’t want to work anywhere else.  She was saving up to move out to Los Angeles the first chance she got and no one was going to stop her. 

Not her parents, not her friends, no one. 

“When are we moving up to the cabin?”  Cassy swatted a mosquito, “I’d kill for a hot shower about now.”

“Washing your hair in the lake isn’t fun anymore?”  Kristine teased.

“Dad is going to check it out again on their way back.  He’s getting pissed about the hold up.  We should have been able to move in at the beginning of this week but they were too slow.  I guess they had to hire a few new guys to speed things up.  Too bad that’s not going to be good enough for Dad.”

“So where do you want to go now?”  Jedia stood up and dusted the pine needles from her jeans.

“We can go swimming if you want,”  Alana offered, “Or we could head back a mile and pick up another trail if you want to keep hiking.”

“Let’s just go back to the bridge,”  Kristine waved away a horsefly, “There are way too many bugs up here.” 

“Let’s hope our swimsuits actually dried for once,”  Cassy dropped her empty water bottle on the ground before she hopped over a fallen log. 

“That’s right, you guys need to stop back at the campsite, don’t you?”  Starr picked up the bottle and jammed it in her bag, shooting Cassy’s back a dirty look. 

“We could go skinny dipping,”  Alana nudged Jedia who immediately blushed.

“It’ll only take a few minutes to get changed,”  Jedia said quickly, “If we walk faster we might even be able to catch those guys who were down there.” 

“You heard her,”  Alana grinned, “Boys are always worth speeding up for.”  The girls sped up their pace down to the RV. 

“Where did I throw my suit?”  Kristine climbed into the bed over the cab and searched through the piles of blankets and pillows. 

Cassy pulled up the thong bottom of her red bikini and picked up her towel from the end of her bed, “Didn’t you hang it out last night?”

“I thought I remembered changing out of it,”  Kristine tossed a sock down from the bed.

“I was looking for that!”  Jedia exclaimed, shoving the sock in her duffle bag. 

“How did your sock end up in our bed?”  Starr asked from where she was sitting in the driver’s seat. 

Alana zipped up her jean shorts over her purple bikini, “You’re all crazy.  Kristine, it’s hanging on the line.” 

“Really?”  Kristine poked her head out the RV door, “There you are!”  She grabbed the blue racing suit, ran back to the camper and changed quickly, “Are we ready to go?” 

“We were just waiting for you,”  Jedia pointed out, sitting in the seat next to Starr in her dark green tank suit. 

“Let’s just go,” Alana charged out of the RV and picked up an easy jog to the bridge. 

“Watch out!”  Cassy jumped off the low bridge, “Holy shit that’s cold!”

Kristine dove in after her. “Wimp,” she teased, splashing Cassy, “It was worse yesterday.”

Starr jumped in and started treading water. “It was warmer this morning,” she crossed her arms over her chest, “A lot warmer actually.” 

Jedia and Alana dove in and swam over, “Whose bright idea was this?”  Alana asked, her teeth chattering.

“Yours,”  The other four girls shot back.

“I wouldn’t have suggested it if someone hadn’t told me that there were hot guys swimming down here,”  Alana splashed Jedia.

“Hey!”  Jedia tried to block it, “There were earlier.”

“And you thought they’d really stay in the water for four hours?”

“Why not?”  Jedia asked, “We’ve done it.” 

“I should really call home once we get up the cabin,”  Starr said, floating on her back, “Mom’s orders.  There is a working phone up there, right?  My cell hasn’t had a signal since we got here.”

“Maybe because we’re in the middle of a mountain range?”  Kristine pushed Starr under the water. 

“You think my mother is going to let something like science count as an excuse?  Isn’t there anyone you need to get a hold of?”  Kristine fell silent, “What’s wrong?”  Starr asked.

“He called me before we left.  I hadn’t heard from him in years and wasn’t really expecting it.”

“Dog boy?”  Cassy asked.  Kristine nodded. 

“I don’t know what’s with these guys lately.  Rick called me a few months back to let me know he was back in town and to see if I wanted to hang out.  I ran into Tyler at the grocery store and he mentioned how he wanted to take me out to dinner.  Is it so wrong to want my ex boyfriends just to stay out of my life?”  Kristine ducked below the water. 

Cassy and Starr shared a look over the bubbles popping on the surface above her head.  “Let’s get out of here,”  Alana scrambled up the rocks and wrapped her towel tightly around her, “I’m freezing!”

Starr dipped her arm under water and pulled Kristine back to the surface.  “We’re going to get going.  It’s too cold.” 

“We might as well go pick up the groceries and head back to camp.  We don’t have anything for dinner right now,”  Jedia pointed out, wringing out her hair.  

“What do you mean you won’t let us do a tab?”  Alana protested, “We’ve been here for over a week and we’ve payed it off every time we had to use it.” 

Mr. Siera sighed, “That was for a few things.  You’ve got fifty dollars worth of groceries here.”

Alana looked down at the pile of groceries and frowned, “It can’t be that much.” 

“Fifty-five eighty-six,”  He tapped his fingers against the aged wooden counter,  “You need collateral for a tab like this.” 

“Oh fine,”  Cassy stripped off her shirt, “This is my favorite.  New it was worth about fifty.  Is that good enough?”

The other girls started laughing as the elderly man blinked and blushed as he looked at Cassy in her bikini top, holding out her shirt.  “Just have your parents come in here as soon as they get back,”  He took the shirt and made a note on a piece of paper, “Alana, I need you to sign this for me.” 

“I can’t believe you did that,”  Kristine said as they lugged the bags out of the store. 

Cassy looked at her with a smug smile. “We’d get the groceries one way or another,”  Kristine smiled back at her and did a quick spin in the middle of the road.  She always seemed to be so happy, Cassy thought, there wasn’t much that could get her away from her cheerful disposition.  Even when she had gotten upset at the bridge, she didn’t want to show it. 

Cassy never really knew what was going through Kristine’s head.  She hadn’t dated anyone since her few months with Rick back in high school and she didn’t seem to be looking anymore.  Rick was by far the easiest split she had experienced and the only one she had stayed friends with for a time after.  Brett and Tyler were two other stories.  Cassy shuddered as she remembered the possessiveness of both boys, remembered how they had tried to shove Kristine’s friends out of the picture. 

Kristine had dropped both of them in the end.  Her friends were second only to her family and no guy was going to budge in front of them.  They were like a family, Cassy noted with another smile, five dysfunctional sisters.  She never had any siblings of her own.  Cassy was the younger of a set of premature twins but her brother hadn’t survived the week.  Her mother couldn’t have any more children after that and they chose to be happy with the daughter they did have. 

She had more then she needed but she wasn’t spoiled, not completely.  Her parents gave her anything she asked for within reason but only if she took care of it.  The first and only time she got in a car wreck by being stupid and showing off for her boyfriend at the time, she was without a vehicle and working at the local gas station until she could pay for half of a new one.  No, her parents were too down to Earth to let her become a spoiled only child. 

“Hey look!”  Alana shouted, “It’s a car!”

“Oh my lord,”  Starr pressed her spare hand to her forehead, “I always thought they were just myths.” 

“It’s a van if you really want to be specific,”  Jedia shielded her eyes from the sun, “A really big blue one.”

“Shut up,”  Alana eyed the vehicle driving slowly down the dirt road, “They’re actually following the speed limit, they aren’t from around here.”  She dropped her bags and looked at Cassy, “Wanna play chicken?”

Cassy’s smile broadened, “You know it.”  She set her bags down next to Alana’s and did a quick set of stretches. 

“Guys, is this really a good idea?”  Kristine asked nervously, setting her bag down next to the others.

“Party pooper,” Cassy grabbed one of her arms and Alana grabbing the other.  The two of them pulled and dragged a protesting Kristine towards the oncoming van. 

Starr sighed and picked up two more of the bags.  “Shouldn’t we stop them?”  Jedia asked

“Nah, Cassy’ll pull out in time.  I don’t think Alana would want to scare Kristine that much,”  Starr gazed down at the road as man prepared to meet machine head on. 

“Guys, aren’t you going to get out of the way yet?”  Kristine dragged her feet in the dust, trying to get the two other girls to slow down. 

“Not yet,”  Alana replied cheerfully.

“Hey, I think they just noticed us!”  Cassy exclaimed, “They’re speeding up!”

“This just got more fun,” Alana sped up her jog, forcing Kristine and Cassy to keep up with her. 

“Not having fun....not having fun...so not having fun,”  Kristine chanted, still struggling against them. 

Kristine saw her life flash before her eyes as the van came even closer.  50, 40, 25 feet away.  She felt bile rising in her throat as she made eye contact with the driver, mentally pleading with him to stop and save her from eating the pavement. 

He didn’t.  When the van reached the ten foot point, Alana shoved Cassy and Kristine as she rolled over to the other side of the road.  Kristine felt the dust settle over her and coughed before commanding her legs to hold her.  “You idiots!”  She screamed, “You could have killed us and then how would Starr and Jedia spend the rest of their vacation?  I’m sure they’d love to stay up here crying over your bloodstains on the road.” 

“Uh-oh,” Starr commented, “She’s flipping out.  Grab that other bag and we’ll make sure they’re okay.” 

Jedia nodded and the two of them walked down the road.  The passengers of the van poured out, helping Alana and Cassy up.  “If I would have known they’d pull something that stupid, I would have helped Kristine,” Starr grumbled, “They’ve never let it go that far before.” 

Jedia started to nod but stopped short.  “Starr?”  She asked “If I’m hallucinating, don’t you dare wake me up.”