ISOLATION

Day 4

I checked the time on my phone, seeing that it was 4:38am. I couldn't sleep, unable to take my mind off the nightmare that had woken me up two hours beforehand. It was a nightmare that plagued me almost every night, but the worst part of it all was that it wasn't just a nightmare, it was a memory.

Almost every night I was transported back to the day my mother and I had found out that my father had been killed. He was in the army which was why we had moved around a lot throughout my childhood. We had just moved to Stone Creek a few months before. He was deployed not long after we moved there, and four months later he was killed in action.

Only my closest circle of friends knew about it and I begged them not to tell anyone else. I was already the 'new kid' and Lauren's verbal punching bag, I didn't need to be the girl whose dad died too.

I lay in bed until 6:30am and then got up to shower. I knew today was going to be a free day to do whatever we wanted, so I grabbed some casual clothes and my toiletries and went into the bathroom. After washing my hair, I inspected my thigh and saw that the cuts were healing nicely. I covered them with a new dressing and threw on some comfortable tracksuits and a cropped hoodie. After finishing up in the bathroom I left the cabin, walking to the running track which overlooked the deep canyon below.

There was a light fog hovering through the air as the sun began to rise, the sky turning from a dark blue to a beautiful pink. I sat on the track and looked up at the sky, hugging my knees tightly to my chest as I admired the beautiful array of colours. After my restless nights sleep, I finally felt peaceful, listening to the sounds of the birds awakening from their deep sleeps, chirping wildly and flying from tree to tree.

Suddenly, I heard a twig snap from behind me, and I whipped my head around quickly. There stood Lauren Knight, leaning against a pole at the entrance to the running track. Her eyes were plastered on the beautiful sky, and although she was far away I could still see a small smile on her face. I wasn't sure if she had noticed me there, and I didn't want her to, so I slowly turned my head back to the sunrise and pretended that I hadn't seen her.

The fact that she was so enthralled in the sunrise surprised me, as I never took her as the type of girl to appreciate such simple things in life. This just cemented my theory that she was hiding something from me, from everyone.

The breakfast bell snapped my attention away from the gorgeous sky, and I quickly stood up to make my way over to the dining hall. As I walked towards the exit of the field, I realised that Lauren hadn't left for breakfast, but instead was staring at me curiously as I walked toward her. I stepped past her wordlessly and continued towards the dining hall, unsure of why she hadn't made her way there either.

After breakfast Karina, Alyssa and I made our way to the games room to play a game of table tennis. Karina's boyfriend joined us, along with two of his friends, and it turned into a competitive contest between the six of us. Having not played table tennis before, I started off lousy, but slowly began to pick up how to play.

"Since when were you so good at table tennis, Scar?" Marcus' friend, Elliot, said to me.

"I'm actually a table tennis Olympian," I joked, smacking the ball over the net and claiming the winning point.

Elliot threw his bat down in fake anger, chucking a fit like a small child whose parents won't let them have any candy. We all chuckled loudly as he flailed around on the floor, fake crying and screaming.

The final was Marcus vs. me, and it was a heated match. Marcus was good, but he was no match for my luck in that day, and I ended up winning the game. Marcus got down onto his knees and began to hail me, chanting loudly.