[1996]
"How are we going to do this?" asked Laura Lee as she tried to balance herself on the other side of the raft with Agami.
The two of them, along with some girls who woke up early and decided to accompany Laura Lee and Agami on their first try at fishing, headed to the lake before the sun even rose. Since they didn't want to go fishing under the heat of the sun after morning light, they chose to start as early as possible, but not for that reason alone. They still had to figure out how they would catch some fish.
They brought a few things with them on the raft. A jar of nightcrawlers that Crystal gathered, two improvised spears made by Gen and Mel, and a hook that Akilah made for them using a stick with points sharpened enough to pierce the mouth of a fish, tied in nylon, which they found in the cabin. It would have been better if they found an actual rod, but the man who used to live in the cabin seemed to have just relied on the fishing net, which isn't much of a help to them at the moment.
"It's trial and error for now, Lee," replied Agami.
Laura suggested that they should first try to tie the nylon on the other end of the spear they have, improvising a fishing rod, and see if they would be able to catch something with it.
"Ughh," Agami grimaced as she picked a worm from the jar of nightcrawlers and used the fish hook to puncture it to make a bait.
The other woman then lowered it down to the water and held it still, and they could do nothing but wait for some miracle to happen. When at least twenty minutes had passed and nothing had happened yet, Agami started to lose her patience.
"Are you sure you can't feel any tugging?" she asked Laura Lee.
"Nothing, okay!" the blonde woman replied, just as irritated as Agami.
"It's been quite some time. How come we haven't caught anything yet?"
"Then why don't you hold this if you're too excited to catch something? Maybe you have magical hands!"
"Fine! Give me that!"
Agami snatched the spear from Laura Lee to do it herself. But before she decided to do what the other woman did earlier, which was nothing but hold it, she pulled the thread again to check if they already might have caught even just a small fish, and Laura Lee simply didn't notice it. When she finally got sight of the end of the line, Agami screamed in disbelief.
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
The bait was already gone-no one knows for how long, which means they wasted time. Some fish might have eaten it already and the woman didn't realize it or feel the tugging.
"I swear I didn't feel anything," Laura Lee defended herself.
Agami sighed heavily. "No, it must be because we lowered it far too deep and the fish was so small that you didn't notice it had already taken the bait. Besides, it's not like we are using a real rod."
"Then what should we do?" asked Laura Lee.
"Same thing, I guess. But this time don't go too deep, and also-" said Agami, pausing for a moment and getting the small branch they brought, removing the nylon thread from the spear and just tying it there. "You should have more control with this."
"I hope," Laura Lee responded.
"If you feel something, even if it's just a little twitch, pull it up carefully," explained Agami. "Once something was in our sight, I would fucking thrust it."
"Is that even the right way to do this?" asked the blonde woman.
"We're past the point where we follow rules or do things correctly. As long as we can catch something with that method, then it's all good."
With that, they went back to fishing. As they wait for something, they watch the sun finally rise while they share a few stories to kill some time. Just a few more minutes later, Laura Lee placed her hand on Agami's arm as if she were stopping the woman from moving a muscle, making sure she actually felt a tug from what she was holding and that it wasn't their movements that caused it.
"Get up!" she yelled in excitement.
As she slowly pulled the thread, a medium-sized fish appeared before them, trying to pull away and escape from their bait. Before it could even completely break free from their line and hook, Agami launched the spear she was holding forward with force but perfect precision as she aimed for the fish. The movement coming from it stopped, and slowly, a trace of red liquid scattered around the end of the line, which means one thing. They had finally caught one.
Laura Lee squealed with happiness. "God will always provide."
Agami gave the woman a perplexed look, stopping herself from telling her that it was they who did all the hard work and not the man in the sky.
"Whatever. We'll share that first catch together later. Don't let the others have it."
Now that the method they came up with had been proven effective, they repeated the same thing countless times as they tried to catch more. At the end of it, they successfully caught two big fish, three medium-sized, and another two small ones. Since it was already too hot to continue, they decided to stop right there and bring it back to everyone who was waiting for them back in the cabin.
When they arrived, everyone was busy doing either their designated chores and laundry, or anything that was productive enough. But there was Jackie, who was busy entertaining herself as she read one of many old Time magazines they found along with the pornography that the dead cabin guy owned while having her breakfast. Her still untidy hair and usual sleepwear suggest that the woman had probably just woken up, and there was only at least an hour remaining before their lunch time, which means that Jackie was still slacking off just like the past few days.
Agami tried to ignore the woman and simply put the bucket she was holding, which contained everything that she and Laura Lee caught, in front of Taissa. The girls gathered around them, all happy that they could finally have a break from the deer meat and eat something different after so many days.
"Fish of our hard labor," Agami jokes.
Van raised her hand in front of Agami, proud of both the woman's success in their fishing and the lame attempt of dropping a pun that didn't work, which Agami accepted while saying 'up top' full of energy.
"Not bad for the first try," said Ben, then gave his thanks to the girls for finding some food.
"Right?" Agami said, her pride peeking through. "But we're not doing this every day. It's not easy," she told everyone.
They all nod in understanding. Just like Natalie and Travis, who refused to do the hunting every single day and demanded some rest days, they didn't argue. Not when they didn't know how hard it was to find something to eat.
Misty was the one to suggest that they should talk with their group's hunters once they get back to match their schedule, which was a good idea since they can't afford to not do fishing or hunting on the same day because that could possibly lead to a food shortage.
"Should I start gutting and scaling it?" asked Shauna.
The girls agreed immediately without hesitation, too excited to prepare their lunch, but Agami didn't join them. Instead, her eyes landed on the woman who was still sitting and busy with herself, not even taking part in what's happening around her as she was too indulged in whatever she was reading.
"No," Agami said, her voice slightly showing some authority. Shauna furrowed her eyebrows in confusion but didn't say a word, while the other just remained quiet and waited for whatever was going to happen next.
"Why don't we-" said Agami, then started walking toward Jackie's location and dropped the bucket in front of the woman. "give this to your captain, and let her do the preparation."
Silence took over the atmosphere as they sensed some argument coming between the two. They watched as Jackie lowered the magazine she was holding, looking completely oblivious to why everyone went quiet and why Agami had placed the bucket filled with fish in front of her.
"Ahm, what's happening? Why are you all staring at me?" asked Jackie.
Agami let out an amused laugh, then looked straight into the woman's eyes after.
"Shit, you don't even know what's going on around you. Our lunch is here, missy," said Agami, her tone a little different from how she usually sounds.
Jackie looks down at the bucket that the woman in front just kicked towards her. "Those are raw fish," she replied to Agami.
This time, the other girls sighed in disbelief as well upon hearing Jackie's response.
"Well, it's not gonna magically turn into a fucking piccata, Taylor. You obviously have to prepare them," said Agami, her voice starting to raise.
"What?" screamed Jackie, grossed out. "I am not gutting those fish!"
Agami turned around and faced everyone once more. Her lips were curled up, but there was a mocking expression painted on her face.
"You heard your captain, she doesn't want to," she told everyone. "But she's not paying me to do the chores for her, and clearly, she isn't paying any of you either."
Her expression then turned serious as she spoke again before leaving everyone.
"So if she wouldn't do the preparation of our lunch, then don't expect me to go back on that lake again and work my ass off just so the others could slack off."
She went inside the cabin after that to take a short rest and change her clothes, then gave herself a little treat by eating a caramel candy she had, which sounds a little pathetic, but given their situation, it was comparable to a luxury that the rest couldn't afford.
Agami then changed the bandage on her hand, slightly worried that the wounds might get infected, but it's not like she can do anything about it even if it is. The bleeding has already stopped, but since she was soaked in water for a long time, it doesn't look good at the moment. Shortly after, a head popped from the attic's door, and she immediately realized who it was without seeing the face, given that she has a bandage on her forehead.
The moment Lottie saw the woman's injured hand, she gave Agami an apologetic look, knowing that it was her who caused it.
"Does it hurt so bad?" Lottie asked.
Agami shook her head. "Surprisingly not."
"Why did you even do that?" the brunette asked Agami.
"Why would you purposely bump your head into a glass window?" she asked back instead of answering the woman's question.
Lottie didn't answer and just simply shifted her gaze to the broken glass window across them, sunlight leaking through the hole that she accidentally made, which gives a little more brightness to the usually dark attic of the cabin.
"Tell me what happened the other night," Agami told Lottie.
The woman lowered her head as she spoke, her eyes now focused on one of the symbols carved in the attic's wooden floor, which was now stained in blood.
"I just heard something, like it was whispering to me."
"Whispering?"
"It was like the wind was trying to tell me something."
Agami tried to hide her snort from the woman but failed. "A wind was talking to you?"
"It's not my fault that I'm the only one who knows how to listen to it," Lottie replied.
"So you relay its message to us-whatever it was telling you," Agami said, emphasizing the word 'it', and still trying to hide her laugh as she found Lottie's explanation funny. "In french."
The brunette chose to ignore the woman's reaction.
"It feels like I was in a trance or something," Lottie said in a stern voice, Agami finally taking her seriously.
"But blood, Charlotte? Spilling blood? What would that be for?" asked Agami in a serious voice.
She then fixed her sight on Lottie's forehead. "Well, you hurt yourself over it. Clearly, whatever it is, or if it's even real, it's not good for anyone."
"How do you know it's not good for anyone? That it's not evil?" asked Lottie, as if she were trying to defend whatever it was.
Agami let out a cackle of laughter. "What, spilling blood for unknown reasons sounds right to you?" her voice is full of sarcasm.
"We don't know what it means, but don't assume it's evil," Lottie responded.
"I think Turner was right. You all need to stop," replied Agami.
The brunette started shooting daggers at Agami, clearly annoyed that the woman insisted on telling her what she wanted to know about what happened in their seance, only to debunk everything she was going to say.
"Then why would you even ask if you're not going to believe me?" Lottie stated, slowly getting up. "I thought you would understand."
Before she could completely leave, Agami stopped the woman by grabbing her arm.
"Because I don't like where this is going!" Agami then exclaimed.
Lottie stared at Agami, clueless as to what the woman meant with her words.
"I saw you that day," Agami said as a starter. "Your face was covered in blood before the incident that night even happened."
"What?" asked Lottie.
"I may already have an idea of what you were planning to do that night. That's why I managed to stop you from headbutting that damn window-or at least tried," explained Agami, trying to make it sound like it's all a joke.
Silence once again enveloped the space between them. Although the distant chatter and laughter of the girls can be heard from the attic, they couldn't get a hold of whatever they were talking about or what's causing such commotion.
"Did that happen to you before?" Lottie asked Agami.
For Lottie, her vision stops if she is on medication. Not even a dream. Her father was a man of science and logic who refused to believe in anything if it didn't have any explanation that could be found in books or other publications proven with statistics. She never liked her father because it was he who always put her on psychiatric wards that she hated the most. He was the reason she never felt normal.
But she doesn't know Agami's story. Do they have a similar situation? Do the people around the woman throw her in the hospital too because of her unexplainable ability, if they feel like it? Or was it just her being treated like a freak by her own family that gave her the feeling of being a misfit?
"No. After the incident in our freshman year, nothing happened again," replied Agami. "Besides, this one is different. I didn't dream of it. I literally saw your bloodied face in broad daylight. It's like I'm being-"
"You're being shown." Lottie finished off.
Agami sighed heavily after that and chose not to carry on any more conversation with Lottie. Every time she talks to the woman, she is left with something to think about, and it is exhausting. She never imagined that her finally talking with Lottie would end up them sharing prophetic stuff and psychic things because, if she's being honest, she thought it would be just vibes between her and the woman. It turns out it's not.
She left the attic to finally check the commotion outside, but before she could even exit the cabin completely, there was Shauna, who was leaning in the doorframe and obviously waiting for her to appear. Agami was about to ignore the woman, but she was stopped by her.
"Was that really necessary?" asked Shauna.
Agami knows what she was referring to, but she will stand by what she did earlier since she knows she did the right thing.
"Your friend needed a little push, Shipman. I'm sure you know it too," she said, then left.
Although she was the one who wanted Jackie to prepare their lunch and stopped being a freeloader in the group, she knows they should not leave the woman unsupervised because they might not have anything to eat for lunch with the girl's multiple failed attempts to gut and scale the fish. If Jackie ended up cutting them into chunks, then everything would be just a waste.
She saw the woman alone in the meat shed, and from the looks of it, Agami realized what the girls were probably laughing about earlier.
"Aren't you looking so miserable in there?" She mocked the woman.
Jackie turned to face Agami, holding a knife with her hand that was now covered in fish blood and some scales.
Agami approached the woman slowly to check her progress-if there was any-but was only greeted by the horrible sight of one of the small fish they caught, whose head was now nearly cut off instead of gutted and cleaned off.
"Unbelievable. You're a murderer," Agami teased the woman, then laughed.
Jackie rolled her eyes as she spoke. "Leave me the fuck alone. Isn't this what you wanted?" trying to push Agami away.
"What, like your torment? Absolutely. That's why I came here to witness it firsthand," Agami said, which annoyed the woman more.
"God. Why are you such a dick?" replied Jackie, completely pissed off.
"In case you miss it, that's how Scat calls me. I'm just owning the title."
"Well, you deserve it."
"And you are such a brat, Taylor," she told the woman without any plan of holding back. "It's like you and that girl Mari are competing for the queen title for that, but she learned how to pitch in and do chores, so clearly you're the winner now. You own the crown," every word of it coming from her heart.
"Fuck you!" Jackie countered.
"Fuck you too!" Agami responded immediately, not backing down.
Then they shared a long death stare with each other after that. Surprisingly, Jackie was the one to break it by just going back to what she was doing before Agami appeared to make her suffering worse.
Agami exhaled heavily, composing herself before standing beside Jackie and getting closer to the woman. Her hand was now in front of Jackie, asking for the knife she was holding without saying a word, which the woman handed to her gently. She then took one medium-sized fish from the bucket, placed it on the table, and started to move her hands.
"Do you see this part?" Agami said in a calm voice, pointing to the lower part of the fish where its digestive parts were located. "Make a nice cut here, but don't push the knife too hard. You wouldn't want to crush the organs because it will leave a bitter taste," explained the woman as she demonstrated to Jackie how it should be done.
"After that, you can slowly pull out everything. As long as you can feel that there's still something on its belly, remove them. None of that is edible, so you don't have to worry whether you're discarding something that could be eaten," said Agami, doing everything she was saying and Jackie watching her carefully.
"You can leave the scaling on the last part. Just use the dull edge of your knife and scrape everything off. There's no correct way of doing it, so as long as you manage to remove all the scales, you're fine," Agami continued to explain, scraping in different directions.
"To finish off, remove the fins, gills, and tail. Rinse everything twice or three times, depending on you. After that, you're done, and all that is left to do is for you to make some slashes on the flesh so we could cook them faster later."
With that, Agami put the knife down and washed her hands immediately so the smell wouldn't stick to her hands. "It's not that hard if you could only stop complaining and try to do it."
"So you can't explain all that stuff to me without making an insult first?" Jackie asked Agami, rolling her eyes at the woman. "Or getting on people's nerves was your way of entertaining yourself?"
"See, this is why I always come to Turner whenever I have to interview a Yellowjackets member."
"What?" Jackie asked, clearly offended. "Is that the reason why I'm not featured in any sports section of the school newspaper? You know that I'm the captain."
"Don't care," replied Agami, shaking her head.
"I'm their leader," Jackie clarified to the woman one more time.
"Are you now?" Agami smirked at her as she spoke. "'Cause it's clear to me that none of those girls are treating you like one anymore."
That made Jackie stop on her track. She shifted her gaze one more time at Agami, hoping she would just hear another mockery from the woman and that what she just said was just her trying to annoy her.
"You're not really paying attention to what's happening around you, aren't you?" Agami asked her.
"I am." Jackie defended herself.
"No, you're not. Taylor, you're becoming a laughingstock from how you're slowly turning into a pathetic little bitch out here. It's a hard pill to swallow, but let me remind you-" said Agami, her eyes fixated on Jackie's. "You're no longer in the field."
Jackie avoided the woman's gaze as she felt herself choking from a huge lump forming on her throat, even though there was really nothing in there.
"Can you not see the hierarchy that is forming here?" Agami asked the quiet woman.
Everything that Shauna had told her the other day came back to her. It was already her best friend who keeps on pushing her to pitch in and participate in doing tasks but refuses because she finds it absurd. Although she can feel the stares from the other girls every time she joins them, she just simply ignores them because, in her mind, none of it will matter once they are rescued and everything will be back to normal.
With Agami, someone who is not even part of their team, rubbing it in her face right now that she's slowly losing her grip on the once-leadership and power she had over the girls was like a huge insult to her. She never felt that stupid in her life before, but she knows more than anyone else that she has a reputation to keep.
"They might be your friends, but don't let them think that you're the weakest here, because heaven knows where that could lead."