-1996-
days went by. things couldn't really get back to normal after what happened. they didn't even try. vans speach became better, didn't mean that she did.
'jackie. you have to eat somthing.' shauna said, noticing jackie just playing with her food instead of actually digesting it.
'why?' jackie harsh voice sounded around the open cabin. 'why does it matter at this point?'
she wasn't wrong. laura lee was dead. van got attacked and almost died. it was only a matter of time before everyone started dropping like flies. taissa walked back from the kitchen with an empty metal pail. 'we've ran out of water..' she sighed.
'i'll get some!' allison and javi shot up simultaneously. why were they so uppity.
tai let out a large breath. 'knock yourselves out.' and handed them the bucket.
'i'll race you?' javi said, already striding to the door. bucket in hand.
'oh your on!' allison shot out after him.
'hey! careful, your legs not fully-' the door slammed before cherry could finish. '-healed..' she muttered, defeated.
'why are they so chipper?' jackie asked. offended that the two have fun at a time like this.
'leave them be, jax. let them be kids.' shauna placed a comforting hand on jackie shoulder.
'that's it! i can't do this anymore.' mari slapped her thighs and jumped if her seat and made her way the one of the kitchen cabinets. everyone, curious to see what she would come out with, lent forward. mari walked back over, floor boards screaming below her, with a large jar of lumpy crimson liquid.
'right..' coach ben said, still chewing. 'what is that?'
'it was some berries i was trying to save but i think it may have turned into booze?' she said, peaking through the top. 'i don't know about you guys, but i could use a drink.'
'is it even safe?' taissa scoffed, as if they were actually going to drink it.
'do we care?' coach ben said, fully defeated.
'i have a few more jars hidden somewhere.' mari added.
'if we have booze let's have a party!' jackie's eyes brightened for the first time in days, along with everyone else's. cheryl turned to see what van thought of this, she couldn't make out her face as she refused to take the bandages off.
'yeah, cause we have so much to fucking celebrate..' natalie scolded.
'do we need a reason?' jackie's brows raised, showing off her disney eyes. 'we are all going to be dead in a few weeks anyway.' her tone was patronising.
'it's a full moon tonight?' misty added, trying to give 'celebration' a better meaning.
'isn't it almost home coming? and we packed dressed for the awards ceremony.' akilah asked, though she already knew the answer. just as she said that allie and javi came running back up to the cabin. they had definitely spilled half on the contents of the bucket by now but what did it matter.
'ha! i won.' allie threw her hands up in victory.
'hey! no you didn't i made it to the lake first.' javi reminded.
'yeah? i made it to the cabin first.' allie shot back, both tweens gasping for air as she closed the door.
'congratulations, you both won. sit down, please.' travis said, hushing his little brother and getting him to take a seat. cheryl wanted to laugh, but she didn't have the energy.
'see! we have booze, dresses, we can make decorations! let's have a sort of.. moon homecoming!' jackie sounded pleased with herself for thinking of that.
'what's going on?' allie whispered into cheryl ear.
'jackie wants to have a party.' cheryl responded, sven she was a little exited.
'more like a doom homecoming..' mari said, still hovering over the jar that allie was eyeing up.
'a doomcoming!' lottie said with no intention of being funny.
'now that's a party idea!' natalie agreed from the desk chair.
'ok.. it's settled! we will drink rotten berries and dance while celebrating our impending doom!' jackie told the group. some where more exited than others but that didn't matter. van was one of them, no words came out of her mouth all she did was climb off the table and storm off outside, leaving the door swinging. cherry and tai locked eyes, debating wether to comfort her or leave her be.
alison's reaction was different. she hated the idea of this party, not because it's insensitive. because they were all giving up and just waiting for death to come get them. she wouldn't be like them.
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hours flew by and the girls were doing all sorts, making streamers out of twigs and bouquets out of dead leafs. giving the situation they made it look very pretty. mari had used some extra deer meat and mushrooms misty had found to make a stew, it was the best thing the girls would eat for a while. cheryl spent the whole time trying to find her makeup bag. nobody would have used it in the past six months so why would it have been moved? eventually she gave up for a while and shifted back downstairs onto the front porch to find van. she hadn't seen her since she left the cabin.
walking around the house she admired the decor some of the girls managed to craft, they even got together and made an archway. turning the corner she saw the lonely redhead sat under a tree. 'hey-' cheryl walked over with a skip in her step to van. her greeting was cut off when van wouldn't face her, not even make eye contact. 'van?'
'i'm not going to the stupid party.' she made it pretty adamant. 'i look like freddy kruger and chucky had a dirty love child..' she said sadly. cheryl really wanted to laugh. the joke was incredibly funny. but for the sake of her girlfriends self esteem, she held in back.
'stop it! no you dont. vanessa you look great.' cherry was never good and words of affirmation but she tried for van. 'your the prettiest girl i've laid my eyes on.'
'yeah, i was.' van still couldn't look at her.
'van, if i have to take an axe to the left side of my face to match with you and prove that you still look lovley i will.' cheryl was dead serious, it would leave a badass scar. van, who was now looking into her eyes, couldn't help but smile. 'so.. we are going to go to this thing together. no matter how dumb it might sound now, it will be a night we remember for the rest of our lives. however long that is.'van let out hums of uncertainty when taissa skipped round the corner with something behind her back. 'ah, tai. please tell van that she looked fabulous and should come to the party?' cherry turned to tai for backup.
'i can to you one better..' she revealed two leather masks from behind her, cut perfectly to cover vans battle scar. 'i made us these.'
'holy shit tai, these look incredible.' cheryl praised tais work.
'not like you need to cover your face anyway... but, if you decide to. you can.' you could tell taissa was proud of herself. 'try it on!!'
'yeah!!' cherry couldn't sit still. van went to untie the bandages but paused.
'turn around?' her voice shy and mousy. the two teens obeyed, spinning behind them. both giddy with excitement. 'ok.. done.' she hesitated.
when they turned around, they made a huge deal about how good it looked to mask van feel better. 'hot.' cherry said.
'hot.' taissa nodded in agreement. 'you look great.'
'yes. she does.' cheryl's eyes went from tai to van again. 'look.. i'm going to get ready myself. you look just darling as always. ok? when i'm ready i hope you'll be too to greet me.' she gave an honest smile to both of them and stood up to give vans forehead a light kiss before she slowly jogged back inside to pretty herself up.
the only people who where in the cabin were jackie and misty doing makeup, mari who was cooking and lottie and shauna in the attic getting dressed. as cheryl walked past the room with jackie in it she caught her doing mistys lipstick. cherry never saw her wear makeup before. she let out a teasing whistle. 'looking good misty!' she announced from the doorway. both girls looked at laughed together.
cheryl climbed the ladder the knocked on the trapdoor incase anybody was changing. 'come up!' came a muffled voice. cheryl rose from the first floor onto the second. shauna was in front of the mirror in a lovely blue dress she was struggling to zip up. 'hey cherry, would u give me a hand?' she asked softly. cheryl walked over and thought of why lottie didn't help, but she was too busy looking through dresses.
the dress was harder to zip up as shauna's belly had grown, she was noticing it now with sad eyes. 'you look beautiful shauna.' cheryl made sure that she knew that. after straightening out the hem of her dress shauna began looking for shoes. cheryl went to the back of the room and began also looking for her skirt and shirt combo. 'hey lot? have you seen a black skirt?' she asked, not looking at lottie.
'um, yeah it should be at the bottom.' she murmured. it looked like lottie had found a dress aswell
'ah-ha! got cha!' cheryl exclaimed while throwing the clothes over her shoulder. as she began to change she took a closer look at the dress lottie was holding. 'hey, that's cute lot!'
'yeah.. it was laura lees. my dress got pretty wrecked in the crash so..' she told cherry, sadly. rubbing her finger over the name tag.
'oh.. well i think you'd look pretty in it.' cheryl didn't know what else to say, so she didn't. she took herself to the far corner and got changed into her gothic attire. the skirt was too baggy around her hips, but to be fair they had been starving for mouths so they all lost a lot of weight. 'hey guys?!' she shouted down the ladder. 'did anyone bring a belt?'
'yeah! i dont know where it is though, it's up there somewhere!' mari yelled from the stove.
'right.' cheryl began digging through the huge mountain of clothes. in doing so she found her jewellery stash near the belt. 'ha! finally.' she muttered to herself loading up her fingers with excessive amounts of jewellery. along with putting her large boots on over her uniform socks, nobody would see them away. she check the mirror for a while to make sure she was one hundred percent done so she could get her hair and makeup done when shauna came back upstairs. 'hey..' she dragged out not really paying attention.
'oh hey!' shauna greeted. 'looking good, i mean if you and van weren't a thing..' shauna flirted as a joke a lot, she smile as she walking past.
'jeez shauna... take me to dinner first!' cheryl joked back. shauna walked back over to her makeshift bed and picked up one of her many journals. 'wow, your quiet the poet.' just smiled and hopped back downstairs which cheryl followed.
mistys hair and makeup had been finished by jackie so cheryl asked if jackie would do hers too. jackie, happy to have the company, quickly agreed. they spoke for what felt like hours, in reality it was only fifth teen minutes. cheryl only wanted black eyeliner, mascara and lipgloss put on. 'what with...' cheryl said, gesturing to jackie's curlers in her hair. 'that?'
'i dont think you should make fun of me right now considering i'm doing your eye makeup.' jackie laughed, pumping the tube a few more times than necessary. 'your all done!' she held up a mirror for cheryl to see herself. she never know how good jackie was at makeup, she could made a life of it.
'why thank you!'
'have u seen allie yet? her dress is amazing!' jackie said, taking her hair out.
'no? is she outside?'
'yeah, in the living room i think?' jackie was focused on not ripping her hair out so the answer was half arsed. cheryl stood up and made her way back through the cabin to the main room to find allison.
there she was, though she was wearing cherrys dress, she looked adorable.
'hey, allie!' she dragged out in a sing along voice.
'have u gotten jackie to do your makeup yet? she's really good.'
'i actually didn't want any.' allie answered, while tying the string on her dress. 'i see she got to you first'
'you would be correct.' cheryl laughed.
'do you know if the berries actually made wine?'
'i hope so, why?' cheryl laughed at such a bizarre question.
'well.. i asked van and taissa and they both said that it would be cool if me and javi had some.?' allie fiddled with her fingers in her lap.
'oh did they now?' cheryl huffed. there was no issue if allie having some rotten berry juice. look at them two causing havoc already, cherry thought. 'yes... i suppose that's fine.'
'great! cause i may have already started.. don't tell mari.' allie cheered.
'jesus christ.' cheryl might have failed at being a student, a daughter, maybe even a girlfriend. but she would never fail at being a sister. or a mother.
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i didn't mean for this chapter to be so long, this whole chapter was ment to be doomcoming aswell but i got distracted ig!
as always vote and comment!
word count:2277
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