"Why did this have to happen?" Cori ducked into the tent, eager for a private place away from the critical eyes of Miracle 10. "It's your fault," she grimaced, spotting the magazine and throwing it at the nylon wall. "They think I'm a crazy fan because of you."
Cori sighed and picked back up the raggedy book.
"Then again, you didn't make the necklace disappear..." she frowned. "But neither did I," she heaved an even bigger sigh. "So then what happened to it? Am I being set up?"
Laying down the magazine, Cori placed her head in her hands, thinking on the situation hard.
"It's got to be up there," she thought surely. "I'd go look for it, but I don't want to go back in the cabin. They'd probably just think I was trying to steal more stuff anyways. Ughhh."
For the longest time, Cori remained alone in the tent with her head down- both relieved and saddened by her solitude.
"They must all be so mad at me," she was still pouting when at last, the familiar voices of Miracle 10 made their way towards the camp.
"Did you check all your stuff?" she heard Kole ask. "I don't think she took anything of mine, but I'm gonna look again just to be sure. Here, help me pull out these pegs."
"We need to deflate the air mattress first," said JM. "But do you really think she stole more than Tanner's necklace?"
"Why not?" replied Kole. "If she's a stalker, then obviously she'd want to get as much as she could, wouldn't she?"
"I guess," JM sighed. "But do you really think she's a stalker?"
"She showed up here. She conveniently lost her boat. She took Tanner's necklace," said Kole matter-of-factly. "She's definitely a stalker."
Cori had heard enough. Before the boys could say anything more slanderous, she crawled out of her tent, and without even looking at either of them, ran off towards the end of the dock.
"Oops," she heard Kole laugh, but it was only icing on the cake.
"How am I going to get through another entire day here?" Cori sniffed, resuming her head-on-her-knees position at the edge of the dock.
~~~
Though she was no longer among the boys as they continued to tear down the campsite, her segregation was still not distant enough, for she was still fully aware of all of the glances and whispers.
Well, at least the glances and whispers from those who were outside. Kole and JM worked to disassemble the tents (JM more than Kole), while Axel sat back on one of the logs unhelpfully- but that was all.
Cori kind of figured Tanner would remain in the cabin, but a part of her still wished he would join the others, having found his necklace and ready to rekindle their relationship from the night before.
However, hours later, there were less Miracle 10 members outdoors than before. Tanner neither appeared with or without his pendant, and despite Kole's inability to fit the poorly-folded tents back into their bags, the camp was at last cleared and the others made their way back inside.
Although it was understandable she was now being treated as an outcast, there was still one thing about her solitude that didn't make any sense. Sure Tanner was angry and didn't want to be around... and true, she had never really gotten that close with Axel, JM or Kole... but Nicky U had not come to check on her either. In fact, in all the time the boys were packing up the camp, he had never come out of the cabin once.
"He must be mad at me too," Cori felt as though her heart was sinking into the lake below. "This is just the worst," she was still burying her face in mortification when at last, the sound of footsteps fell upon the wooden planks of the dock.
Cori peeked up, hoping to see a forgiving Tanner though expecting to see a sympathetic Nicky, but was surprised to see it was only an unsure JM.
"Hey," he said tentatively. He was holding an apple. "Are you hungry?" he asked. "Everyone's eating..." JM nodded back towards the cabin.
Cori shook her head. Considering the tight knots in her gut, she was definitely in no mood to eat.
"Okay..." JM frowned at her, then, hesitatingly, made his way back up the dock.
Returning to her depressed pose once again, Cori continued her fretful moping, the lonely pouting itself adding to her embarrassment. All she wanted to do was shrink into a hole somewhere, but on an unfamiliar island, the edge of the dock was currently the best she could do.
Of course, despite the deepest humiliation she had ever felt, part of her wished she could still be spending time with the boys. So when she heard the cabin door open again, her chest gave a small leap and she turned- but only to see Kole wandering around the prior camp site. Still no Tanner. And still no Nicky.
Cori frowned down at her rosy-cheeked reflection in the lake, suddenly remembering how Nicky had helped her apply lotion to her sunburn.
"I thought if anyone would have believed me, it would have been him..." she sighed, jumping as the sound of the door creaked again.
"You find it?" JM had joined Kole in the yard.
"No. What's it look like?" Kole scratched his head and looked around.
"Like all the other tent pegs," laughed JM, now looking across the grass too. However, catching a glimpse of Cori, he paused, and whispered something to Kole.
"Why should we?" Kole shrugged, now staring out at Cori as well.
"Come on," said JM, leading the way towards the dock.
"Fine," Kole followed after him.
"Hey..." JM greeted her just as awkwardly as before. "You hungry yet?"
Cori shook her head and returned her gaze uncomfortably to the water.
"Are you really just gonna sit out here all day?" Kole blurted.
"Yeah, it's really hot. You can't stay out here in the roasting sun all day," JM tried to soften Kole's question.
"Well I can't go back in there either," said Cori, still looking down at the lake.
"Then maybe you should just give Tanner his necklace back," spouted Kole.
At last, turning to face the boys, Cori gaped at Kole, the blow of the assumption that she was a thief still stinging as strongly as the first time. Though all she wanted to do was tell him she didn't take Tanner's necklace, she knew it was fruitless. So, jumping up and unable to consider anything more than escape, Cori rushed past them back up the dock, and darted into the trees.
~~~
"I've got to get out of here!" Cori ran at full-speed through the trees, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face. She didn't know her way around the private island, but all she could think of now was at least getting back to where she and her boat had first landed. "Hey! Maybe if my boat didn't sink, it floated back by now!" she hoped as she ran even faster along the dirt floor.
Fueling herself with the hurt, she continued through the woods. However, between her cloudy-headed thoughts and wet-eyelashed vision, she found her navigation to be slightly skewed.
"How big is this island?" she stopped to look around when she had still failed to reach the edge of the trees. "I thought the other shore was just up this way," she frowned, only seeing more lumbering trunks and weeds. Taking a gulp, a new pain reached her stomach. "Please, don't tell me I'm lost," she spun around, hoping to see something, anything recognizable. "What's that?" she squinted across the woods, spying something in the distance. "Huh?!"
Upon rushing towards the shape, she was surprised to see it was the wood shed.
"How in the world?" she frowned at the little shack. "But this isn't that far from the cabin. And I've been running forever! Great..." she sighed. "Well, if I got this turned around, I'd better not try venturing off again. I'd probably just end up lost in a cave or something... But I don't want to go back either..."
Cori exhaled deeply and sat down on the chopping block.
"What am I going to do?" she moaned. "Why can't it just be tomorrow? I want to go home. Or even Camp Cobo would be better than this! I mean, nothing's worse than this. Not even Dezarae," she laughed wryly, but she had spoken too soon.
Just then, a large drop of water plopped right on her head, and Cori looked up to see a thousand droplets of rain beginning to fall through the treetops.