Chapter twelve
"... I realize that this was a mistake having the two of you together for activities but if you both can't control your issues with the other than we have a big problem. Silver Lake doesn't tolerate multiple fights. Now, this is your only warning...."
Anika faded out of Gelsey's long speech. She did feel kind of embarrassed for having to be given the 'no violence' rant and for having disappointed Gelsey. That embarrassment quickly fled Anika's face as she inwardly smirked with satisfaction when she looked to Ryleigh out of the corner of her eye. He sat slouched back in the chair beside her as he too, zoned out of Gelsey's scolding. A darkening purple ring around his left eye had Anika thinking back to the fight after Ryleigh had tackled her.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" Anika screamed as she kneed him in the gut when he was in the process of getting up. He let out a growl and glared at the raven haired girl.
"Anika as much as you want to, don't do it-" Mel tried to grab Anika's shoulders and turn her away from Ryleigh. The red head swore loudly as Anika easily escaped her smaller embrace and lunged at the dirty blond guy.
They hurled insults and fists at each other for a good five minutes before Larry barreled over to the blood battle.
"Enough!" but the two continued to roll over each other, taking each other's hits since they couldn't hear his order over the blood pumping in their ears.
Mel stood back along with her team and the others who ran over to see the commotion. She silently fumed and didn't hesitate to attack the first guy that started to chant 'Fight! Fight! Fight!'.
"What is going on here?" strangely enough, everyone froze at the low angered voice. Larry stepped closer to Anika and pulled her roughly away from Ryleigh as he picked them both up by the back of their necks. His fingers painfully clamped like vice grips on their flesh. He turned around and held the two up so they saw Genevieve standing at the edge of the field with her hands on her hips.
"Well?" the normally bubbly lady snapped.
"Fight." Larry grumbled and Anika rolled her eyes.
"No crap Sargent. You had a brawl going on, not a damn soccer game."
"Get to the office. Now." Genevieve commanded to Anika and Ryleigh. "Your morning activity is canceled. Instead, you're all on grounds keeping duty until lunch. Any one who needs aid, go straight to the infirmary." a collective amount of groans echoed around the field as the kids slowly followed after Genevieve back through the woods and North cabins to the center of the camp.
"You alright?" Mel asked, steadying a slightly shaking Anika after Larry released his grip.
"Fine." Anika growled as she glared over to Ryleigh who returned her heated stare. Around his left eye was red in a marble pattern and small trickles of blood ran out of both nostrils and a split in his lower lip. Anika felt her own blood run down her cheek from a scratch above her brow. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand but didn't look at the crimson red now smeared across her skin.
Mel had her own bruise slowly darkening on the right side of her chin. Unlike Anika and Ryleigh's fight though, the kid Mel jumped was just flailing his arms to try and push her off of him.
"I'll see you at lunch." Mel muttered, sending anyone looking in their direction a glare, daring them to call her out as she walked back to her cabin instead of the supply closet. Anika nodded, still too pent up with adrenaline to speak calmly or without snapping at her cabin mate.
And that was how Anika and Ryleigh ended up in Gelsey's office still glaring at each other as the blond lady continued to talk.
"Hey!" the two jumped out of their seats as Gelsey startled them from their death fantasies for the other. "I said enough. Now, you two will behave around each other or I will send you back. Anika, you will go into a foster home since you're underaged with no guardian. And Ryleigh, you'll go into a juvenile prison." Anika lowered her grey eyes as some of her smoldering died down.
"Both of you will wake up at six and will start cleaning the campus starting tomorrow. You'll finish whatever grounds keeping that doesn't get finished today by your other activity members. I'll add more to both of your punishments if you refuse or don't do the work." Gelsey quickly added as she saw Ryleigh about to protest.
"Be a man and deal with it." Anika growled at him. She wasn't thrilled to work with him but she definitely didn't want to know what else Gelsey had for them. So Anika swallowed the bitterness on her tongue and elbowed Ryleigh in the ribs when he refused to agree to their punishment. He quietly swore and rubbed the offend area.
"Fine."
"Alright then, lunch started a few minutes ago." the two delinquents took that as their dismissal and grumpily stalked out of the office. Anika took quicker steps than Ryleigh so she gained a head start on him. Breathing in, she mentally groaned when her anger didn't go away.
"Where are you going?" she heard Ryleigh ask suspiciously when she turned onto a dirt path that would lead back to her cabin.
"Go to hell." Anika snapped without looking back and started to run. By the time she reached the cabin, her lungs ached with a light burn but she felt somewhat calmer.
"You okay?" Anika jumped at Ivy's unexpected presence.
"Why does everyone feel the need to sneak up on me?" Anika pressed her fingers to her temple.
"Maybe we're not. Maybe you just have a lot goin' on in there." the magenta haired girl tapped the side of her head.
"There's no way in hell that I'm saying anything about my life with that... that thing at the bon fires." Anika pointed her finger back to the path that she came in on, feeling her heart beat faster with anger.
"So what happened at the field? I heard you guys fought again." Ivy sat on the cabin's porch step.
"Why can't everyone mind their own freakin' business!" Anika yelled, and had to stop herself from saying something she'd regret later.
Ivy blinked in surprise.
"Oh god, I'm going crazy here." Anika took a seat next Ivy on the step.
The magenta haired girl started to laugh. "Everyone does.... Doesn't matter, everything will be fine."
"Not really." Anika chuckled humorlessly. "I have to up keep the grounds with the devil child." Ivy flinched at the coldness in Anika's voice.
"Just keep to opposite ends of the camp." she advised.
"He just... I lose it when it comes to him. He picks the right nerve. I want to kill him so bad. I've never wanted that pleasure before. For goodness sakes, I'm here for painting landscapes on the side of buildings!"
"Trust me, I'm sure a lot of people want to kill each other here. After all, we're all delinquents with issues." Ivy shrugged.
"Let's talk about Skinner." Anika blurted randomly to keep her mind off a certain demon.
"W-what about him?" Ivy blushed and began to study the leaves pushed into the corner where the steps and the cabin meet.
"He said you guys have art together."
"Yeah...."
"And well, I have art with him later today. So you're sitting with us."
"What? I can't do that." Ivy stood up and protested, holding up her hands in defense.
"Why not?"
"Because he doesn't even know that we talked! I'm just the girl that sleeps next to Victoria." Ivy panicked.
"So let's change that. Sit with us. You don't even have to pretend to know us." Anika discretely winked at Ivy. The other girl groaned and dropped her hands to her side.
"Why do I even bother fighting it? You're just going to make up some plan so that I'll have to sit with you." Ivy sighed. "Oh, and by the way the table next to yours is thinking they have a chance with you."
"What? The guys on our right? Why?" Anika scowled, not liking this new information.
"Um, no not the guys. The, uh... girls."
"What?" Anika stood up and looked around, suddenly feeling a little jittery.
"Well, you were asking a lot of questions about me so they kind of took it as a sign of you being... you know... a lesbian." Ivy tried to control her chuckles under her hand.
"At least I can make some more friends." Anika thought sarcastically. "What are you doing out here anyway? Shouldn't you be at lunch?"
"I could ask you the same question. I saw Ryleigh heading towards the hall and I thought you might need to vent a little."
"How'd you know?" Anika smirked at Ivy who shrugged modestly.
"He looked a kind of... well he looked hot as always but he literally oozed the 'piss off' vibe. He had the scowl and that crazy look in his eye." with her finger she pulled the left side of her top lip up in an over exaggerated scowl, which left the two girls laughing in a fit of giggles.
"How can he be mad? I had to hit him so we wouldn't get more of a punishment 'cause he was about to mouth off to Gelsey."
"Then that must be it. You hit him... again. You got the last punch in." Ivy chuckled and did a cute little snort that Anika pinched her cheeks at.
"You are just too cute." Anika laughed at the reddening Ivy as she slapped her hands away. "Aw, you and Skinner would be adorable together."
"Shut up!" Ivy hissed, swatting Anika's shoulder. "Let's just get to lunch." the pink haired girl grumbled and started to lead them back to the cafeteria.