After the girl's finished up at the grocery store, June and Allie parted ways. June felt it was finally time she returned home and faced the emptiness that remained. Some part of her held on to a glimmer of hope, knowing Grizz and a team were out in the woods at that moment, searching for help. All she had to do was keep telling herself they'd be back soon and they'd all be rescued.
As soon as she entered her home, she regretted not going back with Allie. The quiet solitude that surrounded her sent chills down her spine that she couldn't ignore. Normally, when she would arrive home from school, the house would be filled with the smell of burning food, at least in the last six months. Her dad had no clue how to cook, but that never stopped him from trying for her. Now, all she wanted was to remember the awful smell, and hug her dad for all of his efforts.
She dropped her paper bags of groceries down on the kitchen table, deciding she could unload them in a bit, then walked around her house. For some reason, despite everything being exactly the same, it all felt so foreign to her. This didn't feel like the home in West Ham she had grown up in, but rather a weird replica. Perhaps her parents were what made it feel like a home all along.
She crossed the distance from the kitchen to the hallway then took the stairs up to her room, entering it slowly as if she were intruding. She looked around at her posters on the wall, at her vanity with makeup, and at her bed. She went and sat down in the middle of the bed, hands folded in her lap as she took everything in. Slowly, she found herself bending down and reaching below her bed, searching for a familiar shoe box she kept hidden down there.
Once her hands found it and pulled it up, she brought the box into her lap and drew in a sharp breath. She removed the lid from the box and placed it aside, letting her eyes drift over its contents. There was a copy of The Awakening, or the first book she had ever read where the woman realized she didn't need, or want, a man. Then, her ticket to an upcoming King Princess show, that she had bought herself with her birthday money. She had planned to tell her dad she was visiting relatives, despite how much she hated lying to him. Then, there was her diary, or other wise known as the first place she came out. The rest of the box was filled completely with little miscellaneous items that had something to do with her sexuality. It seemed as though every piece of who she truly was lived within that tiny shoe box, and it was now overflowing. She couldn't keep all of who she was tightly packed away, and the overflow reminded her of that. She was more than the contents of the box, she had so much to her that no one else got to see. She deserved to live as herself, not as a secret under her bed.
Overcome with the emotions the box stirred up, June was glad when her phone buzzed and interrupted her thoughts. She quickly tried fastening the lid back on and shoving it under her bed. She reached over for her phone and unlocked the passcode, a smile settling onto her face when she realized it was a text from Allie. It had informed her to get to the church for a meeting, and she happily sent back an affirmative text, thankful for the distraction.
June shoved her phone in her back pocket then made her way downstairs. She hurriedly put away the groceries she had neglected before then was out the door, prepared for whatever the meeting was about to hold. She hoped that they had got word back from Grizz, and that they would be saved from wherever they currently were.
Those hopes were soon crushed when she entered the church and saw the solemn faces sitting around. Everyone was either on their phone or whispering quietly, but it was clear there was no good news going around. June bit down on her lip and scanned the faces, letting her eyes linger a bit longer on Elle before spotting Allie and making her way to her. She sat in one of the pews while Cassandra and a few of the others sat at the front of the church.
Allie gave her a brief, tight-lipped smile when she saw her, that soon disappeared when she went into fill-in mode. Apparently, Luke had texted Helena they were on their way back, but had said nothing else. Helena had tried reaching him, and Grizz, since then but had heard nothing from both. While Kelly suggested perhaps it meant they had found something and were coming back with good news, Helena was quick to suggest the opposite. As the mumbles grew and it was clear kids were beginning to really worry, Allie sent Cassandra a death glare that June would have rather died than received. The glare's purpose must have worked, though, because Cassandra then jumped into leader mode.
"Listen," She started, standing from where she had been seated. "Hey, listen up. Before we rip this place apart and maybe... you know, start hurting each other. I don't know what the hell is going on. Maybe Luke will come back with some good news."
"Maybe? Of course he will," Elle spoke up. June wasn't sure who she was trying to convince more, Cassandra or herself.
"Yeah, why don't we just wait and see, Cassandra?" Harry spoke up. June found herself rolling her eyes hard at his words, to the point that Allie hit her knee and had to hold back a laugh. As soon as Cassandra started speaking again, the two went back to being completely serious.
"Because I would rather prepare for the worst before the worst happens."
Harry rolled his eyes and shook his head at her words, making June bite her tongue. Being that she felt so much younger than the others there, she would never just speak up out of fear they wouldn't take her seriously. But something about the Bingham boy and his sense of entitlement to everything made her blood boil. Cassandra had been nothing but sweet to her, and everyone, from as far as she could tell, so why did he always feel the need to undermine her?
"What does that mean, prepare?" Kelly cut the tension with her question, looking directly at Cassandra.
"I don't know, specifically, but I think it means... We agree not to just take things," With this Cassandra turned from the girl and faced the whole church. "When we want, until all the food is gone and... We starve."
"Well I'd agree to that," Allie looked around the crowd.
The problem was, no one cared if she agreed or not, because she was Cassandra's sister. Despite wanting nothing more than to stay silent and observe, June knew she should join in and show her support, to at least make the cause a little bigger. She glanced up at Will, who was sitting in front of her and Allie, and waited to see if he would help. When he didn't, she sighed and nodded her head.
"Yeah, me too," Allie sent June a thankful smile, then both girls turned their heads forward as more people began to agree.
"Yeah," Clark nodded his head.
"Me too," Helena spoke softly.
"This is bullshit," Harry called out, looking around the church.
"Jesus, man, what is your problem?" Will finally spoke up.
"He can't handle the idea of not having everything handed to him," June spoke defiantly, crossing her arms over her chest. Harry sent her a glare, but must have deemed to her inconsequential, because he then went back to pestering Cassandra.
"What are we agreeing to, Cassandra? Which one of us gets to decide who gets what? Your friend?" Harry spoke bitterly, referencing to Becca behind him.
"It's called democracy," Becca spoke up.
"I'm not a fucking idiot," Harry responded, earning a scoff from June. Again, Allie nudged her leg and shot her a warning look.
"How do you want to decide things? Every person for themselves? Then we're back to where we started. Maybe you want to flip a coin to see who decides?" Cassandra pestered him back, causing the boy to sigh. "You don't like democracy? How about random fucking chance?" She held out a quarter and her lips broke into a smile as she prepared to flip it. "Call it, Harry, call it."
"I'm— I'm not gonna do that," Harry scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"Okay, okay, I'll call it for you. You get heads." Cassandra settled, before flipping the coin. "It's tails. Still think it's unfair? Best two out of three."
It went on a few more times, each time Cassandra getting tails. At first no one seemed all that interested in the theatrics of their argument, but each time she got tails again, the crowd's breath seemed to stall. Eventually, it was at the point where Harry was inching closer to her, telling her to flip the coin again. Allie stood, trying to get a better look, as everyone sat shocked.
"Fuck," Harry whispered after she got tails another time.
Cassandra flipped the coin and held it against the back of her hand, eyes closed as she paused before looking at what side it was on. Everyone waited anxiously, wondering if all senses of reality and probability were somehow off. As she slowly drew back her hand to look what she got, relief seemed to flood her face.
"Heads," She whispered, as if confirming it to herself. She then held up the coin for the crowd to see. "Heads."
Everyone seemed to let out a breath they didn't know they were holding at the revelation. Cassandra drew the coin into her chest and stared out into the crowd, still seeming a bit shocked from the events.
"It's all up to us," She spoke once she had gathered herself. "There's no civilization here, not until we start one. So what are we gonna do? First, I think we have no choice but to share. Share food, share resources."
"Houses?" Harry questioned.
"Maybe."
"Fuck you," Harry shook his head.
"Really? How much electricity do we have? Until it's all used up and everything goes dark? I think 225 people in 200 houses doesn't make sense." Allie questioned, filling June with pride. She was stepping up. She was being the heroine, too.
"Keep what's ours!" A random voice from the crowd shouted.
June was unsure why she was so shocked by the reaction to everything. She should have known most of the spoiled kids of West Ham would never grasp the concept of sharing.
"What is yours? Do you have money? Who you gonna pay?" Cassandra challenged, quieting the voice immediately. "The things that you need to live: food, clothes, the stuff in stores, no one owns them."
"Are we going to fight each other over food?" Will shouted out. "That's fucking crazy."
"That's because you have nothing," Harry taunted. "And some of us have things that others want. Right, Will, like houses? Or girlfriends?"
"Right, Harry, I have no house," Will nodded his head. "The place that I used to live in is outside of town, it doesn't exist. You want me to just live on the streets?"
June's blood was boiling at this point, having forgotten that Will didn't live in town. Harry's levels of asshole-ery had reached new levels, even for him. She found her eyes glancing to Kelly, whose head was down, as she wondered what the girl saw in him.
"You can live wherever you want. Just not with me." Harry smirked.
"You can stay with us," Allie nodded her head at the boy.
"I don't have to listen to this, not anymore," Harry raised his arms in the air and stood.
"Harry, this has nothing to do with you—" Cassandra started, but was cut off by a loud bang.
Instinctively June was on the ground, Allie and her grabbing onto one another as they crouched beneath the pews. Everyone looked to the source of the sound, and found one person standing in the entrance. June shouldn't have been shocked that it was Campbell Elliot holding the gun.
"Well, fuck this." He spoke, lowering his gun from the air. "Harry's right. No one elected you king, cousin." He walked slowly towards Cassandra, a deadly look in his eyes. "Did anyone vote for her? Did they? Anybody elect her to speak on your behalf? No?"
Cassandra slowly raised from her crouched position, hands held out in front of her to show she wasn't a threat.
"I— I— I don't want to be king." She stuttered as she slowly made her way to the boy.
"That's not what it looks like," Campbell responded. "Is it?"
He raised his gun towards the girl, aiming it at her head. Allie began to raise, and despite how hard June tried to hold onto her, she broke from the girl's grasp. She was soon running in-between Campbell's gun and her sister, staring fearfully into the barrel. Cassandra slowly nudged her sister behind her and let her arms fall.
"I've thought a lot about dying. I've almost gotten used to that. But I don't like to be afraid," She acted more calm now, which seemed to confuse Campbell. "Do you want chaos? Fucking shoot me."
Campbell's lips parted into a smile as he snickered at the girl. When she didn't flinch, he lowered the gun.
"I don't want to shoot you. Wanted to get everybody's attention," He turned to face the crowd. "This meetings over, obviously. We'll be back when Luke gets here. Until then, if anybody else is tired of listening to her, you can follow me."
He pointed towards Cassandra, who was standing with Allie hugging her from behind. Her calm demeanor had melted away and it was clear she was trying her best not to cry. It seemed mainly boys stood to follow Campbell, which didn't shock June much. Harry was the first to rise, and beckon Kelly with him. June shook her head when the girl obliged, wondering how she couldn't see she deserved so much better.
Their departure was halted by Grizz and the other's returning. June was almost happy to see they were back, at first, until she saw the body Luke was carrying in. He stoically walked to the front of the church, avoiding eye contact with everyone as he laid the body down. June recognized the girl as Emily, and soon clasped a hand over her mouth. Everyone stared in silence for what felt like an entirety at her still body.
"She died from a snake bite," Luke eventually spoke. "Her whole body just shut down. We did everything we could, but we couldn't save her."
"So we're going to bury her tomorrow, before it starts to smell," June snapped her head to her right to locate the source of the voice. She realized it was Grizz, then she noticed the tears streaming down his face. She slowly reached out and hugged the boy from the side, who quickly pulled her in and tried to calm his breathing. She was sure he hadn't even looked at who was hugging him, just was thankful that someone was doing something. When he pulled away, he reached out and tapped Clark's chest, wordlessly asking him to help with the body.
"Yeah, no problem."
"There's nothing out there, guys, just a whole bunch of... just woods that go on forever. We're all alone. This isn't our home." Luke informed.
The crowd stood stunned for a few moments. Then, one by one, they said their goodbyes to Emily's corpse, and exited the church. June was one of the lasts to go, not bothering to stop and talk to Allie or Grizz after. She felt numb the entire walk back to her empty house. As soon as she entered she went upstairs and clambered into her father's bed, wanting to feel closer to him. Luke may have been right about them being alone there, but he was wrong about it not being their home. Because now, it was, and they had no clue how to get out.
A/N: Okay so this is kinda a long chapter oop. Anyways, happy pride babies!! I plan on updating this book a lot more this month in celebration of that. The next couple chapters are gonna be very gay because that is what my baby June deserves. Also, just saying, her parent's named her June and June is pride month sooooo just throwing that out there. Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying so faer and don't hate me that it took 5 chapters just to get through episode one lol. Ily that's all please vote and comment!