09 - 04 - 15

I'm on something that's moving. I slowly open my eyes and see a sleeping Sam. I smile because his hair is in every direction, like any other person after sleeping. I try to grab my phone but Sam tightens his grip on my side. I squeal because it tickles and I wasn't expecting it. Sam's eyes open slowly before landing on me. "Did you scream?" He asks looking up at me slightly confused.

"No you grabbed my side and it tickled so I squealed." I explain making him release me.

"Sorry." He flushes.

"Not like you did it on purpose." I say getting up and grabbing my phone.

"Why aren't you wearing your sweatshirt?" He asks. I look down at myself.

"It was warm last night so I took it off." I say and shrug. I don't have training with anyone today. Finally, seems like I'm always trying to learn these gifts.

"Oh. Hey do you have to train with anyone today?" He asks looking at his phone.

"No. Why?" I question as he looks up at me.

"Just curious." He says and grabs his phone. Carol and Matt then barge in.

"Corrine you're coming shopping with me." She says smiling. Then her smile goes down.

"What's wrong?" I ask her. Matt and her both have a distant look. I glance at Sam. He rubs his arm. I glance at mine. "God Dammit." I say and grab a sweatshirt. I pull it over my head.

"Carol, I really don't want to talk about and please don't say anything to anyone." I say looking at her and then to Matt.

"Corrine, you need to talk to Ashley. She'll help you." She says taking a step towards me.

"No...Sam is going to help." I say and look over at him. He nods his head and hides the surprise look that was on his face.

"Promise?" She asks.

"Promise." I say and then she grabs me and pulls me towards her.

"Good, you better." She says looking at Sam in a very serious way. After that. Then she smiles. "Now let's go shopping. We'll get you a haircut and some clothes. Sound like a plan?" But before I can answer she says "Good. The boys are coming with too." She says in my ear and I laugh. Well this will be fun.

We get to either Matt's or Carol's car and hop in. Matt goes in the driver seat and Carol in the passenger side. I sit behind Carol, but Sam comes to my door. "The other door doesn't open." He says. I slide over behind Matt and buckle myself. Matt puts music on and starts driving. He and Carol are talking about something so I just zone them out and watch outside. Then Sam leans towards me.

"Now that you made that promise, you're going to have let me help you." He says in my ear before pulling away. I look over at him and mentally sigh. What have I gotten myself into?

***

"Yup, I love it." Carol says. I look in the mirror. My hair is in a pony, but my bangs are across my forehead and go down to my right ear.(Picture at top the left one) I look somewhat pretty. Carol just got her hair trimmed, but she said I should do something new. I told the hairstylist to do what she thought was good and I think she did great.

"Thanks." I say back to her and get up from the chair. "You're really good." I say to the girl. She smiles and me and nods her head.

"It's my job, I've got to be good." She says walking back to the desk.

After we, well she pays we walk back to the car. The boys are at a store somewhere. We are going to meet them in four hours at Red Robin. The store sounds funny, but they all say it's good. "Come on. Now for the shopping part." She says and pulls me along the sidewalk. She hasn't said anything about my cuts and she seems to be acting normal, which is making me happy.

Then we go to the store were Sam took me to get clothes. "Welcome!" I hear Jim's voice. "You're back." He says and gives me a tight hug.

"Yup." I say out of breath.

"And you got a haircut? Sweety it's beautiful." He says and then looks over at Carol. "You brought a friend too." He says smiling at her.

"Carol Jim, Jim Carol." I say and she smiles back at him.

"Hello." She waves.

"Hey. Ok well you girls have fun and ask me if you need any help." He says before running off somewhere.

"How do you know him?" Carol asks me while walking to the dresses. My question is how doesn't she know him? If she has come before wouldn't she remember him? Maybe a different person was here when she is.

"I meet him when Sam took me here. They're friends." I say and then Carol pulls a dress up to me.

"Oh, didn't know Sam took you here. Here try this on." She says handing me some dresses.

"You do know it's September right." I say and she laughs.

"So, you can still have some cute dresses." She says before pushing me into a changing room. Ughhh.

***

"Yup, I like it on you." I say to Carol as she comes out with the 100 pair of jeans.

"Are you sure?" She asks looking in the mirror.

"Positive." I say giving her two thumbs up.

"I guess you're right." She says before going back into the changing room. Hopefully that was her last pair because my butt is numb from sitting on the ground and I'm super hungry. "Are you ready?" She asks me coming out from the changing room. I nod my head and she goes to pay for her clothes.

We paid for mine a while ago. Once she grabs all the bags she can carry she asks me to grab the rest. We both walk out the store not being able to see because of all the clothes. She has to drop some so she can get the back open. I boys have some bags in the back already. When did they put them in here?

After we fit all the clothes in, which took forever, we get in the car. She gets in the driver side while I get into the passenger side. She turns some music on and starts going to Red Robin. Guess the boys are walking.

***

"This place has lots of people." I say looking around and feeling nervous. What if I do something?

"It's 2:00 so a lot of people should be leaving, but if you need to get out just tell me or Sam ok." She says stopping to look me in the eyes. I nod my head still unsure. Then she grabs my hand and pulls me to where Sam is. How'd they get here before us?

When we get to the table she lets my hand go and Sam gets up so I can slide into the booth. Carol whispers something into Sam's ear and he glances at me before nodding back at her, but then he whips his head back at me. He stares at me before talking.

"I like the way your hair is. Did you have fun?" He asks and smiles. I feel my cheeks get warm at is complement.

"Thanks, but I don't think I will ever like shopping. She made me get dresses even with our weather." I say making him start laughing.

"She said she was going to get you to get at least two dresses." He says and I shake my head.

"I got four." I say before Matt comes and plops next to Carol. She was interested in whatever was on her phone.

"Nice hair." Matt says looking at Carol and then me. "I like what you did to yours too." He says and I nod my head mumbling a "Thanks."

The waitress comes over handing us all a menu. "I'll be back to get your orders, but what would you like to drink?" She asks. Carol, Matt, and Sam say mello-yellow.

"Spirit." I say and she nods her head before walking off.

"You like spirit?" Carol asks.

"Yeah, it's one of my favorite sodas." Well of the ones I've tried.

"Really?" Matt asks surprised. I nod my head before looking at the menu.

"What's good?" I ask Sam and he looks over at my menu. She only gave us two so we are going to have to share.

"The burgers are amazing, but they're big. Chicken salad is ok, and there wraps are pretty good." He says reading over a few more options. I see a bacon cheese burger and it's looking really good.

After a few more minutes the waitress comes back. We all order our food and then all of our phones buzz at the same time. We all look at each other before looking down at our phones.

Have having a bonfire tonight you're invited. It'll just be me, Maddy, Jake, Ashley, John, Becca, and if Sam, Carol, you or Matt come. - Alex

"Did we all just get invited to the same thing?" Matt asks. We all nod our heads.

"Do you want to go Corrine?" Carol asks me. I know all the people so it shouldn't be bad.

"Sure sounds like fun." I say and she smiles. We all message back saying something on the lines of Coming, I'll be there, or See ya soon. I put my phone in between Sam and I. He looks down and then back up.

The girl comes back with our food and asks us if we want anything else. Everyone says they're good before digging into there food. "So how is it?" Carol asks. I have to swallow before I can answer.

"It's... Great." I say and she laughs.

"We told ya it was a good place." She says and starts eating again. No one really talks because there mouth is full of delicious food. Sam and Carol end up leaving the table to go to the restrooms which leaves Matt and me. He makes me nervous because of what happened when he yelled at me.

"Hey, Um. I'm sorry about blowing up at you. Ya know, when I yelled. I didn't mean too it's just you mean a lot to- nevermind, I just kinda, lost it because it would have been bad if I were not have gotten to you." He says looking me straight in the eyes.

"It's ok." I say making him smile.

"Good, I'm really sorry about it." He says and then Sam sits down. I look back at my plate and see that I've still got a ton of fries to eat. Honestly how do people eat this much food?

"You want some fries?" I ask Sam ,he looks at my plate and smiles a little.

"Are you full?" He asks. I nod my head which makes him laugh more. "Sure, I'll eat 'em." I push the plate more towards him and he starts eating them. Carol has been in the bathroom for a while.

"I'll be back, excuse me." I say. Sam gives me a worried look, but I mouth Carol and he nods moving so I can get out.

I start walking to the back and find the sign that says restrooms. I walk into the girls and is pink everywhere. The walls are pink, the counter is, and the tiles on the floor are too. The door stalls are all different colors though. One is red, there is a blue one, a purple one. I see only one stall being used. "Carol are you ok?" I ask walking up to the door.

"Um, not really. Can you get me a tampon or pad?" She asks and I can tell she's embarrassed to ask.

"Ya, I have some with me." I say walking out the bathroom. I have to go to the car because that's where my bag is. Hopefully Carol left it unlocked. Once I get to the car I open the passenger door. It's open, good. I grab my bag and walk back into the restaurant. I quickly walk into the bathroom and hand her my bag under the stall.

"Thanks Corinne. So forgot to bring stuff with me." She says.

"Don't worry, it's a girl thing." I say and she laughs a little.

"I guess it is." She says and then walks out the stall. After handing me my bag back she washes her hands and we go back to the table.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Matt asks.

"Did you guys pay?" Carol asks.

"Ya, we split it." Matt says in return.

"Then I guess we are." Carol grabs her purse and phone and we walk out.

Matt drives and Carol is in the passenger side again leaving Sam and I in the back with only one working door.

***

"Have you seen my book, the notebook." I ask Sam looking through my bag for the fifth time.

"No." He says. Where could it have gone? I put it right in the front of the backpack. I sigh frustrated. "Maybe it fell under the cot." Sam says and lifts it up, but there is nothing under it. I can't have anyone read it. The book holds all my thoughts and the things that have happened to me. "Maybe it'll turn up." Sam says and I slowly nod.

"Maybe." I say and stand up. "I'm going to go for a walk." I say just about to walk out the door, but Sam grabs my arm.

"A walk or something else?" He asks.

"Just a walk." I say, but he doesn't look convinced.

"Bring your phone with you." He says bending down to grab it. I take is from his hands and put it in my back pocket before walking out. I feel his eyes on me as I walk out the door.

I take a deep breath of the fresh air. Looking around I see that most of the trees are gone and that people are working on repairing the place. I wonder if they know about what we can do or if they have gifts, I don't understand why we don't just fix it. I mean, they can't tell me that with everyone here there aren't people with fixing gifts or something.

I look away from the people and walk down by the lake. I see a swing and sit on it. It's a bench, but swings, I don't know what to call it. I grab my phone and put music on. The first song that comes on is Turning Tables by a girl named Adele. She sounds good so I let it play. The wind picks up so the swing starts moving on it's own. I lay across the bench and watch the whitecaps.

***

It's starts to get dark and I'm freezing. I get off the swing and turn the music off before walking back into the building. I walk along the pale walls until I see the light brown door. I walk in and Sam is sitting on the ground reading something.

"Have a nice walk?" He asks, but doesn't look up from the book. Since when does he read books?

"Yeah." I say and take a seat. The book is really big, but really thin. It's about the ocean and divers. Why would he read something like that? He doesn't even want to go on a boat? Then he turns a page, but it looks like there is another book that he's turning the page to. "What is the book you're reading about?" I ask confused.

He looks at the cover before looking at me. "Just how to dive in the ocean. They tell you how, where, and when the best time is to do it." I nod my head, but am still confused. He turns around and puts the book in his bag before turning towards me." Ready to go to the bonfire?" He asks.

"Yeah." I say while he stands up. I get up to follow him. We go to Matt and Carol's room, but only Matt's there. "Where did Carol go?" I ask Matt. He gets up and looks away from his phone.

"Her boyfriend is coming with." He says, but he doesn't seem to care, like his mind is somewhere else.

"Carol's got a boyfriend?" I ask quietly to Sam.

"Yeah, he's cool." Sam says and then Carol appears with a boy next to her. He is kinda tall. He's wearing dark jeans, and a gray shirt. His hair is short and his eyes are brown.

"Hey sorry it took so long." Carol says walking up to us. "Kevin Corrine, Corrine Kevin." Carol says introducing us.

"Hey." He says and extends his hand.

"Hi." I say quietly and shake his hand.

"We all ready?" She asks. Matt and Sam mumbled ya's and I nod my head. We all walk out and walk to a van. Sam put one chair in for Kevin because Alex said that they would bring the rest of them. Carol makes the boys sit in the front together while her and I are in the way back.

"Hey I thought you and Matt were like a thing." I say to her and she starts laughing.

"No, he is like a brother. His girlfriend is Maddy, they're really cute." She says still laughing a little.

"Oh, whoops." I say and feel my cheeks get warm.

"A lot of people say the same thing." She says once she's done laughing. Guess that's why he didn't seem to care that she was with her boyfriend. She starts talking about Kevin, hopefully this isn't going to be a long drive.

***

When we get there Kevin grabs the chair for him and we walk to the bonfire. The grass is wet and cold, making my toes cold. I didn't bring any shoes.

"Hey, there you guys are." Ashley says and smiles at me.

"Hey." Everyone says around the same time.

"Where are the rest of the chairs?" Carol asks.

"You guys were supposed to bring chairs for your group." Ashley says confused.

"Alex sent us a message saying that you guys would bring them." Carol says and then everyone looks at Alex.

"I said we were bring ours and you need to bring your own." She says pulling out her phone and then she groans. "Voice talk messed up the massage." She says.

"Oh well I guess people are sharing seats." John says. Becca gets up from her seat and sits on his lap.

"We can share." Kevin says to Carol. Maddy and Matt sit on the same chair which just leaves one chair left and two people.

"We have slept on a cot, we can share a seat." Sam says and pulls me to the last chair. He sits down and pulls me on top of him. Luckily everyone was talking to each other or my face would be even redder right now. Ashley is next to me on my right and Carol and Kevin are on the left of us. I'm leaning more towards Ashley though.

"Corrine, how is the diet going?" Ashley asks.

"Good, but I haven't really gained any weight. Only like four pounds." I say and she nods her head thinking.

"I think you are going to need to go some physical things to gain some weight as well." She says and then a weird smile comes to her face. It kinda scares me, but makes me smile and raise my eyebrows. "I'll send you a workout plan." She says grabbing her phone and starts clicking her screen. Well this will be fun, not.

Buzz. I feel my phone in my pocket. I can't get it out though because I'm on Sam and my feet don't touch the ground. Curse only being 5'2. "I need to grab my phone." I say and he grabs my waist and helps me up. Once I'm on my feet I pull out my phone and sit back down. I pull my legs up and sit pretzel legged on him. He puts his left leg on his right and it makes me lean into him more. It's as if I'm sitting in my own little chair. I ignore the feeling in my stomach and open my phone. I open the email Ashley sent me.

25-Sit ups
20-Pushups
25-Squats
15-Burpees
Run half a mile
50-Jumping Jacks
Mountain Climbers for a minute
Wall sit for a minute

"Are you trying to kill me?" I ask her. I hate working out of any sorts.

"No, it will help you get some muscle. It's not that bad and I will start to raise the numbers." She says smiling.

"Ughh." I say and lay my head back. I forgot I was on Sam and my head hits his shoulder.

"Ugh, what?" He asks looking down at me. I hand him my phone and he grabs it.

"That's not bad." He says handing it back to me.

"To you. I don't think I can do 5 pushups." I say closing my eyes. I feel him laugh under me.

"I'll do it with you, it won't be that hard." I hear him say.

"Fine." I say opening my eyes and pulling my head up. I put my phone in the cup holder and look at the fire. It's actually really pretty. I feel like I could stare at it for days. The red, orange, yellow, even some blue mixed it. The wind blows and the smoke goes right into my face. I turn into Sam's neck trying to get away from it. It stay for a while and then the wind dies down. I open my eyes back up, but they are still watery from the smoke. I have to wipe my eyes like three times before I can see.

"My eyes are watering from the smoke." I say wiping my eyes again.

"Same here." Sam says blinking again. Once him and I can see, we see that Carol is staring at us.

"What?" I ask and she smiles. "That scares me." I say which makes her laugh.

"Nothing. I just... was thinking about something." She says smiling like she knows something.

"Riiight." I say and the Ashley grabs her chair.

"It's too late for me, I'm going to head back." She says and Jake grabs her chair. A chorus of byes come from everyone. "And you start the workout tomorrow." She says and then walks to one of the cars. Jake must be done too because he closes his chair and starts to bring both back to there car. They must have drove here and then the rest of the group was in the other van. Becca and John get up to move their chair. Alex, Carol and Kevin do the same. Now the circle is more spread out and Alex is on my right side. Next to her is Becca and John, then Maddy and Matt, and Kevin and Carol are still on our left, but further away.

Oh, I could have asked to use Ashley's chair. Well to late now. A breeze picks up again, but we don't get the smoke Alex does.

"Awesome." She says sarcastically. I shiver from the breeze and Sam wraps his arm around my waist and pulls me closer to him. I definitely got warmer from that.

"Warmer?" He asks and his breath hits my neck making me almost shiver again.

"Yeah, thanks." I say and feel my cheeks get warmer. Everyone stays quiet and just watches the fire or looks at the sky.

After an hour I start to feel tired. I'm kinda curled up on Sam. I'm still on his lap, but my legs are pulled up in a position like if I were wearing a dress, my hands are on his stomach to keep them warm, and my head is on his chest. I'm comfortable and he seems to be because his arm is around my waist. I close my eyes just listening to the voices and the sound of nature.

***

"Just leave me alone, I don't know why I have the gift. No, no, no don't." They grab me again and put a needle in my arm.

"Corrine." I hear my name, but he doesn't sound mean. "Corrine." I hear again. I open my eyes and Sam is looking down at me. I didn't mean to wake him up. I put my hand up to my face and wipe some of the sweat off. I sit up wanting to get out of the clothes. I pull the blanket off and go to where our bags are. I pull out a cammie and a pair of sweatpants.

After changing I finally look at Sam. I think he's been looking at me the whole time. "I didn't mean to wake you." I say and he looks at me confused.

"I couldn't care less if you woke me up. I don't like you having nightmares. If I never got sleep because it was helping you get rid of the nightmares I would. Don't worry about me not getting sleep. Wake me up if you can." He says and all I can do is nod my head. "Do you want to tell me what is was about?" He asks and stretches his hand out. I take his hand and he pulls me next to him. I lay down and he lays next to me. I look down at the blue cot before talking.

"It was when these people found out what I could do." I say and stop making sure not to let my voice break. I grab Sam's hand and start playing with his fingers. "They wanted me to do things for them, but I said that I didn't know how to control it. They thought I was lying and started to hurt me, but it didn't work. My eyes never changed. Maybe it was because they were always hurting me, or I didn't eat anything there so my body couldn't do it. I don't know, but my eyes never changed there. They starting doing tests on me and they used... needles and other machines. My step dad told the people to get the thing out of me, but they couldn't so he killed them and started to hurt me more." I say finishing and feel some silent tears go down my face. I stop playing with his hand and wipe my cheeks.

"It's ok to cry. It can be a good thing and I know you're a strong person if others can't see it then they can just bug off." He says and I feel a small smile form on my lips.

"Thanks." I say and he intertwines our hands. We both just look at each other until he ends up asleep again.

I'm going to need to get out of here. I can't be getting attached to people. I think I can get out know as long as Sam doesn't wake up. If I go into the woods by the caves then I should be able to hide if they try and find me.

I slowly get up and off the cot making sure not to wake him up. I grab warm clothes and extra things like my phone and a two books. I put a sweatshirt on and it feels really baggy and it smells different too. I pull it closer to my nose and smell cologne. Crap this is Sam's sweatshirt. I pull it off and grab my sweatshirt. Once I've got everything in my bag, but not too much so Sam won't notice right away, I walk out the door. I close it slowly and it doesn't make any noise, thank gosh. I practically run to the kitchen. I put granola bars, apples, cranberries, and a few bottles of water in my backpack.

I quietly walk down the halls and out the door. It's a cold morning. My toes are freezing, but I head to the forest. I stare at all the beautiful trees and sky. I twirl and feel the breeze pick up. It smells so good outside, but I stop spinning and focus on finding the caves.

***

"There are the caves." I say out loud and walk a little faster glad that I found them.

"Did you go for another walk?" I hear Sam's voice which startles me. Come on I was so close, so close. I slowly turn around knowing he caught me.

"Yeah, I wanted to see the caves." I lie.

"By yourself? What if you were to have gotten hurt?" He asks and starts walking towards me again.

"I brought my phone just in case." I say and take it from my pocket before putting it back.

"What if you couldn't get to your phone or it broke?" He questions and doesn't sound too happy, great.

"Then I would have been out of luck." I say trying not to give away anything but, I don't think it's working.

"I guess you would have." He says right in front of me. I look up at him and he doesn't look pleased with me.

"I'm going to do what I came here to do." I say turning away from him and walking to one of the caves. He follows behind me, but stops before entering the cave. Oh, his claustrophobia. Perfect. "I'll be fine." I say and walk into the cave. I can't see much and the further I walk the darker it gets. I walk slowly hoping not to fall. Then the ground is wet making my toes colder. I take another step and slip. "Ahhh.... oof." My butt hits the cold wet ground. "Fantastic."

"Really Corrine." I hear Sam's voice from outside, but then hear feet coming towards me. "How'd you manage to fall already?" He asks and helps me up, but when he steps closer to me his foot slips and we end up tumbling down into the cave. We keep falling and I try to keep my head from hitting anything. I curl into a ball hoping not to get hurt. When the falling stops and I stop tumbling I hear Sam's voice echo.

"I take what I said back." I hear, but can't see him. It's pitch black.

"At least I fell were I slipped instead of going down into a cave." I groan standing up and wiping the dirt off. My butt and back are the wetest.

"Not intentional." I hear Sam mumble and I smile. I feel the wall and start walking in a direction.

"Where are you going?" He says. I huff and turn around even though he can't see me.

"Walking in a cave." I say and hear him move.

"Did you bring a flashlight?" He asks. Crap that would have been a good idea.

"Nope, forgot." I say and I hear him mumble something about forgetting his phone or the only time.

"Well can you get your phone out so we can see." He says and I go to grab my back pocket, but it's not there.

"It just have fallen out when we fell." I say and he groans.

"We are stuck in a f*cking cave, can't see, probably a small space, no way to tell anyone all because you won't let people help you." He says sounding frustrated. Here comes his bipolar moods.

"Well you didn't have to come after me. If you people would just leave me alone none of this would have happened." I snap back raising my voice.

"Why are you so stubborn? Why can't-"

"Stop!" I say because that feeling is starting. Not now I tell myself.

"Corrine?" I hear Sam say.

"Just... shut up." I say and close my eyes, because I know I don't have control.