Part 23 (1/2)

”Oh, and for the record ... ” said Kevin with his mouth full of banana, ”I don't 's...o...b..r' on girls, okay?”

Candi laughed. ”Whatever you say.”

As Jonathan and Sarah broke through the trees and headed towards the campfire, Candi immediately knew something was wrong. As they got closer, she saw that Sarah was limping and Jonathan had a cut on his forehead and terrible, bleeding sc.r.a.pes on his hands and arms. Strangely enough, even with this new batch of injuries, both of them looked happier than they had when they left.

”We found water!” yelled Sarah, a triumphant grin splitting her face.

”I found water,” corrected Jonathan.

”Like I said we found water,” said Sarah sweetly, shooting Jonathan a challenging look.

”Fine, we found water. Just through the trees about thirty minutes that way.”

”And it runs over a rock like a shower, Candi. A shower!”

”I'm totally jealous, no wonder you look so refreshed,” said Candi as they drew near. ”But what the heck happened to you? And you? You guys look like you got in a fight.” Her eyes narrowed. ”You guys didn't get into a fight with each other did you?”

She was instantly dismayed at the thought. How could they have? We're all we have now. We're family. Just as she was admitting this to herself, Candi realized how true it was. Oh, the irony.

”No, don't be silly. What happened was that Mr. Know-It-All here decided he had to do some exploring without my recommended safety precautions in place, so, of course, he nearly fell to his death, and it was only my quick thinking and awfully powerful, if I do say so myself, physical prowess that saved his life. Isn't that right, my little pookie pie?” Sarah reached over and touched Jonathan's chin with her finger.

Jonathan looked at her, a horrified expression on his face.

Candi looked at Jonathan in shock.

Kevin looked up from the ground where he was lying, instantly amused.

”No, that is not what happened. What happened was that I made an error in judgment with regard to the angle of the slope of the rock I was on, failing to take into account the friction coefficient between the sand, my shoe, and the rock, which resulted in my having to make alternate arrangements for ... ”

” ... getting his a.s.s back up on the rock in one piece,” Sarah finished for him. ”Lucky for him, I was there to save his cute a.s.s.” She looked around the campfire and put her hands on her hips. ”So, what's for dinner?”

”Bananas.”

”I'm getting tired of bananas, bananas, bananas for every meal,” said Sarah. ”'This s.h.i.+t is bananas ...'”

”STOP!” the other three yelled in unison.

”Geez, sorry. No need to be Gwen haters.”

Candi stared at the banana she was having a hard time choking down. ”She's right, we need to find other food. We're surrounded by the ocean. Maybe we could catch some fish or octopus ... or clams even.”

”Oh, sick. Octopus.” Sarah s.h.i.+vered for effect.

”Well, you could always stick with the bananas,” suggested Jonathan.

Sarah nudged him with her foot and he smiled back.

Kevin didn't appear to be nearly as tired of the bananas yet as everyone else. ”I ate at least four bananas a day at home. They're good for the muscles all that pota.s.sium.” He looked down at his bicep muscle as he flexed. ”d.a.m.n. I'm already losing ma.s.s.”

Candi sat mesmerized by the muscle that was slowly bulging up, out and then down again on Kevin's arm.

Kevin looked up and caught her staring.

She looked away quickly, but not before she saw him smiling at her. Busted.

”Okay, so let's make a list of everything we need to do,” said Jonathan.

Everyone just sat there looking around.

”s.h.i.+t, we don't have any paper,” said Candi.

”Did Sugar Lump just say 's.h.i.+t'?”

”Yes, she sure did,” said Kevin happily.

”Don't call me Sugar Lump.”

”Okay, stop fighting,” said Jonathan. ”We'll have to remember the list then. Each one of us will remember part of it. So what do we need to do?”

”Decide where to live. I think it should be near the fresh water,” suggested Kevin.

”Agreed, but I also think we need to be able to see the sh.o.r.eline from where we are.”

”Yeah, you might have missed this while you were hanging over the edge of the cliff, but where we were, we had a perfect view of the entire island which by the way is shaped like a giant peanut if anyone wants to know. Aaaand, there wasn't a single biting insect up there either, probably because of the deliciously refres.h.i.+ng breeze.”

”Okay, so unless anyone has any problem with it, I think we should build our permanent camp near the fresh water.”

”But it's not a camp, it's a home,” said Candi.

”Whatever.”

”No, not whatever. It's not a camp, Jonathan.” Candi was looking at him seriously, but he obviously didn't see what the big deal was because he just rolled his eyes.

Sarah chimed in. ”No, I get it, she's right. We have to stop acting like this is just a couple day thing. We could be here for a really long time. I mean, so far we have seen zero signs of any other people, either here on the island or out there in the water. I looked out over the island when we were up on that rock. The whole thing looks the same. Maybe we're going to be here a long time. I don't know about you guys, but I'm not going to continue to freak out about it, 'cause if I do, I'm gonna get zits.” She finished firmly, ”We need to find a home, not a camp.”

Kevin looked at Jonathan and they exchanged knowing looks. Candi was certain both of them were thinking about PMS. Whatever. So long as it kept them from arguing.

”Okay, we'll find a home to live in. We can build it out of bamboo and palm fronds.”

Sarah sat up excitedly, ”Oh, and we had the most amazing idea. The place by the water and the bamboo and the view it has a huge, huge elephant leg tree, and we were saying we should build our home in the tree a treehouse like they have at Disney World, Swiss Family whatever. Tree, breeze, view, no bugs ... heaven!”

Candi couldn't help but join in. ”That sounds perfect. I want to see it right away! And what is an elephant leg tree?”

”I think we need to wait for Kevin to feel better. Maybe tomorrow,” cautioned Jonathan.

”Of course, yeah, we can wait for Kevin.” Candi felt a little bad that she had just blown off his condition so easily.

”Why, thank you, sand beast.”