HEARING DAMAGE
TEEN NOLA - CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE !

          "PEOPLE OF EUROPE!" Bellowed giddily from the dried, cracked lips of Misty and Crystal. Ignorant to the scrunched up noses and pursed lips of annoyance sent their way as they danced oh-so happily round the cabin, their shoes scuffing against the wooden floorboards they flimsily sought to clean. "I send you the Rainbow of Argentina."

           Their cheer and merry did little to influence the moods of the others, all of whom wished for the two to simply shut up. All their happiness did was remind the group of the once all consuming joy from behind that they had taken for granted.

           A squeak of hinges and turn of the doorknob alerted them of the cabin's door being forced open. The sound managed to finally silence the merry pair once and for all, bringing their singing to an end as Shauna came barrelling inside, clutching the board of bear meat tightly to her body.

            Akilah's eyes fell closed in relief as a gentle sigh pushed past her lip at the sight. "Thank god cause I am tired of Starling soup." She gratefully uttered while pushing herself up from the ground.

            The board collided with the table with a loud thud. "So who's the thief?" The pink nosed Shipman girl accused. Her eyes narrowed sharply in to glare that darted to each grime painted face. "Someone stole some bear meat from the shed. I guess they think they deserve more than the rest of us which at this point, is pretty fucked."

Shauna didn't miss a beat before continuing her tirade. "If anyone, I should be the one taking some more, except I don't because I'm not the fucking worst. So which one of you is?"

All that could be heard was the natural cracking of the cabins wooden exterior and the faint sound of breathing. No one admitted fault but everyone was throwing around suspicion filled looks. It could have been any one of them. They all were hungry, starving in fact.

When she realised she wasn't going to get an honest answer from anyone, Shauna scoffed while rolling her eyes in irritation. "Okay, right. Whatever."

          She quickly made her way over towards the fire, sitting down next to the awaiting Rilke girl with a huff. It was just so unbelievable that someone could so selfish as to steal from the groups food supply. Slowly, her head drooped to the side until it rested atop Nola's shoulder, her face practically pressed into the warmth of her neck. The gentle beat of Nola's pulse calmed down her frustration just a little.

          The sensation of calm didn't last very long, however. It was swiftly ruined not even two minutes later as Coach Ben suddenly raised his voice. "I didn't take the fucking meat. Okay, and in case you forgot—" he immediately shook his makeshift crutches to prove his point. "Not exactly nimble in the snow. But you know what? If it had been me, what exactly would you do about it? Would you eat me?"

          His words were antagonistic. He seemed ready to start an altercation. His true thoughts were finally bubbling to the surface, rearing its ugly head as his own accusations were hurled at the group. This didn't sit well with Mari who rushed to her feet in an instant. Disdain was awash across her face, with her gaze sharp, her nose scrunched into a snarl. She refused to tear away her gaze from the man as if to prove he didn't intimidate her. That instead he should be the one who was intimidated.

          Stevie couldn't help but narrow her eyes at him. "If it meant we'd get to stop seeing you mope around, yeah maybe."

          Natalie rose to her feet instantly, her hands out to calm everyone down as she stepped in between the teenagers and Coach Ben. "Let's all chill, you guys. There's no way that Coach would ever—"

         "This is all because of you, you know?"

          The blonde's brows knitted together. She couldn't have possibly heard what she actually heard, right? Genuine confusion dripped her every word as she questioned Mari. "Excuse me?"

           Mari stood tall, her shoulders squared and her hands on her hips. "Why we don't have any meat." She explained with a snarl. In her eyes, Natalie was the problem, the one who had been pushing aside their attempts to provide her with protection for her hunts in favour of her own stupid beliefs. "Lottie tries to bless you for the hunt, but half the time you're MIA. Or when you do show up, it's like you're practically holding your nose."

          A small bout of dry laughter rushed past Natalie's lips as she took in what she heard. "Are you joking? You actually think that's why we can't find any game? Because of me?" Then suddenly her eyes formed a glare, a harsh and intense glare. She would not be blamed for something that wasn't her fault and something she didn't have control over. She took a single step towards Mari, like an animal closing in on its prey. "I'm the only one that's even trying. Me and Travis. While the rest of you guys are fucking sitting on your asses."

            Before the blonde had even finished speaking, Mari spoke over her. "If there isn't any game, then how did Lottie get the birds?"

            This question caused Taissa, who had been sitting quietly watching the confrontation, to furrow her brows. "Um, Lottie didn't get the birds. They flew into the cabin." She uttered with the faintest hint of disbelief in her voice. They didn't seriously believe Lottie had gotten the birds for them, right?

           "Because she told them to."

            Akilah couldn't help but agree. "It did happen when the blood dripped on the symbol that she made." She offered with a small shrug of the shoulders. It couldn't have been a coincidence, after all.

            Ever the unbeliever, Shauna piped up, snark filling her voice. "We're still not really sure that that's why."

           From beside her, Shauna suddenly felt Nola shuffle away just a little. Dejection swarmed through her at an incredibly fast rate, like ice entering and flowing through her veins. Why had she moved away? Had she said something wrong? Surely Nola didn't believe in this Wilderness bullshit, right?

           "Yeah, you see, that's what we call a coincidence." Coach Ben mockingly uttered. He then tried to follow it up with his own explanation. "Okay, those birds were just...like confused, or they had a disease or something."

Misty shook her head at this attempt to explain away the birds. "No, if they were diseased then we would have gotten sick from eating them." It was true. If they had been diseased, every single one of them would be curled in on themselves, hacking up their guts much like Nola had been only weeks ago.

"What about the bear?" Van asked, the sound of her voice drawing everyone's attention. She sat staring up at Coach Ben, as she drawled out her words. "I don't think anyone who saw that could call it a coincidence."

Mari nodded. "Exactly. It all goes to show; the only food we've had in months is thanks to Lottie."

The mention of the Matthews girl caused Nola to shift her gaze away from the confrontation and over to the brunette, who sat with her legs pulled up and pressed against her chest. If anyone else had been paying attention to Lottie in that moment, they would have noticed the anguish that painted her face, the pain that pooled in her deep brown eyes or the frown that seemed permanently etched upon her lips these days.

An amused smirk now appeared on Natalie's face as she refused to be blamed for their lack of food. "Then we should have a contest. Yeah? One-on-one, we both go out, just her and me and then at the end of the day, we see who makes it back here with more food." She gestured towards herself and Lottie, who had began looking frightened at the thought of trekking out into the woods.

"Come on, Nat. That's not fair. Lottie isn't a hunter." Travis uttered in defence of Lottie. She and Natalie were totally different. They all had their roles to play and hunting just wasn't Lottie's.

"According to them, she's better than a hunter."

It wasn't long after that the two girls readied themselves up for the long, gruelling trek in the freezing cold snow blanketed forest. They had quickly wrapped themselves in thick layers and coats pulled closed by buttons or zips.

           Nola found herself stood closely to the Matthews girl who appeared ready to begin blubbering like a baby. "Lottie." She quietly muttered to the brunette. Her hands reached out to steady Lottie on her feet before sending a comforting smile her way. "Hey, it's okay. You're gonna be okay."

            Lottie snivelled. Her eyes were wet with tears as she responded to her friend. "I don't want to go out there."

            Nola immediately pulled her into a tight embrace. Lottie's hands wrapped weakly around Nola's waist, her face buried deep into her neck while Nola reached up and cradled the back of her head as though she was a child she so desperately wanted to protect. "I know, sweetie. I know."

            "I'm scared." Lottie whispered so faintly. If her lips hadn't been so close to Nora's ear, the Rilke girl surely wouldn't have heard her.

            Nola quickly shook her head. "Don't be." She pulled back from the hug to look Lottie in the eyes. As quietly as she could so as to avoid catching everyone's attention, she began relaying instructions. "Don't go out too far, okay? Stay as close to the cabin as you can without being seen by any of us. It doesn't matter if you come back with anything, okay? Natalie just wants to prove she's not to blame."

Before Lottie could really muster up a reply, the two girls were interrupted by the sound of Misty's voice. "Okay, so one-on-one means no assistance of any kind. If you get a kill, just leave it where it is and we will come and help you bring it back." The curly haired blonde explained to both Natalie and Lottie. With a gentle nod, she continued. "You yourself have to be back before sundown or you're automatically disqualified. If you're not back by then, we'll come out and we'll find you."

"Oh, and for weapons, we only have..." She leaned down to the ground, pulling up the hunting rifle with all her strength though she strained slightly. She sent a small smile everyone's way as she brandished the weapon. "One gun, so maybe you can draw cards—"

"Lottie doesn't need a gun." Mari kinda obnoxiously stated. From just feet behind her, Nola's face contorted into a grimace. Mari was truly determined to make this worse for Lottie even if she believed she was helping.

Misty's eyebrows rose up in surprise for a moment before saying, "Okay."

One-by-one, they all went outside in a line. The snow crunched under their feet, the chilling breeze brushing hard against their faces.

Though she didn't agree with Natalie's choice of forcing herself into a hunting battle with Lottie, Nola couldn't let her go out without wishing her well. She trudged over through the snow until she stood next to the blonde and Travis, who had helped fix the fabric that was used to protect Natalie's face from the harsh weather. A gentle smile tugged at her lips as she stepped alongside Travis while looking at the blonde. "Come back to us, okay?"

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            WITH THE HUNT HAVING begun and the two girls away trekking through the snow infested forest, this left the rest of the group to lounge around the cabin. With little to do but stew in their own thoughts or engage in meaningless, even exhausting conversation, they'd all taken to either sitting alone like Shauna, who sat writing in her journal or Nola who sat playing cards with Travis and Stevie.

"There's that dripping again. Did no one hear that?" Mari suddenly exclaimed. Many bodies shook from surprise at the unexpected shrill sound of her voice. As they turned to glance her way briefly, determination etched itself upon her face. "I'm gonna find out where it's coming from."

Nola quickly returned her gaze to the gathering of cards grasped in her hands. She soon huffed in frustration while tossing the cards to her lap. "I don't even know what I'm doing. This game makes no sense."

A sputtering of laughter from Travis had Nola rolling her eyes. The boy's eyes were filled with amusement as he glanced back and forth between her and his own set of cards. "What? It's like one of the easiest card games there is."

           The Rilke girl just sighed. While picking up her cards back up, she explained herself by saying, "Well, it's kinda hard to play without a Queen card. How the hell did we even lose it? This place is so small."

          She gestured towards the cabin walls which seemed to be closing in day by day, becoming more suffocating by the minute. The longer they stayed there, the more she wished to return home.

          Stevie decided to speak up with a shrug. "Maybe it's buried out in the snow. That'd explain why we haven't been able to find it."

          "I guess so."

A small series of coughs had Travis looking over at Shauna for a moment before looking back over at Nola, who was still staring intensely at her cards in confusion. "You still mad at her?" He asked, getting her attention while nodding his head in Shauna's direction.

Nola followed his movement with her eyes which quickly landed upon her pregnant ex-girlfriend. Her shoulders sunk as her spirits became low. "I don't know. Being out here sort of puts everything into perspective, you know. Like I have more things to be upset about than being cheated on but..." her voice trailed off as her eyes grew misty with unshed tears. She swallowed hard against the lump that formed in her throat. "Then I remember that she did it, that she's having his baby and all the anger I felt just comes rushing back. It's exhausting."

         Sensing the upset, Stevie palmed her cards in one hand then reached over and placed the other atop Nola's. "Hey, you're allowed to be pissed at her. I would be." As she spoke, her thumb gently caressed the back of the brunette's hand.

          Travis gave a nod in agreement. "Stevie's right, Rilke. It's fucked up what she did, regardless of if she was mad at you that night. Being trapped out here doesn't mean that how you felt doesn't matter anymore."

          "Thanks, you guys." Nola muttered quietly before returning her gaze back to her cards, just as Travis and Stevie did. Quickly they began playing once again while Nola continued to look on at her cards in bafflement.

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jamielee's thoughts.
chapter thirty-three. not proofread.
when mari said lottie didn't need a gun, I wanted to slap her silly lmao. anyway yeah here's this chapter with a cute little nola/lottie interaction plus nola getting hurt by how quickly shauna was to blow off the wilderness as if the voice she hears and the fact that she got sick wasn't proof that something else was at play. anyway i hoped you enjoyed :)