"It looks like you were attacked by a jaguar or something," I informed Alex, my eyes going wide when I saw the three scratches that went down Alex's left cheek side-by-side.

"More like a cougar," he grumbled under his breath, going over to his dresser in search of disinfectant before the scratches could become infected.

I grinned at the little joke that he had made, even with the unhappy way he had said it he was still able to make it sound hilarious. I guess that was just how Alex was... He could make anything sound funny even when he wasn't trying to.

He looked like he was in even worse shape than me. Erica had slashed him across the face, and his hair was pretty messed up. If I even had any bruises, they were all under my clothes, so you couldn't see them. And my hair was actually still okay after the fall I had endured, which I was sure happy about.

I was just glad when Erica and Alex finally stopped fighting. Erica had run away cussing under her breath in Spanish, and I didn't know if that was her surrendering or not. I'll just guess that it was.

"Are you alright?" Jesse asked as he sat me down on his bed, Alex shutting the cabin door behind him after he had finally found and applied the disinfectant to his scratches. "How badly did she hurt you?"

"I'm fine. She didn't even kick me that hard. The slap is probably what hurt the worst," I assured with a nod, though I was sure my sides would say differently. It actually didn't hurt very much, but I knew that there would be bruises left behind. I mean, she did kick me. Even if they weren't very hard...

"Take off your shirt," Jesse suddenly demanded.

"Whoa," Alex said from behind us before I could even react to what Jesse had said to me. "I'm still in the room, remember."

Jesse rolled his eyes, reaching for and tugging the bottom of my shirt. "I want to see the marks she left, because I know she's strong enough to leave some."

"Is that what you kids call it these days?" Alex asked teasingly, plopping down on the bed next to us. "But you do have a point, I guess. So do what he said, Jordan. Take off your shirt."

Jesse rolled his eyes again and smacked Alex over the back of his head, causing me to giggle a little. But that quickly went away when I saw that they were both serious about taking my shirt off, even though Alex was obviously trying to be funny with the last thing he had said.

"I'm only wearing a bra underneath this!" I blurted before I could stop myself, slapping my hands over my mouth after I had done so. Both boys smirked as my cheeks burned, and it was silent for a few moments as I waited for one of them to speak so I wouldn't have to.

"We're not asking you to take your bra off," Jesse smirked, cocking his head to the side a little as he looked at me innocently. Why did I have a feeling he was thinking something different in his head right then? Probably because he was now staring down at my chest...

"Unless you want to," Alex grinned, causing me to kick him as hard as I could. He didn't even flinch, of course. Not that that surprised me or anything. He probably knew that I was going to hit him somehow, so he braced himself for it. And he was pretty much immune to pain, so I knew he was fine. The only time I had ever seen him really hurt was when Jesse had hit him that one time...

Jesse also hit Alex over the back of his head once again, turning back toward me and saying, "Just your shirt. I don't want you to file sexual assault charges."

"Yeah, I can't go back to the slammer," Alex sighed, crossing one of his legs over the other as my eyes widened at him.

"Back?" I asked in disbelief, not believing what I was hearing. "You went to jail?"

Alex grinned. "Just kidding."

I let out a breath of relief, glad that my best friend's boyfriend wasn't a criminal.

Well... he used to be in a gang...

"Jordan," Jesse now said, gaining my attention once again. "Shirt?"

"Someone's a little too excited about seeing their girlfriend shirtless," Alex sang from behind us, causing Jesse to glare and for me to giggle.

"It's not really shirtless because I'll still be wearing my bra," I informed him after I had finally stopped laughing. "So he shouldn't be excited about anything. It's like seeing me in my swim suit. He'll be excited when I actually take my bra off."

I looked back over to see Jesse's cheeks were tinted red, and I couldn't help but gush over him in my head. He was just too cute.

"Yeah, wait until I'm out of the room for that. Jesse wants to have you all to himself," Alex continued, causing my foot to fly toward him again, successfully pushing him off the bed.

"Just take your shirt off so we can get this over with," Jesse sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You have a bra on, so we won't see anything."

"Fine," I grumbled, grabbing onto the bottom of my shirt and yanking it up. Before I could get it over my head, I felt a sharp jab of pain on my shoulder blade, causing me to yelp out in pain.

"What is it?" Jesse asked, reaching out and grabbing onto my arm before I could put it down. "What's wrong, Jordan?"

"It hurts," I whimpered, my face covered by my shirt still. "I can't take it off."

"I'll help!" Alex volunteered like a child, grabbing onto the back of my shirt. I was expecting him to yank it off of me, but I was surprised when he gently lifted it over my head, Jesse helping from the front.

"You're such a child," I could hear Jesse say to Alex, and I couldn't help but agree.

"You know how awkward it would be if someone came in right now?" Alex asked with a loud laugh, causing my cheeks to heat up after we had taken my shirt off. "Just two boys helping a girl take her shirt off..."

I rolled my eyes at him, looking down at my abdomen to see if there were any bruises. Looking at my sides, I was relieved to see that there were only tiny, light bruises that were there. I then tried to look at my shoulder blade, but found that my body made it physically impossible.

"Yep, that's the worst bruise you have," Alex informed me, tracing his finger on it lightly. "And that's not even that bad."

Jesse moved around me to look, and even he looked surprised. "That really isn't that bad," he said in disbelief, as if he really couldn't believe his eyes. "That's nothing like Erica's done before."

"Yeah. Remember when that one girl was hitting on Hunter?" Alex reminded, removing his finger from my bruised skin. "The girl barely lived after Erica was done with her! You couldn't see an inch of her skin without a bruise! But with Jordan, Erica held back."

"I wonder why," Jesse blinked, continuing to stare at the bruise.

"Can I have my shirt back now?" I asked, feeling a little uncomfortable in just a bra when I was in a cabin with two teenage boys. "It's cold."

"We should wrap her up first," Alex said, sounding like he was thinking out loud. "With gauze, you know? I think it'll help her heal a little better."

"Do you even have gauze?" Jesse asked, an eyebrow raised on his forehead.

"Yep," Alex grinned, walking over toward a dresser before opening a drawer and rummaging through it. A few seconds later, gauze was flying toward my head.

I let out a shriek as Jesse reached out and caught the (pretty harmless) gauze before it could hit my head. He glared at Alex, who only grinned back at us sheepishly.

"Raise your arms," Jesse instructed, beginning to unwrap the gauze as I did so. "I'll make sure not to wrap it around you too tight."

"It doesn't even hurt that much," I told him stubbornly, keeping my arms up like he had told me to. "I don't need gauze. You're probably just wrapping me up because I'm fat or something."

Jesse rolled his eyes. "You're not fat."

"Sure I'm not."

As he continued to wrap, Jesse pinched my stomach, causing me to squeak in surprise.

"Not fat. I could barely grab anything."

"You didn't have to pinch me!"

"Don't call yourself fat."

"Aw," Alex gushed, entwining his fingers under his chin. "A lovers' quarrel!"

"Can I have my shirt back now?" I repeated my previous question, completely ignoring Alex's comment once Jesse had finished wrapping me up like I was some kind of Christmas present.

"Here," Jesse said, handing it to me. He then smirked, and I was afraid of what was going to come out of his mouth next. "Even though I kind of like seeing you with no shirt on..."

"You sound like him," I scowled, jabbing my thumb in Alex's direction as I began to put my shirt on. I then got a better idea that caused me to stop. "Actually... Can I wear one of your shirts?"

Alex wolf-whistled from behind us, and Jesse chuckled a pillow at him, which hit him square in the head.

"Here," Jesse repeated, handing me one of his shirts now. Smirking, he continued on teasingly, "You want to wear my boxers again, too?"

"Sure," I shrugged, not realizing that he was only joking.

"Okay," Alex said once again from behind us, slapping his hands over his ears. "Too much information for me."

"Fine," I sighed, pulling Jesse's shirt so that it was now covering my body. "My shorts will do, I guess."

When I stood up from Jesse's bed, I looked down to see that his shirt went so low that it looked like I wasn't wearing any type of bottoms at all, which I couldn't help but blush at.

"Aw, Jordan's blushing," Alex teased from his desk. "How cute."

Jesse rolled his eyes at Alex for the umpteenth time, beckoning him over with his hand. Alex looked cautious for a moment, but walked over to us anyway.

"We're going to have to teach Jordan how to fight," Jesse informed Alex, causing my eyes to go so wide that I thought they were going to fall out of their sockets. Me? Fight? There was no way that was ever going to happen! I was pretty much the weakest person on the planet...

"I agree with you, but she looks scared out of her mind after you said that," Alex chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest as he cocked his head in my direction. "I don't really think she's that up for it."

Jesse now turned toward me, placing his hands onto my hips and pulling me closer to him. Alex made a face that I normally would have laughed at, but right then I wasn't so sure. Jesse wanted me to learn how to fight? What was the point of that?

All I needed to know was that if a guy was attacking me I'd kick him between the legs, right? And if a girl was attacking me... pull her hair?

Maybe I did need to know how to fight. But how hard could it be? Just form a fist and throw it, right? Didn't sound that hard...

"It's for your safety," Jesse informed me before I could even say anything. "If anyone like Erica comes after you again, you'll know what to do. Even if Hunter sends one of his goons after you, you'll have a better chance of getting away..."

"That's not very encouraging," I told him flatly, causing him to grin. "But I guess I'll do it anyway."

"There's a punching bag down in the weight room," Alex informed us, jabbing his thumb back toward the door. "We could use that to teach her."

Jesse nodded. "Sounds good."

"But first," Alex grinned, pulling me away from Jesse so that I was now standing in front of him. "I want you to hit me in the face as hard as you can."

My eyes widened at him. Was he insane? "What?" I asked, taking a step away from him. "I'm not going to hit you!"

"Come on," Alex grinned, motioning for me to hit him once again. "Don't be a chicken."

"I'm not being a chicken!" I defended, shaking my head as quickly as I possibly could as I took another step away from him. "I just don't want to hurt you!"

Alex stared at me flatly.

"You won't be able to hurt him," Jesse informed me as he passed me and walked toward the door. "But could you hurry this up? I want to get to the punching bag and see how well you can punch."

I turned back toward Alex, who looked determined that I was going to punch him. Was this a good idea? I really didn't think so. What if I actually did hurt him? Or what if I broke his nose? Not that I was that strong or anything... What if I broke my hand?

"Punch me," Alex insisted, grabbing onto my hand and balling it up into a fist. "Punchy punch."

"You're so weird," I announced, just in case he somehow didn't know.

"Thank you," he countered, looking proud.

I rolled my eyes, not even bothering to tell him that it wasn't a compliment. I knew he'd take it as a compliment no matter what I said to him about it.

"Just punch him and get it over with," Jesse called over from the door, sounding very bored. "He won't give up until you punch him."

Letting out a sigh, I looked at Alex intently. He really wanted me to punch him in the face as hard as I could? Yeah, I wasn't that strong, but it would still hurt if you got punched in the face, right?

"Fine, I guess," I grumbled, balling my right hand into a fist. Alex really was an idiot if he was letting me do this... Unless I was so weak that it was absolutely ridiculous, he was probably the stupidest person on this history of the planet.

I raised my fist and threw it in the direction of Alex's face. I was surprised that he was actually letting me do this, but that quickly went away when Alex's hand flew up at the last second, clutching onto my fist and twisting my arm around my back.

"Ow, ow, ow!" I shouted, trying my best to break free from his grasp. "Let me go!"

"Okay, the objective of this is to teach her how to fight, not to break her arm before she can even be taught," Jesse practically scolded as he now left his spot from the door and made his way over to us. Alex let me go before Jesse could smack his head again.

Rubbing my shoulder, I glared at Alex with as much hatred as I could muster. I didn't know he'd do something like that! I really thought he wanted me to punch him...

"Well, at least we know she can form a proper fist," Alex shrugged, his normal grin plastered on his face. "Now we just need to know how hard she can hit."

"Which is why we should get down to the weight room so she can hit the punching bag," Jesse began as he continued his way toward the door. "So hurry up and let's go."

"Great, I get beat up and learn how to fight on my birthday," I grumbled, walking past Jesse out of the cabin and down the steps. All three of us made our way to the weight room, and luckily no one was there.

"Just give it a good whack," Alex informed me once we got in front of one of the punching bags. I glared at it for a moment before doing as I was told, punching it as hard as I could. There was a sharp pain in my wrist, causing me to jump back and let out a loud shriek.

Alex was laughing his ass off and Jesse buried his face in his hands. I cradled my wrist, waiting for one of them to say something. Was I really that bad at punching? That really hurt!

"You need a glove for that punching bag," Jesse told me once Alex had finally stopped laughing. "You could have broken your hand. Let me see it..."

I let go of my wrist and outstretched it toward Jesse, who tenderly took it in his grasp. It didn't really hurt anymore, so I didn't think it was broken.

"It's fine," Jesse sighed after a few seconds of examining it. He then hit Alex in the stomach, but it didn't bother him much since his stomach probably hurt from him laughing so hard. "Don't make her do something like that again, you idiot."

Alex wiped a tear away from his eye. "Sorry, Jordan. That was just too funny. Sorry..."

I rolled my eyes, following Jesse to a smaller punching bag that he was walking over to. "This doesn't require you to wear gloves. Just hit it a few times."

I did as I was told, whacking the punching bag a few times. Ignoring the slight pain in my right wrist, I continued to punch it until Jesse told me to stop.

"Man, I can hear Eye of the Tiger playing in my head," Alex grinned, causing me to just roll my eyes at him.

This was going to be a long lesson, I was sure.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Tell me again why we're hanging out at a park?" I asked Lexi the next day. She grinned at me and wrapped her arm around my shoulders, brushing up against my bad bruise. I recoiled just a little, but not bad enough for her to notice. I had to hide my marks from the girls, which I really hated to do.

"Because you didn't want to go anywhere for your birthday yesterday!" Lexi cried out, squeezing my shoulders before letting them go. "So we're going to hang out at a park just like we did when we were kids!"

"We look like pedophiles," Chelsea spoke as she pushed her sunglasses higher on her nose. "We're the oldest people here without kids."

"Oh, come on," Lexi grinned, elbowing her in the side. "This'll be fun! We'll just be kids again! Doesn't that sound like fun?"

"Not really," AJ, Chelsea, and I all replied in unison.

Before Lexi could say anything back to us, a new voice cut her off. A voice that I definitely did not want to hear anytime soon.

"Well, if it isn't the four girls that I definitely wasn't expecting to see," the sickly sweet voice said from behind us, almost causing me to cringe in disgust. I was lucky enough not to come across her on my birthday the day before, but I knew it was just a matter of time.

My three best friends and I turned around to face our old best friend, who had two girls standing behind her. I expected it to be Alexandria and Elizabeth, her two friends that were more like minions. But it was only Elizabeth; I couldn't tell who the other girl was.

My jaw dropped when I finally did realize who the other girl was. Chastity, the other girl who had joined Aimee's cabin with her and her friends. What had happened to her? The last time I had seen her, her hair was poorly taken care of and she had think rimmed glasses. Now her hair was perfectly curled and she was wearing makeup, no glasses in sight!

Aimee and her friends changed her... and I was sure it was for the worst.

"Where's Alexandria?" Lexi asked, crossing her arms over her chest and cocking out her right hip as she glared at Aimee. "Did you ditch her?"

Aimee laughed dryly. "No, no. She's just parking the car."

"You make her sound like a chauffeur," Chelsea sneered at her not. I wouldn't have really been surprised if Aimee was just using Alexandria like that. It was sure like her...

"Maybe that's all she is," Aimee smirked, making me want to slap her as hard as I could. With all the training that I had been put through the day before, I was sure I could take her easily. But I knew that I could do no such thing... The girls still had to think I was weak and couldn't fight.

AJ stayed silent, but I didn't expect very much from her. I still wondered when she'd get over the stupid fight with Aimee that was months before. It was obvious that we weren't going to go back to being friends, so why be sad about it?

Suddenly, Lexi clutched onto my arm and started pulling on it to get my attention. She was biting her lip to stop herself was squealing, and I thought something was wrong until she started speaking.

"Jordan, Jordan! Look over there!" she whispered excitedly, nudging me over to wherever she was looking. "Look who's over there!"

I was expecting it to be no one really important, but I was definitely in for a surprise when I saw the definite last person that I wanted to ever see coming closer to us. And I thought Aimee was bad...

I quickly ripped away from Lexi, breaking away from the group and making my way toward Hunter before he could get any closer. I thought my friends were going to try to stop me, but all they did was giggle and let me go, which really wasn't a good thing...

I could only hope that Hunter didn't get a good look at them.

I grabbed onto his arm and spun him around so we were now both walking in the direction that I had been going.

Hunter smirked at me. "Why, hello to you too, Jordy."

"Is there something you need?" I demanded, not even looking at him as I continued to walk him toward the exit. I knew that the girls were looking at me, and it didn't help that my arm was wrapped around his... But whatever it took for him to get away from my friends.

"I heard it was your birthday yesterday."

"You're such a stalker."

"I know, I know."

He reminded me of Alex as he said this, but that wasn't exactly a good thing. All I wanted was to be away from him, but my arm was wrapped around his so tightly that it looked like I actually wanted to be around him. It almost looked like I was his girlfriend.

I couldn't help but cringe at the thought.

As Hunter and I went through the exit and out to the parking lot, we passed Alexandria, who was making her way inside to find Aimee and the rest of her friends. Not even knowing what I was doing, I quickly greeted, "Hi, Alexandria."

She blinked at me for a moment in surprise, but said anyway, "Hi, Jordan."

We quickly went our separate ways, and Hunter looked down at me in confusion. "A friend of yours?"

"I guess," I shrugged, not wanting to get into it. The sooner I got away from him, the better. Now I just wanted to go back to the camp and be with Jesse...

"I wanted to see you on your birthday, but it's too difficult to get into your little camp when there isn't anything special going on," Hunter informed me, sounding disappointed. "But don't worry. I'll have something planned for your birthday."

I did not like the sound of that. I didn't want to do anything with Hunter Drax, especially if it was to celebrate the day of my birth.

And especially when it was the day celebrating that I was now a legal adult. Who knew what Hunter would do now that I was eighteen? I didn't even want to think about it...

All I knew was that I had to be even more careful around Hunter Drax, even more than I used to be.

I might as well just stay locked up in my cabin all day, because that was the only way I could think of escaping him.

Oh, who was I kidding? He'd find a way to get inside anyway. There was no way I'd be able to escape the wrath of Hunter Drax.

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For some reason, I laughed out loud really hard when Alex said "punchy punch" to Jordan. I have no idea why. I guess it was just the way I imagined him saying it.

I love Alex. ^_^

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