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"You do realize the damage you caused." Tara say on one side of Scott's office, arms crossed defiantly across her middle while the team leaders lectured them. Brown eyes glared over to Peyton, her face set in stone. Emma had started in now, something about team rivalries and such. What she wanted to scream at the blonde was that this had nothing to do with teams. She hated Peyton on a personal level - nothing more or less.

"I don't see why I'm even here. She was the one that destroyed that bridge-" Scott cut her off then, fonts pounding against the desk and causing her to jump ever so slightly, mouth abruptly closing once more. "And you leveled a warehouse," she blonde accused, Tara fighting not to roll her eyes. An abandoned warehouse, she wanted to correct, though she stopped herself. The last thing she needed was to have a telepath on her tail every spare moment of the day.

"The only thing for sure is that you two are going to have to work out your differences, and it's clear that we can't trust you to do so out in the field." This didn't sound good. Brown hair cascaded around her shoulders as she pushed her head back into the chair back, releasing a sigh. Emma glared at her and picked up where Scott left, off, slender arms crossing over her barely-clothed chest. "So, we're sending you both on a simulated camping trip in the Danger Room. You'll share a tent, eat together, help each other. If we feel that you're not learning your lesson, we'll send some….challenges….your way."

"This is ridiculous, what about our classes? What about our team training sessions?" "All reassigned. You're not getting out of this Ms. Kiernan." An indignant expression took over her features, body again relaxing back into her chair with pursed lips. Her eyes once again glared over to Peyton, the anger plain to see. This was all her fault. If she'd just stayed out of her way, Tara wouldn't have and a problem. And she wouldn't have embarrassed Bella. But now, here she sat. And now, she was just sentenced to a fate worse than death.

Tara and Peyton were going to have to…cooperate.



Tara kicked at a rock on the ground, adjusting the straps of her backpack. They had plenty of gear and supplies between the two of them, split between the two packs so they could "hike" to their camping spot. It was ridiculous that they even had to be here - surely they could have just given her some detention or something like that. Now, she just had to turn lemons into lemonade…maybe she could poison it and give it to Peyton, making it look like an accident.

Peyton trailed behind her, Tara using a cough to cover her hand movement, raising a portion of earth under the girl's foot as she stepped down. "Come on, you're slowing us down. We're never going to make it to this stupid camp site if you don't get your a** in gear."

(( It's not great, but it's something! Let me know if anything needs to be changed. ))

Sitting in Scott's office, Tara was very vocal about the fact that she was not meant to be here, since it was obvious to anyone that had been there that Peyton was the one that caused most of the damage. Tara's involvement had been limited to demolishing a warehouse that was on the verge of collapse anyway, and it had nothing to do with her inability to get along with the blonde omega skank sitting next to her. She seemed to think that because she was perpetually in a bad mood, it made it ok. Brown eyes glared over to her as the blonde finally piped up, only to be cut off by Emma's scolding about the warehouse.

As they dealt out the girls' punishment, she had to admit that it was quite creative, though Tara was outraged. There was no way they could make them do this.
Thankfully, Peyton seemed just as outraged by it as she was, the girls on their feet and voicing their complaints at the same time. No matter what they said, Emma and Scott didn't seem like they were going to budge on it, dismissing the girls from the office to go get ready for their little camping simulation. They could force the girls into the same space, but they could never force them to get along. As long as the girls ignored each other, she hoped it would be enough to minimize their punishment.



Trudging through the simulated woods, Tara had broken ahead of her Omega companion. On the one hand, she was glad that they weren't together, but hesitant to let themselves get too far apart. Emma had made it clear that if they were not getting along, or not trying to get along, there would be more challenges in store for them than just surviving for a day or two. Hearing the sounds of the girl rustling through the leaves as she dragged behind, Tara didn't have to look back to know where the girl was, shifting the ground and a rock underneath the girl's feet as she took a step down and calling back for her to hurry it up so they could get to their campsite and get this whole stupid thing underway.

"No, I can't. You heard Frost. We have to stay together and we have to interact," she called over her shoulder, pausing so that the girl could catch up to her. The smug smile on her face made Tara was to scratch it off, though she restrained herself, responding with a simple enough smile of her own. A mocking laugh left her throat as the girl joked about babysitting, eyes rolling upwards as she turned and started off again.

It wasn't too much longer before they reached their campsite, a clearing amongst the woods with a few rocks and trees about. Peyton sat her backpack down on one side of the clearing, Tara on the other, as her hands found her waist and looked around. Stripping off her denim jacket to reveal a simple white tank top underneath, she sat on a rock to take her hiking boots off, squishing the dirt and leaves under her toes. She spent so much time outdoors that this was like a second home to her - a connection that very few could even claim to understand.

Without saying anything, she started to undo the tent that was strapped on top of her pack, inwardly cringing when she heard the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard when Peyton asked if she had ever been camping before.

"Have you?" Her tone was instinctively defensive, though she immediately regretted it, a sigh escaping her as she started laying out the poles for the tent. "My dad and I would go camping, hiking and rock climbing all the time before he got re-married. We still take a big trip once a year, do the whole survivalist thing." She'd saved his life once on one of their trips, when her powers had first developed, but she didn't need to know that.

"Think you can manage to scrounge up some fire wood and make a fire?" Glancing up from what she was doing, she waited for an answer before she continued putting up the tent on the left hand side of the clearing, the holes for the stakes digging themselves and packing around the stake tightly so that it wouldn't be going anywhere no matter what kind of weather their team leaders threw their way. No matter what they told her, Tara had a sneaking suspicion that some obstacles would be thrown their way regardless, in some misguided attempt to "bring them closer." Frost could be a b***h like that, and Scott was too whipped to do anything about it.

As much as the brunette wanted to leave her stupid companion behind and try to enjoy this little camping trip that they had been forced on, she knew she couldn't. The only thing worse than their current predicament would be those "challenges" that Frost b***h had promised if they didn't try to get along and cooperate in this hellhole of a punishment. So, when little Ms. b*****b suggested that she go on ahead and leave her be, the only thing Tara could do was stop and wait for her to catch up, arms crossing over her chest and hip cocking to the side to indicate her annoyance. Could she be any slower?

Eventually, they arrived in the clearing that would serve as their campsite, Peyton asking if she had ever been camping before. Why Tara tried to open up to her and give her a slight glimpse into her life, she wasn't sure, but her expression turned to stone when all she got in response was irritation at answering the question that she posed in be first place. 'Why do I even bother,' she asked herself, sloughing off her pack with a thud as hard eyes turned to her companion. She remained expressionless as the only "opening up" Peyton did was to flap her gums in some stupid comment about her family's camping history.

If Peyton wasn't going to try, why should she?

Tara's instruction regarding fire wood was met with a huff, the breathy blonde disappearing into the foliage to, hopefully, comply with the task she had been given. That left the geokinetic to put the tent together, which didn't take much time at all, situating it under a nice tree in case someone decided that it should rain on them. That's something that she could totally see Frost putting them through. As if having to share this little adventure with the girl wasn't bad enough, they had to share a tent as well.

Everyone knew that Frost got some sort of sick pleasure out of inflicting pain on others.

Using her powers, Tara pulled several stones from the surrounding woods to form a neat circle in the middle of their shelter- her attempt to keep a simulated from adding more stress to the situation. At least for now, she was free of Peyton.

For the briefest of moments, she entertained the thought that there might be mountain lions programmed into the simulation, and Peyton may come across one. As soon as the thought entered her head, though, she let it go - there was no way she was that lucky.

"Please tell me you died out there," she called out after the blonde had been gone for several minutes. They were in the woods - how hard was it to find fire wood. Really. Tara couldn't be blamed for Peyton's stupidity - even Frost couldn't claim that as her fault, no matter how hard she tried. Of course, if the blonde bimbo had decided not to come back to their little camping trip, that meant that they were going to be stuck in here god knows how long. For a minute, it didn't seem like that bad of an option...but spending the rest of her life with Peyton as her only possible companion for any interaction was simply unacceptable.

Rising from the rock that she had decided to rest on, the brunette released a frustrated breath as she resigned herself to the fact that she was going to have to go looking for that stupid girl. 'What could they really do to me if I killed her...," she mused, dragging her feet towards the path that she had last seen her companion go down. Thankfully, the sound of rustling leaves signaled that she was going to have to expend effort to retreive the girl after all.

Looking at the pile of wood dropped unceremoniously between their packs, their gazes met as the blonde suggested that they just do what they had to do to get out of this mess as soon as possible.

"Agreed," she said simply, hands finding her hips as well. Both girls could recognize that this was as close to "working together" as they were ever going to get. If only the higher ups would acknowledge that this has good as things are going to get between them and let them off the hook for this ridiculous form of torture.

Heading over to her pack, the geokinetic pulled out a granola bar and tossed one toward the blonde as well. It might have been a little hard, but if the girl couldn't catch, that was on her. Several moments of silence passed between them, Tara storing her wrapper to the now gone granola bar and releasing a frustrated sigh, fiddling her her pocket for a cell phone that wasn't there. This really sucked. Rounding her attention back on Peyton, she resisted the urge to punch the girl in the face for getting them in this situation to begin with. Normally, she would love this - the pleasant weather, the sounds of the birds in the trees, surrounded by earth and nature - but it was instantly soured the minute she was reminded who she was stuck here with.

"What now?"

It was crazy. This whole thing was just plain crazy. Sure, they let things get a little too heated, but she wasn't sure how forcing them into an enclosed space was supposed to make things better. If anything, surely Frost and Summers saw that this was a bad idea. Frost was a telepath for ******** sake. There was nothing they could do, and nowhere they could send the girls where Tara and Peyton would come back as best friends. Some people were just meant to be enemies. Some people needed enemies. It was the way the world worked.

So, here they were - trudging through a simulated forest with camping gear on their backs. They had been told that if they didn't start getting along, they would be met with "obstacles" that would force them to work together to survive. For a moment, the brunette thought about testing that theory - surely they wouldn't kill their own in a danger room simulation because she couldn't stand to look at another student's face. Maybe they should both just go their separate ways and see how far Frosty and Summers were willing to go to try to broker a peace between them.

Those thoughts were pushed aside, however, as they continued walking. Tara tried to move her companion along, to which the girl snapped that they didn't have to walk next to each other as far as she was concerned. As much as she relished the idea, she didn't have the strength to start testing Frost's orders now, so for now they were forced to stick together. Slowing her steps so they weren't so spread apart while still keeping some distance between them, she intentionally didn't look over at the girl as they kept moving. A sigh escaped her as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her shorts. They had to stay together - that didn't mean that they had to talk.

Eventually they made it to the clearing that would serve as their campsite, shedding their respective loads and starting to set up camp. The topic of unwanted conversation turned to their respective camping experiences, the blonde asking if she'd ever been camping before. At first, the earth mover snapped the question back at her, only giving her a real answer after she'd taken a second to collect herself. Even that moment of kindness, however, was met with angst as the blonde snapped at her for telling her "life story." There really was no pleasing her. It was this kind of childish behavior that just cemented in her mind the fact that they would never get along.

Brown eyes rolled heavenward slightly, as she turned her back on the girl, pretending not to hear her say that she had camping experience of her own her her family. That would mean admitting that they had something in common.

As she lay out the poles for a tent, she gave Peyton a task of her own - fire wood. If they were going to be stuck together, they were both going to have to pull their own weight. She received no verbal reply, only an exasperated huff before the girl wandered off into the woods to complete her task. The time while the girl was gone was productive, and rekindled her appreciation of life without Peyton in the middle of it. To think, they'd only been trapped here for a few minutes, but it already felt like torture. After a while, however, she felt the need to check on the girl and make sure that she was still, in fact, alive (despite the fact that it couldn't be her fault if the girl died of her own stupidity when she'd given her the simplest task in the world). Before she had to go looking for anyone, thankfully, the Omega reappeared and dumped a pile of sticks unceremoniously in the middle of their bags.

They came to an understanding that they would do what it took to get through this torture, the brunette retrieving a snack for them out of her backpack and tossing a granola bar over to the girl. It was as close to a peace offering as they were ever going to get.

And with that, they were out of things to keep them occupied.

She asked what they were supposed to do now, leaning her back against a rock as the girl went into another temper tantrum. The thought of them "gossiping about boys and painting each other's toe nails" was abhorrent, the brunette suppressing a reflexive gag.

No. ********. Way. Ever.

"Seriously, if we ever get to that point, just kill me." She bit off another chunk of granola bar, head resting back against the rock she was leaning against and staring miserably out into the depths of the woods. A moment of silence passed between them before the girl suggested that they "spar." She started to snap back that it was a stupid idea, but the words caught in her throat, eyebrows raising slightly as she realized that it was not, in fact, the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. Now she really had seen everything.

"I mean...I guess there's only one way to find out, isn't there." Glancing up at the manufactured sky as the sun was starting to dip low in the sky. They'd have to get their frustrations out quickly, if they were going to do anything before the sunset.