Take back control

[RECAP]

As a new day dawns on Peregrine Island, Mia navigates her next steps. Elsewhere, Alex and Harry discover a spooky surprise on an afternoon hike.

MIDGE'S POV

Five minutes past midnight and Mia is already having a seriously bad day, which means there are two ways she could go. One, fall apart with everyone watching or two, take back control.

~~~

Dave knocks on Mags' room and she opens the door for him. Soon after Mia barges in.

"Mia, what happened?" Mags is surprised to see her.

"I can't get any signal, I need to use your phone." She says hurriedly.

"Whoa! Stop right there." Dave dares her to take another step towards the telephone booth.

"I need to..."

"You seriously need to think about your attitude. You can't just wake everyone up because you fancy chats. That phone is for emergencies only." Dave cautions her.

"This is an emergency. I need to call my mom. I need not to be here anymore." Mia insists.

"It's in the middle of the night." Mags jolts.

"Not in Tokyo. Please, two minutes." She begs of them and they give in. Mia dials a number on the telephone booth and waits for her mom to answer.

"Mom, hi, it's me. I need you to come get me."

"Mia, is that you?"

"Yeah, mom I..."

"Mia, I'm in a terrible noise. I'll call you later. By for now."

"No wait, just listen...." Her mom disconnects the call and Mags can see how sentimental Mia feels.

"My aunt is gonna meet me at the ferry in the morning." She lies to them. "Mia!" They try to persuade her to stay. "Thanks for the phone." As she gets to the door, Amber gets in her way.

"I just came to check on Mia, we thought she might have some stroke. She has been acting kinda weird."

'I'm acting weird? Don't worry about me after tonight I'm never seeing any of you again." She walks out on the trio. Amber smirks devilishly having ridiculed the latter.

As the sun rises, Mia pushes her suitcase to the ferry point and sits on the stones waiting for any sign of a ferry coming to the island. As she waits, she takes a pendant and unlocks it. She ponders over her parents' photos in it.

"That's so pretty." Harry comes over to Mia and she irks her brows irritatingly.

"Sorry, sorry ya I didn't mean to scare you."

"You didn't scare me. What do you want?"

"Ah, nothing I just like your necklace."

"It's a locket, my Dad gave it to me." Mia says while fiddling it.

"I didn't want to come here either. Mom thought it would be good for me, toughening me up. Never been away from home before. I hate it so I know how you feel, homesick."

"I'm not homesick, I'm not five and my Dad isn't even at home." She stands up to leave.

"I thought..."

"Well, you thought wrong. And if people would stop stalking me everywhere I go, that'll be great." She pushes her suitcase back to the camp.

"Thought you were making a dramatic exit." Alex says.

"And I thought you'd reach the peak of yesterday's outfit so I guess we were both wrong." She mocks her.

"Someone is extra salty today." Alex leaves her alone.

Mia turns around and sees Kayleigh who was once her friend hanging out with Amber. It seems like everyone else now loves her even Dev. Amber strikes the guitar strings as Kayleigh and the rest are eager to hear her play it and Mia scorns. Dev smiles at her and so she does. And when he tries to get up perhaps wanting to talk to Mia, Amber stops him and he gets down to help her with play the guitar. Mia fights back tears and walks away. She finds Mags unblocking the sinks.

"Mia, I thought you might pop by."

"Really? 'Cause I thought I'd be gone."

"The thing is, the ferry doesn't come today."

"I waited for that ferry all morning."

"I thought this place will do you good. You need to calm down so that we have a heart to heart chat."

"I need to be on my own."

"Mia, please, I can't help you if you're not honest with me. C'mon, girl to girl, what's going on?"

Mia smiles cunningly and then fakes a sob.

"It's Amber, she played this trick on me in front of everyone. I just can't be around her."

"Honey, why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't know, you listen to her."

"I can better enough." Mags thinks of something.

Mags later invites the girls and takes out a stick.

"How's that better?" Mia wonders.

"This is the healing stick."

"It looks a lot like a regular stick." Alex opposes.

"And this is a healing circle which is no place for cynicism. Now, Mia has brought to my attention that there has been some conflict amongst us ladies."

"We don't have any conflicts." Kayleigh gets to be the first one to dismiss Mags allegations.

"Stop, only the person holding the stick gets to talk. Honestly, it really does break my heart to see such powerful women turning on each other. So we are going to spread some positive energy around here okay? So let's look in the circle and give the person on your left a real from heart compliment. Kayleigh? Your new hair is fabulous."

Kayleigh smiles fondly at her as she passes the stick to Jenna.

"Alex, your shirt is.....fine!" She rolls her eyes without blinking at Alex.

"Okay, I'm out." Alex gets bored.

"What? I said it was fine."

"I didn't care! I'm gender queer so I don't officially identify as a member of this circle. Good luck with the healing." She walks out of the circle.

"Alex! Alex! Hold on..." Mags tried to stop her.

"May I be excused too. No offense, but I don't think I have to spend the day playing imo stick 'cause these two are crushing on the same guy." Jenna brags.

"This is not about a guy." Mia comes to her defense.

"Whatever!" Jenna rolls her eyes. "My boyfriend Stefan is about to graduate from college, I'm officially way too immature for this."

"Look, I'd love to be friends with Mia but she has made it clear that she doesn't want to." Amber says.

"She's lying. She got all of you wrapped around her nail finger." Mia tries to make everyone see Amber is a fake.

"Enough! Negativity. Can't you two think of a one nice thing to say about each other. And use the stick." Mags reasons out with them. Amber takes the stick and says,

"Mia, I think you're such a strong person. I admire that value. If it was up to me, we'd be really close." She then passes the stick to Mia who is left with no choice but to make amends with the golden girl.

"You know what, you're right, we should put all this behind us. Friends?"

"Friends." Amber says on a serious tone.

Meanwhile, Alex picks up a map for the hike from Dave and chooses Harry as her partner. The rest of the girls return to take up another activity which was hiking.

"Mags, would it be okay if I miss the hike? I guess I stayed on the sun yesterday." Mia asks to be excused.

"Yes, of course. Go lie down or something." Mags gives her permission as Amber eavesdrops on their conversation. The rest choose their partners and they separate to various places in the woods. Kayleigh and Dev are seen together.

"Actually I picked you for a reason, there's someone I wanted to talk to you about."

"Really? I thought she's the type to talk to me herself. I should be asking you if she's seeing anyone. Mia really asked you to talk to me?"

"Mia?" Kayleigh wonders.

"Hey, you guys hang out, right?" Dev thinks Kayleigh is gonna talk about Mia's interest in him.

"Not anymore. The girl doesn't care about anybody but herself. Not like Amber, she's who I hang out with now. She gave me this." Kayleigh shows Dev a bracelet that Amber gave her.

"She's already like the best friend I've ever had." She tugs closer to Dev who is clearly not happy about her confession.

"I heard you're staying behind so I thought I'd keep you company." Amber follows Mia.

"Now we're friends." She intertwines her arm with Mia's.

"Great, that sounds great." Mia fakes a smile as they walk around the camp together.

Somewhere else in the woods, Harry tried to catch up with Alex. She's one timid girl who clearly doesn't need anyone around her.

"Our compass keeps on crushing..." She complains.

"I've got an actual compass you can borrow it but before that, tell me what you're going to use it for." Harry offers.

"Last night when everyone else was at the party...."

"There was a party?"

"I saw this thing through my telescope, green light. It must have come from the trees around here." Alex informs him. "So let's find it." She scurries away before Harry could say anything.

"Back at the camp, Amber plays her guitar as Mia sneaks to her bank. Even if she chose to forgave her, she still doesn't trust her and knows a girl like her, suddenly appeared from nowhere to ruin her life.

"What are you doing?" Amber startles Mia.

"Oh, hey Amber, I was just.... getting a scarf." She picks Alex's scarf to save herself. "Got to be careful with some strokes, can mess up with the body temperature. This will do, I'm sure Alex won't mind.

'Not your usual style, is it?" Amber asks the latter as she closes the door. "And it doesn't really go with that locket, maybe you should give it to me." She stretches her hands.

"You're joking...." Mia irks her brows while holding the locket necklace.

"A nice way to say we're really friends now."

"I don't think so, I'm gonna to stop hoarding that fire..."

"But I can wait, no one would be back.....for a long time." Amber says as she blocks her from leaving. Meanwhile, Harry and Alex discover cracks on the ground and draw closer to a large tree to investigate.

"I know you still have a problem with me. You just told Mags what she wanted to hear." Amber challenges Mia.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I spoke from the heart." Mia tightens her grip on the locket as Amber inches closer to her.

"Oh Mia Mia. Oh Mama Mia. Oh, what I'm gonna do with you. Can we just be real."

"I don't know Amber, can we?"

Amber makes a move to touch her face but the latter doesn't spare her.

"Don't touch me!"

"So much anger, burning with jealousy..."

"You don't know me..."

"Yes I do, the poor lonely girl who needs followers to tell her how pretty and cool she is. Anything to feel that hole in your heart where your parents love should be. You tell them everything." Amber controls her thinking and everyone else in the woods. Alex and Harry are made to believe there was a creature lurking in the forest.

Amber looks deeply into Mia's eyes and brings her under her control.

"Stop! You don't know." She moves away from her.

"Daddy is gone and mummy wishes you weren't around, am I wrong?" Mia sobs and nods a 'no'.

"Every summer, she ships you off to every camp, be it adventure. Anything to avoid having you around. She wishes you could walk away like Daddy did because, she doesn't really like you and you don't like yourself either. No one does."

"Amber please stop." Mia is inconsolable.

"I can help, I can take that away. You won't be alone anymore. Stop fighting me, we could be so close." She wipes her tears away and Mia leans on her shoulder. "It's okay." Amber soothes her.

In the forest, Alex and Harry have a hard time chasing an invisible roaring sound that circles them. Later in the afternoon, the teens get back and Mags is happy to see Mia and Amber getting along while lighting up the fire outside the Camp. Getting back to the common room, Mags finds her grandmother's ring missing and confronts the duo. After ransacking Mia's pockets, she finds nothing and now it was Amber's turn.

She moves forward and takes out the ring.

"Amber how could you? This is very serious you can't..."

"Mags, you gave it to me remember?"

"Nice try," Mia scorns wanting the latter to be caught lying in broad daylight.

"It suddenly looks pretty on me," Amber wore the ring before giving it back to Mags. She so touches her as well and she instantly comes under her control.

"Yes I lend it to you." Mags feels guilty all of a sudden.

"What?" Mia questions.

"I forgot that I gave it to you. Sorry Amber." Mags apologizes as everyone surrounds the fire while eating their lunch.

Alex sees Mia with her scarf and strides towards her.

"That's my scarf." She glares at her before sitting down next to her.

"Amber is lying. About the ring, Mags didn't lend it to her."

"How did you know?"

"Because I took the ring and planted it on Amber.

"Devious." Alex mutters.

"It doesn't make sense. Why's Mags covering up for Amber? If I figure out what she's up to and I'm going to take her down."

"Okay, good talk. Enjoy mingling with her." Alex gets up and goes into their cabin. Amber spots Mia and shoots daggers at her and the latter does the same.

MIDGE'S POV

There's an old story about a tree and a reed arguing over who's the strongest. The tree tries to prove its strength by standing up to a storm. But the more it fights, the harder it falls when the wind blows it down. So, who's going to bend and who's going to fall? Because no matter how strong you think you are, you can't control the coming storm. Because no one remembers the last time they were caught in it.