Although Screefoot was impressed by the leader's and the deputy's ways of talking to the volatile apprentice, she felt her heart sink as Harepaw seemed just as surly as before; at least he had agreed to join the morning patrol. The disrespect he showed so shamelessly toward the Clan leader and her right-paw cat embarrassed her, and she could feel a rush of warmth go to her ears. She replied to Amberleaf's glance of reassurance with a sorrowful look–– as if apologizing on behalf of her unruly apprentice. She gave the same brief look to Boulderstar before slinking to join them, with the feeling that she was going to be reprimanded at some point for not training Harepaw well enough. 

The warrior stepped up close to Harepaw with her tail flicking in both anxiety and frustration. The position she took was mostly to create a barrier between him and Pearpaw. (Vaguely she wished she'd gotten a first apprentice as willing to learn as she.) "Perhaps we can catch some prey on the way back to camp," she suggested.

––

As Burrpelt ate, he had a bad feeling that his pathetic behavior had been noticed. He tried to brush it off. Gulping down the rest of his mouse, he silently choked. "Blegh," he muttered, and stood up. He couldn't be more ready to leave on patrol. Embarrassed, he headed eagerly toward the entrance with his tail straight in the air in a show of confidence to make up for his previous social blunder.  

He sat beside the entrance of camp and tucked his tail neatly around his paws, looking around at the camp which was becoming steadily more active as the morning progressed. It gave him a hopeful feeling, but also made him think of his sister. Screefoot and the rest of Boulderclan were living in treacherous mountain territory. One wrong step on an unstable slope, one hunting trip in quickly-changing weather, one fall down the rocky terrain would be enough to kill her. And he wouldn't even know.

Screefoot could be dead right now. She'd never even find out that he had become the deputy. 

[i]Calm.[/i] Burrpelt closed his eyes to placate himself. His sister was competent. She could take care of herself excellently, and now with a whole clan to take care of her, he was sure she was doing fine. He flicked his speckly tail. On to more important things... like learning to talk to she-cats before the whole Clan noticed he was useless at it. He scanned the camp for a female feline (alliteration, yay) and nervously decided that it could wait until after the patrol.