My eyes pop open at the sound of my alarm clock the next morning. I hardly slept last night knowing that we were starting my list today. Now just to figure out what to do first. I throw my covers back and slide my feet into off white slippers that I've had for years and take out the braid I slept in. The curls fall into my face and I gather it all into a messy bun on the top of my head. I skip down the stairs into the kitchen and quickly pour myself a bowl of cereal and eat it while watching Gilmore Girls on the flatscreen.

    "Morning," Ava greets as she comes down the stairs in running clothes.

    "Morning. When are you going to be home?" I ask after swallowing my cereal.

    "Probably in 40 minutes. Why?" she says as she goes into the kitchen to fill up her water bottle.

    "Because we start the list today and we still have to figure out what to do first." Ava starts to roll her eyes and I swat her arm before she can finish. "Stop. It's for me, remember?"

    "Right. For you," she smiles fakely and walks past me to the door. I sigh. I'm going need to work on getting her more in the spirit.

Daisikins, Camera, and Lincoln Log

Daisy

Good morning crazy chickens!

Me

Morning!

Ready to start the list today?

Daisy

Why of course! What's first?

Me

Not sure yet. My parents don't care what

we do since they are both busy anyway.

Lincoln

My mom is working a double shift

tonight so anything is fine with her.

Daisy

Mine don't care either.

Me

Great. Any thoughts on what to do?

Lincoln

Dave is actually taking the two littles

camping today and I told him I couldn't

go but maybe we could meet up with him.

I have to meet with him once a month

so might as well get it over with.

We don't have to stick with him though.

Me

Sounds good. Pack everything up then

and I'll pick you in two hours?

Daisy

Coolio. See you then!

    They all agree to the plan and I push myself off of the cozy couch to get started on my day. I drop my bowl in the sink and race up to my bedroom. I pull out my black duffel bag, turn on my jam playlist, and begin throwing clothes into the bag in an organized mess.

    "Cami?" Lincoln's voice says over the facetime.

    "Yeah?" I call from the depths of my closet.

    "What are we sleeping in?" he asks.

    "Shit," I mumble under my breath. "Well I didn't exactly have that planned out yet," I admit.

    "Cam!" Daisy yells from my laptop on the facetime. "How do you expect us to camp out overnight with nothing to sleep in?!"

    "I don't know! I was assuming someone else had a plan!" I countered back. They both sigh and I plop on my bed.

    "I can ask Dave," Lincoln suggests.

    "I'll look in my basement too," I mention. I run down the stairs and into the basement. I flick the switch and the lights slowly come to life. A deep humming comes from the old fridge down here, and I walk towards it to find bins labeled with all sorts of captions. I begin sorting through all the crap down here, noting how it's become more and more piled up since Dad's diagnosis.

    "Boo!"

I shriek and turn around to see Ava standing there grinning.

"So gullible, my sister is," she smirks. I stick my tongue out at her and move the boxes by my feet so I can get up onto the stepladder. Ava sits down on the bottom level of the three tiers and I climb onto the third.

"You'll be happy to know that we've come up with a plan for the day. Or should I say, night," I say, me being the one smirking now. I know Ava will protest all she can not to go, but I've got my excuse. I never realized how handy Huntington's can be sometimes.

"What?!" she shrieks, standing up from the stepladder. I wobble and grab onto the edge of the shelf as all her weight suddenly leaves the ladder.

"Thanks for that," I mumble. "And yes, overnight. We're going camping."

"Great, just great," she says, throwing up her arms. "Guess I better go tell Matthew then," she grumbles before stomping up the stairs. I roll my eyes and grab what I was looking for. I gently toss the tent onto the ground and climb down from the ladder.

"Cami!" my mom yells from upstairs. I swing the bag with the tent in it onto my shoulder and run up the stairs as fast as I can.

"What?" I ask, plopping it down on the ground.

"I'm going to the store. Do you need anything?"

"What store?" I ask while dragging the tent over to the garage. "Do we have any foldable chairs?" I put my hands on my hips.

"Target. And yes they're on the left side of the garage." she points to the garage.

"Thanks." I swing the door open and drag the heavy tent into the garage and close to my car. "I don't need anything then," I answer.

"Ok. What are you doing with all this stuff?" she questions in a tone that says why-didn't-you-tell-me-what-you-were-doing?

"We're going camping tonight. We'll be back tomorrow afternoon I'm guessing," I say and unlock my car.

"With who?" she asks, and sets her purse down. I gulp as I realize she's going to be staying a while and questioning me.

"Lincoln, Daisy, Ava, and Matthew," I answer.

"Fine. I'll probably be at work then."

"Okay thanks!" I yell before running back down the stairs to retrieve the other tent.

"Be careful, Cami!"

*****

    "Hey hey hey!" Daisy greets as she comes barreling out of her front door, bags swinging around her legs and her backpack bouncing up and down.

    "Hi!" I yell, waving my hand out the open window. I push my door open to help her with her bags.

    "Is Lincoln coming over here?" I ask as I open the trunk. It swings open and Daisy sits down on the edge of the car.

    "Ahh," She sighs as she leans back to plop her backpack down. She shrieks as she falls backward into the trunk as her backpack pulls her back with it. "Kelp!" she yells. I rush over there to help her and grab onto her hand to hoist her up, but someone else gets there before I do.

    "My savior!" Daisy swoons, giving Lincoln a big hug. I laugh as I watch little Daisy squeeze Lincoln who's almost a whole head taller than her.

    "Shall I take your bags?" I ask Lincoln who gratefully hands me his duffel bag. I fit it in next to my backpack and he drops his pack by Daisy's.

    "To the car!" Daisy yells, running like a crazy person to the front seat. "Dibs on shotgun!" I laugh and Lincoln slides into the driver's seat.I take the back left seat as the other seats have been taken out to make room for the tents.

    "Where's Matt and Ava?" he asks.

    "Taking a seperate car. They should be here any minute," I answer. "Otherwise I gave them directions to the campsite." He nods and backs out of the driveway and heads down the street to the nearest intersection.

****

    "Can we go to the gas station?!" Daisy squeals from the back seat, going from a relaxed lounging position to an engaged sitting up straight pose in less than two seconds. I laugh at the suddenness of her outbreak and turn around to face her.

    "I'm game for that," I answer and look towards Lincoln who's driving the car. He glances at me and I do my puppy dog eyes and big bottom lip.

    "Okaaay," he gives in and Daisy and I yell and high five.

    "There's a Kwik Trip at that exit," Daisy announces, handing me her phone for directions. I laugh and shake my head before leading Lincoln to the gas station.

    "Merge lanes in point two miles," I direct, beginning to put my converse on. He shifts the car to the right and I point out the exit.

    "There it is." I shove my feet into the shoes and lace them up. Lincoln goes onto the exit and takes a sharp left turn towards where the map says to go.

    "Are Ava and Matt going to be confused?" he asks while looking over his right shoulder.

    "I'll text them," I answer, already going into my phone to text Ava.

    "And here we are," Lincoln announces as he turns into the parking lot. "I'll get gas while we're here." I nod and push open my door. Daisy grabs my hand and wrenches my arm forwards, dragging me towards the door. I trip over my feet but keep running with her since her grip on me is deathly.

    *ding ding* The door rings as we enter, and Daisy immediately rushes over to the candy aisle. I follow after her and see she's already picked out sour patch kids, licorice, and starbursts.

    "Geez do you think we have endless stomachs?" I joke, picking out chewy sweetarts. She grabs my hands and looks directly in my eyes.

    "Yes."

    "Noted," I comment and smile. She continues grabbing food and putting it in her basket(yes, basket) and I pick out a few more things. Chips, reese's cups, snickers for Lincoln, a kit kat, and mini powdered sugar donuts. I plop them in Daisy's basket along with the various other things she put in there.

    "Hey Dais," I say as something on the bottom shelf catches my eye and I squat down to see.

    "Hm?" she responds, barely taking her eyes off of the chips in front of her. I grab her ankle and tug gently.

    "Look." I point to a box filled with smartie suckers. She comes down to my level and looks at where I'm pointing. "Remember when we were obsessed with these as kids and would take one of our parents to the gas station by our home soccer field?" She picks up one of the suckers and twirls it in her hand. She grabs two more and stands up.

    "To our childhood," she proposes and hands me one of the candies.

    "To our childhood," I toast and we clank the sticks together. I smile as she puts the suckers in the basket and goes back to looking around. I wander to the front of the store and look at the postcards.

    "Hi," Lincoln greets as he embraces me in a hug from the back. I grab his hands and spin around.

    "Hi there," I say back.

    "Looking at postcards?" he questions and picks up one with a fox on it. "Are there really foxes in California?" he asks, showing me the card.

    "Yes you foolish boy," I joke, plucking the postcard from his hand. He shakes his hand and turns around to look at food I'm guessing, and I steal the baseball hat off his head, having to jump to grab it.

    "Hey!" he yells and twists around quickly. I swivel on my heel and sprint away from him. "Cami!" he shouts. I hear his loud footsteps pound behind me, and I dart into another aisle. I slide across the floor on my feet as I see a sign saying that the floor is wet. I hop over the wetness and continue sprinting around.

    "Ma'am!" someone yells, probably talking to me. Out of the corner of my eye I see a figure to my left, but I've already started running that way and can't stop it now. I shriek as I spiral out of control and collide into someone. I fall forward onto whoever I crashed into and we smack the ground with a loud thud. I roll off the figure and look to my right to see Lincoln and Daisy sprawled on the ground alongside me. I immediately start laughing hysterically and Lincoln cracks a smile with me as well. Daisy stifles her laugh as a worker at the gas station comes over and helps her up.

    "I'm so very sorry, Ma'am," he apologizes to her before leaning down and picking up the things that went flying as a result of the collision. She winks at me and brushes imaginary grime off her arms and frowns.

    "It's fine," she answers, looking all flustered and bent out of shape.

    "You two, out of my store now," the man commands, pointing at us with a dirty, nail-bitten finger. We scramble to our feet and rush out of the store, bumping into stands as we go but eventually making our way out. I turn around to see Daisy checking out but don't notice her wallet anywhere by her. I grin as I realize what Daisy was trying to accomplish. We walk in silence to the car before Lincoln speaks up.

    "Did you at least get the postcard?" he asks as he puts his hat back on.

    "Yes," I answer and show him the card. We instantly start cracking up laughing and race to the car together. I slow to a stop at the passenger seat and bend over in pain from all the laughing. I look at Lincoln from across the window and we share a look before laughing our heads off again and falling down on the ground at how funny this is to us.

    "I got the goods!" Daisy screams as she comes sprinting towards us with her arms in the air with around four bags swinging in the light breeze. She plops down next to me on the grass.

    "How was that for a start?" she asks, poking at my arm.

    "Better than I could have ever imagined," I admit and stand up. "We better get going if we want to get to the campsite before dark." She reaches her arm towards me and I pull her up and she hops onto her feet. All of us pile into the car, and I stick the stolen postcard into the little flip up mirror on the visor of the passenger seat. I grin as I look at Lincoln smiling as he drives us to the campsite and Daisy glowing in the backseat as she colors in a coloring book and lip syncs to her favorite
songs. This is going to be great. I think to myself. No, more than great. Spectacular.

Authors Note: Hi! Finally updating again, I have exams this week but I've been writing ahead of time so I can try to post more consistently. I have Christmas/winter break in two days so I'll try to get a lot of writing done then since I have basically no plans lol. At this rate the book should be finished around May, which seems far away but I'm sure it'll sneak up on me pretty quickly. After that I'll probably take a break and work on something else before coming back and editing this! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and the beginning of the list!
•have a lovely day!
~Kali
~DBAB