Chapter Five

Zeke didn't push me in, thank goodness for that. It wouldn't have been a pleasant feeling to be walking back to our tent while drenched in cold water. Instead of causing a ruckus, Zeke lead the three of us back to the tent

Our evening passed the way a typical I-got-lost-in-the-forest-and-have-no-idea-what-i'm-doing night would go. Four delinquents sitting by a fire... Scratch that, I'm no delinquent. I'm anything but that, I'm fabulous. And trash. I'm both, at the same time. That makes me, like, trash from Louis Vuitton. I'm quality trash. Wow, I just wasted 10 seconds of my life thinking about that.

Nevaeh was still trapped in her phone. Sometimes she would stare at her screen so attentively I worried for her. Whatever she was doing, it had her insanely intrigued.

The sun had set already, leaving us in the dark. The only light came from our small fire, which illuminated our small space that we called our camp. We had eaten our dinner, or what we considered to be our 'dinner', which consisted of snacking on beef jerky and trail mix. I mean, the trail mix was good because I added some M&Ms to it, which added a sweet kick.

I would have liked to inform everyone of the time, but unfortunately I had not brought a watch, and neither had the two other boys around me. We had tried asking Nevaeh for the time, but usually she would ignore us unless we said something she thought was worth her time. So, as a guess, and having not seen a clock for over 24 hours, I would say it would be around 9pm at night.

We all sort of just sat there, staring at the fire. Except for Nevaeh, but that was predictable. So we all spent our time looking at the fire, watching the burning logs turn to hot coals. It's cool at first, but I mean, we've been doing this for what felt like a week. (its been a day I know I'm a drama queen get over it.)

Watching a chemical change occur before your eyes seems cool until that's all you're doing. Sitting on a stool that's too small for your even smaller butt, and watching a tree throw weird orange waves in your direction. I kind of wondered, I was sitting there pretending to be insanely interested in the flames, when in reality I couldn't care less. Do you ever do that? Not know what to do so you just do what everyone around you is doing even if it's incredibly boring? Were the other boys getting bored too, or was that just me? Because I was getting pretty bored, man.

I sneaked a glance at Lucas, but he wasn't looking at the fire. Instead, he had his eyes trained on the air above us, just staring at nothing.

"Lucas, what are you looking at?" I asked him.

His eyes shifted from the air to me. "I'm, uh, I'm trying to see the stars."

"But, they're blocked by the trees."

"I know," He deadpanned. "Th-that's why I said I was trying."

I bickered under my breath, muttering something about him being sassy. I followed his gaze upwards, trying to figure out why it interested him so much.

"Um, did you know," Lucas spoke, gathering mine and Zeke's attention. "That the R-Romans, ancient Egyptians, Aboriginal people, etcetera, used the, ah, stars for navigation? They would follow the const-constellations."

I held back my scoff. Uh, didn't everyone know that? This was simple grade 9 astronomy people-

"Really?" Zeke's brows pressed together as he stared at Lucas in astonishment. "That's really cool, dude!" His face lit up, like he had an idea. "Could you maybe try that? Help us get back?"

Lucas frowned. "Well, I-I would like to but, I, uh, sadly I can't see the stars." He gestured to the sky, which was not visible due to the trees.

Zeke's face dropped. "Oh, that's unfortunate."

"Still cool though, right?" Zeke nodded. I frowned at them, they were carrying out their conversation as if I didn't exist.

"B-but the constellations aren't always in the same spot, nor are the s-stars." Lucas continued. "Because of Earth's rotation."

"Yeah, yeah," I bumped in. "Earth spins and rotates around the sun."

Lucas made a face. "That was wrong because th-the Earth does not rotate around the sun. It rotates on its axis, and revolves around the sun."

I waved it away. "Well, same thing-"

"Uh, no, actually-"

"This sounds like Sabaism or something."

We all turned our heads to Nevaeh, who had spoken but hadn't raised her head from her phone.

"Sounds like what?" Zeke asked.

She sighed and kept her eyes on her device. "Sabaism. Worship of the stars."

"Nevaeh, you-you're on your phone, a lot," Lucas remarked.

"Yeah," I pipped in. "Plus, there's no cell service. What are you even doing?"

For once she actually looked up from her phone to answer. "I'm reading."

Zeke raised a brow. "Of all things you could be doing, you're reading?" He spoke of reading as if it were some gruesome subject. "Don't you need internet for that?"

She looked back down, paying us less attention. "No, I have my stories downloaded."

I mean, that was a bit of a shock. I had expected her to be texting someone, although it had never occurred to me for some reason that she didn't have any service. That seems something typical of her, right? She's a blonde and flexible, she has to have at least some attributes of that stereotypical cheerleader.

"Are there bathrooms around here?" She asked. "Outhouses? Something?"

I shook my head. "No..."

Nevaeh made a face. "Where am I supposed to go to the bathroom?"

I pointed to a bush a few metres away. "In the woods. That's what the toilet paper you packed is for."

"Wait, you haven't peed at all this whole trip?" Zeke asked.

Her shoulders dropped and she frowned, ignoring Zeke. She shoved her phone in her pocket and walked over to her bag to grab some toilet paper. She trudged her way over to the bush, ignoring all our stares.

"So," I turned my attention to Lucas again. "What do you do for fun?"

He shrugged. "Uh, I like cooking."

"Oh, really?" I asked, slightly surprised. "You stuck me for the comic and video game type. Well, you must be good a gaming."

He scrunched up his nose. "I, erm, don't really like video games. P-plus, I'm very bad at them."

"Well, I bet you're awesome at cooking." Zeke complimented. "What am I good at, Tough Girl?"

I looked up and held back a sigh. "Well if sleeping around was an Olympic sport you'd win gold." I said under my breath.

He clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes. "Trinity that isn't even relevant. That was so unnecessary."

I shrugged, not knowing what to day. "I know."

He frowned. "It's my life, and my business. It's not for you to butt into."

I put my hands up in defence. "I'm not saying anything negative about it."

"But you're trying to shame me," He persisted. "You're trying to make me feel bad about myself and I'm having none of it."

"Do what you want, okay?" I retorted. "Continue sleeping around, watch me not care."

He tilted his head. "Clearly it's something you think about since you enough it up. In a negative way, might I add-"

"What's your problem?" I demanded.

"My problem is that you're speaking about my sexual practices as if you had a say-"

"I just think you just have more respect for yourself and others, okay?"

He clenched his jaw. "The amount of people I am intimate with doesn't not determine my value. Self respect has nothing to do with nudity. Self-respect is about doing things that make you happy."

With that he got up and stormed back to the tent, leaving us by the fire.

There was an awkward silence between Lucas and I, as we both avoided each other's eyes. The rustle in the bushes signified Nevaeh's return, and she plopped back down in her seat, pulling out her phone without even noticing Zeke's absence.

"I'll let you guys clean up tonight." I stood up from my seat. "Uh, have a good night."

I made my way over to the tent, hoping I wouldn't have to face Zeke.

I had a long, cold night. I couldn't help but feel so cramped, with four people stuffed into one small tent. It wasn't the most comfortable place to be.

I probably had gotten only 4 hours of sleep. I don't sleep well alongside other people, nevertheless in the forest. I woke up and the sky was tinted, so I could tell the sun was starting to rise.

I could hear some sort of rustling outside the tent, but quickly dismissed it tonne the wind or something.

I laid my head back and rested my eyes, trying to go back to sleep. But the noise came back again, the same rustling as before.

I say up and crawled over to the tent zipper. I was ready to chase away whatever raccoon had found it's way over to our camp, most likely munching on some extra food.

I opened the zipper, but let out a yelp and jumped in shock at he sight. I hurriedly zipped it back up and crawled back to my sleeping bag.

"What was that?" Nevaeh muttered, rubbing her eye as she sat up.

I pressed a finger to my lips, telling her to be quiet. She raised her eyebrows about stayed quiet.

The two other boys around us had started to wake, the both f them sitting up.

"What's il with you guys?" Zeke muttered, eyeing Nevaeh and I. I shook my head frantically and shushed him, but he waved it away.

He crawled over to the tent door and I tried rabbit him back, but he shook my off of him. "Hop off, tough girl."

He continued to unzip the door. "I don't know what's up with you - oH MY GOD THAT'S A BEAR OKAY-"

He stumbled backwards and Nevaeh and Lucas both made their own sounds of fear.

I made an effort to keep the peace. "Okay, guys let's just calm down-"

The side of the tent shook, and I could make out what looked like two paws on the walls of our safe space.

That's when everyone lost their cool, including myself, and we all went running outside.

I followed after Nevaeh who was in the lead, as she ran straight into the forest into nowhere. I don't think any of us really cared where we were going, our main priority was to not get eaten by the big bear.

Nevaeh dive into a bunch of bushes, burying herself in green. I quickly found a tree and started grabbing onto whatever branch I could, climbing like a squirrel.

I let out a sigh of relief once I found a nice branch to sit on, but panic arose again when I felt the tree shake.

I looked below me only to find Zeke climbing up. I kissed and tried kicking his face with the heel of my foot.

"Get away! Find your own tree!"

He ignored my protests and continued to climb up. He found a branch beside me and took a seat.

"Lucas?" I called for him. "Where are you?"

"Here!" I heard a voice coming from below, coming from a bush.

"Why don't you join us up here?" Zekry asked him.

"Because I sleep naked!"

Oh, well alright.

i was quite mad when half of this hadn't uploaded, so i had to rewrite it (which i didn't enjoy) so it was a bit rushed but it still works!

with love
via