Chapter Six

Miraculously, we had managed to find our way back to our camp after running around like maniacs. I had thought there would be more damage than there turned out to be, after all, a bear had managed its way to our camp.

We were all still a bit shaken from the incident. Lucas walked around wide-eyed, Nevaeh seemed to be picking at her sleeves, and as much as Zeke tried to hide it I could see him eyeing his surroundings every now and then.

The tent hadn't been scratched, or at least not from what I could see. I was confident that all our supplies hadn't been misplaced. The only thing that was out of order was the garbage. It was sprawled across the ground, all coming from our torn and ripped trash bag.

I closed my eyes and sighed in annoyance. I knew this is why I should have been the one to pack things away last night. Everything always comes back to me, because none of my classmates seems to be responsible enough to take on such chores.

"Why didn't either of you two hang up the garbage last night?" I questioned Lucas and Nevaeh, who both still seemed to be in some sort of daze.

Lucas shook his head and stuttered. "I-I didn't know we h-had to. I'm sorry-"

"You're sorry?" I let out a humourless laugh. "About what? The fact that you have zero clue what you're doing? That you must have paid zero attention to Holly or Mr. Finlay as either of them explained these sort of things?"

Nevaeh frowned. "Trinity, just calm down. Stop taking it out on us-"

I stomped my foot on the ground. "I don't see why it's so hard to hang the trash from the tree! Did it not occur to you that the garbage needs to be out of reach of the animals?" I faced the tree and pointed at a low branch, one that hung around three feet away from our heads. "I've been doing my part every night since you got us lost. You tie the trash to a rope and sling it over that branch, it's not that hard."

Lucas pouted and looked away in embarrassment and guilt. Nevaeh gave me a frown, before shifting her eyes away from mine.

"You two are idiots," I grumbled. "Have no idea what-"

"Oh my god, just stop!" I was cut off by Zeke, who decided it was the right moment to storm into our conversation and get up in my face. "Do you even know when to stop?"

"I'm not talking to you-"

"You seriously don't have respect for anyone other than yourself, do you?" He hissed. I bit my lip and opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off again before I could say something.

"Just let it go." He raised his fists and spread his palms for emphasis. "Cool down and leave everyone alone. We already know we do everything wrong, no need to tell us again."

I clenched my jaw and marched away. I stormed away from our camp and followed nature's trail, trying to get away from the three of my peers. I was heated, I could feel the warmth on my cheeks. I had to clear my head, I needed some cold air. I didn't know what it was, why they always irritated me, why I couldn't think straight around them.

I didn't know how long I was walking for, my mind was too busy to remember. But I stopped in my tracks and sighed. I was giving up too easily, I should have just returned and apologized. As hesitant as I was, I turned myself around and, after some time of walking straight, slowly found my way back to my group.

The three of them were busy cleaning up. They had picked up as much trash as they could and replaced the torn bag. Everything was in order, but they all wore some face of disappointment and guilt.

I took a step closer to them and cleared my throat, trying to gain their attention. I'm sure they had noticed my presence, but they only spared me so much as a glance in my direction. I supposed I didn't deserve their respect.

"Everything looks tidy." I tried complimenting. I only earned a small nod from Lucas, who looked up from where he sat on a stool near the dead fire.

Zeke was sitting down on the dirt floor, forming some sort of sharp stick or something using a pocket knife. He carried an expression completely void of emotion as he continued to work on his pointy stick.

"It's a good thing we didn't do it for you," I could hear him mutter under his breath. I narrowed my eyes at him.

If I felt like being mean I could have told him to stick his pointy dildo up his ass but I was a nice person so I was not going to say that.

The screen was open in the tent and I could spot Nevaeh hiding inside. She seemed to be very intrigued with her story as she sat crossed legged, staring deeply into her phone screen. I watched her pick and rub her legs, so I wasn't sure if that was some sort of coping mechanism or she was doing that to avoid lashing out, but she made some very obvious faces of pain as her fingertips ran along her calfs.

Suddenly she gasped and winced in pain, putting down her phone to gently roll the edges of her pants to reveal her red and swollen skin. There were red bumps scattered forming a small patch on her calf.

I quickly made my way over to her and kneeled down beside the entrance of the tent. "What is that?"

She winced. "It's a poison ivy rash." Her fingers hovered over the rash in temptation but retracted because she knew better.

We had earned the attention of both Lucas and Zeke who made their ways to my two sides in confusion. Zeke grimaced once he saw her leg.

"My innocent eyes-" Lucas made some sort of gagging sound and turned away. He held up a hand and shook his head. "Keep that thing away from me, oh my-"

He made another gagging sound which we all chose to ignore. Turning our attention back to Nevaeh, we searched our minds for what to do.

"Is there anything we can do?" Zeke asked her, eyeing the red rash.

She shook her head. "Not really, as far as I know, it can only heal on its own." She clenched her fists and made a noise of frustration. "But, aw man, that is itchy."

"Will itching it make it worse?" I asked her.

"I have no idea," She replied. "But I don't want to risk anything."

Trying to ignore Lucas, who was hopping around still trying to get the image out of his head, I exchanged a look of concern with Zeke.

"Do you know any way to numb the pain?"

She hesitated. "I'm no expert on these things but my best guess would be to just apply a cold pack or something to it, but we don't have any cold things in the middle of the forest."

Zeke turned around to face Lucas. "Buddy, can you grab those cloths from the bag? Yeah, those ones. Can you make a trip to that stream-" He pointed in the direction in which the water flowed. "-and wet those cloths for Nevaeh? Great, thanks"

Lucas ran off with the small face cloths, leaving me and Zeke to help Nevaeh cope.

"Where do you think you touched poison ivy?" Zeke questioned.

"I think it was when were running away from the bear earlier," She recalled. "And I hid in a bush. I think my legs touched a bit of it. Well, clearly they did." She gestured to her legs annoyingly.

I picked up her phone and handed it to her. "Try reading," I suggested. "It will take your mind off things."

"If I can even concentrate." She grumbled, taking her phone in her hands.

Zeke stood up and dusted his knees. "I'll see what we can eat for tonight." He left to dig through our food.

I watched as Nevaeh tried focusing all her attention on whatever story she was reading. The struggle was obvious as she did her best to draw her attention away from the rash. I kind of felt bad. She hadn't done anything to deserve that. Plus, I should have known they wouldn't have known how to properly put things away. I doubted they even let the fire die before going to bed.

Lucas came running back to us, a few soaked wash cloths in his hands. He handed them to Nevaeh, who carefully covered her swollen calfs with the wet fabric. She sighed in relief, wiping down her moist palms.

"Thanks, Lucas. That feels much better."

She put down her phone beside her and clapped her hands together. "My phone is not a very good distraction at the moment, so can we please do something else?"

Lucas nodded. "Uh, s-sure. What do-do you want-"

"let's see who can name all the periodic elements in order of their atomic number the fastest!" She cheered. Before Lucas could open his mouth she jumped straight into it. "Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen-"

Lucas waved his hands to stop her. "Hold on, you're going pretty fast. C-can we just, um, try naming all the countries in alphabetical order?"

She nodded. "Sure. You start." Lucas cleared his throat.

But... But why and how would you just agree to that-

"Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia-"

"Hold on," Nevaeh cut him off. "You forgot Argentina."

Lucas laughed sheepishly before gazing at her in awe. "Are you from India? Because I'd Goa anywhere with you..."

I discreetly stepped away from the two of them and let the nerds have their moment. That wasn't something I really wanted to get in the middle of, with all their element naming and country talking. They made me feel dumb, not going to lie.

I stood beside Zeke as he used a small box as a table. He seemed to be preparing, what was it, fish? How did he get fish? Some kind of trout?

"Is that fish?" I asked over his shoulder. It looked as if he had sliced through the centre and was now getting at the bones.

"Yeah," He answered.

"How did you get it?" I walked to the other side of him to get a better look. He had one fish I his hand and another resting on the box below him.

"An angel dropped from the sky and handed them to me."

My eyes widened. "What?"

He rolled his eyes and muttered, "You are one of the stupidest creatures in this universe."

"I heard that." I crossed my arms.

"You were supposed to."

I gasped and frowned. "But seriously, where did you get those fish?"

"But seriously," He mocked. "I caught them from flowing through the stream, where else?"

I shrugged. I didn't know where I could get fish.

"You went fishing?" I moved to the other side of him so that he was forced to look at me.

He turned the other way in spite. "Did I know just say that? Yes, I went fishing."

I moved again to the other side of him, trying to get him to look at me. He was a difficult person, this was making things hard for me. "When did you go? How did you fish?"

I could tell he was getting very annoyed with me. I heard his tongue click before he set down what he was doing to turn and face me. He looks exhausted, to be honest, and it made me feel a little bad.

"I went when you went for your little cool down walk," He sighed. "I don't want to be mean or fight, Trinity, but please could you just give me a break?"

I stuttered and nodded. "Uh, yeah. I can, I can do that. For sure."

I took a step back and he waited patiently for me to walk away. I turned around and kneeled beside the fire. The least I could do was start it for him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Nevaeh and Lucas giggling and talking to each other. The sight was surprising, and the pairing was unexpected, but at least they were both enjoying themselves, unlike Zeke.

Was it because of me? I hoped not. It's not like I did anything - or at least anything that I knew of. It was probably some kind of man problem. In the morning, everything would blow over and we'd find our way back. Hopefully.