Sleeping outside always sounds all romantic and fun and adventurous, but let me tell you one thing: waking up to the sound of a fricking annoying bird next to your tent, with everything being kind of damp from the dew and you freezing in the cold is none of those things.

I quickly snuggled deeper into my sleeping back after I woke up and enjoyed the warmth of the pillow my cheek was resting on.

That was until I realized I hadn't brought a pillow.

My eyes snapped open and I nearly screeched as I found my head resting on Hunter's chest, whose arm was flung across my middle. My heart started racing immediately as I slowly became aware of the situation I was in.

Boy touching me, boy touching me, BOY TOUCHING ME.

I tried to inch away from him without disturbing him, but he just groaned, half asleep, and pulled me closer.

Frozen in shock, I stared at the red wall of the tent, trying to figure out what to do now. I had to find a way to get away from him without him noticing the position we were in, because if he did, I was sure I would never hear the end of it.

After a few seconds I got an idea. It was kind of cruel, but this was an emergency. Plus, if it worked out the way I expected, it would probably be hilarious.

So I sneaked one arm out of the sleeping bag, careful not to move too much so I wouldn't wake him up, and lightly began to tickle the arm that was wrapped around me.

Then I quietly said into his ear: "Hunter? Uhm, I don't wanna alarm you, but...There's a huge spider on your arm." I continued lightly tickling his arm.

Hunter suddenly sat up at the speed of light, while I quickly pulled my hand back and hid it behind my back.

Before I could even blink he was out of the tent and I heard him screaming outside.

I stuck my head out of the tent and watched as he jumped around, frantically slapping his arm.

"Oh my God, where is it, Jules?" he yelled as he saw me, never stopping to try and shake the non-existent spider off his arm.

The look of sheer panic on his face was too much for me, and I couldn't contain my laughter any longer. Still sitting in the opening to our tent, I was panting, tears streaming down my face, until my sides hurt.

Slowly, realization dawned upon Hunter, and his eyes narrowed threateningly.

"Hatcher, you're dead," he called out and stamped closer, anger flickering in his eyes. "There was no spider, was there?"

"No," I said and cracked up once again.

Hunter didn't say anything. Instead, he suddenly broke into a full sprint and practically threw himself onto me, knocking me off my feet. I found myself laying beneath him, held down by his weight, as he suddenly pinned my hands over my head with one hand.

Still, despite the situation I was in, I couldn't stop laughing as I looked up at his face.

"Oh, just wait, I'm gonna give you a reason to laugh," he announced grimly.

If I hadn't been so busy dying of laughter, I probably would've gotten scared at this point, but in my condition I didn't even comprehend what he was planning to do until one of his hands crept towards my ribs and began tickling me.

"No, Hunter, no!" I squealed and began thrashing around, but he kept on tickling me mercilessly, holding my wrists down with one hand.

"What was that?" he asked and smiled mischievously down at me, while I gasped for air, never being able to stop laughing.

"I'm...I'm sorry...I'm sorry!" I wheezed.

"Fine." Hunter's grin got even wider as he said that."Just whistle if you want me to stop."

My eyes bulged as I frantically tried to whistle, which was impossible since I was laughing so hard and could barely even breathe.

"Sugarpie, I can't hear anything," he teased.

"Screw you," I choked out.

The sound of a throat being cleared made us both look up. Hunter and I both froze when we saw Mrs. Hennig looming over us with a bewildered look on her face.

"Okay, guys, could you please interrupt...whatever is going on right now?" she asked and gestured vaguely towards us. "Mr. Smith and I finally thought of an appropriate punishment for your little adventure last night. You're going to town later and you'll be doing the grocery shopping for tonight's barbecue. Not without supervision, of course."

Hunter nodded and swiftly got off of me, not without sending me another half-hearted glare.

"Okay," I managed to say while I regained control of my breathing.

She seemed like she wanted to say something else, but instead she just closed her mouth and walked off, shaking her head slightly.

I fell back onto my back and exhaled loudly. I was still panting and my stomach hurt from laughing so much.

"Payback's a bitch," Hunter smirked and stalked over my limp body to go back inside the tent. I turned onto my stomach and watched as he dropped back onto his mattress, where he closed his eyes. "And now, if you excuse me, I'm going to sleep for a few more minutes."

Without a reply, I got my bag from inside and shuffled towards the washing rooms at the other end of the camping site.

After having a quick shower (and freezing my backside off in the process because apparently there was no warm water), I brushed my teeth at one of the sinks.

While I did so, Nate entered, looking ruffled and bleary-eyed.

"Hey, man," I greeted with my toothbrush still in my mouth. "You look awful."

Nate sent me a glare in the mirror and started to get ready next to me. "Thanks, you too."

"Sorry," I laughed. "You just really look like you could be at the set of The Walking Dead."

"You're not making this any better, Jules," Nate said and rolled his eyes. "But you have to admit I'd make a pretty badass zombie."

Cue the demonstration of his ability to make a noise that, according to him, sounded like eating someone's brain. Since I didn't really have much experience with that, I agreed willingly.

"What the hell," someone in one of the shower stalls muttered and a moment later Liam emerged, only clad in a towel that was wrapped around his middle. The confused look on his face vanished when he saw us. "Oh, it's you. What was that noise?"

"Brain-eating," Nate provided without further explanation.

I jumped as another voice suddenly sounded from somewhere behind me. "Weirdos," Adam commented, exiting another stall.

Before either of us could answer, Hunter entered the washing room and the assembly was complete.

"Have you searched the tent for more spiders?" I asked with a provocative grin and cocked an eyebrow.

Hunter ran a hand through his tousled hair. "Hey, sugarpie?"

"Hm?" I immediately cursed myself for even reacting to that stupid nickname, especially as Adam and Liam exchanged a strange look and Nate frowned in confusion.

Hunter walked towards me and before I could slap his hand away, he was already cupping my chin and wiped away some toothpaste from the corner of my mouth with his thumb.

"Don't ever joke about bugs again," he said.

"Or what?" I asked cautiously, not taking my eyes off him.

Hunter just smirked and licked the toothpaste off his thumb... and that was enough to distract me from my question.

All I could do was stare after him in shock as he walked over to the showers and locked himself in one of the stalls.

I only noticed the awkward silence when Nate cleared his throat. "Care to explain what the heck that was about?"

"What do you mean?" I nervously asked.

"Why's he eating toothpaste off your face, for starters?"

"Maybe he just...really likes the taste of toothpaste?" I said while scratching my neck uncomfortably. By now it wasn't just the humidity and the temperature in here that made me sweat.

"Yeah, obviously. He loves it so much, I once caught him eating an entire spoonful of tooth paste. It might be some kind of addiction, actually," Adam said in a flat voice.

"Oh, look at that!" Liam exclaimed with an exaggerated grin and turned to look at his friend. "Adam Caldwell made a joke! Grumpy Cat 2.0 actually can be funny!"

"Yeah, you know, I'd find it pretty funny to slam your face into that sink," Adam retorted, while finally pulling a shirt over his head.

"You wouldn't. You love me too much." The grin never left Liam's face.

Adam only snorted quietly before he made his way towards the door.

"That's just his way of showing affection," Liam said to us in a conspirative voice.

"No, it's not!" we heard Adam shout before the door slammed shut behind him.

+++

It was about eleven in the morning when Hunter and I found ourselves in the supermarket in town. Tom, a student from the upper classes who had volunteered to be our supervisor while we were here had taken us down here with his car, but had then quickly taken off to see his girlfriend in town instead of joining us.

That meant that Hunter and I were now left to our own devices. I had never been here before, but Hunter looked like he knew his way around and led us through the aisles in the supermarket.

At first, everything went according to the teachers' orders; we were collecting everything that was written on the list they had given us, until our shopping cart was filled to the brim. I expected us to now go to the cash register and pay with the money we were given, but instead Hunter suddenly took a left into another aisle.

"What are you doing?" I asked, tugging at his sleeve. "You do know that this is the alcohol section, right? We're not supposed to be here."

"Oh, this is exactly where we're supposed to be," Hunter said with a grin and began to look at the different bottles and cans.

I glanced around nervously, as if I was expecting a teacher to come running and tell us to get out of here any moment.

Hunter, on the other hand, didn't seem worried in the slightest as he started looking through various bottles and cans.

"Hunter, can we go now?" I whined. "What are we even doing here?"

"Nervous, sugarpie?" he asked, turning around to me with his hands braced on the shelf. "Do you want to pick or shall I?"

"Pick what?"

He rolled his eyes with a grin and traced a finger along the edge of one of the shelves. "Pick what we'll be drinking later. There'll be a little party at the beach tonight, with a bunch of other people from our class, you know? They told me to buy everything."

I stared at him wide-eyed. "And you agreed?"

"Yeah, why not? It's not a big deal. We'll select some stuff, find an adult to buy it for us, get everything to the car and we're done. Tom doesn't care whether or not we buy alcohol."

"You can't be serious," I groaned and looked around once more.

"What? Did you never... Of course you've never drank anything before," he laughed. "I would be surprised if you had."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Hunter only bit his lip, suppressing a grin, and began to pull out some bottles, putting them into our cart.

I was standing next to him, feeling completely out of place and becoming increasingly stressed out the more the amount of bottles grew.

After about five minutes, Hunter finally seemed satisfied and turned around. "Come on!" he called over his shoulder. "Tom will be back to pick us up in a moment."

I sighed in defeat and followed him towards the cash registers. "How are you gonna get the alcohol through?" I asked him quietly.

"Don't worry," he smirked. "I've done this a couple times already."

He then looked around, observing the few other customers around us. "What do you think, who of them would help us?"

"She looks nice," I said weakly, pointing at a brunette girl with glasses and a cart full of vegetable and fruits.

Hunter shook his head disapprovingly. "Nah, she's too nice. I don't think she would agree to doing something illegal."

I frowned, but didn't object.

"Perfect," Hunter suddenly muttered next to me. "I found the right one. Watch and learn."

He quickly ran his hand through his hair and unzipped his leather jacket, before walking towards a petite blonde girl who was listening to music with her earphones in. I could tell that she was barely an adult.

Hunter put on the most seductive smile he had to offer and tapped her shoulder.

She spun around immediately and pressed one hand against her heart. "You scared me!" she laughed and looked Hunter up and down for a second.

"Oh, I'm sorry, love," Hunter said. "I didn't mean to."

The girl laughed again, blushing a little as he called her that.

I rolled my eyes and rested my chin on my hand while I was leaning on our cart.

"So...is there anything I can help you with?"

Even I could sense that that sentence had a double meaning.

"There is, actually. You see, me and my friends are having a party tonight, and I kind of forgot my ID at home...And the cashiers never think I'm old enough to buy alcohol. The struggle of having a baby face..." he laughed.

The girl had caught the drift. "Sure, I can buy it for you," she beamed. "And what baby face? You could model for Calvin Klein!"

Hunter smiled, somewhat flattered. "Great," he said and started putting all the bottles and cans into her cart. "Is it possible for you to meet me on the parking lot?"

"Sure!" She immediately strutted towards the cash register, like a proud little lap dog.

Unbelievable how fast Hunter wrapped her around his finger.

Hunter now turned around to me with a smug look. "See. Easy."

"Sure, when you're looking like a Calvin Klein model," I mimicked the girl.

Hunter's only reply was a grin as he watched as the girl paid the drinks and walked towards the exit. We then quickly paid for our groceries and followed her outside.

She was standing on the parking lot, awaiting us –well, Hunter- with an eager smile.

"Thanks, love," Hunter said, lightly touching her arm and began to transfer everything back to our cart. "It was nice to meet you."

The smile on the girl's face looked almost painful right now.

Is it possible to get cramps in your cheeks after smiling for too long?

"So, are you going to give me your number now, or what?" she asked, trying her best to sound seductive and ending up sounding like Ursula from The Little Mermaid.

The smile on Hunter's face faltered for barely a second before he accepted the phone that she offered him and created a new contact, typing in a number. "Here you go, beautiful. See you then!"

With these words he turned around and we quickly made our way to Tom's car, where he was already waiting.

"Did you really give her your number?" I asked.

"Of course not. It's Liam's. He'll be excited about that," Hunter said and, as we were getting into the car, added: "Looks like you're going to your first party tonight, huh?"