Good morning, how has your day be- HOLY SHIT THIS IS AN ACTUAL UPDATE??

By now, being veteran readers of this dumpster fire book, I'm sure you've read these messages all before. "Sorry for not posting in like 4 months" "So sorry for vanishing off the face of wattpad" "Sorry for leaving you all hanging"— but I DONT CARE IF YOUVE HEARD IT BEFORE BECAUSE I WILL SAY IT AGAIN. I literally feel so guilty every time that I neglect to write for this fic (and trust me, I want to) it's just that my love for the WoF series is not quite what it used to be. I still engage with content, but it's honestly draining at times. That being said, the closer I get to finally completing this thing, the more motivated I am!Therefore, I am going to try my hardest to update regularly like you guys keep urging me to, and hopefully we can wrap it up in a satisfactory way. This chapter is by no means good, but c'mon, cut your girl some slack. Anyways, enjoy!

(P.S. I totally forgot to talk about this, but the 2 year anniversary of this book has officially passed! It was on July 15, and idk why the fact that it's been two entire years makes me both super happy and super sad. Okay, for real this time- enjoy!)

Kinkajou had always been sure of herself. And that would not change any time soon.
Even if her bestie's intimidating hulk of an evil father was about to sentence her and all her friends to detention for life?

Yep, even then.

"You utter whippersnappers! You intolerable imps!" Morrowseer was fuming so severely he'd started pulling insults out of a dictionary. This was bad. Especially seeing as Kinkajou could only understand about half of the words he was spouting. "How dare you run from me, and how dare you come back here to gloat in my face?" There had been no time for Kinkajou or her friends to warn Moon upon their return to the lodge because they'd come directly face-to-face with her father, the personified version of a wet sock.

Kinkajou stared up at the fuming Vice Principal, unimpressed. She could easily stand her ground in front of anyone, even tall people like him-- although, in comparison to Kinkajou pretty much everyone was tall. Still! She wouldn't let that intimidate her! No being, regardless of size, could ever survive an attack from her epic arsenal of secret weapons-- the various trinkets, many of surprising sharpness stored inside of her backpack. The longer she started at his ugly face, tomato red with rage, the more Kinkajou felt the urge to stab him with the ceramic pineapple sculpture that was her ultimate weapon. It would just be like BAM! SMASH! Pineapple down his throat! the crowd cheers!
But much to Kinkajou's dismay, she was never given that opportunity. Instead, she was given a plastic trash bag, a pair of latex gloves, and the wort punishment imaginable:
trash cleanup duty. Alone.

Kinkajou hated to admit it, but she would have been significantly happier with Morrowseer giving her detention, even if it was for life. At least then she wouldn't have been suffering by herself. Unfortunately, Morrowseer may have been a man from Florida, but he wasn't stupid, and he certainly wasn't impulsive. His decision to make Kinkajou serve her punishment alone was clearly purposeful.

But no matter what his efforts may be, Morrowseer could never stop Kinkajou's resolve. She angrily snatched an empty cola can off the ground while pondering her epic escape plan, which had yet to exist-- Morrowseer had been pacing around camp for the last 20 minutes, observing Kinkajou and the others who had been dispersed to different jobs- that meant she was almost always in his sight, but it also meant that he hadn't come in contact with Moon yet. There had to be some kind of way for her to leave and find her friend without him seeing.

Suddenly, she heard something crunch under her shoe. Kinkajou bent down to see a half empty bag of flamin'-hot-cheetos thrown on the ground- she reluctantly scooped it up, trying not to get the bright red dust stuck to her gloved fingers and in a moment of pure stupidity thought wow, that looks a lot like blood. 

it looks like blood...

An idea popped into her head. A dumb idea, sure, but an idea nonetheless. She reluctantly smeared a dot of the red dust on her forehead before trashing the bag- the plan was risky, but it was worth a try if it could get her to Moon.

Kinkajou spotted the vice principal turning a corner around the picnic area and seized her chance. She wandered over to him holding her hand on her forehead and trying her best to make a pained face.

"Sir?" Morrowseer nearly leapt out of his skin when he saw the small girl behind him. It offered Kinkajou just a little satisfaction. "I need to go to the nurse."

The man looked her up and down with narrowed eyes. "You don't look injured."

And you don't look like a football, but I could punt you real far, she nearly blurted out. Instead, she replied by peeling her hand off her forehead. She didn't give Morrowseer too long to glare at the fake cheeto wound. "I was just cleaning up trash by the picnic area when I slipped and hit my head!" She whined.

"You slipped? On what?"

Kinkajou chuckled nervously. "A...banana peel?"

His silence said everything.

Now Kinkajou was really beginning to panic. "They're really super slippery, you know!" She flashed him a weak smile. "Like in cartoons, they do that for a reason- plus I just feel so dizzy and oH NO WHAT IF I HAVE A CONCUSSION?? THAT WOULD NOT BE COOL, RIGHT?! I'm starting to feel so light headed, I could faint at any moment. Fun fact, concussions can be fatal, and as the responsible adult in this situation I really think you should-"

"Oh my god OKAY!" He heaved a heavy sigh. "I'll take you to the nurse if you promise not to open your mouth until you are out of my sights. Got that?"

She breathed out a huge sigh of relief and almost forgot to act injured for a moment, before Morrowseer beckoned her to follow him. The school nurse had come on the field trip in case of emergencies, and she was seeing students in a small tent on the far side of the lodge. Kinkajou looked out in its direction and thought she caught a glimpse of a familiar face inside...

"Young lady!" Morrowseer's voice snapped her back to reality. "I hope you're not thinking of running off now, are you?"

"I wouldn't dream of it! Just...my lightheadedness."

"Good. I have my eye on you."

--------

When they finally got close to the tent, Kinkajou was suddenly struck by the thought that Morrowseer might want to come in with her to see her treated- and he'd quickly unveil her lie. Fortunately, he didn't seem to care all that much, and left her just outside the tent.

"But do hurry up," He grumbled. "the trash isn't going to clean itself."

Kinkajou didn't even bother looking offended as she dipped under the tent's flaps and into the makeshift office. It was relatively plain, with just two stretchers on either side and a foldable table in the center, filled with medical supplies. The only thing it was missing was, surprisingly, a nurse. It was the perfect scenario for her to just slip out unseen, and Morrowseer would be none the wiser.

"sup."

Kinkajou must have leapt three feet in the air at the sound of the voice in a seemingly empty tent. She whirled back around to see that one of the presumably vacant stretchers had a very real person on it- a person that she recognized.

"Coconut?" She blurted out in shock. The boy who was now lying on a stretcher in a camouflage coat had once been a family friend of hers- they'd lived on the same block, but stopped hanging out eventually. Coconut didn't care much for her enthusiastic personality, or for much else, actually.

"Hey," Coconut limply waved at her. "Nice to meet you."

"Uh...hi!" Kinkajou replied. "It's me, Kinkajou. We've already met."

"Really?" Coconut yawned. "Okay."

Kinkajou really would have wanted to leave, but something felt wrong about ending the conversation so abruptly. Plus, Coconut didn't exactly seem okay. They hadn't talked in years, but it was hard to believe he would be so uncaring. Something had to be seriously wrong.

She approached the boy tentatively. "So...why are you here? Are you hurt?"

She waited for a few seconds, but instead of replying, Coconut started to yawn. And he yawned. And then he yawned some more. Finally he was done. "Cough drops," he said.

"Cough drops? Do you have a sore throat or something?"

"No, I just think they taste good. Nurse left to get them for me."

Oh shoot, the nurse! Kinkajou suddenly remembered the real point of her entire trip here and decided to stop entertaining the criminally one-sided conversation with Coconut. He didn't even notice as she slipped back out of the tent to find Moon.

Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot! She had to believe Morrowseer was still occupied observing the rest of her friends. Otherwise this all would have been for nothing! Kinkajou burst open the doors of the craft cabin instantly, and scanned the room for her friend. But Moon was nowhere in sight.

"Moon?" she called out to the empty cabin. "Are you there?"

"Kinkajou!" A voice surprised her once again. This was happening way too many times today. "There you are!"

Unfortunately, the person behind her wasn't the one she was looking for. It was Turtle.
"Hi, Turtle!" She laughed nervously. "Sorry, I really have to leave. Like, right now. Could you tell me where Moon is?"

Her boyfriend furrowed his brows. "Uhh...I thought I saw her go back to her room after we were done cleaning. Also, uh surprise! I made you somethi-"

"Thanks! See ya! Gotta go!" Kinkajou brushed past him quickly without a second glance, heading to the lodge again. It was totally nothing personal- surely Turtle could show her whatever it was another time. What was personal was saving her bestie from her psycho dad. And there was no time to lose.

Haha yeah situation that totally isn't going to blow up in her face later on definitely not 🤠
Anyways, as I said in the beginning, I'm going to be finishing this book very shortly- I aim to get it done by the time I start school again in late August, but that's admittedly a little too lofty of a deadline. At the absolute latest, I hope you will all see it completed by November, but I'm going to try my hardest to finish faster and give it a good, satisfactory ending.

Thanks again to all the support, see you next time! <3