I'm so sorry I haven't posted more. I haven't really had the motivation to write for the past two weeks. I also got a leadership position for orientation for my school so I've been busy with that. But anyway, I had fun writing this chapter and I'm breaking this into two sections for no reason in particular. Your reviews give me life. Enjoy and I'm glad everyone is enjoying this story so much.
Lucy woke up in the same manner she had woken up the day before. Yells from downstairs were echoing down the hall. She groaned and pulled her blanket over her head, wanting to get more sleep; she still felt exhausted from yesterday. Before she could fall asleep again, Erza's voice came over the intercom.
"Get up everyone. We're camping today and I want to leave early." Lucy glanced at the clock beside her bed and sighed. It was barely nine in the morning. Sunlight was streaming through the window, making her blink and rub her eyes. It was promising weather for camping. While she was still crawling out of bed Wendy came and poked her head in.
"If we don't hurry up Erza's going to be mad," was all she said before hurrying down the hall. The reminder of Erza's wrath had her moving faster. Gray, Natsu, and Gajeel were all yelling at each other, Erza was glaring daggers, while Evelyn and Wendy were peacefully eating waffles and ignoring the surrounding chaos.
"Good morning, Lucy!" Happy greeted her and she patted his head in greeting before whirling on Natsu and Gray.
"I could hear you upstairs in my room, without the intercom on!" None of them seemed perturbed by her frustration. No, instead Natsu just grinned at her and offered her a mug of hot chocolate as an apology. After she gratefully took the cup, she smacked his head which left Natsu pouting.
"I gave you hot chocolate!" he protested and Lucy shook her head as she took a sip. The hot chocolate chased away the chills that she had been feeling. She realized that she was cold in the first place because someone had the bright idea to open the windows and the back door. Erza's voice rose above the noise, as she yelled at all of them to shut up.
"Finish eating in ten minutes and then pack for camping. I want to be out of here in thirty minutes at the latest." There was surprisingly little bickering afterwards as they all rushed to be on time. Lucy scarfed down a wonderful breakfast of toast before she was herded out of the room by Natsu and Evelyn who promised she could eat more in the car. They ran to their respective rooms and Lucy threw everything she thought she would need in a bag and dragged it down the staircase. Much to her relief, she saw that there were still 15 minutes until Erza's deadline would be met. Unsurprisingly, Natsu and Gajeel were the last two people to come down, ten minutes later.
"Do we have the tents?" Erza asked, Gajeel confirmed that they did.
"Should we bring the ax?" Gray asked. Erza sighed and put her hand on her forehead in exasperation.
"Might as well, assuming you'll want s'mores later." Gray cheered and ran to retrieve the ax from the closet it was kept in. Erza cut his joy short when she simply plucked it out of his hands. Then she passed it off to Lucy. She squeaked when the ax was put in her hand but didn't want to argue. "Out to the car now so we can get there on time."
"What happens if your schedule gets screwed up because of traffic?" Gajeel grumbled as they all situated themselves in the car. Erza glared.
"Traffic will not stop us from reaching our destination on time," she declared and everyone else exchanged terrified looks but didn't dare to say anything. Yes the car was automatic but there was a steering wheel should the need arise for manual operation. The last time Lucy had seen it used was when they were being chased out of Era while they were still searching for Evelyn. Most of the bags had been put in compartments that were built into the floor. Lucy grabbed a waffle that had been brought in the car, sticking her tongue out when Lily and Happy had asked for it because they were hungry again.
"There's more food!" Evelyn said as the Exceeds continued to pester Lucy with pleas for her waffle. "Now can you please shut up?" The Exceeds continued to talk quietly to each other but no one said anything for a while. Then the fight over music started.
It started as it normally did with Gajeel turning on jazz. Natsu immediately asked him why he liked jazz "when you love metal so much?" As if to annoy Natsu further in retaliation he turned the volume up. Natsu hissed, like a cat, and switched the music to rock. Evelyn and Wendy seemed to drown it out and joined the Exceeds' conversation. Gray had actually taken Natsu's side and was actively trying to restrain Gajeel from changing the music back to jazz. Lucy watched with mostly annoyance but did find the situation amusing. Erza did not seem to think so. She looked like she was using all of her self-control to not strangle the three who were now wrestling on the floor of the car. Rock music was still blaring through the car. Happy was now cheering for Natsu while Lily was shouting encouragement at Gajeel. Charle simply sat back and looked at them disdainfully, shaking her head in disappointment.
"The next person who changes the music," Erza yelled, "is getting thrown out of the car!" Everyone paused and Evelyn put on pop music, which resulted in groans from all of the guys. Erza glared at Evie but she just smiled back innocently. "I'll allow it," Erza muttered. Gajeel pulled headphones out of a compartment in the car that Lucy hadn't noticed.
"You had headphones the entire time?" Lucy asked incredulously. "Seriously?" Natsu raised a fist but saw Erza's glare and backed down.
"Play a game with me Natsu," Evelyn said and held out the tablet that seemed to conveniently be around every time there was an argument of some sort on road trips. Natsu muttered something under his breath and slid next to Evelyn. Soon enough they were immersed in the game they were playing.
Everyone had mellowed out, the peace only broken when there was a bout of laughter from Evelyn or Natsu. Lucy pulled out a bag of food that Natsu had snuck into the car and started eating another waffle, briefly wishing she had syrup but she was happy to just eat something.
Lucy was relieved when they finally pulled onto a paved road that was lightly covered in dirt. The car was jostling around due to the uneven ground. "You might want to be careful Lucy," Gajeel said. "There are venomous snakes out here!"
"What?" Lucy squeaked and Gray delivered a punch to the side of Gajeel's head, ignoring the indentations he got on his fist from Gajeel's piercings,
"He's being an asshole, you don't have to worry about snakes." He paused for a moment. "There are spiders though." It was Natsu's turn to glare at Gray.
"Gray don't be an idiot! You don't have to worry about spiders. Bees and mosquitos are here though." Lucy breathed a sigh of relief.
"I think I can deal with those," Lucy said. It grew slightly darker as they drove under a canopy of trees.
"Don't pay attention to them Lucy," Charle said. "Most of the bugs don't come out this early in the year. They like warmer weather than this." Lucy nodded, relieved that she wouldn't have to deal with anything that could potentially kill her.
"There's a clearing around here that's used for camping. We've been going here for years so we know the area pretty well," Wendy explained.
"I wonder if the trail we marked last year will still be there," Erza mused as she looked out the window, as if she would be able to see it. "There's a small stream that runs near here also. Unfortunately all of the berries won't be in season so we can't eat them." When they pulled to a clearing the car shut off and they all got out. A wide space was laid out in front of them. There wasn't a lot of grass to cover the ground and as they walked over to the center of the clearing, Lucy could tell that her back would hurt the next morning from sleeping on the ground. Erza clapped her hands.
"Time to build the tents!" Everyone groaned and trudged to the car again and pulled out the tents from the floor of the car. Natsu tossed the bags they were in on the ground and left them there to poke around the perimeter of the area. He let out a whoop of excitement.
"The markings from the trail are here! We could go exploring again!" Natsu's excitement was infectious. Lucy felt herself looking forward to trekking through the woods and exploring.
"Just make sure that you don't fall into poison ivy again, dumbass," Gray called as he dumped the contents of one of the tent bags onto the ground.
"That was you idiot! Remember? And because of your damn stripping habit you had to soak in the stream for an hour."
"Then you kicked me out of your tent for 'precautions'," Gray reminded. Natsu glared as he went to one of the remaining two bags lying on the ground.
"Because I didn't need the entire damn tent contaminated with fucking poison ivy!"
"The sooner we get tents up the sooner we can explore," Wendy reminded and the two boys threw themselves into the work wholeheartedly. Lucy helped Erza, paying close attention to what Erza was doing. For the duration of the time they spent building tents, there was silence. Birds chirped in the trees and the leaves rustled in a soft, spring breeze. The air was cool, but not chilly, like winter was holding on but spring was slowly pushing it away. When the tents were up Natsu let out a whoop of excitement. He ran to the car and grabbed the ax and ran back to the clearing.
"Let's go cut firewood!" Natsu exclaimed. He made a beeline for the path that they had created and Gajeel and Gray chased after him. Lucy and Erza exchanged glances and a sigh.
"We need to go after them or they're going to kill each other," Lucy said and Erza nodded in agreement. "Will you two be ok by yourselves?" Evie waved her question away.
"We can take care of ourselves. We can find rocks to start a fire later." Erza approved of the idea and the two girls followed the guys' footsteps. They were following the shouting to guide them more than the footprints they left in the ground. Wx`hen they caught up with them what they saw was concerning. All three of them were holding the ax and pulling on it. Each of them wanted to use it and Lucy could imagine it flying back and cutting off one of their heads.
"Drop the axe!" Erza yelled. All three of them did because they were startled by the shout that broke the sereneness of the air. "I'll chop the firewood otherwise we'll be here all night waiting for one of you three idiots to decide who's going to cut the wood." Whining immediately followed her statement.
"But Erza—"
"We promise—"
Their voices all overlapped and Lucy yelled at them to shut up. They all quieted down and watched with disappointment as Erza chopped at the low-hanging branches on trees. Lucy could see the remorse and resentment that Erza had cut the firewood instead of them. Lucy sincerely hoped that they didn't do anything stupid to exact revenge.