Oz and Valda found a hidden corner and collapsed. They figured they had run long enough to lose the food freaks. SWP and Cheshire-K were nowhere in sight but at that moment; Valda and Oz were too exhausted and frightened to pay any attention to them.
"Are we safe?" Valda panted.
"I don't know," Oz replied, that's when Valda broke down sobbing uncontrollably. Oz patted her friends back and pulled her in close to her side. Neither of them spoke for a long time, the only sound was that of Valda's quiet sobs.
Valda's sobbing reduced to sniffles, "S-sorry."
"It's okay," Oz said, wiping away Valda's tears with her fingers. She let her hands move slowly downwards and grabbed a strand of Valda's hair, twirling it in her hands. Valda became very quiet all of a sudden as the two of them locked eyes. Neither one moved, they just sat there for a very long time gazing into each other's eyes. Oz felt the strangest urge to lean closer in to Valda and kiss her. Why did she want to kiss Valda? She was straight...she didn't fall for girls much less her friends! Valda was her friend and she couldn't possibly damage their relationships but...all she knew was that at that very moment she wanted to kiss Valda more than anything she had ever wanted before. Oz cupped Valda's cheek in her palm, Valda made a strange confused squeak before leaning into Oz's palm.
"Uh...guys? I hate to cut in but-" Cheshire-K interrupted as she crawled into their corner with them.
"Oh uh no! You weren't interrupting anything!" Oz stumbled over her words.
"Yeah um we were just uh...w-we were practicing..." Valda tried desperately to come up with some logical reason for their actions.
"We were practicing for a um...video...yeah..."
"Uh-huh," Cheshire-K nodded, clearly not convinced. "Has any one seen SWP?"
"Oh we thought she was with you?"
"I thought she was with you..."
"Uh oh, we better check and make sure she's okay. Valda, you and Cheshire-K go look for her."
"And what are you going to do?" Valda asked.
"I'm going to the library, something very strange is going on here and I intend on getting to the bottom of it as soon as possible!"