Chapter 22

As I hoisted the backpack up on my back I almost toppled over from the weight of it. I suppose being safe rather than sorry was the preferable choice, but this was ludicrous. This backpack probably weighed more than I did.

"Do you need a hand with that?", Jake asked and started easing my backpack off my back.

"Really, I'm fine…", I started off but Jake was already strapping my backpack to his backpack.

"Alright then", I yielded and instead opted on carrying one of the bags containing parts of the tent.

"It's not that far, we're gonna make camp in like 15 minutes", Edward said and helped me get a good grip of the bag before grabbing onto his own backpack.

"It's fine", I mumbled. Sometimes I just hated being weak and clumsy, always feeling I wasn't carrying my own weight in situations like these. But on the other hand, the alternative was to engage in some kind of sport, or even worse, having to hang out at the gym. I preferred my scrawny physique to that any given day.

"Let's get moving", Emmett bellowed with his deep, dark voice, startling me to almost topple over again.

"Easy, partner", Jake chuckled and grabbed my arm to steady me, "It's not time to lay down and relax yet".

"Thanks", I said and smiled at him. Being around Jake was easy, it felt almost like having a little brother. He was always bursting with energy and excitement and I never had a dull day in his company. Another of Jakes qualities was that he never pried about my life back in Phoenix. I don't know if it was because he'd already grasped that I wasn't very talkative when it came to Phoenix or if he just wasn't interested. Either way I was grateful for it and being around Jake always made my mind feel quiet. Edward on the other hand I still wasn't quite sure about…

"Ah, I just love being out in nature, don't you?", Rosalie said, locking elbows with me. She was carrying a ridiculously big backpack compared to mine, though she seemed unaffected by it's heaviness. As a matter of fact, everyone in the party were carrying loads way heavier than mine. Way to carry your own weight, Bella…

"Yeah, it's really beautiful out here", I said, trying to sound excited about it. And yes, the surroundings were indeed very beautiful. The green landscape stretched out in a great green ocean that seemed to consume everything around it and even though the sky was cloudy today it was a beautiful day to go camping. But I had never been a big fan of the outdoor scene and honestly I was mostly here for the company. I'd come to grasp that these people actually made me feel good about being here in Forks and even though Edward and his siblings at times made me uncomfortable I still enjoyed myself being around them most of the time. Edward and his siblings always had such amazing stories to tell about all the trips they'd made around the world and I never had a dull moment hanging out with them. Sometimes I envied all the places they'd visited, but I imagine travelling all over the world isn't an impossibility when you have a father that is a doctor. Still, even with a father being a doctor they'd travelled a whole lot more than most people our age and sometimes I even wondered if it was possible to have travelled that much when you were just in high school. Not that I suspected any of them of lying, but it just seemed a lot.

"It's fine if you're not crazy about nature, Bella. With our tent you're gonna be as comfortable as you'll ever be at your own house, I promise. And once we've got a fire started and have some food cooking I'm sure you'll love it, "she said and smiled reassuringly at me.

"I'm just not used to being outdoors like this. But I'm really glad you thought of bringing me alone. Really."

"We're just glad you decided to come along", Rosalie said and smiled. Then she looked in Edward's direction and smiled even bigger. Rosalie too seemed adamant about pair me up with Edward. Too bad she wasn't going to get her way.

After a short walk, as Edward has promised, we reached our destination. It was a beautiful clearing in the middle of the forest. The ground was plain which made it easy to put up the tent. Not that I would know, Emmett and Rosalie did most of the work, but they didn't look all that strained getting it together. Edward and Jake started collecting wood so that we could construct a fire later on. I did my best to be helpful but in the end I figured I'd be better off organizing our belongings at camp rather than destroying the tent or the fire. After half an hour or so we were all done setting up camp and Emmett suggested we should get some hotdogs cooking and then head out for some adventure in the great unknown. We got the fire started and managed to get a couple of hotdogs on there. After we'd finished our meal we gathered what we needed and headed out to explore our surroundings. Jake and Emmett walked ahead of us, Jake acting like an excited puppy like always. Emmett too seemed to be enjoying himself and chattered on with Jake with a million questions about life in the reservation. Jake seemed to thrive, getting the older boys attention and he answered every question with the same enthusiasm. Rosalie walked behind them, appearing to be caught up in her own thoughts. I on the other hand had a bit of a rough time getting around in the forest without slipping, even though no one else seemed to be experiencing the same kind of problems. Go figure… Edward was walking just in front of me, as if to make sure he'd catch me if I were to fall. I wasn't sure if this gesture annoyed me or if it was actually just Edward being a decent guy looking out for me.

"So I figure you don't usually hang out in the woods back home in Phoenix?", Edward asked.

"Well, to be honest no. But then we didn't have this much forest back home in Phoenix to start with", I said, trying to sound pleasant even though I was kind of annoyed of all these "back in Phoenix"-questions Edward threw at me every time he got a chance. But I'd decided my messed up past didn't justify me being a bitch about it. "But it's really nice here, Charlie always used to bring me fishing at the reservation when I was here during the summer", I added. "That's how I got to know Jake and his sisters".

"Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that you're not a newbie here in Forks, like me", he said and smiled at me, "I've actually never gone to the reservation but I'd like to someday. Maybe we can have our next camping adventure there." He looked a bit amused at what he'd just said, and I was sure he was as convinced as I was that our next camping trip wasn't going to be anytime soon.

"Uhm, yeah. That could be cool", I said, not managing to convince anyone.

"I've always hung out so much in the wild, my family being the outdoorsy kind, I never really thought about the fact that most people don't spend as much time camping as we do", Edward added trying to smooth over my apparent aversion towards the wilderness of Forks. "And if camping isn't growing on you I suppose we could always just go to the movies instead if that is more to your liking. And I promise, there will be no weird "is-this-a-date-or-not" undertones this time". He gave me a teasing smile and I could feel how my face turned red. I was still embarrassed about the speech I'd made to Edward that time and it was obvious he knew it too.

"You just keep on dreaming, chico…" I grumbled at him, even though I was bursting with laughter at my own humiliation.