Chapter 2- Day one
The buses rattled along the path toward the school owned cabin. Mr. Simmons was drilling the class about safety procedures, the buddy system and about sneaking into the opposite sex's bedroom. I wasn't listening to him. I was discreetly watching Helga. She was rocking gently to the music coming from her CD player. Occasionally she would glance at me and smile. She knew I was watching her. I wonder if she knew I had a crush on her? The bus screeched to a halt and all the kids bounded off. Helga had disappeared into the mesh of people while Gerald stood beside me. "So what are going to find on your nature hike?" he asked.
"Nature hike?"
"Weren't you listening to Mr. Simmons? We have to find a partner and find 3 kinds of things we learned about in Science over the past 6 weeks."
"Who's your partner?"
"Phoebe."
I should have known. "Oh great…" I said.
Noticing my disappointment he continued, "This is a perfect opportunity for you to work with Helga."
Yeah it would be great but where was she? I walked through the dispersing crowd searching for Helga. She was standing next to the cabin her arms crossed. She shivered slightly as I walked up. "Why are you standing over here by yourself?"
"Just wanted to get away from people…"
"Are you okay?"
"Eventually. I will be. Hey Sailor…do you believe in love?"
"Yes I do."
"Do you believe you'll ever find it?"
"I think I already have." I whispered.
"I hope she loves you back, Sailor. Now come on we've got some rocks or mud or some kind of junk to find."
She grabbed my hand and led me into the woods. After about an hour of walking we had forgotten about our assignment completely. We just walked around talking and reminiscing about the "good ole days".
"Remember our freshman year of high school when Stinky and Harold put shoe polish in the teacher's lounge coffee maker and all the teacher's teeth were black for a month?" she said laughing for the first time since the trip started.
It was good to hear her laugh. Her eyes lit up and her face glowed like a million stars at midnight (forgive my corniness). "Hey Arnold look!" she shouted snapping me out of my reverie.
"What?"
"It's snowing…"
"Snowing?"
"Yep." She held out her hand and showed me the white powder that had fallen in her hand, "I want to get married in the snow. Beautiful isn't it?"
"Just like you…"
Helga's face flushed slightly and she dropped the snow in her hand. "Uh we better get back before it starts snowing to hard."
Sullenly I followed her toward the cabin. The others had already arrived and Mr. Simmons was giving orders, "And remember no one leaves the cabin tonight."
"What's going on?"
"We are going to get a blizzard tonight and all the buses have left already." Gerald said smiling.
A blizzard? Huh isn't it funny how fate turns into things unexpected. Maybe this trip wouldn't be a total disaster after all.