Ch5

"I need more smalls," Katherine said after everyone had finished eating the ramen.

"Don't you have like 5 boxes of those things?" asked Julie

"Psh, ya, but I already ate 3 of them just today and the other 10 are in my suitcase," Katherine replied.

"And you're saying you need more?" Dakota asked sarcastically after he poked Katherine.

"Duh," Katherine said as she poked him back and soon they were having yet another poke war.

Dakota had gotten up and went to chat with the other guys on the bus so Julie, Katherine, and Natalie were gossiping.

"Hey Katherine, I think Dakota likes you," said Natalie.

"Dakota? Like me? What drugs are you on?" Katherine asked her.

"I have to agree with Natalie. He's always poking you and he was staring at you when you were sleeping earlier." Julie replied.

"Whatev," Katherine said to try to get Julie and Natalie to stop talking about it.

"Plus he's always complimenting how well you play even when you totally mess up," Allison said.

"Hey, eavesdropping isn't good unless I'm the eavesdropper," Katherine said.

"Do you like Dakota?" Julie asked Katherine.

"What kind of a question is that? Hang on a sec, OI DAKOTA! GET OVER HERE!"

"What?" Dakota was totally confused.

"Do you like me? Because Allison, Julie, and Natalie think you do." Katherine asked him. "And don't lie."

"Ummm...," was all that Dakota said.

"Come on, just admit it already," Julie almost yelled at him.

"Umm...ya."

"Wow," was all that Katherine could manage to say.

"So, do you like Dakota? Katherine?" Natalie said as she waved her hand in front of Katherine's face. "Earth to Katherine!"

"Whasbuhuh?"

"What is 'whasbuhuh'?" Allison asked.

Katherine's reply was eating another Smalls.

"You are so weird Katherine! A guy just admitted that he likes you and you are shocked but yet you still eat those stupid Smalls!" Julie said.

"What did you say about Smalls?" Katherine said glaring at her.

"Ummm...I said-"

"She said that smalls are stupid!" Dakota piped in, not wanting to feel left out.

Katherine gasped. "How could you say that Smalls are stupid Julie! I'm deeply offended."

Julie slapped Dakota.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Because now Katherine's mad at me!"

"I'm not mad at you! Geez, I was just being overdramatic. Honestly."

"Oh, ok I guess. So do you like Dakota or not?"

"Psh, possibly."

"Does that mean yes or no?"

"Dakota! Shut up and go away!" Allison, Julie, Katherine, and Natalie yelled at him at the same time.

"The big people are talking," Katherine added.

"Fine," Dakota replied.

"By the way, that meant yes," Julie said to him as he left.

"Psh."

"What Katherine? It's not like you were going to tell him yourself."

"True...but still, psh."

It was getting dark and still no one had come to rescue them. Every one on the bus was bored, tired, and hungry. Finally the bus driver decided to say something.

"Okay everybody, listen up! What I'm gonna do is I'm going to grab everyone's sleeping bags and bring them up here. I need a volunteer or two to help me bring up the sleeping bags."

Once he had said this Katherine was jumping up and down in her seat saying "Pick me! Pick me!"

"Okay, you there some with me." The bus driver said pointing at Katherine.

Katherine followed the bus driver out of the bus and came back up about a minute later with two sleeping bags. She went back out of the bus and brought two more back. She did this until everyone had their sleeping bags.

Once Katherine got back from bringing up all the sleeping bags Julie asked her, "Why were you so excited to help bring up the sleeping bags?"

"I wanted to get out of the bloody bus. Don't you?"

"Ya, I suppose that would b nice to be able to walk outside again but there might be rattlesnakes out there!"

Just as Katherine was about to reply the driver said "Okay, everybody to their original seats! I'm going to turn off the lights once everyone is settled and there are some windows opened."

So everyone headed back to their seats and there was much tripping with almost everyone was trying to walk back to their seats. Once Dakota had gotten back to his seat next to Katherine he had accidentally kicked her as he tried to sit down and soon they were having another poke war. Soon everyone was in their seats and in their sleeping bags and sleeping.

The next morning was extremely bright. There were absolutely no clouds in the sky and almost everyone had woken up from the sun shining into the bus. Around eleven 'o' clock everyone was awake and hungry. Everyone except for one person.

"Katherine! Wake up!" Dakota said as he shook her.

"Come on Katherine! Everyone else is awake!" Julie nearly yelled trying to wake up Katherine.

"Go away," Katherine mumbled in reply.

"Katherine! Everyone else is bored and we need ideas for what to do!" Allison piped in.

"C'mon! Give me five more minutes!" Katherine said as she rolled over and put her headphones on to block out everyone else.

"Katherine! We're at the camp!" Natalie said, hoping that Katherine would believe her.

"Liar." was Katherine's reply.

Soon Katherine was asleep again.

"Hey, Dakota," Julie said.

"What?"

"I know what'll wake her up."

"What?"

Julie and Dakota began to whisper and everyone else on the bus joined in, elaborating upon Julie's plan. Soon they had a master plan and a couple of back-up plans but they were sure that the master plan would work.

"Okay Dakota. Do you remember what to do?"

"Ya."

"Okay."

"Hey Katherine. Everyone else on the bus was hungry and the only thing they could eat were your Smalls. I told them that they—"

"They did WHAT!" Katherine yelled as she jumped up.

"Just kidding!" Dakota said.

Katherine punched Dakota in the stomach. Not hard, but everyone was surprised that she would get that angry.

"Don't tell me that ever again, even if it is just to wake me up," Katherine said and tried to go back to sleep but after ten minutes decided that there was no way to go back to sleep now.

"Dang Katherine. You are almost as abusive as Julie!" Blake said.

"Hey!" Julie exclaimed as she started to get out her ruler that she used to hit people with.

Everyone started laughing.

"Hey Julie! Remember that time when you said that your ruler didn't hurt that bad and you tried to prove it by hitting Blake with it?" Eric said.

"Oh ya and then when you hit him with it he started bleeding!" Samantha finished.

Everyone was cracking up but most people stopped laughing when Julie glared at them. The only one who was still laughing was Katherine. Katherine was pretty much the only person who was never afraid of Julie even when she threatened people. Soon Julie was laughing too, but everyone else was too afraid of her ruler to start laughing again.

Soon it was past noon. Everyone was starving and bored. Almost everyone was asleep except for Julie, Katherine, and Dakota.

"I'm hungry." Katherine stated. "Let's go find food."

"But we could get in trouble or we could get hurt!" Julie exclaimed.

"So? Would you rather get in trouble or be hungry for who knows how long we're gonna be stuck here?"

"Katherine has a good point."

"Okay. Let's go."

So they snuck past everyone and out of the bus. Luckily everyone (including the driver) didn't wake up. They were walking around for awhile when they found a prickly pear cactus.

"Hey! We can eat this!" Katherine yelled to Dakota and Julie.

"What is it?"

"A prickly pear cactus." Katherine replied, happy that she had had to do a report on desert plants.

"Is it edible?"

"Of course it's edible! Haven't you ever seen it in stores?"

"No," Dakota and Julie replied at the same time.

"Well they do sell it there"

"How are we supposed to eat it?"

"Well we can it the fruit or we can eat the cactusy part of it."

"Cactusy?"

'It's a word! Don't tell me how to live!"

"Fine. Do we have to cook it or anything."

"Ya. Okay. We need to find something to burn, something to make fire, and a flat stone to cook the cactus on. Oh, and we need to use some of that water in that small pond right there. How convenient."

So Dakota got to work on the fire, Julie went off in search of a flat stone and something to bring the cactus to the bus in, and Katherine started to take the pricky things off of the cactus and pick some of the fruit too.

Julie came back. She had found a flat stone and a large palm tree leaf that was all dried up.

"Great! We should wash off the leaf before we put any food on it. Dakota, are you done with the fire yet?"

"Ya, bring the stone over here and I'll put it on the fire."

Soon they had a huge feast of prickly pear cactus and some of the fruit too.

"Wait, be quiet for a sec." Katherine said as they were talking.

Off in the distance they could here some one calling.

"We should pack up this stuff and get back to the bus with the food."

"Ya, let's go"

So they packed everything up and put out the fire. They headed toward the sound of people calling for them and soon they started yelling back "We found food!"

Before long Dakota, Julie, and Katherine were back at the bus. Once they were in view of the bus everyone was cheering because they had food and everyone was extremely hungry. They divided up the food and everyone eagerly waited in line for their portion. Dakota, Julie, and Katherine had become heroes for bringing food and no one even cared any more that they had left without telling anyone.

A/N: Woot! my first chappie of this story! R and R please!