"Y'all hear that?" Darry said with a grin, the sound of cicadas in the air, it was the afternoon and they had the whole evening to set up camp.
"Yeah super." Pony said, he would rather be cruising and watching movies, not in the middle of nowhere camping. At least the rest of the gang seemed to be in good spirits, but not without ribbing Darry and his choice of vacation.
"The only thing I hear is that cliff callin my name." Two-bit grinned.
"Yeah? What's it saying?" Steve asked.
"Two-bit… Jump off me.." he said in a dramatized voice.
"You ain't gotta jump if I throw you off it first." Darry replied, "Now lets find a place to set up camp, maybe we can go hiking before it gets dark."
"Dar, we didn't pack tents." Jackie said.'
"We didn't have any, we're roughing it. Weather's suppose to be nice while we're here." He replied. Their faces fell.
"You're kidding right?" she asked.
"Nope, we're finding our own shelters. It'll keep us busy awhile." He replied.
"Darry you've gone fucking crazy. This ain't no boy scout adventure." Steve said looking around at the red rocks, cactus, and grass surrounding them.
"Guys, I'm kidding. I packed tents, take a chill pill." He replied, they all sighed as he pulled out three rolled up tents from the little area of back seat in his car, as well as a cooler that had all the food they would need (hopefully enough of it).
"That really wasn't funny." Pony said, annoyed further.
"Kinda was." Two-bit laughed.
"You find spilled milk funny." Steve sneered.
"Two-bit and Steve, here's yours. Pone and Soda, yours, and ours." Darry said, handing out the small bundles. They began making there way through the camping grounds, the area huge and open, the sites breathtaking.
"Are those buffalos?" Jackie asked, pointing to a pack of the creatures in amazement. She had never so much of left Tulsa.
"Nah, that's just Steve's mom." Two-bit cracked.
"You son of a bitch!" Steve yelled, tackling him to the ground, the two beginning to brawl, Steve having the upper hand although it was close. The rest of them just laughed, until Darry eventually urged them to move on. "I'm not sharing a tent with this idiot." Steve said, still miffed.
"Then you're sleeping outside buddy boy." Darry replied. They finally found a place to set up camp, amongst some tall bushes.
"It's beautiful here." she grinned as they set up camp. Darry knew right away how to set up their tent, but the other boys failed miserably.
"Jackie ain't you in construction?" Soda groaned as she tried to help them figure out what to do by reading and rereading the directions.
"I have never used a tent in my life." She admitted, it didn't even seem that hard… at least Darry made it seem not hard. By the time everything was set up, the sun was setting, Ponyboy slipping away from camp to watch it as Darry tried starting a fire.
"I feel like Paul Bunyon already." he heard Two-bit say loudly, as he watched the colors in the sky, the rest of the gang joking around.
"Darry was a lumberjack in his past life" Steve added, everybody laughing.
"Hey." a voice said, close to Ponyboy, snapping him out of his trance, she walked up next to him. "Sure is pretty, huh?" she said wishfully.
"You watch sunsets?" he asked, learning something new about her.
"When I can, which isn't as often as I'd like." she admitted.
"Isn't it weird that if we were home right now, we'd still be seeing the same thing?" he said.
"Yeah i guess it is, considering we're so far from home." she said, the colors fading to darkness. "I never thought of it like that."
"Finally you do something useful Darry!" Twobit laughed, she turned to see he finally had gotten the fire started.
"If y'all were as helpful as you are mouthy, we could build a city block." he replied, grinning.
"you hungry Ponyboy?" she asked.
"Now that you mention it, yeah." he replied, them walking back to the group, she went to Darry, him putting an arm over her. they pulled up the cooler with hotdogs, buns, and things for s'mores and sat around the fire, roasting and eating. she had grabbed a blanket and was snuggled in it, leaning against him while he ate.
"So this chick, I forgot her name, comes up to me and says 'this baby is yours' and i said 'if that baby's mine, then you're the most gorgeous girl i ever met'" Twobit spoke, "And guess what happened?" he egged on.
"What?" Soda said with a smile.
"Her face dropped!" he laughed, the rest of them laughing, besides Jackie shaking her head.
"Hey I gotta good joke Curly Shepard told me." Pony spoke up, having a better time than he thought.
"Let's hear it, kid brother" Soda said, smiling.
"Okay, so an idiot, a soc, and an asshole walk in a bar, what do they do?" he said.
"What?" Darry said slowly.
"HE orders a beer!" he said laughing, the gang roaring.
"That's great Pony." Twobit said, in pieces.
"I got one too." Steve said. "Why does Dr. Pepper come in a bottle?"
"Why?" Jackie snickered.
"Cause his wife left him." he finished, everybody laughing except Pony.
"I don't get it." he grinned, confused.
"You will one day." Darry replied, Twobit going to explain. "one day, not today!" Darry interrupted.
"How bout some scary stories?" Soda said with a wild grin.
"Do you have one? You're being awful quiet, like you've been waiting." Steve chuckled.
"In fact I do, get ready ladies and Jackie," he said, chuckling. Steve nudging him. "There once was a couple, sitting in a car on top of the mountainside called Lovers Lane," he began.
"If this is about a psychopath with a hook, we've all heard it man." Steve interrupted.
"Dammit Steve." he snapped back.
"I mean he is right, Soda." Twobit shrugged.
"Okay, fine. Does anybody else have a scary story since mine isn't good enough." Soda frowned, he wasn't really mad.
"I think I have a good one." Darry said with a grin, surprising all of them.
"Well shoot Darry, we're all ears." Steve said.
"There once was a woman who had a baby, but she hated the sight of it, because it looked too much like her husband who up and left her. So she wrapped this baby in a blue bonnet and walked deep into woods, two miles away from her home." He began, everybody enthralled and leaning in towards him. "As she walked back in her home she heard a voice say, 'blue bonnet baby 2 miles away'" his voice deepened when he said that, "She went and sat down by the candlelight, ignoring it until she heard 'blue bonnet baby 1 mile away'" his voice deepened again. "She got up and looked out the window, locking the door and sitting back down. It wasn't long before she heard 'blue bonnet baby coming up the driveway'" the boys stared at him, their hearts beating, she wrapped herself tighter in the blanket. "Suddenly the candlelight went out, she could hear shuffling in her kitchen" he said as he shuffled his feet. "And then right by her side she heard 'blue baby bonnet BOO!" He yelled the last part, startling them back, her gasping in fear and almost falling back. "I got y'all good!" He laughed, the boys feeling embarrassed.
"No you didn't!" Steve scoffed.
"Oh yeah? I saw your face in particular." Darry laughed, pointing at him.
"That was a good one Superman I gotta admit." Soda said chuckling.
"I'm beat fellas, I think I'm heading to bed." Twobit said, standing up and stretching.
"I think that's a good idea, we have a fun day ahead of us tomorrow." Darry said, standing up too.
"Night y'all." They all bid eachother, going in their tents under the slightly cloudy sky. This disappointed Darry, hoping tomorrow they would be able to see the magnitude of the stars while they were here.