More hints at future pairings to come in this chapter. :)
Enjoy!
The drive took two hours, just like Wanda promised. They stopped briefly in a neighbouring town of Walkerville so Wanda could refuel the van and, with no more detours, proceeded to move up towards the parking lot where they would begin their journey on foot.
Eager to get started, the eight friends jumped out of the van soon after it rolled to a stop and scrambled to get their packs and gear sorted out. Dorothy Ann swallowed and her ears popped. She had forgotten to check their starting altitude in the guide book.
Having brung quite a light pack, Dorothy Ann was one of the first to be buckled and ready; she sat on a rock and pulled out the guide while she waited. She could hear Tim in the background struggling to get his hiking boots on with one properly functioning hand while she turned the to the page with the map. She frowned. Reading a map was something that didn't come as easily to her as reading prose. Not that she had too much trouble, it was just that a map of the Granger Mountains could have been written with half as much scrawl. By the time it took her to just locate the parking lot they were in, even Arnold had managed to haul his enormous pack over his shoulders.
"You ready DA?" Wanda shouted from inside the van. Dorothy Ann saw she had just pulled on her own hiking boots and was ready to lock the door.
Dorothy Ann stuffed the guide quickly into one pocket of the backpack. "Yeah. Are we ready to go?"
"Yeah, we should start now if this things going to take us five hours," Carlos said, looking at his watch.
"Is it just me, or does it look like it's about to rain?" Ralphie asked, looking up ominously at the sky.
"Hey, which trail do we start on?" Keesha asked, pointing in one direction and then another. Dorothy Ann followed her gaze and saw there were indeed two separate dirt paths winding away and disappearing into the evergreen forest.
"Check your map DA," Carlos said, hands stuffed in his pockets. Dorothy Ann pulled the guide back out and flipped to the appropriate page. This time she could find the parking lot immediately, and the two trails.
"I think it's that one," DA said, pointing to the one on the right. "I pretty sure it's - oh for crying out loud, there's a sign!"
Carlos snorted. "She's right. How are we supposed to find this place when we're that oblivious?"
"By following my lead," Wanda said, snatching the book from Dorothy Ann's hands. "I've been on this trail before - "
"When you were, what, eight?" Ralphie asked.
" - and I know exactly where we need to go," Wanda finished.
"There are a few forks," DA said, snatching the guide back. "And you can be the leader, but it's my book!"
"Can we get started," Arnold asked. "This backpacks starting to get really heavy..."
xxx
The group of eight got to the next fork in only fifteen minutes; it turned out fifteen minutes was all that was needed for Wanda to find out she really didn't remember as much of the trail as she thought.
"This fork's new," she concluded.
"Are you kidding?" Ralphie said. "It's so old the lettering's been scratched off the post!"
"Well then you navigate," Wanda snapped.
"What does your book say, DA?" Arnold asked, peering over her shoulder. DA, who hadn't closed it during the hike so far, skimmed the map, looking for the fork.
"It says we should go left," she said slowly, not taking her eyes off the guide. "Yeah," she looked up at Wanda. "It's definitely the left fork."
"See?" Wanda said. "We're fine as long as we've got bookbrain with us!" She pushed DA ahead of her onto the left fork.
"Bookbrain?"
"Hey...hey guys?"
"What is it Arnold?" Wanda asked impatiently, turning back around to face him.
Arnold pointed to the ground right below his feet. "Um... should we be worried about this?"
Dorothy Ann and Phoebe bent down curiously to see what he was talking about.
DA hadn't been looking as closely at the ground as Arnold apparently had been, her eyes being locked mostly on the guide book, but there was definitely something there. Printed into the moist soil was something that closely resembled an animals footstep. A cracked twig lay inside the indented earth.
"It looks like a bear print," Phoebe said finally.
"Looks almost a week old too," Tim said, joining the girls on the ground. "I don't think we'll run into any trouble with one. They're usually pretty docile anyway." He stood up again, apparently unconcerned.
Arnold, however, still looked rather worried.
"Running into a bear is a lot better than running into a dinosaur," Phoebe smiled at him.
"T - Rex," Ralphie cut in. "To be exact.."
"Yeah, but this time I'm only five foot seven," Arnold said, however he looked slightly calmer.
"Relax Arnold," Wanda said, a hint of impatience in her voice. "We ready to continue moving?"
Dorothy Ann double checked the map one last time and nodded. She joined Wanda up at the font of the group and they moved on forwards.
xxx
After three bridges and two more crossroads later, the gang settled down for a snack in a fairly large clearing of the forest. The figured they were rather lucky finding a spot large enough, as the trees were getting closer and closer together and the path narrower, and decided to have lunch a bit ahead of schedule. Also, the clearing bade home to several more pathways, and, since even Dorothy Ann couldn't tell them which one to take with absolute certainty due to the fact she had tripped and dropped the book in a large pit of mud, the gang decided to take a much needed break.
"Bring any malloblasters Arnold?" Ralphie leaned over hopefully.
"I'm saving them for later," Arnold slid away from Ralphie's eager hands. "I mean, who know's, there might not be any at the bed and breakfast. I wanted to come prepared."
"My aunt keeps plenty of food stocked in there," Wanda said while she dug in her backpack for a sandwich. "I'm sure she has mallowblasters up there."
"Just so long as she doesn't have sea weedies!" Carlos said, taking a bite out of his apple. "Hey, get away!" he shooed a Whiskey Jack away from the trail mix lying beside him.
"Aw, Carlos don't!" Phoebe scolded. "They're just hungry." And she held up a piece of granola in her palm. One of the birds jumped onto it, grabbed the food in it's beak, and took off again. She giggled. "Awww! I love these birds..."
"What else is at the cabin Wanda?" Dorothy Ann asked, tossing a slice of bread at the nearest Whiskey Jack.
"The most gorgeous lake you've ever seen!" Wanda said excitedly. "With a floating dock in the middle and everything!"
"For skinny dipping?" Carlos grinned.
"Carlos!" Dorothy Ann and Keesha rolled their eyes at him.
"He's right," Ralphie nodded his head solemnly. "You can't go camping without skinny dipping."
"Maybe you can't, Ralphie, but I most certainly can," Keesha said.
"And the best part is, since no one will be there, we can each take whatever rooms we want!" Wanda continued. "Including the most expensive, fanciest ones you can get up here!"
"I could kiss you Wanda," Ralphie smiled, closing his eyes and leaning back against a tree trunk.
Dorothy Ann could have sworn she had seen Wanda turn a faint shade of pink before she recovered and managed to raise an eyebrow tiredly at Ralphie.
Arnold choked on his mallowblaster next to her. Tim thumped him on the back.
They lounged around for another twenty minutes before finally deciding to pack up and continue their journey. They knew they had to start picking up the pace if they didn't want to hike in the dark.
Wanda walked up to the divisions in the road and tried to come up with a definite conclusion as to where they should head next. Beside her, DA looked hopelessly at her now useless guide, completely caked with mud, and sighed sadly.
Wanda took a deep breath, looking helplessly at the different paths. She knitted her brows and nodded to herself. "Yes... yes, ok. I think..." She turned to the group looking certain of herself. "I think we should split up..."
There was a silence where only the natural sounds of the forest: the birds chirping, a river someways off roaring down to the ocean, and the buzzing of the little bugs flying around, could be heard.
"Split up..." Arnold said finally. He was looking at Wanda as if she had gone insane. "Are you crazy?!"
"Arnold's right," Keesha said, frowning at Wanda. "There's no way that'll help our situation. Not only would we be lost, but we'd have lost each other as well."
Wanda frowned right back at Keesha and placed her hands on her hips. "Keesha," she said angrily, "Do you really think I'm so stupid as to have such an idiotic idea of us splitting up, without being absolutely sure we wouldn't get into any trouble for it first?"
Her companions all eyed each other uncomfortably; Wanda could see their distrust all too well. She sighed in frustration.
"Listen to me," she insisted. "I may not be able to remember every little nook and cranny on this trail, but I'm absolutely, one hundred percent sure that each and every one of these trails eventually leads down to the town by the bed and breakfast. One hundred percent sure."
"So we'll all end up in the town?" Tim asked doubtfully.
"Well, all of us except for the two that get to my aunts place first," Wanda continued. Her eyes skimmed the group carefully. "Then they'll hike the rest of the way to the town - which is only about a fifteen minute hike - and let the rest of the group know."
There was a pause. None of the others spoke for a moment, obviously thinking it over.
"She's right," DA said after a while, thinking back to when the map had been in readable condition. "The trails do all meet in the town."
"Great!" Wanda clapped her hands together, evidently satisfied. "It's settled."
"Wait, wait, wait," Keesha held up a hand. "We still haven't decided whether or not it's a good idea."
Wanda folded her arms around her chest. "Well, then, do you have a better one?"
Keesha thought for a moment, then sighed in frustration. "No! No, I don't have a better idea... But I really do think we should stay together. Anything could happen."
"Some of us have cell phones right?" Ralphie asked, reaching into his pocket for his own. "The connection isn't lost on mine..." He looked at Keesha. "I'd be up for it."
Keesha looked around at each member of their group and saw that every one of them looked more than willing to do anything that didn't involve standing around the clearing and not moving. "Fine!" she cried, throwing up her hands in defeat. It's the plan..." she bit her lip, still looking worried. "Who else has a cell phone?"
"Me," said Tim, pointing to his backpack.
"Me," said Carlos, pulling out his own.
"Me too," Phoebe replied. "My mom refused to let me go without it."
"Anyone else?" Keesha asked.
Dorothy Ann, Wanda, and Arnold shook their heads and Wanda added. "I broke mine last week..."
"Ok then," Keesha said, thinking. "So, it's even... we can split up into four groups then..." she looked at the four forks further ahead on the path. "Perfect... I guess..." She turned back to look at everyone. "Ok... so Carlos, you said you have one? Okay, you can go with DA. Phoebe, you and Arnold."
Phoebe turned faintly pink, and Arnold nodded, looking over at Wanda quickly before taking his place next to Phoebe.
"Ralphie and I can go together," Tim offered.
"And... so I guess I'm with Wanda," Keesha finished.
"Sounds good," Wanda said. She looked at her watch. "Well, we'd better get a move on if we want to get there on time. It should, at most, take us two hours to get to the town from here. Sorry it wasn't planned better..."
"Hey, it's alright Wan," Phoebe said. "We're having fun. It's not like we have no idea where we're going. It'll just take us longer..."
"Yeah," Keesha said. "We still owe you big for this trip."
Wanda grinned. "Yeah, yeah you do." She laughed.
"Alright Ralphie, get the lead out. We're going to be the first to the resort!" Tim ordered his partner, pushing Ralphie onto the nearest fork, the one going far left through the trees.
"Why are you picking this one?" Ralphie asked.
"Just a hunch," Tim said.
"Yeah, well we have a hunch about this one. Come on DA!" Carlos took a hold of her elbow and pulled her over to the trail on the far right. Dorothy Ann let herself be dragged off, not having any idea herself which one they should have taken.
"Which one Wanda?" Keesha asked her partner. Wanda shrugged, not wanting to give out any more directions herself. In the end, they chose the side fork the farthest left, which left Phoebe and Arnold to take the path straight ahead.
This chapter and the first ones were just setting up the story. I admit I kind of wanted to get them over with. Now the story, with all it's shippy goodness, can really begin!
Reviews are nice :)