CHAPTER 18

Hours later and the other nine were finding out just how much Brooke had meant what she'd said. She'd had them all packing random things into rucksacks. Sleeping bags, torches, warm clothing and…bizarrely… condoms and some puzzle books. Peyton held up the puzzles while Rachel held up the condoms, each with a sceptical look on their faces, Brooke shrugged,

'We might get bored.' She winked and Rachel nodded smirking and throwing the condoms into the bag.

'Hell yeah.' She said and Peyton laughed.

They were all standing in order, the girls were doing the sorting through what they would need and the boys were just packing them in the rucksacks. Brooke had decided not to trust them with actually picking articles themselves much to Haley's agreement.

After lunch they set off, and hours later they were halfway through the woods, backpacks on shoulders. Several of them were grumbling and Peyton had noticed that it was largely the boys rather than the girls, apparently Nathan liked his comforts.

'I don't understand why we have to sleep on a hard floor, ridden with little bugs when we have a nice comfy, queen size bed in the cabin!' He grumbled, to no-one in particular but Peyton heard and smirked, catching Lucas' eye as he smirked too. He held out his hand and she placed her into it, their fingers lacing together. The group walked on and on, until everyone was groaning about how hungry they were.

'Well luckily I packed sandwiches!' Brooke said happily.

Lucas coughed and Peyton raised an eyebrow at Brooke. 'Ok Lucas made the sandwiches and Peyton packed them…but still!'

'Sandwiches… that's all we have for dinner! Sandwiches, that's just a snack.' Nathan grumbled.

Several people rolled their eyes, when Nathan went cranky he moaned about everything. Everyone sat down on the ground, too tired to really care where they were sitting and Lucas passed around the sandwiches. He sat down next to Peyton and they all began to eat.

Half an hour later and they'd all finished, sure enough Nathan was moaning that he was still hungry. They trudged on and on until darkness had started to fall.

'Brooke, where are we actually camping?' Rachel asked.

'Somewhere around here.' Brooke said, airily.

'How about right here?' Nathan asked grumpily.

'Yeah this is good.'

Everyone stopped and looked around expectantly. Brooke looked at each face and then shrugged.

'Brooke I thought you were the party leader?' Peyton smirked. Brooke nodded.

'I am! And now we are going to start a fire, so we can toast marshmallows!' Brooke said cheerfully.

This did actually sound like a good idea and within an hour and a half they had a fire ready and a perfect setting around it. The boys had arranged some logs as seats and placed them around the fire, so that it looked actually pretty cosy. Brooke took out the bag of marshmallows and opened it; everyone took a couple and put them onto sticks, holding them over the fire.

'This is the life.' Lucas said grinning at Nathan's obvious frown.

'Come on, when do we ever do this?' Brooke asked.

'We have never done this! And I hope we never do it again.' Nathan grumbled indignantly.

Brooke reached into the bag of marshmallows and picked one out throwing it at Nathan.

'Get a grip boy toy.' She growled.

Nathan scowled. 'Oh come on Nate, it's not that bad. Just enjoy it.' Lucas said quickly before Nathan could react.

Everyone fell silent and watched the fire burning before them. Peyton looked at everyone in turn with a smile, whatever Nathan said these were the moments she was sure she'd remember when she looked back at her random but highly significant summer in Tree Hill.

'Let's sing a fireside song!' Haley piped up a couple of minutes later.

This finally put a smile on Nathan's face as he choked on his marshmallow from laughter; this sent the rest of the group into giggles. They all sat in silence for a few minutes afterwards just toasting their marshmallows before Haley said quietly,

'I was actually being serious…about the song.'

'No, no and no.' Rachel said quickly and everyone chuckled again.

Peyton drew her marshmallow out of the fire and blew the smoke off it, before picking it off and as Lucas opened his mouth to talk stuffing it in. She laughed as he was caught by surprise and the marshmallow quickly fell to the floor.

Haley watched with a smile as Lucas' eyes turned to Peyton, shocked but playful. He leaned in closely and whispered something in Peyton's ear which made her blush slightly before he smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of her nose as Peyton put her hand on his. Haley's smile turned almost sad when she focused on Lucas' face who was watching Peyton's movements with a smile and a warm look in his eyes that she'd rarely noticed before. She knew this meant one thing, after all she knew her best friend, and knowing what the future held it wasn't good.

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'So where's our five star accommodation then?' Everyone looked back at Brooke and waited. 'Tents?' Nathan prompted.

They'd sat by the fire for an hour but now they were all tired because of the walk, and even though it was in the woods, everyone were thinking longingly of their warm sleeping bags and tents.

'Ohh right! Well I couldn't really find any…but we've all got sleeping bags! So we can-'

She was cut off when several of the group snorted out of disgust, Lucas and Peyton, however, who actually were finding the situation quite funny snorted in laughter at the look on Nathan's face.

'So we're sleeping in the open air?' He said incredulously.

'Just look at it this way… we're in a nice clearing… we'll be able to see the stars.' Brooke said in a would be cheerful voice.

'Right.' Nathan said, his teeth clenched. He opened his rucksack, threw his sleeping bag on the floor, unzipped it and got in, zipping himself up.

'He actually looks quite comfortable.' Lucas laughed and Nathan smirked at him. His face was the only thing that was visible and the sleeping bag was so big that he could have pulled the top over to cover his face anyway.

'That's the spirit!' Brooke said.

Everyone lifted their rucksacks off their backs simultaneously, chuckling slightly at Nathan who looked like an overlarge caterpillar. Haley put her sleeping bag on Nathan's left hand side, Peyton put hers next to Haley and Lucas put his next to Peyton's. The rest just spread out in the clearing in a line on either side of Nathan and Lucas.

'These sleeping bags are huge.' Peyton laughed as she slid into hers.

'Is there room for me?' Lucas asked, his face forming a smirk suggestively.

Peyton smirked, about to answer but Nathan cut in, 'Urgh if I have to listen to you two all night I might have to walk home, or throw you on the fire.'

Lucas and Peyton raised their eyebrows at Haley, who shrugged saying, 'He's just cold, and hungry…and being the worst sport ever.'

'I heard that.' Nathan growled.

'You were meant to.' Haley answered back and Lucas and Peyton laughed. Lucas placed his sleeping bag right next to Peyton's and got into it.

'It's going to be freezing tonight.'

'Yep we're all going to wake up frozen.' Peyton answered, turning on her side to face him.

'That's if we actually do get to sleep.' Lucas said also turning over so that they were practically nose to nose before whispering, 'And if Nathan doesn't kill us all.'

Peyton giggled and the sound made Lucas chuckle instantly.

'Seriously what was Brooke thinking?' Peyton asked.

'I don't know. But I bet your not gonna forget this moment anytime soon.' Lucas smiled, and closed the gap, putting a chaste kiss on her lips.

'I don't think I will.' Peyton smiled, her hand coming out of the sleeping bag to intertwine with his, he smiled and kissed her knuckles.

'Hey how come you've got gloves?' Peyton asked, looking at Lucas' hands.

'Cuz I knew it was going to get cold.' Lucas smiled. 'Here.' He added taking off one glove and giving it to Peyton. 'Put this on the hand outside your sleeping bag then we can still hold hands because the gloved hand will be warm.' He finished triumphantly.

'Dork.' Peyton coughed, a grin in place however, Lucas smiled. They listened to Brooke and Rachel fighting over where they were going to sleep and Bevin asking Skills why marshmallows burn on the fire. But generally after a few minutes, the noise sub sided to be left with whisperings from Nathan and Haley, who looked decidedly happier, and the others.

Lucas moved in closer, resting his forehead against hers and looking into her eyes. They were the most sparkling hazelnut colour right now, but he knew that in the morning they'd be green again. He loved how they changed colour at different times of the day. He suddenly felt really tired, so he kissed her lips once more softly, then tucked a stray curl behind her ear, their foreheads meeting once more. Peyton's eyes closed contentedly and Lucas just watched, she looked so peaceful, angelic almost. He couldn't resist giving her one small kiss on the lips again before resting their foreheads together once more and closing his eyes as well letting sleep wash over him.

They woke quite abruptly to shouting.

'I am not; I refuse, sleeping out here anymore!'

They both sat up to hear Brooke's yells, Peyton turned to see Haley and Nathan half concealing their laughter.

'What's happened?' Lucas asked.

'Brooke woke up to find that she wasn't sleeping alone… some nice spiders had decided to take refuge in Brooke's sleeping bag.' Nathan grinned looking positively thrilled.

'This was your idea!' Nathan yelled to her.

'Well I'm walking back!'

'If she's going, I'm going!' Chase added, then Rachel and Mouth agreed along with Skills and Bevin, Nathan and Haley too. Lucas grinned and turned to Peyton,

'Shall we stay?' He asked.

'Are you freaking kidding me? I only put up with this so I didn't look like a whiny git- like Nathan.' Peyton laughed, rolling up her sleeping bag.

'Bite me Sawyer!' Nathan growled, fighting his sleeping bag into the rucksack.

Ten minutes later and they were walking back towards the cabin, it was in the dead of night, but they did have torches.

Brooke shuddered, 'This is really creepy!'

Nathan snorted and put on a very high voice clearly imitating Brooke, 'Come on people, it'll be a team building exercise!'

Several of the group laughed before Brooke shut them all up by saying,

'Don't mess with a Brooke Davis deprived of sleep. I've got a mean right hook and I'm not afraid to use it!'

There was a moments silence before Nathan muttered, 'Like Peyton then.'

Everyone laughed this time as Peyton turned around and pushed him slightly, he grinned and pulled her to him hugging her.

'Sorry Sawyer.' He smiled letting her go and pulling Haley towards him instead.

----

An hour later and they all staggered into the cabin, the sun was just coming up and they were all exhausted. Peyton opened her bedroom door and threw down her rucksack; Lucas threw himself down dramatically across her bed.

'I'm so… tired.' He yawned and Peyton nodded not having the energy to speak. She flopped down on the bed next to him and Lucas rolled over kissing her cheek before closing his eyes. Peyton turned her head to look at him, her eyes tracing the contours of his face and smiling at how peaceful his expression was. She closed her eyes contentedly, entwining her fingers with his. Lucas opened his eyes again a minute later, squinting to see if Peyton's were shut. He opened them properly and couldn't help but just stare at her. She was beautiful and as he fingered a curl delicately he couldn't even picture the group before she was in it. Seriously, he couldn't even remember what life before the summer had been like… he wracked his brains trying to think of an event that was better than what he was experiencing now. Ten minutes later and he was drifting asleep, still trying to think of something, anything… his last thoughts were that life before Peyton Sawyer had been boring, he smiled at the thought squeezing her hand sub consciously and drifting off to sleep finally.

However the small amount of his brain that was still somewhat conscious left him with a doubt, if he couldn't think of life before Peyton Sawyer then how was he meant to adjust to not life with her when she left for LA?

Sooo i have the next chapter written completely so hopefully that'll be up pretty quickly. I just had to tweek this chapter a little. I'm kind of frustrated with myself because i have loads of stuff written but i have to put it in context and i'm sort of moving in circles... But from now on, i have a plan and have arranged a stricter storyline :) I hope i've still got the majority of the readers who started reading this story in the first place, i think i've come to the end of my dead end with the story. If that even makes sense, anyway i hope you liked the chapter.

611- Okay on the whole i sort of liked it. I thought it moved a little fast, but granted the whole story had 40 mins and for Chad's first written episode i thought it was all right. And it was different and i also did like LP at the end, sooo sad when Peyton died. But we did get rain :P. Oh and Peyton's pains?! :O What's up with that?

Anyways enough from me, next chapter should be pretty soon :) Oh and Karen finds out about LP in the next chap :) And thank you to everyone who keeps reviewing! They encourage me immensely.