The rain thundered above their heads as the befuddled campers sat sandwiched in the small tent. It had only been several seconds since they had rolled inside in a disjointedly soggy summersault and they were already getting uncomfortable.
"Hey Suzaku." Gino said in a muffled voice as his face was currently shoved into the ground. "This isn't something we do in public…" Although his face was hidden, he knew that Gino was sniggering. Gino was always sniggering.
Ignoring the comment and stooping against the sagging wall, he smiled and hoisted himself off of the blonde boy.
"How'd that happen?" Rivalz asked loudly as Lelouch simultaneously sat up rubbing his head.
"Ugh Suzaku watch where you're going." he said irritatedly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see—" he was cut off as Milly looked up from her phone to answer Rivalz's question.
Giving her trademark cheerfully protective smile she said "The tent flap blew in front of Suzaku's face and he fell on top of Gino. Then Lelouch tripped backwards and landed halfway outside of the tent." she stopped to cover her mouth, stifling a giggle, but Lelouch had already seen.
Dark hair blackened by the rain, shoulders huddled and grassy shreds stuck all over him, he crouched in the corner and shot angry darts in Milly's direction.
Seeing his glare and feeling a little bad, Milly reached for the supplies bag to grab him a towel.
"Shirley, can you throw me the bag?" she said tilting her chin up a little, her hand not finding what it was looking for.
Shirley gave a firm and serious nod, excited to be called on to help Lelouch, no matter how trivial the help was. She pivoted on her hands and knees and shoved the others aside as she crawled along the wall looking for the bag.
"Umm…I can't find it. I don't think it's in here." she said looking over her shoulder towards Milly.
"What, of course it's in here. Let me see." Milly said as she crawled over to Shirley, kicking some people in the face along the way.
But it wasn't there. There was no supply bag to be found, nor the food bag or sleeping bags. No, there was nothing in the tent save for six damp students and one class president.
Sighing, she sat back on her heals. "Well, it's not the end of the world. Suzaku, can you bring in your survival kit?" she asked.
"Sure." he replied, already on his way out of the tent to retrieve it from the tarps he had thrown it on earlier. "What do you need?" he said, ducking back in and pushing the hair out of his eyes.
"Everything, probably." Milly said matter of factly, smiling so wide her eyes squeezed shut. "But right now I just need a towel…and maybe a few saltines and cheese."
Suzaku looked puzzled. "A towel? Like a beach towel?"
"Yes, just one is fine." she chirped.
"We…don't keep towels in our survival kits…." he trailed off, slightly confused as to why Milly would even think he would have room for such a bulky and usually useless thing. "But I do have saltines. No cheese though, but the saltines are fresh so that should make up for it." he said as he unzipped the bag and reached for the crackers.
Meanwhile, Lelouch was still sitting in the corner, now shivering slightly and desperately trying to stop as he saw Shirley quickly approaching him to offer her jacket.
"You look chilly, Lelouch….here," she said as she took off her button up denim windbreaker, "you can borrow this." She blushed as she handed it over to him, "It still might be a little warm."
"Mm it's ok, Shirley. I'm not cold." Lelouch said.
"But you're shivering!" she said, her eyes getting wide.
"It's a tick."
Not knowing what to do but determined to find a way to assist him, Shirley took a deep breath "WELL I CAN SIT NEXT TO YOU IF THAT'LL HELP KEEP YOU WAR—" But her bold offer was cut off by Milly (who really enjoyed cutting people off).
"What kind of soldier doesn't carry a towel and cheese with him! I'm ashamed of you Suzaku. I thought you were more reliable than that." she said in a tone that was only half kidding.
Taken aback by her out of character response, Suzaku jerked back a little bit. "Sorry Milly, I don't get to decide what goes in here. These are military issued…." he trailed off again, not sure how to alleviate the situation.
There were a few seconds of silence as the rain continued to pound on the sloped walls. The wind howled, making the whole structure shiver and shake with it. The previously hot air was becoming cooler by the second as a cold front moved in and the light seeping through the pale blue walls was growing dimmer.
Shaking her head and turning away Milly apologized. "I'm sorry Suzaku. I'm sorry everyone. I checked the weather on Yahoo—"
"I KNEW IT!" Lelouch jumped up, shouted, then sat down again, returning to his previous shivering stoicism.
"—and it said it was only slight showers all weekend," Milly continued after giving him a strange look, "so I thought it would be ok. Obviously, it's not." She paused for a second, giving one final thought to her next action. "I'm making an executive decision: we are going to return to Ashford Academy. " You could almost see her stretch her hands out to catch the dropped jaws she was expecting, only to immediately retract them as everyone shouted in delight.
"Thank goodness!" Shirley squealed, still attempting to inch towards Lelouch.
"It's about time, this trip is a dud." Gino said, folding his arms behind his head.
"Ouch Gino you're poking me in the eye!" Nina said, her joyful yell cut short by his elbow.
"But Prez!" Rivalz jumped up frantically, hitting his head on the roof. "Ow…" he squeezed one eye shut and continued. "Does that mean the whole weekend is over with?" he said, his face morphing into a puppy's plea.
"Of course not! We will just have to camp out inside Ashford!"
"In…inside?" Shirley repeated timidly. "Isn't that sort of little-kiddy?"
"Only if you make it that way!" Milly winked warmly at Shirley and continued, "Plus, even though we'll be inside, I wouldn't be surprised if the power was out there."
"Oooh!" Rivalz crowed. "It'll be like being outside, but less wet!"
"Genius. Can you help me pass my philosophy midterm?" Gino deadpanned.
Nina scowled. "That's not even funny, Gino."
"Yeah," Shirley added enthusiastically, "Rivalz doesn't know when you're kidding or not…in fact, none of us can tell when you're joking or when you're serious. What's the big idea?" she finished with a surprisingly serious frown on her face.
But before Gino had a chance to answer her question and continue with the stagnant conversation, Suzaku stood up.
"Hey, I'm going to get the truck. I'll bring it here and we can load up quickly, then leave for Ashford." he said authoritatively. "There's no need for everyone to get drenched walking to it."
—
Half an hour later, tent pegs flew haphazardly through the air while spines contracted then collapsed on the sodden ground.
Milly had ordered that everyone help take down the tent and load the components into the car. Normally, they would be loading their own luggage but since it had never been taken out of the truck in the first place, it was no longer necessary. Hence, the team of extremely unfortunate and horribly inept nomadic campers attempting to tear down the tent.
Finally, after a very long seven minutes, the tent was flattened to a wrinkly two-dimensional blob and shoved into the trunk. Everyone piled into the car.
"Thank goodness there's enough seats for us all." Rivalz sighed, plopping onto the dark tan polyester bench.
Lelouch climbed in second to last, the last being Nina, who insisted on getting the worst seat because "then she could be justified in her complaints." He found a seat by the window in the middle row next to Suzaku who politely pulled his legs back when Lelouch stepped over him.
"Of course there are enough seats, silly Rivalz," Milly turned around from the driver's seat, smiling, "there are just as many now as there were on the way here."
"Yeah," Gino added, snickering again, "the car isn't alive."
Suzaku leaned over to Lelouch, nudging him in the side. "Good thing it's only a thirty minute drive, huh?" he said, giving a sheepish smile.
Author's Note: Our two stories will soon become one as the Ashford students make their way back to the dorm. Where will they go? What will they do? Will Kallen ever get to finish making her food? And what happened to the two part chapters? Find out next time in Cooking Kallen, Chapter Six.
Ok, but really. What did you guys think? This is more of a transitional chapter as I get ready to merge the two stories so there wasn't as much time for writing in Lelouch's thought processes or showing a snippet of what CC and Kallen are up to. Next chapter will hopefully be the merge and will be written a little differently because of that.
I'm having a lot of fun writing this story and I can only hope that it's fun or at least bearable to read. I appreciate your reviews so far, it's really encouraging knowing that someone is reading your stuff and caring enough to give feedback. Thanks everyone and see you next time!