~Exploration. Desperation. Perspiration?~

It was early.
I cannot tell you what time, But it was early.

We nearly suffered heart-attacks when Sensei burst into our Cabin, screaming into a megaphone-

"WAKE UP, WAKE UPPP, GETT DRESSSSEDDD!"

Already, I was regretting this trip.

While I mentally butchered myself with this thought,
I got dressed and gathered with the rest of the class at the campfire.

The two teachers leading this miraculous exepidition,
explained our instructions.

We were to go Hiking on a Trail in assigned groups and document any findings of wildlife there.

I waited for my name to be placed into a group.

Why did I come here again...?

"And the next group... "

"Aioro Hidoru"
"Midori Yowake"
"Kiiro Williams"

...and...

"Kura Ikari"

My head snapped out of my thoughts.

Midori? Midori, would be in MY group, hiking with ME, up into the WOODS?

I didn't like this one bit,... my stomach churned.
I glanced around to see If I could get a glimpse of her.

There were too many people.
I managed to pick Aioro out of the crowd.

After everything was set up and announced, everyone seperated into their groups.

Aioro came over with a concerned look.
"Are...you okay with this?"

"Okay with what?" I answered plainly.

"With...Midori in our group...,you two are like oil and water."

This time, I couldn't disagree.

We all gathered together in one spot, and I kept a particular eye on Midori.

Strangely, she showed no interest in me, but her eyes quickly darted to the blonde forigener from time to time. He only smiled.

...I trusted neither of them.

Aioro soon returned with a map, squiggled on it our route and about how long it would take us to get there. We grabbed our things, and headed up the mountain.

We had made it up the trail.

Nothing had gone wrong yet, but they say those who count their eggs before they hatch end up with dead chickens.

...OK.
So maybe no one says that- but I do.

Dead chickens.

As soon as this thought crossed my mind, I noticed something strange.

I stopped. "Hey...haven't we passed this before?"

Everyone stopped and looked around.
"Mmmm...'now that ya' mention it...", Kiiro bent over and observed a tree.

"No...I don't think we have...", Aioro squinted at the map.
We all huddled around him for a look.

"See...we passed the bear river a while ago...,so we should be somewhere around this landmarker now", He pointed at the map.

"Landmarker?" Midori pointed at the map.
"This one? The rock that's carved like a fish?"

Aioro nodded.
"Erm',...well...I don't see anythin' that looks like a fish around here", Kiiro scratched his head.

Aioro made a quick circle.
"Impossible..." ,he flipped the map, and squinted.

Kiiro sighed. "Just admit it Aidoru, we're dead ass lost."

He paused and intensely stared at the map in his hands for another moment.
The he turned around, and miraculously exclaimed: "Guys. Were lost."

No shit sherlock.
I glared at him.

Midori instead, glared at me.
Most likely she was blaming me for not noticing earlier, and for it happening in the first place.

Trust me, if I knew he his sense of direction was shit, I would have never let him lead us around.

"So what are we gonna do?" Midori unhappily crossed her arms.
"I will not be stuck in the middle of the woods with a creepy blonde pervert, and an ugly troll."

I just love how she didnt include blue eyes in her sentence.

"Well Sensei gave us her number incase something like this happened right?
It should be as simple as calling her...", he opened his phone.

There was a long pause, and we watched as he stared at his phone, frozen and unresponseless.

I sighed. "I don't think you can call her with your mind, genius."

He shook his head.
"No..."

I was getting agitated.
"No, what?"

"No signal." We all moaned.

He turned towards Kiiro,
"Try your phone, maybe it'll have some signal."

Kiiro shook his head in despair.
"My phone don't work here, it only works in America."

"What kinda stupid phone works in only one place?" Midori screeched.

Kiiro shrugged.
"It's not like I have a bunch of relatives here. What use do I have for a cell phone?"

Midori shut up.
Point proven.

Aioro looked up. "Well it's still light out. If we keep moving, we should be able to find our way back", he started towards the tree's.

I grabbed his arm.
"Wait."

He turned around with a puzzled look.

"If we keep moving, we might just end up getting ourselves more lost...

"...especially with you leading the way..." I mumbled.

"I heard that",he frowned.
"Your right, but if we stand here and do nothing- it's possible no one will find us and we'd have spent a whole day lost in the woods."

He was also right.
We looked at eachother, unsure of what to do.

Kiiro broke the silence.
"Well I know one thing for sure,- I don't want Aidoru's ass leading me around any further...
he'll just get us more lost."

Aioro made a face of someone who got slapped.
It may have hurt his pride, but the three of us agreed we wanted to survive.

Midori, and her superiority complex jumped at the chance.
"I'll lead", she crossed her arms and looked at us as if she had already been voted president.

"I'll die before I let that happen", I crossed my arms to match hers, and we eached glared eachother down.

"Well I feel the same way about you leading, so what do you propose we do?" she swung her arm angrily.

I looked in the direction her arm had swung.
It pointed dead at the foriegner.

I raised an eyebrow and looked back at Midori.
Her eye's opened wide and her mouth just as equally, as she squealed "HIM? You want that weirdo to lead?"

Ahem. The proclaimed weirdo grunted, obviously not amused with this accusation.

"Why the hell are we letting HIM lead!",Midori parroted for about the zillionth time.

The look on anyone's face could tell we were all sick of her bitching, but Midori- as usual,
was oblivious to when her opinon was unwanted.

It had been an hour since we had gotten lost, and an hour of getting nowhere.

Tall Tree's surrounded all around us, making it impossible to tell right from left or left from right,
which way we had came from, which way we had already been, and which way we were headed.

Yet we all walked one direction, without much choice.
We confided in our "leader"- but more in some dumb luck we'd bump into another group somewhere.

The sky had begun to turn orange, and the tall tree's, which had been fighting the light all morning, rustled in the wake of their victory- as they fought back the weakening suns rays.

Kiiro stopped.
We slowed behind him, unsure of what was going on.

"It's no use", he shook his head.
"It's gonna get dark soon, and I ain't walkin' around no woods in the dark."

We all exchanged weary looks, but came to the smartest decision we had probaly made all day.

Set up camp.

We rushed into our bags and fumbled to put together the tent and build a fire,
as the remaining light outside became dimmer and dimmer.

I made a ring of stones as the base of the firepit, while Aioro and Kiiro fought over who could better pitch the tent.

Finally, they decided to split the work, and in no time the tent had risen.

After about 5 minutes, Kiiro seemed to take notice of something.

"Hey, where's Minori? She should've been back with the firewood by now."

"It's Midori", Aioro corrected.
"Does this guy ever get anyones name right...?" I heard him grumble to himself.

I small smile tugged at the left side of my lip.

Aioro paused for a moment.
"Maybe she got lost-..."

"That would just make my day", I chuckled.

He paused again and gave me a dissaproving look.

"Okay okay, we'll go look for the brat...", I stood up.
"But we can barely see anything now, how are we supposed to find her?"

He carefully considered this, then as if he had been struck with genius, he reached into his bag and pulled out a flashlight.

I moaned.
This guy had an answer for everything.

Before he could even turn on the flashlight, a loud piercing scream echoed through the tree's.

"Shit...", Kiiro cursed under his breath.

I did not share his reaction, and I was only met with the sweet thought of Midori getting eaten by a bear.

But it was soon melted away as I was forced to run to the rescue of someone I would rather not save.

Following the direction the scream came from, we found Midori on the floor, with a look of horror on her face.

"Are you okay?", Aioro bent down and began examining her.

"I...Ie...", she stuttered.

Kiiro gave her a strange look.
"What happened? What is it?"

"I-It was th-there...", she pointed straight ahead.
Aioro nodded to himself as to verify there was no harm, then he got up to examine the area where she was pointing.

"What was there?" Kiiro asked.

"I-...I don't know...", she shook her head.
"It was giant and furry,...with scary eyes... and it growled at me..."

I rolled my eye's. Sounded to me like she was starring in a documentary for bigfoot.

"Doesn't look like it's still hanging around here", Aioro scanned the area.

"But there was definitely something there!", Midori squeaked.
"You have to believe me!"

Classic tv documentary line #2, I once again rolled my eyes.

"I believe you", Aioro said.

I gave him an "Are-you-fucking-kidding-me?" look, and he motioned towards a bush.

"Look", he said.
"There's a bunch of snapped twigs here".

I was getting annoyed with this circus parade.
"Honestly, anything could've caused that", I snatched the flashlight from his hand.

He gave me a suprised look, but I ignored it and marched my way back towards the direction of our camp.

He quickly helped Midori on her feet and followed.

Kiiro who I hadn't thought much of till now, seemed to have a grasp of our TRUE situation, and bent down to pick up a good amount of wood, making sure to follow closely behind.

I thought a bit better of him for that.

Back at camp, our fire was now roaring.

One less thing to worry about, but soon more worries took it's place.

Midori, apparently in shock from her "encounter" earlier, had huddled herself in a ball near the fire,
her lips shut as if with a wax seal.

I liked her much better this way.

Like her?... I think the hunger was getting to me.
My stomach grumbled, and like a disease- it spread to the rest of us.

They were soon holding their stomaches and fiddling their hands.

Well they could sit there and do that, but I- was going to eat.

I got up and shuffled towards my bag, and rummaged through it until I pulled out my cup ramen out of the food I packed, just for occasions like this.

I could feel everyone's eyes burning down on me, and I quickly turned around with an irritated,"What?"

Aioro responded first.
"How are you gonna make that without hot water?"

Kiiro looked as if he had wanted to ask the same question, and Midori only gave me a sour look before returning to her traumatized state.

"Watch. Maybe you'll learn something", I said as I pulled out a bottle of water and walked back over to the fire.

They watched intently as I poured the water in the container of ramen, closed it, then held the container over the fire.

Kiiro facepalmed.
Aioro let out a dumbfounded "Oh".

"It might take a while, but slow food is better than no food."
In response I heard the boy's stomachs growl, and I could feel a drop of sweat run down my face.

"...Neither of you has food do you?"
They both quickly shook their heads.

I gave out an exhausted sigh, and I carefully considered all odds.

I was better with them dead than alive, just incase something happened.
Semi-content with the terms of using them for bear-bait later, I turned to them and held up one finger.

"Ichi", I raised one finger.
You can take ONE thing from my bag each to eat.

"Arigato!", they both raced towards my bag.

I glanced towards Midori, who took no intrest in me or what I had offered.

I shrugged and turned my attention back towards my ramen, which was coming along nicely.

I had no interest in offering anything to her, and she had no intention of taking anything I offered.

These line's we drew long ago.

With something in (most of) our stomaches, we attempted to sort out sleeping arrangements.

We only had one large tent, which pissed me off (I liked solitude), and If Midori was as well- she didn't give on to it.

We each split up and found ourselves a tree to change behind into spare clothes we had brought along.

Like in any bad situation, the guys grouped on one side and the girls on the other- to avoid any uncessary "suprises" after the trip.

Of course, something that was so simple to execute became a chore, when Midori- who seemed to have regained all- or rather some, of her fighting spirit- started to play the role of a walking man in a wheelchair.

Just as my head hit my sleeping bag, I heard Midori's annoying voice.

"I'm scared..."

...My ass.
I rolled over, ignoring her fake bitching, and tried desperately to fall asleep.

"Don't be. I'm sure it ain't around here anymore", Kiiro said.
"And If he is- (Cracking Knuckles)...I'll beat the hell out of it!"

Was that supposed to be reassuring?, I wondered to myself.

"I don't know...I don't think I'll be able to fall asleep tonight", she whimpered.

Please God, send whatever animal you can find-
A wolf...hell, -I'll even take Bigfoot, If he exists, to come and eat her!, I begged.

Then God, as if to stomp on my prayer, made the most outrageous request I'd ever heard.

"Kiiro, do you mind switching places with me...?", Midori batted her eyes.

He hesitated, and exchanged a short glance behind him with Aioro.
"Well, is that really a good idea...?"

"I don't mind", he shrugged.
I 360'ed and around and looked at him in disbelief.

Was he still buying her cheap sob story?

Kiiro who seemed to feel pressured, got up reluctantly and traded places with Midori.

The only benefit I saw in this was I didn't have to sleep next to Midori.
We might have killed eachother in our sleep.

"Hope ya don't mind", Kiiro gave a semi-shy smile.
I gave him a disregarding look, and turned my back to him.

I didn't want to look at him all night, and even more so- I didn't want to look at Midori try and slither her way into Aioro's sleeping bag.

Just before I fell asleep, I heard Midori's voice whisper:

"Thank you, I feel much safer now".

I went to sleep feeling empty.

When I awoke, the feeling was still there.

I passed it off as bad ramen, and helped everyone pack up our "camp".

"Are we all set?" Aioro looked towards me.

My head swiveled away from his gaze.
...Why did I do that?

Midori, who thought she was being adressed answered with a,"Yup!" then turned towards me.

"Oi, where's blondie?"

I shrugged.

"You don't know where he is? You were sleepin' next to him!"

I shrugged again.

Suddenly, I could hear a voice- Kiiro's voice, yelling our names.
We looked around to try and pinpoint where the sound was coming from.

Suddenly, he emerged from behind the tree's, with a face we were all relieved to see.

"Sensei!" Aioro and Midori exclaimed.

"How did you find us?" Midori asked.

"Well we noticed you guys didn't make it to the mountain campout last night", she replied.

"Then how come it took you guys so long to find us?"

She crossed her arms.
"Well it was much too dark to go searching for you guys then, but we scattered groups around the trail and have been looking since this morning".

"But- I'm glad your okay", she sighed,
"and I see you had a campout of your own", she waved towards our now lifeless firepit.

"It's about time we get you guys back to your cabin's. I'm sure you've had quite the night!", she smiled.

Our group split up at the arrival back at the cabin's, but we had little time to get settled back in-
before Sensei came blasting through her megaphone for us to meet in the center of camp.

Everyone curiously crowded around, wondering what we would be doing on our last day of this strange expedition.

Sensei climbed onto a box, overlooking the crowd.
She smiled, which knowing her, could've been a good or bad thing.

"Congradulations everyone for making it through the 2nd day of the trip, mostly- (she paused)
without incident."

"So as a thank you from the school and for all your hard work so far this year, tonight we will be hosting a party- right at this very spot, under the view of Hokkaido's beautiful stars!"

"It will be a perfect romantic evening and it's suggested you come with a partner!"

She stepped down from her stage, and left everyone to argue.

The arguments of course, consisted of what girl was gonna get asked by what guy, and what guy was gonna get to go with what girl.

But I didn't understand their feelings.
My head hurt.

I turned and swiftly headed back to my cabin, and flopped onto my bed.

I felt myself doze off, but I was awakened by the sound of voices entering the cabin.
Through blurry eyes, I saw Amy and Hina enter, talking to eachother about something.

"So who did you pick to go with you?" Amy smiled at Hina.

"Oh, well I got asked by A-kun and Hima got asked by B-kun", she smiled excitedly.
"Their just perfect! I got the sweet one, and Hima got the badass she always wanted."

In the middle of her rant, she noticed I had awoken.
She crinkled her nose at me and turned back towards Amy.

"So who did you get to go with you?"

"Oh, I got S-kun to go with me", she blushed.

Hina squealed with delight. "That's great! You've been crushing on him for as long as I've known you-, looks like you finally made your move!"

Amy nodded, then looked outside.
"It's almost time for the party! Let's head towards the center of camp."

Hina nodded, and they both left me wondering into my pillow.
Had I really been asleep that long?

I got up and gazed outside.
The sky was a mix of dark blue, purple, and scarlet, and the sun was slowly sinking behind the tree's.

I changed clothes and left the cabin, but headed in the opposite direction of the party.
I had no intention of going somewhere filled with people who hated me.

As I wandered around a river, I was suprised to hear voices.

I kept as hidden as possible, as I tried to make out who they belonged to.

I peered around a tree, to see Aioro and Midori talking to eachother.
I was too far to make out the whole conversation, but I managed to pick up small parts.

"Aioro, be my partner for tonight?" Midori blushed.

(Aioro responds with something)

"Don't say that, i'll get embaressed", she turned redder.

(He responds with something else and she laughs)

...the feeling from earlier was back.
I held my stomach.

This time I could tell it wasn't from hunger, but from something else.
I quietly walked away, trying to sort out this sick feeling I had.

Next thing I knew, I heard someone calling my name.
"Kura!"

I turned around to see that familiar face of blue.
"What?"

"What are you doing over here?", he grinned at me.

"None of your business", I said annoyed.
Why?

"Aha, that's Kura for you...", he sighed.
I picked up my pace.

Why? Why was I acting this way?I heard the sound of his footsteps behind me fade, and out of curiosity I turned around to see if he had left.

He was there, standing and looking at me.
Our eye's met, and I was suprised when he was the first one to pull away.

"I...I have to go do something", he quickly shuffled past me towards the center of camp.

What was that about?
The empty feeling was now gnawing viciously at my stomach.

When I got back to the cabin, on my bed I found something unusual.

A white dress, and a matching flower hairpin to go along with it.
I picked them up.

Who's was this and what was it doing here?
I looked around for answers, but there was no sign of Hina or Amy, and nor were their any clues that showed it was theres.

I shrugged and tossed them aside, occupying the space where they had been sitting on my bed.
I buried my face in my pillow, but I had slept through most of the day- and sleep would no longer answer to my calls.

My mind was only flooded with disgusting thoughts.

Midori all over Aioro in the tent.
Now that I think about it- I saw them together by the river earlier.

They couldn't be-...?
...Who was I kidding, their probably at the dance together right now.

I could feel my fists digging harder and harder into my pillow.

Far off in the distance, I could hear music playing.
The party had already begun.

The emptiness now gnawed viciously at my stomach,
and I could no longer ignore what It wanted me to do.

I carefully eyed the white dress, that only a few moments ago I had tossed aside.

"So did you do it?", He asked.

I sadly shook my head no.
"I couldn't do it..."

"You bitched out huh?"
I gave him an annoyed look.

"I thought you were supposed to be supporting me, not kicking me when im down"

He gave an unconcerned shrug.
"It's not that big of a deal, I'm sure you got asked by plenty of girls already- haven't you Aidoru?"

"It's Aioro, A-i-o-r-o! At least have the decency to get my name right!"

He tilted his head.
"But...I like Aidoru better."

I rested my head in my palms.
Were all foriegn people like this? Or is it just him?

"Speak'a the devil!", Kiiro pointed.

What?
I looked up.

At the far end of camp, dressed in all white, and illuminated by the moonlight-
It could have easily been mistaken for a ghost.

It walked with slow uneven steps, almost as if one wrong move and it would be eaten alive.

Shocked and almost panic set in to its preadators, terrified by its bravery to face them head on.
They loomed about nervously,and whispered amoungst themselves.

Why was she here?

Who invited her?

She has no partner, why did she come?

Ha, how could she have one? She's not one of us.

Kiiro waved it over.
"Oh! You decided to come!"

He shoved a thumb towards me.
"This guy's been cryin' 'bout you all day."

"Almost to the point it makes me sick", he smiled slyly.

Both anger and heat ran to my face, and I threw a dirty look at him.
He bluffed innocence and looked up at the stars with that same sly smile.

But he became forgotten, as I looked back up at what no longer appeared as a ghost, but a beautiful girl dressed in all white.

I gathered my courage and asked her for a dance, and with one swift movement of the head she gave me her reply.

We danced around the fire that blazed in the middle of camp, but the heat that engulfed us did not come from the fire.

As danced closer and closer, our breathing, as well as our heartbeat began to align.

At one point, I remember our eyes locking; the moons reflection adding to the mysterious look in her eyes. Tonight... she was different.

Our dancing slowly led us away from the party, and soon we were together in her cabin, alone.

Fueled by the heat and the sweet smell of shampoo, lust began to set in.
Unsure of rejection, I leaned in slowly.

When she made no attempts to move, I attacked swiftly, pressing my mouth onto hers.
She responded softly, and I took the chance to further my attack.

I slipped my toungue between her lips, and at first she stiffened with shock, but soon relaxed and let go of her control.

The heat increased as we fell over onto the bed, as my hands impusively started exploring her body and slid their way down her side.

I pulled my lips away from her and ran them down her neck.
She made a small moaning noise as they got closer to her chest and my hands got closer to her waist.

This wasn't good.
I didn't know how much longer I could control myself.

I could feel between my legs began to stiffen, and the throbbing became so painful my focus began to blur rapidly.

I had to stop somehow-...
her body suddenly relaxed, and I could feel her muscles that had tensed up begin to release.

I brought my face upward in curiosity, and was suprised to see her eyes had shut and she had begun breathing softly.

She had fell asleep.
I sighed and smiled, in both relief and dissapointment- then set her down softly onto the bed and placed the blanket over her.

I decided to quietly retreat to my cabin for the night, to avoid alerting people of tonights event by the buldge that had appeared in my pants.

But I smiled as I gripped tightly the souviner I had chosen,
the petal of a flower that danced against the light of the moon.