[Jason's POV]
I shoved everything I could into my tiny black suitcase. Books, my telescope, clothes, anything I could fit I shoved in that suitcase. You see, we had a long weekend this week with four entire days off! Kelly and Dan decided that we should spend that time camping as a family. They didn't tell us where we were camping, but I was excited anyways. I've never been camping before, on Earth or on my home planet. Wow, it feels really weird to think about my home planet. I've been living on Earth for most of my life now. I've been with Kelly and Dan since I was three and I'm eleven now. The fact that I used to live on another planet billions of light years away seems almost like fantasy. After all, now I'm just like any other Earth kid. Well, I guess I'm slightly smarter, but whatever.
I unsuccessfully tried to close the top of my suitcase. I sat and jumped on top of it, trying to get all my stuff to fit. "Come on!" I yelled at the suitcase. "Fit, will you?!"
"You seem to be struggling a bit there Jason," said Mitch, who was leaning on my doorway casually.
"No, really? I thought I was jumping on this suitcase for fun."
"Woah, calm down Captain Sarcasm. I'm just here to tell you that we're leaving in ten minutes." He tossed me an empty backpack. "And pro tip: if stuff doesn't fit, use another bag."
I blushed a bit. "I was going to do that but...uh...I didn't want to take up more space in the car. I know it's going to be pretty full."
He smirked and rolled his eyes. "Sure, Jason. Ten minutes. You're on Mitch Time now."
"What's Mitch Time?"
"It basically a time system where I estimate everything based on when I'm ready with something, so chop chop." He headed down the stairs. "I'll be waiting."
"Well, I hate Mitch Time!" I called after him, stuffing some of my stuff from the suitcase into the backpack then heading downstairs to the garage.
When I said before that the car was going to be full, I meant full. Our SUV was at the mechanics being fixed up, so that left us with our tiny Toyota car. In the trunk was a giant cooler filled with all of our food, drinks, sleeping bags and tents. In the back between where Mitch and I would sit were three suitcases and a backpack with flashlights and a first aid kit. Up front Kelly had a bag with snacks that we could have along the way.
I slid into my seat along with everyone else. Kelly turned around and smiled at me from the front seat. "Are you ready to go Jason?"
I nodded and buckled myself next to Mitch, then Dan started to back out of our driveway. "So where are we going camping Dan?" I asked.
I saw him smile in the rearview mirror. "Well boys, we're going to Canada."
Mitch's face got a shade paler. "Wait, Canada?"
"Yep," Dan replied. "I grew up camping in this forest, so I thought it would be fun to take the whole family up the there and relive some old memories."
"It's going to be so much fun you guys!" Kelly gushed. "An entire weekend roughing it in the woods! We'll go hiking, maybe boating. Oh! We could look at the constellations and roast marshmallows and..."
Kelly kept talking about everything we'd be doing on this camping trip. Instead of listening as we drove down the road, I closed my eyes and slept for a bit. I have no clue how long this car ride is going to be, but I know that if I listen to Kelly talk over-excitedly about this trip the entire time, it's going to feel a lot longer than it should.
After long stretches of road and many pit stops at different gas stations, we finally stopped in the middle of a huge forest at dusk. We got our stuff out of the car and quickly set up our tents before it got too dark. Since we had only eaten the granola bars Kelly had packed and a family sized bag of potato chips on our road trip, we ate some food too. By the time we finished, we were all too tired to do anything else so we turned in a bit early.
"We'll get up bright and early tomorrow and go walk on some trails," Dan told us while shooing me and Mitch off to our tent. "Goodnight boys. Holler if you need anything."
I crawled into my sleeping bag and pulled out my flashlight. "This should be a fun trip, right?" I asked, shining the flashlight on Mitch.
"Mmhm," he grunted, cautiously glancing outside around the tent before zipping it up.
"I don't think any bears will come and attack us, if that's what you're worried about," I told him.
"I'm not worried about the bears," he said, sliding into his sleeping bag. "I'm just gonna go to sleep." He rolled so he was facing away from me, then made an obviously fake snoring nose that said, 'Don't ask any questions.'
"Uh... Okay then. Goodnight Mitch."
I slept for a couple hours before I heard the flap of tent being opened again. I cracked open my eye halfway to see if it was morning already, but it was still completely dark out. I assumed that Mitch just had to go do his business and closed my eyes. After ten minutes, Mitch still hadn't come back to the tent and I was starting to get worried. I sat up, rubbed my eyes, then headed out to find him with my flashlight. "Mitch!" I whisper-shouted as I wandered around the trees.
After a couple minutes of weaving in and out of trees, I realized I had no clue where I was. I was standing in the middle of an unknown forest, and left no trail to get back to the tent. "Great," I mumbled. "Just great, Jason. Now what are you going to do?"
"You seem lost human," a voice said from behind me. I shined my light on the thing behind me. He-at least I think it was a he based on the voice- had brown fur covering his entire body, fangs, and was wearing...is that a suit? He was leaning against a tree, holding a grey axe and a smirking at me like he just found an evening snack. "Do you need some help with something?" He asked.
I slowly backed up. "N-no. I'm good. Thanks for offering, though. I'll just be on my way now." I started to walk away, but the furry thing was fast. He ran out in front of me and tripped me so I fell flat on the ground.
The furry thing put a foot on my back and poked the end of his axe lightly in between my shoulder blades. "Look, I don't know what you're doing here, but you're not welcome. You made the mistake of coming here, and now you're gonna pay the price."
I felt the axe life off my back, and waited for it to come back down. Instead though, I heard an oof! I turned my head and flashlight to see the tables vastly turned. The furry thing's axe was on the ground a good five feet away from where he was pinned to a tree, looking quite shocked. His attacker was holding an axe too, but it was blue and glowing. It was none other than Mitch, his face twisted into a glare. We all froze, standing (or in my case, laying) there in an awkward silence.
The furry thing spoke. "Mitch?"
"Hi Jerome," Mitch replied. "Long time no see."
Jerome kneed Mitch in the stomach, making him crumble to the ground. I expected Jerome to escape while he had the chance, but he started yelling at him instead. "Three years, Mitch. Three freaking years. I thought for sure you were caught or dead. I gave up hope of you ever coming back years ago. I went back to my old, lonely life for three years. Then all of a sudden you just show up like nothing happened!?"
Mitch swept Jerome's feet out from under him and sent Jerome tumbling to the ground. "I'm sorry, alright? Things came up. I couldn't leave! I was going to come back as soon as possible, but-"
"Wait," I interrupted. "You lived up here? With that thing?"
"I'm a bacca you ignorant human!" Jerome growled. "And you know this idiot, Mitch?"
"Hey, that idiot kinda saved my skin," Mitch retorted. "His family gave me a home and food, so I've been staying there all this time."
If looks could kill, Mitch would've died right then and there from Jerome's glare. "So let me get this straight, while you were in New York, you got a family, started living the luxurious life, and just forgot about me?! I could've gotten rid of you when you we first first met, you know!"
"Jerome, just hear me out."
"Nope. You had your chance, Mitch. You betrayed me."
"I did nothing! If you would just let me explain-"
"Leave, Mitch. If I see you or him ever again, I promise you'll get an axe to your skull."
"You can come live in New York with us. Just listen-"
"GO!" Jerome screamed, picking up his axe and throwing at Mitch. He grabbed me and together we ran until we somehow found our campsite again. As stealthily as we could, we went back into our tent, and collapsed on our sleeping bags.
"Explain," I demanded after I got my breath back.
He hesitated for a second, then spilled his guts. "When I was five, after the plane crash, I was on the run. One day I found a river in this forest, when I just so happened to have come across Jerome. We became pretty good friends. I lived at his place, and in return went on little expeditions to get food and stuff for entertainment. Then the aquarium happened, only time I ever got caught, by the way. Then I came back to New York for food a couple months later, and found you and Ty. You guys insisted I stay and when Kelly and Dan offered to adopt me, I couldn't say no. I liked living with Jerome, but this was giving me a chance to have a real family again. I was going to get Jerome and invite him to come to New York so we could still hang out, but a year passed and it never happened. I didn't want to get pulverized, so I never came back."
"That's why you were so nervous when Dan said that we were going to Canada," I realized, stating the obvious.
Mitch put his head in his hands. "Yeah. And in case you're wondering, I sneaked out to try and find Jerome. I thought maybe he'd forgive me and consider my offer. I thought wrong, I guess. Sorry to have dragged you into it."
"It's okay, man," I told him. "But you could've at least told me in advance that you had a friend in Canada that was a spawn of Chewbacca."
Mitch smirked. "If you ever meet Jerome again, don't tell him that. He'll kill you."
I snorted. "It seems like he was going to do that regardless."
"Yeah. I don't know what came over him. Usually he's pretty friendly. Then again, he was only ever nice to me and he hates me now for leaving, so all the friendliness was probably sucked out of him."
It was quiet for a minute, then I changed the subject. "What was with the blue glowing axe?"
Mitch's eyes became wide. "What axe?"
"Really Mitch? I'm not blind. I'm pretty sure that you were holding an axe when you were attacking Jerome."
He rolled over in his sleeping bag. "It's not important, alright? I'm going to sleep."
Then it was silent. "Okay," I whispered. "Goodnight again." I covered up with my sleeping bag and closed my eyes. Instead of going to sleep right away though, I came up with different conspiracy theories for Mitch's blue glowing axe. Maybe he was a guardian of some sort, or maybe he could use some sort of magic that lets him summon weapons at will. Maybe he was from another planet like me.
My head spun as I thought. Eventually my eyes could barely open and my mind felt mush. "I'll get it out of him eventually," I mumbled, giving up on figuring the mystery of the axe out. I closed my eyes and immediately fell asleep.
