Wednesday Afternoon...

Rapunzel was braiding her blonde hair into pigtails when Jasmine came into her room.

"Are you almost ready?" Jasmine asked.

"Yup!" Rapunzel replied as she wrapped a hair tie around the end of her braid.

For the most part, the eight friends had spent their vacation hanging out at the cabin. But, today they decided to go hiking. Rapunzel slipped her phone in her pocket and followed Jasmine downstairs. Everyone else was outside, waiting for them. Phoebus was adjusting the straps of his backpack, while Esmeralda stood next to him, texting. Mulan and Kayley were talking excitedly about something. Aladdin and Flynn were testing out their walkie-talkies.

"Are you really bringing those?" Rapunzel asked Flynn.

"Yeah! We want to test the range on theses babies," Flynn replied.

Jasmine playfully rolled her eyes before kissing Aladdin's cheek.

"There's only one trail for about a half a mile, but then it forks off and those trails fork off as well," Phoebus said. "It'll be really easy for us to separate and get lost."

Everyone nodded in acknowledgement and followed Phoebus to the woods. Esmeralda took Phoebus' hand, aware of the fact that Mulan was watching her. There was a thick tension between the girls since last night. Esmeralda didn't understand why Mulan was getting so defensive of Phoebus.

"Guys, look!" Rapunzel whispered.

Everyone stopped and looked where Rapunzel was pointing. Several yards from the trail was a deer.

"Oh, wow. I've never seen a deer in real life before," Jasmine said. She pulled out her iPhone to take a picture. She zoomed in as far as he could and snapped the picture. Unfortunately, the sound of the camera spooked the deer and it ran away.

The friends continued on their way. When they reached the fork in the trail, they paused.

"Which way should we go?" Kayley asked.

"Well, eventually, every trail leads to a large clearing about ten miles from here. So, either way it doesn't really matter," Phoebus said.

"How 'bout a race?" Flynn suggested. "We split up and see who gets to the clearing first."

"But, Phoebus said we could easily get lost," Rapunzel pointed out.

"You can," Phoebus said. "Not all of the trails are clearly marked and you could possibly stray and never make it to the clearing."

"Maybe we shouldn't split up," Esmeralda said.

"Aw, come on, where's your sense of adventure?" Aladdin asked. "We'll be fine. We all have our phones. And if we don't have a signal, we have the walkie-talkies. Each group will have one."

"How do we determine the teams?" Mulan asked.

Flynn gave her a sly grin. "Boys versus girls!"

"That's not fair, you'll have Phoebus," Esmeralda said. "Of course you're going to win."

"What's the matter, Essie?" Mulan asked. "Don't think you could handle losing?"

Esmeralda scowled at Mulan. "It's Esmeralda. And it's not that; they have an unfair advantage."

"Well, they may have Phoebus, but we out-number them. I'd say it's pretty evenly matched," Kayley said.

"It's settled, then," Aladdin said. "See ya on the flip side!"

The girls kissed their men before heading off in different directions. Rapunzel clipped Flynn's walkie-talkie to her front pants pocket. Esmeralda sulked at the fact that she was stuck with Mulan for the next couple hours instead of being with Phoebus. She couldn't believe they had started out being friends and then Mulan just turned on her. Jasmine walked up beside Esmeralda and linked her arm through Esmeralda's.

"What's going on with you and Mulan?" Jasmine asked. "I thought you were guys were friends."

"We were," Esmeralda said.

"Things got pretty heated between you two last night, what happened?"

"I don't know," Esmeralda admitted. "It's like all of a sudden she has a problem with me being with Phoebus."

Jasmine thought for a moment. "Maybe she likes Phoebus."

"I don't think so. She was happy for us at first," Esmeralda said. "Plus, she likes this other guy named Shang."

Jasmine nodded. "Well, didn't you tell me Mulan is Phoebus' best friend?"

"Yeah."

"Then maybe she's just trying to look out for him. I mean, you do have quite a little reputation," Jasmine said.

Esmeralda narrowed her eyes at Jasmine.

Jasmine put up her hands in surrender. "Sorry. But, it is true."

"I have never cheated on one of my boyfriends," Esmeralda said.

"I know that, Esmeralda, but she doesn't. You can't really blame her for being protective of her best friend," Jasmine said. "If you were dating a guy who was known for sleeping around, I'd be acting the same way Mulan is."

Esmeralda sighed in defeat. Of course, Jasmine was right. Esmeralda was so quick to get defensive, that she didn't really think things through, or try to see the situation from Mulan's point of view.

"Whataya think?" Rapunzel asked. "Which way should we go?"

The girls stopped at the fork and looked down both paths. The one to the left looked pretty worn. The one to the right didn't look much like a trail; the dirt path had some grass growing over it and didn't seem to have had any visitors in a while.

"Let's go right," Kayley said.

"I disagree," Rapunzel countered. "That's one of those trails Phoebus warned us about."

"Rapunzel's right," Jasmine said. "We should stick to the marked trail."

"You can do that. I'm going this way." Kayley started walking down the trail on the right.

Mulan and Esmeralda followed Kayley. Jasmine and Esmeralda gave each other wary looks, but then went after the other girls. If they got lost, at least they'd all still be together. The trail twisted and weaved through the trees and Rapunzel was starting to feel more uneasy.

"How do we even know which direction we're going in?" Rapunzel asked.

Jasmine took Rapunzel's hand. "Don't worry. We won't get lost."

"What's that?" Kayley asked, after they had been walking for well over an hour.

"I don't see anything," Mulan said.

Kayley ignored her, and started heading of the trail, to where she had been pointing.

"What are you doing?" Jasmine asked.

"I think there's somebody out there," Kayley replied.

Rapunzel looked around nervously. "So?"

Kayley looked back at them. "Maybe they're lost."

"And maybe they're a rapist serial killer," Esmeralda said.

"I have to agree with Esmeralda on this one," Mulan said. "We should just stay on the trail and not go chasing after strangers."

Kayley shrugged and continued walking into the woods. Knowing they couldn't let their friend go out there alone, the other girls followed after her. The deeper they went, the denser the woods became. Kayley soon lost sight of the person she had seen. Jasmine turned around, but she couldn't see much behind her, let alone the ghost of a trail they had been on. She realized she was still holding Rapunzel's hand and was somewhat glad; at least she wouldn't get separated from her.

"I don't see anybody," Esmeralda said.

Kayley stopped and looked around. "Yeah, I don't either."

Mulan groaned. "Kayely-"

Mulan was cut off by the sound of a twig snapping somewhere nearby. The girls froze. Jasmine wanted to turn and run back to the trail. Rapunzel squeezed her hand and Jasmine could tell she was thinking the same thing. The person was coming closer to them and they could hear they were coming from the right of them. Kayley silently motioned for them to follow her. They continued going forward. They wandered for a few minutes, until they couldn't hear the other person anymore.

"This was stupid, Kayley," Mulan kissed.

"I'm sorry," Kayley whispered.

"I think we should try going back," Jasmine said. "We could be heading right towards his camp."

"I agree, let's go back," Rapunzel said. "I really don't want to run into any ruffians or thugs."

"Maybe we should call the boys," Esmeralda suggested.

"No way," Mulan said. "They can't help us, and they'd just mock us about it."

Esmeralda frowned. "You're right."

Someone tapped Rapunzel's shoulder. She jumped and let out a small shriek. The girls turned around to see a boy about their age standing there. He was tall, and actually good-looking.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you," he said. "I promise I'm not a ruffian or a thug."

Rapunzel looked down and blushed.

"What are you doing out here?" Esmeralda asked. "Are you lost?"

He shook his head. "I'm camping. I come out here all the time. I would know these woods if I were blind."

"Why are you following us?" Mulan demanded.

"I thought you were lost. How did you stray off the path?"

"We saw you and thought you were lost," Rapunzel said. "We were gonna help you. But, then we got lost."

He laughed. "You guys aren't a very good rescue team."

Jasmine shrugged. "At least we tried."

"And a valiant attempt it was," he said. "I appreciate it."

"What's your name?" Esmeralda asked.

"Garrett."

"I'm Esmeralda. This is Jasmine, Rapunzel, Mulan and Kayely."

Garrett's gaze lingered a little longer on Kayley. He looked away when she made eye contact with him.

"Garrett, can you help us get back to the trail?" Rapunzel asked. "We're trying to get to the clearing."

Garrett nodded. "No problem. Follow me."

It only took a couple minutes for Garrett to lead them to the trail.

"Thank you so much," Jasmine said.

"Do you know the quickest way to get to the clearing?" Mulan asked.

Garrett shrugged. "Sure. But, I wouldn't be able to explain the way to you. I'd have to show you."

"Would you?" Mulan asked.

Garrett looked at the girls. "I don't know about that. What if you're actually serial killers?"

"Oh, yes, serial killers who are afraid of ruffians and thugs," Esmeralda said, winking at Rapunzel.

Rapunzel blushed again and Garrett laughed.

"All right, I'll show you the way," he said.

As the other girls chatted up Garrett, Jasmine noticed Kayley had been awfully quiet this whole time and was hanging back behind the group.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Jasmine asked her.

Kayley smiled at her. "They're probably not worth that much."

"Sure they are."

Kayley hesitated. "It's Garrett. I think I like him."

Jasmine nodded. "Yeah, he's pretty cute."

"I've never had a crush on anyone before, Jasmine. I don't know what to do," Kayley admitted.

"Just talk to him."

Kayley's eyes grew wide. "I don't know how to talk to a boy."

Jasmine laughed. "It's super easy. Look, you don't know anything about Garrett, so just start with the basics: what school he goes to, what he's into, his favorite class. Stuff like that. The conversation will carry itself after that."

"How can I talk to him with the other girls around him?"

Jasmine thought for a moment. "When we get to the clearing, I'll invite him to join us for lunch. You can talk to him then."

Kayley nodded. "Thanks, Jasmine."

They reached the clearing about an hour and a half later. The clearing had a bunch of picnic tables and some grills scattered across it. The boys were sitting at one of the tables, and Phoebus was getting a grill started. Rapunzel ran over to Flynn. She sat down on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. Flynn kissed her, and ran one of her braids through his hand, picking out some small leaves that had gotten stuck in her hair.

"Thank you for getting us here," Jasmine said to Garrett. "Would you like to join us for lunch?"

Garrett smiled. "Sure, thank you."

Jasmine introduced the boys to Garrett and Phoebus threw another hot dog on the grill. Jasmine convinced Rapunzel, Flynn, Esmeralda, Mulan and Aladdin to toss around the Frisbee to give Kayely a chance to talk to Garrett. But, Jasmine stayed close so she could hear their conversation.

"Hi," Kayely said, sitting down across from Garrett.

Garrett looked up and smiled at her. "Hi. Kayely, right?"

Kayley nodded. "Yeah."

"I've never seen you around here before," Garrett said. "Where are you from?"

"Camelot."

"No kidding!"

Kayely shook her head. "No. I'm a junior at Camelot High School."

Garrett smiled. "I live here in Fern Gully, but my dad got a new job in Camelot and I'm gonna be moving there this summer. I'll be attending Camelot High School next year for my senior year."