{125}✔️

Dahlia's outfit:

Kit's outfit:

Dahlia's POV

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Because we're currently camping in a beautiful, peaceful spot in the forest, I figured that I'd wake up to the sound of birds chirping, the tree leaves swishing around, chipmunks...chipmunking.

Or maybe I'd wake up to the feeling of Billie's arms wrapped around my waist, the sun beaming down on my face, the wind blowing my hair or the heat making me sweat.

Nope.

"I ain't get no sleep because of y'all! Y'all not gone get no sleep because of me! Get the fuck up! Get the fuck up! Get the fuck up! Get the fuck up—"

It didn't stop until everyone slowly, begrudgingly came out of their tents. And I do mean everyone. The screaming didn't stop until every single person was present.

"Good morning everyone!" Caden grinned as he finally stopped banging his pots and pans together and put them down on the table he was standing beside. "We've got a long day ahead of us and I didn't want anyone to miss out on anything, so I decided to wake you guys up!"

He was way too damn chirpy for it to be so early in the morning. I don't know what time it is—judging by the annoying heat I'm guessing it's around noon at least—but I know it's too damn early.

"Caden, there's nothing to do out here but stare at each other, talk to each other, or sleep. I don't feel like staring at or talking to any of you, so I guess that means I should be sleeping right now. Isn't that funny? I was doing the thing that I wanted to be doing, but you just interrupted that." Bea grumbled as she crossed her arms over her chest and put all her weight on one foot.

Kit, who happened to be standing right beside me, sucked in a sharp breath and leaned back a little to get a better view of Bea's ass. I quickly elbowed her in the side.

"I know it is early for you guys, but it is the perfect time to start our fun day!" Gigi exclaimed, clearly excited as he went to stand next to Caden.

We all stayed quiet as he spoke, mostly because his accent is adorable and he happened to look like a character from Baywatch. He was shirtless and wearing bright red shorts.

Who knew he had that many abs? Wow. Cadence is lucky.

"Me and pretty Cadence's brother are going to, ugh..." He thought for a moment before smiling again. "Have barbecue for you guys! Yes, barbecue! We put food on the grill and it'll be great! We going to have the hot dogs, burgers, ribs! And the vegan food for Billie!"

"You're so thoughtful!" Ken pouted as she placed her hands over her heart. "And ripped."

"Yeah, I am too," Caden grumbled before pulling her into his side. "It's gonna be a huge barbecue with lots of food and it's gonna be great! You guys will love it!"

"That's really nice of you guys," I smiled. "But why the fuck couldn't we sleep in? You guys could've started grilling without waking us all up."

"We're not in the woods just to sleep!" Hudson rolled his eyes. "We're supposed to be enjoying nature! While they work on the grill, why don't we all have a nice little adventure? We can explore the woods and see if we can find anything cool!"

"Alright, nature boy, but when you say explore the woods you do mean walk around for ten minutes and then come back, right?" Billie questioned.

"You guys are so mopey all the time," Cadence scoffed. "This is gonna be really fun! There's nothing I love more than the smell of the great outdoors! The amazing things that you see as you pass by all the trees! All those amazing creatures that live their lives here! It's all just so...refreshing!" She grinned.

Billie and I sent each other looks.

She knows she's fucking lying right through her teeth. Cadence hates the outdoors. She can't stand being outside for more than a few minutes at a time, especially in the summer. She must be trying to impress Gigi, and judging by the look on his face, I think it's working.

"So, everyone get changed and we'll start our adventure in about fifteen minutes!" Hudson smiled.

We all begrudgingly turned to head back to our tents and get dressed. I think if it was winter I'd totally enjoy exploring the woods. But it's not winter. It's fucking summer.

Wasps, bees, and mosquitoes flying every-fucking-where waiting to bite and sting us. Flies, dragonflies, and gnats flying at our faces just for the hell of it. Ants crawling all over our feet and up our legs. Birds flying above us, waiting to take a gigantic shit right on our heads...I'm not a big fan of nature. Not in the summertime.

Nevertheless, despite how little I actually wanted to go exploring, I grabbed my bag and started digging through it to find something to wear.

I pulled out a pair of leggings and a long sleeve top. Sure, I'd burn like hell wearing that, but at least my skin wouldn't be exposed so that bugs could bite me to death.

"No, no, no!" Billie crawled over to me quickly and snatched the clothes out of my hands. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"Getting dressed?" I raised my brows.

"Yeah, and pretty modestly at that!" She scoffed. "No, that isn't gonna work. I've been waiting for summer to come for...Since I met you! I've been counting down the days until I could see you wearing shorts that barely covered your ass and tank tops that made your boobs pop out, and god damn it, I demand—"

"If I put something more revealing on will you shut the fuck up?" I grumbled.

"Yes!"

"Well, too bad. I like the sound of your voice." I smiled.

"Now isn't the time to be sweet, Dahlia. Put something at least semi slutty on or I'm divorcing you!"

***

So, after I put on a half tank and shorts, we walked out of our tent and met up with our friends. When everyone was ready, Caden and Gigi sent us all off as they began trying to get the old grill that they'd brought to work. It was a pretty small grill, so I'm sure it'll take ages for them to make all the food they plan on making, but it's none of my business.

I'm already hungry, though, so that's fucking great.

"Which direction should we go in?" Kai asked after we all started walking.

"There's only one." I smirked. Everyone ignored my joke.

"I think we should go left." Ken smiled.

"I vote we go right." Billie shrugged. "Just because I like to argue."

"Well, I never thought I'd say this, but I wanna go straight." Ori said.

"Well, why don't we all just split up?" Ken shrugged.

"Sure, that sounds like a plan—"

"Man, you guys are all dumber than you look." Cora narrowed her eyes. "We can't just split up! We're in the fucking woods with no cellphones and no way to communicate with one another aside from screaming at the top of our lungs and hoping for the best. We do not need to split up."

"Making a big deal out of nothing again, I see," Liza rolled her eyes. "We could all just meet up here again after a few hours. It'd be fine. I doubt any of us would go that far anyway, and I don't think there are too many places to go. It'd be fine."

"Yo, I agree. We'll be fine." Kit smiled, patting Cora on the shoulder. Cora blushed and let out a few giggles before shrugging. "Yeah, okay, sure! We'll be fine! Totally, let's all split up!" She agreed immediately.

Liza rolled her eyes again before walking over to Ken. "Fine, I wanna go left."

"Aw, but I wanna go straight." Cora said.

"We don't have to do everything together," Liza grumbled. "You can go wherever you want."

"Oh, I bet you can't wait to get away from me so you can start gushing about your new friend to every and anyone who will listen, huh?" Cora muttered.

"You're still mad about that? God, I don't think I've ever met anyone more jealous in my life!" Liza huffed.

"Well, I'm sure if you had I'd be stuck listening to you go on and on about how great you think they are for hours!" Cora snapped back.

"Ladies, ladies. Calm down," Kit snickered. "There's no reason for all the hostility." She threw an arm around Cora's shoulder, causing the girl's blush to deepen, and Liza quickly pointed between the two of them.

"See! See this?! She's all over you and I'm not jealous! You go on and on about how hot you think she is and I'm not jealous! But the second I make a new friend and tell you a few things about her, you wanna throw a shit fit and beat her up during a school play?!"

Oh, so that's who she was fighting at the play? Well, I'll be damned.

"It's different! Kit doesn't want me! I mean, she totally does, but she's just waiting for me to be legal!" Cora yelled.

"Um, that's not really—"

"Shh, don't lie and deny." Cora shushed Kit quickly. "Your new 'friend' happens to have a crush on you and you're not making any efforts to keep her from flirting with you! That's the difference!" She redirected her attention back to Liza, who threw her head back in annoyance.

"She does not have a crush on me!" She growled. "You think that every girl who looks at me has a crush on me."

"Guys, as much as we'd all love to keep standing here listening to you guys argue, I really think that we should get a move on." Cadence tapped her imaginary watch impatiently.

"Good, I'm done with this conversation. I'm going straight." Cora huffed.

"I'm going left." Liza muttered before looking away from her.

So, then, we all decided which way we wanted to go.

Billie, Jessica, Madi, Jules and I all decided to go right. Ken, Liza, Bea, Heidi, and Kai decided to go left. Ori, Cora, Kit, Cadence, and Hudson went straight.

We all agreed to meet here again in three hours. Billie actually happened to be wearing a watch, and so were Hudson and Heidi, so all our groups knew that we'd be able to get back at the right time.

We all set off in our own directions after a few minutes.

***

"I'm exhausted! I can't do this anymore!" I shook my head as I took a seat on a nearby rock, bending over as I tried to catch my breath.

"It has been exactly 23 minutes and 7 seconds. You should not be this tired. This is very weak of you." Madison told me before coming over to pat my head.

"Don't judge me." I mumbled.

"I am judging you. But I will do it quietly so that your feelings will not be hurt." He told me.

"23 minutes and 7 seconds of walking just for us to still be looking at the same exact shit we saw when we were back at the campsite?" Jules grumbled. "Seriously, everything looks the same! The trees are still big, the dirt is still brown, and it still smells like a gigantic pile of shit in every direction we turn in! The only difference between here and where we were is that now I've got a splinter in my toe."

"Oh, come on, you guys! Quit being grumpy!" Jessica laughed as she started climbing a tree. "I think it's actually really nice out here!"

"Get down before you break something!" Billie demanded as she ran over to stand under the tree. She held her arms out as she stared up at Jessica, who happened to be climbing really fucking quickly, like some sort of ninja with tons of experience. It was impressive.

"I can't enjoy anything. I'm hungry." I pouted.

"I brought trail mix!" Jessica yelled before reaching into her pocket and chucking a small bag at me.

"Wow, thanks. This is a four-course meal!" I grumbled sarcastically. "I'd really enjoy this if I was a bird."

"Well, if you're gonna disrespect my mix then you can just give it back!" She shouted, almost slipping as she did.

I muttered a few curse words to myself before opening the bag and pouring some of it into my mouth. I gave Madi all the dried cranberries since they were red and he likes to eat red things.

"Seriously, you're way too high! Get down before you break a bone!" Billie shouted, still holding her arms out to catch her if she fell.

"You're such a prude, Bil. Come on, this is really fun! You should try it!" Jessica grinned.

"I'm not a squirrel, so I don't climb trees." Billie stated monotonously.

"What you doing, Madi?" I tilted my head as I turned my attention to him. He was sitting on the ground, staring deeply at something.

"I know it is weird but I like to count things. I'm counting the ants. It is very hard."

"It's not weird." I smiled. "How many have you counted so far?"

"Thirty-six. They move quickly and sometimes in circles, but I am fairly sure I counted all different ones despite this." He giggled.

"Sorry to interrupt." I told him quietly before standing up from my rock. I went over to lean on the tree that Jessica was still climbing, and smirked as I stared at a very worried Billie.

"What's up with you?" I questioned.

She looked at me for a brief second before looking back up at Jessica. "What are you talking about?"

"You're a total worrywart and that's weird for you. You're not usually like that...Actually, I'm usually like that." I laughed.

"I am not a worrywart." She huffed.

"You made me put on two layers of sunscreen and three layers of bug spray before we left the tent. I smell like I'm composed of nothing but straight up chemicals." I sent her a look.

"You have beautiful skin. I'm just trying to protect it from sun rays and bug bites."

"You just seem a little on edge is all I'm saying."  I held my hands up in defense.

She let out a small sigh. "I don't know...It's just that this is the first really long trip that I've ever taken without Finneas. I mean, without no adults and no Finneas. I guess I'm just acting like how he would. I'm used to him being around all the time, cramping my style and caring way too much about dumb shit like how much sunscreen I put on and how much water I'm drinking and how stupid it is to jump off a cliff even if it doesn't seem that high up." She shrugged.

"And not only is he not around to obsess over all that shit, but he's also not around to help us if anything goes wrong. Usually, he is. He always knows what to do and how to handle any situation. I hate to say it, but I always feel safe and more comfortable when he's around because I know nothing too bad can happen. Nothing that he can't fix...But he's not here right now so I'm just trying to make sure nothing goes wrong so that way there won't be anything to fix." She explained quietly.

"That's so adorable, Billie. What I got from that whole speech is that you love your brother." I smirked as I poked her sides and then began dancing around her, singing 'You love your brother! You love your brother!'

"I hate you." She mumbled.

"Thank you!" I yelled before stopping my movements. "Look, nothing is gonna go wrong, I promise!" I told her gently. "But if it does, Finneas is only a phone call away. But for the record, you're really good at handling problems on your own. Don't sweat it."

"I guess you're right." She smiled, pulling me closer and leaning forward to kiss me.

"Oh my god, help!"

Neither of us registered the frantic scream until a few seconds later when Jessica was tumbling out of the tree and onto the ground. We both jumped apart and went to help her up.

"I-It's Okay! I'm fine!" She told us as we helped her stand up. She was a little wobbly when she tried to walk, and I winced as I noticed all the leaves in her hair and all the dirt on her clothes. "Wow, is that heaven?" She pointed up at the sun.

***

Jessica's nasty fall didn't keep her down for long. I wish it had.

"Oh, I think that I found myself a cheerleader

She is always right there when I need her

Oh I think that I found myself a cheerleader

She is always right there when I need her

She walks like a model

She grants my wishes like a genie in a bottle yeah yeah

'Cause I'm the wizard of love!"

She scream sang as she skipped ahead of us all.

"If I could choke the shit out of any song, it would be this one." Billie grumbled as she trudged along beside me.

"Why choke the song when you can choke the girl singing it?" I questioned.

"Oh, come on! You know that song was the shit back in the day!" She turned to face us, wearing a shit-eating grin as she walked backward. "I could always go back to singing 'happy' if that's what you guys want?" She chuckled.

"Over your dead body!" Jules spat.

Jessica shrugged before turning around and starting to skip and sing once again.

"I think I preferred her rendition of 'blurred lines' over this." I muttered.

"Yeah, that was definitely better than her version of 'Mirrors'." Jules nodded. "I've never heard a J. T song sound so miserable until she started singing it."

"I'm sure she has a talent because most humans do, but it is not singing." Madison said before bending down to pick up another pretty leaf.

"Oh, shit!" Billie mumbled as she glanced at her watch. "We're supposed to be meeting with everyone else again in fifteen minutes! We're never gonna make it back there in just fifteen minutes."

"Dude, What the hell?! You were supposed to be keeping track of the time." I slapped her shoulder.

"Well, you're all stupid for letting me be in charge of that! You know I'm easily distracted!" She defended herself.

"Alright, let's just head back now and hope we get back to them in...Less than an hour." Jules rolled her eyes.

We all turned around to head back in the direction that we'd come from and walked in silence for a few minutes.

As Jules had said earlier, this was all pretty much a waste of time. I mean, none of the scenery had changed over the course of our walk. All we saw were trees, dirt, grass, trees, and more dirt.

I guess I'm glad that I got some exercise, though. I do wish I could take a shower since I'm covered in sunscreen, sweat and bug spray—that didn't help in the least bit, by the way—But I guess my shower will just have to wait for another time.

Twenty minutes into our mainly silent walk, Billie stopped us and spoke up. "Um, which of these trails did we come from?" She asked as she pointed to the two trails in front of us. One was heading straight, the other was a little curved.

"Oh, no, we're gonna be lost out here forever and we're gonna die!" Jessica screeched. "I knew this would happen! Why didn't we leave breadcrumbs or something?! Why didn't we make sure to leave footprints?! They'll never find us!"

"...It was the curved one." Madi answered before leading us to the path. We all followed him, knowing that he was probably right. Jessica let out an embarrassed giggle and shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess I chose to freak out a little too early. Pretend that little outburst never happened and expect to experience it again the next time somebody asks which way we came from." She told us quickly.

***

We actually managed to get back to our starting point with little to no trouble. It was fairly easy to get back to it, and when we did, we were met with a horrific sight.

Everyone else looked like shit.

Cora and Cadence were covered in mud, Ori's clothes were ripped up, Hudson seemed to have a busted lip and was holding on tightly to his ribs. Ken, Heidi, and Kai were all drenched in water, and Bea and Liza were covered in leaves and mud themselves. The only person who didn't look like shit was Kit.

Why am I not surprised?

"America, explain!" Madi shouted before clapping his hands and letting out a loud laugh. Billie quickly reached over to high five him afterward. She's been teaching him about memes.

"Long story short, we all somehow ended up in the same area, but we didn't know it was us. We all thought we were being followed by strangers or—"

"Or a bear!" Liza quickly cut Cora off.

"—Things got out of hand and...Let's just leave it at that." She mumbled.

"Love that for you guys," Jules smirked. "Do I smell something burning or what?"

I sniffed the air and furrowed my brows as I smelled it too.

We all headed back to the campsite which was just a few minute walk away, and I gasped as I saw Gigi and Caden desperately trying to put out the large fire on the grill.

Caden was getting as close as he could to it and trying to blow it out and Gigi was fanning it with his shirt.

"What the fuck happened here?!" Bea questioned as she ran over to try to help.

"This thing is old as shit and apparently worthless! The tiny bit of food we managed to grill is burning to hell right now! You know it took us an hour and a half just to get one fucking hot dog done?!" Caden yelled.

"Quick, wring out your hair over the fire!" Heidi shouted before running over to do just that. The little water droplets coming from her hair did nothing to stop the fire, just as expected.

Cadence rolled her eyes as she walked over to them, bent down and picked the lid of the grill up off the ground, and then put it on the grill which smothered the fire.

She crossed her arms as she stared at the two of them. "Caden, this is all your fault. I just know it."

"Why do you think that?!" He shouted.

"Because my angel baby can do no wrong, duh." She said as she went over to hug Gigi.

"Wait, so there's no food?" Ken questioned. "We're gonna starve to death!"

"Not me," Billie smirked. "That's what y'all bitches get for eating meat. Me on the other hand, I've got all sorts of vegan snacks in my tent."

"No, you don't," I rolled my eyes. "I ate all your shit while you were sleeping last night."

"What?!"

"Well, I was hungry and I wanted to taste it!"

"If you were hungry you should've woke me up and asked to eat my pussy, bitch!" She screamed.

"Ew-my-god!" Cora screamed, covering her ears. "You two are disgusting!"

"Okay, everybody calm down, okay? There's no reason to panic!" Hudson told us quickly. "I'm sure we can, like, order a pizza or something?"

"You think they deliver to the middle of the forest?" Kai sent him a look.

"It doesn't hurt to ask." He shrugged.

"We are not gonna use our electronic devices to order a pizza!" Caden shouted. "We're supposed to be living without our devices for three days—"

"Too late!" I shouted. "We used our watches today! And don't act like you weren't up using your iPad last night either. I saw you!"

"What the fuck were you looking in my tent for?!" He hissed.

"That's beside the point! You told me there was to be absolutely no use of electronics, and then you turned around and did that?!" Ken huffed. "I could've been online shopping!"

"You guys, stop fighting!" Jules cut in quickly. "The last thing we need to do is get into a fight out here. What if a crazy axe murderer tries to kill us and what if the only reason he decides to target us is because he knows we're fighting and not united as one?"

"An axe murderer would find a group of teens way cooler than us to go after, I'm pretty sure." Heidi rolled her eyes. "One Problem at a time, though. What are we gonna eat?"

"We can go fishing and cook that? We'll get Billie some seaweed or grass to eat or something?" I shrugged. She glared at me and I shrugged again.

"You guys can fight over this potato chip shaped like Abraham Lincoln's hat that we found on the ground." Caden held up the chip.

"I have crackers in my bag." Gigi offered.

"Are you gonna tell them about the Lunchables you brought?" Billie whispered. I quickly shh'd her. I brought like ten Lunchables but I'm not sharing not one of them bitches!

"Okay, I say we play several games of tic tac toe until it comes down to only two people. Then, whoever loses that game gets eaten by the rest of us." Liza suggested.

"Seriously, why can't we just get postmates?" Ori whined.

"Yo, I vote we just find some other campers and rob their shit real quick. We'll ask God to forgive us later." Kit said.

We all began arguing as we tried to figure out what to do for food.

***********

A/N: dahlia's nature rant is 100% based on me Nd my actual thoughts. I hate when it's not cold. I hate summer. I hate nature in the summer. I can't stand bugs and shit lmao.

Also, this is random but I don't like butterflies or ladybugs. Most people do but I can't stand them, especially ladybugs. In ninth grade when we first went back to school, no exaggeration, like a thousand ladybugs covered the walls of my science class. I guess my teacher left the window open? Idfk but they were in there for like two weeks and I was terrified. butterflies are aight I guess but I don't love them.

Also, I don't like birds, they scare me.