“You’re kidding me! You have to be!” Jeremy cried, doubled over in laughter. “I can’t breathe! Hahaha!”

               Casey and Lance were guffawing as well, but not nearly as hard as the blonde. I was actually afraid he would pass out from lack of oxygen. My cheeks were hot in embarrassment and I scowled at the sniggering trio. The only one mature enough to not laugh at me was Chris, but I could tell it was taking all he had to hold it in.

               “Don’t make me climb over this seat and smack you,” I warned in a quiet voice. “It’s not funny.”

               Wiping tears from his eyes, Jeremy glanced over the bus seat that was separated him and Chris from Casey and myself. “It’s so funny. Just the thought… Just the thought…” He burst out laughing again, slapping the back of the seat.

               James and Ellie, who were sitting in the seats across from Jeremy, kept sneaking curious peeks at him, their expressions amused. James was grinning widely, shooting me wicked looks. Apparently he’d heard my confession as well.

               “Stop laughing!” I tried again, glowering at Jeremy. “How would you like it if I laughed at your fears?”

               He snorted. “My fears? I think it’s pretty natural to be afraid of spiders. Aliens on the other hand…”

               My face grew darker. “It’s not aliens! It’s the idea that aliens might abduct me and, you know, harm me…”

               Finally, the dam inside Chris broke and laughter escaped his lips. This time Ellie did a double take at him. Even Lexi stared. I didn’t blame them. Chris rarely ever laughed so carefree. It made it hard for me to be mad with him for laughing.

               “Guys, guys. We should take Holly’s fears seriously,” Lance suddenly said solemnly. He glanced at Lexi, who was seated next to him, grinning, before looking back at me. “We never know. Maybe aliens will one day abduct her… and then she’ll tell them to abduct us next for revenge!”

               Seven people now started laughing. Ellie and James had overheard Lance. I threw my hands up in the air, completely frustrated. “You guys are so inconsiderate! Mr. Heywood, Mr. Ross! You two are teachers! This is like, bullying!”

               Jeremy gasped for air. “I can’t breathe!”

               “Jeremy!”

               “Mr. Ross, Mr. Heywood, Casey, Lance, Lexi, James, Ellie… I know you all may be excited, but please don’t be so loud.”

               Everyone closed their mouths immediately as Ms. Elliot frowned down on us. My heart jumped in my chest, surprised by her appearance. She always showed up at the most random moments.

               “Sorry,” Jeremy and Chris muttered together.

               “It’s fine. Just be courteous.”

               “Yes.”

               A satisfied smile crossed my face as Ms. Elliot waddled to the back of the bus. “Yeah guys. Quiet down.”

               Chris just rolled his eyes at me before turning forward. “I hope aliens abduct you tonight.”

               “Mr. Heywood!”

               Casey giggled beside me and I elbowed her. She grimaced. “That was my boob…”

               “Good!”

               “Just think,” Jeremy started, grinning at me, “you have to spend two nights out in the woods were the aliens can get you.”

               Groaning, I dropped my head down. “I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I knew you guys would tease me!”

               James leaned over Ellie to give me a sympathetic look. “Sorry, Holly. I’ll stop now.”

               “Thank you!”

               “It’s actually kind of scary to think about though,” Ellie thought out loud, furrowing her eyebrows. “Aliens can abduct you and torture you, and yet when you wake up you won’t know it. Like in the 4th Kind.”

               “Not helping, Ellie…”

               She grinned at me. “Sorry, sorry.”

               “It probably happens to Holly…”

               “Jeremy, shut up!”

               Ellie grinned at him. “You sound like my boyfriend Anthony. He teases me like that all the time like that.”

               An awkward silence passed by all of us.

               “Oh… Right. There was that rumor that you guys were dating, wasn’t there?” she said awkwardly, her gaze switching from Jeremy to me. “I didn’t mean anything by what I just said, I promise!”

               Chris locked gazes with me and smirked. I dropped my eyes, opting to focus on my pale hands resting on my lap. It felt like it’d been forever since that little incident had happened. I’d almost forgotten about it. Sighing, I slumped back in my seat. “So this is kind of it, isn’t it?”

               “What do you mean?” Casey inquired.

               “Next week is the last week of school. Friday is prom. Then we come back on June 6th to graduate… We’ll be at the school six more times before we’re done. Forever.”

               “Sounds good to me,” Lance declared happily. “Out of this hell hole and onto the next!”

               Casey pouted. “But that means we won’t get to see you again…”

               He rolled his eyes. “No. I’m going to go to WNEU.”

               “Really?” Casey, Jeremy, and I cried simultaneously.

               Lance stared at Jeremy. “Why are you excited?”

               A puckish smile crossed Jeremy’s face. “Well, on all your first year, I’ll be finishing up my last year.”

               “You’re still in college?” Lance, James, and Ellie all chorused, surprise on their faces.

               Jeremy frowned. “Why is everyone so surprised? I’m only twenty, almost twenty-one. Usually you graduate at twenty-two. For a four year, at least. I might go for longer.”

               “You’re only twenty?” Ellie repeated, even more shocked. “That’s how old my boyfriend is!”

               Casey and I smirked smugly at Lance. Apparently we weren’t the only two interested in older men. Annoyed, Lance crossed his arms and looked away from us. “Whatever. I can’t believe I have to put up with you in college too.”

               “Put up?” Jeremy parroted, his eyes growing sad. “Lance… I thought we had something special?”

               Lance gave him a flat stare. “You thought wrong.”

               “Oh, woe is me,” he sighed dramatically, throwing his hand over his forehead and falling back onto Chris.

               Chris immediately shoved him off. “Grow up.”

               “So I can be a grumpy old man like you? I think not.”

               After smacking Jeremy upside the head, Chris turned his back on the blonde and settled for glaring out the window. I caught his gaze in the reflection and grinned at him. He’d never admitted it, but I knew he was excited to be going camping. When the trip was mentioned, his eyes would brighten and his ears would perk up.

               “So,” Casey started in a low voice so only I could hear, “are you planning on sneaking into Mr. Heywood’s tent tonight?”

               “No.”

               “Is that reluctance I’m sensing?”

               “No.”

               “Not even a little bit?”

               I hesitated.

               Her eyes lit up. “Aha! So you do want to!”

               “Shh!” I shushed her, glancing around briefly to see if anyone was listening. No one was. It seemed everyone was distracted by their own conversations now. “Of course I want to. But I’m not stupid enough to do it.”

               “Why not?”

               “The tents are only made for two people. I bet Chris and Jeremy will tent together. Someone would notice if there's three people in the tent.”

               She cocked an eyebrow. “That’s what’s stopping you?”

               “Yeah.”

               A devious expression crossed her face. “Don’t worry about that. I’ve got it covered.”

               I looked at her warily. “Casey…”

               “Don’t even Casey me. I’ve got this. Gotta make the last two days of senior week count, don’t we?”

               Letting out a long sigh, I nodded. The least I could do was let Casey do what she wanted. If it worked, at least I’d get to spend the night with Chris again… I paused. I really was spending too much time with my boyfriend. It was starting to seem weird to be without him. Shaking my head, I adverted my gaze (which had somehow fallen upon Chris’s head) and stared out the window. I’d have to be careful about monopolizing both our time.

               The first thing we were instructed to do at the campsite when we arrived was to set up our tents. The weather forecast predicted rain, so we were also told to waterproof our tents. After Casey and I grabbed ours, we set off to locate where Chris and Jeremy were setting up their tent. To me it seemed a little suspicious if we set up near them, but Casey disagreed. The only reason I was going along with it was because I’d noticed Ms. Elliot setting up the tent she was sharing with Ms. Carpenter on the other side of the lot and I knew I didn’t want to be near her. After a little bit we finally located the boys and started to construct our shelter.

               “Which way do these poles go?” Casey asked me, holding up two of the metal poles from the tent kit. They were both long and skinny, with black strings inside of them.

               “Um… I don’t know.”

               “You have the instructions.”

               “The instructions are in Spanish…”

               She stared at me. “You’ve been reading them in English for the last five minutes.”

               I grinned at her sheepishly. “Actually, I’ve been guess-lating.”

               “Holly!”

               “What? I can’t speak Spanish perfectly!”

               “Why are the instructions even in Spanish? Last time I checked, we were in America!”

               I laughed. “Casey, most things come with Spanish these days.”

               “Well they should at least put them in English!”

               “They do,” a smooth voice interjected. “The other instruction packet should be inside the bag.”

               My eyes shot to Chris, who was now slowly sauntering toward me. I squatted down, digging through the blue tent bag. “Huh. I looked already though… Oh,” I said in realization, locating the English manual on the floor of the bag. “Of course.”

               “Do you need help?” Chris offered.

               I shook my head. “Nope. We’re big girls. We got this.”

               He didn’t look convinced. “Okay. I have to help other groups then… If you need me, I might consider helping you if you beg me.”

               “We’ll let you know, Mr. Heywood!” Casey chirped brightly. “But don’t get too excited to help Holly. We’ll figure this out.”

               “Sure,” came his skeptical response. “See you two later.”

               Rolling up the sleeves to her sweatshirt, Casey held her fists containing the poles higher. “Okay, so where do these go?”

               I glanced over the English instructions. “Umm… I don’t know.”

               Her shoulders sagged. “This is going to take forever…”

               Forever was an understatement. After half an hour, three mini-spats between us, and much swearing, we were still not even a quarter of the way finished with setting up our tent. We’d got all the poles through (after many attempts), but couldn’t get it to stand up right. Frustrated, Casey threw down the pole she was holding on to. I scowled at her, crossing my arms. “You know, throwing things isn’t going to help.”

               “This is ridiculous! It shouldn’t take so long to put up a freaking tent! Especially for two seniors!”

               Hearing her say that out loud caused me to grimace. It really shouldn’t have been that hard. “Listen, maybe we put the poles in the wrong things…”

               “We followed instructions!”

               “We must be missing something,” I said, raking my eyes over the sheet of paper in my hands again. “Um…”

               “Why don’t you try putting the end of the poles into the pockets on the bottom tarp?” an amused voice whispered in my ear.

               Surprised, I jumped, sending Chris’s jaw into my shoulder. “Ow!”

               He yanked his head away from me, frowning and rubbing his chin. “I should be saying that…”

               “Don’t scare me like that,” I muttered, turning my head to purse my lips at him. “And don’t whisper in my ear when there are other people around.”

               He smirked. “Too intimate for you?”

               Casey grinned at me as I glowered at my boyfriend. “No, but you know how I feel when Ms. Elliot’s around.”

               “You should just call her Rebecca,” Chris said, tapping his chin. “You seem to call other teachers by their first name.”

               “Mr. Heywood.”

               He wrinkled his nose. “I never liked you calling me that.”

               “Look, are you going to help us or not?”

               A grin appeared on his face. “Ah? You want my help?”

               Casey nodded eagerly. “Yes please.”

               “Holly has to beg.”

               I stared at him flatly. “No way.”

               “Do you really want my help?”

               “No.”

               “Holly,” Casey started, folding her arms over her chest, “we need his help. We can’t do it by ourselves.”

               I puffed out my cheeks. “Is this some kind of torture, Chris?”

               “Actually, it’s just something to amuse myself with.”

               “Chris!”

               He tilted his head to his side. “You mean Mr. Heywood?”

               “Fine!” I cried. “Please help us.”

               “That didn’t sound very convincing.”

               “You’ve got to be…” I shook my head in disbelief. Chris’s grin stretched all the way across his face. “Please?” I tried again, putting on my best puppy dog look.

               He shook his head. “That doesn’t do it for me.”

               “Well, what do you want me to do?”

               “Drop onto your knees, clasp your hands together, kiss my shoes…”

               “Definitely not.”

               He chuckled, stooping down to pick up the pole that was abandoned by Casey. “You guys almost had it. You really only had to put the four ends of the long poles into the four pockets at the bottom,” he explained, easily assembling our tent so it was upright and roomy.

               “Oh,” I said lamely, feeling my cheeks warm up. “That was, um… simple.”

               “Yeah, Holly. You’re stupid,” Casey commented in a low voice.

               “Hey! You couldn’t figure it out either!”

               Laughing, she waved me off. “It’s okay since your boy… boycott kept my mom from packing us dried fruit…”

               Confused by her words, I narrowed my eyes at her. “What—”

               “I see you girls finally decided to ask for help with your tent.”

               I twisted around on my heel to see Ms. Elliot giving us a knowing smile. My eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Why was she always appearing around me when Chris was around all of a sudden? Was it supposed to mean something? Was she suspicious? Or was I just being paranoid? It was true we’d had some close calls with her, but she’d never shown signs of suspicion.

               “It seems like all the girls are having problems,” Chris responded for us, his voice confident and playful. “They must not camp much.”

               Ms. Elliot nodded. “Well that, or another reason.”

               I allowed my eyes to drift to the ground, my gaze settling on a tiny piece of mica. It was pretty obvious what she meant by another reason.

               “Well, Holly was trying to read the Spanish instructions,” Casey piped in. “Didn’t realize there was English ones.

               Still focused on the rock, I could imagine the smirk on the female teacher’s face.

               “Well, since almost every other group is finished setting up their tents, the other teachers are setting up activities. Depending on what you want to do, you can go meet up with the other students. Mr. Heywood knows what the activities are. I’m sure he’ll relay them to you…”

               “Will do,” Chris responded swiftly. “Leave it to me.”

               After sending him a warm smile, Ms. Elliot left us to ourselves. Casey grinned like a mad man. “She is like a shark.”

               “A really annoying shark,” I corrected her, sighing deeply. “She always runs into Chris and I at the worst moments. Literally.”

               “One week left,” she told me. “Then you don’t have to worry about her.”

               “Hazaah.”

               She grinned at me cheekily before turning to face Chris. “Okay! Mr. Heywood, what are choices?”

               He pressed his lips together. “Nothing fun. You can go for a hike. Or go kayaking. Or search for firewood for later. Or I guess they have badminton set up somewhere.”

               “I’m feeling lazy, so I’m going to gather firewood,” I decided easily.

               Casey pouted at me. “What? Come play badminton with me!”

               “No.”

               “Lazy!”

               “You know, Casey, Jeremy is gathering firewood too,” Chris spoke up casually. “I’m sure he’d like someone to talk to. Or Mack on.”

               Casey’s face tinted red, but she kept surprisingly calm. In fact, she turned to Chris with a self-assured look. “Ah, that’s right. I thought it was strange how you said ‘mack’ instead of ‘make out’, but then I remembered how old you were…”

               He scowled at her. “I’m not old.”

               “Should I call you Mack from now on?”

               “Casey.”

               “Well, I’m off to go Mack with my boyfriend,” she announced, winking at Chris. “See you, Holly.”

               I grinned as she sauntered away, whistling a happy tune. “I love her.”

               “She and Jeremy really do make the perfect couple.”

                “What are we then?”

               He smiled mischievously. “The couple that should never have been.”

               “Or maybe the outlawed couple…”

               “The surreptitious couple?”

               I laughed. “You sound like Lance when you use fancy words like that. He once called our relationship proscriptive back in October.”

               Chris looked impressed. “That fits. You were underage, so technically it was proscriptive.”

               “What does that even mean?”

               “Forbidden, especially by law.”

               I smiled wryly. “Wow, that really did fit…”

               “But now surreptitious fits more,” he enlightened me. “Surreptitious means kept secret because it would not be approved of.”

               “Good to know there are words to describe our relationship to a T…”

               He laughed. “Well, I wouldn’t say those describe our relationship but… Shall we sneak away for a bit?”

               “I think you mean gather firewood.”

               “We can do that at the same time,” he said, heading off in the direction of the woods. “Come after me once you can’t see me. I’ll only go straight from here, so you do too.”

               Nodding, I faced away from him, pretending to search through my back. Every now and then I glanced up to see who was around and watching, but it seemed like mostly everyone had decided on what activity they were going to and had dispersed. I did a double check for Ms. Elliot. When all was clear, I slowly strode off in the course Chris had left on.

               The brush outside the camp area was thick and scratchy. I slogged through it, repeatedly being whipped in the face by the branches of young Black Cherries and Sycamores. Bittersweet grabbed at me as well, tangling around my ankles. Growing increasing irritated, I began stomping on whatever I could in order to pass it. Finally I happened upon Chris, who was snacking on the orange fruits from the bittersweets.

                “Want some?” he inquired, holding out his hand.

               “Not really. I hate the forest.”

               “Me too,” he agreed, dumping the berries onto the ground. “But at the same time I like it.”

               I smiled. “You mean you like camping.”

               “No, I—”

               “Don’t lie to me. I may not be able to tell when you’re lying all the time like you can to me, but I know that look you get in your eye when you like something. Like camping.”

               He crossed his arms. “It’s not a big deal.”

               “You could have just said it.”

               “I didn’t want to influence your decision on whether you wanted to participate or not.”

               I gave him a flat look. “You were going to force me to either way!”

               A playful grin spread across his face. “I know, but it made me feel a bit better about myself.”

               “Okay,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “But you know, if you like camping, I don’t mind going camping with you. Um, you know, for future reference…”

               For a second he didn’t say anything. Then he scooped me up into his arms and gave me a tight squeeze. “I love you, Holly.”

                “I love you too,” I told him, gripping the back of his jacket with my hands. “I’d kiss you, but I’m afraid of getting caught.”

               “I’m not,” he said simply before firmly planting his lips to mine.

               After a brief kiss I pulled away from him, doing my best to give him a disapproving look. “Not when Ms. Elliot’s around.”

               He frowned. “She doesn’t know.”

               “I’m just being wary… Remember last time we weren’t wary? The last two times? Lexi and James…”

               Sighing, he ran a hand through his mahogany hair. “Right, right. It’s fine anyway. You only have one more week of school.”

               “But we still can’t say we’re in a relationship until June 6th.”

               “Unfortunately,” he muttered.

               I laughed, entwining my hand with his. “Wouldn’t it be funny if at graduation I was just like, by the way, I’m dating Mr. Heywood.”

               The corners of his lips twitched, but he didn’t smile. “Sadly, I think I could still get in trouble for that.”

               My smile dropped. “You could?”

               “Just to be safe, we should wait about two weeks.”

               “Well we’ve waited seven months… what’s one more?” I sighed, leading him further into the overgrowth. “Come on, we have to at least get some firewood.”

               He effortlessly pulled me to a stop. “We have a while.”

                “Chris…”

               “Holly…”

               I puffed out my chest. “Casey and Jeremy probably won’t get any. And what other student would volunteer for this? It means it’s up to use to get firewood in order to cook our food tonight. I don’t want cold food.”

               After keeping a straight face for about five seconds, he snickered. “Ah, I see. Thinking about food, are we?”

               “N-not only that!” I defended, aware of my reddening cheeks.

               With his free hand, he pinched my left cheek. “At least you’re still cute when you blush.”

               “And you’re cute when you sleep.”

               “What have I said about calling me cute?”

               I pretended to think about it. “That you like it?”

               He feigned a scowl. “You really have been getting cheekier.”

               “Aw, aren’t you cute when you fake scowl?”

                “Maybe I should punish you,” he thought out loud, peering at me curiously. “I could tickle you.”

                In a flash, I was running through the forest away from him. Even though it was obvious I wouldn’t be able to out run him, I was still going to give it my best shot. Maybe the uneven terrain would cause him to lose his balance… I grinned. Somehow I couldn’t imagine that. He was like the epitome of gracefulness. Most of the time, at least.

               “Holly!” he called after me, not too loudly, but enough so as I could hear him. “Stop running!”

               I ignored him, focusing on the dangerous bittersweet lying on the ground. If my foot got stuck on that, I was screwed…

               “Stop!”

               Just as I heard the cry, I felt a hard body crash into my soft one. Together we fell onto the dirt ground. Unluckily for me, I was on the bottom, so I bore the brunt of the fall. Air wheezed out of my lungs and for a moment I gasped to get it back, completely winded. Chris pushed himself off me so that he was hovering over me instead of crushing me and murmured an apology. “In moments like this I forget you’re more fragile than Jeremy.”

               “It’s okay,” I wheezed honestly. That just meant he was considering me not only as a lover, but also as a best friend. And the pain was worth it.

               “I would help you up, but I like the position I’m in.”

                I peered up at him, momentarily captured by his handsomeness. His hair fell messily into his eyes, and that matched with his boyish grin made him look incredibly young and incredibly dashing. Just by this sight I felt a blush coming on, but I forced it back. “I-I…” Inwardly smacking myself, I tried to pull myself together enough to make a coherent and full sentence.

                “Did I take your breath away? Not surprising,” he said with a self-confident smirk.

               Immediately any sense of aw for him was gone. “You’re so narcissistic!”

               “It’s just my personality,” he insisted, lowering his face closer to mine.

               “Get off me. This is too risky.”

               He rolled his eyes. “Don’t be such a worry wart.”

               “Chris!”

               “We’re lying on the ground. Even if someone was walking by, they’d have to look down to notice us.”

               “What if they hear us?”

               “You’ll just have to be quiet, won’t you?” he retorted, bringing his lips to my neck. “Can you handle that?”

               My whole body tingled at his touch. “Y-yeah.”

               “Good.” He moved his lips to mine again, brushing them softly. For a few seconds he continued to do this, barely touching them.

               I frowned a little bit. “Stop that.”

               “Stop what?”

               “Teasing me!”

               “Kiss me then.”

               “Fine,” I said, stretching my neck a little in order to reach his lips. My heart was hammering in my chest, like it always did when I was close to him. I wondered if it would ever be calm around him… probably not, I thought with a grin.

               Chris pulled away, cocking an eyebrow. “What are you grinning about?”

               Deciding not to tell him about my racing heart, I quickly made something up. “How, um, how ridiculous it is to be kissing on a forest floor… You’d think someone your age would—”

               “My age?” he interjected. “Holly, you forget, I’m still the age of a college student. Just because I graduated early doesn’t make me an older.”

               “But you’re more mature than Jeremy…”

               “That’s due to my older class,” he informed me. “But at heart, I’m really just a crazy college student who likes to party.”

               I rolled my eyes. “Because all college kids are like that, right? I highly doubt you were like that in college.”

               “Well, I was in a gang.”

               “Oh, yeah… I keep forgetting.”

               One of his rare, genuine smiles crossed his face. “That’s good to hear. That’s all finally behind us.”

               I stared at his face, captivated by his smile. “Um, yeah…”

               “Do my looks dazzle you?”

               “That smile does,” I said honestly. “You should smile more.”

               “I only smile when I’m with you.”

               We stared at each other solemnly for a few seconds before we both broke out in laughter. “Welcome back King of Cheesiness,” I laughed.

               He finally decided to get off me and jumped to his feet, holding out his hand and pulling me up as well. “I try my best.”

               “We should really gather firewood now,” I insisted, stepping over a crooked, broken branch. “I want to make smores tonight.”

               “Sure,” he consented, taking my hand in his. “I guess I should grow up a little.”

               His words made me do a double take. “Huh?”

               “Nothing,” he muttered, avoiding my eyes. “Let’s just gather the wood.”

               “Sure…” I responded slowly, frowning slightly. Where had that come from? Did he really think I thought he was immature? Wasn’t in natural to act a little younger around those you love? I hoped he wouldn’t dwell on it too much…

               * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

               The white and red flames from the roaring fire I’d somehow built on my own mesmerized me, holding my complete attention. It wasn’t so much the fire as the fact that I’d actually created it by myself. For someone who never went camping and didn’t like it, I could make a pretty mean fire. Now I just needed some marshmallows and chocolate…

               “Boo!” someone shouted in my ear, gripping my shoulders.

               A sharp shriek of fright left my lips and I nearly jumped a foot in the air. My cry caught the attention of some students sitting close by at their own fires, and I could feel my face flushing. “Jeremy!” I cried angrily, twisting around. “What— oh my god!”

               Instead of seeing Jeremy, a grotesque, four-eyed monster met my gaze. I scrambled backwards, falling off my log chair and nearly onto the fire. My hand landed on one of the hot rocks on the edge of the bit, burning it. Letting out another cry, this time of pain, I yanked it back to my side, nearly falling into the fire again.

               “Hey! Careful!” an angry voice said and I felt myself being lifted to my feet.

               Looking around me wildly, I realized it was Chris who was holding onto me. “Chris!” I cried in relief, clinging to him.

               Then I realized people were watching.

               I immediately shoved myself away from him, toward the monster. In an act of rashness I kicked my foot out at it.

                “Ow!” a familiar voice cried. “Holly! That hurt!”

                “Jeremy?” I said in disbelief. “What the… how the hell did you get that mask?”

               Pulling off the horrifying mask, the blonde smirked at me smugly. “I brought it to see if I could scare some students… Guess it worked.”

               I glowered at him. “That’s not funny! I nearly fell into the fire!”

               “It was so funny,” he told me, biting him lip to keep from laughing. “Your scream. Your face. You were so scared!”

               “Of course I was! You looked like an alien!”

               “Jeremy,” Chris began in a reproachful tone, “it’s not okay to use Holly’s fears against her.”

               Jeremy grinned at him. “I saw you laughing too.”

               “You two are jerks,” I snapped at him, sitting back down on my log. “Go die.”

               Jeremy stuck out his bottom lip in a fake pout. “Aw, Holly, I’m just playing around with you—”

               “Yeah, in the forest. At night. That’s definitely a good thing to do.”

                “You’re a little grumpy, aren’t you?”

               I ignored him. “I’m going to bed,” I declared, standing up and brushing off my butt. “Tell Casey and Lance whenever you see her.”

               Now a real frown crossed Jeremy’s face. “I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

               “Whatever.”

                “Holly,” Chris started.

               “Goodnight.”

               Keeping the angry look on my face, I began to march away from my fire and toward my tent. As soon as I knew they couldn’t see my face, I smiled smugly. Hopefully they’d feel bad about laughing at me, and wouldn’t try that again. And I was a little tired. It was better to fall asleep early than stay up later while everyone else was sleeping— and it was more comforting knowing other people were awake and could keep a lookout for things that could harm us.

               I crawled into my tent, worming my way over Casey’s sleeping bag and onto mine. Sighing deeply, I pulled the extra blanket I brought over me, not even bothering to change into pajamas. Then I counted down.

               Three.

                Two.

               One.

               The tent unzipped and Chris just about barrel rolled into it. I held back my smile and just stared at him. “What are you doing?”

               “Sleeping with you,” he said quietly. “You’ll feel safer with me, right?”

                “Yeah, but… I think this is too risky.”

               He shrugged. “We’ll be fine. Half the students are already sleeping anyway. No one noticed me come over here either.”

               “What about Casey?”

               “Didn’t she tell you her master plan? She’ll sleep in my tent.”

                “I’m not really that scared, you know,” I told him, propping myself up on my elbows.

               He gave me a skeptical look. “Really?”

                “Really.”

               “Then I guess you wouldn’t mind me going to sleep with Jeremy then—”

               “No wait,” I said quickly. “You can stay. Get in Casey’s sleeping bag though.”

                Chuckling, he obeyed my orders. “I wasn’t planning on sleeping in yours. I don’t think there would be enough room.”

               “Chris, about earlier… I didn’t mean that you should be mature or whatever.”

               “I know. I was just thinking though, about how immature I’ve been.”

               “How?”

               He gestured toward me. “I don’t know… dating a student? After promising to follow the rules in order to get this job?”

               “But…”

               “I’m not regretting my choice,” he told me. “I’m just thinking that from now on I’m going to make more responsible choices— actually, from next Saturday on.”

                I furrowed my eyebrows. “Why next Saturday?”

               “What’s Friday?”

               “Prom… Oh,” I said quietly, realizing what he meant. “Um, yeah. Saturday works…”

               “Are you sure you want to do it then?”

               “Positive,” I responded confidently, lying back on my sleeping bag and focusing on the ceiling. “It’ll make it a night to remember, won’t it?”

               I heard him repositioning himself in his sleeping bag. “Yeah, I guess so.”

               “Are you sure you want to?”

               “I may not be in a gang anymore, but I still like to break the rules once in a while.”

               “Rebel.”

               “You got it.”

               Suddenly the noise of the tent unzipping met my ears and I sat up, my heart flying into my throat. Chris easily slipped his head under the sleeping bag and lay stock-still. “Casey?” I said hesitantly.

               “Yep, it’s just me,” she replied, popping her head in with a grin. “I need my sweatshirt. It’s a bit chilly.”

               Relieved, I tossed her the sweatshirt lying by Chris’s head. “Don’t get caught.”

               She snorted. “Who? Me? Yeah right. I should be saying that to you two. I don’t want to hear any moans or anything—”

               “Get out,” I cut her off, my cheeks warming. “See you in the morning.”

                “Make sure you wake up early,” she told me. “Set an alarm or something. We’ll switch back before anyone else wakes up.”

               “Sounds good,” Chris said, his voice muffled.

               Casey stared at the lump in her sleeping bag. “Right… Good night you two.”

               “Night,” we chorused.

               As soon as she zipped the tent back up, Chris emerged from the sleeping bag and grinned at me. “You hear her, Holly. No moaning.”

                I chucked my pillow in his face. “Shut up and go to sleep.”

               “I can’t without my goodnight kiss.”

                “Really?”

               Shrugging, he moved his face closer to me. “That one time you were drunk you wouldn’t go to bed without one.”

                “Don’t bring that up!” I whispered furiously.

               “If you kiss me goodnight I won’t.”

                “Fine,” I agreed, swiftly placing a peck on his lips. “Night, Chris.”

               “Night, Holly,” he responded, patting my shoulder with his hand. “I’ll protect you from the aliens tonight.”

               Huffing, I pulled my blanket over my head. I really needed to rid myself of these silly fears…

_________________________________ 

Hi my name is Ronnie, I'm an addict.... Not really. This was a really late update, but I haven't been home in six days because we had no power. And this chapter is pretty crappy... but it's long...does that count for something? :D 

BUT ANYWAY. This story is my choice for the Watty Awards, so please vote :) And if you've missed a few chapters, it'd be pretty dandy of you to go back and vote for them too ;) I have some serious competition this time. It'll be fun! 

Oh...and I didn't proofread. Usually I don't say this because you should just expect it (lol) but I have a feeling I made a LOT of mistakes. 

Also, you should go check out my new story, Love at Last Sight! :D It's for NaNoWriMo!