Size Does Matter: Camping Trip

[x-traction.livejournal.com]

A group of students from the local high school go camping and run across the last thing you want to see when you go camping.

"Jan, come on. That is so not the way it happened," Ava said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Ashley was totally hitting on Chris. So it's like, not his fault that he kissed her. He didn't mean to - he promised me." The blonde glanced around the other girls huddled around the fire, bundled up against the cold. "And whoever came up with the idea of camping in March? Totally never gets to pick an activity again. We could've been shopping all day and then been in our nice comfy, warm beds tonight."

Emily rolled her eyes, used to Ava's dramatics as they all were. "Whatever. You're such a priss. We wouldn't have beer if we were shopping and the boys wouldn't be able to come over tomorrow night."

"Yeah, Ava, I'm sure he just fell on her lips or something!" Jan laughed as she rolled her eyes as well, earning a giggle from Kaylee. "I mean, if you don't care that your boyfriend kissed another girl, fine, whatever. Me, I catch Brandon kissing another girl, he's history. And, c'mon, it's not that cold, and anyway we've got the tents and super-warm sleeping bags. We can go shopping any day, but how often do all of our parents allow us to go off by ourselves without any adults ruining our fun?"

"Next year is gonna be so awesome," Kaylee said. "College will be full of parties and boys and road trips. I hope we all get into the same place, you know? It'd be such a blast." Emily shrugged while Ava nodded fervently.

"It would be so cool if we all got into the same college!" Jan responded. "We'll all join the same sorority, of course, and show those girls how to party!" She glanced at her watch. "It's late and I need my beauty sleep. We have a big day in front of us tomorrow! See you in the morning!"

Kaylee yawned and stretched. "Yeah. We can plan it out. Tomorrow." Standing up, she pulled the blanket draped over her shoulders tight. "You're so lucky your dad bought you that tent Jan. Otherwise you'd be the one dealing with Ava's snoring." Emily snickered as she headed to the tent she was sharing with Kaylee. "Yeah, well, with the way Ava snores, we'll all still hear it. Night everyone."

"At least I'm not the one that needs beauty sleep," Ava grumbled, heading to her own tent. In the past she'd argued with the girls - until one of them had taped her snoring and played it back. Now she took the ribbing as long as it didn't last long. She disappeared into her tent, zipping the door securely behind her.

"They'll hear her all the way in Michigan," Jan told Emily and Kaylee with a grin before entering her own tent. Safely inside, Jan changed into her pajamas, stretching for a few minutes before settling down on her open sleeping bag. She covered herself with the heavy blanket waiting nearby, then yawned and closed her eyes, quickly falling fast asleep as the other girls did the same in their own tents.

Unfortunately, the girls hadn't done a great job of cleaning up their campsite and several hours into their slumber, a sleepy looking black bear began snuffling his way around, pawing through the remnants of the girls dinner. He probably would've just eaten and gone on his way if Kaylee hadn't woken up to use the bathroom. Rubbing her eyes sleepily as she exited the tent, her eyes widened as she heard something, mouth opening in a blood curdling scream when she identified the source of the noise.

"BEAR!!!! THERE'S A BEAR!!!!"

If Kaylee had yelled, "There's a crazy man trying to kill me with an axe!" perhaps the actions of the girls would have made more sense. As it was, only Ava had the sense to decide to stay in her tent, simply peeking out in horror as Emily, who had already been awake when Kaylee left their tent, scrambled out of her tent to see the bear for herself and joined in the screaming.

Jan was also possessed by that odd facet of human nature that causes people to bring traffic to a virtual standstill in order to gawk at accidents, or in this case, to leave the tent and see the bear Kaylee and Emily were yelling about. At this point, the bear was probably more frightened of the two screaming teenagers than the girls were of the bear, but as Jan opened the flap of her tent and looked out at the bear, her brain process decided "Bear. Big. Scary." She opened her mouth to contribute to the screams of her friends, but no one heard her.

The bear stared at the girls with an oddly surprised look on his face before turning around and lumbering off into the distance. Kaylee and Emily continued to scream until Ava timidly left her tent and shook Emily's arm. "It's gone. I think. But we should probably call someone. Lucky he didn't hurt anyone huh?"

Emily and Kaylee were soon both taking deep gasping breaths, their screams ceasing though they still looked somewhat terrified. Ava turned to the third tent and called out to Jan. "It's ok, you can come out now." She frowned when the brunette didn't emerge. "How on earth did you sleep through that and make fun of my snoring?" she asked as she walked over and unzipped the tent, peeking inside. Her eyes narrowed as she tumbled inside, poking at the bedding. "Jan? Where are you?"

"That little tart fled without so much as a word to us," Ava said as she made her way out of the tent. She stifled a yawn. "I say we let her run around the woods for a bit and then we can make fun of her in the morning." Emily and Kaylee both nodded sleepily, their tiredness exacerbated by the energy spent screaming. All three girls returned to their tents and were soon fast asleep, none the wiser for Jan's true whereabouts.