"Thank you Cassandra." Scout said with a bright smile. Her words made him feel a lot better, like he wasn't the only person in the world who acted as he did. Her words all encouraged him to stop turning as red as a beat around the boys. It's much better to not risk things, he doesn't need to impress the boys, chances are no, none of them are gay. He didn't need to change his behavior to try and befriend them. He could be as silly and goofy with them as he is with the girls.

"This is what we need to do..." Scout had dug some sticks into the ground and made a makeshift grill out of sticks. He put the fish on the grill which was wrapped in tin foil and covered it in salt and pepper. "Just wait for the eyes to fade to grey and it's ready. Good job by the way, these are some decent sized fish." He prepared the rest of the fish and served them all on a paper plate. "I don't know if everyone's ready to eat yet but we should at least tell them it's ready." Scout had no clue how to get to the people who walked into the woods. "I hope they are back before dark."

As the van was finally pushed out of the ditch, Ryan sighed. This just put a slight damper on the great mood everyone was in only moments before. He glanced around at the others, each seeming to have calmed from their earlier excitement about the trip. He didn't want to let this happen again. But first, he wanted to try his best to think of anything that could get the energy back. He stepped over to the speakers that Aaron had gotten out for the music and turned the music up a bit, hoping that might get people to listen to it and get back into the energy that it was emanating.

After Ryan had turned up the music, he saw Riley talking to the mailman that had gotten his car stuck in the ditch, and stepped over there quickly. He didn't hear what she was saying, but when he got over there, he waited for a chance to speak, and took it. "Hey, Riley, I'm sure he's going to be coming through here again, so we should get the RV out of his way. If you want, I can do that while you talk to him." He smiled slightly, before realizing that the mailman was also right there, and turned to him quickly, giving a quick head bow. "Once again, I'm sorry about this. If you need someone to send a bill to for repairs, my name is Ryan Crassus."

Vanessa drove over the forest road and looked on her gps, a little gift of her parents and saw she was close to the place where she was gonna settle. Her mother had told her about Red Lake, a place where she had been camping a lot with Vanessa's grandparents and Vanessa had loved the photos her mother had send her. She saw that she would only have to drive fifteen more minutes so she checked to see if she had everything, her grandparents used to have a little house somewhere in town and Vanessa had gotten the key from her mother. Her grandmother passed away a few months before V went on her mission to live her own life and the older woman had given it to V's mother for save keeping.

Fifteen minutes later, just as planned she drove with her White pick up past the Welcome sign and looked around to see if she could find anything or anyone that could help her find the little house from her grandparents. Her mother said it was close to the clothing store but she really didn't know where to find anything.

Matt backed away, feeling terrible. "I'm sorry. Really, I just need a minute. This is nothing against you." With that, he got out of the water, and headed back to the RV. When he arrived, he grabbed a towel and a fresh shirt from his backpack. Deciding now was as good a time as any, he also grabbed the bottle of rum from his backpack. He plopped himself down on the beach and took a big pull off the bottle.

This was nothing against Ruby, it was true, but something still felt... wrong. Julia was still on his mind, even though they have been fighting like hell. Something deep inside was telling him that it was over, but they Matt and Julia had known each other since they were children and have been together since they were fifteen. He wasn't quite ready to give it all up just yet.

Vanessa parked her car on the parking lot in front of Lamb's Market and placed her sunglasses on her head, taking her keys and purse she left her car and locked it. She walked on her sneakers into the market and looked around a little, she liked the fact they sold the products that where grown on lands close by, she always had a thing for organic food. She took a shopping card and started to buy some daily needs like bread, cheese, eggs, oatmeal, milk.

She did notice the curious looks people gave her since she was sure everybody knew she was new here, maybe they thought she was simply passing trough yet she wasn't. Once she had everything she needed right now, later she could always return for the last things, she went to the cash and placed everything on the counter and got helped by a man. ''new in town?'' he asked with a smile. ''It's that obvious?'' she asked. ''A little, need help finding something?'' he asked. ''Yeah, the clothing store, my grandparents are owning a house near it. My plan is to settle here and well, find myself a job and such'' she said. The man nodded and started to explain how she had to drive. ''Thank you so much'' she said after getting her grocery's and a piece of paper with the directions. She paid and then walked to her car.

Riley turned to look over at Ryan and smiled at him and shook her head motioning toward the RV. "The job has already been done, you were probably to busy pushing the car out of that ditch to hear it move." Riley said jokingly and laughed softly, she looked over at Scout happy to see that he actually settled down now and was already prepping up for dinner. Riley watched Cassandra doing some fishing, pushing the car out took quiet a bit of time she guessed and playing out in the lake the time seemed to fly and the sun was going to be setting down soon.

"I'll get the stuff for s'mores ready." Riley said as she went back up into the RV grabbing a few chocolate bars, marshmallows as well as some gram crackers. Riley went over to sit down next to the fire watching as the fish started to cook already smelling the fish made Riley's mouth water she hadn't had fresh fish in a very long time. "It smells really good Scout." Riley said smiling at him.

Cassandra smiled at scout "I've told you all a million times, Cassie's just fine!" She said with a laugh, as she poked the fish, watching the eyes intently, looking over as Riley joined them. She smiled, looking back to the fish, but seemed to miss some sort of signal as Scout moved them all to a paper plate.

They did smell good, and she let out a satisfied sigh. "My aunt taught me to fish, but we always threw them back in. She's a bit batty, thinking that I should know how to provide for myself if an apocalypse happened" she laughed, "it's ofdly satisfying knowing you can fish or hunt and them being able to eat it"

She smiled, happy.

"S'mores! You should try then with peanut butter too! So awesome!"

The Postal Van free of the ditch, Griffith raised his arms skyward and stretched his back. It looked like a few of the others had whatever remained of the situation well in hand, but he resolved to offer help if any turned out to be needed. His gaze traveled up. Dusk’ll be sneaking up on us before we know it. Better remember to get some bug spray before they start swarming. He paused, then grinned. Eh, we’ve got longer yet before we need to worry about that. His gaze traveled downward again, and happened upon Scout. Heh, he’s actually pretty cute. Really nice too. Too bad there’s no way he’s—

---

“I’m not a pervert!”

---

Alright, that wouldn’t make much sense unless he was interested in guys. Still, whatever he is interested in, I don’t want to scare the poor guy off. Then he heard Scout say dinner was ready. Well that is a pretty little convenience.

Griffith strode on over to the campfire and crouched down next to Scout. “So, what delicacy has the master chef prepared for us this evening?” He breathed in deeply through his nose. “It smells good, that’s for damn sure.”

Scout had a big grin on his face from Riley's compliment and Cassie's story about her batty grandma. Griffith approached Scout and had also complimented his food. "You guys are way too nice." Griffith was sitting very close to Scout, close enough for Scout to admire him. He always looked to content which complimented his handsome face. His muscle also made Scout want to get up in there and cuddle with him. "Uh, Griffith... Do you want to try some?" Scout ripped off a piece of fish meat and held it outwards. His other hand was on the ground as support as he leaned forward to Griffith.

Something started to tickle Scout's hand, the one on the ground. He glanced down at it and felt a shiver rush down his spine. A big wasp, a cicada killer, was sitting on his hand. He froze in fear with a terrified look on his face.

Griffith could only smile wider. “I most certainly do, Scout.” He turned to the smaller man to take the proffered fish, only to see Scout’s horrified expression. He followed Scout’s gaze to the positively giant wasp that had crawled onto his hand. Griffith wasn’t exactly a biologist, but he knew a few things about this one. Cicada Hawk. “If it hasn’t already stung you,” Griffith near-whispered, “then it’s not an aggressive one. Just keep your hand still, and don’t make any loud noises, and it won’t do anything.” While true, he didn’t exactly trust this group to be particularly quiet for a much longer stretch than this, and it was obvious by this point that Scout was terrified of the bug.

Griffith brought his hand, palm down, on top of Scout’s in the wasp’s path. When it crawled its way onto his own hand, Griffith slowly moved it away from Scout and closer to the fire. Now we play the waiting game. Ideally, the heat would convince it to fly away on its own. His nearby friends would probably spook it before that happened, but he wasn’t worried. He knew this wasp wasn’t poisonous, and its sting could hardly hurt worse than a sword to the ribs. Griffith chuckled internally at the memory. John sure was on the ball that day. Padding or no, that hurt. I’ll make sure to get him back for that after we get back into town.

Rhea's eye became wide as she listened to what Krista had to say. With a sharp shake of her head she got the message across that she didn't want to hear anymore about it. She turned towards Aaron and smiled politely. "Well I guess that walk is going to have to wait. Lets get back to the fire I'm sure they're cooking up something good there." She pulled down her shirt, which was suddenly not covering enough of her ass. She looked flustered and she strided quickly towards the campfire.

When Rhea arrived she smelled fish getting cooked and smiled widely. She was glad her friends had caught food. "That smells delicious Scout. I'm pretty sure I remembered the stuff for smores, if anyone wants some." She then noticed the bug that hovered on Griffith's hand. Fortunately She didn't freak out, although she peered at it with cautious eyes. " Nice....bug friend you have there Griff."

When the wasp finally flew away from Griffith's ingenious tactics Scout let out a huge sigh of relief. Scout stared into the eyes of his hero with infinite gratitude and love. "Thank you!" he said with a super delighted voice. Scout glomped Griffith, hugging him tightly. He felt so safe against the tall boy's muscular body. Scout was currently half naked from the swim still and was feeling pretty cold, getting little warmth from the fire since it had to be shrunk in order to cook the fish. Griffith's large body felt warm and safe and Scout couldn't stop hugging him.

He put his head by Griffith's chest and listened to his heart beat while he waited for his own to calm down. His body had taken control of all of his actions, his mind wasn't dwelling on consequences. "You're really brave to be able to handle that wasp like that... I wish I were like that." Scout still wasn't aware that he had been hugging Griffith for longer than what is considered normal.

Cassandra smiled as Scout managed to speak to Griffith without stumbling over his words. She was glad to be able to help her friend, but as Scout froze, she frowned, wondering what was wrong, unable to see the wasp, until Griffith moved his hand to the fire.

She watched, concerned for her friends safety. When it all seemed over, and Scout practically glompd Griffith, Cassie looked away, as the moment seemed to demanded privacy. She smiled, and flicked some sticks into the fire

Everyone appeared to be pairing up, and Cassie was just alone amongst them all. It made her sad, but she didn't let it get to her. Instead, she clapped her hands "the fish isn't going to eat itself!"

Once Vanessa found the clothing store, she also found her new house. She parked in front of it and got out of her car and walked to the door to unlock it, she smiled as the door didn't even make squeaking noises and entered the hallway. She looked at the mail and saw that her mother had taken care of that the state would know where she would live as she saw welcoming letters and such from the state and also her mail already had arrived here.

She then walked outside and opened the door to the backseat and got out her suitcase and a box with the picture of a sewing machine on it. First she walked with the machine inside and then she came back for her suitcase. She looked around and saw not much people, most of the town people where probably at the lake or forest or on a hike or something, which meant she could unpack her stuff without getting curious looks.

Ryan's face turned to one of surprise as Riley said that the RV had already been moved. He looked in the direction of it, and his face turned slightly red. "I don't know how I missed that..." He glanced to Riley as she walked away, and turned to the mailman, nodding to him before turning and walking over to the fire. He sniffed the air, just waiting to get to try the fish. "Keep the sticks you used for those fish unless you want to find more for the s'mores and roasted marshmallows. Just saying." He crouched down by the fire, looking to Scout who seemed to be terrified of something. He could see that there was something on his hand, but not quite what the shape was until Griffith had taken it and put it close to the fire. He raised an eyebrow as he watched it fly away, before averting his gaze so the two could have their privacy, however little that gave them.

Ryan stood up, his gaze still averted, and he decided to grab a bag of marshmallows from his stuff. He knew that others were starting to get everything for s'mores, but sometimes people might just want a roasted marshmallow on its own, so rather than getting extras later, he went for them now. When he returned from grabbing the marshmallows, he held them up to show people, and put them down on the ground nearby, "Chef Scout has a five-star meal for us today." He smiled, before taking a seat next to Riley, "Is it okay if I sit here?"

Aaron smiled widely at Rhea in the way he always did when he was happy. It was a gentle smile that seemed to pull more at one side of his mouth than the other. He found it funny because yeah, it would probably be all they kissed but he was all for letting people getting along with what they wanted to do if it didn't bother anyone too much. Except he never got the chance to take up the offer of the walk because she was already noting that the others were busy and doing something else. Something that smelt really good. "Yeah, look at them going all wild people of the forest," He joked before turning and glancing toward the trees, perhaps unfortunately missing the flash of Rhea's ass. Aaron didn't give much time to thinking about girls (okay, that was a lie - he was a teenage guy after all) and he'd only ever had one girlfriend but he'd realised that it wasn't quite working. He spent a lot of time at home due to the shifts of his parent's jobs so he could care for his siblings. He wasn’t unhappy about it and him being away on this trip was a tiny inconvenience but his parents loved to let him go out with his friends.

After taking in his fill of the view, he wandered toward the group who had settled down and who were cooking. The food smelt good as he got closer and he grinned, enjoying how everyone looked so close. This was his group of friends and finally it looked like some of the bonds were going further. It was very sweet. Spotting a clear spot around everyone else, he slouched down and rubbed his shins. "Well done Scout," He enthused before eyeing the marshmallows and putting his thumbs up at Ryan to show his delight over the sweet treat. This was what was so awesome about camping. The fire flickering. The food. The lake. It was awesome.

With the van out the ditch he climbed into the back to have a look around. The kids seemed to have set up a base of operations around the lake. Dumb kids anyway, do they not know about the animals, did they not see the news about the sharp rise in wolf attacks in the last few months. This wouldn't be a problem given the rangers have been taking care of wolves... but the rangers have a wedding that they are all going to. Should he warn them? I mean they could die? He was thinking of telling them then he remembered. Dumb kid dropped my letters, kid must be a special case as he wont stop crying. I wont tell them, serve them right for causing problems.

David was watching the whole thing from the RV, he diddnt care that they were all panicked about his van, stupid marks do that. All he wanted was to know how long it would take till the party started. Picking up a large pack of beer he shouted at them "Hurry up you lot! Else ill start drinking without you all!"

Times were slow for Mr Davidson, that's what life was for him. Just a long line of dragging your feet as you go. He had a good house now, one nearby to his silver shop. It was good because the next door neighbour had moved out meaning he could have a few months of quite. He had a good day, finished fixing the out of town posties wedding ring, it was funny. He could fix the ring, but NONE could fix their marriage. Walking to the window he would look at his car and... Wait theirs a woman breaking in! Running out of the house armed with his tools, charging out and round the side "Hey! Scram before I call the cops!"

Riley looked over at Ryan and smiled at him she shook her head and motioned for him to sit down next to her. "Go right on ahead." Riley said with a soft smile moving over to the side slightly, she looked over towards the lake the sun was starting to set. Then Riley saw that the fish looked like they were done now and pulled hers out of the fire taking some salt and pepper she had brought with her and poured some over the fish and took a bite out of the fish's back. "Fresh fish is always the best." Riley said looking over at Krista as she approached Cassandra and Scout sitting next to them both.

Krista looked at Cassandra for a moment and smiled at her taking one of the fish and handed it over to Cassandra and looked over towards David hearing him yelling for everyone to start drinking. Though she never really did while on these trips to the lake and just simply shook her head. "I'll have some later on when the sun is completely down." Krista said.

Kaden simply laughed and shook his head at Krista's words. This girl was good. "You're not wrong. I would have. And I will." A sly smile crossed his lips. Soon they all had pushed the truck out and soon enough the postman was gone. Everyone was moving around again. Getting things ready with the campfire. Scout was cooking. People laughing and having a good time. On top of that, s'mores were being made. Kaden yawned loudly and stretched his arms up to the sky. Relaxing and enjoying this peaceful moment. All was well on the lake. For now at least. Until he and David got things going and pushed the others to their limits of craziness. When he saw David come out with a bunch of beers, Kaden went over and grabbed one. "Now we're talking." He whispered to David right after. "Make sure Matt gets two right away. Let's get him fucked up tonight." Kaden laughed.

Shortly after, he ran into the RV to go dig into his bag. He pulled out some solo cups and the two large handles of liquor planned for this trip. Kaden trotted out by the campfire and took a seat. "Let's go hard boys and girls!" He poured himself a nice amount of whisky into a cup and swigged it right down. "Whisky or tequila. Pick your poison and get crazy!" Kaden's voice boomed. Full of energy. He glanced back over to Krista who already refused beers. "Come on, you sure you don't want even a little bit? The least you could do is sit over here by me."

Cassandra looked over at Krista as she sat down, and accepted the fish with a "Thanks" and a bright smile. Cassandra would never admit that the almost childish crush she had had on Krista had continued through her teenage years. The fact that she continue to be normal around Krista was a plus for Cassie.

Realising she had been holding the fish for a few moments in thought, she looked to it, a bit freaked out by the sightless, staring eye. But she was hungry, ,it smelt good, and she was with her friends. She bit into the fish, the succulent taste filling her mouth.

"I think I'll just over dose on Chocolate, and not alcohol" Cassandra said to the insistent demands for them to drink. "You don't get a headache from chocolate" And Cassandra didn't like how Alcohol made her act. She didn't want to do anything that might be considered foolish.

She finished off her fish, used some water to clean off her hands and then rose, going to her tent, although she doubted she would use it, and returned with her guitar, sitting back down in her spot. "I promised a song, so a song we shall have!"

She checked it over, making sure it was tuned and that the traveling hadn't done anything to it. She took the time to decided what song to play, before choosing one. She began to play, fingers skillfully plucking the strings and creating the right tunes. She chose a particular favorite of hers, Forever young by Alphaville. As she began to sing, softly, yet in a voice that seemed to carry over the water, she seemed to be in a different world. As the last tunes died off, laid her hands on the guitar's base, and realising that she had actually sung, she blushed, looking down.