Blake Residence
December 18th — Two days Ago || 8:30pm
All week since school let out early for winter break, there was no time for rest for a certain lanky Nathan Blake. In-between packing for the big road trip, he had to get his Christmas Shopping done for his family. Since he wasn’t going to be at Second Horizons all break and wouldn’t get the chance to see the look on Kylie and Hannah’s face when they see he got them each a mug with their names on it, an engraving about how cool they were written by him -- albeit uncreative as fuck and hella corny, but it was a personal gift from his heart to them.
Suffice to say they loved it, but Hannah just
had to mention how he shouldn’t be a writer or any kind of author.
Duly noted, little sister. Duly noted.
Nate slammed the trunk of his Ford Fusion hard enough so it shut tight. Most of his luggage was in the spacious trunk, which he was surprised given how much winter gear he had to buy.
No, he didn’t buy any, like, snowboards or skis. As tempted as he was, Nate wasn’t exactly the type to go yahooing into the slopes. He certainly could yahoo if he wanted to, but that would involve him knowing how to properly yahoo without snapping his leg like a little, tiny twig.
“That oughta do it!”“Are you sure about this?”
Hannah stood behind Nate, arms crossed, looking at him with her usual worry-judging frown.
“About what? The trunk being closed? Yeah! I mean, didn’t you hear that loud smack it made against the car?”She rolled her eyes at him. “Not that, you idiot!” She flicked him on his wide forehead. “I meant about driving to Second Horizons.”
Oh. That’s what she meant.
“First, ouchie! Second, sure! I mean, it’s only--” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small notepad and ran his finger slowly down it.
“--eighteen hours and that’s if traffic isn’t too backed up.” Nate slid it back into his pocket.
“You could just fly. You know, like a normal person!”
Nate just glanced at her with his blue eyes, wondering if she was talking to the same person.
“What and miss all of the sights? No way! This is going to be fucking epic, sis!”What Nate couldn’t say was his goodies would no doubt get him flagged by the TSA if he flew. Nobody knew just what was inside those cranberry bottles nor did anyone think about the brownies and candy canes he had in his backpack. It was almost foolproof. Even Hannah, his sister who always saw through his ploys and tricks, didn’t know a thing. Though, she did comment about the excessive amount of cranberry juice.
Good thing Nate was known for his love of cranberry juice.
And as she threw her hands up and admitted defeat, she quickly forced Nate to give her a tight hug. And as they spent a few long moments in a sibling embrace,
Kylie came into it and the Blake siblings shared a tender moment. Kylie cried and Hannah pulled away so Nate didn’t see her shed a few tears also.
As for Nate? He wasn’t ashamed to let his sisters see him shed manly tears of manly love for his not-so-manly sisters.
“I’ll miss you two! Be good for mom, alright? You know she's gonna be a wreck, what with her two favorite guys away!” He cleared his throat so Hannah knew he was talking to her.
“Yeah, I’m talking to you.”As she gave him a smile, Nate hugged the youngest once more.
“And when I get back, I’ll tell you about who your future sister in law will be. I’m sure she’ll be at Second Horizons - I just know it!”The Blake Three shared a laugh and another group hug before the dark green Ford Fusion pulled out of the driveway and Nate the Great was Washington-bound.
Good old Open Road
December 20th
As Nate crossed into the Washington state lines, he found himself uncontrollably yawning.
Throughout the entirety of the past fourteen hours, he’s been driving in three legs of roughly four and a half hours. He’s consumed at least three red bulls, five cups of coffee in total, and probably about three dozen cheap-as-fuck cheeseburgers from McDonalds.
And one might say, Nathan Blake was a jitterbug on the verge of emerging from his caffeine and msg-crusted cocoon. Into what you might ask? Someone who regretted taking the long way to camp.
And it’s not like he didn’t have a choice. Nate has several choices he could’ve made. He could have asked if Mandy wanted to drive him. He knew she would do close to anything for him. Or at the least, maybe ask her if she wanted to come to camp with him. Yeah, he knew she’d like that, but he couldn’t do that to his friend--ex--whatever you wanted to call their relationship. She was too nice and he respected her too much to put that on her.
Then, okay he could have shipped his goody bag to a PO box near the camp and pick it up there, but then TSA might have flagged it. Sure, it would’ve taken them a bit longer to trace it to Nate. As soon as he would go to pick it up, the cops might surprise him.
So that’s why Nate spent close to a full day on the road. Of course, as he told Hannah nearly two days ago, he truly took in the sights. And if you followed him on Instagram, the journey from start to finish was him posing in front of every major sight he visited. Everything from the gas stations to the backdrops of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to a Mcdonald's was in the background as Nate took numerous selfies.
But still, with a few more hours left in his trip, he was starting to finally experience the much-anticipated crash.
His eyes were closing occasionally, his entire body felt heavy, and Nate knew if he didn’t do something fast, he would pass out on the wheel.
“Music time!” Nate threw on a playlist and put it on shuffle. The magic of playlists on shuffle was not knowing what song came on first.
As the iconic
guitar intro kicked in, Nate laughed, giving his steering wheel a few smacks, actually happy he landed on one of his favorite songs.
“When I wake up,
Well I know I’m gonna be,
I’m gonna be the man who wakes up next to you!”
Nate’s voice steadily rose a few octaves as the song continued, his smile wide and his energy levels beating out the caffeine and Red Bull-induced crash that he felt a few moments ago.
And as the instrumentation picked up for the chorus, Nate just let himself be taken over by the pure adrenaline and he would do this for a few hours. It was the only thing keeping him awake, but it wasn’t the only reason he decided to jam out to Smoke Trio. He honest to god loved this song and the band. He knew the song itself was a cover, but there was just something...homey about Smoke Trio’s version.
“Da da da (da da da)
Da da da (da da da)”
At the height of the song, Nate belched a surprisingly in-tune harmony that lasted for the last fifty miles he had to go, the song being put on repeat.
Second Horizons Campsite
When he got to the campsite and finally parked, he shut off his Spotfiy and, in a relieved, almost accomplished scream, he yawned, got out of the car, and stretched his aching limbs. They cracked in every direction his let them extend, the release of the tightness in them sending waves of relief through his body.
Nate spent a few more minutes giving every part of his body the cracking attention it deserved. When he was satisfied by the consistency of the bone-cracking they made, Nate spent another few minutes gathering his luggage.
Thankfully, Nate didn’t have an excessive amount of luggage. He couldn’t help but notice that there was a colorful girl who had...a lot. She was being led into towards the camp with Jackson and some cute brunette.
“Damn. I wonder if she’s my counselor this year. Wait no, probably a good thing she isn’t.” Yeah, definitely not a good idea to hit on your counselor. Best to save that for whoever your fellow camper is.
Nate shook his head, focusing his attention on making sure nobody found out about his collection of goodies and general illegal materials he brought with him.
Whoa, careful with that terminology. People might think you’re a narc.
Right. Let’s try attempt numero dos at refocusing.
When he looked down, grabbing the handle of his suitcase firmly in his grasp, unbeknownst to Nate the Great, when he whipped his head up and took off in a run, he felt all of the blood rush to his head. All of his energy sapped from his body in one instant and not even a full step later did his head collide with something hard. And as he yelped in a very unmanly-like way, his voice cracking like a teenage boy going through puberty, he lost his balance and found himself on top of something soft. They felt like Tempurpedic pillows but a lot softer and...oddly familiar.
“Ouch. That hurt..” He rubbed his head and looked down. His eyes widened and his cheeks flushed a slight tint of red as he saw not what he was on top of but
who. Below him was quite possibly the most majestic girl he’d ever seen. Her dark hair reminded him of that dope Metallica album, The Black Album, and her skin was definitely not weak. It was fair and nice and looked soft like a cloud.
“Shit. You’re hot babe! Like the-floor-is-lava hot!”
Member
Festive,
Snowdrops,
Nightwing95,
Chronic,
TokyoPewPew,
Aeolian,
Tlaloc,
thedarkness,
Apoalo,
Little Bird
