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[Chapter thirty-nine]

-Nevaeh-

Tuesday, 3 PM

"I spy with my little eye—"

"I spy a sharp ass twig I'm about to stick in your little eye if you don't shut the fuck up!" I snap.

"Jeez, I was just trying to lighten the mood." Max throws his arms up in defence.

"The mood doesn't need lightening." Noah grumbles.

"Yeah, it sucks." Megan adds, Dylan nodding in agreement.

"Well, damn. Sorry for trying." Max mumbles.

A few moments pass as we walk in silence. The only sounds being the snapping of twigs as we step on them, the crunching of leaves, and the chirping of birds.

"Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer. Take one down—"

"SHUT UP, MAX!"

*~*

"This is nice." Megan shrugs as we all sit on the edge of a bluff overlooking the gorge. There's a river rushing beneath us surrounded by trees.

"It is. Apart from the fact that we're lost in the middle of a forest, downstate, in a town we've never even heard of." Noah says casually.

"Positivity, Noah." I roll my eyes. "Look it up."

"Which way's North again, Max?" Dylan questions.

"North would be—oh fuck."

There's a clattering and falling sound.

"Oh fuck?" I repeat, my heart stopping. "'Oh fuck' what?"

"I may or may not have just dropped the compass." Max rushes out, scooting away from the edge.

"Great." Noah laughs humourlessly. "Fucking great!"

"It's okay, though." Max laughs nervously as we all get away from the edge and stand up. "We know which way North is, right?"

"We know which way North is?" I hiss. "We having no fucking clue which way North is, you idiot!"

"If we did, we wouldn't have asked!" Megan screeches as Dylan tugs at his hair in frustration.

"We're going to die out here." Dylan mumbles. "We're going to die out here, then some weird, satanic, cannibalistic tribe that lives in a cave is going to find us, sacrifice us to their deer lord, then eat our remains!"

"Dylan, we'll be fine." Max tries to console him before turning to the rest of us. "The sun sets in the North, right? We'll just go that way."

I stare at him, my eye twitching. "The sun sets iN THE WEST, YOU MORON!"

"We're going to fucking die out here." Noah shakes his head. "All thanks to Max's master outdoorsmen skills."

"No, we're not." Max denies, ignoring the last part of Noah's statement. "We have food that'll last us at least another two days."

"Okay, yeah," Dylan starts. "But what about the weather, exposure, bears?"

"We've got a hammock." Max answers as if it were the answer to everything. "We can all squish in there if we tried."

"Oh, great." I laugh, sounding like someone on the edge of insanity. "So instead of being a bear hamburger, we'll be a bear taco."

"Then we can hang it higher in the trees."

"Bears climb trees, Max!" I shout. "BEARS CLIMB TREES!"

*~*

Tuesday, 7 PM

"This could be our last night alive," Dylan says, chewing slowly on a piece of chicken. "At least we're going out in style, eating a real meal, cooked over a real fire."

Noah rolls his eyes. "It's canned chicken that we heated up, dumbass, it's not a real meal."

"It's the realest thing we've had in ages." Megan shrugs, chewing on her bite of chicken.

I rest my sock-covered feet next to the fire. "If I have to die while camping, at least I get to die next to a warm fire."

"We won't die out here." Max repeats the same sentence for the tenth time today. "We'll just keep walking and eventually, we'll find someone. It's not like we're lost in the Alaskan wilderness or something."

"Nah, just some random forest two hours away from Eastview." I shrug. "If we were in Alaska, we'd have a cool story to tell afterwards."

"How about—" Max rifles through his backpack before pulling out a leather-bound journal and a pen. "—we turn this into a cool story."

"Hold up, dude," Dylan sits up, a small smirk on his face. "Is that a journal?"

"Yeah. What's it to you?" Max snaps, opening it up and going to the middle. "It's comes in handy."

"Let me guess—your grandmother gave it to you and you only use it out of guilt?" Noah also has a small smirk on his face.

"Shut it, assholes." Max says defensively. "She was right—it's good for letting your feelings out without smashing someone's face in."

Noah and Dylan laugh at him, I roll my eyes at Noah and Dylan, and Megan shakes her head.

"I think it's cute." Megan smiles softly, subtly placing her hand on top of Max's. Noah and Dylan don't seem to notice, but I do. I wink at Megan, making her blush.

Max looks at her and smiles nervously, a small blush visible on his cheeks because of the light from the fire.

"What're we going to do with your diary, Max?" Noah questions.

"It's a journal!" Max yells.

Noah rolls his eyes. "What're we going to do with your journal, Max?"

"We're going to tell our story." Max grins. "You know, in case we die and this is all they find.  People need to know how we went out so they can make a movie about us someday."

"They're not going to make a movie about us, Max." I sit up a little straighter. "In case they do, though, can you make a note that I'd like to be played by Shay Mitchell."

"Shay Mitchell?"

"She's Nevaeh's lady-crush." Megan answers instantly and I grin, pointing at her.

"Have you seen her?" I question rhetorically. "I'm gay for Shay Mitchell and Shay Mitchell only."

Max shrugs, writing it down.

"Well, I want to be played by Colton Haynes." Dylan shrugs, popping another piece of chicken in his mouth. "He's got blonde hair like me, he's hot as hell, and he's gay. The casting couldn't be any more perfect."

Max writes it down.

"I want to be played by Emma Watson." Megan pipes in. "There's no resemblance, I just love her."

Max nods, writing it down before speaking up. "I want to be played by Dylan O'Brien. He's got brown hair and caramel eyes, just like me. And the way he portrayed Stiles on Teen Wolf really caught my eye."

He makes another note.

We all turn to look at Noah.

He looks up from the chicken and stares at us. "What?"

"Oh, come on," Megan starts. "You can't tell us that you've never thought about who you'd want to portray you in a movie."

"I haven't." Noah rolls his eyes and stays quiet for a moment before speaking quickly. "Dave Franco. That man's beautiful."

We all grin at Noah, who stuffs more chicken in his mouth and Max writes it down.

"Now that we've made requests for our portrayals, let's get to the story."

I bite my lip before speaking up. "We need to be sure to hype it up, though, because we're never going to get a movie made about us if we go down in history as five dumbasses who didn't know how to read a map or set up a tent."

"True." Max nods before putting the pen to the paper. "So we start with a bear attack—"

"Start with a bear attack?" Noah repeats. "That's so dumb—we'd never survive that."

"Fine, then we'll start with the storm." Max starts writing. "The timeline won't add up, but no one will care when we're dead."

I grin. "Now that's a plan."

*~*

Wednesday, 7 AM

"Noah, Max, Dylan, Megan?" A voice wakes us up and we all sleepily uncurl from each other, looking up only to be blinded by the sun.

"The fuck?" I cover my eyes, my Māori/kiwi accent thick.

"Nevaeh?" The girl's eyes nearly pop out of her head.

"Jenny Lingard?" My mouth drops open.

"Yeah, it's me." She gives me a small smile. "What the heck are you guys doing out here? You look terrible."

"Jenny?" Noah shoots up. "Wha—but—we—what the fuck?!"

"How did you find us?" Max asks, filling in where Noah couldn't. "We've been lost for days."

Jenny gives us an unimpressed look and takes a step back, her face wrinkling like she smelt something foul. "You're literally in the woods behind the university. This is the path I take on my morning hikes.  I mean, you're practically in sight of the trailhead."

"What the—" Dylan hops out of his sleeping bag and onto the dewy grass below. "How—"

Jenny scoffs and jerks her thumb towards the trail just a few yards away. "Trail's that way.  Good luck."

We all just stand there, dumbfounded, until Jenny was out of sight.

"You've got to be kidding me," Noah says.

"We're idiots." Dylan adds.

"Like, major idiots." Megan agrees.

"You know that journal of yours?" I turn to Max. "Burn it."

"Will do." Max nods.

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