1 The Camping Trip

"Lila hurry up and start the fire! It's going to get dark soon!" One of my best friends, Azure Hillary shouted to me.

"Alright, I'm on it!" I shouted back.

My name is Lila Maple and I'm a proud, independent nineteen year old, turning twenty. I only finished my studies recently and am currently working as an office worker under a business company.

I am at average height for a girl, fair skinned with long wavy chestnut brown hair that reaches past my shoulders and I have blueish-grey eyes. My friends always tell me the most beautiful part of me is my eyes, which I do not entirely agree on, but I guess they are right to some point.

I have two best friends. They are Azure Hillary and Jessica Wong. Azure is slightly taller than me with fair skin, straight blonde hair that reaches past her shoulders and light brown eyes that look like jelly.

Jessica is Asian and she is half a head shorter than me. She has the best smooth porcelain white skin I had ever seen in my entire life with straight waist-length jet black hair and clear black eyes that seemed as though it could see through your soul. They are both outgoing and funny, and the best friends I could have.

We met during college where we had to complete a group project together at the start of the year, and we have been friends since then.

I do not have parents because they both passed away when I was only the age of ten. My father died in a car crash and my mother after hearing the news went into shock, which she then followed after my father shortly in the same year. They were both very young at that time, around their thirties, and were both madly in love with each other. I do not have any aunts nor uncles or cousins that I know of.

After that, my grandparents took me in and I lived in another country for a while with them until I went back to my birth country to continue my studies. Just a few weeks ago I had received news that my grandfather had passed away, which caused me to be depressed after his funeral for quite a while. Which is why my friends had suggested we go on this trip together to cheer me up.

Right now, my best friends and I all have one week off work, so we decided to go on a two days and one night camping trip at the outskirts of the city we were living in. There was also a forest nearby that we could go hiking in.

We had reached the place late morning, and ate an early lunch of homemade sandwiches before proceeding to pitch the tents and so on. We decided to set up camp just outside the forest as it would be easy to find wood to start a fire, which was the job Azure gave me to do.

I strode through the forest and picked up a few dry sticks that had fallen from the trees above. I took a deep breath and felt refreshed from the moist and clean forest air. It was such a great idea to come here where nobody really came, to escape from all that city air for a little while.

After gathering what I thought would be enough sticks to last us through the night, I headed back to where the camp was set up. We only rented two tents as we do not have the luxury of money to spend too much. One of them could fit two of us, and we were a group of three. Azure and Jessica were to share a tent because we had played a game beforehand for sleeping arrangements and I won over the both of them, so I was able to get a tent all to myself.

I placed some of the sticks down inside a ring of stones to prevent fire from spreading and lit one of the sticks on fire with a lighter, before throwing it down onto the pile I had placed down. I put the rest of the sticks at the side and sat down to wait for Azure and Jessica. Azure was finishing the pitching of the tents and Jessica started heating some leftover food we brought from home over the fire using a metal stand and tray.

I watched as the sun set, casting a majestic orange glow over us as the sky gradually became darker. We ate our dinner of mash potatoes and baked chicken before putting everything away to clean up the next morning. Azure suggested telling horror stories to each other while melting marshmallows and making s'mores as dessert. Unfortunately, I was not a big fan of horror stories, so I kept my distance from Azure and Jessica as they were whispering to each other about things I would not want to hear.

When the sun had completely set, we took out our torches and laid down on the open grass to stargaze together while doing some girl talk.

"I'm glad I got to spend this time with you guys. Its only been the first day but I already feel so happy and satisfied. Thank you, you guys are the best friends I could ever have." I said to my friends as I smiled at them.

"Don't worry girl! We all needed this break. It has been a month since we got to spend time with each other like this, so let's just enjoy ourselves." Jessica replied enthusiastically and sat up.

"Um, it looks like Azure has fallen asleep already." I chuckled and got up.

Brushing stray grass off me, I helped Jessica carry Azure back to their tent. I stayed there for a little while as I waited for Jessica to change into her sleeping garments in my tent and grabbed a few blankets and pillows back to my tent. After changing into my sleeping garments, I as well laid down and turned off my torchlight.

"Goodnight guys, sweet dreams." I whisper-shouted.

I heard a faint 'goodnight' back from Jessica and rested my head on a pillow. I turned to my side, pulled the blanket over me and closed my eyes.

This was going to be a great week.

Or so I thought.