Link Six (completed)

Chapter 19 - What happens in the woods stays in the woods

After a while of silent walking, the counselor decides that the kids could handle themselves, and tells them that he'll meet them at the campsite. He then starts walking ahead of them at a quicker pace, and the next thing they know, there's no counselor, only the six of them, on a crude dirt path in the middle of the New York woods.

"So..." Rhea says, after a few minutes.

"This is fun, right?" Gerald says, trying to be peppy.

"If by fun you mean so boring I want to bash my head into a rock, then yes. This is so much fun," Emma comments. She sounded like she was walking on broken glass. Rhea glances back at her worriedly, but with one look at Howie's scowl, she doesn't comment. Of course it had to be Howie that Emma walking next to.

"I don't even know why I said I'd come with you in the first place," Howie grumbles.

"I don't even know why I asked you to come in the first place. You're a party pooper," Emma growls back.

"You're one to talk little miss pouty face," Howie retorts.

"I'm only pouty because you-" Emma raises her voice and is about to say because "are and I feel what you feel!" but she stops herself. "because you can't be nice long enough to last one hike!" she cries instead.

"Yes I can!" Howie says. "But, you never said that I'd have to hike with him." Howie jabs a thumb towards his brother.

"Well, if you're not going to be nice him just because he's your brother, you should be nice to him because you're my friend, and Rhea is my friend, and he is a friend of Rhea!" Emma cries.

"I hate girl logic," Howie scowls. But, he looks at Emma, who was scowling at him with folded arms, and then he looks at his brother, who was standing in front of Emma. Gerald looks back at him, causing Howie to quickly look back at Emma. "Fine, I'll be nice, but only because I'm your friend, and Rhea is your friend and he's a friend a Rhea."

Howie takes a deep breath and Emma feels his anger dimming.

"Sorry, I was being such a jerk guys," Howie says.

"It's cool," Colton says.

"No biggie," Rhea assures him.

"It's okay," Leeanna says.

Gerald says nothing.

"Thank you," Emma says with a sigh of relief, she couldn't feel Howie's anger anymore, only his contentment. She really didn't like being angry, it made her feel like she was going to explode, and it was the hardest emotion for her to control, in more ways than one.

"For what?" Howie wants to know.

"Oh, nothing," Emma says quickly. "Just thanks for being nice."

Leeanna knew exactly why Emma was really thanking him, and she smiled and shook her head. Rhea laughs, having the idea of why Emma was so relieved. And, Colton who also had a pretty good idea of why Emma was relieved, laughs also. Gerald just looked between the four of them confused, not getting the joke. And, that, made Howie laugh. He may not have known what the others were laughing about, but it wasn't very often that the ever popular Gerry was left out of a joke.

They make small talk for a while, enjoying the woods, and the lack of people. As it just so happens to be, out of the six of them, not one of them liked crowds, all for different reasons, but, sort of, for the same reason.

Rhea didn't like being in the cabin at night, because with 40 campers in the same building (regardless of whether there were walls and a hallway dividing them into groups of 10), Rhea had 40 different dreams running around inside her head, including her own and not counting the dreams of the four counselors. As talkative as she was, she might accidentally say something about stuff that happened in a dream that wasn't hers during breakfast. That tended to creep people out.