The Third Clearing || Outsiders SMP DISCONTINUED

Chapter 9: Campfire Talks

Bold + Italics= Future Brielle

The lake water reflected the moon's white glow as I washed my hands off in the water.

The water was a mix of both cold and warm, but it was always like that at night.

I told myself to not work on the house tonight, so I won't. I've noticed a lot of people have been staying up late recently around the Clearing. They are either building, or just relaxing and thinking.

Thinking has to be my favorite out of all those options. Thinking is what keeps me company whenever I'm lonely. It's what keeps me working on my house when nobody is there to talk to me. It's like having that one friend who will always be there for you no matter what happens. It can be scary sometimes though, and I'm not prepared for those times just yet.

I dried off my hands on one of the towels that came up in the box when Ivy and Devyn came up.

Everybody seems to be doing their own thing now that the meeting is over. There is still a bit of tension lingering in the air, but for most part it's pretty calm. The meeting ended an hour ago, and Liam hasn't come out of the forest since. Dylan doesn't seem too happy with the outcome either. I wouldn't expect either of them to if I'm being honest.

In the past hour, I've been working on a small campfire here by the lake. Yes, there's already one by the tent, but it hasn't been used as much as I thought it would be.

Maybe I should go try and get people to come sit by the fire. We can just hang and chill out. It might also ease the tension. I smiled to myself and quickly went to store some useless items in a barrel over by my building supplies.

I took a moment to look around the clearing to see if anybody was awake. I didn't want to disturb people's sleep.

I saw Avery was working on the voting "stage". It wasn't really a stage. Ivy looked like she was helping Devyn with his new house. Tanner was over harvesting the garden. Thomas and Claire were building something new over by Avery's house. I can't really tell what it is because it looks like they just started, but it's coming along nicely. They are the only ones I see awake. They all seem like they could use a break though, especially Avery.

I walked over to Avery who didn't notice me at first, until I said something.

"Hey Avery?"

She jumped a little and let out a laugh when she saw me. "You scared me."

"Sorry," I said with a small laugh as well.

"It's fine. Do you need something?" She asked with a smile as she hopped down from the wall she was building.

"I was wondering if we could go and invite people over to the campfire I made by the lake since, you know, everyone has been working so hard. I feel like we deserve a break. Especially after the meeting." I explained returning the smile, a bit nervous at what she would say.

"That sounds like a great idea, actually! Who knows? Maybe it'll help people settle down." She said looking over to the campfire and then at everyone else scattered around the Clearing. "Let's go get them!"

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"Watch one of these wooden chairs catch on fire while one of us are sitting on them," Thomas said as he was the last to sit down. Everyone let out a laugh at the comment.

"If your chair gets lit on fire I'm going to laugh because you're going to be dumb enough to move your chair two feet away from the fire." I replied through everyone's laughter.

"True!" Claire called out.

"Fair. Yeah, that's fair," Thomas replied with a shrug and a smile.

"Your house is looking good so far, by the way," Ivy said looking over at the unfinished structure on top of the waterfall hill.

"Oh! Thank you! Been working hard on it with the help of Avery," I said looking over at Avery who smiled at me.

"It's no problem!" She said.

"Avery is definitely the builder in this place," Tanner said as he took a bite of a carrot he had washed in the garden's stream.

"Can anybody here cook?" Thomas asked looking around.

"Yeah, who can be the cooker for the Clearing?" Claire said with a small laugh.

"Devyn's a pretty good cook. Made us both a meal yesterday from the garden and I needed more," Ivy said as Devyn looked away in embarrassment. Ivy laughed at Devyn's reaction.

"I don't know, Isla's a pretty decent cooker as well," Tanner offered.

"We should hold a cooking competition at some point! See who's really better. Devyn vs Isla!" I suggested with a chuckle.

"That sounds fun," Claire said.

"Oh yeah! Maybe after the voting. It can be something like this, something to cool people off," Avery spoke in her normal British tone.

"Sure! Someone make sure Liam doesn't start a food fight out of rage though," Tanner commented, causing another laugh to spread amongst the group.

"Both Liam and Dylan. Surely I'm not the only who saw how worked up Dylan was," Thomas said.

"Oh you are definitely not the only one. I think I saw Dylan's face turn red as he practically marched back to his house," Ivy said as laughter erupted once again.

The rest of the time that night was spent around the campfire. We told stories, we laughed, we talked. We had so much fun, that we lost track of time and the sun came up.

And it was from that night forward that I promised myself that I would get every single one of them out of this maze, even Dylan and Liam...even if I got hurt in the process of doing so.

Word count: 995