From New York to New Mexico and Beyond

Chapter twelve

Katherine found herself wide awake at four am, trying to figure out what had woken her up. Everything seemed completely quiet and still, just the wind in the trees and the sounds of the woods in the night. She listened for a few seconds before deciding it was just her imagination and rolling over to fall asleep again.

Then she heard it again, twigs snapping, rustling, something moving very close to her tent, too big to be a rabbit or raccoon, more like the size of a bear. She shuddered and tried not to think of that, her imagination was really running wild tonight. Still, something was outside her tent. It was pitch black outside so she fished her flashlight out of her bag and fumbled with the switch. She tried to stop her hands from shaking as she crawled to the entrance of her tent. Just as she reached it, the flap was flung open, hitting her in the face. She screamed and retreated to the back of her tent, turning her flashlight on the intruder.

"Hey, hey, Ace, it's just me!" Jack laughed. "Jack Kelly you scared me half to death!" She chucked her flashlight at his head but he ducked out of the way easily. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"I came to ask if you wanted to come watch the sunrise with me." Katherine smiled, leave it to Jack to think of that.

A few minutes later, they were cuddled together in layers of blankets, hot mugs of coffee in their hands, watching the sky expectantly. Finally, the stars started to give way to purple and pink hues. "It looks just like one of your paintings." Katherine whispered, her head resting on Jack's shoulder. "That's cause it's Santa Fe. I told you it was real." He whispered back. His eyes were bright and shinning as he watched the sunrise, like a kid on Christmas. Katherine couldn't help but smile, watching Jack finally reach his dream was worth the whole trip.

"Ya know..." Jack murmured after about an hour. "The boys are gonna sleep in..."

"You wanna go for a walk or something?" Katherine asked, getting up to shake out her blankets. "I was thinking more along the lines of going back to your tent." Katherine shot him a look. "Out of the question."

"Aww c'mon Ace!"

"No. But I really do wanna go on a walk."

"Alright fine." He sighed. "I guess you can't go alone." Jack reluctantly got up to put the blankets away.

As they came back out of the tent they came face to face with a police officer. Katherine screamed, completely caught of guard. "Oh my god, officer, I'm so sorry, you scared me!"

"Well, miss, I'm sorry, but I was a little surprised to find you here, too." He replied, looking around the campsite. "You see this property isn't open to the public. It's not a camping ground." Katherine gasped. "What?!" She narrowed her eyes and glared at Jack who was looking at his feet nervously. "JACK!"

"Look, I didn't know! I mean...I knew it wasn't a camping ground, but I didn't know the cops would show up!" Katherine shook her head at him, she knew her boyfriend was stupid but this, this was a whole new level of stupid, even for Jack.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated, turning her attention back to the officer. "I honestly had no idea, we'll be out of here in no time!"

"I'm sorry, miss, but there is a fine of $500 for staying here over night." Katherine's jaw dropped. "Umm...I don't think I have that much...let me check." She got her purse and searched it. "I have $173.89...I can pay the rest back later."

"I'll have to take you back to the station where you can call and have someone send over the rest of the money. Until you have it, you'll have to stay over night."

"Wait, I have some money!" Davey startled all of them. He looked through his wallet and frowned. "Uh...six dollars...where the heck did all of my money go?"

"I have four good guesses." Jack muttered, nodding his head towards the tent where the other boys slept.

"You're all going to have to come with me." The officer said, getting annoyed. Katherine was already packing up the campsite and Davey hurried to help while Jack went to wake up the other boys.

Within half an hour, all the boys and Katherine were packed away in the back of two police cars. "We're on our way to jail!" Les hollered, excitedly, earning a smack in the back of the head from Davey.

Yeah guys! I'm still alive! I always wanna update this story but I can never think of anything to write. Then every couple of months or so I get in the mood to write and come back to it. Sorry for the delays and for this pointless story 😂 thanks for sticking with it!