Rim of the world with you

-2-

A/N
This story will also be a slow burn story also bc I don't know what I'm doing.
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It was the next week but I found out that the girl's name was Zhenzhen however, she doesn't talk. Each day that I was here I went into the forest drawing different leaves and scenery every time since there was an abundance of things to draw.

This time Logan said that I had to come to the canoeing trip so here I was sitting in the van next to Zhenzhen, she still hasn't spoken to me but I think that's okay. She sits next to me while I draw, reading some books about LA.

 You're probably wondering where I got the paper to sketch, let me just tell you. I always keep a bag on me that has my art stuff like pencils, my lucky sketchbook, paints and more. Zhen is my first actual friend and I'm pretty sure she's okay with the whole paint thing and doesn't think I'm weird, in a sick way I think that the only way we're friends is because we're both social outcasts. I get knocked out of my thoughts as Dariush climbs into the van.

"Alright y'all, the king is back," He speaks while hopping in. "Alright, Dariush," Someone in the back speaks. Dariush sits down next to Alex and looks over at him, 

"Alright, scoot over man," 

Alex moves a little bit, but apparently that was not enough for Dariush. "Move man, my nuts are hot," I couldn't help but feel a little disgusted. "Gross dude," 

But before he could respond Logan came to save the day. He banged on the van wall, 
"Hope y'all not afraid of sharks!"

He hopped into the van, turned around and saw me. "Rowan! Great of you to finally join us!"
"You made me come here," I deadpanned.
"Shhhhhhhh let's go," My eyes rolled, naturally.

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"Ah, sorry guys, some kid shit the canoe while shooting the rapids," Was the first thing we heard after we got out of the vans. A series of groans ran through the group. Did I come here for nothing? What a load of bullshit that's not fair!

"Hey, Cosmo! We're going to need the second hose here! It'll just be a few more minutes."

"Watchu mean? Ain't nobody scared of a little poo?"

I was tempted to just tell Logan to shut it but then wondered if he would get the same reaction as him when he's told to shut up, so wisely I stayed quiet. During this time Zhen tugged on my shirt sleeve and showed me the picture on the brochure.

"Yes, it's the picture on the brochure so what?" All she did was nod with her head in the opposite direction.

"Ummm... maybe we should stay with the group?" But I knew that if I stayed with the group then Zhen would go by herself. Not wanting her to go by herself, I reluctantly followed her into the forest.

The entire time we were walking I could hear Alex in the distance, "Hey! Rowan! Zhenzhen! Do you guys know where you're going?" Since I didn't know where we were going I just stayed quiet.

Walking with Zhenzhen lasted only a little while longer, we got to a waterfall and the most beautiful view, I stopped to take a rough sketch while Zhen kept on walking. Luckily I managed to take a rough sketch with the calming sounds of the waterfall, unluckily after five minutes, I heard Alex screaming and yelling.

Already being done enough of the sketch to know what to paint, I stuff the board back into my backpack while Zhen walks down from where she was before with a questionable look on her face.
"I think that's Alex" And we were off.

When we got back, Dariush was on the ground and Alex was standing beside a boy. This boy however was cute. Like insanely cute. He was wearing a navy blue button-up with a white tank top underneath it with some tan looking pants. He had almost black hair and a nice face. 

When he looked over at me his eyes widened slightly and quickly looked over to Zhen. He cleared his throat and started talking,
"You guys are from the, um, the camp, right?" He asked looking over to Zhen. When he got no response he looked around confused.

"It's not you, she's not much of a talker," I replied giving him a small smile. He just nodded at me.

Oddly I felt the need to introduce myself, "Rowan," 

He nodded with a smile. "Gabriel,"

"You know what? You know..." Right, I completely forgot that Dariush was on the ground. "You know what? That was a lucky punch," 

I looked at Gabriel shocked yet giddy, what is happening to me? "You punched him?"
Gabriel looked at me quickly. "He was bullying Alex what was I supposed to do?"

Dariush interrupted again, "Lucky punch. Yeah, you know, I haven't acclimated to the altitudes yet... so my reflexes are kinda sub-par," 

Considering the fact that he was panting the entire time I was wondering if he ran all the way up the hill to catch up with us. Instead of Dariush this time several loud bangs in the sky and our phones going crazy interrupted us.

"What the hell was that?" 

Maybe the camp is trying illegal fireworks?"
A few more loud bangs and our phones still went off. 

We fished out our phones and saw what they said. Gabriel, however, was the only person who didn't have a phone, maybe he put it in the box at camp?
"What does it say?" He asked. I beckoned him over and we shared my phone.

"It's the emergency broadcast system," 

"So they're definitely not fireworks," I quipped. Only Alex gave me a weird look.

"All civilians are to evacuate metropolitan areas immediately. Under no circumstances approach any unknown aircraft." Wait what? Unknown aircrafts can only mean one thing. Aliens. 

Dariush started hyperventilating and said, "It's the next 7-eleven!" 7-eleven? Does he mean 9-eleven??

"Or it could be aliens! Think about it; unknown aircrafts, and avoiding populated areas!" I repeated.

Zhen looked over at me and furrowed her brows giving me a special look I think was reserved for my comments. 

Of course with Alex's speedy thinking he thought of the one good thing that could happen in a moment like this.
"We gotta get back to the van."

A/N
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