Into The Woods- Bellamy Blake

Chapter 89

Tori Lightbourne wandered through the trees, a camera in her hand as she took photos of each bug she came across. Her closest friend, Whitney, talked a mile a minute as she tried to distract Tori from her work.

Whitney had never understood why Tori was so serious about understanding the new planet they were on instead of celebrating and having fun. They'd only been there twenty-one days, and Whitney wasn't sure Tori had even realized half the amount of those days had passed.

Tori pushed her glasses further up on her nose as she leaned down to look at a new bug she hadn't seen yet. That was the seventeenth one she'd get a chance to classify today. Almost the largest amount she'd done since she got down there.

She wrote it down in her notebook under the first category, insect, and put the number 17 next to it. Then she took the photo of it on her camera, so the number would match up with the photo. She hadn't even realized that Whitney was still talking until she stood up again.

"Listen, Whitney. I've got to get back to camp."

"Already? We haven't even made it to the river."

Tori couldn't tell her the real reason she needed to get back to camp, so she quickly thought of a lie. It wasn't hard, she couldn't wait to get away from her. All of her friends had been left behind on Earth, and she was forced to make new acquaintances with people her age that had also been sent on the trip. Of course, the only one she actually liked was her twin sister, Josephine.

"My dad wanted me to come back earlier to help him understand some things about the place," She gave Whitney a false sympathetic smile and hoped she believed it. "Maybe next time we can go hang out with the others."

"Sure," Whitney didn't seem to care about her excuse. "Well I'm gonna continue on this. Maybe next time?"

She realized then that she couldn't bring herself to pay any attention to Tori, Whitney was too involved in herself. Tori nodded, turning around in the woods, not heading back towards camp. She ran to a small clearing, checking the time on the watch on her right wrist.

"Josie," She said loud enough to get her twins attention. She nudged her head towards camp when she did look over at her. She didn't want to interrupt what she was doing with Gabriel, but they'd agreed on this time so she didn't feel too bad.

Josephine said goodbye to Gabriel and then rushed over to her younger twin. "How'd we do?"

Tori grinned as she handed over the notebook to Josephine. She'd mastered her sister's handwriting years ago, so if her dad happened to look at it he'd think she'd done it instead of Tori. "Seventeen new species in total. Ten more after this morning, two more in the "freaks" category."

Opening the notebook, Josephine couldn't help but be surprised by how well her sister did the job. She felt bad for making her sister do all the work, but she could tell Tori clearly enjoyed doing this while she hated it. "Nice! Thanks so much for doing this Tori."

"No problem, you know I work better alone anyways," She checked the time again. "We should go meet dad before he comes looking for us."

Josephine nodded, and the two siblings walked into camp and towards their dad's tent, Tori enthusing about some of the species she'd found while seeking her sister's approval for what she did, which Joesphine was more than fine with giving.

When they were spotted by their mom though, she frowned as she looked at the twins. "You were supposed to be here a half-hour ago. Your dad is waiting."