Stormy Summer

A Day of Preparations

"Do we have everything?" Rose asked as she walked back into our room, and I nodded slowly.

"I think so..." I trailed off, uncertain, "Is everything okay with Anna and Charlie?" I glanced at Rose over my shoulder before zipping my bag closed.

"They said they have everything," Rose didn't sound convinced as I turned to grab her bag as well before making my way past her and to the room next door.

"If you forget anything, we could still take the train to come back here, you know?" I said as I placed mine and Rose's bag next to the door.

Anna groaned from her position on the floor, already reading again. It looks like she is done, at least.

When my eyes turned to Charlie, I noticed the problem. Charlie sat on the ground where her futon used to be, looking between her phone and around the room nervously.

"Charlie-"

"I know... but I don't want us to come back here just because I forgot something..." she went back to her phone, probably scrolling through her list of things she'd need for the two weeks.

"Do we take our homework with us?" Rose walked into the room, holding our textbooks.

"No," was Anna's immediate reply, and I closed my mouth again. I was actually going to suggest just packing them in case we decide to do our homework once we're there. We might as well get it over with.

"Okay..." Rose trailed off as she set down our textbooks on Anna's desk, before sitting down next to Charlie, glancing at her list, "What's missing?"

"I don't know..." Charlie whined, "I think I forgot writing something on my list..."

Anna let out a sound of sympathy as she looked up from her book for maybe less than a second, barely glancing in Charlie's direction, before going back to reading.

"I already have everything packed," Anna grumbled as Rose reached over to nudge her.

I sighed as I went over to Charlie's desk, quickly glancing over the things, "I don't think you forgot anything," I started and continued before Charlie had the chance to protest, "and even if you did, we could always just come back and get it," I tried to reassure her.

"But then I'd be wasting our time... and-"

"And what if I forget something?" Rose spoke up from next to her.

Charlie didn't say anything for a few seconds, only looking at Rose as if in doubt.

"That's different..." she mumbled after a while.

"How would that be different?" I asked as I turned around, but the look Rose sent my way, shut me up almost instantly.

I have no room to talk here.

Rose kept talking to Charlie, trying to soothe her into thinking that going back for her is not going out of our way and that we planned on someone forgetting something.

It didn't seem to be working, though, as Charlie just nodded slightly without saying anything. She didn't look convinced.

Rose continued to try and comfort Charlie as I started walking around the room, looking for something she might've forgotten, though I couldn't find anything.

I'm glad that we started packing so early.

That way we won't miss our train.

I finally decided to sit down next to Anna, who was still reading.

As soon as I sat down and glanced at the book in Anna's hands, she looked up and filled me in on what happened since we last talked about the book. Apparently, the main heroine is already over the death of her so-called 'best friend' and is currently busy running after her several love interests.

Together, Anna and I started ranting about the book for a while. That is until she started reading again. Now, she was only commenting on some things as they happened.

She was almost finished with the book when Rose stood up around noon, "If we want to arrive before sundown, we should probably catch the next train," what followed was a collective groan of everyone except Rose, who huffed at our behavior.

As we all got up, Anna reluctantly put her book in her bag, before starting to collect a few more things, "I thought you said you were finished?" I shouldered my bag next to Rose.

"Yeah... Well..." Anna trailed off as she put the things in her bag, "I am now," she joined us at the door with her bag over her shoulder.

Rose was the first to leave the room, Charlie following right after her. In the hallway, we ran into Bokuto, who seemed to be talking to Akaashi through the door to his bedroom.

"Are you going out?" he asked as he seemed to notice our presence, and I stopped to answer while Rose, Charlie, and Anna already went downstairs, "Yeah, we'll be staying at my grandparents' cottage for a few weeks," I answered, "I thought you'd be gone by now, too?" I added, referring to their training camp.

Bokuto shook his head, "We leave on Monday," he clarified, as Akaashi opened his door.

"Have fun!" Bokuto called after me as he entered Akaashi's room.

As I hurried downstairs, I was met with tangible impatience, radiating off of my friends, "Hurry up," Rose whisper-shouted.

I quickly put on my shoes and grabbed my jacked before quickly following them outside, and we arrived at the train station without any more interruptions.

We got there just in time for our train.