Vous Voilà

They actually do it

Maple had just about enough. Dinner was over, and it was just about time to lock herself in her room and pretend to be a plant. She dragged herself into her room, slung her backpack to the ground, and fell over into her bed. Using feel, she located one of the books she had due for a literature paper still laying atop her sheets, and with a single hand, she popped it open and held it over her face. There was no way she was going to be ready for her literature final by tomorrow - she wasn't even halfway through. But that was alright, she wasn't even planning on being on campus tomorrow. She was only reading because she couldn't think of anything better to do.

She could hear Enoki's footsteps as she ran through the dormitory hallway. In an instant, she was in the room and threw herself into her own bed, posing dramatically and ready to catch up with Maple.

"So whatcha readin'?"

"A book."

"...Cool."

"M-hm."

Enoki poked her brain for something to talk about. The end of the semester was coming up, so that could be a decent topic.

"Sooooo... You want to get started packing?"

"I don't really want to do anything."

"Me either." Next topic. "You were worried about potions class, how'd that go?"

Maple slammed her book shut. No use in trying to read. "It's over. I don't ever have to think about it ever again."

Enoki gasped dramatically. "You passed? Was it the extra credit you took?"

"I lied about that extra credit so you wouldn't worry about me."

Enoki winced. "Ouch."

Maple sat up, letting out a heavy sigh. "Bon, so, you know that thing we were talking about? I'm in."

She squeaked in excitement. "For reals?"

"It's happening. I got my bag packed."

Enoki was rocked back in forth, nearly about to burst at the seams. "Uh-huh??"

"Get a map out and I'll show you what route I'm thinking."

In a heartbeat, Enoki snatched a map of North America out from one of her drawers. Maple had expected her to find it in one of her dozens upon dozens of pre-bought textbooks, but having a full-sized rollout map was going to make planning much, much easier. Upon closer inspection, though, Maple realized that it was a map of campus, not of the world. Huh... she could have sworn that there was a world map on the other side.

"There we go," chirped Enoki, "Map of the town."

"...Flip it over so we can see the whole country."

She flipped it over, and sure enough, there was a map of the North Columbian continent. Weird.

Maple leaned in to draw on it with an erasable marker. "We're down here. Say we cut north, I'm estimating it should take us about two weeks on foot to get up north out of Carolina."

Enoki touched the map with her finger. "What if we just cut to here and take a taxi?"

Maple took a deep breath, sitting up. "Enoki... Taxis cost money."

"But food does too, and, I mean, the less days we stay out, the less days we gotta put in, if you know what I'm sayin'."

"...You do the math on that, I'm not in the mood-" She lifted a finger. "Wait, no. I don't know if I trust you to do the math on that."

Enoki giggled under her breath as Maple continued to plot their route.

Some time went by. Enoki had already gone to get snacks and then proceeded to eat all of the snacks. Maple seemed obsessive, but she knew many of these roads. That, and they were two college-age girls, one of whom was an easy, highly attractive target. This wasn't going to be easy, whatever they were doing. Maple wasn't even sure where she wanted to go, at least not for sure. Just out of the Carolina Province. Somewhere up north. Somewhere that Aaron wouldn't think to check.

"Yeah..." sighed Maple, "This route should be painless. We just need to take the map with us and we're good as gold."

Enoki leaned in. "Can I pack snacks?"

"Please."