What The Future Holds For Us

Chapter 24: A shooting star

Nagisa's POV

Akari's lightning fast setup of our camp gave us plenty of time to kill before dinner. There were 2 hiking trails nearby, so we went on one of those. It was pretty nice, it helped that it was mostly flat ground, and made a round trip back to the car and tent.

Akari and I were holding hands for as often as we could. Before we knew it we were back at the campgrounds. It had been a few hours, but we were the only ones in the same area as us.

After talking some more we came to a perfect spot to start something I wanted to do at some point in this trip.

"Hey Akari, do you want to do some Story Time?"

Akari seemed pretty surprised that I asked that, but she was happy to comply.

"Sounds awesome! You ok with going first?" Akari said.

"Sure thing. So, what is something you've looked forward to over the course of the trip?" I ask, hoping she is satisfied with how it's been so far.

"Actually I didn't know exactly what to expect." Akari began, "You were very confident in your planning of it so I trusted your judgement throughout it. It makes me excited to think about what else you have in mind. It does remind me of a different school trip I did once too."

"A different school trip?"

"Yeah... but that's for later, I'm up."

"Hmmm... do you personally have a favorite teaching moment?"

This was a fun question, but difficult too. If I'm perfectly honest almost every day is filled with amazing moments. I could say 1000 different things and they would all be correct. I still had to narrow it down.

"Well I can confidently say that one of them was when I received my first 'Teacher of the Month' award. But my favorite moment could definitely change if all goes well during finals week."

"Teacher of the Month?"

"Yep, my second year teaching I got the award, it's voted on by the students, and everyone I taught through class or clubs liked me enough to give me their votes. I got lots of cheers that day, which was a reward in itself."

Akari and I laughed a bit together. I was incredibly glad that she was enjoying the experience so far, and that she was looking forward to what else we were going to do. Akari and I kept this game of ours going for a while, until it was getting toward dinner time.

"It's almost 6:15 Nagisa, should we get a dinner prep going?"

"I guess it's about that time isn't it. Well, I'll get a fire started." I say, getting some wood from the pile near the parking lot.

"You know how to start a fire Nagisa?" Akari said, surprised I knew about this.

"Yeah, it was part of the things we learned here back in high school."

Akari looked at me, puzzled about my memory of the high school trip. But I had my reasons, maybe I'll tell her, if she asks that is.

I got the fire started easily. We put our dinner ingredients in a pan to be heated over it. The cabin we had came with grill bars for this exact situation. They really were prepared for what we wanted to do.

Akari had got the ingredients for miso soup, all we needed to do was combine and heat. While that was going Akari and I just sat back in our camping chairs, looking at the trees around us. We started holding hands and looking at the fire.

"Fires are interesting, they aren't doing anything that you would ordinarily perceive as fascinating, but you can't seem to take your eyes off of one." I say, staring into the flames in front of me.