"This is really not cool." Melissa muttered as she wiped the rain off of her forehead and tripped once again on a branch. In the last two hours the sunny sky had turned grey and rain had started falling steadily. At first, she and Zac hid under trees but after the lightning started, they decided that it wasn't the best idea. It would only be another hour until it was pitch black in the woods and Melissa was getting scared.
Zac draped his arm across her back and smiled. "Don't worry. As soon as we find the cars we'll be fine. I'm sure they're waiting for us there."
"Unless they decided to leave us here. And what I would like to know is how it goes from 80 to 40 degrees in two hours."
Zac laughed. "They wouldn't leave us here."
"Carter's afraid of storms. She probably talked them all into leaving."
"Right. I don't think she'd do that." He looked around. "I think the main path might be back there."
"That's what you said two hours ago."
"Yeah. And I was wrong. I can't be wrong thirty seven times. One of these times, the path will really be right back there."
Melissa smiled. "Has anybody ever told you you're a big dork?"
"Oh. Daily." Zac grinned and nodded, pushing aside some bushes. "We probably should have stuck to the path to begin with. Hey, why do you think Katie left so suddenly earlier?"
"I'm not sure. She looked a little freaked." Melissa smiled. "I think she likes you."
"Really?" Zac bit his lip and kept walking.
"What? What's that look for?" She asked, staring at him from the side.
"Doesn't she scare you a little?"
Melissa made a face. "Yes. Yes she does look quite menacing doesn't she."
"That's not what I mean." Zac shook his head. "When she talks about tarot cards and when she predicted Carter's car breaking down."
"Why would that scare you?"
He shrugged. "I don't know." He jumped over a log and laughed. "By the way, you look like a drowned rat."
Melissa self consciously wiped her wet hair out of her face and frowned. "Yeah, well... so do you."
"Nice comeback." He was about to make fun of her again when she tripped over the log he had just leaped over. She tried to grab the tree to steady herself but her feet slid out from under her and she fell forward onto her knees, smacking her forehead on the log.
"Ouch." She whimpered, downplaying her pain and humiliation.
Zac crouched down next to her to help her up. "Are you ok?" He almost whispered as he leaned down to see her forehead while she wiped the mud off of her knees. There was a small scratch surrounded by a large red welt where she hit the log.
"Yeah. Luckily my head broke my fall." She smiled and looked down at her jeans. "Luckily these are Carter's."
"She won't mind." Zac put his arm around her shoulder again as they continued their way back to where they thought they left Carter and Jade's cars.
Melissa sighed. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
"What? I'm always nice to you."
"Right." She laughed. "Seriously, why are you being so nice lately?"
"Uhm, I don't know..."
"Are you and Carter plotting my demise or something and this is the cover up?"
Zac laughed. "No. If we weer plotting yoru demise you'd know. Besides, we're still working on Beth."
"Ooooh. Can I help?"
"Sure." Zac laughed again and then fell silent. "You do know I love you right?"
"Eh?" Melissa stopped dead in her tracks and stared at him.
"You're like my sister. I've never told you that before have I?"
"No... but thank you..." Melissa smiled and was about to comment back to him when he pointed ahead.
"See. Cars! I RULE!" He jumped forward and began running in the direction of the cars. He couldn't see Jade and Taylor but Carter was laying on the hood of her car with her eyes closed. Zac walked to the car quietly and then jumped onto the hood, causing Carter to scream and fall off sideways.
"DAMMIT ZAC! WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!" She threw her arms out and hugged him.
Zac laughed. "We got a little lost. Where's everybody else? And why are you on the car?"
"Tay and Jade are in her car cause they're afraid of water apparently. And I was staying grounded from the storm. Taylor said the rubber in the tires would keep me from dying."
"Right... you do know that only works when you're IN the car?"
Carter shot a dirty look in the direction of Jade's car and Taylor and Jade came out laughing. "Jig's up." Taylor laughed and put his arm around Carter's waist. "Sorry. It was just really funny watching you lay on your car like that."
Zac looked around. "Wait... where's Katie?"
"What?" Carter's eyes widened and Taylor almost tripped over his shoe.
"We thought she was with you guys."
Melissa shook her head. "She went to find you."
Carter nodded and frowned. "Right. Then after saving Taylor's life... she went back to find you."
"What? She saved ... wait what?" Zac shook his head.
Taylor sighed. "I'll explain it all later. Zac you need to get home and get dry cause your immune system is pretty much non-existent and Meli... you probably want to... change your pants?" He asked, eyeing her muddy jeans. "You guys can all go in Jade's car and I'll look for Katie."
After some reluctance, Jade, Zac, and Melissa all piled into Jade's car and waited for Carter. "Carter... go..."
Carter shook her head. "I'm not leaving you out here. You'll get lost too... "
Taylor put his arms around her waist. "I'll be fine. You're terrified of storms. Please? Go take care of Zac and make sure he gets a shower and goes to bed. I don't want him to get sick."
"But, I don't want you to get sick." Carter frowned.
"I won't get sick." He kissed her forehead lightly, trying not to put on a huge show for Zac and Jade. He could hear them making lovey noises from the car and wanted to smack them both. "I'll find her and I'll come home really fast. Ok?"
Carter nodded. "I'll see you in a little while." She paused for a minute when he turned around and headed for the woods. "Hey Taylor?"
"Yeah?" He turned around and waited.
"I uhm..." She shook her head. "I'll wait for you at home."
He smiled. "K."
After he waited for them to drive away he took a deep breath and headed back to the woods to find Katie. Sticking to the paths, he called her name every few minutes. After slipping on several rocks and swearing more times than he had in his whole life, he heard a shuffle behind him. When he turned, he didn't see anything at first. But after he strained his eyes, cursing the fact that he hadn't worn his glasses in a month, he saw what looked like blonde hair hiding behind a tree.
He ran a few feet and found Katie, huddled next to a tree. She looked almost like she had been crying. He knelt down next to her and put his hand on her knee. "Hey."
She flinched as if he had just woken her up. "Hey. I couldn't find any of you and then it started to storm." She raised her arm and Taylor noticed that she had it wrapped in her tank-top. She was still wearing her bathing suit and she looked like she was freezing. "I went back to the rocks at one point and I slid on the hill."
Taylor noticed that her arm was bloody and he frowned.
"Then I couldn't remember how to get back to the cars from the rocks." She shivered.
Taylor helped her up and hugged her. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah, I'm just freezing as hell and I want to go home."
"I sent everybody else home. Zac was wet and freezing and it looked like Melissa had hit her head. Carter hates storms and Jade didn't look very comfortable either."
"You came back to find me?"
"Yeah. I wasn't going to leave you out here and I didn't want to get everybody else lost... So I made them go home."
Katie smiled and wiped the rain from her face. "Thank you."
"It's the least I could do." He took off his sweatshirt, leaving his black t-shirt on and handed the sweatshirt to Katie. "Here, it's wet, but at least it's something."
Katie blushed and pulled the sweatshirt on over herh ead. Then she shivered again and Taylor noticed that her lips were almost blue.
"Come on, let's go back to the car. I'll take you home."
"Thanks again." Katie whispered.
"Like I said, I owe you way more than hunting you down in a storm."
Katie laughed. "Ok."
"Come on, let's go home." Taylor put his arm around her to warm her up a little bit and led her back to the car to take her home.