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“Sapnap, this is the stupidest idea you’ve ever had,” George complained.
Three boys were in the process of hiking up a hill, supposedly to a nice camping spot Sapnap had heard of, but by the looks of it, there wasn’t anything within miles of where they stood. Sounds of a nearby road had faded several hours ago, and the only sound was the occasional huff from George and claims that “They had to be close,” from the youngest of the three.
“Dream~” George whined.
“What~” the blond replied, mocking the childish tone of the brunet. He understood George’s frustration, but listening to the bickering between the youngest and oldest of the group left his patience withering away.
“We should just turn around,” George spoke, “My feet hurt. I’m not made for the outdoors, Sapnap.”
“Then suffer in silence” sneered the black haired boy.
“Down boy,” Dream interjected, narrowly avoiding a high root jutting up from the ground, his long legs gave him an advantage, but he would admit, his feet were beginning to hurt.
“I think we're almost there,” Sapnap squinted at the paper map in his hand, turning it in a way that must have made sense to him. George however, looked at the raven haired boy with disdain, sighing.
Sapnap paused, looking around at the surrounding trees and the poorly defined path they had been walking for well over two hours now.
At the confused look on the youngest boy’s face, George sighed, quite dramatically if Dream was being honest. George plopped his tired body onto a nearby stump, groaning at the stiff wood.
‘Um...Guys?” tentatively, Sapnap spoke, a grimace on his face.
George had his head resting in his hands at this point, “What is it?” he questioned.
“Bad news,” he spoke quietly.
“Sapnap~” Dream said dauntingly, he looked at the youngest. Sapnap looked quite ashamed, face red and hand coming up to ruffle his dark hair.
The woods were silent, until George yelled, “Sapnap! Did you really get us lost?” the eldest of the three looked truly mad. “Sapnap we’ve been walking for hours!” George crumpled, sagging back into his stump chair, looking defeated.
Sapnap was quiet, he’d never seen George quite so angry.
“I’m sorry…” Sapnap started, “I didn’t mean to.” The youngest sat, defeated, at the base of a tree across from George, staring at the map with hatred.
Seeing the distress on both of his friends' faces, Dream decided it would probably be up to him to resolve the situation, as always.
“Sap?” Dream waited for the younger boy to return his gaze, the dark haired boy’s face was red with frustration. In his peripheral, Dream saw George perk up at the sound of the blond’s voice, waiting to hear what he had to say.
“It’s alright, dude,” Dream started, moving closer to the tree that Sapnap had found a seat next to. Dream sat next to the boy, still staring at the useless map in his hands, the edges frail with how tightly he was gripping it. Dream continued, “We know you didn’t mean to, Sap.”
Dream looked up to see George rifling through his backpack, he looked up to see the tall blond with an eyebrow raised, sitting next to the youngest boy who was currently in the midst of a mental crisis.
George sighed, pausing his rummaging to run a hand over his sweaty face. The summer heat had all of their shirts soaked after the hours of trekking through the sparse forests, offering no coverage from the angry sun.
Unzipping the front pocket of his backpack, George retrieved a slightly crushed granola bar. After another sigh, he heaved himself off of the stump and over to his younger friends.
Sapnap had given up on the map by then, instead choosing to fiddle with the ends of his shoelaces. Not wanting to make eye contact with either of the older men.
Dream watched curiously as George sat in the dirt to the left of Sapnap. Only when George sat down did Sapnap look him in the eyes.
“Hey,” George sounded nervous, and maybe a bit regretful, “I’m sorry I yelled.” The older boy was hesitant in his words, like he was walking on glass.
Sapnap gathered the bravery to look George in the eyes, risking a slightly watery smile. At the receptiveness, George offered up the smashed granola bar to the youngest of the three.
Sapnap chuckled at the gift. The small chuckle led to a loud cackle from the tallest of the group, the sight of his friends making peace with a granola bar of all things. Out of nowhere, Dream was clutching his side, wheezing at the situation they’d gotten themselves into.
George giggled at the redness spreading down Dream’s neck from lack of oxygen, he too found himself trying to contain his laughter.
Sapnap couldn’t keep a straight face for any longer, cracking up in a fit of laughter with his two best friends.
Once the three had calmed down a bit, Dream heaved himself to his feet, offering a hand to each of the other boys, hauling them to their feet as well.
Sweeping the dirt off of his pants, Dream grabbed the crumpled map from where Sapnap had left it in the dirt.
The map made little sense to Dream, the multicolored trail paths intersecting at random points and crossing streams. Surrounded by the marked trails was the highlighted campsite, where they had been trying to reach for the entirety of the hike.
While Dream tried to make sense of the map in his hands, the other two began to zip their bags and regroup to continue moving. They resumed the aimless wandering in search of the somehow elusive campsite. Really, it looked huge on the map, it shouldn’t be that hard to find, Dream thought.
Dream was pulled out of his confused thoughts by a new voice.
“Uh, are you guys lost or something?” Dream looked towards the voice. It was a woman wearing a navy jacket, an eyebrow raised at the state of the boys who were covered in dirt and soaked with sweat.
The three boys shared a quick glance.
It was Sapnap who spoke up after a moment of silence, “Could you tell us where the campsite is? We’re kinda lost,” his voice was timid, like he was about to be scolded for asking for assistance, but to be fair, the lady was a bit intimidating, one hip cocked to the side and hands on her hips.
The woman furrowed her brows at the question, “Yeah, the campsite is about five minutes that way,” she pointed off into the woods.
The three boys looked in disbelief, they were seriously that close to the campsite this whole time???
George spat out a quick, ‘Thanks’ and grabbed both men by their shirts, hauling them in the direction the woman had said.
George huffed at the lack of motion of his friends, “Come on, we’re almost there. I’m going to be old before we get there,” the Brit was sick of the woods.
“Calm down, the campsite isn’t going anywhere,” Sapnap replied with a smirk, finding amusement in George’s irritation.
Finally, they broke the treeline and appeared in a large clearing, dotted with tents and canopies, people bustling and dogs barking.
“Finally,” George sighed, collapsing to his back in an open plot of grass.
“Okay, Dream, you set up the tent, I’ll start a fire for hotdogs. George?” George hummed in response, eyes closed and arms stretched out, “Yeah just keep doing whatever you’re doing,”
Sapnap was only handing out tasks to those who weren’t resolving a crisis on the grass.
Dream stiffened, uh oh, Where was the tent?
“Sap?” Dream sounded a bit frightened.
“Wassup?”
“So...I don’t exactly have the tent?” Dream phrased the statement like a question, it was his responsibility to get it from the trunk when they had arrived at the park.
George was now fully aware and Dream thought he might have been able to see steam coming from the shortest boy’s ears. “You WHAT? Dream! How did you forget the tent? That’s like the most important thing? Please tell me you’re joking?” The brunet was causing quite a scene in the mostly quiet clearing.
“Oops?” Was all Dream could think to reply.
Fin