She felt tired. As if her eyes were filled with sand and should stay closed to keep out the storm ahead. Wait, storm?
Her eyes flickered as she mentally registered that raindrops were gently falling from the trees above. There were trees. Plural. Forest. She's in a forest. There was no forest in Jeremy's backyard. Why is she on the ground? Did she faint?
Too many thoughts were parading through her brain begging to be put in the forefront. None of them stood out more than the obviously most pressing.
"Where the hell am I?" She muttered to herself. Not that there was anyone around to listen to her.
Where were her friends? The party? Why was it raining?!
Luckily she had still had all of her layers on, so the cold had not soaked down to her skin yet. But where was her backpack?
Ah yes.. Still on her shoulder. Obviously so calm. Absolutely calm. She's the epitome of calm.
'Okay. I might've passed out. And now I'm just in the woods. This is a prank.'
"Jeremy? Rachel?! This isn't funny guys!"
Nothing but the gentle patter of rain on the canopy above.
'Shit.
Okay. I've seen survivor man. I can do this. Survive first, figure out what the fuck happened later. I need to get shelter, to get warm, and to get dry. I just ate but I need to find water.'
Diana slipped her other shoulder strap on and chose the direction that had the most light filtering through the trees. After walking for what seemed like hours, but was probably only about forty-five minutes, Diana found herself at the bottom of a small cliff side. There were even little divots cut out of the cliff that looked like little cave entrances. The largest went about 6 feet into the side of the cliff, and the entrance was about twenty feet high.
This was the safest place during the rain. She had her back to a wall, a roof over her head, and enough space that she could lay down and probably make a fire.
'I have never made a fire by myself… I think I have my lighter in my backpack.'
After emptying her backpack on the floor she took stock of what she had.
Silver Razr cellphone, ipod shuffle, earbuds, 2 lighters, 1 calculator, 3 mostly filled spiral notebooks, World History textbook, steel reusable water bottle, sunglasses, 3-ring binder with all of her classwork, 2 different extra-large pencil cases (1 for art, one that has regular school supplies), some crumpled loose papers that probably contained calculus, a random plastic whistle, 1 very large sketchbook, a novel called 'The Poisonwood Bible', 5 cough drops, a small bottle of Tylenol extra strength, 2 Nature's Valley granola bars, a pack of Tic-Tacs, 1 pack of king size Reeses, 3 extra hair ties, a couple of jelly bracelets, and her wallet that contains her debit card, driver's license, 35 dollars in cash, some loose change, and a lot of crumpled receipts.
Okay a fire is first. While gathering up larger sticks and brush that could be used for a fire she realized that wet wood would be hard to make into a fire.
'I don't remember if it's because it's smoky or if it's because it won't light? Either way, I still should gather more wood. Oh! Are those berries?!'
After picking a pocketful of what looked like blue strawberries, she continued to stuff her backpack full of the driest wood that she could find. She never strayed far from the cave. Maybe only about fifty feet at most.
After burning all the crumpled receipts in her first real attempt to make a fire, she ended up tearing a bunch of pages out of her world history textbook. The finished product was not very impressive. It smoked a lot, didn't give off much light, but it was warmed her extremities enough to fight off the surprisingly chill breeze.
Diana stripped her layers and laid them out to dry. This left her in her bra and panties while her jeans, t-shirt, cardigan, socks, and converse high tops all dried safely far enough away from the fire. She let her hair down, and tried to brush it all out with her fingers. Her hair wasn't too tangled, but it was starting to wave like it often does when it gets wet. She normally would straighten her hair in the morning to hide the wave, but if she was truly stuck out here in a surprise forest then there really wasn't anyone to impress.
Her hair when wet looked quite romantic as it fell onto her shoulders, but once it dried it would become unruly and wild. This is why she always straightened it…
After grabbing one of the extra sticks that she had deemed too green. She used it to draw a series of stick figures. The one with curly hair was meant to look like herself. There were also Jeremy, Thomas, Rachel, her parents, and even a little stick figure of her childhood dog, Dougie. The last figure was never finished because she needed to wipe her eyes.
The smoke was making her eyes sting. Which was good. She could blame it for the tears.
Any creature that would've passed would have heard the light crackle of the fire, the quiet weeping of the young girl, and the light rustle of more wood being dragged to the makeshift camp by several stick figures that slunk across the ground like fuzzy black caterpillars.