I slept pretty well, despite being stuck in a tent all night. Vera on the other hand, looked like she didn't get much sleep at all. As for Frederica, she was still sleeping and then I'm not sure when Chloe got back.
"Morning." I said.
"M-Morning." replied Vera, weakly.
Eventually, the four of us left the tent and the only boy in our group that was already out there was Sheldon.
"Justin's not up?" I said.
"Nope." he said, "He kept himself up doing… whatever that was."
"What did he do?" asked Vera.
"I kept hearing all this rustling from his sleeping bag." said Sheldon.
"So… he did do exactly what I thought he was going to do.
"What did he do?" asked Vera.
"I'll tell you when you're older." I said.
"But we're the same age." my best friend replied.
"Then, just let him sleep." said Chloe, "We don't need him around."
"Ah, yeah." I said, "I kinda agree."
My teacher ended up getting my entire class together, along with Matt's class. Oddly, his teacher didn't seem to be present.
"Okay, everyone," he said, "today we're all going to get to work."
Both classes ended up groaning.
"Oh, quiet down." he said, "You'll never get through life without working."
"When are you working on getting a girlfriend?" one of the students blurted out.
"Do you want detention when we get back to school?" asked Mr. Smith, who was clenching his fists.
"Is he always like that?" whispered Theodore, who leaned over to my ear.
"Uh, y-yeah." I said quietly, "He doesn't like it when people bring up that he's single…"
"You two!" he said out loud, "Quit flirting!"
"Ah, y-yes." I said, "S-sorry."
"Maybe I should have had some booze last night," muttered Mr. Smith, "all the other teachers did."
"Um, is that why they're not here?" asked Matt.
"They all drank too much." responded Mr. Smith, "Wish I had drank myself to death."
"Please don't say things like that." I replied.
"Anyways," my teacher said, "you're all going to pick up trash whether you like it or not?"
The class didn't groan this time but everyone had a miserable look on their face. It was pretty obvious that nobody here wanted to do that. However, we went and did what she said. Several minutes later, we were in our groups, carrying large trash trash bags and picking crap up off the ground. Well, not literal crap, but you know what I mean.
"Where's Chloe?" asked Sheldon.
"She took off again?" I said.
"Yeah." he replied, "Can't find her anywhere."
"Hmmmm." responded Vera.
"Vera, what is it?" I said.
"I-It's nothing!" she replied.
"Are you sure?" I said.
"Y-Yeah!" responded Vera.
"Did something happen between you and Chloe?" asked Frederica.
"Y-No!" said Vera.
"So something DID happen…" I commented.
"Hey, guys." interrupted Justin, who seemed to appear out of nowhere, "What did I miss?"
I then grabbed an empty trash bag, opened it up and put it on him. He didn't even move as he ended up inside the bag.
"What was that for?" he asked.
"We're picking up trash." I said, "And I just found some."
"My next article is going to be about what a monster you are." replied Justin.
"Oh, really?" I said.
"So… what happened with Chloe and Vera?" he asked, still inside of the garbage bag.
"You heard about that?" asked Frederica.
"Well, yeah." responded Justin, "You guys aren't exactly quiet."
"I… uh." started Vera, "I don't know."
"You don't know?" I responded.
"She had this weird book and said something about her plans going the way she wanted," said Vera, "maybe she's writing something?"
"Is she that embarrassed by her writing?" I said.
"Maybe she's writing fetish stories." suggested Justin.
"That's something YOU would do." I replied.
"How did you know!?" he exclaimed.
"What the hell!?" I responded, "You didn't have to actually admit to it!"
"No wonder you're in that trash bag right now." commented Frederica.
"Can I come out now?" asked Justin.
"No," said Sheldon, "trash should stay where it belongs."
"Oh, come on!" he exclaimed.
We spent all morning cleaning up. Chloe was missing the entire time. We told our teacher about how she split up from the group, but he had gotten too engrossed in drinking to even care. It actually got to a point where none of the teachers were even sober, so everyone had to take care of themselves that night. Each class did their own cooking, giving everyone their own role. Eventually, night came and we found Chloe outside our tent.
"Where were you?" I asked.
"I've been around the whole time." she answered.
"Don't give me that," I said, "you've been gone this whole time."
"Yeah, well I was busy." replied Chloe.
"Doing what?" I asked.
"I gotta get this writing done." she answered.
"What are you writing about?" I asked.
"That is none of your business." replied Chloe, getting herself into the tent.
That night, she wouldn't respond to any more of my questions, so I had to just go to sleep with all of that bothering me. What was she writing about? Was it even important or was it really none of my business?