"So now what do we do?" Boo asked.

"I'm going to keep walking. Sooner or later we have to reach either the road or the beach. You can sit here and possibly starve to death, or come with me." Sasha put her hands on her hip.

"Can't we at least wait until it's light outside?" Ginny asked.

"We have flashlights. Come on, we came here for an adventure,"

"And we ended up lost in the woods," Melanie said interrupting Sasha.

Sasha ignored her. "So, are you going to stay here, or come with?"

"Who made you the boss?" Melanie questioned, standing up to face Sasha.

"Excuse me?" Sasha didn't know how to react. She was the boss, end of story.

"I said, who made you the boss? If it wasn't for you and your stupid 'let's go have an adventure' idea we wouldn't be lost in the woods in the first place."

Sasha was at a loss of words.

"Plus, you were the one leading the way, so you really are the reason we're lost."

"And now I'm going to get us un-lost by getting us the hell out of here. Unless, of course, you what me to just leave you for the bears?"

"Hmm, Bears or your terrible sense of direction? I choose the bears." Melanie stood her ground.

"Fine! And when I get out here, don't expect me to send a rescue crew after you." With that, Sasha turned on her heals and walked away.

"We can't just let her leave," Ginny said.

"Why, all she does is bitch at us. Let her go. Maybe she'll walk right into a bear cave."

"You don't mean that? She's our friend," Boo said.

"No, she's our master and now we're free."

Sasha wandered around and around, trying to find a way out. She didn't need them, they were just dead weight. She came up with the idea in the first place. She led them down the path to the lake. All they did was follow her around and complain. They were lucky she was nice enough to let them tag along. They should be thanking her.

Sasha's flashlight started to fade until it went completely out. Sasha tried shaking it, but it would go back on. Her heart started racing, her imagination running wild. Trees and shadows turned into animals with sharp teeth. The wind became a coyote howl. Panic set in. She decided to keep moving forward, what other option did she have? Suddenly, her ankle snagged around tree root and she fell to the ground. Her ankle twisted out at an odd angle. Sasha screamed. She tried to get up, but her ankle failed her and she fell back down. Suddenly, Sasha heard voices. Great, now I'm going crazy.

Boo, Ginny, and Melanie found a small clearing and sat down on some logs. They were quiet. No one knew what to say after Melanie and Sasha's fight.

"Guys, what's that noise?" Boo asked fearfully.

"It sounds like an animal," Ginny stated.

"Maybe it's a squirrel?" Melanie offered.

"Or a bear!" Boo was freaking out.

"Calm down Boo, there are no bears. Sasha was making that up," Melanie replied.

"The bushes are moving. Why are the bushes moving? They shouldn't be moving," Ginny whispered, pale as a ghost.

"It's the wind. It's totally the…" But Melanie was cut off by small creature coming out of the bushes. It was small, round, and prickly.

"PORCUPINE!" The three girls shouted at once. Jumping up, Boo, Melanie and Ginny ran from the small clearing as fast as they could. All of a sudden, something nearby screamed. All three girls jumped, startled.

"Now what's that?" Boo whispered.

"It sounded like a dying animal," Ginny pondered.

"It came from over there." Melanie pointed her flashlight to the left. "Maybe we should look?"

"Melanie! Are you crazy. It probably just wants to eat us for breakfast!"

"I'm gonna take my chances and go have a look." Melanie turned to go find out what the noise was but she didn't make it too far. Melanie froze in her tracks, as did the other girls. The animal was moving, scrambling around on the forest floor. Suddenly, a loud thump sounded through the forest, followed by another scream.

"On second thought, maybe I'll stay right here. It seems safer."

"Getting eaten by a wild animal really wasn't on my to-do list," Ginny said, lighting the mood.

"Maybe we should run?" Boo suggested.

Suddenly the 'dying animal' spoke, "Hello?"

Boo looked at Ginny, who looked at Melanie, who looked back at Boo. "SASHA!" The three girls screamed at once and set off in her direction.

They found Sasha sitting on the ground holding her ankle. Her hair was full of leaves and twigs and her flashlight was nowhere to be found.

"Sasha, are you okay?"

"Get the flashlights out of my eyes."

"Oh sorry," Boo responded as the three girls lowered their flashlight. "So, are you okay?"

"Do I look okay? I sprained my ankle."

"That looks terrible! How'd you sprain it?" Ginny asked concerned.

"Tripped over a damn tree root when my flashlight died."

"We could use the towel to tie it up?" Boo suggested.

"Great idea!" Melanie exclaimed.

"So where is the towel?" Sasha asked.

Boo looked at Ginny who looked at Melanie who looked at Boo. None of them had the towel.

"I was sitting on it over in that clearing. I thought I grabbed it when we were running from the porcupine."

"Porcupine?" Sasha asked.

"Long story," Ginny replied. "But we lost the towel."

"Alright, just help me up." Sasha put her hands out, waiting for someone to help her up. Ginny grabbed one hand, Boo grabbed the other. "Ow, not so hard. You're pulling my arm off."

Once Sasha was standing, the four tried to decide what to do next. One thing all four could agree on: They were lost in the woods.

"Any ideas?" Ginny asked.

"Well we could try and find the road?"

"Or go back to the beach?"

"We're in the middle of the woods!"

"Does anyone have cell phone service? Mine's dead."

"I lost my phone, remember."

"No service."

"None, but it is 2am!"

"How does that help us?"
"I don't know. It's always good to know the time."

"Maybe we should just stay here?" Melanie suggested.

"Or try and find a path."

"Great idea! I wish I thought of that," Sasha rolled her eyes.

"There's no way we're gonna find a path in the dark. We should wait until morning."

"Does anyone have any food?"

"This is hopeless!" Boo was terrified.

"Can Sasha even walk?"

"Yes I can walk!"

"You can barely stand."

"So, standing and walking are two very different things."

"Seriously guys, I'm hungry. Does anyone have any food?"

"Okay, so even if we do start walking, which way do we go?"

"That way," Everyone said at once, pointing in a different direction.

"The beach is definitely that way."

"So the road is that way."

"But we came from that direction."

"I came from that direction."

"This is so hopeless!"

"Ya, I think we went in maybe twelve circles before we came here."

"I think twelve is an understatement."

"So what do we do?" Boo asked. Everyone looked around.

"Let's stay here." Sasha said causing everyone looked at her. "Look," Sasha paused. She couldn't believe she was about to say this. "I'm sorry I got us lost." Everyone stared at Sasha like she had four heads. Sasha never apologizes. "I can barely walk and I'm not going to stumble around in the dark looking for a path. Let's just wait until the sun comes up."

And it was settled. The four sat down on the ground. Ginny and Boo rested against a tree. Sasha sat on a tree stump. Melanie sat on the ground. The four were quiet, trying to process the night's events. One by one they fell asleep.

Sasha awoke first. Her eyes slowing adjusting to the rising sun. She shook Melanie's thigh with her good leg. "Melanie. Melanie, wake up." Sasha said, trying to rouse her sleeping friend.

Melanie groaned and squinted her eyes. She looked at Sasha, "What?"

"The sun's up. Wake the other two, let's find a path and get the hell out of here."

Melanie stretched, rubbed her lower back, which hurt from sleeping on the ground, and shook the other two awake.

Ginny jolted awake, unable to figure out where she was at first. Boo, on the other hand, took a lot of shaking.

"Charlie? Charlie, stop it. Charlie!" Boo mumbled in her sleep.

"BOO! Wake up!" Everyone shouted.

Boo's eye's opened. "What, huh, what happened?"
"Well sun's up, were ready to go, and you're over there dreaming and mumbling about Charlie." Sasha said, emphasizing Charlie's name.

"Really?"

"Yup, you have official lost it and now dream about my brother."

Boo groaned.

"You know," Ginny started, "When you dream about someone, it means they fell asleep thinking about you. That's why me and Josh always dream about each other."

"So, Charlie was thinking about me." Boo grinned, unable to believe it.

"Well, it's not proven or anything but," Ginny was cut off.

"Sasha did you dream about me?" Melanie asked.

"Um, no?" Sasha was confused.

"Oh, well I thought about you getting eaten by bear before I fell asleep."

"I guess it isn't true," Ginny said.

"Aw," Boo sighed and looked really sad.

"Wait, you wanted me to get eaten by a bear?"

"Ummm, not so much wanted as I wanted," Melanie had no idea where she was going with this. "Wow! Would you look at the time! 5am already! We better get going."

Everyone stretched and stood up. Melanie helped Sasha to her feet. They gathered everything up, made sure they didn't leave any flashlights behind, and were off.

"So, which way do we go?"

"Guys, look." Sasha pointed to a path that was about ten feet in front of them.

"Really! There was a path was ten feet away!" Melanie shouted.

"Well, I guess we'll start there." Boo pointed out the obvious.

With Sasha resting on Melanie and Boo, and Ginny carrying everything, they set off towards the path. Once in the middle of the path, they tried to figure out what to do.

"Alright, Ginny walk 30 feet that way, and Melanie you walked 30 feet the other way. Try to figure out where we are, and which way we should go."

The two set off while Boo waited with Sasha.

"There's nothing but trees for miles and miles my way." Ginny said, returning to the group very quickly.

After a few moments, Melanie returned. "The dance studio is about 100 feet that way. Personally, I suggest we go this way."

"Really? We were that close to the dance studio! Let's go."

A few minutes later, the four girls stumbled out of the woods. They had cuts and scrapes all over their bodies. Their clothes were ripped and torn. Their hair was a mess. But they were alive.

"We made it!" Boo shouted.

"I thought I would never see a road again!"
"Cell phone service!"

"Food!"

The girls walked, and hobbled, up to the dance studio. The door was unlocked, so they went inside to gather their belongings and clean up a little.

"Wait, what are we going to say to our parent?" Ginny asked as they walked into the dance studio.

"Oh! Oh thank god you girl are here. Your parents called looking for you, but that pipe in the girl's dressing room burst again and the only plumber I could get was that one-eyed guy you use to keep an eye on things. He really is a terrible plumber. Anyways, since I was dealing with the plumbing, and the eyed-guy, I really wasn't in the mood for dealing with four crazed parents looking for their kids. Well, three really, Sasha's didn't care. Sasha, I'm so sorry. Anyways, I told your parents you were have a sleepover at the dance studio. I think they bought it, but I really don't know. But, hey! You guys are alive and I don't have to file four missing person reports so everyone's happy. Well, I mean, the pipe is still leaking,"

"You should go call a plumber," Sasha suggested, ending Michelle's rant.

"A plumber, a real plumber. You're right. Do plumbers work at 6 in the morning? They must right? Because what if your toilet overflows at 1am or," Michelle glances and Sasha's swollen ankle. "Hey what happened to your ankle? That looks bad."

"Just go call a plumber and go to bed," Sasha said, trying to keep calm.

Michelle sighed. "I'm gonna go call a plumber," She said walking out of the dance studio.

"Well, I guess we are off the hook. Wasn't that a great sleep over?" Sasha smiled at the others.

"Haha, very funny Sasha," Boo was not amused.

"I don't know. It was actually pretty fun," Melanie answered.

"See. Ginny?"

"Yeah, it was fun."

"Boo, come on. Admit it, you had fun." Sasha knew she would get it out of her eventually.

"Alright, alright. It was fun. But I would never ever do it again, ever, in my life. Ever."

"So, Even though I sprained my ankle, you guys almost got eaten by a porcupine, and Melanie wanted me to get eaten by bear," Sasha paused to glare at Melanie, who avoided looking at Sasha, "We had an adventure."

Everyone smiled.

"And just to be clear, we tell no one what happened. Not our parents, or Michelle, or Josh, or Charlie, or anyone else. This night will be our little secret. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" The other three shouted.

It would be a secret the four would share for the rest of their lives. The girls smiled at each other, until Melanie brought everyone into a group hug. And even thought Sasha complained about her ankle, Ginny was stepping on Melanie's foot, and Boo couldn't breathe, for a moment, time seemed to stop. Just four best friends, loving life, loving adventures, and loving each other. But then the moment ended, and time returned to a normal speed.

"Alright, let's find food."

"Has anyone seen my phone charger?"

"Do you think Miss Fanny will notice we took her towel?"

"Will someone help me?"

"I'm so tired."

"Does anyone have a hair brush?"

"What will your parent's think about your ankle?"

"Look at my shirt!"

The End.

I hope you liked it! As always, please review! :)