Our Trees Chapter 1

"I don't want to go camping!" Sara exclaimed from Tegan's bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth.

"Oh, come on Sara, we haven't gone camping since we were kids and you already packed. No point in unpacking now." Tegan yelled back as she clipped her suitcase shut, "And besides, it is only two nights. I think you'll survive."

"Tegan, the only people that go camping are little kids and their families, mountain men, and people enthusiastic of their culture." she began to rinse out the toothpaste out of the plastic bristles and cup her hand to bring water to her mouth at the same time.

Tegan suddenly appeared in the doorway of the bathroom and leaned against the door frame and let her head make contact with its surface. She couldn't help but smile at her sister's desperate attempt to rid her mouth of the excess toothpaste.

"Why don't you rinse out the toothbrush then clean your face with the water."

Sara turned her head to the figure in the doorway and glared, with runaway toothpaste on her nose and a little on her chin.

"Hey, don't get pissed at me, just trying to be helpful." her voice trailed off, "what was your point exactly about the little kids and the lumberjacks going camping?" she plopped onto her bed waiting for an answer.

"What I'm saying is, is that we 31 year olds shouldn't be venturing out into the middle of fucking nowhere to potentially get attacked by a bear or other forest creatures, alone."

Tegan chuckled to herself, "that would suck to get attacked by a squirrel."

"And don't you think that proving to mom that we made up over the whole fight or whatever, by doing this is a bit much?"

"You know, we can't really argue with mom over this. She's been nagging the both of us about the whole thing for a little over a month. She won't believe us until we come back in one piece from this shindig."

Tegan heard Sara giggle a bit from the bathroom because of the use of the word "shindig."

"We have been rather distant lately, though" Sara said as she appeared in the doorways with a look on her face that made Tegan melt.

"Far too distant." Tegan said under breath so Sara couldn't hear. "Another good point I was trying to make." Tegan mutter aloud as she focused her gaze to the ceiling.

"Final quick question" Sara stated as walked out of the bedroom and into the living room to sit on a chair that was in view from where Tegan was at, "how are we going to get there?"

Tegan sighed, "Mom is taking us out there and brining us back." she turned her head to Sara to watch her reaction.

Of course her face was filled with disapproval. She didn't say anything though, clearly pissed off. Tegan dismissed it anyways and sat up on the edge of her bed. She looked around the bedroom taking in the little details people would miss if they walked in for the first time. After a few minutes of simple observing, Tegan made her way to the kitchen, only to ransack the cabinets for something to nibble on.

"I really need to go shopping once we get back." Tegan mumbled to the cabinet's contents: peanut-butter and granola bars from however long ago.

She took out the half empty box of granola bars and grabbed one of the silver-packaged goodness. She tore off the packaging to reveal a normal looking granola bar and bit into the corner of it, but immediately took the still whole granola bar from her mouth. In a playful anger she let the granola bar fall to the ground, where it shattered into a few pieces that flew across the expanse of the room.

"That's why your apartment looks the way it does." Sara said from behind the pages of her book in her lap.

Tegan chuckled at her sister and grabbed the box of the remaining granola bars and tossed it into the garbage can under the sink. Not taking any chances with the peanut-butter she threw the 1/3 of the contents into the garbage with its granola brethren, when a faint honk coming from the street made Tegan almost jump.

"That's mom waiting for us." Tegan said as she ran into her bedroom to get Sara's and her own suitcases.

She walked out of the bedroom to see Sara getting her jacket on. Tegan couldn't help but watch her noodle her arms into its sleeves. Tegan turned away when Sara was about to look at her. She congratulated herself silently for not getting caught observing Sara's adorableness. Sara was waiting out in the hallway when Tegan was trying to get her shoes on as fast as she could without messing up and slowing down the progress of getting outside. Almost forgetting her journal between the mattress and the spring box of her bed, she trotted back to retrieve the journal and the pen secured within its metal spiral. She came back into the living room as quickly as she had left it. She glanced out to the hallways expecting Sara to be standing there with her book in her hand but she wasn't, just like the suitcases waiting by the front door.

"She probably took the front seat. Which isn't bad, any excuse for a chance gawk at her beauty without her noticing." Tegan mumbled to herself as she walked out the front door to her apartment with her journal in her hand. "I sound like a stalker." she added as she slipped the journal between her knees as she wrestled with the pain-in-the-ass lock that requires both hands.

Once the securing of the threshold was done, she calmly walked out the apartment's building's front door, trying her hardest not to look as excited as she was on the inside about spending two nights with the gorgeous Sara. She looked up from the cracked concrete stairs and the sidewalk to the car packed with camping stuff. To her surprise, Sara wasn't in the front seat. Tegan couldn't tell if she was in the backseat either because of some olive-green tarp blocking the window. Tegan knew for sure Sara was in the backseat because their suitcases were in the front seat. She walked behind the car then stopped at the driver's window and motioned her mom to roll down the window.

"Where am I supposed to sit?" Tegan asked her mother.

"On the roof-rack." Sara said jokingly with a smile from the backseat.

Sonia's face sank with displeasure at Sara's comment. Tegan knew that she obviously didn't see Sara's joking grin to know that she really didn't mean anything.

"In the back with your sister." she paused, "no fighting you two."

"Jesus, Mom. We aren't six. We can fight if we want." Sara said jokingly again.

Tegan opened up the car door to see Sara scoot over to the middle of the seat to give Tegan what little room was there. Tegan squeezed into the space and slammed the door shut and locked it. She didn't want to run the risk of something getting caught on the handle and yanking the door open on some highway or dirt-road. When she was settled in, she laid the blue notebook in her lap.

"What's that?" Sara said gazing over from her newly opened book to the object in Tegan's lap.

"This? It's just um… lyrics for a new song I'm working on." Tegan immediately felt bad for lying to Sara.

Saying it was only lyrics would for sure keep Sara out of its contents. If Tegan would've said it was, in fact, a journal, Sara would be snooping around in it at some point or laugh at her for doing something only an in-love-high-school-student would do. Which Tegan practically was, but she probably wouldn't admit that to anyone, especially herself.

Sara dove back into her book as the car began to pull out of its space along the sidewalk. Tegan never realized how closely together they were sitting until a large bump in the road made Tegan's hand slip from the safety of her body's space, land in the small crevice of her leg and Sara's leg. She felt Sara's soothing warmth pass through the fabric of Sara's jeans to the back of her hand. Tegan let out a sigh as she looked out the window.

The few trees and many more houses passed by. More into the time of the drive, trees became more frequent and the houses and buildings seemed to be few and far between. Eventually, all it was were trees. After a while more down the paved highway, Sonia turned right onto a gravel road where more distance was made. Tegan leaned her head back to the rest on the seat's back and closed her eyes, surrendering to the road's vibration.

She felt the car slow down smoothly until it stopped. She opened her eyes to see the new surroundings from which was brought. Sara still had her nose in her book.

"So how was your nap?" Sara said not losing focus on the reading material in her grasp.

"I wasn't asleep. It was more of a catnap."

"Oh, yeah right. Why were you drooling all over yourself then?" Sara said as she looked up from her book then placed the bookmark between its pages with a smile spread across her face.

Tegan laughed at Sara's quick wits as she unlocked then opened up the car door with her journal in her hand. The car was parked in a clearing in the trees next to a lake.

"Well this is a nice place." Sara said as she got out of the car behind Tegan.

"It's on one of my friends' land and she let me borrow it for you two. So you know for sure that no one will be a bother!" Sonia called out as she walked to the other side of the large clearing looking for a level place to pitch the tent.