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A couple weeks passed, and by now it was late October. Halloween was coming up in a little over a week, and more importantly I had a three day weekend coming up. It was supposed to be so we could study before midterms, but honestly, has ANY student ever actually done that?
It was a five hour drive home, but I didn't intend to go home until Thanksgiving; I was enjoying my independence too much. It was also a two hour drive to our deer lease out in the country. I'd gone there every deer season with my dad, camping, roasting marshmallows over a fire, swimming in the pond (when it was warm enough), and exploring the woods. He rarely got a deer, not because they were scarce or because he was a lousy hunter, but because he mostly went up there just to spend time with me; hunting was purely secondary as far as he was concerned. When I was fourteen, he passed up a twenty-point buck and handed me the rifle instead; I still have the photo of myself posing with the deer somewhere.
That place was full of happy memories for me, growing up. Now... now, the memories are sort of mixed, but I still remember the place fondly.
So, I'd decided I was going to head up to the place Friday morning, pitch a tent, and head back Sunday afternoon. It was unseasonably warm and the trees were only just beginning to turn, so it would be a great way to spend the weekend.
So, at breakfast Thursday, I told Bill about my plan to go camping that weekend.
He froze awkwardly, then glanced at Sara, then back to me, cleared his throat, and slowly told me that he'd been planning to go on another study trip for his biology class, and he absolutely had to go because the professor was counting the trip as 20% of their midterm grade.
Which meant he'd planned to ditch Sara at the apartment with me all weekend again and I had just thrown a monkey wrench into his intricately laid plans.
Shit. If the trip counted as part of his midterm grade, I couldn't tell him "too bad, I'm leaving" and force him to find a way to deal with Sara all weekend. And I really didn't want to cancel my plans and stay here just because Bill was a dick who just assumed I wouldn't have plans for the weekend.
That really left only one option.
"That's ok, I don't mind taking Sara camping with me."
She perked up at hearing that.
"I've never been camping before! That's cool! We can catch fireflies!"
"Fireflies are only around in the summer, it's too late in the year for them. But there's lots of other cool stuff to do up there."
I gave her a list of things to bring for the trip (mostly clothes and a spare blanket since she didn't have any camping gear) and she was practically bouncing out of her chair with excitement; partly this was because she'd never been camping before and really wanted to go, and partly, I know now, because it meant spending more time with me and I was pretty much the only person who bothered to interact with her who wasn't a teacher. She babbled on enthusiastically about the trip and practically flew out the door when it was time for her to meet the bus, still talking about it. Bill seemed to find the whole thing amusing and had the decency to thank me for it. Then he slid me twenty bucks to pay for her meals during the weekend.
Like I said, Bill wasn't a bad guy, just... in his own universe. I have no idea what he was like before his parents died and he got saddled with responsibility for his little sister, but I know that has to be hard on someone, so I never tried to give him grief over it.
So I went to class, dozed off during class while the tone deaf professor droned on about... I forget. It was just review for midterms, and I already knew the stuff pretty well, so I didn't bother paying attention and basically slipped in and out of awareness while he droned. If he noticed, he didn't say anything.
I got done with my last class for the day and walked back to the apartment, arriving in time to meet Sara at the bus stop and walk back with her. She was skipping down the sidewalk, holding onto my arm, and jumping with excitement. Had she been this wired over a camping trip the entire time she was at school? I pitied her teacher if she was. Then again, my impression was that Sara was pretty withdrawn at school, so maybe the teacher would like the change.
We got back to the apartment and she immediately dumped the contents of her backpack all over the table and threw it onto the couch, to store the things she was bringing with her. She then insisted I inspect everything she packed, to make sure it was appropriate for camping.
Canvas sneakers, two pairs of panties (white with a little blue ribbon on the front, and pink with a heart over the butt.), two pairs of socks, a pair of jeans that fit her quite nicely (not that I should be appreciative of how well a pair of jeans fit an 11 year old's ass), a pair of cutoff shorts, two t-shirts, a bucket hat, and a blanket, as I'd instructed.
"Not bad, kiddo. Why don't you grab a pillow and a book too."
She raced off to her room to do exactly that, and I packed my camping gear, an extra flashlight, and some spare clothes. I was going to pick up some snacks and bottled water for us on the way out in the morning. Damn. I knew I was forgetting something, but I couldn't figure it out.
We had ravioli for dinner, while Sara regaled me with various children's stories about camping, proving that she only knew of it through books and that she was as big a nerd as her brother, even if she didn't admit it. Bill showed up after we ate, grabbed his stuff for his study trip, and headed out, barely saying two words to us.
And with that, we each went to our separate rooms and went to sleep, looking forward to the trip.
And I took another step down the path of no return.