Hillwood forest RP

Harold let out a loud barking laugh at the sight of Rhonda's hair. She looked even crazier than she had a few moments ago.

"Man, Rhon you're really not up to your usual fashionable self today." He chuckled. Then, hearing noises from outside he put his hand over her mouth before she could protest. "Shhh, listen. I-is that Curly?"

He stumbled towards the front of the tent and poked his head out.

"Holy shit, Rhonda. Curly just called out Gino."

Grumbling, Rhonda attempted to flatten her hair down and went to the front of the tent, poking her head out above Harold's, leaning on his back to peer out. She refrained, as of yet, from informing him that not even Nancy Spumoni could have stayed immaculately fashionable in weather conditions such as these.

"He did what?... Did he hit his head, or something?"

Harold stiffened in surprise at her touch, but quickly recovered - relaxing into her.

"I dunno. Think we should do something?"

Curly chuckled. "What does it matter, Arnold, he's gonna kill me anyways. I'm just getting in another strike first. ....It's not like he'll forget about it and go have tea with the squirrels along with me. ...Although..." he rubbed his chin as though he thought it were a good idea, drawing several blank stares.

"Hey, Big Gino! Come do your worst! I'm not afraid of you!"

The shout carried through the gray skied afternoon, announcing Curly's presence to any and all around. Although rain continued to drizzle the surrounding woodlands, the bulk of the storm had not yet arrived at the small makeshift camp. As if he'd been waiting for just such an introduction, Gino stepped out from behind one of the tents. He regarded Curly with derisive amusement. Three or four rivulets of water streamed down Gino's tanned, smirking face and along the curve of his cheek. “My worst, eh? Kid, I don't know if you're stupid or just crazy.”

Gino's eyebrows narrowed and his smile flattened into a hard, thin line. “Maybe you think because we're in the middle of nowhere... I can't hurt you. Big Gino ain't so big without his hired muscle. That's what you're thinkin', am I right?”
As quickly as it vanished, Gino's smile returned, but the expression was different this time. It didn't reach his eyes. “Too bad. You were wrong.”

((I ended up getting kind of busy this weekend. Otherwise I would have been here =P))

Gerald walked up behind Curly and Eugene and laid his hand on Curly's shoulder. He then fixed his glare on Gino's still muddy face.

"Just drop it you two. This is getting us nowhere. And besides," he said as he stepped forward until he was even with Curly, "You lay a hand on Curly and then you'll be dealing with me too."

Gerald normally wasn't inclined to help Curly - the dude was nuts and getting involved with crazy people was generally a bad idea in Gerald's professional opinion. However, Gino was already on his shit list for the day and maybe his defense of Curly would score him some points with Phoebe. He wasn't entirely sure it would work - it seemed like he hardly knew what Phoebe was thinking these days actually - but he figured it was worth a shot.

Phoebe approached the small knot of boys and scoffed slightly.

"Is all this strictly necessary? It does seem to be exacerbating our current situation for everyone to be quarreling incessantly." She looked from Gerald to Gino, studying their faces.

"I'm not afraid of you, I decked you once and I can do it again. Plus all the woodland creatures are on my side! ANIMALS, TO MY AID!!!" he called. He paused for several moments, his hands up at his side in a dramatic pose. Nothing happened. "...Well, shoot, I thought that would work for sure."

"This is even dumber than me." Harold said as he and Rhonda continued watching from their tent.

Rhonda blinked at the scene. "You're not that dumb." she took a moment to look back and forth between Gino and Curly, then rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Well, you two go ahead and kill each other. I refuse to be a part of this." with that she ducked back into the tent and pulled out her hair brush. She sat down and went about taming her hair finally.

Standing there wearing a damp suit that became more soaked by the minute, he took a deep, calming breath. Collect your thoughts. Don't do anything stupid. Gino told himself. If it were him and Curly alone, there would have been a fist fight. No question. He had his pride to consider, true, but he needed to be practical. This was a question of risk versus profit and Gino could inwardly admit that he was largely motivated by self-interest. So he asked himself: Would beating the snot out of this little freak help him right now?
The others wouldn't look favorably on it, and he wanted to impress them... especially Miss Specs. Fine. I'll tell her-- them, what they want to hear. Yes. Revenge could wait.

Gino ran a splay of fingers back through his wavy brown hair, wet from the rain. He made a gesture of casual acquiescence by raising his palms in front of him. "They're right. What're we doing? We're in the middle of the woods. We ought to stick together." He smiled in what he hoped was a disarming manner and walked over to pat Curly congenially on the back.
"Let's let bygones be bygones, eh?" Gino said, grinning in a way that suggested he'd like to take a bite out of Curly.

"I think they're stopping," Harold said, still reporting from the opening of the tent. "...and thanks. For saying... y'know. About me not being dumb and all." He didn't turn around to look at her, but he could feel the back of his neck burning bright red.

"That's good. At least we won't have to explain missing persons when we get back." she chuckled, and stole a glance at the back of Harold's head, smiling to herself. Her cheeks went pink, but thankfully the dark curtain of her hair kept her face hidden. "Well, it's true. You're really not dumb, Harold."

Eugene had been stunned while watching the whole happening.. What was Curly thinking?!
Just when he had gathered the courage to step in, Gino ended it all. He was good.. in a very scary kinda way.. Even while being alone, not very tall or strong, and slightly injured, he managed to keep people to respect him by using nothing more than a few direct words, a glare now and then, and his strong body language. It was impressive.

Eugene tried to walk towards the tents without being noticed, but it was hard to see where he was going, so a little twig was enough to cause the red-haired boy to fall, face down into the mud. The tension broke and all eyes faced him, or so he thought. "I'm okay", he said instinctually, and crawled back onto his feet to find him a towel and wash the dirt off his face.

((Let's say that there are three tents? How should we arrange the characters for the night? Curly should probably be separated from Rhonda and Gino. Arnold will want to be with Helga and I think Gerald will try to stay near Phoebe. Maybe Gino will want to stick by Gerald and Phoebe too?))

((yeah, sounds good. Gino in Phoebe's and Gerald's tent would be funny XD And I think Eugene would want to sleep outside, under the stars with his woodland creature friends, he'll make himself a fire under the cliff, and something bad's probably going to happen to him, but he'll be okay ^^ ))

Phoebe smiled, stepping forward.

"Now see, that wasn't so bad." she said, nodding at Curly and patting Gino absently on the arm. As she turned, she heard the tell-tale crash and saw Eugene disappearing in a cloud of dust.

"Oh dear. Eugene!" she called, hurrying over to him.

(( So, just to clarify the set up-

Tent 1- Gino, Gerald, Phoebe
Tent 2- Helga, Arnold, Curly?
Tent 3- Rhonda, Harold, Eugene if he gets tired of the great outdoors? ))

((Oh, yikes, are you really going to stick poor Helga and Arnold with Curly? ...I warn you, I'll have a really fun time messing with them.))

(( XD I don't know, but he can't be with Gino or Rhonda, right? And that's the only other tent left! ))

((I thought he was living in a tree with the squirrels.))

((Maybe we should just wing it and see how the characters play it out? Just keep in mind that there are only three tents to go in!))

(Hey, whatever works for you guys is fine by me! ...I guess unless I do have an objection, which I don't. ...Ooh wow, Arnold and Helga in the same tent? Oh my! XD Poor Curly, he's going to be a little hot in that tent, with all the tension going around.)

((Arnold and Helga. Hmm, luckily Curly will be there to prevent them from making out. Gerald and Gino are fighting an unspoken cold war for the attention of Phoebe, so they'll probably cancel each other out.

...Who's going to keep Rhonda and Harold from lip locking?))

((Eugene falling into their tent and collapsing it? XD))