Hillwood forest RP

For once, Phoebe was confused.

"Go for it? What do you mean?" she giggled slightly. "Do you want me to march back down to camp, rip open his tent and yell 'Here I am!' ?" Again she giggled at the image.

"Noooo..", he laughed back at her. "Although I'd love to see his face if you would", he laughed again.
To cover up his lack of good ideas, he hopped up from the rock he was sitting on and came up with an excuse to leave.. "Gosh, I'm freezing.. I made a fire, you girls can join me if you like.." And he walked away from the group.

Rhonda's lips twitched into a smirk. "I agree with Eugene, go for it! If you do, at least somebody will get something good out of this trip."

With that, she flounced after Eugene. "Let me get my sleeping bag, sitting around a fire before bed sounds like a great idea." Rhonda headed into her tent and pulled out her sleeping bag, unzipping it all the way to make it a blanket, and curled it around her shoulders before sitting by Eugene's fire.

"You're really good at surviving out here, you know." She smiled.

((...Sorry, I just love that Eugene's talking as one of the girls. ...It's fitting.))

Phoebe nodded. A fire and a blanket sounded very nice.

"I'll be back in a moment." she said, trotting off before anyone could stop her. Gingerly, she lifted the flap of her tent. "Gino?" she asked quietly, groping with her fingertips for a sleeping bag.

"Why look who it is, Gino, it's Phoebe!" Curly wasn't quite caught up on the day's events, so he had no idea what the tension was about. Heck, Curly couldn't even sense the tension. Curly might not have been able to spell tension. Not that he cared. A wiser person would have left the tent at that moment and let Gino and Phoebe have a moment alone.

No one had ever been stupid enough to accuse Curly of being wise.

"Gosh, thanks Rhonda. My dad and I camped a lot when I was young. He taught me a lot on how to take care of myself." He paused. "Come to think of it, those camping trips have never been such a huge success really. Every time something bad happened." He sighed. "I guess my dad isn't the luckiest guy around.."

((Nnng... blarrrr... I spent Thursday setting up a huge April Fools joke, Friday was occupied by my birthday, participating in gainful employment, working on school work, and finally playing Civilization IV with some friends into the early hours of the morning and far beyond. I just quit and came home awhile ago, as it happens.

I will return to the RP and enriching you all with my sparkling personality-- right after some sleep. X_X))

((Yikes, Freddie, you've been busy! Happy belated birthday, and get yourself some sleep. No one's holding it against you that you've been offline. Looking forward to your awesome RP skills when you're able to come back!))

((Alright everyone, we are instituting a bit of a time skip here. Everyone went to sleep magically, and are now waking up. Here's the new plot twist-

After his rejection by Phoebe, Gerald spends the night examining his map. He discovers a side road leading through the forest, one he things might lead to civilization. He circles it, jotting down a few notes. As he is doing so, however, he hears a scuffle outside. He pokes his head out of the tent in time to see Curly sprint off into the woods, chasing something. He follows.

In the morning when everyone is awake, Arnold finds the map. Noticing that Gerald and Curly are gone, he thinks Gerald might have headed in the direction that the map indicates. He suggests that everyone heads out, hoping to find civilization and their friends.

Here we go, back on Board!))

Phoebe was awakened by the harsh sunlight streaming through the thin walls of her tent. Outside, she heard noises. Rubbing swollen eyes, she crawled out of her sleeping bag, felt around for her glasses, then left the tent.

Arnold stood by the remains of the campfire, holding Gerald's map with a puzzled expression on his face. Phoebe glanced over his shoulder, examining the annotations in Gerald's handwriting.

"What's going on, Arnold?" she asked.

Helga heard the hullabaloo outside. Wincing, she brought herself to her feet and tested her injured foot. She could walk on it, but it was going to hurt. Still, her curiosity got the better of her, and she limped her way out of the tent, coming out just in time to hear Phoebe question Arnold about what was going on.

"Yeah, Football Head, what's all the hub bub about?" she demanded, exhaling sharply and leaning against the nearest tree as she tried to ignore her pain.

Arnold stared at the map Gerald had dropped, puzzled and a little worried now. He'd found it on the ground, and had also noticed that Gerald and Curly were nowhere to be seen, and it was in Gerald's handwriting.

"I...I don't know." Arnold responded to their questions, furrowing his eyebrows. "I found this map on the ground, it's in Gerald's handwriting..." He looked up ahead into the woods, biting his lip thoughtfully. "Gerald and Curly aren't here, I think he might've followed the directions on the map here, look." He handed it to Phoebe for her to see it better. "It looks like he found a road leading in the forest, that might lead to civilization."

He turned around and faced Helga, seeing her struggles, concern laced his features and he went over to her in case she needed a hand.

Phoebe studied the map that Arnold handed her. Gerald had annotated a road that seemed to have appeared since the last time she had seen the map.

"Hmm. Fascinating. There seems to be a road heading that way-" she said, pointing across the lake. She glanced up to see Arnold trying to help Helga and hid a smile.

Noises filtered in from somewhere outside the tent. Harold let out a grunt and opened his eyes. Rhonda was lying somewhere to his left - he could feel the warmth radiating off of her.

Being careful not to bump her, Harold untangled himself from his sleeping bag and headed for the door.

He stepped out of his tent and let out a loud, rumbling yawn.

"Man, I'm starving. What's for breakfast?" He asked. Then he noticed the faces of his peers and paused what was looking to be a long tirade about needing food and dying of starvation. "What's up? Why the worried looks?"

"Gerald and Curly are missing." Arnold explained. "But Gerald left behind a map that he drew out himself, Phoebe's looking at it now. Apparently he found a road in the forest that he thinks might lead to civilization."

He pause a moment, and felt Helga nearly fall against him, to which he steadied her, his hands on her shoulders.

"I don't know, but maybe he might be on to something and he went to find out for himself, and left the map behind so we would find it."

"Well, it's certainly probable. But we all know that plausibility is not causality..." she trailed off, blushing slightly. She rolled up the map to hide her embarrassment, and offered it back to Arnold.

"So what are we going to do, Captain?" she asked.

Helga blushed at the feel of Arnold's fingers on her shoulder, but forced herself to shake it off. She knew he wouldn't be happy until the others were safe, and this was supposed to be his day, after all. "Not that anything's going how it should around here..." she thought aloud.

"Well..." Arnold frowned in thought, considering their options. "I guess we can either wait for Gerald and Curly to get back, if they haven't gone too far...or maybe some of us can stay here and the rest can go off and try to follow the map. Or we can all go...but someone would have to carry Helga."

He ran a hand through his unruly hair, biting his lip, unsure of all of this. Everything had gone from bad to worse, and it didn't help that two of his friends were missing and that Helga had an injured ankle. His worry levels were rising more and more as time went by.

"We'll have to do something, because either way, I think Gerald and Curly might be seriously hurt...or worse."

"Well I'm not staying behind if you do go," Helga crossed her arms and stood defiantly on both legs without support, trying to ignore the throbbing of her legs. "Some people can stay behind if they want, but if you're going," she jabbed her finger at Arnold, "I'm going too."

"I don't think it wise for anyone to stay, but of course we cannot force anyone to go." Phoebe said, stepping forward and taking a protective hold of Helga's arm. "I'm going to. Besides, it may be my fault that Gerald is gone..." she trailed off, looking into the distance.

"Don't blame yourself, Pheebs," Helga's determined expression softened, and she allowed herself to lean a bit on Phoebe, only pressing as much weight as she thought the small girl could handle. "If he couldn't just accept that you moved on and wanted to be with Big Gino, then I say forget Tall Hair Boy."

She meant it to be supportive. She really had. But even as a teen, Helga didn't realize when she was offending someone.

Phoebe staggered back from a mixture of Helga supporting herself and her words. Regardless of the blunt delivery, they were true. She swallowed, sighed, and pushed it behind her.

"Irregardless. We quarreled, and now he's gone. My personal *ahem* preferences aside, we still need to make sure he and Curly are safe."

Arnold raised an eyebrow, wondering what Helga meant by that about Gino and Phoebe, but decided against questioning it for now. He had to focus on the task at hand.

"I guess you're right Phoebe, it would probably be better if we all went." Arnold conceded. "That is, if anyone else wants to go. I'll go out there and try to find them, that's for sure." He glanced ruefully at Helga, rubbing the back of his neck. "You can come too, Helga, but you'd have to be careful, and you'll have to be carried most if not all the way. I guess if Harold comes along, we could take turns carrying you. You might be able to walk if someone supports you, but it might take a little longer."

"Nu-huh. No way am I being carried, Football Head. I am perfectly capable of walking on my own!" To demonstrate, she released both Arnold and Phoebe and took a step forward. The pain shot through her leg, and the next thing she knew she was on the ground. "Don't say a word, Arnoldo," she hissed. "This proves nothing."

((I'm so glad this is moving again. ))

"Helga!" Phoebe jumped forward. She waffled briefly between helping her up, and helping her in general. "I'll be right back!" she scurried off between the tents, leaving Helga to Arnold's capable hands with a tiny, wicked smile. She began scanning the ground, looking for a sturdy branch with which to make a crutch.