Group Camping Trip: Departure

Neo sighed as her character on the TV screen was struck down once again by an enemy monster. She’d been stuck on this level in a game for about forty-five minutes, and had gone beyond yelling profanities loudly each time she died, and was now just resigned to failure for the time being. She decided to close the game and just put the controller down. Getting frustrated wouldn’t do her any good, and would actually probably make her worse at the game.

 

After the game was away and the TV was off, Neo’s phone began to ring. She picked it up off the couch and was met with Yellowtail’s contact info on screen. She picked up the call.

 

“Hey! I’ve got a surprise for you!”

Yellowtail sounded excited on the other end of the line. Strangely excited.

 

“... yeah?”

Neo tentatively replied.

 

“Come downstairs to the main entrance of the building, you’ll see what I mean.”

 

For some reason, Neo thought she could hear familiar giggles in the background of Yellowtail’s end of the call.

… Then he hung up. Hmm. Well, better make this quick.

 

Neo slid her phone into her sweatshirt pocket and zipped up the front. It may be spring, but it was surprisingly cold out. She didn’t bother to lock her door behind her, knowing she’d be back very soon.

 

Stepping off of the elevator led her to the lobby of her apartment complex, which was rather small compared to the size of the building, but served its purpose as a place for mail to be delivered to residents and for people to make their way to their own complexes from there. The old double doors that led to the outside world creaked as she pushed them open, immediately being met with a rather strange sight.

 

There was a large RV out front, one that looked rather… dumpy. Covered in rust and streaks of dirt, and piloted by none other than Yellowtail himself. He stuck his head out the window upon seeing Neo.

 

“Whatcha think? Cool, isn’t it?” He patted the side of the driver’s door with his closed fist.

“Oh, and Jade’s here with me, too. She insisted on bringing you along, since I asked if anyone would like to come with me on a camping trip!”

 

Jade poked her head around Yellowtail’s, smiling at Neo.

“Need help getting your stuff? We’ve got a campsite reserved for like 5:00 PM today, so we’ll need to be on the road soon.”

 

Neo didn’t know what to say, really. A camping trip, really? Couldn’t they just go to the beach or something, maybe a fun convention nearby? Camping? She had never really gone camping for fun before… mainly just to survive while she was homeless many years ago. Was camping even something that could be fun? Who knows.

 

“Ah I’ll just go help anyway.” Jade opened the passenger side door, jumping down from her seat and trotting over to Neo’s side. She gently grabbed her hand, tugging her along and into the building once more.

 

“Are you sure about this? There’s so many other things we could do, y’know.” Neo tried to protest, but failed.

 

“Oh come on, it’ll be fun! Gets you away from all those worries and responsibilities, plus you’ll get to hang out with friends!” Jade hummed, squeezing Neo’s hand lightly.

Once the two had gotten all that Neo needed for a weekend trip, they lugged the bags out to the RV, where Yellowtail sat in the driver’s seat, legs propped up on the dashboard, looking down at his phone. Jade opened the side door to the actual RV compartment, hauling Neo’s bags in and placing them down. Neo peered inside and was surprised to see two others in the camper.

 

Smokey and his sister Viper were sitting at a table, heads down, scrolling mindlessly through their phones.

 

Jade smirked. “Come on guys, can’t you get off your phones for like 2 seconds? We’re going camping, it’ll be fun!”

 

Smokey put his phone down hesitantly, while Viper continued to scroll through hers. Jade patted her on the back, encouragingly. Viper merely grunted.

 

“Neo, you can sit up front with Yellowtail if you want. I sat up front while we were picking up those two and back.” Jade gestured to Smokey and Viper.

 

Neo nodded, closing the RV door behind her and making her way up front. She plopped herself down in the empty passenger seat, prompting Yellowtail to put his phone away and turn the key to start the vehicle. It rumbled for a second, then roared to life. Neo buckled her seatbelt as Yellowtail backed out of his parking spot (or rather two parking spots) and got them on the road.

 

Jade

407 words-8 AP

Rider (Neo)-5

Pair-bonded (Neo)-4

Kirin-1

Personal-3

Total= 21 AP