Young Writers Society

Jasmine flicked a speck of dirt off her skirts and watched Mal talk to Marty about acting as a campfire for just one night only to be faced with a rather insulted pokemon. Thankfully a few others had seen where this was going and the other boys gone out to get firewood. Miles had taken Juice to act as a nightlight, Art and Eric gone together and Jasmine had sent her ghosts.

Matt, however, stayed stubbornly laying on the ground, propped up by one elbow. "Man, nothing like camping out late."

Annie giggled, not picking up on his sarcasm. "It's fun! Look at all the stars. It looks different from home!"

Jasmine's eyes flicked to Annie at the slightest crack in her voice, only to be rewarded with the smallest glimpse of something more visible even with only twilight sun to see by. It was gone before Jasmine could place it, however, so she dropped the topic.

A bundle of sticks danced in the middle of the circle and almost acted out a play as they landed. Jasmine poked Roy and got him to light a stick before it hit the ground, lighting a pile of leaves and kindling with a poof.

"The fuck?"

Murtle and Ariel laughed along with Jasmine, all of them enjoying the joke. Annie even giggled. "Good boy, Roy! That rhymed!"

Jasmine nodded, watching as her ghosts finished building the fire. Miles came back first with armfuls of firewood.

"... How did two ghosts build a fire faster than us."

"They don't have to walk, slowpoke!" Annie teased back.

Miles looked around. "Where are Art and E—"

"Right here!" Art said, almost bursting out of the underbrush with more wood.

Eric followed. "I got dirt on zis scarf! Again!"

Jasmine raised an eyebrow but didn't make a comment. She eyed the wood they'd all brought. "Should be enough for the night."

Mal looked at her funny over the now started fire. "Seriously, how do you know about this stuff."

She smiled at him. "I could ask the same about you."

He blushed.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. "I thought Nine loved the resourcefulness of humans."

Now the blush turned sheepish. "Yes, yes, good work, Jasmine. Fantastic."

Miles looked between the two and shook his head, putting his wood on the pile Juice had started. "Glad we got here before it got dark."

Matt scratched his jaw with a thumb. "I thought we'd be battling in Warsaw by tonight."

Art shrugged. "Got sidetracked."

Annie was still excited about her latest pokemon. "And I got a ponyta!"

"Yeah. Awesome." Miles' monoton betrayed exactly what he thought of that idea, but he smiled when Annie pouted at him. "Glad you finally got one, Ans."

"What iz for dinner?" Eric asked, sitting down to examine his scarf in the firelight.

Miles looked towards their packs. "I—"

"I'll get it!" Mal said, seemingly trying to make up for not getting the fire started.

Jasmine looked up as her ghosts slipped out away from the fire to enjoy the night. Both looked back to a stern Look. They huffed but quickly looked between each other with sly smiles, letting her know they wouldn't pull any pranks... on them. She almost pitied any unsuspecting people or pokemon in the forest.

As she looked back towards the group, she heard Matt mutter, "Why can't we battle now?"

“Not funny!” Mal screamed, patting the growing flames trailing up the path of his shirt, flailing his way to the nearby stream. “Not funny at all, Marty!” Mal body slammed into the stream, the fire going out like a light, leaving him soaked and his back aching.

“Make sure you don’t drown this time,” Jasmine called from the camp.

“Funny stuff,” Mal said, trying his best to push himself up off the mossy rocks, slipping each time. “Can I get some help please?”

“Juice!” Miles called calantly as he packed up his sleeping bag, not even giving Mal a second glance.

A shadow popped out of the tree above Mal, the little Patrat landing gracefully on a stone next to Mal. The chipmunkratthing wrapped his tail around Mal’s arm, dragging him across the stones with surprising ease for something so small, and dumped him onto the grass, quickly returning to the tree woods when his job was done.

“I blame you,” Mal told Jasmine as he tried to squeeze some water out of his shirt.

“How could I have ever been a part of this,” Jasmine asked innocently.

“Murtle put him up to it,” Mal said, glaring at the Haunter. “Those ghosts are trouble, bad influences the lot of them.”

“What else do you expect from restless spirits?” Art asked, handing a towel to Mal. “They’re the pokemon equivalent of emotional baggage.”

“Iunno,” Mal said. “But you would think at least some ghosts would be noble, or at least not light people on fire.”

“I’ll be sure to let them know fire it off limits.”

“Thank you---hey where did Matt go?”

“What do you mean...huh.” Art glanced around the camp, searching for the Metal Head. “I didn’t even notice.”

“I should have heard him laughing when I was-”

“Flailing towards the water?”

“Ignoring that.”

Miles walked over, his and Annie’s bags between his arms. “Don’t overreact, he probably just went to use the bathroom.”

“Yeah,” Mal said. “He just went the bathroom, and took his giant collection of heavy metal albums with him.” Mal pointed towards the spot Matt had went to bed, the indent from his overly heavy bag of music empty.

“Fuck.” Miles reached for Megaman’s ball. “Can’t we have one day without someone going missing?”

“Divide and conquer?” Eric suggested, showing up out of nowhere like the writer only just remembered he existed. “These woods are massive, we must be swift, or else ze loud one could-"

"Mounts," Art said. "Er, I mean, we should pair up with someone with a riding pokemon, for speed."