The Thoughts Between Us // CHALEX

Twenty-Three

Charlie

"Oh man, I hate daytime." Zach finally emerged from our tent and squinted at the sun. "I'm having a headache. Can I convince them that I'm sick?"

"No one's gonna believe you." I replied, tying my shoes properly and standing up straight to face him. "You are just hungover, Zach, like you are everyday."

At that he gave me a look, then sighed and groaned.

"What are we doing today?" He asked, then remembered himself. "Damn, it's that stupid treasure hunt, right?"

"Yeah, it is." I nodded. "And you are my partner, so stop acting like a hungover vampire and get ready."

Thankfully he listened and went back inside the tent to change clothes.

Diego and the guys surprisingly acted normal yesterday, nothing weird or suspicious. They had found an old shack nearby where they have been hanging around since.

I've heard that every year the team singles out a kid and scares him to shit by using the tale of this Burnham Woods. In Liberty, the football team has a superior over the other sports teams. I don't know why it's like that but it gives the team a reason to handle all the stupid shit going around.

Yesterday, I had handed them some of those special cookies in hopes that they will get high and forget about pulling any pranks. I also offered Zach some, and then I had to stop him from eating more which resulted him in drinking from a flask later.

Which was becoming a regular thing, if you asked me.

Looking around, I realized that I could see most of the guys, but no Diego and neither Luke. We had chosen a spot where I could keep an eye on the whole team and those two were the only ones missing which worried me.

"Hey! Where's Diego and Luke?" I asked Jake who was outside the tent nearest to me and went over to him.

"Umm, they... are... they went for a walk." Jake answered, clearly startled by my question. "They woke up early so they went for a walk."

That's kind of suspicious.

"Hey, kids." Mr. Standall approached us. "Hurry up, you still need to eat breakfast. Then we need to start the treasure hunt too."

"Yes sir." Jake quickly fled the scene before I could ask him anything else about Diego's so-called 'walk'.

"Where's Zach?" Mr. Standall asked me as he looked over to me. "He is bunking with you, right?"

"Yeah." I nodded, as I turned to where my tent was. There was still no sign of Zach nearby. "I woke him up earlier, now he must be changing."

"Okay, hurry up, we will be starting soon."

I nodded to him and returned back towards my tent.

"Zach?" I shouted from outside while crouching down. "You done? We need to go."

I didn't got any reply from him so I unzipped the tent and looked inside.

Surprise surprise, Zach had fallen asleep again. Atleast he had changed clothes though.

After spending more ten minutes on waking him up again, we finally went and grabbed our breakfast. Our breakfast mostly consisted of fruits, as Mrs. Jensen was explaining that they are the most healthiest and will keep us fresh throughout the day.

Zach begs to differ.

When everyone was nearly done, Diego and Luke finally joined us. They looked smug about something, so there was a chance that they had already started messing things up.