The Adventure Club! (16/?) Updated 3/24/2015

[Pearlised]

CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE CHARLIE

does that count as four votes?

I want Charlie because I think she'd put a lot of attitude into her caregiving, like nothing we've seen before

[Sitruuna]

...I must say....

Charlie. B|

Just because she's the one I would least expect to do such stuff.

Aaaaand, damn I like Andy. xD

[a red nine]

I was initially thinking my vote would fall with Tracy, but actually I like the general consensus: Charlie would definitely be interesting to see in that position. After all, so far Toby's been the main leader. It'll be good to see someone else carry the backbone of the club. Also love the banter, and the abrupt ending. If Charlie wins, it might give us a chance to see her forced to take care of even the people she claims to dislike and maybe into revealing more of her personality.

[Emily]

I'm with the majority on this one! :> I vote Charlie.

[VividBubbles!]

I agree with the peoples! Charlie would definitely make for an amazingly, well, unique caregiver.

Edited December 5, 2012 by VividBubbles!

[knightinggale]

Charlie by a landslide! /)UvU(\ she's so sarcastic i love her

[Akahana]

I think I vote Charlie, it would be funny to see her as caretaker XD

[TheCakeIsAlive]

I vote the Doctor. ... I mean Charlie. Cool update.

[Oolia]

Oh man, I finally found time to read your awesome updates, and I'm SO HAPPY the general consensus was always what I wanted hahaha. I LOVE this story so much, and the "choose your own adventure" mechanic is working perfectly! You, sir, are awesome.

And I would vote for Tracy, but either way, I'm sure it'll be just as good

[Blah!?]

HEY GUYS.

GUESS WHAT.

I'M NOT DEAD!

I'm really sorry it took me so long to update! I was really busy with some insane project work over the past few months, which even required me to leave the country, so I really didn't have much time to work on this. Then, even once I did get back, I was in sort of a motivation deadzone, and nothing much got done.

But then.

Two nights ago.

I finally finished another chapter!

Things are still largely the same, but between the last chapter and this one, I was chatting with a few people about potential future ideas, and I think this series is going to have some pretty big changes taking place soon. It's not what originally had I mind when I first started out, but I think it'll make things much more interesting, and a lot more fun. For now, let's just say the Adventure Club is going to become a bit more adventurous...

Anyway, enough wasted time. At long last, here's the next chapter.

-----

I managed to get a decent fire going relatively quickly, but it took a few minutes for it to warm us up. All four of us scooted as close to it as we could get without falling off our stones, but Andy was still shivering, and I still felt a little cold myself. At the same time, I heard Tracy sniffling lightly, and I glanced over at her to find her holding a tissue under her nose. When I looked back at Andy, he was staring off into space with a disgustingly pleasured look on his face. If that mother frakker got us all sick, heads will roll.

"Hey," I said, wincing at how hoarse my voice sounded. I wanted to stand up from my rock, but my head felt heavy all of a sudden. "Maybe we should get back to school. It's freezing up here."

"What? It's not so bad!" Andy responded, taking a deep breath of the cold air. This sent him into a coughing fit, and after he had carried on for a minute, Charlie slapped him on the back, putting a stop to his noise making.

"No, I think Toby's right," she said, her own voice a little congested. "It's pretty cold, and all these trees are driving my hayfever crazy." Charlie snorted and rubbed her finger under her nose to illustrate her point. Tracy continued sniffling into her tissue, so I could only assume she was just as cold as the rest of us.

"What? Big, bad Charlie doesn't like a few little trees?" Andy said tauntingly, leaning toward the tall blonde. Charlie raised an eyebrow at him and leaned away cautiously.

"Yeah, that's what I just said," she grunted, looking away from him as he continued to lean closer. Without warning, Andy reached out a finger and poked the side of Charlie's thick nose. Charlie jumped and scrunched up one side of her face, giving Andy a look that was both annoyed and confused.

"Ooh!" Andy suddenly exclaimed, twiddling his fingers. "Charlie, your nose is really squishy!" We could all see where this was going, and Charlie simply rolled her eyes as Andy began to poke and prod at her nose. I was surprised that she didn't give him a good beating like she usually did; instead, Charlie simply folded her arms and closed her eyes, trying to ignore Andy as he played with her nose.

"Squish, squish, squish! Squishy!"

Charlie suddenly opened her eye farthest from Andy and gave me an exasperated look. I shrugged back at her, not entirely sure what to say. Looking over at Andy, I noticed his face was pale and his eyes were barely open. He looked like actual shit. He's looked like shit before, but this was to the extreme.

"He's gone loopy," Charlie and I said in unison, both of us using the same fed-up tone of voice. She stood up from her stone, Andy reaching after her in an attempt to poke her nose one last time. Charlie shoved him off and walked around the campfire back toward the path we had taken to get up here.

"Yeah, we should probably go," she said, looking down the path. "It's only going to get colder, and I can already tell the rest of you are getting... Hhh... Hhh-Hhh! KKNNX! Getting sick," Charlie elaborated, interrupting herself with a pleasantly snot-free sneeze. She scrunched up her face and furiously rubbed her nose, but she still seemed to be doing better than the rest of us.

"Are you sure you're not getting sick?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. Charlie shook her head and snorted through her nose once, heading back toward the campfire.

"Yeah, totally. It's just my hayfever. I can feel it," she explained, sounding completely serious. I shrugged and gave her the benefit of the doubt. At the very least, it would be nice to have one stable person left as we tried to make our way down.

"Alright, well, yeah, we should probably... Het'CHMF!"

Dammit! I mean, I guess I already knew I was getting sick too, but this was just a pain in the ass. At least I could still walk. Andy looked like he might keel over and die if we even tried to stand him up. On that note, I managed to force myself to my feet. Standing up made me feel a little dizzy, but at least I didn't fall over again.

"Hey Tracy," I said, approaching the bookworm to get her up. "I think we're going to get out of here." I don't know why I was acting like she couldn't hear us, but she didn't seem to care. She was still quietly sniffling into her tissue, and as usual, she didn't have a whole lot to say. At the very least, she seemed to be the least wobbly of us three infectees.

"Andy. Let's go," Charlie commanded, standing over our mentally-fallen companion. He looked up at her, his face pale and his eyes lazy.

"Can I squish your nose?" he slurred, barely able to hold himself upright. Charlie rolled her eyes and nudged him with her foot.

"No. Get up."

Andy folded his arms and tried to force himself down onto his rock. At this point I honestly couldn't tell if he was just being a nuisance or if he was actually going insane. Knowing him, probably both. However, his refusal didn't last long when Charlie started picking him up by his hair. He squealed like some sort of barnyard animal and eventually he stood properly, if only to stop Charlie from pulling on him. Without any further prompting, Andy began to march away from the fire, not realizing he was going to the wrong way. Rolling her eyes, Charlie ran after him and spun him around.

After taking a few minutes to make sure we could all walk, we began our trek back down to the school. Andy and I were stumbling around a bit, so we were moving awfully slowly. Despite not being free of sickness herself Tracy seemed to be able to walk fine, but even in peak condition she was still as slow as molasses in January, so nobody had any trouble keeping up. In fact, we stuck her out in front to lead the way while Charlie stayed in the middle of the group to make sure Andy didn't spontaneously die or anything.

"YASHOO!"

Andy let out a particularly high-pitched sneeze behind us, and I could have sworn Charlie jumped at the sound of it. I looked up at her and gave her a sly glance, noticing her trying to ignore me. However, as I tried to meet her eyes, I saw something past her out in the woods. It looked almost like an unnaturally pale figure, simply standing among the trees. It wasn't staring at us or anything, that would have been creepy as hell. Instead, it was just looking off into the distance, which was more like creepy as an abandoned building after dark rather than hell. Part of me just wanted to assume I was having fever dreams, but it seemed so real.

"Hey, you see that?" I slurred, wincing at how awful I sounded. Charlie followed my pointing finger and looked into the woods, but of course, now that she was looking too, the pale figure was gone.

"There's nothing there. Except lots of trees," Charlie said flatly, raising an eyebrow. Out of nowhere, she placed her palm on my forehead, taking my temperature. Her hand was warm. Weird. I always imagined them being cold.

"You’re hot," she observed, unable to hide the concern in her voice. I grinned like an idiot and looked up at her.

"Yes. Yes I am," I said, trying to sound suave. Charlie flicked my forehead as punishment for my lameness. In my sick, trippy state it gave me a splitting headache and my vision swam for a moment, but I saw her smiling to herself as she turned around to check on Andy. She put a hand on his forehead too, and predictably the idiot took the opportunity to squish her nose again for a few more seconds.

"He's h- Burning up, too," Charlie said as she brushed past me, unsubtly swapping out a word at the last second. I laughed audibly before I could stop myself, but Charlie didn't seem to mind. She approached Tracy and finally checked her temperature too, and then she put her hands on her hips and returned to me.

"All three of you have fevers," Charlie sighed with a frown. She twitched her mouth to one side, pondering what we could do about it. I already knew we didn't have any medicine, and aside from Tracy's dwindling packet of tissues, we didn't really have much in the way of supplies at all.

"YASHOO!"

Andy sneezed again behind us, the sound making my ears hurt for a split second. Charlie clenched a fist and turned back to him with her usual death glare.

"Shut up! I'm trying to think!" she said, turning away from him in a huff. I watched in a daze as Charlie jogged ahead to Tracy and asked her for the map. She quickly unfolded it and double checked to make sure we were going in the right direction, since that was about all we could do for now.

"You're holding it upside down," Andy moaned, his voice somehow sounding even worse than he looked. Charlie ignored him, but after a few seconds, she squinted, turned her head to the side, and realized that she was, in fact, holding the map the wrong way.

"I don't need your help!" Charlie stammered, turning the map over. She stared at it intently for a little while, and eventually she nodded and allowed us to continue on. Even in my slightly loopy state, I already knew we were going the right way. I just didn't want to say anything, since Charlie seemed to have her hands full with us already.

"Hey, forget going all the way back to school," I said, stumbling up next to Charlie. "If we just go another way, we'll go by my house. It's not as far as the school, and we can all just crash there tonight."

Charlie put her hand on her chin and nodded, but before she could respond, Tracy tripped over something and fell on her side. She let out a tiny yelp, though I think it was probably still the loudest sound I'd ever heard her make. Charlie started to jog forward to help her up, but somehow, Tracy was starting to roll down the path. It would have been kind of funny if it weren't so strange. I guess her heavy coat was preventing her from stopping herself.

"Hey Tracy, you're going way too fast," Andy slurred, stumbling up next to me. I looked back to Tracy to see that she was in fact picking up speed, but Andy's perception was a bit off, as usual. Tracy rolled over maybe two times before Charlie stood her up again. Andy and I wobbled up to them, even though we couldn't really do anything to help. Tracy's glasses were crooked across her face and she was a little dirty, but she seemed fine.

"You okay?" I asked, taking another shaky step toward her. Tracy tried to nod, but Charlie started to brush the dirt and leaves off of her, kicking up a bit of dust. The cloud of dust began to rise toward Tracy's face, and as it did, she put on a desperate, gaping expression as she took a deep breath.

"HAA-CHH!"

Tracy let out a big sneeze and then nodded. She shook her head afterward and adjusted her glasses, and as soon as Charlie finished dusting her off, we continued on again. The rest of the hike down the mountainside went by in a blur to me. It still felt like it was taking forever, but by the time we got to the bottom, I didn't really remember anything else happening. Well, I do remember one thing. I could have sworn I saw that pale figure in the trees again. It might not have been the same one, but it was similar. I didn't bother pointing it out this time since I was totally convinced I was just making it up, and I put it out of my mind once we reached an actual street.

From there, we only had to walk for about ten more minutes before we got to my house. My parents were away on a business trip so I had to let us in, but I was having some trouble getting my keys. My hands were trembling, and every time I managed to get a grip on the keying in my pocket, I couldn't manage to actually pull it out. Clearly getting fed up, Charlie strode up to me and shoved her hand into my pocket to get the keys for me.

"Please tell me that isn't your nose-picking hand," I droned, not even caring that I had said that out loud. Charlie rolled her eyes and pulled the keys from my pocket. She didn't even bother asking me which one was for the front door; she just started trying them one by one until it opened. We charged into the house and Andy immediately collapsed on the floor in the living room. Tracy and I settled in to opposite ends of the couch, and Charlie headed off somewhere else. It didn't occur to me to ask where she was going, and honestly I just didn't care.

"Hey, you look like you could use these," Charlie said a moment later, returning to the living room with three tissue boxes in her arms. She tossed one to Tracy and another to me, and then she chucked the last box at Andy's big stupid head. He keeled over like a rotten log, and in a moment of clarity I leaned forward from the couch and pulled him back up onto his ass. Then, Andy, Tracy and I each drew a tissue from the boxes Charlie had given us, and the three of us blew our noses in unison. I could tell we all felt better; everyone sort of slumped over and deflated. Andy even fell over again, hitting his head on the carpeted floor with a muffled thud.

"Hey, Toby."

I glanced to the side to find Charlie leaning against the side of the couch. She occasionally looked down at me, but she was mostly just staring off into space.

"What's up?" I said, feeling like I was about to fall asleep. Charlie turned her head away from me and not-so-discreetly began to pick her nose.

"Don't... Don't flick that on my parents' carpet," I ordered, gently slapping her other arm. Charlie removed her finger from her nostril and turned back to me.

"Okay, well," she began, clearly struggling to find the right words. "You said you saw something in the woods. What was it?"

"I don't know. Some really pale dude or something. Just standing there." Why was she asking about this? Honestly, even I had forgotten about it by now.

"I think I saw it too."

-----

And there you have it! Hopefully you guys enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Once I got going, this one was just a blast to write, and I think it's my favorite so far.

Anyway, next time the Adventure Club is going to be investigating a strange myth at the school after dark. There are a lot of places for them to look around, but since they only have four active members, they need to focus their efforts. So, where should they search?

• The basement of one of the old school buildings.
  
• Throughout the oldest building on campus, which isn't in use anymore.
  

These choices might seem arbitrary, but they're going to be very different in terms of tone. For now, the plan is to have the abandoned school building be a bit lighthearted, while the basement will be more frightening. Naturally, both settings will have a bit of everything, but each one will focus more on a particular theme.

[VividBubbles!]

Yay! You updated! Hmm, I like these choices! I think I want to go with the basement. It sounds, I don't know, but it sounds more fun.

Update soon!

BYE!

[Dye]

Pale man? Perhaps it was.... *suspenseful music* ...Slenderman. XDD

Oooh, the old building sounds interesting~

[•.*°•☆. Q .☆•°*.•]

basement, basement!!

[a red nine]

As much as I'm a sucker for humor, I want to see what the basement has in store. I haven't seen you write that much horror, so I want more of it! I already know you're an aficionado at humor

[Emily]

I really like the way you write dude. The casual tone fits perfectly, and you're about as professional as it gets when it comes to written humor. And I pick basement.

[TheCakeIsAlive]

Basement And awesome update. xD Andy is... weird.

Poor Toby, having to baby-sit. xD

[Sitruuna]

Oh my, this chapter and the options. o3o

First of all, I WANT MORE SICK ANDY. xDDD He's amazing. B3

...though even more I'd want our motorcyckling nerd guy getting sick and the story involving him all agfhajksda~<3 xDDD lolwut

The pale man in the woods, oh myyyyyyyy... It almost creeped me out to think about seeing some pale figure standing somewhere amongst trees someday. It's great. Pretty damn great. o3o

And the options... Hmm... THE BASEMENT, I SAY. 8D Frightening sounds great~

Edited February 1, 2013 by Sitruuna

[Candy]

I'm gonna vote for old, not-in-use building, just to be different

Also, I would love to see more Tracy sneezes I love seeing the shy girl lose control...

[Meala]

This story is so interesting!! <3 love it!!

[Blah!?]

Well, here we go again. It's basement time! I still haven't really been keeping track of my time frame, but I guess I'd say expect it to take me this long to update in the future, unless something comes up.

Without further ado...

-----

Two weeks passed without incident. Charlie and I very briefly investigated the figure we saw up on the mountain path, but we didn't find a single scrap of information and it didn't take us long to get bored with it. In the end, we gave up the search and got on with our lives, deciding to focus on more important things like sitting around our club room doing nothing. But, about two days ago, David came to us with a startling little tidbit. We had included him in our earlier investigation, so I guess he was still keeping an ear open about it.

David told us he had heard some rumors here and there about a figure similar to the one we saw. However, we were all pretty sure it wasn't exactly the same thing, since the rumors he heard were coming right from the school itself. Was there another one? Would we ever see it? And, more importantly, would anyone even give two shits if we did? The world may never know. But we might, since we're taking it upon ourselves to investigate.

Friday night at 7:00, after the school had essentially shut down, I wandered into our club room. I was the only one there, so I just dropped my sleeping bag on the floor and pulled a chair up next to it. After losing track of time, I just got so bored that even sitting was taking up too much effort, so I ended up rolling out my sleeping bag and lying face-down on it for what must have been hours. And by "must have been" I mean "felt like, but was probably only ten minutes."

I don't know if I fell asleep or not, but eventually the door opened. I didn't even bother looking up; I just laid there on my face like a log. However, I could tell from the soft footfalls that it was Tracy who had arrived, and she immediately pulled up a chair and started reading. Finally I decided to be sociable, so I sat up and waved hello. She silently nodded to me and then turned her attention back to her book. This time she was reading something about ghosts. Relevant at least. I also noticed Tracy had brought the same shark and turtle plush toys she had used when we were trying to name the club, but neither of us brought them up. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk about anything, so I let her read in silence.

"Hey, what's up?" Charlie said a few minutes later as she stepped through the door. I turned my head to look back at her and say hello, and I noticed that she had actually done something with her hair. This must have been the first time in, well, forever.

"Nice ponytail," I said semi-sarcastically. Charlie had pulled her shoulder-length blonde hair up into the smallest ponytail I had ever seen; it was barely big enough to flop around as she walked. She glared at me as I commented on it, detecting my sarcasm.

"What's wrong with it?" she said, turning her head away from me. "It's... It's not too girly, is it?"

"Not really, no," I answered honestly. Charlie smiled and let out a deep sigh of relief.

"That was pretty girly though," I muttered. I don't think she heard me, the proof being I'm still alive.

"It looks nice," Tracy commented, her voice light and airy as usual. Charlie smiled at the compliment and tried to hide her face from both of us as subtly as she could, but clearly it didn't work so well. And then, naturally, what was shaping up to be a really sweet moment was interrupted by the ruiner of moments of all kinds: Andy.

"Hey, everybody!" he shouted, kicking the door open. I could tell he was resisting the urge to slide through on his knees. "So, what's the-" he trailed off, his eyes turning to Charlie's ponytail. I thought he would have lasted a bit longer than this, but clearly I was giving him too much credit.

"Who's the blonde chick?" Andy asked bluntly. He slid to the floor next to Charlie, grabbing her ponytail before she could stop him.

"What have you done with Charles!?" Andy bellowed, holding up the small tuft of blonde hair. Charlie immediately shoved him away and then slowly walked head-first into a corner of the room. She gently bumped her head against the wall and remained hunched over for a few seconds. I honestly couldn't tell if she was angry or embarrassed, but either way it wasn't good.

Andy began to laugh to himself, but he didn't notice that Tracy had stood up from her chair and was creeping up behind him. She knelt down behind the idiot and suddenly grabbed his hair. Andy screamed like a little girl, but he did nothing to free himself. Tracy tried to pull his hair back into a ponytail of his own, but Andy simply didn't have enough of it. The bookworm simply settled for pulling the idiot's hair for a few seconds before finally letting him go. Andy scuttled across the floor toward me and tried to use me as a shield, but by the time he got behind me, Tracy had already returned to her book.

We all sat in silence for about a minute to let the fires of war die down. After the brief rest, Charlie returned to the group and we all sat in a small circle, moving on as if nothing had happened. Tracy marked her place in her book, set it down on the floor next to her, and then she picked up her shark and hugged it to her chest. Andy and Tracy didn't know the all the details of our little excursion for the evening, but they already looked plenty worried.

"So, what's the plan?" Andy said, sounding more serious than I had ever heard him before. I glanced at Charlie and she nodded in approval, so I tried to tell the story as best I could.

"A few years ago, back in the 90s I think, there were rumors of a ghost that would haunt the school at night. People said it was something like a pale human figure, but a few accounts describe it as nothing but solid white. In any case, most people took to calling it the Pale Watcher. It was never seen doing anything aggressive, but it would often appear out of nowhere after dark, so it scared plenty of people anyway. So, basically, it sounds an awful lot like what Charlie and I saw."

I felt like I should have been holding a flashlight under my chin. This was all rather ridiculous, and now that I was hearing myself say it, I was starting to wonder if maybe all of this was just a big waste of time.

"Anyway, all of this is probably made up, but this last part especially: there's supposed to be a way to summon it," I continued, glancing around at my friends. "All we have to do is sleep in this building, and if we wake up in the middle of the night, it'll be in here somewhere."

"I'm sure we're not the first people to ever spend the night here. How come no one's done this before?" Andy said, scratching his chin.

"Maybe they did," I said, shrugging.

"Yeah, where do you think the rumors came from?" Charlie added, frowning at the idiot. Andy shrugged and we moved on.

"Well," I continued, looking around at everyone ominously. "There is one catch."

"Now you're speaking my language," Andy said with a dumb smirk.

"We have to sleep in the basement." I had dropped the bomb. Pushed the big red button. Crossed the point of no return. If anyone was going to chicken out, this would be the final straw. Andy's smirk grew. Charlie didn't seem to react at all. Tracy wrinkled her nose and frowned. But then, despite all odds, all three of them nodded. As if we were heading off to war, we packed up our things in silence and headed down the stairs until there weren't any stairs left. In truth, none of us had actually been in the basement before, so we weren't entirely sure what to expect.

"And so it begins," Andy said, twiddling his fingers as we approached the door at the bottom of the stairs. "The four intrepid adventurers begin what may be their final journey. A journey into the great unknown. A land of darkness. A-"

"Just open the door," Charlie groaned, gently booting Andy in the rear. He rubbed his ass and stuck his tongue out at Charlie over his shoulder, and then he began to pull on the door handle. It moved a bit, but then it caught and stopped; it was locked.

"I should have known," I groaned, slapping my palm to my forehead. "Well, this sucks."

"If there's anything I've learned about the locks at this school," Andy said with a grin, wrapping both hands around the handle. "It's that they suck on ice." He put all of his weight against the door and pulled as hard as he could. With a sound like cracking plastic, the door into the basement snapped open. I gave Andy a slow clap, watching him put his hands on his hips and smile wider than a bus.

"HET'CHMF!"

I sneezed into my elbow almost as soon as we headed into the basement. The place looked relatively clean, but the air was dusty as hell. I at least got used to it after a few minutes, so it didn't bother me too much. Tracy, however, wasn't having such a great time.

"Hih... Hih-Hih! Hih-CHH!"

Everyone simultaneously blessed Tracy as she sneezed, but that was far from the end of it. She began rubbing her nose gently with her index finger, and every so often she would sniff quietly.

"Hih-Hih! HIH-CH! Hih-Hih-HIH-CHH!"

"Whoa! You okay, Tracy?" Andy asked, turning back to her briefly. She nodded slowly, still rubbing her nose. Tracy pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose, coughed, and then continued on. We didn't make it another ten steps before she started acting up again.

"Hih... Hih-Hih... Hih-Hih-Hih... Hih-Hih-HIH!"

Tracy started fanning her hand up and down right in front of her nose. Her head tipped back slightly and her long, slit-like nostrils flared. She tried to put the side of her hand under her nose, but even once she got her fingers in place it didn't seem to help her much. Her erratic, hitchy breathing sounded a little like a panting dog, and I didn't know whether to laugh or feel bad for her, so I didn't do anything. Then, just a moment later, Tracy finally popped.

"HIH-CHH! Hih-Hih-CHH! CHHH! Hih-Hih-Hih! HIH-CHHHH!"

"Gesundheit," Charlie said, putting an arm around Tracy's shoulder and giving her a soft, sideways hug. Tracy nodded silently in thanks and began to gently rub her finger back and forth under her nose.

"I think you might be allergic to dust," Charlie observed, giving Tracy a pat on the back. Tracy shook her head.

"I'm not," she protested softly, still rubbing her nose.

"Sure sounds like it to me."

"I'm not!" Tracy yelped, stuffing her hands in her pockets. Was she shouting? I couldn't tell. It was as if she had raised her voice somehow, but she was still just as quiet as ever. I had honestly never heard her yell before, so I didn't really know.

"It's not anything to be ashamed of," Charlie said softly, rubbing Tracy's back. Tracy simply wrinkled her nose with a sniff and started walking again.

"Hey, leave her alone," Andy said with a smirk. "Who're you to talk? You didn't want to tell us you had hayfever."

"Shut up," Charlie mumbled, rolling her eyes and walking after Tracy.

We walked along for a few more minutes, and since her little outburst Tracy seemed to have gotten her sneezes under control. She was still sniffing and rubbing her nose though, so clearly something was still bothering her. Nobody brought it up again though, and to be honest it wasn't much to talk about anyway. How do we always get hung up on the stupidest stuff?

Anyway, we started checking rooms, trying to find one suitable for sleeping in. Most of them were just storage closets, way too small for us to all fit in, so we had to go pretty far down the hall. With the stairs far behind us, we eventually found a room that would suit us pretty well. We couldn't quite explain what it was doing there, but it was almost like a normal classroom on the basement level. It was devoid of the normal classroom furnishings aside from a small table in the corner, and it wasn't the usual sort of table in the main classrooms anyway. Knowing this was the best room we would find, we all headed inside and laid out our sleeping bags.

"This is okay with everyone, right?" I asked as I threw my pillow down on the end of my sleeping bag. Andy and Charlie nodded, while Tracy sneezed again in response.

"Hih-Hih! Hih-CHH!"

"Gesundheit," Charlie murmured, giving Tracy another sideways hug. Tracy gently rubbed her nose and nodded in thanks. The two of them shook out their ponytails and sat down on top of their sleeping bags. Part of me wanted to ask if they were going to get undressed, but the rest of me wondered why that even crossed my mind.

"Well, I guess there's no point in staying up then," I continued, kicking of my shoes. Despite all the dust in the air, this room was still relatively clean, so I didn't mind wearing just my socks. I sat down on my sleeping bag as well, leaving Andy the only one on his feet. He probably wanted everyone to watch him take his shirt off, so I ignored him.

Everyone quickly got ready for sleep; everyone was clearly a little nervous, so we all wanted to get this over with. Andy removed his jacket and tie and then crawled into his sleeping bag. He closed his eyes immediately, but I knew he wouldn't fall asleep that easily. Charlie waited until Andy appeared to be asleep, and then she pulled off her shirt, revealing a gray tank top underneath. From there, Charlie laid down on top of her sleeping bag, and she began to snore loudly almost as soon as her head touched her pillow. I had never actually slept anywhere near Charlie before, so I was a little startled by how loud her snoring was, though I can't say I was really surprised.

"What the frak are you doing?" I mumbled as Andy slid silently out f his sleeping bag. I watched him as he crawled over to Charlie, and I was surprised to see that Tracy had joined him on the other side of the sleeping giant. The two of them shushed me and then rolled Charlie over, pressing her face into her pillow to muffle her snores. I shrugged, ultimately agreeing with their plan, and then I got myself into my sleeping bag as well. From there, I could see Tracy take of her glasses and place them on the floor, and then she grabbed her two plush animals and yanked them into her sleeping bag to cuddle with.

Well, this is it. The point of no return. I laid down and closed my eyes, unsure of what I would see when I next opened them.

-----

And that's all for now, folks!

Next time, things are going to start getting weird. When they wake up, someone's not going to be there.

Who should be missing?

• Andy
  
• Charlie
  
• Tracy
  

Don't worry, they're all going to be fine. This is but a temporary setback...

[VividBubbles!]

My gosh, what a wonderful choice! Who should go missing. Hmmm, well, Charlie might be fun. And Tracy'd be adorable 'cuz I have a feeling they'd find her from her sneezing. But, I think my vote's gonna have to go with Andy on this one.

More soon please!

BYE!

[•.*°•☆. Q .☆•°*.•]

I vote charlie!!! Eee this is just too good. I already feel all spooked out ^w ^ <3333

[TheCakeIsAlive]

ANDY *cough* I mean, it would be nice and quiet were Andy to disappear, so I vote for him. Besides, Tracy's sneezing is too cute.

*flees*

[Curiosity234]

Charlie. Because obviously she could have wandered off for a perfectly normal reason! Right guys? ...R-right?

[Candy]

Hmm... Andy.

Love it by the way!