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The crew had all gone camping, and so far everything was going well. They’d decided that there would be two people staying in each tent, so Parappa and PJ were in one, Katy and Lammy were in the other, which left Ma San and Sunny together in the last. Nobody has said it, but they’re all a bit worried about how that will go.
“Now,” Says Ma San suddenly, “Who’d like to hear a scary story?”
“I would!” Both Katy and Sunny shout in perfect unison. Without waiting for approval from anyone else, Ma San begins. She tells of a banshee who lives in the very forest where they dwell now. The banshee is tall with black voids for eyes, and if you hear her when she unhinges her jaw and screams, you’d be dead.
After a story like that, an eerie atmosphere creeps upon the group. Katy has quite enjoyed the story, unlike Lammy and Parappa. Lammy is quite unnerved by it, whereas Parappa is downright terrified. They stay up a bit later, with some occasional chatter about the story, (to Lammy and Parappa’s dismay.) Eventually, they all get into their tents and prepare to sleep.
Parappa, however, can feel it in his bones. He won’t be able to sleep tonight.
In the opposing tent sunny and ma san were getting ready for bed. Ma san yawned and laid down with her normal emotionless expression plastered across her face. Sunny sat up, looking annoyed. The air was very stiff and uncomfortable for the both of them since they had never really talked before. "So ma san… Are you into anything?" sunny asked quietly and slumped over. Ma san had no response. "Oh come on, are you seriously going to say nothing? Are you into any shows at least?" Sunny pressed on. Ma san turned over to face sunny "no." and turned back over. "You have to be kidding me. What am i doing so horribly wrong to disturb you? You don't have to be so rude all the time!" sunny pushed ma san in a fit of unfiltered rage and crossed her arms.
Ma san slowly turned back to her again, furious, without warning she jumped onto sunny and started clawing at her. Sunny let out a screech and a battle between the two ensued.
Now, this whole squabble is certainly creating some noise. Noise that is not helping Parappa sleep at all. He hears Sunny, and though it was faint, he is sure what he heard was a scream.
“I’ve got to be a man,” He whispers to himself, “I’ve got to believe.. Believe that my friends are in danger? Aahh..” He covers his ears with his pillow and only hopes the sounds are but his imagination.
“Believing has gotten me nowhere.” He thinks, and promptly gets up to leave the tent.
“I’ll go for a walk,” He thinks to himself, “And I’ll see that nothing is wrong, and I’ll be able to sleep! Simple.” Apparently it is not that simple. He hears someone moving over by the tables, and feels shivers down his spine. Slowly, he creeps over to the tables to see what’s there..
“Parappa?” Asks PJ.
“PJ?!” Parappa asks back, “What’re you doing..?”
“Eating.” Replied PJ, who is having the last of the hotdogs with a plastic fork.
“Oh, well uh,” Stutters Parappa, “I need uhm.. uh..” He then pictures that horrible banshee in his head yet again.
“I need protection!!” He shouts, and dashes over to the table, then realizing how stupid he must look.
“Are you being chased or something..?” Asks PJ.
“No..” Mutters Parappa, “That story kinda freaked me out, and uhm, now I can’t sleep..” How embarrassed he is to admit it! PJ looks at those desperate eyes and can tell he’s serious.
“C’mere,” He says, and pats the bench. Parappa shyly sits down next to him.
“We can just do a quick surveillance of the area, and then back to bed, right..?” Parappa asks.
“Eyup.” PJ replies bleakly. He takes Parappa’s hand and they walk around the campsite together. There is no sign of any danger, that is, until they hear it. A shrilling shriek, that is most definitely a shriek, coming from the tents.
“We’ve gotta see if they’re okay.” Says PJ. Parappa is filled with fear yet again, and latches onto PJ’s back.
“Ya want a weapon?” Asks PJ.
“A weapon??” Parappa asks back. PJ hands him the plastic fork, and he’s too befuddled to question it. They slowly creep up to the tents, and realize it’s most definitely coming from Sunny and Ma San’s. PJ grabs the tent cover, as Parappa shuts his eyes tightly and holds out the plastic fork as a means of defense. PJ pulls open the tent.
“What’s going on?!” He shouts, as Parappa screams and waves the fork around. They both stop dead in their tracks at the sight of what is happening. There is Sunny, pinned to the ground by Ma San.
Sunny and ma san both look over and gasp, All of them have a shocked and puzzled look on their faces. PJ and parappa stand there motionlessly as ma san slowly moves off sunny and backs off. "P-parappa! Aha- it's honestly not how it looks i swear!-" sunny frantically trys to explain "Me and m-ma san got into a bit of a…. Err… F-fight". PJ put a hand over his mouth and snickered, "You guys need us to go or something?" PJ laughed louder. Parappa continued to stand there fazed, he put up a finger to speak and opened his mouth a little but no sound came out.
"Oh my gosh you two are so immature. If i could i would have Ma san far away from me" Sunny whined and smacked her forehead.
Ma san looked a little hurt and rubbed her arm, which was strange since it seemed she could only be angry, bored or completely emotionless. "Okay sure, me and parappa are gunna head back to bed… Have fun?- i guess" PJ grabbed Parappas arm and dragged him out of view, all the while sunny looked on frustrated and closed the flap again. Sunnys head emerged back into the tent.
"Not another word tonight. Im going to bed, leave me alone". If looks could kill, Ma san would be dead about now. She took sunnys words to mind and tossed over, feeling even worse then how the night had started.
During all this, lammy was wide awake in her and katys tent. No matter how hard she tried to shut her eyes and sleep, she kept tossing and turning without fail. Groggily she looked over at katy who was sound asleep, looking completely at peace. Lammy smiled and felt a little better, and even a little safer. The whole banshee story had messed up lammy too, but lammy had rather keep quiet about how she felt then try to find help like Parappa had.
"I-i wonder what shes thinking of" lammy thought to herself, twirling her thumbs.
"M-man… I wish i was H-her.. Shes so a-amazing and b-brave…" she sighed and tried to shut her eyes again when all of a sudden she felt a hand slowly reach over her. Another hand latched onto her and pulled lammy up to katy like a stuffed animal. Lammy blushed a deep red and wheezed, she was so close to katy she could feel her calm warm breaths on her neck. "K-k-kayt?-" she whispered. There was no response except for katy nuzzling her head into lammys. "O-oh man… what s-should i do" lammy panicked and tried to move away despite being comfortable." K-katy would.. W-would probably never let m-me get this… C-close" she stated with dismay. There was a soft whisper from katy which lammy believed was her name. Suddenly everything wrong with the world melted away and lammy relaxed for a moment.
About 20 minutes has passed, and Katy is still latched onto Lammy, who is on the brink of sleep but just can’t rest. Every so often she looks back at Katy, and feels both her mind relax and her heart race. It’s quite a hot night out, and at this point, Lammy feels ready to melt. However, she can’t do a thing, so she lay staring at9 the ceiling.
“Huh?” She hears from beside her. Her heart pounds in her chest. Is that Katy’s voice? Has she woken up? Will Katy be upset knowing Lammy hasn’t moved her off from her all this time??
“What time is it..?” Mumbles Katy, half asleep, still unaware of the situation.
“Very late,” Blurts out Lammy.
“I was having the strangest dream,” Katy wearily says, “There was this pizza shop, but they gave me watermelons instead of pizza, and they said I had to pay them extra for pizza, so I ate the watermelon, then I set on fire.. now I’m awake.”
Lammy has absolutely no idea how to reply to that. She just nods slowly, dreading the moment when Katy would realize what she is doing.
“I’m getting water. C’mon.” Katy mumbles and gets out of the bed, still unaware that she had held on to Lammy for that long. Lammy can’t even get up at first, out of shock. How on Earth had Katy managed to get up without noticing..? Lammy shakes it off and gets up, following Katy to the coolers.
“What were you dreaming about?” Katy asks, as she takes out a water bottle.
“Uh, you,” Lammy says absentmindedly, then realizing her mistake, “I MEAN!! I didn’t have any dreams. I wasn’t asleep.”
“Why not? Too hot in there?” Asks Katy.
“Uh.. yeah, that’s it.” Lammy replies. Geez, this is real nerve wracking.
“Tents too hot,” Katy says after an awkward silence while finishing the water, “What if we slept outside?”
“You mean—we—us—outside?!” Stutters Lammy. She is both horrified by the thought of something attacking them, and excited by the thought of laying with Katy under an open sky. Though she never agreed, Katy is already dragging out their sleeping bags.
“Over here!” Katy says, and lays down. Lammy lays next to her with a pounding heart.
“Oh, I bet my face is beet red, I’m going to ruin this..” Lammy thinks to herself.
“This is definitely nicer,” Says Katy. She inches closer to Lammy, then wraps her arm around her. Lammy is internally screaming.
"D-do you know any constellations?.." lammy askes, trying to get her mind off things.
"Hm?- well only a few im sure you're famillure of them too though" katy says staring into the sky "can you find the big dipper?" katy looks over at lammy. Lammy searches for a moment carefully gazing, and finally spots it "O-oh uhm.. Right there!.." she points upwards towards the big dipper and smiles proudly. "Hmm are you sure? I don't see it" katy jokingly says. "I-its right there!" lammy flails her hand helplessly.
"Nah- still don't see it" katy smirks and rests her head on her free hand.
"Y-you're kidding me" lammy laughs and gently shoves katy. This was one of the few rare times where lammy felt like she could really be herself, it was a huge relief to just unwind with katy after the "situation" in the tent. They both turn their heads and stare directly at one another and lammys heart leaps into her throat once more.
"Katy could i.. T-tell you s-something?" she manages to squeak out. Katy raises an eyebrow "of course, anything. You know that. You're my best friend". Something about the word "friend" sounded wrong to lammy, it cut her deeply and made her regret what she was about to say.
"W-well.." she takes a deep breath "whenever im.. W-with you i always feel so happy katy.." katy looks taken a back and blushes as lammy continues "i just… y-you're so amazing and im just.. I-im just me".
"Oh lammy.. Don't say that" katy cups lammys cheek "you're fine as is why do you think i always hang out with you? Lammy you're like- the most groovy person i know" lammys heart beat faster and faster "katy- i-.. I think.. I-im in love with you!". Katys eyes widened and she blushed, they both sat there silently for a few momnets. But to lammy those few moments felt like forever 'oh god… I-i really messed up this t-time..' she thought, dreading katys (most likely) spiteful response.
"Lammy i would very much like to kiss you right now." katy said bluntly as she stared deep into lammys eyes.
Lammy feels like her whole body has just stopped. Her mind can’t even process what just happened. Her gaze is locked with Katy’s, but she just can’t bring herself to say any words. She’s just getting closer. Closer, and closer.. and then, it happens. She’s kissing Katy, she’s really doing it, and it feels like she’s growing wings. In a moment it was gone, but it was a moment that felt like it lasted forever. She is lost in Katy’s eyes and a labyrinth of her own emotions.
“I love you, Lammy.” Katy says happily.
“I love you even more,” Lammy responds, and lays her head in Katy’s lap. This is pure happiness. Katy lays back down and the two fall asleep together under the starry sky.
The sun dawns over the campsite, and everything is dimly lit.
“G’morning,” Says Parappa wearily.
“Mornin’.” PJ responds. He gets up out of bed to see what’s for breakfast, while Parappa attempts to wake up and recollect the strange events that occurred the previous night. He leaves the tent, and is greeted by the warm daylight touching his face. Nice, bright daylight, that prevents any banshees from creeping up behind you. Parappa is snapped out of his daze by a shout from PJ.
“What’s happened?” Parappa asks, hurrying over.
“I almost tripped over them,” PJ whispers and points down at none other than Lammy and Katy, who are still fast asleep.
“Now, why are they outside?” Parappa asks to himself.
“Well, anywho, it proves there’s no banshee.” Says PJ. Parappa gasps upon realizing that PJ is exactly right, and now feels a lot better.
Both sunny and Ma san creept out of their tent with bags under their eyes, both looking extremely grumpy. They sat down at their picnic table without as much as a hello nor good morning to anyone. Next to awake was katy "huh- whats.. Going on?".
"Morning!" parappa said sitting down opposite to sunny and Ma san. "What were you guys doing last night?" parappa continued, yawning.
"The tent was hot so me and lammy decided to sleep outside" katy replied, begining to wake lammy up. Soon the whole gang was wide awake and eating a classic breakfast, chattering here and there about the night before.
"You two-" PJ started, pointing at lammy and katy "Missed out on the most hilarious thing ever" he bit down on his bacon.
Ma san's wick started to ignite, "i swear to god PJ if this is about me and sunny i will kill you." ma san said grimly and held up her butter knife. Katy looked over at ma san and sunny curiously.
"I need to know what happened now i cannot go on without knowing!".
PJ laughed and continued on, ignoring Ma sans threat.
"Get this, me and parappa thought we heard a banshee so we went over to their tent because the screaming was coming from there-" Sunny rubbed her temple, there was nothing she could do except sit there now. "-and we opened the tent (PJ began to laugh) A-AND- MA SAN WAS PINNING SUNNY TO THE GROUND" he practically rolled over laughing, with katy and parappa soon joining in. Lammy sat there with a look of bewilderment, staring at the two who were visually embarrassed.
"Nothing happened! At all! She came at me and viciously attacked me! I have no clue how katy and lammy even manage with her." Sunny stomped her foot on the ground and huffed. The three fought while katy parappa and lammy helped tidy up, shaking their heads and making jokes. By far this trip was one of the best and would be remembered for a long time. Not too long after they all hopped into parappas car, ready to go home and relax.