My Life as a Background Character

Part 6

Hello, hello, my fellow nobodies. I hope everyone has had a good week. I couldn't help but notice that this blog has a handful of reads, yet no one new showed up to the support group on Wednesday. For that, I am quite disappointed. Come on, guys. Let's unite! I promise it's definitely not a cult. Which, you probably weren't even thinking until I just mentioned it, but I figured I would make that point abundantly clear. Just to be safe. If we get enough people, maybe we can start bringing snacks. Real snacks. Not just the two pieces of eye candy already in the group. Speaking of. It basically took all week to get Patrick on board with our plan.

"Don't you want adventure?" I had asked him. "Don't you want to potentially become a main?"

"Not really." Was his response.

Apparently, he considered the whole idea to be reckless, stupid, dangerous, and downright pointless. He was of the opinion that mains are born, not made. Which is fair. None of us really knew that answer. But with just the right amount of peer pressure from me and his best friend throughout the week, he did finally and fully cave. Most likely, out of boredom or curiosity.

Dustin, on the other hand, was more than thrilled. He spent the week going on and on about all the things he had already packed in his "survival bag" like he was ready for the apocalypse rather than a simple weekend.

The hardest thing that I had to do was convince my mother that it was definitely chill and not at all creepy or unsafe for me to go into the woods alone with a couple of boys I had only recently become acquainted with. She didn't find the idea very "cash money," if you will. She was even harder to convince than Patrick was. I told her it was a simple camping trip. I didn't dare mention our actual treasure hunting plans. Otherwise, she would have found the plan to be even more ridiculous.

Turns out, she was less worried about me being alone with boys and more worried about my ability to survive without internet for the weekend. Which, I can admit, hurt a little bit. Never fear, I will still be updating on my phone for the blog. I will just post it when we get back. She was also worried I would get lost. The nights were also getting cooler. I would have to make sure I packed plenty to keep warm. On top of that, I didn't know how to set up a tent. Luckily for me, Dustin claimed to be an expert. Apparently, he spent a lot of time in the wilderness. He even said he could navigate with a map and compass. I didn't want to flat out admit it to my mother, but I certainly didn't know how to do that. I can't be held responsible, though. I had zero practice. I was never taught. Thanks, parents. Don't worry. They don't read my blog. I can say anything about them.

The icing on the cake was that the forest was haunted. You can't just have a treasure hunt without some kind of curse or monster to surpass. I kind of hate it here. But at the same time, you can't become a main without beating the odds or overcoming some sort of obstacle. Or learning a lesson. You know, something like the real treasure is the friends we made along the way. Something cheesy like that. Maybe we would come out of this stronger. Or maybe the haunting was real, and we would come out of it in a body bag - if our bodies were found at all. We were going into this with no plot armor to keep us safe.

"Are you guys ready for this?" We stood outside of the forest, just by the car, still in the parking lot. You know, now that I saw the forest for the first time in person, I could understand why people called it haunted. It was just before noon after a few hours of driving. Yet, just beyond the treeline, the forest looked so dark and foreboding. Perfect for some sort of horror film.

"No." Patrick answered, "This is really a bad idea. We aren't going to find anything out there."

"We might." Dustin was optimistic.

"Yeah. A cold. Or wolves." Patrick sighed. I mean, he wasn't too far off. The wilderness was littered with animals. Wolves, bears, elk, deer, etc. It was entirely possible. But I wasn't going to openly agree with him. He was our ride, so I didn't need him deciding to turn back now.

I waved off his concern. "Even if we don't find the treasure, we can still gain some experience about adventuring. I mean, look at us, guys. We've put ourselves in a ripe storyline here. We are bound to leave here with at least a story to tell."

"A story I can tell Nicole." Dustin said while staring off into the trees. "We should get going." He was enthusiastic to get this show on the road. At least that made one person I could share my excitement with. Even if we had our different reasons.

We began our trek through the woods. I discovered within thirty minutes or so that I was extremely out of shape. I was already worn out, and Dustin said we still had a ways to go. We would be about an hour away from the car. I only thought of the hour we would have to walk to get out of here. I didn't want to look weak in front of either of them. I was no Nicole, but I could still pull myself together. Although, it didn't help that I had such a heavy pack and my equipment to carry as well.

I was audibly panting, and my legs were about to give out, but the time we finally made it to our camp. Dustin somehow seemed more energized than before. The boys started seeing up their tents. I fumbled blindly with mine, trying to look useful. Until Dustin laughed, and he and Patrick put mine up, too. Afterward, I was starving.

We had lunch and came together to look over the map. According to the results we had found online, we were relatively near where the treasure was said to be lost. We needed to locate a creek and follow it up to a waterfall. Super easy. Or at least it would have been. It was already getting dark. Considering the woods had started off dark, we would need flashlights if we trekked any further.

"We should wait until first light." Dustin instructed for safety reasons. He had really taken the lead here. Look at him and his main character moment. Good for him. I could let him have this moment. He was the only one who really knew what he was doing, so our survival may have depended on him.

"That's a whole day down the drain." Patrick reminded us. "Which leaves us with only tomorrow really to do any real hunting."

We really should have made this a week-long trip. Baby steps, though. Mini adventures first.

"Perfect." I gave them both a smile to brighten the mood. "Let's spend tonight relaxing and just enjoying being out in nature." Surely, there was no way any of this could go south.