time's wasting, girl { c l o s e d }

He thought he was going to be good at this but Benny wasn't as naturally athletic as Tomie or JR probably were. He had good enough balance, and he was reasonably strong for his age and build, but it wasn't like he had any proper training in stick-sword fighting. He wasn't a Knight or anything, and that was quickly apparent when JR managed to stick him in the side with his pretend sword. He arched sideways, freehand (which he had behind his back because that was how you did this right?) rushed to his side to hold where the stick at whacked him. "Nice hit!" He called out, noticing Tomie fall back to talk to Shelby.

"But can you defend against..." he jumped up on a rock across from where JR was, so they were both standing dangerously on the high ground. He nearly lost his balance before he took a big swing at the other boy. "This!" He swung from the elbow, trying to trick JR but he wasn't exactly sneaky about it either. He howled with laughter as the girls caught up to them and he nearly fell off the rock.

It was hard to stay stressed with Benny and JR providing free entertainment ahead of them. Shelby laughed, mostly to herself, a small laugh. They looked kind of ridiculous, stabbing each other with tree branches. "It's 'en grade, Benny!" She yelled ahead. "Not 'in guard'!" Not that Benny would care about the pronunciation right this minute.

Tomie fell back in step with her. Which seemed, she didn't know, weird? Hadn't JR asked her to the dance? Also, why was that coming to her head? JR liked Tomie, so what? That shouldn't be coming to her head, she and Tomie were friends and Shelby wanted good things for her friends. She shook her head, hardly noticing Tomie's actual question. "Oh!" She laughed, watching Tomie flex her small but growing biceps for maybe a second longer than she thought was appropriate. "Sure, here." Shelby unclipped the whistle from the strap before trading packs. Just in case.

"Benny!" He teetered on the rock, and Shelby dashed forward. "Be careful!"

Tomie was pleased when Shelby let her swap bags. She'd thought that the other girl might put up more of a fight, but Shelbs didn’t have that prideful streak that, say, JR did. Or well, the streak she, herself, had. Would she let someone else take her bag for her? Probably not. Not some other girl who was stronger than her. Definitely not some boy who thought he knew better. Still, she was more than happy to take Shelby’s. It was considerably heavier than hers, and she liked that.

Tomie grinned at Benny's performance. He always made her laugh, at least. She watched as Shelby darted forward, worried about their other friend. She laughed, feeling much better than she had been ten minutes ago. "I wouldn't want to be lost in the woods with anyone else," Tomie declared, marching onward, resuming her position towards the front of the group.

She did the walking-backwards thing again, so she could see everyone at once. Wendy briefly crossed her mind, but they didn't need someone who loved romance novels on an adventure like this one. She grinned at her friends, the first little group she'd been a part of after hoping on that train at the start of the year. "You guys are the best." She tucked her thumbs under her new backpack straps, then adjusted them absentmindedly because they were a little long for her. Tomie grinned at the group, feeling a little emotional.

JR grinned widely as his hit landed, but he was bouncing away in the next moment so that Benny wouldn't get a chance to retaliate. It wasn't quick enough though considering Benny hopped up on the next rock and took a swing at him, JR having to duck to not get hit as he took a wider stance to balance himself. At least while they were playfighting he wasn't thinking about how he and Tomie weren't going to the dance together. Oh shoot, now he was thinking about it..

He glanced back at the girls, hearing Shelby's correction and faced Benny saying "En grade, Rivera!" before darting at him again. He heard the patter of feet coming closer and glanced to the side, making sure it wasn't Tomie coming in for a sneak attack. He relaxed a bit when he saw Shelby, thinking that she was much less likely to join in the sword fight than Tomie. "We're not lost, I told you I know where we are," JR replied confidently. Tomie's declaration distracted him though that he forgot to defend or dodge Benny's latest attack and his friend's stick whacked him in the side.

JR grabbed at his side and threw a grin at Benny, already wanting retaliation. "I'm going to get you back for that one," he told Benny as he jumped off the rock and started following Tomie as she took the lead again, running down the path, glancing behind him, looking out for Benny's next attack.

Shelby smiled when Tomie said "You guys are the best," happy to be included as a 'guy' in this context. She didn't really know what to say to that, and JR yelped as Benny hit him and the moment was over. "Guys," she pleaded, anxious about their safety out here, but it seemed she was the only one. Well, as long as Tomie didn't get hurt or fall down a cliff, they would be fine. Maybe she should ask for the pack back. But Tomie had seemed so happy - no, proud - to be carrying the heavy pack. And Shelby didn't want to cramp her style, or whatever the Americans said to mean 'make her upset'.

The sun was still pretty high in the sky, but it was afternoon. They should be back by dinner, at the latest, but they had just started hiking so it was probably fine. She followed JR, who - wait, JR was following Tomie now, and didn't the path branch right here? She really should have brought a map. Why would they leave camp without a map! Shelby glanced over her shoulder at the fork in the path as they passed it, furrowing her brows. But she didn't want to interrupt. She grabbed another flower, it was gorgeous, realized that her book was in the pack on Tomie's shoulder. "Hey," she called, catching up to Tomie in the front, "Can I just grab something from the pack real quick?" Shelby held out the flower, as a demonstration of what she wanted to do, realized that was weird for some unknown reason, and pulled her hand back. "For my pressing book."

Benny gave Shelby a wide smile, even though he'd quite nearly fallen to his death, and then continued the battle with JR until they were both jumping down from the rocks. It was a quick jaunt, it was normal for the two of them really, and soon enough they were back to following behind Tomie, which was just as normal. He nodded, hands holding onto the straps of his backpack after he'd thrown the fighting stick as far as he could into the woods, just to see how far he could throw it. Benny was glad they'd made such good friends this year. The cabin squad, they had known each other even before they were sorted and that made it even better. The houses were great, but Benny would have rather not have had to deal with yet another label that defined him. He was so much more than the color of his tie.

"You do?" He asked JR with an unbelieving voice and a raising eyebrow. "You sure?" Benny asked again as his doubtful look became more of a smirk, sort of a dare because he wasn't worried about being lost yet, not really. He watched Shelby held a flower she wanted to collect out to Tomie and he shrugged. He didn't understand collecting flowers, famous witch and wizards cards he understood, flowers not so much. As they moved further and further into the forest the little artist got an idea in his head. He watched each tree they passed until he found the perfect one.

"Hey guys wait," he began, moving to a thick pine tree with softer bark than the others. He dropped his bag to the ground and opened the zipper pockets before realizing he hadn't packed everything he'd meant to. "JR do you have a pocketknife?" The twelve-year-old asked, wishing he hadn't forgotten the one he'd gotten during the scouting activity they'd done a few mornings ago. "We should write our names?" He both said and asked as he looked between them all with a smile.

"Very sure," he promised with a smirk but then just shrugged. The best kind of revenge was the one when no one expected it. JR could be patient enough, at times, to lull Benny into a false sense of security before he pounced and then it would be all the more amusing.

He was currently glancing down the path, wondering, hoping that this was the right path that he had thought he had seen on the map. Now that he thought of it.. was this the right path..? He slid his gaze to his yearmates, looking over each of their faces, before glancing back at the path again. Shoot, this had to be right. Wouldn't all paths lead back to the camp? They wouldn't make paths that would lead them astray into the middle of the forest, right? He put his faith into that last thought and decided to stick it out a little longer.

The call of Benny's voice made him turn back and glance at him, turning back on his heel and headed back to Benny's side. "What for?" he asked as he swung his backpack around to the front and searched the smaller pockets in the front before retrieving the item that Benny had asked for. It even had a Griffins logo on it, like almost everything else he owned.

"Mine will be easy," he announced with a smirk as he flicked the knife open with ease. He hoped it had looked cool since he had practice it in his cabin for hours that first night after he hadn't been able to sleep. He took a step toward the tree before he had a thought. He glanced at Tomie and held out the pocketknife to her. "Do you want to go first?"

Tomie raised her eyebrows, turning as Shelby called out to her. “Hmm?” she asked, glancing down at Shelby’s flower and then back up with a puzzled expression. Tomie half-raised a hand to take it from her friend, moving on autopilot before she realised what Shelby was saying. “Oh,” she said, turning around quickly so that her friend could access the stuff from her backpack. “Cool,” she said, sort of responding to the flower-pressing thing, even though it didn’t seem like that interesting a hobby to have.

Once Shelby was done, Tomie started walking again, only half-paying attention to what was happening around her. She stopped when Benny told everyone to wait, glancing over her shoulder before actually turning around.

“Oooh, brilliant,” Tomie exclaimed, grinning at Benny’s idea. She took her cap off and fanned herself a bit, running her fingers through her hair with her other hand before putting it back on her head. She glanced at JR as he took a step towards the tree they’d gathered around, then hesitated, then turned to her. She gave him a bit of a smile, surprised that he’d offer such an honour to her, when he was often so competitive to be at the front himself. She held her hand out to take the knife from him. “Thanks JR,” she said, meaning it.

Tomie stepped forward, feeling eyes on her. She wasn’t particularly artistic, but it shouldn’t be so hard, right? the brunette brushed the surface of the wood with her other hand, then started cutting. She got exactly three letters in (all capitals, relatively even) before she decided there were too many more lines to add, and then put a V there instead of spelling out her name. TOM V, it read. She stepped back with a nod, looking at her work. The O was a little wonky – curves were hard! – but the rest looked fine, so she nodded once and handed the knife back to JR.

Tomie nearly took the flower from her hand. Something deep in Shelby's brain wanted to scream, but instead, she just got red in the cheeks and dug quickly though the pack for her pressing book. She didn't even spread out the petals before slamming the book shut again and stuffing it back in the backpack. "Thanks, sorry," she mumbled, to let Tomie know it was ok to walk on again and also to apologize for inconveniencing her.

Benny and JR eventually got tired of play-fighting with each other, turning their attention to a tree that hadn't done them any wrong. But the three of them seemed so intent to do so. Shelby, assuming that she would be going last if at all, stepped to one side to watch Tomie demonstrate the technique. TOM V, her friend carved, with a firm grip on the knife and a sort of steely concentration. It would be neat, Shelby thought, if she could put her name right under there. TOM V and SHELBY T. Or maybe just SHELB. That didn't look like anything, but it would be cool.

The knife went back to JR. Shelby stepped next to the fresh carving for a second, blowing out the splinters and wood dust from Tomie's work. "Can I go next?" she asked, with newfound confidence. She held her hand out for the knife, surprised by the weight of it when JR dropped it in her palm. Still, she gripped it in her fist, carving in lowercase underneath Tomie's name. Shelby, she managed, no last initial. She nearly scratched in Shleb but saved the e at the last second. It was satisfying to see her work like that. Shelby passed the knife back to JR. "Sorry to cut, JR," she said sheepishly, but she wasn't.

Benny watched as Tomie started carving her name and smiled a little when she stopped at TOM and then added the V. JR was right he was going to be the easiest, he only had two letters where the rest of them had at least five, Benny silently counted how many he would be as Shelby cut in line and went for the knife next. He shrugged, not minding in the least, but it had surprised him. Shelby wasn't as assertive as Tomie but the Gryffindor wizard was quickly learning not to judge a book by their cover.

After she'd finished she moved to pass the pocket knife back to JR but Benny intercepted with a laugh. Pushing JR back a little, the roughhousing was never truly over and then remembering there was a knife involved and calming down. Slowly and carefully he took the bladed object from Shelby and moved to the tree. His letters were hard-fought, very angled, and some of his etchings didn't quite line up. The B from his name looked more like a straight light, space, and a jagged three than it did a letter but he kept going. His cheeks were puffed out and a bit red by the time he finished and turned to hand the knife to JR.

"You turn," he grinned, feeling triumphant.

Tomie watched as the others scratched their names into the tree one at a time, liking that her name went first and liking that all of their names were together. “Such a good idea,” she commented, satisfied as JR finally stepped back, revealing the finished product. She almost wanted someone to cut a big heart around it or, well, maybe something less stupid that conveyed the same sentiment.

She held her hand out for the knife, taking it and weighing it in her hand. “Which way?” she asked, letting whoever had the answer lead the way. With a little concentration, and the tip of her tongue poking out the corner of her mouth, Tomie twirled the knife with her fingers, flipping it up and down as she spun it. “Cool, right?” she said as she started walking. She’d shown the trick off to the Gryffindor prefect way back on Halloween last year, but after she’d dropped the knife she hadn’t been allowed to carve pumpkins anymore.

Tomie stumbled a little on a thick root as she walked, but she managed to catch the pocket knife by its handle instead of dropping it or like, stabbing herself. She gave Shelby a sheepish kind of grin, knowing that the Ravenclaw had been watching. “What?” she asked, knowing perfectly well, what. "Ooh, can I grab something out of my bag?" she asked, flipping the blade of the knife back into its place so Shelby wouldn't be scared of getting stabbed or whatever.

She waited for Shelby to turn around for her, then dug through and pulled out a packet of crisps. "Want one?" she asked, "Sea salt and vinegar... Cheese and onion...?"

Benny's eyes widened as Tomie flipped the knife around in her hand, like some action hero in the comic books they had read, and then he squeaked a little when she tripped. "So cool," he told her, a slight shake of his head, but really he was smiling. Tomie was just about the coolest, but Shelby and Jr, (and Wendy, and Fin, and Trudy, and all of their year) were pretty close seconds. Benny stopped shaking his head to take a look around where they were. Pausing in his steps, he put his hands on his waist and nodded.

Just as he was about to declare something, Tomie was offering snacks, and so naturally, he waited to speak his piece. "Can I have one?" He asked, hoping she hadn't only brought the two bags. If he knew Tomie as well as he thought he did, the wizard could assume she had plenty of snacks. Tomie never seemed to go anywhere without treats, which was good, because he'd been on the wrong end of her mood when she got hungry.

"I think we go this way, I remember seeing that tree before," he pointed at an old tree split in half by magic or lightning. Half of its trunk and some branches were rotting on the forest floor.