A full white moon hung low in the still dark blue night sky yet to be joined by an entourage of stars. If it hadn't been so damned cold it might have been beautiful. Instead it was just a reminder for Jessica that she was out on this stupid camping trip with her stupid friend Sakura. It was of course Sakura's fault that Jessica had chosen to wear a cute pair of boy shorts instead of long legged thermals. Normally in California she didn't really have to sacrifice cute for comfort. It was also Sakura's fault that the fire wasn't going very well. At least those were better answers than accepting any personal responsibility for her own discomfort.
There was one thing that was genuinely Sakura's fault and that was the lack of fire. She'd headed off into the woods almost a half hour ago to hunt for wood for the fire and should have been back instantly. It was true the girls hadn't thought to bring an axe but wasn't the forest made of wood and therefore burnable? Jessica didn't understand why she was freezing her tooshie off and why Sakura was no where to be seen when it was obvious that their came was literally surrounded with stuff they could burn. "Hurry up!" Jessica called into the night.
The response she got wasn't human. It was the nervous yipping of a coyote. At least she was fairly certain that was the sound a coyote made. As a city dweller the majority of her contact with coyotes had also involved a roadrunner. Jessica reached for a hefty rock for comfort as she waited for a responding call. After a few minutes the only thing that responded to the yipping canine were crickets.
Unlike in her home in the suburbs where the crickets were nothing but an annoyance there was something about the outdoors that made their song almost beautiful. Jessica couldn't keep herself from smiling. Even with the increasing chances that she was going to freeze to death she smiled at nature's beauty.
Sakura had been right that it was hard to experience the beauty of nature from the city. Jessica just wasn't in love with the sounds of the forest even in the night when the occasional owl caused a long silence in what could otherwise be counted as a symphony of nature.
"Hey you! Hanging in there?" Sakura shouted as she entered the clearing. Even dressed in several layers of heat trapping clothing and a wool coat there was nothing Sakura could do to hide her curse of curves.
"I'm fucking freezing you cunt! Hurry up!" Jessica snapped ducking into her sleeping bag. Even in the bag she was a long way from comfortably warm. She wasn't going to say anything about it, not after her brother had offered his mummy bag that was rated down to negative fifteen instead of her cuter sleeping bag that had never been any place colder than her living room.