Comfy Camp [Ellie]

"There we go, that should be the last of it!" Angelica exclaimed after putting the last item she's been carrying on her back before glancing at the girl standing next to her. "Now what should we do first Ellie ? Setup the tent ?" Before her and the blonde was all the camping gears and items the red hair had bought; well maybe Angelica had gone a bit overboard with her preparation. Besides the basic tent, a small pack of branches and wood bought at the cabin for the campfire, an LED lanterns or two and some cup noodles with a pitch of boiling water; she always brought with them a small gas stove with a small pot alongside, another water pitch as well as enough prepared fish/shrimp/beef balls and veggies for a small hot pot. And don't forget her usual thermos flask full of hot milk as well. Let's just go back a bit to see how Angelica came to be at one of the usual campsites around the Academy all dressed in warm clothing and just a bit too much preparation.

It all started when Angelica's caretaker poked at her through messages for her to watch some random anime the other one came across; it happened quite often so the red hair just went along with it given she did have free time to burn anyway. And unlike the last anime that made her want to learn how to ride a tank, this one just brought only one thought to Angelica's mind and it was "I need to go camping and experience how it'd feel like for real!" The first roadblock was her own knowledge on camping, zero! Well apart from what she's seen in the anime, Angelica had no idea how actual camping gonna be like; she only had experience with packing and moving from place to place before. The second roadblock would be the gears and equipment which was easily solved and just in time for the red hair to come up with a solution for the other road block. If she didn't know anything about camping then she could always asked for help from someone who knew, get them to teach her or maybe go camping together so she can learn it directly. Thus after classes one day, Angelica added her small flyer on the notice board filled with all kind of club recruitment as well as other thing. It was simple, anyone willing to help her getting to know camping gonna have tickets for either a fully-paid trip to the hotspring or high quality 'all you can eat' buffet as payment. Of course there was students interested in such offer no ?

After meeting the laid back and confident blonde who pretty much barging in the music room looking for her, Angelica had a feeling Eleanor or Ellie gonna be the one who would show her the proper in and out of camping besides being good friend as she hoped. You could say the red hair might be ahead of herself but Ellie was so convincing when they first met and if she wasn't familiar with camping then why the blonde bothered to answered Angelica's flyer in the first place anyway. One thing led to another and here they were at one of the campsite that allow campfire; Angelica even chose the day, according to weather forecast, weren't going to rain at all, the only warning sign was it was gonna be windy but it shouldn't affect her and Ellie too much.

"Well, I didn't expect the camp site gonna be in the woods like this given campfire is allowed but I'm sure things will be fine." The red hair said, her excitement clearly shown. "Just tell me what to do Ellie!"

Ellie-Rose

Ellie glances around the campsite, taking it all in. They're standing in a small clearing that's just off the hiking trail they'd just come from. It forms a half circle between the trees. Roughly at what would have been the center of the circle, it's cut off by a small creek that bubbles merrily through the clearing. Luckily, there are several cabins located around Fukui Academy. They're apparently used for various events that the school likes to host, along with any other activity the school deems acceptable. The campsite that they've chosen is fairly close to one of these cabins. Ellie's still not quite sure why they're not using the cabin, but they'd stopped by it to pick up a few of the more essential camping items stored there. Such as a tent, some fishing poles, rope and the like.

Scattered around the clearing are the various objects and items that they'd hauled with them. Ellie moves over to an old, and currently unused, fire pit. Sitting around the pit are a few horizontal logs, clearly placed there for people to sit on. Giving a soft sigh of relief, she slides the overstuffed backpack she's wearing onto the ground next to one of the logs. She's not unused to physical tasks, but her endurance has always been fairly low. So, she's breathing a little more heavily than she'd like, a light sheen of sweat covering her skin. She can also feel her heart beating more rapidly than usual, but as far as she can tell, it's not acting up. Boy is she glad that they've finally made it!

Angelica then turns to her, bright eyes gleaming in anticipation, and asks her where to begin.

Now, Ellie's been on plenty of camping trips with her family. But they were usually on family land, which is vastly different from the heavily wooded area they've found themselves in. Also, it was always more than just two people going camping, so many of the duties were split between everyone. But she figures that it should be mostly the same steps that are needed to set up a camp site, so she nods over at the tent.

"Well, first step is that we should figure out where we want the tent," she says, in her heavily accented Japanese. Her time being in Japan has really helped with her speaking the language more smoothly, but she hasn't quite been able to shake her accent. At least she has almost no trouble understanding it now!

"And then, we set it up. We can figure out what we want to do next once we've got our shelter in order."

Glancing around the campsite again, she says, "Look for a clear patch of ground that's got a bit of cover nearby. Like a nearby bush, or tree, or rock. That way, if it gets windy, our tent won't blow away." Pausing, she wipes the sweat from her brow. She's glad she put her hair in a pony tail! It'd be all over the place by now if she'd just left it loose. "Ah, but make sure the ground's soft enough for us to drive stakes in," she tacks on belatedly as she starts to walk slowly around the clearing.

"A stable patch of ground that has a bit of cover, got it!" Angelica calls out while walkings around the clearing, looking at her surrounding. Despite they are at the assigned camp site, finding such place is hard with all the grass, small rocks and bushes here and there, totally not what the red hair had in her mind when she first thought about camping. But it's too late to give up now and not like the red hair gonna just give up easily as she makes her way towards the creek tand there it is! A small clearing with little rocks and grass between a tall tree and the creek presents itself before Angelica's eyes and just knows that's where they're looking for.

"Over here Ellie!"

Stomping on the ground a bit to check, Angelica wastes no time making her way back to where they first left all the gears while waving the blonde over with a bright smile on her face, finally some progress. "There's this small clearing almost next to creek that seems perfect to setup tent, let's get all our stuffs there, I'm sure you'll like it." Already changed her boots before, the red hair starts hauling the tent and other things she brought to the clearing; one glance at Ellie's bag and she could see how much stuffs the other brings too but Angelica wan't made to carry everything. She has stamina to spare for sure but it's not unlimited.

"Let me just get rid of these grass..." Doing as what she's saying, Angelica turns to her partner in crime on this adventure still brimming with energy; thanks god the tent parts aren't too heavy or the only way for her to move them is dragging them on the ground. "...and there you go! This makes it easier for us to fish too if you want." With the large tree nearby, she could see it works as a sturdy place for them to set their camp and could give some protection from heavy winds if there's any. But in the end, Ellie is the one who making the last decision here cause no matter what she feels, Angelica knows someone who is used to camping would know best.

Ellie-Rose

At Angelica's call, Ellie, who's at the other end of the larger clearing, turns around and walks over to where the other girl is. Looking it over, she squats down and feels the ground area. It's firm, but not too hard, and doesn't seem to have a lot of rocks in it. The fact that it's got a few large stones, and the tree, to help fight high winds and other weather events is a bonus! And it's not too far, or too close, to the old fire pit. In fact, it seems to be almost equal distance from the fir pit and the small creek.

"Wow, good find, Angelica! This is perfect!" Ellie says, smiling up at the redhead. Then the other girl declares that she's going to remove the grass. Opening her mouth to say that it isn't necessary, she snaps it closed and shrugs. They could have just stomped it down with their boots, but it wouldn't really hurt anything. And it'd make it easier to see any rocks that they'd need to clear out before setting up the tent. So, while Angelica removes the grass, Ellie attends to that task, removing any stones and pebbles that would be felt through their tent floor. She finishes up just a bit after the other girl does.

Nodding when Angelica goes to grab the tent pieces, she moves to help the other girl. She hurries over and grabs the end dragging on the ground. It won't do if they damage the tent before they even erect it! With the two of them, it doesn't take long for all of the pieces to be brought over to their chosen location. Crouching down, Ellie brushes her hands against her jeans and then glances up at the energetic Angelica.

"Okay, now that we've got everything here, we gotta set up the tent."
Looking at the tent equipment, she reaches forward and pulls the largest bag towards herself. Unzipping it, she roots around in it, until she pulls out a small plastic pamphlet of tent building instructions.

"Oh good! I'm glad we've got these," Ellie says in relief. Smiling up at Angelica, she continues. "Every tent is different, and I'm not familiar with this kind. So it's good that we've got this tent's specific instructions." Peering down at the pages in her hand, she looks over the steps. Feeling a bit better in her understanding of how to build this particular tent, she sets the instructions on one of the nearby stones. She places a small rock on top of it, just in case the wind tries to take it away.

Nodding over at the bag holding the tent supplies, she adds, "Okay, so we need to lay down a tarp that we'll put the tent on. It should be in one of the smaller bags, I think. Can you find it and lay it down in the area we cleared? I'm gonna pull out the supplies in this bag and make sure we've got everything we need."

Setting up the tent hm ? There shouldn't be much trouble doing that given how easy it looked on the TV right ? Angelica thinks to herself while glancing at the instruction in the manual, full of small pictures and writings that she can't make out. "I'm sure we can get it done in no time Ellie. Now to get the tarp..." Trusting the blonde with the build, Angelica walks over the small bags and starts looking for the blue tarp in one of them while humming Sweet Home Alabama happily; despite the rather strange trend about the song recently it's still one of her most favourite. "Now where-there you are!" Finding what she wants, the red hair wastes no time pulling out the neatly folded tarp then brings it over where Ellie is.

"We don't forget anything do we ?" Angelica asks out loud while laying out the tarp and looking for rocks to hold the corner as the wind starts to pick up suddenly. She sure feels much better with the cool wind but it also makes building the tent harder than before. "Careful for that manual by the way, imagine losing it and we have to figure out how to build by our own." And as soon as Angelica finishes her words, a strong gush of wind passes by, nearly flips the tarp over even with stones on it if not for the red hair quickly lies down, holding it in place with her body. She can only hope Ellie did hear her warning as the wind settles down to just comfortable breeze.

After making sure the tarp is in place and gonna hold there, Angelica walks back over to the blonde, ready to take other equips over and helps building their shelter for today. Maybe she shouldn't have packed too many things but that's not the important thing now anyway. "I assume you know the basic of how to build our tent now ? I should have gone for two small tent but seeing the big one I couldn't help it you know." A small giggle comes from the red hair while she's looking over Ellie's shoulder to see what the blonde has been up to just now, hopefully the instruction isn't that hard for either of them to understand.

Ellie-Rose

Ellie continues to search through the bag, pulling out disconnected tent poles. She listens idly at the other girl's humming, the tune familiar to her, but one she's not quite able to place. Nodding her head in time to the tune, she finally empties the bag of all of the poles. Frowning, she begins to place them into separate piles, choosing to do so by size.

Angelica has found the tent floor tarp and starts laying it out on the cleared area. At her question, Ellie glances over at her. "I don't think so," she replies, even as she pauses to recall if they had forgotten anything or not. But nothing comes readily to mind. Shrugging, she returns to her task. Just as she's completing it, though, the wind kicks up in a powerful gust. Dirt and leaves blowing into her face, Ellie raises her hands to try and block the brunt of it from reaching her eyes.

Standing up to put distance between her head and the ground, the blonde runs her fingers though her hair in search of the twigs and leaves she's sure has gotten caught in it. Shaking her head, she cracks her eyes open and turns her attention towards Angelica.

"Wow! That was a big one!" she exclaims. But then she sees the other girl, sprawled all over the tarp in an attempt to prevent it from getting away. And it just looks sooo goofy! Breaking out into loud laughter, she takes a few steps towards Angelica, smile wide and pale greens sparkling in amusement.

"You know, that was some quick thinking! You saved us from sleeping on the ground," she says, still chucking a bit.

But even as she says this, a realization hits Ellie. Whirling around, she hastens over to the rock that she'd left the tent instructions on. To her horror, they're gone! She begins to rummage around the area, searching frantically for the laminated pamphlet. She's kneeling on the ground, peering into the crack between two of the larger rocks, when a shadow falls over her. Peering back and up, the blonde finds herself looking up at Angelica.

Giving a nervous smile, Ellie replies, "Well, I looked over most of the instructions. And I've set up tents in the past before. But uh..." Glancing down at the rocks she'd been searching, she sighs.

"Well, it seems that gust of wind earlier took the instructions right away from us. And I didn't see where they went." Pale greens looking into those excited reds, her smile turns apologetic.

"Seems the rock I put on the instructions wasn't big enough to keep the wind from taking them. Sorry..."