Her head laid against the cool glass of the bus’s window. She had opted to sit by herself, not feeling like a people person that day; then again, she never was. She was really regretting not remembering where she had left her headphones. All that entered her ears was the incessant chattering of her classmates, their voices sounding especially annoying that day.

The sun shined down on her face, the trees causing shadows to dance on her skin as the sun’s rays permeated through the foliage. The trees passed by in blurs of green and brown. The trees were so tall, that no matter the distance apart they were, she still couldn’t see their tops.

Regardless that her brain was slowly turning to mush due to boredom, she felt secure. There was always something safe and nice about the window seats. When seated next to the aisles there was always that tiny inkling that one wrong turn would send you flying off the seat, but that never happened with the inner sections.

The bus had been on the road for close to an hour and a half, and civilization was quickly disappearing. No longer were there large cities with many inhabitants, but only small towns with family owned markets and businesses. The air was thick with the scent of pine trees and fresh air, passing cars also started to become rare. There were a lot more dirt roads and a lack of people.

She dragged her phone out from her pocket and checked to see if she had any signals, to her dismay there were none, and neither was there an internet connection. She was feeling immensely home sick. She buried her phone back into her shorts and sighed. She missed her wifi.

When the bus drove by a foresty creek, where the trees completely blocked all the light and created eternal darkness, she lost it. The scenery was like something out of Twilight. Lord have mercy on her, she was in Twilight country. She scratched at the windows, quietly pleading with the driver to return her home.

Softly she began to bang her head against the hard glass in desperation. She needed technology, not whatever mother nature had to offer. A silent whimper escaped her lips as miles upon miles of trees were seen ahead.

Why on Earth did she agree to go on the trip again? Oh right, because it was a fun bonding experience with her fellow classmates that would build long lasting relationships even after graduation and memories to look back on. What a bunch of bull crap her teacher had told them. She doubted her teacher even believed the lies he was spilling out, as well.

She would have never agreed on coming, but it didn’t help that the school trips were always a bit mandatory. If anyone didn’t go, they would be left out of all the conversations in the school for the next month since they didn’t have anything to contribute about the trip. If she didn’t want to be confused around everyone, she had to go.

Each grade had a separate destination and vacation plan. It was too bad that her group was stuck with camping. The outdoors, you had to be kidding her. There was no way that you could leave a class full of teens in the wilderness. One out of five of her idiotic classmates will have been sprayed by a skunk cause they wanted to play with it. One of two would have the worst sun burn the world had ever seen. One of seven would try to go skinny dipping in the lake. 99% of them will be covered in mosquito bites.

Last, but not least, all of the kids, even her, would be paranoid about a masked serial killer coming to pick them off one by one, like in Friday the 13th.

She was close to pulling at her hair, she was seriously losing her mind with all the free time to she had to think. Leaning away from her spot on the window, she looked over at her other students. Studying them might distract from her horror movie thoughts.

She saw Daehyun sleeping, not surprising. Said snoozing boy was having an evil villain styled mustache drawn on by Him Chan, in what she hoped wasn’t permanent marker. Turning her head to the seat behind them, she found Young Jae with his headphones on and reading from a tablet, probably some sci-fi ebook. Next to Young Jae, was Jong Up who was happily staring into space. She never had the pleasure to hold a conversation with Jong Up, but whenever she saw him, he had a smile on his face. The fact had always disturbed her a bit, no one was always that happy. He kind of reminded her of some car salesmen trying to sell her a lemon.

Turning over in her own seat, her knees against the leather, she talked to the couple behind her.

“Myungsoo, Koko,” she called to them, breaking the love birds from their moment. They were sharing a pair of earbuds and chatting together happily.

It didn’t take a genius to know that Myungsoo had written to ‘Dear Kibum’ about the girl and dog incident. As soon as the letter got published, news of Myungsoo asking KoKo out had spread like wild fire. Apparently, their first date was at an udon restaurant.

“since you two are sharing headphones, do you guys have an extra pair I could use?” she asked, hope gleaming in her eyes. The girl knew Myungsoo would settle with just being a silent observer in the conversation, so she directed her question to his girlfriend.

“Depends how badly you want them.” Koko said, eyeing her jokingly.

“I need them so bad, or else I think I might just kill everyone on this bus.” The girl replied with her candid personality.

“Meh. Everyone on this bus can rot for all I care. Gonna need a better reason.” Koko’s words had caused the girl to laugh.

“How about after you give me your headphones, I’ll leave you and Myungsoo alone for the rest of the ride?”

Koko smiled and started to dig through the bag she had brought onto the bus, “I was hoping you’d get on your knees and beg, but I guess this is a good enough reason for you to use them.” Her eyeliner, which winged out, made her eye smile spread out bigger and look more adorable. Honestly, Koko’s eyes were really big without the eye makeup already, that it made them abnormally large. The girl wouldn’t be surprised if someone were to mistake her classmate as a foreigner because of her extraordinary features and just how naturally her dyed brown hair suited her.

“I’m glad my threats were useful.” She snatched the headphones and returned to facing the front of the bus. Immediately she plugged the newly acquired earbuds and began to listen to her music, ignoring everyone else around her. The next hour and a half didn’t seem so bad now.

Music filled her ears and she occupied her mind with trying to pinpoint which member of her favorite group was singing or indulged herself within the lyrics.

She hummed along with the melody of the song and shut her eyes, hoping to fall as fast asleep as Daehyun was. She was almost about to hit the point of peace, when someone pulled one of her buds out of her ear. Her head pivoted to the culprit instantly and was greeted by a blond fool.

“Why...” she grumbled.

Him Chan simply flashed her a dazzling smile, “Heh,” he laughed nervously, “I just wanted to see if you were asleep so I could draw on you too.” The girl blinked and looked over to Daehyun who was still dreaming. His face was covered in scribbles, he had a mustache, four mustaches to be exact, had inappropriate words written, a uni-brow, and a pointing upwards to his eye.

She sent a fierce glare that caused Him Chan to flinch, “Wow, kidding, kidding!” He held his hands up in defence, as if her looks could kill. “Actually, I got bored since Daehyun was still sleeping, and you were the only other person who wasn’t doing something.” Him Chan tried to explain to her.

“I’m not here for your amusement.” She said turning her body away from him to the passing scenery. Though she had made it clear she was ignoring his presence, she didn’t push him out of his seat.

Him Chan took it as an invitation and stayed seated, listening to the songs with her. He was dancing inside, a mini fiesta. This was the closest he’d been next to her in almost a year. Truth be told, he had actually thought she was sleeping already and just wanted to sit next to her while she slept. He had sat there for about a minute before his curiosity grew too big surrounding her music taste.

The two didn’t talk, letting the talking of their classmates fill the gap. The girl had decided to boycott sleep until she got off the bus, not favoring the idea of having a on her face too. She would never admit it, though, how funny Daehyun looked. Maybe in a different reality, Daehyun, Him Chan, and her would be like the three Musketeers.

The camping site was coming to view.

Welcome to Crystal Lake.

Oh, God, let the horror begin.