Seeing that both of them are willing to go, Kristin looked at the other girls, and the only one not willing to go is Leslie.
"I-I-I want to go, b-but I'm worried about my parents what t-they would think if I left all of a sudden without a trace," Leslie said stuttering, "They might go crazy looking for me, they pampered me since as long as I can remember, and its not just them spoiling me, I can feel that they truly care about me," she added with tears almost falling off her eye.
The others looked at each other, all of them nodded as Joana was the first to talk this time, "We understand Leslie, if you don't want to go I'm sure they will understand just like we do," she said while stroking her back, trying to comfort her.
"I know its unfair that you guys are willing to go and risk your life in an unknown place while I stay here safe and sound," Leslie said as the tears finally fell from her eyes.
"Don't worry about it Leslie, if you really don't want to then we have no problem, you are our friend so of course we understand where your coming form," Charlotte said in a caring voice.
"Yea don't worry about it, they did say it was optional so no pressure," Elijah said with a warm smile on his face.
Leslie wiped her tears off and stood up, "I'm going home..." She said as she walked towards the door, but Alex blocked her path, Leslie looked at Alex confused, "Alex?" She asked.
Alex said, "If you're not going with us, then at least spend our remain time together before we leave into the unknown."
Leslie stared at Alex, then turn around to look at the others and back to Alex, "Ok..." She said.
Alex just smiled and shouted, "Then let's bust our wallet at the Plaza!" and then started walking while holding Leslie's hand.
The others followed suit and soon enough they found themselves at the plaza and were buying things such as keychains and other accessories like earrings and necklaces, mostly as a remembrance for Leslie but no one said anything but they are having the same line of thought.
When the sun went down the horizons, various food stalls that are only open at night were now setting up shop and the gang went buying all sorts of food also.
It wasn't long before it was 9 o'clock and they all went home to their respective houses. When they got home they barely greeted their parents and went upstairs to their rooms and they all found themselves staring either at the ceiling or the moon outside their window.
It wasn't until midnight that some of them have finally fallen asleep, and since it's Saturday tomorrow, it didn't bother them much that they were sleeping so late.
Morning came with a blink of an eye (literally) and the others spent the morning with their parents as they promised each other to meet each other outside the entrance to the forest nearby.
They packed their belongings in a small travel size backpack and noon came by in a flash, and the meeting time of 2 P.M. is nearing, they ate lunch before they left, they gave the reason that they are going camping in the woods this weekend and their parents noticed something different about their goodbyes but made nothing of it.
It was normal for the youth of Sandy Springs to go on a camping trip alone as the whole forest has a maintenance group that makes sure that there's no illegal capturing of animals that were endangered and keeps constant record of who comes in and out of the forest.
There's even a guide and a group of field experts that knows the forest in and out and were on posts that are doted around the forest incase someone gets lost or goes missing for easier scouting and searching.
The group has greeted the post on the gate that allows anyone to enter from Sandy Springs and the group walked in as they were allowed access for their 'camping' trip
... ...