Camp Maid pt 2.

Nia woke up feeling all stiff from sleeping on her air mattress. She stretched her back, put on some clothes, and pulled down the zipper of her tent. It appeared the other girls were all still asleep. She better starts making breakfast before Mona gets the chance to. They were in for a long day, so she better made something substantial to get everyone started. Nia started by boiling a pan of rice and mixing some eggs. By adding some of the herbs she foraged yesterday, she tries to add a unique flavor to the meal. A little later, Nia heard a tent zipper and saw Serena come out wearing a summerly dress. Serena offered to help finish the rice omelets and together they got the meal done in no time. Nia hadn’t released cooking together with a could be a pleasant experience like that. A fun experience even… maybe. They should do this more often, why didn’t she choose Serena as her cooking partner in class?

When the meals were done, Mona and Ti were still nowhere to be seen. Nia went over to Ti’s tent to try to wake her up.

“Ti!!! Ti!!! Wake up!!!”

No response. Nia grabbed the tent and shake it with her hands. Still no reaction from Ti. There was no time for being lazy since the omelets were already getting cold. Nia grabbed the zipper and pulled the tent right open. But to Nia’s surprise, there was no Ti inside. She suddenly heard some murmur coming from Mona’s tent. Nia rushed herself to it and pulled down the zipper. As she expected, Ti was laying next to Mona in her tent.

“Uhhhhh… Nia what are you doing here?”

Ti still looked startled after having just woken up.

“Haha… I couldn’t get her to wake up. I smelled food so I wanted to get out, but Ti was blocking the path”

Nia learned that Ti snuck into Mona’s tent since she couldn’t fall asleep. She must have been really scared by the light that appeared behind the shed's window. Ti went back to her own tent to dress, while Mona just came out in her pajamas and started eating the omelet immediately. That girl really doesn’t have any manners, doesn’t she? After a couple of minutes, Ti still hadn’t left her tent, while Mona was already done eating.

“Well, this is going to take ages so let’s start eating Serena”

Ti finally left her tent when Nia took the final bite from her omelet. For whatever reason, Ti was wearing a really warm-looking trenchcoat. However many times Nia tried to explain, she wasn’t able to convince Ti to change her clothes to something airier. Whatever, it’s not like Nia was her mom or something.

“Alright, since you are all still really scared by the shed-thing, I’ll ask the groundkeeper for the key and show you nothing is going on.”

Nia took Serena with her to the groundkeeper's cabin while Mona and Ti stayed behind to do the dishes. They soon learned the groundkeeper apparently lost the keys to the cabin. Great, they came all this way for nothing. When they came back to the camp, Ti and Mona had finished cleaning. Luckily they couldn’t have possibly screwed this up. Nia walked to the shed for one final inspection and she noticed the lock had disappeared! She was 100% sure the shed was locked yesterday night. After calling the other girls, they quickly came rushing towards her. Aside from Mona, who repeated she still wasn’t looking for an adventure and rather finished up her manga chapter. Nia grabbed the handle and slowly opened the creaky door. A quick glance around revealed… that this was just an ordinary shed. One of the wooden shelves had come loose at one of the sides and was now hanging diagonally. There were some rusty rakes hanging on the wall and some clear signs of water damage on the walls. Nia grabbed a flashlight and pointed it across the shed to show the girls there was nothing out of the ordinary in there. Ti looked a bit relieved. Something still fell off, but she’d better keep that to herself.

“Are you ready to go girls? You did bring your towels and water as we discussed alright?”

“Don’t you all need still need to get dressed or do you do that later?”

“Well Ti-chan, we didn’t all bring an ugly trenchcoat like yours. Let’s go since we are already late!”

Hiking

Nia and her friends continued their morning by walking the hiking trail between Nia’s estate and the nearest town. Knowing the area around here, Nia took the lead and showed the other girls the way. Serena was walking next to Nia, with Ti and Mona dragging behind. After walking for a while, the girls didn’t seem to have made much progress yet.

“Ehh, Nia, I am sorry to break the news. But I feel we walked past this tree three times already”

Nia sighed, knowing that Mona was right. It was a long time since she walked her for the last time with her parents. Luckily, Nia was prepared for this, she brought a map of the area in her backpack. After taking a look at the map, Nia figured out where they had to go.

“Alright, looks like we have to go right here. Let's go!”

“Could we take a little break here Nia, I am all hot and thirsty”

No wonder with that coat… Nia sat down on a tree trunk and took a sip of water. With this tempo, they’ll never get there in time. She should have made the reservation an hour later. Well, there is no cellphone service here so there is nothing she can do about it aside from telling Mona and Ti to hurry up.

A little later, the girls found themselves standing before a big hill. After some arguing with Mona, who insisted on trying to find a way around, they started the climb. Nia was the first to reach the summit, followed by Serena with Ti coming in last. Totally exhausted, Ti grabbed her bottle to drink some water but found it to be completely empty. She held her bottle upside down to signal this to the other girls. Why did she only bring such a mini-bottle on this trip? Nia sighed and gave Ti a sip of hers. Luckily, they could see the town laying in the valley below from up her.

Just after noon, the girls entered a beautiful old town with traditional wooden houses. Mona ran off and sat down by one of the street gutters.

“Look there are koi in here!”

Nia told the other girls this town is known for its sparkling clean water running around everywhere. She asked Ti to hand over her empty bottle and filled it with water from the street gutter. Nia showed the water to the girls and then took a big sip from the bottle. Nia remembered getting disgusted when her dad did it when she was still a kid. He was right though, the water was super clear without any pollutants.

After a short walk through town, the girls arrived at their destination, a cute little cafe. Above the door hang a sign proclaiming this was the oldest maid cafe in the country. Nia remembered coming here as a kid one time and being fascinated by the waitresses. She told her dad if she could work here if she got older. Her dad laughed and told her with their wealth, she didn’t have to worry about having to work as a servant in a place like this. The girls went inside and were greeted by a server in a uniform that was a combination of a maid outfit and a yukata. Even though they were late for their reservation, the server had an empty table left for them. The girls went to sit down, apart from Ti who remained standing a bit nervous. As she finally unbuttoned her coat, Nia couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Ti revealed a beautiful, pinkish maid uniform with yellow ribbons. She had been wearing this underneath this trenchcoat all this time! Ti looked as confused as the rest of the girls.

“Where are your uniforms?”

Nia had to think for a second and busted out in laughter. Was this a joke or was Ti really this stupid? Did she really think you had to wear a maid uniform when visiting a maid cafe? Ti and the other girls also started laughing. After laughing together for a while, Nia drank some water the obviously confused server brought them. Where would Nia be without these strange but hilarious friends?