The Gold Necklace

[bluemerald]

Amber hated the forest. Her nails always managed to get some form of dirt underneath whenever she went there. This time she was determined to keep her nails clean and unchipped.

Slowly she crept, repeatedly glancing up for signs of any leaves or bugs that could fall in her hair. She shuddered at the thought. She made a mental note to wear a hat next time she entered the woods. 'But then again', she thought, 'Hats weaken the roots of my hair! I cant wear a hat!' She simply shrugged and decided to move on.

Her breath got shallow as she entered the more wild section of the woods. Here, poison ivy flourished and bugs were everywhere. Amber slowly stepped, watching the ground around her feet. She saw a few scuff marks on her brand new shoes. She moaned. 'Why do my shoes only last two days? Why couldn't they just be...dirt-proof?'

Amber leaned down gently and combed the leaves with her eyes. She strained them, trying to see the glint of metal that would show her where her gold necklace was. 'Why is it so hard to find gold amongst a bunch of leaves? Why is everything so hard?!', Her inner voice whined. She had lost her necklace there during capture the flag the night before. Now she desperately needed to find it.

[rain]

Pamala ran through the forest. It was nice to have the freedom of no people. That wasn't really why she was out here, though. What she really wanted was the lost things. People always lost things during capture the flag. She could make alot of money selling people back their things. Especially the Aphrodite kids.
The children of Aphrodite loved to wear all kinds of jewelry into battle. It would be great if she could find some jewelry. While she was lost in thought, Pamala ran right into someone.
"Oof," she said.

[bluemerald]

Amber suddenly felt as if someone had pushed her. She tumbled right towards a patch of poison ivy. Reflexively she threw her hands out and grabbed a branch from a nearby oak tree. After steadying herself and recovering from the heart attack she almost got by coming within a meter of the ivy, she whirled on Pamala. "Hey! Ow! You almost made me touch that poison ivy! What are you doing here, anyways?"

[rain]

"I'm running what does it look like I'm doing?" Pamala said. She looked at the girl in front of her. She was pretty with nice clothes. An Aphrodite child. Her name was Asia? Alice? No it was Amber. "What did you lose?" she asked.

[bluemerald]

"How did you know I lost something? I mean not that that's too hard to figure out. But still..." Amber shifted her eyes to the side and caught a glint in the leaves. Trying to keep her face motionless, she glanced back at Pamela. "I...like your hair. Who did it?", she averted her attention, even though the compliment was fake.

[rain]

Pamala heard the false not in Amber's voice and noticed that she kept glancing behind her. She decided to go with it.
"Why thank you," she said, "I do my hair. It is so hard to get it like this, but it's well worth it don't you think?"
Pamala moved a step over to block whatever Amber was looking at.

[bluemerald]

Amber laughed. "Sorry, I thought I saw a monster over there. Haha. Well, anyways I lost a plastic ring. I'm not sure why it's important to me, it just looks pretty. Good luck finding that worthless piece of junk. I don't even think I dropped it here, now that I remember correctly..."

[rain]

"Really?" Pamala said. She wasn't so easily tricked. Maybe it wasn't worth very much, but it was obviously important to Amber. It was probably nearby, too. She would just have to find it first. "You need some help finding it?" she asked.

[bluemerald]

"Yes, in fact I do. I'm POSITIVE I dropped it this way...Or maybe this way!", Amber gestured to her right, and then to her left, faking indecisiveness. Amber turned around, her back to Pamela. "WAIT. I think it was right...here!" She jogged over and began to search in a patch of poison ivy. "Can you help? I think it was right around here."

[rain]

"I think I saw something before I ran into you. Maybe it was back here," Pamala said. She turned around and grabbed the gleam she saw. It was a silver bracelet with a couple of gold charms. "Was this what you were looking for?" she asked, holding up the bracelet.

[bluemerald]

Amber sighed with relief. "No...but help me! I think it's here!" Amber carefully slid her hands amongst the poison ivy. Her fingers closed around a thin chain. She pulled it out and glanced at Pamela and saw a glint of recognition flash in her eyes. Amber grinned. "This is beautiful! I wonder who it belongs to...?"

[rain]

"I've seen that chain before. I helped someone find that last time we played capture the flag," Pamala said. She knew Amber wasn't looking for that. It belonged to one of the Athena campers.

[bluemerald]

Amber saw another glint, this time further behind Pamela. She didn't hesitate and pushed Pamala aside into a pile of leaves. She sprinted for it and tripped. Her fingers just reached it and she grasped it, tugging it out. "Ha!", she laughed in triumph. It was her necklace. She whirled around to make sure Pamala wasn't right behind her. "Thanks for your help, Pamala!" Amber slipped both the chain and her necklace into her pocket and began to walk back.

[rain]

"Can I at least have my cabinmates chain? She will want that back," Pamala said. She pulled herself out of the pile of leaves and chased after Amber. She wasn't happy Amber got her necklace first.

[bluemerald]

"Well, I think so..." Amber shifted uneasily. "Fine". She tossed the chain to Pamala, hoping that the owner of the chain wouldn't have to pay that much...

On her way back, Amber realized that she had chipped her nails and there was dirt under them. "Thanks, Pamala", she muttered under her breath. She put on her necklace and ran back to her cabin as fast as she could without scuffing her shoes.