I angrily brushed the branches out of my way as I made my way through the woods. I wasn't really mad at Nick for eating my good luck charm...but the fact that it happened when we were lost was what got to me. It only added to the annoyance factor. Not only that, but when I was hungery, I tended to be moody. I sighed and broke off a branch of a tree as I trudged through the woods. The ground was becomming soggy, and I knew we must have been approaching a bog of some sort.

"Oh....FART!!"

I stopped abruprly and whirled around to see what Nick was screaming about. He was balancing precariously on one shoe, while gingerly trying to place his socked foot back into his Nike sneaker that had become lodged deep in the mud.

I stepped over and gave him my arm, meanwhile I bent over and removed the shoe, making the sickening sound of breaking wind, I removed the shoe from the mud.

"Aaaiiii! Nick..be careful I can't hold you up much longer..." I screached.

Nick ignored me and pressed even harder on my shoulder as he tried to put his shoe back on. Before he could get his shoe on his foot, he other foot slid from beneath him, and of course he pulled me with him. Suddenly I wasn't just trudging through the mud...I was laying in it...

"You IDIOT! I spat.

"Can't go on..." Nick whined dramatically. He clutched his mid section and flopped onto the ground.

I sank down next to him and ran my hand through my damp hair. My stomach growled in protest. We had been following the river upstream for a couple hours. I knew that we had to eventually reach a town, I just wasn't sure how far we were from the nearest one.

"It can't be that much further now, Nick. Stick with it," I advised.

He whimpered in response.

Nick starred dully at the river as it coursed by. "Your love is like a river...peaceful and deep, your soul is--" Nick crooned.

I swatted him "shuddup, ok? I hate that song. Anyways, you shouldn't be in a good enough of a mood to want to be singing that."

He stuck his tongue out at me, then be chuckled to himself.

"What?" I asked.

He peeked at me from the corner of his eyes as he rearranged his baseball cap on his head "oh nothing," he laughed quietly.

"What?" I asked again, irritated.

He shrugged "wouldn't you like to know?"

"Nonsence," I looked away and concentrated on a nearby squirrel.

I could still hear Nick's quiet suppressed laughter.

"Whatever," I fumed "we need to move or else I'm going to waste away."

Nick rolled over on his back and began lauging even harder, clutching his stomach.

My lip curled up in disgust as I watched the spectacle in front of me. He continued to laugh, not even awknowleging my presence. Angrily, I grabbed my bag and marched upstream. A shiny package fell out and rolled down the bank. I gasped when I realized what it was. I watched with despair as the lovely cream filled cakes rolled into the water.

"Nick...I found food!"

The laughter let up and Nick was next to me instantaniously "Twinkies!" he said joyously. Before even thinking, Nick was on his butt, shimmying down the bank to get to the package of Twinkies, now lodged in between two rocks in the river.

"Ummm.....Nick? Be careful...the rocks are--"

"Aughhhh shiiiiit!!!"

"Slippery," I finished quietly.

There was a tremendous splash as Nick fell over backwards into the water. He got up and heatedly marched up to me. Clutched in his hands was the package of Twinkies, now a crushed soggy mess.

"Want one?"

"Yeah, minus the parasite spored green water!" I fumed. "That was our food! I can't believe you did that! See if I share with you next time--what the hell are you doing?" I looked in disgust as Nick crammed half the package contents into his mouth. "Do you know what's in that water?"

"Yeah, sure," he swallowed and then placed the remaining soggy half in his mouth.

I shook my head in desbelief, "no, I don't think you do...so you know what amoebic dyssentary is?"

He sighed heavily "No, but I have a feeling you're going to tell me."

"Nope!" I said indifferently. "I'll let you find out for yourself."

"Ange?" Nick asked timidly.

"What?"

Nick burst out laughing "I was picturing the scene that we missed last night...thank God!"

I smacked my forhead..I had forgotten...our gig!