It was already evening when Tiffania and Tobias reached the end of the woods.
They had come across a vast grassy plain and, as they were tired and hungry, they decided to camp there for the night. And so they got to work: Tifania began to pitch the tent while Tobias took care of lighting the fire.
For a while, they could hear only a silence that was occasionally interrupted by the hiss of the wind or by a cry of some nocturnal animal.
Tobias didn't pay too much attention to it, he knew that there were no dangerous animals nearby (at least that was what the inhabitants of a nearby town had assured him), the thing that worried him most was the cold air there. Already because of the humidity he had difficulty in lighting the fire, but the cold always made him a little anxious even if he did not know why. Hell, maybe they should have stayed in an inn that night.
Nevertheless, after some effort, the first sparks arrived and the fire was soon ignited.
"Finally" said Tobias "On a night like this a good fire is needed" "Right" agreed Tifania "I'm freezing too"
"Well then, now it's time to take care of the dinner"
"Ah don't worry I'll take care of it"
"Oh... but that's not a problem for me..."
"I insist: you have lit the fire, so for me it is the minimum to prepare dinner!"
"Okay ..."
Giving up, Tobias went to put up his tent. He let out a sigh, Tifania was smart, beatiful and all, but her cooking skills er... left something to be desired ... (For more info check out K.A. shorts # 2)
In any case, now he had to face one of his worst difficulties: the tent. No matter how hard Tobias tried, every time he tried to set up the tent, he almost always got a mess.
It was his taboo (similar to cooking for Tifania) and he was too ashamed to ask for help from his partner, (well, he was a man! He had to show Tifania that he could do at least this on his own!). And therefore it always took at least an hour for him to set up his tent.
He sighed again. He should have paid more attention in class when the master was explaining outdoor camping instead of daydreaming with his eyes open.
On the other hand, if Tifania was busy cooking she would not have seen him in trouble and this at least was encouraging. "Good!" he thought "I'll fix this tent in no time and Tifania won't notice anything!"
___
Needless to say, he did not succeed. When Tifania finished cooking Tobias had only managed to plant a stake, (not even in the right direction).
"Do you need a hand to pitch the tent?" Tifania asked, unable to understand why the boy was putting up his tent upside down.
"Eh? Oh no no no ... don't worry! It's alright! hahaha" He gave an awkward smile.
"Okaaay then... Dinner is served! Enjoy your meal!"
“Thank you!”
And saying this, the boy sat down on a stone around the fire and began to eat his meal. Apparently, this night, he had to eat what seemed a fruit-based soup (?). At least that's what Tifania said. The boy thought he saw something moving in the soup. "Er ..." he thought "better ignore it" and gulped down the first spoon.
Tobias noticed how Tifania was proud of what she prepared. And so, when she asked how it tasted he replied that it was good, complimenting her. (Although, to tell the truth, the soup tasted like wood).
The two sat in front of the fire talking, laughing and eating until the meals were finished.
Luckily Tobias was able to finish dinner without sneezing. "I nearly lost it!" He didn't know why but every time Tifania cooked he felt like sneezing. Which seemed strange because Tifania had assured him that he hadn't put any spices. Probably it was just a case, but at least this time he had managed to restrain himself.
Still he couldn't hide the fact that his nose was all red after dinner.
"Well now" the boy said after washing his plate "I think it's time to rest for tomorrow"
"Yeah, I'm a little tired after all the walk today" Tifania looked back at the tent behind Tobias "You sure you don't need a hand?"
"Oh? No, no! Don't worry! Er ... Ah! The truth is that I'm trying to set up the tent in a different way than usual tonight! Hehe...You know... In a way so you can be sure not to feel the cold air of the night! Yeah exactly! This is why it takes me so long!
“Ehm... okay, I guess” Said Tifania, still not understanding why he wanted to set it up it upside down. “Good night, then!” And she went into her tent.
"Good night!"
The boy could not believe how he had managed to say all that bullshit with a straight face.
"Well now" he said to himself "It's time to get busy"
He sighed.Oh how he wished he actually knew a better way to pitch a tent!. Now the real adventure would come.
But before he could even get to work, two small sneezes were heard from Tifania’s tent:
“Etshiew!! Etshiew!!”
“Bless you!”
It came almost naturally to Tobias. The answer was immediately heard from the tent.
“Thanks! Be careful when you put up the tent: I left some draft and now I'm freezing! it's really cold tonight! "
"I noticed! Thanks for the warning!"
"Poor thing" was his first thought, "On a night like this, drafts in the tent are certainly not good, I should be carefull ... Hmm? ... Drafts? ... in... Tifania’s... tent ...?"
---
At one point, a thought paralyzed Tobias. A thought that would change the whole evening.
Tifania, the girl he considered the most beautiful in the academy of knights, was probably inside that tent changing her clothes. And there were drafts that made her feel cold. Drafts that let the cold in from outside into Tifania's tent. Drafts that made Tifania feel cold. That is to say ... those were holes that connected the outside world to... the inside of Titania's tent. That meant... they showed ... the inside... of Tifania's tent ...
“NO!”
Moments like this had happened before. Traveling with a girl as beautiful as Tifania carried risks for Tobias. One of those risks was the realization that every night there was a time when she changed from her daily clothes to her outdoors pajamas . A time when Tifania took off her clothes ..
While Tobias had second-hand pajamas from the academy (which he thought made him look like a potato) Tifania owned a very nice gray embroidered pajama that Tobias thought it looked really good on her. It certainly didn't hide her curves. Well no dress hid her curves but the pajamas er... really made her figure stand out ...
Those times after night, when he saw her dressed like that, always made him blush. It made it difficult for him to focus on anything else. The young Academy Knight was sure that even his partner wasn’t fully aware of what effect her stunning hourglass figure did to him.
And, to be honest, Tobias always believed that Tifania had trouble containing her ample features.
More than once Tobias had the idea to try take a peek inside the girl's tent ... you know ... just to have a quick look ... just out of curiosity ... But his sense of duty always prevailed in the end and he always managed to stop himself. It was wrong and he knew it.
However, this did not mean that he did not want to do it ...
Tonight, not knowing why, he was more tempted than usual. Maybe it was because Tifania had mentioned a draft in her tent (and so that meant there really was an access point to the inside of her tent), maybe it was because of how beautiful she had looked in front of the fire before or maybe because he knew that Tifania had bought a new pajama in the nearby town and wanted to see how it looked on her.
"Oh come on, don't have weird ideas, now" Tobias thought "She trusts me, I could never do such a thing"
But despite these thoughts, it was undeniable that he wanted to try to take a peek. The more time passed the more he wanted to do it.
At one point he couldn't take it anymore. Especially tonight as he couldn’t keep out of his mind the image of Tifanias’s pajamas hugging tightly her curves.
“OKAY!” He thought “I will take just a quick look, nobody will die or somenthing.” And silently began to approach Titania's tent.
“Just one quick glance...”
The more he thought about what he was about to do, the redder he became. Arrived silently at Tifania's tent, he began to walk around it in search of that damned crack.
“Oh! What the hell am I even doing!”
There it is! It was just opposite from where he had lit the fire. It was on the dark side but he managed to find it seeing a faint light that came from within. Tifania must have lit a candle.
"Okay, I should stop now"
The boy crouched and began to approach the hole
It was so close he could hear her humming from within.
"Hum-hum-hum uh-uh -... Eugh! It's so tight! Damn those tailors! They've got my measurements wrong again!"
Yes, Tobias was now red as a tomato.
There was no doubt: Tifania was changing her clothes at that moment. If the boy wanted to take a peek there was no better time than now.
The hole was small but it would still have allowed him to see the inside of the tent. A little bit longer and he would be able to see through that little crack. A little bit longer more and he would find out what dress was so tight on Tifania.
A little bit longer and he would have discovered why that dress was so tight on Tifania ...
“BZZZZZ”
And obviously, somenthing went wrong. Somenthing had to go wrong.
That evening, an innocent fly was flying around until she smelled a pleasant smell that attracted her. Unbeknown to her, that smell was derived from the candle that Tiffania had lit inside her tent. The little fly liked the smell so much that she wanted to discover its source, and began so to look for a way to enter the tent, flying around until she found a hole in one side. A perfect little hole for her to enter but at the same time it was the same hole that Tobias seemed interested in looking in.
The little fly frightened humans, but she thought that if she had been fast enough, she would be able to get into the hole without that human boy noticing. And sure of herself she dived at full speed.
Nonetheless Tobias noticed the little fly flying around him and waved his hand to get it away. "Tch! Not Now! Go away!"
But the fly was more and more willing to enter the tent to discover the source of that beautiful smell.
She was almost there now, a little more and she would be able to fly inside.
"Sniff"
The fly did not understand what happaned, she was about to enter the hole but suddently she felt being sucked into something from the outside.
Two big round caves appeared behind her. The bug felt getting sucked in towards them as they opened slightly, sucking air in, then shrinking as air came out.
Tobias,(who at the moment decided to ignore the fly), din’t know that his mere breaths were violent suctions of air for the fly. The boy also hadn't realized that, the closer he got to that draft, the closer he moved his nose to the fly.
The frightened bug began to escape as fast as it could from those two gigantic holes. She was so close to discovering the source of that delicious smell! She couldn't give up now!
On the last day of summer vacation before sophmore year, Hal’s hanging out in Fred’s room as Fred’s getting ready to see Hermione for the first time all summer because she’s been away. This is the year he’s finally going to make a move. (Maybe before this we see Hiram roll into town and look upon Riverdale with great disdain.)
Hermione and Fred meet up at Pop’s, where she tells him all about her vacation. Fred’s on the brink of confessing his love to her when Hiram walks in. In a cape. Introduces himself to them both. He and Hermione lock eyes and bam. Off to the races. @bewareoftrips
First day of school, and Fred’s running down the stairs already late. Hal’s mom is bugging him about how sophmore year is very important for colleges. (is this a real thing in the US? or does Alice just make stuff up as it suits her? Don’t answer that.)
Hal's the student ambassador chosen to show Hiram around the school, and Hiram is not impressed with the decorating scheme. He sees Hermione again and asks Hal to hook him up, only to be loftily informed by Mary that Hermione and Fred are endgame. Hiram doesn’t like this Fred guy already.
Clifford Blossom seats himself at their lunch table to introduce himself boldly to Hiram (the story of Hiram coming from this fancy NYC prep school is already circulating) and tells him to try out for wrestling. Hiram asks Hal if he’s trying out, and Mary gets to inform him that Hal tried out last year, and Clifford called him whatever the 90s male equivalent of a season five Betty Draper is. (volunteer your ideas, someone!) Hiram says he has moves, and he can show them to Hal. Hal says okay.
Clifford holds wrestling tryouts, and Hiram’s naturally the best in his weight class. But Hiram’s taught Hal a lot, and Hal’s not doing too bad either. (How cute would it be if they were wrestling each other and Hiram let him win?) Despite this, Clifford only wants Hiram and not Hal. Hiram tells him that he and Hal are a matching set, and he can take them both. He reads Clifford within an inch of his life, saying he knew boys like him at prep school and that he’s going to be his reckoning. Clifford is quaking in his designer khakis.
Cut to Hiram smoothing out Hal’s uniform in the locker room! Meanwhile FP’s trying out for football, but there’s some conflict with his dad where he’s supposed to be doing gang stuff possibly? Or his dad is just an asshole. Take your pick. Anyway, FP makes Varsity but he’s conflicted about it.
Hiram tells Hal about what really happened to get him kicked out of prep school, and how hard it’s been to deal with the fallout. (they took away his CREDIT CARDS, Hal!) He tells him about some of the really nasty shit he did to other boys there and that his parents are hoping that sending him to a townie school will deflate his head a bit and make him grow up more well rounded.
Alice is out and about for whatever reason (take your pick of extracurriculars!) and Hal can’t stop staring at her. Deciding Hal needs to start facing his fears, Hiram drags Hal over to ask her to the upcoming dance. Hal freaks and asks her to go with both of them. Alice turns them down, but Hiram won’t stand for it. He convinces her to go with both of them as dates.
Hal’s parents rip into him for joining Clifford’s wrestling team because of the whole Blossom-Cooper blood feud thing. (The details of which I should probably brush up on for this. Who killed whos grandpappy? Who owns what? Whats a sticky maple?)
I want to see that kiss, so let’s throw in an initiation subplot where in order to officially join the wrestling team, Hiram, Hal and all the fresh meat have to perform 3 initiation tasks. One of them involves maple syrup somehow. The last one involves them kissing. Hiram murmurs “trust me.” Hal’s in love.
Hal, who until now has been this shy pudgy nobody, turns up with both Hiram and Alice on his arm. The student body is shook. Fred’s there with Hermione, and Mary has to put up with FP’s sulking. Either that, or FP’s at the punch bowl with Rick Mantle, spiking the drinks. Hermione and Fred have a dance, and Fred confesses his feelings for her. Hermione dodges the whole thing. Hiram has an eye on her all night.
At Mary’s after-party, a game of spin the bottle/7 minutes in heaven hybrid begins. Somehow the bottle lands on Fred and Alice (I don’t know the logistics of this - was Mary trying to get Fred/FP together? Was Alice trying to save him from someone else? Vice versa?) and they have this starts-with-awkward-small-talk-but-gets-really-hot closet makeout. FP is heartbroken and sprints out of the party.
Fred (?) goes to Pop’s and finds (????????? I want it to be FP but idk what makes sense.)
Hermione finds Fred at his house. Fred’s heartbroken after she brushed off his big love confession and asks if Hermione ever liked/loved him. Hermione tells him she can’t give him what he wants and he’s too good for her. Fred breaks down crying and goes back in the house.
2 guys hook up down at sweetwater and don’t find a dead body. idk who they are but i’m proud of them.
