Poison Ivy

Lauren groaned as she staggered to her feet, removing the leaves and twigs from her hair as she hiked back up the slope. Martha was about to say something to her, but Lauren gave her a glare that shouted, “Don’t!” Had Lauren listened to Martha, she would have known that the latter had recognized the bush that the former had landed in.

Lauren grumpily sat back down on a different log, muttering angrily as tapped her foot. Just as she sat her backpack down, Lauren began to feel a burning itch on her back. Lauren began scratching her back, ignoring the giggles from the other girls, before feeling the burning itch on her head. And her legs. And her arms. Her entire body was itching like crazy! When Lauren felt the itching on her face, she unzipped her backpack and dug through it, unknowingly getting the poison ivy's oils all over the clothes and enhancements that she had packed. A few seconds later, Lauren removed a handheld mirror from her back…only to drop it when she saw that her face was covered in a terrible rash.

As Lauren was panicking, the other girls began to laugh at the situation in front of them. Lauren glared angrily at them as she marched over to the trio, scratching her sides. “Don’t just stand there! What do I do?!”

“Well, first off,” Emily said through a fit of laughter, “you may not want to get anything else out of your backpack. You’ve already contaminated it with poison ivy.”

“Poison ivy?!” Lauren shrieked as what she had just done hit her like a fright train. She had just contaminated all her clothes, and worse, her special enhancements! She knew enough that they would have to be washed, which meant…

“Secondly,” Emily continued, “I’ve got some special soap that will take care of the oils, so you can take care of that while Sam and Martha,” she gave the girls a subtle wink, “take care of your clothes.”

“Soap?!” Lauren asked incredulously, “Do you see any campground showers around here?! You three brought us out to the middle of nowhere!”

“No, I don’t see any showers…” Emily said with a smirk, “However, I know that there’s a stream nearby.”

“What…?” Lauren asked flatly, her face going pale. “Surely you must be joking, right?”

“Nope.” Emily responded, still smirking as she shook her head. “You can just wash yourself in the stream with the soap so that the rash doesn’t get worse than it is. You can even borrow my towel when you’re finished, though we need to also,” she gave another subtle wink to Sam and Martha, “take care of the clothes you’re already wearing.”

Lauren blushed a neon red, gulping at what this would entail. “But I – “

“Or,” Emily continued, “you can wait for the rash to get worse and look like an itchy red blob in front of Kevin. Which reminds me,” she chuckled slyly, “if you’re actually planning on wooing him, having him come into contact with poison ivy isn’t going to do it.”

“Alright, fine!” Lauren snapped, squirming as she fought the urge to scratch herself. “Just lead me to this stream so that we can get this over with! And you better not look while I’m washing myself!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it…” Emily said slyly, grabbing her towel and the special soap from her bag as she gave the two other girls another subtle wink.

With that said, Emily led Lauren down the trail towards the stream in question, her coworker marching along uncomfortably behind her as she desperately tried not to scratch. Once the two were out of sight, Sam and Martha giggled evilly as the former lit the campfire. Using a stick, Martha lifted Lauren’s backpack up and threw it into the flames, the two women giggling like mad as they watched the fire devour the bag.