Trouble in paradise

"I just don't understand why you're acting like this!" Ashley was shouting as Kurt came into earshot.

"I don't know what you mean!" Brandon replied, his voice an angry rumble. They turned at Kurt's footsteps, deer in the headlights as he drew closer. Neither of them said anything as he slowed his pace, Brandon's expression low and ugly, Ashley almost hysterical with tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"What's up?" Kurt asked.

Ashley sobbed, Brandon glancing at her with momentary guilt, before turning to reply to Kurt. "None of your business pal."

"Jesus Christ Brandon," Ashley wailed. "Could you stop being a thug for 5 minutes please!?"

Leaves rustled behind Kurt, making him turn to who he assumed was Victoria, hoping she could calm her friend down. Hysterical girlfriends were not usually the type of person he dealt with.

"Johnson," a different female greeted him. "I should've known." Kurt laughed at the sight of Jennifer White emerging from the woods.

"Jennifer," he smiled. "I should have known."

"Save it Johnson," she smiled back. "Every bear on Silver Lake will have heard your racket."

"Bears!?" A panicked voice came from the woods behind Jennifer, a young man with short black hair stumbling swiftly out of them.

Jennifer rolled her eyes. "I was kidding Shawn."

"Shawn? Shawn Lewis?" Victoria's sweet voice called from back up the path. The rapidly growing group turned to face her, staring surprised at the older brother of her ex boyfriend.

He looked equally surprised to see her. "Victoria? I didn't know... I mean I didn't expect to see you up here."

Victoria bit her lip nervously. Something about Shawn's demeanor had always been extremely off-putting. Though she had met him many times when she was with Dustin she'd never felt like she knew what kind of person he was. He seemed to her like an optical illusion, showing her many different facets of a personality, but never the one that was actually his. Even so she'd never gotten the impression that he was one for scrambling through the brush as a trainee ranger.

Kurt on the other hand saw through the subterfuge immediately, cocking his head and looking askew at the newcomer. His hysterical cry, the klutzy stumble, made all the more glaring by his genuine surprise when he saw Victoria, were clearly affectations; the kind of affectations Kurt would put on himself when scoring chicks. At least his designs weren't on Victoria, but maybe Jennifer? Kurt's eyes narrowed.

"I didn't expect to see you either," Victoria finally replied. "What are you doing as a trainee ranger?"

Jennifer smirked as Shawn's expression darkened, answering for him. "Call it community service."

"Community..." Victoria began, frowning at what that could mean, before a sob from her right reminded them all of what had brought the group together in the first place.

"I'm going back to the cabin." Ashley began to storm back up the path, her gait furious. "I'm calling my sister, and I'm getting out of here." Her words were muffled by tears; it took a few moments for the others to realise what she had said.

"Ashley wait!" called Victoria, but she didn't turn around. Brandon showed no emotion as he beheld her retreating back.

Jennifer sighed. "Shawn, make sure she gets back the cabin okay." Shawn nodded and took off after her, almost jogging to keep up with her furious pace.

"Where's Chloe?!" Victoria suddenly realised. She should have easily caught up by now, or at least been caught up in the storm of Ashley's dramatic exit, but as they all looked in that direction there was no sign of her.

"She can't have gone far," Kurt said, a worried edge to his voice, before placing his hands around his mouth and shouting. "Chloe?!" They all waited for a response in silence, but none was forthcoming.

"Shit," Jennifer swore. "Who am I looking for?" The three teens relaxed slightly; the ranger sounded confident, and Kurt knew for sure that she had the knowledge of the park necessary to find Chloe.

"She's a redhead," he said simply. Jennifer would have laughed if the situation wasn't so serious. As it was she couldn't resist an ironic jibe.

"That makes it easier." She strode back up the path at almost the same pace as Ashley, her steps fueled by calm determination instead of hysterical teen sadness however. "Make sure not to lose anyone else Kurt."

He nodded. "I will." The three teens watched their second disappearing female back of the day, before Brandon broke the silence, his tone dark and ugly.

"Are we finishing this walk or not then?"

Victoria and Kurt glanced at one another.