Angela nodded, and grabbed the same branch as before, pulling herself up and sticking her foot into a crevice. Within a few minutes, she was up and into the treehouse, and sat opposite to Thea, who was drinking coke. Angie didn't like coke that much. Whenever she drank it, the bubbles made her throat hurt.

Wendy followed Angela and Thea back into the treehouse. She offered her a grin. "I'm Wendy," Her paints were still laying on the floor, and she quickly opened her bag. Wendy hated seeing paints on the ground. What if someone stepped on them and hurt themselves? Not to mention that the paint would probably be ruined. The paints were returned to their original home and she sighed deeply. Much better. Wendy looked at Angela curiously. "What made you fall down anyways?"

Angela smiled at Wendy, then bowed her head sheepishly before looking at her again. "I climbed up 'cos I heard voices. I kinda ran away from home. And, me having one of my spectacular moments of studpidity, let go of the branch I was holding. Boom." sh said, raising her finger up and letting it fall down with a long whistle to show what she meant.

"Everyone has been curious of my treehouse tonight." She said with a small smile. "But you're the only one to fall down when coming up here." She looked out the window, seeing that the rest of them were still down there for some reason. "We are runaways too. You can hang around us if you want to. I don't know what that dude or that Bella girl want, but I have a feeling that we might end up joining forces." She laughed at the way she had phrased it, but there really wasn't any other way to say it.

"We would be sleeping in one of these domes. This one is simply an example." Ianto stood up and easily bounded over several of the downed trees until he was standing beside the dome.

The dome was of moderate size and was nestled snugly between the four fallen trees around it. Ianto was actually standing on one of the four collapsed trees, hands on his hips as he reappraised his work-looking for any issues or holes that he could fix. The branches, reeds, and other plant material that covered the top left few gaps for wind, rain, and small creatures. The plant material that covered it gave it a sort of camouflaging effect, hiding it from the glancing eye.

"There are two entrances." Ianto stepped onto the log that was towards the stream they had previously walked by. "The entrances are duplicates of one another-both being the same approximate size and shape, but placed on different sides. Because the entrances are large, some small animals may take a liking to this place. However, I can easily make something to block the holes to keep them out." he paused, waiting for any comments from the girls.

Ianto was, in fact, standing on the log that created the top of one of the two entrances he had just described.

"Go ahead and look around-inside or out- and tell me what you think." Ianto fell silent and turned to walk back to the stream.

As soon as he was clear of the trees, he fell into a slow jog to the stream, where he collected an armful of reeds and was back within a couple of minutes. Taking a seat on one of the various fallen trees, he set down his load beside him and, picking up a few of the reeds, he began weaving them together.




Kaelii simply raised an eyebrow at the clearing. She, unlike Danielle, noticed the dome almost immediately. With a curious face, she climbed with ease to the entrance that Ianto had mentioned. Crouching down, Kaelii crawled into the dome and found that it was carpeted by reeds that were woven together into a sort of rug. She quickly found that the abode was long enough for her to comfortably stretch out on her back or stomach and wide enough that she could curl up in a ball without taking up so much room that another person could not lay beside her. However, the roof of the dome was short, just tall enough for her to sit up, slightly hunched, and not hit her head on the branches above. Crawling back out, Kaelii rose and stretched her back.

"Quite cozy in there. I wouldn't mind staying the night." she couldn't help but grin, remembering that the nights had been cold this past week and the warm abode would be a happy respite from the tree she normally resided in, which provided no shelter from the elements.

Whilst she had been inside, Kaelii had also noted that there was room enough for some bags to fit within alongside the residents. She had discovered that there were few holes in the roofing that had not been covered, creating a nice cover from the sun. Now that she was outside again, she saw several places where similar structures could be built if miscellaneous debris were cleared from it.

Taking a seat on a log, Kaelii turned to Danielle, "What do you think?"

Angela grinned at the fact that she was the only person to fall. "Why am I not surprised?" she joked, then chuckled at her phrasing. join forces? She held her sleeve in front of her mouth, and said through the cloth, "Join me on the dark side!" and started laughing. This was good. she liked these people. they didn't seem to judge. "Me and my mom don't exactly get along." she said.

Thea laughed at Angela's joke. "Yeah, join the dark side! We have cookies!" She laughed some more, and then Angela mentioned her having troubles with her mom. "Yeah, I do too. It sucks. But hey, at least we know that we have similar histories. We can tell each other stories and then we can say that we know exactly what that's like." She grinnied at Angela. Her and this girl were definantly going to get along.

"Cool. Speaking of cookies, does anyone mind if I run down to a store and get some food?" Angela had remembered to stuff the last of her savings into an old eeyore wallet and stick it into her pocket before she left. Which in her book, was just plain practical. It took a fair bit to make angela say, 'wow. smart!'. Just the way she was really.

"Well, I don't mind, but I have food here that you could eat if you need. You don't have to go out and buy stuff." She picked up the Cheez-it box that she had been eating out of earlier and offered it to her. "I hardly left my mother any food. I took all the nonperishables and some of the perishables. I didn't take any canned food, because first you would have to find a way to open it , then cook it, and I didn't need to pack the entire kitchen with me. Just the entire pantry." She smiled a mischevious smile and shook the Cheez-It box so that she would take it.

Danielle listened as Ianto explained that the domes were for sleeping in. She nodded and took a look around in another one as Kaelii looked in the first one. I was great for sleeping in. Much better than sleeping on the bare ground. She laid down to see how it felt and was satisfied. Once lookng round the whole space in admiration, she walked out and moved next to Kaelii.

"I think they're nice." she said in reply to Kaelii's question.

She looked at Ianto and watched him weave the reeds. It was amazing how he could thinkto build something like this.

"Ianto, how long did it take you to put these together?" she asked.

"Holy shit. I haven't had cheez itz in aaages!" Angie grinned, grabbing a handful and examining one. "My dad used to buy them all the time. They were like water to me!" she smiled fondly at the memory of her father walking into her room, and catching her with the box hidden behind her back, with orange powdery stuff all around her mouth.

Thea smiled at Angie. It must have been great to have a father that wanted you. Hell, it must have been great having biological parents that wanted you. "Yeah, it was my job to keep these things stocked. If I didn't throw them in the cart when no one was looking and then put it on the check out counter before they could notice, I wouldn't have any. I have a couple more boxes in my bag because I had a whole stock, but my bag was already starting to get full by the time I reached the cheez-its. That backpack may be huge, but it can only hold so much." She laughed.

Angie smile symathetically. "My mom doesn't buy these. Or anything else but booze, for that matter. She's been a drinker ever since my dad died." It was true. Angie was only this thin because she didn't eat so much, not because she went to the gym.

Thea frowned. Here she was, feeling sorry for herself, when her father was dead. At least her fatherly figyre was still around. "I am so sorry... I had no idea." She said, cursing herself internally.

"it's fine." Angie shrugged, chewing on another Cheez-It "It was a long time ago." She didn't mind people asking about her dad. She liked to think of him from time to time.

Thea shrugged. "Whatever you say." She said. "I was adopted and my adoptive parents split up, the 'father figure' not wanting anything to do with me. My 'mother figure' was a bitch, but I think you're worse off. I mean, at least my 'dad' is still alive." She said, putting air quotes around the word dad. "It's just that he doesn't like or want me."

Angie shook her head. "It's easier to hate than to grieve. trust me." she had spent a good year and a half hating her mother, blaming her for the accident. It had been easy, until she had matured just a little more.

Thea nodded. "Yup. I can see where you're coming from with that." She said. She had a friend who had died when she was in grade school. It was a whole lot easier for her to just hate the people that were even remotely involved than to grieve about it. And because of that, she had never truely gotten over it. It sucked, but she knew it was her own fault and that she really needed to move on. She just couldn't seem to find the right way to.

"Not too long. It is just a lot of weaving and assembling, I suppose. Gotta make a sort of frame for the top. So, will you two stay?" he was hardly paying attention to the reeds in his hands anymore- his fingers were pulling the strands taut in their places before he started a new row.

Pausing in his weaving, he pushed a lock of dark brown hair from his face and looked over at the girls expectantly- awaiting their answers. A moment later his fingers were at it again. Within a couple more minutes he would have successfully made a small screen. Pushing himself to his feet, he moved over to one of the entrances to the shelter and knelt down beside it, ducking his head to see what he was doing better. He had tied off the ends of all the reeds, creating loops all around the rectangle of plant. Grabbing a stray branch from the ground beside him, he worked it into the current framework of the roof of the abode, and once it was secured there, he slid the loops on one side of the screen onto the branch before he secured the latter to the ground by creating a dip in the ground and pushing the end of the branch into it. Finished with that side, he quickly did the other three, but assembled them in such a way that they could easily be manipulated so that the screen could be moved and access could be gained to the dome.

Standing up, he didn't bother to brush the dirt from his jeans, instead choosing to go sit back on his log.




"Amazing." she looked around her with awe before she got distracted- pulling her hair up into a ponytail so that it wouldn't fall into her face.
"I'll stay." Kaelii spoke the words without a second thought.

Decision made known, she stood up and moved over to one of the abodes, which she put her bags into- a sign of finality.

"What about you, Dani?" Kaelii moved back over to the girl, their earlier quarrel already at the back of her mind.

Danielle watched as he weaved. She herd his question, but let it sit in her mind for a while as she thought of it. Ianto was a complete stranger. She knew nothing about him, but life didn't really matter anymore. Her and her mom had gotten into a big fight this time an there was no way she was going back. Plus, why would a guy go through all the trouble of doing this if he planned on harming her? She didn't really mind the thought of death. There wasn't really much to live for anymore. Kaelii had already agreed to stay, so she felt she should stay too.

"I'll stay." she said.

She watched as Ianto went in the domes to attach the newly woven screen. After he got them in, Kaelii put her back in one of the domes. Daniell sighed and put her backpack in a dome as well. Since everything wasall settled, she decided to take go back to her previous spot tomake sue no one else found it. She still thought of that place as hers. And now Kaelii's too. She didn't mind sharing it with Kaelii. She seemed like a worthy person that wouldn't annoy her like other people did. They just didn't value things the way she did. Other people were also too reliant. That was something she liked about Kaelii. Kaelii wasn't super reliant on her parents of authorities. She was a big girl and could handle tings on her own. Before leaving, she turned to Kaelii.

"Wanna come?" she asked.