Hey guys! So first off, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who entered the one-shot competition. I didn't expect to have so many entries, but they were all wonderful, and I really enjoyed reading them. So thank you very much!

And now without further ado... the results!

I feel like there should be a drumroll or something. Please imagine one in your head.

4th place: Business and Babies by Springgirl101

This one was hilarious. Pregnant Georgie was very funny, and I loved the unexpected ending.

3rd place: Friendship for Dummies One-Shot by BeautyAtWork2

I loved this one. It used a lot of the characters and all of them were spot on. And it was absolutely hilarious.

2nd place: Five by Defend

I knew even before I read it I was going to love this one, because it's written by one of my favourite writers (101 Ways, Team Len anyone?). And it definitely didn't disappoint. It was a little different to the other entries, and one of the cutest things ever.

Aaaaaand here we go, the one we've all been waiting for. The winner is...

Camping for Dummies by Starry_Serenade

This one was my absolute favourite. Every sentence was so funny, she wrote Georgie perfectly and I couldn't have asked for more. I thought you should all see how wonderful it was, so I've decided to post it here. And do me a favour, when you're done, go and tell Starry_Serenade how amazing her writing is. Thank you all for entering, and enjoy the winning one-shot!

*****

“Georgie, are you sure you know where we're going?”

Ava's voice rings out from behind me, and I take my eyes off the road for a split second to glance at my best friend in the backseat mirror. She's sitting next to Nathan, the two of them wearing twin skeptical expressions.

“Of course,” I reply calmly. “What, do you think I'd actually get us lost?”

The look on her face is enough of a response.

Sighing, I turn my attention back to the task at hand: that is, driving a million miles through California en route to Brandon and Macy's summer rental in Mammoth Lakes, a journey which happens to entail traveling down a bumpy dirt road. In a forest. At night. While my three traveling companions relax in their respective seats, completely oblivious to how harrowing this experience is for me.

I despise driving after dark—always have, always will. It's bad enough in the city, where there are streetlights to provide at least some relief for my vision. But out here? This is the wilderness, for crying out loud! The only light I have is from the headlights of our rental Jeep, which only serve to illuminate the space in front of the car for about two feet before dissolving into blackness. With that kind of meager light, I could run into a raccoon, or a tree, or drive off a cliff...

Focus, Georgie. Eyes on the road.

Though I mentally promise myself that I will keep my immensely scatterbrained mind in concentration, I can't help but steal a few glances at the boy dozing in the passenger seat beside me. His face is relaxed in sleep, his brown eyes closed and his dark hair falling into his face.

My boyfriend, Connor.

Even now, having been together for an entire two years, I can't get over the way that sounds. Connor. My boyfriend. A couple of years ago, the idea of being with someone as amazing as him was nothing but an unreachable dream. Yet here he is, right beside me, sleeping with his head lolled against the window.

“Georgie, are you absolutely certain that we're going in the right direction?” Nathan asks, breaking my reverie. I look back again, and he's studying a fold-out map by the light of his phone. “Judging by this, the drive should only take six hours. We've been on the road for seven and-a-half.”

I grit my teeth, attempting to keep my eyes from widening at his statement. I thought we were going the right way; after all, I've been following the instructions we printed back at the airport. Even I possess enough intelligence to do something as trivial as follow directions.

I think.

“Nathan, it's fine,” I assure, gripping the steering wheel tighter as I go around a bend. “We'll get there, I promise.”

It's not fine! frets my traitorous mind. Face it, Georgie. You, with your terrible sense of direction, have succeeded in getting yourself—along with your three best friends—lost in a forest somewhere in the middle of California. Congratulations, genius.

“Shut up,” I mutter scathingly, eliciting bemused glances from my two backseat passengers.

I squint at the dark road in front of me, searching for any assurance that I'm driving in the right direction. But all I can see are the shadowy outlines of trees, reaching their gnarled branches out as if waiting to pluck up innocent animals.

Or innocent, directionally-challenged teenage girls.

But hopefully the former.

Not for the first time, I wonder why, exactly, I agreed to this. I mean, I thought it was pretty cool when Brandon and Macy told us that they were renting a cabin in Mammoth Lakes to spend the summer with their daughter, Emily. But not cool enough to want to leave home and haul my butt across several state lines just to visit.

My mother disagreed.

“Come on, sweetie, you just graduated high school!” she said, back when I first rejected the idea. “This will be one of the last times you'll be able to have fun before the adult world swallows you whole.”

Which was just so convincing (not to mention reassuring).

Nonetheless, with the help of Julie and the cooperation of Ava and Nathan's parents, my mom ignored my pleas, and quickly set about planning a post-graduation camping trip—in Brandon's backyard. It'd be the full experience: tents, campfires, etcetera—but all within easy reach of kitchen appliances and indoor plumbing. Because what better way to spend your first summer after high school than sleeping outside, on the ground, in the dirty, bug-infested wilderness?

Oh, I can think of plenty.

For some reason, though, Ava, Nathan, and Connor agreed readily, so I, too, was weaseled into accepting. We took a flight from Indiana to an airport in Los Angeles (because apparently, there were no airports anywhere closer to Mammoth) and are now being forced to drive 315 miles to our destination.

Joy.

“Georgie?” Ava chirps, eyeing me through the mirror.

“Yes, Ava?”

“I think we're lost.”

I frown. “We aren't lost.”

“Yeah,” she mutters, “and your hair doesn't look like a yak's butt right now. Just face it, Georgie: you've gotten us lost.”

I don't know which insult is worse: the one to my hair (which, by the way, is presently no worse than a lion's mane), or my driving skills. But both send a wave of petulance washing over me, and I slam my hands down against the steering wheel.

And happen to connect my fist with the horn.

An earsplitting honk erupts through the peaceful forest, most likely waking every animal within five miles. With my luck, there will soon be a herd of angry bears on our tail. The sound also succeeds in waking Connor, who jumps in his seat like he's been electrocuted.

“I'm awake, I'm awake!” he shouts, banging his head against the window as he rockets up and throws his hands above his head. I watch as he blinks himself back into reality, his eyes slowly clearing until they focus on my face.

“Oh,” he murmurs, his voice clouded with lethargy. “We there yet?”

From the back, Ava snickers. “Not exactly. Your girlfriend has managed to get us hopelessly lost.”

“Hopelessly is a bit of an exaggeration,” I retort. “And anyway, we're not lost. We're just...temporarily misguided.”

Nathan lets out a snort. “Yes, Georgie. 'Temporarily misguided' explains why we've been driving for an hour an a half longer than expected.”

“Well, it's your fault for letting me drive!” I cry, referring to our exchange about two hours ago, when Nathan had tired of piloting our lovely all-terrain vehicle. With both Connor and Ava asleep, he had been forced to hand the wheel over to me.

He really should have known better.

“We were thirty minutes away! I thought that even you wouldn't be able to screw something up in such little time!”

I have a rude (and somewhat inappropriate) response on my tongue, but Connor's voice cuts me off before I can speak.

“Guys, calm down, okay?” He runs his hands through his hair, a trademark gesture that I've come to love. “Look, let's—let's just pull over. We can look at the map, figure out where we went wrong. It'll be fine.” He stresses the last syllable, simultaneously reaching over to squeeze my arm. I try return the reassurance with a smile, but my facial muscles are too tense to do much more than grimace.

“Right, pull over,” I manage to squeak. I prepare to lift my foot off the gas pedal, taking a deep breath. After all, seeing as we're in the dark, this will be a challenge. The last thing I'd want is to end up sending us off the edge of a—

My thought is cut off abruptly by the sound of Ava squealing, “Georgie, look out!”

Startled, I look up at the road—which, admittedly, I should have been doing all along—and find myself faced with the thing that every driver fears when navigating forest lanes in the dark.

A deer in the middle of the road.

▪■▪■▪■▪■▪■▪

I let out a shriek that would rival nails on a chalkboard, my eyes seeming to meet with the deer's for a split second before I spin the wheel to the right, sending the car swerving off the road.

“Georgie!” someone shouts. I can't respond, can only scream as the car goes jolting through the mounds of dirt and grass and logs—and who knows what else—that make up the forest floor. Trees whiz by before me, some of them illuminated by the headlights, but miraculously we don't hit any of them.

It's a bumpy ride, and for once in my life, I am extremely thankful for seat belts. And airbags. Because when the car comes to a sudden, jarring stop, those giant, marshmallow-like cushions are the only thing between my face and the dashboard.

Though I can't say that having my face buried in vinyl is exactly something to be described as comfortable.

“Is everyone okay?” Connor asks after a moment, his voice muffled by the thick material. He sounds pretty shaky, but that's to be expected. And anyway, it's better than me. I'm having a hard time just forming coherent thoughts; speaking probably isn't an option right now.

Ava makes an affirmative squeaking noise, and Nathan demands, “What just happened?”

I glance at Connor, who stares back at me with an expectant expression. Of course, he could easily tell Nathan what just transpired, but apparently, I'm going to be forced to to own up to it myself.

A feat that is only possible after a good thirty seconds of meaningless stuttering.

“I—um—I saw a deer,” I utter thickly. “It was right in the middle of the road, so I swerved to keep from hitting it, and—”

“And we went careening off the road,” Nathan finishes. A groan escapes his lips, and in the mirror, I see him run a hand through his blond hair. I say nothing; the answer is pretty obvious.

“Well,” Connor says after a moment, “I guess we should go out and...check? See if we can get this thing back on the road?”

I swallow and nod, while Nathan and Ava murmur their agreement. We get out of the car slowly, using our phones to light the ground at our feet. There could be any number of things for accident-prone people such as myself to trip on: roots; rocks; poisonous, man-eating snakes—the possibilities are numerous, and all of them grim.

I hear Connor cursing before I see the damage; and by the words he's using, it's bad. I hurry around the side of the car, Nathan and Ava at my heels, and am promptly fighting the urge to let out a few heinous expletives myself.

Unbeknownst to me, the incline that we just drove down ends in a very wide, muddy ditch. And in the dark, I steered the car right into it. (Well, okay, I wasn't exactly steering...).

Without our combined weight tethering it to solid ground, the truck is quickly sinking, its white paint job becoming marred by a spattering of mud.

I'm pretty sure the rental company won't be too happy about that.

But in my defense, no one in their right mind would paint an all-terrain vehicle white.

As I'm standing there, mentally criticizing the sanity of the car-makers, the front of the truck has nearly completely sunken into the mud. Connor shouts something to Nathan, and a moment later, the two of them are braced on either side of the truck, pulling at it with all their might. But the truck is heavy (I mean, one of its tires is like, half my height), and if anything, they probably quicken the sinking process.

Eventually, after what feels like hours, the Jeep stops moving. There's no warning, no nothing; it simply freezes. I would shout for joy...but considering that nearly the entire cab is submerged in the muddy depths, I'm not sure that's an appropriate reaction.

In the near darkness, Nathan's troubled eyes focus on mine. “Georgie, what time is it? Can you call your brother and ask him to pick us up?”

I check my smart-phone, which reveals to me that it is 10:47 PM. Probably not too late to be calling Brandon...but something stops me. Next to the time, outlined in a red glow, is a symbol that makes my heart plummet to my feet.

No bars.

My friends must read the despair on my face, because all three immediately pull out their own phones to check. And judging by the horrified expressions written across their features, they're in the same plight as me. The damned wilderness has no signal.

Just another reason to love the great outdoors.

It's Ava who asks the million dollar question: “So, what we do now?”

I myself am starved of an answer, but Connor responds almost immediately.

“Well, we have all our camping gear, right?” he questions. “We have food, water, and supplies. And I mean, we did come out here to camp...”

“Nuh-uh,” I say immediately, catching on to his idea. “We came to sleep in tents in Brandon's backyard. We are in no way ready for real live camping.”

Connor's expression becomes amused. “Real live as opposed to what, Georgie?”

I grumble an incoherent answer (something along the lines of “I don't know, dead”) before falling to silence.

“Wait a second,” Ava says slowly, “you want us to sleep outside? Like, now?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

She doesn't, and neither do Nathan or I. So moments later, the four of us are hauling all of our gear out of the bed of the truck—which, thankfully, is not submersed—and tossing it onto the ground. But there's a lot, and after a few bags have successfully hit the earth, Connor stops.

“Here, why don't Georgie and I take these bags and try to find us somewhere to set up?” he suggests. “You two can keep unloading, and we'll come back as soon as we spot something.”

Ava narrows her eyes. “Is this just a ploy to buy you two some alone time? Because if it is, I swear, I'll—”

“It's not, Ava. Scout's honor.”

“You sure it's a good idea to split up?” Nathan questions, frowning worriedly. Connor waves a dismissive hand.

“Yeah, totally. We're capable.” Then he casts a sidelong glance at me, his brow furrowing as he smirks. “Or at least: one of us is.”

~

“I hate nature,” I tell Connor, probably for the hundredth time since we set out two minutes ago.

He just rolls his eyes and says, “It could be worse. It could be snowing.”

I snort. Snow in California? In the middle of summer, no less? Yeah, right. Even now, despite the lack of sun, it must be at least eighty degrees. I can feel the sweat dripping down my neck and onto my tank-top.

Still, the idea of making this trek in a world of slippery white dust is infinitely worse. And it's not like this is too bad anyway, right? I mean, sure: it's dark, my sneakers are caked in dirt, and my exposed legs are easy prey for any hungry ticks or mosquitoes. But I'm alive, I have Connor, and as of yet, I haven't taken the inevitable spill that is bound to happen sometime in my future.

Wait—spoke too soon.

Because all of a sudden, the ground beneath my feet disappears, and I go pitching forward into a dark abyss of nothingness. My flashlight springs from my hands as I hit the ground, tumbling head over heels down a slope before coming to a rest in a patch of itchy grass. The heavy backpack on my shoulders is digging painfully into my spine. With a grunt, I shrug it off.

“Georgie! Georgie, are you all right?” A bobbing sphere of light comes hurrying toward me, with Connor's worried face illuminated behind it.

Groaning, I sit up, feeling around for my flashlight and clicking it on. My head does feel a little bit bruised, but it's nothing out of the ordinary. I've had worse falls, and not all of them have had landings as soft as this squishy, clothes-staining dirt.

“I'm fine,” I assure, getting to my feet with some assistance from a nearby tree.

Connor takes my hand, his eyes still anxious. “Are you sure you're okay? That was some fall. What happened?”

I open my mouth to respond, then wonder: what did happen? One moment, I was walking, the next, I was plummeting down a mountain at warp speed.

No matter that it was barely a hill, and I was moving no faster than a kid on their tricycle.

But Connor is still waiting for an answer, so I cough and point my flashlight up the incline. “I tripped,” I say bluntly. “On...that.”

Connor squints. “On what?”

“That! Don't you see it? Right there.” I wave my light for emphasis.

“No, Georgie, I'm afraid I don't see it.”

“Well, then, you're blind. I don't know how anyone could miss that speck of dirt. It was a monstrous little thing, really.”