ERIN

“Aren’t you going to let everyone know how you saved me? How you protected me from what would have been a grisly death?” I asked, teasing Harry as we reached the camp. As soon as the words left my mouth Stefanie ran over to me, holding me at an arm’s length and began assessing me.
“Um….you look fine….what did he save you from?” She asked, raising her eyebrow. I began to tell her the story which inevitably took forever because every time I started to think about it again I began to laugh. By the time I revealed to Stef that the “menacing monster” was only a doe she was laughing hysterically right along with me.
I glanced over at Harry and saw that he definitely did not look amused and for the first time in a long time it actually bothered me. Turning to face him I placed my hand on his arm, “I have to admit, your chivalry at trying to save me from the ferocious beast was noble in a moronic sort of way.”
Harry’s answering smile was adorable.
“There’s a complement somewhere in there. So I’m going to take it and run with it,” he said proudly before turning and walking away from us to where the other guys were standing. I looked back to Stefanie and saw a stupid knowing grin on her face.
“Don’t say it,” I commented, pursing my lips.
“But…”
“No”
“Come on,” she whined.
“Shh.”
“Whatever, you suck.”
“It’s getting dark,” I observed, trying to change the subject, “We should start building a fire because Lord knows the boys won’t be able to do it.”
Still pouting her bottom lip Stefanie headed into the woods to collect firewood and I couldn’t help but take note of the fact that Liam ran off right behind her. I swear if I didn’t know better I would swear that there was something going on with those two.
“So what are the sleeping arrangements for tonight?” Niall asked, squatting down next to where I was arranging rocks for the fire.
“I don’t even know,” I laughed, Stefanie and I both brought our tents and then one extra. So I would assume Liam’s probably going to crash with Stef and your more then welcome to camp out with me. Which leaves Louis and Harry in the other tent.”
“You sure you don’t want to shack up with Harry instead?” Niall tormented, playfully poking me with his elbow and I shoved him back.
“Not you too,” I complained, sticking out my bottom lip.
“Aw now don’t go sticking that lip out at me,” he begged, “You know I hate when you do that.”
Purposefully I stuck my lip out even farther.
“Alright woman, I will sleep in your damn tent!” Niall yelled loudly, causing both Louis and Harry to turn and look at us.
“Just stop begging me!” he continued and then stuck his tongue out at me before laughing riotously.
“You’re an ass,” I chuckled and then stood up, proudly looking down at my work.
“It’s all ready to go,” I said proudly, “If Stef would just hurry up with the firewood that would be perfect.”
I took a moment to look over at Harry who was staring at me intently. Apparently he didn’t find Niall and I’s banter very funny.
“Come look,” I said, urging him to come over and join Niall and I. He hesitated for a moment but then reluctantly walked over.
“That’s a very nice circle of rocks,” he said with a snicker and my immediate reaction was to stick my tongue out at him. He made a face of mock horror before an evil grin spread on his face.
“Oh now you’re in trouble,” he threatened and as he moved towards me, I ran. Not because I actually believed he was going to do anything to harm me but because he was being playful and playful Harry I couldn’t seem to resist.
I ran into the woods, hopping over anything in my path but it seemed no matter how quickly or agilely I moved Harry was still gaining on me. After about three more steps I felt his arms go around my waist.
“Gottcha!” he yelled proudly and before I could react he began tickling me. The laughter that was pouring out of my mouth couldn’t be stopped. I was hysterical. I know there are plenty of people in the world who aren’t susceptible to tickling…I was not one of them. No matter how I begged and pleaded he continued his tickle torture and before long the inevitable happened…I snorted.
Harry’s hands froze instantly and he burst into fits of laughter.
“Shut up!” I yelled, mortified but Harry just kept on laughing.
“Seriously stop it!”
“I can’t,” he gasped and I felt myself becoming more and more embarrassed, “I’m sorry, but that has to be the cutest thing I’ve ever heard!”
He thought it was cute?
Harry stood up and met my eyes, his laughter slowly dying off. I watched as something changed in his eyes. There was no amusement there just…something else. I felt his hand gaze the side of my cheek and I knew he was going to kiss me and on top of that, I wanted him to. As he moved his mouth closer to mine and slightly tilted his head I began to close my eyes. But right before they shut something behind Harry caught my attention.
“Oh my God!”

STEFANIE

“What’s wrong with all these branches?” Liam asked, traipsing through the woods behind me. He’s already asked this question about a million times since we left camp but me being me I answered him again.
“Because, like I’ve already told you a gazillion times….we need dry wood. Wet wood doesn’t burn. Duh,” I sighed and kept walking. We walked about a hundred more feet into the woods and that’s when I saw what I was looking for. Lying underneath the natural rock formations was a small alcove. The upper ledge providing just enough coverage to the ground below to keep everything under dry.
I started gathering up the small sticks I knew would work perfectly for kindling and the sound of Liam’s voice stopped me.
“Wait a second.”
I turned to face him and found him much closer to me then I’d expected.
“We’re alone,” he whispered and I continued to stare at him blankly…I mean, no shit. A moment later realization dawned on me.
Oh.
Liam closed the space between us and slid one hand around my waist and the other into my hair, lowering his mouth to mine. Even though I kissed Liam in the airport I still had that moment of awkwardness when his lips met mine. I mean this was Liam. But needless to say the man had a talented mouth and made any thoughts of awkwardness flee my mind. His kiss glided smoothly over my mouth and he never just did the same thing. He kissed and sucked and left little licks with a flick of his tongue. He made it impossible to even think about mundane things like who I was kissing all I could do was feel the sensation of it.
And damn it felt good.
Liam kissed a trail across my jaw and down my neck. As he stopped to tease the curve of my neck, I had to clench my teeth together to keep from crying out. My head fell backwards on its own accord and I lifted it back up almost immediately needing to feel his mouth on mine again.
It was then that I saw them.
Erin and Harry were standing about twenty feet away from us the same look of shocked horror on both of their faces.
“Oh shit,” I said and Liam turned his head to the direction I was looking.
“Fuck,” he whispered. This was bad. This was very bad. The first thing that flashed through my mind was the conversation that Erin and I had, had not that long ago where I swore up and down that nothing was going on between Liam and I.
“Erin, wait!” I called out the second I realized she had already turn to run away, “Just listen to me, please!”
At my words, she abruptly turned to face me.
“What? What could you possibly say Stef?” she yelled and I admittedly was taken back by how furious she was, “Do you want to lie to me some more maybe? Because apparently that’s what you do now.”
“Well if that’s not the pot calling the kettle black I don’t know what is,” I replied coldly.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Um, I don’t know. I seem to remember not too long ago you lying to me about Chris. About getting back together with him,” I struggled to keep my voice level. Erin’s mouth opened in shock, her eyes looking from Liam to Harry and then back to me again.
“That was completely different,” she argued, placing her hands on her hips.
“I’m just calling a spade a spade, Erin. No matter different situation or not, you still lied to me and not for anything I didn’t even lie to you.”
“You know what, Stef,” she paused letting out a deep breath, “This isn’t about me, it’s about you. You fucking around with Liam behind everyone’s backs and swearing up and down that nothing was going on. I’m not going to let you turn it around on me.”
“When you asked me there was nothing going on between Liam and I. So no I didn’t lie to you. But at the end of the day you did lie to me.”
“I’m over all these this bullshit lies….Whatever!” Erin screamed and then turned and stomped away, with Harry hot on her tail.

The second that Erin and Harry were out of sight, I felt Liam’s hand on my shoulder.
“Are you okay?” he asked and it took everything in my not to burst into tears right then and there. This whole thing was supposed to be a secret now not only did Erin know but Harry did too. This was a disaster and even though I was well aware that this wasn’t Liam’s fault he was one of the last people that I wanted to talk to about it.
“I’m going back to camp,” I whispered, “We’ll talk later.”
Liam knew me well enough to not to even attempt to follow me. I was so angry I couldn’t even see straight. I mean, what right did she have to even be mad at me? Liam and I had just begun this arrangement, it’s not like I’d had time to tell her about it. And after that whole bullshit with her lying to me about Chris? Ugh!
I was seeing red. I walked to the campsite and straight to my tent. I couldn’t even have told you if there was anyone else around because honestly I was so single minded in my thoughts of getting away from everyone and everything that I didn’t bother to look.
As soon as I was safely zipped inside the privacy of my tent, I let the tears fall. I wasn’t sure if I was crying because I was upset or if I was just that angry but either way I hugged my knees into my chest and let them fall.
“What’s wrong,” a familiar voice said gently and when I looked up Louis was inside the tent with me he face a mask of concern.
“No offence but I really don’t want to talk about it,” I answered, sniffling as I attempted to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“Okay….”Louis commented but no effort to leave the tent.
“What are you doing?” I asked but Louis just shook his head and mimed zipping his lips, locking them and throwing the key behind him. Despite my mood, I laughed. Louis raised his eyebrows at me questioningly, a smirk playing on his lips.
“You’re such a dork,” I commented with a laugh and Louis shrugged his shoulders.
“Would you please talk?” I asked as sweetly as I could and Louis shook his head ‘no’. He held up his finger as if to mime ‘one minute’ and I laughed out loud. He moved his finger up to his chin tapping it like he was thinking and then a huge smile spread across his face.
“Are you going to talk now?” I quipped, playing his little game and he shrugged again before lifting up the same finger and tapping his cheek. He turned his head so that cheek was facing me.
“What are you doing?” I laughed and he began to make a kissing motion with his mouth before tapping his cheek again.
He wanted a kiss on the cheek.
I rolled my eyes before leaning over and placing a chaste kiss on his cheek. Smiling, he held his hand over his heart and fell back onto the sleeping back.
“There are no words for you,” I laughed, picking up my pillow and throwing it at him.
“I got you to laugh,” he pointed out cockily and I rolled my eyes at him once again.
“Yeah, yeah,” I sighed, blowing off his comment. We sat there for a moment unsure of what to say but it didn’t take long for Louis to break the silence.
“So, I’m not really sure this camping thing is for me,” he said, sitting up and crossing his legs, “It’s a little cold.”
“Don’t be such a girl,” I laughed, “That’s why we brought sweatshirts and coats and sleeping bags. You will survive I promise.”
“I didn’t bring a coat or a sweatshirt,” Louis informed me, “All I brought was a jumper.”
“A what?”
“A jumper.”
“What the hell is that?” I asked completely baffled. What the hell was this guy talking about? He looked at me as though I’d lost my mind, like I was the crazy one even though he was the one talking about jumpers.
“I’ll go get it and show you,” he laughed, “I’ll be right back.”
When he opened the tent to step out, Liam was standing there waiting to come in.
“Sorry mate,” Liam commented stepping back for Louis to be able to get out. The expression on Louis’s face as he turned was unmistakable, he was annoyed that Liam had shown up and I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of that but before I could question it, Louis was out of the tent and Liam was in, zipping it up.
“What was that about?” he asked curiously, sitting down next to me.
“Nothing,” he just saw that I was upset and came to check on me.
“Uh-huh, suuuuuuuuure,” Liam teased and all I could do was shake my head.
“So….” He paused eyeing me, “Where were we before we were so rudely interrupted,” and before I could respond he pressed his soft lips to mine.
“Wait,” I sighed, shoving him back gently, “Louis will be back any minute.”
Liam nodded in understanding and moved back to the other side of the tent without hesitation. Anyone else would have gotten angry with me or at least been offended, but not Liam. Liam understood.
“Can I at least get under the sleeping bag while we wait? I’m freezing,” Liam laughed and I pulled back the sleeping bag for him to crawl in.
“You getting in?” he asked, holding it open to me and I shook my head ‘no’. There was no way I was crawling in there with Liam so Louis could find us like that. As if on cue the tent began to unzip and Louis walked in, smiling at me.
“This is a jumper,” he said matter-of-factly pointing towards the beige colored sweater he was now wearing.
“Or it’s a sweater,” I retaliated, laughing I could tell the exact moment that Louis realized that Liam was still in the tent, under the cover of the sleeping bag. His eyes hardened as he glared over at him and when they returned to me they looked lost.
“Well, I guess me and my jumper will be going back to my tent now,” he said half-heartedly. I wanted him to stay. Even though it was wrong. All I wanted was for him to stay and Liam to leave. But I knew I couldn’t voice that out loud so instead I simply said goodnight.

HARRY
I tried to keep up with Erin after her fight with Stefanie. I even called for her in the dark woods but she left me behind saying how she didn’t want to talk, and now I was wandering the woods alone with nothing to keep me company but my own thoughts. This night was starting to turn out to be a good one until Erin spotted Liam and Stefanie snogging. I just can’t shake the feeling that if she hadn’t see them that’s what Erin and I would be doing right now. I mean, she leaned in when I did. She had to know I was going to kiss her, and if I wasn’t mistaken…she wanted me to…
I had managed to wander back to camp without conscious thought. It didn’t occur to me what time it was until I saw that half the people in our group were already settled into their tents for the night. I saw Louis sitting down in front of the campfire next to Niall and I wondered if he knew if Erin was back already.
“Hey Niall, is Erin in the tent?”
‘Yeah mate, but whatever you did to piss her off you might wanna wait until she calms down before goin’ to talk to her.”
“Huh?”
“When she came back she mumbled something about being lied to and went straight into the tent without even grabbing her stuff from Liam and Stef’s tent.”
“Oh, yeah. She’s not mad at me. Erin and Stef had a bit of a row before.” I said now distracted and looking towards the tent that Erin was in. I needed to make sure she was okay.
“Well either way she’s chuffed so if I were you, I’d steer clear.” Niall started to say as I walked away from him to enter the tent. “Seriously mate I don’t wanna share a tent with an angry Erin…please don’t make it worse?” he called to me as I continued towards the tent.
When I entered, she was curled up on the only air mattress in the tent. “Hey, how are you feeling?” I asked weakly scared of how she would respond. I honestly thought that she might just tell me to leave her alone, but instead she started sniffling.
“I can’t stand being lied to.” She whispered, “Now, I know she said she didn’t lie but it feels like she did, ya know?”
“I’m sorry I don’t know, why don’t you tell me why you got so upset?”
“I asked her not more than three days ago if there was anything going on with her and Liam and she told me no, there wasn’t” She took a second to breathe between sniffles. “And now, what? They’re together? And she doesn’t even tell me? I have to find out when I catch her sneaking around? Does she think I wouldn’t approve? He’s a nice guy and since she can’t be with who she really wants to be with, of course I would be happy that she found someone else to be happy with!”
I waited a moment to make sure she was done talking so that maybe I could help her clear things up. If I’m being honest it was kind of funny the way her mind worked and how she rambled on when she was upset, like every thought she’d ever had on the subject just jumped from her mind before even she could make sense of it.
Just as I was about to speak I looked at her and could tell she was cold. I grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders.
“She did say this was all new. That it had only started today, maybe she had no intention of anything happening. Maybe she did like him but thought he didn’t feel the same way.”
“I guess…” she said before shivering again.
“Still cold?”
She nodded and said, “And of course all my stuff is in Stefanie’s tent, and I can’t go in there and get it.”
She said rubbing her arms fiercely with her hands while I took off my sweat shirt to give it to her, “Why can’t you?” I asked.
“Because then she’ll want to talk!” She replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“And this would be bad because…?”
“Because I’m not ready to talk to her.” she huffed as she crossed her arms.
“So just don’t say anything, grab your stuff and walk out.” I suggested.
“Ha! That’s a laugh! She won’t take no for an answer. If I go in there she won’t let me leave until we talk it out, and as I’ve said, I’m not ready to talk.” She looked at me and continued, “Look, I’m stubborn but Stefanie is twice as bad as I am. Most of the time she gets her way when it comes to this stuff because compared to her I am a pushover.”
She trembled again, and this time I was out of things to give her to warm her up. I’d debated about running to my tent but she was finally letting me in, even if it was to vent her frustrations and I wasn’t about to walk away and risk her shutting me out again. I moved closer to her and said, “Come here, let me help warm you up.”
The moment I laid my hands on her arms, she instantly tensed up and I realized I better take it easy, “Sorry I’m just trying to keep you warm.”
“I know.” She said a little defensively. She realized that she had snapped and breathed out with a shudder, “I’m sorry—I just—“
“I know.” I said as she leaned in to let me rub her shoulders. After a minute she leaned in further so that I was now hugging her to keep her warm.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with her and Liam but I don’t think she meant to lie to you. I think they are trying to figure out what they are before they let anyone else in, and I don’t think they planned it.” I waited for her to push me away and tell me I was wrong or that I should just agree with her but she simply yawned. “And as for the way you found out, I’m sure she didn’t mean for you to find out that way, and I know that she knows you’d be happy for her.” After waiting a minute for her to answer I realized that she instead had fallen asleep.
She looked so peaceful and I know she was just so tired from all the craziness of the day, so instead of waking her up I tried to gently lay her down on the mattress. Once we were laying there I waited for her to stop stirring before trying move away from her. The minute I took my arms from around her she started to shiver again, so to keep her warm I wrapped my arms around her again and decided to lie there until she was warm enough that she didn’t need me. I guess I underestimated how tired I was too because shortly after Erin, I too fell asleep.


ERIN
As I opened my eyes I was greeted by the early morning sunlight peeking through the thin fabric of my tent. Harry’s heavy breathing in my ear as his body weighed down on mine was the next thing that registered in my mind. I’d spent the night with Harry. The entire night curled in his arms and as much as I hated to admit it, waking up next to him was definitely an amazing feeling but I knew it couldn’t last. I couldn’t let my guard down with this, it was a recipe for disaster. So before I could change my mind, I carefully slid out from under Harry’s grasp earning a small little mumble from him. I waited until his breathing evened out once again before sneaking out of the tent, zipping it as slowly and quietly as I could possibly manage.
“Didn’t know the walk of shame was your style,” Stefanie said and the sound of her voice scared the crap out of me. I looked up at her guiltily before I remember that I was still mad.
“I’m not talking to you,” I retorted.
“Funny, because it sounds like you are,” Stefanie replied and I knew all too well what she was trying to do, she done this since we were kids. Whenever I was mad she would always try to make me laugh so I would give in and talk to her and honestly it worked most of the time.
“I’m not falling for it.”
“But yet your still talking to me,” she quipped and continued to follow me through the camp site.
“Stop following me.”
“Nope,” she replied popping the ‘p’.
“What? What do you want to say?” I asked and a small smile played on Stefanie’s lips.
“I love you and I’m sorry that things went down the way they did yesterday,” she paused eyeing me, “I swear to you when we talked before about me and Liam there really wasn’t anything going on. This is all new. We just decided to start this thing up between us yesterday.”
“And what is ‘this thing’?” I asked, using air quotes. Stefanie looked down at her feet, kicking a rock that was lying in front of her before answering, “Like a friends with benefits thing,” she held her hands up so I wouldn’t speak, “I need to get over Louis, Erin….I thought this would help.”
I glared at her skeptically. I mean I agreed completely that she needed to get over this Louis thing but this was not the way to do it.
“Stef…,” I began but she cut me off, “Please Erin. Don’t. I can’t handle it right now. I’m just trying to work this all out.”
I nodded my head in understanding and held my arms out to her, “I’m sorry too, I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions like that.”
Stefanie hugged me back and just like that our fight was over.

LOUIS
The smell of the crisp wintery air and the sunlight interrupted the perfect dream I was having. I was still talking to Stefanie, making her laugh and she was still smiling at me the way she had last night. It was a dream that I never wanted to end, at least until the dream became a reality. For now I would settle with the fact that for a few fleeting moments last night she and I actually had a normal conversation.
I unzipped my tent and stepped outside before allowing myself to stretch a bit. I felt everything crack and I let out a soft moan of relief. When Harry decided to shack up with Erin I got landed with Niall as a tent mate and he moves around too much in his sleep, so to avoid being kicked and punched I stayed curled up in a ball.
I looked around and took in the beauty of the morning with freshly fallen snow. This must be why I was freezing last night.
I heard the unmistakable crack of someone stepping on a twig and when I turned around, I was happy to see Stefanie walking my way.
“Morning.” She said brightly as she smiled at me, “How’d you sleep last night?”
“Alright…Niall was wrestling an imaginary bear in his sleep but other than that, okay.”
I shrugged and smiled back at her.
“Listen, I was going to the store to get a couple things before we head down to the river…Do you want to join me?” she asked shyly as a slight shade of pink spread across her pale cheeks.
“Oh, uh where is Liam?”
“I don’t know…why?”
“I—uh was just wondering…he’s not coming with us?”
“I didn’t ask, so probably not.” she said with a giggle.
Yes! I wasn’t just the backup to Liam not being available to go. Play it cool Tommo.
“Okay then…sure, I’ll go.”
“I’ll go too!” We heard an excited Niall shout from inside the tent.
“Oh!” Stefanie said startled by Niall, who she clearly didn’t know was still in the tent. “Okay, I’ll be ready to leave in about ten minutes.” She said as she walked away.
I looked at Niall who smiled up at me from inside the tent, completely clueless as to what he had just done. What little alone time I had hoped to have with Stefanie was now gone…brilliant!

When we got to the store, we grabbed a basket to throw the food in and it wasn’t long before Niall disappeared, leaving me with the chance to recapture what Stefanie and I had going last night.
“So—“ I started to say before I was interrupted by the ringtone on Stefanie’s phone.
“Oops. Sorry that’s my sister. Hold on to that thought for a minute?” She asked sweetly before picking up the phone, “Hello?” She answered the phone and I listened as she spoke with her sister about our plans for the day and how everyone was meeting at the rental place where we would get our boats for today’s trip.
After a few minutes it felt like I was the silent third wheel in their conversation so I busied myself with grabbing a few snacks for later. It wasn’t until I felt Stefanie’s finger tapping on my shoulder that I realized she’d hung up with Corrine, but by then Niall had found his way back to us carrying a light brown teddy bear with a red bow wrapped around its neck. And a heart between its paws.
“Look what I found for your kid sister!” Niall said even more excitedly than he had when he invited himself to come to the store.
“Oh, that’s nice Naill.” Stefanie said with a smile holding back a laugh when Niall turned to pay for it at the register.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Oh, you’ll see.” She said stifling another laugh.
“Seriously tell me why it’s so funny for Niall to buy a bear for your little sister.”
“If I tell you are you going to warn Niall?”
“Not if you don’t want me to.”
“I don’t want you to, but only because it’ll be so much funnier this way.”
“Then I won’t.”
“Promise?” she said holding up her pinky.
“Promise.” I said extending mine and interlocking it with hers, “Now will you please tell me?”
“My little sister…is not that little. She hasn’t had a stuffed animal since she was like ten. She just turned nineteen in September, so I’d say she’s a little old for stuffed animals, wouldn’t you?”
“Yeah, I’d have to agree. And you don’t want to tell him because you wanna see the embarrassed look on his face, is that right?”
“Yep!” she said with another giggle.
“You are an evil woman…I love it!” I said with a smirk.
She laughed again as we headed towards the register to pay for our things and start making our way to the river. I had to admit, now that I was in on her secret, I couldn’t wait to see his face when he realized his mistake either. In fact, I became so excited, I was hardly able to contain my laughter every time I thought about it on the way there.
When we met up with everyone I watched Niall as he watched Stefanie hug Corrine and introduce her to everyone. I don’t know what I was expecting but Stefanie’s sister didn’t look all that much like her. For one she has blonde hair and blue eyes in contrast to Stefanie’s brown hair and brown eyes. Another noticeable difference was how curvy Stefanie was compared to Corrine who wasn’t as full bodied as her older sister. Just about the only thing physically that they had in common was their height which was probably why nobody other than Erin was sure that was even her sister in the first place.
“Hey guys, this is my sister Corrine. Corrine, you know Erin of course, and this is Louis, Liam, Harry, and Niall. And actually I think Niall bought you a little present, right Niall?”
“Oh, uh—it’s not—I mean, it’s nothing. It’s stupid really.”
I have to admit as bad as I felt for my friend being embarrassed like that I also loved the karma he got for ruining my alone time with Stefanie this morning.
“I’m sure it’s not stupid, that was very sweet of you to buy something for me. May I still have it?” Corrine asked batting her eyelashes at him, and he was putty in her hand.
“Okaaay.” He said handing over the bear he picked out for her.
“Ooohhh…it’s sooo cuuutee.” She said, cuddling it close to her face when Niall handed it to her. “Thank you!” she said leaning over, kissing him on the cheek before hugging him tightly.
“See…I knew she’d like it Stefanie.”
“Yeah, I guess she did.” Stefanie said, looking at the slight blush that formed on Corrine’s face. “Okay guys let’s get this party started!” Stefanie said as she walked towards the rental kiosk.

Notes

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