The Collector had many young adult heads, but her collection of genuinely teenage heads could use a few more subjects. Despite her awkwardly proportioned and somewhat pudgy body, Julia's head was absolutely adorable, and would look even cuter once divorced from her body and placed on a shelf, or on The Collector's much sexier body.
Sneaking behind the group and waiting for them to drop their guard, The Collector was able to pick up a bit more information. The tall pale one was named Carly, was the drummer in a punk band with a rude name, and was indeed Dianne's girlfriend. Dianne had been secretly dating Carly for almost a year, but had only recently come out to her parents and had run off on this camping trip to give them some time to process her revelation. She also seemed to be the only one who knew anything at all about the forest, pointing out some of the different varieties of trees and identifying bird calls with (almost) total accuracy. Julia's tall, bossy sister was named Paulette, and apparently she and Julia shared a sister in between their ages named Bella, who couldn't come on this camping trip due to breaking both her legs in a bike accident two weeks ago. Whether or not their parents intended to give their three daughters the first initials PB&J was unknown, but it made The Collector give a silent giggle when Carly pointed it out and started joking about Paulette being a health nut, which ironically drove Paulette nuts.
And then there was Julia, looking sad and miserable taking up the rear of the group. While Dianne and Carly would occasionally banter with her, and did their best to deflect Paulette's rude remarks, it was clear that they were closer friends with the oldest sister than the youngest, spending most of their time talking with her rather than Julia, who spent the majority of the hike panting with her head down.
"I'm doing this girl a favor." The Collector thought, her resolve to steal that one's head hardening.
Soon, she saw her opportunity. Julia leaned heavily against a tree, wiping sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. "Sis, seriously, can we stop for a sec? I need to catch my breath."
"We have been walking a while..." Dianne said noncommittally, her voice level and clearly not strained.
"Don't indulge her, we've barely walked two miles." Paulette said without stopping, checking the step counter on her wrist. "This will be good for her, help build up her cardio and those leg muscles." She glanced briefly over her shoulder. "Hear that, tubby? Keep up or get got by the witch! We're not taking a break until eleven!"
Julia huffed and glanced at her phone. It was 9:53pm. "UGH..." she wearily groaned.
"Don't worry girl, once we stop I'll whip us up some sweet midnight chili!" Carly said.
While Carly meant the words as genuine encouragement, Paulette saw an easy opportunity for an insult and added "Hear that, little piggy? Slop awaits!"
"SLOP?!" Carly said, offended more by Paulette's critique of her cooking skills than at the insult she'd just lobbed at her lingering sister. She and Paulette began arguing, paying no attention to Julia who remained leaning against the tree as they walked.
"Ugh..." Julia grumbled, pushing herself off the tree and preparing herself to jog to catch up with them. Before she could take her first step, however, she felt a pair of hands clasping against her cheeks. She gasped in surprise, then yelped in fear as The Collector pulled her head clean off her body. Her yelp...