The group of girls—three of them—stood together, where the trail ended. The stream trickled from a small crack where the walls met. The only way out was up the wall or back through the cave again. It was pretty, but it felt like we were stuck in a pit.
“We should climb out,” one of the girls said as I got closer. “It’ll be like rock climbing.”
“I don’t want to do that,” another one said.
“I don’t want to go through the cave again,” the third said. She wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. “I don’t like this.”
“Girls,” I called out, waving as I left the cave.
They turned to me, appearing relieved.
“Tell them to climb out,” one of them said, pointing to the wall of the pit. “It’ll be easier.”
“I don’t think I can,” the other girl said. “Don’t make me.”
“We don’t want to go through the cave again.”
I sighed, looking up. “Lake?” I called.
It took a minute, but Lake appeared, looking down at us from the lip of the cave. “You found them?”
“I found three,” I said. “Carla’s going after the other group. Mrs. Rose must be with them. She’s going to get them to turn back.”
Lake nodded. “So go back. You can find your way, right?”
I looked at the girls, all folding their arms across their chests and regarding me with expectant eyes—they were waiting for me to make a decision.
I didn’t like the idea of going back into the dank and dirty cave. “Maybe we should try climbing,” I said.
We studied the walls, looking for the lowest and best spot to try.
Once we found what we agreed would be the best place to climb I stood at the bottom and assisted one of the girls up by clasping my hands together to give her a foothold, the way the guys had taught me before. I boosted and Lake put herself on her stomach to reach down from above to lift her up.
It took eons for the girl to find a foothold in the rock face that was sturdy enough for her to steady herself. Once she did, I boosted her, lifting with everything I had. The girl made it up, but barely, and I used up a lot of strength doing it.
Once she was up, I leaned against the wall and breathed heavily. Could I push up two more girls and still pull myself out?
Lake patted her hands against the dirt of the pit wall and reached down. “Come on,” she said.
I bent over, ready to lift another girl. She was heavier than the first one, and while I tried to boost her, her balance was off and she wavered. We crashed backward, me on my butt, her on her side.
Lake groaned. “Come on,” she said. “Or you’ll just have to go back through the cave.”
The third girl that was waiting shook and had tears in her eyes. “We’re going to be stuck here forever,” she said.
We needed someone stronger and taller. I thought of Silas or any of the guys. They could get themselves out.
Suddenly, I recalled the people in red who’d been following us. I’d had a suspicious feeling I knew who it could be as we walked. I suddenly hoped I was right.
“Lake,” I said, swallowing against the dryness in my throat. “I need you to make a call.”
“On my phone?” she asked. “It doesn’t have a signal.”
“I mean...make this noise.” I made a squeal—the emergency signal I’d learned from kids in my neighborhood. I just hoped one of the guys were actually out there and remembered. “Suu-weee,” I tried again. “Do that.”
“Are you kidding?” Lake said, looking down at us with a frown. “Why?”
“Just do it,” I said. “But do it loud.”
She did, making the noise as loud as she could. The girl next to her joined in.
“Do it again!” I said.
They did, and then Lake stopped abruptly and turned, stepping away out of view.
My heart was beating hard in my chest as I stared up at the opening over our heads.
Please, please, please...
Nathan’s face appeared, looking down at us, wearing a serious expression. Luke appeared beside him a minute later. Luke was wearing black pants and a camo long-sleeved T-shirt. Nathan wore the same, except for a red knit hat.
I was so happy to see them, I was going to ignore that they had been following us.
“How’d you know we were here?” Luke called down to us.
“Nathan’s hat,” I said. “I saw the red. And you were loud. I could hear you coming. And I could smell your vanilla scent.”
I’d spent a lot of time walking in the woods as a kid, so identifying noises and what was human and just wood noises was easy for me.
Luke smacked Nathan in the stomach with a loose hand. “I told you that you were being too loud.”
“Shut up,” Nathan said and then peered down at us again. “Need a hand up?”
I nodded. “I’m not strong enough to boost them out.”
Nathan squatted, and then crawled to the edge of the pit, lowering himself until he hung on with his hands, his feet dangling down. “Get out of the way,” he said.
The two other girls and I backed up. He let go and landed with a thud at the bottom, dropping down to his hands to brace himself for the impact. Once he was settled, he stood, looking up. He whistled in a low tone. “That’s a drop. That almost hurt.” He turned to me and frowned. “What are you all doing in there? Did you fall? No one’s hurt, are you?”
“Long story,” I said. “Can you help the girls out?”
“Sure,” he said. He motioned to them. “Come on. I’ll boost you up. Luke will pull you out.”
“We won’t even ask a favor,” Luke said from above us with a grin. “This one is on the house.”
Luke lowered himself on the lip of the cavern like Lake had done, lying on the ground with his hands down, reaching.
Nathan picked up the first girl with ease, boosting her so she could reach up to Luke. Luke grabbed her hands, pulling her up. Lake continued to help, taking the girl’s arm and pulling until she stood on solid ground. They worked again to lift the next girl out.
Nathan dusted his hands and then reached for me. “Your turn.”
We were alone now, so I spoke quietly, hoping the other girls couldn't hear. “Are you guys going to keep following us?”
“Of course,” he said. “Victor told us you made him promise to stay by you. We’ve got a schedule so we switch out, but we’ll try not to get in the way. We need the practice apparently anyway. I volunteered today. I wanted to see how you were getting on. Probably a good thing, too. Mrs. Rose is a little...adventurous.”
I smothered my proud and happy smile. Victor had kept a promise I’d already forgotten about. It would make this job easier knowing the guys were going to be nearby the entire week. “Thank you,” I said.
He winked and moved behind me to help me up, but gave my arms an extra encouraging squeeze. “You’re doing amazing, Peanut. Keep it up.”
I was glad it was him and Luke following, or any of my team. Anyone else might not have known to come help us.
Nathan lifted me up and Luke pulled when I reached for him.
“Except you,” Luke said with a grunt as he pulled on my arms. He grinned through it, though, his brown eyes shining as a lock of blond hair fell into his face, escaping the clip he was wearing. “You owe me a favor after this.”
“Just give him a cookie,” Nathan said from below me, boosting me higher.
“I’ll take a cookie,” Luke said. “Or five. Homemade, though. Extra chocolate chips.”
I was yanked up to the rim of the cavern, dirt smudging my sweater. When I got to the top and was standing by Luke, I brushed off my clothes. All the girls were covered in brown stains on the fronts of their clothes.
Luke dropped down to his stomach again and leaned further out. Nathan backed up, and then raced toward the wall of the pit, jumping up the side wall as he grabbed for Luke’s hand. Luke caught and used Nathan’s momentum to pull him up as the rest of us watched
in awe.
Nathan and Luke stayed on their knees for a minute, breathing heavily and recovering.
“Whew,” Nathan said, pressing a hand to his side. “No more falling into pits, girls. We might not always be around to call on.”
“What was that?” Lake asked. Her eyes were narrow, suspicious. “The call. Suu-wee?”
Luke shrugged, brushing grass and dirt off his black pants. “It’s an emergency call from our neighborhood. If you hear that, someone’s in trouble.” He looked at me to confirm. “North made sure we all recognized it once we knew what it was.”
“But that’s not an Academy thing,” Nathan said. “So don’t expect other people to respond to it.”
Lake nodded, shifting from foot to foot. Next to the guys, she did look more like a guy, just with feminine features, like a fine nose and the fact that she was small.
Luke waved at the girls to get their attention. “Now listen, you didn’t see us here. I need you all to pinkie swear it.” He held out his smallest finger toward the girls. While he was grinning, his brown eyes were steady; he was serious.
All the girls held out their fingers. He hooked his finger onto theirs and looked them dead in the eye in turn. When he was done, he smiled warmly and nodded. “That’s what I’m talking about.”
Lake pointed to me. “You didn’t make her swear.”
“She knows better,” Luke said and winked at me.
“Thanks, guys,” I said.
“For what?” Luke said with wide eyes as he backed away toward the woods. “We weren’t here. We didn’t do anything.” He disappeared behind the trees. Nathan waved at us and followed him.
I was able to follow their movements for a little while, but they soon disappeared behind some trees.
With the guys gone, the girls all looked to me.
“What now?” Lake asked.
I looked around us. There hadn’t been word from the other girls. “We should circle around.”
“Are those guys going to follow us?” one of the girls asked.
“What guys?” I said, my eyes wide. I smiled like Luke had. “I didn’t see anyone.”
Since the guys didn’t want anyone to know they were there, I assumed they weren’t really supposed to be following us. Would it really be that bad if Mrs. Rose or someone in charge found out? They did help us.
Maybe because they were practicing following without being noticed, so they wanted to continue that. If we told anyone else, we’d be looking for them.
The girl nodded and zipped her lips with pinched fingers and then started following Lake around the far side of the pit, back toward the red building. “I hope so,” I heard her say as she walked on. “Just in case we find another cave.”
I hoped so, too.
ON WITH THE HIKE
The path Mrs. Rose had followed had ended and Carla convinced them to return. Once we were all outside. Mrs. Rose apologized when she returned, signing her explanation which I translated.
“The ranger said there was a nice little cave under a red building, which we were lucky enough to find. She said it was safe, just to watch out for critters that might have gone in through the night.” She looked at me with an apologetic smile. “I told them this by writing it on my notepad before we went in beyond the water pipes. I’m sorry if I scared you.”
I wouldn’t have been surprised if she had specifically asked the rangers if there were any caves to explore.
We all said we were fine, but looking around at the group, I had a feeling we were all done with cave exploring.
Mrs. Rose suggested instead of following the trail back, that we follow the stream. She looked right at me. “This heads north to that river, right?”
She knew I could tell directions and she was giving me a chance to use it. I confirmed with them that the stream was heading north, and we’d be able to follow it to the beach and then back to camp. I gauged from the map that it wasn’t very far. “Maybe a mile or two,” I said.
It was enough to convince the others to enjoy a nice walk in the stream bed.
The gorge never got deeper than our waists from that point on, except soon it narrowed, so we had to walk single file. I wondered if we still needed to talk about Academy things, but no one asked questions at the moment.
A meadow spread out around us and it was a lovely walk following the stream along the sandy banks, with the sky overhead. I imagined during the spring and summer, there might have been flowers.
Sometime later, a girl ahead of me pulled her hand in sharply. “Ow,” she said. “I think the plant bit me.”
“Plants don’t bite,” a girl ahead of her said.
I was about to agree, although I suspected maybe she brushed up against poisoned oak. I’d had few experiences with it.
I was about to check her hand for the start of a rash, or a bee sting, when I noticed the overgrown plant she’d brushed up against. I’d been focusing on the stream we were following as we walked the sandy path and followed it north. I hadn’t been looking around us for the last ten minutes.
The plants around us looked eerily familiar. As far as I could see the distant tree line, a hundred or so feet away, there were nettle plants. Stinging nettle.
Great.
“Girls!” I called out, my voice cracking after so much use earlier, plus my voice being broken since I couldn’t talk so loud. I swallowed.
“Sore throat?” Lake asked. She’d been behind me, the last on the trail.
“Sort of,” I said. I looked ahead and thought I saw the bigger river ahead of us as we continued down the gentle slope. The nettle didn’t go as far as the river but was spilling over into the gorge, though. “Tell the girls to walk with their arms up and to not touch the plants. It’s nettle.”
“Is it like poison ivy?” Lake asked.
“No,” I said. “It will make a little rash, but it’ll go away in an afternoon if you don’t scratch it. A little lotion can relieve the itch and I don’t think it spreads like poison ivy does. It should be okay if their clothes brush against it.”
Lake called over my head to the girls. “Keep your hands up!” she said. “Or cover your arms with a sweater and put your hands in your pockets! Don’t touch the plants.”
“Should we go back?” someone asked.
“We’re almost to the river,” Carla said. She covered her brow with her hand, looking toward the river. “Can we get there?”
“There’s no nettle up there,” I said. “I think we’re fine. Probably faster to go to the river than back.”
Lake told the girls to continue forward. “Just keep your hands away from the plants, and you should be fine.”
One of the girls said she didn’t have a sweater with her, so another girl gave her a jacket.
Once we were out of the stream bed and away from the nettle, the girls collected on the beach.
“I’m not an outdoor girl,” one of them said. “But this wasn’t bad.”
“A cool adventure,” another one said. She held her hand up to give out high fives and then changed it up for a hug when Mrs. Rose opened her arms wide and almost tackled her.
“Group hug!” one of them called. “We made it!”
I gritted my teeth, looking at Lake. Lake shrugged, and moved toward the circle, joining in.
Hugging? My insides tightened as I held back.
“With Sang, too!” Carla cried out. She was somewhere in the middle. “She was great!”
Before I could get away, the group shifted and I was suddenly surrounded by hugging bodies.
Darkness washed over my eyes and my heart erupted into a thumping mess. I curled inward, making myself as small as possible, closing my eyes. I held my breath and tried not to move.
The feeling that washed over me was overwhelming. I didn’t understand what I was feeling. I should have been happy, shouldn’t I? They were being nice. This is what normal people did.
The longer they lingered, the more I wanted to sink down into the ground and escape. M
y skin crawled. My stomach clenched into a knot. My throat closed up. I couldn’t even ask them to stop.
I was as still as I could by, my arms over my body, as I felt hands on my shoulder, my back, my arm. Someone’s breasts pressed into my back as they hugged me from behind.
The girls broke it off and then they all giggled and started talking about the walk—the cave, the climb out, the nettles. It was nothing to them. It was a hug.
I rubbed at my face, pretending I had an itch and tried not to look at anyone as I wiped away the tears in my eyes. Overwhelmed and suddenly exhausted, I wanted to get away. I shivered and wanted to rake my crawling skin in a piping hot bath. What was wrong with me? I had been fine all morning until they all came close and touched me.
I was so awkward. So shy. So easily overwhelmed by simple, friendly touching. Would I have to get used to that kind of thing if I was brought into the Academy?
How come the guys could touch and hug me and this was so uncomfortable? Did I just need to get to know them?
“Follow the river!” one of them cried out, jolting me out of my dark thoughts but not enough that I wasn’t still rattled by what had happened.
Mrs. Rose signed and I spoke for her, but in a low voice, not even registering the words.
It was Lake who heard me and became my voice. “Once we’re in view of other teams, we’re ready to split up for the rest of day. Go grab lunch. Join in activities. Tomorrow, meet me—Mrs. Rose—at the latrine at nine a.m. We’ll review what we talked about today, go over some more Academy details, and open up for questions. If you need anything, come to me and I’ll make sure you’ve got supplies, clothes and a place to sleep. I’ll be at the cabins this afternoon.”
It wasn’t long before we came up to another Academy group.
A man sat at a table, with fishing gear and equipment around him. He had a beard and a wise old face. Beside him was a flagpole grounded in a bucket filled with cement to keep it in place. From the pole flew a flag with an emblem of a fish.
Along the shore of the river were several people, mostly guys, but a few girls of varying ages. Some had poles and some had nets and some sat on coolers behind those fishing, watching and chatting.