“This is important,” she said.
I cringed. Kota had been right. We probably did need to talk to Carla and get stuff out in the open. I’d kept my allegiance to the guys’ team a secret, to not confuse the girls with my complicated situation, and because I simply didn’t want to talk about it. Lake had never asked about it or let on what she assumed.
Maybe if Carla knew, she wouldn’t lecture us about hanging out with the boys or wonder why we were out so late with them.
She kept her arms folded as she walked away from the tent, nodding her head for us to follow. I frowned, keeping my own arms around my stomach as we fell in step behind her. Maybe she wanted to kick us out for trying to escape all the time. Could she even ask that?
Maybe it would be better.
She walked until she was in the middle of the paved road, well away from the tent. She turned to us then, seeming to be thinking about what she was going to say
Lake and I waited. It was on the tip of my tongue to offer to get Lake and I a separate tent.
“The girls are worried you don’t think they’re good enough for the Academy,” Carla said. “They’ve been asking to go home.”
Lake’s mouth dropped open. “What?” she said, shaking her head, obviously as surprised as I was. “Why? We don’t have any control over that.”
“I told them that,” she said. “Probably because you two talk for Mrs. Rose. And you saved some of them from the pit. And Sang saved them from the nettle. You start out nice and helpful, but... I don’t know...”
“Because we’re supposed to split up,” Lake said. “We’ve been trying to encourage them to spread out. We’re supposed to get to know other campers.”
“They’re scared,” Carla said. She dropped her folded arms from her chest to her stomach. Her lip trembled. “Everything seems like a test to them. They think this is part of getting accepted. I can’t keep them confident and together when you two run off every night. Even Taylor can’t convince them.”
“Why are they scared?” I asked. “They aren’t doing badly. We’re not judging them. We’re just trying to get them to try different things and talk to different people.”
“They’re worried,” she said. “They think you two trying to ditch them means you don’t like them or don’t think they’re good enough. And what happens at the end of the week with the exit interview and you two don’t have nice things to say about them?” She breathed in deeply, letting out a soft whistle. “I understand you two are probably trying to explore and find your own teams, but right now, they’re a split second away from demanding to go home because they feel like rejects.”
Lake frowned and looked at me before she spoke. “We didn’t know,” she said. “We were just...”
“I don’t care,” Carla said. “I know you’re just doing camp activities. I know that’s how it’s supposed to work, but...they looking up to you two, not me.”
“Maybe if you weren’t so bossy,” Lake said flatly.
Carla looked down, sniffing as she nodded. “I don’t know what else to do,” she said between deep breaths. “I thought if I took control a little, they’d want me to be their leader. But no matter what I did, they kept saying if Sang and Lake didn’t think they were good enough, then they should just go home.”
Lake rolled her head back, looking up toward the sky. “God, don’t cry. How were we supposed to know? Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
I trembled, tearful myself because Carla was crying, and also feeling sorry for the girls, who had directed their hopes into Lake and me. Carla wasn’t trying to intentionally exclude us, she was trying to help the girls and give us our freedom. It just wasn’t working.
And worse, Lake and I were letting the other girls down.
Carla breathed in deeply, looking up and wiping at her face. “I know you’re probably trying to explore and look at other teams, but right now, I need your help to convince them they can’t just quit the Academy. They don’t believe they’re good enough on their own. I just don’t want it to be my fault if they decided they can’t join if I could do something about it. They need us, all of us, to show them.”
I sighed, looking at Lake. Were we responsible for this? Would the Academy ask us why we were making the others uncomfortable when we hadn’t meant to? This had suddenly become more complicated than we’d realized.
“It can’t be up to us,” Lake said. “You heard April and Mrs. Rose and what they’ve been through. They can’t need us backing them up. They need thicker skin…”
“They don’t know as much as we do,” Carla said. “We come from troubled families, don’t we? Even if they don’t join the Academy, they’ve been trusted with our secrets. What loyalty do they have to keep our secrets if we push them away?”
She was right. I stuffed my hands into my jacket pockets. I’d been so worried about getting onto my team, that I didn’t stop to even ask them how they were doing.
“We have an issue,” Lake said, looking at me. “Sang’s already on a team or trying to get on that team. She’s been trying to work it out with them. And I...I’m not...”
“Tell her,” I said. She needed to trust other people, the Academy. It was time if Carla hadn’t figured it out by now.
Lake groaned and then lowered her head. “I’m a boy.”
Carla snapped her head up, looking at the two of us. “What?”
I cringed. Lake bowed her head lower, her hair falling in her face, covering her eyes. “I dress like a girl because I feel more comfortable like that. And I don’t... I don’t exactly like hanging out with guys.”
I gasped and turned to her. “What?” I said, thinking back to the evenings sitting around the guys’ campfire. “I thought you liked...”
“I don’t mind them,” she said with a frown, finally looking up. “And I don’t mind talking and being around guys in general. I’ve just had bad experiences with guys and I’m not ready to join with a guy team. I was hoping there would be a girl or two somewhere that would understand. Finding a team for me is going to be impossible.” She shot me a look. “I know you have your team already. Kind of wished you didn’t though.”
I frowned, suddenly torn and unsure. I didn’t even know Lake that well and the guys needed me. But Lake was nice, and if she wouldn’t feel comfortable with the guys in the long run, what did that mean for her?
She needed someone.
Carla spoke quietly then. “I didn’t realize,” she said. “I never would have thought...”
“Thanks,” Lake said. “Kind of the point.”
“And that’s why you don’t go to the showers with us?” she asked. “The girls were wondering. Like... I don’t know. Like you thought they were weird or annoying.”
“We went to the other latrine near the RV area,” I said. “So they wouldn’t find out and feel awkward.”
“I wish you would have told me sooner,” Carla said. “We could have worked out a system.”
That would have been helpful to us all. . We stood quietly together, the three of us, studying each other, our feet, the sky as we all seemed deep in thought.
I wondered what they were thinking about, but I now wondered about the boys, too. Here I was, in the middle of this girl group, suddenly feeling responsible to make sure no one bailed on the Academy. While at the same time, I was so lost trying to figure out my place in it.
“So,” Lake said after a while. “What do we do now?”
Carla shrugged. “Help me help them,” she said. “I can make up some excuse for the bathrooms if you can spend more time with them.”
Lake pushed her palms to her face, pressing them into her eyes. “I don’t understand. What do they want us to do? We’ve been spending all week with them.”
“Maybe try not to run off like they’re your annoying little sister you’re trying to get away from,” she said. “They need to feel like they belong here. They’re not feeling that yet.”
Feeling like they belong. I knew that feeling,
or was more familiar with it now, thanks to Kota and his team.
Kota. My team.
I snapped my fingers, as wave after wave of memories flooded my brain, of all the things the boys and I did together that made me feel a part of their family team. It wasn’t about our relationships, the complicated romance we wanted but had yet to work out.
It was the things we did together. It was the sleepovers. It was swimming in the pool and playing games. It was when we worked together to feed the hungry people of Charleston.
Carla was right, we couldn’t run away anymore. “We can do this,” I said. “But I need the guys. We need their help. And we need to find more people.”
“Why?” Carla asked.
“Because they need a family,” I said and started down the paved road, heading toward the guys’ tent. I knew we had a curfew, but this was more important. The girls didn’t have faith in the Academy, and that was the first step. “Trust your family, right? The girls need to believe the entire Academy is their family. That they can trust anyone here.”
Carla didn’t move at first, staring at Lake. Lake shrugged and then started following me.
I had a plan, but it would take an entire league of Academy teams to do it.
WHAT THE ACADEMY CAN DO
When we got to the boys’ tent, their lamps were off, and other than a few soft snores, they were silent inside the tent.
We slowed as we got closer.
“Let’s not spook them,” Carla whispered.
I paused and then thought carefully. It was risky, but it was too much to resist. I thought of Gabriel breaking my tent and the others giggling at me for not knowing my sleeping bag heated up. They could stand to be a little scared. “No, let’s spook them,” I whispered back.
Lake grinned, Carla shook her head. “They’ll turn us in,” Carla said. “They’ll tell the others.”
“They won’t,” I whispered and then motioned for them to get close. When they did, I let them in on the plan. “Let’s sneak around the back. Carla, do you have your flashlight.”
With it being a clear night, and the moon glowing above, we hadn’t needed the flashlight. Carla had brought it, though. She pulled it out of her pocket and held it up.
“You stand back,” I told her, figuring she’d want this job. “Shine the line toward the back of the tent. Lake, you and I stand close to the tent wall. When Carla shines the light, you pretend to be a bear and roar. And we’ll make shadows.”
“Sounds good to me,” Lake said.
“Only we have to be quiet from here out,” I whispered. “North can hear everything.” I wasn’t so sure he couldn’t hear us out here now with his supersonic hearing. Maybe he was asleep...
The girls followed me as I tiptoed my way around wide toward the back of the tent. Carla positioned herself near the trees, so her light would cast a good glow. Lake and I stood halfway between.
Lake stood really close to me. “So we don’t look like two people,” she explained when I started to back away from her.
I realized she was right. Standing together, we’d make one big shadow.
We stood hip to hip and I counted down with hand signals to Carla.
Three. Two. One. Go!
Carla lit up the beam, creating a strong enough glow to spread across the back of the tent wall. She even angled from below so the beam went up, making our shadow taller.
Lake raised a curled hand like a claw and growled, doing a great bear impression.
I raised my own hand on the other side—another claw.
The tent erupted with the sounds of grunts, curses, and a few squeals.
“Kota!” Gabriel’s voice erupted over the mix of noises. “Bear!”
“Bears don’t have flashlights,” Kota said.
“Shit,” Gabriel said. “Fuck. Shit. Fuck.”
“Enough,” North said.
The three of us outside giggled and started making our way back around the tent, when I was tackled, and on the ground in a heap before I even realized what had happened.
The smell of leather and cedar wafted over me. I’d recognize the big bulk of muscle anywhere.
“It’s just us!” I cried out in an eruption of giggling, struggling for breath with him on top of me.
“I knew it was you,” Nathan said, leaning back while still sitting on my hips. “No one else at this campground would dare.”
The others had been tackled, too. Silas was on top of Lake. Luke was on top of Carla.
“Get off,” Lake said but she was laughing, pushing on Silas, only Silas was bigger, and sat squarely on her hips.
“Silas,” I called to him, remembering Lake had said she’s had hard times with guys. In a stern voice, I said, “Get off of her, please.”
Silas stood up instantly, offering a hand to Lake. “Sorry,” he said. “I was just teasing.”
“I know,” Lake said and took Silas’s hand, allowing him to help her up.
Luke picked up Carla, threw her over his shoulder in a sort of hug and twirl. “It’s the second bringer of the Sang!”
I sighed. Boys.
“What are you doing back here?” Kota asked quietly.
Nathan backed off, helping me up. The other guys had come around the back of the tent, looking at us. They were all in warmer pajama pants, sweat shirts or long-sleeved T-shirts.
I brushed the grass and dirt off my butt and back. “I need your help,” I said.
The guys looked at each other and then nodded.
“Anything,” Nathan said. “Tell us what to do.”
We moved inside their tent and sat on the cots as Carla, Lake, and I explained the situation.
Then I explained my idea. I didn’t have to go far into it before the other guys were adding their own, even better ideas. They told us they’d take care of everything before they sent Carla, Lake and I back to our tent. We would have stayed to help, but we didn’t want to be missed by the others and draw attention back to us.
Despite being sent back to our tent, as I lay on my cot, I was a jumble of excitement.
It would work. I was sure of it.
It had worked on me.
TRUST YOUR FAMILY
Despite not expecting to be able to sleep, I did manage to doze off sometime in the middle of the night, long after Lake had started snoring softly beside me.
I woke up with a hand over my mouth, stopping my breathing for a second. I startled, and tried to sit up, but a second hand kept me down against the cot. It was soothing, though, gentle.
I opened my eyes, finding Luke hovering over me. His brown eyes filled with delight at spooking me. He winked and held a finger up to his lips.
I should have known.
The dawn light was starting to come in. The other girls slept. I had no idea how he managed to get in so quietly. Only Luke could pull that off.
I sat up as Luke signed to me. “Breakfast is set up to be made outside. Do you want to wake them all now?”
I shook my head. I pointed at Carla and Lake. I wanted them to come help.
Luke nodded and shooed me toward Lake, as he went to wake Carla.
Lake seemed almost awake already when I poked her shoulder, sitting up almost instantly.
Carla took a minute and inhaled loudly. I think she would have cried out at finding Luke on top of her if he hadn’t covered her mouth already. He pointed at Lake and me so she understood we were getting up, too.
We slipped out of the tent and took turns dressing in the spare tent with the luggage.
By the time we were done, Silas and North had come over and set up the picnic tables together and had covered them with tablecloths, piles of paper plates, and plastic cutlery. Nathan and Victor were squeezing oranges, making juice.
Luke showed us the pancake batter. He held up a second box, pointing to me. “Vegan,” he said quietly.
We got to work. North had hooked up camping griddle pans to some batteries in his Jeep that he and Silas had silently rolled onto the campsite.
/> Once some of the food was cooked, Lake and I took plates of bacon, opened the flap to the tent, and wafted the air toward the girls inside.
Two of the younger girls sat up sharply on cots almost instantly. They rubbed their eyes and peered out at us, blinking. Emma sat up, too, yawning.
One of them reached for another sleeping nearby, one on the air mattress. That one woke up, woke the others.
“Come on out, girls,” Lake said in a happy tone.
“The world is spinning without you,” I said, something Victor had told me once.
They all leaped out of bed, excited, following us out. April was up, too, and woke Taylor to join us, surprise on their faces as well.
Once they were outside the tent, the boys waved them over. Some of the girls grabbed jackets and boots to put on.
Nathan waved them closer, smiling. “Come on,” he said. “Eat up. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The girls looked to Lake and I, confused.
“We’re going to make breakfast for some other teams today,” I said. “We’ve invited them over—some of the other new ones—to help them feel welcome.”
“Will you help us?” Lake asked. Kota had told us some things to say to make them feel like they were part of the helping team, which was a big deal.
Five heads nodded enthusiastically. They rushed over to the set-up table, where North stood by, teaching them how to make perfect pancakes. Luke stood nearby, asking if they wanted chocolate chips added.
April wrapped an arm around Taylor as they stood by watching the excitement. She tugged in Emma and the three of them stood together, watching the girls getting involved. “We’ve taught them well,” April said.
I smiled. This just might work.
We were almost finished eating our own breakfast when the first other team wandered in. It was another team of young girls, led by Mrs. Rose—the ten-year-olds we’d seen before. They all had wide eyes and seemed eager to be included.
“We’re here,” Mrs. Rose signed.
I asked the new girls to come sit down and join us. Our team would take care of them. I invited Mrs. Rose to relax, even as she offered to help.