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Taylor pointed as she counted the five girls and Carla. “Six, and...” She pointed to Lake. “Seven?”
Lake looked at me and frowned. “I think I’m staying with Sang,” she said, her eyes wide.
I cringed, but also felt compelled to agree and let her stay with us. I could be wrong, but I suspected Lake wasn’t really a girl. The other girls might be okay with hiking with her, but...if she had boy parts, would the girls feel comfortable with her in the tent? And what if the girls didn’t know she was a boy, but then discovered it later?
I glanced questioningly at Victor and then at Gabriel. I wasn’t sure they saw what I saw, but I hoped they understood that there was a reason we might need Lake to go with us.
The boys both nodded slightly. Fine by them. They didn’t question me.
“No,” Carla said. “We should all stick together. That way we’ll be ready for Mrs. Rose in the morning.”
I shared a look with Lake. Carla was taking this group thing a little far and was acting a little bossy.
“It’ll be crowded with us,” Lake said. “And Sang’s got her own tent already set up.”
“I can give you all an extra heater,” I said, trying to show my support. “And we’re not far.”
“We’re supposed to be getting to know each other,” Carla said. “I don’t want two tents because it means one side will feel left out.”
“I’m not going to feel left out,” Lake said, saying what I was thinking.
“I want Sang and Lake in our tent,” another one of the girls said. The others nodded their heads in agreement.
I was outnumbered. I pressed my lips together, not wanting to say anything but I didn’t like Taylor’s tent. It smelled. And what about Kota?
“It’ll be okay,” Taylor said with a smile, looking right at me. She was trying to tell me something, but unlike Gabriel and Victor, I couldn’t read her face. “We should be able to fit. Can we bring your tent over and put our things in it?”
I glanced at Gabriel and Victor, who were sympathetic but were both serious now. They knew I wasn’t happy with this decision.
What could I do? The girls wanted me with them, and they were new.
Reluctantly, I looked at Lake. She frowned but shrugged. “Whatever,” she said. “It’s just sleeping.”
Taylor nodded and then pointed at me. “How about you and I go check it out and make sure everything’s put together?”
“I’ll walk with you,” Victor said.
“Me too,” Gabriel said, standing up. “I’ll come back another time and make bracelets.”
Lake stood, also. “Me, too. I’ll help move things.”
Carla was about to talk when Emma moved to where Victor had been sitting and smiled brightly at her. “You’re Carla, aren’t you?” she asked and then beamed at her and then the other girls. “So cool. What are we making here? I want to make something.”
“We’ll come back,” I said to Carla, who was still looking at us. “We’ll set everything up. Stay with the girls?”
Carla nodded and slowly sat back down.
Once we were away from them, I breathed out loudly.
“My God,” Lake said. “She’s clingy. And bossy.”
“Happens,” Taylor said. We walked in a line together, the girls in front, the boys trailing behind us. “Although she moves quick. Usually by midweek, the new girls try to stick together like that.” She looked at us. “Something happen to you all on your hike?”
“A cave,” I said, checking in with Lake. She shrugged so I continued. “And Nettle. Minor trouble but we got out of it.”
“Crazy bonding?” Taylor asked.
I looked at Lake. Had we bonded?
Taylor waved her hand toward us to direct our attention back to her. “It’s easy for new people to want to stick together, even if they aren’t a good team, or don’t even know anything about one another. It’s good to get them to splinter out and get to know other people, but that ‘we’re new together’ bond can stick fast if something happens. It can be hard to get them to split up until camp’s over and they go home and reality sets in.”
“We didn’t do any of that,” Gabriel said behind us. “Did we, Victor?”
“We already had a group going in,” Victor said. “It’s different when you come in solo. You’re given a team—it makes sense you’d bond with them quickly.”
“That’s usually what happens,” Taylor said. “Sometimes it works out and they stay together, or they get placed in temporary groups. My team was paired up to go on a mission. We started with five. Two split but the three of us stuck together.”
“I don’t think I want Carla in my group,” Lake said.
“Give her a chance,” Taylor said. “You don’t know her story yet. You might not get along with her, but she’s still Academy in training, and deserves a fair shot and our respect.”
That was going to be difficult. Maybe because Carla was older than us, and considered herself responsible, she felt compelled to take charge, especially since she’d had something of a head start learning about the Academy.
We came up to Taylor’s site first, stopping to look inside her tent.
The moment she opened her door flap, I froze, trying not to be obvious about my nose wrinkling at the very potent scent that hit me even outside the tent.
Gabriel had stopped when I did, his own nose wrinkling as he looked at me. “Wow,” he said. “That’s some strong...potpourri.”
I elbowed him. I couldn’t believe he’d said that out loud! Weren’t we supposed to be nice?
“April spilled some perfume,” Taylor said, looking back at us. Her eyebrows went up. “That bad?”
“What’s wrong with fresh air?” Gabriel asked. “That’s what we’re here for.”
“Our tent had a musty smell before,” she said.
Gabriel shook his head. “Naw, you don’t cover up must with perfume. You spray it down with some water mixed with baking soda. Actually, we’ve got some back at our camp in North’s Jeep. We’ll grab it when we get back. Leave your tent open.”
“It’s not that bad,” Taylor said.
Victor went up to the open tent and poked his head in. “It’s kinda bad,” he said. “I don’t think I could sleep in it. The other girls might not mind, but...”
“Shit,” Taylor said. “Well, I guess I’ll keep the flap open and let it air out.”
“Hey, hey!” Gabriel said, pointing at Taylor. “You cursed.”
“Uh, I’m an adult,” Taylor said, standing taller with her shoulders back. “You’re a kid. You’ve got to watch your language.”
Gabriel grumbled about not being a kid, but Taylor ignored him, tying the door flap so it’d stay open while we walked over to the other camp. There were windows, too, and she unzipped the coverings.
It took us a good hour, but we managed to scrounge up some air mattresses and extra cots.
Lake and I claimed cots; if we were going to be trapped in with a bunch of girls, we wanted to at least not have to share our sleeping spaces.
I hated every moment of moving their items inside the tent that belonged to me and moving the new tent Kota had set up over, putting his things back into the main boys’ tent. Every piece I moved made it feel like I was pulling myself apart from the boys. I hated the thought of spending the entire week inside the tent with the girls.
When I got a moment alone with Victor, I tugged his hand, pulling him aside while the others continued setting up.
“I haven’t seen Kota today,” I said. “We need to tell him.”
“He told us that you said you were staying with him in the small tent,” Victor said. “Did something happen? He wouldn’t explain it and I didn’t want to press him.”
I nodded, although it felt like centuries ago now. “I still need to spend time with him and explain things, but if I’m stuck with the girls...”
“I’ll tell him you got roped in, but you wanted to stay with him. Maybe he’ll be able to get away and c
ome talk to you.” He frowned. “It’s only a week. We go home after. If you don’t get a chance before the closing interview, then we’ll just have to maybe say you’re thinking about joining, but aren’t sure of a team yet...or something.”
I raised my eyebrows. “An exit interview? Is that like this morning?”
He nodded. “Maybe? It depends on how you do this week. Or if something crazy happens and they don’t get to you. If they start asking you what you think of the Academy, and if you’d like to join, they might suggest to put you on a starter team, like what happened to Taylor.”
“And I can’t just say your team without Kota knowing...the plan? Because everyone has to be in agreement?”
He nodded. “You can try, but it’ll be harder. Mr. Blackbourne said...”
“Hey!” Taylor called to us. She held onto a cooler and looked at us from the road. The others were carrying some extra food the guys had brought so the girls would have plenty to eat. “Don’t get lost. Let’s go.”
“We’re coming,” Victor said, waving to her, and then slowly started toward the road that would lead us to their camp. He spoke to me quietly as he walked. “Look, I’ll tell Kota to meet you tonight.”
