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Delta squinted through the gathering gloom to see where Tanner was. He and a bunch of kids had spent half the afternoon going off in twos and threes into the woods on the north side of the camp. They were drinking, and since Woody was one of them, probably smoking dope, too. They were all pretty trashed, Tanner especially. He clearly wasn’t going home with her, but by the thin line of Amanda’s lips, it didn’t look like he was going with her either.
Good.
“Okay,” Coach declared. He’d gone and gotten his pickup, and they’d thrown all the gear from the cookout inside the truck bed along with the leftover food encased in plastic containers. They’d doused the coals in the pit with river water, causing them to steam for a good twenty minutes or so, but now they’d stopped, and Coach had raked through the wet ash, making sure no fire could start anew.
After McCrae’s indictment of her holier-than-thou attitude, Delta had taken a turn or two in the trees herself, swallowing a few hurried sips of straight vodka. Vodka, so the party chaperones wouldn’t smell it on her. The chaperones had been remarkably unaware of what was going on. Either that, or they’d chosen not to make a fuss about it.
“Okay,” Coach said, climbing into his pickup cab and slamming the door. Mr. Timmons and Ms. Reade had started walking together the quarter mile to the house and were already shrunken figures in the distance as Coach leaned out the open window and added, “I’m coming right back, and we’re all getting out of here, okay? We’ve had a fun time, and now it’s time to go.”
The kids all gave him a cheery thumbs-up as they watched his pickup bounce across the bumpy field. When it had crested the rise toward the Forsythe house, Tanner suddenly yelled, “One last time!” and bolted for the cliff side.
Delta inhaled sharply, and everyone else froze. Then the guys tore after him. A half beat later some of the girls did, too.
“Wait! Wait!” she called.
“Don’t!” somebody else yelled. Amanda, maybe. Delta stumbled toward the cliff’s edge herself, watching as the guys and girls all worked their way down the steps, jumping the last few feet, racing across the short beach, splashing into the river, and diving into the water. It was growing dark, and what was left of the sun hadn’t made it down the walls of the canyon, so they were all in shadow.
Freddie and Counselor Billings had raced to the cliff’s edge, too, and now gazed down at the students in dismay, as did Delta, who’d been torn about climbing back down. After a moment of hesitation, Ellie had joined the group at the bottom and was ripping off her shirt and heading for the water. Carmen and Bailey rushed up beside Delta, and Carmen immediately headed down.
“What are you doing?” Bailey demanded.
“Somebody’s gonna get hurt.”
“Yeah, you!”
“I’m going down, too,” Miss Billings said, sounding angry, and Freddie nodded vigorously in agreement. Amanda was on their heels.
Well, shit.
Delta descended after them once more as well. She dropped the last few feet onto the beach and felt sand in her flip-flops. Now it was hard to make out whose dark hair was bobbing above the surface. Tanner? McCrae? Woody or one of the do-gooders? Definitely stupid, whatever the case.
Counselor Billings said tightly, “We gotta get them outta there.”
Carmen, a few yards away, was keeping her eyes on Tanner and saying nothing, which kind of pissed Delta off. Not as much as Amanda, though, whose laser focus was on Carmen, not the idiots in the water.
Delta wondered if she was going to have to jump in too, clothes and all, and would that even help? The partiers in the water needed to wake up and realize the potential danger.
“This isn’t cool,” shouted Amanda. “My parents will freak. I had to beg to get them to allow us to have this party, and now . . .”
Zora, who’d stayed away from everything, dropped down beside Delta, emitting frightened whimpers. She stared at the kids in the water dully. Delta realized Zora was wasted. She wished she’d just stayed topside.
Carmen waded into the water.
“Carmen!” Bailey barked.
“Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”
Freddie followed after her. “Don’t go in. You need a vest.”
“I’m not doing anything stupid.” She took a few more steps, up to her waist. “Tanner, come here,” she coaxed, as if to a young child.
“What the hell?” breathed Amanda.
Tanner grinned stupidly at Carmen, his gaze sliding over the others on the beach. For a moment, it seemed like he actually might be listening, but then he ducked under the plastic rope and headed downriver on his back, arms outstretched, gaze up to the darkening skies. Delta shrieked, and she thought she heard Clarice Billings mutter, “Fuck,” but realized it was Amanda. Several of the guys hesitated, then slipped under the barrier as well. Bailey, or Carmen, or someone screamed. Then Carmen was in the water, going after Tanner.
Delta scrabbled along the bank, scraping her toes, one flip-flop snapping apart. She headed toward the shelf of land along the side of the river, but she was practically trampled by Counselor Billings and Freddie in their race to catch up with the swimmers. Someone grabbed Delta’s arm and yanked her back toward the beach.
Amanda.
