16
Experiential Education

“Everyone, we’re having a camping trip soon,” Sam said, excited as she rushed up to the lunch table. She held up a poster in her hand and showed it to us. “Look, experiential education, we’re going to Pinnacles National Park.”

“Yeah, they mention it during study hall,” Liz said, taking a bite of some disgusting-looking lasagna. “Basically everyone is going unless you don’t get parental permission. Then you have to just stay at the school and do chores basically.”

“Ugh, remind me to get parental permission,” I said, taking a look at the poster. ”Hopefully my mom lets me go.”

“You’d better, rooms are in four,” Lauren said, looking closely at the poster. “I don’t want to get grouped with someone random.”

“Fair enough, I’ll do my best to get permission,” I said. “How long is it for?”

“Three days,” Sam said. “So a decent amount of time to be away from school. It’s from Wednesday to Friday, so we have to get permission by Monday and start preparing by Tuesday.”

“Okay,” I said, nodding. “That sounds fun, let’s all go, okay?”

“Okay,” everyone else responded.

***

I pulled up to school on Wednesday with a packed suitcase, ready to go at eight in the morning. The beginning of the day was rather boring, as we just took time to check everyone had what they needed and loaded up the bus. Eventually, we all got crammed into the bus though and began traveling. We were all talking and having fun until I noticed my phone slowly beginning to lose service.

“Oh crap,” I said, looking at my phone disappointedly. “I can’t talk to Matthew for the trip.”

“Oh the horror,” Liz said, laughing. “You’ll live without your little crush for three days.”

“I should’ve at least met up with him once before we left if I knew this,” I said, groaning. “Damn it.”

“It’ll be ok,” Sam said, smiling at me. “I’m sure he won’t find a girlfriend in the three days you’re gone.”

“That wasn’t my concern,” I whined, although part of me was a little scared that he would find a girlfriend soon. “I just like talking to him.”

“Girls, we’re at a rest stop,” I heard a teacher say as the bus rolled to a stop. “Get out and use the restroom. We won’t be stopping again until we reach the park, so I recommend using it now.”

“Come on, let’s go,” Lauren said, signaling for us to get off the bus.

“Are we allowed to buy food?” Liz asked, looking at some hot dogs in a snack shop.

“I don’t think so,” Lauren replied, looking hungrily at the food as well.

“Screw it, I’m going to buy it,” Liz said, taking out her card. “I’ll eat it real quick in the restroom.”

“You’re bringing the hot dog into the restroom?” Sam asked, looking disgusted.

“Got to eat it somehow without being caught, I guess,” Lauren said, giggling as Liz quickly bought the hot dog.

“Wow, this tastes good,” Liz said, taking a bite out of the hot dog. She ripped open a ketchup packet and sprayed some ketchup on it before taking another bite. “You guys should’ve gotten one too.”

“Elizabeth Gomez, what do you have in your hand?” I saw Ms. Harris, our chemistry teacher, say as she popped up behind us out of nowhere.

“You got caught, Liz,” I said, giggling.

Liz’s hot dog ended up being confiscated and thrown away, much to her dismay. She got off with just a warning though, which I saw as a relief compared to a detention.

***

“We’re here!” Sam said, prodding me awake. “Look outside the window.”

“Huh?” I asked, still a little out of it after waking up. “Wow, that looks nice.”

Outside the window were some vast mountains, surrounded by trees. The scenery was pretty brown, considering it was California and all, but overall it still looked very impressive.

“That does look nice,” Lauren said, pressing her face up against the window.

“Everybody, we’ve arrived,” Ms. Harris said, clapping her hands to get everybody’s attention. “Please get off the bus and we’ll give you all your rooms.”

We got off the bus and awkwardly stood around while the teachers coordinated everything. Eventually, they began speaking. They went through a few of the other groups before landing on us.

“Samantha, Elizabeth, Lauren, and Katie are in room 5,” a teacher said. “Please collect your keys.”

I walked up and grabbed the key. “Let’s go in,” I said to the other girls, smiling. We unlocked the door and went into a rather disappointing room. It was smaller than expected and looked like it was about to break apart.

“The school really couldn’t afford us something better?” Lauren asked, sighing. “I don’t know what more I expected.”

“We literally get prison food for lunch, don’t expect much,” I responded. “What are we meant to do here again?”

“Just stay in and chill for an hour until we go on a hike,” Sam said. “Change into hiking clothes, if you want.”

“I thought we were going to be camping though,” Lauren said, looking around the room. “This doesn’t look like camping to me.”

“We sleep in a tent on the second night,” Sam said. “Did none of you read the schedule?”

We all stared awkwardly at her, for Sam to sigh and rub the bridge of her nose. “I guess not.”

***

“This is like, the first time I’ve seen Katie in something other than a dress or a skirt,” Lauren said, laughing as she looked at me.

“I can’t exactly wear those to a hike, can I?” I asked. I looked down to take a peek at my outfit. I had some shorts and a T-shirt on. They were still definitely feminine though, something I made sure of.

“It’s so hot,” Lauren said, fanning herself with her hand. “I don’t want to go on this hike.”

“Get excited,” a teacher said, walking up behind us. “It’ll be fun, I swear.”

“I don’t think so,” Liz grumbled under her breath.

“How far is this hike again?” I asked, taking a sip of water from my bottle.

“About five and a half miles,” the teacher said, smiling.

“Kill me,” Lauren said, trudging along the trail even though we just started.

“Brighten up, Lauren,” Liz said, throwing an arm around Lauren’s shoulder. “We get to explore the vast wilderness.”

“I don’t want to explore the wilderness,” she whined.

We kept on talking and slowly fell to being in the back of the pack. The teacher walked alongside us, making sure we wouldn’t run off or anything.

“Let’s speed up a little bit,” the teacher said, holding onto her backpack. “You four are far behind.”

“Are we?” I asked. I shielded my eyes by putting a hand on my forehead and looked ahead. Everyone was far ahead of us. “I guess we are.”

“You do realize that whoever gets to the end first gets their meal quicker, right?”

“Okay, let’s get going now,” Liz said, starting to speedwalk.

***

“I am so tired,” I said, sighing. I panted, putting my hand on my knees and taking some time to breathe. “That hike was way too long.”

“Tell me about it,” Liz said, wiping some sweat off of her forehead. “Five and a half miles on a hike in the middle of the day is abuse.”

“We should report the school,” Sam said, giggling. “But honestly speaking, I don’t think it was that bad.”

“How are you not tired, Sam?” I asked, finally having the strength to stand up straight.

“I run a mile on a treadmill almost every day,” she said. “So I already have some energy built up for cardio.”

“That’s a lot,” I said, not even wanting to imagine myself running a mile every day.

“What are we getting for food, again?” Lauren asked.

“Hamburgers are the meal for today,” the teacher who had accompanied us on our long and arduous journey said.

“Wow, what?” I said, quickly running up to the table. I breathed in and definitely smelled hamburgers cooking. “On a grill too?”

“Yup,” she said, smiling. “We wanted to surprise you all with something good after the hike.”

“Oh my God, Rosewood and good food?” Liz asked, mockingly acting like she was shocked. “What a surprise.”

We waited a few minutes, and eventually, the hamburgers were brought out. “This is the first time we’ve been fed something edible,” I said, taking a bite out of the hamburger. I ate it slowly, wanting to savor the taste.

“I know right,” Liz said, devouring the hamburger next to me. “This actually tastes really good, I can’t believe it.”

“Now, we’ll give you all some time to shower before moving on to our next activity,” Ms. Harris announced after we finished eating. “The rest of today will be pretty relaxing, and I’m sure all of you are feeling a little dirty.”

“There’s only an hour, so each of you only have fifteen minutes,” Ms. Parker said. “So don’t take too long.”

“I take an hour to shower,” Liz said. “So how about you all don’t shower and I’ll get all clean.”

“Shut up,” I whispered to her so nobody else would hear. “I feel way too disgusting right now, I have to shower.”

“Fine,” she said, sighing. “I’ll shower quickly, I guess.”

***

We all finished showering up and assembled outside again, waiting to hear what we were going to do next.

“Now girls,” a teacher said, clapping to get our attention. “We’re going to the river, and you can choose what activity you’d like to do. You can paint or fish. It’ll be a short walk, only a quarter of a mile, so we’ll get going now.”

“We have to walk again?” Lauren asked, her mouth agape. “I’m so tired of this.”

“You’ll be fine,” Liz said, rolling her eyes. “It’s only a quarter of a mile, and you’re a healthy sixteen-year-old.”

“Who said I’m healthy?” Lauren said, breaking off into a series of fake coughs. “I struggle to breathe.”

“I can give you CPR then,” Liz said, laughing. “Kiss, kiss.”

“Never mind,” Lauren responded, instantly standing up straight again. “I’m perfectly healthy.”

“That’s what I expected,” Liz said. “Anyways, it’s not too long, you’ll be fine.”

We walked for a while, taking all along the way before we ended up near a river. “That looks really pretty!” I said, looking at the deep blue of the water.

“It is,” Sam said, smiling. “What should we do?”

“I want to fish,” I said. “I want to catch something and eat it.”

“We’re not eating any of the fish I think,” Sam said. “We have to release them after catching them, for the ecosystem and all.”

“Daww,” I said, disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to eat anything I caught. “Whatever, let’s do it anyway.”

We all walked over towards the fishing station, where some of the other girls were already chilling. I picked up a fishing rod, listening to the instructions a teacher gave me. I attached some bait and tossed the reel into the river then waited.

“This is kind of boring,” I said, after sitting around for a few minutes without having felt anything.

“You have to be patient,” Lauren said, waiting for a nibble on the reel. The rod began to shake slightly, and she pulled it out, getting a rather large fish. “See, patience is worth it.”

“How come I can’t catch one,” I said, pouting. I saw Lauren toss the fish back, and it swam away until I couldn’t see it anymore.

“It is pretty hard to catch a fish,” Sam said. However, it sounded a little patronizing coming from her, since she caught three so far.

“Ugh, I can’t get one either,” Liz said, shaking the rod in annoyance. “Come on fish! Take the bait!”

“I don’t think that’ll work,” I said, giggling. I suddenly felt a slight movement on my rod. “Oh, wait!”

I pulled it up, all excited, only to get some pieces of plastic. “Oh my God,” Lauren said, laughing. “You caught plastic.”

“Are you kidding me?” I said, annoyed. I put the rod down. “Let’s go do something else.”

***

We moved over to the painting section, where we were meant to paint the scenery.

“I’m not that good at drawing landscapes,” Lauren said, scratching her head. “I’ll just draw you instead, Katie.”

“Me?” I asked, confused. “Why me?”

“Because you’re cute,” she said. “Here, face me while you paint, so I can get a reference.”

“Okay then,” I said. I faced the mountain and scenery we were meant to be drawing while Lauren faced me. I worked hard at painting the scenery, and it came out better than expected. I had improved a lot at drawing since I started at this school. I looked at it proudly before remembering Lauren. “Lauren, how’s my portrait doing?”

“Ta-da!” she said, turning the canvas around to reveal an anime girl that looked like me.

“Why am I an anime girl?” I asked, looking at Lauren’s drawing. “I’m a real person, you know.”

“Realism would’ve been too hard,” she said, shrugging. “Plus, you’re kind of a real-life anime girl anyways.”

“How am I an anime girl?” I asked, tilting my head. “I’m just a normal girl, you know.”

“You have big eyes, and your voice sounds very kawaii,” Lauren said, giggling. “Okay, sorry for saying that, that was cringe.”

“I can’t believe you just said that,” I said, frowning in disappointment. “Whatever, it looks cute. Can I take it with me? I want to show my mom.”

“Be my guest,” she said, smiling. I took the drawing, and put it inside of my backpack, making sure it was safe and wouldn’t get wrinkled up.

***

“We still have like, a few minutes until we have to sleep,” I said, lying down on the floor. “What should we do?”

“Hmm,” Lauren said. “How about we play some more truth or dare?”

“Sure, let’s play a round and then go to sleep,” Sam said, thinking. “I’ll go first, give me a truth.”

“Umm,” Lauren said, stroking her chin. “Did you like it when Grace tickled you?”

“Crap,” Sam said, looking down at the floor. “I mean, it made me flustered for sure.”

“Ooh,” I said, smiling. “I mean, Grace is a pretty girl.”

“Shut up!” Sam said, blushing. “That’s all I’ll say, no more.”

“Fine,” Lauren said, rolling her eyes. “I’m next now, someone give me something good. I’ll go dare.”

“I dare you to read the last five texts you have,” Liz said, grinning.

“That’s easy!” Lauren said, smiling and showing us her phone. “I texted my Mom that everything went well today. Then she just responded saying that she’s glad and that she misses me. That’s it.”

“Darn,” Liz said, looking disappointed. “I was hoping you’d be talking to a crush or something.”

“Ha, I wish I had a crush,” Lauren said, sighing. “I don’t think any guys like me.”

“I’ll go next!” I said, raising my hand. “Give me a truth.”

“How would you react if Matthew kissed you?” Lauren asked, smirking at me.

“If M-Matthew kissed me?” I asked, immediately turning bright red and stuttering. “I mean, that would be nice, I guess.”

“She’s totally head over heels for him,” Sam said, giggling. “Look at how red she is.”

“Shut up,” I said, embarrassed.

“I guess that leaves the best for last,” Liz said, smiling. “Give me a dare.”

“I dare you to lick Lauren’s nose,” I said, giggling.

“I do not consent to this,” Lauren said, crossing her arms. “Choose something else.”

“Fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Then act like a dog for a minute.”

“That’s chill,” Liz said, getting on all fours. “Dogs are good and loyal.”

“Dogs don’t talk!” Lauren said. “Shush.”

“Good dog,” Sam said, patting Liz’s head.

“This is so weird,” Lauren said, looking at dog Liz snuggling up to Sam.

After a whole minute of dog Liz, which Lauren was not a fan of, we finished up and got into our beds. They were just a bunch of blankets on the floor though, not a proper bed at all.

“Let’s go to sleep now, I’m tired,” I said, wrapping my blankets around me. “That hike took a lot out of me.”

“Yeah, we should,” Lauren said, also getting in bed and yawning. “I’m tired too.”

“Lights out,” Liz said, turning off the room lights. “See you all tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” I murmured, as sleep slowly took me.

amaty

Girlhood is currently complete at Chapter 24 on the Discord! There is still an epilogue and a few bonus chapters that will be published over the coming days though.

Discord plug: https://discord.gg/7NuMnMM5n3