17
Camping

“I hate that we can’t have on makeup for this trip,” I said, groaning. I was trying to fix my hair in the mirror, but it just wouldn’t cooperate with me. Eventually, I gave up and just tied it into a ponytail.

“Ooh, new look?” Lauren asked, peeking over at me. “You’re still cute without makeup, you’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know,” I said, my shoulders slumping. “I feel like I look a little too masculine without it.”

“Yeah, okay,” Lauren said, rolling her eyes. “I’ll give you ten bucks if anybody thinks you’re a guy.

“Fine,” I said, getting up from my seat. “I think I’m all ready for today.”

“Same,” Liz said, tying up her hair as well. “I’m not going to keep my hair down anymore, it’s way too hot.”

“Wait, if we’re all going to keep our hair up, we should match!” Lauren said, getting down and digging through her backpack. “Look, I have four cute hair ties that are the same design but have different colors. I have blue, pink, white, and black.”

“Katie’s definitely pink,” Sam said, taking the pink one and handing it to me.

“Why am I pink?” I asked, looking down at the hair tie. It did look a lot cuter compared to the plain black one I was using.

“Because you’ve become super girly,” Sam stated matter-of-factly. “I agree on the pink.”

“Fine, I guess I’ll wear it,” I said, untying my hair and tying it back up again with the pink hairband.

“I guess I’ll take the white one,” Lauren said, starting to tie up her hair with the white hair band.

“Grace would be a good fit for white,” Sam murmured. “She always wears white, and looks good in it.”

“Yeah, we get it, you like Grace,” Lauren said. She began talking again while Sam was trying to get some words out. “Liz you can go blue and Sam will go black.”

“Got it,” Liz said, taking the blue hair tie.

“Now we’re all matching!” Lauren said excitedly. “Let’s go outside now, I think activities should be starting soon.”

“I do not like Grace in that way,” Sam grumbled, finally able to speak.

***

“Okay, girls. Today we’re going on another hike,” a teacher said loudly so everybody in the grade could hear. Everybody groaned at once. “Okay, look, I get that the hikes are tiring but this is a really beautiful trail. Anyways, you will all be preparing your own sandwiches to eat around the halfway mark.”

“I hope they give us fresh meat instead of, like, the slop they usually give us,” Liz whispered.

“We’ll have a bunch of options, so you can have a ham and cheese sandwich, peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or something in the middle. We have everything set up at some tables here, so go over there and start making your own sandwiches.”

“What type of sandwich are you going to make?” I asked the group. “I think I’m just going for a ham and cheese one with some pickles and lettuce.”

“I prefer a good PB&J myself,” Liz said. “Maybe I’ll toss some meat in there though.”

“Meat in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?” I asked, turning up my nose. “That sounds kind of disgusting.”

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it,” Liz said.

I walked over to the stand and got two white breads out. I fished some ham out and stuck it on as well, getting some cheese, pickles, and lettuce on it as well. Finally, I added the mystical ingredient, mayonnaise.

“How much mayonnaise are you going to put in that thing?” Lauren asked, giggling.

“Mayo makes everything taste better,” I said, putting even more mayonnaise on the poor sandwich.

“The sandwich is going to be half mayo at this point,” Sam said, laughing.

“No, I’m done now,” I said. ‘See, only like, twenty-five percent mayo.”

“You’re addicted to mayonnaise,” Liz said. She then pointed at her sandwich. “Behold my creation, the peanut butter and jelly and ham and cheese sandwich!”

“I’m sorry,” Lauren said, gagging. “That looks like the most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I’m sure it won’t taste bad,” Liz said, laughing.

We all packed up our sandwiches in ziplock bags and put them in our backpacks, along with a bottle of Gatorade that was given to us. We rode the bus to the trail and were let off.

“I can’t believe we have to hike again,” Lauren said, trudging along the trail.

“This is called the Bear Gulch Cave Trail,” Sam said. “We go through a cave for part of it, so it’ll be exciting.”

“I don’t want to go through a cave,” Lauren complained.

“It’s only like one and a half miles, so you’ll be okay,” Sam said, patting Lauren on the back.

***

We made it through the dark cave and emerged on the other side. We all scattered around a rather large area, ready to eat our sandwiches.

“This tastes terrible,” Liz said, biting into her sandwich. “I regret making it.”

“I told you,” Lauren said, rolling her eyes. “It looked terrible.”

“Some French foods look really terrible with snails and stuff, but I heard it tastes good,” Liz said, shrugging. “I could’ve found a new great recipe.”

“You tell yourself that,” Lauren said.

“Girls, look!” a teacher said excitedly, pointing up. “That’s a California Condor, an endangered species. They’re one of the main attractions here at Pinnacles.”

“Ooh, bird,” Lauren said excitedly. We all looked at where she was pointing to see a bird with no feathers around its face. It looked pretty disgusting, at least to me.

“That is one ugly bird,” I said.

“I know right,” Liz said, taking another bite out of her disgusting sandwich. “I wish we got to see bald eagles or something, they show off the American vibe, you know. Plus they actually look good.”

“Have you ever seen a bald eagle as a baby?” Sam asked. “They look pretty ugly then too.”

“Are all birds just ugly?” Lauren asked, sighing. “I don’t know, I’ve never liked birds much. They kind of freak me out.”

“Ooh,” Liz said, making a bird with her hands. “A bird is chasing after you, Lauren. It poops on your hair.”

“Stop!” Lauren said, covering her head. “My hair is pretty, I don’t want bird poop on it.”

Liz laughed before she stopped harassing Lauren. “You’re too funny to tease, did anyone tell you that.”

“Hmph, sure,” Lauren said, looking away.

***

“That hike sucked, but at least it was pretty short,” Lauren said as we hopped back on the bus to go somewhere else.

“Yeah, it wasn’t too long,” I said. “I don’t think my body can handle another long hike, I’ve been feeling so much more tired lately.”

“Isn’t that because of your medicine?” Lauren asked, tilting her head. “Since you don’t have all of that strength anymore.”

“Ohh”, I said. I hadn’t thought of that before, but it did make sense. All that testosterone leaving my body wouldn’t help at all. “That makes sense, yeah.”

“We’re here,” Ms. Harris said. “Now, for the next activity, we’re going to be making friendship bracelets.”

***

“Here you go, Lauren,” Liz said, handing an ugly friendship bracelet that was falling apart to her. “This commemorates our friendship.”

“This is so ugly!” Lauren said, looking peeved. “I was making you all these super cute ones too.”

“Are you saying my gift to you is ugly?’ Liz asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’ll tell you I worked my hardest to make that.”

“Sure,” Lauren said, rolling her eyes. “Like I’d believe that.”

“I’m all done!” I said. “Here Liz, I made you an orange one since you’re so energetic. Sam, you get green and Lauren, you get red.”

“Wow, these are so good,” Lauren said, immediately putting on my friendship bracelet. “See Liz, this is what real friendship looks like.”

“Friendship should not be determined by the quality of the bracelet, but rather the quality of the soul,” Liz said, trying to sound as philosophical as possible.

“That makes no sense, but okay,” Lauren said.

***

We did a few more activities until it was night. We then gathered up to eat s’mores next to a bonfire.

“Can I toss something in?” Liz asked, tilting her head. “I want to see it flare up.”

“I mean, I guess you can toss in a stick or something to see,” I said.

“Got it,” Liz said, picking up a couple of sticks and tossing them. The fire flared up a little bit as it devoured the wood. “That was pretty cool.”

We continued eating when we saw Ms. Harris walk in with a guitar. “Ooh, can you play that?” Lauren asked.

“I’m a three-chord guitarist,” Ms. Harris said, smiling. “I learned some of the basics a few years ago but never learned past that. I can play you all a few simple songs though.”

Ms. Harris played us a few single songs as we clapped along, happy to hear some music. Her singing was actually pretty good, and the guitar sounded decent enough even with how simple the songs were.

“I wonder what would happen if we tossed the guitar in the fire,” Liz asked, eyeing the guitar after Ms. Harris finished up her performance.

“That is not happening,” Ms. Harris said, shaking her head no. “Go toss some more sticks in it if you’d like though.”

“Let’s go,” Liz said, tossing more sticks into the fire. “This is actually pretty fun, you guys should join in.”

“I’m good,” I said, munching at some chocolate. “I’m enjoying eating.”

“Fine,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Be boring then.”

***

“I don’t really want to sleep in a tent, now that I think about it,” I said, looking at the tiny tent and sleeping bags. “Can we go back to the room?”

“Nope, go in Katie,” Liz said, shoving me inside.

“Ugh, fine,” I said, taking a seat on my sleeping bag. “What do we do now?”

“Go to sleep, duh,” Lauren said, rolling her eyes.

“My back hurts,” Sam complained, crawling into her sleeping bag. “The floor is too hard.”

“Live with it, you won’t die,” Liz said, getting into her own sleeping bag.

“Girls, go to sleep now,” a teacher said, opening up our tent flap for a second. “No more chitter-chatter.”

“Okay,” I said. I waited for a few seconds for the teacher to leave then whispered. “We’re totally not going to stop though, are we.”

“Of course not,” Liz whispered back, giggling slightly. “I’m not that sleepy yet.”

“How are you guys not tired,” Lauren said, turning away from us in her sleeping bag. “I’m so tired from the hike and stuff.”

“Lauren, you have the stamina of a five-year-old,” Liz said, laughing slightly. “The hike wasn’t even long today.”

“Well, I’m still tired,” she said, closing her eyes. “I’m going to go to sleep.”

“How are you guys liking the trip so far?” I asked, tossing and turning around a little in my sleeping bag.

“I think it’s fun,” Sam said. “I kind of hate how hot it is though.”

“It is so hot,” Liz said, fanning herself. “But then at night it gets so cold, the weather is bipolar or something.”

“Girls, I can still hear you,” the teacher said, opening the tent flap again. “Go to sleep.”

“We weren’t whispering quietly enough?” I asked, surprised we were caught.

“The tent isn’t exactly thick enough to cover up your voices,” she said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Go to sleep now.”

“Fine,” I murmured, turning around to sleep.

***

“Look at your bed hair, Katie,” Sam said, giggling the second I got up.

“What?” I asked, quickly picking up my phone. I looked in the mirror to see my hair was an absolute mess. “Oh no, that’s bad.”

“Here’s a brush,” Lauren said, handing me a hair brush. “Go sort things out.”

“Okay,” I said, picking up the brush and pulling it through my hair. “Let’s get back to our room.”

“Oh, we go swimming today first thing in the morning!” Sam said, excited. “There’s a whole swimming pool here.”

“I swear, if they make us go hiking again,” Lauren said.

“No hiking on the schedule today,” Sam replied, smiling.

Thank God,“ Lauren said. “Did you pack your swim gear, Katie?”

“Oh, of course, I packed my swimming gear,” I said, rolling my eyes. We made our way back to our room and I opened the door and went to my suitcase. “It’s right here.”

“Umm,” Liz said, staring at my swim trunks. “I don’t think you can wear that.”

“Oh,” I said, looking awkwardly at my swim trunks. “Oh yeah.”

“Katie, I swear,” Lauren said, facepalming. “You seriously brought swim trunks?”

“They said to pack swimming gear and I forgot!” I said, embarrassed. “Not my fault.”

“Totally your fault, but whatever,” Lauren said. “It must be your lucky day since I brought an extra pair, just in case we went swimming multiple times.”

“Oh, thanks,” I said, looking over at Lauren. “What’s the design?”

“The bottom is a skirt, so it should hide your, umm, friend,” Lauren said, tripping over her words due to how awkward it was. “And the top is just a standard bikini top, nothing much about it.”

“Okay,” I said, a little embarrassed to be wearing something like that. Wearing something like this was a first for me, and I was a little nervous. “I’ll go put it on real quick in the restroom.”

“See you,” Liz said. “We’ll be changing out here.”

“Got it,” I said, walking into the restroom. I quickly changed there, and the skirt luckily hid anything from showing. I had to admit, it looked pretty cute, although it was still embarrassing to wear. I walked back out to see the other girls in their swimsuits.

“Let’s get outside, yeah?” I said, smiling at them.

We stepped outside to see everyone was all dressed up in swimsuits, ready to go. We marched together to a rather large pool.

“I’m surprised they have a pool,” I whispered to Lauren.

“I know right, I thought we were going to swim in a lake or something,” Lauren responded.

Lauren put a finger inside the pool and then pulled it back. “That is way too cold.”

“Go in now, Lauren,” Liz said, slightly shoving her so she fell into the pool.

“Ahh, that’s so cold,” Lauren said as she resurfaced, shivering. She grabbed Liz and pulled her into the pool as well. “You get in too.”

“It is cold,” Liz said after a few seconds. “But that’s a good thing, in my opinion.”

“Yeah, it is a good thing,” I said, gently dipping my legs into the pool. I slowly made my way into the pool, and even then it was really cold.

“Brrr, it’s freezing in here,” I said, hoping for my body to get used to it quickly.

“What should we do?” Sam asked, also dropping into the pool.

“I don’t know, just have fun,” I said, shrugging.

“Ooh, how about we race?” Lauren asked.

“Sure,” I said. We all lined up against the wall and took off at the same time. We all swam normally, while Sam immediately went underwater and started dolphin kicking. I came in last place by a significant margin while Sam came in first, her method apparently having worked.

“You guys are way too good at this,” I said, panting.

“Sorry about that,” Liz said, laughing. “You’re just slow.”

We ended up playing around with the beach balls and splashing each other with water, fooling around a whole lot.

***

“Our final activity for the day will be picking flowers, and then we’ll go back home,” a teacher said. “Here, get off the bus and you can take your choice of flowers.”

“Ooh, look at these flowers,” Sam said, taking a peek at the field of flowers through the bus window. “They’re so pretty.”

“I know, right,” Lauren said, plucking a yellow flower off of the ground and sniffing it as we stepped off. “That smells nice.”

“You know,” I said, looking at the many various types of flowers on the hill. “Do you think Matthew would like it if I brought him one back?”

“Oh, he totally would,” Liz said, grinning. “How about you make him a whole bouquet?”

“That would be nice,” I murmured, imagining Matthew’s face if I showed up with some flowers for him. “But I don’t think that’ll fit in my backpack.”

“We’ll make it fit!” Lauren said, shoving flowers into my backpack.

“Woah,” I said, turning around to look at Lauren. “Be careful about your drawing, I’ve been doing my best so it won’t get crumpled up.”

“It’ll be fine,” Liz said, contributing more to my flower collection. “Here, this red one looks super cute. I bet Matthew will see it and fall in love.”

“Katthew is going to go so well,” Sam said, grinning. “Let us know what happens when you hang out, okay?”

“Fine,” I said. I tried to act nonchalant, but internally I was also a little nervous as to what would happen.

***

We finished up flower picking, and I had about a dozen flowers sitting in my backpack. We all got back on the bus, and I ended up falling asleep with my head on Sam’s shoulder. She prodded me awake though as we neared Rosewood.

“I can finally see Matthew again!” I said, excited. I checked my phone to see it had service, which was a relief. “That’ll be nice, I missed him.”

“Ooh,” Liz said, grinning. “What are you two going to do?”

“Hang out, probably,” I said. “What else would we do?”

“Maybe get together?” Lauren asked, leaning across the bus aisle to peek at me. “Make Katthew official? Get married?”

“I think that’s moving a little too fast,” I said, giggling. “We’ll just hang out and see what happens from there.”

“I don’t see the point in delaying things if it’s going to happen eventually,” Lauren said, crossing her arms.

“We’re back girls,” Ms. Harris said. “You’re free to go home now, the school buses will be arriving soon to take you all home.”

***

“Hi, Mom!” I said, getting inside her car. She had decided to pick me up today since I was gone for so long.

“Sweetie, it’s so good to see you again,” she said, smiling. She reached over the driver's seat and gave me a tight hug. “How was the trip?”

“It was tons of fun,” I said, excited to tell her about what happened. “We did a lot of stuff, although the hikes weren’t all that fun.”

“Hikes are difficult,” she said, chuckling. “I hated them during my high school trips too.”

“Yeah they are, I missed you though,” I said.

“Aww, I missed you too,” she said. “I can’t imagine I won’t be able to see you for months once college starts.”

“Yeah, I’ll miss the home-cooked meals too,” I murmured.

“Yeah, I guess that’s all that I’m good for,” Mom said, laughing. “Anyways, anything you want to do now that you’re back home?”

“I want to see Matthew!” I said, all excited. “It’s been way too long.”

“How about you take today off since you just came back from a camping trip. Rest up a little, and see him once you’re all energized again.”

“Fine, but I do want to see him tomorrow.”

“Did you bring anything back from the trip?” she asked, peeking over at my backpack.

“Oh, Lauren drew this one photo of me as an anime girl,” I said, pulling out the piece of paper out of my backpack.

“That actually looks a lot like you,” she said, taking the piece of paper with one hand while having the other on the steering wheel. “She’s a good artist.”

“She is, she’s been teaching me since I started art class, so I’ve gotten a lot better as well.”

“That’s good,” she said, smiling. “What are those flowers?”

“Oh, umm,” I said awkwardly. I stuttered some words out. “I wanted to make a bouquet for Matthew.”

“Are you sure you don’t like him?” Mom said, chuckling.

“Umm,” I said again. I desperately tried to change the subject, looking away so Mom wouldn’t see my face blushing red. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Okay, something else,” she said, thinking. “Oh, you do realize Grace is leaving on Sunday, right?”

“Three weeks have already passed?” I asked, my mouth open in surprise.”I’m going to have to meet up with her.”