“You could have helped her,” I heard Talbott accuse Kiran.
“If I would have seen it coming, I would have gladly taken the bullet for her,” Kiran said bravely, while laughing hysterically.
“Thanks a lot jackass,” I grumbled threw bouts of spitting out mud. I heard Mr. Lawly yell something about keeping up with the rest of the group; clearly he thought this prank was well deserved.
“I wish I had a towel or something to give you,” Lilly offered helplessly. “Would you like some leaves or something?”
“Yea, I guess,” wishing more than ever I had worn a sweatshirt; instead of just a tank top and jeans. I thought about using my socks, as unpleasant as that sounded.
“Here, you can use my shirt,” Kiran finally decided to be a gentleman. He handed me the red cotton polo he was wearing and I cringed while using it to wipe off my face. After glancing down at the expensive designer tag, I felt guilty for punishing the poor thing by turning it into a filthy rag.
“Thanks,” I mumbled into the shirt, peeking out from behind it to make sure I hadn’t left him shirtless. Thankfully, he was wearing a white v-neck undershirt.
I wiped as much off with Kiran’s shirt as I could, feeling the dirtiest I had ever felt. Since Lilly, Talbott and Kiran waited with me while I cleaned up, we had to walk a little faster than before in order to catch up with the rest of the group.
Not sure what to do with Kiran’s polo now that it was completely ruined; I held it awkwardly in my hands. I glanced up and gave him a sheepish grin. I could feel small pebbles and bits of mud still in my mouth, so my grin quickly turned to disgust and I tried to spit it out as quickly as humanly possible. Not very lady like, but what other option did I have?
“You just invite trouble, don’t you?” Kiran goaded, but handed me a water bottle I hadn’t noticed him carrying before. I took it, very grateful I was able to rinse my mouth out.
“Looks like it,” I said through bouts of gurgling and spitting.
“What are we going to do with you?” he laughed again lightly.
“Ugh. Mud tastes awful,” I changed the subject to what was really on my mind. The constant grinding of dirt and pebbles between my teeth had me beyond nauseous.
“How are you going to get them back?” Kiran apparently lived for my humiliation.
“Are you kidding? I’m not. I would like this all to just end,” I nearly whined.
“What? With your kind of power, they’re no match for you.”
“Thanks for reminding me what a freak I am,” I was all of a sudden irritated. “This thing is ruining my life; I’m certainly not going to use it against anyone else.”
“Don’t be such a baby. Seraphina could never have done that with the water and she certainly hasn’t held back against you. You could get her back so good. Come on, rain down hell!” Kiran pushed.
“I’m not just here for your entertainment. And isn’t she your girlfriend?” I spit harsher than I had intended, electricity building with every emotion. “I can’t control what is happening to me and it’s not some joke for you to use to pit me against Seraphina. You are crazy if you think we are going to battle it out all over you,” I picked up my pace and refused to look back at him.
“You’re wrong, you can control it,” Kiran yelled after me. That was not really the point I had hoped to leave with him and that irritated me even more. What stung the worst however was that Lilly stayed next to Talbott, leaving me to walk alone through the never-ending wilderness.
Chapter Fourteen
The day ended and slowly the sky turned to dusk. Mr. Lawly had been to every tent, making sure all of our fires were strong and we would be able to make them last through the night. Lilly and I sat around ours on a couple of rocks. Most of the other students were doing the same.
There were thirty students on the camping trip and all of them were assigned to groups of four, except Lilly and me. Thankfully we were the only two to get a tent to ourselves, well besides Mr. Lawly, but his little one-man lean-to hardly counted.
All of the tents formed a circle around a large campfire set up in the middle of the clearing, but occasionally Mr. Lawly set up smaller fires closer to the tents. This seemed like a forest fire waiting to happen; but Mr. Lawly was confident he had things under control.
Some people actually caught fish after we returned from our hike and that was what we were nibbling on now. Our lesson was how to gut and cook a fish over an open flame; I had never done anything more disgusting. I am not exactly sure how this trip was teaching us to survive in the real world.
I couldn’t think of one situation where I might be stranded in the wilderness and have to depend on fresh fish and berries to survive. Except maybe if I was some type of fugitive on the run or something; I guessed with my track record that didn’t seem so impossible after all. I took a big bite out of my smoked catfish and tried to enjoy the taste of my future.
Mr. Lawly passed out cans of baked beans and ingredients for s’mores all to be cooked over the fire. I knew that this was the ideal camping cliché but I wasn’t buying it. I was filthy dirty, my long hair was in endless tangles and I was tired of being picked on. I wished I could say I was the outdoorsy type, but I would have done almost anything for a shower right then.
Lilly and I sat silently, consumed with our own thoughts. I pushed the food around on my tarnished tin camping plate and wondered what Seraphina had planned next for me. I looked over at Lilly and saw a small smile on her face, clearly her thoughts were elsewhere and infinitely more enjoyable.
I wanted so badly to ask her if anything was going on between her and Talbott, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. She had been so great about giving me my privacy that I just couldn’t invade hers. If she wanted to talk about it with me, she would.
I looked over at Talbott; he was sitting in the middle of all of the “cool kids,” right where he belonged. His olive skin was darker from the sun today and his black curly hair was pushed out of his eyes. His posture was perfect and his white teeth glimmered in the coming darkness. All around him sat equally as beautiful girls staring at him, but he happened to be staring at Lilly. I didn’t understand why he was so tied to that group of followers, clearly he liked Lilly. Was he that much of a robot?
I glanced over at Kiran sitting next to him. He too was staring in our direction and so I quickly looked back at the ground. I didn’t get him, plain and simple. He was apparently dating Seraphina, yet barely had anything to do with her. She was gorgeous and popular; the very girl high school social standards required him to date.
But me, the social outcast and resident freak, Kiran wouldn’t leave the hell alone! Either this was just some really messed up game he was playing, or he wasn’t as attached to Seraphina as she was to him. It didn’t really matter which one it was, I was getting sick of being in the middle. And I was definitely tired of providing tonight’s entertainment.
I pulled my knees closer to my chest and laid my head between them. My dark hair spilled over and made a pool on the ground. Normally I would have worried about dragging it through the dirt, but since it was probably dirtier than the ground, I decided not to get upset about it.
I contemplated revenge against Seraphina, but I couldn’t think of anything legal. I was already in enough trouble with Mr. Lawly anyways and I was pretty sure his list of rules said something about an ongoing prank war being forbidden. A small jolt of electricity shocked my system and made me sit upright; I looked over to see Kiran about five feet away and coming closer…. great.
“Go away,” I picked up a rock and threw it at his legs.