Pursing her lips she nodded.
"Yeah.
Just
a bit. He probably won't take this as being about him, but if you do too much it might seem a bit pointed that way. The food is loaded? Water? First aid kit?" She looked around, but it was all tucked in the back, behind the last seat.
Eve and Hally came out, and loaded up, which meant they were underway about two minutes later. Keeley slapped her forehead.
"Okay, duh. We should call Eve's dad, and let him know where we're going. My mom is out of town, or we could just tell her." She dug out her phone, and dialed the number from memory, which was impressive, until Becky got that she was calling the other girl's house, not the man directly. That would just be weird, after all. Who called their friend's dad that regularly?
"Hi Karen, this is Keeley. Oh, we're all doing really well, thanks. We're all going on a hike, and figured that we should let someone know where we're going to be all day. That way if we need a search crew they know roughly were to start." Then she told whoever was on the phone about what they had planned, which sounded ambitious to Becky. A ten
mile
walk? No one else seemed to think it was too much, but they actually exercised on occasion.
She was going to have
such
blisters.
Worse, if she went off into the wilds with a group of boys, and came back limping, her mother would think she was up to something hinky. Then, she realized that her mother wouldn't even ask about it, most likely. If she did, well, if Becky told her they'd all rode her until she was sore, it would probably just get another lecture about how similar they were.
Maybe
an obligatory shocked gasp or two, but it wasn't likely. The woman didn't have any shame left, and could only be bothered to fake it when sober, which wasn't often.
Darla waited for the phone to be hung up and Keeley never passed it over to Eve at all, even if she'd been calling her parents. Then their driver for the day cleared her throat.
"All right, everyone gets the idea? Pair up with someone, and leave Becky with Mitch. We have to assume he's going to try and float toward Keels, so try to interfere with that as much as possible. Becky... Just be yourself. If he can't see how great you are, then he doesn't deserve you. Or
anyone
." There was certainty to her words.
It was the kind of thing that people used when talking about their friends. It was nice to hear, even if the whole day was a disaster. She kind of had to figure it would be, but that was fine. At least she'd get to see him.
That was the important part.
The boys that were going actually made it pretty simple for them, all collecting in one spot, instead of forcing Darla to drive all over town to find them. It meant that, half an hour later they were all collected in the Raintree high school parking lot.
It was almost bizarre, seeing it so empty. There were no other vehicles at all, except for the three that they'd brought, not even a weekend custodian's old truck, or anything like that. The expanse of gray with its fading yellow parking spot lines left her feeling a little sad. Not because of the desolation either. It was just that in a few months, five to be exact, she was leaving it forever. Then there would only be the occasional memory of the place as she drove by.
On the one hand she wanted out. Badly. School hadn't been so wonderful that she never wanted to leave it after all, and it was time for her to get out of the house for good. College might be hard to swing, but she could get a roommate and work. If nothing else community college would be a good starting place. It wasn't a perfect plan, but it also wasn't her current life and that was a good thing, to her way of thinking.
Then there was a sense of loss, even if she hadn't left yet.
It was a deep thing. An unexpected one. She'd miss the place, if only because it had been a part of her life for so long. Only four years, but when you were just eighteen, that was a decent percentage of your whole life. Darla was in the same boat, she thought. Except that with rich family members that loved her,
she
was going to whatever school would have her.
Becky stopped thinking about any of that as she looked across the way to see where Mitch and Cory had parked. They'd taken Mitch's car again, and both boys had jackets on. It meant they looked ready for the day, more or less. Cory had a stocking hat and a scarf too, which told a nice story about how he wasn't from the area. He even had real cold weather gloves and boots on. Mitch was in his normal hodge-podge of things, but looked less ready to face the world than his friend.
She stopped herself, and tried not to stare at him. His hair was short, brown and just slightly out of place. He had wrinkled clothing on, but in bright colors that pretty much screamed, "look at me". On his feet were tennis shoes, which had writing all over the white canvas. It was all so cute. He was telling the world that he didn't care about trivial things like how he looked, but also didn't mind if anyone else noticed him. At least that was how Becky saw it.
In the other vehicle there were three other guys. That made one for each of them, she supposed.
The driver was Quince, the leader of the football
and
basketball teams. He was very good looking, but a bit oblivious, outside of his own concerns. Really, it was sort of surprising that he'd shown up at all. Especially since Gary, the one that had put it all together, was gay and it was an open secret at school. The team leader should have been worried that the guy wanted to have sex with him, but for some reason either didn't, or wasn't concerned that it could happen.
Gary was taller and actually carried a bit more muscle than Quince. He looked hard, and for a while she'd kind of thought that he was dating Darla for some reason. Probably because they always hung all over each other, trying to give that impression. They were just friends, since the guy didn't like the feminine side of humanity that way. Hopefully Darla wasn't in love with him, since Gary couldn't really return the feelings. It would be too sad, if that was the case.
The last boy was Gavin, who was a giant. He was about six-six, and weighed about three hundred pounds or so. It wasn't all muscle, but he wasn't really fat either, just big and solid looking. He was dressed warmly enough, but with no gloves. To Becky's surprise he moved in and hugged Hally for a long time, getting one in return.
The girl squealed a little. It was a happy sounding thing.
"Gavin! You can be my hiking buddy. We all need to have one for safety. I know, the Groves aren't a national forest, but things can happen on the trail, and we need to be ready for anything." She sounded too much like a little girl to be taken all that seriously, but the large guy didn't fight her on it, just seeming to take it all in stride.
He wasn't someone that Becky knew really, but his deep voice rumbled pleasantly, and he actually bothered to smile at everyone, including her.
"That's a good idea. We might see wild life. Or, you know, demons. That's the place, right Gary? Where you saw that thing?" The funny thing about the words, other than the ridiculous nature of them, was that Gavin sounded interested and serious.
The rest of the people went quiet, and looked at the blond boy, who was nearly as tall as Gavin.
"Yeah. That was actually in the trees. Close enough. I guess I hallucinated it. I mean, a giant red devil chasing me? It was just after Rob died, so..." That was his boyfriend, who'd been gay bashed to death. Or at least that had been the rumor. The police were still investigating, but the situation was just sad.
None of the girls said anything, but Quince shrugged. It seemed a little overdone and phony to her, but the boy didn't laugh at the words.
"Well, don't worry girls. If it comes back I'll protect you. We all will, right guys?" There was a meaningful look at the other boys, and Gavin nodded. That got Cory to as well, which earned one in return from the team captain. "See? Not that Gary couldn't handle it himself now that he's had a chance to think about it, but there's safety in numbers, when going up against the unknown."
Keeley snickered at the adult sounding words, her face looking happy enough.
"Fine, then you can be
my
buddy, so I won't get lost. Or eaten by scary demons. Gary should be with Darla, of course..." She looked around, clearly understanding that everyone was taken except for Cory and Mitch.
Eve didn't wait at all, just waving at the smaller light complected boy.
"I've been meaning to get your number anyway Cory, so you can walk with me. Slowly. I'm not planning to run this." She smiled and moved closer to him, like they were pairing up for sex, rather than a power walk through the trees.
Mitch looked a little glum for a bit, but finally smiled at her.
"So, you and me?" He did move closer to her as well. It was a bit too clear that, dressed down Keeley or not, he really wanted to see if he could trade with Quince.
That hurt, but she tried not to let it show, since she was getting exactly what was planned.
"Yep, you and me."
They loaded into Darla's van, which had no problems with engine power, even with everyone on board, but the seating was kind of close and not all of them got to have seat belts. She did, but the way it worked out Quince was the one pressed up against her, not Mitch. That meant having to make conversation with him.
"Becky, right? The one that flashed everyone at the Homecoming party?"
The boy let his shoulder brush her chest, just a little, and it was clearly on purpose. It was both annoying and invasive, while also getting her right nipple to harden. Thankfully that was hidden under her clothing. He did pull away a bit then, still looking like he'd meant to do it.
"
That
was cool. Any chance of you doing that today too? I didn't bring a camera. We should get together and take pictures though. I really love modern photography, don't you?" There was another leaning in. It wasn't a big movement, just a subtle shift in pressure, that caused him to rub against her lightly. He sounded genuine and just like he was really interested in the subject of taking pictures, but for some odd reason Becky thought he might have meant something else.
Darla snickered from the driver's seat.
"Seriously Quince? Your opening move with her is to ask if she'll let you take nudie pics? Does that ever work for you at all?"
The boy moved back a little again. Not too much, since they were all crammed in pretty solidly, but he shrugged and managed to do it without touching her at all.
"Sometimes. I need to do something after I graduate, so I was thinking I'd put together a web-site. Young ladies, but legal. Becky is eighteen. So are you, for that matter. I can't pay anything yet, but you should both consider it, since you'll want things like that when you're older. Pictures that prove how young and pretty you were now. Besides, I might get a date out of it. Once a girl is willing to take her clothes off for you, she generally isn't going to refuse a free meal." There was a seriousness to his tone, but the blonde in the front seat giggled.
"That or, you know, a sports scholarship? You have a year anyway. I wouldn't count on
that
idea for making a living. There's way too much free porn on the web for that to work."
Becky was too busy blushing to get why that was, but Gavin changed the topic, which was a relief.
He rumbled from the seat behind her, where Hally was nestled between him and Cory, with Eve on the other side.
"You're both eighteen? Aren't most seniors seventeen?"
It was normally an awkward thing to talk about, but Darla cleared her throat and kept looking at the road.
"Yeah. I got held back in the first grade. Becky's mom just didn't think that kids should be in school until they were six though, so she just started a year later than most."
There was a murmur, but no one really seemed to care that much. The raw truth was that her mother hadn't really been thinking at all, and had just missed a whole year of having her warehoused for free during the day at school. It wasn't some kind of idealism, or desire to have her baby at home longer. Just her not really figuring out what was normal fast enough. It was kind of the story of her life.
The trip to the Groves wasn't a long one and they were exactly what they sounded like, to tell the truth. A tiny forest that someone had planted, the rows of trees very regular and irrigated. They didn't have any natural things like it in the area, so it was a popular spot for people to come and hang out, on the weekends. Mainly so that they could make out in their cars at night. Or so Becky had heard. She'd never been out there before, except to drive past it on the freeway.
It looked desolate and strange, this time of year. The trees weren't big, and they'd lost all their leaves a long time back, in the fall. There were a few pines and other evergreens, just not a lot of them. It meant that the whole thing would have been just about perfect, if they'd been there in October and wanted to freak themselves out. The idea was to get some exercise though, and whoever had planned the whole thing had very sweetly put in a nature trail as well. There were some hills in it, but it wasn't on a mountain, so hopefully the walk wasn't going to be too bad.
They started in a gravel covered area that actually had some grass left from the summer before. It was sparse and yellow, left growing long. They all climbed out and the boys grabbed the various gear, wanting to seem gallant. At least everyone but Mitch did. He just walked over to Becky and whispered.
"Ooohhh. Becky's doing naughty pictures now? We can stick with Quince if you want? He seems to like you." The look he gave was teasing, until he turned to where Keeley was standing, over by Darla. Then everything about him changed. He stood up and sucked his gut in. Not a lot, but enough that she could see him doing it.
Becky felt like her heart was ripping out, the whole thing was so obvious to her, but she forced a smile to her lips and shook her head.
"I already told Hally that we'd stick with her." It was a lie, but the red haired girl heard her and nodded.
"Right. Not that we won't all be together. Come on, this will be fun!" She actually sounded like she meant it, which was enough to get the small herd of people moving along the path to the right.
It was mainly made of red dirt, with plenty of small rocks mixed in to keep the trip interesting. They didn't exactly amble, since Darla took the lead and pushed them all, more than a bit.
"We want to be back before dark. Otherwise we'll be falling all over ourselves trying to find the van." It made so much sense that no one doubted the idea and they just walked quickly, not saying much at first. It wasn't that hard, but after about two hours her feet started to hurt a bit. She was wearing blisters, even if the shoes she had on were well enough broken in. Even with two pairs of socks on it was a bit rough.
Hally had been right, and they had to loosen their clothing after a while, to keep from overheating, even if the air was cool enough that she could see it coming out as steam. Water vapor, she knew, but the idea was the same. It was cool out. They really didn't want to be left there in the dark.
That meant she didn't complain about her feet, even when they found some large rocks, and a picnic table, where the others set up to eat. Mitch hadn't talked to her at all, but when they sat he made a point of being next to her.
His voice was cute as he spoke too. Low and conspiratorial.
"Hey... Are you going to work on the spring project for Drama? We could get together and go over some ideas for the scenery, if you want? Say, in a week or two? I have to call the games on Thursdays, but can be free most of the rest of the week." It didn't say a lot about his social life, but she nodded.
It was nearly like a date, right? She knew that wasn't true, but it was the closest thing she had right now, so she clung to it. Even if it did seem a little too desperate.