“Just in case we have to stop for gas. Although I don’t know why we bother. Kota likes to keep the caravan together. I’m just using the GPS to count down the miles.”
There was a long stretch of nothing in front of us. There were trees along the side of the roads and the occasional cutoff. We passed by farms and over some bridges as we traveled further south. “Are we going to Georgia?” I asked.
“We’re getting close,” North said. “But we aren’t leaving the state.”
“I’ve never been this far south,” I said.
“You’ve never been anywhere,” Silas said. “One day, we’ll go to an Atlanta game.”
“Maybe this summer,” North said. “After we get out of this school in the spring. We won’t have time before then.”
I smiled to myself, liking how they were thinking of the future with me around. I kept an eye on the map, trying to pinpoint Hunting Island without moving it from where North could see it. “Do we need to follow Victor? Do you know where to go?”
“We’re headed to the same place,” North said. “I’ve got directions. Just sit back and relax. We’ll get there soon.”
“But they’ll get there first,” I said. I leaned over the console more to check his speed. He was going just under the limit. “And they’re taking forever.”
“Kota really likes the speed limit,” North said. “He’d fuss at Victor if he went any faster.”
Silas grinned. “I think she’s in a hurry to get to the beach.”
“I just want to get there before Kota,” I said for no reason. I thought it would be a silly way to have fun with Kota. Maybe it’d help him relax if we were having fun before we got there.
North grunted. “I can fix that. Sit back and make sure your seatbelt is on.”
I sat back and made a show of snapping my seatbelt at my waist.
North checked his rearview mirrors and then stomped on the gas. The Jeep raced ahead, nearly meeting Victor’s bumper. He cut around Victor when it was safe and zoomed off ahead, weaving in front of him, and then continuing at a higher speed down the lane. The Jeep’s engine roared, making my heart race along with it.
North’s phone rang. Silas picked it up and answered it. “Sorry,” he said. “Sang wanted to beat Kota.”
I turned and looked back at Victor’s car. There wasn’t anyone along this stretch of road so no one was behind him now. It followed behind us for a moment, but suddenly the car slowed a lot.
My heart stopped. “What’s wrong?” I asked in a panic. “Did something happen to the car?”
Silas laughed, poking at North’s phone to hang up. “Victor heard you wanted to beat Kota there. So he’s helping.”
I laughed and turned to face forward. I leaned against Gabriel. “Victor’s cheating for me.”
Gabriel had his eyes closed and nudged me with an elbow. “You’re Trouble for him, too. Kota’s going to give us all a lecture later.”
I avoided looking at North’s dashboard, though when I did look, the speed remained at ten over the speed limit, keeping us way ahead of Kota and the others.
I was leaning back, staring off and daydreaming when Luke finally elbowed me. He pointed to a sign outside, a brown one with white lettering: Hunting Island.
“Is there really hunting?” I asked quietly. They’d said not at the camp, but I was wondering where the hunting would be happening and if we’d hear gunshots at all.
“Only for Sangs,” Luke said with a grin. “Good thing I brought a few Nerf guns.” He reached for my hand and held it, his fingers weaving between mine, squeezing as we shared our excitement.
Once we crossed a river onto the island, we were surrounded by trees. Eager to see a beach and what a campground would be like during the winter, I kept looking out the side windows, leaning against both Luke and Gabriel as I did. I had pictured a field that just ended at a beach, not woods like what I was seeing.
I struggled back into my jacket, sure that we’d be hopping out of the car into the cold at any moment. I scanned between the trees; all I could see was more trees and the road in front and behind us.
“I don’t see a beach,” I said.
“It’s somewhere around here,” North said.
He followed the signs that led the way to the campgrounds. Soon we approached a gray building, nestled in a cluster of trees. There was a barrier in the way, cutting off access down the road.
North pulled up, talked with the attendant in the booth and showed him our reservation, telling him there was another car following. The attendant passed him a map of the campgrounds with our camping spot circled in red.
“Your group has the campgrounds to yourselves this week,” the attendant said. “It’s low season, so we let the canteen and other attendants have the week off for the holidays, although someone should always be here at the security office, and one of our rangers lives on the property. Some visitors come for the open parks, but probably not this week.” He tipped his brown hat our way. “Enjoy. Come see me if you need anything. And don’t feed the bears. There’s information on the back of the map if you need it.”
“Bears?” I whispered as North eased the Jeep forward and made a left as the map directed.
“He’s kidding,” North said. “There’s no bears.”
“There’s bears,” Gabriel said, picking up his head, rolling it on the headrest and partially opening his eyes. “And coyotes.”
“There’s no coyotes,” North said.
“It’s fucking Hunting Island. What do you think they hunt around here? Look it up on Google.”
North squinted at the road he was following, and then at the map of the campgrounds. “Don’t look it up on Google, Baby.”
I was sure he was just saying that so I wouldn’t be afraid to camp. Secretly, I wondered if we could safely see bears this week without getting hurt.
He passed the map to Silas as he continued down the road. We took a few turns we assumed we needed to take, but he hesitated at a five-way intersection. There were signs, but the paint had faded and were hard to read.
North scratched his head and glared at the faded signs. “The map doesn’t show this kind of intersection. We were supposed to hit a three-way split. Did they add a couple roads since the map was made? Which way?”
Silas looked at the map and said, “He wrote instructions. We’re going the right way. This says head north for two more signposts and then east.”
“Great,” North said and leaned forward, checking the sky. “And it’s overcast. So which way is North?”
I pointed a finger straight ahead, between North and Silas, to the road in front of us.
Silas and North turned and stared at me, blinking.
I stared back, my eyebrows arching up. Wasn’t it obvious?
As a joke, I aimed my pointer finger at North’s face, then grinned and pointed back at the road.
“She’s fucking with us,” North said.
“No, I’m not,” I said. I jabbed my finger toward the road ahead of us. “That’s north.”
North grumbled. “We’ve been twisting around on roads surrounded by trees. There’s no sign of the ocean, and there’s no sun in the sky because of it being overcast. How the hell would you know?”
“The ocean is that way,” I said, pointing east, down the crossroad. I return my finger to aim ahead of us. “That’s North.”
“I’d listen to her,” Luke said. “It’s crazy. She’s got this wicked sense of direction. She can point it out in the dark. I’ve seen her do it.”
“Someone find a compass,” North said, twisting in his seat. “I want to see this.”
Gabriel pulled out his phone and punched at something on the screen. “I’m not getting a signal, so I can’t download the app. My compass is in the pack in the back.”
“I’ve got the app,” Silas said. “I might have just enough signal.” He held up his phone, showing a compass. The needle spun at first but came to point in the direction I had picked out. “She’s rig
ht.”
“Son of a bitch,” North said. He smacked at the steering wheel before driving forward. He glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “How’d you know?”
“I just feel it. I always know where North is,” I said, meaning it literally but blushed, realizing what I’d said could have a double-meaning.
North glanced back at me, smirked and shook his head.
As we drove on, I noticed sites were marked off with spikes in the ground, each one numbered. North soon found our camping space. He parked in front of the flat patch of grass designated for parking.
I pushed at Luke to let me out. We’d been riding for forever and I was anxious to get out into the fresh air and stretch. I wanted to get all my stuff out and set up everything so I would be ready to have fun with Kota and the others. And then I wanted to find a beach. Maybe I could get Kota alone by asking to walk around and explore.
When everything was out of the Jeep, North planted his hands on his hips. “Should we wait for Kota? He’ll want to organize everything.”
“Sang,” Gabriel said, picking up the pink bag that held the tent components. “Do you want to set up your own tent? You should probably try it out. Give you some practice living in the wild.”
“I can?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “It’s your first camping trip with us. You know what that means?”
I shook my head, my hand drifting up until my finger was hovering over my lower lip, pinching it to my teeth.
He reached over to me, gently patting my hand away from my mouth. “Means you’ve got to go rustic,” he said. “You’re with us now. This is initiation. Our first time out, we spent the night in the tents by ourselves. It’s like a tradition.”
I glanced at Luke. Luke perked up and nodded. “Yeah, Sang. Rite of passage. We all did it. One night all by yourself.”
My heart fell. I had to sleep by myself? That was horrible. I had hoped to spend the nights with them all. This camping trip wasn’t going to be fun after all.
But then I thought of what they’d said: Rite of passage. They all did it. If that’s what it took to be part of the group, I had to do it.
I swallowed back my protest. I held out my hands for the tent bag. “Okay,” I said, trying to sound confident. Maybe I would only have to sleep in the tent? Hopefully, I got to spend the rest of the time with them.
Gabriel smiled, handing off my tent. “It’s light enough. You can carry it. Part of the fun is doing this yourself.”
The tent wasn’t heavy—not much heavier than my book bag filled with textbooks. “Where do I set up?” I asked.
Gabriel glanced around and then pointed toward the west wall of trees surrounding the campsite. “Follow me.”
Luke and I followed Gabriel until we crossed through a thin line of trees.
We ended up at another space where there was a small fire pit, a flat section for a tent, and a picnic table within a small area. I noticed another spike with a different number on it by the road. “Is this another site? Are we supposed to use it?”
“We’ve got this one and the one on the other side,” Gabriel said. “They give us plenty of room to stretch out, but we all usually just pile onto the one site.” Gabriel stopped at a leveled section of ground. “You can set up here. It’s close enough to your fire pit. You might not freeze tonight.”
I dropped my tent on the ground. “Can I light a fire?”
“If you can light one, you can light one,” Gabriel said. “I’ll give you two sticks to rub together. Technically I’m not supposed to help.”
“Aw,” Luke said, grinning. He sat down on the picnic table bench, putting his elbows behind him to lean back on the table as he watched. “You’re going to find sticks for her? I had to find my own.”
“It’s these modern times,” Gabriel said with a wink. “Have to do everything for these kids.”
“I think I can find sticks,” I said. At least they could hang out while I was trying to figure it out. “Can you at least tell me what to do? Or do I have to get my iPad and read the survival stuff.”
“We’ll help you with stuff you don’t know,” Luke said.
I started opening the tent bag—the fabric was pink.
As I pulled it out of the bag, Luke and Gabriel found a couple of rocks to sit on near the fire pit so they could be closer and make comments while I figured out how to put it up.
I supposed the first thing was to set up the tent properly. If I could do that, I thought I could figure out a fire later.
I read the directions and counted pieces in the kit. It wasn’t difficult to figure out, but with the way it was designed, it required two people at the end to lift it into place. I did as much as I could alone, but when it came to having to lift it up, I glanced at the guys. “Can someone help me lift it?”
Luke and Gabriel shook their heads simultaneously. Luke was staring into the woods, chewing on a piece of grass. Gabriel was flicking some dirt from his shoes. “Sorry, Trouble,” Gabriel said. “No helping. You’ve got to do it yourself. Think of the boy scouts...I mean girl scouts. I bet they do this alone.”
“But there’s scouts,” I said. “That’s plural. There’s more than one. And don’t they have leaders?”
“Right,” Gabriel said. “Think of us as camp leaders and you’re earning a badge. This is basically survival training. This is Academy camp after all.”
“He means we were never in the scouts,” Luke said. “We don’t know.”
“I’ve read the manual,” Gabriel said. “It’s all about learning how to do this shit yourself so if you ever needed to do it alone, you could. We had to do all this. What if I was unconscious?”
“If you’re unconscious, you don’t need a tent,” Luke said. “You need a doctor.”
“You never fucking know.”
I sighed. I got the concept of trying to do this myself, but the instructions said to lift while putting in a tent stake. Was I supposed to do that at the same time? If so, I needed two people. The instructions weren’t clear and the pictures showed two people. I was tempted to call on Silas to help out, but I had a feeling Gabriel and Luke would have thrown a fuss.
I stepped over the fabric, pulling where I could. The tent lifted, but as I was setting up one end, the other started sagging over, jerking the pole out of the ground until the whole thing collapsed.
Gabriel stood up, dusting off his hands. “Sang, if I have to help you, this doesn’t count,” he said.
“Hang on,” I said. “I’m not done yet.”
Gabriel smirked and waved his hand dismissively. “Come on. It’s your first time. I get it. Don’t worry about it.”
I glared at him. I found the edge of the poles. It took some maneuvering, but I managed to single-handedly stab the pole in the ground far enough that it wasn’t going to move though I was worried it was going to break, so I moved quickly. I bent the pole over the tent, picking the whole of the frame off the ground.
I had to run around the tent to get it set up right but eventually I had it up.
The boys came over and we stood together near the entrance after I opened the flap, looking into the space and admiring my work. It wouldn’t withstand a bear attack, but it might stand up all night. If it didn’t get too windy. Was it waterproof? What would happen if it rains?
Luke nudged Gabriel in the arm. “She set up her tent on her own. She’s going to sleep out here alone now.”
“Naw,” Gabriel said. “Just wait until dark. She’ll be begging to sleep in the tent with us.” He grinned at me. “It gets a little scary out here, you know. By yourself. Alone. In the dark.”
I poked him in the stomach, and he leaned forward. He was just trying to scare me, but I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to be afraid.
If the boys had done it, I had to, too. “Nu-uh,” I said. “Where’s my stuff? I want to put it inside.”
“Most of yours is in Victor’s car,” Luke said.
“Maybe they’re here,” Gabri
el said. He put his arm around my neck and walked with me back toward the other camp area.
We followed the path back to the main camp area where I noticed their site had two picnic tables, a large fire pit, and space to put up three or four large tents. Had that second picnic table been there before?
Victor’s BMW was backed up next to the Jeep with the trunk open.
Nathan and North were unrolling a large tent in the very center of the tent area while Silas unloaded the BMW. Kota and Victor were separating packs into different piles.
Kota and Victor turned when we approached. Victor waved at me.
Kota smirked. “You really wanted to get here before me?” he asked.
I shrugged and glanced at the others, but then went to him, standing next to him. I didn’t want to reach for him with the others around. Maybe I should tell them what Nathan had suggested I do with Kota so they’d understand why I was focusing on him. “When else do I ever get to beat you at anything?”
He smiled more. “Are you going to play fair this week?”
“I will. I promise. It was just this once.”
He looked around and then toward the site we’d come from. “What have you been doing? Having fun?” He picked up a pack and opened it, looking at the contents.
“I set up my tent,” I said. I unzipped my jacket for some air, warm after moving around so much to get my tent set up. “Can I bring my other things over there?”
Kota’s eyebrows hunched together and then he looked at Gabriel and Luke and then surveyed the area around us. “Where’s your tent?”
“Over in the other campsite,’ I said. “The spot next door.”
“Why all the way over there?” Kota asked. “Why not next to us?”
“So I can spend the night by myself like you guys did.”
Kota’s eyes narrowed at Luke and Gabriel. He put down the pack he was holding to place his hands on his hips. “I can’t believe you two.”
“Oy,” Gabriel said, shrugging. “We did it. We can’t treat her differently.”
“I don’t like the idea of her being out there alone like that,” Kota said and then turned to me. “I know we’re camping but…”