Reckless Magic (13 page)

Mr. Lawly appeared to know where he
was going, and he was constantly consulting a compass, but after an
hour of ruining my brand new hiking boots, I was skeptical. That a
group of thirty or so students were following this man blindly into
the wilderness did not seem like the brightest idea to me, but I
guessed he was trustworthy. And if something were to happen to our
only chaperone, I was sure the thirty of us would know exactly how
to rough it in the wild until someone came to find us….. yeah
right.

“
You’re not afraid are you?”
a familiar English accent had come to walk beside me, creating an
equally familiar electrical buzzing throughout my veins. And so the
shock therapy began.

“
Of what?” I asked dryly,
not sure what to expect and completely positive I didn’t want to be
bothered.

“
Of bears and mountain lions
and such,” Kiran said seriously.

“
There aren’t any bears in
the middle of Nebraska,” I laughed incredulously, although inwardly
I was cringing.

“
Are you sure? We’re close
the Niobrara River. I’m pretty sure there are bears, mountain lions
and wolves. I hear they like to prey on unsuspecting girls who have
clearly never been camping before. This is their home you know, you
are the intruder,” he grew more dramatic with every syllable and
although I knew he was just trying to scare me, I hated to admit
that it was working.

“
Oh, and you have been
camping?” I glanced at him skeptically, but noticed that his hiking
boots looked well worn. “But yes, I am sure, now go away,” I didn’t
have the patience for him and I couldn’t afford to faint if we had
much longer to go. My pack was getting heavy and my sweat pants
were starting to get too hot.

“
But who’s going to protect
you from the big bad wolf?” I could hear the smile in his voice but
I refused to look his direction as I trudged on past
him.

“
I can take care of
myself.,” I called over my shoulder and caught back up with
Lilly.

“
What was that about?” she
asked softly, always the discreet one.

“
Ugh. Kiran, playing his
games again,” I knew that Lilly wouldn’t understand what I was
talking about, but she was polite enough not to ask. Although I
considered her a close friend now, I had never been one to open up
much to others. I expected she was the same way, since she had
never said a word about Talbott, but I saw the way they looked at
each other.

I scanned the wilderness in every
direction, telling myself over and over that Kiran was just joking,
but a small amount of fear crept its way through my body. And then
the worst thing possible happened; Kiran snuck up behind me
grabbing both of my shoulders and shouting “boo” loudly in my ears.
I screamed bloody murder and jumped at least five feet. The entire
class turned around to see what the commotion was and all I could
do was hang my head in embarrassment. I could hear Kiran’s snickers
behind me and I had half a mind to turn around and punch
him.

“
Alright kids, we’re here,”
Mr. Lawly called out from the head of the group. We walked into a
clearing in the middle of a dense forest. I could hear running
water not far away and assumed it was a creek or a river or
something. The space was wide enough to accommodate all of us
although I saw no outlet for electricity. The realization that this
far out there was no possibility of real plumbing also occurred to
me. Welcome to hell.

Although all of the upcoming “PE
classes” were a bit more involved, this particular one was
basically just about surviving. I would have been terrified of what
the other ones entailed if I could have been sure I was going to
make it through this one. However, the outcome of this weekend was
looking more and more pessimistic.

The rest of the morning was spent
setting up the campsite and going over the rules. Mr. Lawly talked
on and on about what to do with food, and trash and how to go to
the bathroom. Yuck. He also gave a long lecture about not wondering
off, not pulling pranks and not swimming in the river alone…. or
naked. Blah, blah, blah.

After Lilly and I had successfully set
up our tent, and gotten sufficiently dirty we headed over to the
river with our fishing poles. Mr. Lawly’s idea of camping included
“catching” our lunch. This was going to be interesting.

The entire class was set up along the
bank, every student holding some type of fancy fishing rod. We
found a quiet space at the nearby stream and set up our own
respective poles.

Well, we tried to set up our fishing
poles. Eventually Mr. Lawly made his way over and explained what we
needed to do, and then eventually he just ended up doing it for us.
If I wasn’t so frustrated with my freaking fishing pole, I would
have found the image of thirty very privileged, very snobby, prep
school kids trying to catch their own food hilarious. I had just
learned why fishing was considered a sport.

I stared into the stream for what
seemed like hours, but in actuality was probably more like thirty
minutes. I was starving, I was dirty and I was never going to catch
a fish, and even if I did the chances of me actually eating it were
very slim. Well, at least I wouldn’t have caught a fish if I had
the chance.

As I watched the water, hoping for a
glimpse of anything fish-like, and tried to ignore the humming of
electricity running through my veins at a steady rate I noticed
Seraphina approaching out of the corner of my eye. Her habit was to
usually ignore Lilly and me, so I didn’t think anything of it,
until she stopped directly behind me.

“
Stay away from Kiran,” she
growled threateningly.

I half turned my head to say something
snotty, but she didn’t give me the chance. I felt her palm on my
back and with surprising force she shoved me straight into the
stream of ice cold water. My head just barely missed a rock in the
shallow end of the riverbank, as I went face first beneath the
surface, drenching myself completely.

I rolled over quickly into a sitting
position with my knees sticking out of the water, not entirely sure
what to do. I was horrified and humiliated. I looked around to see
everyone laughing at me and somewhere I could hear Mr. Lawly
yelling “What did I say about swimming!” You’re right Mr. Lawly, I
felt like a swim and therefore dove into the freezing cold, three
foot stream, with all of my clothes on, on purpose.

From where I sat, water flowing over
me; I could see Seraphina and her groupies all laughing and
pointing. I couldn’t say that Talbott didn’t warn me, but really
was any of this my fault? I thought I had left Kiran alone, though
clearly not soon enough.

My eyes continued to roam until I
found the boy in question, standing away from the crowd staring at
me without any smile on his face. I couldn’t make out his
expression, but I knew mine was one of pure disgust.

The electricity already shaking my
body began to rise with my temper. The angrier I got, the stronger
the energy pulsed through me. I had never felt it that strong
before. Anger turned to fear when I realized I didn’t know what I
was going to do with it. I was so unsure of how my body was going
to react to that much force that I was terrified to even stand up.
My hands began to shake and I was full aware I was about to look
more like a freak than ever, if that was even possible at this
point.

I had to get out of there, I had no
other choice. Even if I fainted, at least maybe I could get to
shore first. It would have been better than drowning in the middle
of the cold shallow stream with an audience whom I doubted would
even come to my rescue.

I slammed my hands in the water, to
push myself out of the slow current, but that, unfortunately,
turned out to be a big mistake. As soon as my palms touched the
cool water, energy erupted out of them and what I created was
beyond bad.

A giant tidal wave, of what seemed to
be the entire river engulfed the shore. I watched in terror as all
of my classmates and Mr. Lawly were suddenly and unexplainably
covered head to toe in a torrential downpour. Well, at least no one
was laughing anymore.

In fact, no one said anything, they
all just stared at me….dripping wet. Fish lined the shore, but most
of the students continued to hold onto their poles, completely
shocked. Seraphina gave me a death stare, even Lilly looked less
than happy.

I stood up as the riverbed began to
fill again and walked straight through the crowd of people. No one
said anything or even attempted to stop me. I didn’t know what I
would have done if they did. There was no explanation I could think
of that would make sense; there was no explanation I could even
give them period. I couldn’t explain what just happened
myself.

And so with head down, I marched
straight back through the woods and into my tent. I realized it was
just a tent, that the only thing separating me from the outside
world was a thin layer of canvas, but it would have to do for
now.

I ripped off my wet clothes and flung
them outside the tent opening. I grabbed my sleeping bag and used
it for a towel, regretting the action as soon as I realized it now
smelled like river water. I finally found some new clothes and
threw myself down on my air-mattress.

Eventually I would have to face them
again, but now was not the right time, I was positive of that. My
hair was drenched, still dripping and smelled like fish. I closed
my eyes and breathed in the solitude, even if it only lasted a
minute. I might have destroyed what little illusion of sanity I had
left, but at least I had expelled the electricity for now and
maybe, just maybe could get a few minutes of rest.

13.

Eventually everyone dried off. Mr.
Lawly made several small fires for all of the students to sit
around. He also gave everyone a dried food packet he had brought
along for emergencies. I doubted he expected he would need them so
soon.

Thankfully Mr. Lawly didn’t banish me.
He was actually surprisingly nice; he even built Lilly and me our
own fire so I wouldn’t have to face the other students yet. I
supposed dealing with thirty vengeful high-schoolers was enough
punishment for one girl to endure.

Our activity for the afternoon was
supposed to be a long hike through the wilderness. Thanks to me,
and the fact that everyone’s shoes needed to dry out, it would only
be a short hike through the wilderness. Just in time to get back
and try to catch our dinner, hopefully tsunami free.

Mr. Lawly called us to our feet and we
formed a wide line. Lilly and I hung back slightly, so we could
take our places in the far back. I was not ready to look anyone in
the eye yet; I couldn’t even look Lilly in the eye. She hadn’t
asked me any questions about my accidental tidal wave, and I
appreciated her more than ever.

Mr. Lawly started walking in the
direction of the river, before stopping suddenly and turning
around. The students in front of us followed his lead, making a
semi-circle through camp to adjust our course. My guess was that
Mr. Lawly was just not ready to face the water again. I couldn’t
blame him; I didn’t think I was either.

So instead of walking along the river
we took a route in the opposite direction, to the East of how we
hiked to our camp this morning. The terrain was rough and uneven. I
had to focus on the ground to keep my balance. Or at least that was
what I told myself I was doing, but really I was not ready to face
all of the snickers and glares from my still angry
class-mates.

Our hike followed a winding path
through a beautiful forest. The trees were thick and the leaves
were just beginning to turn colors for fall. The sound of the creek
had silenced completely and the only noises we could hear were
birds and squirrels or the occasional insect flying too close. I
was lost in my own thoughts when I heard Lilly gasp softly. I
looked up immediately, not knowing what to expect; maybe Seraphina
had organized for me to be taken to the mental institution, or
better yet, burned at the stake.

Instead of physical death, however, it
was only physical torture. Kiran and Talbott had stopped walking
and were apparently waiting for us to catch up. I glanced at Lilly
to see her porcelain cheeks stained red from blushing. I didn’t
understand what she saw in Talbott, but as his cheeks were an equal
shade of crimson, I’m guessing he also saw that same something in
her.

“
That was some temper
tantrum back there, love,” Kiran fell in to step next to me. I was
surprised to see Talbott choose to walk next to Lilly instead of
Kiran.

“
Back where?” I played
ignorant hoping to avoid the conversation and glanced back behind
my shoulder. I realized it was impossible, but a girl could
hope.

“
I told you Seraphina would
not appreciate competition,” Talbott said softly, ignoring my
sarcasm and joining the conversation.

“
I’m not competition.
Seraphina can have him,” I growled, frustrated with Kiran, he was
the reason all of this had happened. Seraphina could have him; I
was certainly not going to fight over him.

“
You’re not competition
huh?” Kiran asked softly, letting our arms bump gently together as
we walked. “And here I thought you were madly in love with me,”
Kiran whispered over-dramatically, his perfect accent articulating
each syllable. The electricity under my skin flared for a moment
and I felt a surge of heat rush through my body.