“You’re kidding me! You have to be!” Jeremy cried, doubled over in laughter. “I can’t breathe! Hahaha!”

               Casey and Lance were guffawing as well, but not nearly as hard as the blonde. I was actually afraid he would pass out from lack of oxygen. My cheeks were hot in embarrassment and I scowled at the sniggering trio. The only one mature enough to not laugh at me was Chris, but I could tell it was taking all he had to hold it in.

               “Don’t make me climb over this seat and smack you,” I warned in a quiet voice. “It’s not funny.”

               Wiping tears from his eyes, Jeremy glanced over the bus seat that was separated him and Chris from Casey and myself. “It’s so funny. Just the thought… Just the thought…” He burst out laughing again, slapping the back of the seat.

               James and Ellie, who were sitting in the seats across from Jeremy, kept sneaking curious peeks at him, their expressions amused. James was grinning widely, shooting me wicked looks. Apparently he’d heard my confession as well.

               “Stop laughing!” I tried again, glowering at Jeremy. “How would you like it if I laughed at your fears?”

               He snorted. “My fears? I think it’s pretty natural to be afraid of spiders. Aliens on the other hand…”

               My face grew darker. “It’s not aliens! It’s the idea that aliens might abduct me and, you know, harm me…”

               Finally, the dam inside Chris broke and laughter escaped his lips. This time Ellie did a double take at him. Even Lexi stared. I didn’t blame them. Chris rarely ever laughed so carefree. It made it hard for me to be mad with him for laughing.

               “Guys, guys. We should take Holly’s fears seriously,” Lance suddenly said solemnly. He glanced at Lexi, who was seated next to him, grinning, before looking back at me. “We never know. Maybe aliens will one day abduct her… and then she’ll tell them to abduct us next for revenge!”

               Seven people now started laughing. Ellie and James had overheard Lance. I threw my hands up in the air, completely frustrated. “You guys are so inconsiderate! Mr. Heywood, Mr. Ross! You two are teachers! This is like, bullying!”

               Jeremy gasped for air. “I can’t breathe!”

               “Jeremy!”

               “Mr. Ross, Mr. Heywood, Casey, Lance, Lexi, James, Ellie… I know you all may be excited, but please don’t be so loud.”

               Everyone closed their mouths immediately as Ms. Elliot frowned down on us. My heart jumped in my chest, surprised by her appearance. She always showed up at the most random moments.

               “Sorry,” Jeremy and Chris muttered together.

               “It’s fine. Just be courteous.”

               “Yes.”

               A satisfied smile crossed my face as Ms. Elliot waddled to the back of the bus. “Yeah guys. Quiet down.”

               Chris just rolled his eyes at me before turning forward. “I hope aliens abduct you tonight.”

               “Mr. Heywood!”

               Casey giggled beside me and I elbowed her. She grimaced. “That was my boob…”

               “Good!”

               “Just think,” Jeremy started, grinning at me, “you have to spend two nights out in the woods were the aliens can get you.”

               Groaning, I dropped my head down. “I knew I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I knew you guys would tease me!”

               James leaned over Ellie to give me a sympathetic look. “Sorry, Holly. I’ll stop now.”

               “Thank you!”

               “It’s actually kind of scary to think about though,” Ellie thought out loud, furrowing her eyebrows. “Aliens can abduct you and torture you, and yet when you wake up you won’t know it. Like in the 4th Kind.”

               “Not helping, Ellie…”

               She grinned at me. “Sorry, sorry.”

               “It probably happens to Holly…”

               “Jeremy, shut up!”

               Ellie grinned at him. “You sound like my boyfriend Anthony. He teases me like that all the time like that.”

               An awkward silence passed by all of us.

               “Oh… Right. There was that rumor that you guys were dating, wasn’t there?” she said awkwardly, her gaze switching from Jeremy to me. “I didn’t mean anything by what I just said, I promise!”

               Chris locked gazes with me and smirked. I dropped my eyes, opting to focus on my pale hands resting on my lap. It felt like it’d been forever since that little incident had happened. I’d almost forgotten about it. Sighing, I slumped back in my seat. “So this is kind of it, isn’t it?”

               “What do you mean?” Casey inquired.

               “Next week is the last week of school. Friday is prom. Then we come back on June 6th to graduate… We’ll be at the school six more times before we’re done. Forever.”

               “Sounds good to me,” Lance declared happily. “Out of this hell hole and onto the next!”

               Casey pouted. “But that means we won’t get to see you again…”

               He rolled his eyes. “No. I’m going to go to WNEU.”

               “Really?” Casey, Jeremy, and I cried simultaneously.

               Lance stared at Jeremy. “Why are you excited?”

               A puckish smile crossed Jeremy’s face. “Well, on all your first year, I’ll be finishing up my last year.”

               “You’re still in college?” Lance, James, and Ellie all chorused, surprise on their faces.

               Jeremy frowned. “Why is everyone so surprised? I’m only twenty, almost twenty-one. Usually you graduate at twenty-two. For a four year, at least. I might go for longer.”

               “You’re only twenty?” Ellie repeated, even more shocked. “That’s how old my boyfriend is!”

               Casey and I smirked smugly at Lance. Apparently we weren’t the only two interested in older men. Annoyed, Lance crossed his arms and looked away from us. “Whatever. I can’t believe I have to put up with you in college too.”

               “Put up?” Jeremy parroted, his eyes growing sad. “Lance… I thought we had something special?”

               Lance gave him a flat stare. “You thought wrong.”

               “Oh, woe is me,” he sighed dramatically, throwing his hand over his forehead and falling back onto Chris.

               Chris immediately shoved him off. “Grow up.”

               “So I can be a grumpy old man like you? I think not.”

               After smacking Jeremy upside the head, Chris turned his back on the blonde and settled for glaring out the window. I caught his gaze in the reflection and grinned at him. He’d never admitted it, but I knew he was excited to be going camping. When the trip was mentioned, his eyes would brighten and his ears would perk up.

               “So,” Casey started in a low voice so only I could hear, “are you planning on sneaking into Mr. Heywood’s tent tonight?”

               “No.”

               “Is that reluctance I’m sensing?”

               “No.”

               “Not even a little bit?”

               I hesitated.

               Her eyes lit up. “Aha! So you do want to!”

               “Shh!” I shushed her, glancing around briefly to see if anyone was listening. No one was. It seemed everyone was distracted by their own conversations now. “Of course I want to. But I’m not stupid enough to do it.”

               “Why not?”

               “The tents are only made for two people. I bet Chris and Jeremy will tent together. Someone would notice if there's three people in the tent.”

               She cocked an eyebrow. “That’s what’s stopping you?”

               “Yeah.”

               A devious expression crossed her face. “Don’t worry about that. I’ve got it covered.”

               I looked at her warily. “Casey…”

               “Don’t even Casey me. I’ve got this. Gotta make the last two days of senior week count, don’t we?”

               Letting out a long sigh, I nodded. The least I could do was let Casey do what she wanted. If it worked, at least I’d get to spend the night with Chris again… I paused. I really was spending too much time with my boyfriend. It was starting to seem weird to be without him. Shaking my head, I adverted my gaze (which had somehow fallen upon Chris’s head) and stared out the window. I’d have to be careful about monopolizing both our time.

               The first thing we were instructed to do at the campsite when we arrived was to set up our tents. The weather forecast predicted rain, so we were also told to waterproof our tents. After Casey and I grabbed ours, we set off to locate where Chris and Jeremy were setting up their tent. To me it seemed a little suspicious if we set up near them, but Casey disagreed. The only reason I was going along with it was because I’d noticed Ms. Elliot setting up the tent she was sharing with Ms. Carpenter on the other side of the lot and I knew I didn’t want to be near her. After a little bit we finally located the boys and started to construct our shelter.

               “Which way do these poles go?” Casey asked me, holding up two of the metal poles from the tent kit. They were both long and skinny, with black strings inside of them.

               “Um… I don’t know.”

               “You have the instructions.”

               “The instructions are in Spanish…”

               She stared at me. “You’ve been reading them in English for the last five minutes.”

               I grinned at her sheepishly. “Actually, I’ve been guess-lating.”

               “Holly!”

               “What? I can’t speak Spanish perfectly!”

               “Why are the instructions even in Spanish? Last time I checked, we were in America!”

               I laughed. “Casey, most things come with Spanish these days.”

               “Well they should at least put them in English!”

               “They do,” a smooth voice interjected. “The other instruction packet should be inside the bag.”

               My eyes shot to Chris, who was now slowly sauntering toward me. I squatted down, digging through the blue tent bag. “Huh. I looked already though… Oh,” I said in realization, locating the English manual on the floor of the bag. “Of course.”

               “Do you need help?” Chris offered.

               I shook my head. “Nope. We’re big girls. We got this.”

               He didn’t look convinced. “Okay. I have to help other groups then… If you need me, I might consider helping you if you beg me.”

               “We’ll let you know, Mr. Heywood!” Casey chirped brightly. “But don’t get too excited to help Holly. We’ll figure this out.”

               “Sure,” came his skeptical response. “See you two later.”

               Rolling up the sleeves to her sweatshirt, Casey held her fists containing the poles higher. “Okay, so where do these go?”

               I glanced over the English instructions. “Umm… I don’t know.”

               Her shoulders sagged. “This is going to take forever…”

               Forever was an understatement. After half an hour, three mini-spats between us, and much swearing, we were still not even a quarter of the way finished with setting up our tent. We’d got all the poles through (after many attempts), but couldn’t get it to stand up right. Frustrated, Casey threw down the pole she was holding on to. I scowled at her, crossing my arms. “You know, throwing things isn’t going to help.”

               “This is ridiculous! It shouldn’t take so long to put up a freaking tent! Especially for two seniors!”

               Hearing her say that out loud caused me to grimace. It really shouldn’t have been that hard. “Listen, maybe we put the poles in the wrong things…”

               “We followed instructions!”

               “We must be missing something,” I said, raking my eyes over the sheet of paper in my hands again. “Um…”

               “Why don’t you try putting the end of the poles into the pockets on the bottom tarp?” an amused voice whispered in my ear.

               Surprised, I jumped, sending Chris’s jaw into my shoulder. “Ow!”

               He yanked his head away from me, frowning and rubbing his chin. “I should be saying that…”

               “Don’t scare me like that,” I muttered, turning my head to purse my lips at him. “And don’t whisper in my ear when there are other people around.”

               He smirked. “Too intimate for you?”

               Casey grinned at me as I glowered at my boyfriend. “No, but you know how I feel when Ms. Elliot’s around.”

               “You should just call her Rebecca,” Chris said, tapping his chin. “You seem to call other teachers by their first name.”

               “Mr. Heywood.”

               He wrinkled his nose. “I never liked you calling me that.”

               “Look, are you going to help us or not?”

               A grin appeared on his face. “Ah? You want my help?”

               Casey nodded eagerly. “Yes please.”

               “Holly has to beg.”

               I stared at him flatly. “No way.”

               “Do you really want my help?”

               “No.”

               “Holly,” Casey started, folding her arms over her chest, “we need his help. We can’t do it by ourselves.”

               I puffed out my cheeks. “Is this some kind of torture, Chris?”

               “Actually, it’s just something to amuse myself with.”

               “Chris!”

               He tilted his head to his side. “You mean Mr. Heywood?”

               “Fine!” I cried. “Please help us.”

               “That didn’t sound very convincing.”

               “You’ve got to be…” I shook my head in disbelief. Chris’s grin stretched all the way across his face. “Please?” I tried again, putting on my best puppy dog look.

               He shook his head. “That doesn’t do it for me.”

               “Well, what do you want me to do?”

               “Drop onto your knees, clasp your hands together, kiss my shoes…”

               “Definitely not.”

               He chuckled, stooping down to pick up the pole that was abandoned by Casey. “You guys almost had it. You really only had to put the four ends of the long poles into the four pockets at the bottom,” he explained, easily assembling our tent so it was upright and roomy.

               “Oh,” I said lamely, feeling my cheeks warm up. “That was, um… simple.”

               “Yeah, Holly. You’re stupid,” Casey commented in a low voice.

               “Hey! You couldn’t figure it out either!”

               Laughing, she waved me off. “It’s okay since your boy… boycott kept my mom from packing us dried fruit…”

               Confused by her words, I narrowed my eyes at her. “What—”

               “I see you girls finally decided to ask for help with your tent.”

               I twisted around on my heel to see Ms. Elliot giving us a knowing smile. My eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Why was she always appearing around me when Chris was around all of a sudden? Was it supposed to mean something? Was she suspicious? Or was I just being paranoid? It was true we’d had some close calls with her, but she’d never shown signs of suspicion.

               “It seems like all the girls are having problems,” Chris responded for us, his voice confident and playful. “They must not camp much.”

               Ms. Elliot nodded. “Well that, or another reason.”

               I allowed my eyes to drift to the ground, my gaze settling on a tiny piece of mica. It was pretty obvious what she meant by another reason.

               “Well, Holly was trying to read the Spanish instructions,” Casey piped in. “Didn’t realize there was English ones.

               Still focused on the rock, I could imagine the smirk on the female teacher’s face.

               “Well, since almost every other group is finished setting up their tents, the other teachers are setting up activities. Depending on what you want to do, you can go meet up with the other students. Mr. Heywood knows what the activities are. I’m sure he’ll relay them to you…”

               “Will do,” Chris responded swiftly. “Leave it to me.”

               After sending him a warm smile, Ms. Elliot left us to ourselves. Casey grinned like a mad man. “She is like a shark.”

               “A really annoying shark,” I corrected her, sighing deeply. “She always runs into Chris and I at the worst moments. Literally.”

               “One week left,” she told me. “Then you don’t have to worry about her.”

               “Hazaah.”

               She grinned at me cheekily before turning to face Chris. “Okay! Mr. Heywood, what are choices?”

               He pressed his lips together. “Nothing fun. You can go for a hike. Or go kayaking. Or search for firewood for later. Or I guess they have badminton set up somewhere.”

               “I’m feeling lazy, so I’m going to gather firewood,” I decided easily.

               Casey pouted at me. “What? Come play badminton with me!”

               “No.”

               “Lazy!”

               “You know, Casey, Jeremy is gathering firewood too,” Chris spoke up casually. “I’m sure he’d like someone to talk to. Or Mack on.”

               Casey’s face tinted red, but she kept surprisingly calm. In fact, she turned to Chris with a self-assured look. “Ah, that’s right. I thought it was strange how you said ‘mack’ instead of ‘make out’, but then I remembered how old you were…”

               He scowled at her. “I’m not old.”

               “Should I call you Mack from now on?”

               “Casey.”

               “Well, I’m off to go Mack with my boyfriend,” she announced, winking at Chris. “See you, Holly.”

               I grinned as she sauntered away, whistling a happy tune. “I love her.”

               “She and Jeremy really do make the perfect couple.”

                “What are we then?”

               He smiled mischievously. “The couple that should never have been.”

               “Or maybe the outlawed couple…”

               “The surreptitious couple?”

               I laughed. “You sound like Lance when you use fancy words like that. He once called our relationship proscriptive back in October.”

               Chris looked impressed. “That fits. You were underage, so technically it was proscriptive.”

               “What does that even mean?”

               “Forbidden, especially by law.”

               I smiled wryly. “Wow, that really did fit…”

               “But now surreptitious fits more,” he enlightened me. “Surreptitious means kept secret because it would not be approved of.”

               “Good to know there are words to describe our relationship to a T…”

               He laughed. “Well, I wouldn’t say those describe our relationship but… Shall we sneak away for a bit?”

               “I think you mean gather firewood.”

               “We can do that at the same time,” he said, heading off in the direction of the woods.