On Friday night, I made it all the way down the ground by myself. The moment I let go of the rope and stood on the grass, a great sense of achievement raced through me.

Nolan, who had been standing next to the rope as he watched me climb down, gave me a grin. "Nice work."

"Of course! I told you that I've been working hard," I said, beaming back at him. "Let's go."

This time, when I climbed the wall under Nolan's instructions, I managed to get over it without almost falling off when I reached the top.

"You've improved a lot," he said as we were walking towards the forest.

"Thanks," I said, taking the hand he offered me. "I just don't want to drag us down. If we ever get caught, I don't want to be the reason for it."

"You won't get caught," he said.

"How can you know that?"

"I won't let us."

Even though he couldn't see me, I still smiled. "Confident, aren't you?"

"I just know what I'm doing."

"You know, I didn't see a rope hanging out of your bedroom window," I said. "How did you get down?"

"I don't need one," he said. "I just jump."

"What?!"

"What?" he said, looking back at me over his shoulder. "The ground's only three stories away from my window."

He slowed down as we reached the darker parts of the forest, where the trees seemed to crowd together and cast even more shade on the entire area around us.

I listened to the chirping of crickets that surrounded us as we strolled on in silence, making sure to stick closely behind Nolan.

"So, it's the weekend tomorrow. Do you have any plans?" I asked, trying to make conversation since I knew it would take us a while to reach the clearing.

"I plan to sleep," he said.

I couldn't stop myself from snorting. "How is that a plan? You do that every day."

"That's a misconception. I get interrupted sleep every day. That's not real sleep. On weekends I get to lie in bed all day without being woken up by the bell."

"Or Mr. Jameson," I added.

"Or Mr. Jameson," he agreed. "He's the biggest pain."

"Hey!" I said, ready to defend my favorite teacher. "He is not a pain. He's just passionate about teaching!"

It was Nolan's turn to snort. "Yeah, he's passionate about waking me up alright."

Talking about Mr. Jameson brought to my mind his handsome scowling face. It was hard not to swoon when I thought about him.

He's so hot even when he's frowning.

"What? You like him?" He didn't even bother hiding the disgust in his voice!

Wait, did I just say that out loud? Oops.

"He's good-looking, okay! Could you stop judging me for once?"

"What do you mean, 'for once'? This is probably the first time I'm really judging you," he said, sniggering.

I gaped at the back of his head. "So you admit it! You are judging me!"

"You judged me for coming into the forest for midnight strolls," he said. "I think I can be a bit judgmental about you crushing on our teacher who's probably at least a decade older than you."

"I only judged you because it's so dangerous and life-risking. It's hardly life-risking to think my teacher is great eye candy," I protested. "Besides, he's only seven years older!"

"How do you even know his age?"

It was time to keep my mouth shut. I didn't want Nolan knowing that I actually paid for this information from a fellow student fangirl who probably sneaked into offices to get ahold of his particulars. After giving up ten dollars just to learn what his age was, I promptly regretted it. It was bordering on stalker territory, and I promised myself never to do that again. Along with that, I wanted to erase my own memory of ever obsessing over Mr. Jameson like that. I just wanted to appreciate his good looks from afar.

"I have my sources," I said. "I just know, okay?"

"That makes no sense, but whatever," he said. "Since you can't provide proof, I'm just going to continue assuming he's ten years older."

"I know for certain he's only twenty-three!"

"No, you don't—"

A sharp bark that sounded like it came from nearby interrupted him mid-sentence.

I tightened my hold on his hand and stared at him anxiously. "What was that?"

He squeezed my hand back. "Probably just a coyote. Don't worry about it."

As Nolan looked around, he led me towards a large tree and stopped there.

"What are you—"

He put a finger to his lips. "I have to keep an eye on our surroundings."

Ignoring my suddenly dry throat, I attempted to shove down rising feelings of misgiving and trepidation as I nodded at him. The only thing I could do right now was to trust Nolan. After all, just moments ago he had said that he knew what he was doing.

A dark outline of an animal slowly came out from behind a few trees in front of us. It was several feet away from us, but I could still tell its height was above my waist level. It took a few more steps towards us, and the dim lighting in the forest angled at it just enough for me to see that it was a coyote.

My heart hammered so hard against my ribcage, it almost hurt.

"Should we run?" I whispered.

It emitted a low growl. My pounding heart plunged all the way down to my knees, which started wobbling.

Nolan bent his head down and whispered in my ear. "I'm going to climb up this tree, and then I'll pull you up right away."

"I ..." can't climb trees, I wanted to say, but the words died in my mouth when he gave my hand another gentle squeeze.

"Trust me," he said, before letting go of my hand.

As stated, Nolan promptly scaled the tree with such stunning speed all I could do was watch him in shock. After lifting himself up onto one of the lower branches, he lay on his stomach and reached out to me with both his hands.

"Grab my hands," he said, his tone filled with urgency. "Now!"

I raised my arms and stretched out to take his hands, but I could barely graze his fingertips. The coyote growled again and began running towards me.

"Jump or something!" he snapped. "Hurry!"

Despite the fear turning my legs to jelly, I forced myself to launch into the highest jump I could muster. The instant my hands touched his, he gripped them tightly and yanked me up. I froze in shock as I felt myself being lifted up into the air as if my weight was only equivalent to a grocery shopping bag. It hurt to be pulled up by only my arms, but it was over extremely quickly.

Nolan moved to a sitting position and pulled me into his side. Once I was there next to him, he released my hands and wrapped an arm around me.

Underneath, the coyote snapped its jaws and prowled around the spot I had just been standing on.

"It almost got me," I managed to whisper, the words croaking out of my dry mouth.

"I had you," he said, his low voice reassuringly loud as his face was so close to mine. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"Even if it somehow got to me?"

"I still wouldn't have let anything happen to you," he said firmly.

Exhaling a shaky breath, I leaned my head against his shoulder. "Thank you."

"It can still see us from down there," he said. "We should go a little further up just in case it tries climbing up."

"I'm not sure I can move right now," I said.

"I'll carry you," he said.

"Okay."

He lifted me up in a princess carry as he got up in a half-crouch, but I was too drained from the experience to be embarrassed about it. I marveled at the fact that he could carry me while creeping along the tree branch and also climbing up the tree itself.

"You're so full of surprises that it doesn't even surprise me anymore."

"What are you talking about?" Nolan sat me on a crook in the tree that connected a few other thick branches to the trunk.

"You moved so quickly," I said. "I can't believe you managed to swing me up like that."

He shrugged and shifted so that he was sitting on the branch to me. His arm pressed against mine. "Maybe I work out."

I stared at him, but he was adamantly peering down through the leaves we were surrounded by.

"Is it still there?" I asked.

"Yeah. I think I've come across this same coyote before," he said. "It has the same markings. I bet it's been fed a few times by humans."

I sighed and leaned against a nearby tree branch, before remembering that there were probably insects all around me—this was a tree, after all.

"What's wrong?" he said, leaning closer after seeing me start.

"I'm probably surrounded by ants or insects," I said, trying to refrain from whimpering.

He just looked at me. "Seriously? By the way, you really should go easy on the insect repellent. It's so strong that I think all the bugs in the forest went into hiding once you stepped in."

"Shut up. I'm scared," I said, forcing the trembling out of my voice by sheer willpower. "Don't you have anything you fear?"

"Fair enough," he said after a short pause. "Still, try not to freak out. I don't want you to fall out of the tree."

"Don't worry, I'm just going to sit here and faint," I said.

"I'll get rid of any insects that dare to come near you, okay?"

His face was unbearably close, and I had to turn away because my stomach kept flipping. I wasn't certain that I could attribute that solely to the presence of insects.

"Okay." I paused. "You're sitting really close to me."

"Is it uncomfortable?" He scooted back about an inch, but it barely made any difference. "I want to make sure you're within reach if you really do end up falling."

"Right. That makes sense." While intently looking at the beautiful tree leaves around me instead of at his face, I realized something. "Hey—we're sitting on a sweet gum tree!"

"Huh?"

"I can't believe I'm sitting on one right now. I love them," I said, running a hand over one of the star-shaped leaves. "I should've noticed sooner. Their leaves are so pretty and distinctive."

The glossy feel of the leaf under my fingers was addictive. I found myself stroking the leaf over and over again.

"You're so weird," Nolan said. "Have you never touched a leaf before?"

I turned to glare at him, but then I saw he was looking at me with an amused half-smile.

"Of course I have," I snapped. "It's just ... been a while since I last touched one."

"For all your talk about loving trees, you don't seem very outdoorsy," he said.

"Hey! Just because a person doesn't want to learn how to dive, it doesn't mean that he can't still think fish are fascinating and own lots of encyclopedias on them!"

"You own lots of tree encyclopedias?"

"I mean, I do—but that's not the point! The last time I touched an actual tree was when I was eight, I think," I said, shuddering at the memory.

"Did something happen?"

"I didn't know those red ants crawling all over them gave such painful bites," I said miserably.

"Let me guess, that was also when you started being afraid of insects?" he said, chuckling.

"Well... I already found them creepy-looking, but watching my fingers develop blisters in real time was the moment I discovered that they don't just look creepy. They are creepy."

"Why would you even touch them?"

"I was eight! I didn't really notice the ants on the tree until it was too late."

As I was speaking, something buzzed near me.

My shoulders tensed up involuntarily and I leaned into Nolan. "W-what is that?"

He raised an arm and reached around me. "Some kind of black bug. I don't know what it was, but I flicked it away. It's gone now."

"Thank you!" I said, gratitude flooding my voice as I looked up at him. "You're the best!"

He laughed lightly, and I could feel his breath brushing across my cheek. A shiver ran down my spine.

"You mean that I'm the best repellent," he said.

"No," I insisted, "I mean it!"

"Oh? Even better than this tree you were admiring creepily just a moment ago?" he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Sweet gum trees are awesome, okay? They don't harbor creepy fire ants and don't grow thorns all over their bark. I mean, I still love acacia trees but I would never dream of sitting in them. Also, sweet gum tree resin can actually be used as chewing gum, and it has health benefits—isn't that amazing?"

Nolan merely snickered. "You really are a tree geek."

I ignored him.

"Whoa," I said in amazement as I saw a particularly large leaf hanging just a few inches away. "That looks beautiful!"

"Be careful," he warned as I reached out for it.

"Ah!" While I was crawling across the branch, resolutely not looking down, my knee met empty air instead of wood when I brought it down again.

"Hey—!"

"Help!" I squeaked, feeling my body begin to fall through the air.

Almost immediately, Nolan's hand grasped my wrist as his other arm circled around my back and drew me back up.

With a large scowl, he said, "I just told you to be careful."

"Sorry," I said meekly, turning to face him.

His face was mere inches away from mine. I stared back into his wide eyes.

Why did he suddenly look so shocked?

As the silence between us stretched on into seconds, the continuous chirping of the crickets all around us slowly began to sound deafening.

"Nolan?" I whispered tentatively.

As if I had just jolted him out of an intense daydream, Nolan snapped back in an instant and averted his gaze.

"I ... yeah, you better be," he said, letting go of my wrist and removing his arm from around my waist. "Come on, it's gone now. Let's get going."

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AN: thanks so much for reading and voting as always, i appreciate each and every one of you ꉂ (′̤ॢ∀ ू‵̤๑))ˉ̞̭♡ we're getting somewhere now~!

edit: just realized i missed the chance to say nolan and chelsea sitting in a TREE HAHAHAH ok sorry i'll stop now. quick disclaimer too: coyotes, like wolves, generally avoid humans when they can. but if they're fed by humans they can lose their fear of them and start getting aggressive. so regular wild coyotes with minimal human interaction (like they should have) generally won't get all aggro on you.