“Afraid so. Come on,” we grabbedour things and followed the rest of the students out of the bus.

Someone started pulling backpacksfrom the luggage compartment and Lilly and I found ours and strapped them on.Aunt Syl and I had to go on an emergency shopping trip since I owned none ofthe essentials. Normal people don’t keep things like sleeping bags, hikingbackpacks, portable stoves, canteens and two-person tents lying around. Ok,well some normal people did, but not me.

I looked around at the other thirtystudents and doubted any of them did either. Everything looked brand new andhigh tech; I even saw a random price tag still attached. We might as well havebeen a commercial for Coleman.

Lilly looked so tiny underneath hergigantic backpack I was convinced she was going to tip over. Her bright redhair covered by an army green hat, she peered out from underneath it barelyable to see. But she bore the burden surprisingly well as we made our trek intothe wild unknown.

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

“You’re not afraid are you?” afamiliar English accent had come to walk beside me, creating an equallyfamiliar electrical buzzing throughout my veins. And so the shock therapybegan.

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

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

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

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

“Oh, and you have been camping?” Iglanced 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 Icouldn’t afford to faint if we had much longer to go. My pack was getting heavyand my sweat pants were starting to get too hot.

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

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

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

“Ugh. Kiran, playing his gamesagain,” I knew that Lilly wouldn’t understand what I was talking about, but shewas polite enough not to ask. Although I considered her a close friend now, Ihad 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 ateach other.

I scanned the wilderness in everydirection, telling myself over and over that Kiran was just joking, but a smallamount of fear crept its way through my body. And then the worst thing possiblehappened; 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 fivefeet. The entire class turned around to see what the commotion was and all Icould do was hang my head in embarrassment. I could hear Kiran’s snickersbehind 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 themiddle of a dense forest. I could hear running water not far away and assumedit was a creek or a river or something. The space was wide enough toaccommodate all of us although I saw no outlet for electricity. The realizationthat this far out there was no possibility of real plumbing also occurred tome. Welcome to hell.

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

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

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

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

Well, we tried to set up ourfishing poles. Eventually Mr. Lawly made his way over and explained what weneeded to do, and then eventually he just ended up doing it for us. If I wasn’tso frustrated with my freaking fishing pole, I would have found the image ofthirty very privileged, very snobby prep school kids trying to catch their ownfood hilarious. I had just learned why fishing was considered a sport.

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

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

“Stay away from Kiran,” she growledthreateningly.

I half turned my head to saysomething snotty, but she didn’t give me the chance. I felt her palm on my backand with surprising force she shoved me straight into the stream of ice coldwater. 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 asitting position with my knees sticking out of the water, not entirely surewhat to do. I was horrified and humiliated. I looked around to see everyonelaughing at me and somewhere I could hear Mr. Lawly yelling “What did I sayabout swimming!”

“You’re right Mr. Lawly, I feltlike a swim and therefore dove into the freezing cold, three foot stream, withall of my clothes on, on purpose,” I thought to myself.

From where I sat, water flowingover me; I could see Seraphina and her groupies all laughing and pointing. Icouldn’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 Ifound the boy in question, standing away from the crowd staring at me withoutany smile on his face. I couldn’t make out his expression, but I knew mine wasone of pure disgust.

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