“Oh right….” Sarcasm dripped frommy voice, “This is completely normal behavior; all teenage girls can emptyriverbeds with just the touch of their hand.”

“It is normal behavior if you go tothis….” But Kiran didn’t get to finish his sentence. All of a sudden I was hitin the face with a giant ball of earth. Rocks, dirt, mud and leaves splatteredall over my face, into my mouth and covered my hair.

I was blinded for what seemed likeminutes as I tried to scrape the mud from my eyes, nostrils and tongue. Notonly did it hurt, but it was also disgusting. My mouth was open when the attackcame, meaning I had eaten and tasted more than anyone’s fair share of dirt forthe day.

I could feel the mud caked in myhair, in my eyelashes, up my nose, and I thought there was even some in myears. I was sure Seraphina was the one to thank for this, although I couldn’tbe positive because I never saw who threw the mud ball in the first place, andI certainly couldn’t see anything now. I coughed up rocks and leaves, gaggingviolently, doing everything in my power to keep from puking. A few wet clothesdid not even compare to the grossness of this retaliation.

“You could have helped her,” Iheard Talbott accuse Kiran.

“If I would have seen it coming, Iwould have gladly taken the bullet for her,” Kiran said bravely, while laughinghysterically.

“Thanks a lot jackass,” I grumbledthrew bouts of spitting out mud. I heard Mr. Lawly yell something about keepingup with the rest of the group; clearly he thought this prank was well deserved.

“I wish I had a towel or somethingto give you,” Lilly offered helplessly. “Would you like some leaves orsomething?”

“Yea, I guess,” wishing more thanever I had worn a sweatshirt; instead of just a tank top and jeans. I thoughtabout using my socks, as unpleasant as that sounded.

“Here, you can use my shirt,” Kiranfinally decided to be a gentleman. He handed me the red cotton polo he waswearing and I cringed while using it to wipe off my face. After glancing downat the expensive designer tag, I felt guilty for punishing the poor thing byturning it into a filthy rag.

“Thanks,” I mumbled into the shirt,peeking out from behind it to make sure I hadn’t left him shirtless.Thankfully, he was wearing a white v-neck undershirt.

I wiped as much off with Kiran’sshirt as I could, feeling the dirtiest I had ever felt. Since Lilly, Talbottand Kiran waited with me while I cleaned up, we had to walk a little fasterthan before in order to catch up with the rest of the group.

Not sure what to do with Kiran’spolo now that it was completely ruined; I held it awkwardly in my hands. Iglanced up and gave him a sheepish grin. I could feel small pebbles and bits ofmud still in my mouth, so my grin quickly turned to disgust and I tried to spitit out as quickly as humanly possible. Not very lady like, but what otheroption did I have?

“You just invite trouble, don’tyou?”  Kiran goaded, but handed me awater bottle I hadn’t noticed him carrying before. I took it, very grateful Iwas able to rinse my mouth out.

“Looks like it,” I said throughbouts of gurgling and spitting.

“What are we going to do with you?”he laughed again lightly.

“Ugh. Mud tastes awful,” I changedthe subject to what was really on my mind. The constant grinding of dirt andpebbles between my teeth had me beyond nauseous.

“How are you going to get themback?” Kiran apparently lived for my humiliation.

“Are you kidding? I’m not. I wouldlike this all to just end,” I nearly whined.

“What? With your kind of power,they’re no match for you.”

“Thanks for reminding me what afreak I am,” I was all of a sudden irritated. “This thing is ruining my life;I’m certainly not going to use it against anyone else.”

“Don’t be such a baby. Seraphinacould never have done that with the water and she certainly hasn’t held backagainst you. You could get her back so good. Come on, rain down hell!”  Kiran pushed.

“I’m not just here for yourentertainment. And isn’t she your girlfriend?” I spit harsher than I hadintended, electricity building with every emotion. “I can’t control what ishappening to me and it’s not some joke for you to use to pit me againstSeraphina. You are crazy if you think we are going to battle it out all overyou,” I picked up my pace and refused to look back at him.

“You’re wrong, you can control it,”Kiran yelled after me. That was not really the point I had hoped to leave withhim and that irritated me even more. What stung the worst however was thatLilly stayed next to Talbott, leaving me to walk alone through the never-endingwilderness.

Chapter Fourteen

The day ended and slowly the skyturned to dusk. Mr. Lawly had been to every tent, making sure all of our fireswere strong and we would be able to make them last through the night. Lilly andI sat around ours on a couple of rocks. Most of the other students were doingthe same.

There were thirty students on thecamping trip and all of them were assigned to groups of four, except Lilly andme. Thankfully we were the only two to get a tent to ourselves, well besides Mr.Lawly, but his little one-man lean-to hardly counted.

All of the tents formed a circlearound a large campfire set up in the middle of the clearing, but occasionallyMr. Lawly set up smaller fires closer to the tents. This seemed like a forestfire waiting to happen; but Mr. Lawly was confident he had things undercontrol.

Some people actually caught fishafter we returned from our hike and that was what we were nibbling on now. Ourlesson was how to gut and cook a fish over an open flame; I had never doneanything more disgusting. I am not exactly sure how this trip was teaching usto survive in the real world.

I couldn’t think of one situationwhere I might be stranded in the wilderness and have to depend on fresh fishand berries to survive. Except maybe if I was some type of fugitive on the runor something; I guessed with my track record that didn’t seem so impossibleafter all. I took a big bite out of my smoked catfish and tried to enjoy thetaste of my future.

Mr. Lawly passed out cans of bakedbeans and ingredients for s’mores all to be cooked over the fire. I knew thatthis was the ideal camping cliché but I wasn’t buying it. I was filthy dirty,my long hair was in endless tangles and I was tired of being picked on. Iwished I could say I was the outdoorsy type, but I would have done almostanything for a shower right then.

Lilly and I sat silently, consumedwith our own thoughts. I pushed the food around on my tarnished tin campingplate and wondered what Seraphina had planned next for me. I looked over atLilly and saw a small smile on her face, clearly her thoughts were elsewhereand infinitely more enjoyable.

I wanted so badly to ask her ifanything was going on between her and Talbott, but I couldn’t bring myself todo it. She had been so great about giving me my privacy that I just couldn’tinvade hers. If she wanted to talk about it with me, she would.

I looked over at Talbott; he wassitting in the middle of all of the “cool kids,” right where he belonged. Hisolive skin was darker from the sun today and his black curly hair was pushedout of his eyes. His posture was perfect and his white teeth glimmered in thecoming darkness. All around him sat equally as beautiful girls staring at him,but he happened to be staring at Lilly. I didn’t understand why he was so tiedto that group of followers, clearly he liked Lilly. Was he that much of arobot?

I glanced over at Kiran sittingnext to him. He too was staring in our direction and so I quickly looked backat the ground. I didn’t get him, plain and simple. He was apparently datingSeraphina, yet barely had anything to do with her. She was gorgeous andpopular; the very girl high school social standards required him to date.