Page 45 of Past Tents

His quizzical look turned to distress. Clay wasn’t a rule bender. “I don’t think the school administration would approve. We’re supposed to send her home.”

“Yes, but that would mean one of us hiking down with her and the other supervising nineteen kids. Does that sound like something anyone would want?”

“It’s not a long hike,” he said. Ever logical.

“I think it’s important for her to stay. I’ll go to bat for her. I’d love the chance to get back at Pin Dick by making decisions without him.”

His eyes widened slightly as he caught my drift. “Details, Alexandra.”

I shrugged. “I told you. The lunches. He’s creepy. And vindictive.”

Clay waited as though I might say more but I didn’t want to tell him my whole maddening history with our school principal, so I took the opportunity to untie and retie my hiking boot.

“That’s all you’re going to give me?”

“For now, yes.”

“How about explaining why you think it’s important for a sick kid to stay on the trip.”

Glancing around to make sure no students had snuck up behind us, I confirmed we were still out of their earshot. “Jayne and I were talking a little bit and I got the sense that staying here is about more than just FOMO. It feels important for her to behere. I think she needs it. Like, really needs it. For her mental health, if nothing else.”

That got Clay’s attention. “She say that specifically?”

“Her parents just split. It’s senior year. You know how stressful that gets for these kids. She almost broke down in tears telling me how much she wants to be here. These kids need to be out here breathing this air. It’s some good shit.”

The smile began creeping across Clay’s face like the first rays of dawn that don’t want to wake the neighbors. Before I had time to duck and cover, the full force of Clay’s smug grin was assaulting me with its damned beauty.

“You’re a convert. You love it out here.”

“I do. I love it.”

“It didn’t take anywhere close to a year.”

“Needing to be right all the time is not one of your more charming attributes.”

He kept on grinning, not giving a crap. “I don’t need to be right all the time. But I’m glad I’m right about this.”

At that moment, we heard a splash in the lake, and both of us turned in the direction of the noise. “Any chance that was a belly-flopping fish?” I asked hopefully.

Clay shook his head. “Doubtful.” When we heard the second splash, we started moving in the direction of the lakeshore.

“You think they’re swimming?”

“We’d have heard a scream if they were. That water’s fifty-eight degrees.”

Before I could ask where Clay came up with his precise temperature estimate, we stepped past the last tree blocking our view of the lake. A few yards in the distance, a half dozen kids stood on the lakeshore, some bent down searching for stones, the others testing their throwing arms and rock-skipping abilities.

The next stone to skitter across the lake skipped twice before dropping into the water with a similar splash as we’d heard earlier. “I thought that was going at least four,” Miles said, bending down to hunt for more flat rocks.

“Dude, not with that throwing arm,” Cassius mocked, cocking back an arm and letting his rock fly. It skipped three times and plopped into the lake. “That’s how you do it.”

I leaned toward Clay, hoping he’d agree with me about Jayne.

“Can we say we made a judgement call that the hike down would be more dangerous to her health than staying overnight? Reassess tomorrow?”

“You’re the one with the medical expertise.”

“I need to answer to the principal for my decision.”

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