Page 36 of Finding Her
The camping trip was a time-honored tradition for the gym classes every year. It was part of the unit that we’d have to go on an overnight camping trip with our whole class. I wasn’t sure whether Bear was actually coming or not, given that he was the only boy in the class, and it seemed kind of weird to force him. Plus, he would have to take time off hockey, but I’d been too scared to ask.
“That’s perfect!” Lilah yelled. She put her hands to her forehead and looked at me. “Poppy, don’t you see what this means?”
I just stared at her and shook my head.
“It means that you are going to have Bear alone in the wilderness!”
“But we won’t be alone. Our whole class is going to be there.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Lilah brushed that concern off with a wave of her hand. “The point is, this is the perfect time to make your move.”
“I am not making a move. I am so far from making a move. Absolutely not.”
“But—”
“No, Lilah,” I said firmly. “If this ridiculous plan is going to work—and I don’t think it’s ever going to work—it will only be because Bear asked me out, not the other way around.”
If she pressed me, I would tell her it was just because that was the technical terms of the bet. But I knew in my heart that it was because a little part of me hoped this failed, because I didn’t want to break Bear’s heart by revealing none of it was real.
Lilah sighed, sounding put out. She sat down, and I was glad that she didn’t argue the point any further. “All right. But still, I think something’s going to happen on this camping trip.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m sure that will be deeply romantic,” I muttered. “Oh well, in the dirt with no good showers. Perfect time to start dating someone.”
She shook her head. “You never know, Poppy. Stranger things have happened.”
When my phone lit up with a call from Bear, I was sure it was a mistake. There was no conceivable reason I could think of that Bear would be calling me. At first, I thought someone had messed with my contacts and changed the names, so it wasn’t really Bear calling. But the only person who could have done that was Lilah, since she was the only one ever alone with my phone, and I couldn’t think of a single reason why she would do it.
She might have messed with something on my phone as a joke but not like this. Not to change a contact to make me think Bear was calling when it was actually someone else. Why would she bother? And she’d have to go out of her way to change the contact photo too. I’d set it after I got his number the other day—a photo I’d taken of us, with him staring at the camera and me smiling widely, both of us wearing my scrunchies.
Then I wondered if he had butt-dialed me accidentally—or worse, if he meant to call another girl and just hit the wrong name. It was possible, right? But there was no way to find out unless I answered. And if it really was Bear calling, part of me didn’t want to answer. But if I ignored him, and it actually was Bear, he’d never call me again. There went our tentative friendship we’d struck up lately.
So, I swiped “answer.”
It immediately became clear Bear had, in fact, meant to call me. There was a lot of noise on his side of the call. It looked like he was tucked away in a corner of the locker room. I could hear everyone else getting ready for the game I knew was starting in about an hour. I’d been on my way out the door to head to the game myself.
“Hi,” I said timidly. I wasn’t really sure how to answer a call from Bear. People didn’t call me much. Ivy and I would call each other every day, but other than that, most people just texted. I wasn’t used to this kind of thing, especially not with someone like Bear.
“Help,” Bear said immediately. I blinked. What? Was something wrong? Was I imagining that the sounds behind him were good sounds? Could something actually be going wrong in the locker room? But I couldn’t think of anything that might go wrong there—or why he’d call me for help instead of, you know, 911.
But then he held up the scrunchie. That stupid scrunchie he hadn’t given back to me after that day. “I don’t know how to tie it back. Help. Help.”
I stared at him, flabbergasted. There was no reason I could think of that he would need to use my scrunchie.
“What?” I asked slowly, my voice as confused as I felt.
“I need to tie my hair back,” he said. “And it’s not working. How did you do it? I don’t understand.” He held the scrunchie between his index finger and thumb, looking at it like it was something evil. “I don’t get it. How do girls do this?”
I laughed. I could understand why it might be confusing for him. Girls learned how to do it so early on that it became second nature. But a guy who’d never tied his hair back wouldn’t have a clue.
“You might have trouble doing it yourself,” I said. “I’m not sure how well I can explain it to you. Is there someone there who can help you?”
Bear looked past the camera. “Crossy, come here!”
I had to stifle my laugh. I didn’t want him to think I was laughing at him, but the idea of Crossy tying a pink scrunchie into Bear’s hair before he played a full-contact sport on the ice? Hilarious.
Crossy appeared a second later and waved happily at me through the camera.
“I need you to tie this in my hair for me,” Bear said.
