Page 20 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

“Bizarre is our thing. Thelma and Louise had suicide, Velma and Daphne had spooky spy crap, and we have bizarre. Every girlfriend couple has a thing. It’s an unwritten law.” Shelly looked quite pleased with herexplanation.

Tara’s face scrunched up. “Girlfriend couple? Is that what we are? Did we discuss this? I feel like this is something we ought to have discussed and I should have had a say in, and my say would have been no. Definitelyno.”

“Don’t get your ovaries in a twist. It’s without the coupling, of course, and not just because nothing can get all up in that business of yours, what withyour—”

Tara quickly cut her off. “Don’t say it or I’ll be forced to kill you, tie a concrete block to your ankle, and throw you in a lake.” Her nostrils flared as her irritation over her friend’s fascination with her lady bits in regard to her weirdcondition.

“Wow, that was oddly specific. Have you been planning my demise for a while now? And does looking good make you cranky?” Shelly asked. “Wait, don’t answer that. Breathing makes you cranky. It’s a dumbquestion.

Tara ignored both her questions and asked, “So when is this college-and-career fair thingy, as you called it? And do we even know what colleges or careers we are interested in? I’m pretty sure we were supposed to think about this last year.” In fact, Tara knew they were, but she’d been so focused on playing soccer and trying to ignore the emptiness inside of her, pretending that she wasn’t a freak of nature with her invulnerable body, that she’d completely procrastinated on the whole collegething.

“It’s right now,” Shelly said as she slapped the locker closed, almost slamming Tara’s fingers in it. She started pulling Tara in the direction of the school gym. Their school wasn’t big. So, pretty much anything and everything was held in the school gym. “I figured I’d wind up going to the community college in Riverbend,” saidShelly.

Riverbend was a town thirty minutes away and about ten thousand people larger. It wasn’t a huge improvement, but it did have a community college, at least. “Then why are we going to thisthing?”

Shelly gave her an exasperated look. “Because the colleges usually have upperclassmen come with the recruiters.” When Tara didn’t respond appropriately, Shelly rolled her eyes. “Hot, older college guys, Tara-Bear. If high school guys aren’t to your liking, then maybe we will find you a man in here.” She pulled the gym door open, and the noise inside spilled out into thehall.

“And where exactly did you ever glean from any of our conversations thatyouforced, I might add, that I wanted an older guy, let alone any guy?” Tara asked, her voice getting louder with everyword.

“I could just tell. I could see it in your lonely, longing soul,” Shelly said with a small sigh. “But, T,please don’t think this is all for you. I’m not that selfless. I’m hunting for myself as well. You always say I’m so beautiful and apparently high school guys don’t see what a catch I am. Maybe someone older and more mature will.” She flipped her hair and stuck her cute nose in theair.

Shelly’s words might have been flippant, but Tara could hear the doubt in them. Shelly, deep down—way deep down—was insecure over her single status. Though she was confident in herself in many ways, it was the whole lack of a love life that was a constant pea in her princess bed. Like Tara,Shelly had never dated anyone, but not because she wasn’t interested. Tara didn’t understand it. Shelly looked like a model. She was stunning. But none of the guys in their school ever approached her. Even the ones Tara had heard talking about how hot her friendwas.

Tara forced herself not to groan or stomp her feet like a four-year-old. Shelly was a butthead and annoying and pushy. But she was also incredibly tolerant of Tara’s crappy attitude. Pay it forward and all that nonsense.She pulled her hand from Shelly’s because she was no longer dragging Tara behind her. They were simply standing there holding hands. Then she patted her friend on the shoulder awkwardly. “Okay, let’s go attempt to find us some guys.” She tried to sound enthusiastic, but it wound up sounding like a robot whose batteries were about to die. Wow, she sucked. Tara was going to have to work on her BFF skills, or Shelly might actually wind up kickingherto the curb or using the voodoo doll she no doubt had. On a positive note, at least Shelly wasn’t bombarding her about the mutation thing, as Shelly called it. That was something. Tara smiled to herself.Look at me being all silver lining andstuff.

As far as the guys went, the reality was, probably, neither one of them would find someone they were interested in or anyone interested in two high school seniors, so there really was no harm in checking out the prospects. Not to mention, she’d never see these peopleagain.

“Let’s go hunt,” Tara said with a grin plastered on her face and all the false bravado she couldmuster.

“If I were into chicks, I would have totally just fallen in love with you,” Shelly said as they walked into the gym and began meandering past booths filled with advertising paraphernalia and brochures touting everything from the University of Kentucky to large companies offering entry-level telemarketing jobs and everything in between. They stopped at a few and glanced at the brochures, grabbed free pens, because, hey, they were free. They pretended to be interested in each of the recruiters’ spiels, nodding at what they guessed was the appropriatetime.

Tara pursed her lips and absently flipped through a brochure as they walked away from the US Army recruiting booth. “Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad,” she said. “I’d get my college paid for, anyway. It’d be nice not to have student loans. Mom and dad didn’t exactly leave me a trust fund when they died. And since I can’t be injured, I’d be like a super soldier orsomething.”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Shelly saluted Tara. “Private Smith reporting forduty.”

“Shut up,” Tara said as she glanced around to see if anyone had noticed her idiotfriend.

“What’s that, Sergeant Thompson? You’d like me to double-time it back to the barracks to clean theshowers?”

Tara winced. “Pleaseshutup?”

Shelly started marching in place, heedless of the glances she was receiving. “And you’d like me to take Corporals Rodriguez and Johnson back with me because those two boys know their way around the showers sowell?”

“You’re not going to shut up, areyou?”

“And everyone else is going to be out on patrol for hours so no one will disturb us as wecleanthe showers? And absolutely anything could happen?” Shelly had a big, stupid grin on her face that made it clear she was enjoying her little impromptu performance way toomuch.

“How in the world can you make the Army sexual? That’s, like, completely next level sexualization. You have a gift. You reallydo.”

Shelly just ignored her and kept right on going. “And after we clean the showers, they should show me their longrifles?”

“Stop, stop, stop!” Tara pleaded though she couldn’t stop the laughter because despite the fact that her BFF was an idiot, she was a funnyidiot.

“What’s that? You want me to polish theirbazookas?”

“Okay, stop. Seriously, I’m begging you. I’ll do anything.” Tara decided that when your friend had reduced you to begging, it might be time to reconsider the parameters of your relationship. Then again, she was pretty sure Shelly didn’t have parameters, boundaries, or any other type of limits she applied to herfriendships.

“First, Sergeant Thompson, you must never criticize my intelligent insults everagain.”

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