Page 61 of Bound By Earth (The Nature Hunters Academy 1)

I’m shockedyou know what a euphemism is let alone how to spellit.

Spell check,bitch.

Tara’s eyeswidened and she laughed. Her friend must be irritated if she was resorting to profanity instead of her usual creativeinsults.

He invitedme to hike up to the waterfall. We just got here. And it turns out he’scrazy.

Knew it.Too good to be true. What aboutTucker?

I thinkwe both know Tucker is only and will only ever be just afriend.

Be safe,don’t do drugs, make out.Crazy is not contagious through bodily fluids. I know. Iresearched.

Of course you did.You’re sostrange.

#weirdone4life

Tara puther phone back in her pocket and glanced over at Elias. He was leaning against a tree trunk, watching her with the same intensity as always. The humor from earlier was gone. “No worries. Did she have anything interesting tosay?”

“If you count her telling me not to do drugs and to make out in the same sentence as interesting, then yes.” Tara took a seat on a rock next to a tree. She scooted back to rest against the trunk. As far as natural seating went, she couldn’t have gotten a better deal. Especially with a waterfall and Elias in herview.

“Did you tell her you think I’m a nutter?” he asked matter-of-factly with no hint of beingoffended.

Tara shrugged. “She’s my best friend. Even though she was forced on me, I still stick to the BFF code and tell her everything.” She paused and then amended, “Most everything. Everything else she just reads from my diary, apparently.” Tara realized, for the first time, that she’d made a wise decision in never writing about her so called superpower. Though she doubted Shelly would have taken the writing as truth. She would have thought Tara was using her diary as a way to write a fictionstory.

Tara rested her head against the tree and watched as Elias took out a pocketknife, picked up a stick, and began to whittle onit.

“Why do you say her friendship was forced on you?” he asked as he turned his focus to his work, giving her a break from his intensestare.

“Because it’s exactly what I mean,” she said. “When I first came to Carol’s, I didn’t really want anyfriends.”

“You were hurting,” he murmured, his focus still on hiswork.

She nodded. “I met Shelly the same day I arrived. She decided we were going to be best friends forever and pretty much just inserted herself into any area of my life that she could. I tried to get rid of her, was even mean to her. But she just kept on coming back, like a damnfungus.”

“Do you resent her forit?”

“Of course not. Shelly didn’t befriend me for her own benefit, no matter what she claims. She saw something in me worth salvaging, and she never gave up on me. She stillhasn’t.”

“And yet you call her crazy,” he pointedout.

“Being crazy doesn’t automatically disqualify a person from being afriend.”

“What about alover?”

He asked it as if it was a completely rational question. Once again proving to Tara he wasbatshit.

She was about to tell him so but got distracted when a squirrel suddenly appeared on Elias’s shoulder. Well, not appeared exactly. It had run straight down the trunk of the tree and hopped directly on his leftshoulder.

She gasped, shocked to see one of the usually elusive critters being, well, not elusive. “Is there something wrong with that squirrel?” she asked as she watched Elias reach up and scratch the animal’s head and then return to his whittling. “That’s not normal.” Her eyes widened and she snapped her fingers. “It’s because you’re crazy. Animals love crazypeople.”

Elias frowned and looked up from his whittling. “Did you read that on the internet? You know you can’t believe everything you read on theweb.”

She huffed. “No. Haven’t you ever watched an animated movie? All those princesses had animals at their command, and those chicks are all off their trolleys, too.” It was a discussion she and Shelly had had manytimes.

“You’re very passionate about this,” he said, sounding amused. His attention had returned to his work, and the damn squirrel was still sitting on his shoulder. True. Story.“Why do you think all the princesses arecrazy?”

“Because no sane person sings that damn much.” Tara settled herself back on her rock, her eyes still on the weird squirrel. “They sing about everything. Look, I’ve found my toothbrush. I’m going to brush my teeth,” Tara sang in her best princess voice. “Here, I’ve found a cockroach. He’s gross but will be my best friend and know all my secrets, and look, he sings, too.” She drew out the last word in a long note, getting louder, and then cut it off abruptly. When she opened her eyes—because all princesses close their eyes when they sing—it was to find Elias, stock still, staring at her. Her eyes shifted to the squirrel, who was also not moving. Tara swore it was staring at her, watching her with more intelligence than the animal shouldhave.

---