Something Bad

Chapter Eighteen: Mutiny as an Option in Our Back Pockets

Chapter Eighteen: Mutiny as an Option in Our Back Pockets

      “I think that it’s safe to say that I officially hate nature,” Luke Daniels proclaimed as we all continued walking and despising the “great” outdoors collectively.

      “Me too,” Preston agreed, stopping where he was in order to gulp down an entire bottle of water in a matter of seconds. “This is disgusting.”

      “Ms. Ross,” Piper began, for even from a young age she had always preferred referring to my mother as “Ms. Ross,” opposed to “Elle,” as everyone else, including me, called her, “I really hate to agree with the boys, but I do. I don’t like this. I thought that we would be going skiing or something. This is yucky.”

      “Elle, though I usually don’t side with the majority, in this case I do,” I told my dear mother, disliking the scene that my eyes were now viewing. It had been a long day and my legs with aching me. I wasn’t used to the excessive physical activity, the cold air and dirt, and trees weren’t really a plus, either. The good thing was that there weren’t that many bugs due to it being February, but the bad thing was that, well, it was February…and essentially everything else.

      Today had started out like any normal Saturday. I had been sleeping peacefully, and intended on doing so for the entire day. But then at the dreadfully heinous hour of six (no one should ever be subjected to waking up then—ever), my mother came barreling into my room and said that we were going. When I asked where, she replied that it was a surprise. I inquired if I could invite my friends on the said “surprise.” She agreed, figuring that I would bring along Piper and Preston and that would be that. Well, I called the twins, and they said that they’d come, but then I called Luke, asking if he wanted to join, as well. After making fun of me for what felt like the millionth time about not getting drunk like he and his dear older brother had last week on our excursion to his house, he agreed.

      The three teens showed up at my house at around seven (I wasn’t really sure how Piper was managing), and then we all loaded up into my mother’s large SUV that was completely unnecessary for anyone to have. The entire Ross family was there, which I figured was the surprise. There was rarely ever a time that the three of us were together in the same place at the same time.

      Then Elle, who was rather flustered that I had invited Luke on the “overnight outing,” began to drive. Nick had no clue where she was going, so he was stuck clueless, just like us. Due to there being these things called “windows” in the car, I was able to see that we were leaving Boston and had entered the highway. Thankfully, despite the rest of Elle’s flaws, she was a good driver. Well, a safe one. Nick was good, too, though at times he had a tendency to speed up.

      There were road signs everywhere, and pretty soon I deducted that we had left Massachusetts and were headed north (okay, so maybe I didn’t exactly know what direction we were going, but I saw New Hampshire signs everywhere, so that was basically the same thing). After close to two hours of driving with no rest stops in between, we got to Elle’s destination: nature. There was no distinct place that we were going, it was just, well, nature.

      Elle had parked in a non-paved gravel and rocks parking lot alongside other abandoned vehicles. I was beginning to wonder why I had relatively voluntarily agreed to come on the trip. Elle announced that we were “there” (wherever “there” was), and then told us to get out of the car and grab our gear. We all cautiously got out, and then made our ways to the trunk. And that was really when we discovered how screwed we truly were.

      Not only were we placed in the Middle of Nowhere, New Hampshire, but we were also being instructed to take out our “gear.” Piper had brought a (pink) suitcase larger than her entire body, probably figuring that we were just headed to a spa or something. Nick had also not packed all too intelligently, for he too possessed a rather large suitcase. Luke and I had brought backpacks, and Preston had a duffle bag that wasn’t too big, but it was still slightly obsessive. And then there was Elle.