Explore Read online

  “You have two hours to play,” Maggie continued. “Have fun.”

  Hoooooonnnk. First air horn. I waited to see what Chris would do, but he just stood there, slouched against a tree.

  The Granola prey tore off in every direction, maps in hand. Lots of them already seemed to be in pairs. I saw Rick start to stride over to Chris and me. We were still rooted to the spot.

  But then I did what I usually did in these situations. I began to run. I just spun around and ran into the trees, trying to make sense of my map as I dodged branches.

  Hoooooonnnk. Second air horn. Predators. I could hear more crashing through the bushes as the wolves and bears and cougars made their way toward us. I never thought I’d be so scared of a bunch of hippies.

  I ducked behind a big stump, totally breathless.

  I looked up. A feeding station was right ahead of me. I could run there in twenty seconds.

  The leaves crunched beneath my feet as I slowly stood up.

  “Hi-ya!” I felt a swift tap on my left shoulder.

  It was the dreadlocked disease. How did she get there? If I had been running she never would have caught me.

  “I’ll take one of those precious life tickets,” she said, holding out a small hand. “Bwa ha ha, now you only have one.” She clipped it to her belt and ran off.

  This is why I hated games. I’ve never been any good at them. I have no strategy.

  “Feeding station, feeding station,” I chanted to myself.

  No one but me had found feeding station nine yet. I grabbed one of the food tickets and stared at my map again, hands shaking. Predators weren’t allowed to hover around the feeding stations, so I had a minute.

  I could feel the adrenaline racing through me. I couldn’t believe I lost a life ticket in the first two minutes of the game.

  Wait a minute. Was I actually buying into this? I heard more crashing through the bushes and a girl’s laughter. “Can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man!”

  It was Lisa. At feeding station nine.

  “Yo! Hooded Fang!” She grabbed my hip and spun me around. Oh my god, she touched me. “Lost a life already, I see.”

  She already had two feeding-station tickets and both her life tickets dangling from her belt.

  “Uh...how come you—you’re not paired up with anyone?” I said.

  “He speaks!” She grinned. “I like to be a free agent. But I also like to help out my own species. And you, my friend, need help. Quick!”

  Predators were on their way. Lisa grabbed my arm. Her hair flicked in my face as we ran. I didn’t mind.

  “I know a place we can hide,” she said.

  She pulled me around the corner to a hollow with moss hanging all around it.

  We knelt and she pulled out her map. “Okay, fellow deer, we’ve got to backtrack to the last two stations. You’ve got to get caught up. See, here’s number seven. I was just there. It’s over the little bridge. See? Here.”

  She pointed at the map. Why can’t maps have you are here magically written on them?

  Lisa looked at me with those big brown eyes. “So which direction is that?”

  Was she testing me? “Well, I don’t, uh...”

  Run. Just run.

  “That’s okay. My dad taught me everything I know about maps. It takes time to learn.” She pulled her compass out of a small black bag around her waist. “Right now we’re facing north, and the bridge is west.”

  Lisa showed me the compass and the map. I still didn’t get it, but it was nice of her to show me.

  “Let’s go!”

  On the way to feeding station seven, we were caught between a wolf and a bear. Lisa darted into the bushes, shouting, “Mike, turn right, you’re almost there!”

  The boy bear was only a few steps away. So was the wolf.

  “I’ve got you now, deer!” The bear shouted. He whipped out his arm. Too close.

  Run. Just run.

  I leaped over a fallen log, which blocked the predators for a second.

  Feeding station seven. I made it. I grabbed the food ticket. Now I had two!

  Then I got to stations six, four and three.

  “Wow, can you ever run, Longridge!” Lisa said on the way to feeding station two.

  And then...oh crap. Three cougars, right in our path.

  “We’ll go around,” I breathed to Lisa, making a swift left turn.

  I ran like heck. I found myself laughing my head off all the way. Those cougars were in the dust. I couldn’t remember the last time I laughed like that.

  Lisa turned and winked as she grabbed us each a food ticket.

  I liked this game.

  chapter four

  I was impressed that I ended Predator and Prey with one life ticket and all my food tickets except one. Thanks to Lisa.

  After the game ended, I slunk off on my own again. Lisa sat in a big circle with her friends, laughing and talking.

  Chris didn’t play, in any sense of the word.

  “Yeah, I messed up my leg last week,” he said.

  “That sucks.”

  “Not really. At least I didn’t have to run around in the woods and scavenge for roots and berries.” He looked at me like I was a traitor to guys like us.

  “Whatever. It was okay,” I said.

  Chris snorted.

  Rick and Maggie were handing out orange jackets. They were Gore-Tex, with the Explore logo embroidered on them.

  “Here you go, Mike,” Rick said. “Medium, right?”

  I’d never worn a single scrap of Gore-Tex before. It felt weird to put the jacket on, but also good somehow.

  Chris scrunched his up and sat on it. He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow.

  My fingers flew to the zipper on my jacket. What was up with me? First the game, now the jacket.

  The other kids were putting their jackets on too, smiling their wholesome smiles.

  Maggie wrangled us all together. “Group photo, Explorers!”

  Lisa pulled on my sleeve. “Look at you! You look so cute in water-resistant, man-made fabric.” She tugged me into the middle of the group.

  Maggie got us all to say “Explore Sixteen rules!” The voices chimed all around me.

  “Check the Explore Sixteen Facebook page later today,” said Rick. “It’ll be up. First of many, I’m sure.”

  Facebook? I didn’t even have e-mail. I wasn’t very good with that sort of thing.

  After the photo, Rick and Maggie gave us a tour of the site. It was pretty nice, like a fancy campsite.

  “All of these additions, like the carved benches, the trails, the firepits,” Maggie said, “were made by other Explore classes.”

  “You’ll leave a lasting impression too,” said Rick.

  Chris stretched and let out a massive yawn.

  “Are we keeping you up, Chris?” Maggie said.

  He leaned back, arms crossed. “When does this get fun? So far this whole crock is nothing to get excited about.”

  Twenty Granola faces spun around and stared at Chris. It’s just not worth it to lip off in Explore. I had a feeling Chris didn’t care.

  Rick did the wise thing and ignored him. “Well, everyone,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “Now’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for. In the right-hand pocket of your jackets, you’ll find the schedule of activities for this semester.”

  A buzz went through the crowd as everyone ripped into their pockets.

  I waited a minute before I slowly reached in.

  Rick and Maggie spent some time going over the stuff we’d need for all the outdoor trips. There was hiking, rock climbing, kayaking and backcountry skiing. Did these people ever stop?

  Rick had already told me and Chris that there was a cupboard full of equipment we could borrow. He said it nicely, but he still meant that it was a cupboard for the poor kids.

  A pinecone hit me on the leg. I looked up. It was Chris.

  “Me and some of my buddies are gonna hang out tonight,” he said. “W
anna come?”

  “Uh, sure.”

  “Kay. Meet us at the Sev at, like, eight.”

  He walked away, leaving his Explore jacket all scrunched up where he had been sitting on it.

  The other kids were standing up too. It was the end of the day.

  “Hey.” It was Dreadlocked Disease— Kayla, I think her name was.

  I couldn’t think of anything to say. I guess “Hey” back would have worked.

  “Sorry for taking your life tag earlier. But it’s all part of the game, right?” she said.

  “Yeah.”

  “Some of us are going to the Green Room later for coffee. Lisa’s going to sing at the open mic. Want to come?”

  Why, oh why, are they trying to be friends with me? I’ve never had to fend off so many hippies and keeners. Or any at all, actually.

  “No, I’m already busy,” I said. “But, uh, thanks.” Darn, I was going to miss Lisa singing.

  “Oh, okay, that’s cool. Some other time.” Kayla turned and skipped back to the circle.

  I ran all the way home. I kept my new jacket on the whole time.

  “Jeezus, have they already got you in their cult uniform?” I had just slammed in through the back door. My dad cracked open a Budweiser and leaned back in his old brown easy chair. How many towns had we lived in, and that thing followed us everywhere.

  I headed for the fridge. I squirted ketchup on two hot dog buns and plopped them on a paper towel. Dinner.

  Dad had the football game on. As usual, we didn’t have much to say to each other.

  After a few beers Dad started to loosen up. “So, what do they make you do in Hippieville? Have a love-in and sing ‘Kumbaya’?”

  “Nah,” I grunted.

  “I give it a week. Then you give up. That’s how it’s always been with you, Mikey.”

  I didn’t say anything. Just chewed on my hot dog bun and thought about Lisa. I imagined her with her eyes closed, strumming a guitar. That was nice. I leaned back and thought about that for a bit.

  I woke up at twenty to eight. All of a sudden I didn’t really feel like going to meet up with Chris. My Dad was snoring in his chair, his head slumped to the side.

  I looked around the apartment. McDonald’s take-out bags covered the table. Unread newspapers and pizza boxes were all over the floor.

  I had to get out of there. I might as well head for the Sev.

  Chris and his buddies, Chad and Jer, pulled up in front of the 7-Eleven after I’d been waiting a while. The introductions didn’t take long.

  We headed down 362nd Avenue past the pub and the Laundromat and the Green Room. I craned my neck and saw the Explorers in there. The place was all done up with twinkling lights. They looked pretty cozy.

  I felt a punch on my shoulder. “Oh, would Mikey rather hang out with the patchouli-wearing wonders?”

  Chad and Jer started laughing.

  “Although a couple of those girls are pretty hot,” Chris said. “Like that Chinese chick. Totally smokin’.”

  He was talking about Lisa. My Lisa. I felt a hotness from the back of my neck to my scalp.

  “She’s Korean.” Actually, Lisa was part Korean. I remembered her saying that her mom was from Holland.

  “Since when do you care?” Chris frowned.

  “Where are we headed?” I asked. “The pits?”

  “Nope,” Chris said, looking toward the Green Room. “Somewhere better.”

  I got a sick feeling in my gut all of a sudden.

  Run. Just run.

  “Uh, I gotta go.”

  “Suit yourself,” said Chris.

  When I got home, the game was still on. It was in overtime.

  “That was quick,” Dad said, jolting awake as I sat down, breathing hard.

  “Yeah.”

  I was the last to arrive at the Explore site the next morning. The place was trashed. The carved wooden bench was tipped over and bashed in on one side. Two other benches were covered with spray paint. Cans and other crap were everywhere. The other Explorers were already putting the garbage into plastic bags.

  They all looked at me like I had just killed someone’s kitten. Worst of all, Officer Lardface was there with Rick and Maggie. They had “concerned adult” looks on their faces.

  “Mike, can we chat with you for a minute?”

  They thought I had something to do with it. Rick said that Chris and his buddies had been caught after a farmer in the area called the cops. Apparently someone had seen me with Chris last night.

  “No!” I said. Too loudly. “I mean, I was only with him for, like, half an hour. I made it home to watch overtime with my dad!”

  Rick, Maggie and Lardface exchanged glances. They didn’t look convinced. And why would they be? I was headed straight for Derbin, like Chris. There would be no Lisa at Derbin. The sick feeling in my gut came back.

  Officer Lardface decided to take me back to her office “for a chat.”

  It took a while, but I finally convinced her that I didn’t do it. I think in a moment of weakness I might have even said something about liking Explore so far. She phoned my dad, who probably grunted something about me having been home the night before.

  I got back to the site in perfect time for the afternoon cross-country run. About two minutes into the run, I felt a flick on my shoulder. It was Lisa, of course. She ran easily beside me.

  “Hey, Hooded Fang. I knew you didn’t do it. I was never worried, even for a minute. I’m glad you’re staying. You spice things up around here. If it wasn’t for you, we’d just be a bunch of hemp-wearing bohos with no perspective.”

  I managed a small grin. We ran together for a while, over the hill and around the bend near the river.

  chapter five

  “On belay!”

  “Climb when ready!”

  The Granola voices rang out around me.

  I had a harness and rubber shoes on. I had tied my figure-eight knot onto the ring on the crotch area of my harness. Great. I was wearing a big white helmet and a contraption that looked like a diaper.

  We’d spent the last two days learning all about rock climbing. My head was full of information about ropes, knots and carabiners—metal hooks that hold the safety ropes. There was the three-point hold—two feet and one hand or two hands and one foot on a secure hold at the same time—and belaying. You have a belay partner who controls your safety rope, which is anchored to the top of the rock. The belay partner stands at the bottom to “offer encouragement and ensure climber safety.” That’s how Maggie put it.

  What the heck sort of word was belaying, anyway? Sounded a little dirty to me. “Rock climbing is like chess and gymnastics put together,” Maggie told us. “It takes mental and physical power to be a good climber.”

  “And climbing is all about teamwork,” Rick chimed in. “You’ll need to have good communication with your belayer.”

  Dreadlocked Disease, Kayla, was my partner. Perfect. I couldn’t look like an idiot in front of a cute girl.

  Kayla already had the belay rope firmly in her hands, ready to go.

  Lisa was a few feet away, already making her way up the rock like a spider.

  “Remember, you have to step up before you can reach up,” our cheerleader Maggie was saying. “Find a good foothold.”

  All around me Explorers were finding footholds and cracks for their fingers to fit in. Had everyone except me done this before?

  “Okay, let’s go!” For a kittens-and-rainbows type, Dreadlocks sure was impatient. “I see a good hold for your right hand. Jutting out there.”

  I tore my eyes away from Lisa. My heart was beating fast. I reached up slowly. Ow. It felt like my fingers were being scraped off as I tried to lift myself up.

  I grunted. I groaned. Quietly, to myself. Now I had scraped up my other hand on the sharp rock. The sun was beating down on my back. I felt a trickle of sweat make its way down my nose.

  Why was I doing this? Picking up garbage at Derbin would be better than this. I could sit
around, joke with my buddies, watch TV. Chris was probably doing that right about now.

  I didn’t know why I bothered trying. If I didn’t try, I wouldn’t fail.

  “Mike, you’re doing it!” Kayla shouted.

  Was I? All of a sudden, I lost hold. My left foot slipped, then my right.

  My stomach jolted as I fell. I whacked my leg and cut my left hand. My fingers grabbed at the rock, but I couldn’t find a place to hang on. I panicked. I was going to be crushed at the bottom of—

  “Mike! Mike!” Snap. I dangled in the air by my straps. It was Dreadlocks. “Open your eyes! You only fell about two feet!”

  I opened one eye and looked around. Oh. Right.

  “You okay, Mike?” Rick asked.

  “Yeah, I think I—”

  My feet scrabbled at the rock. I had nowhere to go. It was useless.

  I couldn’t do this. In my head I could hear my dad’s words. I give it a week. Then you give up. That’s how it’s always been with you, Mikey.

  Well, maybe I was giving up. I took off my helmet and threw it down.

  Kayla sighed and let the rope go slack.

  “Mike, I’m sorry,” she said as I hopped to the ground. “We could try again.”

  I brushed past Dreadlocks and plopped down on a stump. If only I had a hood.

  “Okay, good job, everyone! Let’s switch partners.” Maggie clapped her hands. “Five minutes, guys.”

  Lisa skipped over to my stump.

  “I’d like to go with Longridge here, if that’s okay.” She sat down next to me and rested her elbow on my shoulder.

  “Lisa, I don’t think I—”

  She smiled. Such perfect teeth. “No worries, Road Runner. It’s scary the first time. How are your scrapes?”

  Road Runner. I kinda liked it. “Okay, I guess.”

  “First couple times, I lost my holds completely too.”

  “When was that, when you were three?”

  “Now, don’t get all grumpy,” Lisa said with a fake pout. “You can do it, Mike. I know you can.”

  There was something about how she said it. She really thought I could do it. Could I?

  Then you give up. That’s how it’s always been with you.

  But this was only the beginning. We still had kayaking, backcountry skiing and outdoor survival. There were so many more things to learn, so many more things I would suck at.