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. “Wanna 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.”
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.