The force of Darien’s punch earlier was nothing compared to the force of that statement. It drove all the air from his body and made him feel sick to his stomach. He lowered his head, closed his eyes, and let out a ragged breath. “Ouch,” he whispered.
Lucy frowned. “What?”
He lifted his head and sorrow, real and true, settled right around his heart. Sorrow mixed with a heavy amount of self disgust. “It really sucks when someone holds a mirror up to you and the reflection you see is the person you hate the most.” He slid his gaze over to her. A wry smile curved his lips. “Well played, Lucy. Well played.”
She blinked in apparent bewilderment, then frowned. “I mean, all I’m trying to say is, this place is important to us. We can be ourselves here. What do you like more than anything?”
He thought for a moment. “Chicks?” It sounded stupid and shallow even to him.
She rolled her eyes. “Besides chicks.”
“I don’t know.” He huffed. What was important to him? He didn’t even know. “Sports, I guess.” He rolled his eyes. All he was doing was grasping for an answer. “Racquetball?”
She frowned and her eyes seemed to ask if he was serious.
He shrugged helplessly. Yeah, his self worth was going down notch by notch the longer he sat there.
She giggled. “Okay, fine. Say you went to some sort of…racquetball camp. What would you do if you got there and all the counselors tried to make you do was sing folk songs and knit doilies, or something.”
He laughed in spite of himself at the ridiculous picture. “I’d be pissed!”
She grinned. “Right, well this is important to us. We don’t try to change you… Please don’t try to change us. We like us.”
He looked over at her and sighed. Was this girl really a sixteen-year-old? Or was she a sage trapped in a little girl’s body? He gave her a soft smile and nodded. He couldn’t see a loophole out of her point even if he tried… And he really didn’t want to try. If everyone really saw him as some obnoxious, narrow minded jerk, he needed to change his approach. Arguing with her just for the sake of it would be stupid. Even if he didn’t understand their love for fantasy, he couldn’t debate with her on very valid statements.
“Lucy, what are you doing out here?” Darien came to stand in front of them, scowling down at Logan like he was the lowest form of life.
“I was just talking.” Lucy giggled. “Why, were you worried about me?”
He gave her a pointed look. “Yes.”
Logan glanced at her. Her cheeks turned pink and she took Darien’s outstretched hand, letting him pull her up into a standing position. Darien gave Logan another black glower and started to lead Lucy away without a word.
Logan stood abruptly. “Darien—” he called. He sighed. Man… why did everyone have to shatter his tough guy exterior? He felt like such a slug right now; he couldn’t be tough if he tried… Which meant he had to be nice, and that was a practice that he hadn’t really honed yet. He was good at being cocky. He was good at being snide. If he was always a smart ass he never had to feel anything past the surface… He never really had to feel anything at all. Nothing real, anyway.
Darien turned, his scowl deadly. “What?” he snarled.
Logan stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Look, can I talk to all of you guys for a second?”
Darien rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Just don’t take up too much of our time. And if you even try to get derogatory with us, I’ll sock you again.”
“Darien!” Lucy cried.
“I don’t care what Miss Willow says.” He spun and stalked back to their cabin.
Logan followed and wondered why walking through that door and into that room of teens was the hardest thing he’d ever had to do in his life. He sighed as he looked at all of the wary eyes staring at him. “Look, guys,” he started. He sighed again, feeling like a fool. “What I said today…” He forced himself to look up at them. “I was really out of line. I may not really understand why you guys like what you do, but it’s not my place to say you’re stupid for it.” He waved his hand. “After all, I wouldn’t want to sing folk songs and knit doilies either.” Lucy giggled, but everyone else looked at him like he’d lost his mind. He glanced at Lucy and smiled. “Anyway… I’m not really good at this, but…” He cleared his throat. “I apologize.” He swallowed and looked up at Darien. He gave him a meaningful look. “Especially to you.”
Darien gave a befuddled frown.
Logan let out a relieved breath. At least that was over. “Anyway, I just wanted to say that, so…” He shrugged. “Have a good night, guys.” He turned and started out of the cabin.
“Hey, Counselor Logan!”
Logan turned to Colt, who was glancing around on his bed.
“Here,” he snatched something and handed it out to him, “you can have this.”
Logan held out his hand and took the offering, then raised an eyebrow when he realized it was the dreaded trail mix sock Aki had beaten him with.
“That’s sick, Colt!” Lucy exclaimed. “He apologizes to us and you give him that?”
He gave her a helpless, pained expression. “I was trying to find a peace offering.”
“It was a clean sock,” Aki stated. “I had it in my backpack. I wasn’t wearing it.”
Darien started to chuckle. “Nice gift, Colt,” he grumbled.
Logan snickered. “Well…” He held the sock up. “If I keep being nice can I maybe graduate to trail mix in a bra?” He knew his smile was evil.
“Gross!” Aki shouted, hurling a shoe at him. “Pedophile!”
Logan laughed and dodged the flying object.
“Naw, but maybe if you’re really good I’ll give you trail mix in my jock strap,” Colt said.
Darien made a gagging noise. “I did not need the image, thanks. You in a jock strap…”
Logan laughed again and some of the dismal oppression he’d been feeling lifted just slightly. He shook his head. “All right, goodnight guys. See you in the A.M.”
“You’re not going to make us do any more wilderness junk, are you?” Doug all but pleaded.
Logan smiled. “Nah, I’ll think of something else.” He tapped on his temple. “I will try to put my brain in this fantasy realm of yours, but I don’t want to hear it if I come up with something that really sucks.” For some strange reason, their giggles and chuckles made some warmth seep into his heart and he waved, leaving their cabin and making his way back to his.
He had no idea what he was going to do with these kids. He was so far out of his element it made him ill. For the first time since he’d become an adult, he was actually, honestly, terrified.
Chapter Six
Logan had wracked his brain trying to figure out some sort of fantasy-ish activity for the kids, but all he’d succeeded in doing was having a great night of insomnia. He couldn’t think of anything to do to save his life. He knew nothing about the fantasy genre.
Finally, after tossing and turning all night, he just got dressed and got up. He made a strong cup of coffee and wandered outside to greet the sunrise, deciding that drifting around the camp might at least wake him up a little bit. All was quiet with only the cheerful sounds of the birds singing in the treetops. He sighed and meandered, walking down by the hill that led into the forest and letting the serenity of the tree line beckon him for awhile. He didn’t know what it was about the outdoors and the forest, but it had always brought such peace to him…whenever nothing else would.
He turned and started to head back to his cabin when he spotted a building he hadn’t noticed before. He frowned in curiosity and made his way over to it. It was too small to be a bunk, but too large to be a shed, really. Why hadn’t he noticed it? Probably because he hadn’t cared and just wanted to be far away from the entire facility…
He set his cup of coffee on the ground and noticed that it had no windows whatsoever and the door was obviously supposed to be locked, but the padlock had been broken. He studied the busted lock
for a second and contemplated his choices. Apparently, the building was supposed to be off limits, otherwise it wouldn’t be locked. If he was smart, he would go tell Willow and maybe gain some points… Or, he could look inside like the curious devil that he was… Yeah, option two definitely held more appeal since he didn’t know if any amount of points could get him closer to the Glacier Queen’s ice cold heart.
Making up his mind, he pulled the padlock free and gently pushed the door open. He peered inside, squinting to let his eyes adjust to the sheer blackness of the room. As his vision cleared, he drew in a breath and his eyes widened. Slowly, his lips curved up into a smile as an idea took form. “Oh man…” he whispered. “Jackpot.”
* * * *
“Is anyone else, like…terrified?” Aki questioned and she shoved her shoes on in preparation of the day’s activities.
Darien smirked. “He did seem awfully excited at breakfast, didn’t he?”
Colt rolled his eyes. “So long as we’re not shooting anything, falling out of boats, or hiking to our death, I’m pretty sure we’ll be fine.”
“It was nice of him to apologize yesterday,” Lucy commented absently as she sat on the side of the bed and swung her legs.
Darien gave a thoughtful frown. “Yeah, what did you say to him anyway?”
She looked up at him with an impish smile. “I said a lot of stuff, but the thing that seemed to have the most effect was that he was acting just like your father.”
Darien raised his eyebrows.
She shrugged. “Apparently he had a dad a lot like yours, and I think the comment kind of stung.”
He snorted. “You mean there are other people who have dads like mine? That just goes to show that people shouldn’t procreate.” He sighed. “All right, we ready to go see what kind of new torture he’s invented for us?”
Lucy giggled and jumped up to follow him; the others trailed behind as they headed out to the meadow at the far end of the camp.
“Holy crap!” Colt exclaimed as they approached. He laughed. “Dang! Where did all this come from?”
Darien looked up and arched an eyebrow. Logan was standing with his hands on his hips, looking very pleased with himself, surrounded by several targets and more medieval-style weapons than he’d ever seen. Several swords of all different styles, a double-bladed axe, a spear, and a few longbows with full quivers.
Logan held his arms out and grinned. “You wanted fantasy? What’s better than learning medieval-style combat? Come choose a weapon.”
Doug blinked. “Are you serious?” He bent down and studied the sharp blade of the axe. “This looks really dangerous.”
Logan snorted. “You want to be able to fight trolls, don’t you? Besides, they don’t make authentic medieval weapons anymore. I found all of these in a storage shed. Probably came from some sort of collector’s magazine. Come on, guys! This has to be better than everything else I’ve made you do, right?”
“Totally!” Colt exclaimed, hefting a sword up and swinging it. “This rocks!”
Aki tentatively tried to pick up a sword that was almost as big as she was and the weight of it practically knocked her over.
Logan chuckled and reached out to take the weapon from her. “Better stick to something your size.” He bent down and picked up a set of three small knives. “Here, these are throwing knives.” He pointed to one of the targets. “Why don’t you give it a whirl?” He laughed. “Although, I should have given you a mace. You’re good at wielding things like that.”
Aki laughed and her cheeks turned pink, but she took the knives from him and turned towards the target. She glanced back at Darien.
Darien chuckled and motioned for her to go ahead while he selected a bow and arrow for himself. This was ten times better than anything else they’d done so far. Actually, it was ten times better than most of the activities they’d ever done. These weapons looked really authentic. Maybe Logan wasn’t completely awful. When he used his brain, he managed to come up with some really cool ideas.
Aki turned back to the target, stared at it for a second, then rapid-fired all three of the knives like some sort of cracked-out ninja. The first one went flying so far past the target that they’d be lucky if they ever found it again. The second one went flying into a different target off to the side and she accidentally let go of the third one while she’d brought her hand back in preparation, sending it hurtling backwards haphazardly. Colt let out a shout and ducked just as the projectile gave him a haircut.
Darien’s eyes widened.
“Holy crap!” Colt shouted. “What are you doing? Trying to scalp me? This is fantasy camp! Not Indian warrior camp!”
Logan moved over to the confused-looking Aki and gave a forced chuckle. “Okay, yeah, why don’t you just watch for a little while?” He took her by the shoulders and made her take a few steps away from the weapons. He glanced over at Darien. “Why don’t you try?”
Darien arched an eyebrow, but headed over to one of the targets, slinging the quiver of arrows over his shoulder. For some strange reason, it felt good to have them there. The weight of the quiver across his shoulders felt natural, warm… He studied the bow, glanced at the target, then pulled an arrow from the quiver, lined up the shot and fired the arrow dead center.
“Good lord!” Colt cried. “Dang! Talk about beginner’s luck, Dare!”
Darien smiled, but kept his concentration. He pulled another arrow free, let it fly, and it split the shaft of the other one.
Logan’s eyes widened. “Holy crap,” he murmured.
“Darien, you rock!” Lucy exclaimed. “Do it again!”
Colt scoffed. “No way he can do that twice.”
He did. Managed a third and a fourth time, as well.
“What are you, friggin’ Robin Hood?” Colt muttered, the admiration in his voice clear despite his disgruntled tone.
Logan stepped forward as Darien lowered the bow. “I take it you’ve done archery before?” he assumed.
Darien met his eyes and shook his head as he glanced down at the bow. “I’ve never even held one of these things before.”
Logan’s eyebrows shot clear up to his hair line practically. “Are you serious?”
Darien shrugged. He couldn’t explain how or why he’d known how to shoot the arrows. It just felt natural, like breathing. He’d just…known.
Logan stared at him for a second, then snorted. “Fine, warrior boy, try these.” He handed him a set of the throwing knives.
“Don’t give him those!” Colt cried. “Aki almost took my head off!”
Logan chuckled as Darien set the quiver of arrows and bow aside. “Everyone move to the sides where it’s safe,” he instructed.
Darien waited till all of his friends were out of the way, then tested the weight of one of the knives in his hand. It only took him a moment before he sent it spinning directly into the center of a different target.
“No way!” Doug breathed in obvious amazement.
Darien smiled and sent the other two after the first in succession. Two more bull’s eyes. His smile turned into a grin and he looked down at his hands. They were tingling. His blood felt like it was rushing through his veins. It was the most exhilarating feeling he’d ever had, kind of felt like when he first kissed somebody. That heady rush of adrenaline that made you feel like you were on fire. He closed his eyes and relished the feel as he fisted and un-fisted his hands.
“Get off on that, did you?”
Darien opened his eyes and looked up at Logan, who had one eyebrow arched. He smiled sheepishly. “Maybe a little.”
Logan shrugged. “I kinda did too.” He shook his head. “That was incredible.”
Darien laughed. “You ever do stuff like this?”
He snorted. “You kidding me? Look who you’re talking to. Me and ‘sword’ don’t really fall in the same category. I’m a rifle and shotgun type of guy.”
“You should try it!” Lucy urged. “Maybe you’ll be as good as Darien!”
“I can’t even believe Darien is as good as Darien,” Colt grumbled.
“Here, give this spear a try,” Darien said to Logan in a teasing tone. He lifted the weapon and handed it to him.
Logan stared at him. “Do I look like I’m wearing a loincloth made of buckskin? Look like I’m going to go hunt down a mammoth?”
Darien couldn’t help but laugh. “Come on, this was your idea.”
“Exactly. I’m the counselor. I make the plans. You do them.”
“What’s wrong? Think you can’t do it?” Colt mocked. “Afraid Darien’s gonna show you up?”
Logan narrowed his eyes at Colt, stared him down for a second, then snatched the spear out of Darien’s hand. He turned to face the target, studied it for a second, then went to launch the spear, but misjudged the weight and whacked himself in the head with the back end of it as he let it fly. Uproarious laughter erupted.
Logan turned to face them all, rubbing the back of his head. He gave them a halfhearted scowl. “Sure, laugh it up,” he grumbled. “It wasn’t your melon you just cracked.”
“Darien, you try!” Aki urged.
“Yeah, show him how it’s done!” Colt joined in.
Logan rolled his eyes. “Great, thanks a lot.”
“What is going on here?”
Darien, as well as everyone else, stopped laughing and turned at the angry, demanding voice. He raised his eyebrows as he saw Miss Willow striding in their direction, looking more furious than he had ever seen.
Chapter Seven
Logan opened his mouth to answer her, but she didn’t even give him the chance.
Warrior's Rise Page 5
