“How do you know?”
“My dad says wild animals don’t usually try to eat humans unless they’re starving. He used to take me and my brother camping all the time.”
“Oh.” Lavender tried to think of a better response. She had none. When you’re cold, tired, hungry, thirsty, and lost in the wilderness in the middle of the night with your archnemesis and your former best friend, what is there to say to a boy you’ve known since first grade but never talked to much until now?
Lavender shifted. Her backpack was wedged between her shoulders and the rock behind her. At first she’d thought her book bag would provide a little cushioning, but now something was digging into her back, and it hurt. When she was done rearranging herself, she looked over at John. He’d grown so still and quiet that she thought he’d gone to sleep again.
But John’s eyes were wide open. Staring right at Lavender, he whispered, “I know what you did.”
The blood in Lavender’s veins turned to ice. Those words were even scarier than a flash flood crashing toward her. What could he possibly know? Every bad thing she’d ever done washed over her: the time in second grade when she’d borrowed a pencil from the art teacher and then just kept it, the time last year when she’d forgotten to do her history homework and told her teacher it was at home when it was really sitting incomplete in her backpack, the time she’d ripped a library book by accident and then put it back on the shelf without telling the librarian, the time she and Marisol had secretly streamed a movie on her mom’s Netflix account that they had been told not to watch.
John was looking at Lavender like he knew all her worst secrets.
When she remained frozen and unable to answer, John leaned closer and whispered, “Why did you lie to them about playing sardines?”
Lavender gasped. “How did you find out?”
“When you used the bathroom, I asked them how they’d gotten separated from the group. And what they said didn’t make sense. I was playing hacky sack with Jeffrey and Kyle, remember? I know they weren’t playing sardines.”
“Did you tell them there was no game?”
John shook his head and Lavender could breathe again.
He leaned forward a little. “Why did you lie?”
Lavender partly wanted to deny it, to make something up. But she was already guilty enough. And maybe if John understood, he wouldn’t rat her out to Rachelle and Marisol. From many years of slumber parties, Lavender knew that Marisol was a heavy sleeper, but Lavender glanced over at Rachelle to make sure she was still asleep before admitting, “I was mad.”
“About what?”
“Marisol is my best friend.” She couldn’t believe she was telling him this. “She has been since we were eight years old, and now she just … started ignoring me. I wanted things to go back to the way they were.”
“Sometimes things can’t go back to the way they were,” John said in a hollow voice that sounded about a hundred years old.
If she’d known him better, Lavender might have asked him what things. He sounded like he knew how she felt. John hadn’t been sitting with Jeffrey and Kyle on the bus. By now, Lavender was almost positive he was dealing with the same kind of friend trouble that she had. Lavender felt tears stinging the backs of her eyes and was grateful for the darkness.
“I guess I don’t get it,” John said. She could see him shake his head. “How would tricking them fix anything?”
“I thought if I got Rachelle out of the way, I could just hang out with Marisol for a little while. And we could just be friends like we normally are and …” She paused. She almost didn’t confess it, but then the words spilled out. “And I wanted to punish Rachelle. She’s always butting in and Miss Popular and so bossy. I thought it would be funny to see her embarrassed when she realized that no one was looking for her. She’d probably throw a big tantrum, and Marisol would see what a drama queen she is.”
John gave a soft low whistle. “Wow. That’s mean.”
“I’m not the mean one. Rachelle is,” Lavender said with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. “It’s not like I knew a flood was coming. I never would have done it if I’d known it would be so dangerous.”
“That doesn’t make it less mean.”
“But you know how Rachelle is, right?” Lavender said. “She gives people rude nicknames and talks behind their backs. She makes fun of people who don’t think the same as her. You know she deserves a taste of her own medicine sometimes,” Lavender said, wishing she could forget her own role in all that had happened.
“Lying about a game of sardines to embarrass someone else doesn’t make you much better than she is.”
Lavender felt her mouth drop open. She couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Seriously? Is that what you think of me? You don’t even know me.”
John held up his hand. In the faint moonlight, she could see him gesturing between the four of them. “Maybe none of us really know each other.”
“I know Marisol,” Lavender said.
“Then why would she rather hang out with Rachelle than you?”
He might as well have punched her in the teeth. Lavender took a few deep breaths and reminded herself that it didn’t really matter what John thought. The only things that really mattered were getting out of the wilderness alive and fixing her friendship with Marisol.
“Look,” Lavender said after a long silence, “just promise that you won’t tell Marisol and Rachelle, but especially Marisol, about the sardines thing.”
“You want me to lie?”
She shook her head. “Yes. No. I don’t know. Just … don’t bring it up. They don’t have to know that we got stranded because I tricked them. I do feel really bad about it now. But I didn’t do it on purpose, and I’m really sorry you wound up lost with us. It’s just—”
“Just what?”
“If you tell, it’ll be even harder for us to get along,” she said, remembering their earlier conversation. “It’ll just be one more reason for us to fight.”
“I won’t tell,” John said in a flat voice.
“Thank you,” Lavender said. He didn’t answer, and after a minute, Lavender wondered if he’d fallen asleep. She rubbed her arms, trying to warm them. “Hey, John,” she called in the same soft voice as before.
“What?” he answered.
“Why does it bother you so much? So what if we argue with each other?”
He was silent. She’d just about given up on an answer when John’s muffled voice said, “It reminds me of my parents.” He wouldn’t answer any more of her questions, though, and she dozed off still waiting.
Lavender woke with the dawn and rubbed her eyes. They were glued shut from sleep and sandy grit. Blinking a few more times, she looked around the little nook. Marisol was still sleeping, curled under John’s jacket, but neither Rachelle nor John was anywhere to be seen.
She was cold, stiff, thirsty, tired, and her face felt like it had been smashed into a rock all night … probably because it was. As Lavender straightened into a sitting position, she ran her fingers against her cheek and felt the indents the uneven surface had left on her skin.
But they had survived. Lavender had even slept in fits and starts. And John wasn’t going to tattle on her. The four of them could figure out how to get back to camp. Or surely, by now search and rescue workers were looking for them. They would be out of the wilderness by lunchtime … and they would have a really good story to tell.
Feeling optimistic about the day ahead, Lavender promised herself that she wasn’t a mean or bad person. And she would prove it to John by getting along with Rachelle. It would probably make Marisol happy, too. Lavender knew it wouldn’t be easy, but she could do it.
Moving as quietly as possible, Lavender emerged from the shelter only to walk straight into Rachelle. She was standing two inches from the shelter. Her hands were on her hips, and she was scowling. Lavender had a sinking feeling that Rachelle had been waiting for her.
“I heard every word
you and John said last night,” she said.
Glancing around for an escape route, Lavender saw John wandering toward them from the direction of their temporary bathroom. Lavender wanted to yell helpful directions at him, something like “Red alert” or “Change course!” But that might wake Marisol, and Lavender did not want her to overhear this conversation.
“What are you talking about?” Lavender asked.
“Don’t act like you don’t know. I heard.” She glared at John, who had paused a foot or two away from them, and then Rachelle pointed a finger at Lavender and poked her in the chest. “This is all your fault. You lied. You were trying to make me look stupid, and that’s why we’re stranded out here.”
Lavender tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry and her throat tight. She had to make this go away before Marisol heard them.
“I—I’m sorry.”
“Lavender’s not the one who took the wrong turn on the hike. That was the teachers,” John said quietly. Lavender glanced over at him. He looked like he wished he was back in the bushes, but he held his ground.
“Sure, take her side,” Rachelle said. “At least we would be with the rest of our class if it wasn’t for her.”
“Maybe, but don’t forget she saved them all in the first place,” John said. “And then she went back to save you.”
Lavender wanted to throw her arms around John and thank him. But she had to wonder why he was sticking up for her. Was he just trying to prevent another fight? Or was it because they were starting to be friends? Lavender didn’t think that John shared his deepest thoughts with many people. Maybe it meant something that he’d told her about his parents.
“Rrrggghhh,” said Rachelle. She threw her hands up in the air. “Why are you defending her? Why can’t anyone else see through Lavender? She’s a two-faced little liar who—”
“I really am sorry,” Lavender interrupted, the knot of guilt curdling in her stomach. “I shouldn’t have lied about sardines. It was stupid. I didn’t know a flood was coming, or I never would have done it. Just please, please, please don’t tell Marisol.” Not now. Not when they were in the middle of the crisis. After they were rescued, after their fight was over, Lavender could tell her then. But not now.
“Are you guys talking about me?” Marisol’s sleepy voice drifted out from inside the rock shelter.
“We’re just trying to decide what to do next,” Lavender called.
“Doesn’t John’s phone work yet?” Marisol asked, poking a rumpled head out from the between the rocks.
He shook his head. “I didn’t have service here last night. It’s not like it will be any different this morning.”
“Brrr, it’s cold.” Marisol jumped up and down a couple of times as she pulled herself out of the cave, swathed in John’s jacket. “Shouldn’t you just check the phone once to be sure?”
“I guess,” he said.
Lavender let out a breath she hadn’t known she was holding. Rachelle hadn’t said anything. With her fingers crossed behind her back, Lavender made a silent wish that it would stay that way.
While the others were busy with the cell phone, Lavender decided to try her radio once again. There was always the chance that there were new hikers or campers in the area who would have a radio with them. Plenty of outdoorsy, adventurer types used ham radios. And if there was someone like that in range, she wouldn’t have to worry about the repeater settings. She would be able to talk to them directly.
Lavender turned her radio on and scanned through channels.
On one frequency, she got a promising change in static. Not wanting to disappoint her group, she didn’t announce anything, but she leapt to her feet and started walking around, trying to warm up, but even more importantly, hoping to get to a position where her antenna could reach farther.
She pushed the button. Her heart raced.
“This is KG7XAB,” she said, using her specially designated call sign. All licensed radio operators had one. It was sort of like a telephone number or Twitter handle.
Lavender let go of the transmit button and waited for a reply.
There was none. She tried again.
“This is KG7XAB. Come in, come in. Please come in. This is an emergency.”
She could hear faint words! Something about their rigs.
“This is KG7XAB! We have an emergency!” she shouted.
No answer.
This was exactly the same thing that had happened before. It was agony. She could hear them, but they couldn’t hear her. If only she knew how to talk with the repeater.
“Come in, come in,” she cried into the radio. “Mayday, Mayday.”
But no one responded to her distress call. After a moment, the voices cracked and disappeared completely. She sank down on the ground, leaning against a rock.
A shadow fell across her, and Lavender looked up to see Rachelle looming above her.
“If John and Marisol can’t get a signal on his phone, what makes you think your little radio could do anything?”
Several answers flitted through Lavender’s mind. She could give Rachelle a long and detailed answer explaining how cell phones worked versus how radios worked. They were two totally different pieces of technology. But what was the point? Lavender was too distraught to form a coherent answer, and Rachelle didn’t actually want to know. She only wanted to put Lavender down.
“What do you want?” Lavender said in a dull, flat voice, wishing she hadn’t even attempted to use her radio. For a second, she’d been so sure that they were rescued.
“I want you to admit you were wrong, for one.”
“I already apologized.”
“And I want you to agree with me when I tell John and Marisol that we’re going my way today.” She pointed toward a mountain.
“Why? What do you think is over there?”
“I thought about it all night, and I’m sure that’s the same mountain I was looking at from camp.”
“No way. We should stay around here or try to find the canyon again. If we walk straight into the mountains and you’re wrong, we’ll end up even more lost than we are now.”
“Ugh, you always think I’m wrong, but I know for a fact that if we go up there, we’ll be able to see Mr. Bob’s ugly RV and the rest of the campsite.”
“How do you know?” Lavender asked. “There were mountains all around us.”
Rachelle ignored her. “Maybe you don’t know this about me, but I like to do things. I’m not the kind of person to sit around and wait for something to happen. I make things happen.”
“But—”
“Like yesterday, if it was up to you, we would have sat in that tree all night. We’d still be in the wash.”
Now Lavender was getting angry. How dare Rachelle make Lavender sound like she didn’t get things done. Lavender wasn’t the type to sit around, either. “Oh, yeah? Well, did you ever think—”
Rachelle didn’t let Lavender finish the thought.
“Either we go my way, or I’m telling Marisol what you did.”
Lavender blinked up at Rachelle in surprise. “Are you serious? You’re going to blackmail me?”
“Marisol will never talk to you again if she finds out that you lied to her.”
Rachelle and Lavender stared at each other in silence.
Marisol’s voice cut through the stalemate. “Shoot!”
“No luck?” Rachelle called over to her.
“None,” Marisol said as she and John joined them. “Now what?”
“I’ve been thinking it over, and I say we go that way.” Rachelle pointed toward the mountain that she was so confident was one of the mountains they’d seen from their campsite.
“Why that way?” Marisol asked.
“It’s in the direction of the campground, I’m sure of it.”
“What makes you think so?” asked John.
At the same time, Marisol said, “I don’t know. Maybe we should just stay here.”
That’s what Lavender had suggested!
She held her breath, hoping that Marisol would be able to talk Rachelle into a different plan. The surrounding hills and rocks and mountains all looked the same. There was no way that Rachelle could actually know the right direction.
“I can’t believe you want to just sit here and do nothing,” Rachelle was saying to Marisol.
“Seriously, I’m sure that’s what my uncle told me one time. I remember him saying that whenever people get lost, they always find the cars or plane wreckage or whatever first before they find the people. I think it might be better if we stop moving around.”
“That sounds right,” said John. “But we don’t have any wreckage to attract attention.”
“So you agree with me? We should keep walking,” Rachelle said. It wasn’t a question.
“I think,” John said, “we should just have a good reason for going a certain way.”
“I’ve got good reasons,” Rachelle said. “One, like I already said, I’m sure that’s the direction of our campsite. Two, I’ll bet you’ve got a better chance of getting a phone signal from up on the mountain. Three, where are we most likely to find a hiking trail? On a mountain. If we go that way, it’s only a matter of time until we’re saved. And I’d rather rescue myself than just sit here and hope that someone finds us.”
Lavender raised her eyebrows. Maybe Rachelle hadn’t been exaggerating when she said that she’d thought about it all night. Lavender was almost convinced.
“What do you think, Lavender?” Rachelle spoke in a tone that was somehow syrupy sweet and venomous at the same time. Fear, like an electrical current, zapped through Lavender. Marisol had just started looking her in the eye and talking to her almost normally again. She couldn’t let Rachelle ruin that now.
Lavender jumped to her feet. “Just that it’s definitely safer to stick together and Rachelle does have some good points.”
“Fine,” said Marisol, “but can we at least do an inventory of our supplies first? I’m hungry, and I’d like to know everything we have before we just start walking up a mountain.”
They did the inventory. It did not take long. There was no food.
Distress Signal Page 7
