Eleven Things I Promised by Catherine Clark

Author:Catherine Clark
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-02-18T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 11

I was brushing my teeth the next morning when Margo walked into the locker room. For once, I was ahead of her, but only because I’d been awake since five a.m.

She glared at me. “I thought you left last night,” she said. “I thought you ruined it for everybody.”

I finished brushing and rinsed my mouth. “I’m still here,” I said. “What would I ruin?”

“But first I saw you with Mason, then you weren’t at dinner, and then you weren’t in the tent when we were supposed to be. What did you do? Did you go off somewhere with him or what?” she asked.

“Not that it’s any of your business, but I came back to the tent a little after five. I was here the whole time. I just . . . fell asleep in his truck.”

“Yeah, right. How dumb do you think I am? I didn’t know you and he, I mean . . . are you and he together?”

“No.” I shook my head. But then I thought, yes, and I don’t know. Mason was an incredible person, but he was nineteen and I was seventeen, and I thought he was probably too old for me, but it didn’t actually feel that way, not ever and definitely not after the night we’d spent being close. I couldn’t stop asking myself questions like, What was that? Why was he here? Did we just do that because of Stella, because we’re both worried and freaked out?

Margo left, and I leaned against the wall in the entryway to the locker room. So much had happened in the past couple of days—in the past couple of weeks. I wasn’t quite sure how to handle it all.

When I walked out, thoughts swirling in my head, Heather, the ride director, was waiting for me. “I need to talk to you,” she said. “Can you come with me for a sec?”

It wasn’t a question. It was an order.

I followed her to a picnic table, a secluded area. All I could think was that she was going to tell me that I’d been riding too slowly. Too often. They were taking away some of the money Sparrowsdale had raised—because of me, the weak link in the chain.

“Frances, I’m sorry,” Heather said when we found a bench where we could sit down. “But we can’t let you stay on this trip. You broke one of our most important rules. You’re going to have to leave tonight. Who can come pick you up?”

“Please, you can’t kick me off the trip. Please!” I begged. “What did I do? What did I do?”

“Last night you didn’t stay in your tent with your team. We have strict rules about male and female interaction. We have guaranteed certain things to parents, to teachers, to you. This isn’t a trip to take if you want to hook up.”

“I didn’t want to hook up!” I cried. I mean, maybe in the moment, sure, but I wouldn’t tell her that. “I didn’t go into this trip thinking that.

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