"Who's idea was this?" Melissa asked, picking a twig out of her hair. She had curled the ends and pulled have of it on top of her head.
"Taylor's." Carter mumbled, stepping over a log.
Taylor ran his hand across Carter's back and smiled. "I thought you'd like the idea. You're more adventurous and outdoorsy than all of us combined." Taylor had suggested that they all go on a hiking trip for a day. Now, he, Carter, Melissa, Zac, Katie, and Jade found themselves walking through the woods on a sunny afternoon.
"It was a great idea." Carter laced her arm with Taylor's. "I just didn't know where we'd be hiking."
"What's wrong with here?" Katie asked, holding onto the back of Jade's backpack. Jade still had a scrape on her forehead from the car accident she was in a week earlier.
"Well, about 20 yards that way," Carter pointed, "Is where I fell off of a cliff and almost died last year."
"Whoa." Jade shook her head. "I never knew where that was."
Melissa nodded and grabbed Zac's arm to steady herself as she hopped over a rock. "She sort of saved my life"
Jade leaned toward Carter and whispered. "Now there's something I thought I'd never see." She pointed to Melissa and Zac's backs as he helped her over a fallen tree.
"Tell me about it."
Taylor leaned over to Carter and frowned. "I forgot how close we'd be hiking to the cliff. If I'd have known I would have had us go somewhere else. Are you ok?"
Carter nodded. "It's fine. It was a good idea."
Zac stopped and turned around. "Hey guys, could we all split up for a while? Mel and I wanted to go down by the water and sit. So I figured somebody can come with us and the rest can go over to the rocks. I know Carter's more into the hiking and climbing kind of thing." He smiled shyly at Carter. She knew hiking hurt his legs a lot and he was really covering up for the fact that he wanted to sit down for a while.
"Yeah. Zac, you and Meli can go down to the water. Wehre do you all want to go?"
Jade looked around and smiled. "Home?" She laughed. "I'm kidding. Uhm, the rocks I guess."
"I'm a waterbaby. You guys don't mind, do you?" Katie asked, flashing Zac and Meli and uncertain smile. She wasn't sure if they were a couple. It was a downfall of being the new girl.
"No that's cool." Melissa motioned for Katie to come along and they disappeared into the woods.
Carter stopped suddenly on the way to the rocks. "Hey, I never asked where you want to go. Wouldn't you rather be by the water?" She asked Taylor remembering how he had complained about being hot earlier.
"And miss time with the two of you?" He asked smiling at Jade and taking Carter's hand. "Never."
Katie, Zac, and Melissa trotted down the steep bank to the small creek that ran along side of it. Zac sat down on the rocks and stretched out his legs, wincing for a moment. Melissa sat next to him and asked if he was ok. He nodded slowly.
>Katie watched them for a short while, wondering about Zac. "Hey, you guys don't mind if I jump in, do you?" She motioned toward the deep hole that fell just below the small, trickling, waterfall. "It's really hot."
Melissa made a face. "Well, no, but you should be careful. We never could tell how deep that is."
Katie peered down into the hole and pulled off her tanktop revealing a light blue, halter top bikini underneathe. "It looks ok. Don't worry about me." She grinned and dove into the water with her shorts still on. Zac and Melissa looked over the edge waiting for her to come up. Zac looked at Melissa and shrugged after a few seconds and then jumped when Katie came up from the water, gasping for air. "Holy man that's cold!"
"Are you ok?" Zac asked, wide eyed.
"Oh yeah. Fine. I'm a swimmer so it's cool. I just didn't know it would be that cold!"
Katie pulled herself out of the water and walked back to where Zac and Melissa were. She sat down next to them and began wringing the water out of her hair. Then after a few minutes of silence she closed her eyes and leaned back. "I could seriously sleep out here."
Zac laughed. "Me too. But I didn't bring a pillow."
Katie frowned and then sat up. "Uhm, I think I'm going to go check out the rocks. See what they're up to over there."
Melissa sat up a little straighter. "Ok, sure... we'll be here."
Katie nodded and gave Zac a shy smile before heading off to find the others. She had a sick feeling in her stomach, one that she'd felt way too often.
Taylor, Carter, and Jade pushed aside some shrubbery and made their way towards the large pile of shale that they called, "the rocks". There were parts of the hill that were unstable and they had always been warned not to climb around there. Carter had a mission to find the large piece of shale that she had carved her name into when she was 10. She had burried it somewhere and couldn't remember where.
"Maybe it's around the other side?" Taylor asked, pointing around the large tree that grew up through the rocks. "I'll go look."
"Be careful." Carter watched as he held onto the tree and swung himself to the other side of the rocks. "He's a monkey, I swear he is." She laughed and sat down at the bottom of the hill.
"Are you sure you burried it here?" Jade asked her as she started digging through the rocks. "And wouldn't it be washed away or something by now?"
"I wrapped it in cloth and burried it under all the other rocks."
"Very smart." Jade laughed. "Hey what's the deal with Zac and Meli? Are they like..."
"Ew. No." Carter shook her head. "They're friends."
"Oh. Good..."
"Uhm. Why?" Carter asked, tilting her head to the side.
"I dunno, I think Katie might be into Zac a little. Every time she talks about him she gets a little shy. Well, she gets that way with Taylor too. Maybe it's just with all guys."
Carter laughed and jumped when she heard a branch break and a scatter of rocks. "I'm ok!" Taylor shouted and Carter and Jade both laughed.
Taylor looked down and shivered at how high he'd gotten. He really wanted to find the rock for Carter. He knew it was just something small and insignificant but Carter had always wanted to find it. He shuffled his feet toward the other side of the rocks, to the area that his parents had always warned him about. It was "dangerous". He laughed at it and then stopped dead when he realized where he was. There was a steep drop-off on the other side of the shale pile that resembled a cliff. It lead down to the road and to the other cliff that Carter had fallen from. "Whoa." He shook his head and turned around. There was a small path that wrapped around the rocks and he decided to go down it and make his way back down to Carter and Jade.
He took baby steps until one point where he had to jump across a large log. He lost his footing when he landed and he slid across a slippery, smooth, piece of shale. His foot slid out from under him and he tried to keep his balance by leaning forward. Some of the rocks crumbled beneath him and the side of the cliff fell down. He was about to fall at least 40 feet to the road when he felt an arm wrap around his waist and pull him back against the wall of the rocks.
Panting, he slowly caught his breath and squatted down to regain his composure. He had almost fallen. He turned around to see who had grabbed him. It was Katie. She wiped a layer of sweat and dirt off of her forehead and took a deep breath. "Are you ok?"
"Uh huh."
"Come on, let's go back down."
Katie and Taylor found Carter and Jade at the bottom of the hill. Carter saw that a piece of Taylor's shirt was torn off and she jumped up. "Oh my god. Are you ok?" She could tell by the look on his face that something was wrong.
Taylor told her what had just happened and how Katie had pulled him away from the edge. He sat down on the rocks next to Jade to calm himself. Carter ran her hand across his shoulders and gave him a quick hug before turning to Katie. "I thought you were with Zac and Meli?"
Katie shrugged and turned around. She walked a few feet and knelt down next to the tree in the middle of the rocks. She pushed aside a few pieces of shale and pulled out what looked like and old red sock. "Here." She handed it to Carter. "I'm gonna go back to the water now. I'll catch up with you guys later."
Carter sat down next to Taylor and pulled the small flat stone out of the sock. She smiled at her name, carved in all capital letters. "I can't believe she found it."
Taylor shook his head.
"What's wrong?"
"I swear I was going to fall."
"But you didn't. Good thing Katie was there."
Jade frowned. "Katie was with Zac and Melissa. So..."
"So?"
"She saw it." Jade took a deep breath. "She saw Taylor fall before it happened."
Carter's eyes widened. "She saw my car breaking down the other day."
Taylor sighed. "It could have been a coincidence."
Jade shook her head. "Trust me. Katie sees stuff like that. It scares the crap out of her most of the time. Usually she keeps it to herself unless she think somebody is going to be hurt."
Taylor's cheeks her flushed and his hair was slicked back with sweat. "She's cool."
Carter nodded. "I'm glad she's here." She laid her head on Taylor's shoulder and kissed it lightly. "I'm glad you didn't fall."
"Me too."
"Hey, Zac." Melissa made a face and shook her head. "Are you sure we came this way?"
Zac stopped and looked around. "I'm... pretty sure."
"Pretty sure." Melissa rolled her eyes. "Great. Really really great."
"Maybe if we rub sticks together we can start a signal fire. Or if we make really loud noises Carter will hear us and come find us. That's what we do in the mall."
"You made signal fires in the mall?"
Zac laughed. "No, dumbass. See here... there's the path, we're not lost." Zac and Melissa followed the path for five minutes until they realized it lead them right back to where they were, in a complete circle.
"There! You see that?!" Melissa shrieked. "We're lost! We're freakin lost!"
"No we aren't!"
Melissa sat down on a log and took the ponytail holder out of her hair. "Zac... admit it... we're really really lost."
Zac blushed and sat down next to her. "Ok. We're... lost." He sighed and looked around with no idea of where they were.
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