Free Unlikely Allies by Tiffany King

needed was for Mason to have one more thing he could hold over my head. He was arrogant enough as it was. If he thought I actually liked him, he'd be unbearable. Luckily, I hate him, I thought to myself. Sure you do, a small voice at the back of my head taunted me.

 
     
     
     
    Chapter 6
     
     
    The rest of the morning flew by with one activity after another. Rick began the d ay by covering the camp rules, l ike never venturing beyond the camp without a partner, staying within the confines of the camp once the sun set and no visiting the cabins of the opposite sex.
    "The trails here are marked relatively well, except for the expert trails we have set up for the older campers’ survival classes. You have to be in your last year to take the two expert trails. I have this set up for your own safety. Got me guys?" he asked, looking at a group of teenage boys who were grumbling about not being babies. I heard one of them brag that he could do the hardest trail with his eyes closed.
    "Right, of course, tumbling down the mountain doesn't count as a completion," Mason teased him as he nudged him with his shoulder.
    Mason's teasing started a chain reaction as the older guys became rowdy as they wrestled around.
    Rick put two of his fingers in his mouth and blew out a shrill whistle that rang out around us. The guys stopped wrestling and straightened up their clothes, but I saw the original instigator nudge Mason one last time, earning him a stern look from Rick.
    "Mason is right. The trails are labeled from easy to hard for a reason. Falling off the mountain may seem like a far-fetched idea, but the conditions along the trails can become dangerous from weather conditions and erosion. Even expert guides have been known to get injured on these trails. So, once again, the two ex pert trails are for our fifteen-year- old campers only, and only after they have completed every other trail with an average score of an eight or better.
    "Score?" I whispered to Amy.
    "Yeah, Rick came up with a checklist of certain things he expects the campers to accomplish with each trail they take. It rates you by aptness, speed and general knowledge of your surroundings. Most of the girls really don't care and never make it to the harder trails, but to the guys, it's like the Holy Grail or something," she whispered loudly to me, earning us a glare from Mason.
    Without thinking, I stuck my tongue out at him, earning giggles from Parker and the blonde camper , Grace , who had asked me about Rick earlier.
    "That’s mature," Amy teased, smiling at me.
    "I can't help it, he brings out the worst in me," I grumbled, slouching down on the rough bench underneath me. I refrained from wiggling around. With my luck lately, I’d find a way to get a splinter in my ass for sure.
    Rick closed up the opening comments by handing out schedules for the campers. I grabbed one of them and saw that I was schedul ed to do arts and crafts in one- hour blocks. I had one session before lunch and three afte rward .
    "I'm off to row with the munchkins," Amy quipped, pointing toward the canoes by the lake.
    "You teach rowing?" I asked, surprised. I somehow expected that to be Mason's forte.
    "When it's cooler, like it is this summer, I do rowing. When it's warmer, I do swim lessons. By the way the weather seems to be acting this summer, I don't see a whole lot of opportunities for getting in the water."
    "That's cool. I would have expected rowing to be more Mason's kind of thing," I admitted.
    "LOL, I could see that. God knows the guy has the pecks and arms for it, but he teaches archery and is a guide," she said before lo ping off for the lake.
    I made my way to the mess hall w here the art room was located. Anxiety began to set in as I went through a mental checklist, reviewing everything I had spent the previous day setting up to my liking. At least I had an impressive amount of supplies at my disposal and had planned different projects that would take several days to