Class - Cecily Von Ziegesar [16]
She took two more hits and then rose unsteadily to her feet. “I have to pee,” she announced and walked toward the woods. Maybe Tom will follow me, she thought as she stepped out of the clearing and into the darkening forest. Tree trunks rose up around her like the legs of giants. This was what it felt like to be a small child walking among adults.
She’d never peed in the woods before. Up ahead was a clump of young fir trees that looked like a promising private toilet. Squatting down behind the bushy trees, she watched in stoned fascination as her pee streamed out of her, making a little hole in the earth. A mosquito stung her thigh. She swatted at it, spun around, and attempted to pull up her shorts at the same time. There were other bites but she wouldn’t notice them until tomorrow.
No one had followed her into the woods. Her stomach rumbled hungrily as she started back. She could eat a Dunkin’ Donuts cruller. She could eat a dozen of them. She paused and glanced around, unsure of the way. The light between the trees appeared to be less dim in one direction. She headed that way, walking and walking for what felt like a long time. She wondered what Professor Rosen would do when she found out Shipley had disappeared in the night. Would they send out a search party? Dogs? Her mind was preoccupied with wondering what breed of dog was most commonly used to find missing persons and whether dogs liked to eat donuts, when she ran headlong into the maroon Dexter van, parked on the shoulder of the old logging road.
Professor Rosen had left the keys on the front tire, just like Shipley’s dad did with their old station car, in case someone else needed the car while he was at work. Shipley climbed behind the wheel and started the engine, invigorated by her own daring. This certainly was a day of firsts. She turned on the radio. Guns N’ Roses blared from the speakers.
“We abandoned the fire,” Nick complained as he followed Tom and Eliza into the woods to look for Shipley. She’d been gone for more than fifteen minutes—longer than she needed to do her business.
“Oh, Shipley, dear?” Eliza called in a hoity-toity voice. “It’s time to get thine ass back to camp, darling.”
“Yoo-hoo,” Tom cupped his hands around his mouth. “Where are you?”
“We haven’t even eaten dinner,” Nick complained. He always got a little whiny when he was high, especially after the munchies kicked in. His mom’s vegetarian three-bean chili. He could eat three helpings of it right now. With cornbread.
Twilight was fading and the air was cool and still. The ground beneath their feet was damp and alive. Eliza wished she’d put on her sweater.
“Did I ever tell you guys about the time I actually saw a werewolf and almost died?” she asked. Of course they hadn’t heard her story before. She’d never seen these people in her life before today.
“I was ice skating on this pond out behind our house and it got dark but I kept skating because I used to be really into it and yeah so fuck me I was the blind girl in Ice Castles. Anyway. All of a sudden the wind starts howling in the trees and there’s lightning and it’s the whole Great Lakes effect storm system coming in and my mom is yelling for me like Aunty Em.”
She was talking extra-fast to make up for the fact that her tongue felt like a waterlogged hot dog. It was hard to tell if either of the boys was listening.
“So I realize I can’t find my boots in the storm and I have to walk through the snow back to the house in my skates, which is pretty fucking impossible if you’ve ever tried it, and of course I fall down. What I don’t realize is that I hit my head when I fall down and I get knocked unconscious. I wake up when something is licking my face, and okay that would be totally harmless if we had a dog, but we don’t. So I sit up and there’s this like dog-slash-man werewolf dude with yellow eyes in front of me. You know, complete with drooly fangs and raw meat stew bad breath? I scream and