Page 27 of Pick Me Up On Tuesdays

"No. No, no, no, no, no!"

Ethan, still lounging beside me, peeked over my shoulder. "That’s a lot of no’s. What's up?"

I gripped my clipboard like it was a lifeline. "We’re off budget. We spent way more than we should have on food and cleaning up this stupid bus. How? We didn’t even get dessert!"

Joy, overhearing, turned around in her seat. "To be fair, we did order about fifty breadsticks."

"Because they were free!"

"Exactly. But we had to buy stuff to get more."

I buried my face in my hands. "We were supposed to pace our spending, but we’ve already gone over the daily limit on the first stop! Even with Ethan paying for himself!"

Ethan smirked. "I am a responsible citizen."

I pointed at the receipt. "You ordered something called the 'Eternal Hunger Platter.' It had five different meats!"

"I was curious."

Mr. Dax, who had been half-listening, turned in his seat. "You messed up the budget already?"

I felt the weight of doom settle over me. "…Maybe."

He sighed. "Fine. New rule. No more unnecessary expenses. That means no buying weird stuff for 'fun,' no extra snacks unless they’re within the budget, and absolutely no more excessive breadsticks."

Joy raised a hand. "What about emergency breadsticks?"

Mr. Dax sighed. "If you can justify it in an essay, then sure."

She grinned. "Challenge accepted."

As the bus rolled back onto the road, I stared at my numbers, my scattered brain already trying to figure out how to stretch our remaining funds. Ethan, as always, was unbothered.

"Relax, bestie," he said, leaning back. "We’ll figure it out."

I exhaled sharply. "We have nineteen more days of this."

"Yeah. And I bet every single one of them is going to be just as chaotic."

I glared at him. "That’s exactly what I’m afraid of."

Chapter 10: Clark vs, a Mountain (and Also a Very Angry Bird)

I had created the map, drafted half of the plan, and was the smartest one in this group, so I should have blamed it all on myself. But I had made a terrible mistake. Not about the budget—that was on another level of mistakes. I was talking about starting our documentary on a mountain. No, seriously. A mountain. I was not built for this. I was built for books, firm ground, and the occasional panic attack—not climbing steep inclines.

"Why... why did we have to start with a mountain?” I panted, bent over with my hands on my knees, knowing I was the reason in the first place. I wiped off a sheen of sweat from my forehead, trying to pretend I wasn’t dying.

Shun, walking beside me with all the energy of a very unfazed person, barely spared me a glance. "It’s a hill, dude."

I shot her an exhausted glare. "It is a mountain, Shun. It has a peak."

She shrugged like she wasn’t personally offending me. "It’s not that big."

"Then why does it feel like I’m walking straight into the afterlife?!"

Max jogged past me as if he was going for a casual Saturday morning run. "Maybe because your lungs have the stamina of a goldfish?"

I glared at him. "Max, please, for the love of everything, just shut up."

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