Page 75 of Sass in the Grass

“Opposites, like who else?”

“You and Coach,” Alan said. You’re as different as you can be.”

“I’m not all that different from him. Sure, he’s bigger, but not that much bigger, and who knows? I might someday grow hair on my chest. Of course, I’ll shave it off if I do, but…”

“Sure, Jovian, that’s the only difference,” Alan teased.

“Oh, the outdoorsy thing, right? Well, I swam in the lake last night. Does that get me closer?”

They all stared at him, jaws on the floor.

“He forced me! I didn’t do it willingly!”

Chapter Nineteen

Threedayslater,Jovianwas on his bunk, struggling with the ropes as he tried over and over again to get the knots right Cherokee had shown the class. “Hey, buddy, how’s it going?” Alan asked as he sat on the bunk and plucked up some of the rope.

“These knots are impossible! And if we can’t tie them, like all the other things we have to do, I will have to watch my boyfriend go off with all of you on that survival camp while I’m stuck back here.”

Cherokee had told the class that they’d have a quiz on the techniques he was showing them before they’d be allowed to go.

“Well, Jovian, he’s doing it for a good reason. I mean, this isn’t like the last one. We will really have to find food, make our own shelters, our own fires.”

“I’m just smuggling a lighter with me,” Jovian whispered. “I got one from that guy who smokes those nasty cigarettes. Of course, he charged me twenty dollars for it, the thief!”

“You’ll still have to make one for the quiz, Jovian.”

“I know, but it’s so long and tedious to make one. I’ll do that one, then have an easier time at the camp when Cherokee’s off, checking on other people.”

“That is…a plan, I guess. How about we help each other, quiz each other?”

“I suppose. You can start by helping me with these knots! How will I ever make a shelter from those ropes and tarps if I can’t tie a knot?”

The backpacks they’d take on the next survival camps had one energy bar, one small bottle of water, a long coil of rope and a tarp. No blankets, no other food, and the little white bags to be foraged weren’t included in the package either. They’d have to forage for things that actually grew.

Oh, and their multi-tool, too. It had a knife in case they caught an animal for food. Jovian wouldn’t, couldn’t, so he knew he’d have an energy bar for two days and that was it. “I’m going to be so cranky. I get very hangry if I don’t have a meal.”

“We’ll stick together, Jovian. We’ll find food, even if it’s just a couple of mushrooms.”

“Don’t get me started on them! Another thing I must study! I’m sure I’ll be poisoned. I know I will.”

“There are very few poisonous mushrooms around here, Jovian. Remember?”

“I heard him, but with my luck, I’ll find them all and try to make Marsala from them.”

Alan giggled and then grew serious. “I’ll help you, and Cherokee will too.”

“He said he can’t. That when we go on the camp, he can’t give me special treatment.”

“I don’t mean on the camp, I mean now.”

Jovian was too stubborn for that. “No! I don’t want him to think I need him to…I don’t know, tutor me! I’m smart, and I can get this, I’m just not an outdoors kinda guy. And there’s nothing wrong with that,” he said as his head raised.

“No, there’s not. Let’s get to the knots, and then we’ll take one of those practice tarps and make a shelter in the trees. We’ll get this, I promise.”

“This is so useless! I don’t ever plan to get lost in any woods! Either I’m there and naked with Cherokee in them or I’ll be in a nice, warm, comfortable bed.”

“Okay, deal, but for now, let’s learn these and make Cherokee happy. God, it’s weird calling him that.”

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