Chapter 21// "Anyways during sex you burn as much calories as running 5 miles"
"Group orientating? I think I'd rather just lie on this rock" Elliott scoffs.
"Look alive, I'm going to give you your groups, show each of you your starting points and hand you your maps then you're off"
Everyone looks grumpy, well what does Coach expect seeing as we all slept in a tent last night, which is practically on the floor.
"Group one" Coach begins "We have Natasha, Emily, Daniel, Trent and Carter. See that tree far off in the distance; that's your starting point"
"Coach aren't you supposed to guide us to it" Emily asks.
"You can walk, crawl or drag each other over there, from here on out I have nothing to do with your route until you get back to our next campus stop"
Everyone looks at each other, it's already obvious that Coach is going to be no help whatsoever.
"Group 2, Aiden, Winter, Grayson and Crezit"
Around me people snigger at Coach's mistake "It's Crescent " I say kindly correcting Coach.
"What kind of name is that, parents nowadays?" He rolls his eyes.
All of a sudden it sinks in, my group. Aidan the boy who plants stink bombs in ventilators, Winter, the girl who I used to be best friends with but then something happened at a party and now she tries to glare me down every time I walk past her. And how can we forget Elliott, wherever I go somehow he ends up following.
I walk over to Elliott, who may I add is still lying on the large rock and Aidan, who is holding the map upside down in his hands. Then there's Winter who's standing near both of them but not close enough to be associated with them.
"Crezit!" Elliott shouts, waving his arms in the air. He looks slightly pale but that's probably because he's lying upside down on a rock.
"Shut up Grayson" Thankfully he's wearing a shirt today, unlike last night.
"So where is our starting point?" I ask looking over Aidan's shoulder at the map.
"The rock that Elliott is currently lying on"
I bring my arms forward to take the map out of Aidan's grasp seeing as he's having trouble holding it the right way up, for a moment it almost looks like my arms are wrapped around him. Suddenly Elliott is standing beside me holding the map. Jeez I wonder what made him get up so fast.
"I think we go that way" He states scratching the back off his neck and pointing in the direction to where there are a bunch of rocks.
"NO, we go that way" Winter's sharp voice snaps as she points a perfectly manicured nail in the direction of a field of trees.
"Calm yourself woman" Elliott speaks out. She just goes back to crossing her arms like a child in a tantrum.
"I want everyone to be back at campus by 5pm at the latest, if you don't make it back in time you can live in the forrest with the wild creatures forever" Coach shouts so loud that every group can hear him perfectly clear.
I get up first and place the heavy bag on my back.
Winter and I silently walk in to the brightly lit forest, while Elliott and Aidan are shoving each other around. Also Winter is constantly glaring at me and I glare back wordlessly.
Soon I am breathless and tired, and probably in a worse mood than when we started this hike.
"God I need something to drink," I groan out loud.
"I have something you can drink" Elliott says.
"Really" I reply.
"Yeah" He gives me a dirty smirk and a cheeky wink.
"Right you are such a dirty pig" I point at him stopping right in front of him.
Instead he keeps walking forward, like he's ready to walk right through me. I take a step back and then another, and then I feel my ankle dipping in to something wet and gooey.
I look down and cringe; I'm ankle deep in mud.
Elliott begins laughing really hard; well I'm happy someone is finding this amusing because my shoes are ruined.
"I'm not going through that" Winter gasps as I force myself out the mud. I glance at the map and swallow the lump in my throat.
"There's no way around it, it would take at least an hour to take any other route maybe even longer"
"Oh shit" Elliott sighs looking down at his shoes. He's wearing his white Adidas superstars, they're surprisingly very white.
Not for long though.
Winter is staring at her phone, her fingers moving quickly against the screen.
"How the hell are you getting signal in this bloody forest?" Elliott storms up to her to look at her phone but mistakenly nudges in to her ever so lightly and her large phone slips out her hand.
It lands in the mud with a splat and oozes inside.
For a second there is silence.
Then Winter is clawing at Elliott, shouting all sorts of things at him, Elliott is holding her wrists trying to keep her arms back. Aiden and me, well, we are both practically rolling around in the mud laughing.
Once Winter calms down she picks her phone out the mud and wipes the cake load of mud off the front, this makes her glare at Elliott, but thankfully her phone is still working.
Elliott walks forward with the most disgusted expression and sighs, "Why did I even sign up for this?"
"Because you are failing at least 2 of you're classes and this is an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, get to know your inner animal and for you to lose a bit of weight you're getting a bit tubby" I joke.
But he looks at me as if I've extremely offended him "I am not tubby, I'll have you know women that this is all muscle"
"Mhhhmm if you say so"
"Anyway during sex you burn as much calories as running 5 miles"
That's when I grab the map out of Aiden's arms and begin hitting it against Elliott's back "Why are you the way you are"
I continue hitting it off his back in frustration. Can he really not keep it clean?
"This is called physical abuse" Elliott whines, grabbing it out my hand.
He slowly backs away in to the mud, I realise it's actually really deep the more I see Elliott walking in to it "Come on Cress don't be afraid" He eggs me on.
"Fuck it" I shout throwing my arms up in the air and walk in to the thick mud.
"Come and get it shortie" He teases me holding the map up.
"I am not short" I storm through the mud that's actually quite dense, making it difficult for me to even get close to him, then I have the issue of getting the map because this boy has super long and muscular arms.
He swiftly throws the map towards Aidan who catches it in one hand.
I'm pretty much knee high deep in mud and I have Elliott standing right in front of me, too many things can happen right now. That's when he gives me his signature mischievous grin that I know all too well.
"Elliott..." And there it is, a giant pile of mud in my face. There are tiny rocks in it and it smells completely disgusting.
He looks at me and can't contain himself from laughing, his laughter rings through the open space, but he obviously hasn't thought of the consequences of his actions.
I use both my hands to scoop up a great big handful of mud and  jump up like I'm about to score a basket then let all the brown slime go in Elliott's hair.
Now Elliott Grayson's hair has always been very precious to him, the amount of time he spends on it in a year is astronomical. And he's complaining about why he's failing school.
Soon the 3 of us are swimming in the mud, coated in dirt and laughing hysterically.
I look up trying to catch my breath as I can taste the dirty mud in my mouth.
Elliott's looking at me and he's stopped laughing.
Most of the brown mud has wiped off his face but there's still a small streak of it on his left cheek.
I can feel small cold droplets of water slowly falling from the sky but I ignore them because the intensity of Elliott's gaze is holding me in my place.
My mind is telling me not to do it, that it isn't my place to do it and it never will be but something in my heart makes me move towards him.
I slowly lift my left arm up to his angelic face, I bite the inside of my mouth, and my stomach is doing  all sorts of flips.
My hand reaches up and my cold fingers gently press against his neck to help hold up my hand then I use my thumb to wipe the mud off his perfectly sculpted face.
His cheekbones appear hollow and give him that chiselled jaw line, I'm almost tempted to run my thumb over it . Then when he smiles, deep curves appear on each side of his lips, like dimples.
Sometimes he gives you a slightly one-sided smirk that makes your heart drop to your panties, like when you go down a loop in a rollercoaster.
His skin is always more tanned than others, but his dark hair always makes him look paler, and his dark blue eyes look out of place. But they are his perfect blue eyes. Always speaking words that Elliott will never let fall out his mouth.
Behind his blue eyes are so many secrets, things Daniel and me know he will never share with either of us, the same secrets we hide. The absentness of both our fathers.
I want to scream out loud, why am I thinking all of this. But I know the answer. It isn't that I'm actually attracted to him, well I don't think I am but it's that no one has ever paid attention to anything I have ever done. Even though he pisses me off, it's the way he always smiles at me, like he's created the perfect smile just for me.
"Wow this is intense" Aidan raises his eyebrows breaking the eerie silence.
"God just kiss already, you'll catch a STD off his lips" She groans.
I look up at her, she never really speaks when I'm around anymore and now she's gone silent again and is giving me her regular death stare with her narrow eyes.
The moments gone and Elliott is the first one to step away without a single snarky comment.
Soon we're out the mud, but I'm still covered in the brown stuff and so are the rest of us.
No one is talking and it's beginning to get boring
I begin humming lightly and then I start singing terribly under my breath.
"I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you" I whisper as low as I can under my breath.
"Don't need no butterflies when you give me the whole damn zoo"
I look to my right to see Elliott who looks like he's just subconsciously singing along.
"By the way, by the way you do things to my body" I sing louder and completely out of tune.
Everyone looks up at me. "I didn't know that I was starving till I tasted you" Elliott sings back even louder than me.
And that is what I call having your back.
For the rest of our uneventful walk back to the campus we sing everything that has possibly been in the charts. Even Winter joins in.
Except at one point Aiden tries to put a slug down Winter's top.
We are the second group to reach campus and the moment I see coach I'm glad. When we get to the bench I immediately drop my bag and lie on top of it. My back's aching, my feet are sore soar and my hair is pissing me off.
One group even comes back completely drenched in water, then another covered in grass and the final one is covered in ants.
The second Coach screams for us all to get on the bus, I can't be happier. On the bus I sit as far away as I can from the dark haired boy with blue eyes and explain to Emily what happened in the mud.
Something's changed between us over these two day, I just know it.
Author note:
Aww I hope this chapter was okay. OMG AND TWO UPDATES IN TWO DAYS. The next chapter is lit asf, I already have it half written so there is a slight chance of another update tomorrow.
This chapter is so quickly written, and there are probs so many mistakes but roll with it guys.
Keep commenting and voting, xx
edited