MY SOUL TO KEEP - YELLOWJACKETS

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN — EXPLANATIONS

Isabelle touched Van's arm to get her attention as they walked through the dense forest. "Hey, do you want this?" she asked, holding up the animal bone for the redhead to see. "I'm scared I'm gonna lose it."

     Van looked at her skeptically. "Didn't Lottie give that to you, you know, for you?"

     "Yeah, but—"

     "I thought you loved getting gifts," the Palmer girl interrupted, smiling cheekily, almost like she caught Isabelle doing something wrong. "I seem to remember you acting like that bracelet Melissa gave you last week was a gift from God himself."

     Isabelle glanced at her wrist, touching the bracelet Melissa had made for her. She looked back at the Clark girl and smiled at her laughing with Akilah, Mari, and, surprisingly, Misty. "Yeah..."

     "Oh, damn," Van chuckled, glancing at Taissa with a knowing look, then grinning at Isabelle when she looked at her confused. "I knew you liked her, but you like, like her."

     The sophomore rolled her eyes as a blush formed on her cheeks. "Oh, my God. You sound like a middle schooler." She pushed the animal bone into Van's hand, forcing her to take it. "Do you want this or not?"

     "Lottie gave it to you," the Palmer girl repeated as she glanced at the animal bone. "Don't you think she'll be pissed you gave it to someone else?"

     Isabelle sighed through her nose and scratched her neck. "Yeah, you're right. Can you at least make it into a necklace so I won't lose it?"

     "I can do that." The Palmer girl examined the bone to see how and where she could make it into a necklace. Isabelle slowed her pace and quickly found her way beside Melissa, who was telling Misty, Akilah, and Mari a story about why one of her teachers quit in the middle of class.

     The Clark girl glanced at her, smiling and effortlessly adding Isabelle to the conversation. "Wait, didn't you have her as a teacher?" she wondered and chuckled when Isabelle nodded. "See? We all hated Mrs. Mitchell. I just happened to be in the class that made her quit." 

     "She wasn't so bad," Misty said in defense of the teacher. "She liked me." 

     "She liked pushovers. It's why she was married to one... and obviously liked you," Melissa joked, grinning when Isabelle, Mari, and Akilah chuckled. Misty, on the other hand, clearly didn't like being called a pushover. She frowned at the joke and quickly walked away from the four girls, ignoring Mari when she snorted out a laugh at the Quigley girl. Isabelle immediately stopped laughing, feeling bad about it, yet didn't move to apologize on Melissa's behalf of console the team's equipment manager. She watched from the sideline as Misty crossed her arms and stared at the ground. 

🂽

After hours of walking, the sun had set, and the group set up camp for the night. Isabelle, too tired to even care how obvious she was being, was lying her head on Melissa's shoulder as they listened to Van's retelling of a movie she liked called While You Were Sleeping.

     "So, get this, after Bill Pullman falls in love with Sandra, his fucking brother wakes up. It's a whole-ass mess. I mean, this dude actually thinks that Sandy is his fiancée, but she's not, so just—" The story was abruptly interrupted by wolves howling in the distance, and the group went silent.