A Twisted Kind of Love

Six

TODAY, OUR GRADE IS GOING to the Delaware Bay, to learn marine biology for our AP class.

It's morning, which means the sky is still blue and the auditorium seats are filled up with high-schoolers waiting for the buses to arrive.

I arrive late, so I stand in the back of the auditorium and hope nobody looks back and sees me by myself.

It's not that I hate being by myself, which I don't, but it would be nice to have somebody to talk to.

Our principal, Mr. Kingsley comes on stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the buses have arrived. I would like to remind all of you-"

He never gets to finish, because all-and I mean EVERY SINGLE ONE-of the students push and trip and scramble last each other to not get the bathroom seats.

Except, well, me.

After I realize everybody is gone, I also realize I'm going to be the idiot sitting in the bathroom seat.

But I had it coming.

When I reach the first bus, I make my way through the crowd to find a seat.

I have two options:

1. I can sit next to Jaxon and embarrass him, or

2. I can sit in the bathroom seat next to Ashley Reinhard, also known as Farty.

I chose the obvious one.

"Hey, Ashley," I say.

She looks at me disgustedly and then walks away to find a different seat.

Great. Even Ashley Reinhard won't talk to me.

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The bay is long, and muddy. Nothing like how the pictures had described it as.

Every time I try to take a step, my foot gets stuck in mud. I'm pretty sure I've fallen at least three times.

Everybody who is walking alongside me has some amount of mud on their clothes, hair and shoes. It depends on how clumsy they really are.

And the air is so humid, you can almost see the little water vapor droplets.

So imagine: groups of sweaty people tumbling through muddy grounds next to a beach?

Not a pretty sight, believe me.

"Willow, catch up please!" One of my teachers says. I try to run through the mud, but I end up falling flat on my face with a mud stain right between my eyes.

Great.

I give up.

"We're at the park now," Mr. Kingley (for short) tells all of us, with chocolate brown glops covering his big belly and awkwardly shaved beard. "Take a seat in any of the benches, but make sure you're with your groups and chaperones."

Everybody scrambles for a seat except for me.

I follow the teachers and sit down next to Mr. Kingley.

"Uh-uh," he whispers to me, "Go sit with your friends."

I don't really have any friends, but I get up to go sit in a table with an empty spot.

"Now, boys and girls, what's going to happen next is, we're going to start walking towards the other side of the beach, where you will collect remains of past horseshoe crab shells and bodies. Remember, if you see any guts at all, leave them there."