A Week Away: Part III

 

A High School Trip! What could go wrong? Are things with these teens going to cool down or heat up at the local hot springs? Was it mentioned there's exactly one chaperone!?

PART III - GETTING HOT AT THE HOT SPRINGS

They arrive at Three Lakes a few hours after lunch and check into a small motel called Hunter's Bedrock Inn. Caleb and Angelo claim the single beds in the family suite the boys are to all share. He introduces himself since Angelo had been asleep virtually the entire bus ride.

Lai doesn't care where she sleeps, she just puts her luggage in the room, changes into her swimsuit and exits, eager to get to the hot spring. It's what she's looking forward to the most and lucky for her it's first on their itinerary of activities!

Caleb is waiting as well, in front of the entrance to the small check in area. Ryder and Alex took longer to get off the bus, waiting for Alice to leave. Speaking of Alice, they can all hear her complaining about something nearby. Typical.

"Hey, Caleb! Ready to soak in some hot springs? I sure am!" Lai greets him with her pinkies and thumbs out, giving them little wiggles of joy.

"I am totally ready to soak in some hot springs!" Caleb agrees and beats his fists over his chest with a broad smile before eyeing Lai, "By the way, this is the correct local gesture for Three Lakes. You were greeting me in traditional Twikkise."

"I know, I was testing you," she laughs and then mirrors the gesture, throwing her fist out with an enthusiastic shout, "I learned it when my family vacationed here in the fourth grade."

They hear Alice's complaining strengthen in volume. So much so, Angelo is curiously watching.

Alice, who doesn't mind attention, didn't appreciate being watched by others so took her complaints inside the room, where April is unfortunately the one trapped with her, listening.

"I am not sleeping in the double bed. I'm the only one from the Academy in this room so I get the single!" she says and shoves her purse on the bed as a form of ownership over it.

April has neither the patience nor energy to argue with Alice Calhoun about bed dibs or her privilege, so she just turns around and goes about her business of unpacking and getting changed.

"I think I twisted my neck weird on the bus," Ryder falls next to Alex on the double bed they plan to share. He fingers the sore muscle and then feels Alex's hand slide behind him in a gesture of comfort.

"The hot spring will probably help with that."

"I guess we'd better get changed for it then," Ryder stands abruptly, putting more strain on his neck unintentionally.  

Alex leans back with a grin and looks over his friend, "It's too bad we don't have more time 'till we have to go because I could help with that too."

It's true, and it's too bad because the room is empty but they only have five minutes until the bus leaves for the hot spring.

As soon as they are out the motel room's door they run into Alice.

"Hey Ryder," she smiles, then it pulls back into something of an inconvenienced frown, "Hi Alex."

Alex at first, thought his sister's attempts to flirt with Ryder were amusing but it's worn out it's entertainment. He finds himself more annoyed at her presence now.

"What are you doing out here? Stalking Ryder?"

"No, just making sure you two don't miss the bus, it's basically time to leave," she states.

He knows she is just making that her excuse to be near them like some third wheel. Well, they are not a tricycle!

He forces out a fake smile between his teeth, "How very KIND of you to check on us, but we are on our way. Now, shoo."

Fortunately for Alice, she and Ryder beat Alex out into the hot spring. Alice starts up her usual method of flirting, by talking about her interests and then asking Ryder if he likes any of them to find some common ground. Ryder can't help but to wonder what is taking Alex so long to undress and get out there with them?

Noire opts to stay inside the small entrance lodge, where there's a chess table to keep visitors occupied if they shouldn't want to enter the hot spring.

"You do know I've been playing since I was four years old and won the Juniors Chess Championship when I was in Kindergarten, yes?"

"No. Fuck," Angelo debates whether he should just forfeit before he has the chance to move a piece. He definitely just dabbles.

"Hey Princess, pop pop pop," Alex laughs at his own words, pantomiming a few punches toward Colleen on his way to the changing room, "Are you afraid to go out into the spring where actual people are?"

Colleen whirls around and looks a whole lot different than her usual meek or pouty self when he takes to teasing her.

She curls her fist and Alex, at first, thinks she is just mirroring his gesture but that face and her fists tell a different story. This is more than a gesture. This is a stand!

"LEAVE. ME. ALONE!"

Before he can dodge, her knuckles come down and collide with his lip. He feels a tremendous pain.

"Owh, Cofleen! Whalt da Fulk?" he winces, covering his mouth, feeling blood fill it, and tasting copper.

She has a look of the same shock for a moment, like she is about to apologize or beg for forgiveness but then...

...her face melts into a glower and she growls, "I told you, Alexander, NOT to start with me this trip."

She continues, "You just had to fuck around with me. Well, now you've found out," he drops his hand, revealing the wash of blood down his chin, utterly shocked at the fact she's even swearing. He's never seen her like this before.

"Oh, brrrr!" Lai rubs her shoulders as she steps out of the changing room. The cold air bites. Caleb, surprisingly, is waiting for her. She wonders why he isn't already in the spring!? He must be freezing!

She lets out a small yelp of surprise though, when he doesn't say anything–just steps forward and wraps his arms around her and squeezes rather tightly.

"Caleb! What are...what are you doing?" she asks. They've hugged several times over their lives, in fact, Caleb gives excellent hugs, but the lack of regular clothing, and not being in the water...it's not the same. She doesn't even know why he's hugging her right now. She doesn't hate it.

"...Keeping you warm?" he answers, his voice a bit unsure.

She pulls back slightly to look him in the eye, "Well, that's what the hot spring is for, friend."

His eyes regard her with a sort of disappointed realization but she can't understand why. Doesn't he want to hang out in the hot spring with her and not in this cold air?

"COLLEEN COSGROVE!" the Principal chides, having seen Alex rush past with a bloody mouth, but no events leading up to why it had happened. "Assaulting a student? You are the Minister of Education's daughter, I would have thought better of you!"

"Anyway..." Lai says as Caleb releases her and the cold air begins to bite once more; she puts a hand on his bare shoulder, "Let's get into that spring before we freeze to death out here!"

She gets goosebumps up her arms, not sure if it's the chilly breath of the air or realizing how incredibly warm his embrace had been. The skin-to-skin contact was something new, and so was his chest hair which she hadn't noticed before. It definitely wasn't there last summer when they were hanging out at his pool.

"Sure, of course. Sorry for, uh...grabbing you like that," he mumbles.

"It's okay..." Lai says but they suddenly find themselves jumping nearly out of their skins and away from their close proximity.

"COSGROVE!"

His eyes widen in surprise and they see the Principal approach them looking frustrated and over this trip already. Punch-happy teens, co-eds at the edge of the woods embracing, it's already too much to handle!

He gives her a sheepish look but it transforms to concern when she states, "You need to talk to your sister, she's completely shut down and won't respond!"

She makes Colleen sound like a malfunctioning computer.

"Why? What happened?"

"She punched a boy for no reason!"

Caleb scoffs doubtfully. Colleen has always been an easy target for teasing being shy and quiet. However, Colleen knows violence isn't the answer. He gives Lai an apologetic look because he now has to go deal with his sister. "Meet you at the spring in a few, save me a seat!"

Well, the Principal wasn't completely wrong. When Caleb enters the small lodge he finds his sister standing in the middle of the room and giving the wall a blank stare, almost as if she's in shock.

"Leenie?" he approaches cautiously, "What happened?"

"I just don't understand why people are so mean!" she snaps out of her stare and her face crumples into devastation, tears well up behind her glasses, "All I wanted to do was have a nice trip and now I can't participate in any of the activities until I apologize."

"To whom? Which one did you punch?"

"Alexander Calhoun," Colleen sniffles and wipes her nose with the sleeve of her jacket, "But I'm NOT SORRY–he's had that coming for years."

"Colleen," Caleb sighs, he feels for her, he really does but she has to learn to handle social situations better, "You need to not be so sensitive and ignore people when they tease you. He's only doing it because you react. My advice is just to apologize and get it over with if you want to have your nice trip, otherwise, you are just going to be sitting in your room the whole time."

With that, Caleb leaves and Colleen has never felt worse. She hates stupid Alexander Calhoun, Angelo Sanchez, Noire Denholm, and all the people she's never wronged in her life yet they seem to think she deserves to be treated this way. She just wants a hot cocoa and a book to read.

"Heeeey took you long enough," Ryder drawls as he feels the waves of the spring water push against him when Alex enters. He let Alice talk herself into a state of Zen so now they are just enjoying the peace and tranquility of the hot spring together.

Alex doesn't respond, just slumps onto the rock next to him. The unusual silence causes Ryder to open his eyes and check out whats up, "Woah! Dude, what happened to your face?"

"It suits you," Alice says without even opening her eyes.

More abnormal is Alex's lack of a retort to his sister's snide remark.

"Um, I fell and hit my face in the changing room," Alex mumbles, deciding not to say what really happened because it's embarrassing and he doesn't want anyone to be mad at Colleen. Not they would believe she packed a punch that hard.

He lets his hand rest, slightly submerged in the hot water near Ryder's hand. Hoping for any show of comfort but Ryder just sets back and doesn't make any sort of move. In fact, it's always Alex making the moves and the flirts, and hidden smiles toward Ryder.

Maybe Alex has made a mistake, thinking Ryder would ever seriously like him back like that.

Colleen has been parked in the chair for a while before she senses movement.

She slowly peeks out and sees Noire poke and prod the logs in the lodge fireplace before lighting it. She wonders where Noire even got a lighter or if she just carries one on her all the time?

"People are overrated," Noire states in a monotone voice, threaded with a Rusklavan accent.

"They only disappoint you."

Colleen wonders why Noire is even talking to her when she's made it clear she assumes Colleen is just so above her and looks down on her. But maybe Noire sees something lonely in Colleen and can relate.

She clears her throat and stops blubbering, "And who disappointed you?"

"My brother," Noire says after a moment of hesitation, before setting back onto the nearby coffee table to watch the flames rise.

Colleen feels a bit disappointed Caleb didn't sympathize with her as he usually tends to do. She feels like he's given her the brush off–likely because Lai is nearby and he wants to hang out with her.

"Mine too," she says.

"Rrrrrryder," Alice says, rolling her 'R's', coming out of her zen. She then makes a dissatisfied sound as she looks at her wrinkled fingertips, "Come help me find a towel. We're starting to prune. Prolonged hot spring sitting is bad for the skin."

Ryder looks apprehensive. He hates the cold, and when he gets out he knows he's going to be cold.

"Come on before you turn into a ryaisin!" she opens her eyes wide with a big smile. She giggles at her own attempt to mix his name with 'raisin.' Ryder sighs, takes a look at Alex, who has been sitting quietly, with his eyes closed for a while, and decides to join her, just so she stops whining.

The cold sucks.

They make it as far as one of the changing booths before Alice states the obvious, "It's SO cold! Oh Plumbobs, can you keep me warm until we find towels?"

"No," Ryder states bluntly, which makes Alice turn her head and pout.

"Why don't you like me? Am I not...not pretty enough? Do I smell? Am I just dumb?"

Ryder looks taken aback. Of course, he knows Alice has been trying to get his attention and has been ever since she hit puberty. He feels just a bit bad for leaving her out of all his and Alex's games as kids, she was always ready and willing to try and tag along and prove she could keep up. Her green doe-eyes are full of hurt and rejection and aren't helping either as she looks at him.

"You're not dumb, Alice. You don't smell, and to be honest you are stunningly gorgeous but..." he tugs on her wrist to try and assure her he is being sincere, "You just aren't your brother..."

She reverses force and suddenly has captured ahold of his wrist, pulls him close, and plants a kiss on his jaw, only because he's tilted his head to avoid their lips connecting.

His instinct is to pull away but she holds tighter, "You're right, I'm not Alex," she says, "Because Alex won't want to have anything to do with you anymore."

It is spoken as a fact before she kisses him on the cheek and it makes Ryder feel colder than the air that now surrounds him.  He hates the cold.

He doesn't understand what she means until he glances up....and sees what it all must look like to Alex.

There's a flash of anger, of betrayal, of disgust in his eyes.

Then, a sad resignation.

Alex turns and leaves without saying anything.

Caleb finds Lai in the furthest spring, the sensation of hot water and cold air makes for a thrilling feeling as he steps in to sit beside her. She is sitting peacefully in the calm water with her eyes closed. He almost doesn't want to disturb her.

So he tries to follow her lead. 

It hurts, knowing the most amazing girl he's ever met will be with someone other than him in the future. There's just no plausible way that Laika Kapitha will manage to stay single throughout high school. He thought maybe he could confess to her on this trip how much she meant to him. But even after he hugged her, she still called him 'friend'. 

He will do his best to be her friend like he always had, and always will.

She lets out a content sigh in a breath that mixes with the steam and opens her eyes, "You're quiet. What's on your mind? Did you talk to your sister?"

"Yeah, someone was teasing her again," Caleb answers.

"How awful! Poor Leenie. It must be tough for her at school, especially at the Academy where everyone is very posh and cliquey," Lai furrows her brow in concern. She gets along well enough with Colleen, but that's because she and Colleen have a rapport because of Lai and Caleb's friendship.

"Really? Is that how you public school students view us? Am I posh and cliquey?" Caleb picks up on that shade and smiles with intrigue, relaxing his hands behind his head.

"Well, you don't count."

"Don't I? Look who my father is. Look who my family is, Lai–I'm...kind of a big deal at the Academy."

She gives him a long look, not seeming to like the amount of arrogance he's wearing at the moment.

"Nope, you're just Caleb," she refuses to see. Literally. She closes her eyes and refuses to see him as anything other than a friend.

"Alice, what the Hells is your problem?" Ryder shoves her away rather harshly. He makes a move to follow Alex but Alice pokes her finger into his chest and stops him.

"Alex was my problem, but now he's taken care of. I just want to date you, Ryder. Just give me that chance, give me one date and I'll show you I'm better than you ever dreamed Alex to be. If it doesn't work out, I'll leave you alone."

"I don't even like you like that, Alice!"

Alice's voice takes on a very different, desperately assured, tone, "But, you will."

The sauna is empty, but cozy, wrapped with steam. Alex steps in, he needs a place to think. To have some solace while his mind betrays him, flashing him images of his sister kissing the guy he likes. Or liked. No, he still likes Ryder but it's too bad Ryder doesn't feel as strongly.

He jumps out of his thoughts as the door opens and Angelo steps in. Alex missed him at the spring, but remembered him sitting down to play chess earlier with that one public school emo girl.

"Hey," Angelo greets him.

"Hey dude," Alex returns it, sort of covering his face while brushing sweat off his brow. Angelo is one of his friends he often sees at the skate park. They just haven't had a chance to catch up since Angelo had been sleeping half the day.

"Oof, I know that face," Angelo notes, seeing Alex's split lip. "Old 'knuckles' finally caught up to you, too?"

There's no point in denying it to Angelo. He got the same treatment years ago. For some reason, Alex never thought that Colleen would do the same to him.

"Yeah...damn, I didn't think it would hurt so much though," he muses.

"Oh yeah, it'll smart for days. I actually got my lip pierced to hide the scar," Angelo admits. That was something Alex never knew! 

"Damn. I feel bad though. I didn't mean to push her that far and now I think she's banned from doing any of the activities."

"My advice," Angelo states, then takes a moment to put more water on the hot rocks which release a hissing sound and a cloud of more steam, "Is to apologize to her and tell the Principal the truth."

Alex considers but knows he will get into trouble too if he admits he provoked her. He thinks about it.

"Hey! Alex totally tried to explain his busted lip was from a 'fall' but I could tell right away it was a royal beat down. Which one of you did it?" April finds the two other girls by the fire. She was getting pruned too so left the spring to come in where it was warm.

"Me," Colleen admits meekly.

"Wow! Where'd you learn to fight? No offense, but you seem like you couldn't lift two baskets of eggs on the farm," April asks, in slight awe. She should know because she has to collect eggs daily, they are h e a v y.

For some reason that makes Colleen half-smile. Maybe it was the reference. There was a reason Alex called her 'princess', she didn't look strong enough to take anyone down.

The girls decide to get some food together since it's well past lunch and all they had were snacks on the bus.  Colleen tells of her kickboxing classes, April talks of the farm life, and Noire doesn't say much but does mention how her chess game went right before the food gets placed in front of them.

And it's a fact that all three are less lonelier than before they arrived.

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