“Fun fact: the migration patterns of birds have been changing due to deforestation and urbanization,” Jack said facetiously.
Then the sound of a bird call came, followed by some shuffling as she shoved the thing into the back pocket of her jeans. I used one eye to see him turn. He turned again. Autumn laughed under her breath.
“Oh, Autumn,” I chastised.
She glared. “Don’t look at me like that. Once, he put all of my individual keys into Jell-O molds. And there was one time he put Vaseline on my doorknob. Oh, and he gave me a s’more that was loaded with toothpaste once.”
I shook my head. “Wow. Are you two twelve?”
“That and we’ve watchedTheParent Trapone too many times.” She smiled shamelessly. “Let’s just say there’s a reason we shut down prank wars.”
That had me losing it. “What even is your life?”
She shrugged as if it made all the sense in the world. Jack put his binoculars back up, and she waited a reasonable amount of time before using the bird call again. More shuffling. She looked completely neutral as she stared out of her binoculars. Then he closed in on us.
“Give it.” He held his hand out and waited. Other campers didn’t seem to notice, looking through their field glasses and chatting among themselves.
“You need binoculars, Jack? You can have mine, and I can share with Autumn,” I tried.
He saw the red string hanging out of her pants and yanked the thing right out of her pocket. She pursed her lips into a smile. “Just for that, you get to go to the front of the class, Miss Gardner.”
I sputtered as he yanked her arm until she stood by him about twenty feet from me. She was barely keeping down her laughter.
“Kuh-caw.” I cupped my hands around my mouth, doing a bad impersonation of a bird.
She snickered, her lips tilted into a smirk. Several people laughed. We werealltwelve. I caught Jack’s eye roll. Apparently, he was above such things.
Then came the subtle sound of wood being attacked by a beak.
Jack jumped and scanned the area. “You hear that everyone? In case you haven’t heard that familiar sound, that’s a sapsucker. Can anyone find it? First to do so gets a piece of candy,” he joked.
It was enough incentive for people to move their binoculars every which direction until I found it on a lone fir out past a copse of trees. I called it out, and Jack confirmed my find after I pointed in the general direction. Everyone else followed.
“I see it.” Janna beamed. “I’ve never seen a woodpecker before.”
Everyone was genuinely excited. I could see why Jack loved his class so much.
He turned his back on me before walking away, and I realized I’d been shorted.
“Hey, what about my candy?” I sulked.
“Candy’s for good children. Pretty sure you have two strikes against you. Make it three for even associating with her.”
“I can’t help that I knew her in high school. Don’t hold this against me.”
Jack flicked his hand in dismissal. “It’s just a Snickers, man. Calm down.”
I was starting to like this dude, but withholding chocolate put him on my shit list.
We hiked and found several unique birds before our time was up. By the time we made it down to camp, it was starting to take a toll on me. As much fun as I was having, I was also exhausted from being up all night and doing yoga this morning. Autumn had been up at the front of the group, but I’d lost her until a “psst” came from behind a tree nearby. She waggled her eyebrows as I looked to see if anyone noticed our disappearance.
I rushed to the tree she was leaning against, which was large enough to hide our bodies. I pressed my mouth to hers, knowing we didn’t have much time and making the best use of it. Autumnwhimpered into my mouth as my hands went to the small of her back, her body arching away from the rough bark without care.
“God, you feel so good.” I moved to her neck and ran my hands up her stomach.
She giggled as I found her sweet spot, a little place above her collarbone that both tickled and unlocked something in her every time.
“Oh my god, Jamie,” she moaned.
