“You’re mean.” Blaze squeezed her tight, holding on as she tried to maneuver her way out of the hammock. His Aquafresh toothpaste breath tickled her nose. She loved the scent on him. She asked her mom to buy the same toothpaste when they returned home last summer. It reminded her of Blaze and the good times they had on the lake.
She smiled brightly.
“What?” Blaze asked, eyes narrowing. He was wise to wonder if she was up to something. She dug her fingers into his ribs. He grunted and squirmed, squeezing into a ball, fending her off with his hands. “Stop!”
Olivia laughed and rolled off the hammock. The sun had popped through the trees and she was already feeling warm. She pulled off the sweatshirt, dropping it on Blaze’s face, and straightened the large shirt Mr. Whitman had loaned her.
“Get over here, kids,” Mr. Whitman ordered, lake water lapping the heels of his boots.
Blaze groaned and rolled from the hammock. The four of them circled his dad like hatchlings waiting to be fed. She loved how engaged the Whitmans were with their kids, so unlike her parents, who never seemed to have time to interact with them. Except her dad. He spent time with her, usually in his office while he worked. He’d let her sit at his desk and do her homework while he paced the room, making calls.
“Only two rules for today,” Mr. Whitman began, showing them two fingers. “Listen and follow orders. You’ll learn, we’ll have fun, and we’ll be back before lunch.”
“Yes.” Lucas pumped his arm. “Dibs on the blue kayak.”
“You had it yesterday,” Tyler whined.
“Because I’m older, and you’re a baby.” He knocked Tyler’s shoulder.
“Am not.” Tyler knocked him back. He was a year younger than Lucas but just as tall.
Mr. Whitman cleared his throat. “Listen up, kids. I left five empty water bottles lying around. Go find them.”
It was a race. They took off in four directions. Blaze found a plastic bottle first. Olivia located one in the bushes. They all met back at the shore.
“Everyone have their pocketknives on them?” Mr. Whitman had given them the knives at dinner last night with explicit instructions on how to use them. Olivia pulled hers from her shorts pocket. They showed him their knives. “Good. We’re going to cut the bottles here and make cups.” His finger marked a spot on the bottle. “Watch me first.” He cut off the base, about a third of the way up the bottle. “See? You try.”
Tyler needed help. Lucas took a while, but he finally made a jagged cut. Olivia and Blaze finished at the same time and showed Mr. Whitman their cups.
“What are we doing with these?” Olivia asked.
“Who knows what a compass is?”
Olivia’s hand shot up. “It’s a dial used for navigation and direction,” she answered. She remembered the definition from her guide.
“And what are those directions?”
“North, south, east, west.” Blaze yawned. Olivia jabbed him in the stomach midyawn and he gasped. Lightning quick, he snatched her finger and dragged it up to his nostril as if he were going to pick his nose with her finger.
“Ew.” She snatched her hand away and he laughed.
“Kids, over here,” Mr. Whitman hollered. “Pay attention. Watch this.” He filled his plastic cup with lake water and dropped in a bay leaf he’d pulled from his pocket. “Your turn.”
They filled their cups and he gave them each a leaf.
“Now for the fun part.” He gave them each a sewing needle. “Rub one end of the needle up and down on your shirt one hundred times.”
“Whaaat?” Lucas frowned at his needle.
“One hundred times. Let’s count out loud.”
After a round of funny looks, they did. They rubbed and counted.
“Drop the needle on the midvein of your leaf.” He demonstrated, then waited for them to do the same. “What do you notice?”
“My leaf floats,” Tyler said.
“They all do, dork.” Blaze rolled his eyes with a snort.
“True. What else?”
Olivia frowned and looked at everyone’s cups of dirty water. Their leaves pointed in the same direction. She recalled something she’d read in her survival guide and gasped. They’d just magnetized their needles. “They’re pointing north.”
“Exactly.” Mr. Whitman high-fived Olivia and she beamed.
“Smarty.” Blaze elbowed her.
Olivia smiled, her insides warming. She looked shyly at her floating leaf. It looked like a canoe and she imagined she and Blaze rowing across the lake this afternoon.
“If this end of the leaf is north and this south, in which direction is the cabin?”
“West,” Lucas said.
“Close. Blaze?”
“Southwest.”
“Right, son. Remember that, kids. If you’re hiking the trails across the street like we’re doing and get lost, make a compass. Walk southwest and you’re bound to reach the cabin, or close to it. Save your needle, leaf, and cup, but dump out the water. Let’s go hike.”
Lucas smacked the base of Tyler’s cup. The cup flew from Tyler’s hand and water splashed his face.
“Lucas,” Tyler yelled. He searched the ground. “I can’t find my needle,” he whined.
“Don’t be a baby. Take mine. I don’t want it.”
Tyler pocketed Lucas’s needle and leaf.
“You’re going to need those later today, Luc.”
He blew his lips, making a raspberry noise, and leaned on Olivia’s shoulder. “Nah, I’ll just follow you.”
“Love you, Luc, but you’re on your own.” She pushed him off. After reading her survival guide, she couldn’t wait to get started.
They followed Mr. Whitman past the cabin, with Mrs. Whitman and Lily waving from the deck and across the street. He took them on a narrow, overgrown trail. Every few hundred yards he instructed them to stack rocks, explaining they’d use them as guides on their way back. Mr. Whitman would stack his rocks, then start walking. Olivia quickly stacked hers before she’d lose sight of him, then take off after him. Once, before she could run off, she saw Lucas swing a stick like a baseball bat. He knocked over Mr. Whitman’s rock pile.
“Knock it off, moron.” Blaze yanked the stick from Lucas and threatened to punch him. Lucas ducked and ran ahead, chasing after Tyler and Mr. Whitman. Blaze tossed the stick aside. “I know this forest better than my asshole. Let’s ditch them and take the canoe out.”
Olivia shook her head. “Your dad will ground us for a week.” Exactly what Mr. Whitman threatened when he announced their expedition and explained what would happen if they didn’t cooperate. She didn’t want to be stuck on the deck while everyone else played in the lake. Blaze impatiently tolerated his dad’s adventures, but Olivia secretly loved them. Her parents never took time to interact with them on the level Mr. Whitman did. His activities were never dull in her mind.
Olivia ran ahead. Blaze groaned and jogged after her.
After twenty minutes of hiking, they reached a meadow with a creek. Mr. Whitman shared his trail mix and showed them how to filter the creek water so they could drink it. Using their pocketknives, they cut off a strip of material from their shirts. They placed one end of the shirt in the cup with dirty water elevated on a stone and the other end at the bottom of an empty cup.