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“Umm, yeah, I know a lot of ACDC.”

“Why don’t we sing one? How about Thunderstruck?”

“Really, Bower?” West asks with a raised eyebrow.

“What? It’s perfect!”

“I don’t think she—”

“No, it’s fine, we can sing that one,” she whispers, pulling back to give me a small smile.

I start us off, and we all try to sing together. It’s terrible. It’s clearly not a good karaoke song, and even worse without music. But it has its desired effect. Zee starts chuckling whenever a part sounds particularly bad or we try to sing different parts at the same time.

And when the next boom of thunder crashes above us, she only freezes for a few seconds before she continues singing.

And that’s how we spend the next two hours; singing poor renditions of all the ACDC songs we can think of. By the end, our throats are a little hoarse, but since Zee didn’t slip back into any panic attacks, it was well worth it.

Although the storm’s stopped, the rain hasn’t, but some things can’t wait. So we decide now is as good a time as any to take a bathroom break and gather some more fruit and water.

We go off in pairs, West refusing to let Zee go with anyone but him, so King and I collect the fruit together, going as fast as we can.

By the time we make it back to the hut, we’re drenched, but I’m pleased to see West and Zee have already made it here and she’s back in her dry clothes, having gone out in her island outfit.

Instead of playing a game, we take turns telling her stories about our past until we all drift off to sleep.

We were stuck in that damn hut through three days of rain. But as we wake up on the fourth morning, with the sound of birds chirping, I jump up and race to open the treehouse door.

I take a deep breath, the scent of damp earth still lingering. The sun hasn’t reached my face yet, but I can feel its presence above, warm and steady, with no sign of rain in the air.

“Fucking finally!” I stretch my arms over my head and yawn, then bend side to side to stretch out my body.

“It stopped?” Zee asks, scrambling out after me and turning in a circle as she surveys the jungle.

“Looks like it.”

“We should go check the beach first,” West says as he and King exit the hut to join us. “All of us,” he says, eyeing Zee as if he doesn’t quite trust her not to go running off somewhere again.

“Okay, I’m gonna get changed first,” she says, running back inside to put on her island wear.

The rest of us follow and get our boots on and as the four of us exit the hut, Zee laughs as she yells, “Let’s go!” and before any of us can stop her, she leaps off the skywalk.

“Zee!” We all scream, trying and failing to reach for her. All we can do is watch as her hands grab onto a vine, then she wraps her body around it as she swings through the clearing.

My heart pounds wildly. I press a hand to my chest as if I can keep it from breaking free.

“Fuck, that girl is gonna give me a heart attack!” I exclaim as West stomps down the ladder angrily.

“Me, too,” King says, climbing down next.

I can hear West and Zee arguing below, and I shake my head as I join them.

“I’ve been doing it for years, I can’t just stop!” Zee says, like asking her not to leap from the skywalk is the craziest thing she’s ever heard.

“Zee, sweetheart. You scared us,” King explains, always the voice of reason.

That gives her pause. She glances around at each of our faces before her shoulders slump in defeat. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you worry. I’ll try not to do it… when you’re watching,” she says with a bite of her lip.

“I’d rather you didn’t do itat all,” West grumbles down at her. He looks like he doesn’t know what to do with her right now.