Page 9

Chapter Nine

AVA

I supposed none of us were surprised that Norman was late to the gate. I knew he had a great deal of hesitation about “living in an insect-infested jungle” (his exact words). I worried that he wasn’t going to show at all until Robyn elbowed me. “There he is.”

Robyn, Ian and I had found three seats together while we waited to board. Evan and Milo sat a few seats away sharing a pair of earbuds and watching a video. Pam was on her own, sitting at one of the charging stations, plunking away on her keyboard. She glanced up only to look at Jack. The professor had parked himself far away from the rest of us. He, too, had earbuds in and was listening to something. I couldn’t imagine him listening to music, so I figured it was one of those strident, irritating podcasts where the podcaster had a severe, unfounded opinion about controversial stuff.

Norman was not exactly the picture of fitness, especially considering he was at an age where fitness sort of came naturally. He was struggling with the pack on his shoulders as he stared down at his boarding pass. Robyn and I sucked in a gasp as he nearly collided with one of those small electric cars that transported people from one gate to another. The driver beeped and nearly sent Norm falling onto his back. I snickered, immediately visualizing him lying there on his pack, his arms and legs flailing as he tried to right himself.

Robyn read my thoughts. “You were thinking the whole ‘turtle scenario,’ too.”

We both laughed quietly into our hands.

Norm finally reached us. He dropped his pack to the floor with a huge sigh. There was an odd, pungent fragrance floating around him. It took me a second to recognize it. “Norman, are you wearing fly spray? Like the kind they use on horses?”

“I heard it was the best repellant for most insects. The mosquito sprays all had terrible reviews, but I saw this super potent fly spray for horses and decided that was the best route. I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not coming home with malaria.” He sat down confidently next to us as if he’d just put us all in our place. He was already catching the nasal attention of everyone around us. Robyn immediately covered her nose and mouth. He’d sprayed it on so thick we could taste it.

“First of all, the area we’re traveling to in Costa Rica is more prone to dengue fever than malaria, and secondly, we’ve got a six-hour flight ahead of us. Norm, I’m sorry, you can’t expect people around you to breathe in that pesticide the whole flight. Go into the bathroom and see if you can wash some off. They might not even let you on the plane. And remember, a horse weighs 1,500 pounds. You probably weigh 150. That is some potent poison you sprayed on yourself. Go now. We board soon.”

Norm huffed as he got up. He left a terrible, toxic cloud behind him as he stomped across to the restroom.

“I never say it out loud, but it goes through my head a lot,” Ian said. “He’s a piece of work. Truly. How does he get through each day?”

Ten minutes later, Norman came out of the restroom holding his sweatshirt and wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt. His arms were red from scrubbing. He stopped in front of me. I could still smell the spray, but it was at a much more tolerable level. “Better?”

“A bit. I have mosquito spray for when we get to camp. You cannot use that horse spray again on this trip.” I couldn’t believe I was having to give that order, but apparently, I’d taken on more than I realized with this adventure. I’d gone on expeditions with students before, but I was rarely in charge of them. It felt like I was a teacher who was about to embark on the field trip from hell. I hoped that was only silly nerves talking and not my intuition.

Some of the harshest odor had mostly worn off by the time we got in line to board. Robyn was standing ahead of us. She’d obviously calculated that if she sat with Milo and Ian, she wouldn’t have to sit next to Norm. Norman had gone to the restroom once more, so he was farther back in line. Evan was, too. It seemed he’d be the one stuck next to Norm, but Evan wasn’t the type to care or complain. He was the one person in the lab who seemed to have the most tolerance for Norm, so I was pleased they’d be sitting together. I, on the other hand, had only one person from our group standing near me. There were two women behind me who obviously planned to sit together and behind them was Pam. She was wearing an earbud and was talking rather loudly on her phone.

“I just hope the accommodations are nice. I mean, if you’re going to force someone to go on a trip, then at least offer a nice room.”

I glanced back in confusion, wondering if I’d overheard another conversation and not Pam’s, but it was definitely Pam talking about nice accommodations. I could only think that she was talking about a future trip—one she was also forced to go on.

She didn’t seem to care that she was nestled in a very tight crowd, one that kept pushing forward like people at a concert, as if that would get them on the plane faster.

“He’s playing hard to get, of course,” Pam continued. “But you know me. I don’t give up on my goals … ever.”

I smiled to myself. It seemed Jack was going to be fending off some of Pam’s goals on this trip.

The line moved quickly. I found myself looking both ways to make sure all my little fledglings got onto the plane. It reminded me of a sixth-grade field trip to the history museum. Our poor teacher, Mrs. Keller, counted us ten times and kept coming up one short. Nicholas Yardley had gone to the bathroom, and his zipper got stuck, so he didn’t want to come out. I was sure Mrs. Keller was going to have a nervous breakdown right there in front of the T-rex skeleton.

The line on the plane didn’t move quickly as people worked their hardest to push carry-ons that were obviously larger than regulation size into the overhead bins. I could still hear Pam behind me, talking embarrassingly loudly. At least she seemed to be saying goodbye.

As usual on a plane with no assigned seats, all the front seats were filled. I could see Ian, Milo and Robyn had already found their seats. My gaze swept along the rows and landed right on a familiar face. Jack was sitting in an aisle seat. The window seat was taken by a rather rotund man, which was, no doubt, the reason for the empty middle seat. Jack smirked at me and then the smirk faded. As I reached his row, he grabbed my hand.

“Take the middle seat, Lo. We can—you know—talk about the expedition.”

It seemed I’d be stuck in a middle seat no matter where I landed. “Fine.” I shoved my pack in the bin but kept my smaller backpack with me for the trip. I always carried snacks and aspirin and anything else I might need for a long flight in the smaller pack.

Jack slid out so I could climb into the middle seat. The man at the window was already snoring with his head against the window. We both settled into our seats. I pushed my pack under the seat in front of me and sat up just in time to clash with Pam’s angry glare. She practically drilled a hole through me as she shuffled past.

I looked over at Jack. He was smiling in relief.

“You jerk. And here I thought we were going to have a scholarly chat.”

“Sorry to make you part of my evil plot, but there’s no way I could have her sitting next to me.”

“Aha. Too much temptation?”

A dry laugh shot from his mouth. He hadn’t taken the time to shave this morning, and there was a layer of dark stubble on his jaw. “Too much annoyance. You’ve got Norman. I’ve got Pam.”

“Why did you ask her along?”

“Believe me, she was a last resort. It just sealed the deal on this trip being the worst thing to happen to me this year.”

“Oh my gosh, do you ever stop whining? You think Norm’s bad? You should hear yourself. ‘This is the worst thing to happen to me all year,’” I said in a baritone voice.

“I don’t sound like that.”

“Uh, yes, yes, you do.”

“Let’s agree to be strangers on this flight. We don’t know each other. We just got stuck sitting in the same row.”

“Sounds good to me.” I stretched up to make sure everyone got seated. Norman and Evan were in the last set of seats, and there was an empty spot between them. I considered for a second moving back there but then remembered that Norm was covered in fly spray.

Twenty minutes later the plane was in the air and heading to Costa Rica. I’d only had time for coffee this morning, so I leaned forward and pulled out my backpack. The sugary smell of pastry wafted out as I unzipped the top. My snoring neighbor immediately woke up.

Layla had packed me two cheese Danish, my favorites. I had Jack’s attention, too. “Are those the same pastries you brought to the meeting?” he asked with a sparkle in his eyes.

“Sure are. My sister makes them fresh … at her bakery.”

I took a bite and closed my eyes to savor the deliciousness. “She’s so talented. The best thing is I get to eat these delicious treats whenever I want.” I made a point of licking the sticky glaze off my fingertip.

“Didn’t get to eat this morning,” he said. “I planned to get a donut at the airport, but the line was too long.”

“What a shame.”

“I see you’ve got two pastries,” he said hopefully.

I looked down at the brown wrapper where the second pastry sat. “Huh, what do you know? I sure do. I guess I should share.”

Jack sat up straighter.

“Hmm, and here I’m sitting between two complete strangers.” I turned to the man at the window. “How do you do? I’m Ava.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Hank.”

“There, now I’m only sitting next to one stranger.”

“C’mon, Lo. You know that was just me talking out of my?—”

“Yes, and you do that a lot.” I picked up the paper with the pastry. “Hank, can I interest you in a fresh cheese Danish?”

“Wow, thanks. Very generous of you.” Hank took the pastry.

Jack slumped down angrily in his seat. “Not going to forget this, Lo,” he muttered.

I licked my finger again. “Hmm, me neither. This might be her best pastry yet.”