Change For Me

28. hiking

~~~~

A piercing chill blows past us. "She's kidding, right?" Karly stuffs her hands in her pockets.

After a fulfilling lunch of hamburgers and juice, Gladis briefly explained to us the itinerary for the upcoming days. Then, Ms. Horsely and Mrs. Pearce advised us to prepare for the hike.

I decided last minute to put an extra layer of leggings under my sweatpants. I had a feeling it's necessary considering we'll be outside for a long period of time. It's a hike after all.

Currently, my cabin is waiting outside for the boys. We eventually hear them from their cabin. They're fooling around as they make their way to us.

"I don't think we're actually going there." Eva looks into the distance, focusing on the trail that leads up to our destination.

"Is it possible?" Lisa furrows her brows.

Taron shrugs, "I don't know. We'll see."

"Is everybody ready?" Gladis pops out of no where. She seems very cozy with her matching beanie, mittens, and scarf. They're all color coordinated in purple. "Let's begin!" She shouts excitedly.

"Nice jacket," I suddenly hear Jae, who catches up to me. "We're matching," he smiles. 

"Mhm," I look in between our jackets and in fact, we are matching.

"I didn't know you were copying me today." Jae says, filling the awkward silence.

"The last time I checked, I had this jacket first." I squint my eyes at our challenge because we get closer to the—

"We're seriously not..." he looks at me then ahead of us.

"Maybe we're going around it." I only assume and hope we're right. We reluctantly follow the group. I stop in my tracks as I notice Jae not moving forward, "what?"

"I fucking wore these shoes because I thought we're going hiking." He whines, taking careful steps up the field.

"She did say to wear winter boots." I tell him.

"Yeah, but I thought we're following the trail not the cow shi..." His sentence drifts off into a quiet whisper when Mr. Wilson passes by us.

"Thats a you problem." I adjust my beanie from the wind.

"You don't have to be so rude about it." Jae glares at me. For a moment, I believed my comment was a little too critical until he nudges me on the shoulder jokingly.

"Shithead, I'm going to get you back!" Roman runs through the group with Eric holding a snowball behind him.

"Boys, put that snow down." Mr. Wilson scolds them, making me and Jae laugh at them.

"Are you ready for an adventure?!" Gladis yells from the front as she leads the group. Only a few students reply with the same amount of enthusiasm while the rest disagree in silence.

"She wasn't kidding." Karly shakes her head, looking up at the peaks.

"I'm so lucky for wearing my warmer jacket." Nonetheless, she wraps her arms around herself for more warmth.

I'm starting to worry about Gladis' idea of 'hiking'  because it's completely different than mine. I stare at the mountain she begins to climb. Eager students follow, singing chants and radio music like Watermelon Sugar. Whereas myself, and many others, cautiously try and keep with them.

We walk through trees, bushes surrounding the trails, and piles of snow that grow heavier the higher we climb. I start to feel anxious when students slip on their way up, grabbing anything to support them.