Read Class for Free Online Page B

between Nick’s eyes.

    “Yeesh!” Nick gasped through clenched teeth. Tears streamed down his dirt-smudged cheeks. It stung so badly he wanted to kick her.
    Shipley lifted her hand away, but only for a second. The wound was dirty. She had to get it clean. “I’m sorry. I know it hurts,” she murmured, swabbing it determinedly.
    There is probably nothing more painful than rubbing alcohol on an open wound. Nick shivered from head to toe and forced a smile to his face, trying to remain zen. “As long as you’re the one hurting me, I can take it,” he told her through gritted teeth.
    Shipley blushed. She was aware that he was flirting with her, but she had no idea how to respond. She selected a round Band-Aid from the first aid kit and pasted it over the cut. It looked a little silly, but it would have to do.
    Eliza ducked into the tent. “The Cowardly Lion is resting and replenishing his fluids. I moved the fire to a nice, vomit-free spot and put a pan of water on to boil. I just came up with a great invention though: a battery-operated camping microwave. Imagine the millions I could make on that.” She dug around in one of the packs in the tent and then glanced at Shipley and Nick, kneeling only inches away from each other. “You guys done playing doctor?”
    Shipley sat back on her heels. The round Band-Aid wasn’t very professional-looking, but it would be too painful to take it off and put on a new one. “I did my best,” she said apologetically.
    “It feels better, thanks,” Nick told her gratefully, even though he could feel the Band-Aid’s adhesive trying to adhere to the wound itself. It wasn’t a good feeling.
    Eliza could practically see his tail wagging happily through the back of his tunic. “I’m looking for some pepper or maybesome garlic powder or herbs,” she explained, still rummaging. “Something to spice up the mac.”
    “But that’s my bag!” Nick protested.
    Eliza removed a Ziploc bag full of clumpy dried green leaves from Nick’s backpack. She opened the Ziploc and sniffed its pungent contents. “Is this pot?”
    Nick crossed his arms over his chest. He’d wanted to introduce the pot after dinner as a sort of get-to-know-each-other aperitif. “Yeah, it’s pot. I brought it for all of us.”
    Shipley stared at the Ziploc bag. Her brother was sent to boarding school for the first time because of pot. He got kicked out of Brunswick for breaking into the school after hours and stealing pot from another student’s locker. Pot was illegal. It did things to you. She was terrified of it. And she’d always wanted to try it.
    Eliza watched in fascination as her new roommate’s eyes grew very round and took on a silvery blue glow. She looked like Alice in Wonderland falling down the rabbit hole.
    “Can we smoke it now?” Shipley demanded.
    Nick stood up and retrieved the bag of pot from Eliza’s hands. “Come on. I’ve got rolling papers in my pocket.” He led the way out of the tent.
    “Hey, wake up.” Shipley crouched next to Tom’s prone form and whispered into his ear. “Nick has pot!”
    “Just what I need,” Tom mumbled. He sat up anyway, more aroused by the sensation of Shipley whispering in his ear than by the thought of getting high. The fact that he’d managed to puke repeatedly his first day at college was more than a little embarrassing. But pot was known to alleviate nausea and cause short-term memory loss. Maybe it was just the thing. “I want my own joint though. You should hear this guy sneeze,” he told the girls. “Dude’s got freaking TB.”

    They gathered around the campfire, sitting cross-legged as Nick rolled four perfect joints and distributed one to each member of the group. The campsite was in a small clearing a few hundred yards from the riverbank. They’d followed Professor Rosen there on foot from the logging road, fifteen minutes through pathless woods. Tall trees surrounded them in a huddle, offering their silent and unbiased protective