The Changelings Part 13

"Well?"

"Sorry, I've got nothing."

"Let me help you."

I stepped forward and got next to her at the tree. I leaned in to hug it again, this time putting my arms above hers on the trunk, so I was touching the tree and her at the same time. I instantly felt the rush of good vibrations again.

Becky yelped. "Holy s.h.i.+t, Jayne! What the h.e.l.l is that?!"

I shouted, my cheek against the tree again, "A-ha! You feel it now too, don't you?!"

I let go in my excitement and saw Becky's face go from joy to disappointment in a flash.

"Get your a.s.s back on the tree, Jayne, I just lost the mojo."

I jumped back into hugging position, and as soon as I was hugging the tree and touching Becky at the same time again, her face lit up.

"It's like ... it's like ... falling into suns.h.i.+ne on a cool day ... ," she said dreamily.

"I know." I had the biggest grin on my face. "I could hug this tree all d.a.m.n day."

"We need to get the guys in on this," said Becky.

I stepped back away from the tree, severing our connection to it and each other.

Becky's face fell. "What's wrong?" She stood up straight, looking at me questioningly.

"I don't think we should say anything just yet."

"Why?"

I didn't answer her right away, and she got a sad look on her face.

"It's because you don't trust Jared, isn't it?"

I shrugged. "I just want to feel more comfortable with him first, okay? I mean, it's my call, right?"

Becky nodded. "Yeah, it's your call. You're the tree whisperer, not me." She looked up at the tree wistfully. "That was amazing, though. I wish the others could feel what we were feeling. Even just one time would be worth it. I don't think I could ever forget that."

"Yeah, me neither." I got a mischievous look on my face. "Wanna try another one? See if it's just this tree or if it's all the trees?"

Becky jumped up and down excitedly, her smile back in full force. "Yes! Which one?" She looked around eagerly, seeking out a candidate.

"Let's move closer to the camp. Maybe it's just this area that has the special mojo."

"Good idea."

We walked about thirty feet back towards the clearing. We were still out of sight but we could hear the others, their voices a low murmur. "How about this one?" I suggested.

I pointed to a skinnier tree a one that had different bark and leaves too. Our experiment required a change in variables like the age, species and location of the tree. I knew my science lab teacher would be so proud right now with the integrity of my study variables, or whatever the h.e.l.l he always called it.

I went up to the new tree but didn't start hugging right away. I felt like it might be kind of presumptuous of me to just walk up and do that a so I started talking first.

Becky was standing next to me, and I saw her eyebrows go up a little, but she was letting me run the show. She remained quiet, listening patiently.

"Um, h.e.l.lo, Tree. I'm Jayne ... and this is Becky. We wanted to hug you, so here we are. You're ... um ... a really nice looking tree, so that's why we picked you. I mean, all the trees here are nice looking and all ... "

Becky sighed, her patience running thin. "Just hug the tree already, would ya?"

"Fine. Don't rush me." I turned back to the tree. "So I'm going to hug you now, and I hope you give me one of those tree-hugs back."

I reached my hands out and put them on the trunk of the tree. My arms easily went all the way around. I instantly felt the energy coming back to me; this time it was more vibrant, more green, if a color can be used to describe a feeling. I didn't think about cotton candy a I thought about a cool breeze on a hot day, fireworks on the fourth of July, the excitement of being chased by someone who I hoped would catch me. Above all, I felt love. Just plain love. There was a connection that went much deeper than flesh and bone.

"Can I join you now?" asked Becky, smiling at the look of happiness on my face.

"Yep. You're gonna love this."

Becky stepped up quickly, obviously anxious to feel the sensation again. She wrapped her arms around the tree, making sure to touch my arms as well. Her face began to radiate joy as soon as we were linked. "Oh my goodness, this is nice a different, but nice. This is a younger tree, I can tell."

She was right. The feelings were younger somehow. The bigger, older tree had given us something just as wonderful, but more ancient, more mature. It was impossible to describe with words a I couldn't even think about it properly in my head.

"What the h.e.l.l are you guys doing?" Spike's smiling voice penetrated our euphoria. "Are you hugging that tree? What ... did I take a wrong turn somewhere? Am I in Berkeley?"

We broke away from the tree, smiling nervously as if we'd been caught doing something we shouldn't have been doing.

"Yep, just thanking the tree for some toilet paper is all," I said, trying to brush him and his suspicions off with an overly casual tone.

Spike nodded his head in appreciation. "Well, that's just the polite thing to do, isn't it?" He smiled right at me with those d.a.m.n teeth of his and I was glad to feel the familiar sparks warming my insides. This time I didn't see the blood smear image generated by memories of that awful vampire creature thing.

I smiled back, still feeling the tree's energy and now basking in Spike's s.e.xual vibe.

He moved a little closer to me than he normally did.

I forgot Becky was there entirely.

"I never took you for a tree hugger." He was still smiling, only now it was down at me; we were so close I was practically under him. I never realized before that he was this much taller than me.

I could feel my face starting to burn. "You are going to set me on fire one of these days, you know that?" Holy s.h.i.+t, did that just come out of my mouth? What the h.e.l.l was wrong with me? I looked back at the tree for a second. That d.a.m.n tree had loosened my tongue or something. s.h.i.+ts.h.i.+ts.h.i.+t.

Spike looked amused. "Is that so? Well, I think I'd like to see that a so long as it isn't actual flames you're talking about."

I stepped back to get some breathing room, suddenly very nervous. "Um, yeah ... I mean, no ... not actual flames. Not a fire. Not ... s.h.i.+t, never mind. We need to get back." I stepped around him and starting walking briskly towards the camp. I didn't look back to see if he was following.

Becky, who had observed the whole embarra.s.sing interaction, ran to catch up to me. She had a sly grin on her giddy little face. "What was that all about?"

I hit her arm with the back of my hand. "Nothing, shut up."

She started chanting in a singsong voice, very quietly, "Somebody likes Spiiiiike, somebody likes Spiiiiike."

"Seriously, Becky, what? Are you in second grade? Shut up before someone hears you."

"Don't worry, Jayne, your secret is safe with me ... I mean, your secrets are safe with me." She smiled at me conspiratorially and winked.

I couldn't help but smile back. She was the first girl friend I'd had in a long time. Hopefully we wouldn't die in this forest before we could go shopping, talk about boys or do whatever it is that girl friends do together.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

By the time we reached the others, they were standing there with backpacks on, waiting impatiently for us to leave for the first waypoint.

"That has to be the longest pee break in history," said Finn, shaking his head as he walked towards Jared. "Women ... "

"Come on, everyone, let's get going," said Jared, going with Finn back towards the path leading out of the clearing. Chase followed them. Spike came from behind, jogging to catch up to the guys. Becky was just in front of Tony and me.

"Did you all come up with a plan of action?" I asked, coming up next to Tony.

"Yep. Jared thinks he knows where we are in relation to the first waypoint. He found a river last night and it's not far from here. All we have to do is follow it and we'll come to the waypoint."

I walked and pulled my map out at the same time. "Did you look at the map yourself?"

Tony shrugged. "Nope, I just watched Jared do it."

"Were you looking over his shoulder?"

"No, should I have?"

I frowned at him, scolding him silently. "Yes. Don't you think we should know where we're going instead of just blindly following him?"

Tony sighed loudly. "Not really."

"Tony, are we still a team here or what?" It was time for him to stop messing around and man-up. I wasn't just going to start going somewhere in these spooky woods without knowing where.

"Yes, Jayne, we're still a team."

"Then help me figure this stupid map out while we walk."

I folded it down, with Tony's help, into a manageable size, but I gave up trying to figure out where we were within thirty seconds. Tony took over, since he was much better at directions than I was. I watched as a frown spread across his features.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't know, it's just ... "

"Just what?"

"It's just ... well, it seems like Jared's not going in the most efficient direction."

"Not efficient? In what way?"

"Well, he's headed towards this water, see?" He tried to show me, but I tripped over his big feet and almost went down. Walking and reading a map is just a recipe for disaster as far as I'm concerned.

"Don't show me, just tell me."

"Well, he's headed towards the water, but that's kind of a roundabout way of doing it. We could cut off over here to the right and save ourselves at least an hour a probably more."

"Let's do it then."

Tony folded the map down smaller, intending to put it away. "No, that's okay. This way's fine too."

I put my hand on Tony's shoulder stopping him. "Tony, just because Jared says it's the way to go, doesn't mean it is the way we're going to go. We need to get to those waypoints and get the h.e.l.l outta here, know what I mean?"

Tony was quiet for a minute, thinking.

The others continued walking, oblivious to our conversation.

"Just tell me what your problem is with Jared, before I decide what to do."

"It's just a feeling I have a based on looks he exchanged with Dardennes, his disappearing act last night, and his basic att.i.tude. Don't you think it's a little suspicious that Jared's the one who somehow got all of us together, and then all of a sudden we're all in this study together, and magically the few other people in that meeting room, the ones he didn't pick up somewhere, were not accepted? It just makes me uncomfortable, that's all. And I'd rather just depend on you and me to get out of here. There's no one I trust more to have my back than you, Tones."

He pursed his lips a few seconds before nodding and saying, "Jayne, I know you can be kinda crazy sometimes, but I also know you're pretty perceptive. You see things and sense things that I don't. And there's no one I trust more to have my back than you, so if you want to split off from these guys, then I'll do it. I just keep thinking about that vampire thing from last night. We might have a better chance of surviving something like that if we're in a group."

"I thought about that too; but I also know that as a big group, we'll attract more attention. It's impossible for seven people to move through the forest quietly. Maybe with it being just two or three of us, it wouldn't be so loud."

"Three?"

I shrugged. "I thought maybe Becky might go with us, I don't know."

"Fine, come on. Let's at least tell them we're going a different way. She can choose to come or not. Maybe Spike will want to come with us too." Tony said that a little too casually.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothin'."

"Nothin', my a.s.s. What was that supposed to mean?"

Tony smiled. "I see how you nearly pa.s.s out every time he smiles at you. You think I can't sense that heart attack you get every time he's around? And now that we're on the subject, what the heck happened with you and Becky in the woods? If I didn't know you any better I'd say you had some sort of bi-awakening moment out there. You were feeling just too ... I don't know ... dreamy or something."

I whacked him on the arm. "I didn't have a 'bi-awakening moment' at all, don't be an idiot. I just so happened to have discovered the joy of tree hugging and it made me happy. And Spike has ... well, let's just say he has a nice smile. It makes me feel tingly all over."

Tony rolled his eyes. "Spare me. And what do you mean 'tree hugging'?"

"I'll show you later. Let's go tell those guys we're going the other direction."