"Max, are you awake? You're going to be late…" Katie's voice drags me back to consciousness. I blink my eyes as I wake from the deepest slumber.
My mouth is dry and chalky and my head is throbbing. The sun is so bright it's like I'm staring straight into a flood light.
I don't think I've ever been that drunk before. Who knows where I ended up crashing?
To my surprise, I'm in my bunk. I'm wearing the same clothes I was in last night, except for my shoes.
"Morning," Katie says, standing on her tiptoes and peering over the edge of the bunk. "You've missed breakfast. But I brought you coffee and a pastry."
"Thanks," I say, sitting up, rubbing my head.
Katie hands me the coffee and I take a sip. It tastes good. White with about five sugars, just the way I like it. She hands me the pastry but I'm not sure I can stomach it right away.
"What happened last night?"
"I'm not sure, we were both pretty wasted, I think, and you wandered off. Looks like you managed to get yourself back to your cabin in one piece though."
I try to remember what happened but it's a complete blur. Then I remember something...a glimpse of his face and...
"Oh no, I think I did something bad."
"Like how bad?" she asks.
"Like I should probably walk into the forest and never be seen again."
Katie twists her mouth into an awkward smile.
"I'm sure it's just the hangover talking…" "No, I…" I start telling Katie all about what happened with Jasper but she cuts me off.
"Wait, you'll have to tell me on the way to the meeting point.
Everyones already heading off for a big game of capture the flag."
I curl my lip. The idea of running around in the hot sun with a bunch of sweaty wolves is enough to make anyone want to hurl, let alone a teenager suffering from the worst hangover of their life.
"That sounds like a nightmare."
"It's mandatory," Katie says, without a shred of irony. "It's supposed to be like a get-to-know-you thing, to help break the ice before the Mating Run."
"Can I just pretend I don't feel well?"
"I told Eleanor I'd make sure you were there. She looked like she was about to burst a blood vessel when you weren't at breakfast."
I drop my head and glare at Katie. This was a complete and utter betrayal.
"Come on, it'll be fun," she says, gently tugging me from the bunk.
Begrudgingly, I swing my legs over the side. I notice my shoes have been neatly placed at the end of the bed. Who put them there? I definitely wouldn't have been so careful in my drunken state.
"Oof, you should definitely get changed and maybe brush your teeth," Katie says, waving a hand under her nose. "You smell like beer."
I give myself a little sniff and she's right. I reek!
"So, the last thing you remember was Jasper picking you off the ground," Katie says.
After a super quick shower, we left the campsite and followed a trail into the forest. We're following marker signs pointing in the direction of the 'meeting point'.
"Basically," I say.
My warm, thumping blood is drawing–apparently–all the insects of the forest to me. I have to keep swatting them away as we walk.
"Do you think he's the one who put you to bed?"
I nearly burst out laughing thinking of Jasper, who's been nothing but a jerk to me since we first ran into each other, carefully taking off my shoes and tucking me in.
But then I stop and think... If it wasn't him then who was it?
I snort, laughing. "No, that can't be what happened. There's no way that jerk would do anything so nice."
By the time the other campers come into view, I'm sweating and puffing. I am so out of shape.
The trees spread out, circling around the mass of active-wear-clad wolves, to form a clearing.
Everyone goes quiet as they watch Jasper and Olivia make their way to the top of a three story tall boulder.
Olivia has her game face on. She is wearing grey leggings, with a graphic design featuring pale yellow color blocks, and a matching long sleeve top. She looks ready to win gold at the Olympics.
Jasper on the other hand has the same unreadable expression he wore when he arrived last night. Just like Olivia, he is wearing running tights only his are black, ending just above his ankles. He's got a black muscle top on and his arms are well and truly out.
I can't help but gawk at his wildly defined muscles. I bet I could work out for a thousand years and still not have the same definition he does.
It's suddenly hard for me to swallow.
The heat must really be getting to me.
"Wolves!" Olivia says, projecting her voice so that we can hear her right at the back. She sounds like Beyonce commanding her pride in The Lion King. "This morning you will be tested. It's hot and the terrain is unforgiving. In order to win you will need to be at the top of your game.
Your speed, strength, and agility will be on display for everyone to see and judge!"
"I thought we were playing capture the flag?" I panic whisper in Katie's ear.
"That's what they said at breakfast," she whispers back. "Maybe it's like a wolf version."
"The rules are as follows," Olivia continues. "You will be split into two teams. Jasper and I will be team captains. The green team will be with me, and purple with Jasper."
I don't know which would be worse. Having to be on Jasper's team or having to play against him.
"There is no shifting allowed. You are to remain in your human form for the duration of the game. If you are tagged you must leave the field and report back here. Eleanor has generously offered to remain at this meeting point with water and snacks for anyone who is disqualified from the game."
I notice Eleanor standing at the base of the boulder, holding a bag full of granola bars, looking extremely pleased with herself.
"The game is over when one team successfully captures the other team's flag and returns it to their home base. There is no safe zone. You can be tagged out at any location in the playing field."
"What are the boundaries?" some guy toward the front asks.
Olivia grins and raises an eyebrow. She lifts both of her hands in the air and gestures to the trees.
"You're looking at them."
A symphony of 'whoas' and 'huhs' echoes across the group.
"The entire forest is at play," Olivia finishes up. "The game begins when you hear this sound."
She produces a thin shiny whistle hanging on a chain around her neck and blows.
Birds evacuate the trees at the reverberating, high-pitched squeal.
My head throbs mercilessly.
"Is everything clear?" she asks, handing the whistle off to Eleanor, who I'm sure knows exactly when and how to blow the damn thing.
Everyone nods, grinning sportingly at their neighbors.
"Good!" Olivia says. "All of those with an odd-numbered cabin you're on my team, 'evens' you're with Jasper."
A murmur passes through the crowd as everyone tries to remember their cabin number.
"Right," Jasper calls out, stepping forward. "Purple team with me, we're heading east."
He springs off the back of the boulder and begins marching east. All the people with even-numbered cabins follow their great leader.
"The rest of you with me," Olivia says, heading in the opposite direction.
Katie and I turn to look at each other.
"Bummer, we're on different teams," she says.
"Yep, I'll probably get out pretty quick if you get bored and want to just hang out here."
Katie puts her hands on her hips and raises her brow at me. "You should at least try and have fun."
"Fine!" I moan. "Catch you later."
We head off with our designated teams.
My team marches west, on a constant incline until I think my legs might fall off. At least, I've sweated out most of my hangover by the time we reach home base.
Huddled behind some well-placed boulders, Olivia addresses the team once more. She starts rattling off some game plan which I'm sure is incredibly smart and very strategic but that I don't manage to take in one single sentence of.
And before I know it she claps and says: "Right, everyone knows what they're doing?"
Uh, sure.
"Hands in then."
Everyone on the team, including me, puts their hand into the large circle we've formed and on three we all do a war cry and throw our hands in the air. Then the whistle blows.
The team disperses in an instant, emptying the immediate vicinity.
"Well, what's wrong, chico?! Don't just stand there!" Olivia shouts at me, jogging off into the trees.
I spin around once, pick a direction and run.
I'm suddenly completely alone in the forest, these pack wolves sure know how to hide. I spot a tree that's fallen on its side. Mangled roots sticking up in the air, and notice there's a hole in the ground where it used to stand. The perfect hiding spot. I jump and scramble my way down and get cozy in the soil.
I'll wait here until this whole ordeal is over.
An indeterminable amount of time passes uneventfully. I sit beneath the tree roots and let the cool earth soothe my hangover. About an hour into the game, a couple of my teammates run by, doing their best to stay low and out of sight. They don't notice me.
Another peaceful hour or so goes by and I wonder if the game has already finished and everyone has gone home without me.
Then the cries start. Voices call out in the distance. I can't tell exactly where they're coming from.
Then I hear footsteps. Someone is running in this direction. They're moving fast...really fast. The earth is vibrating under me.
I poke my head out of my hidey-hole to have a look around.
Like a Cheetah bursting through the jungle, Jasper emerges, racing through the trees. He leaps a root and sidesteps a boulder. To avoid a small stream he grabs hold of a low hanging branch and swings across, like a goddamn modern-day Tarzan.
His face is stern and determined. His muscles are tight and his movements precise. He's a wolf on a mission. And then I realize… He's holding our flag. The purple fabric is fluttering about in the wind.
I think he spots me but it doesn't deter him from his course, he plows onward with the grace and speed of a gazelle.
"What are you doing, bonehead? Chase him!"
Olivia is hot on Jasper's heels, charging through the forest about ten seconds behind.
She passes me and I stand frozen. Surely, she doesn't think I can catch him. Olivia clearly has the better odds.
Only, she's not paying attention to where she's putting her feet. Her left toe catches on an upended root and she goes flying forward, toppling over. I leap out of my hole and run over to her. She's clutching her ankle, wincing in pain; she looks up at me with dark, rageful eyes.
"What are you staring at!? Go get him!"
I nod and before I know it I'm taking off after Jasper.
Instantly, my lungs start to burn and the muscles in my legs seize up but I keep running. I push harder with every step and I don't even know why. I guess I don't want Olivia to lose the game because I distracted her.
Or maybe I just don't want Jasper to win.
Somehow, I instinctively know which way to go. I can sense him ahead of me. Every so often I catch a whiff of his scent. Cherry blossoms… And every time I do I push myself to go harder.
The sun flashes across my face as I sprint and somehow I think I'm catching up. Jasper must have realized Olivia is no longer behind him and slowed a little. Or maybe I'm faster than I think! Either way, Jasper's scent becomes stronger, he's just up ahead.
More like a rhino than a cheetah, I stampede through the underbrush. I burst through some branches and find myself in a clearing.
Jasper is on the other side about to disappear but he stops and turns. I skid to a halt as well.
He looks at me with confusion, as if I was the last person he expected to see. Then he raises a brow like he's impressed. But the next second, that determined, steely look is back and he's off again.
There's no air left in my lungs, my heart is about to explode, my feet are screaming in pain. There are scratches on my arms from where they've caught on branches. And I'm drenched in sweat. But I have to win. It's life and death. Losing is no longer an option.
Somehow I manage to catch up to Jasper.
I'm so close, I reach out a hand to touch him, and...he speeds up.
I push even harder, harder than I knew I could, and I manage to bring myself level again. Jasper looks back and gestures at me with his head but I don't know what he's trying to say.
And then suddenly he jumps, lifting off the ground at least twenty feet high. Why has he done that? It's only going to slow him down. But then I see why.
I'm racing toward a massive freaking hole in the ground. A long valley tears through the landscape. The sound of turbulent, rushing water rises from the gap in the earth.
Jasper lands gracefully on the other side.
There's no way I'll make that jump!
But I'm going too fast, I don't know if I can slow down in time.
I do my best to dig my heels in and stop but I'm too close.
I reach the edge of the cliff and the ground beneath me disappears.