held serious potential.
“Burn it down!” Steff said, running out of the bathroom behind her. “That thing is a brown recluse. Burn it all!”
She hit the baby-oiled tarp, sending the Saran Wrap straight into the air as she hit the floor with a sickening crack. Panicked, I maneuvered through the beds. She was already clutching her leg, biting down a scream.
“It’s fine,” I said, spotting blood before I was close enough to see the damage. I squatted, the overwhelming scent of teenage boy growing stronger the closer I got to the floor.
“Okay, so you might need stitches,” I said, swallowing as I peeled my eyes away from the five-inch gash running the length between Steff’s knee and ankle.
Jess reached us, paper towels in hand. “I leave for one minute, one minute to handle a spider, and this happens? Geez. This is why we can’t have nice things,” she said, handing the towels to me.
I used them to apply pressure to Steff’s leg, apologizing as she gasped. “We need to get her to Medicine and More, without drawing too much attention to ourselves.”
We helped her up, drops of blood hitting the floor as we tried to get her outside. We made it as far as the porch before she stopped, shaking her head with a frown.
“There’s no way I can walk there,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “I have this fear of blood and I feel like I’m literally about to pass out. I’m trying but I can’t. I just can’t.”
I looked at Jess and Jules. “Okay. Can y’all go get the nurse? Tell her one of our campers fell walking into the bathroom and we’re having a hard time getting her to the nurse’s station. There’s a golf cart she can use.”
“I thought someone stole the golf cart?” Jess said.
“They found it behind the mess hall,” Brie said, shaking her head. “Remember? It went missing from the office but someone found it at the mess hall. Loraine was talking about it the other day.”
“Just get to the nurse’s office,” I said, looking at Jess again. “The quicker she gets here, the more time I have to get the guys’ side back in order. The last thing anyone needs is Grant or one of his campers breaking themselves.”
“I mean, that was the goal,” Brie said.
“For crying out loud!” I said, looking at her.
Jess and Jules fled the porch while I kept a wary eye on Brie. Her lack of sympathy for anyone and anything was astounding, to say the least.
“Do you think you can manage to stay out here until the nurse shows up?” I said in a breath. “I’m going to start working on that tarp.”
“You’re really going to kill our prank?” Brie said, crossing her arms.
“It’s better than hurting someone,” I said, standing.
I didn’t wait for her response before racing across the porch. If the nurse rolled up quicker than I planned, it would be hard explaining why I was on the guys’ side. It would be even harder if being in there after dark was really as serious as Grant had made it seem.
Inside the room, Steff’s blood left a trail from the door to the spot where she had landed on the floor. I avoided the blood and squatted beside the tarp, cringing as baby oil coated my fingers.
“This was stupid,” I said, rolling the tarp as quickly as I could. “Why did I agree to this?”
Shuffling to the left, I continued folding the tarp like a burrito. By the time I was comfortable with the baby-oiled blob, the crunching of gravel beneath a golf cart yanked me outside.
Night air hit me as my feet touched the porch. Nurse Harriet was already hopping off her golf cart. Luckily, her interest was focused on Steff and far away from me.
“Can you move it?” she said, her frizzy black curls blowing in the breeze.
“Yeah, but it hurts,” Steff said, looking at her.
I discreetly crossed the porch, avoiding the nurse’s line of sight. “I think it’s superficial,” she said, checking the leg. “But we need to get it cleaned and bandaged. Y’all help me get her on the cart.”
I moved from my position close to Grant’s door, hooking Steff’s arm around my shoulder as the other girls helped her stand. Two minutes later, she was loaded on the cart, gagging over the sight of blood on her shoes.
“But it’s her blood,” Brie said as they drove off. “If anyone should be gagging, it should be us.”
“You’re heartless,” Jess said,