Gabi pointed toward the parking lot. “I’ve got the permission forms in the van, if anyone needs to see proof.”
For a long moment, the muttering ceased as all of the girls took in what Gabi was saying. Yes, it appeared that Priscilla had known exactly what she was getting them into. The parents had known, and Luke and Oliver had known. The only five people who hadn’t known they were spending a month in outhouse-hell were Gabi and her girls.
“All right. Let’s get moving.” She finally spoke, motioning to the tent pieces. “If we’re going to get this thing built before dark, we’d better get to it.”
The girls grumbled, but a few minutes later, they’d assembled the pieces into some semblance of order, and were trying to figure out which poles to slide into which flaps when Luke appeared.
He crossed his arms, studying them with a half-smile on his face. “How’s it going, ladies?”
“Well.” Madison winked. “We could use some help, actually. None of us have ever really done the tent thing.”
“Huh.” Luke didn’t move. “Well, I’d say it’s high time all of you learned, then.” He turned to Gabi. “May I have a word?”
She followed him up the pathway, and when they were out of sight of the girls, but could still hear them, Luke turned, crossing his arms. She wondered if he always spent so much time in that position, or if she was bringing it out in him.
He raised his eyebrows. “Think it’ll be up by nightfall?”
She raised her eyebrows to match his. “It might, if we could get some help.”
He looked at her for a long moment, then finally spoke. “Here’s a question for you. What exactly are your hopes for this summer?”
“What?” Gabi blinked, shaking her head. “That’s a pretty broad question.”
“Yep.”
She sighed quietly. “My goal right now, quite frankly, is to survive the night without being eaten alive by whatever creatures are lurking at the forest edges. Beyond that, I don’t yet know.”
He smiled, and she wished it didn’t look so good on him. “You want some advice?”
“If it’s about putting up the tent, yes.”
“It is. And it’s simple. You really need to make the girls do the work.”
“Why?” She fought not to bristle. Who was he, to tell her how to treat her own students? He didn’t know her or them.
He shrugged. “Listen, it’s not my place to judge, but it looks to me like whatever got them sent here was bad enough that somebody thinks they deserve four weeks in hell—because that’s what this’ll be to them. And we both know you can’t leave, because you’ve got nowhere else to take them. You coddle these girls while they’re here, you’ll bring the same girls back home in four weeks. But you ease off the princess-glove treatment, and maybe you’ll actually bring back better ones. And it’s bound to work better if you start on day one. That’s all I’m saying.”
Gabi stared at him for a long moment, crossing her own arms this time. The nerve.
“With all due respect, you don’t know these girls, and you don’t know me. I appreciate your advice, but if it’s all the same to you, I’ll make the decisions. We’ll get the tent up.”
“Your call.” He put up his hands in a classic just-trying-to-save-you-here pose, which just irritated her more. “Good luck,” he said, then turned, but not before she saw his incessantly irritating half-smile.
She’d show him, dammit.
“Princess gloves, my butt,” Gabi muttered as she headed back to the tent platform. “I’ll show him some princess gloves.”
As she came back over the little rise, she could see the girls sitting on the platform, not one of them moving a muscle to get the tent put together.
Dammit.
She was used to their complacency. She saw it every day. She fought it every day. But right now, in the middle of the woods, with darkness and critters creeping in within the next two hours, that complacency ticked her off like nothing had since … well, since last Friday when she’d found out her entire summer had gone down in flames.
She hated to admit Luke could be right, but looking at them all sitting on their butts waiting for her to do their thinking for them suddenly made her downright furious. They’d gotten themselves into this mess. They needed to deal with the consequences.
Consequence number one? Putting up the damn tent.
“Jeez, Gabi. Nice of you to come back.” Madison put up her hands as Gabi walked back into the clearing. “It’s