Unscripted - Nicole Kronzer Page 0,37

The cute one grinned. “I’m Jesse?”

“Right!” I high-fived him. “And . . .” I looked at the redhead. “I want you to know I’m making a Ron Weasley joke in my head, but it’s only in my head. I’d never say it out loud.”

He smirked. “Funny enough, in my head, I’m making a Hermione Granger joke. But only in my head.” He held his hand up for his own high five. “Murph.”

“That’s right,” I said, slapping his hand. “Murph.”

We turned to silent guy expectantly. He looked at his friends. They nodded encouragement. He gave me a hip-level wave. “Ricky.”

“With the rocks,” I said.

His eyebrows raised above his glasses in surprise. “Yeah,” he said.

“Good memory.” Murph smiled.

Ben took a possessive step toward me. “How do you know the Boy Scouts, Ellie?”

“We met in the woods,” I said. “I was—”

Brandon snickered.

I glared at him. “What.”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “Just imagining what goes on with you and three guys in the woods.”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. Restraint. It was taking every ounce of my self-control, but I would be the model of restraint. I would give them nothing to blame me for. I would be the embodiment of the high road. I turned to Jesse, whose strained face mirrored mine. “We’re doing high ropes today.” I smiled thinly.

“I know,” he said, his smile somewhat dimmed from before. “We’re belaying you . . . I’m sorry,” he faced Brandon, “what are you suggesting?”

“About what? About Ellie? I’m just joking.”

Jesse’s eyes flicked to mine. I willed him to drop it.

But Jesse cocked his head. “It wasn’t a very good joke.”

The Jakes let out a “woooooah” that Brandon shut down with a look.

“Hey! The rest of the team is here,” Ben said as Cade, Trey, and Donovan joined us. He turned to the scouts. “Are you guys it? They said we were supposed to wait until the Troop . . . Leader or something—”

Jesse kept his eyes on my team. “Troop Guide. That’s me. We’re all set.”

“Okay, then,” Ben said. “Let’s go!” He lead the way and we fell into small clumps. Jesse and Murph flanked me.

“Who are these guys?” Murph asked in a low voice.

“Improv can be really bro-y.” I shrugged. “I imagine Boy Scouts can be, too?”

Jesse grunted. “Yeah. It doesn’t mean I like it. I just . . . I wish he wouldn’t talk to you that way.”

“JAKE-EEE!” Brandon clapped three times. “Don’t fall, man!” Xander and the others hooted. “Though if you do, those ears will act like parachutes!”

I tried not to shoot a withering look at Brandon in the spirit of togetherness, but poor Jake 1.

“Don’t think of it as thirty feet!” Brandon yelled. “Think of it as three stories!” They all laughed again.

Jake 1 was stranded. His feet were planted in the middle of a wood-slatted rope bridge high above us. It had taken everyone else thirty or so seconds to cross from one end to the other, but halfway there, Jake 1 had suddenly frozen. For the last ten minutes, no amount of coaxing or contempt had succeeded in luring him to the other side.

He wasn’t thirty feet up in the air on that bridge alone, though. A climbing rope connected Jake’s harness to a pulley on a cable over his head down to a belay device on Jesse’s harness on the ground. Jesse’s left hand gripped the rope coming down from the pulley, and the other stayed at his right hip, folding the rope feeding out of the belay device to brake it. If Jake fell, it would only be for a couple feet. Ropes, engineering, and Jesse’s sure attention would prevent anything worse.

Still . . . I could see if you weren’t used to being thirty feet in the air, it could be scary.

Ben sidled over to Jesse. “Can we do anything to get this moving along?”

“Move what along?” Jesse’s eyes were locked on Jake, his voice to Ben polite, but cool.

“Him,” Ben said. “What do you do when this happens?”

“This is where the ‘team’ part of team building usually comes in,” Murph muttered. He was acting as Jesse’s second, holding on to the loose rope as a worst-case scenario backup plan.

“Don’t get so scared you pee your pants!” Xander shouted. “We’ll all get wet!”

As if on cue, rain began lightly tapping on our helmets.

“Dude! Gross!” Xander yelled. The bros all laughed.

“We can get a second person up there,” Jesse called. “What do you think, Jake?”

Jake shrugged.

“You want me to let you down?” Jesse