Nova

She tossed her book on the coffee table and staggered to her feet. “I’m not going there. The whole concept of luck went out the window when Brooke flew off the handle.”

My highlighter paused in midair as she crutched over to us. Opening up about what her sister had done wasn’t really a line we’d crossed before now. Of course I knew what had happened, Leah had filled me in, but this was first time Penna had brought it up herself.

“So you think the weather that almost held up the hang gliding stunt and the mudslide are both…” The curse of Rachel. I came back to the Renegades, and all hell was breaking loose. You’re not back in the Renegades, I reminded myself.

“Shitty coincidences. Well, the rain caused the mudslide, so really it’s the weather. Don’t be so hard on yourself, Rachel.”

I focused back on my textbook, pulling phrases I could cite for my paper proposal. “What I wouldn’t give for some good internet.”

“Why didn’t you say something?” Penna asked. “Grab my laptop.”

“You have internet out here? I thought it was impossible.”

“Nothing’s impossible when you throw enough resources at it,” she said. “Seriously, do you need it?”

I looked down at my nearly finished proposal. “I think I’m good, but thank you. I might need it later.”

“Just don’t tell your mom that you have it,” Leah suggested.

Guilt hit me like a Mack truck. “I was supposed to call from Sri Lanka.”

“I think she’ll understand,” Penna answered.

“You don’t know her mother,” Leah rebutted.

“True. She’s a little…protective.”

Leah laughed, then clapped her hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. You know how she gets. The only reason they even ‘allowed’”—I used air quotes—“me to come on this was because they knew you’d be here, and they hoped you’d keep me in line.”

“Yeah, because I have so much control over you,” she said, flipping another page in her book.

“Well, I sure as hell didn’t tell them you’d hooked up with Wilder. That would have earned me a strict demand to get my ass home. Hell, if they so much as sniffed Landon around me, they’d probably be in India waiting for us to dock.”

“They have good reason to hate him,” Penna answered. “From the parent point of view, of course.”

“That’s not going to stop you from coming on the Everest trip, right?” Leah asked.

I groaned. “Leah, as much as I would love to go with you, that’s over a week with him. There’s a bunch of other optional shore excursions that—”

“Wouldn’t be as much fun!” she argued. “Seriously. Pax promised we’d spend one day at the Taj Mahal before flying to Nepal, and that isn’t on any shore excursion. You only get that if you come with the Renegades.”

“How did you convince him to do that? It’s an entire plane ride out of the way.”

“I mentioned wanting to do my research paper on it, and he said he’d make it happen if I agreed to freeze my butt off with him in Nepal.”

“It’s a Renegade-only trip,” I argued.

Leah gave me the you’re-being-stupid face. “Landon wants you there.”

“Not if he’s doing what I think he is. If he’s trying to ride that ridgeline for the documentary, he doesn’t need me distracting him or just generally cursing him. He’s been dreaming of that chance for years, ever since I’ve known him, and I’m not going to be the reason he fucks it up or gets himself killed.”

Leah sighed. “I think he’d do better just to show off for you. Seriously. I want you to come, and I know you’d love the trip.”

“Coming is optional, of course,” Penna added with a snort laugh.

“Nice,” I threw in her direction. “That is so not happening.”

“Please? We’re partially trekking to the Everest base camp, and you know you’ll never get that chance again. Not with the way this crazy group does stuff.”

Ten straight days with Landon. Nowhere to run or to avoid him…or his effect on me. Ten days of travel and snowboarding and seeing the tallest mountain in the world—a true once-in-a-lifetime experience and one of the things I was on this trip for.

“If I’m going, you’re going,” Penna ordered.

My head snapped toward her. “You’re going?”

She shrugged. “So I’ve been told. Crutches and all. Fun times.”

“We’ll have fun,” Leah promised. “And we don’t have to stay at advanced camp. We can go back down to Lukla and get massages while they’re out boarding.”

Penna’s eyes deadened, and I sliced my hand across my throat, trying to get Leah to stop. Her eyes widened and she mouthed, “What?”

I sighed. Leah might have known them, but she didn’t understand Renegades yet—their competitive nature and general hatred of feeling useless. “It’s lame,” I told Penna. “Fully lame that you can’t board. But if what I’ve been told is correct, you absolutely can ride in that helicopter up to Everest. You’re not going to sit that out over a leg, are you?”

“You’re not going to miss out on that over a boy, are you?” She stared me down.