Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(31)
“You’re not a vegetarian, are you?” Will asked, searching the final pocket of his backpack. He hoped there was paper and a pencil in there so that he could write out his inventory.
“No,” Melody laughed. “Although I wonder if there is actually any real meat in these things or if it’s all Styrofoam.” She tossed her stroganoff packet on the silver foil pile of packaged meals.
“It’s all real food, real meat,” Will told her. He found the paper and pencil he’d been hoping for, and was extra pleased that the paper was waterproof. “Although I can’t vouch for the taste.”
“You’ve eaten this stuff before?” Melody started gathering up everything she’d dumped out of her back and cramming it back in every which way.
Will shrugged. There was something else at the bottom of his final pocket, something flat, by the feel, and square…or maybe round. “We took them on Boy Scout camping trips. Mostly for the experience of eating them, I think. They’re not horrible, but I wouldn’t make a habit of living off of them.”
“I can’t wait to try one,” Melody said with more than a little sarcasm in her tone. “We never took stuff like this on our camping trips,” she went on. “Mom and Dad figured out a lot better non-perishable food that we could tote around.”
Will pulled the mystery object out of his pack. As soon as the small, foil packets hit the sunshine, his face burned with surprise and embarrassment. Condoms. Howie had packed an entire strip of condoms in his backpack. They each had the Paradise Space Flight logo printed on the packet.
“Of course, part of the challenge and the fun of those trips was to find edible plants, mushrooms, and animals out in the—what is your problem?” Melody burst into giggles.
Will shoved the condoms back into the pack’s pocket. “Nothing,” he mumbled. It didn’t help, he could feel his face burn even harder. It was worse than a sunburn. What kind of competition did Howie think this was? First to get laid won a bonus?
“It is too something.” Melody continued to laugh. Worse still, she abandoned her haphazard repacking to crawl closer to Will.
“It’s really nothing.” He shoved the condoms as deep into the pocket as they would go, trying not to think of shoving other things as deep as they would go.
“Did Howie put a surprise in your pack?” Melody reached his side and tried to peer over his shoulder into his backpack.
“Nope. It’s nothing.”
“Then why are you acting like you’re trying to hide something?”
“I’m not. It—” He scrambled to think of an excuse. “It’s the walkie-talkie. I’m tempted to disable it.”
“Disable it?” She rocked back onto her heels, eyes still sparkling with mirth as she gaped at him. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
“We’re in this to win it, aren’t we?” There was no way she was going to buy this. He’d always been a terrible liar. Even the thought of lying made him break out in a cold sweat. “So what do we need to be able to communicate with anyone back in Haskell for?”
“Uh, in case we run into trouble?” she answered. “In case we get mauled by a mountain lion or washed away in a stream?”
“It’s not going to happen,” he told her, shoving the paper and pencils back into the condom compartment and zipping it shut. “I promised your parents I’d take care of you.”
Now it was her turn to blush. “Yeah, I heard you say that.” Her voice was soft, almost as if she was touched.
“I have a feeling they’d run me through the wringer if I didn’t follow through on that promise,” he said.
Melody laughed. “Nah. Dad would probably just make you watch sexual health videos until your eyeballs popped out. He’s got one about geriatric sex that still gives me nightmares.”
“That’s what I meant by running me through the wringer,” he said, deadly serious.
Melody must have found his wary expression funny. She laughed and shoved his shoulder, knocking him off-balance. He caught himself with one hand, confused as to whether he should be annoyed at her horseplay or turned on by it. It certainly wasn’t the way he was always told women should behave.
“Whatever my parents might do to you, we’d better pack all this up and start trying to get to the finish line,” she said, crawling back over to her chaotic pile of supplies. “I certainly think Howie gave us enough tools for the job. No tents, though, I notice.”
“That’s probably why they were teaching us to make lean-tos in training.” Will righted himself and set to work repacking his backpack with as much precision as it had been packed in the first place.
“Good point.” Melody nodded. There was a pause as they worked, then she said, “Are you satisfied, now that you know exactly what we’re carrying with us?”
“Yes,” he answered honestly. “There’s more than enough in each of our packs to see us through any situation.” Any situation. Including situations there was no way he was going to get himself into.
A stab of uneasiness hit him. He paused halfway through repacking his cooking utensils and glanced warily in Melody’s direction. “Did you, uh, find any surprises in your pack?”
Melody lifted a few of the random items still scattered around her and shook her head. “Not really. I mean, he was nice enough to pack some light reading for me.” She quickly held up a paperback with a couple on the cover, then stuffed it in her backpack. “I suspect he was talking about our delicious gourmet fare when he said there were surprises waiting for us.”