The Heirs Scholarship Girl

Chapter Four

I waited for hours for his call and eventually went to bed partly pissed even though he had somehow hinted he might not call back.

When I woke up, the first thing I reached out for was my phone, half expecting to see a missed call. But there was none. Absolutely disappointed, I pushed myself out of bed and began my morning routine.

My phone buzzed just as I found my way to school.

"I owe you that explanation," Ethan said, no hello. "Can you meet me before the bell?"

He was waiting by the side entrance when I got there, hands shoved in his pockets, looking like he'd rehearsed this on the walk over and was still uncertain about the right words.

"Look… I am sorry about last night.”

I wasn't ready to hear all he had tp say, or worse, find out that Rebeca was one of his flings so I didn't let him finish.

“Look, it's okay. You don't owe me any explanation as to why you hung up like that. You have a whole life going on and I get it.”

“Still… I am sorry. Rebecca just had something really important to tell me and then we just got talking and I totally lost track of time.”

His face was flooded by a bright smile, his cheeks turning red as he spoke so graciously about this Rebecca. I had had it till here and I was done.

“Look, I'm not interested in this chit chat about your girl friend or fling or whatever she is. Now if you would excuse…”

“What? What girlfriend.”

“Don't play dumb. You're literally grinning ear to ear talking about some lady while I am standing right in front of you.”

My cheeks were red hot from both the embarrassment and anger. Ethan studied me from a moment, then out of nowhere, he burst out laughing.

“Wait… you're getting this all wrong. Rebecca isn't any of the things you called her. I know that's probably what you assumed.”

"Then who is she?"

"My nanny. She's been with my family since when I was born." Something in his voice softened, the way it never did when he talked about his father. "Dad employed her to take care of me because he had no one else. She's the one who taught me to read and write and even ride a bike because my dad was always in Singapore. She's… I don't know… the closest thing to a mother I've had since mine died."

His words landed heavily in my chest. "Ethan, I didn't know your mom…"

"It's fine, I won't talk about it. The point is, when Rebecca calls like that, it means something's happening that I need to deal with immediately or she has some story she can't wait to tell me."

“I understand.” I chuckled. “So sorry about your mum.”

He nodded and smiled at me. I really wanted to push and ask what really happened to her and if she died in childbirth but I didn't get another chance to ask because the bell rang for the first period.

By lunch, the entire school was buzzing about something else entirely and so once again, I couldn't push.

"Mandatory overnight camping trip," Riley said, sliding into the seat across from me with her tray, practically vibrating. "They said it's a junior class bonding retreat. Two days, one night, in the woods. Apparently it's tradition."

"Please tell me you're joking."

"I wish. And it's this weekend.” She wrinkled her nose. "At least the tent groups are already assigned so we don't have to deal with drama over who's stuck with who."

I should have asked more questions right then. I didn't, too distracted by Ethan's absence at his usual table and too busy replaying the way his voice had gone soft talking about Rebecca, and it wasn't until we were already loading onto the buses Friday morning, duffel bags and sleeping rolls piled in the aisle, that I found out exactly whose name was on my tent assignment sheet.

Madison Hartley.

"There has to be a mistake," I said to the coordinator holding the clipboard, a harried looking gym teacher who clearly wanted to be anywhere else. "Can I switch?"

"Groups were finalized weeks ago, hon. Take it up with the office when we're back on Monday."

Weeks ago? For some weird reason, I had a hunch that someone had deliberately arranged this and I didn't need three guesses to know who'd have both the motive and the money to make a scheduling glitch disappear in her favor.

Ethan found me before we boarded, jaw tight the second I told him. "I'll talk to the coordinator myself."

"She already told me groups are locked."

"I don't care." He was already moving, and five minutes later I watched from my bus window as he argued with the same tired teacher, gesturing at a printed sheet, getting nothing but an apologetic shrug in return. He climbed back on his own bus looking furious in a way I'd never seen on him before, and the last thing I saw before the doors closed was him mouthing “I'm sorry” through the glass.

The day itself wasn't unbearable, exactly. Madison kept her cruelty small and deniable, a comment here about my hiking boots being from the discount rack, a laugh there when I fumbled setting up my half of the tent, nothing loud enough to report, nothing that wouldn't sound petty coming out of my mouth to a teacher. She smiled the entire time, sweet and venomous, like she was savoring every second of having me trapped somewhere Ethan couldn't intervene.

By the time the counselors announced the mandatory night hike, my nerves were already stretched thin.

"Everyone stays with their assigned buddy," the head counselor called out as we lined up with flashlights, the forest ahead swallowed in the kind of dark that made the trees look like a solid wall. "No wandering off the marked trail. We'll be back at camp in ninety minutes."

Madison fell into step beside me almost immediately, uncomfortably close and uncomfortably friendly. "We should walk together. Bond a little... Isn't that the whole point of this trip?"

I didn't trust the sweetness in her voice for a second, but saying so out loud, in front of a line of classmates and counselors, would only make me sound paranoid so I walked. The trail wound deeper into the trees, flashlight beams bobbing ahead and behind, voices and laughter carrying back through the dark.

"This way," Madison said suddenly, tugging my sleeve toward a narrower gap in the trees just off the main path. "Shortcut. I heard the counselors talking. They said it loops back and joins up ahead and saves like ten minutes."

I hesitated. "I thought we weren't supposed to leave the trail."

"It's barely leaving the trail. Come on, everyone's doing it." She was already stepping through the gap, a flashlight beam swinging away, and against every instinct screaming at me not to, I followed, unwilling to be left standing alone in the dark either.

We walked for a few minutes, the ground growing rougher, the trees thickening overhead until the moon disappeared completely. The voices from the main trail had already gone quiet.

"Madison, I don't think this is right…"

When I turned, the beam of her flashlight was gone.

"Madison?"

Nothing. No rustle of footsteps, no answering voice, no light bobbing through the trees ahead or behind. Just the sound of my own breathing, suddenly too loud, and the forest pressing in dark and total on every side.

"Madison, this isn't funny!"

I spun in a slow circle, my flashlight beam catching nothing but trunks and shadows, no trail visible in any direction or clue which way I'd even come from. My hands shook as I pulled out my phone, the screen glowing bright in the dark.

No Service.

The temperature had already started to drop, the kind of cold that crept in slow and then all at once, and somewhere behind me, or maybe ahead, I couldn't tell anymore, a branch snapped in the dark, and I realized with a lurch of pure terror that I had absolutely no idea which direction led back to camp, and no one who knew I was gone.

I tried retracing my steps, but every direction looked identical, black trunks and tangled undergrowth stretching endlessly in every direction, no gap in the trees to tell me where I'd come from. My flashlight beam seemed to shrink with every passing minute, the batteries choosing the worst possible time to die, flickering weakly against the darkness pressing in from all sides.

Well... f**k me.

A sharp c***k sounded behind me. I spun around so fast my flashlight slipped in my sweaty grip, its beam slicing wildly through the trees. But there was nothing.

My gaze slowly dropped to the ground and my eye caught the broken twig beneath my boot. I let out a shaky breath, though it did nothing to steady my nerves. The silence that followed was somehow worse than the sound itself.

What if there were wild animals out here? Or worse...

Ghosts.

I immediately regretted the thought and decided to focus on something more positive.

They couldn't be far away. I hadn't wandered away for long, they had to be nearby. If I shouted, maybe... just maybe... someone would hear me.

"Hello?"

My voice came out much smaller than I'd intended, swallowed almost instantly by the endless woods.

"Is anyone there?"

Nothing answered. Only the wind whispering through the branches, the distant hoot of an owl, and the increasingly frantic pounding of my own heartbeat filling my ears. I had no idea how long I wandered after that. Panic made every direction feel wrong, every tree identical, every shifting shadow looked as though it might suddenly come alive.

Eventually, my legs gave out.

I slid down the rough trunk of a tree and hugged my knees to my chest, switching off my flashlight for a few precious seconds to save what little battery remained. The darkness that rushed in was so complete I couldn't even see my own hands.

I switched it back on almost immediately. My breathing was hard, every exhale trembling.

Dear God... Is this how I die?