Page 30 of Valley Girls
Adeena made a choking sound.
“Shesaid it. I just agreed,” Petra said to Adeena, then looked to Rilla. “Eat something.”
Rilla blinked at their arguing, a terrible sinking feeling in her stomach. She hadn’t packed food. Adeena hadn’t said to pack food. Why hadn’t she thought to pack any food?
“Get something now, before we start hiking again,” Petra said.
Rilla looked down. “Oh, I’m not hungry.”
Silence.
She couldn’t bring herself to look up, pretending she was suddenly super interested in the rocky soil underfoot.
“Look sharp,” Petra said.
Rilla lifted her chin and caught the granola bar Petra tossed her. “Thanks.” Food seemed counterintuitive to getting in shape, but Rilla ripped the bar open and demolished half in one hungry bite.
“I always pack way more food than I need.”
“Another reason you’re not an alpinist,” Adeena said, peeling an orange as she sat cross-legged on a rock.
“You just never know, Dee. Don’t come crying to me when you need snacks.”
Adeena closed her eyes and shook her head as if to say Petra was absurd.
The dull roar of the foaming Merced filled the silence as they finished eating. Even though it was mid-morning, the sun hadn’t climbed high enough to light the depths of the canyon walls, leaving the bottom still dark and blue in shadow, and the mist of the river like smoke. It should have warmed up by now, but the air was still cold and thin. Rilla subtly stretched her hamstrings against the rock so she wouldn’t maim herself standing up too fast.
“Holding up?” Adeena asked.
Rilla’s mouth was too full of granola bar to answer. “Imph mphinnn,” she managed.
“It’s going to be a long day, but the climbing is easy,” Petra said, screwing the lid back on her Nalgene. “Good conditioning. Want some water?”
Rilla swallowed. “I have a bottle. Thanks.”
Petra nodded, with an approving smile. “Let’s get this hiking shit over with.”
“I like the hiking. It’s so relaxing,” Adeena said.
“You would,alpinist.”
Adeena threw an orange peel at her. “You’re lucky to have me, otherwise you might get lost on the way up without a string of bolts to guide you.”
Petra just laughed and turned off the path, into the rocks and trees.
Adeena stood off the rock. “It won’t always be this hard. I promise. And even though I would have taken you on something shorter for your first time, this is something you can do.”
“What was your first climb?” Rilla asked. “Was it like this?”
Adeena smiled, looking carefully where she stepped. “A mountain near my home in Gilgit, in Pakistan. My brother was a guide. I had been begging to go, so he took me for my twelfth birthday. It was a three-day trip. Our mother was so angry.” She laughed softly.
Well then. Rilla pressed her lips together. No more complaining to Adeena. “When did you come here?”
“For school, last year. I have family here, too.”
“Your brother?”
There was a long beat. “No.”
