Page 31 of Valley Girls
Rilla frowned, but felt like she’d just stepped off the path and she didn’t press. “This is kind of my first time. I never climbed at home.”
“This is your home now, isn’t it?” Adeena asked.
Rilla didn’t know how to answer.
They hiked deeper into the backcountry, around Liberty Cap and Mt. Broderick, both of which Rilla spent a good fifteen minutes thinking were Half Dome until she realized they weren’t. They walked a near invisible course that Petra and Adeena seemed to know—through a boggy meadow Petra called a lake, into more open, rocky land spotted with massive sequoias, firs, and patches of grass scattered with lavender-colored lupine. When Rilla asked how they knew the way, Adeena pointed out the little cairns Rilla hadn’t noticed because she’d been so busy hunting for signs of her impending doom.
The white-peach granite of Half Dome’s massive shoulder became visible—a looming thing through the trees that seemed to create its own force. They paused for water and Adeena pulled out a scarf.
“You going to pray?” Petra asked.
“I’ll keep our asses covered,” she said with a laugh, turning off the trail.
Rilla wanted to ask—about the stop, the cloth, the way Petra understood. She didn’t know how to ask and Petra didn’t explain. Instead she studied the dome and waited.
Dread settled into Rilla’s bones like beads of mercury, and though they walked ever toward it, the dome never moved. “How high is it?” she asked when Adeena returned, almost not wanting an answer.
“From here?” Petra asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
“The climb itself is eight hundred feet,” Petra said.
“But that only gets us a quarter way to the top,” Adeena added. “From Valley to the summit, we’ll go a total of almost five thousand feet today. The summit is eight thousand eight hundred feet above sea level.”
“You’re such a nerd,” Petra said.
“I forgot sport climbers’ brains were underdeveloped.” Adeena flounced ahead.
Petra walked faster and passed her.
Rilla wanted to ask what the difference was between alpine and sport, but she didn’t want to draw attention to her lack of knowledge, so she just tried to keep up, staring at the dome as she trudged behind. The magnitude of what she was about to do hit her in the chest. Even with Adeena and Petra, it felt way too big. Too impossible. Just yesterday, she had held her pee for three hours, because it meant another trip on that damn attic ladder. And she had spent that whole time clicking through all of her ex-boyfriend’s photos and eating a box of Pop-Tarts. This—Half Dome—wasn’t something she could do. Sweating more than she had been five minutes ago, Rilla rushed to catch up with Adeena and Petra, who were—shocker—arguing. This time, about which direction they should be taking.
“Okay, but I reallycan’tclimb,” Rilla interrupted. “I cried when I did it with Walker.”
“Girls usually do,” Petra said without missing a beat.
Adeena cackled.
Rilla swallowed, her stomach tight. She couldliterallydie doing this—inexperienced, out of shape, and in way over her head.
As if hearing her thoughts, Adeena turned, shading her eyes. The sun slanted dark shadows on her face. “It looks intimidating, I know. Even if you know what you’re doing, you should always be a little scared.”
That wasn’t helping.
“Don’t listen to her,” Petra interjected. “You don’t need to be scared. It looks more intimidating than it is. We’ll haul you if you need it.”
“Just focus on the trail ahead of you,” Adeena coached. “If you can hike, you can do this climb.”
Rilla shaded her eyes to look up the wall. “I feel like I’m in one of those rescue-your-teenager programs or something.”
“You’d be having to walk a lot farther, trust me,” Petra said dryly “Want some gummy bears?”
“You went to one of those outdoor rehab programs?” Adeena asked Petra. “Those are real?”
“My parents caught me smoking weed when I was fifteen and ...” Petra jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “The whole summer. I think they just wanted to go to Corsica alone.”
What the fuck was Corsica?But Rilla didn’t ask, taking the gummy bears Petra offered and biting their heads off as the group resumed hiking.
