Page 24 of Valley Girls
“By being the actual worst,” Rilla said with a laugh. She tossed her hair and put a little wickedness into her grin. She didn’t say anything more. Whatever they assumed would be safer than what was true.
“It would be a waste if she didn’t climb,” Adeena said to Petra. “I have to take her.”
“Agreed.” Petra nodded. “But I’ll take her. Since this is my home crag.”
Adeena rolled her eyes.
It had been a great idea—back in her attic and staring at her miserable Instagram—to become this epically cool climber and tell everyone to shove it. But to actually climb ... Rilla gulped. It was within her ability to make herself seem cooler than she was, but climbing, she’d learned, stripped all that away.
“Why doesn’t your sister take you?” Hico asked.
“Does she climb?” Petra glanced at Rilla. “Sorry, I don’t know your sister.”
“Yeah. She was a climbing ranger last year,” Hico said. “Not the SAR site.”
“Thea’s trying to get a permanent position,” Rilla said.
“She’s a law enforcement ranger this summer,” Hico explained. “When I saw her last, she was directing traffic.”
There was an awkward pause. Rilla studied her nails.
“Rilla, let me show you around before we eat,” Petra said, pulling up off the counter.
Relieved, Rilla followed as Petra gave her a grand tour.
The Grove, as Petra jokingly called the house, though Rilla wasn’t sure she got the joke, was a luxury home at odds with its contents—like Thea’s house in the Valley, there was a proliferation of outdoor gear, clothes, mangled shoes, and dust; and underneath the smell of food, an under-current of something sour and mildewed.UnlikeThea’s bare-bones, pine bungalow in the Valley, the Grove was all redwood and granite, tall windows, and a two-story stone fireplace under an exposed beam ceiling.
It was the most gorgeous and lived-in house Rilla had ever seen. Even the screened-in porches flanking the sides of the house had sleeping bags stretched out and packs leaned up against the wall. Her mom wouldn’t have been able to spend more than ten minutes without needing a smoke to calm down from the mess. For all her flirting with disaster, her mother’s house-cleaning was something she took seriously.
“I’m just going to get a massive cleaning done at the end of the summer and not worry about it now,” Petra said at one point, leading her over a pile of dirty clothes in a hallway. “If I can’t pay someone to fix it, it deserves to stay broken.”
“Does everyone just live here?” Rilla asked. “How do y’all afford to do this?”
“Well, we don’t have to pay for the house. There’s a few of us who saved to be here all summer—we can eat pretty cheaply, and we rotate through these big meals where everyone chips in a few dollars. Everyone else comes and goes,” Petra said, shutting a door. “You aren’t allowed to stay for more than two weeks in the Valley, total. Non-consecutive. So these are climbers who need a place to stay near the climbing, but can’t stay in the Valley. Not everyone can live out of a cool van like Alex Honnold.”
Rilla didn’t know who Alex Honnold was, but at least that explained why it was such a big deal Rilla lived in the Valley. No one else got to do that.
“You can try to evade the rangers.” Petra shrugged. “Or you can stay here and catch a ride with whoever is going to the Valley that day. We use it for a base camp. Everyone pays a little bit to use the laundry, but other than that, it’s free. We’re still in Yosemite, and there’s always someone to climb with.” She cracked open a door. “You decent?”
“Sort of,” Gage yelled.
Petra shrugged. “Good enough.” She opened the door and showed Rilla the bathroom. Complete with a half-dressed, still damp Gage. He didn’t seem bothered by Petra’s tour, but it was hard not to notice the flex and roll of muscle rippling under his skin as he toweled off. Rilla glanced to the floor, trying not to look embarrassed, but embarrassed that she felt like she needed to avert her eyes. The bathroom was luxurious—a copper tub and separate river rock shower—but also a horrendous mess with piles of clothes in corners, the countertop splashed with muddy water, and the trash overflowing. “Does Walker’s sister live here too?” Rilla asked as they went back into the hall.
“Caroline? Yeah. There’s a handful of us here for the entire summer. She keeps to herself a lot though. I mean, she’s a great climber, but ...” Petra trailed off.
“She seems a little detached?”
“She’s trying to turn this into a career. Caroline really only climbs with climbers she thinks are on her level. She spends a lot of time on her social media. Like, her Instagram probably tells you a lot.” Petra pressed her lips together and frowned. “I don’t mean to sound catty. I can’t imagine handling all that bullshit commercial stuff that goes into monetizing a passion, so what do I know?” Petra led her to the top of a twisting metal spiral staircase. “Let’s eat.”
Rilla followed Petra back to the kitchen. Being here was nothing she could have imagined herself doing even a week prior. Like she’d been dropped into a dream of her life and any minute the alarm was going to go off and she’d be late for school in Rainelle.
Back in the main area, more people she didn’t know and hadn’t been introduced to gathered in the border between the kitchen and living room, eyeing but not touching the trays and platters of food arranged on the counter. Looking around, Rilla was certain she was the youngest. And the least in shape.
A winning combination.
“Ajeet?” Adeena asked.
Everyone straightened and bowed their heads, and a lean, dark-haired climber began saying something in a language she didn’t understand.
