After breakfast, they broke us up into teams to complete a compass literacy activity. My frustration with this whole trip returns when it becomes clear that I am the only person on my eight-strong team who knows how to properly use a compass for navigation.

The only other person who seems to have any idea about the whole thing is Josiah Maldin, who is inarguably the funniest person in the grade. All of us enjoy his quick wit and constant jokes, including me, specifically because they are never making fun of anybody. He is a few inches shorter than me, and his impressive muscles were sculpted by the weight room and not the pool. He always hangs around Luis, which I find weird because I can't imagine what they have in common.

Besides his humor, the other awesome thing about Josiah is that he is an absolute math genius.

He pulls me aside from the rest of the infighting group, our list of compass directions in his hand. "It's a five-pointed star," he says under his breath as the rest of our team bickers behind us.

I stare down at the directions and try to figure out how he knows this, but I give up after a moment.

"A huge pentagram," he continues. He looks up at me with a crazy grin showing in his bright blue eyes before it's visible on his mouth. "Are we summoning Satan? Is that the whole point of this trip?"

"The Elder Gods require sacrifices," I whisper.

He laughs. "Well, Clawson says that the first group back gets increased s'mores ingredient rations. I'm winning that damn chocolate, even if it means summoning the devil."

We look back at the group. Two of the girls have given up entirely and are leaning against nearby trees as they mess around on their phones. The rest of the group has divided into two opposing sides arguing which direction is 147 degrees southeast.

The rules are that we must reach a set of prescribed landmarks in order to finish and capture a picture on someone's phone of the entire group by the landmark for proof. Clawson took time to mention that there are dozens of landmarks in the forest, but only pictures of the landmarks intended for our team will count. They painstakingly engineered the game to deter cheating and for this it is brilliant, but that they had to try so hard to avoid cheating makes me sad.

"Guys, listen," Josiah says suddenly. "Rowan's done this before. He knows what we're doing. Now, if you want to OD on s'mores tonight as badly as I do, you'll follow him."

I give him a side-eye because he just blatantly lied to our classmates. I've never done this activity before. He catches my gaze and winks so our classmates can't see.

The warring half of the group comes to its senses and harasses the obstinate pair of girls into cooperating. I take the lead into the forest with Josiah at my side.

"Keep up," Josiah shouts back to the group. Someone tells him to do something with the compass that makes me look back in concern for the sanity of that individual.

I study the sheet of directions in Josiah's hands. "I wish we had Serena," I say, noting that they listed the distances in the metric system. "How the hell am I supposed to know when we've walked five-point-three hectometers?"

"Hecto- is the prefix for a hundred, I think. So it's five hundred and thirty meters, or around sixteen hundred feet," he says, looking down at the paper. "But I could be wrong. I only know freedom units."

I chuckle. "How're you liking the trip so far?"

"Are you kidding me? It's great! I just wish we didn't have to share it with these idiots," he says quietly, nodding back to the group. I laugh.

"Hey, I'm not trying to pry, but why in the hell are you covered in dog hair?" he asks, pointing to the mess of fur on my black pants.

I hand him the compass and hurry to brush off my pants. "It was weird. I found this dog out here earlier. He was really friendly, but he bolted when I tried to lead him back to the camp."

"A dog?" he asks quizzically. "My friend, I think that was a wolf."

"No, it wasn't feral," I say, shaking my head. "And it was way too clean. Someone had been taking care of him."

"And... from the looks of it, you wrestled around with him for a bit," he jokes, pointing to some fur on my sweatshirt I hadn't brushed off.

"I petted him," I admit. "He was just too sweet."

"Well, I'm glad someone's making friends," he says, turning back to the group. "Come on, guys. We need to win that chocolate."

The mention of chocolate does indeed reinvigorate our classmates' strides.

"Do you like camping?" he asks when he turns back to me.

I nod. "I love it. You?"

"Hell yeah. Grew up in the woods," he says enthusiastically. He hands the compass back to me and I make a minute correction to our course. "But I'm better with the... flora and fauna, I guess, than compasses and whatnot. My parents were more of the "run where the wind takes you" kind. Who are you rooming with?"

"Luis," I say. "You?"

"Fuckin' Isaac," he complains. "I guess they had to put the class clowns together so we wouldn't torture anyone else, but he's such a dick. Well, I'm glad Luis is with you."

"I don't think he is," I admit. "I didn't think anyone would be cool rooming with me. I thought I'd end up with one of the girls."

He snorts. "Oh, don't worry. He doesn't care that you're gay. Besides, the girls would've spent the entire trip trying to "turn" you. Do you know how many times I've heard them complaining that they can't have you?"

The thought makes me smile. "Some of them have tried. Amanda McLaughlin cornered me at a party in our sophomore year."

"Did you hit it?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

I laugh. "No. I wasn't horny enough to pretend she was a dude."

He gets a good belly laugh out of that. "Don't let Luis scare you. He's really cool, I promise. Just a bit quiet."

"He gets in a lot of fights for someone who's "really cool"," I point out quietly.

He studies me. "You know why he fights, right?"

I shake my head, and he looks surprised. He leans in close before he says the next bit. "Trump's at the helm and you haven't figured out why the only Mexican kid at school gets dunked on all the time?"

I feel like an idiot and my heart goes out to Luis. Josiah nods at my stunned expression. "Yeah. That's also why he hasn't been expelled. Your mom's never talked to you about that?"

"She never talks about stuff like that," I say, shaking my head. "She's good about respecting privacy."

"Yeah. So, I promise, he's really cool. Just get to know him. Oh, tell him about the wolf you saw. He loves animals. He has a cat and a dog. Two of the nicest, chillest animals I've ever had the pleasure of meeting."

I smile politely at the information, though I can't imagine I'll ever need to know about Luis Delgado's pets. "Thanks. Give us something to talk about, at least."

Mercifully, just then we see a tree marked by hot pink duct tape. The words "Team Three" are written on the tape.

My mom sure loves duct tape.

"Alright, let's take the best selfie of all time," Josiah says excitedly as everyone rushes to group around the tree. Josiah kneels down and snaps a selfie on his phone, getting both the duct tape and the faces of everyone in the group in the shot.

***

The rest of the exercise passes surprisingly well. I would have expected my classmates to get tired and tap out, but with every landmark we pass, they get faster and more excited to finish. After the second landmark, Josiah quietly pitched the idea of re-triangulating our course so we would make a pentagon instead of a pentagram and save a lot of time. I shut him down. I want to win, but I want to win fair.

In the end, layers have been shed, and everyone is red-faced and plenty warm. We are the first team to arrive home and are promised triple s'mores rations by a gleeful Mrs. Clawson. Our group disperses and I chat idly with Serena while the other teams finish. Of the twelve teams, three gave up and are in poor spirits. My mom has to step in and break up an argument in one of those groups.

I excuse myself from the scene so I can change out of my sweaty tee shirt. I know of a nearby stream, the camp's namesake, that I can go rinse it out in, and I look forward to that little trip as I walk back to my cabin.

I step into my cabin and find that I wasn't the only one tired of their sweaty clothes.

Luis has his back to me and is wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs as he rummages in his bag for clothes. I find myself entranced by the lines of his back muscles and the dark hair on his legs, and, of course, his fantastic ass in that skintight underwear.

Then the door closes behind me and he starts and turns to me. I quickly avert my eyes, not wanting to stress what I'm sure is tentative patience with my sexuality, and toss my sweatshirt on my bed before pulling my tee shirt over my head.

"How was that?" I ask him as I change shirts and realize that drooling over Luis's incredible body has resulted in a blatant erection. I pull it up into my waistband, praying he isn't looking at me.

"It sucked. I thought I knew how a compass worked," he mumbles. I laugh and chance a glance behind me. He is still facing away, no longer shirtless, but is still changing his pants, so I give him the courtesy of pretending to fiddle with my bag until I hear him stop moving.

I sit on my bed, mirroring Luis. "I knew how to use the compass. But Josiah figured out what the shape was in seconds. I still don't know how he did it."

His brown eyes aren't as dark as my own. I can see from here that they are veined with gold around the pupil. And in this moment, for the first time since I've known him, he is no longer glaring. "You were the first group back, right?"

His voice is wonderful. It's deep and carries the curves of a Spanish accent. His dark skin looks incredibly soft. The beginning of stubble is showing on his jaw and his eyebrows are thick, dark and extraordinarily masculine. His lips are full and deliciously pink. Why must the forbidden fruit always be so damn sexy?

"Yeah. No thanks to the other six on our team. Oh, Josiah said I should tell you about this dog I met in the woods earlier. He said you like animals," I say, feeling stupid as soon as the words come out of my mouth.

But instead of shutting me down, Luis just gives me a look of doubt that makes his brow furrow and my dick throb in my pants. "A dog?"

"Yeah. He was real sweet. I think he's someone's pet. There are a few other campsites in the area-"

"What makes you think it was someone's pet?" he interrupts. This seems like a weird question, but I'm happy to be making conversation with him. Any reason to keep hearing that voice.

"He was really clean, friendly and well-behaved. Walked right up to me and showed me his tummy when I approached him. He didn't have a collar, though," I say. "He was huge, though. I've never seen a dog like that before."

"You're describing a wolf," he says, raising an eyebrow.

"That's what Josiah said," I say, but I shake my head. "There aren't wolves around here. It was a dog."

At this, Luis gives me a sarcastic look. I don't know why he's doing it, but I know what it's doing to me.

This is going to be a long five days.

"Did you like it?" he asks.

This is also a weird question, but I answer anyway. "Yeah. He was a sweetie. I tried to get him to follow me back to the camp so I could figure out who he belonged to. He bolted when I turned around. I don't know how something that huge moved that quickly without me hearing anything."

At this, he smiles. His smile is absolutely magical, and it nearly sends me melting onto my sleeping bag. His teeth are perfect and white and his face transforms from handsome and rugged to undeniably charming. He looks like a movie star.

"Josiah said you have a dog?" I ask.

He nods, changing his smile to a smaller one, his love of his pet clear in the fond look in his eyes. "Yeah. Perry. He's a good dog. And the real kind of dog, too, not a wolf I found in the woods."

I roll my eyes. "How do you like the trip so far?"

He thinks for a moment. "It's... relaxing. I like the woods."

I grin. "Me, too."

I decide that I've deflated just enough to move. I grab my shirt and head for the door. "I'm going to go wash this. See you later."

"See you," he says.

I reflect on the weird conversation as I make my way to the stream, filled with nostalgia for this gorgeous forest. What is everyone's obsession with that dog? Why did Luis seem almost... annoyed that I kept referring to it as a dog instead of a wolf?

I sense that I'm not alone exactly one moment before I get head-butted in the back of the leg again. This time I don't catch myself and instead sprawl face-first into a fern. I turn on my back as my canine friend begins licking my face.

"Hey, boy," I say, sitting up. He doesn't stop sniffing and licking me until I push his shoulders back so I can breathe. I get an idea as he studies me with those quizzical eyes and reach into my pocket for my phone. "None of my friends think I know what a dog is. I'm going to take a video of-"

I stop because he pounces on my chest and resumes his licking of my face. His paws are huge and he is unbelievably heavy.

"Stop!" I cry, laughing. "I'm all sweaty." I manage to hold his head in place for long enough to sit up again. "What is with you, boy?"

He wrestles his head from my grasp and nips my hand playfully. I reach for my phone again, but he thinks I'm playing a game and nips at my fingers. I outmaneuver the bite by flinging my hand aside and reaching for my phone in my other hand. I watch as his attention becomes fixated on something beside me.

I look over. My shirt lies crumpled amid the fern leaves.

"Don't you dare," I say to the dog. He cocks his head at me before he bolts around me with incredible speed and snatches the shirt away from my grasping lunge for it. He holds it proudly in his mouth as he parades a few feet away from me and sits down, as though saying "What are you gonna do about it?"

"Weirdo," I chastise the dog. Then I try for the third time to retrieve my phone from my pocket.

As soon as I move for it, the dog literally turns tail and races away from me, deeper into the woods. I call after him uselessly, wanting my shirt, but I give up after a moment.

"Asshole," I mutter under my breath as I continue my path to the stream. I can wash the dog spit off me there, at least.