Lauren glanced toward the ceiling. “No freaking way. I’m agoraphobic.”
“Agoraphobia is fear of open places,” corrected Addie, who’d been quietly observing this exchange with intent interest. “Acrophobia is fear of heights.”
“Whatever,” Lauren answered. “I’m not going up there.”
Carl Eldred, an impossibly fit teacher, bald with muscles the size of cantaloupes, bounded from the gym office, clapping his hands. “All right, people. Let’s go over the ground rules before we get started.”
Addie took Lauren’s and Kris’s “before” lists, which they had dutifully completed without having been asked, and craned her neck to catch a better glimpse of Kris, who was handily maneuvering the ropes. His gastrocnemii were bulging today, undoubtedly due to the strenuous physical labor from being part of the grounds crew. That would also explain his firm triceps and enlarged deltoids.
Her heart did a little flutter. Which reminded her. “The cardiac monitors!”
“Another task of yours I completed. The straps are on their wrists and synched.” Dex called up an app that showed Kris’s heart beating at a calm 63 BPM and Lauren’s at a relatively high 82.
“Why is hers so elevated?” Addie asked.
Dex smiled to himself, like a bird preening his own feathers. “Perhaps because she’s in my presence?”
“You’re not her type,” Addie shot back, still smarting from the way he’d put her down back in the lab. “She’s attracted to boys with way more testosterone.”
His feathers folded. “Excuse me for dabbling in a little self-deprecating humor.”
“Excuse accepted.”
Carl was winding down his spiel. Addie went over to stop him before they took another step. Literally.
“Thank you so much,” she gushed, as if his instruction had already saved their lives. “I know you have another class after this and you probably want to grab some lunch, so we’ll take it from here.”
“What?” he asked. “Leave?”
“Yes. We’re fine. You can go.”
“Can’t do.” He crossed his arms and widened his stance. “I’ve got to be here when newbies are on the ropes. School orders from our insurance carrier.”
She took out her phone, called up a group email that appeared to be from Dr. Brooks and Headmaster Foy, and showed it to him. He gaped at it for a second. “This is completely out of the ordinary. I could be sued!”
“There’s a waiver in your office printer waiting for your signature,” Addie said. “It frees you of all liability.”
“I’ll have to read it myself. Don’t do anything until I give the okay.” He held up a finger of warning and then marched off.
“Addie,” Kris said softly.
She turned and their eyes met. They had a connection now. She could sense their growing bond in the deepest recesses of her ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The near plane crash, the shark, the late-night ice cream in her room, even the bogus agave worms, had trained their synapses to release neurochemicals on sight. This was a phenomenon she’d researched, of course, and observed from the sidelines as Ed and Tess’s friend. But those situations couldn’t compare to actual, thrilling experience.
“Addie,” he said again.
She startled. “Yes?”
“I found out something about yesterday. We have to talk.”
“We are talking.”
He did that half grin thing of his.
“Alone.”
“No.” Lauren shook her head.
“What?” Kris asked, spinning around to look at her. “Why can’t Addie and I have a moment alone?”
He said a moment alone. Addie felt her PEA surge!
“I just want her to understand that I am not climbing that.” Lauren pointed to the wall. “It’s too dangerous.”
Addie said, “There are cushions.” To prove it, she jumped on the mat. “You can drop like a rock and, at most, sprain something or break a pinkie.”
“Exactly!” Lauren said. “I’m not going to risk being benched from track for this stupid experiment. Field hockey is my ticket to a full scholarship. I am not going to screw it up with a broken wrist this fall!”
Dexter sauntered over, playing the elder, more mature lab partner. “What have you done wrong now, Addie?”
“Addie hasn’t done anything wrong,” Kris said. “Lauren doesn’t want to climb the wall.”
“Did you tell her that was the experiment today?” Dex asked Addie accusingly.
“I think the big giveaway might have been the harnesses and rock-climbing shoes, along with Carl giving them pointers,” Addie said wryly. Dex was always so quick to judge.
“That’s an idea. What if we brought Carl back?” Kris asked. “Would you feel better then?”
“I’d feel better watching someone else climb The Beast, like one of our Dr. Frankensteins.” Lauren flicked her finger between Dex and Addie.
Dr. Frankenstein?
Dex’s hand flew to his chest. “I wish I could. I do. But due to a childhood illness, I simply don’t have the muscle strength. The doctors are amazed I’m as high-functioning as I am, considering my limited lung capacity.”
“Scarlet fever?” Kris asked.
“Smothering mothering,” Addie said under her breath as she went over to Lauren and unsnapped the harness. “Okay. I’ll climb the wall, and once you see how safe it is, you can try.”
Lauren slipped out of the harness and kicked it to Addie. “And if I don’t?”
“Then I’m afraid you can’t get the extra credit for AP Bio. Not that the Ivies care about GPAs or anything.” Addie stepped in, glad she’d decided to wear shorts today instead of her favorite skirt.
“This is so unfair,” Lauren said, slipping out of her shoes. “It’s like I’m being held hostage. Damned if I do; damned if I don’t.”
“You could always climb the wall with a lifeline, get the extra credit, and actually have something interesting to write about for a college essay,” Kris said, helping cinch up Addie’s straps.
Dex wiggled his finger. “A moment of your time, lab partner.”
Addie shuffled a few measly steps. “Can’t go any farther. Strapped in.”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m demonstrating.” She slipped on the climbing shoe Lauren had been wearing. A tad loose for her smaller feet.
“You’re going to jeopardize the entire experiment. Bad enough that you ate the ‘agave worms.’” He put agave worms in finger quotes. “Now you’re actually interacting with the participants. And by participants, I mean Kris.”
She tried tying the left shoe while standing, a bit of a challenge. “The timbre of your voice would indicate that you are growing angry. Either that or you have a cold. Which is it?”
He bent down and knotted the laces for her. “The issue is that you’re developing a thing for one of your guinea pigs.”
“A thing?” She frowned as Dex moved to her other foot like she was a helpless toddler. “What kind of thing? That is a very nonspecific term.”
He whipped back his blond bangs. “A crush.”
“As in to compress by force? I do not wish to squish Kris.” Admittedly, she was having fun with him now, playing on her reputation for overliteralism. No one expected her to joke around, and that made it even funnier—at least to her.
He stood and put his hands on his hips. “Your bias toward him is yet one more reason to terminate this experiment immediately.”
“And what about your obsession with Lauren?”
Dex paled and then recovered. “So you don’t deny your feelings for him.”
“I neither confirm nor deny,” she shot back, so tired of his constant riding. Just once it would be nice if he cut her a break. “But I am completely confident that the results of this experiment remain untainted by either me or you.”
He scowled.
“Can we hurry?” Lauren said. “Did you say Carl has a group coming in? I need credit for this and Addie’s
going to take up all my time.”
“I’m good to go,” Kris said.
Dex uttered one last halfhearted protest as Addie returned to the mats and shuffled back to the wall. “The purpose of this experiment is to chart the difference between male and female reactions to certain physical challenges.”
“Like falling on your face,” Lauren said.
Addie picked up the rope tied to the other end of her harness and tossed it to Kris. “Would you mind belaying me?”
His lips twitched in amusement. “It would be my pleasure.”
“I should do it. I’m her lab partner,” Dex said.
Addie touched her palm. “Calluses, remember?”
He couldn’t argue with that, as his mother had often warned her that Dexter suffered from particularly sensitive skin that made it impossible to shake hands, for instance, much less secure a rough rope.
“Here. Take this, I don’t need it,” Lauren said, tossing her the heart monitor.
Addie strapped it on and then pivoted to the wall, assessing the best route up. The rocks were different primary colors—yellow, red, blue, green—which must be portentous in some regard. Yellow, she deduced, were easier footing. Blue were safeties. Red were advanced. Green . . . no clue.
Gripping a red, she hoisted her right foot on a yellow and proceeded in logical fashion. The process provided an interesting challenge vaguely reminiscent of chess. It wasn’t just the next move you had to contemplate, but the move after that, and even one after that.
“All right!” Kris shouted as Addie reached the halfway point. He gave the harness a reassuring tug of the rope. Something felt off and she reached behind her to adjust the carabiner, tightening according to the rule of thumb her mother used to sing:
Righty tighty, lefty loosey.
Calling down to Lauren, she said, “See how easy this is?”
“You’re, like, only six feet off the ground. As a kid, I slept on a top bunk that was higher.”
Bunk bed, eh? Hmm. Setting her sights on where the wall bent to the overhang, Addie assessed the available rock outcroppings and proceeded accordingly, rising a good twenty feet. Her arm muscles—accustomed to holding books, not pulling up her entire weight—began to ache and her knees were slightly unsteady.
She dared not look down; already her palms were turning moist, thereby raising the possibility of slipping.
“Grab that green rock over there,” Kris said, gesturing to her left. “That’ll put you in the sweet spot for the final ascent.”
Except the green rock was a bit of a stretch. In order to reach it, she would have to extend her leg a good five feet, almost her entire body length.
“Be careful!” Lauren cried.
“You can come down now,” Dex said. “Your heart rate is one forty. That’s enough.”
No, it wasn’t. At her age, her pulse should be able to exceed two hundred and be fine. Anyway, if she relinquished at this stage, Lauren would refuse to go any higher during her turn and that would defeat the purpose of the experiment.
She had to give it a shot. Reach for the red, swing to the green, right foot on the yellow. Perfect. With a deep, oxygenating breath, she summoned all her courage and followed the plan. Anyway, if she fell, there was the harness and the rope. Backups.
“I’m going for it,” she declared.
Gripping a rock with her right hand, she extended her left foot to the green rock. It was like doing a midair split. Her anterior thigh muscles balked in protest. Tentatively, she reached for the red rock with her left hand. Now she was splayed against the wall like a splattered spider.
“Halfway there,” Kris said. “Hold on. You can do it. I’ll keep a tight grip on you while you do.”
She had no choice. Removing her right hand from the safety, she was about to bring her right foot over when she felt another tug and heard an ominous snap!
This was followed by an “Oh, crap!” as the carabiner she’d just adjusted released the clip, which flew up to the grommet on the ceiling where it remained, a good ten feet above her head.
Addie clung to the wall with all her might. She was thirty feet off the floor, higher than the top story of her house back home. Below her, Kris, Lauren, and Dex were the size of toys. Or so she imagined. She didn’t have the guts to check.
“Help her!” Lauren screamed.
Dex read off her heart rate. “It’s one sixty-three. And climbing.”
“You’re cool, Addie,” Kris said calmly. “There’s another rope right off your left shoulder. If you can reach it and hook it on, you’ll be back in business.”
She could barely turn her head, much less grab a rope. “I’m afraid that’s a negative, captain.”
Lauren said, “We should get Carl. He’ll be able to . . .”
“No!” Addie surprised even herself by shouting. “That will only cause administrative problems. Kris is right. If I can get rehooked, I’ll be fine. When I adjusted the carabiner, I must have accidentally loosened it instead of the opposite.”
“No problem. I’m coming to get you,” Kris said, throwing the other end of his rope to Lauren and taking to the wall.
“Here we go,” Dex said. “Countdown to disaster. Don’t worry, folks, I have 911 on speed dial!”
Addie watched as Kris climbed with sure footing. “You’ve done this before.”
“Camp in Canada. We had a tradition of racing each other to the top of a cliff every night after dinner,” he said. “None of us had these wimpy harnesses.”
Which raised an interesting question. “What will you do when you get to me?”
“I’ll attach my rope to your clip.” He paused to contemplate the best route to get next to her.
“You can’t. There’ll be too much distance between us.”
Kris was close enough now that they could talk without having to shout. “I agree,” he said. “But not for long.” Two more climbs and he was inches away. “See?”
Addie grinned. She was so relieved to have him next to her. “Thanks.”
“No problem. You look really pretty today, by the way. I don’t know what it is.”
A stimulated ventromedial prefrontal cortex, she almost replied, choosing instead to respond with a simple shrug and a blush.
“One hundred ninety-five and rising!” Dex announced.
Kris reached behind his back, holding on to the wall with one precarious hand, and undid the carabiner. Then, leaning far to his right, he attached it to her clip and twisted it tight. “There. Safe and secure.”
“But you’re . . . free!” Addie said.
He shrugged. “No biggie. Want me to help you down?”
Addie thought about this.
Her hands were sweating so profusely she had to wipe them off on her shorts before each grab. Her heart felt like it was about to crack through her ribs. Every inch of her was screaming to descend to safety, to get off this godforsaken wall with its tricky rocks and ridiculous purpose. Only sick adrenaline junkies would call this fun.
“That’s okay,” she said. “I can do it myself.”
“But . . .” Kris went silent as Addie summoned all her courage and forced her left hand to reach for the red rock to the left.
“All the way to the top,” she said shakily, “like I promised.”
He broke into a wide grin. “Me, too. I’ll go first so you’ll know which rocks to use.”
“I can’t look.” Lauren hid her face in her hands.
“You have to look,” Kris called to her. “Because you’re holding the other end of her rope.”
“Oh, right.” Lauren scrambled to get the end lying on the mat. Kris climbed all the way up without a safety!
They worked in unison, Addie following his trail. The trick was to keep looking up. If the brain did not know how far off the ground it was, it could not flip the switch into panic mode. Of course, descending would present its own problems, though Addie wasn’t worried.
Kris was with her, and just having him around made every
thing all right.
“You go first,” he said when they got to the top. “Step on that red rock and reach for the yellow.”
She took his advice, and as she passed him, he touched her back to steady her. There was something so gracious about this simple movement that her heart wanted to break. Maybe other people thought she was weird, but Kris didn’t. And realizing that, she was overcome with such a boost of confidence that with a burst of energy, she took the next, precarious step and slapped the ceiling.
“Done!”
“Booyah!” Kris said, giving her a fist bump. “And you did it all yourself. No support.”
“Except the moral kind,” Addie said. “From you.”
“Oh my god. Two hundred and twenty!” Dexter shouted.
“That’s my pulse?” Addie asked.
“No. That’s Kris’s. It’s gone . . . off the charts.”
But Kris wasn’t even panting or out of breath. Hadn’t broken a sweat, either. So that heartbeat made no sense, Addie thought. Unless it had nothing to do with the wall climbing . . . ?
He winked. “Damn monitor.”
Lauren let out a scream. That was how Addie realized that she must have let go of the wall, because suddenly she was dangling in midair, Lauren valiantly holding on to her end of the rope.
“Let her down slowly,” a man’s voice said. “Hand over hand.”
Addie swung around to see Carl standing at the computer next to Dex and Dr. Brooks. No one seemed especially pleased—especially Dr. Brooks.
“In my office,” she said once Addie’s feet touched the mat. “Now!”
FOURTEEN
“I’ll take that,” Carl said, removing the rope from Lauren’s hands. “You kids had better move along. My group is almost here.”
Lauren watched incredulously as Dex and Addie gathered their laptop and notes and disappeared around the corner with Dr. Brooks. “Hey! What about my extra credit?” she hollered.
Too late. They were out of earshot. Either that or they were simply blowing her off. “Can you believe that?” she cried. “We agree to do their stupid experiment and they just walk away as if we’re chump change. It’s so disrespectful.”
Kris sat on the floor, removing his climbing shoes, only half paying attention to Lauren’s bitching. Wow, total complainer.
This Is My Brain on Boys Page 14