Walk By Faith

Part 3

How am I going to fit all of this food in here? I need a magician or shrink ray ASAP. Jordan notices my struggle and strides my way, pushes up his glasses, and offers his help, "I can help you pack that food in your bag if you want, just gotta find the extra space." After my numerous attempts I let him have at it as I back away from my pack to observe. Jordan grabs packages of oatmeal and folds them before shoving them in my front backpacking pocket along with top romen  and somehow manages to also fit granola bars and a cup of noodles in there as well. Then he maneuvers a package of dried fruits and trail mixes into a side pocket and stuffs other goodies here and there without rearranging a single item in my bag. He steps away and wipes his forehead with his sleeve then smiles. "Wow, thanks Jordan, you are one heck of a pack master." He shrugs, "It's all about spatial reasoning." Then sends me off with a nod before attending to Krista who also seems to be having struggles. We've arrived at the base of our trail and have just started to pack for the next few days by unloading all of our things for the adventure ahead of us, from this point on, no more bathrooms or electricity of any sort. Just our packs, sweet toilet paper and an occasional trail guide.

"Everyone gather over here, we're going to play some team building games before we decide to trust each other with our lives!" Our Pa for the week announces, exaggerating a gasp while we all shoot him mixed expressions as he waves his arms above his head in an open area between a few trees. He has us all sit in a circle and we first go around and say our names, our age, and something that we like, a typical get to know you thing. As we go around I try my hardest to remember everyone's information. I shake my head as Connor states that he likes girls and smile when Jordan sweetly says he likes Marissa, the girls go crazy with awes when she blushes. When it comes to my turn I suddenly feel shaky with nerves as all eyes are on me. "Uh, I'm Payton and I'm 17 and I really love the snow, a lot. And chocolate is always good too, I like adventures and well, almost anything to be honest." I nod, not impressed with my answer but I didn't really know what else to say. I didn't want to brag about knowing American Sign Language or drawing and stuff, a lot of people already mentioned artistic things so I didn't want to sound like everyone else.

We just finished the rest of our team building activities and our trail guide has finally arrived to lead us along the trail we will hike along. I see Connor eyeing me as the trail guide goes over safety rules for the trek. He had me get on his back, piggy back style, since I'm the smallest in the family, when we were all trying to fit on a single stump. He's easy on the eyes that's for sure but I wish he would stop teasing me if he apparently already likes this Megan girl. I nudge Rebecca and whisper, "Hey, what has he been talking about?" The two of us have started to become pretty good friends.

She whispers back, "Come on Payton, focus, He's basically just saying 'don't be stupid', you shouldn't have a problem with that." She winks and notices Connor eyeing me again, "Ah now I see what's captured your attention. I warn you, he's a confusing one."

I roll my eyes, "Yeah, I got that, thanks."

"But hey, at least he's a pretty cute confusing one so it makes it not all bad." She giggles.

I playfully whack her arm, "Not so loud or he'll know were talking about him, now pay attention." I tease, and start walking forward as everyone else does, looks like we're on our way at last.