The Vigilante's Handbook (Misfits #1)

Nineteen: This Is a Democracy

We made our way back to the RV in relative silence, energy depleted from the splash fight. It didn't help that we were running on empty food tanks. I thought I had been hungry this morning, but after hiking around the woods for most of the morning, I was ravenous.

Our problem was quickly solved when we got back to home base. The whole gang was waiting for us outside. Only Cody had the decency to look worried. "What happened? Why are you all wet? We thought Julien had kidnapped you."

"We're fine." I spouted off my lie like I hadn't rehearsed it. "Stitch heard water. I didn't believe him, but we were so thirsty, Lucia. I thought Miguel was going to die of dehydration. He even fell over when we found the river bank and that's why he's soaked. We went in after him, which is why we're soaked. I think Stitch might have saved Miguel's life. You should probably take him off house arrest."

Stitch was right. I was a bad liar.

Lucia must have been dumb to believe me. "He fell in, huh?"

"Anna is lying." How dare Stitch throw me under the bus like that? "We found the creek and had a splash fight. It's really hard to stay in one place all day when there's nothing to do but sweep the dusty floorboards."

To my surprise, Lucia wasn't angry that we left. "You swept?"

"I thought about it."

Then she tugged off a strap of her backpack--I didn't know how she had gotten her hands on a backpack--and tossed each of us a water bottle. "Don't you know it's not safe to drink from streams?"

Miguel looked at me, eyebrows raised as if that was a new concept for him. I could hear the sarcasm in his voice that was becoming familiar.

"It's fine if it's a fast moving stream." At that point, I was just parroting Stitch, but he was a smart kid. After all, there was a reason he was the top of our class in almost every subject. Lucia and I had him beat in tactics, and we all know how well he holds up in hand to hand combat. I trusted him if he said I wouldn't get a flesh-eating bacteria from the river. "Where did you get the gear and did you bring any for me?"

Because I had just realized that the whole team was decked out in camping gear. Ariana had on a puffy fur lined coat. Cody was fiddling around with a kerosene lantern and matching camp stove. But best of all, Foster was unpacking a load of canned goods from his hiking backpack. My mouth watered at the sight.

Lucia didn't give me time to down my water bottle before she was throwing more stuff at me. A winter coat with a fleece jacket insert, a backpack full of toiletries, and a watch. Not as fancy as my super watch, but it would have to do. "You got me a watch?"

"You have a tan line." I glanced at my wrist and, sure enough, there was a tan line there. "Plus if you have a watch then you won't lose track of time having a splash fight when you should have been watching the base."

"The base?" Foster asked, and he didn't sound pleased. "You mean we're staying here? I thought this was a quick pitstop. We should find somewhere else to stay the night and all the other nights that we're stuck out here. We could defend ourselves so much better if we slept on real mattresses."

"You slept on a real mattress, Foster, so you don't get to complain," Ariana said. "I spent the night on plywood when I wasn't on watch. Were you on watch all night?"

"Yes, I was."

"No, you weren't because you fell asleep probably five minutes into your shift. Anna had to wake you up. If it weren't for her we would have slept in all day."

"And that would have been okay. She didn't need to wake us up at the crack of dawn."

"Can we get back to the point?" I cut in.