One Question

Chapter Three - Crossing the Line

Naomi had a dilemma.

Softball season was almost over. Prom had passed. But more importantly, she was about to graduate, and that meant she had to drive to Colorado.

Her parents wouldn't let her drive to Colorado alone. The problem was, over the last couple of months she'd gotten more distant from her friends, not less. She could fly, but it would take up a lot of her savings, especially this close to the date, and plus, she'd really wanted to try camping before she got married and moved into an apartment and started acting like an adult. Well, more of an adult.

The idea to ask Phi to come along came during Spanish class. By this point, Naomi and Phi got along comfortably but still had not passed the school dividing line. They hadn't even had lunch together, and actually, Naomi wasn't sure where Phi was eating lunch. She'd discovered (accidentally) through the school rumor system that Phi was no longer on speaking terms with her friends, so either Phi had a secret boyfriend or she was eating alone. She didn't want to ask that, either.

("You were a girl scout?" Naomi said, eyes wide.

Phi laughed. "Why are you so surprised?"

"I don't know. I guess I thought being a girl scout was kind of...uncool."

"I don't know what gave you the impression that I was concerned with that sort of thing," Phi said, "but yeah, I was a girl scout for, hm. Eight years?"

"So you've gone camping?"

"Oh, loads of times," Phi said. "I love camping. I also go camping with my family."

"Wow," Naomi said. "I've never gone camping before."

Phi smiled. "We should go camping together sometime.")

Naomi planned to camp her way to Colorado for two reasons: One, it saved money, and two, she really wanted to try it.

Her family was athletic enough. They went on hikes occasionally, and her parents had encouraged both their daughters to find some form of sport. But the whole camping thing was a little lost to them. After all, it was hard to get time off from work, and if they did, it was the opinion of them and her older sister that a hotel was much preferred.

Even when Andrew proposed in Zion National Park, they'd stayed in a hotel in Springdale. Andrew's family was also not a camping family. Plus, Andrew was extra allergic to mosquito bites, and the last time he went camping, he came back with huge, itchy lumps everywhere.

But Naomi didn't know how to ask Phi. Driving to Colorado wasn't a day trip, nor was it driving out some place to camp for a few days. It was a road trip. And even worse, Naomi was planning to stay in Colorado until the wedding in a couple months, which meant Phi would have to find her own way home.

Perhaps most alarming was the thought, why would Phi even want to be stuck with her for that long?

If she didn't ask soon, then she wouldn't know in time if she really had to book a flight or find someone else. But she wasn't ready. She didn't know Phi enough. She wasn't confident enough.

And then it was finals week.

Naomi wasn't worried about her finals. Her AP classes were the only ones she was ever worried about, but they'd had their AP Chem final right after taking the AP test, and AP English just had an essay, so the only ones she had left were Gov/Econ (a project), Spanish 4, Psychology, and AP Stats (really, she didn't consider AP Stats an AP; she'd taken it because it was easier than Calc AB). She only had three tests in the last week.