If I felt bad on the first day when I didn’t know anyone, I felt worse on that third day, because now the one person who maybe was going to be my friend was really mad at me. Layla totally blamed me for leading us so far down the mountain, and for ruining the map. But you know I didn’t twist her arm and make her go with me or anything! The entire group had me pegged as the big joke, loser guy.

My penance for our little outing was doing all kinds of work at the campsite with Nina, while everyone else got to go to the Continental Divide. I overheard Tomo and Pinky later on saying that the rain was actually snow up at the Divide. They said everything had a fresh layer of white on it. They also said that the snow that melted on the East side of the divide went into oceans to the East.

And, all the snow that melted on the West side of the Divide went to the oceans in the West. The water would never cross back to the other side of the continent. (I guess that’s why it is called the Divide).

It sounded pretty cool. But, I didn’t let on that I was sorry I missed it.

The next morning Mike had me hike down the mountain early with him, so I could help set up lunch for the rest of the group. That was the last of my additional assignments. From then on, I just went back to the normal drill. Layla had some demerits and had to do some stuff, too, but not much. The worst part was still just how mad she was at me.

If I had known that the situation was going to get worse before it got better, I would have found a way to leave Camp Windpipe right then. But ignorance has certain benefits, it turns out.