My Romance Life System

The rest of the hike to the waterfall was quiet. The thing with Ren had left something hanging in the air, and Nina had stopped talking completely. She walked with a frown, glancing back at Kofi like she was trying to figure something out.

"You think he does that a lot?" she finally asked, breaking her silence. "Just goes off alone to chop wood?"

"How would I know?" Kofi stepped over a root crossing the path.

"I'm just saying, it's weird. Who brings an axe on a school trip?"

"Maybe the resort had it. For firewood or something."

Nina considered this. "Still weird. The way he looked at us... like we'd caught him doing something private."

'We did catch him doing something private,' Kofi thought but didn't say it.

Thea was quieter than usual, eyes on the path, sketchbook held tight. The image of Ren swinging that axe, all that controlled power and strange intensity, didn't match the detached guy from school. She kept thinking about the way his muscles had moved, precise and practiced, like he'd done it a thousand times before.

'He looked really alone.'

The path curved around a massive boulder, and suddenly the sound hit them—a constant roar that made conversation impossible. They followed the trail down through thick ferns until the trees opened up.

The waterfall dropped fifty feet down a sheer rock face into a clear pool below, spray creating cool mist that drifted across the whole clearing. Rainbows flickered in and out of existence in the spray.

Jake and Ruby were already there on a big flat rock near the base, sitting with deliberate space between them. Jake had his shoes off, feet dangling toward the water but not quite reaching.

"Hey! You made it!" Jake waved them over, grinning wide. "This place is incredible, right? Look at the rocks behind the water—you can actually walk back there if you're careful."

"Please don't," Ruby said quietly. "You'll slip and crack your head open."

"I wasn't going to! I'm just saying you could."

Nina perked up immediately at the sight of the falls. "Okay, this makes the whole trip worth it." She walked to the pool's edge, crouching down and touching the water. "Jesus, that's freezing. My hand's already numb."

"The water comes from snowmelt higher up," Ruby offered. "That's why it's so cold even though it's warm today."

"Thank you, nature encyclopedia." But Nina was smiling when she said it.

Kofi found a spot on the rocks away from the others, a natural seat carved into the stone by years of water and wind. Thea followed and sat beside him against the same stone, their shoulders almost but not quite touching. She opened her sketchbook and started drawing the falling water, how it crashed against rocks below, sending up clouds of mist.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while, just watching. The waterfall was hypnotic, endless water falling and falling, never running out. Jake was explaining something to Ruby about erosion patterns, his hands moving as he talked. Ruby actually seemed interested, leaning in to hear him better over the water's roar.

"He's actually doing okay," Nina observed, coming to sit near Kofi and Thea. "I thought for sure he'd say something weird about yeast by now."

"Give him time," Kofi said.

"No faith in our boy Jake? He's growing. Evolving. Soon he'll be able to have entire conversations without mentioning fermentation."

Thea's pencil kept moving across the page, but Kofi saw the corner of her mouth twitch up slightly.

After about twenty minutes of peaceful waterfall watching, Jake turned to Ruby, and everyone could see him gathering courage, his whole body tensing up.

"So, uh, Ruby." He paused, started again. "Since we both like history and you said you're having trouble with the dates and everything... maybe we could study together? When we get back?"

'He's doing it. And he didn't mention bread. Progress.'

Ruby looked at him, quiet for a long moment. Jake's smile started to fade, his shoulders beginning to slump.

"I mean, only if you want to," he added quickly. "It's not a big deal if you don't—"

"Yeah," she said finally, smiling small and shy. "Okay. I'd like that."

Jake's whole face lit up like Christmas morning. "Really? Cool! That's so cool. I mean, it's just studying, but cool. We could use the library. Or the coffee shop near school. They have good muffins. Not that the muffins matter. We'd be studying."

"Jake," Ruby said gently. "The library's good."

"Right. Library. Perfect."

Nina caught Kofi's eye and winked dramatically. Mission accomplished.

They stayed another hour. Jake and Ruby moved to discussing their study plans, which sessions they'd need to cover before the next test. Nina took endless photos on her phone, making everyone pose in increasingly ridiculous positions. "Natural" shots, she called them, which involved Jake pretending to contemplate the waterfall philosophically while Ruby tried not to laugh.

"Thea, you too," Nina commanded. "I need one of you drawing. It's artistic."

Thea looked up from her sketchbook, alarmed. "I don't... I don't like pictures."

"Just one. You don't have to look at the camera. Keep drawing."

Thea glanced at Kofi, who shrugged. "She won't stop until you let her."

So Thea went back to drawing, trying to ignore Nina's phone camera clicking away. After a minute, Nina showed her the photo. Thea was bent over her sketchbook, pencil in hand, hair falling around her face with the waterfall blurred in the background.

"See? Artistic. You look like a real artist."

Thea studied the photo for a long moment. 'Is that what I look like to other people?'

"Can you send it to me?" she asked quietly.

Nina's eyebrows shot up. "You want it? Yeah, of course! What's your number?"

They exchanged numbers, Thea typing carefully on her phone with the same concentration she used for drawing.

When the guide finally called time to head back, the group felt lighter than they had all morning. They walked together this time, no mysterious side paths, no splitting up. Jake was practically floating, still riding the high of Ruby agreeing to study with him. He kept glancing at her when he thought she wasn't looking.

She was looking.

---

The last evening was low-key. The "closing ceremony" turned out to be Ms. Lail standing at the front of the lodge, reading from index cards about bus departure times while everyone ate sad leftover buffet food. The chicken from two nights ago had been transformed into some kind of casserole. The pasta salad looked defeated.

They took their usual corner table, the dynamic between them easy now, familiar. They ate quietly, but it was comfortable quiet, three days having built something unspoken between them.

"This food is somehow worse than cafeteria food," Nina poked at the mysterious casserole. "I didn't think that was possible."

"It's the same company," Jake informed them. "Sunshine Food Services. They do the whole district."

"That explains so much," Ruby muttered.

Thea wasn't eating. She was adding final touches to her waterfall drawing, shading in the rocks at the base. Kofi watched her work, the way her hand moved with such certainty when she drew, completely different from the hesitation in everything else she did.

"That's really good," he said. "You captured how the water actually moves."

She glanced at him, then back at her drawing. "Water's hard. It never stops moving, so you have to pick a moment and commit to it."

"Deep," Nina said through a mouthful of defeated pasta salad. "Very philosophical."

After dinner, as the other students began drifting back to their cabins to pack, Nina leaned forward with determination.

"Final team meeting. This trip's been disasters and anxiety, but I'm calling it a win. No bear attacks, Jake's not banned from water, Thea actually talked to us. But we need one more thing."

She looked at each of them. "Proper campfire. Just us. No teachers, no drama, no other people. Mandatory final debriefing."

"Is anything you do not mandatory?" Ruby asked.

"Nope. Democracy is dead. I'm a benevolent dictator. Now come on."

They found a small fire pit down a path from the lodge, stones circled by log benches that had seen better days. The wood was already set up, probably by staff, but actually lighting it was another matter.

"You need kindling," Ruby said, watching Jake try to light a large log directly with a match.

"This is kindling," Jake insisted, holding up a branch as thick as his wrist.

"That's not... never mind."

It took Jake and Kofi fifteen minutes of fumbling with matches and leaves while Nina and Ruby offered increasingly unhelpful commentary.

"Maybe if you blow on it harder," Nina suggested.

"That's putting it out!" Jake protested, smoke in his eyes.

"Try talking to it. Use your bread knowledge. Fire and yeast are basically the same thing, right?"

"They're not even remotely—"

"Got it," Kofi interrupted, as small flames finally caught on the dry leaves and started spreading to the twigs.

Thea sat on a log through all of this, watching the chaos quietly, but Kofi noticed she'd moved closer to the fire pit as it caught, drawn to the warmth.

Finally they got a real fire going, orange flames dancing and sending sparks up into the darkening sky. The sun was setting behind the mountains, painting everything gold and pink. They settled on the logs, passing around a bag of marshmallows Nina had liberated from the kitchen and a single stick they took turns with.

"Two truths and a lie, round two," Nina announced, voice softer in the firelight. "But first, Thea, immunity's over. You're playing this time. No more sitting out."

Thea froze, marshmallow hovering on the stick. She looked at Nina, then Kofi, panic flashing in her eyes.

Kofi nodded slightly. 'Just keep it simple. You can do this.'

"I'll go first," Nina said. "Show you how it's done. One, I once ate a whole jar of pickles on a dare. Two, I'm actually terrified of the dark. Three, I think this group is the weirdest but best thing that's happened to me all year."

"The pickles," Jake said immediately. "Nobody could eat that many pickles."

"Wrong. That's true. Happened last summer. Almost threw up but I won twenty bucks."

"The dark thing then," Ruby guessed. "You don't seem scared of anything."

Nina grinned. "Also true. I sleep with a nightlight. Have since I was five. The lie was number three—this group isn't the weirdest thing that's happened to me. Last year I accidentally joined a cult for two weeks. Long story."

"What?" Jake nearly dropped his marshmallow in the fire. "How do you accidentally—"

"My turn," Ruby interrupted. "One, I've read every single book in the school library. Two, I failed PE last year. Three, I can speak three languages."

They went around guessing. Ruby had indeed failed PE ("I refused to run the mile. Just sat down on the track.") and could speak English, Spanish, and was learning Japanese from anime. She had not read every book in the library, just most of them.

Jake went next, admitting he collected vintage bread packaging ("It's historically significant!"), that he'd never actually been fishing before this trip, and lying about being good at math.

Then it was Thea's turn. She looked at her hands, thinking. Long quiet, just fire crackling and popping.

"We can skip you if—" Nina started.

"No." Thea's voice was quiet but firm. She took a breath. "Okay. One, my favorite color is blue. Two, I'm a very good swimmer. Three... I like Kofi's jokes."

Kofi's head snapped up. 'She likes my jokes? No way. They're awful.'

Nina grinned immediately. "The swimmer thing's the lie. You told us you couldn't swim. And your favorite color's probably something depressing like gray or black. So number two."

Thea shook her head. A tiny smile appeared, so small you'd miss it if you weren't looking. "The lie is number three."

Complete silence. Then Jake and Ruby burst out laughing.

"She got you!" Jake managed between laughs. "Totally played you."

Nina was dying, actually falling off her log. "Oh my god, amazing. She doesn't like your jokes. Best truth ever. Your face! Your face right now!"

Kofi stared at Thea, trying to look betrayed but fighting a smile. "My jokes are great. You're missing out."

"They're really not," Thea said quietly, but she was definitely smiling now, just a little.

'She made a joke. An actual joke. About my jokes.'

"Your favorite color's actually blue?" Ruby asked.

Thea nodded. "Like the sky just before it gets dark. That specific blue."

The game continued. They learned that Nina had been kicked out of ballet class for adding her own moves, that Jake's middle name was Bartholomew, that Ruby wrote fanfiction under a secret username she would never reveal.

The fire had burned down to glowing coals, casting everyone in warm orange light. The temperature had dropped, and they'd all moved closer to the fire, their little circle tightening.

Kofi's turn came. He looked around at the firelit faces. Nina's bright eyes still dancing with laughter. Jake and Ruby sitting closer now, their knees almost touching. Thea quietly toasting another marshmallow with that small, real smile still on her face.

'This is what having friends feels like. Actual friends.'

"Okay," his voice came out quiet but clear. "One, I'm terrified of this trip ending and everything going back to how it was. Two, this is the best I've felt in my entire life. Three..." He paused, heart suddenly hammering. "I think I'm falling in love with Nina."

Everything stopped. Just the fire crackling, a log shifting and sending up sparks.

Nina's smile vanished like someone had switched it off. Her face went completely blank, mouth slightly open. Jake and Ruby froze, marshmallows forgotten, looking between Kofi and Nina with identical expressions of shock.

Thea's head came up slowly, eyes wide, looking from Kofi's serious face to Nina's stunned one. Her hand holding the marshmallow stick had gone completely still.

The silence stretched out, heavy and thick, full of something that might be truth disguised as a lie, or a lie disguised as truth, and the weight of it pressed down on all of them.

"Kofi," Nina started, her voice strange and uncertain.

"You're supposed to guess," he said quietly. "Which one's the lie."

But nobody guessed. Nobody moved. The fire popped, sending an ember floating up into the dark sky, and still nobody said anything.

Nobody knew which was which. Especially not Kofi.