Read Online Alaska Adventure by Cynthia Baxter - Free Book Online

place will feel like home, just like Dr. Wells promised. Without cable TV, of course.”
    Cassie could feel some of her fears melting away. Laurel sounded so certain that things weren’t that bad. She actually seemed to like it here.
    Of course, Laurel is Laurel, Cassie reminded herself.
    She is my best friend, but her idea of a good time has always seemed kind of strange to me. I mean, traipsing through the woods, risking bug bites and poison ivy and who even knows what else? Holing up in a lab for hours on end glued to a microscope? Memorizing the names of parts of plants and animals as if they really mattered?
    Even so, Cassie was willing to give Laurel the benefit of the doubt, to buy in to her claim that somehow, through some power she couldn’t quite comprehend, she was actually going to get through this summer.
    After all, she had very little choice.
     

Chapter Six
     
    Laurel stepped out of the dimly-lit cabin and was greeted by the early morning sun, already high in the pale Alaskan sky. She pushed up the sleeves of the long-sleeved T-shirt she wore with a pair of jeans, raising her face toward the sun’s welcoming rays.
    Even though she was alone, she smiled. All around her, the world was coming alive with the new day. The forest was rich with color, a breathtaking mosaic of greens and browns. Hidden in the dense leaves of the trees were birds, fluttering through the branches, calling to each other with sweet chirping sounds. Even the buzzing mosquitoes seemed especially alert on this fine June morning.
    As she stood outside the cabin, what struck her even more than the sights and sounds was the fragrance. The thick growth of leaves, still moist with dew; the damp soil beneath her feet; the fresh, clear air.... Laurel took a deep breath, eagerly drawing it all in. She was experiencing a sense of contentment she couldn’t remember having felt in a very long time.
    She was startled by the unexpected sound of Dr. Wells’s voice. “It’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?”
    Her self-consciousness over having been caught off guard only lasted a moment. “It’s pretty incredible,” she agreed. “In a way being here is like taking a trip back in time, seeing the world the way it must have looked millions of years ago. No roads, no shopping centers ... not a single candy wrapper or cigarette butt lying on the ground.”
    “You can experience complete peace up here,” said Dr. Wells. “Kind of makes you wish you’d never have to return to civilization again, doesn’t it?”
    Before she had a chance to respond, the stillness around them was interrupted by a loud thumping. Laurel turned and saw Mariah and Trip coming out of the cabin, dragging fish traps, a giant cooler, and a few other assorted items onto the porch.
    “Why do we have to be the packhorses?” Mariah grumbled. “This is the 1990s. Why can’t we take advantage of the invention of the wheel? Right now I’d kill for a wagon or a ... a wheelbarrow or—”
    “It’s only a couple of hundred feet from here to the lake,” Trip returned. “Besides, the path’s too narrow and bumpy for a wheelbarrow. Too bad your chauffeur’s not here.”
    “So much for complete peace,” Laurel commented to Dr. Wells, smiling wryly. She turned toward Trip and Mariah. “Let me help you get that stuff down to the canoes.”
    Picking up as much as she could of the equipment the others had hauled out of the cabin, Laurel headed down the path. She was looking forward eagerly to her first day out on the lake and getting started on the research that had brought them all up here in the first place. She’d only gone a few paces when she felt someone’s hand on her shoulder.
    “Hello, Trip,” she said, shrugging away from him. “All set for today? I have a feeling we’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us.”
    “Great. Being out on the lake together will give you and me a chance to get to know each other better.”
    Laurel cast him a wary look, peering over the