Page 17 of Badd B*tch

I scrubbed my face. "Well, you're right that those clouds don't bode well for us. Can we go above them?"

"If we were in a jet, sure. This? No, we're not going above them. Even this thing has a ceiling thousands of feet lower than those clouds. You just can’t fly over bad weather in a helo. We'll just have to push through and hope it doesn't get too rough. I've flown in all kinds of terrible weather, though, so we should be fine.”

"Should we turn back and wait it out? Summer thunderstorms around here are no fucking joke, Tea. They can be really, really dangerous. A lot of experienced pilots go down every year because they underestimate how bad these kinds of storms can get.”

At that moment, rain began blatting against the windscreen and a gust of wind shoved us down a hundred feet.

"Nope." It was her only answer, and I didn't push for anything else—it seemed prudent to shut up and let her focus.

The next thirty minutes were objectively terrifying. Lightning split the sky all around in blinding streaks like cracks into Heaven’s brilliance, and rain torrented in sideways sheets, driven by brutal winds that knocked us around with stomach-churning violence.

Tea seemed unfazed. Her breathing was steady, her grip on the controls loose and delicate, her tiny hands deft and expert. Her focus was absolute.

After thirty-some minutes, the storm's violence lessened, and then the storm faded to a few splatters of rain, and then we were in the clear.

We flew a few hours more, most of it in silence, and it took much of that time for my heart to stop pounding out of my chest. We stopped to refuel at a tiny airfield and fuel depot and grabbed a bite to eat, and then continued on our way.

We ended up having to stop again near sunset and ate again.

"Normally I’d say we should stop for the night,” Tea said, "but there's nowhere to stay here. Fighting that storm used up a lot of fuel, so we had to stop sooner than I'd planned, which means we now have to fly a bit later than I'd like to get to our stop for the night."

"Super. Is that a problem?"

She just shrugged. "Shouldn't be."

"Well, let's get going, then. I'm tired and bored as shit."

"Awww, do you miss your video games?" Tea smirked at me.

"Yes," I said, droll and dry. "That's it. I'm jonesing for a hit of Fortnite."

She looked at me. "I was joking, but do you play video games?"

I shrugged. "Occasionally. Usually it’s a group thing, like with my brothers and/or cousins."

Once we were airborne once more and climbing over the towering trees, she glanced at me. "How many brothers and cousins do you have?"

I laughed at the question. "I have two brothers and…ummmm…thirty…four? Thirty-four cousins, I think. A fucking lot, and I’ve never stopped to count, to be honest.”

She coughed, a shocked sound. "Thirty-four? Those are, like, extended cousins?"

"No, most of those are direct first cousins. My dad is one of eight and Uncle Xave and Aunt Harlow are the only ones who only have one kid. The rest of my aunts and uncles have two or more. And then there's my other aunts and uncles. They're…well…it's complicated."

"Complicated? Either they're your aunts and uncles or not."

I snorted. "Shows what you know. They're technically like second cousins or cousins once removed, or I don't fucking know. Uncles Remington, Ramsey, and Roman are my dad's first cousins, and they have nine kids between the three couples. And then there's Papa Lucas and Mama Livvie—Papa Lucas is my great-uncle, but he serves as our grandpa, and his wife, Mama Livvie, has five daughters. Those five daughters are all married and they all live in the area too, and there's fourteen kids between those five cousins. So then you have the twenty…um…three direct first cousins of my seven aunts and uncles."

"That's forty-six, Einstein."

“Oh. Math isn't my strongest suit, as there's not a ton of it in coding and programming."

Tea is quiet for a while. “And you know them all? You see them all regularly?"

"Regularly, yes. Every day? No. Most of the family does live in the general Ketchikan area. Not all, but most. And those that don’t, come up frequently. We're a very close, tight-knit family, and yes, a very, very big one and very, very loud and chaotic one. A Badd Clan get-together is really something to experience, I’ll tell you."

"I can't fathom. I wasn't allowed to speak at the dinner table except for things like 'please pass the peas' and 'may I please be excused' until I was thirteen."

I stared at her. "You fucking what?"