Camp Castaway

by Belinda Murrell

  We’d been studying volcanic rocks at school with Mrs Marshall.

  ‘Great work, Ariana,’ I said as I snapped a photo of her holding it aloft.

  Ariana gave me a little smile.

  A few minutes later we were huffing and puffing as we reached the top. The five of us spun around, taking in the beautiful view of the whole island. Below us was dense green rainforest. A little further off we could see the paler green of the camp clearing. The island was rimmed with sugar-white sand and foaming waves, then all around was the vast expanse of deep-navy sea reaching to the horizon.

  Although we could see in all directions, there was no sign of the other groups.

  That was, until we heard a muffled sound coming from the other side of the rocky crest.

  ‘Help,’ came a weak voice. ‘Help … is anyone there?’

  We rushed across to the other side of the knobby hill. I saw two hands clutching onto the edge of a rock ledge. Then a thatch of messy dark-brown hair. The head lifted, to reveal a familiar face, twisted with pain.

  ‘Alex,’ I screamed, my heart pounding with panic. ‘Hold on, Alex. We’re coming.’

  He was hanging onto the edge of a cliff. He must have fallen and could lose his grip at any second.

  Charlie and I were in front, but before we could reach him, Alex’s hands slipped away from the crumbling edge. My heart plummeted and I shrieked with fear. Alex was falling!

  Just then the most surprising thing happened. Alex sprung up to grin at us, half his body visible above the cliff edge. His brown eyes were alight with mischief. Joey, Sam, Connor and Rory jumped up too, all roaring with laughter. Alex hadn’t been clinging onto the cliff at all. The drop was less than a metre to another ledge below, but from where we had been standing it looked much further. We had been tricked, well and truly.

  ‘You should have seen your faces,’ cried Alex, flushed with mirth. ‘I wish I’d taken a photo. It was priceless.’

  My temper flared. I was furious with the boys for scaring us.

  ‘Alex Gilbert,’ I roared. ‘That wasn’t funny at all. We thought you could have been killed! What if one of us had fallen and hurt ourselves rushing to save you?’

  Alex stopped laughing. The other boys giggled some more but soon stopped when they saw my face.

  ‘Pippa? It’s okay.’ Charlie put her hand on my arm. I shook it off.

  ‘Come on, Pippa,’ coaxed Alex, climbing up from the lower level. ‘It was just a joke.’

  ‘It wasn’t a funny joke at all,’ I retorted. ‘It was a silly, stupid, pathetic joke.’

  I felt tears prick my eyes. I knew I was over-reacting but Alex really had scared me and now I was so angry I was shaking.

  ‘Half the fun of camp is playing pranks and tricks,’ said Connor defensively. ‘You’ve got to learn to lighten up, Pippa.’

  Lighten up indeed! I spun on my heel and stalked off, back the way we’d come.

  I stared at the lagoon, its beauty now lost on me. Meg caught up and rubbed me on the shoulder.

  ‘Are you all right, Pippa?’ she asked gently. ‘It was pretty scary thinking that Alex had fallen off a cliff.’

  I nodded, not trusting myself to speak just yet. The other girls were chatting to the boys and comparing our scavenger lists.

  ‘Jack did warn me that lots of kids play practical jokes on camp,’ continued Meg. ‘It’s a bit of a tradition.’

  ‘It just seemed so real,’ I said. ‘I really thought Alex was falling off a cliff.’

  We paused for a moment and stared out at the view. I could feel my anger receding with Meg’s calm presence. I started to feel a little silly for losing my temper.

  ‘Come on, Pippa,’ said Meg. ‘We should keep going. A good walk will make you feel better.’

  We returned to the others. I felt awkward and avoided looking at anyone, preferring to gaze out to sea.

  ‘Well, time to get going,’ said Connor. ‘The clock is ticking and we still have a lot of things to find.’

  ‘Good luck, boys,’ said Cici, her brown eyes twinkling. ‘May the best team win! Oh yes, that would be us!’

  The others all laughed. I smiled weakly.

  The boys headed one way, while our group started to move in the opposite direction. Alex hung back a little.

  ‘Pippa?’ he called. I turned back reluctantly. I didn’t really want to talk to Alex after my outburst.

  ‘Sorry I scared you,’ he said. ‘I didn’t mean to. We thought you’d have a good laugh too.’

  I shrugged, not answering him.

  ‘I guess you didn’t know about the pranks,’ continued Alex. ‘Everyone will be trying to trick everyone else this week, but it’s all just meant to be fun.’

  I nodded, reminding myself to be prepared for any kind of silly nonsense. Alex leaned in so the others couldn’t hear him.

  ‘If you haven’t found a cave yet, there’s one just down that path there,’ he said. ‘It’s on the left and a little hard to spot, so look carefully.’

  I appreciated the peace offering. It reminded me of the time that Alex had come to the Beach Shack after school to apologise when he’d teased me about dropping the microphone during the talent quest auditions. That time he’d given me some chocolate to say sorry.

  ‘Thanks, Alex,’ I said. ‘We’ll look out for it.’

  ‘Don’t tell the others I told you,’ he warned. ‘The boys wouldn’t like me helping the competition.’

  I smiled at him. My anger and awkwardness had melted away. ‘Only if you promise not to tell them that I told you there’s a waterfall down that way. There’s a beautiful pool too, which is nice to cool off in.’

  I waved my hand to show him the direction.

  ‘It’s a deal,’ said Alex with a grin, pressing a finger to his lips. ‘Not a word.’

  ‘See you back at camp,’ I said. ‘Good luck.’

  I hurried to join up with the girls. The boys disappeared, following Alex down the path towards the waterfall.

  ‘What did Alex want?’ asked Cici, clearly burning with curiosity.

  ‘Just to tell me to watch out for silly pranks,’ I said, telling half the truth. I huffed. ‘Apparently there will be lots this week.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Pippa,’ said Charlie. ‘I’m sure we can think up some pretty good shenanigans of our own.’

  I could see that all of our minds were ticking with tricky possibilities.

  ‘Why don’t we go this way?’ I suggested. ‘I have a good feeling about this.’

  We arrived back at camp later that morning feeling hot, sweaty and dirty, but happy.

  We reported in to Mrs Marshall and handed her our list.

  ‘We found everything,’ said Meg. ‘The hardest one was the animal track, but we finally found a wallaby print in the sand.’

  ‘Well done,’ said Mrs Marshall, scanning our list.

  ‘Are we the first group back?’ asked Cici hopefully, looking around the empty camp.

  ‘No, Cici,’ said Mrs Marshall. ‘You’re the third group back.’

  Cici’s shoulders slumped with disappointment. ‘Whose group was first?’ she asked.

  ‘The other girls came back about ten minutes ago, then Alex and Rory’s group were just ahead of you.’

  ‘What’s happening now?’ I asked. ‘Do we have any more activities today?’

  ‘Lunch is in half an hour,’ said Mrs Marshall. ‘Then you’re free as birds until five o’clock. The others have gone for a swim down in the lagoon. Why don’t you head down there too?’

  ‘Great idea,’ I said. ‘I can’t wait to wash away all this dirt.’

  The five of us changed into our swimming costumes and ran down to the beach. Ten of our classmates were already swimming, splashing and dive-bombing in the perfect, clear water. Marcus and Reuben’s group came in a few minutes after us.

  After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming, playing football on the beach and hanging around under the palm trees, chatting and laughing. Nig
el took some of the others fishing off the beach, using hand-reel fishing lines.

  Zoe joined us in our splashing and football fun. Olivia, Sienna, Jemila and Willow practised doing cartwheels, handstands and backflips on the sand.

  Tash didn’t do any backflips. She was supposed to be banned from practising for another three weeks after hurting her knee at the talent quest audition. But she couldn’t help herself – she loves being upside down! It just meant that she stuck to twenty cartwheels instead of her usual sixty-seven.

  At five o’clock, Mrs Marshall called us all to come back for dinner duty. Reluctantly, we left the relaxing beauty of the beach and straggled back into camp.

  Nigel was waiting for us by the campfire, which was already burning merrily.

  ‘Take a seat, everyone,’ said Nigel. ‘And listen up.’

  We obediently sat down on the nearest log, squeezing up so there were four of us to each bench.

  ‘So far, you’ve had it very easy,’ said Nigel with a twinkle in his eyes. ‘For the remainder of the camp, you guys are going to be the chefs.’

  ‘The kids are going to cook?’ I whispered to Charlie. ‘We might all starve!’

  ‘Or get poisoned,’ said Cici, rolling her eyes.

  Nigel suppressed a grin.

  ‘For every meal there will be a cook crew and a clean-up crew,’ continued Nigel, checking his list. ‘The group cooking dinner tonight is Sam, Cici, Joey, Meg, Rory, Charlie, Alex, Connor …’ He paused, looking around.

  Please let me be in this group with the other Sassy Sisters, I thought.

  ‘Ariana and Pippa,’ finished Nigel.

  Phew! I grinned at the others.

  ‘The second group, cleaning up after dinner, is Leon, Willow, Reuben, Tash, Marcus, Jemila, Sienna, Caleb, Joshua and Olivia.’ Everyone looked happy because they were more or less in their usual friendship groups, except for Ariana, who seemed a little glum.

  ‘The cook crew will be under the direction of Zoe, while the clean-up crew will be reporting to me,’ said Nigel. ‘Tomorrow at breakfast, we swap roles. Let’s get to work.’

  Our group followed Zoe over to the table and chairs that were set up under the gazebo, away from the fire.

  ‘Dinner tonight is the best-ever homemade burgers, made to my very own family recipe,’ explained Zoe. ‘They are absolutely delicious!’

  ‘Yum,’ said Sam. ‘I love burgers.’

  Zoe lay a piece of paper on the table. It read:

  We washed our hands, gathered all the ingredients and set to work.

  ‘Sam and Cici, your job is to finely chop the onions,’ said Zoe. ‘Joey and Meg, you can slice up the tomatoes and shred the lettuce. Be super-careful with those knives. I’ll be keeping a very close eye on you all.’

  Next she showed Charlie, Alex, Rory, Connor and I how to make the meat patties. We mixed the ingredients in large stainless steel bowls, then shaped them into patties with our hands. We multiplied the recipe by three to ensure there were enough burgers for everyone.

  When Zoe explained it, everything sounded very simple. But it wasn’t quite as easy as we thought. Cici was used to cooking with her dad so she was fine. The first onion that Sam chopped up was way too chunky and Zoe made him do it again more finely. Rory was a bit too generous with the mustard, so we had to scrape some of it out and throw it away.

  Charlie and I cracked the eggs but ended up getting some eggshell in the mixture too. No matter how careful we were the shell just seemed to slip through our eggy fingers! We had to stand there and pick out all the tiny bits of eggshell with a fork so our burgers wouldn’t be extra-crunchy. Yuck!

  The first few patties we made were definitely oddly shaped, but we got the hang of it quite quickly. Then we cooked them on the hot plate over the fire. Some of them were a little charred, while others were crumbling at the edges, but they smelt absolutely fantastic.

  ‘Come and get it,’ called Charlie, ringing the bell. People came running from all over the camp to form a line. Everyone grabbed a paper napkin with a bread roll and a meat patty, then added whatever salad and sauce they preferred. Then they took their seats around the campfire. The cook crew couldn’t eat until everyone else had helped themselves.

  I piled a little bit of everything on my burger – lettuce, pineapple, beetroot and tomato, with a thick smear of chunky relish. My mouth was watering as I took my seat next to the Sassy Sisters. The burger was so jam-packed it was hard to get my mouth around it.

  ‘Zoe was right,’ said Cici. ‘This is definitely the best burger I’ve ever eaten.’

  I nodded in agreement, my mouth full.

  ‘Why does it taste so good?’ asked Charlie. ‘Is it because we made it ourselves?’

  ‘Maybe. Or perhaps because we were starving after such an action-packed day,’ said Meg. She took another bite.

  I looked around at everyone, their faces glowing happy and pink in the firelight. To the west, the sky was streaked with gorgeous colours of purple and gold, rose and crimson. The velvet sky was darkening and one brilliant star sparkled like a single diamond above our heads. I sighed with happiness.

  ‘I think it tastes incredible because we’re eating it outside, around a fire on a deserted tropical island,’ I said. ‘It’s just perfect.’

  We all sat around the fire, eating and talking and sharing stories about our day. The clean-up crew washed up while Charlie strummed a soft melody on her guitar. Alex grabbed his bongo drums and rapped out the rhythm to accompany her. The melody morphed into ‘Kira Dreaming’, a catchy tune that we all knew. Charlie began singing the words, then Cici, Meg and I joined in, until soon everyone was singing along enthusiastically. We sang song after song.

  When the clean-up crew was finished, we played kick-the-can in the dark. I’d never played kick-the-can before. It was such an exciting game – a mixture of hide and seek, chasing, and capture the castle all in one.

  The clearing was the perfect place to play because there were so many places to hide – behind tents, in the vegetation and, best of all, among the ruins of the old cottages. There was a small amount of light from the solar lamps hung around the common area, but the edges of the clearing were in darkness.

  Here are the rules:

  We ran and hid and raided and giggled and squealed. The highlight for me was when Olivia was the seeker and she had caught nearly everyone else. I was one of the only people still free, crouching behind a crumbling chimney.

  ‘Spot you,’ said Olivia, shining her torch on me. ‘Behind the chimney … it’s Pippa!’

  I burst out of my hiding spot and ran as fast as I could towards the pineapple can. Olivia gave chase, pounding after me. I could hear her gaining on me, getting closer and closer. I could almost feel her hand reaching for me from behind. I saw the pineapple tin, gleaming in the starlight. I took aim and kicked with all my might. The can flew into the night.

  I skidded out and fell on my side, sliding across the dirt. But I’d done it. Olivia couldn’t get me now. She spun and raced after the tin.

  With a huge roar of triumph, all the prisoners escaped from jail and ran for the shadows. I clambered to my feet, beaming with joy, and hobbled off to hide behind the nearest tent. I rubbed my side. I’m sure there would be a bruise in the morning, but the exhilaration of being the heroic rescuer far outweighed any pain.

  At last Zoe blew the whistle and told us it was time for bed. We ambled over to clean our teeth, hands and faces before returning to our tents.

  Inside the tent we changed into our pyjamas and crawled into our sleeping-bags. Ariana was the last one into bed. She turned away from us, facing the annexe, and curled up into a tiny ball like a prickly echidna.

  I turned off my torch and snuggled into my pillow.

  ‘Goodnight, everyone,’ I said. ‘Sleep well.’

  ‘Goodnight, Pippa,’ said the other girls. ‘Goodnight.’

  Outside our tent we could hear the sounds of the other groups settling into bed. All the torches were gradu
ally turned off so there was just a dim glow from the solar lanterns. I was drifting off to sleep when a soft scuffle outside our tent caught my attention. What was it? I wondered. Could it be some sort of animal snuffling around the camp?

  I listened carefully to a slipping, sliding sound like paws scraping down the outside of our tent. There was a muffled noise that sounded suspiciously like a giggle.

  ‘Who’s there?’ I called out, sitting up in my sleeping-bag. I scrabbled around in the darkness trying to find my torch.

  ‘What’s up, Pippa?’ asked Charlie, with a yawn beside me.

  But before I could flick on my torch, we were smothered in suffocating folds of material. It covered me from head to toe like a slippery shroud.

  ‘Aaah!’ screamed Ariana. ‘Get off me.’

  ‘What’s going on?’ shrieked Cici. I thrashed my arms and legs, feeling panicky as I tried to free myself.

  ‘Careful, Pippa,’ said Charlie. ‘You just whacked me.’

  I stopped struggling and breathed in slowly.

  ‘It’s the tent,’ said Meg. ‘It’s collapsed.’

  I fumbled around, found my torch and switched it on.

  The five of us were revealed in the torchlight. Meg was holding up her arms to lift the tent fabric off our heads. Ariana looked frightened as she huddled in her sleeping bag.

  ‘How could it collapse?’ Cici asked. ‘We double-checked every guy rope and tent peg.’

  Meg frowned. ‘Someone’s playing a prank on us. There’s no way this tent fell down by itself.’

  ‘Well, let’s find our way out of here,’ said Charlie. ‘You go first, Ariana. You’re closest to the door.’

  ‘Okay,’ she croaked. Ariana slipped out of her sleeping-bag and crawled through the collapsed opening. Charlie followed in the light of my torch, then Cici and Meg. It was easiest for me because by then the other girls had lifted the tent from the outside, giving me plenty of head room.

  Outside the campsite was silent. The coals of the fire glowed faintly and deep shadows crowded around us. The only other light was from the odd lantern dotted about. Overhead, billions of brilliant stars blazed across the velvety black sky. We took a moment to stare upwards, enjoying its beauty.