Camp Castaway

by Belinda Murrell

  Just then we saw the boys jogging up the hill from the other side.

  ‘There it is,’ said Rory, pointing to the marker flag we’d just discovered.

  ‘Hello, girls,’ said Joey as he raced over and scooped up the pebble that was still lying there. He held it aloft. ‘Pebble number four.’

  Connor had already pulled out the camera. The photo was taken in a moment and then the boys jogged off down the trail and back towards our campsite.

  ‘See you at camp!’ called Reuben.

  I stared after the boys with dismay. ‘They have four of their pebbles and we only have two. We have to hurry up or we’ll never finish in the hour.’

  Meg started off down the path, the way the boys had come. Olivia stared stubbornly at the map and the compass, figuring out which way to go. ‘The next marker is this way,’ she decided. I hurried after Meg.

  By the end of the hour we had collected another two pebbles – one painted with a wise owl and another that said ‘Be Brave! Be Strong!’. We were also hot, sweaty, dirty, dusty and had been scraped by countless brambles. I scratched my arm. It was covered in dozens of tiny red insect bites that itched like crazy. Touching it just made it worse.

  ‘Our time’s up,’ said Sienna, checking her watch. ‘It’s been an hour.’

  ‘We should just head back to camp,’ said Jemila. ‘The boys will have already won by now.’

  I thought longingly of going back to camp and jumping into the cool, crystal water to wash away all the sweat and grime.

  ‘No,’ said Olivia firmly. ‘We need to find the final marker. We can’t go back without it.’

  ‘Which way do we go next then?’ asked Meg. She peered over Olivia’s shoulder at the map.

  Olivia moved the map away so Meg couldn’t see.

  ‘We’re going this way,’ said Olivia, waving her hand to the right.

  ‘You don’t have to hog the map,’ I said, my temper frayed by the heat and Olivia’s attitude.

  ‘I’m the team leader,’ she said. ‘So I decide which way we go, otherwise we’d waste too much time discussing it.’

  ‘You keep saying you’re the team leader,’ I snapped. ‘But I don’t remember voting for you and I certainly didn’t hear anyone else say you were.’

  Meg, always the peacemaker, put her hand on my arm. ‘It’s okay, Pippa. Let’s just get moving.’

  ‘No,’ I said, crossing my arms. ‘If Olivia hadn’t been so stubborn and had let you take the lead, we’d be finished by now and back at camp swimming in the lagoon. I’m sick of Olivia always being so bossy.’

  Olivia glared at me. Then she turned away, beckoning to Jemila and Sienna. ‘Come on. Let’s go. If Meg and Pippa don’t want to be on our team, they can go back to camp on their own.’

  Jemila and Sienna looked at us imploringly but I stood still, my arms crossed. The two of them obediently followed Olivia as she stormed off into the rainforest. Meg sighed and started after them.

  I grabbed Meg by the arm. ‘Let’s just go back to camp and swim with Charlie and Cici,’ I said. ‘Olivia’s being awful today and they clearly don’t want us with them.’

  ‘We should stay together …’ Meg hesitated, torn about what we should do.

  ‘Zoe said we should be back in an hour,’ I said. ‘We might be missing out on the water sports.’

  That persuaded Meg. She was a total water baby and loved swimming, surfing, snorkelling and sailing.

  ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘Let’s go back. Camp’s this way.’

  Luckily I was with Meg and her great sense of direction, as we no longer had a map or a compass.

  It only took us five minutes to make our way back to Camp Castaway. The clearing was empty except for Zoe, who was reading a book in a camp chair in the shade of the hoop pines. We could hear the sounds of kids having fun, splashing, diving and laughing over in the lagoon. Meg dropped the backpack by our feet. I took off the walkie-talkie that was strapped to my belt and put it away in the pack.

  Zoe smiled at us in welcome, putting her book down on her lap. ‘How did you go, girls?’ she asked. ‘Did you like my treasures?’

  Meg took the four pebbles out of our backpack. ‘Definitely.’

  ‘They are so adorable,’ I said. ‘Did you make them?’

  ‘Yes,’ said Zoe, glowing with pleasure at our praise. ‘I found the pebbles in the creek bed and brought the paints from home. I decorated them last night after dinner.’

  Zoe looked around, suddenly realising that the other girls hadn’t followed us into the clearing. ‘Where are Olivia, Jemila and Sienna?’ she asked. ‘Aren’t they with you?’

  I suddenly felt guilty that we’d left them. I explained to Zoe what had happened and why we’d decided to come back.

  Zoe jumped to her feet. ‘I’ll call them on the walkie-talkie,’ she said, grabbing it from the pouch. ‘Turtles. Turtles. This is base … Do you copy? Over.’

  The call was immediately echoed by the walkie-talkie that I’d put away in the backpack.

  Zoe looked worried. ‘Don’t the others have a walkie-talkie?’

  ‘No,’ I said, feeling remorseful. ‘I was wearing it on my belt when we left them. I didn’t even think about it …’

  Zoe checked her watch. ‘The girls should have been back by now. I wonder where they could be?’

  ‘They were looking for the last flag,’ said Meg. ‘They should only be a few minutes behind us.’

  Zoe thought for a moment. She grabbed up our backpack and handed it to me. ‘Come on, girls. We’re going to look for the others. We’ll probably meet them on the track but I’d like to look for them just to be sure they’re okay.’

  I looked longingly towards the lagoon where Charlie and Cici would be cool and happy, swimming in the crystal water.

  ‘Sure, Zoe,’ said Meg. We set off walking side by side. Zoe had set up the orienteering course, so she knew exactly where our final flag had been placed.

  ‘I thought we’d have seen them coming back by now,’ said Zoe as we trudged up the muddy track with still no sign of anyone. A mosquito buzzed around my head. I swiped it away.

  ‘Olivia must have taken a wrong turn,’ I said grumpily. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if she got the others totally lost.’

  I heard a crack in the bush ahead like a twig snapping.

  ‘What was that?’ asked Meg. ‘Maybe that was the girls?’

  We paused and listened carefully. All that we could hear was the swishing of the palm trees swaying in the breeze and the distant calls of bellbirds.

  ‘Ol-iv-ia,’ called Meg loudly. ‘Sienna. Where are you?’

  There was no reply.

  ‘It must have been some sort of animal,’ I replied. ‘Let’s keep going.’

  A moment later we arrived on the bank of a small creek. The orange-and-white flag was tied to a tree trunk that had fallen across the waterway, forming a natural bridge.

  ‘There’s the flag,’ I said. ‘But the girls aren’t here.’

  ‘The pebble’s still there,’ said Zoe.

  There was a small curved beach of grey river pebbles on one bank. Lying among the grey pebbles was one painted hot-pink. I leaned down and picked it up. It said ‘Forgive’.

  ‘They haven’t been here yet,’ I said. ‘Or they’d have found the treasure.’

  ‘We didn’t pass them on the path, so I’m guessing they’ve lost their way,’ said Zoe. She looked around at the dense rainforest. ‘We’d better split up. You take one walkie-talkie and go that way. I’ll go this way. Call me at once if you find them.’

  We walked and walked, looping in a big circle, but there was no sign of the others. The rainforest was hotter and stickier than ever. Two flies buzzed around my face and I swished them away irritably. The walkie-talkie crackled.

  ‘Pippa. Pippa. This is Base. Do you copy? Over.’

  ‘Base. This is Pippa. Copy that. Over,’ I replied.

  ‘Pippa. This is Base. Have you found any sign of the girls yet? Over,’ came Z
oe’s voice.

  I pressed the call button down. ‘Base. This is Pippa. Negative,’ I said as my heart sank. ‘No sign at all. Over.’

  ‘Pippa, this is Base,’ came Zoe’s crackling reply. ‘Meet me back at camp. Do you copy? Over.’

  We met Zoe on the track back to camp. She looked very worried. ‘We’ll go back and organise a search party,’ said Zoe. ‘They must have lost their way.’

  Meg shook her head. ‘I don’t understand how they missed the flag. They had the map and the compass and Olivia knew where she was going.’

  ‘Well, that’s the only explanation I can think of,’ said Zoe. ‘They didn’t find the treasure stone so they mustn’t have found the flag at all. They’ve been missing for a long time now. We need to find them fast.’

  At last we puffed into camp, which was now full of people. I could smell wood smoke and the delicious aroma of buttery hot bread, which made me feel ravenous. Everyone was sitting in the shade in groups, looking cool and relaxed, eating chunks of hot cheesy damper.

  Zoe headed straight to Mrs Marshall and Nigel. Meg and I followed her nervously. Was it my fault? I worried to myself. If we hadn’t left Olivia and the girls then they would have had a walkie-talkie to call for help. In fact, with Meg there they never would have got lost in the first place!

  ‘Mrs Marshall,’ said Zoe gravely. ‘I’m afraid that Olivia, Jemila and Sienna are lost in the rainforest. Pippa and Meg were separated from them and now the girls have been missing for a long time. We should send out a search party.’

  Mrs Marshall looked at Zoe, then at Meg and me. ‘Lost?’ she asked. ‘The girls aren’t lost. Olivia, Sienna and Jemila are over there.’

  We swung our heads around to see Olivia, Jemila and Sienna eating their damper and chatting with Sam, Joey and Reuben. All three had wet hair and looked fresh and cool. Olivia saw us looking at them and tossed her hair defiantly. Mrs Marshall didn’t look pleased.

  Zoe blushed red. ‘Oh … we didn’t see them come back. We’ve been searching for them for the last half an hour …’

  ‘That’s all right, Zoe,’ said Mrs Marshall. ‘Why don’t you three get some lunch. We’re nearly ready to start the next activities.’

  We headed towards the lunch table but I noticed that Zoe still looked distracted. ‘Sorry, Zoe. We didn’t mean to get you into trouble,’ I said.

  ‘That’s okay,’ Zoe replied, but she was still frowning. ‘It made me realise something … but I’m not certain what to do about it yet.’

  I wasn’t quite sure what Zoe meant by that enigmatic answer, but I was hungry, so Meg and I grabbed a hunk of damper and went to sit with Charlie and Cici.

  ‘Where have you been?’ asked Charlie. ‘We’ve been waiting for you for ages.’

  Meg and I explained what had happened as we nibbled our warm, cheesy bread.

  ‘I don’t know how we could have missed them,’ said Meg. ‘It’s a mystery.’

  The mystery was soon solved. Zoe came over to us after our lunch and asked Meg and I to join her with the other girls. We followed Zoe down to the beach, then walked about two hundred metres along the sand. Zoe looked really serious, which made me feel nervous. Zoe was usually so warm and friendly.

  Zoe asked us to sit down on the sand dunes under the palm trees.

  ‘Okay, girls,’ said Zoe. ‘I’ve heard from Meg and Pippa about your orienteering today. I’m sorry it didn’t go as well as it could have.’

  Olivia looked uncomfortable. ‘Meg and Pippa decided to come back early, while we decided to go on to find the final flag. But then we changed our minds and came back as well.’

  Zoe asked a few probing questions and it seemed to me that the others weren’t quite telling the truth. ‘So why did you change your minds about looking for the last flag?’ asked Zoe.

  ‘We did find the flag and the treasure stone,’ admitted Jemila. ‘But we decided to leave it there.’

  Zoe frowned in confusion. ‘Why would you do that?’

  The other three girls glanced at each other as though checking what to say.

  ‘We heard Meg and Pippa coming back up the track,’ confessed Sienna. ‘So Olivia … I mean, we decided to leave the stone and hide. Then we crept back to camp.’

  Zoe shook her head with disappointment. I suddenly wondered what they had heard us saying. I remembered I’d said something very unflattering about Olivia getting everyone lost.

  ‘Didn’t you think that the girls would be worried when they couldn’t find you?’ asked Zoe. ‘It must have been obvious that they had come back looking for you.’

  ‘It was just a prank,’ said Olivia defensively. ‘We thought we’d play a little joke on them.’

  ‘Some joke,’ I muttered snarkily. Another prank that definitely wasn’t funny.

  ‘So you wanted to frighten us?’ asked Zoe.

  Olivia looked around as though seeking an escape. ‘No … um … well, we didn’t mean you to be worried …’

  ‘We didn’t know you were with them,’ said Jemila. ‘We just heard Pippa and Meg.’

  ‘Well, I was worried,’ said Zoe. ‘And did you think how it would make me look when three of my charges disappeared on a hike? But then, when I report you missing to Mrs Marshall, she tells me that you’ve been swimming and eating while we’ve spent ages searching for you in the steamy rainforest!’

  Jemila and Sienna looked downcast. ‘We didn’t think about it like that,’ said Jemila.

  Zoe sighed.

  ‘None of you have behaved very well today,’ she said, looking at each of us in turn. ‘The purpose of this challenge was to work together as a team. To cooperate, communicate and collaborate. To respect each other’s abilities and opinions. To work together as a group to make decisions; not to squabble, or take over or undermine each other.’

  None of us said anything. I knew Zoe was right. We hadn’t made a very good team. But that wasn’t my fault, or Meg’s. We’d worked together as a team brilliantly when we were with the Sassy Sisters. Olivia was the reason our team hadn’t worked. She wanted to be the leader and make all the decisions. She hadn’t respected Meg’s abilities or my opinions.

  Zoe looked sternly at me and then at Olivia.

  ‘I really hope that over the next couple of days you will learn how to work as a team,’ said Zoe. ‘Especially you, Pippa and Olivia. Together, all of you are so much smarter and stronger than any of you are on your own.’

  I felt shocked that Zoe had singled me out. It was Olivia who had played the prank on us, so why were Meg and I getting a lecture too? It was Olivia who’d been bossy and uncooperative, not me.

  I bit my lip and stared out over the lagoon.

  ‘We’ll try harder, Zoe,’ promised Meg.

  ‘Sorry, Zoe,’ said Sienna.

  ‘Okay. Let’s join the others and go for a swim,’ said Zoe. Her voice had returned to its usual happy tone. ‘That will cheer us all up.’

  We rose and started to head back towards camp. Olivia, Jemila and Sienna were in front of us. My feet lagged as Meg and I walked beside Zoe.

  Zoe stopped and turned to me. ‘You think I’m being too tough on you, don’t you, Pippa?’

  I looked at Olivia walking in front. I really felt that it should be Olivia who Zoe was lecturing, not me.

  ‘Olivia is always pretending to be so perfect,’ I said in a low voice. ‘But she’s so bossy. It’s her fault we didn’t work as a team.’

  ‘So you really don’t think there’s anything you could have done, Pippa, to collaborate better with your team?’ Zoe sounded very disappointed in me. I had nothing to say.

  During our break in the middle of the day, Meg and I hung out with Charlie and Cici, eating lunch and chatting. We lay on our towels in the shade and compared stories about our mornings. I told Charlie and Cici about Olivia’s bossiness and how Zoe had given us a lecture about teamwork.

  ‘Poor Pippa,’ said Charlie. ‘I can’t imagine Zoe giving you a lecture. She’s always so cheerful.’

&
nbsp; ‘It wasn’t really a lecture,’ said Meg, trying to see the best in the situation. ‘It was more of a reminder. And I don’t think Olivia means to be bossy. She just wants to do well at everything.’

  ‘Olivia’s used to being the best student in the class,’ added Cici. ‘She’s really good at maths and gymnastics and soccer. But she’s good at those things because she works really hard at them.’

  I remembered how annoyed Olivia had been when I’d topped the class in my first maths test at Kira Cove School.

  ‘Her whole family are overachievers!’ joked Charlie, raising her eyebrows. ‘Her older sister, Chloe, won an academic scholarship to a fancy boarding school on the mainland.’

  ‘Her younger brother is super-smart too,’ said Meg. ‘I sometimes think it must be hard for Olivia being surrounded by all that genius.’

  ‘Well, I wish Olivia wouldn’t try to tell me what to do all the time,’ I retorted.

  While the others read their books, I wrote in my notebook about all the challenges of our orienteering exercise that morning. Thinking over everything made me wonder how Olivia was feeling. Did she realise she’d been so annoyingly bossy? Or did Olivia think that it was Meg and I who’d been in the wrong? I doodled butterflies in the margin. There were dozens of them dancing in the sunlight near the ruins.

  At three o’clock, Charlie and Cici set off on their orienteering challenge. The Turtles spent the rest of the afternoon doing water sports – swimming, board paddling races, water polo and snorkelling in the lagoon. Olivia and I ignored each other and tried to enjoy the activities without any squabbling.

  In the late afternoon the Sharks and Starfish cooked dinner. We barbecued sausages, tomatoes and onion over the fire and ate them on bread. I decided that there is nothing yummier than food cooked over an open fire.

  The clearing was filled with a warm, golden light. Meg and I sat on a bench with Charlie and Cici, munching on our sausage sandwiches. Charlie was showing us the beautiful treasure pebble that she’d found with a green turtle painted on it.

  ‘Isn’t it adorable?’ she said. ‘I love all the pebbles that Zoe painted.’