CHAPTER ONE-Leader
It was hot. It was dreadfully, uncomfortably hot. In fact, if she were more than semi-conscious she might've been amazed that the reason she'd passed out wasn't from heat exhaustion. Her breath was steady which was odd, considering how humid the air was. As her consciousness drifted back she realized that there was a painful throbbing sensation in her head.
"Ouch…" Again, it was an odd reaction. Most people would've noticed that they were in some weird place before they noticed the physical pain.
Her too fair lashes fluttered against her cheekbones in a motion that suggested that she was going to open her eyes as consciousness slowly came back to her. It was then she noticed how muggy it was. Her clear blue eyes burst open and her jaw dropped slightly, —an involuntary reaction— with shock.
She was in some Back O' Beyond kind of place, complete with creepers and all. Her body was damp, suggesting that a storm had passed and the sun afterward had mostly dried her off during the period when consciousness was lost. The ground on which she sat was muddy and grassy and disgusting and she silently prayed that her expensive clothing would not be ruined by the weather conditions. Across this jungle of sorts, creepers were draped across tree branches and lay on the grass— an affect of the storm. Upon the grass, fruit that was likely well past its prime lay. This certainly wasn't Great Britain or… And then it hit her. The airplane (or was it a jet?). They had to get out of Britain; everyone younger than eighteen (everyone still counted as a minor) was evacuated. She wasn't sure if they mentioned the reason for the evacuation or even where they were supposed be going. Then again maybe they had and she was simply talking with her friends when they did. 'I doubt this is the where we're supposed to go', she thought.
Memories of the airplane ride were rushing back to her. She remembered seeing a fire and…
"Oh God." She was no genius but it didn't take one to figure out what had happened. They'd been shot down. She bit down hard on her lower lip which caused the pain to swell up in her head again. She moaned from the agonizing soreness. The way she was positioned—her head and upper back were pressed against the lower part of a palm tree trunk and the rest of her body lay sprawled out like a rag doll that was tossed against a wall— made her believe that when the plane crashed it threw her body at the tree… and that would explain the throbbing sensation in her head. She lay there letting the consciousness come back to her.
And then she heard it. Was someone mooing? Or was some immature idiot making farting noises? She gripped onto the tree and stood up slowly so she wouldn't pass out again. Looking around, the female realized, she was alone. 'So where is that noise coming from?' The girl took a step forward, pushing off of the tree to do so. The heal of her pump sunk into the soggy ground. She let out an 'eep' and drew her leg back up to her. She had half a mind to take off her shoes but because someone was on the island making the noise she decided against it. She couldn't be seen indecent when chances were there were boys on the island. So she stepped forward, barely putting any weight on her leg. She brought the other leg ahead and set it down just as lightly. This process continued until she moved progressively faster and gliding clumsily across the muddy grass. She moved in many different directions trying to find where the sound was coming from and then continued in the direction where it seemed louder.
"Hello?" She called out, putting her hand on the side of her mouth to make her voice echo. There was no response. So either the noise was stopping whoever from hearing her or the person(s?) was farther away that she expected. After going forward a few meters she noticed a light shining through the jungle, signaling that it was coming to an end. She smiled, hopefully, as she clawed her way through the last of the creepers and out of the jungle. Then she groaned. It wasn't as muggy as the jungle but because there were no trees to provide shade it was twice as hot. She pulled the forgotten elastic band off of her wrist tied up the fair locks, making sure to get all of the excess hair off her neck. She took off her sea green cardigan and draped it over her forearm. She could tell by the looks of the boys—once she stepped forward to get a closer look— that most of them were about her age save for a few that looked prepubescent. She put on a flirtatious smile and looked to make sure that she was decent.
She was sixteen and extremely happy that the awkwardness of puberty had already passed her by. Her hair was white blonde and in the ponytail fell to her shoulders. She was a little over sixty three centimeters tall, so if she was correct about the boy's ages, most of them would be approximately a head taller than her. The garments covering her softly slim (clearly not athletic body) were school-girlish, but considering the cardigan's shade of green, it was obvious that it wasn't her actual uniform. She had always thought herself to be pretty but she did realize her flaws. Her lashes were long but to fair a shade blonde and therefore barely visible. Her skin was very pale and her upper lip looked thin and deflated compared to her lower one. Her ears were rather large and her face was a boring oval shape. Not the cute heart shape that her friends bragged about having.
She pushed up the sleeves of her white and gray pinstripe button down shirt and frowned. The heat on this beach was almost visible.
"What's your name?" The blonde female looked down to see a fat boy with depthless brown eyes glasses sitting down. Like her, he had only discarded his jacket. He wore a tan uniform, suggesting that he had come from a private school. He was pale, and had brown hair cut to a centimeter.
She looked away from the fat boy and smiled as she did. Her eyes locked on to wide, soft brown ones. The owner of the orbs looked to be a little older than her, maybe by a year. His hair was significantly darker than hers but still light enough to be called blonde. He was a little tanner than she and was thin, but had a lot of muscle definition around the shoulders and upper arms. The body of a swimmer. She loved how he could be muscled in one place and thin in another without looking disproportionate. His lips were full and very delicious looking as he smiled smoothly at her. Unlike the fat boy he had discarded all of his clothing except for a pair of khaki colored shorts. He was very attractive. In fact, the sight of him was enough to make most girls fantasize.
"What's your name?" The fat boy repeated. Persistent little thing, wasn't he? Her mouth pressed into a frown and she glared at him in a way that made him recoil.
"Lucinda Chase." Her accent was Australian. She had moved from Australia to Great Britain within the last year. Neither the fat boy, nor the fair boy seemed to notice the difference from their accent to hers.
"I'm Ralph Cohen." The fair boy smiled. He held a large pink and cream colored shell in his arms. She turned a shade of pink that couldn't have been caused by the heat.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Ralph." She said. Her voice wasn't as calm as she would've liked it to be. Ralph held out his hand and she took it, shaking it. A very friendly guy. She liked this Ralph Cohen.
"Hey, look over there!" Ralph and Lucinda turned away from each other as the fat boy spoke up. He was pointing at a dark colored, singing mass moving toward them. As the mass came closer they realized that this was a choir.
It was an all boys choir. The choir came closer. Of about fifteen to twenty boys all somewhere between fourteen and seventeen. There was one in the front of them who looked to be the oldest, and most certainly the leader. He looked at the group of three and then at the other boys who were roaming the beach, most without shirts on.
"Where's the man with the trumpet?" The leader wasn't very good-looking. Instead his face was arrogant and average. His nose was slightly larger than normal and his eyes were narrow and the same clear blue as Lucinda's. His hair was red and cut at the same length as Ralph and the fat boy's. He and his choir all wore dark colored uniforms and black caps. He was gangly and thin and as awkward as a prepubescent. In fact, Ralph, Lucinda and the fat boy were all impressed by the grace he carried himself with. His eyes inspected Ralph and the corners of his lips twitched.
"There is no man with a trumpet, only me. I guess this conch can get pretty loud." Ralph smiled, uncertainly.
"Then we'll have to fend for ourselves." The ruddy haired boy said in a way that could only be described as snooty.
"Merridew?" One of the choir boys whimpered.
"What is it now?" The leader asked,
"Merridew can we sit or take off our coats? I—" he collapsed.
"Oh my dear God!" Lucinda stepped back, into Ralph, who looked just as shocked as she did.
"Are you okay?" The fat boy rushed over to the one who passed out. He still hadn't awaked however.
"Awe, just leave him be. He's always throwing a faint." Merridew rolled his eyes. The choir snickered.
"You're so kind to your minions." Lucinda rolled her eyes and moved away from Ralph.
"We're not his followers." A dark boy from the choir spoke out.
"You don't know anything, wench." Merridew snapped at her. Her eyes narrowed into a glare and her jaw dropped.
"Excuse me?" She put her hands on her hips.
"Lucinda…" Ralph said. "Merridew…" Ralph stepped between the two.
"I'm Jack." The red head said. "Jack Merridew."
"She's Lucinda Chase, he's Ralph Cohen, and those two are Sam and Eric. Or wait, you're Sam and your Eric?" The fat boy looked to a set of brunette twins who looked more like one person split in half. "Anyway, we got most of the names, we need—"
"You're talking too much, shut up fat-ass." Jack hissed at the fat boy and his choir chuckled.
"His name's not fat-ass, his real name's Piggy!" Ralph blurted and laughter erupted. Lucinda giggled in her high pitched voice and even Jack was laughing heartily.
"Piggy, ha, Piggy!" Jack laughed. Ralph was smiling and feeling terribly popular. Piggy: the fat boy frowned and took off his glasses, polishing them. He was trying to act as if Ralph's statement didn't bother him even slightly. No one fell for it.
"We need to take names." Piggy said, mist touching on the lenses of his glasses.
"I'm Simon." The boy that fainted spoke up. With the excitement of finding out the fat boy's "name" no one had even realized that he had awakened.
"And I'm Roger." A dark boy stepped forward, speaking to Lucinda, not Piggy. The female smiled at him.
His skin was tan, not extremely dark but darker than everyone else's. His hair was silky and black and slightly longer than the rest of the boy's. Although long hair wasn't exactly common on boys it seemed to suit this Roger. His eyes were slate gray and piercing. His stare was cold and his eyes seemed to paralyze her. His lashes were thick, long and dark. Although his body was lanky he still had the masculine quality of a squared jaw.
Piggy nodded, even though Roger wasn't talking to him and continued on to the rest if the choir. There was Maurice, Bill, Henry, Robert and many more people.
"So we need to decide on being rescued." Jack Merridew said after the names had been taken and any last bits of excitement died down. Lucinda nodded at him looking at the sleeves of her shirt in disgust. She tugged at the seams of them and desperately tried ripping.
"Does anyone have a knife?" She looked around, catching the pocket that Jack had thrown, after fumbling around with it. She flicked it open, cutting the sleeves on the seams of it.
"I agree with Jack." Roger said, looking over at Lucinda who was cutting off the sleeves and collar of her shirt, loving the feeling of free arms.
"We need someone to be in charge of this place." Piggy said.
"I should be in charge!" Jack said looking around the group with his arms folded across his chest. "I'm lead chorister and head boy." He smirked.
"No way am I letting you lead us." Lucinda stood up and glared at Jack.
"Oh so who'd be a better leader than me? You? You can't do anything! You're just some snobby rich girl." Jack snarled at her, using his height against her as he stepped forward. She however, didn't back down. She looked upward and pressed her lips into a scowl.
"And you're just a control freak."
"Okay princess if I'm not leader than who is?"
"Ralph."
"What?" Ralph looked from the red head to the female, eyes wider than normal. His jaw was dropped.
"You brought us all together with that shell thing." The blonde girl shrugged.
"So? I deserve to be leader!" Jack insisted. Lucinda swore she heard someone cough at this statement.
"Let's have a vote." Roger spoke up, trying to appeal to both his current leader and the female.
"Yes! A vote!"
"Okay, who wants me for chief?" Jack looked around. Slowly, reluctantly, the choir raised their hands. Piggy counted.
"And who wants me?" Ralph looked around, slightly confident. Everyone save for Piggy raised their hands instantly and then, still a little upset about Ralph calling him Piggy, he raised his hand. "Then it's settled, I'm chief." Jack frowned, Ralph smiled and Lucinda clapped. "But erm, you can still be in charge of the choir!" Ralph told Jack.
"Then I want them as hunters." The red head said.
"And
you!" Ralph pointed to the blonde female. "You got me into this;
you're going to be my second in command."
"But I don't
want to." Lucinda pouted.
"Too bad." Ralph grinned and slung an arm around her shoulder. Jack coughed something vulgar under his breath which earned him an admonishing look from the female.
"Now any way," Ralph looked between his second in command and the lead hunter. "A few of us need to go check out the jungle. See what's in it you know?"
"I'm coming with!" Lucinda raised her hand.
"Me too." Jack said, moving to Ralph's other side.
"And me." Piggy stepped forward, still upset. "I've been with you from the start."
"Sucks to you." Jack glared down at the fat boy.
"Besides, three is more than enough people." Lucinda pointed, shrugging out of Ralph's grasp only to bump into Roger. She cursed her clumsiness and smiled at the dark boy.
"Careful." He said, locking optics with her. She flushed slightly and forced herself to look away. Meanwhile Ralph was telling Piggy something and the fat one was clearly upset.
"Lucinda, c'mon." Ralph looked at her; she twirled some hair around her finger, a nervous habit and raced after the fair boy and the head chorister.
"This is ours." Ralph smiled, looking down at from the mountain as Lucinda struggled to get up.
"Ralph!" She whimpered, clawing at the cube like rocks, trying to push up on it. Ralph and Jack turned around to see where she was. Jack rolled his eyes and Ralph sighed.
"You're not much of an athlete are you?" He asked, taking her hands and pulling her up the last couple of feet.
"Nope." She blushed at her open weakness.
"And you wanted her as your second command?" Ralph sighed again at their argument and Lucinda smirked.
"Jealous?" She asked. Jack snorted but didn't answer the question.
"C'mon guys, chill." The fair boy said. "Let's go check out the rest of the island." He climbed slowly down the mountain— he had to help Lucinda up several times because of her constant stumbling.
As they approached the jungle an interesting creature came into view.
"A pig!" Jack nearly shouted, pointing at the squirming piglet that squirmed even more at the volume of the lead-hunter's voice.
"Shush!" Lucinda snapped, going over to the whimpering creature only to have Jack grab at her ponytail and pull her back.
"No, I'm not a hunter for nothing. I'll kill it!" Jack looked menacingly at the creature, popping out the jack knife that he had in his pocket. He flipped it open and raised it into the air as he kneeled by the pig. He took it down an inch but then stopped mid way. He couldn't do it, the chief and second in command realized. He couldn't bring himself to such a savage thing.
"Jack…" Ralph tried, putting his hand on the red-head's shoulder right as the pig broke free and ran away.
"Dammit!" Jack cursed and turned to Ralph. "You idiot! It was right there, I could've got it!" He glared.
"You'll do it next time." Lucinda rolled her eyes at Jack's attitude.
"You shut up!" Jack growled.
"I have a name you know!"
"Guys!" Ralph stood up and glared between the assistant chief and the main hunter. "Could you just stop it for like two seconds? Can't we just get back to camp and talk to everyone before you start fighting?" Lucinda pouted and Jack grumbled some almost silent curse words.
"Fine!" They hissed in unison.
As the day continued on things went smoothly. They ate whatever fruit could be found on the ground and by time late afternoon had passed everyone decided against jobs for today.
"So now we need a work schedule." Ralph decided, roaming over to Lucinda who was grazing her toes over the ocean while everyone else was swimming. That was the problem with being the only girl. She couldn't strip down to her undergarments and dive in the water. Her shirt was mostly unbuttoned but buttoned enough so Jack wouldn't be able to make any snarky comments. As Ralph approached her, her eyes were on Roger. Her eyes flashed wide as Ralph spoke and she pushed herself out of the lustful daze that was the dark boy and turned to the fair boy.
"Um…sounds good. So you mean like who does what and what we need to do?" Ralph tried to find what her gaze was originally on, but all the boys were swimming. She could've been thinking about one of them or she could've been fantasizing about a ship rescuing them. He sighed just a little bit and sat down next to her.
"Yeah, you and me should get first pick."
"Alrighty, well the twins can tend to a signal fire."
"And the younger kids should get the crappy jobs." Lucinda nodded, agreeing with the idea. "We also need some people to build huts or shelters."
"Yep,
but someone should also collect fruit."
"Kay, so I'll work
on the shelters."
"And I'll get fruit, how hard can climbing trees really be?" She laughed a little, not knowing that she was overestimating her upper body strength.
"Now, lets call another meeting. We've gotta talk to the others." Ralph said, helping the female up.