Her arm hurt, she knew her arm was hurting and, it seemed to be the only thing she knew. Stripping off her hat, blazer, tie, high socks she picked up a sharp stone and made a cut in her knee length skirt. Ripping around her skirt, she made it shorter and easier to move in. But kept the extra material tucked in her waistband which she pulled tighter. As the brown haired girl walked among the trees she saw one with a good grip and climbed it.
Perching herself on the top branch she cradled her arm and rubbed her shoulder, as I said, it hurt like a bitch. As the dark-haired girl sat atop the tree she looked down to her arm and it had two hairbands on it. Reaching her arms back and wincing a bit, she put two French plaits into her hair and tied them at the end. Looking around she couldn't see anyone but hoped for survivors. She couldn't even see the plane anymore. It was off in the trees somewhere. Then suddenly there was a loud sound like a trumpet. It blasted out from the beach somewhere, the beach was a little in the distance but the dark haired girl quickly jumped out of the tree and ran toward the sound.
She ran in and out of the tree and through the grassy patches until she reached the beach where she saw, to her amazement, a large group of boys from all ages. Raising one eyebrow she sighed and walked toward the boys confidently. She saw a ginger boy eyeing her creepily, a larger boy who looked very nervous, a fair-haired boy with a shell in his hands and a band of other boys. But some group all had choir robes and hats on which made her want to laugh. With sympathy at heart, she sat next to the nervous boy and smiled at him. It was only when she looked up from ripping off a few strands of her skirt and un-unbuttoning her first two buttons that she realised they were all staring at her.
"What do you want?" She asked, sounding annoyed, tired and sarcastic. The boys all diverted their gaze and some laughed or blushed in embarrassment. The boy with the shell was standing in the middle of the circle and seemed to uphold some authority.
"Well. We should elect a leader, a chief." The girl groaned in boredom and rested her head on her hands, closing her eyes.
"A chief! Yes, a chief!" Apart from sounding like a bunch of maniacs. These boys were much like the girl's brothers at home, stupid, annoying, bastards and loveable. She was sure at some point she would develop feelings for the boys that reflected siblings.
"Yes, but before that we need names." The shy boy said in a squeaky voice.
"Shut up fatty!" The ginger boy retorted. The girl but didn't say anything, but the girls' shoulder was still hurting and she gripped it as it throbbed slightly.
"Does your shoulder hurt?" A littleum asked.
"I can put it back into place if you'll let me?" the ginger boy offered. The girl nodded and turned around so her bad shoulder was facing him. He knelt next to her and looked up at her.
"This is going to really hurt once I've done it." He told her.
"If you break my arm I will break your face with my other fist." She was deadly serious but he took hold of her shoulder and her back and quickly paused very hard till there was a cracking of bone.
"Jesus!" The girl yelled. The boys sniggered and the ginger boy went back to his seat.
"We don't know her name, and she doesn't know ours." The ginger boy added smiling suspiciously.
"Fine. I'm Louise." The boys sniggered.
"Well, I'm Ralph. That's Jack Merridew, Eric, Sam, Roger, Bill, Maurice, The Littleums, Simon, Robert and that's... Piggy!" This made the boys roll around laughing and sniggering as the shy boy stayed still, looking embarrassed. Louise would have defended him but she didn't really want to.
"Anyway, how old are you?" Jack asked Louise.
"I'm 18." Blinking a little she felt an eyelash in her eye but tried to forget about it.
"I'm 19," Jack said, sounding impressed. Next, she turned to the boy with the shell.
"I'm 19 as well." Nodding Louise looked back at Jack and he seemed to be glaring at Ralph so she laughed quietly under her breath. The other boys talked among themselves before the boy with the shell spoke again.
"Who votes Jack chief?" He asked. The choir boys raised their hands and Jack glared at the other boys which made Louise smile.
"Okay, and who votes for me?" The rest of the boys raised their hands and cheered. "Ralph for chief." She sat still as the boy, Ralph took his position in the middle of the circle. All of the choir boys now had taken off their robes and hats and were unbuttoning their shirts when they looked back at Louise who was looking at the sand. So they shrugged and let them hang off their shoulders unbuttoned.
"Hey, Ralph, why don't we explore the island. See what's here?" The boy with the conch nodded, then looked at Louise.
"Want to come with us. You'll just get bored here." She wasn't sure that was entirely why he was asking her, but she would do anything to not be bored right now and this was her solution. Standing up she followed on from Jack and Ralph.
"Why are you so angry?" Jack asked her.
"Well. All my friends are dead, my mother and sister could be dead, my dad and my 3 brothers are dead and I am pretty sure I'm the outcast in my current situation. I see no reason there not to get angry at everything." The other two boys were silent.
"Why don't you just... start a new? Try to forget about that and they help us build something here. We've only just got here, we were on the same plane. So we're all in a pretty shit position." Ralph told her. Louise rolled her eyes but shit up.
"Should we go through the forest?" Jack asked, changing the subject.
"I was there earlier in the trees, but that was back that way." Louise gestured to the other end of the beach.
"Well, why don't we go in any way?" The ginger boy started walking into the thicket, the other two followed him. There were tons of vines falling from trees with huge trunks and spiders branches that created a thick light green ceiling of leaves and vines.
"I wish this island could be just as it seems. But there's probably something around the corner to fuck it up." Jack mused, looking at Louise. They walked in silence till they reached a grassy clearing. The ground had fresh grass on it and looked soft. Sitting on it, Louise lay down, looking up at the clearing in the trees. Then, to the two boys looking down at her, they looked from her to each other and back to her then shrugged. Laying down, one either side of Louise, they looked up at the blue sky in silent appreciation.
Louise couldn't say how long they stayed there, but it was getting dark when she woke on her side with Jack's arm around her waist and her chest pressed against Ralph's back. It was kinda weird so she stood up quickly and then Jack's hand fell over Ralph's waist and Louise let out a laugh. The two boys woke slowly in unison.
"Aw, you two are picture perfect. I wish I could capture this." The two boys soon realised what was happening and stood up, blushing. They just followed a laughing Louise out of the forest. As they approached the camp, there was a fire and Piggy seemed more upset than usual.
"You got a fire going!" Jack yelled happily. Maurice and Roger nodded, Ralph sat on a rock near the fire and so did Jack but Louise walked past the camp and sat on the sand a good way away from the camp.
"Don't we need things such as shelters, and food?" She heard piggy suggest as Ralph sat down. Jack didn't add to the conversation, she actually didn't hear his voice once. Then Jack was sitting next to her, not to close. They were both staring at the sunset in awe. It was beautiful and she hoped it would always be. Although Louise wanted to savour this moment of the sunset, she had never seen a sunset like it, in England.
"How are you?" Jack asked her. Louise lay back in the sand and Jack looked down at her before laying next to her.
"I'm as happy as I could be. What about you? How is his grace today?" He smirked at her humour but then looked at Louise. She quickly realised he was looking at her and turned her own head.
"Alright, I suppose." Louise closed her eyes and scrunched some sand between her fingers, it felt nice on her skin and sitting up she unlaced her shoes and put them next to her legs. Lying back down she faced Jack, he seemed to have gone to sleep but she didn't seem to mind. She had tried hard to not before, but now she looked at Jack and stood up. Brushing herself down, Louise walked down to where the water would lap at her feet and sit down. Playing with the wet sand, she built it up into a large mound, hours must have passed as she made a long wall in front of her. Reaching into the pocket of her skirt, she pulled out a flask. It was full of whisky and she took a swig, the liquid burned her throat but made her feel good, then she was only bothered by a hand on her shoulder. Turning around, it was Jack smiling down at her. She covered the flask with her hand then shoved it in her pocket.
"Come on. It's getting darker." He put a handout and Louise took it. Rubbing the sand off her hands she picked up her shoes and followed Jack up to the camp,
"So, what's the flask?" He asked. Louise groaned and stopped walking up the beach.
"You can't tell anyone okay. It's the last of a little whisky and I'm only giving it to people who aren't arseholes." Jack laughed and looked down at her skirt then back to her face.
"Give me some, and I will shut up." Huffing, Louise reached down her skirt and pulled out the flask, Jack raised his eyebrow but still took the flask. He took a bigger swig than Louise had, but her brothers always drank more than she did as well.
"Heavy drinker? Never would have thought such a daddy's boy would be." Snatching back the flask Louise shoved it in the pocket and Jack stared at her.
"What?"
"Your a daddy's boy, it's clear as day. You think your owed everything and think you can take charge, I'de say you were at a private school or a boarding school. And there's no way you weren't rich when you were back in England, maybe your father was a lord or the head of an estate. But you're not too horrible. You seem to have a good will I think, but then you could also be doing everything for yourself but I don't suppose so." Jack had his hands on his hips glaring at her.
"You finished?" He sounded annoyed.
"I'm just making preconceptions which, I'm sure you did when you saw me." Louise walked past Jack and he just followed behind her. He didn't say anything as they approached the camp. That night was uneventful, the boys talked amongst themselves and Louise went to sleep before any of them. She was sure that at some point, someone settled by her but she was too tired to open her eyes. She just felt the fires blaze.
As she woke up the sun was still rising and she sat up and walked toward the sea, she needed a good wash before the others were up. So she stripped. Out of her shirt and walked in the water.
Louise's life before the island had been fun, she attended a military school for girls, with her brothers' military school just a mile from hers. Even though it was a boarding school it wasn't too bad, she got on well enough with most of the girls but just wanted to focus she was there for. It had been the only military school for girls ever and the government seemed to want to keep it that way, even though Louise and most of her classmates had taken on and beaten their fellow boys. Louise had been in her last year but it was then that the stupid Germans chose to declare war, and shews being sent to America. She still didn't know why that was happening.
"You've stripped a bit, haven't you," Jack smirked, he seemed to always be following her and it was annoying. The water was up to the elastic on Louise's bra when she turned around to face him, shaking her head.
"Do you have to be insufferable and creepy?" You asked and he laughed.
"What school were you at before all this?" Jack asked, but she didn't answer him. Taking out her French plaits she put the hairbands back on her wrist and sank her head into the water and began to scrub her hair, in an attempt to keep it relatively clean. Coming back up, out of the water.
She threw some water at Jack and it looked normal enough, he hit some back and then the older boys joined in. Except for Piggy.
Louise got out of the water, leaving Jack to throw water at the others as she sat next to Piggy and Simon. She almost took pity on them as she sat in between them.
"How come you two don't swim?" She asked as she smiled at Jack.
"Because of my ass-mar." Louise took a double take and looked at Piggy, so did Simon.
"Your ass-mar?" The other two said in unison.
"Yeah, the thing that makes me breathe real weird." They held in a laugh as Piggy sounded serious, but Louise's lip quivered as she tried to not laugh at the poor boys face.
"Sucks to your ass-mar. That's not a reason to not go into the water, I knew plenty of girls who had ass-mar and still did swimming."
"Well. It's not just that. I don't want to... take my clothes off, ever." Piggy answered awkwardly.
"What about you Simon?"
"Just don't really feel like it." His short answer ended the conversation abruptly, but Louise didn't mind the silence, it was calming in some respects.