(Author's Note- Hey guys! I just got back from a four day canoeing trip with a state-run group called 'Wilderness School' (No relation at all to the fictional one in the first heroes of Olympus book.) I feel as though a slight bit of explanation is necessary for you to understand this story. Basically, over the summer, they run some 20-day and some 5-day courses. 20-day groups go and hike along the Appalachian Trail, canoe on the Housatonic river, and rock climb in a place called 'Sages Ravine'. 5-day groups just hike. There are follow up courses over the course of a year that past students can attend, one of which I just returned from. I have done both a five day course and a twenty day course (twenty day two summers ago, and five day this past summer), and I thought it would be really cool to see the Yogscast as the people on these courses. I chose the twenty day, and my own experiences on the course to write this. I replaced the people on my course and myself with various Yogs who fit best. This program is for kids with social issues, or (rarely) they're offered this in place of juvie-time. Just keep that in mind. Normally, the summer courses are not co-ed, but for the purposes of the story, this one is. Also, everyone is much younger, as the courses are for 12-18 year olds. I hope that you enjoy the story and have a wonderful day!)
Chapter One- So It Begins(First part of Day 1)
Kim's eyes shot open as her alarm blared. With fumbling fingers she turned it off, vaguely wondering why it was going off this early in the middle of summer. She had half-fallen back asleep when she remembered. Wilderness School started today. She felt a rising mixture of excitement and nervousness as she clumsily got out of bed. The excitement was because she had been waiting for months, ever since her therapist had recommended it to help with her social anxiety and anger issues. She had agreed to it without a second thought. She had taken walks in the woods before, and liked it, so what was the difference, really? The nervousness was at having to confront her social anxiety. She had heard that some of the students there might not be there willingly, that they were forced to fix some criminal tendencies. She wasn't sure if she wanted to get friendly with a bunch of convicts or something.
Kim cursed under her breath as she tripped over the bag that her mom had helped her pack weeks in advance. It was filled with non-cotton clothes and small, light toiletries. She continued on her wobbly way to the kitchen. Her sleepy awkwardness was bad enough, but worse, there was no coffee warming in the pot. She sighed heavily, pulling out a filter and setting up the pot to run. She got out two cups, one for her, and the other for her mom. Her younger sister didn't like coffee, not that Kim would do anything for Emma anyway. Her sister annoyed her to no end, and was part of the reason she had so readily agreed to the trip. Just to get away for awhile was worth whatever she had to do.
Speak of the devil, her sister shambled into the kitchen at just that moment, rubbing her eyes. "Could you not be so loud, you woke me up." Emma complained.
"You have to get ready. Mom is taking you to the grocery store after she drops me off. And how could I have woken you up? All I'm doing is making coffee."
Emma scowled. "You can't boss me around just because you're going off on this trip. I don't know why you think it makes you better than me."
"What? I don't even get your reasoning here. I'm just repeating what Mom said last night before she sent us to bed."
"I don't care. I'm not going grocery shopping if you aren't"
Kim was incredulous and quickly growing angry. "I'm going to be in the woods!" she yelled. Then, she distracted herself with the coffee, which was now finished brewing. Her hands were slightly shaking and she knew that her face was probably flushing with anger. She tried to take a few of the deep breaths that her therapists recommended, before she repeated what had gotten her in therapy in the first place.
"Quit yelling at your sister, Kim!" Her mom's voice came from across the house.
Kim took an especially deep breath, knowing that any sort of retort would result in a fight that she wanted to avoid. Her mom never got mad at Emma, never even seemed to notice how rude and selfish she was. Emma wore a self-assured smirk at hearing their mother's scolding voice, and quickly left the kitchen, loudly proclaiming "Kim woke me up, but I made you some coffee!"
Kim clenched her fists, grabbed her coffee (leaving her mother's cup empty) and retreated to her room. She took a few half hearted tastes, decided that her stomach was too upset from the early morning stress, and instead resolved to get in the shower. She grabbed her non-cotton clothes she would wear to camp and a towel, and then headed to the bathroom. It would be the last shower she could have for at least eight days, so she tried to make the most of it.
After her shower, she brushed her short black hair and went to check on her mom, passing by a clock on her way. She had to leave in less than fifteen minutes, great.
"Mom! Are you about ready yet?"
"No. Wait, what time is it?"
"We need to leave in like, ten minutes!"
Her mom's bed-mussed head poked out of the doorway of her room. "Really?" She didn't sound concerned at all "Ok, well I'll just jump in the shower and get ready-"
"No, Mom, there's not enough time!"
Her mom's eyes widened. "Don't take that tone with me, I'm warning you now. Fine, I'll just get dressed and we can go. Do you have everything packed?" She vanished into her room, presumably getting dressed.
"Yeah, I've been packed for about a month, remember?"
"Then why's this purple shirt still in here?" Said shirt flew out of the open doorway.
"That one's too big. You're making me way over-pack. I'm fine in terms of packing. Just hurry up so we can go."
Her mom bustled out of her room, wearing a nice blouse and a skirt. "Just hang on a sec, sweetie. I'm just going to go and put on some makeup, and then we can go."
"Makeup?" Kim asked incredulously. "You never wear makeup. And they're not going to care. We're going to be in the woods for twenty days, I don't think any of them are going to be wearing makeup. You're fine." Her mom mumbled some sort of response. Kim darted back to her room, and grabbed her bag.
After that, she managed to get her sister down to the car, but her mom started to talk to their neighbors. Kim felt her annoyance growing, bolstered by her sister's whining that she couldn't have front seat- 'You have it ALL the time and it isn't fair!'- And the subsequent kicks on the back of the chair.
"JUST STOP! I'M LEAVING FOR TWENTY DAYS, CAN'T YOU STOP BEING SUCH A BRAT FOR ONE?!" Kim exploded after the umpteenth thump on the seat.
Naturally, their mom heard her outburst and hurried over to the car, bidding quick goodbyes to the neighbors.
"Stop yelling at your sister Kim! Look, you made her cry." Their mother scolded. Indeed, tears glistened in Emma's eyes. When their mother turned away to start the car though, Emma's eyes dried and an evil smirk appeared on her face. She saw Kim watching, and stuck out her tongue. Kim forced herself to turn away, and when she looked down at her clenched fists, she discovered that her nails had dug perfect little crescents into the heel of her hands. With a sigh, she stretched her fingers and gazed out the car window.
The rustic buildings of her small town soon gave way to sprawling fields and patches of forests that were well riddled with roads and paths. Occasionally, they would cross a bridge that covered one of countless streams that reached like spidery fingers across the area. It was more than half way to the base camp that someone finally broke the silence.
"So, Kim will you miss us? I know you've really wanted to go on this trip for awhile."
"Sure! I'll miss you guys loads!" Perhaps she replied too quickly, as her mom's frown suggested. Maybe it was obvious that she didn't think she would miss them at all.
When they got to the base camp, they were well and late, to Kim's dismay. She leapt out of the car, and then stood, uncertain where to go. Her mother took her time, and her sister opted to stay in the car. There was an older looking woman heading towards them, holding a clipboard and a pen. She introduced herself as Wendy, and checked off Kim's name from a list on the board.
"Now, hun, you're a few minutes late, but its okay. You didn't miss much. They're just going over some rules and stuff now, so if you want to run over there, go ahead. Just leave your bag under the awning, and I'll go over a few last things with your mom."
Kim put on the meek smile she wore around strangers and hurried off. If she knew her mom at all, she and Wendy would be chatting for at least a half-hour.
The group that she would spend the next twenty days of her life with were huddled in a loose circle, and she cautiously crept towards them after putting her bag where she was told. One of the girls there, one with bright red hair, spotted her, and waved her over.
There were three instructors, two girls and one guy. The guy looked to be about mid-twenties, with blue eyes and a close-shaven coppery beard. He smiled and gestured Kim into the circle. She stood next to the red-headed girl. The copper haired instructor nodded to one of the other instructors, this one tall and blonde. Her eyes were a dark grayish-blue, and they twinkled friendlily. She began to speak.
"Hello students! In a few moments we will start to put together our packs and you'll get to say goodbye to your families. You may have noticed that we have a co-ed group for this course, because unfortunately we didn't have enough girls sign up. Over the next twenty days you will all overcome incredible challenges together, but for now, let's start with our names. Now, a unique feature of the Appalachian trail, or AT for short, is that many thru-hikers get nicknames over the course of their hike. Now, we aren't thru-hiking, but we still thought that it would be fun to share nicknames we have at home, or perhaps you could develop one over the course. I'll start. My name is Hannah, but a lot of people call me Lomadia, and you're all welcome to." She looked at the instructor next to her.
This one was also blonde, but a fair bit shorter. Her eyes were a clearer sky-blue. "My name is Anna, but everyone calls me Minty."
Now the last instructor, the one with the coppery stubble. "Hey guys, I'm Tom, but you can call me Sparkles."
While the three instructors had been all smiles, the students were generally a bit more sullen. The one standing next to Sparkles had longish, wavy ,orange hair with the beginnings of a beard. He was loud but indirect as he proclaimed himself very quickly as- "Simon Honeydew"
The boy next to Honeydew was already wearing some gear, a purple bandana tied around his mouth. His voice was very soft. "I'm Joakim, but nearly everyone I know calls me Rythian."
The boy next to him stood up straight, and seemed to swagger without moving. He had a friendly open voice, and shaggy honey-blond hair. "I'm Lalna. Or you can call me Duncan, I guess."
The next boy had much lighter hair that was held out of his eyes with a black headband. He was dressed nearly entirely in green otherwise. "I'm Martyn… Uh, I don't really have a nickname though. Some people call me littlewood, but that's just my last name." There were a few snickers, especially among the other boys.
Kim realized then that she was next. She felt the suffocating social fear rising again, and she took the deep breaths to try and quash it. She still felt dizzy as she said. "Hi, I'm Kim…" She mentally scrambled for a nickname, something other than her name that people called her. She had gone to a computer camp once, and they had called her Nano there. Seizing on that first thing that came to mind, she blurted it out. "Call me Nano!" She began to blush at the strange looks that some of the others were giving her.
The girl next to her with the bright red hair smiled sympathetically and quickly spoke to detract the attention from Kim. "Hey good lookins! I'm Zoey, or Zoeya. Not much difference, is there?" Her happy tone and wide smile were both infectious, and the rest of the circle found themselves grinning.
The next student had the beginnings of a moustache with deep brown hair. His eyes were dark and soulful. "I'm Sjin; don't even bother with my real name. Literally no one uses it."
The guy next to Sjin was pale, with close cut black hair and grey eyes. "I'm Sips. My real name is Chris, but like Sjin here" -he sort of elbowed the other boy, who wasn't expecting it at all- "I don't use my real name."
The final boy had long black hair, and glasses. He actually had a bit of an accent as he said, "Hey guys, I'm Liam, but I prefer Nilesy."
"Great! That's all of us!" Sparkles clapped his hands together. "Go and say goodbye to your families, and grab your bags. Meet us over by that shed there for gear issuing."
End of Chapter One.