Camping

Cast Of Characters:

Sharon Daniels

Diana Bates

Brooklyn Mance

Madi Smith

Wes Wells

Paul Charles

John Isaac

Xander Lopez

Ian Harmon

Mrs. Helen Bartleby

Erin Reihnheart

Aaron Cox

Kristy Dane

Danny Bates

Marissa Lee

Kaine Sanderson

Jake Williams

Figg Newton

Collen Knight

Melissa Stone

Chapter 1- Slash

Mrs. Bartleby's homeroom (Room 11) was going on a field trip. We were going on a weeklong trip to the middle of nowhere- camping, in the Maine wilderness. And this morning was the day of the trip- I had to wake up at about 7 AM to get to the school and take a bus with the other kids in my homeroom. I was the first there, and the buses had yet to arrive. Then, a red Chevy Malibu pulled up.

"Good morning Mrs. Bartleby", I said cheerfully.

"Good morning to you, Miss Mance", she replied eagerly. "You're quite early today!"

"Yes, I am. I guess I didn't know the speed limit was that fast. But, oh well, better early than miss the bus"

"Very true, very true."

It was then that an SUV pulled up and the popular class president, Kaine Sanderson jumped out.

"I'm here! The party can start now", said Kaine, as snobby as she could. I didn't really like Kaine. In fact, I thought she was a bit of a… witch. With a b.

Kaine stepped onto the front sidewalk after she retrieved her four suitcases from the trunk of the car. It was then that a Prius parked on the other side of the lot.

Out stepped best friends and neighbors, Madi Smith and Sharon Daniels. Sharon was a gossip; Madi was a cheerleader. Together, their influence over our sophomore class was unbelievable.

"Hi all!" Sharon said cheerfully as she hauled her bright pink suitcase to the concrete. Her caramel colored skin had a sort of shine in the sunlight.

Madi shook my hand. "Brooklyn, we're going to have a great time!"

"Where's Kara? Doesn't she live close to you two?" I asked confused.

"Kara has a soccer tournament down in Albany. She couldn't make it."

"Oh. That stinks," I said, but inside I was leaping with joy. Kara was annoying as anything.

Next, a bright red sports car pulled up, and stepping out was none other than South Portland High School's very own star: Kristy Dane.

Kristy was a diva; but she had the talent to back it up. She could sing, dance, and act: everything.

"Hello everyone!" Kristy cheered as she carried her red leather suitcase and dropped it on the pavement.

"Hey Kristy!" Said Madi.

Before we had any more time to talk, 3 more cars pulled in almost simultaneously.

Of the first car stepped Aaron Cox and Erin Reihnheart. Erin and Aaron were an item; and they always showed it. In fact, right now they were sharing a navy blue suitcase.

Out of car number two stepped Danny Bates. Danny was an outcast; a nerd. He barely had any friends at SPH, but at least he had school spirit; today he was fashioning a ratty old gray SPH sweatshirt. With him came his popular beautiful sister Diana Bates; currently seeing John Isaac.

Which brings us to car three, which had none other than John Isaac; football captain and king of SPH's sophomore class.

We all greeted the new arrivals. We only had to wait for nine more of our classmates now before we could board the busses and leave.

Then a large black Tahoe pulled up and dropped off the remaining nine kids all at once- and they came from the same neighborhood.

Wes Wells, Marissa Lee and Collen Knight all climbed out of the trunk, towing bags behind them. Wes was on the football team, Marissa was class president, and Collen was kind of a nerd (Danny's only friend) but was hot, so he had tons of girls that were swarming him constantly.

From the backdoors came five more: Xander Lopez, Melissa Stone, Figg Newton, Jake Williams and Paul Charles. Xander was a kid who was mostly invisible to the rest of the school. Melissa was a total band geek, who also liked Viking metal (don't ask what it is), and Figg Newton, is, well, himself. You see, Figg was born over 3 months premature and doctors gave him a 1% chance of surviving. So his parents decided 'Hey! Let's give this kid a crappy name!' And so they named him Figg and he survived, and has been made fun of ever since.

Jake Williams was a bit crazy; in science class, he was the one that always blew things up. Which brings us to Paul. Paul loved to read more than anyone and anything, and if you took his book, he went crazy.

Well, the 19th and final student stepped out of the passenger door: Ian Harmon. Ian wasn't that popular; though once again as in Collen's case, he was popular with the girls.

"Alright students, it seems we are all here! So take your bags and get on the bus!"

The students traveled onto the bus in small clique's; each of which pushed and shoved to get the back seat first.

"Not so fast!" Mrs. Bartleby's voice boomed. "You have assigned seats!"

The students groaned and got off the bus to see the list. I peered over someone shoulder to read it.

Seat 1: Aaron Cox & Erin Reihnheart

Seat 2: Mrs. Bartleby

Seat 3: Sharon Daniels & Madi Smith

Seat 4: Brooklyn Mance & Diana Bates

It was then that I sighed with relief and stopped reading the list. Diana was one of my best friends. We smiled at each other and quickly hopped onto the bus with our bags to beat the crowd.

Soon enough, the bus left the parking lot of the school. I glanced at Diana and said "I am going back to bed."

Sure enough, within a few minutes, half the bus was asleep.

________________________________________________

It was about two hours before the bus horn honked and the students awoke. Mrs. Bartleby stood up.

"Alright, class, we are going to be here, in these deserted woods, for a week. There is no contact with the outside world- there isn't cell phone service. Everyone please get your bags. Once we get to the grounds, I will give you your tent assignments."

The tired students stretched and picked up their bags, unloading the bus. As soon as we got up, our bus driver pulled out and left us alone, in the wilderness. We began walking along what might have been a path 50 years ago, and soon enough we were all stumbling constantly and even more tired than before.

We had been walking for at least an hour before we reached a clearing.

"Alright everyone. This will be your home for the next week. Bathrooms are there, there, there, there and there," Mrs. Bartleby said, while pointing out several trees. "Now, for your tent assignments. There will be no groaning or complaining. After this you must all pitch your own tents with your room mates. The first group to finish gets an extra helping at supper."

Everyone looked around the group nervously awaiting their tent assignment. It was then that Mrs. Bartleby hammered a piece of paper onto a tree. All the students rushed to get a view.

Tent #1- Sharon Daniels, Madi Smith & Erin Reihnheart

Tent #2- Wes Wells, Paul Charles & John Isaac

Tent #3- Xander Lopez, Ian Harmon, Aaron Cox & Danny Bates
Tent #4- Kaine Sanderson, Kristy Dane & Marissa Lee

Tent #5- Collen Knight, Figg Newton & Jake Williams

Tent #6- Diana Bates, Melissa Stone & Brooklyn Mance

I was relieved, to say the least. Thank GOD I didn't have to share a tent with Kaine. Soon enough, Mrs. Bartleby gave us all the packages to the tents, and we got going.

"Alright, Melissa, pull off this plastic and Brooklyn, untie these twist ties," said Diana demandingly. Diana had always been a natural leader.

I looked over to see that group 4 couldn't even open their package to their tent, but that groups 3 & 5 were far ahead of us. Quickly we started hammering the stakes into the ground, but we were too late.

"DONE!" Shouted all of group 3 simultaneously. We all looked over in envy.

"Congratulations group 3. The extra helping is your's."

By now it was about 6 PM and the sun was beginning to set. Everyone was out and about the campground, doing their thing. Some people were nowhere to be found.

I was sitting by a tree, in shorts and a cami, talking to my new friend and roommate, Melissa.

"So you have a brother named Evan? Me too!" I said excitedly.

"Wow! Well that's ironic. Almost as ironic as Erin and Aaron seeing each other."

I laughed. "Yes, as ironic as that. I think you're in my third block history class?

"Do you have Mr. Douglas?"
"You are in my class. Weird. And before this trip, we never knew each other existed."

We both laughed, and inside I knew Melissa would be a great friend to have.

John climbed out of his tent. It was about five after 6 PM. Everyone was out and about, in and outside the camp. John had to urinate.

John Isaac walked outside of the campground and kept going. He walked a good five minutes before he came to a secluded place and let loose.

He sighed and smiled, and began to head back to camp before he heard a rustle in the leaves.

"Hello? Who's there?" He asked nervously.

He heard the rustling again. "Anyone? Anyone out there?"

A figure swiftly came up from behind John and he screamed as loud as he could, before the figure took his machete and, slash, decapitated poor John. The figure headed back to camp as John's headless body crumpled to the ground.

I was talking to Melissa still when we all heard a loud scream come from the woods to the east.

"What the fuck…" said Melissa curiously. We all gathered together in the center of camp.

"I think we should investigate- maybe an animal attacked whoever it was who screamed," said Paul. Most of us nodded in agreement as me, Melissa, Paul, Kaine, Ian and Aaron set off down the path.

We walked for about three minutes before Kaine just dropped her mouth and screamed as loud as she could.

I gazed in disbelief. It was the headless corpse of John.

"What… Maybe it was… It was an animal…" Aaron suggested nervously.

"No… There's a machete. There is a murderer among us," I said triumphantly. Inside I was scared as hell.

Ian picked up John's body and we slowly trudged nervously back to camp.

Everyone gasped and Erin screamed.

"John… Oh my god!"

"One of us," I said, "is a killer."