A/N: Hello, again! I'm back with my second chapter. I realized that I did have a few typos in my previous chapter and I apologize for them. I'll be re-editing everything once this is full completed.
It felt as if all the wind had been knocked out of me. Hell, all of the wind was knocked out of me. For a minute, I just let myself sink towards the bottom of the ocean. I could hardly breathe and my arms and legs weren't moving. Was I dead? Or was this just a horrible nightmare that I would soon wake up from? I opened my eyes only to feel a great surge of pain. Saltwater, great. How am I supposed to see anything, now? Suddenly, my right arm was being tugged up and within seconds I surfaced the water.
"You," someone choked, "come on, get to the raft! Hurry!"
I did my best to kick and paddle my way to the big orange raft, all while coughing and sputtering like a madman. Somebody grabbed my hand to pull me up and I was soon embraced in a large hug.
"Lilith, God, you're okay! You survived, thank heavens!" Evie yelled.
I lifted my head off of her shoulder to look around. There were about 8 other girls on our raft and 13 on the other. There were 47 total people aboard that plane, including both the pilots and the attendants. The only conclusion that I could come up with for the others is that they either drowned or died on impact. I slowly sat up and coughed out everything that had come in contact with my mouth.
"Wh-who all do we have here?" I asked. Penelope wasn't on either of the rafts. Although I snapped at her, there was a new place of sympathy for her in my heart. A smaller girl crawled over to me and started to cry.
"All of the adults," she hiccupped, "aren't here. Where are they? What happened? Are we gonna die out here?"
"Shh," I cooed, "it will be alright. Girls! It appears that all of the adults have either died or had remained in the wreckage. Again, do not panic. We were on our way to the mainland, so just a couple hours of floating in these—"
"Shut up, Ms. Bossy!" someone interrupted. I wasn't too entirely taken aback; Ms. DeLaney had, in fact, put me in charge of everyone, so I could see why the others might get jealous. I was a natural-born leader, but I was certainly not bossy or rude all the time. Sure, I messed around with Pene, but I didn't do that usually. It must've just been my anger from thinking about my parents. I shouldn't worry over it too much, though, because she was gone and I was not. Survival was the only thing on my mind.
"Listen, I know that it may seem like I'm bossing you guys around, but until we get back to England, you'll have to obey me, okay? This is the only way we can keep order around here!" I persuaded them.
Some of the girls rolled their eyes or huffed and looked away. If this is how it's going to be, so be it. We drifted in the rafts for another 20 minutes until someone called out.
"Look, everyone!" she exclaimed, "Land, we can finally go home!" I turned my head and squinted off into the distance. That sure wasn't England. England didn't have trees like that or sand like that piece of land. Faintly, I could see some smoke coming from the top of the island. What in the world? Was there a fire on the mountain?
"Girls," I hesitated, "I'm not sure if this is home. This looks like an island of some sorts, you see. England doesn't look like that." The females muttered to themselves again and reached their arms into the water. What? They started to make paddling motions with their arms, rowing the boats closer and closer to the island. In a matter of minutes, we reached the shore. We all hopped out of the rafts and stretched, some even throwing up.
"Everyone, can I get your attention?" I asked loudly. Some turned their full attention to me; others did not and instead waded in the ocean.
"First, we need to find some food and clean water, if possible. After that, we'll have to make shelters. It's getting darker, so we will have to hurry. Two groups; one to get food and one to make shelter. Who'd like to find food?"
Several of the little ones raised their hands.
"Now, who'd like to make little huts?" no one raised their hands, so I pointed to a group of girls that were huddled in a circle.
"You guys will be in charge of making shelter for all of us."
"Excuse me, who made you the boss around here? We just got stranded on this island here and you're shouting out commands? Over half of the people on the plane died. Shouldn't we be concerned about that? So eager, aren't we?" she snickered to her friends. I balled my hands up into fists.
"This is the only way we are going to live. We need someone to lead. Without a leader, we'll go into chaos," I explained, "I realize that many died, but what can we do about it? Do you want to die here?"
The girl popped a hip out and rolled her eyes. Evie stuck her tongue out at the rude girl and turned towards me.
"Don't mind them," she whispered, "If they won't listen, then they'll just die out here." I nodded my head in agreement. As cruel as that sounded, it was true. If you didn't want to be helped, then help won't be given.
"Alright," I clapped my hands, "let's start to—"
I was immediately interrupted by sounds of hooting and hollering. A large band of boys, big and small, ran out of the trees.
"Girls! Look, Jack, there's others here!" a little boy yelled. I looked around, confused. All of the other ladies grouped behind me and nudged me forward.
A tall boy with messy red hair ran out behind the boys. A blush began to form on my face as I noticed how little clothing he was wearing: just a simple brown cloth covering his lower half. The majority of his face and chest were also covered with streaks of dark brown, red, and yellow.
"When did you get here?" he shouted out. I looked at the others and they held a similar appearance of messiness and wildness. It almost seemed like they were on this island for a while.
"We just got here. Our plane crashed on the way to London and we arrived here on rafts," I said.
"I asked a simple question; you didn't have to give me a full explanation," the boy smirked. My face heated up even more.
"H-how long have you been here?" I stuttered. Stupid, stupid stupid! It looks like I'm scared of him! The boy looked me over and I could feel his and the other's eyes roaming all over me. I shuffled in my stance as I focused on his face. He had strong features in his face, although it was hard to really point out because of the paint. His eyes looked like a greyish, bland color, but beside that, his body was lank and skinny. I quickly averted my eyes as I realized I was fully giving him a once-over.
"I don't know, a few days? A week? Time flies by so fast on this island," he looked to the left. The girl beside me looked like she was going to pass out. I leaned down to her.
"Are you going to be okay?" I asked. Her wide eyes stared back up at me.
"These boys are so cute, I can't handle it," she loudly proclaimed. The whole of boys looked in our general direction and doubled over with laughter. I pitied the poor girl for being so embarrassed.
The trees started to rustle again and a boy with fair hair and light eyes came out. With him was a chubby boy with big round glasses on his face.
"Jack, you're supposed to be—" the fair haired boy was cut off as he stood starring at the 22 girls in front of him. Jack told the other boy about us and he nodded as if he understood.
"Well, uh, welcome to the island," the blond started, "I'm Ralph, and it seems that you just got here. I'm the chief; the littluns and I are responsible for building shelter. Jack, here, and his hunters get the meat." Jack stepped up and puffed out his chest.
I looked over at Evie and I could've sworn that her eyes were on Ralph the whole time. I couldn't blame her, though; Ralph was athletically built, thin, but still had some muscle. His features were a large contrast to Jack. Ralph's face appeared softer and more evenly made, whereas Jack's face jutted out, but not to the point where he was unattractive. Unlike Jack, Ralph had ripped shorts on and had "clean" looking skin. Both boys had their special charm, even their companions, maybe with an exception for the fat one. He just didn't look like the charmer. His nose was upturned in a strange way and his mouth remained open the whole time. Gosh, I hope a fly goes into his mouth.
I laughed at the thought and realized that everyone else was in the middle of talking. All heads were turned towards me as I tried to control my laughter.
"What's so funny, blondie?" Jack questioned with an amused look.
"Yeah! You've been starrin' at me this whole time then you go on and laugh and such!" the fat one butted in. Jack huffed loudly and got into his face.
"Shut up, Piggy! No one asked for your thoughts!" Jack commanded.
I laughed some more at the name Jack gave him. Piggy was brilliant; his nose even resembled that of a pig! I couldn't believe how rude I was being, though. It seemed like I was being terrible to others because there was no adult to reprimand me.
"Piggy?" I questioned with a laugh, "Is that your name?"
"N-no! No, that was the stupid name the others gave me! My name is not—" Piggy huffed but then fell to the ground. My eyes widened as I knelt down to see if he was okay.
"Relax, he does this all the time. His ass-mar gets in the way whenever he gets worked up. Pathetic fatty," Jack sneered down at him. I wouldn't quite call him pathetic, or even a fatty. And ass-mar? Did he mean asthma? The others laughed with the exception of Ralph. It seemed like they made fun of Piggy quite often.
Something sharp hit my arm and I gasped in pain. I looked to my right to see a boy with dark skin and even darker hair holding a sharp stick to my forearm. I slowly stepped away, but he just walked closer.
"What are you doing?" I hesitated. This thing wasn't just a small twig; rather, it was a huge spear. Remnants of what appeared to be blood covered the base. What the hell? What were they doing here?
"Roger!" Jack yelled, "Get your ass back over here! We'll have to use that to hunt our next meal." Oh. So they're using them to kill meat.
"What are your names?" Ralph politely asked. Each girl said their name and blushed when he smiled at them. Finally, once it came to me, I said my name and was about to ask how old they were when I was pushed down into the sand. I brushed the sand off of my face and damp clothes as I turned around. The girl that previously asked me why I was so bossy smirked at me.
'That's what you get,' she mouthed at me. I glared daggers into her crinkled button-up.
"So, how old are you boys?" she asked with an evil grin, "I'm 13 years old and I'm about to be in year 8!" Jack told the littluns to go back to finding fruit as he responded.
"You don't seem like you should be a teenager, not with jealously pushing down a girl older than you," he mused. I smiled at his act of defending me. The girl's eyes shot to the ground as she was scolded by a boy she formerly liked.
I looked down at her fancy dress shoes and grabbed a handful of sand.
"What, you gonna try to throw sand at my face? I dare you; if you get sand in my hair, I'll kill you!" she stepped back.
"I'm not going to throw it in your face; that isn't what a lady does," I said placidly and threw the sand into her seven-hundred dollar shoes. The girl looked at me in shock and ran away, flailing her arms all over the place and cursing me. Drama queen. Jack and Ralph gave me grins of approval.
"I'm sixteen, soon to be seventeen; going into year 11 once I get off of this drab island. Whenever that may be," Jack looked to the left.
I noted that most of the other girls trotted off with the littluns to go find fruit or had ran off to play in the shore. Now it was just the four elders, Piggy, and Roger left.
"I just turned sixteen. Two days before we crashed, actually. What a great birthday gift, huh?" Ralph added in, "But how about you two? Seems like you're older than the rest."
"Yeah, we are. I'm also 16 and I'll be in year 10 soon, too. It's mighty hard to control these brats," Evie blew a piece of hair from her eyes.
"My sixteenth birthday is in 4 days," I gave a small wave to them from the ground, "I agree with you: what an awesome surprise party this is. So, are you two the most reliable ones here?"
Ralph shook his head and laughed.
"I am," Ralph cleared, "He just hunts." Jack glared at Ralph and I could tell his ego was hurt a bit.
"Don't believe that twit. I'm just as reliable as he is, perhaps even more," he said. Ralph coughed and helped me up off the ground. From the corner of my eye, I could see Jack stormily looking at Ralph, appearing as if he was jealous. The dark haired boy eyed me suspiciously as I brushed more sand off of my knees and legs. That boy sure was different.
"I'll show you to our little camp area. We also have some water and fruit for you to have. Let's see," Ralph paused, thinking, "later on, Jack will bring a pig for us to cook and eat, and we'll make sure you guys have a good time," Ralph reassured us. Yeah, good time. How could I have a good time while I'm stranded on an island with a bunch of immature little boys and girls? Especially with a person who liked to poke me with spears!
A/N 2: I set this scene (pretty much the whole plot, too) in the middle of the North Sea between Norway and the United Kingdom. I have no idea if there even are islands in that sea, so I am just going to pretend that there are islands there that no one really knows about. And the islands are somewhat tropical (yes, I know). This whole story seems so unrealistic, but I promise: it WILL get better. I know, you may be thinking that this has nothing to do with Lord of the Flies...yet! I wrote a huge outline and I'm very excited to expand on it! See you next chapter!
*Thankful time*
midevilrobot: THANK YOU, GOOD FRIEND, YOU
Guest: Thank you so much *bows* You are too nice
AmethystWren: Holy cow! Thank you so so much! I am so glad that you recognized what I was trying to imply! I'm fangirling about your review over here because that's how happy I am!