Author's Note: ok so, my beta sent this back to me just now, i havent looked it over yet, but i also dont wanna sit on it, so just posting it. hopefully, u guys will like it. i'll post the second part of this chap as soon as my beta sends it back to me and then i'm not posting any updates until after my exams. sorry.
Thanks Mayalex for that interesting review. lol ,
Criminal Insanity for Beta help and andtototoo and aeryn for your kind suggestions.

Disclaimer: I don't own Degrassi or any of it's characters.
Josh is mine.

Chapter 4

Paige's eyes opened with a sudden sound of 'thunder'.
Still groggy, she tried to figure out where she was, and then she remembered.

Spinner… camping trip… school bus… and Alex.

One minute she was arguing with Alex and then she had dozed off and was having the sweetest dream… then there was a loud 'thud', and in an instant, the dreamland was gone and she had come back to reality.

Paige wasn't sure how long she had slept.
She could not even believe that she was able to sleep at all in the midst of all the noise, but she remembered the sleep being peaceful.
With her half numbed brain and without moving her head much, she tried to search for the source of what had produced that loud sound that had woke her up from her comfortable sleep.

Just then, she heard the sound of a 'thud' again and startled, she turned and looked at the seat beside her.
Alex was standing next to her seat and the sound had come from her dropping her bag from a foot above, on to the seat beside her.
She was staring straight at her.
As soon as their eyes met, Alex spoke.

"We're here, so unless you're waiting for your 'prince charming' to come and wake you up, I'd suggest you get up."

Paige just rolled her eyes at Alex's shallow perceptions of her and sat there, not moving. Alex picked up her bag and carelessly walked out of the bus without looking back.

'What a rude way to wake someone up?'

Paige thought as she watched Alex walk out of the bus, leaving her alone in now an empty bus. Lazily, she stood up and looked under her seat for her bags.
They were gone.
With a panic, she rushed out into the aisle and looked for her bags again sitting on her knees. Her bags had slid under Jay's seat and had collected lots of dust marks and shoe prints in the process. Frustrated, she pulled them out, dusted them off and searched for her cell phone.
She was relieved to see that it was still there. She did not trust Jay, not since she had heard about his DVD players and laptop disappearance acts.

She turned the cell phone on only to see the 'no signal' blinking on it.
'Great.' Not much amused by this new surprise, she put it back in her bag.

Once again, putting one bag on her shoulder and carrying the other in her hand, she walked out of the bus to see what else this 'unlucky' day had in store for her.

Paige had exited the bus onto a very large, hard ground that was completely surrounded by trees. The trees not only provided shade but also gave them privacy from nearby campers.

The day was in total contrast to the morning earlier.
The sun was shinning in full bloom. With a beach close by, it was also pretty humid compared to Toronto. Paige had only been out in it for five minutes, and she was already beginning to sweat.

The 'rowdy' bunch had now moved their activities from the bus to the campground.
Some were busy putting up the volley net, some were patiently watching them and some were circled around Alex, who apparently now had taken charge of assigning them their daily chores.

Not wanting to join the group circled around Alex, Paige looked for Ms. Hatzalikos who was sitting on her foldable camping chair, under a tree. The bus driver was standing in front of her, taking his last orders before taking his leave.

Paige walked over to her.

"Yes you can come back for us on Tuesday morning.
If we need you, we will call Mr. Raditch. Otherwise, we'll see you after five days."
Then the driver was gone.

"Hi Paige, what a beautiful, bright sunny day we have today!"
Ms. Hatzalikos turned to her and said.

"It is indeed, Ms. Hatzalikos. I was wondering how far the other groups from here are?"
She came right to the point.

"Not too far, why do you ask?"

Ms. Hatzalikos asked in a concerned voice.

"Oh you know, in case, I need to see Marco."

"Paige, I'm sure you can survive five days without seeing Marco, but for your reassurance, they are not too far from us; maybe a half an hour drive or so. Oh yeah make sure to get your today's chores from Alex, I think she's giving them out as we speak."

Ms. Hatzalikos said looking proudly at her favorite student, Alex.

Paige reluctantly walked toward Alex. She was sitting on the ground, fumbling with the tent, spread in front of her. The crowd around her had now dispersed into smaller groups. The ones nearby were also putting up their tents.

"uhm."
Paige cleared her throat to get Alex's attention.

"You're supposed to be helping in the kitchen today."
Alex responded without bothering to look up at her.

Still sensing hostility from Alex, Paige tried to keep their conversation to a minimum.
However, being completely lost and not trusting most of the other kids or not knowing them at all, as was her case, she asked Alex.

"And where is 'this kitchen'?"

Alex started laughing uncontrollably at her question making Paige feel even worse.

"Have you never camped before?
There is 'no' kitchen in the campground Paige.
We build fire and then we cook on it.
Just go to the other side, Jay is there, he'll tell you what to do."

An amused Alex said as she pointed to the other side of the campground where Jay and two other boys were trying to build a fire.

'Jay. Great.'
Paige turned to look in Jay's direction as she tried to lift her bags from the ground once again.

"Paige, you can leave your stuff here with me, I'll make sure it stays safe."
Alex suggested hesitantly.

"No thank you. I prefer to keep my valuables away from brigands."
Paige replied crudely and waited for Alex to respond harshly as she stared at her face.

"Whatever."
Hiding the gash produced by Paige's words, Alex just shrugged her shoulders and went back to what she was doing.

Paige turned back and started walking towards Jay.

"Just the person I was looking for."
Jay exclaimed as soon as he saw Paige closing in.

"I hope you have some experience in the field."

"Yes, enough experience that I can prepare this whole meal by myself."
Paige replied irritated.

"Great, today's menu is hot dogs and vegetable stew."

'Is he serious, hot dogs and stew?'
"Brilliant combo."
Paige said sarcastically.

Ignoring her sarcasm, Jay offered her a knife as he pointed towards the bags of vegetables.

"Glad you agree it's mine and Alex's favorite combo.
Now you can start off easy by helping me cut these vegetables."

"You want me to cut the vegetables?"
She asked the question with an obvious answer.

He replied perfectly imitating a French accent.

"Yes mademoiselle and hurry, it's already one o'clock, we wouldn't want to keep hungry people waiting now, would we?"

"I don't think I gave you the authority to add water to the stew. Now you've ruined it."
Jay said angrily which made Paige stop whatever it was she was doing. The rest of the boys were now also staring at her disapprovingly.

"Just… just get the hell out of 'my' kitchen."
He had further yelled.

'He obviously been watching way too much Food Network and the 'candy bandits' are definitely very territorial...'
Paige thought to herself as she embarrassedly started walking out of 'his kitchen'.

She had never thought that a day would come when she would be declared incompetent by none other than Jay Hogart but she had to give it to him, he really was good at the cooking thing, may be not as good as her, but good still. If only he weren't taking this whole thing so seriously.

"You can help Josh with the hot dogs."
Nonchalantly, Jay spoke as he saw Paige walk away.
She abided and walked over to Josh who was another helper of Jay's 'culinary team'.

Paige had just found out that cooking for twenty people was not an easy job even if you are just one of the 'helpers'.
Today, she had cut more vegetables than she had ever seen together at the same time, well, except at the grocery store.
Stirring the vegetable stew in the large pot made her realize that not only cooking over a fire was very hot;
stirring the large pot was also very tiring and took much longer than a regular stove.
As if these lessons weren't enough for one day, on top of everything,
the weather had miraculously turned extremely hot and was making it hard for her to breathe.

Alex in the meantime, had paid several visits to 'the kitchen', Paige had observed.
Some were food preparation related and others were just to have casual conversations with Jay.

If Paige hadn't known any better, she would had said that Alex had kept an eye on her during the whole time she was cooking;
not in a creepy way, to her relief, but in a protective way.

When Jay had complained to Alex and had explained to her the 'water' and 'stew' incident and 'how Paige ruined Alex's favorite dish'...

'He sure was an instigator', Paige had thought.

Jay received, what could only be called a very long lecture, from Alex on 'no more yelling at others' and 'team work'.

Paige was sure that she was not meant to hear that conversation but being in an open ground, there was only so much privacy one could get.
Paige was extremely surprised when she over-heard Alex, take her side over her friend's.

She didn't know what to make of it except that it probably had something to do with Marco's instructions to Alex; and that Alex felt bound to make sure Paige was alright.
There couldn't have been any other reason why her adversary had taken her side, Paige was sure.

She thanked Marco in her heart for looking out for her even when he couldn't physically be here for her.

TBC.

pls review if u like.