It was the last day of school before the summer holidays and Rachel was stood at her office window watching as all the pupils happily went out of the gates relieved to be free of school for six weeks. It wasn't long until Elsie appeared in her office.
"Hi love, happy to have finished school?"
"Yep, it's literally the best day. Rach?"
"What do you want?"
"How do you know I want something?"
"From the tone of your voice"
"Oh, well I was just wondering if Gemma could come with us?"
Rachel and her friend had decided to take the kids camping for the first few days of the summer holidays, although none of them were particularly thrilled by the idea but Rachel knew they'd enjoy it once they got there.
"I don't think so no"
"Why not though? I don't see why not there's room in the car"
"Yeah I know but there's not really anywhere for her to sleep in the tent, besides I think it will be nice for it to be just us"
"We're going with Claire, Lydia and Flo though"
"You know what I mean, and you've got loads of other days to do things with your friends when we get back"
"Okay, I thoughts that's what you'd say anyway just thought I'd ask though"
"Good girl, that's very grown up of you"
"It's hardly grown up"
"It is, you could have gone into a hissy fit over it. Anyway I've still got some bits to do here, I was hoping to be done before the end of the day but it doesn't seem that way so are you alright to walk home?"
"Yeah that's fine Rach, what about Lucy though who's picking her up?"
"She's going back to her friends for a bit and then I'll pick her up after that, I shouldn't be too long though"
"Okay see you later then"
Elsie started to walk home so Rachel cracked on with all of the jobs that she still had to do. Once she was finally finished she packed all her things up and then got into the car to drive to pick up Lucy.
Rachel collected Lucy and managed to get away without too much of a chat with Lucy's friend's Mum.
"Are we going camping now Rachel?" Lucy asked
"Well we need to pack up the car and wait for Claire and the girls to come over but we'll probably be leaving in about an hour"
"Okay is it a long drive?"
"It's about an hour"
"What if I'm sick again?" Lucy asked getting worried as she seemed to get quite bad travel sickness and she really hated being sick
"Well I need to nip into town to pick up Elsie's prescription so we'll get you some travel sickness tablets"
"Okay thanks Rachel. Why does Elsie need a prescription? Is she poorly?"
"No she just needs some more creams and stuff for her eczema"
"Oh right"
Rachel and Lucy got back in the car and drove home, calling at the chemist on the way.
When they got in Molly and Elsie were both sat in the lounge watching TV.
"Are you two both ready to go?" Rachel asked
"Yeah" they both replied
"Right well you can both help me to load up the car then" Rachel said much to their dismay
"What? Oh no actually I need to finish packing first" Elsie said quickly
"Do you now? Well you do that and then you can come and help me and Molly. Luc, you going to go up and get changed love?"
"Yeah" Lucy said before disappearing upstairs
She went to the toilet and then went into her bedroom to get changed and saw Flo sat on her bed
"Hi Flo" Lucy said "I didn't know you were here yet"
"We just came and Rachel said I could come up and see you" the eight year old replied
Lucy quickly got changed before the two of them packed up a bag of stuff they wanted to take to do when they were camping.
Rachel packed up the car with help from the girls so it wasn't long before they were ready to leave. Lucy ended up going in with Claire and Flo to ride down and Lydia, who was 15, came in with Rachel, Molly and Elsie.
They were about halfway there when Claire pulled into a layby. Rachel was following her so decided to pull in behind her to check that everything was okay. Claire got out of the car so Rachel did too.
"Is everything alright?" Rachel asked
"Lucy's feeling really sick so she said that she wanted you"
"Oh yeah I forgot to give her her tablets"
"Does she get travel sick?"
"Yeah really badly" Rachel said before going and letting Lucy out of the car. Lucy started to cry as soon as she saw Rachel
"You feeling sick darling?" Rachel asked sympathetically to which Lucy nodded
"Hopefully you'll feel better after a bit of fresh air, I'll get those tablets for you now too"
Rachel quickly went into the car to get the tablets for her before getting one out and giving it too Lucy
"I can't take tablets though Rachel"
"You just have to chew these ones" Rachel said so Lucy quickly put it into her mouth and chewed it
Lucy started to feel a bit better so they soon got back into the car and continued to drive to the campsite.
"Rach are you sure we're going the right way? Because I'm sure we should have turned right back there" Molly asked as her Aunt was now taking the lead
"I'm only going on what the satnav says"
They continued to drive for another five minutes when Rachel realised that maybe they had gone the wrong way as it really didn't seem right, however by now they were at a dead end making it incredibly difficult to turn around especially with Claire right behind.
"I told you Rach" Molly said
"Yeah that's not really very helpful at the moment Molly" Rachel said starting to feel quite stressed
Rachel got out of the car to go and see Claire
"Shouldn't we have turned right down that road about five minutes ago?" Claire asked
"Yeah that's exactly what Molly said, guess we need to turn around somehow"
They both got in their cars and Claire had to reverse back quite far until she eventually got to a place that was big enough for them to turn around in. Rachel did the same and then started following Claire.
They drove down the road that Molly had said in the first place and eventually arrived at the campsite, luckily without Lucy throwing up everywhere. They went to reception to check in and get their pool passes and stuff before driving to their pitch.
"This is a nice pitch" Rachel said as they got out of the car as they were right opposite the park and quite near to a shower block
"Yeah when we came last year we were so far from the toilets which wasn't so good"
"Rachel please can we go swimming now?" Lucy asked sounding excited
"We only just got here love and we need to get everything and by the time we've done that I expect the pool will be closed so probably not until tomorrow"
"Ohh I was looking forward to going swimming"
"I know but there's lots of other things you can do, why don't you and Flo go and play in the park?" Rachel suggested
"Okay then" Lucy said before her and Flo skipped off
Rachel and Claire got all the stuff out, with help from Molly, Elsie and Lydia, and started to put the tents up.
"Are you sure we're all going to fit in here Rach? It doesn't look very big" Molly said sounding very unimpressed with the tent
"Yes I can assure you it's plenty big enough, we haven't even got it up yet"
"If you say so"
Rachel hadn't been looking forward to putting the tent up very much but actually they managed to get it up easier than they she thought they would be able to.
Once they'd put the inside compartments in too they started to get all of their stuff from the car and put it in the tent.
"Oh me and Molly have changed our mind and we want to share a bedroom now" Elsie told her Aunt, originally they'd wanted to sleep separately so Molly was going to sleep with Lucy and Elsie was going to sleep with Rachel
"Really? But you two were so set against not having to sleep together before"
"Yeah I know but we thought it would be better that way"
"Okay if you say so. I'm alright to get the rest of the stuff sorted now why don't you three take Lucy and Flo up and have a look around the complex?"
The girls thought this was a good idea so went and found Lucy and Flo who were playing in the park before going to have a look around.
They'd been walking around for about half an hour when Molly realised she'd left her phone in the car so decided they ought to go back in case Rachel was trying to get hold of them
"You probably won't get signal Molly, I don't seem to get any anywhere"
"You're joking me"
"Nope"
"Great so we're stuck here for three days and now we have no reception"
They went back and Molly got her phone straight out realising her sister was right about the no signal situation
"Well that's just bloody brilliant"
"What is?" Rachel asked
"No signal"
"Oh no how are you going to survive for a whole three days without your phone" Rachel said sarcastically
They then all went for a little walk together down across the beach before coming back to their tent because everyone was starting to feel really hungry, so Rachel and Claire got the BBQ started as soon as they got back.
They all had a really nice evening together. And even though Molly and Elsie hadn't really been looking forward to it they had to admit they actually were having quite a nice time.
It was getting quite late and Rachel was starting to feel quite tired herself so knew that the kids must be too, especially Lucy.
"I think it's time we thought about getting ready for bed"
"But we were having fun" Lucy protested
"Well there's plenty more time for fun tomorrow. I'll just go and get out stuff and then we'll go up to the toilets. Molly, Elsie are you going to come up and get ready for bed too?"
"We'll go in a minute" Molly replied
"Okay" Rachel said before going into the tent to pick up her and Lucy's stuff
It wasn't until she was going through Lucy's bag that she realised she'd forgotten to pack her any pyjamas, despite the numerous times of checking that they had everything
"Come on then Luc, let's go" Rachel said emerging from the tent
Reluctantly, Lucy got up and walked up to the shower blocks with Rachel which were surprisingly clean
"I'm afraid I've forgotten to pack you any pyjamas love" Rachel told her
"Oh what am I meant to sleep in then?"
"You'll just have to wear one of my pyjama tops although it's probably going to be a little bit too big for you. Do you want to put it on now or wait until we get back to the tent?"
"I'll wait until we're in the tent"
"Okay just go to the loo then"
Lucy went to the toilet and Rachel got changed into her pyjamas before starting to wash her face. The two of them then brushed their teeth before walking back to the tent. Rachel felt a little bit funny walking through the campsite in her pyjamas
"We're going to go to sleep now so night" Rachel said to the others "and not too late to bed you two" Rachel said directing it at Molly and Elsie
"No Rach" they both replied in unison "night"
Rachel and Lucy got into their compartment of the tent where Rachel helped Lucy to change out of her clothes before trying to get comfy on the blow up mattress. It took a little while but eventually they did drop off to sleep.
It was just Molly, Elsie and Lydia sat outside the tent now and they'd decided to sneak up to the complex once everyone else was asleep because they were starting to get a bit bored so wanted to do something
"Do you think they're asleep yet?" Elsie asked
"Yeah I think so just give it another 10 minutes or so just to be sure though" Molly whispered
They waited a little while longer before walking up to the main complex. They had another look around before going into one of the entertainment places where there was still loads of people around.
"Molly what if Rachel finds out we're gone?" Elsie asked starting to feel a little bit worried
"I doubt she'll even wake up let alone find out we're not in the tent. We're not going to stay up here for long anyway"
They were sat at a table when a couple of girls who were about the same age came over and joined them. They got talking and they all seemed to get on really well so ended up going to dance in the disco altogether.
Back at the tent Rachel had just woken up because she could feel Lucy jigging her legs beside her. She sat up and saw that Lucy's eyes were open.
"Everything alright Luc? Do you need the loo or something?" Rachel asked to which Lucy nodded
"Why didn't you wake me up to tell me then?"
"I didn't want to get out of bed it's nice and cosy in here"
"Well I don't think it will be quite so nice if you have an accident so I think we'd better go to the toilets don't you?"
"Okay then, do I need to get dressed?"
"No just go in that, put your jumper on though"
Rachel quickly took Lucy up to go to the toilet before the two of them went back to the tent. Rachel decided to check on Molly and Elsie whilst she was up so as quietly as she could unzipped their compartment
She got a shock when she realised they weren't in there as she didn't know where else they could be. Rachel quickly rushed across to Claire's tent to see if they were in there or something.
Claire woke up as she heard Rachel come in so wondered what was going on.
"Claire are Molly and Elsie in here?" Rachel asked
"Not as far as I'm aware, unless they're in with Lydia" Claire said going over to unzip Lydia's compartment. She too was in for a shock when she realised Lydia wasn't actually there
"Oh god where could they be then?"
"I have absolutely no idea, I'll try ringing them" Rachel said going back to get her phone out but then remembering there was no signal anyway
"Rachel what's going on?" Lucy asked popping her head round
"I'm just trying to find out where Molly and Elsie are that's all, but it's nothing for you to worry about love try and go back to sleep"
Lucy was really tired so didn't really think anything of it and quickly laid back down again
Claire went up to check the shower blocks but there was no sign of them up there so they didn't really know where else they could look
"I guess we'll just have to wait then"
They both sat down outside the tent. They were sure that nothing had happened to them and they had just gone off somewhere, but they felt worried all the same because it was the middle of the night after all.
About half an hour later the three girls arrived back at the tent. They all felt a bit worried when they saw Rachel and Claire sat outside.
"Hi" Molly said a little apprehensively
"Would you care to explain where you've been exactly?" Rachel asked
"We just went up to the main complex bit for a while, we would've asked but we didn't want to wake you up"
"Were you not aware of the fact that it's gone 1 in the morning?"
"Yeah that's why we didn't want to wake you" Lydia chipped in
"Or was it because you thought we'd be likely to say no"
"We really wanted to go and we thought that if we didn't ask you then you couldn't say no so then technically we wouldn't be doing anything wrong"
"I see. Well you ask us first next time and we probably would have said no, yes, considering the fact you're only 12, 15 and 16 so not really old enough to be out walking around by yourself at this time in the morning. Okay?"
"Okay, sorry we won't do it again"
"What did you go anyway?"
"We ended up at this disco thing it was really funny and we met there two really nice girls"
"At least you've had a good time I suppose, but it's definitely time for bed now"
"Okay"
They all said goodnight to one another before going back to their own tents.
It hardly felt like Molly and Elsie had been asleep for anytime at all when they were woken up by the sound of kids playing on the campsite.
"What time is it?" Elsie asked her sister
"Seven" Molly groaned looking at her phone
They both tried to get back to sleep but with no such luck so eventually ended up getting out of the tent and sitting on the chairs outside.
"You two don't look too happy this morning" Rachel commented having also just got up with Lucy
"We're tired but it's too noisy to sleep" Molly complained
"Well maybe if you'd have gone to bed when we suggested you wouldn't be quite so tired"
"But it was the first night of the holidays we wanted to do something fun, I did miss out on going to a party to come here you know"
Claire and Flo got up soon too however Lydia was somehow managing to sleep through all the noises that were going on around her.
"Rachel please can we go swimming today?"
"I think we could just about manage that yes"
"What now?"
"Not quite now, no. Give us chance to have breakfast and everything first"
"Are we going to go in the indoor pool or the outdoor pool?"
"I don't know the weather seems quite nice so it would be nice to go outside, but we could probably do both because I expect you'll want to do the slide as well which is inside?"
"I didn't know there was a slide, is it big?" Lucy asked getting even more excited
"I don't know we'll have to wait and see won't we"
Once they'd all had breakfast Rachel went up to have a shower she didn't bother to wash her hair though as there was no point because they were going swimming.
When she got back to the tent she found Molly rummaging through her bag
"Urmm can I help you?" Rachel said making Molly jump
"Sorry Rach I was just looking for some paracetamol I've got a bit of a stomach ache"
"Oh well they should be in the side pocket, here let me have a look"
Molly passed the bag to Rachel, who found the tablets immediately and passed them to Molly
"You don't use your eyes" Rachel laughed
After what seemed like forever for Lucy and Flo they were all finally ready to go swimming, so they zipped the tents up before walking up to the swimming pool.
They got into the changing rooms which were really busy meaning they had to share the cubicles. Molly and Lydia were sharing one but they decided to go the toilet first.
Molly sighed when she got into the toilet and realised she was on her period. They seemed to be really irregular at the moment for some reason. She really wanted to go swimming but she didn't have any stuff on her.
"Lydia have you got any tampax on you or anything?" Molly asked quietly once they'd both come out
"No I don't sorry, have you come on?"
"Yeah, don't worry about it I'm sure Rach has got some with her"
They went back to all of the changing rooms and Molly waited for her Aunt to come out with Lucy.
"Molly why aren't you changed? Are all the changing rooms full?"
"No, can you come with me a second?"
Rachel followed Molly back through to the toilets wondering what was going on
"I've come on, so do you have any tampax with you?"
"Yeah I think I've got some in my bag" Rachel said
"I thought you would, you always have everything with you" Molly said laughing
"Always best to be prepared, there you go love" Rachel said passing it to her discretely "Did you not pack anything?"
"No I didn't even think about it to be honest, my periods are really irregular at the moment for some reason"
"I expect it's just because you were so stressed from your exams and everything darling, hopefully they should get back to normal soon"
"Hopefully" Molly said before going in and sorting herself out
She then quickly went and got changed before meeting everyone else in the swimming pool.
They went in the indoor pool first so they could go on the slide and then they decided to go in the outdoor pool. Rachel and Claire stayed in for quite a while before deciding to get out.
"Do we have to get out yet Rachel?" Lucy asked
"Well I suppose there's no reason why you can't stay in for longer as long as Molly and Lydia aren't getting out yet"
"No we'll stay in for longer, that's fine"
Rachel and Claire both got out and got showered before finding a couple of loungers by the pool and watching the kids play.
It was a really hot day so they ended up spending most of it by the pool. It was nice for them all to be able to relax and have a good time at the end of a stressful school year.