Sorry about the lack of updates and sorry this chapter isn't great… its gets better, I promise! It's just I've been busy with exams (which I did today, go me!) but now they are over and done with so expect chapter 10 soon : )
Chapter 9: Settling in
The place we were staying at was literally in the middle of nowhere. It was basically half a mile of field, surrounded on all sides by forest. We were staying in these tiny huts which had only two rooms (a bedroom with 4 beds and a tiny 'front room') and I mini-kitchen (there was basically a stove next to the sink and a cupboard on the wall, and that's it) with a porch that had a bench on it. Everything was wooden. There were about 25 huts altogether, and three extra ones which contained 4 bathrooms each. So whenever you needed the loo, you had to walk across the estate to the bathrooms, which at night, was probably going to be really creepy.
We left our luggage on our beds, extremely relieved to find that the hut contained a TV. Until we turned it on and found that there were only 2 channels: two Russian and a Polish one. Great.
Once we had wondered around the estate (which was basically just the huts, with an area for bonfires,) we met up with the guys and decided to explore the area around the place. Layla was in heaven. She kept pointing out things like birds nests, Rabbit holes, deer footprints, and other random things that we otherwise would never had noticed. I found it kind of interesting (being a bit of an animal lover myself) but Layla was getting so excited over the smallest things that I had to laugh. We followed the tiny footpath that we were on, which went parallel with the road that ran alongside the little green fence that marked the edge of the estate. A little further up, we came across a body of water. It was small, only about 10-15 metres across, and there was a little crudely built but sturdy looking pier that jutted out about a metre and a half into the water. There were three make-shift wooden benches (basically huge logs sunken into the ground) in a semicircle around the remains of a little bonfire.
"Nice," Will commented. "Very cosy."
"We can swim here," I said, gesturing to the pier. "This wouldn't have been built of people didn't go in the water,"
"It's beautiful here," Layla sighed, sitting on one of the benches. It was true; this place was really picturesque, surrounded on all sides with lush greenery, a weeping willow on the far side of the huge pond completing the picture.
"We should name this place," Zach said randomly.
"It probably already has a name," Layla told him.
"Well, we don't know it, do we?" he replied. "We can give it a name for us to call it."
"Yeah, like… lakeside?" I said, thinking of the shopping centre back in England.
"No offence, but that's really crap." Magenta told me. I shrugged.
The others, not being able to come up with a better name (we went through some really ridiculous suggestions like 'mango' and 'wonderland' and 'Mona Lisa') eventually agreed to calling it 'the pond'. How imaginative.
Half an hour later we arrived back at the estate, just in time to be ordered to collect firewood for the bonfire.
"We should have waited another 20 minutes," Magenta muttered as we turned away.
It didn't take long to collect firewood though, and soon we were all sitting around the fire, talking and laughing, before principle powers stood up and told us about our activities for the next few days.
After our 'timetables' were handed out, we simply sat around taking, before little by little, most of the students went to bed. I decided that although I wasn't ready to crash for the night, I would go to bed now before I was left alone with Warren. Layla and Magenta joined me.
Surprisingly, after getting changed, I fell asleep pretty quickly, and was woken up the next morning to the sound of Layla's voice as she pulled open the curtains in the room. I dove under the covers in an attempt to stop the light getting to my eyes and waking me up fully, but Layla yanked them away from me before I could get a good grip.
"Come on Rain," she said, as I snatched the covers from her, this time holding on tightly as she tried to pull it away.
15 minutes later, both her and Magenta had gotten a hold of one leg each, and were trying to pull my out of bed while I held onto the headboard for dear life. Needless to say, by then I was pretty much awake. The door to the bedroom swung open and in walked Will with his camera, snapping a photo. The flash of light surprised me so that I let go of the headboard, and all three of us fell off the bed.
"well, I was planning to get pictures of you guys when you'd just woken up, but that was so much better!" he exclaimed, before ducking out of the room to avoid the onslaught of pillows which hit the wall behind where his head had been only a few seconds ago.
45 minutes later we were outside, and being split into groups by principle Powers. I was with Layla, but Magenta in a different group, and she was kind of annoyed, but then it turned out Zach was in her group, so she was slightly less annoyed. Then we found that Will and Warren were with us.
Following principle Powers, we went through a group of trees that lined the eastern side of the estate, and came out onto a field on the other side.
It was huge. The size of a football pitch at least, sunken about 5 or 6 metres into the ground. Looking down, I saw that the field was almost like a maze. A fake, miniature city had been built. It contained houses, office blocks, even a little park area, with swings and stuff.
"Whoa, what the hell?" was the first thing that came out of my mouth
"This," Powers began, giving me a disapproving look, "is going to be your first activity."
We were allowed to pick teams of 3 to 5, and obviously, Warren, Will, Layla and I were together. We were led into a little building in the 'stadium' and given an envelope by one of the instructors that I hadn't noticed before now. She was pretty with short dark red hair, which was layered and arranged in a messy-on-purpose windswept rock chick kind of 'do. I complemented her on it and she gave a warm smile as she handed us our envelope.
"Basically, when you hear the buzzer, you can open the envelope- the instructions are inside." She told us as she headed out the door. "I'm not supposed to help you, but since you were so nice about my hair, I'll give you a clue, she winked at me. "Ventilation shafts in the buildings are great ways to get in and out of rooms unnoticed." Then she turned and walked through the door that had led us in here. Seconds later, I buzzer sounded and we tore open the envelope, Layla reading it out loud as we crowded round to have a look.
Welcome to Sunken City.
You are a team of super heroes chosen to help defend this city from its latest threat.
Someone has planted a bomb somewhere, which, when detonated, will flatten the entire city, and it is your job to stop it.
The letter went on to give us some clues to the location of the 'bomb' and proceeded to inform us that the other teams of superheroes were in fact villains in disguise which we had to thwart, and some other random stuff that I didn't bother reading.
"So basically, we have to pretend that this is a real city we're saving," Will said as his eyes skimmed over the letter.
"And we can't team up with anyone else," Layla pointed out.
"This is going to be fun," I said, smiling an evil smile. I loved save the citizen, and this looked set to be even better.
"Can't wait," Warren said, his eyes flashing in anticipation. "We're up against everyone else, right?"
Layla nodded.
"Then it's a shame lash and Speed weren't allowed on the trip," he smirked.
Err… yeah. I know it's not great :s but the coming chapters will be better! I'll have chapter 10 up as soon as I get a couple of reviews for this, k?