The coach pulled to a halt in the middle of nowhere. Looking out of the window, Hollie arched an eyebrow, realising that they had stopped on a single-lane, dirt track surrounded by hills and grass and not much else. Somewhere off in the distance she could see a mass of trees and her heart sank as she realised that it was most likely their destination. The fact that the bus had stopped made her think that their first challenge would be to find their way from it, to wherever they were going and she rolled her eyes at the unoriginality of it.

"Off we get!" Mr Reid shouted enthusiastically, ignoring the disgruntled muttering from his students. When they had disembarked, he leapt down the steps, beaming around. "Come on, everyone, gather round!"

"Ahhh! This is glorious!" Mr Lowsley announced, close on his colleague's heels. He took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the country air.

Hollie scrunched up her nose, wondering exactly what it was about the smell of mud and countryside that was making him quite so adamant about its beauty. She scuffed the toe of her walking boot into the dirt. "Is he for real?"

"Sadly, I think he is." Zoe muttered, an identical expression of disgust on her face. She pushed her arm through her friend's, looking around petulantly. "I've never seen so much… green."

As everyone started to laugh, the two girls looked down at the ground where their teacher had landed after jumping off the bus. They snorted with amusement as they realised that he had landed in a cowpat. The expression on his face exactly mirrored the ones they had been sporting moments before.

"What an idiot." Zoe muttered, shaking her head.

"These are your survival packs." Mr Reid announced as Gabriella shoved something into Hollie's stomach much harder than was necessary. The brunette sent an overly fake smile at the other girl, snatching the plastic wallet from her grasp. "Inside you will find a map, a compass and a set of coordinates. Now, the first group back will get their own luxury tent, complete with its very own bush shower!"

Darren jumped on the spot, clearly overexcited by the prospect. "Bagsie it!"

Hollie rolled her eyes at his trademark idiotic behaviour, laughing along with the others.

"Yeah, one last thing," Mr Reid said, shaking his head at the boy's antics, "on the back of the map you will find an emergency number that will get you straight through to me."

"Big mistake." Zoe murmured in Hollie's ear. "He's just told Gabriella that she's got his number. He is so going to regret that."

Her friend chewed her lip thoughtfully. "Or, maybe she will."

"What are you thinking?"

With a grin, Hollie just shrugged. "I'm not sure yet."

"OK!" Mr Reid clapped his hands together. "Miss Boston and I will go and set up the base camp." Seeing the smirk on Hollie's face, he pointed at her and grinned. "Nice try, Hollie. I meant your mum."

As the engine of the bus roared into life and it started to drive away along the dirt track, the teenager glared at the figure standing in the back window. Nikki was waving and smirking at her daughter, clearly enjoying the irritable expression that had taken over her face. Grumbling to herself, Hollie turned to her friends and waited expectantly for someone to take charge. Whatever Tom had said that morning she didn't feel like doing a Bear Grylls impression anytime soon.

"Right, let's put the resilience skills we've leant into action." Mr Lowsley suggested as they congregated, waiting for further instructions. "Who's with us?" Everyone stared blankly back at him as his wife whooped enthusiastically at his side. "Yeah, thought so! Mrs Lowsley, Miss Spark, let's get that luxury tent!"

"I don't think so, that's ours!" Darren argued, looking indignant. "Come on!"

He roared loudly and started running across the grass, lots of others following him. Hollie and her friends arched their eyebrows, unimpressed, as the younger students rushed away without a second thought as to where they were actually going.

With a sigh, Hollie held out her hand for their pack. "Come on, then. Let's see where we're going."

"Gabriella?" Rhiannon called as the blonde started heading off on her own. Receiving disbelieving looks from the others, the redhead shrugged. "What? She knows this stuff. I'm out of here… Gabriella, wait up!"

As she hurried away after the other girl and Darren's group sprinted past them again in the opposite direction, still shouting and waving their arms around in excitement, Hollie and the others poured over their map, determined to expend as little effort and energy as possible. They wanted to win that luxury tent, but there was no way they were going to exhaust themselves in the process.

"Right, gimme that…" Hollie muttered, snatching the pack from Imogen's hands and unzipping it quickly. "So… these are the coordinates of where we need to go and this…" she frowned and then jabbed her finger into the map, "is where we are. We need to get to… here."

Kevin pulled the compass out and looped the cord around his neck. He grinned enthusiastically. "So we need to head… south west. Come on!"

Handing the map over to Dynasty, Hollie hung back to walk with Zoe and Imogen. They brought up the rear of their group with Kevin, Dynasty and Scout bouncing along at the head of the pack and several others filling up the gap between them. They trekked along the track for a while, before turning and making their way down the grassy slope. Following Kevin and Dyasty's directions they soon found themselves at the spot marked by the coordinates they had been given. There was no sign of the camp and the teenagers looked around in confusion until Scout spotted something.

"Look!" She pointed to a clear plastic wallet tied around a tree trunk and opened it quickly. "More coordinates."

"Bloody hell." Zoe muttered, kicking at a stump in irritation. "We have to find clues. Great. Isn't that the plot of loads of horror films?"

Hanging back, the three girls waited until Kevin had worked out where they needed to head next before following the group through the trees. It seemed like hours later when they reached their destination and the whole routine was repeated.

"It must be round here somewhere." Dynasty announced impatiently as they neared the checkpoint the coordinates had sent them to. By now everyone else was flagging, growing more and more disinterested by the minute. Even Scout and Kevin seemed to have lost a lot of their enthusiasm. "Oh, come on, guys! Help me find the last coordinates."

"If they are the last ones." Hollie muttered cynically, tripping over an exposed tree root and glaring at it as though she thought it had caught her on purpose.

"In a minute." Kevin replied, sitting on a fallen log and pulling off his backpack. Hollie settled herself beside him, pulling out her water bottle and taking a drink.

"I've found it!" The Liverpudlian announced excitedly. "And the final checkpoint is… base camp!" She jumped up and down excitedly. Dynasty's face fell as she was greeted by blank expressions and less enthusiasm than if she'd announced that there was going to be a test when they reached the end. "What are you'se doing?"

"What does it look like?" Imogen asked, shrugging. "Having a rest."

Dynasty sighed. "Come on. Push on! Think about the luxury tent!"

"D'you know what? I'm not too bothered about the tent, actually." Kevin admitted with a shrug.

"I agree." Hollie added. "I mean it's a tent. How luxurious can it possibly be?"

"It's not about the tent!" The blonde snapped. "It's about getting there first and being the best you can be. Proving to yourselves that you can do it, because we can!" She grinned. "Now come on, follow me. I'll get you there in no time!"

Sighing heavily, Hollie heaved herself to her feet and followed the others as they started off through the forest once more. She hadn't expected her friend to be quite so enthusiastic about the whole Resilience Camp experience, but apparently Dynasty was taking it more seriously than Hollie had given her credit for.

With the blonde leading the way, they found themselves at the base camp quicker than any of them had expected. Even Hollie grudgingly admitted that she was pleased to be amongst the first group to finally arrive at the camp. She grinned at her mum as she dumped her bags on the ground and dropped onto one of the logs that had been arranged in a ring around the campfire.

"Welcome back everyone, how was it?" Nikki asked, grinning at the teenagers.

"I'm starving!" Kevin announced dramatically.

"Are we the first ones back?"

"Yes you are!" Mr Reid agreed and even Hollie grudgingly cheered. "The sausages are on the go!"

As the others crowded around the fire, Hollie stood and wandered over to where her mother was standing. Nikki didn't look herself, frowning at the ground with a slightly shell-shocked expression on her face that concerned her daughter greatly.

"You alright?" Hollie asked in a low voice, laying a hand on her arm.

Nikki nodded and smiled reassuring, touching her cheek briefly. "Of course, sweetheart, I'm fine. Well done!"

Unconvinced, Hollie watched as the woman moved away, throwing herself into sorting things ready for the arrival of the rest of the groups. As they settled themselves down, trying to ignore the sound of Mr Reid and Mr Lowsley singing Wonderwall, a rustling in the trees caught Hollie's attention and she trained her gaze on a gap in the tree trunks a little way away from them. Her mouth suddenly went dry and she sat up straighter, wondering whether she was seeing things. Reaching out, she grabbed Scout's arm and tried to attract her attention.

"What?" The blonde asked.

Hollie turned to look at her quickly, before returning her gaze to the trees. The figure she was sure she had seen had disappeared.

Shaking her head, the brunette shrugged. "Nothing… I thought I saw… it doesn't matter."

"What did you think you saw?" Kevin asked with a grin. "A bear or something?"

"Shut up." Hollie swatted at his arm, not in the mood for jokes.

Sighing, she looked around and saw all the adults congregated together looking worried. Watching them, she frowned as they disbanded, most of them returning to the fire and beginning to dish out the sausages. Nikki and Vix stayed behind, taking in low voices, before they separated. Pointedly avoiding her daughter's eye, Nikki took a seat on one of the logs and busied herself with the fire.

When the last of the teenagers arrived at the camp, Mr Reid suggested a group photo. Hollie frowned, not feeling much like having her picture taken after the hours she'd spent traipsing through the forest. She didn't have much choice, however, being swept along by her friends into the very centre of the photograph. As the others posed, their excitement growing the more Mrs Lowsley encouraged them, Hollie just wanted the whole thing to be over.

"Guys? Guys… where's Gabriella?" Rhiannon asked, drawing their attention to the fact that the blonde was nowhere to be seen.

"Has anyone seen her?" Mr Lowsley asked worriedly.

"She's very capable, she'll be fine." Mr Reid tried to reassure him.

"What if she's had an accident or something?"

"Yeah, yeah… phone her."

"It's going straight to voicemail." Rhiannon informed him, holding her mobile against her ear and shaking her head.

"Right, has anyone seen her at all?" The deputy head demanded, looking round urgently at the sea of faces in front of him and clearly hoping that someone would be able to shed some light on the teenager's whereabouts.

As he ordered them to split up into groups and return into the woods to look for the missing girl, there was a flood of complaints from the teenagers. None of them wanted to head back out now that they had found the camp, especially as it was beginning to get dark. The general consensus from Gabriella's classmates was that she was just attention seeking as usual.

"It's her own stupid fault she's lost." Hollie muttered, kicking at the ground as she followed her friends back through the trees. "She went off on her own. She can find her own way back."

"Come on, Hollie." Nikki snapped, appearing behind her as if from nowhere. "You're better than that. She might be in real trouble."

Pulling a face at her back, the girl continued to follow her friends through the trees until they came to a lake. In the middle of the water was a boat and in that boat was the unmistakable figure of Gabriella Wark. Immediately almost everyone started panicking, jumping to action in an attempt to work out how to get her back to shore safely. Only Dynasty and Hollie seemed to be questioning the strangeness of the situation.

"Why's she in a boat?" Dynasty asked, glancing sideways at her friend.

"What kind of moron would get in a boat unless they were doing it on purpose?" Hollie agreed, folding her arms and rolling her eyes. "She's such an attention seeker." Smacking the brunette lightly on the arm, Dynasty pointed into the water where an oar was floating near the bank. Hollie rolled her eyes. "Oh for god's sake…"

They all watched as Mr Reid swam out to the boat and pulled himself out of the water. Gabriella stood up and attempted to hug him. The action, with him trying to fend her off, caused the boat to capsize, sending them both into the lake. Hollie snorted with laughter at the sight, earning herself a fierce scowl from her mother.

"What?" She shrugged, still laughing. "She's done it on purpose because she fancies Mr Reid. It's so blatantly obvious."

"Enough." Nikki snapped, holding up a hand in her daughter's direction.

"But–"

"I said that's enough, Hollie."

Scowling, the teenager stood in silence and watched as the PE teacher pulled the struggling blonde into the shore. After checking they were OK, Mr Lowsley launched into a scolding of the blonde girl, who was coughing violently and pulling a face that clearly said that she thought they should all feel sorry for her.

As they returned to camp, Hollie noticed her mother lagging behind with her mobile pressed to her ear. Dropping back, the teenager waited until she hung up before asking who she had been speaking to. Sending her a slightly guilty look, Nikki shrugged.

"Christine." She admitted. "I promised I'd tell her if anything big happened."

"What did she say?"

"She wants us to go home." Nikki said. "She doesn't want to risk anything else happening."

Hollie rolled her eyes. "Well done Gabriella. Yet another thing she's completely ruined with her selfish attention seeking."

"Hey, Hollie. That's not–"

"It's true." The teenager replied bluntly. "She can't bear to see anyone else enjoying themselves. She had to ruin it."

"I thought you'd be pleased that we're going home."

"I am. I didn't want to come in the first place." Hollie agreed quickly. "But Dynasty and the others are gonna be gutted; they were absolutely loving all this."

With a shrug, Nikki wrapped an arm around her daughter's shoulders and they headed back to the camp together. Breaking the news to the others, the brunette English teacher was met by a barrage of complaints from the other students who echoed Hollie's sentiments and didn't see why they had to suffer just because Gabriella had done something stupid. Hollie's accusations that the blonde had got herself into danger on purpose, just for the attention, were repeated several times by several different people, but it didn't make any difference. Within half an hour everything was packed up and they were heading back to school.

"What did you think you saw back there?" Zoe asked in a low voice.

"Nothing." Hollie told her quickly.

"Really? You seemed pretty panicked."

"It was nothing." Her friend replied firmly.

She refused to say any more as they made their way, slowly, back to Greenock and Waterloo Road. The atmosphere in the bus was incredibly subdued and the journey seemed to take forever. Most people were sulking about the fact that their trip had been cut short; furious glares being sent at the back of Gabriella's head where she sat at the front of the bus in a double-seat to herself.

Under the guise of passing it to Dynasty, who was sitting a couple of rows behind Gabriella on the opposite side of the aisle, Hollie had lobbed an almost empty bottle of water at the blonde. It had bounced off the top of her head, causing her to rub the spot and turn furious eyes on the brunette who had simply shrugged innocently and apologised with a sincerity that no one had believed for a second. Seeing as they couldn't prove that she hadn't been doing as she claimed, the teachers simply told Hollie to keep her things to herself and turned their backs on the teenagers.

"Look, I'm sorry for the way it's turned out." Mr Lowsley apologised as they disembarked the bus.

Hollie rolled her eyes as Dynasty answered. "It's not your fault, Sir."

"She's such an attention seeking little bitch." The brunette muttered as she and her friends pushed past the girl in question roughly.

Zoe nodded, linking her arm with Hollie's. "She'll get what's coming to her, though, babes."

"Everyone else go straight to the Assembly Hall while we contact your parents!" Mr Lowsley shouted after them.

Sighing irritably, the teenagers did as they were told. As Hollie passed her mother, Nikki raised her eyebrows, sending her a look that said she was clearly as annoyed as her daughter about the whole situation. Hollie felt for her mother, knowing that it was because Nikki had informed their head teacher of what had happened that they were back three days earlier than expected. She had no doubts that the woman would be on the receiving end of a hard time from her colleagues.