As expected, not a single living soul was at the school. Heck, even the school's massive wrought iron gates were still locked. I kicked the roadside curb disappointedly as I readjusted my rather cumbersome backpack, both hands holding firmly onto the bag's straps like an experienced hiker. It felt right to have them clinging to the shoulder straps as I have seen many of the professionals do it in the documentaries when they were out finding interesting species of animals in the depths of mother nature. I had been watching those shows so much that it has admittedly become my second nature to utilize the same gestures and similar decisions like the guys on television. Not wanting to carry the abundant package on my back as I waited for the hour, I proceeded towards one of the public benches for a sit-down. I briefly propped the bulky backpack right beside myself as I stretched my arms out; Boy did it feel heavenly to have that burdensome weight lifted from my shoulders. Sighing in relief, I pulled out my smartphone. There weren't any available and accessible community Wi-Fi which I could connect to, thus limiting the source of entertainment in my phone to the small selection of installed mobile games which I had downloaded beforehand and default applications that came along with the phone's contract.
I stared at the phone screen blankly; no idea of what to do in order to kill time. In all honesty, I was not really interested in the games which I used to have played a lot during the school's break times. I frowned. Sometimes I do hate how humans always yearn for better - It was the main driving force that we had managed to advance till the modern era but getting bored easily was the vice that we all succumb to eventually. Comparing it with the plenty of wilderness documentaries that I had watched, I wondered what if animals were granted intelligence and were as civilized as mankind. Perhaps the same outcome, I concluded; although there might be a few differences as they possess a thing which us humans do not - and that was the natural instincts which they are all born with. Hold on, wasn't there a movie which I had watched recently that was similar?
"Zootopia," I blurted out absent-mindedly, before realizing that I had voiced my thoughts out loud. Slightly embarrassed, I hastily scanned around the surroundings; relaxing as no one was nearby enough to hear my sudden exclamation.
But truthfully told, that new feature film by Disney Animations did portray the world where animals - only mammals, though, were evolved like us; and they did an exceptionally good job on interpreting the outcome and its effects between Prey and Predator mammals. It was entirely composed of animals capable of bipedal stance and were anthropomorphic, which in layman terms, meant that they walk on two feet, wear clothes and perform daily actions like what we do as well. I had caught the movie's screening with a few of my classmates when it first came out in the theatres. The girls were into it because of two sole reasons - one being that it was made by Disney and the other was that it contained such adorable looking characters. They literally were holding back squeals of awe every moment or so. As for me? Well, let's say that I was intrigued by the story and its plot ... also because it featured animalistic behaviour which I found to be an interesting study. Being a movie for kids, it also underlines the problems we face in the real world indirectly; it was quite a masterpiece to be able to cater to both the young and old audiences. I continued scrolling through the phone's menu.
"Damn Richard! You are super early today, did you fall off the wrong side of bed today?"
I looked up.
"Darren! Thank god you are here, was starting to drift off," I chuckled. We were close buddies, always seated together as a pair at the back of the classroom. That did not place us anywhere close to the people who were not into studying, ironically we were always doing well in the top ten academically every semester. I guess that makes us two students that our teachers did not have to fret about. I checked the time; it was about six thirty. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Speak for yourself - why are you that early as well?" I questioned in suspicion.
"Blame the surprisingly smooth traffic and for my buses to arrive coincidentally on time," He answered, rubbing the back of his head with a hand. I nodded in acknowledgment; Darren lived quite far off from here, having to take two different bus routes during the process of traveling to school. "Always had to wait quite a while to board on the public transportation but today is quite the special day huh," He shrugged as he smiled.
"I saw that you were talking to yourself in the distance just now as I walked, care to share?" Darren prodded my shoulder.
"Uh, was having a phone call," I tried to come out with an excuse, which expectedly flat out did not work as he returned my obviously superficial attempt at a white lie with an unamused expression.
"Pretty sure you do not hold the phone away from yourself when you make phone calls," Darren said, gesturing at my smartphone using his eyes. "You had it resting on your lap when I noticed."
"Fine..." I gave in. Well, there goes all my hopes of nobody witnessing the incident. "I was in deep thought about stuff and had accidentally spoken them without noticing. It's nothing interesting, really." I admitted dryly, keeping my phone in my pants side pocket.
"What sort of stuff?" He pried deeper.
I groaned sulkily. "Do I really have to disclose that information to you so that you can stop asking?"
Darren returned my desperate inquiry with a toothy grin.
"Its... about the movie," I muttered under my breath.
"Movie? Oh! You mean that movie," Darren piped, taking a seat on the same bench beside me. His backpack was also hulking large as mine, filled to the brim with camping equipment. He was dressed in a simple grey tank top with a pair of knee-length beige Bermuda shorts; topped with a set of sporty hiking shoes. He spread his legs apart as he rested his elbows on top of his lap, hands laced together. "Could not really enjoy the film with all the girls going goo-gah over literally everything," he joked.
"Hey! I heard that!" A female voice complained.
The two of us immediately glanced in front of us. It was one of our girls in class, Stacey. She was one of the biggest Disney fans in our cohort and she was certainly not happy on being gossiped in that manner. Stacey stomped towards us. "It is true that we were excited over the characters but I am sure enough that we were not that loud," She preached at Darren in aggression.
"Woah, woah! Hold your horses, it was just a joke!" Darren explained, arms raised defensively.
It had reached seven. It definitely did not take long for half an hour to pass by when Darren and Stacey were somewhat arguing about nonsensical stuff; Darren mostly defending himself whilst Stacey was shooting words like a malfunctioned baseball pitcher. It was very entertaining to watch their conversation that took flight from Zootopia all the way to oddly a microwave catching on fire, which was only stopped abruptly after other classmates started to arrive. Our classmates were all present at the venue and so was Mr. Green. Out of everyone, it seemed that our teacher was the most prepared and hyped for the event - which was self-explanatory as he took care of Physical Education and sports. The excursion buses had driven into the school compound and were ready to set off for the local woods. We boarded our bus as Mr. Green took attendance from the entrance. Darren and I sat on the last row of seats. As usual, we claimed the whole span of five to ourselves and ourselves only. We had done this every single time we had a class excursion outdoors and it had become a well-known fact to the rest of our classmates that nobody ever touches the back row; it apparently had transformed into a form of cultural practice.
"I wonder what kind of tents we will be pitching," Darren exclaimed, leaving his backpack on the empty seat next to mine before seating beside me. That way, we did not have to tuck them between our legs like all others did. We had the whole back row to ourselves and we would make use of every inch of it during long bus rides.
"Hopefully not family sized tents; I do not appreciate the idea of sleeping like a pack of tuna fish," I replied, earning a laugh from him.
"Agreed," Darren chuckled. "Three days out in the woods, just like in those typical B-rated horror films that air at night on the television. Better to snuggle up in big numbers, eh?" he added.
"Right, I will sleep outside if I have to," I retorted.
"Be careful, Jason might be out there finding for students to murder," Darren warned, trying his best to sound intimidating.
"Chances of me being eaten alive by a wild grizzly bear are much higher than that. Way higher," I commented, using my knowledge about forests in general.
"Discovery channel?" Darren asked.
"Yeah," I conceded.
The bus ride was no doubt going to take a while. Darren had plugged into his phone and was listening to his selection of songs whilst I watched as the scenery whizzed past as we entered the highway. I had decided that I was not going to use my phone as it did not really appeal to me entertainment wise. It's been long since I had the chance to observe Mother Nature outside of my comfort zone besides the places shown in the documentaries. It was certainly eye candy for me as I hardly ever ventured out of my house except for when I walked to school. Seeing the clouds drifting slowly through the clear skies like giant floating wisps of cotton candy, reservoirs sparkle gloriously under the light of the bright morning sun, trees of various shapes and sizes sway gently from the occasional mellow breezes of wind was genuinely soothing; it felt like enlightenment. The wonders of nature surely intrigued me. But that was just one side of experiencing the world. The other side had yet to be discovered - and that was the sole reason why I enlisted for this camping trip. To be able to admire the beautiful creatures of the wilderness.
