As I lay in the tangle of leaves that made up my bed, something was bothering me. Earlier that night, I had told the children a story and tucked them in under the leaves. It had seemed quite peaceful but there was something in the air that didn't allow me to rest easy. I had woken up eight times so far and I could tell that very few hours had passed because the moon had yet to show itself. I began to hear the sound of sobbing. It was a sound so familiar, it tore my heart out. I got up and softly padded over to where my little brother was crying. "Joshy, what's wrong?" He sniffled and looked up at me through his little bloodshot eyes. "I saw… I saw a… in the jungle there was… it was horrible!" With that, my little brother burst into tears.

I was sitting at the second meeting the island had seen. Everyone had gathered around Ralph, Jack, and Simon, who had gone on an expedition the day before. Ralph raised the conch and cleared his throat. "Me and Jack and Simon have been to the top of the mountain. I, well we, know that this is an island. We are the only people here. But we have hunters to get us food," at that statement Jack bowed and waved his hand to the choir, "and there are pigs on this island. We can hunt 'em. For food. We almost caught one yesterday even, but it ran away."

"It was squealing," Jack added. "I couldn't get it but next time, next time for sure." He stabbed at a tree with his dagger, mad fire glowing in his eyes. I shuddered. "I was just finding the right spot," he muttered so quietly I barely heard it from three feet away. Some of the children began to whisper among themselves.

Ralph lifted his shell and everyone fell silent. "There are no grownups here and we need an organized way so we could talk without any chaos. It'll be kinda like school. We'll raise our hands and I'll give the conch to someone."

"What's a conch?"

"This shell is a conch. So anyway I'll give someone the conch and they'll have permission to speak without anybody interrupting them. 'Cept me of course, 'cause I'm chief."

Jack jumped up. "We'll have rules, lots and lots of rules. And if you break them…" then he and the other boys made an assortment of strange noises they seemed to understand but left me dumbfounded. Charles gently took the conch from Ralph's lap.

"Ralph still 'asn't go'en to the mos' imporan' thing. No one knows we're here. 'Ow can they come 'n rescue us if they don' know where we are? We'll pro'ly be 'ere for a really long time or even ever! We're trapped! Stuck!" For a moment Ralph looked uncertain and then managed, "But this is a good island! We have food and drink!"

"Rocks!" "Flowers!" Jack and Simon chorused. When Charles pointed to the conch in Ralph's hand, the two became quiet. Meanwhile, Ralph was still speaking. "While we're waiting, we could have fun! It's like we're in a book!" The boys began to exclaim names of books. "Treasure Island! Swallows and Amazons! Coral Island!" I smiled and added a few of my own. Ralph waved the conch. "The thing is our island is a good island. And until the adults come to fetch us we'll have fun!"

I felt a gentle tugging on my sleeve. I looked to see my little brother looking at me with wide frightened eyes. He leaned over and whispered something in my ear. I smiled proudly at him and nodded encouragingly. "Go on."

"Can you do fowr me please?" Even at six, his late teeth made his voice sound younger.

"I think you should by yourself."

"What if dey laugh at me?"

"They won't. I promise."

"Ok…" his face still contained the fear and doubt.

"Now go and tell them what you saw last night." I pushed him forward a little. He bravely raised his hand. Ralph looked over at him. He began to laugh. I didn't know why. Perhaps it was because he looked silly and childish. All the others looked in the same direction as Ralph and upon seeing the little six year old waiting for the conch, they began to laugh as well. Joshua began to cry, which only caused them to laugh harder. I stood up, silencing everyone. "How dare you laugh at the boy? Can't you see he's nervous enough? Excuse me, but we are British. You are supposed to be gentlemen. But here you are, acting like those bloody Americans. Now give the boy the conch." All the boys stared at me and I could feel a blush creeping up my cheeks. For as long as I could remember, I had never used that sort of language and all the boys seemed as surprised as I was at my word choice. Ralph cautiously handed the conch to Joshua, but as he did so he looked like he was scared that I might attack him at any moment. Most likely if he hurt Josh's feelings anymore, I would. But it was too late, the damage was done. Josh was cowering under a tree, curled into a tight ball with tears streaming down his face. Glaring at Ralph, I snatched the conch from his hands.

"Josh wanted to say that he saw something. Something dark. In the forest, last night. A beastie, he called it." The crowd began to murmur but I raised the conch in my hand and continued speaking. "He said that it will come back. Tonight."

One of the older choir boys snorted in disbelief. "Yeah. Where is the supposed beast now? I suppose it just simply vanished into thin air."

"No," I replied. "My brother says it's hiding. With the creepers. It's like a snake see, so it camouflages with the creepers." That statement brought on four different reactions. The first, which came from half the little ones, was to nod with agreement at the statement. The second, which came from the other half of the little ones and Charles, was to look back into the forest and scan the creepers, looking for one that was different from the other. When the wind blew and made the creepers move a little those jumped in surprise and fear. The third was from all the older boys but two. One was Charles and the other was Simon. Laughter rang around the platform as they guffawed some saying words like "in the creepers" and "beastie" in between bouts of uncontrollable giggles. Simon was the only boy to have the fourth reaction. He looked thoughtful and confused. I could almost see the gears turning in his head and longed to ask him what he was thinking about. I glared at all the laughers and they instantly became quiet.

Ralph looked overt to where Josh and I were sitting. I put a protective hand on Josh's shoulder and handed the conch to him. When Ralph spoke, he was addressing Joshua. "Look. We don't get big things like that on islands this small. Only in the big places like Africa. You just had a nightmare." Josh grudgingly returned the conch. I could see in his eyes that he didn't believe Ralph, but due to the nods of agreement coming from the other boys, Josh assented.

Jack snatched the conch away from Ralph and said, "There is no snake. But even if there is we'll hunt it and kill it. Like a pig. We'll hunt it see. So you shouldn't be too worried 'cause there is no snake but if there even was a sna—"

"But there isn't! THERE IS NO BEAST!" Everyone stared at Ralph. He looked around, an embarrassed blush coloring his cheeks. He was clearly embarrassed about his outburst. "See. There is no beastie. You shouldn't be afraid." He shook his head as if to clear it. "Well, I've been thinking. We want to have fun. And we want to be rescued. Don't we?" The boys began to cheer. Ralph seemed to lose his train of thought. He cleared his throat and tried again. "We want to have fun. And we want to be rescued. And my father's in the navy. He says the Queen has a room full of maps of every single island that's in the world. Sooner or later, they will find out which island we're on and they'll come and rescue us.

Again, the crowd burst into applause. I looked around, studying the faces of others. Most of the boys had an expression of admiration on their faces. The strongest of those was Charles. He was looking at Ralph with eyes full of such worship, it was as if Ralph were God. Jack was clapping too, but with a smirk on his face. He seemed annoyed, and as I searched his face, even a little jealous.

"And another thing," Ralph continued. "If they do come by, there is no full chance that they'll see us. So just in case we need a way to draw their attention here. We'll need to make smoke up there, on the mountain. We'll need to make a fire."

With many exclamations of the word 'fire,' my little ones got up and rushed into the forest following Jack. I almost did myself but then realized I would look very childish running after them like that. I turned to Ralph to ask my permission to leave. He was trying to make the crowd settle down and sit back on the platform. His attempts were clearly futile. I smiled at him pityingly. "Ah kids. I'll just go and make sure no one hurts themselves." With that, I dashed off into the woods after the children, leaving Charles and Ralph alone on the platform.

I was sitting on a different platform. This one was at the top of the mountain. I looked around. The view was stunning. The trees of the island were a lush green, which contrasted well against the pink rocks of the cliff. Near the center of the mountain was a huge patch of lovely little blue flowers. From atop the mountain, the coral reef I had seen before was a splash of color that painted the left shore of the island. And, as far as the eye could see, the ocean spread out, peacock blue, glittering with the light from the golden sun. The only blemish on the island was a gloomy looking patch of trees. They were all dead, knocked down by the blistering heat that sometimes took over the island. But that section could be quite easily overlooked. The world was so beautiful that, at the moment, I felt content with where and who I was. I didn't want to do anything but float in the water, enjoying its warmth on my face and the cool water lapping against my skin. Unfortunately, I had to listen to Ralph giving orders about the fire.

"We can get as much wood as we want from down there," Ralph said, pointing towards the graveyard of trees. All that decay made me feel a little queasy but I pushed it down and forced myself to look at where Ralph was pointing.

"Hunters, this way!" Jack directed. He and his hunters began to make their way down the crater of the mountain towards the trees. For a while, Ralph and the hunters struggled to find a good trunk. Most of them fell apart upon contact. Finally the twins, Sam and Eric found a sturdier log. The hunters managed to drag it part of the way, but a long time passed before Ralph found a way to bring the log up from the crater. Eventually though, the pile began to grow.

I looked at the children and said, "Why don't you go down and help the big boys build their pile?" To my great surprise, most of them nodded at me solemnly and ran around finding sticks and twigs to contribute to our bonfire. Once I was sure that they were hard at work, I joined the older boys, helping them hull large pieces of wood to the pile. Soon, the heap was complete. Everyone stood around it, marveling at the hard work that they had put in to build it. The little ones that had helped looked up at me with glistening eyes, searching for praise and approval. I smiled sweetly at them and thanked them for their help. With their large eyes filled with pride, they skipped away to find fruit.

A smile spreading across my face, I looked up at the large pile of sticks then down at the two boys standing awkwardly under it. Jack and Ralph looked at each other sheepishly. My newborn smile faded. What was the matter? They let out self-conscious chuckles and Ralph cleared his throat. "Would you… uh… Jack… why don't you… er… you know… light, the… uh… light the… fire?"

My mouth fell open and I felt like banging my head against a nearby tree. How could they be so stupid? How could they not think ahead like that? Did we do all this work for nothing? I realized one reason I was so mad. The fault was partially mine. I had also not thought ahead. Ugh. I knew there was a solution to almost every problem. I cast my gaze around, thinking hard.

"Does anyone have any, um, matches?" Ralph asked hopefully. I had reached the pinnacle of my exasperation. All the matches are in the cargo hold, dummy, which is quite incidentally destroyed, I thought to myself. Who carries around freaking matches? I almost gasped out loud. I had never used language like that, not even in my own head. Especially twice in one day. First bloody Americans and now this? I was a little worried now. Are all these boys having some strange effect on me? Feeling sick I tried to remember what people used in my beloved books to start a fire. I looked over the hill, hearing branches cracking. Over the ridge came something huge, panting… Charles. I sighed in relief. The little ones too were having an effect on me. If this goes on, I'll be scared of my own shadow. Charles stopped near us. "Nice pile." He said.

Ralph looked up at the same time as Jack. Their eyes instantly lit up together. "Piggy… erm… Charles, might you have any ma—Jack what are you doing?"

Jack had jumped up, elation in his face. "We'll use Piggy's specs to start a fire. Like a burning glass!" Charles was immediately surrounded by boys attempting to steal his glasses. I pushed through them and reached Charles. "Charles? Would you mind if I borrowed your specs for a moment?" With a grin, he handed them to me saying, "Of course Madam Mornington." I stalked up to the soon-to-be-fire and tilted the glasses at an angle so that a ray of sun hit them and a beautiful tendril of smoke curled up into the air. Ralph and Jack blew tenderly on the wood, spreading embers, until a beautiful little flame appeared and grew, growing into a fire. I smiled and handed Charles's glasses back to him, thanking him in the process. I grinned at him then looked back at the fire and gasped. In that short period of time it had grown, grown to over fifteen meters tall and was consuming wood faster than anyone could have expected.

I looked to Ralph, our leader, but instead of fear, his eyes were full of an insane awe. "Ralph! What do we do?" I shouted breaking him out of his reverie. Still dazed, he muttered, "Get more wood." and returned his gaze to the glorious sight that stretched out before him. I knew I would be forced to take matters into my own hands. "Everyone! Listen up! We need wood! Lots of it! Get on it, or the fire will burn through everything." I helped alongside the others but time dragged on and we all became weary. Soon everyone was laying in the shade, enjoying the evening breeze. I had nearly fallen asleep when Charles spoke up.

"This fire wasn't any good."

"Why not?" Ralph looked up, perplexed.

"There wa'n't no smoke. An' we pu' mos' o' our wood in it an' we can't even keep a fire like tha' goin' even if we tried."

"Fat lot you tried," Jack said with a sneer.

"He did help. He gave Alicia his specs and let us use them," Simon piped up. I looked at him curiously. We hadn't formally met, yet he knew my name. Well you do know his. I reminded myself. But that's only because Charles was saying their names out loud and not mine. I knew it was a lame argument but it was the best I had.

"I go' the conch! Le' me talk!" Charles exclaimed.

"The conch doesn't work up here on the mountain. So shut your fat mouth," Jack said. Charles looked at me pleadingly but I shook my head regretfully. I wouldn't stand up to Jack, couldn't stand up to him. He still scared me quite a bit. Looking hurt, Charles returned the conch to Ralph and sat down next to me. I patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. Ralph began speaking.

"We need to have people to look after the fire. A ship might come by any day. We gotta always be prepared, we gotta always have a signal. And another thing. We need rules. Beginning with the conch. Where the conch is, a meeting is. Here and there." Charles made as if to reach for the conch, but one glance at Jack, he wilted and sank back down beside me. Meanwhile, Jack himself had taken the conch from Ralph.

"That's right! We need more rules! Lots more! And we get punished if we don't obey them. We get punished real good. After all, like Alicia pointed out earlier, we are Engilshmen and the English are best at everything. Not like them bloody Americans," He was mimicking me but I didn't stand up to him. I could see he wasn't worth that. I was beginning to see him as less a threat after I had seen Roger lifting up a lizard by its tail and tossing it into the flame, only looking slightly intrigued as a miniature explosion spewed the poor thing's blood everywhere. I could tell that even though Roger had been the one to suggest the voting, he had a dark side to him, something that scared me more that Jack had before. He seemed to be more excited about the punishments than the rules themselves. Not getting the reaction he had wanted from me, he turned to Ralph. "I'll split up my hunters. They'll take turns watching the fire and the horizon. That way, if they see a ship, they'll just put lots of green sticks on it to make more smoke. Altos will be the fire watchers this week, Trebles the next. We'll let the fire out now, 'cause no one can see smoke in the dark anyway."

All the boys began to applaud Jack's generosity. I myself would probably have clapped if he hadn't mimicked me before. I knew I was being a sissy but I had pride and I wasn't going to let go just like that. Jack had to apologize. Roger, the boy who had exploded a lizard spoke up. I looked over at him and saw he was poking at something in the ground with a stick. No doubt another animal he was about to murder for his own entertainment. He looked up, cursing as whatever it was escaped. "I've been watching the horizon. And I haven't seen a trace of a ship. Perhaps we'll never get rescued." The way he said it made me think that he didn't mind that. That he didn't want to be rescued.

Ralph snatched the conch away. "We will get rescued! We just have to wait that's all!"

Charles indignantly took the conch from Ralph. "Tha's wha' I been sayin' 'bout meetings an' things an' all you been sayin' is shut up. An' you said you wanted a small pile an' you wen' an' built a hayrick! An' every time I talk all you ever say is shut up. Bu' if anyone else, Jack, or Maurice, or Simon, or even Alicia an' she's a girl, you… you…"

The part about the fact that being a girl made a difference stung a little, but Charles's argument was quite clear. I am a girl. And back before we got on this island, none of the boys would care what I had to say for that reason. And the fact that I am short for my age, but that's beside the point. All of a sudden, Charles began to laugh. It was a horrible mad, feverish, hysteric laugh. Clutching his stomach with one hand, he pointed with the other. All eyes turned in the direction Charles was pointing. THE FIRE! It had grown immensely while we had not been looking and consumed most of the dead trees we had for future fires. Soon, half the island was on fire. Charles let out another sharp laugh. "You got your small fire alright."

Ralph stared dumbfounded at the inferno. He turned back to Charles, but in his daze, the only words he could put together were 'Shut' and 'up.' My eyes blazing in anger, I stood up, ready to give Ralph the treatment he deserved. All of a sudden, a harsh wave of heat knocked me back down onto the ground. I wanted to tell my children to be careful near it. As I began to go through them a sudden, horrible realization hit me. I frantically cast my gaze around murmuring. "No, no, no, no, no…"

The next few moments flew by in a blur. No no no no nono nono nononono… Jack had just called Charles 'Fatty' again. No no no no nono nono nononono… Charles was having a rant on priorities. No no no no nono nono nononono! Charles was going on a tirade about the little ones. No no no no nono nono nonono! Sweat was rolling in large beads down my face. My heart was empty as a cloudless sky. No NO NO NO NO, "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed. Everyone started at the noise and turned towards me. I knew why. This wasn't any cry. A sound like this could only be heard when a loved one is lost. With the feeling of many eyes on my back, I turned and rushed into the forest, where I collapsed, sobbing.

A/N

Sorry this took so long, didn't have time over winter break and stuff was going on.

Thanks Goneismyfave1 for thanking me about a dozen times and being my first review. And since you dedicated a chapter to me, here's one for you.

Tada