CHAPTER SEVEN

They bypassed the flying fox- in spite of Li's longing glance at it, and request for just one go- and headed for the obstacle style course tucked away at the bottom of the clearing. On closer inspection it was less of a course and more of a handful of different pieces of equipment set up, some of it a bit obscure looking- in particular one which bore a sign proclaiming it to be 'The Spider's Web'. It was reminiscent of one and the name was indeed fitting: a wooden frame with an interwoven assortment of ropes crisscrossing through the space created in the middle, creating a series of gaps of varying shapes and sizes. There were five different obstacles set up around the space, including the web, and each had a sign stuck in the ground next to it, the name of the obstacle painted on a bit of wood attached to each stake.

'Lily Pads' was a bit more cryptic of a name, the obstacle itself simply a series of sawn off wooden posts cemented into the ground in a seemingly random fashion. 'Back to Back' didn't seem to describe any of the obstacles it contained: a section of tyres, on the ground, stuck together, followed by a low beam of wood (foam wrapped: safety first) set at about chest height, and then another run of tyres. After that came something that bore a bit of a resemblance to 'The Spider's Web': 'Mind Your Step' was a maze of ropes, woven throughout each other to create something for them to supposedly weave through. It was lower on the edges and easier to navigate, but the centre was an absolute mess with ropes snaking around above their heads and gaps big enough to- almost- fit an entire person through without bending over. The final obstacle, 'The Bridge', looked about as straightforward as its name. It was a series of wooden blocks, joined together with rope, and suspended only about fifteen centimetres off the ground.

"You'll be doing this round one pair at a time," Allison explained to the now seated group, "both people from each team participating together to get through the obstacle." She held up a stop watch, strung around her neck on a string along with the whistle, and presumably also procured from the depths of her backpack. "I'll be timing each team and the one that gets through all of the obstacles in the quickest time with the least penalties will be the winner."

"What exactly are the obstacles?" Alex asked, not really able to make head nor tail of them all just by looking.

Allison provided a brief explanation of what each activity in the course entailed them to do, Amber growing more and more despondent with every word that came out of the supervisor's mouth; like the first chunk of the morning, the emphasis was on communication and teamwork, except this time it seemed to involve a lot more of a hands on approach than having one person on the ground shouting up instructions to the other.

It was going to be an absolute disaster. She could see it.

"Volunteers to go first?" Allison asked.

The question was barely out of her mouth before Li's hand shot into the air; she tossed a questioning look at Justin as she did so, almost as an afterthought. "All good?"

He nodded, amused, and Allison stepped to stand beside the now spectators instead of in front of them, stop watch at the ready. Justin and Li had a brief powwow, Li looking serious for the first time since the others had met her, and eyed 'The Spider's Web', sizing it up for the challenge.

"Ready?" Allison checked and, at their synchronised nod, she stuck the whistle between her lips and blew, depressing the button on the top of the stopwatch simultaneously.

During the brief, hushed discussion over the pair's plan of attack, the main point that had been addressed was how to get through the web without incurring any penalties. A mistake on an obstacle- which in this particular case was touching the rope- would result in a five second addition to their time. Not an overly big deal and definitely something that wouldn't spell the difference between winning and losing miserably. Failure to complete an obstacle, however, would hit you with a whopping sixty additional seconds tacked onto your course time and, unless another team fancied a bit of a sleep in the middle of their run or decided to bulldoze through without a care in the world, you might as well just wander on back to your seat. For 'The Spider's Web', failure was counted as not getting both team mates from the starting side through the web onto the other, or putting both team members through the same gap in the web.

The latter mightn't have sounded like a big problem because gaps wasn't something that the obstacle was short on, but there was only one decent sized, easy to navigate hole in the bottom section of the web. There were two even larger ones way above their heads at the very top of the frame and another three spread across the middle that mightn't have been an impossibility to navigate through without incurring a penalty or two but weren't anywhere near as simple as the one at the bottom.

Li's knack for defying gravity wasn't the only talent she had tucked up her sleeve. In the brief, hushed discussion she and Justin had had before the clock had started, she hadn't had time to embellish on her, "Trust me, we've got this," but considering the last time she'd said those words to him she'd scaled a climbing wall, blindfolded, like a caffeinated monkey, he was more than content to just take her word for it and go along with her plan.

Justin stepped up to the web and, careful not to get too complacent about the seemingly straightforward nature of the task at hand, stuck one leg through the gap, folded at the waist and slipped his body through after his leading limb. He straightened up on the other side once he was a hundred per cent sure he was completely clear of the rope and hovered in place just past the web, ready to give Li any assistance she might have needed. He was sure she would need help, at some stage; he had absolutely no idea what she was going to do, although he did hope it didn't involve a run up and attempt to propel herself through one of the higher up big gaps. As little as she was, he still didn't fancy trying to catch her.

Li's short stature made any sort of attempt to step up and through one of the middle set, sizeable gaps a near impossibility, even if Justin somehow helped her through from the other side. That wasn't an issue, though, because the thought hadn't even entered her mind. She was going for the second biggest gap on the bottom section- although 'biggest' was still a relative term.

Seeing which direction her eyes were set at and where she was gearing up to go through, Justin was starting to have doubts about Li's assurance that they had it in the bag. Being the first team they had no previous markers to set the bar at but he'd thought they'd gotten off to a rather speedy start; Li was taking a bit longer than he had to prepare for going through, but given what she looked like she was going to attempt that had to be expected. He didn't think they were so speedy that the penalties he was sure were going to follow Li's attempt weren't going to hurt them, though, considering he had a feeling that the majority- if not all- of the others were going to be just attempting to quickly shoot the second person through one of the taller gaps and cop the fault or two on the chin, hoping to more or less cancel it out with the speed they completed the obstacle in.

Li took a deep breath, lined herself up, took a moment to completely centre herself and, following Justin's lead, poked a foot and leg through the gap she'd chosen. It wasn't a teeny tiny space, the second biggest in the bottom third of the web and ample room to move through with a bit of bending and twisting. The bending and twisting Li had down pat and, with Justin- and Paulo, somewhere back behind her in the rest of the group- looking on in awe once again, Li bent into a seemingly impossible shape, more or less laying her torso flat against the leg she still had staked on the starting side of the web. She stuck an arm through the gap, using it to help brace herself as she lowered into half a split then shuffled across the gap, going by feel and inch by inch to ensure she wasn't going to catch the rope by accident. When she was just over the halfway point, she rolled her torso back up and out, unfurling herself on the other side of the web. A delicate step later and her other leg joined the rest of her body.

There was no time for a celebration, four more equally intriguing obstacles left for them to conquer and the time still ticking relentlessly away on Allison's stopwatch. 'Lily Pads' was up next, the object of which was to get both team members across the 'pond' by going from one stump to the next. On a general inspection of the obstacle it was clear there were an exhaustive number of ways to get from one bank to the other, but the two definitely obvious ones were the most direct, although the stumps were spaced further apart and would require some very clear communication and assistance from each team member to make it through without falling into the 'water' below, and the more sensibly arranged yet slower option to pick across the stumps the ones that were a mere step apart. The latter would require less co-operation, more of a simple follow the leader in a zigzag back and forth across the stumps.

They passed on the slow and steady option, attempting the direct path cutting straight up the centre of the obstacle. Their progress was quick, Justin leading the way with long legs that, with Li anchoring him from the previous stump, could just about bridge the gap with a little leap thrown in to clear the final few centimetres. He then turned around and helped Li, who had to do a lot more leaping and rely a lot more on Justin for physical support and a bit of a pull to help her clear the gap. A miscalculation from Li had a frustrating five faults tacked onto their time but, especially with their clear run through the first obstacle and their quick progress through the second, neither found it especially concerning.

'Back to Back' required the two team members to do exactly as describe- stand back to back- and navigate through the first round of tyres, under the beam, and through the second, without losing contact with their team mate's back, or letting their linked arms fall. Justin and Li had a height disagreement that didn't prove much of a problem through the tyres, but became more apparent at their rather hilarious attempt at shuffling under the beam, something that had Li in stitches and landed them a five second time penalty as, racked with laughter, she slipped and ended up on her butt on the ground.

'Mind Your Step' went far smoother, the only specification being that the team mates had to join hands and not let their grip go until they'd cleared the maze of ropes. Unlike the first obstacle, they didn't have to go through separate gaps or worry about touching the rope, and with Li leading- almost dragging Justin behind her in sections- they were through quickly and without incurring any penalties.

Last up was 'The Bridge', which required the team to pass over together, helping each other to balance on the wobbly bridge. A couple of close calls aside, they finished as strongly as they'd started and stopped the clock with an impressive benchmark.

"High five," she requested and Justin obliged, raising his hand to slap his palm against hers. "We rock."

"Indeed we do."

The other pairs had predominately positive runs, although no one came anywhere near the dynamite time and limited faults that Li and Justin had set as the standard to beat. They were a tough act to follow and, in a way, the success of them as the first team through made it hard for the others to concentrate on their own performance, thus resulting in silly mistakes which in turn occupied their heads and resulted in more. Even with their disqualification from the second round, they were looking at a comfortable first place win in the third which would secure them first overall- and the very appealing prize of not having to be bothered with kitchen duties for the day.

Stella and Ruby's attempt was valiant, and they went through with a very commendable no faults, but the trade off was a painfully slow round that didn't even come close to touching Li and Justin's time. Paulo and Alex worked well together, Alex stepping into a rather natural role as leader and unflappable Paulo more than happy to defer to following his guidance. They hit a couple of dicey bits, collected a fault on most of the obstacles, but with the generous time that Stella and Ruby had set, they were easily sitting in second place.

Amber and Hex's attempt at a run through ended abysmally at the third obstacle, Amber tossing her hands up in the air, proclaiming, "I can't work with him," and throwing in the towel. Hex didn't have an issue with that, echoing a sentiment along very similar lines in his own head, and the third round for them ended in yet another disqualification and yet another layer added to the mounting irritation between the two teens.

With Li and Justin victors of the morning's activities, they were excused from lunch duty when the group returned to the mess hall. Allison divided the others into two groups and set the first to work in the kitchen organising the prep and serving of lunch; they would be rotated around for an alternating shift when it came to dinner.

Somewhat disappointed that her morning's tasks seemed to have had the opposite to the intended affect when it came to Amber and Hex, the pair now not even acknowledging each other's presence with a scathing glare, Allison persisted in putting them into a situation requiring communication and co-operation, sticking them on the clean up team together. She wasn't much for the softly-softly approach and figured that forcing them to work together- or at least go for a period of time without snapping at or insulting each other- would be the best shot she had at nipping an obviously building problem in the bud before it really turned into something unfixable that would make everything uncomfortable for the rest of the group.

After lunch, Allison ushered Amber and Hex into the kitchen along with Stella; the rest of the teenagers scurried off to get ready for an afternoon relaxing down on the beach again, leaving the clean up squad to tackle the mess.

"They did only make sandwiches, right?" Amber said, taking in the mound of dishes piled on every available surface with suspicion.

"Apparently." Stella's nose wrinkled in disgust. She found and pulled on a pair of rubber gloves that were several sizes too big, the fingertips flopping limply without her own to support them properly, but a definitely more appealing option than plunging her bare hands into the hot washing up water. With Amber's help, Stella started to collate the dishes into neat stacks next to the sinks. She raised an eyebrow, counting through the plates arranged in a teetering pile. "I say we make something really amazing for dinner tonight."

"And by 'amazing' you really mean 'incredibly messy'?" Amber said.

"How you want to interpret it is up to you. But I vote for something crumbed. No 'one pan' nonsense."

"So you want to get back at them for making lots of work for us, by making lots of work for us?" Hex's expression asked Stella for clarification on just how stupid the other teen really was, or if she was just putting it on. "Count me out."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" Amber said into the silence, Stella's mouth clacking shut when she couldn't quite think of something to reply to Hex's comment with.

"No idea. Although if that was some sort of attempt at insulting me, you fell a bit short of the mark." Hex shrugged. "I think you might be under the assumption that I actually care what you think, Amber."

"What the hell is your problem?"

"With you?"

"Yeah- or in general, I don't really care."

"I don't have one: general, specific or otherwise."

Amber scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Sure, whatever," she said, the sarcasm running on from her words and pooling on the kitchen floor at her feet.

"I know we were on restricted items, Amber," Hex said evenly, taking up a station on the second sink beside Stella, "but packing a personality actually was allowed."

"And that's coming from you?" She gave a bark of laugh, void of any humour and bubbling with irritation.

Allison stuck her head around the doorway, frowning in at the teenagers and picking up on the tension. The room was just about humming with it and poor Stella looked like she was going to cry. "What's going on?" she asked, trying not to pick on anyone in particular but finding her eyes were automatically narrowing in on Amber and Hex. "Problem?"

"No," Amber said quickly; she took up a dishtowel and, as though to illustrate her point and show the harmony that wasn't even close to existing, stepped up beside Hex to dry the dishes he'd washed and stuck on the draining board.

It happened in an instant. Hex, a cup he'd been rinsing under hot water and still half full, turned around, not knowing what Amber was up to. She was closer than he'd anticipated and his movement coupled with her sudden proximity had him lurching to a stop. The water in the cup didn't, however, and leap out at Amber's arm that had been extended, her hand reaching for a dish to dry. It wasn't boiling, but she hadn't been expecting it and it was hot enough that when the liquid came into contact with her skin, Amber yelped and shot backwards, towel dropped to the floor and her other hand automatically clamping down to cover the area the water had hit.

Allison was across the floor in a flash, reaching for Amber's arm. "Show me," she said.

Amber was cradling her arm to her chest, protecting it from further assault, but relinquished it to Allison for inspection on her request. The burn was minimal, more of a scald than anything, but her dark skin was decorated with a slightly pink, sad looking bit of flesh that wasn't at all happy.

"Come on. I'll stick some ointment on it." Allison steered Amber towards the doorway, trying not to think about how that was accident number three and it was only halfway through day two.

What the heck had John been thinking, asking her to sign up for this program and supervise one of the camps? What the heck had she been thinking, agreeing to his request? Her original teaching career had been short lived, and what felt like a lifetime ago: the fact that she had struggled with a class of twenty two for an hour a couple of times a day, in a school, where the only potential danger was a daredevil kid getting his hands on the electric pencil sharpener, should have been a deterrent- a warning. This was going to be a disaster.

Back in the kitchen, Hex had returned to his washing up, face still that unnerving blank number. Stella regarded him somewhat cautiously; it wasn't that she was freaked out that he was some sort of mental nut job who was going to deliberately toss hot water onto her in between demurely washing plates, it was more that she just couldn't quite get a handle on him. He didn't have much to say- unless, it seemed, it had to do with trading insults with Amber- and he was hard to read. Stella, a nervy sort of person to begin with that liked to know everything that was going on and exactly who she was surrounded by, found Hex to be rather intimidating; she kept her distance, glancing at the Londoner out of the corner of her eye every now and then, wary.