Don't Go Out In The Woods Today

Chapter Fifteen

We had handed our consent forms in for the camping trip on Friday and I really wasn’t looking forward to it but after tomorrow it’s the summer so that’s six weeks relaxing with my best friend and hopefully my mum and dad if they come back from my nans, I remembered that Mr Bates said in the car he will be going and I had grown to dislike him in the past four days but I couldn’t back out now and leave Ellie all alone. He tried to talk to me numerous times since Monday I’d told Ellie I didn’t want to talk to him so she agreed to stick by my side so he couldn’t get me alone and it worked. For once the weather was gorgeous as we stood at the bus stop with our backpacks on, a two man tent clipped to the back of mine and our sleeping bags in our hands.

The bruises are the only physical traces Ben left me and they were now light yellow and green I used some concealer on them to attempt to cover them up and it done the trick although you could still see them if you looked properly. I had a light cardigan on to hide my arms while Ellie stood wearing a short sleeved t-shirt; she was so excited and hadn’t stopped talking about the trip since the beginning of the week. If Mr Bates wasn’t going I might be a little more enthusiastic but now I’ve got to spend the next day and a half avoiding him.

When we arrived at school the rest of the group was gathered on the school field some girls were laying on the grass resting their heads on their bags, a few of the boys were already up to their eyeballs on energy drink and were lobbing a Frisbee back and forth. We sat with three other girls in our form group including Charlotte the girl who collapsed during the gas leak. The weather instantly seemed to lift everyone’s mood, looking around everyone was smiling, laughing and having a good time and so was I until I saw Mr Bates. Lauren, one of the girls we were sitting with instantly noticed him

“Look at Mr Bates,” she whispered, this turned the other girls attention to him. “Is it even possible to be that good looking?” He was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt that clung to his muscled chest, why is it he always looks like a model from a magazine? He should be in expensive clothes or men’s fragrance commercials not going camping with fifteen teenagers. He put the rucksack he was carrying down next to the other two teachers that was coming before starting a conversation with them, the girls carried on ogling over him as I sat cross legged picking at the healthy green grass.

“Right can everyone calmly make your way onto the minibuses!” Mrs Hall announced, there were three teachers coming- her, Mr Bates and Mrs Connell and two mini busses to fit us all on. Me, Ellie and the three other girls got on the second one with two boys and Mrs Hall got into the driver’s seat, I was so glad that Mr Bates was on the first bus I don’t want to be getting in any other vehicles with him in the near future. The radio was playing upbeat modern music that we sang along to and twenty minutes later we were at our destination; we were going to set up camp next to the lake which was quite clean. You could see the ground through the clear water and it didn’t have a rough current it gently flowed downhill, the trees in the wood were spread wide apart letting plenty of sunlight through and it wasn’t that muddy as large parts were covered in grass.

We all unloaded off the busses and sat in a circle on some logs that had been put there for seating while the teachers counted everyone. They gave us a lecture on how they expect us to behave and respect the environment while we were here. I would hope by now they could trust us because we’re all sixteen or seventeen and they’ve known us for five years- with the exception of Mr Bates who doesn’t know anything about us. Me and Ellie searched for a place to pitch our tent and we found the perfect spot next to a small stream that came from the lake, the large oak tree provided shelter as it overlooked our tent so if it did rain we wouldn’t get that much of it. We were also far away from where the teachers had set up camp so hopefully they’d leave us alone.

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An hour later and we were all gathered by the lake dressed in clothes ‘we didn’t mind getting wet in’ so I decided to wear some three quarter length jogging bottoms and a blue t-shirt that had thin long sleeves. There were blue plastic barrels, planks of wood and rope gathered over by the trees which means…it’s time for raft building. There were three teams of five so me and Ellie got together with the other three, we were handed our equipment including helmets and life jackets. Each team had a member of staff to watch over them and thank God the boys were landed with Mr Bates. We knew exactly what we were going to do and had it built in fifteen minutes which left us waiting for another twenty minutes for the other teams to finish. The teachers obviously weren’t planning on getting into the lake as they hasn’t changed, we were told the first team to cross the lake and get back with all members on the raft wins which sounds pretty simple…but it’s not that easy.  We were armed with our paddles and were seated on our handmade rafts trying to keep our balance.