Falling Hard // Nowhere Boys

1: The School Excursion

"Agh!" I break eye contact with the mysterious 'witch' lady when Andy Lau falls heavily out of the bus on top of Felix, laying crumpled underneath Andy's massive trekking backpack.

"Okay Year 10, please form groups as I call your names." Mr. Bates gains everyone's attention and pulls a clipboard from the box. "Daniel, Alexis, Tammy, Mike..." 

I fold my arms over my chest and watch as the other students reluctantly joined groups. 

"Then we have Jake, Sam," The boys slapped palms. "And they are with Andy, Felix and Taylor." I looked over in horror. Jake Riles. Really?! I stay glued to the floor, hoping with passion Bates hate made a mistake.

"Seriously? Sir, are you alright in the head?" Jake asks incredulously as Andy and Felix join the the two boys. 

"No. I'm your teacher, Jake." Bates looks over at me and sighs. "Join your group, Taylor." 

I groan and reluctantly move to where the others were standing.

"Hey brainy dude," Sam high fives Andy. "...Taylor Dude." He leans over, smiles, and slaps my palm.

As the other students settled into their groups, Mr. Bates placed the box in front of us.

"Now, one member from each team come and get a map and compass. You will orienteer."

I fiddled with the hair tie around my wrist as Felix went to the box.

"At the third marker, lunch and refreshments will be provided you will need to be there at 1:30pm or you will miss out. I expect you all to be at the final marker at 4pm on the dot, no late-comers." Mr. Bates continues.

I zoned out- to be honest, I really didn't care about this stupid bush walk thing anyway- until Jake asks how he's supposed to win with 'these three netballers'.

"This is a team building exercise, Jake, not a race."

"It's always a race!" Jake argues. Andy then pushed past him and says: "Let's do it!"

The others look at Andy and then at me. Shrugging, I adjust my bag on my shoulder and call to Andy to wait up.

/ / /

Jake powered ahead, closely followed by Sam, down the dirt trail.

"Come on!" He briefly turns his head shouts at the rest of us, telling us to speed up.

"Can't you just go a little faster?" Felix was in front of me holding the map, while Andy was metres behind hauling his backpack.

"I could," Andy shifts the bag on his back before collapsing to the ground, clearly exhausted. "If I wasn't carrying twice my body weight in food."

"Wait up." Felix tears his eyes away from the map and calls for the other two boys ahead.

"Hey," I knelt down next to Andy. "You okay?" 

He pants, taking a few breaths and slowly nods.

"You do know this is a half day stroll, not a five day trek, right?" Jake jogs back and looks down at Andy.

 "In my family, this is travelling light." Andy zips the bag open.

I pull out a pack of toilet roll and toss it to the ground. Sam grabs a plastic bag. 

"What's this?" He examines the lumpy stick things inside.

"Chicken's feet." Andy blankly tells Sam, who drops the bag in disgust.

"Eugh!"

"Bear Grylls drinks liquid squeezed from a camel's stomach." Andy informs us with the useless information.