Falling Hard // Nowhere Boys

1: The School Excursion

"What?" I crinkle my nose in grimace and push my hair out of my face.

"What's wrong with you?" Sam looks down at Andy.

"And what's with this hole?" Jake pulls a thin cloth poncho out of the backpack.

"It's a poncho," Andy smiles at Jake. "In case it gets cold."

"I'll poncho you to death if Trent beats us, get it?" Jake balls up the poncho and roughly throws it at Andy. 

"Sure, no poncho."

"Come on, we can still win." Jake balls his fists, turns and jogs away further up the trail.

"It's not a race." I mutter to the others, helping Andy stuff some things back into his bag and hold out a hand to help him up.

"I guess we better just humour him," Felix waits for us to catch up to him.

"What about recording flora?" Andy shifts his bag on his back.

"Trees, trees and more trees," I fold my arms across my chest and hear Felix slip a light laugh.

As we catch up to the others, Jake stops and looks down at the lower trails, his arms laying limp against his sides, looking totally defeated. I look down and see Trent and Dylan calling us losers, the rest of his group cheering and calling out to us.

"I can't believe he beat us," Jake turns to us. "Our footy coach says if you're going through hell, keep going!" He slaps his hand with his fist for emphasis.

"That was Winston Churchill." Andy informs.

"Yeah, well goths say if your going through hell, stop 'cause you've arrived." Felix remarks.

Jake rolls his eyes and ignores him. "Look, Trent's beating us, and he has real girls on his team."

"I resent that," Andy says, while I step forward. 

"Uh, dude, I am a real girl." I gesture towards my body and Jake folds his arms and looks at me in annoyance.

"If you want to win so much, there's a shortcut. This way." Felix looks up from the map and points to a narrow warren-like trail leading away from the main path.

"Well, good one Dracula. Let's go." Jake stalks off into the trees.

"C'mon," I sigh and bend my head in the direction of Jake, following him deeper into the undergrowth. 

/ / /

I don't know how long we walked for, but it felt like an eternity. Standing on the edge of an overhang, I let out a heavy groan.

"A shortcut to where?" Jake stops beside me and turns on Felix, gesturing with his hands into the distance.  

"Well, it looked like a shortcut." Felix tries to insist. I sigh and pull my dark hair back into a loose ponytail.

Andy and Felix fight over the map and Sam pulls his phone out of his jean pocket.

"Nothing."  Sam holds the phone up to the sky.

The rest of us pull out our phones. 

"Me neither." I slip it back into my bag.

"Same." 

"No data."

"Nope."

"We are officially nowhere!" Sam huffs.

"Great! Well done freak." Jake cries, his hands falling to his sides.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blows around us, snatching the map from Felix's hands. Reaching for it, Felix slips and falls down.