From England, With Love

Relief

I sit up with a start, glancing over to Pete who had luckily turned over in his sleep. The look on the blonde's face reads mischief. How is he so ready to go this early in the morning?

"What is it?" I say wearily, rubbing the sleep dust out of my eyes.

"Come here," he says, practically dragging me out of the tent. "Last night, me and Ben were talking and we came up with a plan." He speaks quietly as we join Ben, who was stood next to another tent.

"This is Luke and Kieran's tent," Ben whispers, pointing dramatically at the structure.

"And we're going to collapse it," Brandon grins. I realise now that this must have been the conversation Tabitha overheard last night.

"Wait why are we collapsing it? What do I have to do with this?" I say, genuinely confused.

"Come on man, it'll be funny," Brandon pleads, and I give in with a reluctant nod.

They both start pulling the metal hooks out the ground, so I start to help, soon making the tent look a lot less stable. Then, we begin to ever so carefully pull the rods from the top of the tent. As the tents are cheap, the rods are collapsible and fold in on each other, making it much easier to remove them without making too much noise. By now, most of the group are awake and watching, including Pete, who looks as confused as he does amused. I throw him a look that says "I don't know, either," and continue removing the rod.

As the three of us finish our mission, we step back and watch the tent slowly sink on top of Luke and Kieran. I burst into laughter and quickly the others do, too.

God, this is such a surreal experience.

After a few moments, the boys in the tent wake up, most likely disturbed by the chorus of laughter.

"What the fuck!" Luke shouts upon realising what had happened. "Which fucker has done this I'm actually going to boot you so hard." He sits up, provoking more laughter as the shape of him is outlined clearly by the tent.

Kieran joins him, and starts feeling for the zip.

"Brandon I swear to God if this was you-"

Brandon, who is currently bent over in laughter on the grass, quickly stands up as Kieran finds what he's looking for.

"You a bit stuck there, mate?" He jokes as the zip opens and reveals the angry faces of the boys within.

"Ben, Ae, excellent job." Brandon says in a mock-serious tone, offering each of us a handshake. I accept it and so does Ben. Luke points directly at me, and I make a poor attempt to swallow my laughter.

"You!" He exclaims, "you're meant to be sensible!" He slides himself out of the tent, hair a mess from sleeping and looking generally irritated. I shrug my shoulders, a smile on my face as I glance at Brandon. He mouths something that I don't catch until he starts sprinting away from the tent.

"Run."

I turn on my heel and start to sprint, and not a second later I hear Luke get up off the floor and follow in close pursuit. I realise my fate when I remember that Luke is over six foot tall - I am not. I almost reach the line of trees where Tabitha had found us this morning when I'm rugby tackled to the floor, and I hit the grass hard.

"You cheeky bastard," Luke laughs as he lands next to me. He's not angry. Not really. Just like Brandon, he enjoys acting like a fool. And it had definitely worked. I look up and see the others, still laughing. He offers me his hand and I shake it, agreeing an unspoken truce. I walk back to the tent, grass stains on my legs and front, and Pete looks at me in disdain.

"What did you do that for?"

"Honestly, I don't know," I pant, and he smiles, holding out a plastic pot of steaming instant porridge and a spoon. I look at him for a second, and then back at the pot. "For me?" I ask.

"Who else would I be making breakfast for?" He says shyly before disappearing into the tent to start shoving things back into his bag.

I have never eaten instant porridge so passionately.

In an hour, we had packed up the tents and were back on the road. I sneaked Pete a kiss, while no one was looking, before regrouping with my team and watching his team go in the other direction. The teacher in charge of the programme had us all on different routes to avoid team collaboration, much to our frustration.

Not long into walking, Paige started complaining about shoulder pain, and Brandon showed a rare moment of kindness and offered to carry her bag for the next little while. I couldn't help but wonder how Pete was fairing, remembering the bruises that covered his shoulders and back. I would have carried his bag the whole bloody way home if we were in the same team.

We reached a stream in some woods around the half-way mark. Finding no obvious crossing, we had to clamber across a rotting tree trunk that had fallen across the water. Brandon went first, handing his bag to Ben who then chucked it to him when he safely reached the other side. We repeated this method and it was successful, aside from when Aurel lost his footing and slipped into the water. Luckily, it was only waist-high, but the look of frustration on his face was nothing short of comedic.

After Ben leant him some dry trousers and Aurel dressed behind a tree, we set off again through some more fields and down the side of a quiet carriageway. We stopped to eat at the edge of a village that the others claimed they recognised, and reckoned was close to town. After listening to how surprised everyone was at how quickly we'd reached our current location, Ben admitted that Brandon had once again re-routed us. Tabitha whacked him over the head with her water bottle, forcing a lecture upon him about the unethicality of cheating.

Brandon, who continued to munch on his roll, quite clearly didn't care.

Now, we are walking through another village that is apparently next door to town.

"We're meant to be meeting Miss at the IKEA car park." Brandon says, half to himself and half to the group, his eyes glued to the map. Everyone, who at this point is so desperate to get home and exhausted beyond the point of complaining that they're either lost in thought or staring at their feet to concentrate on walking. So, I am the one to point at the giant, blue building appearing over the rooftops of the village houses.

"Is that IKEA?" I say, and everyone snaps back into focus.

"Oh fuck yes." Paige sighs dramatically. "It is."

The mood of the group suddenly picks up, and Tabitha and Paige pick up the pace, almost overtaking Brandon who in turn speeds up in order to remain the "leader" until the very end.

We hurry to the edge of the village and over the bridge that leads over the motorway. Soon, we spot the school van, a beacon of hope in our fatigue, parked toward the edge of the car park.

"Miss!" Ben calls, as the teacher hops out the driver's seat and pulls the van doors open. We start to run, using whatever energy we have left, and practically fling ourselves into the van, ditching our bags of torture onto the concrete.

"Well done!" The teacher congratulates us, handing out plastic cups of water. "However I have to say, I wasn't expecting you for another hour or so." She says, looking at Brandon, who feigns innocence.

"You see, Miss, we were just very keen." He says, sipping his water.

"Yes, very," she responds, clearly wise to the boy's methods of orienteering. "Now we just need to wait for others and then I can take you back to school. Isn't that exciting?" Her last sentence is soaked in sarcasm and the others groan.

"I do not want to see that place for at least three months while I recover from this trauma." Paige states, lying across the row of seats at the back of the van and burying her head in her arms.

I sit on the chair next to the van door, my tired eyes trained on the bridge, waiting; for him.