Never Give Up

Book 1:The Trip

I opened my eyes to so see the sun glistening through my window. Today was the beginning of one of my greatest adventures. Ever sense I was a little girl I have wanted to be a girl scout. I dream about shooting arrows and fighting off Bears and Wolfs that are trying to eat my cookies...just my faithful Troops and I, being awesome. I know of course that's not exactly plausible but a girl could dream.

On my 13th birthday, I made my father take me to join. I was officially a girl scout! Our first order of business was a camping trip. Out in the woods for 7 days testing are survival skills. Of course, it was not really survival considering we have help and planned activities but I fully intended to embrace nature and the idea behind our lessons. However, Mother and Father were against me going because they are very overprotective of me. I do not blame them considering in my whole 13years of life I only spent 1 night away and I actually called them crying to pick me up because my best friend's house was haunted. Okay, it wasn't haunted, I was eight and her cat was scratching the walls in the storage room. Sense than every sleepover was at my house. I never got the chance to redeem myself. Well, I begged my parents for three days straight and even exaggerated the fact I waited my whole life to Girl Scout. I even told them how I came out of my mother's womb wearing a Girl Scout uniform and now they were going to stomp on my dreams and not let me do a simple task. After a very long conversation, my reluctant parents finally agreed.

I was so excited, the sun was shining, and the bus would be here within an hour. Today would be one of the best days of my life. I finished packing my gear and run down stairs to have my last breakfast with my family before the trip. I always hated goodbyes and I will admit I cried little. I haven't been away from my family and 7 days without my Fathers Sunny Side Eggs in the morning was going to be a killer. After breakfast I hugged my mother goodbye and my father took my hand and hugged my so tight. Reminded me of the basic rules, Survival 101 stay with group at times. If I get separated take high ground, the trees will give best view to find our heading. I was about to head for the bus when my father stopped me one more time at the door. This time had the most serious face, he place a small hunting knife in my hand along with bootstrap holder. He fasted the sheath in my boot and said, "This was my first knife my father gave to me and his gave to him. It is old but extremely sharp. This is yours now to protect you on your adventure. One day you will pass it to your son when you feel he deserves it." My heart pounded and tears filled my eyes again, I loved my father so much. I don't know how I'm going to survive a whole week without him. He also told me I probably shouldn't show Scoutmaster because he will likely take it away and made me promise not to tell mom because she would kill him if she knew I was carrying a knife with me.

On the bus, I sat with my two best friends Trisha Day and Kelly Klian. They have the same dream I do, to go camping as Girl Scout and now it was actually happening this was going to be trip we will never forget. It was a 3-hour drive out of town; we were so excited that we almost died with anticipation. Finally, the bus pulled over and Scoutmaster said we reached our first checkpoint. Parked on the side of the road by the woods we gathered are gear to begin the hike to the perfect campsite. It was approximately 5.5 miles in, all most a straight shot to our camping grounds. It was a beautiful clearing in front of a Weeping Willow. This tree was extremely rare in these parts, and they don't actually know how it got here in the first place.

Once camp was set up, Scoutmaster gave us jobs. Of course, Trish and Kelly were my partners and our job was to forge for food. We stayed within shouting distance and only found so delicious berries. Luckily, for us Scoutmaster knew we were not going to be very good at it so he brought some packed food.

As the sky darkened on our first night, we sat around the campfire eating and sharing stories. I told them one of my favorite scary stories that my grandfather used to tell me about a huge creature lurking in the darkness of the woods. It was a creature called Bigfoot, even though it was just a legend the story always got me. At 11pm Scoutmaster called three to a tent its bedtime. Trish, Kelly, and I fell asleep almost instantly after laying down. We hadn't realized how exhausted we were.