"be careful"
piggy exclaims to tony as he's climbing a tree. most of us were helping to build the first few shelters in the camp.
"there's probably a lot of berries and things that look ok but are really poisonous" he warns to tony, who is not giving a care in the world. "my brother did outward bound, learned how to survive, he taught me" he replies. i come towards them and look up at tony "did he do outward bound in the tropics?" i say. "not exactly" "then where?" piggy says forcefully. "colorado"
"there are totally different poison plants in colorado than in this place, so we've gotta take precautions or it won't matter" piggy seems very concerned and i agree with him, but i would hope that the fruit we were picking was ok to eat. jack then turns and tunes into our conversation "what won't matter?" he says. piggy looks at him and says "wether we get rescued" "better learn to live with yourself because we ain't gonna get rescued"
"what are you talking about?"
"just being logical, a plane goes down in the ocean, there's no wreckage, who's gonna find us" jack stops what he's doing to properly face piggy. "why don't you just shut up" piggy shouts towards him. uh oh, this isn't gonna go down well with jack. "are you telling me to shut up" jack raises his eyebrows "what we need around here is positive people, not people trying to scare people" "what we don't need around here is you shitbrain"
"his names not shitbrain, it's piggy" one of the others says
"yeah, piggy, yeah"
"oink oink"
ralph comes over to us "shut up. everybody just shut up" ralph guides piggy away from the others and i follow after them, i feel someone's eyes on me but i don't have time to look back because i want to make sure piggys ok. "it's just because you're new" ralph tries to comfort piggy "no, it's not. it's always this way" he says back, almost in tears. "piggy don't listen to them, they don't know what they're talking about ok? i think you're being really reasonable so please don't feel bad about it" i comfort piggy as best as i can, ralph throws a meaningful smile towards me and i return it. "thanks riley" piggy sends a sad smile my way and i give him a quick hug "no problem".
ralph decided it would be a good idea to search for an ideal spot to place the fire. we saw a part of one of the hills that would be absolutely perfect. about half of the boys helped carry up the firewood to the top of the hill, chanting as we march.
"mama mama can't you see"
"mama mama can't you see"
"what the armys done to me"
"what the army's done to me"
"the put me in a barbers chair"
"they put me in a barbers chair"
"spun me round i had no hair"
"spun me round i had no hair"
"i used to drive a cadillac"
"i used to drive a cadillac"
"now i'm marching in a pack"
"now i'm marching in a pack"
"i used to drive a chevrolet"
"i use to drive a chevrolet"
"now i'm marching for my pay"
"now i'm marching for my pay"
"they took away my tv"
"they took away my tv"
"got me doing IOT"
"got me doing IOT"
"whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa"
"whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa"
"whoa, oh, oh"
(i'm sorry i put in all the lyrics i just had to, the chant is very catchy 😭)
we gathered around the place we were gonna have the fire. jack was trying very hard to light up the fire using sticks but it wouldn't work and i couldn't help but silently laugh at him "come on let me try" ralph says "i got it, i got it" jack tries even harder and the sticks end up slipping out his hands "shit" he curses "damn mother-" "swearing won't help" jack gets up angrily and pushes piggys chest "listen piggy, shut you're fat ass" ralph and couple others pull jack off of him "hold up, hold up" ralph sighs, i then get and idea from some movie i watched one time.
i look towards piggy "piggy, can i have your glasses real quick?" he hesitates so i just give up and pull them off his face "hey give 'em back" he persists but i just ignore him. i crouch down by the logs and look up at the sun, making sure that the light hits the lenses, everyone's looking at me in anticipation and confusion. i start to believe that nothings going to happen and then suddenly, smoke starts appearing out of the logs.
all the boys begin shouting and screaming and i stand up proudly looking at the fire starting to produce slowly. ralph comes over to me and hugs me quickly, patting my shoulders "nice job riley" i smile at him in response and look around at everyone until my eyes land on jack. he was already looking at me and ralph before i looked at him but he pretends he wasn't and sends me a brief nod of approval and a smirk.
just as we were enjoying this happy moment, the fire starts to spread everywhere, the boys instantly remove all their coats and try to put it out and eventually it does, but the poor tree beside it was totally ruined. on the way back to camp, we decided on a fire watch rota to follow so each person at a time in the day would have to watch the fire.
when we arrived back at camp we set a new fire up and sat down around the fire. the little 'uns as i now like to call them, huddled around beside me. they saw me as a mother figure so wanted to usually be around me as much as they could. peter came and sat on my lap just as jack was about to tell a scary story.
"the forest was totally dark but he had to keep going because the thing was behind him. the pus was everywhere and he could feel it and, all the while, the thing behind him kept coming closer, and then suddenly-" one of the little 'uns, percival, clung onto me tight "-he realised it wasn't any normal plants or bushes he was trying to run through. it wasn't the leaves or plants trying to brush up against him, touching his arms and face. it was thousands of claws, long claws, grasping at him trying to stop him and hold him for the thing. and he tried to get away but they held on, choking him, he tried to scream AAHH" jack screams in reality, giving me a small fright and absolutely terrifying the little 'uns.
percival and peter cry into me as piggy says "it's only a story it's not real". jack shakes his head "how about i tell a nicer story, and then you have to go to bed ok?" they all get excited and come and sit in front of me.
"once upon a time, there was a beautiful island in the middle of the pacific ocean, and on that island were a few very brave young boys and a young girl who was captured by evil lions" the little 'uns were so engrossed in my story and so was everyone else, so i kept going "the young boys heard the girls scream and ran to go to find her. they had to cross through deep water, fields of grass and over many plants until they reached the lions. the brave young boys managed to scare the lions away with their impeccable swords and bravery leaving them to be able to save the girl and then they all lived happily ever after, the end"
there was a moment of silence as all the boys looked at me wowed. "that was amazing riley" piggy said to me. i uttered a small thank you before asking for help carrying the little 'uns to bed because most had fallen asleep. after we tucked them all in, jack came over to me "not a bad story taylor" he smiles "why thank you mr merridew" i fake curtsey at him and he laughs.
"until tomorrow taylor" he says to me before walking off.
𝟷𝟹𝟾𝟶 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚜
𝚊𝚑𝚑 𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚐𝚞𝚢𝚜. 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚍𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛? 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚞𝚙 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚙𝚘𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚔 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚌𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚢 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚒 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚕𝚞𝚍𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝. 𝚊𝚗𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚎𝚗𝚓𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚜𝚎𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚡𝚝 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 🫶🏻