LAST YEAR OF HIGH SCHOOL

Chapter 7

JAVIER

Hiking! 

We  were gonna hike to a certain campsite in the woods to camp! Very ironic or what, I'm not really sure what figure of speech to use here. But what I know for sure is that it sucks. The trail we were hiking through was covered in mud and tree branches. We had to walk carefully in two lines, if we were not careful, we would slip and land in the slimy mud. All the while avoiding tree branches whacking you in the face. Trudging through the mud, we marched to the campsite. Some coordinators had been lucky enough to stay behind and watch the kids, Lucky!

The mud and tree branches eventually gave way to plain ground and open area. We were so grateful that there was a stream nearby, we were dehydrated from that hike. I would always prefer treadmill, jogging, crunchies to a long, tedious and boring hike. Although the hike wasn't boring, I made good time by talking to Marcus. 

He was a real fun guy to talk to, although he tells lame jokes. But his stories are hilarious, its as if his life is a telenovela. One story in particular where he was invited by his girlfriend( ex-girlfriend now) in a private school to her birthday party. What he didn't know was that his other girl friend from his school was gonna be there. Worse, he had also dated his girl friend's older sister who was now in college, but came home for her sister's birthday. He claims it was only a few dates and he promised to call her later- which he never did. He was kicked out of the party and was dumped by his three girlfriends that night.

There was also the time he got expelled when he dated his principal's niece and in return, he spray painted his car. It was quite funny seeing the principal driving into school with a car painted hot pink. His parents thinks he's going through a phase and he will soon outgrow it. They gave him an ultimatum to change his 'delinquent' ways or get shipped off. He really didn't say where he was being shipped off to but it was obvious he didn't want to get shipped.

Mr Barnaby gave us tasks to set up our campsite, fetch firewood for our fire, set up tents and the rest. Whilst gathering firewood, we heard a shriek from the girls' team gathering wood. We ran to check on them. 

"Snake! I saw a snake over there" she yelled shaking and pointing. One of the guys picked up a long stick and raised it up.        "Is this your snake?" He chuckled. We burst into laughter and the girl stomped her foot in anger. "It's not funny. I really thought that was a snake.".       "Well it looks like a vine to me" Trent said and threw the vine away. "Let's get out of here before we actually find a snake." Laura said.

As we were about to move, Marcus yelled stop in a low voice. "No sudden movements" he warned and pointed to a snake slithering through the dried grass. "It won't attack unless it feels threatened, so no one moves until its gone a good distance away from us.".         Bit the snake took its time, it slithered pass their legs and up into a tree.

They exhaled when it was out of sight. "Let's get out of here" Marcus exclaimed and we left the woods. We started setting up tents and sleeping bags. A little after dark, we began roasting smores, laughing and telling stories. 

"Okay, I got a good one, the story of the swamp boogey monster." Trent said. "Heard it, it's not scary" Kayla dismissed.  "I assure you its a certified scare alright" Trent bragged.  

"Long,long ago, there was a hermit who lived deep in the heart of the swamp. His life was a simple one, he loved the swamp and its solitude. But he hated adults and children alike, and he despised TEENAGERS. He considered them a lousy bunch of overgrown kids who loved noise. Then civilization grew, cities and towns were built but no one bothered about the swamp. It was uninhabitable, they said.