Chapter 16

‘Along this four kilometre trek you will have to classify and record all the plants you see on the way. Now if you open your booklets on page…’

As the camp leaders were going on about the tasks and safety issues Tom tuned out and into his own train of thought. This blows. He thought. The only reason why he took biology was because he thought the curriculum loosely included sex and for the time it wasted watching documentaries in class…and also because Emma was taking the subject. Not that it mattered anymore since they were ignoring each other for a reason he couldn’t even remember. The weather had become much hotter when the students of Oaklea High stepped off the bus and left all the extra clothing for warmth on the bus.

‘Okay venturers, are you ready to classify some native plants?’ called out the enthusiastic camp leader.

The group mumbled. The camp leader cupped his ear.

‘I can’t hear you!’

The group mumbled again.

‘Alright! Grab your partner and let’s go!’ he yelled, beckoning the group to follow him. The group moved in two straight lines along the narrow pathway that led into the mountains. Eric was shoved all the way towards the front of the line with Miss Cameron whilst naturally Emma and Tom were loitering about at the back. Tom was practicing his soccer techniques by dribbling a stone along the way. Emma was having trouble keeping up, mostly because the person in front of her found it funny to pull back the branches and let go.

‘I swear Jeremy if you flick another branch at me I will happily open a can of whoop ass and offer you a generous helping of it,’ she said. I think I’ve been hanging around Shah too much. She thought. Emma turned to her left only to see Tom taking a detour from the trail and into the forest. She had no choice but to break the long silence.

‘Tom! Where are you going?’

Tom was too far away to hear Emma’s call. Reluctantly, she followed him. ‘What are doing? Where are you going?’

Tom answered her casually, as if they had not had been ignoring each other for weeks. He opened his map pointing on it for Emma ‘According to this map there’s a waterfall up this way but the path’s been blocked by some valley that I reckon we can easily climb. What do you think?’

‘I think we should go back before Miss Cameron realises we’re missing.’

‘Afraid of a little adventure are we Em?’

Emma grabbed the map from Tom’s hands. ‘North is this way doofus,’ she said, leading them into the correct direction of the waterfall marked on the map. Unbeknownst to her a big black hairy spider was crawling into her hair.

After what felt like hours had past they had reached the waterfall. At least, that’s what the map told them.

‘Tom, where’s the waterfall?’

Tom turned around in a circle like a dog chasing its tail. He smiled and shook his head.

‘Well, we had fun along the way didn’t we?’ He said and scuffed Emma’s hair. Emma was ready to give him a punch on the arm but a sound had stopped her.

‘Tom, do you hear that?’ she asked. They both paused listening to the gentle sound of trickling water. Tom followed the sound and moved aside a few branches. There behind the bushes and trees was a river. He turned to Emma ‘I guess we follow the river now.’

‘So how’re things with Cali girl?’ She asked in conversation as they were walking.

‘Oh. Alright I guess. Hey look!’ Tom pointed into the distance. From where they were standing the river seemed to have ended not too far away.

It was like they were looking at the front of a postcard. They peered down at the edge of the cliff, watching the fast-moving river crashing down to the white foam.

‘That. Is. So. Awesome.’ Said Tom in complete awe. Emma couldn’t hear him over roar of the waterfall.

‘You jumping?’ he yelled. Emma looked at him like he had just announced that he was joining the priesthood. She shook her head and pointed to the stiches on her leg. Tom shrugged.  He took off his shirt and stripped down to his board shorts. ‘Hold onto these,’ he said.

‘Er, um what er-’ she spluttered

He turned his head. ‘I’ll come back up. Don’t miss me too much,’ he said. He ran hands down his face and dived, disappearing into the white mist. Since when did Tom start working out? Not that I noticed- okay yeah I noticed I’m only human, she thought and jostled her head around to rid herself of such thoughts. As she searched for Tom from the edge of the waterfall, she felt an itch at the top of her scalp. Tom eventually returned to the top cheering like a mad man.

‘Woo! Did you see that Emma? Man what a rush! I was-’

Emma turned around to see dripping wet Tom’s fixated on something above her, his eyes widening in complete fear.

‘What?’ she asked. Even though his mouth was gaping, Tom was unable to speak and merely pointed to the top of Emma’s head. Now that he pointed it out, she could feel something crawling on her head…something with several legs. Emma shrieked. She shook her hair in every direction whilst running around in circles determined to get it off or get as far away from the thing on her head as possible. She was unable to see with the head of hair in her face and fell over, skidding onto the rocks in front of her.

Emma shrieked in pain as the stiches on her leg came undone. Blood rushed towards the opening and travelled down her leg. Tom ran to her aid.

‘Oh God! Ok, um put pressure on it. The blood flow will slow down, I think,’ he said. Emma dragged herself to the closest tree to lean on.

‘Go get help,’ she said.

‘What? No, I’m not leaving you here by yourself.’

‘I guess we’re going to be here until they find us,’

He shrugged and sat next to her against the tree.

‘Could take all night,’ she said

‘That’s fine with me.’

‘Fine,’ she huffed

‘Fine,’ he replied in an equally disgruntled tone and sat against the tree next to her.  They sat in silence for a moment.

‘Is the spider out of my hair at least?’

‘Actually it flew out of your hair a while ago. I was going to say something but watching you have a spaz attack was just too funny that I didn’t have it in me to tell you.’