Lake Rescue

by Annie Bryant

  “Uh, okay. Thanks,” Joline said, clearly tasting her own sarcastic medicine.

  Pete Wexler jogged to the front of the group.

  “Hey John, are we going to see any real wildlife? Like mountain lions? Or bears?”

  “Mountain lions are only found in twelve western states and Florida—so forget about them. There are black bears in these woods, but I’ve only seen them a couple of times during the daylight. We’d be more likely to see deer or moose.”

  “Oh, okay. Thanks, man,” Pete said coolly. John sounded like he spent his days reading the encyclopedia.

  “What about rattlesnakes?” Isabel asked fearfully.

  “The timber rattlesnake is an endangered species in New Hampshire,” John explained, “although we are in the woods and you have to be prepared for anything. If you hear a rattle, back away. Snakes only bite as a last resort.”

  Yikes, Isabel couldn’t believe her ears. She wished John would stop relaying nature facts and just climb. She felt safer from snakes when she was moving.

  “All right, we’re here,” he announced, pointing to a shack about fifty yards off the path. “Betsy, why don’t you walk with Joline? It’s not far, but I don’t want any of you wandering off alone.”

  Betsy and Joline took off while the others sat down to rest for a few minutes. John passed around some more gorp to refuel the team.

  Green Team

  A shriek reverberated through the trees in the otherwise quiet forest. And then silence. Everyone rushed toward Avery, who was lying on the ground—her face white and her eyes closed.

  Ms. Weston, her face pale, leaned over her. “Are you all right? Avery, Avery talk to me.” Nash sprinkled a little cold water on Avery’s face and her eyes began to flutter and she began to moan.

  “My ankle. Owwww, it hurts so bad. I think…I think it might be broken.” Avery was clearly trying not to cry, but a couple of tears rolled down her cheek.

  Katani and Maeve looked at each other. Avery never cried.

  Katani thought the two counselors gave each other that look that said, “This can’t be happening.”

  “Can you move your foot, Avery?” Nash asked, kneeling beside her.

  “Great, we get lost in the woods and this loser goes and breaks her ankle,” said Kiki, rolling her eyes.

  “Hey, Avery is not a loser,” said Billy angrily.

  “Well, then she shouldn’t have run ahead like that,” said Anna, who couldn’t resist the opportunity to dis one of the BSG.

  “It was just an accident,” retorted Maeve.

  “Quiet, all of you,” Nash spoke harshly. “Avery,” he asked again, “Can you move your foot?”

  Avery shook her head no. “It hurts too much.” Avery was trying to be brave in front of the other kids but her ankle was throbbing in pain. And now she felt embarrassed. Anna was right. She shouldn’t have been running ahead. Avery felt like a total idiot. She had not followed the hiker responsibility code like she was supposed to.

  “Whatever, now we’re never going to get back to camp and it’s all that dork’s fault!” stormed Kiki, pointing at Avery.

  Ms. Weston finally noticed the escalating argument. “Kiki, there will be no name-calling on this hike! Avery’s in terrible pain and no one wants to hear your negative commentary. If you can’t work as part of a team, go sit on that rock over there.”

  Kiki wasn’t ready to let things go just yet.

  “Chill out, Ms. Weston. She only tripped over a tree root. Avery’s acting like such a drama queen.” Kiki turned to make a face at Avery.

  There was a shocked gasp from the green team. The Yurmeister’s eyes practically bugged right out of his head. Billy Trentini opened his mouth and a big burp came out. Red-faced, he mumbled a quick apology.

  Nobody ever talked to teachers like that at Abigail Adams Junior High. They all waited eagerly to see what Ms. Weston would do next. Weston vs. Underwood—no one could guess the outcome.

  Ms. Weston stamped her foot and shouted. “Go sit on that rock, Kiki, right now.” Kiki hurried over to the rock, realizing that she had gone too far. She didn’t even say a word when Anna gave her the “loser” look.

  Ms. Weston was obviously at her wit’s end. They were lost in the woods, Avery was hurt, and now she felt like she was losing control of her students.

  Katani whispered to Maeve, “Ms. Weston is totally mad. I bet she tells my grandmother about this.”

  Ms. Weston turned her back on Kiki and spoke to the rest of the green team. “This is a serious situation and I need you all to be quiet and stay put while we deal with this. And…I don’t want to see anyone else running. Have I made myself very clear?”

  Everyone nodded yes.

  Ms. Weston’s tirade must have shocked Kiki, because she was completely quiet. Kiki was sitting on the rock, acting like she didn’t care, but looking for all the world like a chastised second grader in time-out.

  Chelsea Briggs turned away. Kikimania was beginning to get really annoying. They were lost in the woods, for goodness sakes, and Avery Madden had really messed up her foot pretty badly. And still everybody had to focus on Kiki. What was up with that? Chelsea sighed in frustration. Then…the lightbulb. That’s it! Chelsea snapped her finger. She’d figured it out. Kiki had to be the center of attention all the time—everywhere with everyone. If she couldn’t get it in a good way, Kiki was going to do what-ever it took to bring the attention back to herself…including insulting other kids with broken feet. Even now. Chelsea saw Kiki out of the corner of her eye pouting as she sat on the rock. Even in a crisis it was the Kiki Show. Chelsea shook her head. That was so screwed up. And they thought she had problems.

  Everyone’s focus shifted back to Avery. Nash had asked Billy to run back and get his medic pack.

  “What do you think, Nash?” asked Ms. Weston.

  “Ibuprofen will help bring down the swelling and reduce the pain. I’m not a doctor, so I obviously don’t know if her foot is broken or sprained. But both can cause a lot of pain.”

  “Here, Nash.” Billy handed Nash the pack.

  The counselor grabbed the bag and opened the compartment with the first aid kit.

  Meanwhile, Ms. Weston had managed to get Avery to sit up. The color had begun to return to her face.

  Nash handed her some medicine and gave her a sip of water. Ms. Weston gave her a couple of crackers to help wash the dry pills down. Avery gratefully took both.

  Nash directed Katani and Yurt to go back to the swamp and soak a bandanna with cold water.

  “I thought we weren’t supposed to separate,” Chelsea spoke up.

  “You are absolutely correct, but this is an emergency, and I’m going to stand on that rock over there and watch them go. I can see them from there—it’s only about fifty yards away. “Get going, guys, and walk—don’t run. We have had more than enough trouble for one day.”

  Avery, who had begun to return to her old self, felt her face flush. Maybe if she tried to stand everything would be all right.

  “Avery, how are you feeling?” asked Ms. Weston. “Your face…you do look a little better.” She sounded relieved.

  “Yeah, maybe I should try to stand. I think I can…”

  Ms. Weston and Maeve helped her stand, but all her weight was on her good foot. She started to look down at her injured foot.

  Maeve, who had Avery by the arm, said, “I don’t think you should look, Ave. Your ankle…it looks like you’re hatching a blue dinosaur egg on your foot.”

  Everyone looked down.

  “My,” was all Ms. Weston said.

  “Cool,” said Billy, although he looked a little pale.

  “Do you want to try walking, Avery?” Ms. Weston asked, a hint of doubt in her voice.

  Avery took a deep breath and tentatively put her injured foot on the ground, but a little yelp of pain escaped her as soon as she put pressure on her foot.

  “Avery.” Nash, who had left his perch on the rock, said, “You need to get off your feet
.” Maeve and Ms. Weston helped Avery back to the ground.

  At that moment Katani came rushing into the group holding the dripping bandana. Yurt, trailing behind her, was way out of breath and panting.

  “Geesh, Summers,” he said when he was able to breathe. “You better go out for track when we get back. I’ve never seen anyone speed walk like that.”

  “Avery, there is no way we can tell if your foot is broken, so we are just going to have to ice your foot.”

  Nash took an instant cold pack out and wrapped it around Avery’s foot. Then he began wrapping the bandana tightly around Avery’s foot. Normally, he wouldn’t use a wet bandana, but he had no idea how long they would be out in the woods. The weather was a little warm and he wanted the ice pack to stay cold as long as possible. Plus, the bandanna would act as an Ace bandage.

  “How’s that swamp ice feel, kiddo?” he joked.

  For the first time since she had fallen, Avery was able to crack a smile.

  “Wow, it’s return of the swamp thing,” cracked Billy Trentini.

  Ms. Weston gave him a stern look. He put up his hands quickly. “I was just joking,” he apologized.

  Maeve rushed to sit down next to her friend. She put her hand on Avery’s forehead. “Well,” she said optimistically. “At least you don’t have a fever.” That made Avery giggle.

  Nash clapped his hands. “Okay, lunch time…then pow-wow. Everybody get their packs, and Mr. Yurt…”

  The Yurtmeister bowed deeply when he heard the counselor call his name. That completely broke everyone up, even Nash and Ms. Weston.

  “What can I do for you my lord?” Henry said in a very royal voice.

  “You can go get the pack with all the lunches.”

  Yurt stood at attention. “Right away, sir.” He began to run and then stopped, remembering Ms. Weston’s admonition. “Where is the royal lunch pack?”

  Nash asked who had been the last person to carry it.

  Billy said that he had handed it off to Katani.

  Katani said she had handed it off to Chelsea, who said she handed it off to Yurt, who said he handed it off to Maeve, who handed it off to Kiki, who said she thought maybe she had left it by the side of the trail about a half hour earlier when they had stopped to rest. Kiki shrunk from the angry looks of the green team and put her head down. Not a good day for Kiki.

  “You lost our lunch?” yelled Billy T. He started to pace in circles. He was starving, having eaten all his gorp on the way through the swamp. In a dramatic gesture worthy of the Yurtmeister, Billy raised his skinny arms to the sky and shouted, “We’re all gonna die!” And then he flung himself onto the grass and pounded his fists into the ground. Chelsea knew just how Billy felt.

  “Get up, Billy,” commanded Nash. He wanted to laugh at Billy’s antics, but the counselor could see that the other campers’ faces were distressed. It was one thing to be lost and quite another to be lost and hungry.

  Ms. Weston gestured to Nash to do something.

  Nash blew his whistle. “Everyone sit down. Let the official pow-wow of the green team begin.”

  As soon as everyone was settled, Nash blew his whistle and said, “Rule #1. Assess the situation.”

  He pointed at Katani, who thought a minute and chose her words very carefully. “We are lost in the woods with no food. We have an injured camper who can’t walk. It’s getting late and we are tired and hungry…and very annoyed.”

  “How about scared,” piped in Maeve, who had just brushed off a very creepy looking bug that had settled on Avery’s hair.

  Nash was impressed with Katani’s logical if slightly grim analysis. “Very good, Katani. Now, who wants to take a stab at what we’ve got going for ourselves.”

  Dillon raised his hand. Nash gave him the go-ahead.

  “We’ve got water and good weather.”

  “We are all together,” shouted Maeve.

  “We’re not stupid,” Billy piped in.

  “We’ve got counselors who are supposed to know what they are doing,” Anna said, looking at Nash with a perfectly innocent face.

  “Exactly,” he said.

  “I saved all my gorp and I have four granola bars and an apple too,” offered Chelsea. She had grabbed them from the canteen before she left…just in case.

  Everybody cheered.

  “Way to go, Chels.” Billy pounded her on the back and sat down next to her, hoping for the first offering.

  “That’s great. Bring it over here with Ms. Weston’s pack of crackers. It will be a veritable feast,” Nash winked.

  Nash knew that feeding everybody would lighten the mood. So, he spread out his sweatshirt and threw all the food on top. Then he had Chelsea parcel it out so everybody had the same amount. It ended up that each camper got two crackers, a handful of gorp, and a little piece of a granola bar. Some, like Dillon and Yurt, gobbled it immediately. Dillon announced that in a crisis, he felt “immediate gratification was best.”

  “My mom told me about a health article that said that small amounts of food over time are better than large amounts all at once,” Katani told Maeve. “It keeps your energy up.”

  The two girls decided to adopt that approach to their rations. Chelsea thought it sounded sensible, so she went along with Katani and Maeve.

  The ice pack had improved Avery’s pain so she was sitting up and munching on the gorp and ready to help with a plan of attack.

  “All right,” Nash reminded them. “What’s the first rule of hiking?”

  “Stay together.”

  Nash gave a thumbs up to the group.

  “I think we should go for help. We can make a chair lift for Avery with some of our sweatshirts and tie them to sticks like the Native Americans did,” Katani offered in her best Ms. Take Charge voice.

  “That’s a great idea,” Anna said sarcastically. “But if we’re lost and don’t know where we are supposed to go, where are we going to take her?”

  “Anna’s right. The second rule of hiking is that you stay where you are and wait for help. Otherwise you just keep getting more and more lost,” Nash informed everyone. “We’re just going to hunker down and wait. When we don’t show up they will send a search party for us.”

  “But we can’t just stay here and wait. It’s starting to get cold,” whined Anna. “Besides, I heard a noise. I think a bear is tracking us.”

  “Bears love swampy areas, Anna,” Henry Yurt said. “People step in the mud, get trapped, and then it’s easy for a bear to get them. They bring in all their relatives for a feast. Anna-banana casserole.”

  “You don’t put bananas in a casserole,” Dillon said. “Even I know that. Anna-banana cake or pie is more like it.”

  “You’re really stupid, Kiki, you know that?” Billy suddenly lost it. “You had one job to do. Pick up the lunch and carry it for what—about ten feet. How could you have lost it?” Billy was still starving. The snack did nothing but whet his appetite for more.

  No one had ever seen Billy lose his temper like that. He flopped on the ground beside Avery, ignoring the fact that the ground was pretty damp. The green team was becoming slightly unglued.

  Ms. Weston raised her hand in a stop motion. “No use getting mad. It was an honest mistake. What’s done is done. None of us is going to starve in the next hour or two,” she said firmly.

  “I wish everyone would be just be quiet and think of something to do!” Avery shouted. She felt like crying. Even though the cold pack helped, her ankle still hurt and Avery just wanted to go back to her bunk and sleep. She wished that she had stuck Happy Lucky Thingy in her backpack instead of leaving him on her bed. She did not want to stay out here in the woods waiting for a hungry bear. She had had enough adventure.

  “I know it’s hard…” began Nash.

  Chelsea raised her hand.

  “Yes, Chelsea.” Nash, ready to lay out his plan, gestured impatiently for Chelsea to speak.

  “I think I know how to get back.”

  All eyes were on Chelsea
. Could Chelsea actually have a solution to their problem? Suddenly, Chelsea Briggs was no longer Chelsea, the helpless gym partner, last to be chosen, first to fall or make a fool of herself. She was Chelsea, their rescuer. The only one smart enough and tough enough to help her classmates out of a bad situation.

  “Hey,” Nash said in a warmer tone. “I’m all ears. All good ideas are welcome.”

  Chelsea explained. “When we were walking I was at the back of the line. I built little stone nests along the trail and took pictures of them. I got the idea from a book my brother Ben gave me on hiking in the wilderness. Some hiker did the same thing, and it saved him.”

  Ms. Weston put her arm around Chelsea and gave her a quick hug.

  “What do you think, Nash? Has Chelsea’s quick thinking saved the day?”

  “Chelsea,” the handsome counselor beamed at her. “I think we have a plan.”

  The wind suddenly picked up and made the trees around them swish and whisper. Nash dashed off with Billy, Dillon, and Yurt to cut down tree saplings. Nash always carried a small axe with him on hikes and now his foresight was proving handy.

  Ms. Weston had the rest of the green team dump out their backpacks, and she laid out a patchwork quilt of their sweatshirts.

  Chelsea and Maeve knelt down to help tie the sleeves of the sweatshirts together, although they weren’t quite sure what was happening next.

  “I get it,” Maeve marveled. “You are going to tie this to the branches and carry Avery. This is so cool.”

  “Katani, get my water bottle,” directed Ms. Weston.

  Chelsea asked Ms. Weston why she needed water.

  “You’ll see,” she smiled slyly.

  Katani handed Ms. Weston the bottle of water. Everyone watched as Ms. Weston dampened all the knots.

  “That’s really cool, Ms. Weston,” said Katani. “Now the knots won’t slip.”

  When Nash and the boys came back to camp they were surprised to see that the rest of the team was packed up and ready to go, the blanket ready for Avery’s transport.

  * * *

  Avery and Maeve suggested that they tie Maeve’s pink socks to the two extra poles. Maeve said it would be kind of like a pink parade through the woods.