Extended Camping in the Snow 6-8 pg. 1 The kids chattered noisily as they got off the school bus. They had been driving for seven hours to get to the mountains so they could go on the first ever school camping trip, a new school tradition starting in December of 2011. "All right everyone!" said a teacher, "I want you to help unload your things from the bus and meet back here in five minutes. We want to leave as soon as possible. We have three days to get as much camping stuff done as we can. After that a big snow storm sets in, and we won't be able to get home." That's when Jim, a tall boy with brown hair who had some bully in him, said, "A little snow storm can't scare me, I could survive." "Are you sure?" asked a tall, skinny boy named Herald. "Do you have a blizzard kit with many, many batteries, some flash lights, a battery operated radio, lots of bottled water, organic cotton toilet paper, canned goods, a non electric can opener, a small cooler, candles, a toothbrush, toothpaste, your prescription medicines and any over-the-counter remedies you use regularly, or some nonperishable foods such as organic, wheat free crackers? "No," Jim said, "Why would I need all that? I'm strong. I could survive anything!" The camp the school was staying at was big. Really big. It was a flat oval surrounded by snow capped mountains. Twelve cabins were in a U-shape around a gravel driveway where the buses parked and three bigger ones were behind them. Each cabin had a small fire pit behind it and a larger pit was near the three big cabins. The school kids sat down on some benches near the large fire pit while the teachers stood up front. A teacher said each grade got two cabins, one for girls and one for boys, while the other three cabins were the mess hall, bathrooms, and showers. The next three days were filled horseback riding, hiking, games, horseback riding, archery, and more horseback riding. The mile hike back to the bus on the third day was through the mountains. On the way back, seven kids, Jim, Herald, Jake, Tina, Mary, Laura, and Julia, dropped back and started complaining about their legs hurting from all the horseback riding. "I'm not sure about you people, but I need to rest, right now," said Mary as she sat down on a rock. "I agree," said Tina, yawning, "Let's all sit down for a moment." Extended Camping in the Snow 6-8 pg. 2 * * * Laura was the first one to wake up. She was surrounded by trees and could see dark clouds gathering in the distance. "Uh oh," she thought, "Where am I? Where is everyone? How long did we sleep?" "Wake up! We need to leave right now! Wake up! Wake up!" yelled Laura. Herald was the next one to wake up. "What?" asked Harold sleepily while taking his glasses off and polishing them. Laura pointed to the clouds. Harold put on his glasses. "That looks like a blizzard! It is coming from the north at about what I estimate to be seventy miles an hour. It should hit us in about forty five minutes, probably last for a day or so." said Herald. "Could we survive?" asked Laura. "Maybe." Ten minutes later all seven of them were up, and had been warned of the oncoming storm. "How much time do we have left?" Julia asked Herald. "It is moving faster than I thought, I would say about twenty five minutes." He replied. Then Mary said, "I really don't care about you people, but I'm not going to sleep out in the open. Either get me out of here or find me somewhere to sleep. " "She's right," said Tina. "Of course I am!" Mary interrupted. "We should try to find the rest of the people from the school, then let's find shelter, anyone have a watch?" continued Tina. "It is five o'clock." said Jake, checking his watch. The kids split into groups. Tina, Mary and Jim went to find a shelter, Laura and Julia set off to find food, and Jake and Herald went to try to find the rest of the school. After a while, it started to snow. All the kids had agreed to meet back where they fell asleep as soon as it started snowing, around 5:15. Three minutes later, everyone was gathered, except one person. "Herald" Laura said slowly, "Where's Jake?" Extended Camping in the Snow pg. 3 "Um, he um he said um, he had to go to bathroom and um, then I, um, went to look at a rare Narcissus flower that, um, blooms in the winter," stammered Herald. "It started snowing, and then I got a little mixed up and ended up here." "So you don't know where Jake is?" asked Laura. "No," Herald admitted. They all were silent, until Tina said, "Well? Let's go look for him!" Everyone set off to find Jake. The next two hours were filled with the shouts and calls of six kids looking for Jake. At the end of two hours, it was getting dark and they still had not found Jake. Jim said they should start setting up for bed before it snowed too much. He led them to the cave that he, Mary, and Tina had found earlier and said, "See? I said I could survive and now I found a cave to sleep in! Now, who wants my help starting a fire? We need to stay warm." "What about Jake?" asked Julia "We should go look for him so he can have a fire, too!" "No," said Laura. "We have to stay here. If we freeze it's not helping him at all. We need to get to sleep so we can look for him in the morning." "Yeah," said Mary. "I'm going to stay here and go to sleep." They all agreed and decided Herald would take the first watch, after all, he was the one who lost Jake. "Wake me up when you get tired," Tina said sleepily. "I'm taking next watch." The next morning it was still snowing. Jim, Herald, and Julia went out to look for Jake while Tina, Laura, and Mary stayed at the cave. Jim was the first one back, followed by Julia, then Herald. "Nothing," announced Jim. "We looked everywhere! We saw some footprints but after a while they stopped." "Well, let's keep looking!" said Tina. "Tina," Julia said gently, "I think it's too late." * * * The next day they decided they could either make the camp permanent or they could look for a road. Jim, Tina, and Laura wanted to look for the road and the way Extended Camping in the Snow pg. 4 home while Mary, Julia, and Herald wanted to stay at camp until it stopped snowing and someone found them. After an hour of arguing, they decided to split up. One group went looking for a road while the other stayed at camp. That night Jim, Tina, and Laura realized that it would be better to go back to camp, at least for the night. When they walked into the cave Julia said, "We missed you so much!" "She did, I didn't." corrected Mary. "Well, we're back now" said Tina, "And I'm going to go to bed." The next morning everyone was woken up by birds chirping. The snow had stopped and the sun shone brightly. "That bird is a Poecile Gambeli, also called a mountain chickadee" said Herald. In a little bit, Mary started complaining about how much she hated the nuts, roots, and berries they had been eating and after a while the girls (not including Mary, who stayed at the cave pouting) set off to find the road while Jim and Herald stayed at camp to pack up. An hour later Laura, Tina, and Julia walked in to camp. "Find anything?" asked Herald. "Nope, nothing, no," the girls all said sadly. It was silent except for a horn honking in the distance, a bus horn. A yellow school bus was parked on the side of a lonely road. In the distance the bus driver could see six small figures coming toward him, struggling in the snow. He opened the door and the kids piled in. For most of the seven hour drive the six passengers were silent, thinking, but the moment they were in sight of the school, they all started laughing and crying. In a few minutes everyone was reunited with their families and smothered with blankets. "What about Jake?" asked Tina. "Jaaake!" someone called, and Jake appeared from around a corner. It turned out that Jake had found the road and gotten a ride home, where he had told everyone what happened. A bus then went out to where everyone was originally dropped off and waited, and waited, and waited for someone to hear his horn. 1 3/15/12 11:19 AM