CHAPTER TWO
Gathered around the fire that night, the conversation was stilted and awkward. Kaida had consumed her dinner and now sat silently, with her back against a log, observing the others. So far things didn’t seem so bad. They were a diverse group, to be sure, but it hadn’t been anything like she’d expected. The tents had gone up quickly and neatly, a testament to the group’s preparation. Clearly they had all done this many times before. Melanie hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d said everything was a reason to hike.
With her tent already up, Melanie had found Kaida sitting by her pack staring at a mess of poles and canvas. Grinning slightly, Melanie showed Kaida how to pitch her tent. She’d explained that everyone helped with the chores, both on hikes and back at the school. Kaida found herself gathering firewood with Christina and Marshall but neither one had said a word. All through dinner, the group had been strangely quiet. Kaida kept thinking of questions she wanted to ask, but Melanie’s answers had grown shorter until Kaida gave up asking. Something was going on, but no one wanted to discuss it.
Eventually Andrew spoke. “This isn’t healthy,” he reminded the kids. “Burying your problems just causes more trouble in the long run. If we’re ever going to get over this, we’ve got to talk about this. I know we all wish the last few days had been different, but we can’t change what happened. You’re probably not sure where to go from here, what to do about how you feel. That’s why we're out here. If we want to keep growing and learning, we have to talk about this. I’m sure you all have something to say. Who would like to start?” He looked around the circle. Everyone avoided his gaze, staring off into the forest, or fiddling with the branches at their feet to avoid being singled out. Even as an outsider, Kaida could tell that something serious had happened.
“If you guys won’t talk, I will,” Cathleen finally said. “Beth really added something to this group. Something was always funny when she was around. I’m going to miss her sense of humour. She knew she wasn’t perfect, but she was always looking on the bright side. She’s gone and we can’t change that, but we can change what we do about it.”
“I keep waiting for her to laugh when someone says something funny,” Janika admitted. “I can’t believe she’s just gone.”
Kaida was tired of not knowing what was going on. “I don’t mean to pry,” she said quietly, “but what are you all talking about?”
“You do need to know since you’re going to be part of this group,” Andrew said slowly, “but it’s not easy to talk about.”
“Beth is the optimist in our group. She knows that everything is possible if we work hard enough. She won’t let us believe that we can’t do something. She’s been here just over a year and is getting ready to graduate. Beth’s so excited to be going off to college next fall,” Cathleen told Kaida. “Now she may not get to.”
“What happened?”
“We were on an overnight canoe trip. Someone started a water fight and pretty soon all of the canoes were involved. Things got a bit wild and her canoe tipped. No one really noticed at first. It wasn’t until someone’s paddle snagged on a life jacket that we realized something might be wrong. She wasn’t a fan of life jackets but everyone thought she knew how important they were. No one saw her take hers off, but she must have. It was a really calm day, but she wasn’t much of a swimmer. We started searching as soon as we realized she was missing, but we couldn’t find her. When the search team arrived, we were ordered to return to campus.”
“I don’t know about everyone else, but I know I didn’t sleep last night,” Andrew admitted.
“She was one of us, until we let her slip away,” Melanie said quietly. “She must still be out there somewhere.”
“We should be looking for her instead of sitting around here talking about how much we miss her. What good does that do her?” Marshall asked.
“The water was cold and she’s not a strong swimmer,” Andrew reminded them, “She may not have survived.”
“But there’s still a chance, right?” Melanie couldn’t give up on Beth without some kind of proof. “She could be camping out in the woods right now too.”
“Anything is possible,” Cathleen told her, “but it’s not likely.”
“We’ve got to keep looking for her,” Janika said. “She would never give up on us.”
“The Search and Rescue teams are doing all they can to find Beth,” Cathleen reassured them. “We’d just made their job harder. Right now all we can do is wait for word. Meredith promised to radio us the minute she heard any news.”
“I hate waiting,” Jared stated. “It’s so pointless.”
“There’s always something useful you can do while you wait,” Andrew told him. “Have you tried praying about this?”
“What’s the point? Praying won’t bring Beth back.”
“Don’t talk like that,” Melanie urged. “You have to hope for the best. They can still find her.”
“Any news will be bad news,” Jared shouted, flinging his plate across the circle and running out of the clearing. Andrew started after him.
“Leave him be,” Cathleen called after Andrew. “He needs to work this out on his own. He won’t go far in the dark. He’ll find his way back to the fire when he’s ready.” Her apparent confidence hid her unease over the way that some of her kids were handling the situation. Melanie still hadn’t acknowledged that there was even a possibility of anything but a happy ending, and Christina hadn’t said a word since the accident. Jared had never gotten along with Beth and yet he was the most visibly upset about her disappearance. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us,” Cathleen reminded the group. “We’d best be heading to bed. Who wants to say prayers tonight?” The campers all looked at each other.
“I know You’re with Beth right now,” Melanie prayed quietly. “Protect her tonight, and don't let her give up. Remind her that help is on the way.”
“If You are her Rescuer,” Janika whispered. “Give us the strength to face each new day without her. Remind us that she’s happy and we’ll see her again someday. But if she’s still alive, sustain her until the search team finds her. We want her back with us where she belongs.”
As Kaida settled into her sleeping bag, she found herself praying for Beth even though she’d never met the missing girl. Seeing the effect her disappearance was having on the group, Kaida knew that Beth was someone she wished she had had a chance to get to know.
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Breakfast was a quick, silent affair and Kaida soon found herself on the trail again. Her pack seemed so much heavier than the previous day, the weight of uncertainty pressing down on them all.
“Has Meredith called yet?” Melanie asked.
“There’s no news so far,” Cathleen told them. “They always says that no news is good news.”
“More like bad news,” Marshall said. “The longer she’s out there, the less chance she has of being found alive.”
“That’s exactly the sort of thing I want to hear in the morning,” Janika grumbled. “Way to cheer us all up.”
Turning off the trail, Andrew led the group deeper into the woods. After half an hour of rapid hiking he stopped and handed Marshall a map and compass. “We’re heading towards the top of the falls,” Andrew told him. “Lead the way.”
“We’re not even on the trail,” Marshall protested.
“That would be too easy,” Andrew replied. “It shouldn’t take us more than a few hours.”
As Marshall headed out tentatively, Cathleen caught up to Andrew. “What on earth are you doing?” she asked.
"He needed a distraction,” Andrew told her. “They all did. Both of us know every part of this island. We can’t get lost. Marshall will get us there even if I have to make a few suggestions along the way.”
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“This is the third time we’ve passed this tree,” Jared complained. “Since you don’t want to take us where we need to go, give me the map. I’m tired of wandering around this forest.”
“Marshall’s doing fine,” Andrew told him. “We’re not in any hurry. We don’t have any pressing engagements to attend, so just be patient.”
“Do you want some help?” Melanie asked as Marshall continued searching the forest around them for some clue of which way they should go.
“May as well just take over. I’m no good at this,” Marshall declared.
“You’ll never learn if you don’t practice,” Cat reminded him.
“Like I care,” Marshall muttered. “It’s not like I’ll ever do this again after I get out of here.” Melanie studied the map for a moment and pointed off to the left.
“See that boulder way back there?” she asked. Marshall nodded. “Head towards it and we should be back on track.” Jared took off ahead of the group.
“Not so fast,” Andrew called after him. “Marshall is leading us right now. Let him take the front.” Grumbling, Jared stopped and waited for the others to catch up. As the group continued through the forest, Marshall found himself walking alongside Jared. He quickened his pace, but Jared continued to match his steps.
“If we’re not in camp by mid-afternoon, you won’t like what happens,” Jared whispered, before dropping back to where he could keep an eye on the whole group.
Marshall tried to figure out where they were on the map, but he still had no idea. If he hadn’t figured out where they were going by the time they got to the boulder, Jared wouldn’t be very happy with him. The last thing he wanted to do was upset Jared.
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They made it to the cliffs near the end of the afternoon and just managed to get everything set up and the fire started before darkness fell. As they waited for the food to cook, Janika wandered around the campsite, trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone. The last thing she wanted to do right now was have a superficial conversation. “Am I interrupting something?” Kaida asked as she came up beside Janika.
“Just wasting time,” Janika told her. As much as she wanted to be left alone right now, she couldn’t let herself be rude to the new girl. Kaida didn’t understand how things really were, so it wasn’t her fault. “Do you need something?”
“I was just wondering what we’re going to do tomorrow. I’m getting pretty tired of all this hiking.”
“You’ll have to get used to it,” Janika told Kaida, a slight smile flickering across her face before she forced it away. This was no time for fun. “We do quite a bit of hiking and camping around here. We probably won’t go back to campus for a few days yet.”
“Probably won’t? You mean they didn’t tell you how long we’ll be out here? Do you even know where we’re heading?”
“I doubt we’re going anywhere particular. We would normally have a destination or skills objective for a hike, but this wasn’t exactly on the schedule. They’re just trying to keep us busy so we don’t have too much time to think.”
“Does that usually work? I feel like I’ve had way too much time to think out here. Wouldn’t we be better off going to classes? They could give us extra homework or something.”
“I never thought I’d say this but extra homework sounds pretty good right now. Anything to keep busy.” Melanie commented as she joined them at the edge of the clearing. “Hiking is a little to conductive to thinking for me, especially when we take as many detours as we did today.”
“Be glad I didn’t have the map,” Kaida told them. “We would have been out there even longer.”
“You’ll learn pretty quickly,” Janika said. “You have to if you want to keep up with all of the things they make you do here.”
“What have I gotten myself into?” Kaida whispered, not really talking to the girls.
“It’s not actually that bad,” Janika told her. “It just all seems kind of pointless. Most of what we do here isn’t anything we’ll ever use once we leave. But it does make things interesting.”
“Supper’s ready,” Andrew called, beckoning the scattered students towards the fire.
As they filled their plates, and found a spot on the logs around the fire, Melanie managed to sit beside Marshall. “You did good getting us here,” she told him.
“You did all the work. All I did was keep getting us lost.”
“You did fine,” Melanie repeated as she turned her attention to her food. “Just fine.” But Marshall knew otherwise. He’d really messed up and Jared wasn’t going to let him get away with it. The next few days were not going to be pleasant.
“So, we’re done with all this hiking, right?” Jared asked Andrew. “We’ll be back on campus by tomorrow night.”
“Not a chance,” Andrew told him. “We’ll camp here one more night, then decide where to go from there.”
“Why do we have to stick around here all day?” Jared asked. “I thought we were supposed to be hiking out our emotions.”
“We’ve got something special planned for tomorrow,” Andrew said. “I guess I may as well announce it since you’ve reminded me.” He turned towards the group and called for their attention. “I know it’s been a long day,” he told them all. “You’re welcome to go right to bed as soon as the chores are done. In fact, I’d recommend it. Wake up call is four am tomorrow and I don’t want anyone falling back asleep on me.”
“Four am!” Janika repeated. “What on earth are we going to do at that hour?”
“You’re not getting me up that early.” Jared insisted. “I’ve never woken up in the dark and I’m not planning to start now.”
“You’re all going to participate,” Cat told them. “If you go to bed soon, you’ll hardly notice the difference.”
“I still don’t want to,” Janika told her.
“It wasn’t a request,” Cat said again. “This is important. We’re all in this together. Don’t break up the team now.”
“Great team,” Jared said sarcastically. “None of us are talking to each other and the new girl has no clue what’s going on. Another team building exercise isn’t going to fix that.”
“Not if you’re set against it,” Cat replied. “But I think tomorrow will be a really good day if you let it. There are things we need to take care of.”
“That’s enough discussion,” Andrew announced. “Off to bed, all of you. I expect to see everyone ready to leave on time tomorrow.”
Kaida shrugged, and swung her pack over her shoulder as she headed for her tent. Unlike many of the others, waking before the sun wasn’t new to her. The first time she’d run away, she’d been picked up the next morning for sleeping in the park and taken to the station until someone could contact her grandmother. She’d made sure to be up well before the officers started their rounds ever since. There was no point in getting caught so easily.
She’d learned to survive on only a few hours sleep. It really wasn’t that hard. Considering how unusual this school was, she was surprised that they weren’t used to doing things at odd hours. Even though it was still way earlier than she was used to going to sleep, Kaida found herself looking forward to snuggling down in her sleeping bag. Hiking all day was pretty hard work.
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