I woke up with a heavy thud... felt like someone had dropped me hard on the floor. Turns out I had rolled off a tree branch. "Owww" I groaned as I rubbed my back... still trying to familiarize myself with my surrounding, the events of today replayed in my head and it was at that time i knew I had fucked up!. .
Earlier that day...
"Wake up Dee" I felt Parker's cold hands on my shoulder as she shook me repeatedly in an attempt to wake me up.
"Ouch!!" she half screamed as I smacked her across the arm slightly pushing her aside so I could get even more comfortable in my sleeping bag.
"Mmm, so Dee drools when she sleeps aye?"... that was Conrad. I sat up fast as I realised he was referring to me. I regretted doing that right away as I felt the pain in my head intensify... blood rushed to my cheeks as I saw Conrad,Kennedy and Parker covering their mouths and trying not to laugh although it was evident their attempt to not laugh was pointless. I quickly wiped my lips and cheeks to clean off any sign of drool which only caused them to laugh even louder.... I rolled my eyes and went back to sleep as I was too ashamed and annoyed by them to say anything.
"oh Destiny you can't be serious about going back to bed". Kennedy said slightly irritated by me wanting to go back to sleep.
"every other person in our hall is already awake and outside except us" Parker said nudging me with her knee.
I opened my eyes and looked around and there were a few other people still sleeping so I just went right back to sleep .
"C'mon guys, let's go.... she'll come meet us when she wants"... Conrad said as he placed his hands on both Parker and Kennedy's shoulder.
They both got up and Walked out the door with him probably heading towards our school pool.
I just shrugged my shoulders and slept.
A few minutes later I was awakened by some very loud voices that I heard. As I sat up on my sleeping bag to see what the racous was about, I overhead one of the teachers over the speakers in our school. He seemed to be telling students to walk in pair and also stay close to teachers as they went into the woods to look for a group of students that had wandered off despite the instructions given a day prior to the sleepover day.
The teacher also said not everyone would go into the woods to search for those students.. that the rest would stay back and clean the school.
The thought of staying back to clean didn't sit well with me so I quickly got up, changed into something more appropriate, brushed and ran down the stairs ready to tag along the selected group of students that would be doing the search.
As I tried to smuggle myself into the already selected students, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Soon as I turned, I saw our math teacher.
"And where do you think you're going young lady?" he asked eyeing me suspiciously...
"uhmm.. umm..uhm..well.. i.. was" I stuttered as I my brain failed to come up with any good excuse.
"she's with us sir" I heard someone say behind me.
"Then why wasn't she part of the 15 students I counted?" still not buying the student's story.
"She went in to change from her pjays to proper clothes.. but she was among the students who raised their hands"... The student whom I now knew to be Conrad said.
"Is that so Destiny?" our math teacher asked etching an eyebrow .
"yes yes yes sir".. I said nodding my head repeatedly.
"very well then, you may join them". He said as he walked to the front of our search party.
I finally let out the air I had packed on my lungs. I turned to Conrad and gave him a tiny smile that I think he knew was my way of saying thank you. He gave me a thumbs up and we just followed our teachers until we got out the school premises.
"Now listen students. This is not a field trip or a relaxing walk. We are here so we can look for those students who decided to disobey the school authority and go out into the woods. if we all go into the woods together like this there'll be too much noise so we're breaking the group up into 5 students and two teachers each so we'll be able to cover enough ground and be done by 4pm okay?" Mr Martin's said and we all chorused an "okay".
As the teacher's picked out the students who would search with them, Mr Martin's walked towards the back and called out Kennedy, Parker, Conrad, Jeffrey and I aS the students he picked to search with him and our homeroom teacher Miss Nilsson.
Miss Diane Nilsson was one of the very few teachers that I liked because she was good at listening to her students and she also respected their decisions never forcing them to do things against their will or outside their capability .
We walked towards the woods as Miss Nilsson walked in front of Kennedy, Parker, and I... while Jeffrey and Conrad walked behind us and Mr Martin's walked behind Jeffrey and Conrad.
The forest was unusually cold and quiet too quiet it made me get this unsettling feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it was because of the weird dreams I had been having concerning this place. Maybe that was why the hair at the back of my neck stood and maybe that was why i had goosebumps all over my arm and maybe that was also why my ears and eyes were on extra alert.
The further we went into the woods, the more scared I became... it almost felt as tho someone or something was watching us as we walked deeper and deeper into this very place we had been told to avoid for the past three weeks now.