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"Here we are ladies and gentlemen!" a teacher's voice echoed through the bus filled with playful chatter.
The voice was high pitched and annoying; it penetrated Daisy's head and invaded her in her daydream. Fudge... I hate Ms Casto's voice, she thought silently to herself, as she battled a gummy bear with a fantasy wind blowing her hair.
The coach drive had taken an excruciatingly long time. Daisy had felt every single second of it. It was long and endearing, she would've lost her sanity if she didn't have such a large imagination. She knocked the sword out of the bright red bear's hand, and plunged it into its sticky heart. She could hear cheering behind her as she won the fake battle.
Most of the other kids on the coach, however, would have disagreed with her.
She did have a reputation for... hyperbole... to say it kindly.
However, in Daisy's mind, most of these people could not speak in this situation. Their voices were tainted. Opinions spiked. For a very simple reason.
These people would happily say that the ride was enjoyable, with their jittery best friend sat by their side, eagerly nodding along, their high of laughing slowly dissipating.
Daisy did not have a best friend by her side.
There were no laughing jitters.
When entering the coach, Daisy's talent of fading into the background had stepped in to play, much to her misfortune, something she never thought she'd be complaining about. Instead of sitting at the front with the usually quiet people (emphasis on the usually) like she always did, Daisy had managed to migrate to the back.
Or rather, she got caught in the gulf stream of students that were gushing inside the large metal enclosure. To the deepest depths of the jungle, where the worst kinds of animals lived. Daisy was sat by a window in the corner, silently, as rattlesnakes and lions bellowed various sounds.
None of the primal sounds mattered to Daisy, though.
Hell, none of THIS mattered to Daisy.
The seat, the trip, everything.
Even the silence she so craved and searched for when entering that coach. The silence was only desirable, because it helped her focus. It was not necessary.
So, Daisy had spent her whole ride, sat by a window, submerged in her mind.
In her fantasy.
In her safe place.
Such a shame it had to end so abruptly, by a voice so sharp it speared right through the sky she had fabricated.
Reality began to leak in.
Gradually, the fluffy clouds evaporated. Slowly, the bouncing cats dissolved.
Greyness replaced the joyful colours that filled Daisy's mind, before finally, she was back in reality.
But not as much as I hate this sh*t hole, she finished her thought in a bitter tone.
Daisy's tired eyes looked to the front of the coach, where students were eagerly trying to escape into the sickly green field outside. A lonely tennis court sat in the corner, glaring out at all the trees that surrounded the perimeter. A gentle mist hovered over the waaaayyyyyy too long grass, the previously drawn lines barely visible on the tips of the blades.
They need to be redrawn.
No.
This grass needs to be cut.
The clouds covered the sky like a blanket. Typical. The UK weather had never been kind. Looking outside, while she waited to be let off the coach, Daisy observed that they had parked on some sort of off-road field. It was clear that no one ever went there.
Of course, other than students on school trips.
It all seemed so... untouched. The trees, the grass, the court with creeping vines. Even the few picnic tables she could barely see were covered in moss and what looked like cobwebs.
Is this a school trip or a murder scene?
A loud laugh brought Daisy's focus back to the front.
That laugh. Daisy could recognise that laugh anywhere.
There at the front of the bus was Andrea, and close behind her Lee, walking towards freedom.
Well... 'freedom'.
Are you really free on a school trip?
Daisy watched, as her two friends were ushered out of the bus and into the slowly forming fog.
God, this is taking forever.
Eventually, it was the back rows turn to make their way slowly to the front of the coach and out the door, into the fog, after what seemed like hours. Daisy had kept glancing at her blaring phone screen every so often to make sure her exaggeration wasn't true.
Finally, her turn.
Crack! Snap! Crunch!
Bones are not supposed to do that.
She slowly stretched out her stick-thin limbs and placed her first wobbly steps in that hour. She felt like a child learning to walk again.
Damn, why do my limbs have to be so stupidly skinny?
One step, two steps, three steps, and out into the overworld. Or, she thought it was the overworld. This place looked more like a poorly narrated horror story scene.
I bet I'd be the first to go if a murderer came out from behind those trees...
She looked around again, her eyes trying to focus against the brightness of that day. Clearly, the sun did not want to give up to the clouds. It must have taken this coverage as a challenge, rather than a threat.
People surrounded her.
She felt really god damned small.
Why could none of those people be one of her friends?
She shook her head and adjusted her glasses, pushing them painfully up the bridge of her nose.
That was another one of her bad habits she did when she was worried. However, as Daisy looked around a bit more, she realised that there was nothing to worry about. She looked at her phone one last time, before tucking it into her grey button-up blouse.
She wasn't small.
After all, she was 5'9, a height well above average for girls.
So, she forced herself to shove aside her feelings of helplessness and began to push her way gently through the crowd, looking for her friends. All she needed was to hear that laugh again.
"Okay children," that high pitched voice screeched again.
I wanted a laugh, not the sound of a dying pig.
Silence befell the 60 students that were standing there, all shuffling feet grounded in the cold mud. If you paid very close attention, you could see the fog tailing its way around everyone's feet.
Everyone's legs.
Everyone's bodies.
Is it just me, or is this fog thicker than it was a few minutes ago?
"Thank you for your silence. Alright, I have spoken to Mr Barder and we both do not know why this fog is forming. The weather forecast said it would be sunny today. Nevertheless! A little condensation will not stop us on this quest of knowledge! Unless it only gets worse, in which case we will spend the time in the classrooms."
She motioned to a long building behind them, that Daisy hadn't noticed before. Hell, she could almost swear on her life no one noticed it before.
It sat quietly behind the coach, but it was sticking out just enough for everyone to see it's cube-like structure and a slanted roof.
Daisy had to admit, it did look out of place.
If this was a 90's clichΓ© horror, then that building would be from a sci-fi.
It looked fairly modern, even the light blue paint wasn't peeling. Perhaps civilization had touched this place.
Obviously, it had.
If it hadn't, there's no way in hell the school would allow its students to go there. That was reassuring to Daisy.
Maybe I'd be the second one to be killed.
"I need everyone to get into groups of three please, and everyone needs to change their shoes to wellingtons! Quickly! We can't be standing here all day!" Finally, she finished her rant, but not with a happy audience.
A sea of groans erupted from the teenagers that had the misfortune of being there. A clear problem had been brought to the table, and no one was happy about it.
The issue was simple: most groups in Bishop's school contained 5 people, for some reason.
It just was that way. Even their group: Daisy's, Andrea's and Lee's.
The number five had always been prominent in the friend groups that were formed in Bishop's school. Maybe there was the odd exception, however, they usually stuck to themselves in one of the many corners the school ground offered. This harsh segregation in a number so odd would mean some students were left to fend for themselves with a pair of new faces, and pairs would have to be forced to adopt a new comrade.
And no one wanted that.
The school trip would be boring enough in itself.
Speaking of groups, where are the other two? I swear I didn't see them on the coach, Daisy thought to herself, glancing around, trying to locate the other two members.
But she was too late.
It had begun.
The great separation.
Pushing and scattering, everyone was at it. Trying to get in a group of all friends.
Some students just cruised, but they were the ones who were friends with everyone.
Daisy was not one of those fortunate few, but she was not part of the rush.
She had a pair of people already that she would go to. It was just a matter of getting to them.
Reassurance. That's what she felt as she waddled through the barging shoulders of others, trying to look out for Lewis' curly hair or Andreas blue sweater. They were strangely hard to locate.
Reassurance.
It felt good. It was rare for Daisy to feel that. That sense that success was guaranteed. That just confirmed her beliefs that she needs her friends to survive!
Haha... ha... ha...
Like a penguin, Daisy waddled through the fog, the wet grass making very uncomfortable sounds at every step.
It's okay, I just have to find them.
Daisy every so often would look at her phone to see the time and hope that Andrea had sent a quick text asking where she is.
Who knew it would be so difficult?
No.
WHY is it so difficult?!
There were only, like, sixty people there and it had been almost ten minutes with no success! A temptation began to crawl in, to scream Marco. Hopefully, she would receive a Polo back, as her friends would recognise her high pitched voice.
Question was, was she brave enough to do it?
...
...
...
Then again, this was a matter of survival, not courage.
Alright... wouldn't hurt to try.
Daisy stopped in her tracks, wiggled her toes in her wellies that she had been wearing since the morning, and filled her lungs with air. Hands positioned to her mouth, the word clearly thought inside her mind, she started shouting, "MAR- "
"What are you doing?" a voice asked behind Daisy, stopping her from finishing the name.
Shocked, she turned around, and she was met with a beautifully threatening pair of green eyes. A pair of eyes that, to Daisy's relief, she recognised.
"Liath!" Daisy cried, arms outstretched and flinging her thin frame into this person. Luckily, she was caught, but not without the help of the boy who stood next to the two, steadying them.
"Easy Daisy, you're surprisingly heavy for such a skinny person," Liath gasped. A little bit of air escaped her red painted lips, "Not to mention you are a literal head taller than me."
"Or maybe it's because you're weak?" suggested the boy beside them, his dark eyebrow raised and a loose expression adorning his jaw.
"I skipped one day at the gym... one... and this is the attitude I receive?" Liath asked, annoyance doing twirls with her ridiculously strong English accent. Daisy moved her head to the side to face the boy next to them who was about her height, "I like what you've done with your hair Willy, you look less like a player and more like a person."
"Whaaat? I don't look like a player. I'm very good at hiding my intentions," He rolled his head back with a devilish grin spreading across his lips.
Daisy rolled her eyes.
"You don't even try to," both girls said simultaneously.
Slowly, Daisy and Liath parted from their embrace and stood with their arms linked. Liath played with her red scarf that Daisy had made loose on impact, adjusting it to cover and protect her neck from the cold that was seeping in fast.
Of course, a stupid action.
She was wearing shorts and a large t-shirt. What real protection did a little scarf truly provide? She adopted the aesthetic of a VSCO girl, even though she was far from one. Hell, she didn't even use straws, to begin with. Everyone was surprised when one day she came to school without her normal leather jacket, instead, with scrunchies littering her arms.
That trend had died off ages ago, so why she kept it up, was a mystery to everyone.
Perhaps even to herself.
"And that's exactly the art of it. Reverse psychopharmacy... or something."
"Will... it's... reverse psych-... reverse psychology... you have a brain... use it?" Liath said, honestly appalled at what she had just heard escape her friend's mouth.
William had never been the brain of the class, however, that was just stupidly ignorant on his part. Even Daisy had to take a step back.
The never-judging Daisy even had to.
That's when William finally stood up straight and put his arms in the air. Lazily, but at least his spine was relieved for a second.
"I'm joking! I'm joking! I'm not an idiot, calm yourselves," William simply responded.
"Anyways, where were you guys sitting on the coach? I didn't see you guys anywhere," asked Daisy.
If she had known that the two of them were on the trip, she would've sat next to Liath.
She loved Liath.
Platonically.
Just like she loved all her friends.
The thing she loved most ago Liath, was definitely her stories. She always had something to say. Like that time, where Liath had recalled to Daisy the time she barrel kicked a guy when he grabbed her ass while walking to school.
Classic Liath story.
Most probably fake, and many were certain they were. Maybe that's why everyone was so cut on Liath.
But, despite what those people with a silent hatred for the charismatic extrovert said (and much to their dismay), Liath had a reputation of being the honest bird.
Not a lie escaped her lips.
At least, none that were proven to be lies.
Then again, she had a lot of reputations... not all of them so good.
"Ah, darling, we weren't on the coach. We overslept and got the train here. There's a train station a few minutes away surprisingly, convenient for us. Will's mum called up the "beast with glasses" and made up some excuse," Liath recalled, her hand gesturing furiously while she spoke.
Oh, so that's why they weren't on the coach.
Daisy did find it strange that she wasn't able to locate her, especially as she had vibrant lilac hair...
...
...
...
...
...
Wait...
"Why didn't your mum also call?" asked Daisy.
"Because she was at my house," said William, his slouched posture returning and slightly raising in a shrug. Liath looked at William with a glare of daggers.
"Liath's mum?"
"No," Liath breathed. This is exactly what she wanted to avoid, "I was."
"Oh... so Liath was at your house then? When did you go to his house?" asked Daisy again.
"Um..." Liath trailed off.
"Yesterday is the word you're looking for babe," said Will.
"What were you doing at his house? Aren't we a bit old for sleepovers?" asked Daisy.
They're hiding something.
Or Liath is trying to at least.
They were doing a horrible job, but Daisy had no idea what they could possibly have done that would make them want to hide something.
She thought for a while, mulling all the information in my head.
And that's when Daisy noticed Liath's scarf.
Daisy had thought it weird that Liath had worn a red scarf to a grey shirt and red shorts. It did match the outfit (you could never catch Liath dead in an outfit that didn't match), however... a scarf?
To shorts?
And that scarf seemed strangely familiar to begin with.
Finally, Daisy cleared her throat," Liath I'm not dumb. That's Will's fortΓ© β "
"Hey!"
"- You don't have to hide the fact that you're sleeping with him from me, (and I can see your hickey, it's on your neck... a bit more to the left... yeah you got it) I thought we were friends? Don't you trust me?" Daisy said, a slight quiver shaking her voice.
"Sweetheart, of course I trust you! You're my best friend! It's just that... you're like a little sister to me... and I hate that your innocence is being corrupted by the people around you..." Liath trailed off, shooting William another glare of death.
Not that he noticed, he was looking up at the sky.
"The fog's pretty," he said.
"Real insightful," Liath hissed.
Daisy sighed and turned to look around her, but not before glancing at her phone yet again.
God, it had seriously been twenty minutes!
No way did time fly THAT fast.
But there it was, blaring insultingly at her, the time on her phone. There was no mistake that twenty minutes had indeed passed. The shuffling hadn't even quietened down. If anything, it seemed to have gotten louder.
And... bigger?
Why did it seem there were so many people?
"Hey guys, is it just me, or is there like more people here than there should be?" Daisy asked, worry beginning to bubble in the depths of her stomach.
"Now that you mention it, there is no way that this is just sixty people... Hey! I don't even know that guy! HEY DIPSHIT WHO THE FU-"
But alas, a voice abruptly interrupted her.