Girls Alone

Chapter 3: Trees

'In the shadowy clearing around us I heard a rustle and whispering voices spoke out from the dark. A very clear male voice spoke out from all the rest in a menacing tone.'

"What are you doing in our forest?"

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I hugged Daisy closer to me. I tried to sound calm and brave as I whispered, " We'll be fine,"  in her small ear.

"What was that?" said the voice again. A small bunch of kids stepped out of the black trees into the moonlight. It had been obvious which one had spoken. I tall sixteen-year-old stood at the very font glaring at me. He had long brown hair that made a fringe across his tanned face. His eyes were the colour of melted chocolate. He reminded me of my cousin Charlie. I hated Charlie; he was such a d*ck. I immediately started to very much dislike him.

"Nothing. Anyway, how were we supposed to know this was your forest?" I stammered in what i hoped was a strong and calm voice but it came out kind of feeble and scared.

He frowned, "well now you do so get out."

"But we have nowhere else to go," I protested.

"that's not our problem, and I said get out." he spoke the last two words very clearly and glared at me as if I was ripping down his house.

A younger girl stepped forward she looked a little younger than me but quite a bit older than Daisy.

She tugged on his sleeve and murmured, "They're like us. They have no home. they could come live here?"

His frown increased, " do you want to live with us?"

Before i could answer Daisy burst out, "do you have any food? Please we're really hungry."

The girl smiled and walked forward. She had short wispy brown hair and freckles. Her face was kind and full of joy. She was very unlike the boy.

" I'm Hannah..."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It was later; the sun was beginning to set and the clouds were a pink - orange. Hannah and me had been talking all day as Daisy had been playing all Day with Hannah's little sister, Emma. Hannah had showed us around camp. It was amazing what they had done. they had everything sorted. Food, Health Comfort. It was like a home to them. Apparently, They were mostly runaways or had been lost in the woods. They each had jobs as if this was a little village. She explained how they went out at night to steal food from the market near by. This I did not approve of at first but when hannah explained they needed these things to live I gave in and admitted it was an Okay thing to do in these circumstances.

There were 19 people living there and me and Daisy made 21. The boy was called Jack. He was the obvious leader although they did call themselves a democracy.

" He hasn't been in a good mood since Amy decided to leave. Amy was his best friend but she wanted  'a real home' " Hannah explained.

"What does that mean," I asked.

"She left and got herself adopted by some nice couple. She was like a sister to him."

"Oh." I could think of nothing else to say.

"Yeah well now she's gone" said a familiar voice behind me. I nearly jumped out of my skin; John was standing us with his brow furrowed and then he glared at Hannah. I felt so sorry for her in that moment; the look in her eyes showed she wished he'd loved her as a sister but I guess she was second choice.

"She was just telling the camps history, that's all," I snapped at him.

"well now you know it," he turned his gaze to Hannah and muttered, "Find her a job."

Hannah showed me the jobs I could do and recommended a few. There were four main jobs that really needed someone to help work on: I could be a cook, a Doctor, a laundry lady (as if) or a sneaker. A sneaker was someone who snuck out at night to steal food. I would not do that and I hated the sight of blood. I decided to be a cook. I knew what I could find in the wood. What was edible or not; what animals could be found and where. Daisy decided to do be a washer woman. Why?

Life wasn't that bad until...