Rise and Fall

Captain Barnacles

It’s time for the moment you’ve been waiting for!

*Does this fanfare from SpongeBob:

*

Preparing the Krabby Patty! I mean, the Captain Barnacles chapter!

I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 15: Captain Barnacles

“One… Two… Three… Four…” Mr. Allison did a headcount of the kids as they walked past him. He was wearing a T-shirt, hiking shorts and hiking boots, but he still looked like the type of person who should have been wearing a suit and tie. “Nine… And ten!”

The last one was Angel. She was hanging back sulkily because, as usual, the other kids hadn’t been listening to her while she was talking. If they didn’t ignore her or tell her to be quiet, they would respond with a sarcastic, “Good for you!” or mimic her, clearly making fun of her accent.

“Oh, barnacles!” she groaned, imitating the characters from SpongeBob, as she tripped over her shoelaces. She didn’t know how to tie them up, so she just tucked them into her shoe. She would ask her mum to do them up again for her when she got home the next day.

“All right, everyone!” Mr. Allison addressed the ten kids in the group. “We should be able to do this hike in under an hour. Now, who’s group leader?”

Angel thought that was a dumb question with Karly Jackson in the group.

“Karly”, Angel and six others answered in unison.

“Here.” Mr. Allison handed Karly a compass. “You’re in charge of this. Okay, everyone! The path is pretty narrow, so single file, please!”

They marched through the woods. Of course, Angel was bringing up the rear. She wished Daniel was in her activity group for this two night school trip. She was put into a group with three other girls and six boys.

Kate Armour, a girl from another class Angel didn’t know very well, looked around anxiously. “There aren’t any bears in these woods, are there?”

Jarrod Harris snorted in disgust. “No! There aren’t any bears in Australia. Except for drop bears.”

“We have polar bears”, Jake Stafford spoke up. “At Sea World.”

Mr. Allison smiled. “Who knows the rhyme about what you’re supposed to do if you see a bear?” he quizzed the group.

Nobody did.

“If it’s brown, lie down. If it’s black, fight back. If it’s white, say good night”, the principal recited.

“That’s racist!” Dominic Edmonds shouted.

Angel frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means if you see a polar bear, you’re dead”, Jarrod replied in a Duh! Are you stupid? voice.

“Yes, polar bears are extremely dangerous”, Mr. Allison confirmed.

Nine-year-old Angel didn’t doubt that. All bears seemed dangerous. Plus, they’d watched a documentary earlier that year, in which she saw a polar bear go to town on a seal.