Three

6

June and I waded out of the water.

"We need to find Sam," I said.

"Yeah, he's probably worried," June answered.

"For some reason I doubt that."

"We've been gone for a long time, though."

"Yeah, he's probably just more annoyed than anything else. I mean, he doesn't know there are evil flying monkeys out to get us."

June smiled weakly. "I think these were a little more threatening than the wicked witch's minions."

"Hey, they were pretty scary. I think I cried the first time I saw it." I smiled at the girl walking beside me. I was surprised yet grateful at how we could already make light of the life-threatening event that we had only a few minutes ago escaped. Keeping an optimistic outlook was the only way we would survive this. If I gave up hope, I would give up trying. I had to try.

The two of us walked in the general direction we assumed was our camp. We treaded onward for what felt like hours, but in reality it was probably only 45 minutes at most.

"There!" June shouted. I squinted ahead to see what was 'there.' I could see silhouettes of what appeared to be the camp.

I was beyond grateful we had found it, but I knew our eyes were deceiving us. While it couldn't be a mirage, since we were both seeing it and we were still not terribly dehydrated, it would take us a much longer time to reach than it would seem.

I felt discouraged when I noticed my feet becoming sore, but the camp was noticeably closer now. I marched on, though it couldn't really be called that, since my feet were only dragging in the sand. "Do you mind if we take a break?" I asked June.

"A break would be perfect," she replied. She plopped down on the ground abruptly. I bent down slowly to sit next to her.

"We should run," I told June as soon as my feet stopped hurting.

"Are you sure you don't want to rest longer?"

"Only if you do. The sooner we get there, the better."

She shrugged and got into a sprinting position. "Race you," she said with a grin. I smiled back and got in the same position next to her.

"On the count of three?" I asked. She nodded. I began to count down, "Three-" She took off before I even finished the "e" sound of the word. I laughed at her use of a loophole and ran after her.

By the time we were too tired to run anymore, it looked as if Sam saw us, since what could only be his figure was jogging towards us.

"Did you guys get lost?" he asked when he reached us.

"You could say that," I answered. I filled him in on everything that happened while we were away from him. We found the water, the creatures came, we ran, we went in the water, they left.

"Wait," he said, "so they left when you went in the water? Like before? Maybe they're not intelligent enough to know that you're still there if they can't see you. That's a nice advantage."

"Yeah... Maybe." For some reason, I felt reluctant about telling him--or even June--what really happened. The common denominator wasn't the water, it was me. How would I explain that, anyway? I looked at them and they just ran away. Because that seems legitimate.

"After all that, we still don't have a water source," I stated, "unless we want to risk going back there. Which would be better, being torn apart by the flying monkeys or dying from thirst?"

Sam almost smiled. "Flying monkeys?"

"There's not really a better way to describe them."

"Well, the good news is, you're safe now." I was taken aback. He was acting strange, considering his generally pessimistic attitude. Being optimistic? Caring? Why was he suddenly taking my advice?

The confusion must have shown on my face, because he said, "I had time to think when you were gone. Even if we never get off this island, we're smart. We can survive if, like you said, we work together. I still don't know why, but I want to live."

"So you're going to be nice now?" June asked enthusiastically.

"I'll try. I don't have much experience being nice."

June ran up to Sam and hugged him. He gently pulled her off of himself. "That's not happening."

I found myself beaming. Things would be better now that Grumpy isn't so grumpy anymore.