Pranked

Thirteen

Morning came a lot faster than I had expected. I opened my eyes blearily and slapped the alarm clock next to my bed. I kicked the top bunk bed above me to wake up Jojo.
"Get up, sleepy," I said, trying to sound like I was wide awake, but I couldn't hold back a huge yawn. I heard a moment of silence. Maybe Jojo fell asleep again.
"Speak for yourself, hypocrite," she grumbled sleepily. I let out a tired giggle and put on some blue jeggings (for those of you non-hipsters who don't know what jeggings are, it's basically leggings, but made out of denim. Basically, it's like jeans that are more comfortable and feel like leggings. Welcome to the hipster club now), a short sleved, oversized rock climbing t-shirt, a green turtleneck, some mismatched cotton socks, my brown hiking boots, and a black winter jacket. I twisted my curly, dark brown hair into a low side ponytail and followed Jojo to the living room. Our whole group of visiting campers looked like explorers. We all had our warm jackets on, sturdy hiking boots, full water bottles, and we looked energized and adventurous. Evelyn looked like one of those campers who comes expecting a sunny beach in the middle of Hawaii but ends up having a miserable time because we are in the middle of the foggy, wet woods in the middle of Oregon.
"Dang! We are supposed to make sure you survive like that?!" Jojo remarked, adressing her outfit.
"Yep. I have that much faith in you guys," she said, "Just don't let me die, or I'm blaming you."
"Geez, thanks for the pressure!" Martin said.
"You're welcome. Ready to go?" Evelyn asked.
I gave her a thumbs up.
"Let's go then," Evelyn said and we followed Evelyn to the cafeteria. After a breakfast of red apples, undercooked pancakes, halfway decent hashbrowns, and a glass of milk, we got our backpacks.
"Don't open them yet," Evelyn said, "We have a site to get to first." We all finished eating and lead Evelyn to the site.
"Just go North until I tell you to stop," she said. We walked for a few hours and we went the wrong direction a few times. But then we all observed the sun and found our way there. Evelyn made a few notes on a notepad.
"We are here," Evelyn finally said, "You guys are now in charge."
"Cool. How are you getting along Evelyn?" Kenny asked.
"On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being 'I'm dying' and 1 being 'I'm totally fab', I'm a 1," Evelyn said.
"That's good," I said.
"Yeah. We should get started knowing our place," Martin said.
I looked around the site. It was a small site in the middle of the woods surrounded by tall pine trees and a few boulders around. It curved downwards a little and looked like a dried up pond with some sand in the middle. I saw a small circle of rocks with some burned ash in the middle of it.
"Someone must've made a fire there," I said.
"That's probably true," Jojo said, "Let's all get to work. What's in our packs guys?"
I sat down in the sand and dumped out my pack. One compass, a couple of granola bars, a crumpled up newspaper, and a garbage bag. Kenny had an apple, a flint and steel, a plastic bowl, and eight dixie cups. Martin had a bag of gummy bears, a rope, and a mythology novel. Jojo had nine candles, a paper plate, a plastic wine glass, and a bottle of ginger ale.
"Let's sort out our stuff," Jojo said, drawing circles in the sand, "Food, shelter, fire, silverware related stuff..."
"Tableware," I corrected.
"Tableware," she echoed, "and miscelanious stuff that we will find a use for later."
"And navigation," I said, drawing another circle and putting the compass in it.
"And Evelyn," Kenny joked, drawing a circle around Evelyn who was laying down on the sand, probably trying to sleep. We all laughed.
I put my granola bars in the food circle, my garbage bag in shelter, and my crumpled up newspaper in the miscelanious circle. We looked over our stuff. In food, we had three granola bars, an apple, a bag of gummy bears, and a bottle of ginger ale. In shelter, we had our plastic garbage bag and a rope. In tableware, we had plastic bowl, the eight dixie cups, the paper plate, and the plastic wine glass.
"Judging by the sky, it's probably 1:38," Jojo said.
"That's very exact. What brings you to that?" Kenny asked. Jojo pulled back her coat sleeve.
"Don't tell Evelyn," she said quietly, "I snuck out my watch."
"That's cheating?" Martin asked.
"It's not like the guy said it was against the rules," I said.
"Congrats, Jojo. You discovered a perfect hole in the rules," Kenny said, imitating Evelyn quietly, "Good for you. That's very, very good." We all laughed again.
"Let's get started," Jojo said, "Food wise, we could ration what we have now, or we could look for edible plants."
"I say look for edible plants," I said.
"I agree. I mean, surely they don't expect us to simply manage to survive on a few granola bars, an apple, a bag of gummy bears, and a bottle of ginger ale," Kenny said, nodding in agreement.
"And if we are about to eat anything poisonous, Evelyn will stop us," Martin said.
"Alright. Kenny's the best at finding edible plants, so he can be in charge of that," Jojo said, "If anyone finds anything edible, show it to Kenny first so we can be for sure."
"Alright," Kenny said.
"Firewise, I'll be in charge of that. I'm the best at that anyway," Jojo said, "Is everyone good with that?"
We all gave thumbs up.
"Okay. Martin will be in charge of shelter. He's stronger than we are and he's better at it," Jojo said, "So Leighleigh will be in charge of navigation. We won't need it much now because we are not going too far, but to be safe, mark some trees and draw the cardinal directions in the sand."
"How am I supposed to mark trees?" I asked, "I don't have a knife or anything."
"Wait. There's one more thing I just found in the bottom of my bag," Martin said. He pulled out a massive roll of glow in the dark orange duct tape.
"Perfect!" Jojo said. Martin tossed me the duct tape.
"So let's all split up. We'll cover more ground. Be back by sunset and if you see Leighanne's markers anywhere, turn back because that will be our boundary," Jojo said.
"How about Evelyn?" Kenny asked.
"Uh...we can write her a note in the sand and every now and then go back to double check on her," Jojo said. We laid the plastic garbage bag over Evelyn, who was completely asleep.
"But I need that for the shelter," Martin said.
"Save it for last. We have to keep Evelyn warm," Jojo said, "When you need it, wake her up."
Jojo bent over and dragged her finger through the sand. She wrote out in her hand writing:

Went to the woods. Will check on u every now and then. Stay here. We'll all be back by sunset.
-Jojo, Leighanne, Martin, + Kenny

We all signed our names and went out to the woods. I counted my paces as I went out until I reached fifty paces and found a stream. I had chosen fifty paces because that was where I was beginning to not see the camp anymore. I felt the stream with my fingers. It wasn't warm, so it luckily wasn't sulfur. I marked a tree by it and continued in a circle. I finally finished and made it back to camp. Our camp looked like it was thriving. On the food pile was several stalks of weeds with edible purple flowers called alfalfa. Martin had tied the rope between two trees and put several thick branches on it in a sort of tent shape. He was putting more on one open end of it and layering pine and juniper branches on it. Jojo was pulling some crumbling stones off of the boulders and placing them in a circle around the ash.
"Looking great, guys!" I said.
"Thanks! Those markers are great! I can kind of see one over there," she said pointing to a visible marker in the distance.
"I also found a stream. I don't know if it's fresh or not. It wasn't warm, so it's not sulfur," I said.
"Great! Does your canteen still have water?" Jojo asked. I nodded.
"About three quarters full," I said.
"Mine is half full. Martin told me his is a quarter full. But yours is metal. Pour water into his canteen until his is full and fill yours. When we have a fire, we will boil the water and have fresh water," Jojo said.
"That's a great idea. But how will we boil mine?" I asked.
"We'll hold it over the fire with a long stick. If you need any, ask me and you can water fall it," she said.
I nodded and went to the shelter.
"Hey Martin," I said.
"Hey whats up?" he asked, laying more pine boughs on the shelter.
"I found a stream that has non-sulfur water. I'm gonna get some water and since my canteen is metal, we are gonna boil it once Jojo has a fire. Because then we'll have a constant water source that we can boil for fresh water," I said, "Just let me fill up yours since yours has the smallest amount of water."
"Okay thanks," he said, opening his canteen. I poured the water into his, careful not to spill.
"No problem. See you later," I said and walked out to the boundary to fill the canteen.