How Far We've Come

Chapter 4

The next morning, I woke up later than most people in my tent, but I was still squished against a small corner of the tent. I rubbed my eyes open and looked around, yesterday's events rushing back. I was in Justin's Ferry on my first Global field trip. After stargazing, I had walked back into my tent and crashed into the sleeping bag that was the closest thing I had to a bed at the moment. And now, I was waking up at the corner of the tent.

"Good morning," I greeted, my eyes adjusting to the light. I stretched my legs out and turned on my side, facing Clary who was still in her sleeping bag. "What time did you wake up?"

"Just a few minutes ago," she answered. "I woke up to the sound of Mr. Rickman laughing. It was terrifying."

I laughed. "What's the time? I think we have to get up at 7:30am."

Jessica looked at the watch which she had worn through the night. "It's 7am. I'm getting up." She ran her hands through the neat braid that concealed her bedhead and got up, hopping over the sleeping bags. Clary did the same moments later, as I shrunk under my blankets, hiding from the cold. Unfortunately, I could only get sleep for five more minutes before I woke up.

Before leaving the tent, I ran my hands through my hair multiple times, reminding myself that I was on a field trip and the people outside were the people who saw me in school every day. Then I grabbed my toilet kit and clothes, and walked into the owner's house, feeling extremely self conscious in my pajamas in front of the fully-dressed students playing volleyball outside.

After getting dressed and brushing my teeth, I took a seat with my friends near the hot coals of yesterday night's campfire. Mr. Marvin and Mr. Rickman looked weary as every and Mr. Gandalf was drinking a cup of coffee.

"What happened?" I asked. Their behavior lead me to think they had stayed up all night.

"Someone came onto the campsite," Mr. Rickman explained. "He seemed suspicious, so we stayed up all night making sure nothing happened."

I nodded, grateful that the Global teachers went to such lengths to ensure our safety. I warmed my hands in my pockets and looked around, still in a sleepy daze. Fifteen minutes later, breakfast crew finished preparing breakfast and I had picked out my food.

Breakfast food was probably my favorite meal in Justin's Ferry. The pancakes were fluffy and soft, sweetened with maple syrup and the orange juice was fruity and tangy. I piled berries high on the side of my plate and took a cup of yogurt. Then, I walked over to sit at a small picnic table.

"So what do you guys think we're doing today?" I asked. I knew we were doing a service activity, but beyond that I didn't know much.

Melissa shrugged. "I think our service activity is pulling weeds and then we're going to get driving home. Besides that, I don't know much. But, I hope the service activity won't be too hard."

I was hoping the same thing. After eating, we all began packing up our luggage. Soon, my clothes and toiletry items were all packed inside my duffel bag and my journal and food was packed away in my backpack. But, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't roll up my sleeping bag.

"You need some help?" asked Clary as I panted, trying to make the bag small enough. I nodded and after three tries and two more people helping, we finally managed to fit it in.

"Phew!" panted one of the girls who had helped us. "That is one stubborn bag!"

I gave a sheepish grin. "Yeah it sure is." With all our stuff now packed away and sitting in a large heap outside the tent, we began deconstructing the tent. We had constructed it backwards anyway in the first place, so while everyone was pulling rods up, we were pulling them down. Still, after multiple tries, we managed to stuff it all into a small 2ft by 2ft bag.