A Second To Understand

Chapter One

  I wiggled my toes in the silky white sand as the cool clear water rushed up the shore to meet me, washing the sand from around my feet. I tipped my head back as the salty ocean breeze rolled over my face and a sigh of content left my lips. I could stay here forever; leave behind the worries of the world, the thought crossed my mind then flittered away with the breeze just as quickly. When we won this sweepstakes for an all-expenses paid vacation to an island owned by a millionaire who wished to remain anonymous, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, although it was a bit odd, I thought that we were the luckiest school in existence. I mean I've never been lucky enough to win ten bucks on a scratch-off ticket, much less for such an adventure to just fall into my lap like this. We were sponsored with enough money so that our entire class was able to come on this trip, it was supposed to be one to remember...

...

     "Boys on that side, girls over there." This whole trip was one giant camp out, not that I'm complaining, but you'd think that with a big shot millionaire owning this island, he could at least be bothered to put a lodge or something here for his guests, assuming it's a he that owns this place, but I'm grateful either way, at least he built a bath house and had a few power stations set up around the camping area. The blonde prima ballerina cheerleaders may not know how to rough it in the woods, but my dad was an officer in the UCMC for majority of his life and he taught me how to live by the stars above my head and the ground beneath my feet.

     Coach Blake is the head coach of the football team for the Grant County Stallions and whereas he's usually a pretty laid-back guy, he was absolutely adamant about following and strictly enforcing the NO COED TENTS policy the school officials had laid as law. "Everybody has a partner; how you choose to utilize that, is your decision entirely. Do not wander off alone. You never know what could be on this island. You got the speech before we left so does anybody have any questions?" You would think with a bunch of second year college students; he could give us just a little credit on knowing how to keep ourselves alive. Taking a quick glance at the other students nearby, I retract my statement.

       A couple of the pretty, blonde, clad in pink bimbos started snickering beneath their breath looking in my general direction. I made sure they were all looking my way and rolled my eyes, then turned around and headed in the opposite direction. They really couldn't stand the fact that they couldn't get a rise out of me, but the best way to deal with a bug is to either squish it or ignore it and seeing how I'm only 5"4, it would be kind of difficult to squish them. Considering there are kids having kids these days, they should be slightly less childish in their general personalities, but I guess everyone has that moment when they just want to be accepted, unfortunately these girls were still stuck in the high school drama phase most girls left behind after graduation. It blows my mind how they even qualified for this trip. I would have figured since this trip entails a certain amount of danger, a participants IQ would have to be at least so high.

     A large meadow had been cleared in the area to allow us a place to set up camp, how thoughtful of them, I thought laughing to myself. Most of the tents were set up about four feet apart and were spread all around the open field. Mine however, was placed about twenty feet away from everyone else and right at the wood line of the roughly six acres of land that had been cleared for us to stay in. The ballerinas were all bunched up in one massive tent as close to the dead center of the field as possible. Looking over the wide space I laughed to myself, if anybody flew over us they would probably think we're hosting a rave out on this deserted island with all the bright colored tents scattered around the place.

      I snatched my backpack out of my tent and threw it over my shoulder."Aniello!" I froze and slowly turned to face the rumbling voice behind me, "Where do you think you're going alone?"