Miss Peregrine's Stories- Camping Trip

Miss Peregrine's Short Stories- Camping Trip

I woke up one morning in early August to my phone buzzing on my bedside table. Smiling, I picked it up and held it to my ear. "Hello?" "Hello!" came Millard's voice from the other end, "just wanted to check if you were ready... we've been waiting outside your house for almost an hour! Enoch is really starting to drive us all mad..." I looked down at my bed and pyjamas and said "I'll be there in ten minutes," before hanging up the phone to leap into some jeans.

I waved goodbye to my mum and dad before dashing outside with a slice of toast wedged in my mouth. Miss Peregrine and all the peculiar children were crowded into a large green camper van and were waving out the windows to me. "Well you took your time!" scowled Enoch. I grinned apologetically before clambering in with my backpack and slamming the door behind me. We set off down the road: Horace and Millard singing songs at the top of their voices whilst Enoch tried to punch them. Emma was sat next to me and was digging through her bag to check we had everything needed. "Tent? Yes. Guys, has everyone remembered their sleeping bags?" "YES!" came the reply, "you've asked us a dozen times already!" cried Horace.

A few hours later we reached the campsite and I had a terrible cutting headache from all the noisy excitement of the van. "Oh its pouring with rain!" moaned Horace. "Don't be so negative!" said Bronwyn, "it's only a drizzle! Besides, it will clear up soon enough." We all trooped out of the van lugging heavy bags and trudged to our campsite to set up the tent.

Millard and Hugh tried to set up the tent, but things spiralled out of control pretty quickly. Miss Peregrine wasn't camping with us, only dropping us off and things didn't really seem to be going too well so far. "Millard, that's the wrong pole! It says right here that your pole is supposed to go here!" exclaimed Hugh and tried to pull it out. "No!" cried Millard, "it says on these instructions that pole number 6 goes HERE!" As they were fighting over the pole there was a loud SNAP! Everyone spun around to see that Horace had accidently trodden on one of the poles... and broken it. "Oh Horace you fool!" cried Emma angrily, "now we won't ever be able to put up the tent! And when we don't, you'll be the first one to sleep outside on the floor." Horace looked outraged, "you wouldn't dare..." he breathed. "Oh I would..." said Emma menacingly. "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!" chanted Enoch. "Don't make them fight!" exclaimed Claire, "poor Horace would be burnt to a crisp!" Horace scowled and placed his hands on his hips. "I find it rather offensive that you don't think I'd stand a chance!" Enoch snorted and placed a comforting hand on Horace's shoulder. "Well what are you going to do? Kill her with your dreams?" Horace's frown deepened but he didn't reply.

A long while later we all excepted that the tent would have to do. It was extremely wonky and looked as though it could blow away with the slightest gust of wind. "It won't blow away," Bronwyn assured us, "I hammered the pegs in extra hard!" Still, I wasn't sure if I would feel safe sleeping inside that old battered thing. If a bear came rampaging out of the woods it would plough through our sorry looking tent in a second. As well as this, the tent was much smaller than we had thought. "It said on the box it could sleep up to ten people!" exclaimed Emma in annoyance, "that's the last time I buy something from the internet!" "It will be ok," I said, "we just need a few people to sleep under the stars..." Horace began backing away and vanished inside the tent. "You'll never make me!" he cried. Emma rolled her eyes but decided that Horace wasn't worth the effort. "Hugh?" she asked politely, "would you mind sleeping outside tonight? You'd have a sleeping bag of course... it's just that I don't think they will be room for all of us in that tent." Hugh agreed to sleep outside and we managed to persuade Bronwyn as well. Olive was eager to sleep outdoors but we wouldn't let her. "No. Not after what happened at school. We can't have you drifting away in your sleep and never being seen again!" Olive scowled, but eventually agreed that it was probably for the best that she slept in the tent.