Mercury

8°C

"What?" I ask, shocked.

I pause what I'm doing and find myself panting and quite breathless. My hair is in a mess which fits the current situation well because I'm going crazy with the last minute packing for my school camp on the day itself. Furthermore, it's bright and early in the morning (I woke up extra early to pack) and I'm not in my best moods during the mornings.

I stand up a little wobbly from the mess on the floor in my room and try to balance myself.

"You're down with what?" I ask into the phone.

"S-Stomach flu..." Mila murmurs apologetically.

"So for this whole two-days-one-night camp at school, I'm alone?"

I can sense her nodding.

"But we're partners and we're even sharing a tent!"

"I'm sorry..." Mila says, and she sounds like she is about to cry any minute from now, "I was really looking forward to it too!"

I sigh. "It's okay, it isn't your fault."

"I'm really sorry!"

We spend the next few minutes basically having Mila continuously apologise to me and me being more and more irritated as time passes.

"Enough!" I bark into my phone, "No more apologising! And I have to go pack for my camp now! Goodbye!"

I hang up immediately and collapse on my bed, feeling like I've just fought a war. How on Earth am I ever going to survive this camp?

I need to come up with some excuse to skip it. I am not even that excited about it in the first place, and the only thing that made this whole camp sound a little more appealing is the fact that I get to do almost everything with Mila.

I'm skipping this. I'm definitely skipping this shit.

-

Hours later, I arrive at campsite (which happens to be our school) with my classmates. Although I was so determined to skip this camp earlier on, I couldn't get past my conscience stage. Even if I did, I doubt Mom would let me just skip the camp anyway. When I mentioned it to her this morning as a joke to see her reaction, she had said, "Aw, come on August, it'll be a great learning experience!"

And now here I am, under the hot, hot (I couldn't emphasize more) sun, pitching my own mini tent. One plus point will be that I will have the tent all to myself tonight and I will have such a big space for myself, but then again if a rapist suddenly breaks into the school and into my tent, nobody will be there to help me and I will get very tragically violated. Why are we even pitching tents when we can sleep indoors in the classrooms or in the hall anyway?

I shudder at the thought of being brutally raped.

"Pick up your pace, young men and women! After this we'll be heading over to a forest somewhere and you'll spend your whole day there before returning to base at night!" Coach Bolton shouts. I wonder how parents get convinced to send their children on this camp. Apparently 'a forest somewhere' doesn't sound very convincing safety-wise.

And suddenly, very suddenly, while I am still busily trying to untangle all the strings, a very loud and shrill noise featuring car tires scratching against the rough surface of the road is heard. I drop my strings. I know this sound all too well.

And as if it isn't enough, a crash sounds, and I know from then that two cars outside our school have just crashed into each other. Heavily or not, I don't know.

I squat down immediately and cup my ears, even though there is nothing more to hear. I can see everyone glancing in my direction, and during this short split second everyone is thinking about the same thing - Sam's car accident.