First Impression II: At Second Glance

Chapter Three - Start of Summer Trip

Here's the chapter I promised you. Hope you have fun :)

Chapter Three – Summer Trip Part I

Mr and Mrs Mettlepie, the owners of the farm, welcomed us in the front courtyard of the farmhouse. They told us our sleeping arrangements, girls in the right cabin, boys in the left one, the schedules and laid down some basic rules. After they were done, there was a great commotion as everyone lunged for their bags and dashed towards the cabin.

I grabbed and Kat and Alice and we hurriedly made our way to the cabin. The faster you get there, the more choice you have in choosing your rooms. There were bedrooms on both floors but the second floor had a nicer view. So we dragged our bags up to the second floor and settled for a spacious room with a large window four bunk beds inside.

I took the top bunk of the bed beside the window. The window looked out to the creek.

Alice and Kat took the bunk bed beside mine. After dumping our bags in the room, we went to the main cabin for lunch.

The dining room had three long tables with benches on each. Plates of sandwiches, salads and scones were piled on the trolleys which some of the boys had pushed over from the farmhouse. We each grabbed a plate and joined the queue. Then, we went outside to eat because the weather was just so nice. It was sunny but not yet so hot that your hair felt like burning. And there was a slight breeze too.

When we were done eating, we went to put on our swimsuits over our shirt and shorts. After our berry picking in the woods, we were going swimming in the lake.

When we were all assembled at the main cabin, Ellen, one of the farm helpers, taught us how to identify the ripe berries and how to collect them. Then, she gave us baskets and sent us on our way in groups.

“This is so fun,” Alice said as she cupped a ripe bunch of blueberries and gently rubbed them, sending the ripe ones falling into her basket.

“They’re sweet too,” she said, tasting one. After a while, she took another one. And then a third one.

“We’re never gonna fill our basket this way,” I laughed. I sent a particularly large bunch of berries falling into my basket and then popped a few into my mouth.

“It doesn’t matter,” Kat said as she lay on her back, shaking the stems so that the blueberries fell right into her mouth. “They taste so good. Mmm. It was a brilliant idea to come here, Lena.”

“Ow,” Alice cried. I looked over. She had decided to copy Kat’s way of eating berries. Only her aim was off and her blueberries hit her in the eye instead of falling right into her mouth.

Alice pouted, settling for the traditional way of picking berries. As she sat up, a berry that was on her neck rolled into her shirt. Alice wiggled, letting out a high-pitched squeal. I think the whole wood went deathly silent after that. Alice’s kind of high-pitch was probably enough to shatter a glass chandelier.

Kat and I roared with laughter.

Alice threw the berry at me. She missed and it hit the tree beside me with a splat, blue juice running down the trunk. That only made me laugh harder. Alice started pelting me with blueberries.

“No! Stop!” I shrieked, rolling on the grass, trying to avoid them. “Don’t waste food!”

Alice only stopped when several of the berries had hit my face.

It took a while for the three to us to calm down.

After our baskets were full and our lips blue from eating one too many blueberries, we finally got tired of being in the woods. We left the baskets in the porch of the main cabin.