Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle-Out of the Game

Chapter 1

-Bethany-

After I came home from seeing Alex, I headed upstairs to my room. Dropping my backpack by the door, I laid on my bed, trying to process how Alex had grown up, gotten married, and had kids. I reasoned to myself that I did know that this was going to happen, but at the same time it blew my mind.

I decided not to focus on it for now as it would do nothing for me. Though honestly, I was happy that he had moved on from the terrifying experience we all had had. I just wished that.....what did I wish? That he moved on with me? No, I didn't. Though now that we know him, we could at least be friends who shared that experience.

Satisfied with my resolution, I reached for my phone. Though once I got on it, it occurred to me that it didn't hold the same feeling that it once had. I decided to text Martha on what she was doing at the moment. I had gotten each of their phone numbers after seeing Alex before I had headed home. I waited for a couple minutes, then Martha replied that she was doing what seemed like an immense pile of homework. She sounded irritated. I sighed, deciding I might as well do it too.

Grabbing my backpack, I dropped it next to my couch, opened it up and grabbed my math homework. I had received extra homework from my math teacher after I had received detention. Looking back on it, I felt bad for saying what I did. I knew I got irritated with people who were on their phones when I did cheerleading at football games.

I sighed. I knew I couldn't do anything about it now, except say sorry to the teacher on Monday.

I got back to work on my math homework, finishing it surprisingly quickly. Quickly finishing up my essay due on Monday for english, I thought about what I could do until my parents got home at 8.

Usually I would just go on my phone and text my friends, but it didn't hold the same appeal as it usually did. Normally after school, I would have cheerleading practice, but because it was so close to the end of the year, the team had decided to have Fridays off. I wanted to get some exercise today, so I decided to take a walk.

After changing into jogging shorts and tank top, I grabbed my phone and headed outside. I decided to head to the park, about a mile from my house. By the time I got there and run around it a half dozen times, I was ready to go home.

As I walked home, I noticed a piece of paper in the gutter. I went and picked it up, realizing it was a pamflet for South America. I dried it off and opened it up. It showed a bunch of pictures of Central and South America, and had an advertisement for vacations and things to do there. I noticed a section where it said "backpacking". Interested in it, I kept it instead of throwing it away.

By the time I got home, the pamflet was mostly dry, so I set it on the counter in the kitchen and got out my laptop. Typing in "South American backpacking trips", I looked up maps and pictures of places to go backpacking. Maybe it was because of Jumanji, but I was really interested in exploring something. I decided to ask Lucinda on Monday if she wanted to go backpacking this summer in South America.

I printed out the website page of places to go and emailed it to both of my parents. They replied quickly, saying they were surprised that I wanted to go backpacking, but excited that I wanted to do something and said that they would fund the trip if I wanted to go and if I would organize it.

Excitedly, I continued to look at maps and the places that I could go backpacking without a tour guide for the rest of the weekend.